Chapter 5

Title: Easy

Disclaimer: If I owned Castle, well, you'd know it.

Kate glanced around as she walked into the coffee shop and sighed with relief at the sight of the empty place. She hated going in to work early when they were working on a case, but on the bright side she didn't have to wait in line to get her much-needed caffeine fix.

She even smiled a little when she saw who was behind the counter.

"Morning Lisa."

"Morning Kate. Usual?"

"Yes, please."

"Make that two."

Kate whirled around to verify the face with the voice she knew all too well. He looked at her and smiled. Just a smile, and she was a giddy school girl again. She looked back at Lisa, who looked a bit unsure as to what she should do. Kate nodded to her and the girl set off to do her work before turning back to this man who was apparently hell bent on confusing the hell out of her and her emotions.

"Rick. H-hi."

He smiled again. Damn that smile and the things it made her feel. "Morning."

"Are you-" she looked behind him, trying to figure out how he was here, "are you following me?"

He let out a small laugh. "No, I was just on my way in to see you guys and I thought I'd stop and get us coffee. But it looks like you've got that covered."

"Yep. Every morning." Every morning since we broke up. It's not that she minded getting her coffee. She was a grown woman, it was definitely something she could handle. The problem was that she had to get her own coffee because he wasn't around anymore to do it for her.

The sound of her cell phone jerked her out of her thoughts. Before she answered she saw Rick's face. It was like it used to be when he would just stare at her, trying to read her thoughts. These were thoughts she didn't want him reading. That could be dangerous. Very dangerous.

"Beckett."

"Yo boss, we got another one." Esposito read off the address.

"Is this one related to our first guy?" she asked as she jotted the address down on a napkin.

"Yeah, she was killed at her home though, not the office."

"She?"

"Melody Jennings. An assistant at the firm."

"Alright, we're on our way."

"We?"

"Yeah. Me and Rick."

"He's with you?"

"Yeah."

"Like, right now?"

"Yeah. We ran into each other getting coffee."

"Really? That's interesting because I-"

Kate ended the call before he could continue. She didn't need to hear it and she definitely didn't want to defend herself in front of Rick. Although it wasn't the first time Esposito had caught them together.

"Morning sleepyhead." Kate smiled as she watched Rick's eyes flutter open, still heavy from sleep.

"Mornin."

She snuck her hand out from under the warmth of the sheets and brushed back the hair that had fallen in front of his eyes. As she did he caught her hand and brought it to his mouth, kissing the inside of her wrist. He'd been awake for 10 seconds and was already putting the moves on her. God help her.

"Mmm, I like this."

"This what?" he asked as he started kissing his way up her arm.

She paused before answering, long enough for him to look up and await her whispered reply. "Waking up with you."

A smile spread across his face as he moved closer, kissing her in a way that made her entire body tingle. Kate started to wrap her arms around his neck to pull him closer when her cell phone rang loud in the room. As always, Rick did his best to detain her.

"Don't answer it." He started trailing kisses along her jawline.

"I have to."

"No you don't." Now he'd reached that spot on her neck. The spot that made everything dissolve away into nothing.

"Yes I do, I'm on c-call." She paused for a moment and tried to keep some sort of grip on coherency. She was failing miserably. It was time to bring out the big guns. "And if I don't answer they're going to think that something's wrong and come here looking for me. They'll find out you're here."

That got his attention. They hadn't told anyone yet. It was nice, just them knowing. At least for a while. It made everything so much more exciting.

He groaned as he rolled away, silently telling her he understood but he wasn't happy about it. That made two of them.

She caught her phone just before it went to voice mail.

"Beckett."

"Sorry boss, we got one."

"Alright, what's the address?" Esposito read it and she locked it away. "Got it. We'll be there soon."

"Wait, 'we'?"

"Yeah, me and Castle."

"Like he's there? Right now?"

If she'd been on top of her game in that exact moment she probably could've recovered easily. But instead, she chose to hesitate.

"Um, no."

"Liar."

"No. No, I'm not." She saw Rick lean in to try to help but she covered his mouth and pushed him away. She could still salvage their privacy.

"But you said 'we'."

"Yeah, as in I'm going to call him and then we'll be there." She held her breath, praying to God that Esposito would just let it drop.

"Mmhmm. Ok, fine, whatever. But just make sure you guys don't show up at the same time, otherwise people will start to talk. They're not all as nice as I am."

Before she could respond he hung up, leaving her there with her mouth wide open while her brain tried to figure out just what had happened.

"Did he figure it out?"

Kate looked over to see Rick sitting there next to her, quietly awaiting her explanation. He looked absolutely adorable, shirtless and his hair completely mussed. She almost forgot that that was why they were in their current situation.

"I'd be a little embarrassed to call him my partner if he didn't."

Rick smiled and scooted back over to her, returning to his spot on her neck. She made no move to stop him.

"Can't say I'm too upset. That means I get to do this at work now," he whispered as he made his way back up to her waiting lips.

Oh, she was definitely going to have to lay down some ground rules.

"No, this means that you're going to have to officially ask to court me."

"Really? I think your dad is fine with us."

She didn't even try to hide her smirk. "Not Dad. The boys."

A loud laugh escaped her lips as he went rigid beside her. All that talk and deep down he was afraid of Ryan and Esposito. And he had every reason to be.

"You don't think, they wouldn't, I could, no..." he stammered. She laughed again and placed both hands on either side of his face, turning it so he was looking at her.

"There's a simple solution to avoid the pain and torture." She waited until that sank in and he was looking at her, really looking at her. "Just don't let me go," she whispered before placing a kiss on his lips.

"Kate?"

He had that look again. Trying to figure out what she was thinking.

He held up their coffees. "Dead body?"

Oh yeah, he meant her job? "Yeah. Yeah, let's go."

She led him out of the shop and towards her car, heading off for their new crime scene instead of the station.

"So who's this victim?" he asked as they sat at a stop light.

"Melody Jennings. Apparently she's an assistant at the firm."

"I see." She heard him silently thinking for a few seconds. "So it looks like your theory about these murders being related to one of their cases might be right."

Kate shrugged as she picked up her coffee. "Maybe. Maybe not. We'll have to see." She took a sip and stared at the stop light, pleading for it to turn green soon.

"So, tomorrow..." he trailed off, and she knew he was testing to see if she was on the same page as him.

"Yeah." She didn't look at him, just kept her eyes on the glaring red in front of her. But she knew. She knew he knew. And he knew she knew.

"Well, if-if you're not doing anything, we could, uh, we could do, um, something."

All coherency left Kate's brain. This was like him asking her out, wasn't it? But even if it was, they couldn't. She couldn't. Break-ups didn't work this way. You didn't go out on dates with guys you'd been split up for over two months with, right? No.

But she wanted to. God did she want to. And all she had to do was say yes. That's it. But she couldn't. No. She couldn't.

"I-I guess it just depends on how long it takes to finish up this case."

The universe took pity on her and the light turned green, giving her something else to focus on. Out of the corner of her eye, though, she saw his face fall a little. Just like her heart.

"Yeah. Yeah, you're right."

If only he knew. If only he knew how badly she wanted to say yes. If only.

So yeah, there's this thing called school. Basically it takes over all free time, consumes every single thought in the mind, and doesn't let people do anything but focus on it. Oh yeah, it sucks. But this thing called Christmas Break also exists to help balance the evil of school. So no worries, it will no longer take almost a month to update. My deepest apologies. So other than hating me for lack of timely updating, I'd love to hear what y'all think :)