Chapter 2 - The Change

The characters don't belong to me. Mr Marlowe is the creator. ;)

Yesterday was the day our little argument had taken place. Castle had just stormed out of the precinct and I had realized that it was entirely my fault. I needed to get things sorted out in my head therefore today, the first thing I did was – Visit my therapist. Though he told me to tell Rick the truth that 'I know he knows' and that I lied, I decided to let time wash his anger first. I had no hopes of seeing him for another ten days after yesterday but I was wrong. He really was unpredictable. There I was sitting in the car thinking about him; when suddenly my phone rang and the name on the screen gave me a tiny heart attack. 'Castle calling' it showed. I at once picked it up.

'Beckett? You driving?' he asked. It took a while for me to respond.

'Hey Castle, yes I am, but anyway...what's up?'

'Nothing, you were not here...so I was just wondering ...Why you were late...'It was nice to know that he still cared, I smiled at the thought but soon there came another sentence that wiped the smile off my face.

'Today seems to be a no-body day, so...I think I'll head out' Oh no, I had to stop him.

'No castle, there actually is some work, I am just reaching, will tell you once I am there..' and with that I kept the phone down. I did not want to tell him that by work I meant lots of paper work. I knew he would have left straight away if I had mentioned it. All these years I had found out the different ways to get rid of him, 'paper-work' was the best remedy to get rid of Richard Castle, but now I needed to find out what made him stay. I guess a cup of coffee would do the job.

With two cups of coffee in my hand, I slowly walked towards him. He was sitting in his usual spot, the chair next to my desk, which I guess was tailor made for him only. His head was bowed, and he was scribbling something on the little notepad of his. There he was sitting with his almost perfect hair and blue eyes, biting his lips like a little child as if it took a lot of effort to make simple English alphabets. Not disturbing him, I simply placed a cup of coffee in front of him, on the desk. He simply stared at the coffee with a peculiar expression on his face. I gently touched his shoulder for a few seconds before I sat down on my own chair, this time pulling the chair a little closer to his. Now his eyes were on me.

'You brought coffee...' he said, in a trance state, as if he was not able to arrive at the patent fact that 'I' brought coffee.

'Yes Castle, I was buying for myself and I figured you could use the warmth too' I stated simply.

He stared at me and then the coffee and then he picked it up and took a sip.

'Perfect' he said softly. I smiled, trying hard not to blush but he realized that he had said that out loud, therefore he changed the topic.

'So.. What work?' he asked curiously.

'Oh you mean paper work, yes, you need to do your share' I said, pointing at the piles of papers stacked next to my coffee.

'Ahh beckett, funny, you know I don't do-' He started but I cut him off.

'And you know why I want you to do it, I have a boring day today Rick, and doing paper work...with you, would make it a lot better' I said, it was more of a request for him to stay.

'Well, I don't have any meetings today, so I guess I can be my old funny self who does the entertaining' he said a little dryly.

I just gave him a smile, and he started scribbling on his notepad again. I just leaned over to see what he was doing, out of curiosity. I saw that he was writing a plan about the new Nikki Heat book – Frozen heat. Yes, it was a plan, and below it was his schedule for next week, meetings lined up, and there was also dinner plans with Alexis noted down. I always knew he was a loving father. Then I noticed that my hand was on his thighs, suddenly I started noticing the little-little things about him like – his forehead had a few strands of hair which made him look even more cute, his eyes were not blue exact, but ink blue with a little grey mixed and he smelled of grapes.

'You smell of grapes' I said, not realizing before it was out of my mouth. At last there was a little smile on his lips which he was trying hard to suppress. Our noses were just a finger space apart from each other when he said-

'Cherries...' He had told me many times I smelled of cherries. He did not complete the sentence but I knew, he still was the same Rick. Then walks Esposito coughing, holding a few more papers in his hand. As if trying not to laugh, he asks, 'Am I interrupting something'. This time I was not going to hide,

'Yes' I said

'No' He said

We simply stared at each other, this time Castle was staring at me with love in his eyes again, though a little confusion on his face. It was always me saying 'no' too, I guess that got to him.

'Are you alright Kate' He asked. I just nodded trying to seep in the fact that he called me Kate, well that was progress. Esposito just kept the papers down on my table indicating that the paper work pile had just increased, and he just nodded his head looked at the ceiling and walked away, trying not to burst out laughing. The roles had certainly reversed.

'So how is the new book going?' I asked after an hour of silence. It must have been hard for castle not to say a word for an hour I figured.

'It's good so far, adding new themes to it though, gotta give readers what they want you know' he said. I guess that was the longest sentence he had spoken so far.

'Well, I have full confidence on your wild imagination' I said, winking at him.

'Yeah, well I have to imagine every scene before I write it, that only makes the chapter perfect from my point of view' he said, enthusiastically because for a writer a chance to speak about writing was certainly his/her best conversation starter.

'Oh so you really do imagine steamy Nikki-Rook scenes' I said teasingly.

'No it's not that, I just have to feel and scrutinize every detail before I write it-' he said, though still not satisfied with the answer.

'Oh so you really feel it too!' I said, pressing hard, pursing my lips, trying not to laugh.

'Yes- No- ...I mean- ughh, I am such a fool' with that he just stared at the desk, with embarrassment. Oh my god! He was red.

'Aww Rick, you are not a fool, you are kind, caring, a loving father and I hate to say it but, cute...' There! I said it, though trying to keep it light I added '...and ruggedly handsome too' with a smile and a wink, I started looking at the desk too. I did not want him to see me blush.

'You know Kate, thank you...I was thinking, I mean you and I-' the way he started the sentence, it was more on a happy tone, there was no anger in his words. It was hopeful. But thanks to JASSinda, it was cut short. He hesitated to pick it up, that very fact made me even surer that the J girl was just a play toy. After a few minutes of talking with her, he just put the phone back in his pocket, looked at his watch and told me he had to head out, 'Got to go out...for dinner' was all he said. Thank god he did not use the word 'date'. That certainly was a change.

I wanted to stop him, but I had to give him a little space to work things out, I owed him that. I did not want him to go but I decided to let him go, just for this night, he was slowly coming back to his usual self and maybe in a day or two, I would be able to stop him, by that time I would at least have some authority over him. Right now I didn't. A change was on its way and I somehow knew that the change involved no Jacinda in it.

'Wear blue Rick, it would really bring out the colour of your eyes, it suits you' I said straightening the crease on his shirt, gently, and then I let him go.

He looked at me once again, before the elevator closed, and that's when I saw the longing look on his face, that was similar to the one on mine, and then his face had that same peculiar expression that had been there earlier. It was now easy to read, it was not anger, nor sadness, nor hatred, it was simply 'craving and admiration'.

So to all those who are reading this, do tell me whether you liked it so far or not. Suggestions are welcome, and to those who did leave me a review, I just want to say that this chapter was dedicated to you all, as reviews do help me to proceed. Trust me! And I promise I will update at least every alternate days or maybe regularly if I get time.

This chapter was a little challenging for me to write, because I had to show Kate's changed attitude towards Castle and I had to show Castle pulling away, but at the same time I had to show Castle warming up to Kate also now. I hope I did justice to it? Next chapter will be from Castle's POV as I said. How he is handling the situation especially Kate's changed attitude and then we will get the dealing with secrets and fluff part. Do not worry, nothing can keep our characters apart in my story, sometimes I feel I am failing too. ;) So you want me to continue with it?