Hey look at this, it's a new Chapter of Glass Slipper. I know it's a day late and that makes me sad because I really wanted to get this posted earlier as a little gift to sophie (hope you did well on your exams) but it's here and it's longer than your average chapter. I guarantee the next one won't be this long, there were just so many little things to play around with in this one. I know tiff098765 mentioned that she'd done the under-cover Russian scene and I'm sure a lot of people have as well but oh well, I've been wanting to do this scene for a while. So I hope you enjoy.

But first some housekeeping that will never get old:

Armed and Dangerous - my collab fic - has published their third chapter. It's my turn to write the next chapter so look for that this week and please review even if you hate it, we would love any sort of feedback.

My Spring Writing Contest ends soon so please look at that in my profile (it'll be the third story of mine from the top). It can be any sort of fairytale.

Please review and as always you can follow me on twitter you can find me at vatrask

Enjoy 3

Will left. Castle left, too, but he didn't want to. He betrayed her trust, Kate reminded herself every day for an entire summer while he begged and pleaded for a second chance. She almost slipped about mid July but then he stopped calling, tired of talking to her answering machine. She remembered thinking that with each message she listened to on the couch, the recordings were getting shorter and shorter and his voice sounded more and more dejected. Once, she could have sworn she heard Alexis in the background, trying to entice her father into a game of laser tag but Martha had shushed her, telling her to let her father write. That's right, she swallowed, listening to the last recording for the hundredth time, Castle was a writer; that was the reason he was following her around. That was probably also why he did what he did which, for some reason, stung a little more than thinking that he did it for her or himself. He did it for the story. That's what he'd said when they first met, he was here for the story – right before he'd dissected her soul without blinking – and that's all he was doing by looking in to her mother's case without her permission; it was a big part of her story and if he wanted to write Nikki Heat to the fullest extent he needed to know that too.

But she'd told him not to, she threw a pillow, barely denting the answering machine, she'd asked him to stay out for very specific reasons and he'd shown up at the hospital where Will was lying there with a bullet in him talking about it like he did nothing wrong. So she kicked him out. No more murder, no more stories; he could release his little book and be done with her.

Will had stayed after he recovered from his injury; for a little while at least. But for some reason he left suddenly without much explanation other than the fact that she wasn't his anymore and he had to accept that. Whatever that meant, it left Kate alone with her paper work and a few dozen murders to get her through the summer. Back to normal; right.

And then she'd gotten that call right at the end of August from Gina, his publisher ex-wife, telling her – not asking her – that Cosmo wanted to do an article on Castle's involvement with the NYPD and they would be around sometime next week to interview her and do a photo-shoot. Of course, she was in Captain Montgomery's office before eight the next morning in protest but he told her that his hands were tied and it would only be for a few hours at the beginning of September; she wouldn't even have to talk to him if she didn't want to. He never asked why Castle suddenly stopped coming around – and neither had anyone else – and it wasn't that they didn't care, they just knew better than to ask Kate Beckett about her feelings.

So Castle showed up with two scantily-clad "cops", a crew of cameramen and one way too perky reporter, spent most of the time looking at Beckett and smirking with that playboy smile that didn't seem as bright anymore. Every chance he got, he was watching her but she ignored him and pretended to be genuinely interested in what the reporter had to say. He finally got his chance when the crew took their break and he caught sight of Beckett heading into the break room for some of that awful police-issue coffee that he still refused to drink. Not-so-subtly making his way over he poked his head around the corner, half protecting his body parts and half ready to run if she was still angry enough to twist his head off. But she wasn't. She was passive aggressive and too cool – something that made Castle even more nervous than the running and twisting – but she was talking to him and he knew this was his chance.

Then a body dropped and Beckett's team got to pick it up – everyone on Beckett's team including ex-members who'd been thrown out for being an ass and were only looking for a second chance, which he got; well mostly.

As they approached the Crown Vic's in the basement parking garage, Castle automatically reached for the passenger door handle of Beckett's but she quickly shut him down. "Not a chance Castle, you want in on this case, you go with Ryan and Esposito; or maybe that little Cosmo reporter who dotes on you like a little puppy.

He darted between all through potential rides with uncertainty and finally decided on Ryan and Esposito's car; but mistake. As Ryan got in the driver's seat, Esposito opened the back door and ushered Castle in with a bit more sarcasm than was really necessary; he was just having too much fun with this situation. "So Castle," he smirked in the rear view mirror "what'd you do to get Beckett so pissed off?"

"She didn't tell you?"

"Nope," his partner chimed in, keeping his eyes on the road "we figured you'd done something pretty bad; what you make the moves on her?"

Castle sunk his head in misery, "worse." All both men jumped when Ryan swerved the car in shock but kept it on the road. They were silent for a moment before Esposito slowly asked with a hand gripping the seat.

"You didn't…do anything to Beckett did you?"

"What," he blinked then blanched when he realized what they were asking "no! God, no! I would never."

"Good because"

"Trust me, I would never hurt Beckett."

Ryan was a little quicker to relax after that little scare "well obviously you did since you're on the outs."

"Intentionally hurt Beckett."

"Well you must have done something" Esposito shrugged "or you wouldn't be in the dog house like this."

"I…" but he stopped himself from explaining "I think if Beckett wanted you to know, you would."

At a red light just before the crime scene, Ryan threw his hands up in defeat "fine don't tell us."

Esposito turned around and Castle had the decency to sink back in his seat a little. "But I was serious bro, if you ever hurt Beckett again, I will cut you." It took at least ten minutes for Castle's face to return to its natural color.

Dead bodies in trees are never easy; Beckett giving you the cold shoulder while a reporter tries to pry into your life with no prior knowledge of it makes it almost comical. But he managed to at least get back on to the case – through no fault of his own mind you; he was a witness after all – which meant he had an in when it came to Beckett. She couldn't resist a good murder. So was working the case and he tried not to sound smug but he definitely broke the ending wide open; I mean who else could have gotten the police in to a mafia-run poker establishment? He even got to go undercover and wear a cool button-cam and everything; this was so much cooler than just writing about espionage in his books – and it didn't hurt that Beckett had let him do this instead of shutting him down right away. Maybe there was still hope for her to let him back in.

So armed with his spy-outfit and his rapier wit, he ventured into the land of tattooed Russians who hopefully wouldn't catch on before they caught their killer, leaving Beckett and he boys to watch from their van in the alley way.

Beckett tried to ignore the pit in her stomach but she was worried, not just about the case but about Castle as well. Yes, no matter how many times she claimed otherwise, she still cared; not enough to let him back in – she was still hurt – but if got hurt during this case, she'd definitely feel something.

The boys were getting a little too into watching the poker game, trying to read the other players from Castle's perspective and figuring out who was bluffing and who was their killer. But Castle got in a little too deep and she was sure the mobster and made him – if the way he was twisting his prosthetic pinkie was any indication – and she just couldn't handle that feeling that she was sure to feel so she made a last minute decision to go and rescue him. She removed her pants and camisole to leave just the sweater she was wearing and a red bra that she was now grateful for buying at Lanie's request. With a quick flip and tousle of her hair, she had to admit she could totally pass as a Eastern European slut if she ever wanted a career change – and somewhere in the back of her mind, she was praying the boys hadn't seen her littler transformation. Which they hadn't; not for lack of trying though.

They heard the click of her heels as she sauntered down the alley but never managed to get a good look at what she'd changed in to so they breathed a sigh of relief that they hadn't been caught trying to get a peep…just as Castle stiffened and they heard the distinct voice of their finger-less Russian to move. Crap. Ryan was almost out of the van by the time Esposito caught him. "Bro, Beckett's in there, they'll be fine."

"You think?"

"Yeah," he shrugged, not nearly as convinced as he usually was. Castle must have done something to piss Beckett off and he hoped it wouldn't get one of them killed.

So they watched as Castle was led into a back room where he was suddenly face-to-face the gunman and the button-cam was staring into the muzzle of a gun. Double crap. Now sincerely worried that Beckett wouldn't make it in there in time, they both piled out of the van with no particular plan in mind other than the need to save their friend when they heard another voice on the camera that sounded vaguely familiar. "Him a cop? Don't make me laugh; he's barely even a man."

All three men echoed "Beckett?" but the boys, who had sudden renewed interest in watching the scene, still couldn't see the detective; but Castle could; and the way he was breathing when she came up behind him meant that it was something good.

She kept just out of sight of the camera until the last moment when she nailed the killer's ass to the table with a gun to his head and Castle jumped back just far enough for all three of them to really observe what she was wearing. "Is it just my imagination or did you change?" The boys nodded at Castle's sentiment though he couldn't see them.

"Dude," Ryan whispered trying hard not to stare at his boss – or the position of the button-cam – "I can totally see her"

"Dude" Esposito turned to him, "no."

"I'm just saying"

"No." But they both turned back to watch anyways, Castle lingered a little too long behind Beckett before turning around and going to get backup. "Dude, he totally just checked her out." Ryan glared at the amusement in his partner's voice.

"So what? Castle can check Beckett out but we can't?"

"First of all, that's weird, bro; second, Castle can check her out all he wants because we both know they're going to sleep together if they haven't already."

"You really think they've slept together?"

"Could be, maybe that's why Beckett kicked him out cause he broke her heart."

"Nah," Ryan turned to start packing up his equipment "if he'd broken her heart, he wouldn't still be alive."

"True," he chuckled but paused when he saw Ryan getting out of the van. "Where're you going?"

"Castle's gone to get backup; we're backup."

"Right, right." So the boys went off to catch the bad guys and kick-ass, silently vowing to never ever speak about the van conversation. What happens in the van stays in the van.

The case was now solved; Beckett had changed back into her normal buttoned-up outfit and Castle was so certain that she would let him back in as her partner in crime….solving. But she didn't; she gave hi m the cold shoulder and he said some stupid things trying to justify his actions and she'd put him in his place. And he figured it out; he'd betrayed her trust in something that she shared with only a select few and she was deeply hurt. He couldn't fix that; so he left – willingly this time. Gave her space to breathe and resigned himself to writing a new story that had nothing to do with tough but savvy female detectives. He just couldn't get that look of utter despair out of his head when he had first told her what he found out about her mother's murder. She'd been broken, he realized now, she wasn't ready to rip off that Band-aid and he forced her to do it when she wasn't even paying attention; he was a dick. He had to find a way to make it right but how?

God bless Alexis – he sometimes forgot that she was almost sixteen now and he was wise far beyond those sixteen years. She always had a way of making him see the obvious when his male ego blocked it out. He jumped from his seat in his office, kissed his daughter's forehead and practically ran all the way to the twelfth precinct; and he apologized to Kate Beckett for all the things he had done to her. The entire time, she just stared at him, he eyes flickering with hurt and hope equally, conflicted about everything in his speech. He sounded so genuine it almost fixed her heart but it did manage to put some tape on the cracks until the glue settled.

She let him back in.