A/N: Thank you, thank you, thank you! I've read this over a few times, most recently today, but I'm not the best at spotting typos (or equally the sometimes weird mistakes my brain makes) and I've been up since 5/6 so I might have missed something. If I have, someone please let me know?
Speaking to Martha and Alexis about the apartment to rent and her idea turned out to be quite difficult. When she was at the Loft, having been apart from her all day, Rick wanted her constant, undivided attention. Even doing the crossword or reading the morning newspaper as she liked to do on her days off had become an impossibility. While she wasn't physically at the precinct, she still had a tonne of paperwork to fill out and take back to the Twelfth. And then, unfortunately for 'her father', or rather Castle, another case came up. Karpowski's team was maxed out with two ongoing investigations, Jacobs and Martinez had one of their own, and Ryan and Espo were getting nowhere with theirs. It didn't matter how much she needed the time off, the precinct needed her more than Castle did.
She'd ordered and had some new DVD boxsets delivered to the loft, but in a day he'd watched all sixteen episodes – a discovery that had been both astounding and disconcerting.
"You watched how many?" she had asked in shock when she came back from the precinct one day and found him staring at the blank TV screen, questioning why he wasn't watching Life On Mars.
He had shrugged and muttered, "I miss being at the precinct," quickly putting an end to her amazement and only strengthening her conviction that she had to find some way to make him feel like it was a normal day solving crimes again.
At her wit's end over the whole thing, Kate arranged to meet Martha for a coffee on one of her days off, telling Castle a friend from college was going to be in town for the day and wanted to catch up. She made sure to emphasise how boring she expected it to be in an attempt to ward off any request he might make about joining her and surprisingly it worked, though he still sulked as she kissed him goodbye and squeezed his shoulder.
As she stepped into the small shop on Amsterdam Avenue, she saw Martha had already arrived, ordered herself a coffee and taken a seat at a table, busying herself with window-watching while she waited. Smiling, Kate deposited her coat over the spare chair and went to get her own latte before finally she sat down opposite her partner's mother.
"To what do I owe the pleasure, Katherine?"
"Sorry to drag you out all this way. I just needed to talk to you somewhere Rick won't overhear us," she explained, continuing after receiving an confused - yet encouraging - nod from his mother. "I've had an idea I could use your help with. You know the apartment building opposite the loft? I noticed a 'to rent' sign in one of the windows last week and had an idea for how we could keep Rick's spirits up and celebrate his birthday now that Bora Bora is off."
Martha nodded again, though she didn't quite understand where Kate was going with this idea. What use was a vacant apartment?
"Martha, how feasible do you think it is to stage a murder?"
Between the two of them, Martha and Kate began working out the kinks in the plan, calling the owner of the vacant apartment in order to request its use. It involved some odd questions, but eventually the landlord agreed to rent the space to them for a week or two on the stipulation that they pay a deposit that would be returned to them at the end of the brief 'tenancy' if the apartment was still in the same condition.
And then they hit a snag.
"So what's the murder story?"
"I was thinking crime of passion," Kate answered, considering keeping the fake murder simple as the best plan.
"That's much too boring," Martha protested. "Richard will see through it in five minutes. How about a shoot the messenger scenario? Or a good old-fashioned shoot-out?"
Kate shook her head.
"A gun fight would attract too much attention – someone would call the police. Castle needs to call Ryan or Esposito, not 911." Perhaps asking for help from Castle's dramatic mother had been a mistake.
"Ah," Martha replied, acknowledging the problems with her suggestions. "Well my students would certainly have no problem with acting out a little love scene. I'll check with the troupe for their availability before making my selections, but I have the perfect trio in mind for a little adulterous set up."
Silently breathing a sigh of relief, Kate smiled. "That would be great, thanks, Martha. So, guy discovers his girlfriend is cheating on him? Kills her in anger?" Martha nodded. "I'll speak to the boys tomorrow; they're going to have to be on board. And probably Alexis too – I think we're going to have to have someone there supervising him, making sure he doesn't go too far, commit any real crimes or make any citizens arrests."
"Sensible. To properly direct my students, I think it will be best if I were to be out of the picture." Kate opened her mouth to protest, but his mother continued, "I did intend on going away anyway, since Richard was going to be celebrating his birthday in Bora Bora with you. Perhaps I can tell him that I'm still going. Trust me, Katherine, if this wonderful idea of yours is going to pay off, it's for the best."
The two of them stayed, plotting and planning, long after their coffee mugs were empty and then returned to the loft together; a scrap of paper in Kate's pocket with everything they had to do and a rough timeline of when everything had to happen the only evidence of their meeting.
Alexis stayed only long enough for dinner that night, stopping by the living room once more to kiss her father on the cheek before continuing to the front door Kate held open.
"Hey, Alexis, do you have a second?"
"Yeah, is something up?" his teenage daughter asked, looking worriedly past her shoulder and at her father again.
"No no, everything's fine- or well, as fine as is possible right now. I just wondered if I could count on you for help with something-"
"-I know you're talking about me!" Rick called from within the Loft, sounding moody.
"Kate just wants to know how much college work I have," Alexis replied, noticing the look on Kate's face that made her curious as to what else the Detective could need her help with. She was already coming over during the daytime to cover Kate while she was at work, whenever her grandmother couldn't take care of her dad. "So, what is it you need?"
"Last night I came up with a plan – of sorts – for how to help Rick stop missing working at the precinct with me and still celebrate his birthday. I thought maybe we could stage a murder in the apartment up for rent across the street as a kind of April Fools' thing. Your grandmother's going to provide the actors from her school, and the props too, and we've got the apartment sorted. I wanted to know if you'd be willing to hang around here, maybe plant a few ideas in his head and supervise him to make sure he doesn't actually call the cops?"
Pondering for a moment, Alexis considered her timetable and when she'd be able to drop round. Theoretically, she'd probably be coming to the loft in her free time to watch over her dad anyway. "I've got a few classes, but I should be able to be here for at least three hours every day," she offered, phrasing the words as a question.
"That would be perfect!" Kate enthused; glad to have got Alexis on board.
"You don't have to worry about me all the time, you know," Castle grumbled as he lay in bed, watching Kate move around the room, undressing and stowing away her father's watch and the chain bearing her mother's ring. When she finally climbed into bed beside him, tugging up the covers around him around smoothing out wrinkles in his soft cotton shirt, he frowned and tutted, mistaking her attentions as yet more wearisome worry. He was fed up of everyone looking at him with a mixture of pity and concern in their eyes.
"I don't worry about you all the time, Castle. Only when you do something stupid like get out of the car when I've told you to stay there or when you attempt dangerous skiing stunts." Her voice took on a teasing hint, hoping to pull some sort of humour out of him, but his eyes were flat when he looked at her. "I won't apologise for caring about you, Castle. I love you, remember?" Her palm on his cheek forced him to maintain eye contact with her. "I love you."
"Sorry," he muttered, eyes flashing guiltily.
Shaking her head, Kate told him, "Castle, it's okay. I understand how frustrating everything is. Believe me, I was ten times worse when my dad was hovering around me at the cabin, insisting that I stay in bed and he'd do everything for me. I'm just glad you're not testing the boundaries like I did." He smiled a little at the image of her rolling her eyes and scowling every time her father entered the room with a never-failing, gentle smile despite the outbursts of irritation she came out with when he became too overbearing for her to handle. He could easily picture her reaching too far and suffering the crippling pain in her chest too, though it wasn't half as entertaining to think about that.
"Ten times worse?"
She grinned and nodded; all teeth before sticking her tongue out at him. "Call my dad, ask him."
"I've been really moody the last few days, haven't I?"
"You think?"
"Sorry," he said again, sighing. She squeezed his shoulder but otherwise didn't acknowledge his apology.
"Come on, Castle, let's get some sleep."
Easing her body down so her back was no longer leaning against the headboard, Kate switched off the light before she turned her body in towards him, her eyes easily finding his form in the darkness once they'd adjusted. She snuggled closer, almost on her front but making sure to keep her legs away from his broken knee. Her head and one of her hands rested atop his broad torso, fingers smoothing and tapping against the material covering his ribs for a few moments.
"Night," she mumbled, already beginning to feel sleepy.
"Night, Kate." His voice grew even quieter as, hand drifting up and down her back, he added softly, "I love you too."
A/N: I would love to hear your thoughts! And like I said earlier, if you see a mistake, just a review or a PM to let me know would be great so that I can go back and change it. Also, I know on the show we never saw Kate tell Rick she loved him until Still, which was 1/2 episodes later depending on if you follow the original air order or the changed one, but we can all suspect that she said it before at least once, right?