It's twice as long because I am twice as sorry as I was last week. This time I have no excuse, I am just so tired and the heat's been causing blackouts all over the place - okay so maybe I have some excuses but it's not enough to make up for being late. So I apologize.
Again, if you have an suggestions for scenes from Tick, Tick, Tick to Always, throw them my way and I'll see what I can do.
In case you haven't noticed, I've started a new one-shot series for Once Upon A Time called 'Flower Child'. There's a new chapter every day until July 26th so go and check that out.
Also the Spring Writing Contest is closed and the winners are on mywebsite so go and check those out - they're worth the read through, trust me. .
And last but not least, my collab-fic 'Armed and Dangerous' is progressing slowly but surely. Chapter four is up on my profile so please go read and review, we really appreciate it.
I do believe that is it for announcements. Without further ado, I present, a new chapter of Glass Slipper.
Please review and as always you can follow me on twitter you can find me at vatrask
Enjoy 3
Kyra. She came back. But for him. She wasn't even going to call. They were best friends turned best lovers and she hadn't even called when she got back into town and now she was back in his life and all these ridiculously real feelings were flooding his system so he had no idea what he was really feelings; all he knew was that she was back. And she getting married to someone else – someone who wasn't him – and as he recalled, she wasn't the marrying type. But things changed – he certainly had since they last spoke. He had a daughter and two ex-wives under his belt; twenty six best sellers and a Beckett – yes he counted Kate Beckett as his if only in muse form. So, yes, they'd both changed but neither of them had moved on it seemed because he still felt drawn to her and she still smiled that secret smile that was only ever meant for him. He loved those endearing smiles – the 'what am I going to do with you' smiles – that said 'I love you despite everything and because of everything' which, to him, was the definition of love. And Kyra came back.
"She's real," Beckett had said to him "I didn't think you went for real." He used to love real; but not since Kyra, and that stung a little so for the first time since he met Kate Beckett, he walked away. He didn't walk far – just far enough to give him space to think. Old habits died hard because even now, more than a decade later, he found himself drawn to his writing – his old writing; the writing that changed him from real to this. No, maybe he wasn't….this anymore; he was growing up after he'd moved to this and was somewhere close to that; close to Beckett and the way he was when he was with Kyra.
He'd done the opposite of basically every teenager on the planet – he'd been a good kid in college; it was after college that would have given a normal mother a heart attack – his mother gave him tips. It was Kyra. She'd come into his life slowly and just when he thought he could make it work and be happy she flew out of it like she was never there; and this was how he copped – by becoming a playboy and doing crazy things every night to keep the press occupied while he made a name for himself as a writer using all the pain and confusion – and strength and love – he'd gained from Kyra. It all came back to Kyra.
And now Kyra was back and getting married and his heart clenched with the idea that it could have been him "I didn't mean for you to give me space forever" she confessed as she twirled around what was supposed to be her wedding hall – temporarily put off for the sake of murder – he was supposed to chase after her when she went to London but he hadn't because he didn't know and he was already kicking himself thinking of what could have been.
Beckett made him smile – or tried to – and even as he sorted through his feelings for Kyra, his heart flipped when she smiled at him that special smile that seemed to be just for him.
But of course he sort of betrayed her by meeting with Kyra in the middle of the case and kissing her. They may have changed but their kiss was just as dangerously sweet and warm as it always was, all consuming and not enough to truly capture the shivers behind it, the perfection of their lips against each other. But it was a little different this time because both of them had names ringing in the back of their minds that kept them from giving in completely – Greg and Kate. So they kissed for an eternity and then held each other until their heart beats returned to normal and then they smiled at each other in understanding; that was the last time they would ever kiss or do anything remotely similar to a relationship and that was okay because they had people in their lives to fill that whole with more than enough love – well…companionship in Rick's case but, whatever. The point was, they knew they could move on. Kyra was back and he was okay with that; he knew he'd survive when she left again.
When the uniform that'd been following Kyra brought Kate the photos of the two of them kissing she'll admit – if only to herself – that it hurt like hell though she had no idea why. They were friends, sure, but that was all; if he wanted to hook up with 'the one that got away' then that was his business. It was completely inappropriate to do it while she was in the middle of murder case but that was the only reason why she was frustrated. Yup, the only reason. Lanie, of course disagreed, trying to convince her that she was plain old fashioned jealous but she wouldn't bite – in public – she may or may not have gone home after receiving those photos and re-read 'A Rose For Ever After' over-analyzing the dedication to another KB who seemed to have meant the world to him.
And then he came in the next morning looking guilty as hell and she was determined to not tip her hand, willing to wait him out until he confessed. It didn't take long for him to look at some interesting spot on her desk and inform her that he'd seen her last night. Of course he called her on the fact that having someone tail Kyra was a waist of police resources but she still didn't falter – this was his problem, not hers.
But she remembered back to her conversation with Kyra and how sweet and wonderful she'd been and she remembered why she jealous of the woman – she was practically perfect, but more importantly she was perfect for Rick and that seemed to frustrate and calm her. How could she hate a woman who was so nice to her? She just had to focus on the case and not on how confused she was about Castle and things would be alright.
The case did end; they got the bad guy and proved that true love conquered all; a pretty good day for the team – a really confusing day for the dynamic duo who were still trying to figure Kyra out and more importantly, where to go from here.
"He's all yours." She had just…come up to Kate like it was nothing and said it to her with a knowing smile like Kate was supposed to know what that meant. She did – somewhere in her subconscious – but she was still consciously trying to figure it out when Castle emerged from the break room and told her that Kyra had invited the two of them to Kyra and Greg's Wedding, Take Two. And she agreed to go with him – but not on a date; just one friend supporting another as he watched the former love of his life walk down the aisle with a really nice man. She had a feeling that's what stung the most for Castle, so she stayed with him – may or may not have slow danced once or twice – and made sure that he smiled. Because if he smiled, then everything would be okay.
But of course after the wedding was over life had to go on; Kyra and Greg went on their honeymoon, promising to keep in touch knowing that they probably wouldn't and perfectly okay with that, and Kate and Rick went back to being Beckett and Castle and the precinct; the dynamic duo solving crime and kicking ass. It was a good rhythm that was easy to get into.
Things got very complicated a few weeks later when a seemingly normal case hit much, much too close to home and Kate was faced with the realization that her mother's murder was not as random as the police had originally thought. In lost desperation, she called her dad just to talk. She didn't do that anymore; the only time she ever saw her dad was on special occasions and before that hadn't bothered her but goddamnit if Castle didn't make her reflect on the relationships she had with people. He was famous and often incredibly busy – yes, she admitted that he sometimes had a real job – and yet Rick Castle still had time to be an incredible father to his teenage daughter. And here was Kate Beckett, not famous but incredibly busy and she rarely spoke to her father. That had to change; but now, she had a killer to find and he might be the key to figuring out what was going on with her mother's murder.
Johanna Beckett's Irrefutable Law of the Universe: Life never delivers anything you can't handle.
So, if life was handing her Rathborn, the confirmed assassin who murdered her mother, then obviously she could handle the closure that would come with catching him. She got cocky; the talk with her father had calmed her but also made her more determined than ever to catch her killer.
Her killer; she'd missed the way Dick Coonan had said it and he signed a deal to catch a fictitious killer – but Castle caught it – just too late so they chased Coonan down but again he got the better of them. She would have let him walk out of the precinct if it meant that he took the gun out of Castle's back; in a moment of weakness she was willing to let her mother's killer go free if it meant saving Castle's life. Because she could catch a criminal on the run – she couldn't handle Castle dying because of it. But things went wrong again – or maybe right – and Coonan was shot, bleeding out on the floor of the precinct while she tried to pump the blood back in his body and she did something she hadn't done in a very long time.
She cried in public and didn't care. She wiped the sweat from her temples with the back of her hand because her palms were dripping with the man's blood and she vaguely felt a warm, strong hand on her shoulder to keep her steady even though she was too numb to collapse. She just sat there in the middle of the precinct crying while Castle held her as best as he could – as best as she would allow – until the paramedics came to take Coonan's body away. By that time she was at least able to stand and make her way to the washroom where she could wash the blood off of her hands.
She took longer than was absolutely necessary, unwilling to go back out there to face everyone, but her hands were scrubbed raw and her clothes suddenly felt too constricting so she willed herself out into the bullpen to find no one making unnecessary eye-contact with her and no one trying to console her. They did what ever cop did when the job got to close; they gave space – and she was grateful for it as she made her way up to the lockers where she knew she had a change of clothes. It wasn't until she'd come down where looser clothes and a little less weight on her chest that she noticed that Castle wasn't there; she hadn't seen him since they carted the body away. He probably went home to look after his daughter – god knows she wanted to be with family right now but two times in as many days would make her dad suspicious – so she settled so hanging out with her precinct family; the majority of which were heading home. Even Captain Montgomery was packing up for the day, stopping at her desk only to drop off his incident report for her review on his way out the door; he didn't say anything but at least offered her a calm, comforting smile that masked something she couldn't place but might have resembled uncertainty. He wasn't sure what to say anymore, but she appreciated that he tried; but that left her virtually alone on the homicide floor to linger in the events of the day.
And then Castle was there and everything was okay because he brought a smile and enough food to appease her Styrofoam temple in the fridge at home. Exactly what she needed. But then he told her he was leaving because of what happened today and she felt this sudden tightness in her heart that she expertly hid behind honesty – she needed him here to keep catching the bad guys and particularly the bad guys haunting her dreams.
And he stayed.
And life went on.
More cases came; more honest smiles ensued.
They caught a case involving some very powerful people – in the sports world that is – and like many of their cases, a theme came up that seemed to resonate through the team: this time it was 'fatherhood'. Cano Vega was a man who had enough money and power in his profession that he could have been called a playboy but he was also a new father, and anxious to be a good one; Kate instantly thought of Castle and was so glad that his tale of woe was nothing compared to Vega's. Rick had lived and his daughter had grown up well, that's all that mattered; to Kate. Alexis was still a little unsure.
Like the themes that resonated through the team at the precinct, Castle also found that cases also mirrored his life at home and this case was no different. Poor Alexis was feeling lost because she could trace her mother's family – as absent as she was – to the dawn of time but her dad's – as present as he was – was blank on one side and it bothered her more that her dad didn't care. I mean, how could you not care that you never grew up with a father; she found it hard enough to grow up with a mother she only saw three times a year.
"When I was in college I met this girl named Allison," he told her "and in the span of six hours we talked, we danced, we fell in love. The next morning she was gone. I looked for her for a year but I never learnt her last name; there's not a day that goes by that I don't think about her. Your gram told me that she loved a life time the day she met my father." And she believed him; believed in him, rather. Enough that she bought him a baseball glove and proved, inadvertently, that you don't need a dad – or be able to play catch – to be a great dad.
Did you see what I did there with that line from 'Suicide Squeeze'? Yeah? Okay, keep reviewing, I have plans for you my little minions. Muahahahaha!