Thanks for all of the reviews for the first two chapters. Truly great! I hope this new chapter is to your liking. It's late and I'm literally falling asleep as I post this, so I really hope it makes sense.

BTW, I just created a new Twitter account...my username is xxGoogiexx if anyone is interested. Since I hear that story alerts are not always being sent in a timely fashion, I'll try to update on there when I've uploaded a new chapter for one of my stories.

Standard disclaimers apply.


She laid there for a while, so tired, but she couldn't sleep. Her mind was going a mile a minute. She'd so wanted to make it work between the two of them, but how could she now? She was so incredibly happy when she'd regained consciousness and he'd not only been there, but had told her he was staying for her. But then it all fell apart when they'd come back to her apartment. She'd needed...lots of things. Not one of which he provided for her.

She felt so selfish for thinking that! You just didn't go into a relationship only thinking of what you could get from it. It was a give and take. She kept coming back to the fact that he stayed for her. But for what? For what reason? So he could be there for her? No. So they could spend time together? Maybe. So they could deepen their relationship? Hmmm...good question. Because the only inkling of 'deep' that she saw in the past couple of hours had to do with...oh, forget it. She didn't want to go there in her mind. Because she'd already been there twice, physically, and she felt used enough already without having to relive those feelings and those memories again. She closed her eyes with a sigh, willing the tears from her eyes. She would not cry.

She thought of Castle. He was a good distraction; she didn't feel like crying when she thought of him. He annoyed her, somtimes (though not much anymore) he infuriated her, he helped her, he made her smile. She knew Martha and Alexis were away; he'd sent them away. And though he'd never said much about it-really nothing about it-she knew from what she'd overheard that he wasn't with Gina anymore. And if the way she was feeling when she walked through her apartment door tonight was even remotely like he was feeling, she really hoped he was doing okay. That he was getting the rest that he said he wanted. And that was another weird thing. He said he wanted rest, that he was tired, but right before that, he'd looked so...energized. She would almost have sworn that he had that little twinkle in his eye like he did when he was planning something. But then out of nowhere, he said he was tired and walked away, and Josh had surprised her right after that.

Wait...Josh had come up behind her, which meant that Castle saw him coming. No. He couldn't have left because of Josh, could he? No. But Castle had stepped away, and then Josh was right there. Had Castle seen Josh coming?

Her eyes flew open. Castle had to have seen Josh. That was why he'd left then. That's why it had all seemed so strange, because it wasn't like him. It wasn't like him at all. She began to piece it together in her mind. He knew she had Josh, he knew she wanted to try to make it work with Josh, from what she'd told him after they were rescued from the freezer, and when he saw Josh walking toward them, he'd made a hasty retreat so as to not make things uncomfortable.

And after everything that had happened the last two days, he'd gone home alone. That...that just wasn't right.

Almost on autopilot, she got out of bed and went in search of her phone. She found it in the pocket of her pants that were laying on the floor, the pants that Josh had all but ripped off of her. Memories of that, her submission, started filtering back into her brain, but she pushed them right back out as she grabbed her phone and unlocked it. She couldn't do anything about that, but she could do this one little thing.

She didn't want to wake him. He was probably asleep, but she did want to do something to let him know...what did she want to let him know? That he had a friend. Yes, he had a friend and that friend was thinking about him and hoped that he was okay. That would work.

She laid back down on the bed and quickly composed the text: 'Hell of a day. Hope you're sleeping well. Thanks again for being there. See you soon. K'. She hit send, dropped the phone on the other side of the bed and leaned back against the pillows. She was still naked, and she suddenly didn't like the feeling. She got up off the bed and went over to her drawer, where she found an old, extra large t-shirt that she sometimes slept in. It was comfortable and she'd had it forever. She pulled it over her head and instantly felt a little bit better. She crawled back into the bed and pulled the blankets over her just as she heard her phone chime, signaling a new text message.

'Anytime. I can't sleep-mind won't shut off. But you should. Pleasant dreams, Det. -RC'

He couldn't sleep? Well, that was obvious by the speed with which he'd responded to her text message. But sleep wasn't the reason why he'd left so soon anyway; wasn't that what she'd figured out? Suddenly, the image of Castle, as he'd left the precinct, filled her mind. The look on his face, how he'd said he needed to get some sleep, even though she'd already suspected that was just a cover story to make a clean getaway when he saw Josh coming. But he wasn't sleeping. And then, the image in her mind changed from Castle in the precinct to Castle at his loft, alone. All alone.

She took a deep breath and then, before she could talk herself out of it, hit his speed dial button. She listened to the phone ring once, twice, three times. He'd just texted her; where was he now? Why wasn't he answering? And just as she finished that thought, she heard the low timbre of his voice say, "Hello, Detective." That was all he said. It was far from one of his usual, witty greetings.

"Hey, Castle."

There was a silence. It appeared that neither knew exactly what to say. Finally, he broke the silence, in typical Castle form, although the words lacked their usual energy. "To what do I owe the unexpected pleasure of your call?"

"I..." What could she say? I'm feeling like a used sex object by my boyfriend who doesn't seem to want to think about anything except how many times he can get off, so I started thinking about you to take my mind off of how awful I feel? Yeah, that would be perfect. And she felt the tears stinging the backs of her eyelids as those thoughts, those memories invaded her brain again. But she knew she needed to say something. "I...I just wondered how you were," she told him, hoping she sounded okay, hoping that he didn't hear the little hitch in her voice.

But apparently he did. "Kate, what's wrong?"

"It's...I...nothing," she managed to say. She squeezed her eyes shut, willing some normalcy into her voice. "I just know that you...in the precinct...you saw Josh and you left. I knew you didn't have anyone at home, and you..." she paused, searching for the right words. "It was all intense, Rick, really intense, and you're not a cop; you're not trained for that. I wanted to make sure you were okay."

Not really answering her question, he said, "You're not really trained for that either. I mean, being almost frozen to death? Finding a dirty bomb only seconds from being vaporized? I can't imagine that's in any sort of a training manual."

She was silent for a moment. He was right. She was a cop, but those things were definitely not part of her training. Not part of anyone's training, except maybe Fallon's. And who knew exactly what he was trained for. "No, I don't remember that particular chapter," she said, and tried a chuckle, although it fell flat. "It was a hell of a day, that's for sure."

"Yeah, it was. But why won't you tell me what's wrong?" Then she heard a very definite sigh, and then "Look, I'm sorry. I'm overstepping. Don't worry about me. I'm fine. Tell...Josh to give you some extra TLC tonight..." he paused, then added in a lower voice, which she almost couldn't make out because it was so soft, "tell him you deserve it for all you've been through. You have a restful night, and..." he paused again before saying, "...get some sleep."

"No, Castle," she blurted out, sensing he was about to hang up and disconnect their call.

"What?"

She took a deep breath, not sure if she should say anything, but at the same time feeling compelled to say it. "Josh isn't here. He got called in," she told him softly.

The silence was back again, while they both just waited. But they both understood the silence, somehow. They knew this wasn't a normal situation, one that could, or should, be filled up with constant words. "But how..." he finally said, with a note of question in his voice, which spoke of him not understanding what she was saying. "He was supposed to go away, but he stayed. How could he get called in? He wasn't even supposed to be here in the first place."

"He just did, okay? I don't know. But he's gone. I'm alone." Her voice was abrupt, tired, defeated. Annoyed? It almost sounded like it, but that couldn't be.

After a time, a time when she could imagine that he was recovering from the unintended sting of his words, he finally said, simply, "You're alone?" The words were spoken with surprise, but were also dripping with concern.

"Yeah," she said simply.

Before he could stop himself, he said, "Come over here."

She almost pulled the phone away to see if it was really an alien life form like in one of Castle's theories, one that was talking to her. Nope. So she attempted to clarify, "What?"

It was too late to take it back now. And if the truth be told, he wasn't sure that he wanted to. "Come over here."

"Why?"

Why, indeed? Because he wanted her? Because he was happy beyond belief that Josh wasn't with her? Or...

He told her the only thing, the only explanation that made sense for both of them right now. "Because you're the only other person on this earth who knows what these last couple of days were like for me, and I think it would be good for both of us to spend some time with that other person. We don't have to talk about it. But I think having you here would be a rare and wonderful thing." He let in sink in for a moment, and then he continued, "Kate, I want to be there if you need me. And I...I could use some company. We can just sit and relax. I even have blankets and a fire if you're cold, because I know I still am. So come over."

She listened to his plea, and it made sense. How did he always manage to say things that made sense? Even the most outlandish things...he could make them sound perfectly plausible and normal. She should go over to his loft? What could he be thinking?

But despite those thoughts of her, somehow, she found herself saying, "Okay. I can come over."

She could hear the smile in his voice. "Good. When?"

"Soon. I just have to get dressed..." But as she said those words, the memories of Josh came back to her. So she amended her words, "I have to grab a quick shower, and then I can be there." After everything that happened with Josh, she knew she couldn't walk out of this apartment-to go anywhere-without showering first. She felt...unclean. Suddenly, she couldn't wait to get into the shower and scrub herself squeaky clean.

"Okay. I'll be waiting. I'll make something to eat. What do you want?"

"Whatever. I'll Be there soon. Bye, Castle."

"Until later, Beckett."


That's it for now. Some of you wanted a little more closure after the Chapter 2, so I hope that this gives you some. Hope you enjoyed it!

Thoughts?