Ok, first of all... I´M SO SORRY u_u school wouldn´t let me breathe let alone write for the past month! plus i had some really serious writer´s block for about a week e.e I'm just happy that i´m finally free for the next four weeks and that i'm only a year away from becoming an engeneer :D

Again, I'm so sorry! i hope someone remembers this story... please let me know what you think :D

She didn´t think. If she had, she would´ve called his place or Alexis. He never, in the almost four years of knowing him, hadn´t picked up the phone, let alone had missed an appointment. He was a child, yes, but he was also extremely punctual and responsible if something mattered to him. And being able to carry a badge and a gun; it mattered.

So, that is why Kate Beckett stormed out to Castle´s loft at 7:30 a.m. She got there at almost 8:00; traffic was not helping. She tried calling him a couple more times but nothing.

When she got to the door, she didn´t have to knock, for it flew open and she was received with a very shocked Martha.

"Kate! Dear, what are you doing here? Come in, come in." Martha stepped aside and Kate walked in.

"Thank you, Martha…I was just…"

The older woman interrupted her. "I thought you and Richard would be training about now."

"We´re supposed to, but he never showed this morning. Is he here?"

"Actually, I wouldn´t know. The house is pretty quiet with Alexis gone to one of her friend´s house and I am about to head out too." She took a look at her watch and widened her eyes, "Oh my, look at the time. I'm sure he is fine, darling. Lock on your way out!"

And with that, she left, leaving a deer in the headlights look on Kate. After recuperating from the shock, she headed to Rick´s bedroom, making sure he wasn´t in his study first.

The door to his room was slightly open, so she knocked three times, softly, and perched her head inside the opening. A wave of relieve and anger flew through her body at the sight of him. That goof was sound asleep on his stomach. She thought about a way to wake him up in revenge for worrying her, in that moment, the goof turned his head around and she saw the reason why he was asleep. And then she noticed a few things that she didn´t before. His nose was red and his eyes were puffy. There was about a tree´s worth of used tissue paper scattered around his bed and a basket full of them on the other side of his king size bed. The man was sick. She suddenly felt bad for the guy. She quickly texted Esposito to let him know that Castle was fine, just with a major case of the cold.

She slowly approached the bed and sat next to him, stroking his hair whispering softly his name.

"Rick?"

"Kate?" He mumbled. His voice was raw and damaged. "Wha-what are you doing here? What time is it?"

"Shh, I called you like a dozen times, Espo too. You didn't show up for the training."

He growled something on the pillow and turned his head to her again. "I'm sorry; I was up all night with this damn flu and dozed off at 5. The phone is all the way over there, on vibe." At this he tried to move his arm to point the device with his index finger, but half way there his arm succumbed to gravity and felt ungraciously to the mattress.

"Ok, maybe you´re a little worst that I first thought. Have you taken anything?"

"No. I didn´t have the strength to get up. Still don't."

"Ok, then. I'll get you something, I'll be right back."

She got out of bed and went to the kitchen where the medical cabinet was, took a couple of Advil´s and a bottle of water.

"Here," she said when she sat on the bed. He was sound asleep again. "Rick…come on, you have to drink this." At the sound of her voice, his eyes opened up again and he turned around 180 degrees and with all of the strength he had, he sat, resting his back on the headboard. He took the pills and swallowed them, cringing when the objects and liquid passed his throat. She took the bottle from him and he nodded his appreciation.

"Ok, I'm going to make you a soup. Sleep while I cook it, ok?"

"No, wait. You´ll get sick too, I'll be fine." He croaked.

She gently stroked his hair away from his forehead. "I'm not leaving you alone while you´re sick, Rick. I'll make you a soup and let you rest. You´ll be better by tomorrow."

"You can make the soup and leave, I don´t want you catching this."

"Castle, I'm not leaving you until you´re back on your feet, got it?" Her voice and glare were sufficient.

"Ok." He mumbled, almost falling asleep.

She smiled and went to get up when she felt his hand on hers. She turned around and met those powerful blue eyes looking at her. Even puffy and full with sickness, they were the most beautiful pair of blues she had ever seen. "Thank you" He said quietly.

"Always," She smiled and left.

….

About an hour later, she had the soup ready. It was a family recipe of noodle and chicken soup that always worked marvels on her when she was a kid. She only hoped it did some good to the man she loved. It killed her to see him like that, but it warmed her heart that he would put her before his own well being.

After saving the rest of the soup on a container and put it in the fridge, she went to his bedroom and gently woke him up. He tasted it tentatively and hummed in pleasure; it tasted like heaven and it didn´t kill his poor throat.

Drinking the soup and watching Kate sit beside him, keeping him company and talking about her encounter with his mother that morning, he realized the wonderful woman that she was. Not that he didn´t already knew, he just haven´t seen the motherly side of her. It made him dream about little Castle babies that would be a perfect combination of the two, running around on Central Park and calling for their mother, Kate, his Kate.

"Castle? Hello?" Kate called him, breaking his dream state.

"Uh, what?"

"Where did you go?"

"Oh, eh…just thinking…"he grinned sheepishly at her.

"Ok..."

"Oh, look! Or hear, my voice is much better now. How did you learn how to cook this?" He said as he put a spoonful of liquid on his mouth and hummed in appreciation.

"It´s a family recipe, my dad made this when mom or I got sick. It was a recipe from his mother, my grandmother."

He smiled, that smiled that rendered her powerless. "Does that mean I have to be sick in order to try this again?"

"I'm afraid so."

"Damn…"

She chuckled in response, which made him smile; he loved her laugh. "Finish your soup before it gets cold"

"Yes, ma'am."

….

Sometime after that, Rick woke up, slowly opening his eyes and was glad that he could breathe through his nose, although now it was sore and red from so much blowing. He wondered if this is how Rudolf was born with the red nose, but he digressed. He looked around and noticed various things; for one, the tissues weren´t there anymore, Kate wasn´t there anymore and his phone was next to him. That´s when he saw the dozen missed calls from Kate, the 2 from Esposito and a couple of texts from him too, he flinched a little out of guilt.

He was pretty sure Kate had left, and even though he had begged her to stay away, he couldn't help but feel a little sad that she had actually left.

Since his ears were the only thing on his body that didn't hurt, he heard something coming from outside his bedroom. Maybe Alexis was back from Paige's, in that case he would have to send her back; he didn´t want to get her sick before her big concert, it would kill him. He tried out his legs, gladly to know that he could get up without falling back to bed, and put on his robe and his cell phone on one of the pockets before slowly walking out of the bedroom.

"Alexis?" he tried to yell, but realized that even Kate´s soup couldn´t be that magical, his voice came out a muffled attempt of a scream.

He kept walking and found Kate sitting asleep on the couch with one of his books on her lap. He smiled, she hadn´t left, just like she promised. His heart swelled.

Rick carefully removed the book from her lap and placed the comforter that was on the couch on top of her, and then he left for the kitchen. He called Alexis telling her she would stay until he was cured. He was happy to find leftovers of the soup on the fridge.

He was waiting on the soup to finish heating on the microwave when a voice interrupted his thought and sent him 3 feet on the air, if he were a cat, he would be hanging from the ceiling.

"You're up."

"I feel better. You're here." His voiced sounded a little raw.

"Of course I am."

She came to where he was and hugged him tightly. "You scared me this morning, when you didn´t answer me." She said as she buried her head on the crook of his neck.

"I'm sorry, I should´ve picked up the phone."

"I'm not mad, you were sick, I just didn´t know."

He placed a sweet kiss on the top of her head. "Next time I'll sleep with my phone under the pillow."

"Good." She went to kiss him, but he shook his head.

"I meant it, I don´t want to get you sick," instead he kissed his cheek and hugged her one more time before letting go. "Since I'm still under a lot of pain, I'll be drinking this soup." He grinned, making her roll her eyes. At least the cold hadn´t changed Castle, she thought.

"So, did you ban your daughter from her house?"

"How did you know?" He asked in surprise.

"I know you, you wouldn´t want to get her sick, especially not before her concert."

"Yeah, I told her to stay at Paige's until I was cured, she was worried about me being alone while I was feeling like hell, but I told her you were here and she calmed down."

"I guess she trusts me with you."

"She trusts you with me more than she trusts me with me."

"I wonder why that is." Sarcasm was all over her tone.

He ignored her tone. "I do, too. It´s not like I get in trouble that often."

"Right, Rick. That never happens."

"Exactly."

She shook her head and smiled. Truly, she was thinking about Alexis, she felt touched that that girl would trust her with her dad, especially since he is her whole world. That child was truly something.

After he drank his soup, he was forced to go back to bed and sleep the cold off, claiming that sleep was one of the best medicines for that. She stayed with him, stroking his hair until he was lulled to sleep by that motherly action.

Hours later, he woke up again and tried his voice, he almost sounded like himself again. He checked his phone; it was almost 4 pm. Wow.

He got out of bed and went to look for Kate. His heart almost stopped. He heard not one, but two voices. One was from Kate, the other one was from her mother. Oh gosh. His girlfriend and mother laughing, alone. Not good. So not good.

"Mother!" He said, kissing her cheek sweetly. "What are you doing here?"

"Richard, darling, Oh, you look awful. Thank God Kate is taking care of you!"

"Thank you, mother. Kate, is she treating you well?"

"Of course, how are you feeling?"

"Much better, thanks to your soup." He smiled and kissed her cheek.

"I'm glad. Actually, Ricky…"

Oh, oh…, he thought.

"…Martha was showing me some pictures of you when you were little and telling me stories about a little boy who was afraid of spiders and a curious case with a plastic toy."

His face was various tones of red and he started to look at the floor, the ceiling and shooting glares at her mother, but never looking at Kate. "I…I was 6…Mother! Why did you have to tell that particular story?" he whined.

"Oh, please! It´s a funny story, besides I'm sure when you officially meet Jim he´ll have plenty of stories to share about Kate. I'm just adjusting the balance."

Now it was Kate who was a few shades more red. Rick wasn´t sure it was because of the meeting the dad thing or because of an embarrassing story, he was too busy trying not to laugh to care at the moment.

He placed both arms around her stomach from behind and whispered to her ear. "Don´t worry, love, there can´t be anything worse than me running around in front of Mother´s friends, naked, because I thought a toy was a spider…"

She laughed and relaxed against Rick.

"Well, since I see that Kate here is taking care of you just fine, I'm going to my room and set up some things for the school. I'll see you later, kids." And with that, Martha was gone.

Not long after that, Kate insisted that Rick took more meds to finally cure him and eat something more than soup. He insisted that only the soup would be alright but the mother in her took over and prepared him a sandwich, a bowl of soup and sent him to bed, again.

The third time Richard Castle woke up it was because he smelled something. He could smell again! But he quickly got worried because the smell resembled the cookies Kate had made on Minnesota, which was highly unlikely that she would bake, so maybe the cold had morphed into some kind of neurological disease. He was still going through all the syndromes and diseases that would provoke olfactory hallucinations when he heard a knock on the door.

"Kate? Are those…?"

"I thought you deserved them for not acting like a child during your sickness."

He bit his knuckles to suppress a very girly squeal, which made Kate laugh. "You baked this today?"

"I did, advantages of being of vacations, I have nothing to do all day."

"You have no idea how much I love you."

She blushed and handed him the plate with four cookies and sat next to him on the bed. He started munching them immediately.

"I stand corrected, you are a child."

"You can´t blame me, these are the best cookies ever. You're going to have to give me the recipe some day."

"Nu-uh, already told you, family recipe."

"But these are so good!"

"Don't get used to them, I rarely bake them."

"I think I'll get sick more often, then."

"I had a moment of weakness, it won't happen again."

"I can make you weak anytime." He wiggled his eyebrows playfully.

"I should be telling you that, Mr. At least now I know you´re really getting better."

"All thanks to you."

"You´re so cheesy, Rick."

"Whose fault is that?"

"Not mine, that´s for sure. It must be those 'Mean girls' moments." She grinned at him.

"Funny…But seriously, Kate," he placed the plate with just one cookie on the bedside table and took booth of her hands in his, "you have no idea how much it means to me that you took care of me, that you cared so much to bake me these heavenly cookies, cook me that fantastic soup and stayed here all day even if I got you sick." He gently kissed her knuckles.

"Of course I stayed, I care about you, and I love you. I know it´s not easy for me to show it, but I do, more than you know."

He placed a sweet kiss on her cheek, close to her mouth, hating the fact that he couldn't kiss her like he wanted to. Hopefully by tomorrow that damn cold would be gone from his system.

Again, sorry for the delay... please review ?

-AC