Back to Where We Have Never Been
Disclaimer: If I owned Castle, Kate and Rick would have better communication skills.
A/N: Here is a long one to make up for the break in updates. Unfortunately, my professors will not accept fanfic as a replacement for assignments.
Chapter 25
Kate glared at him as he held the door open for her on Friday afternoon. They had pulled themselves out of bed to go shopping since they wouldn't have time to do it the next day, between the book signing and the gala.
Her head turned to look at him while her body continued to move forward. He smirked slightly as his eyes followed her as she walked into the shop. Her eyes narrowed a little bit more and he let out a cough that sounded suspiciously like a laugh. She stopped short once she was through the entrance and her attention turned to the displays inside rather than the man who was gloating behind her.
"I told you I could be persuasive," he leaned down to whisper in her ear, the self-congratulatory tone in his voice pushing her a little bit more towards the edge.
"You didn't persuade anything. I'm not allowing you to buy me a dress. I do, however, need a dress for this thing, so I will buy one for myself. You are in no way involved in this process, except for the fact that you can hold my purse while I shop," Kate hissed back, her glare held steadily in place.
Rick came around so that he was facing her and raked his eyes over her body suspiciously. "You aren't wearing a purse."
Kate opened her mouth to retort but stopped herself, her mouth creasing into a frown, when she took her own inventory of her possessions and let out a sigh instead. Her purse was back in the hotel room. She patted her pockets gently and her frown twitched up into a smile. She did, however, have her debit card in the back pocket of her jeans.
"Fine," she smirked. "You can hold my shoes then."
Castle let out a pitiful moan as she brushed past him and walked up to a random rack of dresses housed in the small boutique and began flipping through them. She pulled a blue one out to take a better look and casually flipped out the price tag. She bit her lip and her eyes flitted over to Castle, who had wandered to another rack full of red dresses. She slipped the dress back into its place and made her way a few feet down to a rack that housed a less ornate selection.
She flipped through a few more, pulling out a couple of black ones, when a sales associate bounced up to her.
"Hi! How are you today? Is there anything I can help you with?"
Kate couldn't help but smile as she glanced down at the girl's nametag, which read Mitsy. Kate mentally rolled her eyes. Of course it was.
Kate bit her lip again, her eyes flickering back over to Castle, who was busy filling his arms with dresses, flipping each one around to look at the back and then around again to rake his eyes over the front, seemingly analyzing it, predicting what it would, assumingly, look on her body before either adding it to his stack or sticking it back on the rack with a firm shake of his head.
"Hi, Mitsy," Kate started when she was sure Castle was distracted. The girl beamed up at her and Kate couldn't help but smile back. "I was wondering if you had anything for under a thousand."
Mitsy's smile faltered before she pasted another, slightly more fake, one on in its place.
"We have this rack right over here," the girl announced and Kate really did roll her eyes as Mitsy lead her to the back corner of the shop and promptly turned away, making her way back to the counter without another word. She probably worked on commission.
Kate looked back at the rack and let out a small sigh, as she pulled out a few that weren't that bad. Her eyes swiveled over to where she felt Mitsy watching her. She glared at the girl slightly and Mitsy ducked her head down to look at her phone. Kate smirked again. She was used to dealing with uppity twenty-somethings.
She folded the dresses over her arm and motioned to Castle that she would be in the changing room and he nodded, trotting after her as she made her way back to the row of curtains behind a wall. She had just pulled one shut and started to pull off her top when Castle stuck his head in the side of the stall, causing her to jump when she saw his floating head reflected in the mirror.
"Jesus, Castle! What the hell?" She hissed and he grinned at her, slightly chagrin.
"Here," he stated, straightening up so that his body blocked the slight gap in the curtain as he held a handful of dresses out to her. "Try these on."
"Castle," she started, exasperated. "I can't…"
"Just try them on. Please? For me? You don't have to get any of them," he argued gently and she sighed, taking the hangers from his hand.
"Fine," she breathed out. "But don't think this means anything. You still aren't persuading me into anything."
Castle made a noncommittal hum and ducked back out of the small changing cube. "I'll be out here for the show, Beckett. You better model them for me."
Kate rolled her eyes as she stepped out of her jeans and pulled the first dress off of the hanger. She stepped into it, pulling it up her body. She held it up and looked in the mirror, eyes wide. God, no. Whoever had thought of putting a bow there had been sorely mistaken. Not good at all.
"I'm waiting, Beckett," Castle called from the hall and she huffed.
"Trust me, you don't want to see this one," she called back.
She was about to pull it off when Castle's head poked back in through the curtain. She jumped slightly, again, before rolling her eyes at his attempt not to laugh.
"That is awful!" he exclaimed. "Oh, no, take it off. Now."
He stepped fully into the small space, edging around her, pulling the curtain closed after him as he rifled through the stack of dresses himself.
"Here," he stated, pulling out one of the black ones he had picked out. "Try this one on."
Kat held it up, eying the front of it critically. She held out a finger and stuck it through a slit in the front of the dress. She turned to Castle with a raised eyebrow, shaking her head slowly. "No. Definitely not."
"Why not?" He whined. "It's gorgeous! It's sexy; it's elegant. I happen to have very good taste in dresses, you know."
"Uh huh," she hummed, disbelieving, as she continued to study the dress with a raised eyebrow. Her finger pulled down, making the slit that went across the waist of the dress become a little bit wider. She pulled her finger back and turned the dress around to study the dipping back and held it up to her body.
"No way, Castle." She shook her head again. "With this back and that slit up the side of the leg, I would have a wardrobe malfunction for sure. Nope. Sorry."
Castle let out a long-suffering sigh as he took the dress back, from her outstretched hand, and hung it on the hook. "Fine."
Kate watched in amusement as he pulled out a random dress and looked it over before shaking his head and putting it back, pulling out another one with an approving nod.
"This one. Try this one."
It was beautiful: deep purple, floor-length, halter style. It was simple, elegant with a slight embellishment of jewels below the bust line. There was a slit up the leg, which was easily camouflaged in the flowing folds of the skirt. She felt her breath catch in her throat as she reached out to touch it. The silk fabric melted under her touch.
She let out a soft moan and Castle chuckled. "Told you I was good at this."
She shushed him with a look and reached out to look at the price tag. Her eyes grew wide as she took in the name Valentino and she shook her head suddenly. "No. No. Nooo. Nope. Nuh-uh."
She pushed the dress away, shoving it forcefully back into his hand. "Put it back."
Castle looked at her questioningly. "Why? What's wrong?"
"It's seven thousand dollars, Castle! Put it back," Kate exclaimed as she reached for one of the dresses she had picked out and zipped it off of the hanger. "I am definitely not paying seven thousand dollars for a dress I will only wear once."
Castle opened his mouth to reply but she silenced him with a pointed look and a raised finger. "And neither are you."
Rick's mouth snapped shut and he nodded once in acquiescence. "Okay, fine. I'm just going to go and talk to them about my tux."
Kate glanced at him in the mirror as he lifted the dresses he picked off of the hook and made his way out of the dressing room with his head hung. She let out a sigh and zipped up the small side zipper on the black dress. It fit her perfectly: a simple strapless dress with a black ribbon embellishment running in an empire waist under her bust line. It was nice; it was good. It was way less than seven thousand dollars.
She bit her lip and shifted onto her left foot as her hands clenched at her sides. It wasn't that she was being stubborn or that she wasn't flattered that he wanted to buy a dress for her, because she was. But she had stated it before and she would say it again, she was going to do this on her own for a little while. Yes, she was in a relationship, well as far into a relationship as one date and lots of sex could take a couple, but that didn't mean that she had to lose her independence. And if being independent meant living on her own and giving up sinfully expensive, delicious ball gowns, then so be it.
Kate glanced at the curtain again and frowned. She still had the feeling that he was going to try to buy the dress. She narrowed her eyes as she stared behind her in the mirror. Her gaze fell onto her stack of discarded clothing. The corner of a brown leather wallet stuck out of her pants pocket. A small smirk played on her lips as she lowed the zipper back down.
Good thing she had swiped his wallet when she walked past him earlier. All of those years of playing magic tricks with her grandfather had turned her into quite the pre-adolescent pickpocket. It was one of the few skills she had held onto in adulthood.
A billow of steam followed her, Saturday morning, as Kate made her way out of the bathroom and into the cool air of the hotel room. The room wasn't big, ornate. It was one room, quaint. Intimate. A coy grin covered her face. Very intimate. The walls were pale blue, the furniture dark cherry, and the ceiling was white, the wood carved into an ornate pattern of swirls and scenes, telling a story that they had tried to read as they laid in the bed the night before.
Castle was weaving a tale of musicians and speakeasies in the 1920s. New Orleans: the birthplace of jazz. She was laying with her head pillowed on his shoulder as he spoke softly for only her to hear, his arm wrapped around her, holding her to him. Not possessively, just closely like she was cherished, loved. It was like he needed to feel her body pressed into his. Their legs tangled together under the covers. She breathed the smell of his skin. He would lean over every once in while to place a gentle kiss on her head, brushing his lips over her hair.
"It was a love story. A white man fell in love with a black woman: a jazz singer. Her voice was like an angel singing. He fell in love with her during once of her melodious ballads and as hard as they both tried to resist they couldn't bring themselves to be apart," he whispered into her hair, his lips moving against her scalp. She grinned softly into his shoulder as she imagined the scene playing out in her mind. "Of course, then the aliens landed and the CIA arrived and they were torn apart forever by the INS."
Kate's hand stilled its motion of tracing patterns over his bare chest, her fingernails ceasing their light scratching on his skin.
"You just had to go and ruin it."
"I didn't ruin it, I made it better. Every story is better with a little bit of angst, drama and aliens."
Kate had let out a light laugh as she heard the smile in his voice. "Not every story."
His arm tightened around her in a sideways hug, pulling her closer to him than she thought was even possible. "No, you're right. Not every story."
Her eyelids began to droop as she lay in his arms, her head contently resting on his chest: the worries of the outside world melting away. It wasn't just his office. It was him. Her worries melted away when she was with him.
"I love you," he murmured against skin, his lips soft and his breath warm as he sighed the words into her, painting them onto her skin.
"I love you, too."
She reached out for the garment bag with one hand, the other reaching up to adjust the towel wrapped around her hair. She squeezed it a couple of times, helping the towel draw out some more of the water before bringing her hand down to lower the zipper on the bag. The bag opened and a flash of purple caught her eye.
"What the…" She voiced, her brow furrowing and her jaw dropping as she pulled the purple dress out of the bag. How had he gotten it? She had swiped his wallet.
Then it dawned on her, he had rented a tux. How had he been able to rent a tux without his wallet? He would have noticed it was gone and come to find her. He would have known.
"Gotcha," his voice sounded, right next to her right ear.
Kate whirled around to face him: jaw set and eyes narrow.
"You see," he continued, nonchalantly, one hand holding the towel at his waist, the other running a smaller towel over his short hair, causing it to stand up like a fluffy porcupine. "The weirdest thing happened yesterday. I had my wallet when we left the hotel and then I go to rent my tux and I come to realize that I don't have it with me anymore. But, you see, I think with my brain."
He tapped a finger to his temple a couple of times. "I put one of my credit cards in another pocket just in case I had happened to be pick pocketed at some point during the trip. Of course, I had never even considered that my girlfriend would be the one to pick my pocket."
Both of their sets of eyes drifted over to where his brown leather wallet was set on the small table by his side of the bed, where she had placed it when he was using the bathroom the night before.
Kate narrowed her eyes at him again and he sighed. "Please, Kate? Just wear the dress. It will look beautiful on you and I owe you for coming to this thing with me tonight. I am not trying to undermine your independence or say that you can't take care of yourself, because we both know that you can. I just wanted to get this for you. For me too, actually, because you are going to look so hot. So, really it is a self-serving present. You can even leave the tags on and return it after you wear it if you really want to…"
Her lips met his and his words died in his throat as he melted into the kiss.
"Thank you," she smiled against him. "It's beautiful."
What could she say? Yes, she wanted to make a show of her independence but it was cute how he wanted to spoil her and that he knew her well enough to know that she would take his wallet to keep him from buying her a dress.
It was nice to be wanted and not just had.
She kissed him again and his hand came up to unravel the towel from her body, groaning softly as her hand came up to stop him.
"We need to get dressed. You have to be at the signing in an hour and Gina is meeting us there," she murmured softly, drawing her face a couple of inches away from his.
"Fine," he sighed, leaning down to place a gentle kiss along the curve of her neck. "But please don't make a habit of mentioning my ex-wife while we are making out, mostly naked. I don't like it."
She laughed as she stepped back, towards her suitcase. "Noted. Now, go find something to wear. Your fans are waiting."
She couldn't help but laugh as she stepped out of the bathroom to see him standing in the middle of the room in a pair of jeans and a tuxedo print t-shirt.
"You are not wearing that," she stated firmly as she reached up to clasp an earring to her ear.
"Why not?" he whined in reply. "It's fun."
She pinned him with an exasperated glare. "You are such a child."
"It's part of my charm."
"It's something all right."
"Fine." He sighed as he reached down for deep blue long sleeved shirt that was laid out on the bed next to him and preceded to button it over the other black shirt, rolling up the sleeved and tucking it in. "Better?"
"Much," she replied as she lifted up on her tiptoes for a kiss before slipping her feet into a pair of flats.
They made their way out into the hall, down the spiral staircase and out to the sidewalk turning to walk, hand-in-hand, to the bookstore a few blocks down.
"How long will this thing take," she asked as they stopped at small shop for coffee.
He shrugged in reply. "Probably only a couple of hours. There shouldn't be that many people there. You can do something else while I'm doing this, you know, you don't have to sit there and be bored for hours."
Kate shook her head as she smiled up at him. "It's a bookstore, Rick. There is no way I'll be bored."
He nodded in reply. "Good point."
They made their way in through the doors and Kate let out a low whistle when she saw the line already wrapping its way through the stacks. This was going to take longer than a couple of hours.
"Gina does fast work."
Castle shook his head in response. "No, this wasn't Gina. This means that she brought Paula in, too."
"Paula?"
"Yeah, my publicist." He shook his head as he looked around, spotting two women walking towards them. "I apologize in advance."
Kate nodded silently as the two women approached and Rick's hand slipped from hers as he took a step forward, reaching out to grasp the dark haired woman's hands and leaning down to kiss her on the cheek. A large, and in Kate's opinion extremely fake smile plastered on his face. It was one that she could only pinpoint because she had seen his genuine smile so often over the course of the last couple of days.
"Paula," he greeted. "So nice to see you, I didn't know that you would be here."
He glared over at Gina who was looking between him and Kate with her arms crossed over her chest, lips pursed.
"Gina." He greeted, monotone.
"Rick," she smiled up at him: a forced, too sweet smile. "I didn't know you were here with someone."
He let out a soft sigh as he reached back to wrap an arm around Kate's waist. "Well, I generally don't make it a habit to go on vacation by myself. You remember Kate Beckett. You met last year at the Autism benefit."
Gina let out a knowing hum and nodded. "I remember."
She turned to Kate, a glint in her eyes as she straightened her shoulders and lifted her chin slightly, looking regal in her knee length charcoal grey dress and heels; a stark contrast to Kate's skinny jean and flats, even though she had taken the extra step and thrown a blazer on over her t-shirt, giving herself a shabby chic look. Kate pasted a smile onto her face and held out a hand.
She could be nice to Rick's ex-wife. She could. She had no reason to hate the woman. Other than their brief encounter the year before she hadn't even spoken to her.
"Gina, nice to see you again."
"Likewise," Gina gripped her hand firmly. "You were engaged when we met last year, were you not? How's that working out for you?"
Kate stilled, her shoulders going rigid as she felt Rick stiffened beside her. "We broke up."
Gina raised an eyebrow and smirked slightly. "I'm sure."
Okay, now she had a reason to hate the woman.
Kate opened her mouth to retort when Castle gripped her waist a little harder in his hand and she snapped her mouth back shut her eyes flickering over to the line of men and women (mostly women) waiting to get their books signed, some of them watching them curiously, within earshot. Instead, she lifted up on her toes and gave him a quick peck on cheek. "I'll be in the lit section."
She glanced back at the trio as she made her way across the store, pulling her sunglasses off of her head and sticking them into her pocket as she went.
"Seriously, Gina?" She heard Rick hiss as she walked away and she smiled to herself. Independent woman or not, sometimes it just felt nice to be defended.
He leaned against the shelf and watched her as she sat in the middle of the aisle, cross-legged with the book open on her lap. Her hair fell in front of her face and she lifted a hand to brush it back. Her coffee was sitting on the floor beside her, cold, empty, forgotten as she continued to be absorbed into the book that she was reading. He took a step forward, coming up behind her to look at the words over her shoulder and his lips drew up into a small smile.
"I feel like I should be offended, you know," he whispered as he crouched down behind her. "You'll read Patterson but you won't read my books?"
"What can I say," she replied slowly and he could hear the smile in her voice as her head continued to stay bent over the book. "I know quality when I see it."
"Oh, ouch," Castle whined as he fell to his butt in the middle of the aisle, his hands clutching at his chest. "You wound me Beckett, an arrow straight to my heart."
She let out a small chuckle as she snapped the book shut and pushed it back into the empty slot on the shelf. Pushing herself off of the floor, she held a hand out to him, pulling him up so that he was standing directly in front of her, swaying into her body. "Eh, it's for research. Crime week is coming up."
He hummed in response.
"You should come."
His eyes shot up to meet hers. What?
"What?" He voiced.
She shifted slightly with a shrug of her shoulders, her eyes looking both ways down the aisle and flickering over to the rows of books behind him before meeting his again. "Yeah, I mean, everyone already knows we are dating. The students would love it. You would love it. And I figure I can field a couple of questions if I have to about Jade Knight, etc. If I'm going to get fired, might as well go out with a bang right?"
She let out a self-deprecating laugh and Castle sighed, wrapping his arms around her. "You're not going to get fired but in any case I would love to come."
She let out another soft sigh before shaking her head to pull her head out of her thoughts and looking up at him with a small smile. "How'd it go?"
"Oh, you know," he replied, taking her hand as they walked down the aisle towards the door. He waved at a couple of people as they made their way out to the sidewalk. "'I love your work, Mr. Castle', 'Where do you get your ideas?', 'Will you sign my chest?' The usual."
She glared up at his impish grin and reached a hand up to tweak his ear. "You're incorrigible."
"What can I say?" He shrugged innocently, ducking his head to avoid her fingers. "My fans love me."
"Mm-hmm."
"Lunch?"
"Sure. I know a great little place. We're in New Orleans. We should have jambalaya at some point. I'm paying."
"Sounds good," he confirmed, letting go of her paying for the lunch. He could do this. He could let her pay for stuff too. It didn't make him less of a man. "I do the hard work and you pay for lunch. I like this arrangement."
She huffed at him again. "Keep up this attitude and see if you get any tonight."
He debated coming back with a retort but just ended up snapping his mouth shut instead. She wasn't usually the kind to make idle threats and he wasn't going to risk seeing if this was one or not.
"Smart boy," she grinning, her eyes still staring straight ahead as they walked down the road, his arm slung around her shoulder, her hand reaching up to hold onto his fingers. "Smart boy."
People stopped and stared as they walked through the doors into the art gallery where the gala was being held. A couple of light bulbs flashed and Rick flashed a grin. Kate smiling tightly beside him, her arm threaded loosely through his. They were running fashionably late, and by fashionably late he meant that they had taken extra long getting out of the hotel because Kate had had to touch up her makeup from where they had engaged in a frenzied make out session and he had attempted to undress her from that purple silky dress. His face broke into a huge smile as he thought about it and she squeezed his arm slightly, her freshly manicured nails digging into his arm as he leered down at her. She knew exactly what he was thinking about.
"Stop it," she hissed at him.
"Stop what?" He replied, innocently.
"Stop thinking about that."
"I don't know what you are talking about."
She bumped her shoulder into his and he chuckled, his reply dying on his lips as Gina came to a stop in front of them, arms crossed over the chest of her pale pink dress. "You're late."
"We're here."
Gina's eyes swiveled between both of them, her eyes glancing over his tux before settling on Kate's dress. "Nice dress. Valentino, right? What you have to do to get him to buy that for you?"
Kate's eyes grew wide and she took a step forward as Castle froze. He bent his arm into his side slightly, forcing her to stay next to him and she looked up at him as he continued to stay silent. He could see the betrayal in her eyes. Not only was he not saying anything to defend her, he wasn't even allowing her to defend herself.
His eyes met her hurt ones and he stared into them for a second. I've got this.
"Gina," he addressed, his eyes only just breaking contact with Kate's. "A word?"
Kate withdrew her arm from his.
"I'm going to go get us some drinks," she stated and brought both hands up to hold her clutch by her stomach.
He watched her for a moment as she walked away; the way her back looked in the backless dress, the sway of her hips, the diamond encrusted snake bracelet, he had picked up on a whim when he had seen her eyeing it through a jewelry store window, wrapped securely around her arm. She had protested over that, firmly, repeatedly, until he had promised he had only borrowed it and was going to return it the next day.
She had glared at him for a second, but her smile after she had finally relented was worth it. He liked buying things for her. He knew he didn't have to but she was worth it. She deserved to be spoiled by a little more than just coffees and the occasional ice cream cone.
"She cheated on her fiancé with you. What makes you think she isn't going to do the same with some other guy?"
Gina's voice broke through his musings and his head whipped around to face her, a fire in his eyes.
"You don't have the right," he started as he took step towards his ex. "She is not like that. We did not have an affair and she did not cheat on her fiancé. Do you hear me?"
Gina smirked up at him as she took a step towards him, her hand running up his chest. "Oh, please, I saw the way she was looking at you last year, the way you were looking at her. There is no way you weren't sleeping together."
Castle caught her hand, pulling it down from his neck. "We weren't. Not that it is any of your business, but we didn't start seeing each other until a few weeks ago."
Gina hummed, her hand coming back up to rest on his chest, her long, thin fingers playing with his lapel. "Doesn't change the fact, though. She broke up with her fiancé for you. She going to get tired of you and do the same thing."
She took a step closer to him, her hand once again coming up to wrap around his neck. Castle took a step back, attempting to get away but ran into a wall instead. "Unless, of course, you are just in it for the fun."
She smiled as she pulled his head down to kiss him and his hands came up to push her away.
"I'm not in it for the fun. I am going to marry her someday!" He exclaimed and Gina froze in front of him.
He heard a short gasp and looked up to see Kate staring back at him with wide eyes, a martini glass held in each hand.
"What did you just say?"