A/N: As a note, I've purposely kept this story weaving in and out of cannon, because I don't want to stray too far from the actual events of Season 3, even though the situations are different in some significant ways.

Shortish chapter. Hope you like it.

.

...

.

They entered the building together, Beckett just ahead of Castle, and plunged into near full darkness. When their eyes adjusted, they could see that they were in a short hallway, with light in front of them and on the left. A door, slightly ajar, from which voices could be heard.

"That's Ryan," Castle hissed.

Beckett held her finger to her lips, quiet, and Castle nodded. His palms were sweating, he could feel his pulse in his throat and his fingertips, but he felt calm otherwise. He followed as Beckett moved swiftly down the hallway until her back was pressed against the wall beside the door. There she paused, took a deep breath and peeked through the small gap. She lifted four fingers.

Four guys. Okay.

Before moving further, despite the threats they could now hear being hurtled at their friends, Beckett glanced back at Castle. He could read the uncertainty swimming in the dark green of her eyes. Not in the attack, but in his part of the maneuver. Leaning very close, his nose brushing across the soft skin of her cheek, Castle whispered as low as he could manage, "I'm good. Let's go. I'll get the door."

His confidence boosted hers, and Beckett nodded sharply.

The next few seconds went by sluggishly. Castle reared back and kicked the door, his momentum knocking him back a step. Beckett flew past him, took aim, and took two of the guys down before Castle was even moving forward. She was darting left with big strides, so Castle headed right and dove behind a stack of cargo bins for cover. His breath rasping against his chest, he moved sideways so he could get a look back at the action and found himself face to face with one of Lockwood's thugs.

Castle was staring down the barrel of a gun, but instead of a resurgence of the fear he'd felt earlier, he felt the surge of adrenaline like a fiery physical pressure all along his limbs. He lifted his weapon and fired without conscious thought, and watched the guy drop with a yell. He'd gotten him in his right upper chest, and he was down. Castle picked up the pistol anyway, just to be safe, and finally peered into the center of the room.

Ryan and Esposito were leaning next to a water trough, hands behind their backs and ropes around their necks. Castle felt a moment of indecision, wanting nothing more than to free his friends. But that wasn't his job right now, and with a kind of cold calm, he settled. The energy was still in him, shooting fire and strange sensation throughout his body, but his hands were steady and dry.

He couldn't see Beckett, but guessed she was also hiding behind lockers on the other side of the room. He shifted sideways, again, and finally caught sight of her. They were separated by Lockwood himself, but Castle could see Beckett reloading, braced against a forklift. The part of his mind that was always observing made a mental note of the image, because she was so in charge, so sure, so calm. He would write it into a scene later. She looked just like Nikki Heat.

Then out of the corner of his eye, Castle saw Lockwood setting his sight on Beckett. His weapon was raised, and his finger was tensing on the trigger. What shot through him this time was something akin to rage, though viewed through a misty lens of sentiment. That was his Beckett Lockwood was aiming at.

Why he wasn't guarding himself from being flanked, Castle didn't care to guess. Possibly, Lockwood didn't consider Castle a threat, but it didn't matter. It only mattered that he had time and opportunity to attack. Without a moment to second guess it, Castle raised his weapon and fired one more time, catching Lockwood in his shoulder. Lockwood jerked and dropped the gun, but he didn't fall. After the initial impact, he regained his balance and started to reach for his gun again.

Castle charged, swinging his gun hand and slamming the butt of the weapon sideways into Lockwood's jaw with a sickening crunch. As the other man went down, the conglomerate of emotion setting fire to his systems got the better of Castle and he swung his left hand into the mans face, then again, and again, until Beckett was standing just in front of him. When he finally stopped, he could taste blood in his mouth, but he didn't think he was bleeding.

Beckett regarded him quietly, standing very still. "You okay?"

Castle stared up at her where she was silhouetted by the harsh light of the warehouse. He nodded mutely, then sat back on his heels and watched while Beckett cuffed the unconscious Lockwood. She returned to him and ran her fingers through his hair in a single caress, an acknowledgement, and gratitude. Castle leaned his forehead against her hip, allowing himself a single breath to gather himself, and then clambered to his feet so they could go free Ryan and Esposito.

He was shaking uncontrollably.

.

...

.

(She wasn't supposed to be taking care of him.)

"None of this is going like I imagined it," Castle murmured in the back of the open ambulance, watching her hands work at his bandage.

"How do you mean?"

Castle could only shrug, his unexplained disappointment feeling childish and mundane. "Nothing, I'm being stupid."

"Hey," Beckett tapped his wrist lightly until he met her eyes. "Tell me. Can't just walk away now, right?"

Her words cut through the haze of adrenaline and disappointment, and he smiled, briefly. "I've just always felt kind of naked running around with you guys. I thought when I had a weapon I'd be able to keep things together. To keep the bad things from happening." He laughed, derisively. "I know that doesn't make any real sense. You've all been armed this whole time."

"You may have saved my life today, Castle. Isn't that enough?" Her fingers were still caressing his wrist above his bandage, her voice soft and soothing.

"Of course it is. Yeah, no, of course. I'm just too wired, I think. Too wired to think."

"That'll pass soon. You're going to be exhausted before you even know what hit you." Beckett stood, taking a moment to press her lips against his forehead. "It was a good shot, Castle. But you know, once you've winged the guy you don't normally need to pummel his face in, too."

He grinned, just a little, feeling macho in front of her in a rare way, and shrugged. "I had too much juice. It was like I was going to jump out of my skin if I didn't, uh, pummel his face in. I had to."

"I get that." She was still standing there, holding his good hand, even though she certainly had work to do outside.

"Are you okay?"

"Yeah. I'm just... I think I skipped the adrenaline part and went right into exhaustion."

Castle nodded, bringing her hand to his lips to kiss her palm, then leaning his head back against the wall when she turned and hopped tiredly off the back of the ambulance. The very first wisps of fatigue were beginning to pull at his eyelids, and in his minds eye he could see the energy draining out of him like water out of a leaky cup. He couldn't wait to get home.

.

...

.

"Tell me why your mom was mad at you today."

They were sacked out on the couch at the loft in their pajamas, talking in fits and starts of tired conversation. It would have been smarter to go to bed as soon as they got home, but they had made the mistake of sitting down after changing. They were falling asleep where they sat leaning into each other. With her head on his shoulder, Beckett could feel him sigh.

"She was just scared I was in danger. She told me to be honest about why I was doing this. But, I have been, haven't I? You know that it's not just about the books anymore, right?"

Beckett huffed out a breath of air and twisted around in his arms so she could kiss him, her fingers coming up to frame his face. He expected just a peck, but she was insistent, sliding her warm lips along his in rhythm with her fingers glancing over his skin. When he parted his lips in response to the touch of her tongue, she made a tiny satisfied noise in the back of her throat and trapped his lower lip with the gentle pull of her teeth.

There was weariness written into the way she pulled away, and the way she let her forehead fall awkwardly against his cheekbone. She whispered, "Of course I know it. I'm sorry I don't tell you more often," before she heaved herself back and pulled a pillow onto his lap so she could rest her head and still look at him. The words were a balm castle hadn't realized he'd needed, and he stroked his good hand through her hair.

"And I'm sorry that you were alone over the summer, digging up your mother's case because I put it back in front of you."

"That's in the past." She touched his chest, and then played with the bandage on his hand, carefully pulling the injured appendage to rest on her stomach. "This is the present. You're here now. How's it feel?"

"Like it's on fire from the inside." He didn't flex the hand like he wanted to, he'd learned how much that could hurt only about half an hour earlier.

"Sure it doesn't need to be x-rayed?"

"Not really." Beckett frowned up at him, so he continued, "If I'm worried in the morning, I'll go to the ER."

It seemed to be enough, and she settled a little deeper into his lap. "M'kay." The answer was mumbled as she fought back another yawn, then rubbed her head against the fabric of her pillow.

"You know what I was thinking in that alley?"

Beckett shook her head and closed her eyes. "Let's get the bad guys?"

Castle huffed out a little laugh and resettled himself a little lower on the couch. He was tired. "I was thinking, thank God we're together, because I think the kiss was the only thing that would have worked to distract the guard."

He could feel Beckett smile against the fabric at his belly as her head sank a little heavier with fatigue. One corner of his mouth lifted in a little grin as he thought about it more. "I mean, imagine if we'd still been... you know."

"Pretending we were happy just friends? Dancing around it? Ignoring all of the really hot sexual tension?" Beckett put a little sultry in her voice and skimmed her fingers over his chest.

Castle flexed his chest muscles, just to make her laugh. It was small and tired but sincere, and she wrapped around his middle to give him an awkward sideways hug before dropping her arms again.

"Probably we wouldn't have been able to resist each other any longer," Castle thought aloud. "We'd totally be in bed right now."

"No way."

"It worked under the mistletoe."

"That was different. You'd already won me over. But if we hadn't already been, you know, headed in the right direction, never would have worked."

"Let's agree to disagree."

Beckett grumbled without vigor. Castle was certain he was right. There's no way, if they hadn't been together at the beginning of this day, that they could have shared a kiss like that and continued to deny the force of the thing between them.

"Castle?"

"Yeah?"

"Let's do something fun tomorrow."

Castle smiled and turned his face into the silky hair at the top of her head. "Yeah." He pressed a kiss there, and used his good hand to comb through the strands. "That sounds perfect."

.

...

.

A/N: Thanks for reading!