I haven't had a chance to reply to reviews recently, so I'm afraid a mass thank you will have to suffice for now. Know that I read every single one of them. And many thanks to Andy, as usual, for reading over my jumbles of words and convincing me that they make sense!
The Late Shaft
It only took about thirty seconds for Kate to realize that she wouldn't be getting out of bed any time soon. Last night's curse-breaking, for lack of a better phrase, had left her sore enough to be acutely aware of while merely lying still.
Standing probably wasn't going to go well, so instead she melted back into the blankets, spent an inordinately long time gazing adoringly at Castle's sleeping form. She used to roll her eyes at him for staring at her; now, she understood completely.
He drifted back into awareness a few minutes later to find Kate no longer watching him, but instead curled up next to him reading their journal. They seemed to have developed a propensity for getting distracted while reading and leaving the notebook somewhere on their bed to be found at a later date. This time, she'd spotted it wedged between two pillows behind his head, and was now lost once again in the beauty of his words.
Castle stretched his aching muscles, wordlessly snuggled up behind her, propped his chin on her bicep so he could read over her shoulder. She tilted her chin to brush a sweet good morning kiss across his lips before turning back to the page.
Dear Kate,
I feel like I should apologize but I'm not sure for what or to whom. Women are so complicated sometimes. Ellie sleeps with me. You tell me it's just because she wants the part of Nikki Heat. I bring it up to her and she cries. Then you tell me she was just faking the tears. And now I have no clue what to believe.
No matter what, though, one thing is evidently clear; the last few days were not filled with some of my better ideas. I mean, it seemed great at the time, and we certainly had fun playing it up for the cameras, but maybe that's as far as it should've gone. Then I wouldn't be tied up in this twisted mess of trying to decipher her motives, and you wouldn't be judging me six ways to Sunday. Hell, I'm judging myself now too for making another in a long string of questionable decisions involving the female gender.
Either way, she's gone now and Alexis will be home any minute, so I'd better stop writing and go put the finishing touches on her welcome home meal.
(By the way, when I told you I had a date tonight, you were jealous, weren't you? I've never seen you get so riled up so quickly. There's no need to be jealous though. It'll just be a relaxing evening with my daughter.)
Good night, Kate.
-Castle
"Umm," Castle hedged, closing the book but marking the page with his finger.
"Yes?" Kate asked, rolling over and meeting him with mirth-filled eyes. The incident with Ellie had hurt at the time, more than she'd been willing to admit, but in retrospect it was rather amusing how easily both women had managed to toy with him.
"Can we just forget all of that ever happened?"
"I don't know, seeing you make an ass of yourself on camera was pretty entertaining."
He glared un-menacingly. "Not what I meant."
She patted his cheek. "Yes. I have absolutely no problem with attempting to erase the rest of it from my memory."
Easier said than done, though, as Kate could still recall those few days in detail. She'd refused to accept at the time that she was jealous, but the fact that she remembered exact conversations made it clear that Ellie's presence had made more than a passing impact on her. She remembered being annoyed at Castle for sleeping with her, annoyed at herself for being annoyed at him, and feeling the flares of jealousy curl around her when she'd thought that he might possibly be going out with her again. Not to mention the fact that the actress would be a horrible fit for the roll of Nikki.
She also remembered thinking Castle was incredibly shallow and irritating and clearly spending his time thinking with the wrong body part.
And he was, back then. Still was, to a certain extent, and he was possibly even more irritating now because he had a whole new set of ways to drive her crazy. Good and bad ways.
The most recent incident that came to mind revolved around his appearance on a late-night talk show a couple of months back. The second Nikki Heat movie was still in production, but the hype was starting to increase and the studio had arranged for him to make an appearance.
And this time, Castle had finally convinced Kate to be a member of the audience. It hadn't been an easy process, and it'd taken her three weeks to finally relent and promise to be there. But she'd done it, and though the fact that she ended up on national television caught her completely off guard, she'd handled the media attention with a stoic poker face and been surprisingly okay with the whole thing in the end.
Castle, as usual, had been blown away by her calm demeanor in the face of something he knew she despised.
Now, two months later, Kate couldn't remember the first two-thirds of the interview, but she recalled the last part in vivid detail thanks to the host deciding that it would be entertaining to steer the conversation away from the movie to the 'real life Nikki Heat.'
"Now for those of you in our audience who don't know, Nikki Heat is actually based on a real person, correct?"
Castle nodded. "She is, yes."
"And what chain of events led to her creation?"
His eyes flicked briefly to Kate's in the front row of the audience, received a small nod of approval from her. Though their relationship wasn't exactly not public, privacy was still paramount and he had no intention of revealing too much.
"I was called in for questioning in regards to a case, and I found myself enraptured by all of it. She hated me for it at the time but I wormed my way into shadowing her on cases so I could get some fodder for this new character that was forming in my head. A super smart and witty female detective with the NYPD."
"Nikki Heat."
He smiled. "Yes."
"And this was how long ago now?"
"Almost six years."
"And she still lets you follow her around, huh?"
The audience laughed, as did Castle, sparkling eyes meeting hers through the blurring contrast of the bright stage lights and the darkness that enveloped the crowd.
"And I hear she's in the audience with us tonight," the host announced, and Castle stiffened almost imperceptibly, already aware of what was to come. Only because she was so in tune with him did Kate notice, and it gave her a split second to compose herself.
Sure enough, the cameras turned to her, seated on the left end of the front row, intentionally chosen for the slight amount of privacy it provided. She wore a deep green knee-length dress, hair tied up in a loose but classy side ponytail. For someone who hated publicity, it never failed to amaze Castle just how well she handled the cameras. She always looked amazing and that night was no exception. Smoky eyes and soft pink lips smiled politely into the lenses and she lifted one hand to wave briefly.
"Wow," the host said as the cheering died down and the cameras returned to angle in on the stage.
"Yeah," Castle agreed, unable to contain the utterly besotted smile on his face. "She's amazing."
Kate was thankful for the darkness as the heat flamed her face, turning her neck and cheeks bright red. Hell, that would have made her blush in private and Castle just announced it to the world on national television.
"Next interview, will you come sit on the couch with me?" he asked, his thoughts completely in sync with hers.
Kate affixed him with a stern glare, the one that proved someday she was going to make a fantastically disapproving wife.
"Kidding," he amended quickly, reaching out to squeeze her thigh just above the knee. "You know I'm kidding."
She smiled softly, eyes lightening. "I know."
"You're a champ, you know that? You amaze me every single time you step out in public all dressed up like that. Hell, you amaze everyone who walks past you."
She rolled her eyes at his exaggeration. "I highly doubt that."
"It's settled then," he decided, meeting her eyes sincerely, though there was a hint of defiance skating through the normally light blue, darkening it slightly. "We're going out on a date tonight. You're going to wear something gorgeous and alluring and I'm going to prove to you that every man in the room looks up when you walk through the door."
She rolled her eyes again. "Castle..."
He barreled right through her interjection. "Because maybe then you'll understand why I'm the luckiest guy in the world."
"I..." she hesitated, thrown for a loop. "Uh... okay. We can go on a date tonight."
"Wear a dress," he commanded lightly, fingers dancing across the naked curves of her waist and hips. "And make sure it's one that's easy to take off of you when I'm slightly intoxicated."
Thoughts?