So it turned out that Rick had been a little more than 'just sick'. One week later, six kilos lighter and two trips to the hospital and Rick was still sick.

"Kate go home!" he exclaimed between splutters.

Kate rubbed his back to soothe him.

"Rick I'm not leaving. The doctor said that you need someone here at all times" she replied softly. He'd been trying this for days.

"I don't want to get you or Rory sick!" he said then coughed. "I will be fine."

Kate leant around and kissed him. Rick didn't exactly like it when she kissed him when she knew he was sick, but he could never resist.

"I don't care Rick," she replied with a smile, "If we get sick you can look after me."

"Not if I'm at work," he replied sternly and gave Kate the 'I'm right' look.

She didn't reply. Kate simply just lowered him down onto his side and let him rest. She moved around to the front of his body and cuddled into his chest so it was like he was the big spoon and she was the smaller one.

"Kate," he asked softly, "why are you here?"

Kate let out a small sigh, "Because my boyfriend is sick."

"That's not really a reason," he laughed back.

"Okay then," she said, "If you want the truth. My daughter is very fond of you, you see, and it wouldn't be very good for her if the one guy she admires died from the man flu."

"Well that's very thoughtful of you. I'm glad you have your daughters best intentions at heart," he laughed in reply.

"Well," she admitted, "I also love looking at your face, which I never get tired of doing."

"Really?" he asked with a laugh and pointed to his face. Kate had to admit though he did look like crap, but Rick was always an attractive looking man, no matter the situation.

"Of course, and when you are back at work Rory and I will go home."

Rick huffed and dug his face further into Kate's hair. "I'll hardly ever get to see you then."

"You've got to learn to stop complaining mister," she said quietly.

"Mhmmmm maybe later."

"Now go to sleep and maybe tomorrow we could attempt to leave the house."

"Maybe," he said and wrapped both of his arms around her, "I owe you one."

"Mhmmm just remember that next time."

"Night Kate."

"Night."

(…)

Rick woke to the smell of bacon. Oh it was so easy to love this woman. Rick pushed his legs to the side of the bed and slowly pushed himself up. With a small grunt and too much effort he managed to get himself out of bed and headed towards the kitchen.

He opened his office door to see his girlfriend and her daughter sitting in his kitchen eating breakfast on his bench. It was the perfect family scene. Rick wondered if this would last. Was this his family now? If it was he wasn't complaining.

"Ricky!" the little girl exclaimed and ran over to him.

Rory was running at full pelt towards Rick and the look on Kate's face was priceless. He knew that this was going to hurt. It was just the matter of not letting Rory know that it was.

"Princess," he replied as she ran up and jumped on him. He quickly caught her and spun her around. He thought he did a pretty good job at masking the throbbing muscle pain that he was feeling and placed her on his hip.

He started to walk over to the kitchen bench and turned his head towards Kate. She mouthed the words 'are you ok?' and Rick simply gave a nod in reply.

"So Rory what have you got planned for today?" he asked as he sat her on one of the kitchen stools and stole some of her pancake.

She slapped his hand, "You've got your own."

Kate had to hold her laughs in. Of course it didn't work too well. Giggles escaped from her mouth and Rick shot her a dirty look. He was literally being bossed around by a three year old. He obliged though. Rick walked around to the oven and pulled out the plate.

"I'm going to play group," Rory added before shoving a tiny bit of pancake into her mouth.

"Speaking of playgroup," Kate said looking up at the clock that hung on the wall of the kitchen, "We better get you ready missy."

Rory didn't say anything she just simply ran over to her mother and gestured that she wanted to be picked up. Kate did just that and walked towards the stairs that lead to Rory's room.

"Don't choke on one of your pancakes while I'm gone," Kate called out behind her as she moved out of sight.

"I'll try," he called back but he was virtually talking to himself.

He sat in silence and slowly ate his pancakes. It was still hard for him to stomach his food and the sweetness of the syrup and cream wasn't helping.

He knew he would have to return to work soon. There was one thing he hated more than paperwork though, and that was being sick at work. One thing was that it is impossible to chase bad guys when you have a constant cough, also didn't help when you're being constantly harassed by your co-workers. Maybe a few extra days off would be good. Hopefully he would be feeling better and could 'hang out' with Kate a little more than he had for the past week. They had yet to have sex but they could both tell that it was time. But Rick was sick so that was out of the question for a few more days. It wouldn't stop him from playing around though. He imagined her in his mind. She was so beautiful, possibly the most beautiful woman that he'd ever seen. He imagined her naked lying down beside him right after making love to her. The image just made him hungrier for her and he had to push it out of his mind because Kate was coming down the stairs. With those images in his mind he didn't think he could control himself. Usually he wouldn't mind but she was holding a three year old child and he was sure that it wouldn't look good in her list of memories.

"Ricky can you drop me off at playgroup?"

Rick and Kate were both silent for a while.

"Sorry sweetie," Kate replied, "Rick is still sick and he shouldn't leave the house."

The young girls once happy face turned into an extremely sad one and tears started to well up in her eyes. Rick ran over to her and knelled down beside her then gave her a hug.

"Sweetie don't cry," he pleaded, "I will hang out with you tonight I promise."

The little girl just wrapped her small arms around him and dug into his neck.

"I miss you," she said between sobs. Rick wondered how a little girl could become so attached to a person that even though they had been living in the same house for a week she still missed him. He knew that they hadn't been hanging out as much as they used to because he was sick, but he never thought that it had gone that far.

"Tell you what," he whispered into her ear, "I will prove your mum wrong and I will come for the drive with you to playgroup okay?"

The little girl just nodded her head in reply.

"You better go get changed Ricky. It would be embarrassing for me if you went out in public like that."

"Of course," he said and bowed down to Rory. He then left them standing at the stairs while he headed off to his room.

Going through his wardrobe he couldn't decide on what to wear. Mostly it was just finding a clean pair of jeans that would go with one of his few clean shirts. He had noticed that Kate had done some of his washing for him. She really didn't need to though, sick or not there is no excuse for your new girlfriend to be washing your clothes.

Suddenly a pair of arms wrapped around him from behind.

"What are you doing Rick?" she asked in a sincere voice.

"I'm getting dressed so I can take your daughter to play group today."

She pushed up onto her tippy toes and started to kiss his neck softly. She knew this would make him relax. Of all of the medicines that the doctors made him take over this past week nothing made him feel better than his girlfriend kissing his neck.

"You don't have to do this for me," she said into his neck, "Rory will get over it."

Rick then turned around in her arms and wrapped his arms around her. For one part it was so the moment was more intimate, but the other was that he needed someone to help him stay standing.

"I'm not doing this for you," he simply stated, "I'm doing this for that little girl."

Kate instantly took her lips and pressed them against his. He was perfect. If there was such thing as a Katherine Beckett dictionary, if you looked up 'the perfect man' you would see a big, beautiful, handsome picture of Richard Castle.

"You are perfect," he said with a smile her face still being oh so very close to his.

"I'm simply a man in love with two very beautiful girls."

"Well in that case," she said and kissed his jaw softly. "Rick Castle, I love you too."

(…)

"What time will you pick me up Ricky?"

Rick sighed again. He swore that this little girl was not looking forward to going play group today.

"Four o'clock princess. I promise that I won't forget."

Rory radiated a huge smile that seemed to brighten up the whole car. She seemed to have that power. People had always said that child's laughter could lighten the darkest of rooms but this little girl's smile could set fire to the deepest of oceans.

"Good. I love you Ricky."

"I love you too Princess," he replied and kissed her on the forehead.

Rory and her mother jumped out of the car and walked into the building together. Rick was almost shaking. Rory did just say that she loved him. He did realise though that 'I love you' to a three year old didn't mean much, but today the two most important people in his life had told him those three words and it made his heart soar.

Kate joined him back in the car. She was driving because Rick didn't trust himself enough not to fall asleep at the wheel, or randomly start to fall over in the driver's seat and run into a tree.

"Lets get you home," she said and smiled back at him.

He just mumbled a response. After the whole two hours of easy wandering around he was already tired and about to fall asleep. Kate just laughed at him and started the car.

(…)

"Castle sweetie, wake up," she whispered gently into his ear. He'd been asleep now for four hours and Kate was bored silly. She had been writing ever since they had gotten back to the loft and put him to bed but now her characters were annoying her. She didn't really know how that worked, how a fictional character that was written on paper, one that could be easily erased, could annoy her but it happened all of the time.

He started to stir.

"Kate I thought you were writing all afternoon?" he said sleepily.

"The characters got annoying," she simply replied.

Rick pushed himself up and leant against the headboard of his bed. "Again?"

It seemed that this wasn't the first time that she'd complained about her little problem.

Kate just gave him a 'sorry' smile and kissed him on the cheek.

"Why don't we go have a shower and then I will go take you out for a late lunch?"

"I'd like that," she replied, "But are you sure that you can venture outside again?"

"Yeah I think I should be good. I feel bad that I haven't even treated my girl right after she's looked after me for so long."

"Since when have I become 'Your Girl'?" she asked with a cheeky smile.

"Since I became a hipster, duh," she laughed.

She then moved over him on the bed and straddled on his lap. She leant in and kissed him passionately.

"Well Mr Castle as your 'girl' I think we should move this party to the shower."

"I concur."

Kate got off from Rick and stood beside his bed and offered to help him up. He simply shook his head and pulled his girlfriend back onto the bed next to him. He pushed himself up ignoring every muscle in his body that was screaming at him to stop. He reached down to Kate and wrapped one arm around her arms and one under her legs and lifted her up. He tried to hide the pain from his face but Kate could tell that it was painful.

"Rick put me down," she said seriously.

"Nope," he said playfully. "I gotta carry my girl to the shower. I gotta be a gentleman and what not," he said in his best ghetto voice.

Hey guys I'm sorry that this update took so long and that it's shorter then it should be! Hopefully I can write again soon and quickly give you an update. Hope you enjoy and don't forget to review:)

-Ainsley