Back to Where We Have Never Been

A/N: So, did you figure out where they were going? LoveJessieLou guessed it. Anyway, thank you again for all of your comments and kind words. It really si great to hear that everyone is still enjoying this story. :)

Now, on to chapter 24! :)

Chapter 24

The French doors in their third story room opened to a balcony overlooking Bourbon Street in the French Quarter of New Orleans. The cool autumn breeze blew in through the open doors, the thin white curtains flapping open gently as stronger gusts blew, bringing in the sounds of bar goers in with them. It was late, the wee hours of the morning, but the people of the Big Easy were still living it up on the streets below.

"You want to go out?" He whispered lying on his back, staring up at the white, carved ceiling of the hotel room.

She flipped her head around to look at him, her hands pillowing her head as she lay next to him on her belly. She let out a soft sigh and blinked at him lazily. With the silky white duvet, sheets and pillows surrounding her Castle couldn't help but think she looked almost virginal lying on the bed surrounded by a halo of her own hair but then again, what they had been doing in the bed was not even close to virginal.

"No," she murmured, nuzzling her head a little deeper into her arms. "I want to stay right here."

Clothing was strewn across the floor: shoes by the door, followed by jackets, shirts and pants. He had kissed her, hard when he had peered down at the lacy bra and panties she had been hiding under her jeans and t-shirt and she had jumped up, wrapping her long legs around his waist when he had suggested that the just snuggle for the night, complaining that his back was sore from being cramped on the plane.

He ran a finger down the side of her neck and over her shoulder, pausing briefly at a bruise he found there.

His petted in gently before leaning over to kiss it. "I got you."

Her lips tilted up in a small smirk. "That's not the only one."

She rolled over in the California King bed and flipped the sheet off of her naked body so that he could see all of her.

"You should see the ones down here."

He turned over onto his side, inching down to run his fingers over her stomach and hipbones. His thumb brushed gently over a hickey below her belly button before moving further down, to one on her hip and another on the inside of her left thigh. She watched him, smiling, with her bottom lip pulled between her teeth as he made his way back up her body, pausing to kiss each bruise carefully.

"I wish I could say I'm sorry, but I'm really not." He smiled into the soft flesh of her stomach as her hand ran over the smooth muscles of his back, scratching him gently with her fingernails.

He stopped to run the pad of his thumb softly over the small tattoo on her right hip, right above her bikini line: a small blue butterfly.

"Why did you get this," he murmured, peering up at her staring down at him, watching his every movement, her hair spread out on the pillow like a golden-brown halo. Her hand ran lazily through his hair.

She hummed in memory. "I was sixteen and I was a complete brat. I don't know how my parents handled me. I never really got into trouble and I still had straight A's so I wasn't completely bad, but I yelled and screamed and did everything they didn't want me to do. Partied with my friends, smoked cigarettes. I got grounded for something, I don't even remember what now. I think I might have missed a curfew. Anyway, my mom grounded me. Normally, she stayed calm about it, talked to me like I was an adult. This time she just blew and yelled. I was so angry. I yelled back, promised her that I would be getting out as soon as I could. I would be gone, far away and she would be sorry. I got this the next day to express my want of freedom. My desire to fly away."

She paused to let out a sigh and he laid his head on her bare thigh, looking up at her face, waiting for her to continue, as her fingers danced over the small tattoo.

"The irony is, that the moment I was gone all I wanted was to be back again but I was too stubborn to return. I didn't want her to give me that look, that 'I told you so' look. I hate that look. So I convinced myself I loved California more than New York, that I loved my life there more than my family."

Her hand drifted back down to his head, her fingers once again playing in his hair, tracing around the smooth lines of his ear as her eyes tilted up to look at the ceiling. "I keep thinking about how different my life would be if I had stayed in New York. What would be the same, what would be different. I never would have met Mark. I probably would have gone to law school instead of studying literature. I never would have met you…"

"Oh, but that's where you are wrong, my dear Dr. Beckett," Castle countered, lifting to his hands and knees, crawling up her body. "We would have met."

She lifted an eyebrow as he settled down next to her, his head cradled on her shoulder, a leg slung over her thighs. He curled his leg tighter around her body and pulled her into his side, making her snuggle into him, which she did willingly with a wiggle of her hips. "Oh, really? Because, if I remember correctly, we met because I was visiting my parents on my way home from Russia. If I had become a lawyer, I wouldn't have been in Russia and it would be safe to assume that I would not have had the time to run to that bookstore that morning."

"We may not have met there, or even during that same year, but we would have met."

"Are you saying its fate that you hit on me in that bookstore?" Her mouth stretched into a smile as she looked over at him, laughter in her eyes.

"Fate, kismet, destiny, call it what you like but when I saw you for the first time it was like I had known you my entire life. I know that that sounds cheesy and cliché and everything a writer should not say but it's the truth. We were meant to be together. We were meant to be here, now. Everything has led to this moment."

She fell silent beside him, her fingers running down his arm, scratching at his skin as she momentarily got lost in her own thoughts. Was it really fate that her life got so screwed up the moment Richard Castle had waltzed into it?

She wound her fingers through his, bringing his knuckles up to her lips for a soft kiss. She remembered that shock that shot through her veins and stunned her heart the first time he took her hand. She thought about the way that he knew her better than she knew herself some days. The way he had memorized her coffee order and reminded her to eat when she got busy. That look he had in his eyes when he told her that he loved her. The way she had felt complete when they had made love for the first time, only a week before.

It had only been a week; it felt like a lifetime.

"What you thinking about?" He tilted his head up to whisper in her ear and a shiver ran down her spine.

"You."

"Yeah?" He shifted slightly so he was lying on top of her again, his teeth nipping at her collarbone as his tongue traveled behind, soothing the red skin.

"Yeah."

A bottle broke outside the window and a group of bar goers howled in raucous laughter.

Kate let out a snort of laughter as Castle smiled into the smooth curve of her neck.

"Are you sure you don't want to be out there, living it up?"

Kate shook her head as grabbed a fist full of his hair and gently tugged until he was face to face with her. "I'm having plenty of fun living it up in here."

"This is so good," Castle crowed as he brought the ceramic coffee cup to his lips one more time, taking a tiny sip before tearing off another piece if a beignet and popping it into his mouth.

Kate leaned back in her chair and smiled at him from across the table, relaxing into the metal bars, her legs crossed under the table, foot swinging from side to side to the beat of the soft jazz music playing in the background.

"I told you. I never lie about coffee."

"Can you believe I've never been to New Orleans before? I mean it's an entire city devoted to awesome food, amazing pastries and over-the-top parties and I haven't been here. What about you, how many times have you been down here?"

Kate smiled as she looked back at him, her head tilted to the side. "Four. The first time I was in undergrad. A group of us came down for Mardi Gras. It was insane. I honestly don't know how we survived the trip. We lost one guy the first night and he didn't show back up until right before we left for the airport. When he returned he had a tattoo on his arm and a wedding ring on his finger."

She paused to laugh at the memory and the raised eyebrow look on Castle's face.

"He got married?" Castle echoed, a slight squeak in his voice.

She nodded at him with a slight hum, laughter bubbling up in her. "Yep, to some girl named Bethany. Still married too, they have two kids. He ended up transferring to Tulane so he could be with her."

"What about you, what did you do?" Castle forced out, gulping at the sly, teasing leer she shot at him.

"Oh," she started, leaning towards him. "You don't want to know what I did."

He nodded at her, eyes wide. "Yes, I do."

She shrugged as lowered her head, looking up at him with coy eyes, blinking slowly so that her lashes brushed against her cheeks. He gulped as he watched her lean back in her chair, bringing her coffee cup to her lips with a small shrug.

"Honestly I didn't do much. It was right after I got arrested and I was still reeling from the experience. I designated myself the DD for the trip and spent most of my time getting the others out of trouble. I still had fun but it was the type of fun where I wasn't a drunken fool."

He nodded in understanding. "What we did last night was pretty fun sober."

He paused to leer at her and she giggled back at him, her tongue pressed against the back of her teeth in that open mouthed smile he loved so much. "And this morning."

Her foot snuck out to wrap around his leg under the table and she sighed as she looked at him, as he finally tore his eyes from her and glanced at their surroundings. He could see down the street from their table next to the glass wall of the shop. A busker was playing the saxophone a block down and the haunting melody wafted in through the door whenever someone entered the shop. A family of tourists made their way down the street and the smells of fresh baked pastries mixed with the spices and fish of jambalaya and gumbo.

"What was the second time?" He asked suddenly.

Kate's head snapped up towards him, his words drawing her out of her own thoughts. "What? Oh, it was right after Hurricane Katrina hit. A bunch of us came down to help. I was working on my doctorate at that point. We went over winter break of 2005, only months after the storm hit. I was working in a clinic. Mark and some of the others were rebuilding houses… It was a ghost town, so different from the vibrant life that had been here only a couple of years before. I've never seen anything like it."

She paused and shook her head to release the darker thoughts, forcing a smile back onto her face. "When I came back last year it was nice to see that it was getting back to normal. It's not great yet, but it's better. So, what do you want to do today?"

He was looking at her with a gentle smile on his face.

"What?" She asked shyly.

"You're amazing," he replied.

The blush crept up her neck and she swept a lock of hair behind her ear. "I'm really not. Trust me. I've made my share of mistakes."

"Yeah, you are and the fact that you don't believe me just makes you even more so."

She blushed again and he cleared his throat as he brought his coffee cup to his lips for the last sip of the cooling beverage. "I want to take you dancing tonight."

She raised her brow as she stared at him in disbelief. "Dancing?"

"Yeah, this is the city of Jazz, right, bluegrass? We need to go dancing."

"Okay. There's a little jazz club down the street that's amazing. I had a good time there last year."

It was his turn to raise an eyebrow at her. "How good of a time."

She shrugged, a sly grin playing at her lips. "What can I say, I like to dance."

He let out a soft growl as she grinned at him, her mouth hiding behind her cup, a playful glint in her eyes. It was his goal to keep that glint there for the rest of the weekend. No worry, no seriousness.

"Cruel woman. What do you want to do now? It's still early."

Her foot trailed up the back of his calf and he bit his lip with a whimper. "I want to go back to the hotel."

He swallowed hard as he nodded. "Good plan."

He was standing out on the balcony, leaning on the railing with his cell phone pressed against his ear as she sat in the bed, silky white sheet and comforter pulled up around her chest, his manuscript pages cradled in her lap. She had gotten to page two, but instead her attention was on him. Watching his profile through the thin white curtain. Some of his words drifted in to her. At first they were happy, cheerful, talking to Alexis about something. Kate had made him promise not to ask his daughter anything about Andrew. Instead they were talking about how amazing the city was and how he would have to bring her down to see it.

"Yeah, I'm sure there are still places that you could volunteer… I'm not sure if Brad Pitt would still be here but you know, it's a small price to pay." His laughter drifted in and Kate couldn't help but smile as she watched him in his white t-shirt and jeans; bare feet on the concrete slab. He was such a good father. She could feel her heart swell and her hand drifted to her belly. She had never really thought about kids before. They had been a passing idea in her mind, not a want or a need. Now, now she could imagine a baby, a family, his ear pressed against her stomach. She bit her lip. They had technically only been together for a week and in that time they had spent the majority of it not talking to each other, fighting. It was not time yet to be thinking about getting married or kids or anything except what kind of ice cream he liked or about round three when he came back to the bed.

"No, I'm on vacation."

Kate's head lifted slightly as she squinted at him. His posture had stiffened, the relaxed lines of his back becoming tense as he spoke to whoever was on the phone now. She had the feeling it was no longer Alexis.

"Gina, come on," he sighed and Kate pushed herself up a little straighter in the bed, watching as he ran hand through his hair and down his face. "No, you don't have to come down here. I am a big boy I can handle it. Fine."

Castle sighed as he jabbed his thumb on the end button and made his way back into the room, head hung, cell phone held limply in his hand at his side.

"What's going on?" Kate questioned as he sat down on the edge of the bed.

"Gina somehow found out that I was down here and took the liberty of scheduling a signing and an appearance at a charity event for tomorrow night. I'm sorry, I tried to get out of it." He sighed as he looked up at her.

Kate shrugged. "It's okay. Its not like we had any plans and the charity event could be fun."

He glared at her slightly. "You haven't heard the best part. Gina's flying down for it."

Kate's mouth formed an O as she stared back at him. "Oh."

"Yeah. She's pissed about me needing an extended deadline for the second book. Wants to make me squirm. I'm sorry, you have to pay the price."

Kate sighed and pushed herself to sit behind him, the sheet slipping to around her waist as she draped her arms around his shoulders from behind, resting her chin on his shoulder. "Does this mean I get to see you in a tux?"

Castle nodded his head. "Yup. I don't think the tuxedo print t-shirt would fly very well. I'll have to find a place to rent one…"

His voice trailed off as his head perked up slightly.

"Of course…" he turned around as he crawled up in the bed, leaning her back with her arms still curled around his neck. "That also means that you have to get a dress."

"Oh, no," she countered. "You're not buying me a dress."

He bent his head down to like her pulse point and she let out a slight whimper as she squirmed underneath him.

"This," she gasped, biting her lip to suppress a moan, as he moved his head down, leaving open mouthed kisses down the smooth lines of her body. "Is not going to convince me either."

He chuckled against her ribs and her body shivered involuntarily. "Are you sure about that? I can be very persuasive."