This Chapter takes place a few weeks after the first one...hope you enjoy it :)
Night Into Dawn and Beyond: Chapter 2
"There's got to be something that shows where he's going to strike next." She said looking at the murder board.
They had worked five hours, took a thirty minute lunch break, and were now on their ninth hour looking at stacks and stacks of case files. Going to look at the apartment again had been a failure. They still were not able to find any clues as to whom the serial killer, her stalker, was.
The precinct was mostly empty. There were still a few cops sitting on the other side of the room, either quietly talking on the phone or doing paperwork. Beckett had told Esposito and Ryan to go on home to rest. She said that she would be following them shortly, that had been two hours ago.
Castle looked over at Kate who was busy reading one of the murder cases for the tenth time now, Castle was keeping count.
"Perhaps if you read it for an eleventh time you'll find something." Castle said, giving her a sarcastic look.
"It's happened before." Was all Kate said as her eyes were busily scanning the paper.
"Here." He said reaching over her and taking the folder out of her hand. He closed it up and laid it on her desk. "Why don't we go eat dinner, since neither one of us has had anything, and we'll come back early tomorrow and start again."
Castle intended this to be a question, but it sounded more like a demand. He could tell that Kate was tired by the way her eye lids drooped down. The best thing for her right now was rest. She needed that.
"Alright…" Kate said grudgingly, "As long as you promise we get here at five instead of eight tomorrow."
"Umm…" Castle said, hesitating.
"I'm just kidding Castle. I know how much you need your beauty sleep." She said jokingly.
He smiled as he went behind her to get her coat.
"What? No snappy remarks?" she asked as he helped her into her coat. One thing she always had loved about Castle was that he was always a gentleman. Even though he could be immature and say inappropriate things, he had always shown her respect. He had always shown her that he cared about her.
"Not tonight. But I'm sure I'll have plenty tomorrow after I've rested." He said as he turned her around to look at him.
Kate looked as if she hadn't slept for days. He merely stared at her. He did not need words to describe how he felt about her, his eyes said it all.
She looked at him wearingly. She was beat. With all the sex plus the extra hours she stayed at work, anyone could tell she was becoming sleep deprived. Not that she was complaining about the sex-it was fantastic! Never had Kate experienced any better.
He took her into his arms, giving her a warm embrace.
"Let's get out of here." He said taking her hand and leading her to the elevator.
She let him take her hand. It was because she was too tired to fight back, she told herself. That was only partially true. Truth be told, she liked Castle holding her; taking care of her. She would never let him know that of course. At least, not yet.
When the doors opened they stepped onto the elevator, still holding hands. He pressed the button for the first floor and then went behind her. He wrapped his arms around her waist. She leaned back into his embrace taking in this side of Castle. The side that normally she was never to experience at work.
This side. Exactly how many sides did he have? How many personalities did he hold, waiting for her to discover?
There was the sarcastic, smart-ass Castle. At work, this was the role he portrayed, the role she normally saw. The one that liked to bug her and comment on everything she said.
There was the funny, witty Castle. This one was seen at work as well as out in public. The one who was normally making light and cracking jokes at everything that happened. The one who could make her laugh and smile, even during the most stressful of times.
There was the flirty, charming Castle. Come to think of it, she was beginning to see this one at work more often. He would often find some way to make contact with her, even the slightest move, just to touch her. Unnoticed, of course. Whether it was the subtle hint of shoulders touching when standing beside her or brushing his legs with hers at her desk, either way, he always made some gesture to show he was thinking about her.
Then, at times when they were alone, such as now, there was the romantic, compassionate Castle. The one who would no longer hide his feelings for her in fear that their relationship might be discovered. He, on the other hand, did not mind everyone to know that they were romantically involved. The only reason they were keeping it a secret was because she had asked him too.
Why? Why did she not want anyone to know that she was intimately involved with the famous author Richard Castle? What was stopping her from making that next step in their relationship, the next step that normal women took the first time they entered into a relationship. Normally, women would be gloating and showing off Rick to the world. So, why wasn't she? What made her any different from half of the women population in New York?
She held her breath as he leaned his head forward to take in her aroma. He smelt her familiar scent of cherries. She leaned back into him and only moved when the doors of the elevator opened.
He took her hand once more and they walked out together into the cool night.
Castle decided to order take out. Sure, it was late, but lucky for him, he knew a guy. So not only had he gotten dinner rather late that night, but extremely cheap as well. Not that money really mattered to him. He was willing to do whatever was in his ability if only to make Kate happy. But, Kate, well she was different from most girls he had dated in the past. She was not with him just because of his money. He wanted to make their "relationship", he called it, official. Wanted to tell her exactly how he felt for her. He decided against it tonight, seeing that they were both exhausted and in need of sleep.
Almost the moment after he had opened the car door for Kate and she had gotten in, all she had to do was lean back into his comfortable seats and she was out. She wondered why she had not allowed him to drive her to any of the murder scenes before. After all, it had extremely comfortable seats and was very nice looking. He had a Volvo SC90. Although Castle sped through the city towards his house, she could tell that the car was his "baby" and he would be utterly distressed if anything ever happened to it.
They were lying side by side, spread out on the couch in his penthouse. His arm was placed under her head, acting as a pillow. Castle was running his fingers gently through Kate's hair while her eyes slowly began to close at the feel of his touch. There was a movie playing, just to add noise in the background. Neither one of them was watching it. Castle's eyes were nearly closed too.
"Beckett…" He said gently.
"Hmm…" She said still half asleep.
"Let's go on to bed." He said. "Come on." He got up and moved over her, kissing her once on the lips. He slowly and gently got off the couch, almost falling off along the way. He regained his balance and bent down to pick her up.
He carried her up the steps to his bedroom. Laying her softly on the bed he went over to turn off the light. He removed his shirt and soon joined her in the king sized bed. He moved closer to her, cuddling with her and rested his face in her hair. She always smelt so good. At work it was very intoxicating and it was becoming harder and harder to keep his hands off of her. If not for her request to keep their relationship a secret he would have had his way with her long ago in the interrogation room.
Soon they were both fast asleep.
Kate opened her eyes to find herself in new surroundings. She looked over at the clock on the table that lay beside the bed she found herself in. '8:30 a.m.'. Kate was surprised she had slept this late. She couldn't remember how she got here. She came to Castle's house. He had ordered take-out and they had enjoyed a quiet Chinese dinner-both had been exhausted and had just enjoyed each other's company.
Once they had finished, he went to put a movie on. Knowing that they both would not be watching the movie, Castle had turned the volume down. Just enough to where Kate was able to fall to sleep. Before she knew it, she was laying her head on Castle's chest with a blanket wrapped around both of them and she had closed her eyes. She had no idea what had happened after that.
She turned her head around to see Castle deep in sleep. Not wanting to disturb him, she gently got up and walked to his bathroom where she closed the door quietly and started the shower.
Kate stepped into the shower letting the hot water run over body. The water helped clear her head to where she no longer had to think and was able to relax and enjoy herself. She decided that she would let Castle sleep while she went on to work.
The shower didn't last long. She was already late and didn't want to waste much more time.
She stepped out, throwing on the towel she laid outside the shower door. She went to look at her complexion in the large mirror. Her eyes were still baggy, a sure sign that she was still tired. She could've gone back to bed. In fact, she was really tempted to go cuddle with Castle and have hot morning sex. That would probably help her day go better, she would have something to think about during the day… but, she had a job to do and she had already promised herself that she would catch this guy. 'The sooner the better' she had said.
She walked down the steps of Castle's apartment as quietly as possible. She was not sure if Alexis was home or not, but she didn't want to disturb her if she was.
She walked to the kitchen table, searching for a pen and paper. She wanted to scribble down a short note for Castle telling him where she went. He was a damn author and she couldn't even find a piece of paper anywhere. She was surprised he was so tidy. She was sure he had his daughter to thank for that. The Castle family relationship was not a normal one. Normally, it consisted of Alexis watching over Castle and taking care of him, while in turn, Castle took care of his mother. Kate smiled at the thought of remembering Alexis giving Castle a deadline to be home or telling him not to spoil his dinner when eating snack food. Alexis was very mature for her age. Castle was a very lucky father.
"Detective Beckett! How great it is to see you, darling!" She heard behind her just after she had found some paper.
Kate turned around to see Martha walking fluidly towards her.
"Hello Ms. Rodgers." Ms. Rodgers? Had Kate really just called Castle's mother by her last name? Didn't she normally just call her Martha? Why was she acting so weird? Wow…nerves really could do something to the way your brain responded.
"Martha, dear. Just Martha." Martha said smiling. "Where are you off to this fine morning?"
"Work." Kate said, her face did not look too happy about it. She loved her job, she really did. But who would like searching for a serial killer day after day and finding absolutely no clues in the process?
"Oh yes. Listen, Kate, I hope that you are ok. I know that tracking down a serial killer who is after you, specifically, is not an easy task." Martha came and put her hands over Kate, looking at her with sympathy. "If you need anything, anything at all, just let me know." Martha gave her a warm smile.
"Thank you. It's not easy, but it's just one of those things that comes along with the job description." She said trying to sound confident in herself.
"No. This is something that no young lady should have to experience. Richard has really seemed worried about you over the past couple of days." Martha told her.
"Well he has been very helpful and I'm sure we'll find this guy soon."
"You know he considered giving up his job because of this whole mess?" There it was. This is why Martha came to talk to her. She wanted to tell her about Rick, to talk about her son with her. True, she had wanted to show her sympathy, but Kate could almost guess that Martha wanted the 4-1-1 on how the relationship between them was going.
"He told me. I told him that was ridiculous. This case has nothing to do with his occupation. The killer would have just found something else to fixate on, none of this is Castle's fault. "
"Yes, well he doesn't seem to think so. He cares about you, Kate. I can see it in his eyes. He's never looked at anyone the way he looks at you."
Kate just stared at Martha. She didn't know what to say. What could you say to the mother of your…boyfriend? No…sex toy? That just sounded wrong. But honestly, what was Rick to her? He wasn't her boyfriend, she wouldn't let him be, at least not yet. So sex toy? Is that how she was going to define what Castle meant to her? 'I guess I have two things to figure out soon and fast', she thought to herself.
"Thank you." Was all Kate said.
"You're welcome. Well that's all you'll hear from me. Now you go on to work, I'll be sure to tell Richard that you went to work." Martha said, then walked off.
Kate stared at Castle's mother as she walked away. She wondered if what she said was true. She shook her head. Time to focus on work, and with that she picked up her purse and went out the door.
Hey guys! Thanks for keeping up with this story. Reviews are greatly appreciated and encouraged!
