A/N: You guys are awesome

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For Your Benefit

S3 AU- This wasn't typically her sort of scene, but she swallowed down the hesitation and painted on a smile. After all, he did all of this for her, to honor her mom.

Chapter 7

"That was fast," she mused, opening the front door.

Castle was standing there with a huge grin stretched across his face. His five o'clock shadow added the perfect amount of stubble along his jaw line. It made him look particularly ruggedly handsome with the addition of his navy and white plaid shirt and dark wash jeans. She found herself staring for only a moment, but it was long enough that he caught her in the act. That certainly wouldn't do anything to help his already inflated ego. He gave her another dazzling smile as she felt a blush warm her skin. She had to get a grip on herself.

"Well, when a beautiful detective asks me to, I come as fast as I can…" he said, walking inside. The words must have caught up to him when he turned back to her with eyes wide as she choked back a laugh.

"Castle."

"That wasn't – you know – that wasn't what I meant," he stammered as a shade of pink colored his cheeks.

"Good to know," she said with a wink, passing him to get comfortable on the couch.

"You, um –"

"Relax, Castle. I'm just messing with you, but it's fun to see you so flustered." She laughed as he stood frozen in place. It was unusual for him to be like this, his typical cocky confidence was lost within the walls of her apartment.

"I am not flustered."

"Sure. You look completely composed," she teased, raising her eyebrow and chewing down on her lip. "Are you going to stand over there all night? Didn't mean for you to come over to stand watch by my door all night – "

"Funny," Castle said, shaking his head and he moved to join her on the couch. His cologne filled the air as he passed by, the familiar scent calming her in a way that she couldn't explain. "So, was your dinner good?"

"It was perfect. How did you get Hung's to deliver all of that?" She moved to prop her feet onto his lap and his jaw dropped from her overly familiar gesture.

"Don't worry about it," he said, giving her ankle a slight squeeze. "All that matters is that you had a nice dinner."

"You could've avoided all the trouble and just delivered it yourself, you know?"

"I didn't want to overstep," he mumbled, looking down at his hands resting on her feet, before he looked up with a shrug. "Figured you would've wanted to be alone."

"When has that ever stopped you, really?" she scoffed as she rolled her eyes with a giggle. He always pried every step of the way in their partnership and eventual friendship, yet when she needed him to push further; he was taking a step back. Maybe she needed to be the one to push now. She nudged his hand with her sock covered foot and smiled.

"Good point. I don't know what I was thinking," he chuckled. "So what are we watching?"

"Nebula 9." Kate sat up straight, the anticipation she felt about watching her favorite show with him coursed through her veins and she swung her legs back to sit on her haunches, looking like she was about to pounce on Castle from excitement.

"Seriously?" he asked, laughing as her heart dropped from his reaction. "I mean if you're going to watch sci-fi at least watch the good stuff, like Star Wars or that Joss Whedon show."

"I'll have you know, Nebula 9 is awesome." The need to defend her childhood obsession rose in her chest as her eyes narrowed at her partner and he offered her a smug curl of his lips. A move that made her want to wipe that look right off of his face.

If only he wasn't so damn attractive when he did that – bastard. Kate huffed as she felt her cheeks flush. She needed to get control of herself, she never was this affected by him, it had to be the pain medication.

"I'll take your word for it."

"Maybe I don't need your company anymore," she pouted, turning away from him to face the TV.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry. I'm being an awful friend, criticizing your interesting –" She glared at him. "Amazing choice of television shows."

"That's better. Now why don't you make yourself useful and make some popcorn to make up for insulting it," she said, tossing a throw pillow at him.

"So demanding," he muttered.

"You like it," she called as he walked into the kitchen.

Maybe loved it?

She hoped so.

Beckett was flirting, at least it felt like she was flirting with him, but he didn't want to ask. Could he ask? Hell what would he even say? People don't just ask each other if they're flirting – he'd been around the block long enough that he should be able to tell if someone was flirting with him, but this was Beckett.

All bets were off.

He watched her from the corner of his eye as a small smile formed on her lips, losing herself in a particularly lame moment of the show. Glancing at the screen, he tried to hold back a wince at how cheesy this show was. Why was he subjecting himself to something like this?

Right...

He loved this extraordinarily, maddening woman and he would do anything she'd ask him to, including watching particularly bad science fiction.

Dumb, love sick fool.

"You're staring, Castle," she mumbled, not taking her eyes from the screen.

"No."

"Yes," she argued. "I can feel you burning a hole into my skin…" She finally turned to face him with a knowing smile on her face, raising her eyebrow at him.

"Fine," he said, raising his hands in defeat. There wasn't any point of arguing with her. She could take down hardened criminals, he didn't have a chance. "You're more interesting to watch than the show."

"Castle," she warned, trying to shoot him a dirty look but her playful smirk gave her true feelings away. He loved this side of her, the part of his partner that was typically hidden from the world and he was lucky enough to get small glimpses of, the side he was fortunate to get to know.

The fun loving vulnerable part of Beckett that made him fall in love with her in the first place.

It was cute how defensive she was about Nebula 9; he had never seen her get so worked up over something like this before. Castle stored that information away for a later date, another piece to the Beckett onion, another part of the mystery that was Kate Beckett.

"Sorry, that's the last dig on your show. I promise."

"Better be or I'll send you packing," she said, tossing a kernel of popcorn at his head before reaching for a bigger handful to throw. He chuckled, watching her eyebrows dance, almost daring him to continue as she waved her ammunition in his direction.

"You wouldn't," he cautioned as she giggled, not backing down from the challenge. Castle hovered over her to pull the bowl away, removing the temptation for a full on food fight in her living room, but the heat from her body radiating below him left a temptation of an entirely different variety.

"Try me," she teased, poking his chest with her pointer finger before biting back a wince. Shit. His heart sank as he watched the flash of pain in her eyes. He was supposed to be taking care of her, not hurting her further.

"Hey, are you ok?" Castle asked, shifting to sit beside her, trying his best not to jostle her anymore.

"Yeah, the stitches just pulled a bit," she said, shaking her head before she popped a couple kernels into her mouth instead of at him.

"Maybe hold back on beating me up for another day then. Truce?" he suggested, holding out his hand. She placed her palm against his. The skin to skin contact was like a spark of electricity, setting every nerve ending in his body on fire.

All from a hand shake?

God, what would ever happen if she was allowed to touch more...

"I'll resist my urge to poke you for another day," Beckett agreed, her eyes shining with a light he hadn't ever seen before.

"Poke away as soon you're feeling up to it," he said, lowering his voice. It was like playing with fire; he knew he'd get burned but he couldn't resist the pull.

"Oh believe me, I will." Her voice was nearly a growl, as she leaned closer toward him, her eyes bouncing from his eyes to his mouth. It was almost like she was going to – no, this couldn't be, he shook his head, bursting the hypnotic bubble they found themselves in.

"How much pain medication are you on?" he asked, arching his eyebrow down at her.

"Um. Shut up and watch the show, Castle," she said, a giggle streaming from her lips. She leaned her head back on the couch, looking at him instead of the screen, tugging the soft pink of her bottom lip between her teeth.

All conscious thought wiped from his mind, the only thing left was obvious fact of how gorgeous she was in that moment. If it wasn't for the gauze peeking through the collar of the loose fit of her t-shirt, he would've swore she hadn't just been released from the hospital.

She seemed happy.

Seeing her like this, he wanted nothing more than to pull her into his arms and tell her how much he loved her; how much he wanted to be with her as more than just a partner, but he couldn't. She just broke up with Josh and he refused to take advantage of that situation. He'd settle for being the best friend for the time being and really that wasn't such a bad position to be in.

A soft snore slipped from his lips as she reached for the remote to turn off the TV. He looked so peaceful, younger with his face lax with sleep and she hated the idea of waking him up. It was already past midnight; maybe it wouldn't be the worst thing in the world to just let him stay asleep on her couch.

Safer than facing the city at this late hour and she wouldn't be doing her job at a cop if she let an unarmed citizen out into the streets at night. She bit down on her lip as she reached forward to brush the few loose strands of hair from his face. How had she taken so long to realize how she felt about him? She was wasting so much time as they danced around the issue of their feelings.

If her shooting taught her anything, life was too short to wait around for what could be. She wouldn't live her life looking back and wondering, if only – not anymore.

Without further hesitation, she scooted closer to press herself against the length of his body, cuddling into him and wrapping her uninjured arm around his waist. Leaning her head against his chest, she sighed, breathing in the familiar scent of his cologne. It was like a drug.

"I love you, Castle," she whispered, nuzzling into the fabric of his shirt as her eyes began to droop with the weight of her exhaustion from the day. Her chest warmed, full from the feeling of being with him tonight. He was probably asleep and never heard her confession, but she'd tell him soon. She was done hiding.

"Love you, too," he murmured into her hair, acknowledging her words and causing her heart to soar.

tbc

Thank you so much for reading everyone! I would love to hear from you. I love each and every one of comments. You guys make me smile so much.

Hope you all have a wonderful Christmas and a happy holiday.

xoxo

Love to my girls for all their help and friendship.