Disclaimer: I don't own Castle!
Two days had passed since Kate was sick, and since she'd had the nightmare and she was now sitting at her desk in front of a stack of paperwork. The case they were assigned two days ago wasn't as bad as the four year old child, but it still took a toll on all of them considering it seemed like everything was dead ends. Once Esposito and Ryan had gone back and searched the apartment where Juis Feresco was killed, they pulled back a painting on his wall to find a gun in a safe with the prints of Victor Kovosit on it.
Kovosit was extremely easy to break, and Kate and Ryan were only in the interrogation room for around an hour. Once he signed the confession, Esposito and Ryan took him down to booking and they all took the rest of the night off. The day before had been also filled with paperwork, just as today will be.
What Kate had assumed would be about three hours passed when Kate finally looked up from her paperwork to see that she, Esposito, and Ryan were the only people still in the precinct. Glancing down at her watch, she realized that it was around four o'clock and that she only had now two hours go get ready.
"Shit," She mumbled under her breath. "Guys I'm going to head out, would you kill me if I asked you to do the rest of my files? There's only about five or six." Kate turned to Ryan and Esposito and pulled her best puppy dog face.
"Yeah, fine, let me have them." Esposito held out a hand and Kate handed them to him, smiling.
"I owe you drinks soon!"
"Beckett! This is not six files! You owe me two rounds of drinks soon!" Kate laughed and waved at the two as she stepped into the elevator after grabbing her jacket and purse.
On the drive home, Kate tried to think of something else she could wear for she and Rick's date tonight, since he'd already seen her in Maddie's borrowed one, which she had taken back. Kate picked up her phone and let it ring three times before she heard the Maddie answer the phone, panting.
"Hey, hey, Becks, what's-" Maddie took a breath, "up?"
"God what, are you in the middle of having sex or something? Don't answer the phone if that's the case!" Kate smiled when she heard Maddie's laugh through the phone.
"That's really cute, Becks. I was out for a run. What's up?"
"I need a dress. Not the gray one, a different one."
"Oooh, you guys are finally going out on a date?" Kate rolled her eyes as she turned into her parking spot.
"It's been like four days, Mads. Do you have a dress I could borrow? I only have like an hour and a half to get ready; I got caught up in paperwork."
"An hour and a half? Sheesh, I'll be over there soon."
"Thanks, Mads." They hung up and Kate got out of her car and headed up to her apartment. Once inside, she turned her curling iron on and stripped out of her clothes. Getting into the shower, she turned up the water so that it was burning her. Quickly washing her hair and body, she stepped out of the shower ten minutes later. Kate wrapped a large towel around her figure, one in her hair, and unlocked the door for when Maddie got there.
Kate had just started blow-drying her hair when she heard Maddie's greeting come from the living room.
"In here!" Kate shouted from the bathroom.
"Okay, so I have two things you can try." Kate looked at them both. One was a red one shoulder dress that gathered at just above the knees. The second one was a gold strapless dress that went just past the knees. Of course, already coming prepared, Maddie was also holding a black shall in her hands.
"For the record, I recommend the red one." Kate smiled and took it from her.
"I was actually leaning towards it, great minds think alike?" The two laughed and Maddie left the bathroom so Kate could change into the dress. An hour later, Kate, dressed in the red dress, her hair curled, and black strappy shoes on, was knocking on Rick's door. From inside Kate could hear Alexis' quick footsteps approaching the door.
"Kate!" Alexis called when she opened the door.
"Hi, Alexis." Kate smiled as Alexis brought her inside.
"Daddy!" Alexis started running towards what Kate assumed was Rick's bedroom. "Kate's here, come on!" Kate laughed at the girl and leaned against the wall just outside of the kitchen. When a woman with short red hair and a dazzling smile covering her face came out of the kitchen in front of Kate, she jumped. After the two had finished laughing, the woman held out a hand.
"Martha Rodgers, I'm Rick's mother." Kate tried not to blush, but it was probably seen anyway.
"Kate Beckett, it's nice to meet you." Kate held out a hand and Martha brushed it away, pulling Kate into a hug.
"Our family hugs, darling! Alexis and Rick have said so much about you I feel like I already know you!"
"Thank you, Mother." Rick walked out of his room and was looking down, trying to put the cuff links onto his wrists. He looked up and cleared his throat, not saying anything for a few seconds.
"I agree, she looks beautiful." Martha stage whispered to Rick, who was still standing there looking at Kate.
"Thank you," Kate mumbled, glancing at Martha before looking down at the floor. Alexis came out of Rick's room, and that caused Rick to finally let his eyes leave her. Alexis pulled on his hand and dragged Rick to her eye level and then whispered in his ear. Rick laughed and lifted Alexis off the ground and into his arms.
"Why don't you just say it?" Rick asked, looking at Alexis, who shook her head and buried her face into his neck. When he looked at Kate, Kate smiled and the butterflies in her stomach didn't go without noticing. "She told me to tell you she thinks you look very pretty."
This time, Kate didn't try to hide the blush and she smiled, biting her lip.
"Thank you, Alexis." Kate said to the girl, once she finally lifted her face out of Rick's neck. The three looked at each other for a few seconds before Martha started towards Rick, taking Alexis out of his arms.
"Alright kids, time for you to go!" Martha handed Rick his phone and pushed he and Rick towards the front door. Once they were outside and walking to the elevator, Rick looked at Kate and kissed her on the cheek.
"They were right, you know. You look absolutely beautiful." Kate looked down and smiled, only looking up when the elevator door opened and the two stepped in.
Once the elevator door opened again, the two of them made their way out of his building, Rick's hand on the small of her back.
xxxxxx
Rick had taken her to a restaurant; an expensive restaurant. One, someone on Kate's salary, could only go to probably once a year. If that. Kate tried to choose somewhere else to go when they'd arrived, but Rick said he already had reservations for the two.
The night was filled with laughs and blushes. There was a jazz band playing, so they'd even danced a few times. By the end of the night, Kate's stomach was full, her feet were aching and she was almost falling asleep on Rick in the car. Kate hadn't realized that they had been out for five hours. Once they pulled up to Kate's building, Rick told the driver to give him a few minutes, and he took Kate's hand and led her out of the car.
Once they were standing near the steps of her building, she turned to him.
"I had a really amazing night, Rick," Kate smiled and looked up at him. Rick smiled back at her and before either one of them could repel, their lips were touching. It was soft, and caring. Just a brush of each other's lips, a feather. Until Kate reached her tongue out and glided it along Rick's bottom lip was it soft. They both searched each other's mouths as if they were on a hunt and Rick's hands came up to cup Kate's face. Kate reciprocated by holding his wrists, breaking off moments later.
Kate leaned her forehead against Rick's chin and he kissed her temple. Kate let his arms go and before he walked away, Rick turned to face her. He kissed her on the cheek and put his mouth to her ear.
"Goodnight, Kate." Kate could almost feel her heart pumping out of his chest when he turned from her and walked away, not looking back until he got to the car, opening the door. When Rick turned around she was in the same spot, smiling and watching him. Rick waved at her and stepped into his car, Kate watching him drive away.
Kate made her way up to her apartment and when she shut the door behind her, leaned her forehead against it, biting her lip. Kate took her phone out of her clutch, and moved to find his contact.
'Goodnight Rick.'
A/N: Yay! Another chapter! Sorry this is a tad late, I expected to have it up earlier but I woke up late. As I said yesterday, I won't be updating until probably Saturday night. I'm bringing my notebook with me to my cousins house in case I get random inspiration to write chapter twelve there! As always, enjoy and thank you for reading!