Author's Note: So here it is...my take on Castles head...it's the only way I can see things going up there. What do you think? I know it's short but I hope you like it none the less.

A Fragment Of A Second Of Sense

Chapter Two

Richard Castle was confused by the way Kate Beckett was looking at him. She did that sometimes, look at him like she was going to say or do something for a mere second and then her face went blank, she swallowed, bit her lip and looked away from him. Now, she stared at the elevator doors instead. It was moments like this that made him so crazy about her. He'd never met a woman as mysterious as her and he'd met many women in his life. But none of them had been able to capture both his attention and his imagination the way she did.

A look like this, a snappy answer, a smart objection and he could almost feel the words flowing through his veins, the words to describe Nikki Heat. What bugged him was that, no matter how well he'd come to know Nikki he still had no idea about Kate. Sure, he knew about why she'd chosen to be a cop, he new about the trauma of loosing her mother, he knew that she was, beneath her shield of strength and graveness, a very sensitive and deeply hurt woman, he knew her favorite song, what she liked for breakfast but the real core of her, all the layers of the Beckett-onion, how she liked to call it, he just couldn't pull down.

And he wanted it so much, there was nothing he wanted more than to get into her head and hear her thoughts, now all her secrets, all the dark sides and the light sides that she hid even better than the dark ones. It felt like, when she looked at him like this, a bit of that unknown Kate glimpsed through to him but she never came through. She was holding so much back from him. He knew that he was in no position to demand more, demand from her to reveal all, he couldn't ask anyone that...maybe Alexis. But even she wouldn't.

As always he still stared at Beckett and in his head he counted the seconds until she would say something random to distract him from the awkwardness between them. But she remained silent, her teeth so tightly pressed to her lips you would think she should be bleeding. And now he couldn't take the awkwardness anymore. Not for his sake but because he hated to see her so puzzled. As much as he liked to get her speechless as much it irritated him when she stayed wordless for long; it was too unlike her.

"Kate, are you alright", it blurted out of him before he could stop himself. Why wouldn't she be? Of course it was weird how she stared at him but why would that have to have any significance. Why would he ask her if she was alright. She was alright. Or maybe she was thinking of that little girl. He, himself bit his lip, thinking about that last case. But he wouldn't think about that now, if he did, he would freak out again and imagine a scenario were he lost his Alexis.

"Yeah, I just need a bath and sleep", Beckett replied finally, carefully putting the casual smile back on her face, planting it there to stay and focusing her eyes back on the elevator door's, "I'm fine"

"I don't think I'll be able to sleep much tonight", he said truthfully and he had an idea.

Really, it was an idea he had often, very often, if he was honest he had it every time when Beckett wished him a good night but he rarely had the proper cause to verbalize it or a good enough bridge to make it seem spontaneous. But now he did.

"It's been a tough one, I could use some distraction now, some light entertainment", he started, cautiously observing her features to see if she was already skeptical, "I have a bottle of red open and Alexis called to say there's Quiche left. Would you..care to join me, just to end this day on a lighter note?"

The slightest movement flashed her features for a moment, the same that always came across her face when he asked her do go somewhere or do something private with him; a mix of triumph and reluctance. It only lasted so long and at first he hadn't even noticed but he'd asked her out so many times now, he eventually saw the pattern. It was an unconscious movement, that much he could tell, he wasn't sure if she even knew that she was doing it. Her upper lip pressed down on the bottom and ever so small, the corners of her mouth twitched upward and then she rolled her eyes and then it was already over as she eyed him intensely and he knew she was considering his offer.

And the fact that she took her time made his insides warm up because it meant that he might would get lucky this time.

"Uhhhhh", she half-sighed and Rick felt a smile he couldn't fight creeping onto his lips, she was going to say yes, "uh, why not...Let me just get changed and then I'll come over"

She smiled at him mischievously and went through the opening elevator doors, heading for her car in the parking lot. She was implying that she wasn't going to come, that she was only kidding. He didn't like that.

"Hey, that's not fair", Rick protested, half-running behind her to keep pace, "you already said yes"

She turned around, half way at her car and a real smile showed on her face, one of those smiles that Castle would kill for to be just for him for once.

"I'll be there", she said smugly, "don't start crying"

With that she took the last two steps to her car, got in and with no further word drove off. One day she was going to kill him with all that teasing. He stood there for a while just staring at the point where her car had gotten out of sight. Many people accused him of only wanting to get into her pants, he was aware of that, and a nagging voice inside him told him that she thought that, too and would never let anything happen, but it wasn't true.

Of course he wanted to get into her pants, she was the sexiest thing in the world but that was not half of her appeal to him. He knew how he felt about her and it was way past the point where it was just sexual attraction. It was serious. It was that serious, if it had been any other woman, he'd already been gone for good, fled from the consequences of such deep fondness, such interest, such affection that was one tiny step away from that scary kind of love, the irrevocable kind of love, the kind that never let you go. But it was different with Beckett, she didn't let him go.

It was ironic that she, seemingly wanting him gone so so bad made him hold on tighter to his goal than ever before. He wanted this woman, he'd wanted her since day one and he was not letting go that easy. He was a shark and he had his teeth so deep inside her, even if he'd wanted, he couldn't have backed off.

And he would get her eventually. At least that's what he wished for; why he always replied to people asking if they were a couple with "Not yet". Still the fear of that being an empty promise to himself was a constant uncomfortable worry inside his chest.

So, do you want to know what happens at Castles place?