I'm so glad you guys love this. These last few chapters have been heavy and this one is a little bit to but we're getting back to lighter things soon I promise. Still don't own Castle, but I did live stream the Paley Panel last night and it was awesome.

Chapter 16 – Changes in the Constant

My eyes drifted open in the late morning sunlight. Sunlight bathed the room in warmth that I loved in my days off to sit in and read until the sun left for the afternoon. This morning though there was a set of fingers running up and down the scar on my side. Lightly, just tracing it, over and over. "It's from the surgery."

"Ummm…" he hummed against the back of my neck, as he snuggled up closer to my back. His fingers ghosting up and down the scar, for a moment longer as I took a deep breath letting my eyes drift close again for just a moment. Then his hand slipped under my breast coming to rest on the scar on my sternum. "I thought this was from the bullet?" He asked softly, holding his hand solidly on the scar the warmth radiating into the tight skin.

"It is." I told him laying a hand over his, "The one on my side is was to access the damage and do the reconstruction." He didn't say anything, he just held me.

Squeezing his hand that lay over the scar, I rolled onto my back and looked up at him. "Hi." I said softly brushing his hair out of his eyes.

"Good morning."

"Is it still morning?" I asked, mentally acknowledging that the light meant it was around noon.

His hand slipped now around my rib cage anchoring me to him, leaning into nuzzle my neck, "Barely, you slept for about an hour." He began trailing kisses down my neck.

"And you've just been watching me sleep?" I asked, doing nothing to discourage his activities.

"Couldn't help it." He told me, the kisses moving south. "You're beautiful."

"Scars and all," I sighed, feeling a pang in my chest, even as my fingers carded through his hair.

He stopped his motion and lifted himself completely over me so that he could look into my eyes, "Kate the scars are a marker of how strong you are, you survived a sniper shot and came back to life. You will get the bastard who shot you, and the man that ordered it along with the deaths of those that you love." He paused just briefly to duck down and press a soft kiss to the scar marring the skin between my breasts. Coming back up to my face he wiped away a tear I hadn't known had escaped, he rested his forehead on mine, "You, Katherine Beckett, are extraordinary and the scars are just a physical manifestation."

I tilted my head up arching my back up off the mattress to capture his lips in another kiss, mapping the contours of his mouth. Rolling him over I settled on top of him before breaking the kiss even though his hands kept making patterns on my back, "How is it you always have the right words?" I asked softly.

"I'm a writer." He teased, before his tone softened, "Plus it's easy to say the right thing when it's true."

"Rick…" I hummed, capturing his lips again, before moving down his jaw line, rolling my hips over his. Causing his hands to grip my hips rather suddenly.

"Don't start that if you don't want to spend the whole day right here." He growled the threat lacking any real bite.

Torn between shock and amusement I pressed down on his shoulders to look at him, "I believe that it was my turn to pick the activities of our date."

"So this is a date?"

I shrugged, "Well I had a different plan but it seems we're escaping all attempts at planning something normal." I ducked my head down to kiss him hard and fast, "So for now I'd like to spend the day with you in my bed making love, snuggling, and asking you questions."

He sat up so quick pressing our chests together, that I gasped as he captured my lips holding me to him as our skin press together the friction sending a fresh round of tingles through me. It was his turn to brand my lips in a fast searing kiss before pulling back just enough to look at me. "We're going to have to eat at some point."

I was really beyond full sentences at that point though and I rocked against him, "After."

"After." He agreed laying back down on the bed.

She was in the kitchen wearing nothing but my flannel button down, rolled up at the elbows as she assembled sandwiches. "What are you doing?

"Making food. You said you needed food." She said with a smile placing the last piece of bread on top of each sandwich. "You want to eat in here or in bed." She asked picking up both plates.

"Let's eat on the couch." Figuring we could still snuggle on the couch and not risk getting food all over the bed.

She nodded her head in agreement, following me over to her sofa. Plunking myself in the middle, I accepted a plate from her pleased when she sat down next to me throwing her legs over mine. "Eat," She said softly picking up her own sandwich.

"You said you wanted to ask me questions, what about?"

She shrugged, "I just… this week presented so many issues… I just want to learn more about you… You're not quite the same person who left to write James Bond three years ago… A better person not that you were a bad person and I just… I wonder about you Rick?"

"You wonder about me?"

"You're a constant enigma to me… you tell stories for a living… and sometimes I wonder what's true and what's just a little fabricated… what's just a little embellished."

"It's called dramatic flair." I took a bite of the sandwich.

"Which you're entitled too. It's just this week I didn't call you even though I wanted to because I couldn't trust what was real and what wasn't and I… I guess I just need to know what's real here." She laid a hand over her my heart.

"What do you think I'm fabricating?" I wanted to be hurt, because it sounded like she didn't trust a word that was coming out of my mouth and hadn't really ever, but it felt like she was struggling internally and just wanted me to tell it to her again.

Her eyes went wide, as she realized what I must be thinking, "Oh god Castle… I didn't mean that you've been lying to me… I just need more holes in the story filled in… I need a little more detail to make it make sense … Now I'm not making sense." She finally huffed, setting her plate containing a half-eaten sandwich on the table.

I smiled, reaching over her legs to set my plate next to hers laying my hand on her bare shin. "You're fine what did you need to know?"

Relief washed her face as she looked at me; I could almost see the wheels turning over in her head as she tried to decide where to start. "How did… What did you feel for me when you left to write Bond?"

"How did I feel about the end of researching Nikki Heat?" I asked contemplating the question, "Sad I loved the character, I still do. She was feisty, strong, smart, kept me on my toes always. But Bond was one of those opportunities that I couldn't really turn down."

I looked over at her, "Not what I meant. How did you feel about me?" She asked laying her hand over mine.

"Lust." The word popped out before I even had a chance to think and she softly giggled, but I plowed on, "Friendship, a feeling that there was something between us that we would have to figure out eventually. Without you keeping me in line the first few months away from the precinct were rough, I didn't know what to do with all my spare time and I had no one to bounce theories off of. It was weird because I'd never needed that before and suddenly after three months just talking to you I found I needed it."

"But you figured it out?"

"Yeah I did."

She hummed softly before squiggling closer to me resting her head on my shoulder, sitting quietly for a moment as I skimmed my hand up and down her bare thigh. "Ok this is going to sound weird."

"Just ask it's better than me trying to figure out what's going on your head."

"What happened to play boy mystery author Richard Castle?"

I chuckled, it didn't sound as weird as she probably thought it did. "Well he was mostly publicity crap. But he meet this detective about four years ago and she captured his attention."

"Rick." she chided.

"Hey now, this is my story," I caught the hand going into smack me. "Besides it's true. Now where was I?"

"Meeting me."

"Oh right. Well he meet this detective and she inspired so many stories for him that he literally didn't have time for the other stuff. He spent time in the real world that he tried to capture in his books and he saw that the pain and suffering he'd really only ever experienced through someone else's words was very real and far more difficult than a story could ever be. When the book was done he went on to write other stories but they were more like work for him."

She picked up my hand in hers and laced her fingers through mine. "I've never had to fight so hard for my vision of a character because they've always been my character but there were so many other hands in the pot that I couldn't get a grasp on him. It wasn't as much fun and I really had to work at it. I had to be disciplined, and I had to defend every word, to everyone," I confessed, and she squeezed my hand.

"Some time in there my daughter started applying for colleges and I can't come to terms with the fact that she's all grown up and is moving on. It's always been about me an her first and foremost but without her I'm mostly a mess, she's the only thing that I've ever done completely right. I've been married twice, both miserable failures, and my only long-term relationships. The only constant person in my life besides my daughter was my mother."

I angled my body so that I could look at her properly. "And then there was you. Just standing in a coffee shop, this beautiful hair tumbling around your stunning face, and I knew that I couldn't let you get away again." I leaned and kissed her, softly giving her time to respond, before I wrapped my arms around her and hauled her into my lap, exploring the depths of her mouth, relishing in the moan I elicited.

Eventually I backed off enough to rest my forehead against her, "I love you."

She inhaled sharply, "Castle, I'm so broken."

I shook my head just a little bit, "You're not, but you think you are and I love you anyway, in spite of it, because of it. I'm not going anywhere. I'm going to help you pick up the pieces, and I'm going to be here when you finally solve your mother's case. I'm going to hold you when you need it and yell at you when you're being stupid. And I'm going to be here when you say you love me too, because I can't be the only one that's fallen in but I'll be the first one to accept it and I'll keep you afloat while you figure it out."

She just stared into my eyes like she was searching for the truth lurking in them, like I was a lying suspect, before she released a breath, "You and your words." This time she captured my lips just briefly, "Take me back to bed Rick."

What did you think?

Also I want to marry Nathan and be Stana's best friend. Her reaction to some of the question was brilliant. Yes it's time for Castle and Beckett to get together, they will be having a baby boy in season 7 and when they do the did they're with be lots of kissing. And Marlowe is right her legs rival Angelina Jolie's I'm just partial to Stana's.

Babyrose