Disclaimer in Chapter 1.

This is where I have to own up to being a complete Nathan Fillion fangirl. I hope you will all allow me to indulge my obvious shallowness as it presents itself during this chapter. It works in context of the character (Kate) and the plot and most especially for the metaphor too… I promise.

"Kate!"

Oh, how much would she have given for a camera at that precise moment!

Rick Castle, debonair page-six-playboy, stood in his open doorway in tatty, worn jeans and no shirt, a spit up cloth over one shoulder and a baby against his other shoulder. There was a half empty baby bottle sticking out of his pocket while hair stuck up in every direction and he was wearing a look of complete and utter shock at realising who he had just opened his door to.

"Nice look, Castle…" She grinned wide, allowing her amusement to show in her eyes as she watched him shift Sophie back over to the burp-cloth covered shoulder.

"I'm sorry; we were just doing the burping thing. Please, come in…"

As he stepped back to allow her to enter, Kate noticed that he'd automatically gone back to rubbing the tiny back and she couldn't help but let her eyes linger over what that small movement did to his biceps and deltoids. Really, it wasn't like she'd never seen a half naked man before. Kate gave herself a mental slap. She needed to concentrate.

"We had a slight mishap with our timing, not to mention our aim, didn't we Soph?" His grin was infectious, as was the sheer joy in his eyes. "My shirt was declared a casualty of the evening… I've not had a chance to change yet."

Just as Kate was about to reply, a surely-too-loud-for-her-body burp sounded from somewhere over his right shoulder and his eyes shone even brighter.

"Good girl! See, missy, didn't I tell you it'd be worth it?"

Kate watched on as he brought the little girl back down into the crook of his arm, dispensed with the burp-cloth and fished the bottle back from his jeans, before popping the lid and gently sliding the teat back into the little girl's mouth. Right at that moment she couldn't decide if she was more impressed by his talent or mesmerised by his half naked self as he continued to coo nonsense at the happy baby.

"Come in, sit… and tell me to what I owe the pleasure of your company this fine evening, although you will have to restrain yourself from ogling the manly physique on display…"

Kate laughed at him, at the pure and typical Castle-ness of that comment. Even in the most atypical situation she'd ever encountered with him – and given their history, that was saying something… She stopped suddenly, aware of what she was actually seeing.

Here indeed was first-hand evidence of what so many people had been trying to tell her. What that picture in the file had told her. No matter what circumstances fate threw at Richard Castle, regardless of how his life changed for good or ill, he was still always purely himself.

Compassionate.

Dependable.

Extraordinary.

"Kate?" His voice interrupted her thoughts as he stood a few feet away still feeding the baby but aware that she hadn't followed. He was watching her closely, evidently trying to decipher her sudden change in mood. She coughed, bringing herself back, but right at that moment, she was seeing him more clearly than she'd ever let herself before.

"You're extraordinary…"

The words left her mouth before she could even think to call them back and they hit him with an undeniable impact. His mouth dropped open, his eyes widened and for once he didn't seem to be able to answer back quickly. In fact, she was sure that if he'd been holding anything other than Sophie, he'd have dropped it. He just stared at her, simply stunned… his chest rising and falling faster and deeper than it had just a minute before as they stood still, neither of them moving and more importantly, neither of them looking away.

Until, of course, Sophie spat the teat out of her mouth, and let out a wail of pure baby impatience. Rick quickly looked down, taking in the situation – a now empty bottle - before employing the same skill as before to put the bottle in his pocket (with its lid on), put the burp cloth back over his shoulder before moving Sophie into a comfortable burping position.

Kate let her self contemplate his hands as he held the tiny little body safe and secure against him. Every movement he made screaming loud and clear that no matter what happened, he would always be there for this little girl, just like he had been always been there for Alexis. Strong and sure and comforting and he was always going to be there to catch her and dust her off if she fell.

Kate smiled at him then, a soft radiant smile that the moment demanded, one she knew she had never let him see before and one that she could see affected him almost as much as her last statement.

Speaking of...

"I mean it, Rick, you truly are extraordinary…"

"I…wow…"

She grinned at him. Laughing at how easily she could fluster him; laughing with the sudden freedom to be able to fluster him.

"What's the matter, Ricky, cat got your tongue?"

Another ridiculously huge burp sounded and his attention snapped back to the little girl in his arms.

"Kate, I'm not exactly sure what is going on right now, but if it's going where I hope it's going, I have a feeling that we'd both rather we had this conversation when Sophie didn't smell of… well, when she didn't need changing… and I didn't smell of baby and wasn't half naked…"

"Go change her; I'll be here when you're done."

"You will?" She hated the small flicker of uncertainty she saw in his eyes. That needed to stop right now.

"Yes, Rick. I will. And by the way, I don't mind the baby or the baby smell, but I especially don't mind the half-naked part…"

Kate watched as he almost tripped over his own two feet on his way to his room, he really was too easy sometimes.

And she was having way more fun than she'd ever imagined.

TBC…

AN: And so it begins…

I truly, from the bottom of my heart, want to thank you all for reading and for the amazing reviews you guys have sent my way. You make me grin like a fool.

Look out for the next part tomorrow.

Callie.