Disclaimer in Chapter 1.

Again, thank you all for your lovely reviews; they really do make my day!

Another double-header post today. Chapter 9 is getting uploaded as we speak.

As it turned out, Kate got called back to the station before Castle returned home. She had to admit to herself that she was a little relieved when the Captain called to tell her that she was needed back at the station as CPS and Castle's lawyers needed the final paperwork on Sophie's case in order to move on with some of the legalities of the adoption.

So she'd given Martha an apologetic look, afraid the elder woman would see it as a retreat. That after hearing what Martha had to say, she'd maybe decided against taking a risk. But she needn't have worried, especially once Kate had explained why she was going back to the station and Martha had sent her on her way with a smile and a heartfelt hug.

Kate was still feeling the comforting effects of that hug all these hours later as she sat at her desk finishing her reports.

The Castles might be unconventional, but they were as close a family as she had ever seen… and for the first time, Kate admitted to herself just how badly she wanted to be a part of it – of them.

She let her fingers stroke over the picture of Sophie in the case notes she was finishing up. Before and after shots taken of the little girl stared out of the folder, juxtaposed side by side on the sheet of paper.

The first shot taken only a few minutes after Castle had found her in the cupboard could easily have been mistaken for a corpse-shot. A still frame couldn't show the almost imperceptible, barely-there breaths the baby was taking. No, this picture only showed a silent as death image of a dirty, malnourished and maltreated baby and it hurt Kate's heart so deeply that she didn't think she'd ever get that image out of her mind.

The second picture, taken much more recently, couldn't have been more different if it tried. Sophie was sucking on her fist, her eyes wide open and alight with a special kind of mischief that made Kate chuckle. But it was the bottom corner of the image that had drawn her attention over and over again, until she had given up looking away at all.

Just in shot was the top of a man's hand – a familiar hand - resting gently and protectively on the tummy of the infant, soothing and reassuring all at once. Kate smiled, remembering several of her own baby pictures where a meant-to-be-unseen hand had calmed her infant self enough to be still for long enough to consent to be photographed.

Kate let her fingers stroke the image, slowing again over that same place. That image, that hand, saying more to Kate Beckett than all the talking heads ever could. It was solace, it was comfort and it was always going to be there.

Kate bit her lip gently, stroking the picture once more. It was time, past time, if she were honest with herself.

"Beckett, why are you still here?"

Kate looked up, jarred from her thoughts. Seeing her captain emerge from his office, coat in hand, readying to leave she quickly closed the case file in front of her.

"Just finishing up the paperwork, Sir."

"Detective, even on your worst days it doesn't take you four hours to complete one case file…"

"…and I was thinking, Sir."

She could tell that had surprised him. She looked back down at the file in her hands as her captain made his way over, knowing he already knew why she was lingering over this file in particular.

"Nothing like a dark bullpen and monotonous paperwork to free up your mind…"

"No, sir, there really isn't."

"Sometimes, for as much good as chattering heads do for you, all it really takes is peace and quiet and before you know it, you find the answer has been staring you in the face right from the very beginning. And it isn't nearly as complicated as you once thought."

Kate smiled. His voice might be soft, but his meaning hit as hard as each conversation she'd had before him.

And he was as right as the others had been.

"Thank you, sir…" Kate sent him a simple smile of thanks as she watched him pick up his coat and head to the elevator.

"Goodnight, Detective."

Kate watched as the elevator doors closed, staring a moment longer, replaying the events and conversations of the day before closing the file and gently stacking it in her outbox.

She needed to talk to him.

It really was time.

She grinned at the empty bullpen. Richard Castle wasn't going to know what hit him.

TBC…

AN: There we go, now do we think Kate is finally where she needs to be in order to go and get what, and whom, she wants? I confess to not starting this chapter with the idea of Montgomery showing up, I wanted Kate to have a little time alone in her own head after the conversations she'd had. But Roy showed up and who am I to argue with the Captain when he wants to play?

Next up? Castle and Kate… finally.

Callie.