Back to Where We Have Never Been
A/N: The movie quotes in the last chapter were from Imagine Me & You (Adorable movie, I highly recommend). Props to those of you who got that. ;)
Chapter 19
Kate could feel the heat racing up her neck, coloring her cheeks as she stalked across the apartment, broken pair of heels in hand.
"Get out," she ordered as she held the door open, watching as Johanna leisurely waltzed past her, still holding the condom up, lazily between two fingers.
"I'm just trying to be helpful," Johanna countered and Kate let out a groan. "Don't call me up complaining tomorrow about how you all ran out and then you had to wait. I would just have to tell you I told you so and we both know how much you hate that."
Kate growled at her mother's teasing tone and snatched the condom out of her hand before giving her a light shove out the door followed by a quick 'I love you, now get out.'
She slouched back against the door, glancing at the broken shoes in her hand before tossing them to the side and letting out a puff of air. Her fingers shifted slightly, making the foil wrapped crinkle and her stomach fluttered at the sound, and the thought of sex and not just sex, sex with Rick. Then the flutter in her stomach started churning as panic rose up through her. She hadn't been with anyone in over a year and before then there had only been Mark for the seven years before that.
Eight years.
She let out a small whimper as her brain started to race into overdrive. How many women had Castle slept with in the last eight years? How many in the past year? Its not like she had wanted him to wait for her, like she hadn't expected him to date and see women while she was wandering the globe 'finding herself'. But the idea of him sleeping with anyone else still made her slightly nauseous.
What if she slept with him and then he never called again? What if this had all been a game? What if…
No.
She took in a deep breath and rubbed a hand through her hair. He wouldn't do that. He hadn't been meeting with her mother for months to have lunch and talk because he wanted to do that. Her mother's words echoed through her brain. "He's head over heels in lo…"
Kate groaned. She knew how that sentence ended even if she pretended she didn't, but she couldn't hear it from her mother first. She wanted to hear it from him, when he was ready, when they both were.
There was a firm knock on the door and Kate jumped, separating herself from the heavy wooden door as it vibrated behind her.
With a deep breath, in one swift motion, she whirled around and pulled the door open. She lifted her hand to wave when she found Rick standing in the hallway, bouquet of flowers in his hand, but pulled it back, hiding her fist behind her back with wide eyes when she realized the condom was still pressed against her palm.
She heard a soft snort and looked up, red-faced, to see Castle smiled down at her, his eyes twinkling with held-in laughter.
"What you got there?" He questioned teasingly and she rolled her eyes, taking a step back in silent invitation for him to enter.
"Proof that our mothers are never going to meet," she answered.
Castle replied with a knowing hum as he held the flowers out to her. "These are for you and you look gorgeous."
His voice was soft, gravely, and Kate bit her lip in response, the ever-present blush returning to her cheeks as she shifted her weight onto one foot shyly and looked him over.
He was wearing a black button down, tucked into a pair of black slacks, and covered in a black suit jacket. He was clean-shaven and his hair was freshly cut. She could tell because it wasn't falling in his eyes like it had been only hours before. The foil package crinkled behind her back and she seriously considered jumping him right there in her living room, with her front door standing wide open, for the whole world to see.
She could tell by the look in his eyes, the texture of his voice that he was feeling the same way she was.
"Thank you," she stuttered out instead, blushing slightly at her thoughts. What could she say? It had been a while. And after kissing him in her office that afternoon, she felt like she never wanted to stop. "You look very handsome, also."
She reached out and grasped the flowers from his outstretched hand before turning to place them in a vase from her kitchen. She would cut and arrange them later. With a quick 'excuse me' she made her way back to her bedroom and pulled a pair of black heels out from her closet, shoving her feet into them before dumping the contents of her, now useless, silver clutch into her black one, tossing the condom into the bag for good measure.
The last thing she needed was to hear her mother tell her 'I told you so' about something like this, especially if it was in front of her father.
He was standing in her living room when she returned, looking at the shelves of books that adorned her walls. He had been here before, but this time it was different. She leaned against the doorway for a minute, watching him as he pulled her copy of Checkmate off of the shelf. He pulled a pen out of his pocket, clicking it open as he used one finger to flip open the cover of the book, turning to the dedication page.
She smiled when she thought of the dedication. It was simple, two short sentences. A message for her alone, in answer to that question she had had her mother deliver to him months before.
To the extraordinary KB. Yes, it is.
She watched, with a quirked head and a soft smile, as he scribbled something on the page, quickly, and placed the book back perfectly on the shelf, adjusting it so it looked like it had never been touched. She waited a couple more seconds before she cleared her throat, announcing her presence. She didn't want him to know she had seen him. She would look at it later, when she was alone.
"You ready to go?" He asked, without skipping a beat and she nodded in affirmation. She was more than ready.
"That depends," she said with narrowed eyes as she led the way to the door, his hand resting gently against her back. "Where are you taking me?"
He leaned down the couple of inches to whisper in her ear and her toes curled as his warm breath blew past her ear and bathed her neck. "It's a surprise."
He brushed past her, his hand dragging across her stomach as he went and she froze, darkened eyes wide, mouth parted, as she reminded herself to breathe. It was going to be a long date.
Her eyes darted back to her bedroom door and down to the keys in her hand or it could be a very short one.
Castle chuckled behind her and she snapped out of her thoughts, pinning him with a small glare, pulled the door shut and locked it.
She wouldn't give him the satisfaction. At least, not for the next couple of hours.
Castle closed his eyes as his breath hitched in his chest. It was his own fault. He had started it. Now, he was reaping the consequences.
He bit back a whimper and forced himself to give the waiter his order as he felt Kate Beckett's toes inch their way up his leg, snaking under the hem of his pants, and working their way up towards his knee.
It was his own damn fault.
She smirked at him from across the table and he attempted to glare back. It was probably more of a lusty stare, but he had tried.
She smiled up at the waiter, eyes bright as she sat forward and handed him her menu, bouncing in her chair slightly as she ordered her meal of lobster and steak.
Was it bad that he found the fact that she ate full meals, and not just salad, a turn on?
Her toes tickled his shin. Nope, it wasn't bad. It was perfectly normal.
Anything Kate Beckett did was a turn on.
She turned to him as the waiter walked away and graced him with another smirk, eyes a dark grey instead of their normal green.
"You're evil," he croaked out and she laughed in reply, pulling back her leg.
He whimpered slightly at the loss of contact and she smiled as he leaned forward and grabbed her hand, his thumb brushing lightly over her wrist.
"I'm happy you said yes," he whispered over to her.
"Me too," she whispered back.
They fell into a long moment of silence. It wouldn't be classified as awkward but it wouldn't be called content either. It was a shaky middle ground, like them. Trying to find out exactly where they stood. The strangeness of being on a date after spending so much time testing the waters finally settling over them.
After a moment she leaned towards him, scooting her chair forward a couple of inches to lean closer to him, her long slender finger pointing slyly at a couple at a table across the room of the elegant restaurant.
"What about them?" She asked.
He glanced over, his sight following her gesture, before looking back at her, a small smile falling over his face. It was the same game they had played more than a year before at the charity dinner.
"Russian spies."
She shot him a look that said 'Really, you are going to go there?'
"What? Not Russian spies? Well they obviously aren't Korean spies," he argued.
She shot him another look and bit her lip in an attempt not to laugh.
"Oh, I got it," he continued. "Exotic animal smugglers. You in need of a tiger? I bet they could get you one."
She burst out laughing at him. "Trafficking tigers? Really? Where do you come up with this stuff?"
Castle brought a finger up to tap on his temple. "Got it all stored right here, sweetheart."
She let out an exasperated laugh and turned her joined hand to flick his lightly. "You're incorrigible."
"What?" He asked. "You don't like sweetheart? What about darling, honey, baby, cupcake?"
She glared at him and he relented, leaning forward to point to another table while she bit her lip to start spinning her own tale about star-crossed lovers.
Someone came by to pour the wine and they fell back into their normal banter, any awkwardness fading as they fell into their own little world of stories and meaningful looks, slight touches. It wasn't hard to fall.
Actually, it was too easy.
Their hands tangled as they walked down the sidewalk. She was leaning into his side, as he talked about his latest idea for a plot line, one that she had been changing constantly since dinner.
Now, it was something about baby seals and Kate had to admit she was slightly lost, but she didn't care. She was laughing so hard that it didn't matter what the book was about. She would read it just for the absurdity of it.
"Wait, so Knight and Rook are rescuing a bunch of baby seals? Why exactly? And how?"
Castle stopped short and she bumped a little harder into his side. "I, um, I don't know…"
She looked over at him and burst out laughing again. "You're drunk."
His eyes swiveled down to meet hers. "I am not. I may be happily tipsy, but that's it. This is how my brain always works. You're the drunk one."
She rolled her eyes as his arm came around her back and pulled her into his front, pressing her firmly against him. "I am not drunk. I only had two glasses of wine."
"Good," he murmured as their eyes locked and his lips lowered to brush against hers. "Because now I don't feel bad about doing this. I wouldn't want to take advantage of you or anything."
"Oh, trust me," she countered, her smiling mouth brushing back against his. "You definitely wouldn't be taking advantage."
She pulled back after a couple of seconds, slowly dragging her hands down from where they had been resting against his shoulders and gripped his hand firmly, pulling him down the street in the opposite direction than they had been walking. "Come on."
"Wait. Where are we going?" He asked, happily following along behind her.
"Back to my place," she answered, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.
Castle dug his heels into the ground, halting their movement, causing her to stumble back into him. "Whoa, wait a minute."
She turned to give him a look that said, 'are you serious?'. He held up a finger, turning back around.
"My place is closer," he explained and she laughed as she was pulled along behind him, bumping into his arm again.
"What about your mom and Alexis?" She asked, biting her lip and he growled down at her as he bent down to kiss her as they walked.
"Once again," he shot back. "I don't think they want to be involved."
"What? Eww, no," she flicked his arm. "I meant, aren't they home?"
Castle shook his head. "Nope. Mother has a show and then an after party."
He brought his fingers up to air quote "after party" with a shiver. "And Alexis is over at her friend's apartment for a study group. For your class, I believe. Thank you, by the way, for making them all freak out over your midterm. It has been fantastic to listen about for the past week."
He rolled his eyes and she let out a chuckle. "What can I say, I want them to learn. They won't do that if they can sleepwalk through my class."
He pulled her through the door to his apartment building, giving a small wave to the doorman and they managed to make it until the elevator doors closed around them before he had her pinned up against the wall, her leg wrapped around his knee as he kissed his way up her neck.
"Have a told you how amazing you look tonight?" He mumbled against her skin and she shivered in response.
"Uh huh," she breathed out as she pulled his head up so his lips could meet hers.
The elevator dinged and they stumbled out into the hall. He pulled away momentarily to unlock the door and she proceeded to pull his shirt out his pants, kissing his neck as he pushed the door open and they stumbled inside. He spun her around pinning her against the wall their lips meeting again, her leg coming up to hook over his hip as his hand worked its way up her skirt.
"Dad?"
They froze, faces still pressed together, eyes wide, breath labored. Her hands in the process of unbuttoning his forth button. One of his hands tangled in her hair, the other way to far up under her skirt to be considered proper for his daughter's eyes.
Kate's leg slid down off of his hip and slowly he pulled back to face his daughter as Kate hid her face in his shoulder.
"Alexis?" he asked, his voice an octave too high. "What are you doing here? You aren't supposed to be here."
Alexis stared at them, open mouthed, a bottle of water in one hand, the refrigerator door handle in the other. "A pipe burst in Becky's apartment…"
Kate groaned into Rick's shoulder. "This could not get more humiliating."
"Hey, Alexis?" A voice called from the stairs. "Becky said she would like a glass of wine as long as you're sure your dad wouldn't notice it's missing..."
Alexis's gaze jerked towards the stairs in time to see a boy descending, pausing as he saw her face and turned to look at the door where Rick and Kate still stood, her pressed between him and the wall.
"Oh, shit. Is that your dad and… Professor Beckett?"
Alexis hung her head as Castle glared over at her and Kate lifted her head to see Andrew, the boy who had been in her office only hours earlier, staring back at her, slack-jawed.
A moment later, two other girls came down the stairs and Kate groaned again as Castle took a step back, releasing her from the wall, finally getting over his shock.
"I think it just got more humiliating," he whispered and Kate let out a puff of air, running a hand through her hair, attempting to straighten it as Alexis continued to glare at them.
This was bad. Very bad.