Hey guys. I'm so sorry that this took so long. I've been so lazy and haven't been bothered to write. I will try to update more frequently but there are no promises. I fixed up the whole thing with Kate's age. Yes she is over 21 so drinking isn't illegal. I forgot that I made her that age. I hope you enjoy none the less and please leave a review. Have a good day guys:)
-Ainsley.
Pure perfection that's what she was looking at. Well she couldn't decide whether her boyfriend was more perfect because he was the one who bought the dress in question, or nothing could defeat the black and white dress that hung in front of her.
The pounding headache still raged inside her skull but it was being temporarily numbed by the soft gooeyness that was flowing throughout her brain. She couldn't quite tell herself what this substance was, but she assumed that all girls felt it when they saw the perfect dress.
Her thoughts were briefly disturbed by her boyfriend walking into the spare bedroom to see how she was going. Frankly he wasn't surprised that she stood there ogling at the Vera Wang that he'd bought her. It wasn't a hard decision for him. He walked into the store and chose the one that left the least to the imagination but still looked classy. It screamed "Kate Beckett, mystery novelist".
"You like it?" he asked already knowing the answer.
"Rick I…" she paused and took in a huge breath then released it, "I love it."
"Well I'm glad and I hope that you have a pair of shoes to match because I'm not running back out the shops and getting you any."
"You doubt me so much don't you," she said cheekily and turned to face him.
"Well I know that your wardrobe is extensive but I just didn't know," he replied in a cute, defensive way.
"Come with me Castle," she said and motioned towards the two cupboard doors that were in the bedroom.
Kate opened them and laughed at the expression on Rick's face.
"And this is only your spare bedroom Kate!?" he exclaimed in utter shock.
"Yeah the best stuff is in the main room."
"Well I shouldn't be surprised; your credit card was on file at Vera Wang."
"Well you could say that I've been there a few times," she laughed and walked over to Rick.
She wrapped her arms around his neck and nuzzled their noses together.
"Thank you," she whispered softly.
"You're more than welcome," he replied and kissed her softly.
He tried to break away and leave the room but was quickly pulled back in by Kate.
"No don't leave!" she exclaimed and kissed him again. He kissed her back passionately but then turned and left the room in a dash.
Kate turned and stared back at her dress. She couldn't imagine wearing this at a police gala of all the things; she was going stick out like a sore thumb, but in a good way-a really good way.
Kate stripped down until she was only in her underwear. That's all she really needed. The 'no bra' sitting of this dress made it that tiny bit sexier, well a lot sexier to be honest. She slipped it on and stared at herself in the body length mirror that used up most of her spare room wall.
It fit her perfectly. She made a mental note to write to Vera and thank her personally for this. Every curve was showed off and her legs were revealed perfectly to fit her stature.
The dress was made with a mixture of something similar to silk, and tulle.
The front of the dress was black and had a wide 'V' falling from her shoulders to land over her breasts and finish at a point about three inches below them, which was then fastened with a belt at the same point. Silky, tuffs of tulle then fell down from there to end at about her waist. The skirt of the dress was secured under the belt and was a creamy white at the front and black at the back. There was a huge V slit up the left side of the dress which finished six inches from her waist. Kate's torso was left mostly bare as the material didn't dare cover that area and her upper back also joined in being overly exposed. It was the perfect dress.
Rick entered the room again while Kate was putting the finishing touches on her makeup. Even sitting down she looked stunning.
"Wow," he stuttered like a fourteen year old seeing his first beautiful woman, "you look….. you look amazing."
Kate blushed slightly. She stood up and rubbed the creases in her dress- not that there was much space for creases to form.
"Thank you Rick. You look quite dapper yourself," she replied and walked over to him.
"You like using that word don't you?" he questioned with a laugh.
"What?" she asked, "dapper? I think it's a good word to describe you."
"Well I would have to agree with that," he replied and got an eye roll off Kate in return.
"Are you ready Miss Beckett because you still have to pick up your daughter?"
Kate really didn't want to bring Rory. She would've let her stay at her grandparents but everyone at the precinct insisted that she came.
"Yeah, I just have to pick out a pair of shoes. Are we still going together?" she asked hoping that the answer would be yes.
"Sure are." He was too preoccupied with fixing his bow tie than paying attention. He finally fixed it than turned his eyes back to her. "How's your head?"
"Pounding like I've been hit with a brick wall. Well they say that they best way to get rid of a hangover is to drink more alcohol." She laughed and placed a hand to her head. She had never had a hangover quite like this before.
"Only teenager's say that Kate and from the personal experience of being a hung-over teenager, it doesn't work. Take some more aspirin then I'll meet you down stairs." Not much sympathy, still not surprising.
"I'll be down in sec," she answered before finding her black strappy heels and putting them on.
(…)
"You look beautiful Katie," Jim said when he answered his door.
"RICKY!" Rory yelled and ran over to him and jumped straight into his arms.
"Hello to you too little chicken," Rick laughed back.
"I'm not a chicken silly duffer! I'm a princess just like mummy!" she exclaimed in reply.
All of the adults just laughed at the little girl. Kate reached forward and hugged her mum and dad goodbye. They were already running late; it seemed that it took Kate a little longer than realised to get fully ready. It wasn't all that surprising to Rick.
But honestly what did he expect? She was a woman and it was normal to take three hours to get ready. Was it? Sometimes when she over analysed it she did think it was a tad ridiculous. There was no way she could over think things today though; her head was hurting so much that it bothered her to talk.
(…)
New York city passed by them slowly as peak hour traffic slowed them down tremendously. Kate could see that Rick was beginning to show signs of restlessness. He hid it well though while talking to Rory. She knew that he was nervous tonight. It was bad enough that he had to impress people to get this promotion, but there was also the worry of Lanie and their 'secret'.
God. How was that going to go down tonight? What if Lanie makes a big scene? What if she's already told everyone? But she may not even know. Kate could only hope.
(…)
Arriving at the gala wasn't anything like arriving at one of her own parties. This was a lot tamer and certainly had a lot less paparazzi. The building which it was held in was much less downscaled compared to hers but she could sense that this was going to be her kind of party. The sense of her not being the centre of attention and getting to be on Rick's arm, instead of the other way round, was somewhat soothing to her. It was something new and she hoped that no one would see it as anything but a really close friend, whom she works with, and going to a party with him and her daughter. It was simple really. Everybody did it didn't they? She personally didn't know anybody who went to a party with a guy being 'just friends' but she thought it would've had to of happened somewhere before.
The entrance at the party was civil; just Rick's boss and his boss's boss and so forth. He branched off from Kate with Rory and left her to enter the building full of cops and fend for herself.
Kate was usually well off in the social skills department but something about a room full of cops was unnerving. She never felt this way in the precinct but something just felt like everyone was watching her. For all she knew they were watching her; this room was full of men and her dress really didn't leave much to the imagination.
"Miss Beckett I'm glad to see you have made it tonight," a deep warm voice said and interrupted her thoughts. She turned around to see Detective Montgomery standing with his wife, hand in hand, both holding a glass of champagne.
He cleaned up well and his wife was absolutely beautiful.
"Hello Sir and I'm glad I could make it," she replied with a smile.
"This is my wife Evelyn, Evelyn this is Kate Beckett the writer who is shadowing Rick."
"Please to meet you Evelyn," Kate said. Evelyn seemed like the type of person Kate could get along with.
"The pleasure is all mine Kate, I'm a big fan of your books."
"Thank you," she said and smiled, "Excuse me but my date just entered with my daughter and I really don't want to know what he's teaching her."
"See you later Kate," Roy replied as she turned around and headed towards the door which Rick was just entering.
Everyone was surrounding him wanting to get a glimpse of the small child. No one really knew Kate was there, let alone that she had a kid, so it was a free for all for guessing whose child it was.
"Kate," he called out over the crowd, "please come take your child! I'm being mobbed."
Kate just simply laughed and grabbed Rory out of the poor man's arms. He looked genuinely worried about the mobs of people trying to get a look and the little girl.
"Everybody this is Katherine Beckett the writer who has been shadowing me and this is her child Rory. Katherine this is everybody," Rick announced then ran off towards the bar. He'd better be back to save her.
"Rory is beautiful Katherine," a middle aged lady announced as she brought her glasses that were once dangling around her neck up to her nose to get a better look at the girl.
"Thank you," Kate said as politely as she could possibly be, "call me Kate by the way."
"She stood there for a few extra seconds just acknowledging all of the people around her who kept telling her over and over again how cute her daughter was or how amazing ate looked in her dress. It's not like she needed to be told. Kate already knew that Rory was the cutest kid out and she knew that she look drop dead stunning in her dress.
"Excuse me," she said quickly and rushed off to find Rick and Lanie talking to each other. This could be bad.
"Kate!" Lanie exclaimed when she first popped into her field of vision. "How's your head because if it's anything like mine I feel eternally sorry for you."
Rick laughed. Now was definitely not a time for laughing. Kate could feel herself perpetrating.
"All I will say Lanie that I have never had a hangover quite like this."
"What's a hangover?" Rory asked quizzically.
Kate received looks from both of the adults that were next to her. They didn't know that'd she'd done this so many times before. She wished they were there when she dodged the sex bullet.
"You get a hangover when you don't sleep enough and you get a really bad headache," Kate answered quite proud of her answer.
She received both disapproving stares from Lanie and Castle neither of them impressed with her slip up of words. I guess her being a writer they expected a little bit more than simple dodge.
Everyone was just silent as Rory processed the pointless information. You could tell that everyone was trying not to laugh as the young girl had the most confused face on.
"So does that mean that when I get angry when I don't sleep much I have a hangover?" the little girl asked just trying to grasp the concept of a 'hangover'.
"Yes that's exactly what it means princess," Rick chimed in with the cheekiest grin. He was going to grill her on this tonight.
Kate just shook her head in embarrassment and handed over her daughter to Rick.
"Can you take Rory to get a drink please," Kate scowled, "I need to talk to Lanie."
"Sure thing," he replied with a sudden sense of urgency when he realised what she meant. He placed Rory on his hip and walk off towards the bar.
"So," Lanie prompted, "how is cop lover boy?" She had a bold smile on her face.
"You…. You know?" Kate mumbled and took and suddenly had a deep intake of breath.
"Honey of course I know. You wouldn't shut up about him last night and the smile that's on his face when you're around. I've never seen anything like that before. It's obvious," she said bluntly, "he loves you."
Kate just stood there shocked. What had she just said? Was it that obvious?
"Are you serious?" Lanie stuttered, "You didn't think it was obvious? He has lover eyes all for you and you look back at him in exactly the same way. And he loves your kid! No man would sacrifice his man hood playing with dolls if there wasn't something else in there."
Kate's eyes were wider than they had ever been before and all Lanie could do was laugh.
"You can't. Please don't tell anyone Lanie," Kate pleaded, "I won't be able to work with Rick anymore if people find out. I need this Lanie."
"Girl don't worry," she paused, "Everybody already knows."