He doesn't expect Kate to concede to staying for another week, even when Lily asks with her bright eyes and hopeful smile, and she doesn't exactly. At least not right away.

"How about this," Kate begins to bargain with their daughter during their final scheduled night in the loft. She's sitting beside Lily on her bed, unaware of his presence outside the door. And he isn't trying to spy, really. He just doesn't want to interrupt. "You know I have to go back to the precinct tomorrow and then I have to do some work around the apartment-"

"With Tom?" Lily asks and he instantly stiffens, but Kate merely huffs.

"You know, listening in on other people's conversations will only get you into trouble."

"I wasn't trying to eavesdrop, Momma," Lily explains, not necessarily convincing, and oh, she really is his child. "I just forgot to turn the music on in my headphones while you were talking to him on the phone yesterday."

"Liar," Kate mutters. He hears Lily giggling, smiles to himself at the sound, the mother-daughter dynamic he was never able to provide Alexis when she was a little girl. "But yes, Tom will probably stop by in the evening, just to make sure he has all of his stuff."

"So you guys are getting a divorce?" Lily inquires a little quieter.

Castle holds his breath while Kate sighs.

"Does that bother you?"

A beat of silence passes.

"No," Lily answers, but he can hear the uncertainty in her voice, the reluctance. "I want you to be with my dad, but not just because he's my dad," she rushes to add. Castle leans in a little closer to the doorframe. "When he was missing, you were so sad because you loved him so much. And if you still love him that much, he should be your always again."

Your always. It's the second time one of his daughters has used that phrase. In the past, he's referred to the person you're supposedly meant to be with in tired and overused terms - 'the one', a 'soulmate', 'Prince Charming' for Alexis when she was younger - but Kate has given him an entirely new and far more valuable title.

"He never stopped being my always," Kate murmurs softly. He can so effortlessly picture her getting more comfortable against the headboard, wrapping an arm around Lily, maybe combing her fingers through their daughter's lengthening hair. "And that's why Tom and I are separating, but that doesn't mean we won't be friends anymore."

Lily's quiet for a moment, thoughtful. "Is Tom upset?"

"He's sad," Kate admits on a sigh.

"Because we aren't his family anymore?"

"I - family isn't always about who you live with, you know." He listens to Kate try to explain. "Tom will always be family in a way, kinda like how Uncle Javi and Ryan are family even though they aren't really my brothers."

"But different," Lily clarifies, too smart for her own good by the sounds of it.

"But different," Kate confirms. He can feel her nerves radiating from the room even though he can't see her, can hear the guilt dripping into her voice. "I love Tom, it's just... not enough, not fair to him. He's always been a good friend to me, but I - if I'd known your dad was alive, I think Tom and I would have just stayed friends."

Lily hums, a contemplative little sound. "Does he… does Tom stop loving me now? Since he's not gonna be my step-dad anymore?"

"Of course he still loves you," Kate assures her without a moment's hesitation, and Castle never thought he would be so glad for it. "Just because he and I aren't together doesn't mean he has to stop being your step-dad, your friend. Tom cares about you very much, Lily, and I know he's happy you have your dad back."

"He is?" Lily asks, tentative, and Kate hums her affirmation.

"He wants what's best for you. And for me," she adds a little softer and damn, he really can't hate Demming so much any more now, can he? "But, what I was going to say was, what if we just spend a couple of days back at home, so I can get some things together? Then I can talk to your dad about us staying here again for a little longer."

"Deal," Lily decides and he takes that as his cue.

Castle waits for a breath before he eases his head around the entryway to peer inside. Only to find Kate already staring right at him.

Damn.

"Or, your dad can just tell us what he thinks of the plan right now," she murmurs, arching an eyebrow at him, and yeah, she totally knew he was there the whole time.

Lily's head whips towards him and she grins. Dismounting from the bed, she trots across the short distance to stand in front of him, staring up at him with those wide brown eyes. "What do you think?"

"I think you can stay as long as you want." Castle bends to scoop Lily into his arms, propping her on his hip and pecking a kiss to her cheek as she hugs his neck. "And that you should always listen to your mom no matter what."

"Mm, not going to save you, Castle," she deadpans from the bed. But any annoyance she harbors at the knowledge of him listening in on her conversation with Lily seems to be fading as she watches him sway back and forth with their daughter clinging to him.

"I wasn't trying to spy on you. Or eavesdrop," he insists in a whisper the moment they step out of Lily's bedroom. He holds up his hands in supplication. Rick looks genuinely apologetic, sheepish even though she has yet to say a word. "Kate-"

"It's okay," she murmurs, but stalls in front of him in the hallway rather than starting for the stairs. Castle's head tilts in question, but he waits with both interest and unease for what else she has to say. "I just - I don't want you to worry about this anymore, to feel threatened."

"Threatened?" he repeats, apparently not understanding, and she scrapes a hand through her hair.

She hates that he's going to make her say it, that she feels guilty for saying it at all.

"By my relationship with Tom," she supplies, resisting the urge to pin her bottom lip between her teeth and averting her eyes to the wall instead. "I just - you already know what you are to me, probably just had it confirmed if you were listening as long as I think you were."

He huffs, runs a hand through his hair when she sneaks a peek at him, looking like a chastised little boy.

"I guess I'm just… waiting for you to realize what you're leaving behind," he shrugs, a rueful expression spreading across his face, his eyes darting to land on anything but her.

"Castle, do you know what Tom said to me the day you were released from the hospital?"

His eyes do snap back to her at that, hesitation and curiosity piqued in his gaze, and she takes a step closer.

"He told me he wouldn't try to convince me to make things work when he knew I couldn't love him while you were still alive," she recounts, feeling that familiar flutter of shame in the pit of her stomach. But she looks back to Castle, all she has to do, and it slowly dissipates. "And there was just nothing I could say back to refute it. It's not about choosing between the two of you, or even what's best for Lily," she confesses, watching the blues of his irises deepen with color, intrigue and hope. "It may not be easy, but to me, love is… it's not supposed to be easy, not all the time. It's difficult and painful and raw, but - when it's right..."

He's watching her as if he's hanging on her every word, the shade of blue in his eyes mercurial, beautiful. She sighs, strokes a hand to the smooth skin of his cheek.

"You showed me that when it's right, it's can be extraordinary, worth any struggle. And that's why I'm here, with you, because it's also best for me. It's what I want and that isn't changing."

"Wow, Beckett," he murmurs, his voice gruff, but his eyes are warm. "Thought I was supposed to be the writer."

It's a light attempt at a joke, but she's been dying to ask him about that too, about Nikki and Rook, whether or not their story is truly over, if they'll ever receive the ending they deserve. But the smile on his lips is too fragile right now and she doesn't want to do anything to make it disappear. Not when it's become as rare of a thing as her own.

"Picked up a thing or two after being stuck." She shrugs, smirking, and tilts her head towards the stairs. "Want to watch a movie or something before bed?" she asks as they start down the steps. "There's a new Star Wars film-"

He gasps and she hides her grin behind the curtain of her hair.

Tom has already cleared out most of his stuff. What was once their bedroom is practically wiped clean of any trace of him, of their marriage ever existing. It proved so easy to erase himself from her life and she already feels like she owes him another thousand apologies for that.

They haven't spoken in person since the day Castle was released from the hospital, talking on the phone like colleagues rather than spouses. It reminds her that maybe marrying another detective was not the best idea when it comes to her communication issues.

Ying needs Yang, not another Ying.

Castle's words from so long ago, the silly quip about a panda, have always stuck with her, interfered in her dating life, and they flicker through her mind again now. She shakes her head at how irritatingly accurate he always was about her, and returns to sorting through her closet.

They aren't moving in with Castle and Alexis; they're just going to be hanging around the loft for an unforeseen amount of time and she doesn't want to have to continue going back and forth for clothes and toiletries.

And art supplies, in Lily's case. Even though Castle promptly offered to buy the girl the entire arts and crafts store down the street when she ran out of blue paint over the weekend.

"Momma," Lily calls, her bounding footsteps signalling her arrival into Kate's bedroom.

"In the closet," she answers, tearing her attention away from her shoes as she hears Lily's gallop veer to the left, and then her daughter is skidding to a stop in the closet doorway. "I know I'm not supposed to open the door by myself, but my dad is here, so can I-"

"What?" she breathes, jerking up from the floor. She follows Lily out of her room to the foyer with her heart thundering in her chest. "Are you sure it's-"

Oh, but yeah, there he is on the other side of her front door when she checks the peephole.

"Castle," she hisses under her breath, tugging the door open. She instinctively checks over his shoulder, scanning the hallway, but it's just him. And he's apparently brought Chinese food.

"Hey," he greets, and then hesitantly after catching the look on her face. "I'm guessing you didn't get my text?"

"Text? You have a phone?" she asks, feeling like an idiot for not thinking of that sooner.

He nods like an excited little kid, pulls the device from his pocket to show her, earning an exclamation of approval from Lily.

"Wow, you got the new one with all the cool stuff they show on the commercials!"

"I know, right? Alexis got it for me. And, I think as payback for her teenage years, she enabled it with a tracker," he explains and oh, thank god for Alexis Castle.

"Remind me to thank her," Kate mumbles, raking a hand through her hair and inhaling a breath through her nose. He's fine, nothing happened and Alexis has an eye on him now, but still- "How did you get here?"

"I took a cab," he shrugs, but she merely stares back at him. Castle glances to Lily before she can ask the questions he must see crowding at her lips and she sighs, motions for him to come inside. "I texted to ask if it was okay if I brought over some dinner. Probably should have waited for a reply."

He offers her a sheepish look, but she waves him off, walks beside him to the dining room table.

"That's okay! Right, Momma? Chinese is our favorite," Lily informs him.

"I remember," Castle chuckles before pausing, correcting himself. "Well, I remember it was your mom's, but it doesn't surprise me that she passed down her love of Chinese food to you."

Lily beams back at him, announces that she'll set the table, and Kate takes the opportunity to tug Castle to the side. She steers him towards the living room, out of Lily's earshot.

"Rick-"

"I was okay," he's already placating her, cupping her shoulders in his palms. "Those short walks we've been taking over the last week have helped a lot with adjusting and-"

"It's not just that," she whispers, unable to grasp how he doesn't seem to comprehend why this is such a big deal. "Castle, you were out there alone. What if Tyson and Nieman are watching, what if-"

"Whoa, Nieman?" he questions with a furrow in his brow. "I never mentioned her."

"No, but come on, she had to be involved," she insists, feeling the dread coiling in her stomach as his pupils slowly begin to dilate, tainting his eyes with darkness, and eclipsing the lovely blue that was present when he walked in. But she presses on. "She and Tyson were a team and everything that doesn't fit his M.O, fits hers."

Castle lets out a breath and tightens his grip on her shoulders.

"You're already investigating this, aren't you? How long did that take you after I told you what I remembered, Kate? Have you already started making calls, hung the murder board back up in your office?"

He looks so disappointed in her, even as he spears her with his words, jabs at her obsessive nature, but no - no, she has no reason to feel guilty, to be ashamed of her actions. She's trying to fight for him, to get him the justice he deserves, just like she has been for years now.

"They are still out there," she gets out through grit teeth. "They could come back for you."

"There are FBI details on me, on you, on Lily and Alexis. They told us that the first day in the hospital-"

"And you think that'll be enough?" she demands, the panic of possibilities climbing up her throat while indignations swirls through her blood. This is the same man who reminded her just how ineffective a security detail is against a determined killer all those years ago when Bracken was their biggest problem. He knew it wasn't enough then and when she reads past the denial in his gaze, she can see that he knows it isn't enough now. "You just took a cab here alone, made yourself vulnerable to-"

"And nothing happened," he points out, squeezing her shoulders, but she's on the verge of shaking him off. "I've been careful about going outside and being on my own because of the PTSD, not Tyson. He's already taken everything from me - six years of my life, a huge chunk of my memories... he's not taking anything else. It's been two weeks, I'm free, and if he wanted to come after me again, he would have."

Kate pushes a hand through her hair, takes a breath to refrain from ripping it out.

"Castle, what do we know about Tyson?" His jaw squares at the question. "You know he gets off on calculated plans - planting Ryan's gun, framing you for murder, kidnapping you on our wedding day. Those weren't just overnight decisions."

"You think I don't know Jerry Tyson after six years? Closer to eight, actually, if we count the times we dealt with him prior to all of this. He's not going to come after me like this. Not when there are cameramen camped out all over my block, surrounding my building, when my face is all over the press, on the news every night now."

"How can you know him?" she snaps, ignoring his presentation of logic, his confidence, letting her fears tear it all down. "How can you know any of this when you barely remember the last six years?"

Castle's hands drop from her shoulders, his face a mask of stone. "I remember enough."

She sighs, resists the urge to reach for him. "I just don't want to spend the rest of our lives looking over our shoulders, Rick. I want you safe and I want them behind bars, I want them to pay for what they did to you-"

"I know. You think I don't want the same things?" he growls at her, but he looks far more sad than angry. "And I trust that we'll get them, but I don't want to go after this so hard that it brings him down on me, on you, on Lily."

"Castle-"

"I don't want him to come back," he whispers, scraping a hand through his hair. "I just want you, the girls, and..." His throat ripples with a swallow, but it doesn't stop his voice from shaking. "And for this to not all be taken away again."

"Table's all ready!" Lily calls and Castle pastes on a smile right away.

"Be right there, just going to use the bathroom," he answers with ease, a slight strain to his voice that only Kate can detect.

But he turns away without looking at her, retreats to the bathroom of her en suite, and for the first time since he's come home, she doesn't think he wants her to follow.