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Nop, not mine…

Hour 23

Kissing her has become my favorite thing in the world. Knowing I can do so freely and without fear of death, is the second, and waking up with my arms around her is the third. I know I've said this before, but I'm not sure I'll ever get tired of saying this. Having her here, in my loft, on the couch, kissing her as if there is no tomorrow is simply too good to be true.

So I pinch her.

"Hey! What was that for?" Hey exclaims after a small, high-pitched yelp, pulling away from me.

"I needed to make sure I wasn't dreaming." I try to pull her back and resume our kissing, but she'll have none of it.

"So you PINCHED me?"

"Seemed close enough to pinching myself…Besides, your yelp in my mouth was way sexier than mine would have been…"

"Seriously Castle? Covered in bruises as I already am, you decided that giving me an extra one would be the greatest way of proving that this is actually happening?"

"Uhm… I didn't think it through?"

"You sure didn't…"

I realize that her breathing isn't even yet and I decide that it might be enough for now. I feel like talking again… I tug her to me and in a low voice, trying to regain the mood we were in a few minutes ago –before the whole pinching thing – I ask her: "Kate?" all I get is a grunt "Don't you think we should get our own cheesy sentence?"

"It's either too late or I'm way to sober to follow you, Rick. You're gonna have to explain yourself a bit better than that… you know, like a bestselling author?"

"You know how we've been saying 'Have I told you I love you? Still? Always,' all day? I just think we should get one that is truly ours…"

"I hadn't realized we had stolen it from someone…"

"Not someone's, something's. It belongs to the movie, 'An indecent proposal', with Demi Moore and Robert Redford."

"I don't think I've seen that movie…"

"How could you not have? It's an all time classic!"

"Still, I don't remember having seen it…"

"Then we should watch it right now!"

And without further preamble, I go to my DVD collection, find the movie and put it on. And then I remember: "I know we've agreed on a 24 hour dessert, but we have a problem…"

"Which is?"

"If we start the movie now, we'll need to pause it in order to do a proper celebration…"

"I'll tell you what… since we WON'T be doing a proper celebration tonight, why don't we leave the dessert for when we can actually celebrate and right now we focus on the movie. And maybe some popcorn. And M&Ms. Do you have some? They go amazingly with the popcorn!"

"The two of them together?"

"Yeah! I'll make some and you'll see!" We go to the kitchen and as I get some coffee ready (how could we not drink coffee right now?), I get to see her earth shattering smile. I'd like to think it's because of the coffee and what it means to us, but I can't avoid thinking it might be because she's happy that she has a weird food concoction I have yet to try. Trust me, that is not an easy thing to accomplish.

The smell of the popcorn is always amazing, but this time it seems to be even better. I turn around to where she's making it and I see why. She's not making it in the microwave, but in a pan. And she put sugar on it. Like, lots of suger. Seeing my raised eyebrow, she says "You just wait and see. You won't get a greater popcorn than this. During my semester in Russia I met an Argentinean girl and she always made it like this. Less butter, no salt, a lot of sugar. It's sweet, and the sugar makes this caramel that simply adds crunchiness to the whole munching experience."

"Whatever you say Miss Beckett!" I get the M&M's and the coffees and go to leave them near the couch. Going back to the kitchen, I can't stop myself. I hold her from behind and leave a whole trail of kisses down her neck.

"Hey! Not fair! You can't distract me while I'm making this! It burns easily, and trust me, you don't want to clean this pan if the sugar burns!"

"I don't care, I'll buy a new one."

"No Castle. You have a perfectly good pan. I'm not going to let us ruin it just because you can't hold still for a few minutes! Bring the M&M's back and then go sit on the couch!"

"But what if I don't like it? I'll be popcorn and M&M-less! And you can't have a movie without food!"

"If you don't like it, I'll sleep with my t-shirt on tonight."

"And if I do like it?"

"I'll only wear your boxers. Now go get them so I can place them all in the same bowl."

"That's blackmailing."

"So? I'm not a cop anymore. I reckon I can commit a some minor felonies, I've got a few people in the force that owe me some favors…"

"You're really not going back?"

"I won't go in tomorrow, nor the day after that. We'll talk about it at the swings, but can I get a few more hours to get ready to discuss it? I can tell you this though: we deserve a summer. So even if we agree that I should go to the 12th and beg Gates to give me my job back, I won't be reinstated until I've had my way with you. And we have way too much lost time to make up for… On the other hand, I know I said I was done with my mother's case, and I am done with it so don't fuss, but I'm worried that the fact that it's still unsolved will loom over our relationship and I really don't want that. I know that today I'm more than happy to say no to it and stay here. But do you think you'll be strong enough to pull me back when the next big lead comes our way? Will you be honest with me if you get a new lead? Will I be grown up enough to admit I can't bring them down alone and step aside? And more importantly, will we have people we can trust that can take over it? I don't want to send Ryan and Espo alone. Actually, I don't want to send them at all. So we'll need a contingency plan you know? What to do in case of an emergency."

"Like what can we say to blackmail each other to stop us both from running towards them?"

"Yeah, something like that."

"We should bring food to the swings… It'll be a really long talk…"

"I know. But let's go back to the cheesy remarks and the movie, at least for tonight OK? I feel like we've built this little bubble around us, I don't want to burst it yet…And knowing us, there'll be some shouting before we come to an agreement. Don't get me wrong, I want to get it over with as soon as possible, but I'm too hard headed and you're too over protective…"

"I know. But you're right. Let's enjoy this peace while we have it and worry about the world tomorrow."

By this point, her concoction is ready, so we go to the couch and get comfortable. I love the feeling of having her pressed against my left side. Even more so, because having my left arm around her means I can't get the popcorn – don't forget I'm holding my coffee with my right – so she has to feed it to me. And it's so good! The combination of the sweet, crunchy, warm popcorn, the slowly melting chocolate and her hands, make this snack the greatest one I've ever had! "You're sooo sleeping with only my boxers tonight…But I don't get it: why do I win after admitting defeat?"

"It's a win-win Castle. We eat what I wanted to eat, I sleep against your skin again and you're not allowed to, firstly, complain about the food and secondly, gloat about having your way defining my sleeping attire."

"Good God woman! I love the way your mind works!"

"And I planed all that while you were kissing my neck. Imagine what I could plan while you're doing other things…"

I gulp down some coffee and start the movie before I have the chance to not resist the pull this banter is generating!

She'll be the death of me.