A/N: So I meant to get this chapter up a long time ago. It was three-fourths done and then writer's block hit. I took a step back did some housework and actually went to sleep at a decent time. But here the chapter is finally. Hope you all enjoy it.

Disclaimer: Do I own these characters? Ha! In my dreams….well actually in my dreams…wait I can't say that out loud. All characters belong to AWM and ABC.

Kate took a couple of deep breaths as they walked down the hall to the morgue. She knew exactly what was going to go down once they were done getting all of the information pertaining to the case. If only she would have kept her mouth shut a few days ago she wouldn't be trying to come up with a plan of what to tell Lanie. Kate stopped suddenly and grabbed Rick's hand.

Rick looked down at the beautiful detective and noticed the look of panic in her eyes. He glanced down the hall both ways and then moved her back against a wall and put his free hand on her hip. "What's wrong?" his voice full of immediate concern.

Kate closed her eyes for a moment and took a deep breath. When she opened them she was looking into his blue eyes that showed nothing but love and concern for her.

"I can't tell her," Kate said in a mildly panicked voice. "She already knows something is up and I told her at the crime scene the other day that I'd talk to her about it later. I just want to keep this between us for just a little while."

Rick let go of her hand and placed both of his hands on her shoulders. "It is up to you what you say to her. You don't necessarily have to tell her the truth, but you don't have to lie to her either. Maybe give her a few half-truths. Lanie may push, but she's your friend. If you truly don't want to tell her the truth she'll understand."

Kate looked up at Rick and smiled, "I knew there was a reason I kept you around."

She placed a quick kiss on his lips as she pushed off from the wall and they both continued to the morgue.

They pushed the doors open to see the medical examiner jotting a few notes down in her file.

"It's about time you guys showed up! So what took you so long," Lanie looked up at the both of them and smiled. The look in her eyes showed that she was half teasing half serious.

"Traffic was a nightmare," Kate with a completely straight face.

"Uh huh, well let's get this over with so I can go get my drink on with a very sexy fireman.

Kate lifted her eyes in surprise and Rick got a look on his face saying that he wanted to know more about this firefighter.

"I'm just going to stop you right there Castle. No, I am not giving you any details about this man. That's for me to know and you to stop wondering about." Lanie said with complete certainty in her voice.

Rick gave a little pout, but stepped back so Kate could find out the details. He gently and briefly touched Kate's lower back as he placed himself behind her so Kate could talk to Lanie.

The touch was not lost on Lanie as she looked back and forth between them and then gave a shrug and proceeded to give them the details of the autopsy. "Victims name was Olivia Sameriez. This poor girl went through a lot. As indicated by the bruising on her neck she was strangled, but not to the point of death. No sexual assault. Fingers and toes were all broken. The finger nails were all ripped off and hair and eyebrows were completely shaved off and when I say shaved I don't mean just hair, they took the skin too. We are uncertain where her teeth are right now. Whoever did this pulled them all out. The only way we were able to identify her was through her finger prints. Multiple stab wounds to the upper chest, stomach, and back were not very deep so she was still alive after that."

Kate almost didn't want to know anymore. Rick felt as if he should be taking notes. This may not be their case, but this was just too weird. "So what exactly killed her Lanie?" Kate asked.

"Blunt force trauma to the back of the head. Looks like something large like maybe a sledge hammer. Crushed the back of her skull in completely. But that's not the weirdest thing I saw today."

"What was the weirdest thing," Rick asked curiously.

Lanie went over to her table and picked up a bag. She threw it towards the two of them and Rick caught it. "Is this….." he said as his eyes got really wide.

Lanie looked at him and smiled, "that right there is about twenty-five tampons and they were jammed down her throat."

Rick quickly threw the bag at Kate with a disgusted look, "that is just, ugh" he said with a shiver.

Kate smiled at him as she gave the bag back to Lanie. "Someone really didn't like her."

"That would be an understatement. I'm still trying to figure out why someone would stick those down her throat," Lanie said with a little shrug of the shoulders.

All of the sudden the Star Wars theme song started to play. Quickly Rick grabbed his cell phone out of his pocket. Looking down he noticed that it was Alexis. He looked up to see the two women staring at him with disapproving looks. He pointed towards the hallway, "I'm…ummm…I'm just going to go out there," he said as he walked out the door.

The second he left the room Lanie turned to Kate, "Okay girl spill it."

"What are you talking about?"

"You know exactly what I'm talking about girl. Don't even deny nothing is going on. I noticed that little touch that he gave you earlier. You didn't even flinch. Details."

Kate pondered what she was going to say for a moment. She finally decided that less was more. "We kind of kissed and now are taking a step back to kind of figure out how to go forward."

Lanie's jaw dropped as she heard the first part of the sentence. "It's about time girl. You and writer boy should have….." Kate knew that was when the rest of the sentence hit home. "You're what!"

"Taking a step back to figure out what exactly is going on between the two of us. We don't want to potentially ruin our friendship over something like this so we're going talk about it."

"Girl, I'ma smack you. Talk about it? You should already be hitting the sheets with that boy. As much as you've been through with that man and all of the eye sex you've had the past few years what is there to talk about!"

This time it was Kate's turn to drop her jaw, "Lanie I don't know what….."

"Girl please, the looks between you two have been so provocative, forget ice water and bring on the cold shower."

"Just give us a little time to sort things out."

"Just don't wait too long girl, that boy's not going to stick around forever…..oh who am I kidding of course he'll stick around, but either take the plunge or break his heart. It's not fair to him if you string him along with no intentions of ever allowing yourself to love him back."

Kate kept her face completely neutral, but inside a little bit of her slightly crumbled. "Thanks for the pep talk, I'll keep it in mind."

"Anytime girl, now go find that writer of yours." Lanie watched as Kate gave her a wave and walked out the doors. Lanie immediately grabbed her phone and dialed. It took Esposito three rings to pick up.

"So what did you find out?"

"Not much. They kissed and I think there's more going on than she's telling me, but you know how she likes to keep things close."

"Wait they kissed?"

"Focus. You did not hear that from me Javier. Anyways, I think we should just give them their space and they'll eventually tell us when their ready.

-C/B-

After the rather odd autopsy report the day was relatively uneventful. Kate helped the boys with paperwork while they followed some more leads and Rick perfected his paper airplane skills.

"So explain to me again why we are going to your place instead of mine Rick," Kate said as they walked down the street.

"Mother is out of town and Alexis is staying at Paige's house tonight. After being at your place the past few days we need a change of scenery."

"I don't even have a change of clothes Rick. I can't just go into work tomorrow wearing the same clothes I wore today."

"Well you don't really need any clothes tonight," he said with a wink, "but we can get up early and go back to your place so you can change."

"That sounds like a plan to me," she said as she looked at him and licked her lips.

His groin immediately tightened and he was counting the seconds until he could get her alone.

As they walked into his building she could just feel the heat between them. She was just dying to touch him. The light touches and supportive words he had given her before they faced Lanie had simply made her want him the rest of the day. It had taken every ounce of willpower she had to not drag him off into an observation room and have her way with him.

As they walked onto the elevator Rick realized that they were going to be the only two on board. Just a few more seconds and the doors would shut and he could finally throw her up against the wall and place his hands everywhere all over her body. Kiss those delectable lips that had been calling his name all day.

"Hold the elevator!" a voice came from not too far away.

"Crap!" Rick mumbled under his breath as he quickly reached for the close doors button and hit it repeatedly until the doors finally did start to close. As the doors reached the half-way point an arm came out of nowhere to stop the doors and they opened back up. Damnit! This is not how I planned on the evening starting out. "Oh I'm sorry, I didn't realize there was someone else out there."

A woman carrying a couple grocery bags started to board the elevator. Rick and Kate both looked down to see that she was also holding the hand of a little girl that couldn't have been more than three or four years old. "That's okay, I'm going to five please."

Rick pressed the number and stood back by Kate. He looked over at her with a look of sorrow and noticed that she had the same look. She must have been thinking along the same lines as him before and now here they were sharing the entire ride up with a woman and her child.

Rick looked down and noticed that the little girl was staring up at him. Her dark curly hair and beautiful green eyes made her look like a miniature version of Kate. He wondered briefly who their children would take after in the looks department. Woah! Where did that thought come from? He mentally shook himself for that thought. It was way too soon to be thinking about things like that. He gently tucked that thought to the back of his mind and locked it away for the time being.

Kate was trying to get over the disappointment of having to share the elevator. Right now her hands should have already untucked his shirt from his pants and her hands should be roaming up his bare chest. She glanced down to see the little girl was looking up at Rick. Kate smiled thinking about how great a father Rick was and wondered what their children would look like one day. The thought made her jump a little and he looked over to make sure she was okay. She waved him off and got lost in her thoughts. What the hell brought up kids? They had just started their somewhat relationship a few days ago. Well, if one wanted to really get technical they had been in a relationship for years, but only just now finally admitted to it. She always figured on being a mom someday, but not anytime soon. However, the thought didn't scare her as much as she thought it would, but for now she was going to tuck that though in the back of her mind and focus on what she was going to do to Rick once they got away from an audience.

The elevator arrived at the fifth floor and the mother and daughter got off and turned right. Rick and Kate went left towards the loft. Rick looked down the hall and once the woman turned the corner he turned towards Kate and pinned her against the door. His mouth crashed down to hers and they both lost themselves in the sensations of the kiss. It was filled with an urgency that had been building all day. Her arms went around his neck and his hands went to her hips pulling her in close enough to feel how much he needed her at the moment. Kate bucked into him and let out a soft moan that was muted by his mouth.

He broke the kiss momentarily, "I have wanted to do that since this morning."

She got up on her tiptoes and placed a quick kiss on his lips, "Thank you for waiting. You've been a very good boy today."

"What's my prize?"

"Oh, I think we can think of something," she said as she placed her lips against his. He deepened the kiss immediately and she opened herself to him.

Realizing that they were still in the hall Rick reached in his pocket for his keys, fumbling with them as he tried to blindly find the one to the loft. He was finding it very difficult to focus while he was still kissing Kate so he broke the kiss once again and a soft whine came from her mouth. As he looked down for the right key she continued kissing him on his chin, placing kisses down his neck, when she reached his shirt she quickly unbuttoned it and started placing kisses down his chest. Once Rick found the key he placed it in the lock, but didn't quite open the door yet.

He leaned down and kissed her again, the force of the kiss pressing her into the door. He quickly unbuttoned her blouse and opened it up to reveal her beautiful breasts clad only in a black lace bra. He quickly grabbed her bottom and lifted her up against the door as she wrapped her legs around his waist. She ground down just a bit onto the erection that was straining against his trousers. He reached down and finally unlocked the door. Throwing it open with more force than necessary they stumbled through the door. With skill Rick slammed the door shut with his foot and threw her up against the wall. Breaking the kiss he started nibbling his way down her neck and pressing his hips into hers as she let out a moan of pleasure.

Someone clearing their throat immediately brought them out of their embrace. They both turned to see Alexis staring at them open mouthed with a look of shock and horror. Martha was sitting on the couch with a great big smile on her face.

Rick quickly put Kate down, but there was nothing they could do to hide their disheveled appearance. Rick quickly put back on the deer in the headlights look that had worked so well for him a few days ago. Kate's face became all flushed with embarrassment at being caught by his family and she buried her body into Rick's.

Alexis looked at the two of them before finally continuing her trek into the kitchen. "Years from now I'm still going to be talking about this moment in therapy trying to purge it from my memory."

A/N: This chapter kind of went to a place I wasn't expecting it to go, but I'm still relatively happy with it. So as you all have probably guessed the next chapter deals with the big reveal to Martha and Alexis. I guess reveal isn't right since they kind of revealed a little too much at the end of this chapter. We will also more than likely have a little bit of loving between our favorite couple.

Please read and review. Reviews are not necessary, but they make me very happy.

Jen