Disclaimer: I do not own Castle

Chapter 7

He led them through the bedroom door and into the study where he sat on the couch and she sat beside him... angling themselves towards each other...

"Rick... I was way out of line... I said such horrible things to you... and I just wish I could take it all back…"

"Kate…" he said… his eyes focused on the ground.

"Let me finish... I said things that I didn't mean… I love you because you are a writer... I fell for you because of your passion of writing… and that makes you passionate about everything you do… and that's why I love you Rick...
and I didn't mean what I said that day… I don't regret anything about us… hell! I love us... I love what we have... I love how we work... I love how we balance each other out... we make things work... and my life has never been so sorted before I met you…"

"I know Kate…"

Kate stood
"I treated you cheap. You have every reason to be angry with me…" she explained.

"You left…"

"I did. I got scared and I ran..."

Kate was pacing the floor in front of him now... her eyes moist at the memory of that evening.

"And I regretted it so much after I left... but I couldn't bring myself to turn the car around and come back... I was so afraid that we would only end up saying much more horrible things to each other if I came back..."

"You took Alex away…" the hurt and anger all too evident in his tone. But he spoke firmly.. His eyes still trained on the floor…

"Rick… I thought, that all I had done by then was the most damage I could do in one night... but then I came home the next morning and…"

"I had already left…" he stated.

"... I have no idea how it slipped my mind… every day that week I kept reminding myself about it... but that night... I just forgot… and gosh I felt so stupid when I came home to that letter... I felt like the worst wife on the planet…."

"Kate…"

"Rick... I'm so sorry… I'm sorry I left... I'm sorry I took Alex away... I'm sorry I forgot about your trip and that I wasn't here when you had to leave… I'm just... I'm such a mess Castle!"

There was a minute of silence between them.

Kate turned to look at him,
"I missed you so much Rick…" a tear rolled down her cheek and there was silence again.

She took the few steps between them. Closing the distance, she knelt before him and held his face in her hands, making him look at her.

He wasn't saying anything, not reacting in any way. Not a word left his lips. And it scared her.
She was beginning to get really worried that this was not going well.

"Rick... talk to me…" she chocked on a sob. And put her forehead to his. Their eyes were closed. "Talk to me... please…" she was crying, pleading with him.

She so badly needed him to connect with her. She needed to know they were still one. They'd work things out. Another tear rolled down her cheek and she placed a soft kiss on his lips. It was dripping with apology. It was her kiss of surrender.

The ball was in his court now.

She breathed him in, and tried the last time. "I'm sorry Castle… I love you. Always"

She heard him take a breath near her lips. And then he spoke.

"You're right… You are a mess..."