A/N: Thank you so much for all of your reviews and kind words and follows! It made me write this so much faster. You guys rule!
"Ricky, honey, listen to me", Gina begun in her usual sickly sweet tone of voice, "We know that you're just about to finish your movie "Zombie Slaves" but if you want to be taken seriously as an actor, you're going to have to start accepting more…uhh..serious acting choices. I mean, for God's sake, you're almost 20 and you're going around saying 'yes' to a second rate movie about zombies, when you should start thinking about some more serious jobs. It's time to grow up or quit the game Rick! Just last month you turned down the role for that tv show, oh God, what was it called again?" she asked, clicking her fingers, as if that would somehow conjure up the memory.
"Elementary?" he suggests,
"Yes! That's the one! You gave up a recurring role in that and for what!? You're 'too tired', Rick you are 19 years old not 119! You have to keep up with the pace of Hollywood sweetie,"
He cringed at the word 'sweetie'. It was bad enough that he was still technically underage, but when Gina called him that word, it made him feel like a child; like he was worthless.
She continued talking but Richard had stopped listening. He knew what she was saying.
"It's time to grow up or quit the game". The words buzzed and echoed in his head until he could take it no longer. He stood up suddenly, causing a puzzled look to spread across Gina's face.
"I'm going for a walk." he said curtly.
Not even hesitating, he made his way to the door in 3 even steps, not even caring that Gina was shouting behind him as he walked out the door and down the stairs. He hesitated in the lobby. If he walked outside the front door, he would be bound to be hounded by the paparazzi, so instead he chose the rear door, pulling his hoodie up over his face, hunching his back and keeping his head down as he walked. On and on. He knew he wasn't the most serious actor in the business, he was still a teenager, what kind of person is a serious actor at age 19?! But still. The words hurt and made his chest feel heavy. Acting was the only thing he knew how to do. He had dropped out of school at 16 to pursue his acting career, and it had gotten him international recognition by the age of 17. Acting was his life and he wasn't about to give this up so easily.
His thoughts were interrupted when he looked up to see a girl about his age, not 2 inches in front of him, not looking where she was going. By the time he realised they were about to hit each other, it was too late. Both of them became unsteady and she reached out to grab him for support, but it only seemed to make the situation worse, and he was pulled down to the ground on top of her. He rolled off her slightly so the situation didn't become unbearably awkward. Like that could even be possible.
"Are you okay?!" he asked, pulling himself to his feet quickly and offering her his hand. She ignored it and slowly began to lift herself up from the ground.
"Fine," she muttered, "You know, you shouldn't be walking into people like that!" she says, her voice raised.
"Well maybe you should watch where you're going and maybe you won't bump in to people and knock them over," he said, a little more forcefully than he had intended.
"Oh so now-", she started, looking up to see him for the first time. He could see her face fall, eyes widen, and her mouth begin to open. She had recognised him.
"Crap." he thought to himself
"You're…" she began, but he interrupted.
"No, no, no! Shhh! Look I will sign your autograph, take a picture, whatever you want but please do NOT scream my name,"
"I don't want your stupid autograph! You knocked me over! How could you possibly - AH!" she screamed.
"What is it, are you okay?"
"I'm fine I just dislocated my shoulder when you landed on me, it's nothing."
"It's not nothing, I hurt you!" he said. He looked around for a few seconds, checking for what he didn't know.
"Okay, we need to get you to a doctor or a hospital or something. We need to get you checked out. My car is a block away, can you walk that far?"
"It's my shoulder that's dislocated not my leg. And what makes you think I'm going to get in your car with you? My sister is back down the street, she'll probably freak out if I just disappear!"
"Okay okay, well, you know….I'm sorry, what was your name?"
"Kate", she replied,
"Right, well, we can always leave your sister some money to get home, or you could text her and tell her…I don't know, whatever it is you have to tell her, so that she doesn't come looking for you.
Kate grumbled to herself. She didn't really see any other options, and it's not like she could walk back to Audrey and say "Here Audrey, here's some money Richard Castle gave me, make sure you get back to our hotel alright, okay?"
"I'll text her," she said, reaching into her back pocket to get her phone.
On the drive to the hospital, Kate tried her best not to think about the strange situation she was in. She was being driven by Richard Castle, her sister's big celebrity crush, was driving her to the hospital because he had knocked her to the floor, dislocating her shoulder. As much as she tried to avoid his gaze, he couldn't seem to stop looking at her, and it frustrated her.
"What are you even looking at?" she asked him, "You need to keep your eyes on the road, I won't have you causing me any more injuries today."
He tore his eyes away from her face and looked back at the road. Was he always this creepy?
"You shouldn't stare at people." she said, "It's not polite."
"Oh I'm always polite, you just haven't seen me at my best yet. What's not polite," he continued, "Is having someone knock you to the ground because she wasn't looking where she was walking,"
"Oh, and dislocating my shoulder was what? Perfect manners?"
He didn't reply, and kept his eyes fixed at the busy highway.
"So what where you doing walking around Los Angeles by yourself Kate?"
"My sister is obsessed with you," she started to explain, "and she knew where you were going to be this morning and so after we checked in to our hotel, she dragged me to your agent's office, where she still probably is, waiting for you to come outside so she could meet you. I got fed up with waiting so I went for a walk."
"Got tired of waiting for me so you had to go find me yourself?" he asked, wiggling his eyebrows at her and gave her a smirk.
"Not even close. I'm not even a fan of yours, and I got annoyed with Audrey talking non stop about you, so I left."
"What do you mean you're not a fan?" he asked, a puzzled look spreading across his face, "You don't like my movies?"
"Oh no, your movies are fine," she said, "But I'm just not a big fan of "Richard Castle"" she said, putting on a fake high pitched voice.
"Good thing I'm taking you to the doctor, because that is ridiculous. Everyone is a fan of mine."
"Yeah, well I'm not everyone."
"Don't need to tell me that," he said, looking at her with loving eyes
She looked away. Did he...like her?
"Whatever. I'll just be glad when this little doctor's visit is over so I can get out of your hair so you can go back to your fabulous life."
"My 'fabulous life'?! My life is anything but fabulous Kate,"
"Oh, I'm sure it isn't. I'm sure that living in a luxurious house in LA, being able to have whatever you want within seconds, that's not fabulous at all."
"You don't even know me though, all of that is not be true at all," he countered.
"After the day I've had so far, I don't think I ever want to know you."
"Ouch!" she hissed under her breath. The doctor had just popped her shoulder back into place and it stung.
"Sorry," he muttered, "How does it feel now"
Kate rolled her shoulder around in its socket for a few seconds.
"Better," she said, "It still hurts a little, but not nearly as much as it did before, thank you."
She looked over to Richard who was sitting in the corner, his eyes concentrated at the floor in front of him, not bearing to look at the doctor or Kate. Something about hospitals freaked him out.
"Is it over?" he asked, not looking up.
"You don't have to be such a big baby Ri-" she stopped, unsure if she should use his name in public. As much as she disliked him, she didn't want him to be recognised by anyone, just in case he didn't want anyone knowing who he was. She brushed off her mistake as a cough.
"So are we free to leave now?" she asked, turning her attention back to doctor.
"Yes, you can. We just need you to fill out a few forms at the front desk but other than that, if you're feeling okay, you are free to leave. Just put some ice on your shoulder if you feel like you need to."
"Okay, thank you so much for all your help."
"No worries. You ended up being braver than your boyfriend over there, you know."
"Boyfriend?!", they both said loudly at the same time, Rick's head finally snapping up.
"No, he's not my boyfriend," explained Kate, "He's just a….friend" she said, wincing internally at the word 'friend'. If anything he was far from it. He had been nothing but insistent that she was the one that knocked him over, rather than the other way around. She couldn't have cared less who had done it, but his arrogance to accept the fact that it could have possibly been him frustrates her.
"Oh, sorry," the doctor said, turning slightly red, "I just assumed. Anyway, I'll leave you two to make your own way out to the front desk. I have other patients I need to see, but I hope you feel better soon Kate."
He hurried out the door, leaving Kate and Rick in the room, an awkward feeling hanging in the air between them.
"You sure you're alright? You can stay longer if you want, we don't have to go." he told her softly.
"Do I detect some care for my wellbeing, Rick?"
"Well, you know, I DID knock you over and cause all of this, so yeah, I do care."
Kate looked at him, fairly shocked. What had happened to the arrogant person she had met not 2 hours ago?
"Oh," she said, looking away, "Well, I am feeling a lot better, and I'm sure you have better things to do with your time than be looking after me. Let's go, I have a LOT to explain to my sister."
She got up and made her way towards the door, Rick hot on her heels, carrying her bag for her, his hand hovering above the small on her back.
"So where do you want me to drop you off?" he asked her when they were back in the car.
She thought about it before answering: "My hotel would be great, thanks. It's on Highland avenue, the Holiday Inn Express. And step on it."
"What? You want to get away from me?" he asked, doing his best pouty face.
"Yes, I do. Because today has been extremely weird and frustrating and the less time I have to spend with you the better."
"What do you mean?" he asked, "I'm betting you that there are millions of people who would be wanting to sit where you are sitting right now."
"Yeah, I'm sure there are," she retorted, "But I'm not one of them."
"What? How could you not want to, everyone likes me,"
"Really? Because you haven't given me lots of reasons to like you so far."
"Oh no, I've only driven you to a hospital so you can have your arm popped back in place!"
Kate sighed and looked out the window. He was right. Apart from being a little pretentious this morning, he had been nothing but nice to her while he took her to the hospital, opening doors for her, making sure she was okay. She smiled. It was sort of nice to have him do those things for her, but his whole celebrity vibe that she got from him turned her off completely.
His phone began to ring and he picked it up,
"Hello?" he answered
Kate heard screaming on the other end of the phone, and he moved the phone a good 4 inches away from his ear.
"Yeah, Gina, I know, I -" he replied to the woman at the end of the phone, but was cut off by more screaming.
"Okay, I'll be there in 15 minutes," he said, hanging up on her.
"Where are we going?"
"Back to my agent's office." he replied, "It seems I'm in a little bit of trouble"
A/N: Thank you so much for reading guys! Thank you for all your reviews and follows, they make my day! Let me know what you think of this chapter. I'm writing the next one now so hopefully that will be up in a few days!