6.
Sitting down at her desk, Beckett hands Castle a fresh cup of coffee from his favorite coffee shop. They've been doing this for a while now since she's working towards those hundred cups of coffee she owes him.
He nods his thanks and smiles. As he's lifting the cup to his lips he pauses, noticing a grouping of words written on the sleeve that spell out "I love you."
Turning the cup towards Beckett he shoots her a hopeful, yet confused look. As her eyes take in the written words they become as big as saucers.
"I'm so sorry, Castle. They must have handed me the wrong cup. I didn't mean…"
His face turns despondent as he quickly drops his head to cover it, but it's too late, she's already seen it. She wants to kiss that look right off his face, never to be seen again, but as the thought drifts through her mind Castle gets to his feet saying, "yea, yea, I understand Beckett. Wrong cup, it happens." Finishing with "No big deal" he walks towards the stairwell saying something about checking in with Alexis.
She sets there with no clue how to repair this faux pas. Deciding to give him a little time for his chat with Alexis she begins searching through old crime scene photos and separating them into the proper folders to be stored away. Wishing she had a case to focus on, her mind again wonders to the problem at hand when just at that moment she realizes she is staring at a beautiful photo of herself and Castle in the corner of one of the crime scene photos. This must be the set of photos the boys went through as she hasn't seen it before and she would certainly remember it if she had. It's photographic proof of how good he is for her. She has her head thrown back in laughter as Castle is leaning in whispering something in her ear, his hand in its customary position on her lower back. She can't recall a time when she has looked so carefree and happy.
At that moment Castle comes back to his chair with a smile on his face acting as if nothing happened. She has to offer something so she starts, "Castle, I…" He raises a hand, effectively cutting her off while saying, "Don't worry about it Beckett."
With no case and most of the paperwork done Castle soon becomes bored. Standing he states, "I'm going to head home to have dinner with Alexis. Until tomorrow, detective" and with that he walks away leaving Beckett in need of a plan to fix things and feeling really bad about the fact she couldn't just admit the words on the cup are true. He said them so long ago and she's pretty sure he knows she's been lying about remembering, which only manages to make her feel that much worse.
Dialing Lanie she requests they meet for some girl time then heads out for the evening as well.
At 11:00 she shows up at his door with a bottle of wine and a smile. As he opens the door she blurts out, "it's true Rick." With a look of confusion on his face she clarifies, "what the cup said, it may have been an accident, but it's true Rick. I love you and I'm sorry it's taken me so long to say it back." He had pretty much made peace with the fact she had been lying to him and knew she would come around in her own time. Pushing Kate Beckett only succeeds in her shutting down even further so waiting her out on some things is the best play at hand. It would seem the wait was worth it as the reward is now crashing her lips to his. They can each feel the other smiling under the kiss as he lifts her up and carries her into the loft.