Disclaimer: nope...still don´t own it... :c

It's Friday and one writer in the big apple is so excited that he was up at 5 a.m. and at the precinct at 6:30 a.m. waiting for Esposito. The last day of sparring had left him with a couple of sore muscles but nothing too severe. Thankfully the bruise on his jaw was almost nonexistent; he wanted to look his best for Kate.

He was getting impatient, too nervous and exited all at the same time. He had already changed onto his sweats, so he went to the treadmill and began to run. He almost fell twice, given his powerful imagination; he was picturing all the ways the date could go and forgot to keep moving his feet. Maybe a sweet kiss at the end, walking her to her door, making sure she was save before leaving, with the promise of another date soon enough. Perhaps she would invite him in for a drink and then…No, too soon. If he was going to be with Kate, he was going to do it right, no rush, not with her; she deserved much better than that.

Finally, at 7:05 a.m. Esposito arrived at the gym and was surprised to see Castle covered in sweat and running at the treadmill like there was no tomorrow with a dreamy look on his face. He went to the lockers and changed, deciding he was going to have a little fun with his friend.

"Yo, Castle!" He shouted and grinned when Castle almost fell, again.

Rick climbed down of the apparatus and took deep breaths to reduce his heart beat and to recover from the scare the detective had given him.

When he could breathe normally again he responded. "Well, hello coach, how are you this fine morning?"

"I'm good, you? Apparently someone is anxious to work out this morning. I wonder why, do you think is because you might be nervous?"

"Who? Me? Nah," he dismissed him nonchalantly with a wave of his right hand, "I just had a lot of energy, you know?"

"Right, right, 'Cause a little birdie told me about a movie night you had tonight. With a certain detective, no less."

Damn it, Lanie, Castle thought, ok, play dumb, it's not that hard.

"I don't recall inviting Ryan to my place tonight."

"Man! That's… don't play dumb with me, Castle. We know about your date with Beckett tonight."

So close…, Rick thought.

"What date? And, who is we?"

"You know what? Fine, don't tell me. It's not like I'm your pal or anything…"

"You're my friend, but really there is no date. I'm going out with her, but just to the movies, as friends. Like when she took me to the Angelica to watch forbidden planet, nothing else." Kind of a lie…but if I want to live I have to, he thought.

Esposito knew he was lying, hell, he had seen the fist pump and he was a detective…plus, Lanie had told him…But, knowing how private person Beckett is, she must not want to know that we know, which is why this guy here is playing dumb with me, he is afraid of screwing things up. Good boy, Castle. Ok, I'll be good today, he analyzed in his mind.

"Fine, Castle, I believe you. Let's train, today you'll learn different kinds of locks and you'll practice them with Beckett on Monday, got it?"

"Yeah."

As they trained Rick was a little less nervous, the exercise helped him not to think about the night, but he was having trouble concentrating on learning the moves.

"Come on, bro. It´s 3 simple steps. What´s on your mind?"

"Sorry, yesterday Gina was bickering about the fourth Nikki Heat and she told me to have a line up by Monday and I still have nothing." Ok, so that was part lie; she was bickering but I had a few weeks to deliver the first couple of chapters and already had a story in mind.

"Uh, not good Bro. Never piss off the publisher."

"You know, I know that, but somehow I always end up doing it anyway."

"You´ll never learn."

"Nope." He grinned at this.

…

On the other side of town, Beckett was barely dripping into the consciousworld when the day hit her. The date! It was today, in a matter of hours. She opened her eyes a little too fast and was hit by the light of the sun coming from her window. She groaned and checked the clock, it read 9 a.m., Rick must be finishing his training about now, she thought. When she realized what she was thinking she plopped down to bed again with an exasperating sigh. She had fallen hard for him. After the talk she´d had with Lanie yesterday she´d realized she wasn´t too scared anymore. This was what she wanted.

With a smile on her face she got up to get ready for her day. She smiled again when she checked her cell phone to find a text from Rick that read:

"I learned 3 blocks today! You´ll see on Monday ;) Oh, btw… Esposito knew about our date…"

Before she read the rest of the text she was calling him.

"Good morning, Detective, slept well?"

"Hey Castle, yeah, great, you?" She really tried to sound casual, but who was she kidding?

"What´s wrong Kate?"

She let out a sigh. "I read your text, Esposito knows?"

"Ah, you didn´t read the whole thing, did you?"

"Huh?"

"Well, I told Esposito that we were going to the movies, just as friends, like when we went to see forbidden planet."

"You did?" she couldn´t help to sound incredulous.

"Yeah…I wasn´t sure that you would want the boys to know that we…uh… were going on a date…"

"Oh, yeah, you´re right. I mean, I want them to know about us when there is more to tell."

"Is there going to be more to tell?" She could feel the smile on his voice, which made her smile, but she wouldn´t be Beckett if she got him off that easily, now, could she?

"We´ll see, Castle." She had her detective voice; but that couldn´t fool his Beckett trained ears.

"I´ll let you get ready for your day; I'll be picking you up at seven, Kate."

"Ok, see ya, Castle."

And with that she hanged up.

…

6:55 p.m. according to Castle´s iphone. He always was on time when it came to something important; it showed his interest and care. And today was very, very, extremely important. So he had been waiting on her door for a little over 15 minutes, trying to regain his thoughts on his plan and trying not to feel like he was 15 and on his first date.

6:59 p.m. Ok, good enough, he thought. He knocked twice and waited. When the door flung open he felt his heart stop. The sight of her was breath taking. She was wearing a loose V-neck, long sleeved, cotton, dark green shirt that made her eyes shine. Dark jeans, black 4 inch heels and her hair; perfectly curled, falling on her shoulders, the chestnut curls with honey rays perfectly framing her face. It was a sight that would take any man´s breath away. His breath was gone and he was certain he would not be able to form a simple word for the evening.

She felt her cheeks start to blush, the way he was looking at her, like he was seeing one of the eight wonders. And wow, when he cleaned up, he cleaned up nice. He was wearing a simple long sleeved black sweater that accentuated his beautiful baby blue eyes, a leatherish jacket she recognized from a few years ago when he wore it to the precint once. She would never tell anyone this, but she loved how it looked on him. Dark blue jeans and his dark brownish hair was adorably messed up. She secretly liked his hair like that, he looked cute and she had to fight every nerve in her body to stop from running a hand through it.

He mentally rebooted himself and was able to offer her a smile.

"You look...beautiful, Kate" he said, she blushed and he grinned.

"I know you didn´t receive a rose today, so I wanted to make it up to you." He said as he handed her a bouquet of different kind of flowers. They formed a perfect mix of beautiful and colorful.

She took them with a smile and invited him to come in while she poured them in water.

He really expected her not to know about flower symbolisms but he had to tell her in some level how he felt about her, for in the bouquet were a combination of magnolias, which represented the beauty and feminine delicacy. A rare shade of fuchsia fleur-de-lis, which represented truth, wisdom and courage. Those flowers represented how he saw her; like the most beautiful creature God ever created, even if she didn´t know it herself. The fleur-de-lis represented her believes, her heart, her hunger for justice and truth that made her such a good detective. Her intelligence, that came in handy when they were solving the weirdest cases and challenged him with her witty responses on a daily basis. The courage she had to chase down criminals, come face to face with cold blooded killers and wake up knowing that her mother´s assassin was still free and was still taking loved ones from innocents. That´s how he saw her, she truly was extraordinary.

The other two kinds were how he felt about her. At first he wasn´t sure about the jasmine and the sunflower; both represented love. The jasmine was given to married couples. The sunflower; according to Greek mythology, Clita was a girl that was madly in love with Apollo, one of the Olympian deities. Her love was so great that she forgot to eat or drink any food, at which point her body started to grow roots and she became a sunflower. It represented passion. He felt like Clita, his love for her was so great that if it wasn´t for the will to stay alive to be next to her, he would forget how to breath just staring at her beautiful frame all day. He knew he would marry her some day, maybe not now, but soon. He had known since the case with the magician. He had found the magic he was looking for, and it was right in front of him all that time. But now that he´d found it, he wasn´t letting go, never.

He snapped out of his reverie when he heard her steps. He smiled at her and offered his arm, which she took after grabbing her purse and jacket and closing the door behind them.

"The flowers are really beautiful, Rick, thank you."

"No need to thank me."

"Which ones were the white ones? I didn´t recognize them."

"Magnolias, they represent the feminine beauty, so, of course I thought of you when I saw them."

She blushed, how could she not? When his voice was pure honesty and his eyes looked into her soul. She hid her face with her hair trying to hide the reddish spots on her cheeks. He was hypnotized by the sight of her, so mesmerized, in fact, that he didn´t noticed the wall in front of him until was a little too late...and he hit his head.

"Ow! Don´t laugh, it hurts." He whined while rubbing his forehead with his hand.

"Don´t be such a baby, Castle, it was funny, and how could you not see the wall?"

When he recuperated from the slam, he looked into her eyes and said. "I was distracted by those adorable red spots on your cheeks."

Now she was all kinds of red and he was trying really hard not to chuckle at her cuteness. She was adorable, but she could still kick his ass any day of the week.

She playfully wacked his arm before taking it and keep walking to the elevator.

The movie was starting at 7:30 p.m. which gave them enough time to buy pop-corn, candy and sodas. Rick told Kate to wait in line while he bought the food. Of course, he bought what looked like the whole store, but had the biggest grin on his face, so she just scolded him a little.

During the movie, Rick wasn´t exactly paying attention to it. He had seen it a thousand times and the view on his left was far more interesting. Of course, knowing her, she would suspect something was up if he went quiet for more than a minute, so he brought up silly remarks, comments and little known facts about the production every now and then.

She knew he was not paying attention to the movie. After three years of knowing him she had developed this 6th sense and just knew when he was staring at her, even if it was on his peripheral vision. But she didn´t mind much, and thought it was funny when he threw in some conversation to pretend he was watching it, even if he messed up coordinating his comments with the scene that was playing at the moment.

"How about some pizza?" He asked her when they left the theatre and were walking on the streets of New York.

"After the case with the oven, pizza just wasn´t the same for me anymore."

He made a disgust face that made her smile. "You´re right, just don´t remind me of that particular case, I happen to love pizza, just not as much as before."

"I´ll take note, this information will come in handy when you´re not being helpful at work."

"Hey! When I'm not help full?" She gave him an incredulous look, "Wait, scratch that, when I'm not help full when it matters?"

"Touché. So, if not pizza, what?"

"Remy´s?"

"Sounds great."

They walked towards their new destination and headed to Remy´s, they were walking really close to each other, brushing each other´s hand every couple of steps. There was a comfortable silence between them and before he knew it, she was intertwining her fingers with his. He felt his heart pound ten times faster and she squeezed his hand and looked up at him, smiling. He smiled back and they fell into a light conversation, enjoying each other´s touch.

They went to Remy´s and after indicating the hostess for a table, Rick excused himself for a moment. He was making a little change in his plan. When he came back there as a tall figure blocking Kate. A figure he knew too well. He started seeing red but reminded himself that he couldn´t ruin this, so he took two deep breaths and went over to them.

"Is our table ready, Kate? Oh, hi Josh." He said, showing his best hypocritical smile and offering his hand for a handshake, which Josh ignored.

"Castle." Josh responded with a cold tone before looking back at Kate.

Kate was exasperated, irritated and annoyed. Who knew her ex would be getting out of Remy´s with his buddies? A little too intoxicated if she had any say in the matter. She was extremely relieved to see Castle approaching her, but when Josh responded in that matter, something inside her made her blood boil.

"So, Kate, I was thinking, I know we ended up not too well, but I miss you and..."

Castle was about to speak when Kate put her hand on his and shook her head no, which Josh took it as a incentive, flashing his best charming smile.

"What do you say, baby? Let´s give it another try."

"Excuse me, Josh, but in case you didn´t notice I'm about to continue my date with Rick here." Said Kate. Emphasizing the word date and almost saying his name like it was a curse.

"Him? Seriously, Kate, I thought you were smarter than that."

That was it, he could insult him all he wanted, but hell would freeze over before he´d let that poor excuse for human being insult his Kate.

"Hey, insult me all you want, Dr. Motorcycle boy, but don´t you ever question Kate, got it?" He said while poking him on the shoulder

"Don´t touch me." Said Josh, as he slapped Castle´s finger away from his body.

"I´ll touch you if I want to, it´s a free country the last time I checked." Castle responded as he poked him again.

"That´s it." Said a now angry Josh.

Everything came in slow motion. Kate saw how Josh´s fist clenched and his arm flew backwards, gaining impulse to punch the life out of Rick, her Rick. Oh, hell no. She was about to step in and stop him when she felt a light tug on her hand. In that moment, Castle, with incredible reflexes, avoided the punch, grabbed Josh´s wrist and in a swift move dragged his arm toward the man´s back and used his other hand to drag the doctor´s other arm behind his back, assembling an arrested position, much like Kate´s.

"I was going to show you this on Monday, but the situation presented itself." Said the writer without even breaking a sweat, showing off his most charming smile.

Kate smiled at him, grabbed Josh and shoved him into the street. "Don´t bother me again, got it?" she said before going back to Rick´s side and leaving a very confused and hurt doctor on the sidewalk.

After sitting on their table, Kate noticed Rick wasn´t meeting her eyes, he almost looked ashamed. Not the cocky ´I beated someone and survived´ expression she would expect from him. Kate was actually surprised at the speed of Rick´s movements, as if he had been training for months, not days, but she felt a new kind of safe and couldn´t help to feel a little turn on at his will to step in for her and defend her.

"Kate...I´m sorry."

"Sorry? What for?"

"For the scene I caused. I don´t know what came over me, I shouldn´t have provoked him, I'm sorry for ruining our first date." He looked down at his hands, feeling his ears turn hot and red of shame.

"Hey, Castle, Rick, look at me." She placed her hand on top of both of his, which made him look up at her. He didn´t see anger on her eyes, which made him relax a little. "Don´t be sorry, you didn´t ruin anything. He was drunk and made a pass at me in your presence, he insulted me and he tried to punch you. And, if you tell this to anyone I will shoot you, but you made me feel protected, and I kind of liked that feeling." It was her time to blush now and his time to grin.

"Really?"

"Yes, just don´t get used to it. I am capable of taking care of myself."

"Oh, don´t I know that, I just wanted to show you the moves I learned today."

"Right, right."

"Did you see how I blocked him? pretty good, right?"

Now, there was the 9 year old she´d known and loved, she thought. "Yes, Castle, very impressive." She said in a patronizing tone.

"Thanks, I learned from the best." He winked at her and they continued to eat.

The rest of the meal was uneventful; they ate and talked about everything and nothing. They never talked about work, never was an awkward pause between them, they laughed and joked. Just like always, except for the little changes; the intense gazes that lasted longer than before, the not so subtle flattery, sometimes Kate would feed Rick a fry and would smudge his mouth with sauce, which made them both laugh.

As they headed out, holding hands, Kate saw an antique car waiting in front of Remy´s, she was sure it wasn´t there the first time they walked in. It was an old model, maybe from the 60´s, but it looked well preserved and actually brand new. The doors and hood were pained burgundy and the roof and wheels were black. It was beautiful.

"Wow, it´s been a while since I saw one of those."

"Do you like it?"

"Yes, my father was a fan of antique cars. He passed that love to me, I guess."

Letting go of her hand, he approached the vehicle and opened one of the back doors and with a flourish motion he signalled her to come in.

"Your carriage awaits, Miss."

"Why am I not surprised?" She said while taking his hand and getting inside, followed by him.

"You know me that well?" He asked after letting the driver know he could start the car.

"Maybe, where did you get this?"

"Oh, I know a guy...No, seriously, there are companies that rent these types of cars. Don´t worry, I didn't use my name, no page 6 to worry about." She visible relaxed at this and grabbed his hand. "Thank you," she said, really meaning it.

After about 15 minutes the sensed the car came to a stop and the door opened on Kate´s side. An older man dressed as a chuffer offered his hand and she took it and got out of the car, followed closely by Rick. "Thank you John, that´d be all."

"You´re welcome, Mr. Storm, have a good evening Miss." He shook Rick´s hand and kissed the back of Kate´s.

They were at Central Park.

After John left, she looked at him with a raised eyebrow. "Storm? Really?"

"Rook would be too obvious." He grinned. "Follow me, Miss."

"Where are you taking me, Castle?"

"Oh, just a little place I found years ago when Alexis got lost on me. She was 8, she wanted ice cream and I told her I would get her some, so she stayed on the spot while I went to the ice-cream man. When I went back to where she was suppose to be, she wasn´t there." He held Kate´s hand tighter and she squeezed back. "Turns out her ball had wandered off and she followed it. That was the scariest day of my life, but in return I found this little place. Here."

It reminded her of his little thinking place at Minnesota. There was a little pond, a couple of wooden benches, the stars weren´t as bright or as many as in Minnesota, but the city lights and the life that was New York City made the water shine.

"It´s beautiful, how do you always end up finding these places?"

"Just lucky, I guess." They sat at one of the benches, admiring the view.

He took her here to tell her he wanted more, much more of her than just friends, that he was here for the long haul, always, that he loved her. But he was scared; scared of pushing her away, of being rejected, of losing her. He had to be brave. He wasn't willing to let this opportunity go, like many others.

She was nervous, she was going to tell him how she felt. If she had doubts in the pass, those were gone. The evening had been perfect, even their encounter with Josh had been another eye opener; the way he had defend her, even if he didn´t need to, just because it was his job, no, because he wanted to. He was her partner in every way but one. Soon that would change.

She just didn´t know where to start. She wanted to say so many things, share so many feelings. She remembered something her mother once told her about an essay she had to fill for college. She was worried that it wasn´t long enough, that it didn´t explain enough. Johanna just told her: Sometimes, Katie, less is more. And with that, she knew what she had to do.

"Rick."

"Kate."

They both said at unison, which made them smile.

"Ladies first."

"I really don´t know how to say this, because, well, you know me... I'm not big with words or expressing my feelings. So I'm just going to say it and we´ll go from there, ok?"

He nodded, feeling his heart pounding hard on his chest. Silence started to fill the space and he began to worry, her next words were spoken almost in a whisper, as if they pushed out.

"I love you."

He froze. She had said it, had he heard her right? Did she actually say...? No, he must have heart wrong, it couldn´t be. Nothing was ever that easy with them. Then, of course, he had tried a couple of months ago...Oh, wait, I haven´t said anything. I'm going to scare her away, move your body, Ricky, come on, brain, work! He thought.

His body finally kicked it and a huge smile appeared on his face, his eyes shined more that the city lights and he hugged her, burring his face on her hair, taking her by surprise when he got up still hugging her and spun her around a couple of times, making her giggle. He stopped and put her down on the ground, not letting her go of his embrace.

"Are you serious? You´re not playing me?"

"I'm serious."

"I can´t tell you how happy you´ve made me. You know that I love you, right? So much, Kate."

"Now I know for sure." She could help to smile. She felt so happy.

He leaned in and she met him half way. It was a sweet kiss, full of love and promises, a bit playful too, just as their relationship. The kiss started to deepen, and after what seemed like hours, but not long enough, air became a necessity and they parted, still not letting go of their embrace, foreheads together, breaths mingling and equally huge grins on their faces.

After what seemed forever, they sat on the bench. His arm was around her shoulders and she was snuggled against his side, an arm around his waist. They talked for a while, clearing the air about everything; last summer, Demming, Josh, Gina. She even told him about the letter and what happened in L.A. It was all cleared now. It was funny, all those misunderstandings and bad timing had let them to the last couple of months, to their time in Minnesota. At the end, everything had had perfect timing, for they weren´t ready before today.

They slowly walked back to her apartment, not really wanting the night to be over. When they reached her door, he cupped her face with one hand while the other rested on her waist, pulling her close, he kissed her good night. "Sleep well, Detective." He said when he pulled away.

He was about to leave when she grabbed his hand and told him to stay. He looked sweetly at her and slowly shook his head. "If we´re going to do this, we´re going to do this right. No rushing, no pressure, you deserve it, Kate."

She smiled in response; he was really a wonderful man. "As much as I hate to admit it, you´re right, we should wait. I was suggesting sleeping, I...it hasn´t been easy"

"Oh, Kate, why didn´t you tell me?"

"I needed the space to think about us."

He hugged her tightly and took her hand as she unlocked the door and let him to her bedroom. That room was very simply decorated, but with a touch that screamed ´Kate´. There were a few paintings on the walls. The room was painted in a light greyish tone. He saw the box with a picture of her parents on the top on her dresser; where she kept her father´s watch and her mother´s ring. She grabbed a few items of cloth and went to the bathroom to change, leaving him in her bedroom, alone. Now, that was trust, he thought. He hung his jacket on a chair next to the bed and took off his sweater and jeans, folding and putting them on the chair, leaving him on his boxers and a white undershirt. He sat on the bed, waiting for her, taking in every detail and sending Alexis a text announcing he wouldn´t be home.

A few minutes later, Kate came out wearing an oversized white t-shirt with snoopy in the front and a pair of shorts. She wasn´t wearying any make-up and even thought he had seen her like this on Minnesota, he still was left breathless at the sight of her. She looked beautiful, he didn´t even know why she bothered with make-up, and she looked adorable with that snoopy over shirt. She turned off the lights while he turned on the bedside lamp. He held up a hand and she took it, settling on the bed. Not like other times before, where he didn´t know what to do with himself, he wrapped his arms around her and she placed her head on his chest, listening to his heart beat, wrapping an arm around his mid section. He turned off the lamp and kissed her on the top of her head whispering I love you, before holding her tighter for a moment. She said "I love you, too" and kissed his chest before closing her eyes and drifting to sleep. That night, for the first time in a long, long time, she didn´t have any nightmares or numb sleep. She dreamed about how her future might look with a certain writer with her. She slept with a smile on her face.

Hi! i´m really, really nervous about this chapter... since it was the big bang kind of thing... I hope I did justice to the characters and... about the talk they had... since there has been so many stories covering last summer and gina and all of that... i felt like it would feel like a broken record, but if you want to i could bring a flashback to that moment or something...it´s up to you! please let me know your thoughts! i think i´ve never written a chapter this long in forever...

Another thing! thank you soooo much for all the reviews, favourites and alerts you´ve left me! i has inspire me to write even more...as you can see by the lenght of this one xD

Remember Reviews are love :D ;)

-AC