Hello all of my faithful readers! At long last, here it is, Chapter 7! Thank you so much for your patience - I had a lot of trouble with this chapter - it fought me every step of the way and I couldn't bring myself to give you guys anything but my absolute best!

But it's pouring rain here in lovely La-la Land (that's Los Angeles for those who don't know) - and, while I realise that my family is all being turned into popsicles back home in Northern Ontario (seriously, it's -29C in my hometown today) - I'm being whiny and refusing to leave my apartment. So how better to spend the day than to write? That's what I thought. :)

So please enjoy this coffee induced (seriously, got a Tassimo for Christmas and have since become the most caffeinated person in the world!) Chapter - it is, by necessity, a little heavier than some of the previous chapters, but I've tried to give you guys at least a good chuckle here and there - along with with a whole lot of 'AWWWWWWWS!'

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: If I were to kidnap Nathan Fillion and make him my personal slave, would I be able to claim at least partial ownership? Wait, kidnapping's illegal! Who knew! ;)

Chapter 7:

When Kate Beckett woke up several hours later, she found herself still securely held by the arms of the man who had dropped everything to take care of her during her illness. Looking up at his face, she was pleased to see that, though he was still far paler than she had ever seen him, he looked to be sleeping peacefully.

Shifting as little as possible in his arms so as not to wake him, she pressed her forehead to his, relief flooding through her that he was no longer burning up; his fever seemed at last to have broken.

Feeling better than she herself had in days, though still feeling exhausted despite having just woken up, Kate sighed, knowing what had to come next. She knew that he had to go home. He needed to see his daughter. More importantly, his daughter needed her father more than Kate needed her caretaker.

As if somehow aware of her thoughts, even in his sleep, she felt the man in question tighten his arms around her, pulling her impossibly closer to his larger frame, tucking her head under his chin and burrowing his nose in her hair, tangling their legs together.

Feeling more at peace with herself than she had ever felt in her life, she decided to enjoy her remaining time in this man's arms before doing what she knew that she had to do.

The next time she woke up it was to a small hand on her shoulder, gently shaking her awake. Still feeling both of Castle's arms wrapped around her frame, she turned her head to see Lanie's knowing smirk.

"Hi Lanie," she whispered blushing, trying not to wake up her sleeping partner.

Deciding to have a small amount of mercy on her friend, for now, the ME chose to assess the health status of the two first. The teasing could come later, she thought, her eyes alight with mischief, thinking of Javier's reaction to the photo of the two in question curled up on the bathroom floor.

In fairness, she was thrilled that her best friend had finally let her defenses down enough to let Castle see her as anything but the strong and indomitable woman that she was, let alone to even take care of her. She also knew, however, that too much teasing would just result in Kate building her walls back up again and shutting Castle out again – and we can't have that.

"How has he been?" she whispered instead, nodding her head in the direction of the man in question, brushing her fingers gently across both of their foreheads.

"He's feeling a lot better," the man in question rumbled, surprising them both. "Your hands are freezing, Dr. Parish," he continued, blinking his eyes in an attempt to fully wake up.

"Castle?" Beckett asked, craning her head to look up at his face, surprised when his arms held on to her even tighter, despite the presence of her friend, "how long have you been awake?"

Feeling like she was intruding on an intimate moment, Lanie told the two that she would let them pull themselves together and would wait for them in the kitchen with some dinner.

Once her friend had left the room, Kate sighed, knowing that it was time.

"Kate?" he asked, feeling the woman in his eyes sigh and try to burrow into his warm body a little more, "what's wrong?"

"You have to go home, Castle."

She felt him stiffen against her and withdraw from her as though she'd physically struck him. Seeing the hurt and confusion in his eyes, she realised how hard her statement had sounded and she grabbed at his closest hand to stop him from withdrawing further.

"Listen to me," she continued, touching her free hand to his jaw, forcing him to look her in the eyes, "These last few days, I don't know what I would have done without you here. I'm not very good at letting people in," he snorted at that understatement, "but Alexis needs you more than I do right now. What kind of person would I be if I kept you from her for my own selfish reasons," she begged him to understand. Feeling him relax against her and seeing his eyes soften with understand, she realised how tense she herself had become, and forced her own body to relax against his.

"So you're not blocking me out?"

She was saddened by the fear that she heard in his voice and realised that she had never given him any indication that she would ever fully let him in. Looking back on their relationship she knew that every time she had started to let him in her demons would resurface and she would push him back, rebuilding and reinforcing her walls after every encounter. She felt ashamed.

"I don't deserve you, Castle," she answered truthfully, "but I'm not pushing you away if you'll still have me. I can't promise you that I won't push back tomorrow, or next week," she smiled sadly, knowing that, while her defenses were down now, that her demons were not just going to go away, "but if you think that you can –"

She was suddenly cut off by the feel of his lips pressed against hers. She found herself responding to the tender kiss, pouring everything in her heart and soul into it that she couldn't put into words. They were both gasping for air when he pulled back, and she was surprised to find his eyes bright with unshed tears.

"Geez, Castle," she smirked a little to break the tension, "I always knew you were going to be the girl."

"You're a fine one to talk," he replied, reaching down to wipe the tears she hadn't even know she'd shed from her pale cheeks, smiling wide like a kid on Christmas morning.

Swatting him gently on the chest, she pushed herself back, moving to get out of the bed. Standing up too quickly she realised too late that, despite feeling much better, she was still not quite back to 100%, and she found herself in a crumpled mess on the floor trying to figure out what the hell had just happened.

"Kate!" she heard Castle rasp out in concern, his own sudden movements sparking a coughing fit and causing him to lurch further over the edge of the bed than he had originally planned. Unfortunately for him, however, his feet were still tangled up in the sheets and he found himself lying half off the bed, half on, staring down at the detective's sprawled out form.

Realising the ridiculousness of their situation, she found herself suddenly laughing uncontrollably, still sprawled on the floor. Just like her illness, Castle couldn't help but be infected by her unstoppable fit of laughter and found himself joining in between coughs.

The commotion in the bedroom was enough to bring Lanie back in. The scene in front of her beginning to make her question her own medical expertise since she was sure neither of them should have still been hallucinating from the medication she had given them the day before.

"If either of you even so much as reaches for that puke-bucket, I'm euthanizing both of you."

The ME's words only served to bring on a fresh volley of gasping laughter from her friend who was still curled up on the floor, and the man who was tangled up in the blankets half hanging out of the bed beside her.

Once the two had finally pulled themselves together and picked themselves up off the floor, albeit at a much slower pace this time, they explained to Lanie that Castle would have to go home after dinner, since Alexis was sure to be beside herself worrying about her father.

Agreeing with the two, Lanie agreed to drop Castle off at his place after they finished dinner. Seeing Castle eyeing the saltines on the counter with a wary eye, Lanie reluctantly agreed to letting him eat something a little more substantial if he was feeling up to it. Unsurprisingly, he had found himself only able to eat a few bites of the Chinese food that Lanie had brought over before conceding defeat of going back to munching on the saltine crackers, looking dejected.

Finishing their dinner, Lanie went to pack up the car with both her own belongings and Castle's overnight bag before coming back to collect the man in question to bring him home to his daughter.

Taking advantage of their last moment of privacy before he would go home, Castle and Beckett found themselves wrapped in each others' arms standing in the living room.

"Come with me," she heard him whisper next to her ear.

Wanting to more than anything in the world, Beckett knew that she couldn't. "You need to finish getting better," she smiled into his shoulder, "and you need to go spend time with your daughter. I'll see you in a couple of days at the precinct" she promised.

Hearing the door open as Lanie came back in, they reluctantly let each other go, smiling at each other as Castle left with her friend. Once they were gone, Kate flopped down onto her couch, turning on the TV. After about 15 minutes of flipping through the channels, she heard her cell phone buzz on the coffee table. Picking it up she saw that she had a text message. Opening it, she was surprised to see that it was from Alexis.

'Thank you.'

Staring in awe at the simple but profound message, Kate found herself smiling as she replied, 'you're welcome.'

FIN

That's all folks! They're all healthy (ish) – we all knew this story had to come to an end eventually, sad as it is. I find that for the typical plotless piece of fluff, the max you can usually get away with is 7 chapters. After that it just gets drawn out for nothing, and I feel like an important part of writing is knowing when a story is finished.

Now – I might be persuaded to indulge all of you, my wonderful and rabid readers with a sequel. That sequel comes with a small price however: first, if the demand is sufficient, I could be persuaded; second, I could use some ideas to try and get a feel for what it is that y'all want to see in a sequel to this story. I have tons of ideas, but most of them can be stand alones and don't need to follow from this story – I'd like to see what you guys want to see!

Now, that said – a huge thank you goes out to all of you who have read, reviewed, and favourited this story; I know I've said this in a bunch of chapters, but seriously – you guys shocked the crap out of me with your response! So much so, that of everything I've ever written, this is the first multi-chapter fic that I have ever finished! And that's entirely because of all of you!

So with that in mind, a very special thank you goes out to the following reviewers – I would actually sit and wait for your wonderful words with every chapter:

Beckett NYPD; BellaPaige88; Tols; Knittingeek; Ilovemyjeep; NoMereMortal; Kerika; Dee Hensley; Tansypool; Sarahlovesa; Divamercury; Scarletblusssh; Lunotto; Whimorawhy; Gmay; Googie; Youdude; Hopelessromantic0707; GoldenLyric; NewspaperBalloons; Keal; Aquamarine07; Castlefan83; Elysion1987; 9yearoldonasurgarrush

If I missed anyone here – I'm so sorry! Don't think I'm not grateful to you too – every last review made my day – even if you only reviewed once, it would just make my day to read all of your wonderful words.

Cheers!