100 episodes, 95 chapters...thanks for sticking with me through it all! Thank you to all of you who sent suggestions and to Andy for helping to get the creative juices flowing on this one. Much appreciated :)

The Lives Of Others

"We're almost at the end of the journal," Kate observed as she adjusted the book against Castle's lap, the edges of the pages gently swishing against her fingers.

"What can I say?" Castle asked without missing a beat. "You inspire a lot of words."

Kate rolled her eyes, but it was adoring, not annoyed.

"And we've solved a lot of cases," he amended.

"True."

"And I write for a living."

"Really?" she asked, mock surprise and sarcasm lacing her voice.

Castle laughed, leaned into her and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. Kate smiled, melted against him, so content in this moment, curled up on the floor in a blanket fort.

Sometimes she still couldn't believe this was her life.

"What?" he asked, so attuned to her that he registered her wandering thoughts.

"Come on," she said by way of an answer, once again drawing their attention back to the book. "Let's read."

Dear Kate,

I'm speechless. I don't even know what to say. This is what you've done; you've rendered a best-selling author completely incapable of words. This has never happened to me before.

I meant what I said last night. No one has ever done anything like this for me. No one's ever gone to so much trouble for me. Sure, I've had birthday parties. Surprise parties, parties with strippers and way too much alcohol and lots of women in very minimal clothing. But this one tops them all, no contest, because you managed to talk everyone I care about into helping out, and you went to so much trouble on my behalf and I just...

I can't even put into words how much I love you. Or how much it means to me that you did this for me.

I feel bad for being upset with you and telling you not to come back to the loft and almost ruining your whole plan. Of course, in retrospect it all makes perfect sense. At the time, I truly believed you thought I was crazy, which makes all of it so much better because the last thing I ever expected was a birthday party and a giant April Fool's joke as a birthday present. You really do know me so well. You anticipated my next moves, my thought processes, all of it. More than anything else, that's what amazes me the most. I've spent the better part of four years observing you and learning about you but I never realized you'd been doing the same, down to such small details as this. I had no idea.

I'll even forgive you for making me think you were in danger, because it made the whole thing all that much more shocking.

Well played, my dear Detective. Well played.

I don't even know what else to say right now. It's been just over eighteen hours and I'm still in shock. I'm still so amazed by you. Organizing that entire thing. Dressing up in that incredibly sexy dress... which, by the way, you looked stunning. Telling me you love my imagination. It's the first time I've heard that word fall from your lips and I'm still replaying that moment over and over. I can't stop. I can't stop thinking about any of what happened over the last few days, because it meant the world to me. All of it.

Best birthday ever. Best girlfriend ever.

Really, Kate. Thank you. So much. I know that's so utterly insufficient, but I don't know what else to say. I'm at a loss for words. You're amazing, and I love you so much.

Rick

"How did you know it would work?" Castle asked, still in awe. Always in awe of her.

"Because I know you," she replied simply, though in reality pulling that off had been anything but. "I know the way you think. You're curious and you want the whole story and I knew you wouldn't stop until you got it."

He looked up at her with a giant grin, so proud, so happy and in love with this amazing woman.

"Well, you were right," he agreed. It may have been almost two years but he was still amazed at what she'd done for him. The lengths she'd gone to just for him.

"I was so nervous," Kate murmured, still able to recall the stress of staying one step ahead of him while making sure not to ruin the whole thing. The worry that he wouldn't like it, that he wouldn't find it funny or sweet or anything else she intended it to be. That it might ruin everything they'd built, especially once they started bickering over it. The nervousness, how she was so on edge for fear that he really was mad at her, and that he wouldn't forgive her in the end.

There had actually been a split second she'd thought he might turn around and crutch right back out the door.

"Nervous how?" Castle asked curiously.

"That you wouldn't like it," she answered, verbalizing her inner monologue. "You seemed so upset when you found out it was fake and I just thought... I don't know."

"I wasn't upset," he assured her. "I was just in shock."

"I know," Kate answered, his words from the journal fresh on her mind. "Or I know that now, at least. But in the moment I thought you were going to walk away."

"I could never walk away from you," he murmured. "Of course, I couldn't walk away from anyone at that point," he added with a laugh, and Kate joined in, eyes alight with happiness.

Her hand fell to his knee, gently massaging the once-injured joint. It was long since healed and, aside from the occasional twinge, didn't cause him any problems.

"You know, I spent most of our first year afraid of losing you," he mused, a complete change of subject as his mind wandered. "I held back so much, because there I was, completely in love with you, and I wasn't sure it was reciprocated but I couldn't stand the thought of saying it again too soon and pressuring you or scaring you off."

"Castle..."

"I saw it in your eyes," he continued, needing to say it all at once. "And I heard it in your voice. But there was that part of me that still needed to hear the actual words to believe it. But after that... I knew," he admitted. "Even if you hadn't said it."

"I'm glad," she breathed on a sigh of relief. "I know I'm not good with words, so I tried to show you in every way I could. I'm just happy to know that..." she trailed off.

"That I understood?" he finished.

"Yeah," she murmured, once again grateful that he knew her so well.

Silence fell as they digested this new information, more pieces of their story that they were slowly weaving together, filling in the gaps as they went along.

"Want to keep reading?" Kate asked after a few minutes passed. She was warm and comfortable and really didn't feel like moving.

Castle smiled, reached out to flip the page. "Sure."

They smoothed the paper down against the others, but when Kate lifted her hand, she was surprised to find only a few words there.

A continuation of the last letter.

PS – Move in with me. Please. These last two weeks, having you here all the time... it's all I've ever wanted, Kate (minus the wheelchair and the broken knee cap).

Kate smirked, unsuccessfully suppressed a chuckle.

Please just say you'll stay, even after my leg is better. Say you'll stay with me at the loft. Forever.

Oh. Well, that wasn't what she was expecting. Then again, it wasn't the first time in these letters that he'd expressed his interest in having her move in. But this was the first time it seemed like a serious offer. One that she might have considered at the time had he verbalized it.

"I wanted to, you know?" she murmured, realizing that even back then, even when it seemed so fast and intense and overwhelming at times, even when there were still so many unknowns, so many questions, she wanted it too. More than she ever cared to admit.

"Stay?" Castle asked in surprise.

She nodded. "I enjoyed being there with you, Castle."

"Why didn't you say anything?"

She shrugged. "I guess I wasn't sure I was actually ready. In my mind, it was a trial run. For someday in the future."

"But you knew?"

"That we were headed for that?"

"Yeah."

"I hoped we were."

He nodded thoughtfully, hummed in understanding.

"Well, I'm glad you're here now," he spoke after a minute, putting his other questions on hold for the time being.

"Me too," Kate replied, leaning in to steal a kiss, only to jerk back in surprise as the ringing of her phone cut through the room, shattering the soft perfection of the morning.

"Don't answer it," Castle slurred, still chasing her lips even as she leaned back, already searching for the device.

"I have to," she sighed, finding it and sliding the screen to unlock it.

Castle echoed her heavy sigh, leaned back against the sofa. He'd gotten used to the odd hours, the early mornings and late nights and waking to the shrill ringing of her cell, but he wasn't sure he'd ever get used to the way her phone always rang at the most inconvenient moments.

He tuned back in just as she hung up, opened the text that appeared on her screen noting the address of the crime scene.

Castle closed the journal, set it aside with a pout. Kate got to her feet in the midst of the blankets, bent down and pressed a firm kiss to his lips, temporarily abating the childish facial expression.

"Later," she promised.

He watched her go with his eyes glued to the soft sway of her hips, making her way through the maze of linens that still covered most of the loft. Only once he heard the shower turn on did he spring to action, gracelessly stumbling through the bed coverings in pursuit of his fiancée.

She was already in the shower by the time he made it to their room, but the door to the bathroom was cracked, as was the one to the shower stall. Almost as if she knew he'd come.

(She did.)

He stripped off his boxers and t-shirt, leaving them in a pile on the floor, and joined her in the stall just as she was wetting her hair.

Castle stepped up behind her, wrapping his arms around her waist as his lips met the bare skin of her shoulder. He ran his hands teasingly across her stomach, up her sides, higher and higher until they were gently tilting her head back beneath the spray. He reached for the shampoo as the hot water sluiced over their bodies, was just squirting some onto his hand when Kate whirled around, poised to tell him they didn't have time for him to wash her hair.

Instead, she promptly found herself backed up against the wall, the cool tiles a sharp contrast to the hot water at her front. The shampoo bottle clattered to the ground and Castle was towering over her, one hand planted on the wall on either side of her body, eyes dark and dangerous, boring into hers, and any words she'd been about to say were promptly forgotten.

It was almost an hour before she showed up at the crime scene, hair damp and hastily secured in a bun, legs still weak and trembling, her whole body sated and glowing.

Castle appeared moments later with two coffees and a shit-eating grin on his face.

And judging by Lanie's raised eyebrows and the smug glances from Ryan and Espo, they were so busted.

Thoughts?