Castle hadn't seen Kate Beckett in six weeks. She had spent a few of those weeks at her father's cabin, recovering alone, and he had taken up the offer to spend a month away on a book tour across the states, meeting his fans and letting everyone finally see who the real Richard Castle was. They had kept in touch – he spoke with her almost every day and even video chatted with her from time to time – but she hadn't returned to the loft and he hadn't sought her out. Even though he wanted to. He really wanted to.

She had a place nearby now and had been back at the precinct for nearly three weeks, reacquainting herself with her past life like she had always intended to. They had discussed meeting for coffee within a couple of days and she had even mentioned wanting to take him back to her new apartment so he could see the place for himself, so he was surprised when she showed up at his loft mere hours after they had made the plans during one of their daily phone conversations.

Surprise turned to horror when he opened the door and saw her standing there, bruised and battered and soaked to the skin from the storm raging outside, but with a smile.

"Castle."

His name was a sigh of relief on her upturned lips.

"What the hell happened to you?" he demanded, but she reached for him first, snaked her arms around his waist and splayed her fingers at his back, dropped her cheek to his collarbone.

An involuntary shudder clambered up his spine at the chill of her body against his, but the relief of seeing her, having her back, easily overpowered the fact that rainwater was seeping through his clothes.

He hesitated, mostly because he was afraid there were bruises he couldn't see underneath her clothing, but his arms circled her back, held her shivering body to his like he'd been wishing he could for the past 43 days.

"Kate," he murmured into the tangled mess of her hair. "What happened?"

She sighed. "Bad day at work."

"Here, let me-"

"No, no, just-" She pressed harder into him, clutching tightly when he moved to pull away, and he huffed, but continued to cradle her broken body in his doorway, silently savoring the familiar curve of her and the unmistakable scent of cherries still detectable underneath the grime of whatever hellish day she had been through.

"I missed you," she confessed quietly, lifting her head but keeping her arms secure around him.

Rick raised his hand to her face, feathered his fingers over the blossoming bruise on the side of her forehead and stroked her sopping hair back from the colorful skin.

"Missed you too, Kate."

She bit her lip as she gazed up at him, her irises a swirling sea of gold and a bottle green he had never seen before, excitement and uncertainty and what he would swear was love in the depths of her shining eyes.

"How's the case?"

The excitement ebbed from her face, a reserved darkness creeping along the corners of her eyes, but she blinked it away.

"I told you Coonan was killed."

Castle nodded. Their only lead had had his throat slit in his prison cell earlier in the month and Castle had almost demanded her new address as she had broken down over the phone because of it. The files Smith had spoken of had never arrived. Rick had a feeling whoever had been targeting Montgomery, Smith, and Beckett, had gotten to him before he could send them. Setting her team back to square one in the investigation.

"And how I had remembered a case my mom was working on before she died, one she wanted me to assist with?"

"Yes."

"I think that case was what started all of this, it has to be. And I think Coonan was killed because we were close to cracking him. But today, we were working a case and I – the sniper from the funeral came after me."

Rick stiffened, his hands jerking to her elbows as the terror constricted his gut, but Kate lifted a hand to his jaw, soothed him with the cool relief of her fingers to his cheek.

"I almost died, and in that moment, all I wanted - I was only thinking of you. I just wanted you."

Her words struck him like body blows; the admission that she had mingled so closely with death once more and that it had brought her here making his heart bash itself against his ribs with a breath stealing intensity.

"I won't give up," she added solemnly. "Whoever had my mother killed will be brought to justice. In time."

Her fingers ventured up his cheek, so soft and soothing, to curl around his ear.

"But I don't want to waste my life waiting for that day to come. I've wasted more than enough time."

She used the hand on his face to draw him in, share breath and just barely dust her lips over his.

"What do you want then?" he questioned quietly, needing her to say the words, to confirm his tentative hopes.

"You," she said earnestly, meeting his eyes through the dark curtain of her lashes. "I want a relationship with you, I want a life with you, Castle, and walking away from you never changed any of that. It only solidified it," she whispered into the small breath of space between them. "I love you."

Castle brought his hands up to cradle her face, sipped reverently from her mouth as his heart pounded so hard he could barely breathe as he kissed her. Kate's hands mirrored his, cupping his cheeks, caressing the ridge of his eye sockets with her thumbs, and hungrily sucking his lower lip into her mouth.

He pressed her backwards, using her body to shut his front door while he slanted his lips over hers resolutely, allowed his tongue to slip deeper and show how much he missed her.

"How'd you get so beat up?" he murmured, continuing to rake his fingers through the snarls of her irrecoverably tangled hair.

"I was thrown off a roof."

His body stilled under hers and she tilted her head, pressed her open mouth to the underside of his jaw to loosen him back up.

"I'm fine."

"You're not," he huffed, his fingers tripping down her naked back, tracing over the patterns of scrapes and bruises he'd already memorized.

"Good thing I have a doctor to take care of me then."

"Better be the only one taking care of you, Kate Beckett."

She grinned, a delighted shiver erupting over her sated skin, and tightened the leg twined around his thigh, used the arm draped across his chest to reach for his head and pull him down for a kiss.

"You know you're the only one allowed to check me out."

A proud smile flickered across his mouth and he gently squeezed her shoulder as the persistent storm continued to rumble on outside, the lightening illuminating the content gleam in his eyes.

"You should rest. Don't you have a shift at seven tomorrow?"

Kate rolled onto her back, tilting her head back into the muscle of his arm under her neck.

"Actually, I'm suspended."

Castle pushed up on an elbow to stare down at her. "Suspended?"

"I may have gone against the new captain's orders…"

"Beckett," he murmured quietly, a mixture of confusion and reprimand in his eyes. "You just got back."

"I know," she sighed, dropping her forearm over her eyes. "But it's only for a couple of weeks. Gates isn't happy, but she's surprisingly understanding."

"But if you're not at the precinct, how will you work your mom's case?"

Kate pursed her lips and sat up, tugging him along with her.

"I was serious earlier, Castle," she stated, finding his hand in the mess of sheets and gripping his fingers firmly in hers. "I've been working her case since I got back to the Twelfth, and it made me see a lot of things I hadn't before," she explained, hoping she was making sense, hoping he was following and that they were on the same page, because this was important. He had to understand.

"Like?"

"Like, how blind it makes me." She swallowed, tracing her fingertips over the raised line of skin at his bicep, the still healing scar a reminder of what she stood to lose. "I was being reckless, today. It was just me and Esposito out there, no backup, and it took getting thrown off a building to see I wasn't necessarily going about this the right way."

His eyes darkened, the scene playing out clearly in his mind through only her brief description. "I would honestly prefer you go about it in a way that spares your life," he said gravely and she nodded in agreement.

"Yes, but my point is that it also made me realize how much I was missing. I feel like I was given a second chance, waking up after the coma, and you were right. I was throwing it away. I don't want to do that anymore."

His brow was still furrowed so she took a breath, prepared to lay it all out for him the best she could.

"You're first, you're more important to me than any case, even - even hers. She would want me happy. I'm happiest with you," she told him sincerely, lifting a hand to stroke reverent fingers at his jaw. "All I want is you."

"You have me," he said quietly, moving a hand to the taut skin of her outer thigh, up to the prominent bone of her hip, and curling his fingers there in reassurance.

"She would have loved you, Castle," she added as an afterthought, a smile flickering at the corner of her lips. "My mom loved your books and she would have adored you."

"Shit, Beckett," he huffed, turning his head and attempting to subtly swipe at his eyes.

Kate leaned forward to lace her arms around his neck, let him crush her against him in that same breath stealing way he had nearly two months ago at Montgomery's funeral. And she hugged him back, firm and secure even as her body ached with the vivid mosaic of newly painted cuts and contusions across her skin; he felt like home and relief and safety and she never wanted to leave this refuge again.

Castle nuzzled his face into her hair and the steady rise and fall of his chest against hers slowly began to lull her to sleep, but she stirred and blinked to keep the exhaustion at bay, still having more to tell him.

"My new captain, she isn't too fond of me, but she is a fan of Richard Castle," she mumbled and felt him shift curiously.

"Oh really?" he asked, arching an inquisitive eyebrow as she raised her head to see him.

"Yeah, and she wouldn't mind too terribly if he rode along with me for a little while. When I'm allowed back, and in her good graces again that is."

"You asking me to be your crime solving partner?"

She smirked. "I never said anything about partners, Castle."

"Plucky sidekick then?"

A small pool of fear rushed in her stomach. Plucky sidekicks were always the ones getting killed. God, she hoped letting him into this part of her life wouldn't be the greatest mistake she could make.

"Maybe - maybe partner after all," she conceded softly, brushing her thumb over the grin spreading across his lips.

"Well, in the meantime, how do you intend to spend your suspension, Detective Beckett?" he asked, seeming genuinely curious as he threaded his fingers in a bridge at the base of her spine.

Kate bit her lip and pressed him down into the mattress.

"I've got a pretty good idea."

Eight months later

"I can't believe we're moving all of this stuff back in. Again," Castle grunted as he hauled a box that he was positive held some type of apparel (shoes, he was betting by the weight of it) across the living room.

"Well, on the upside, most of my clothes made it here ahead of time," she said pointedly, narrowing her eyes from the kitchen where she was popping grapes into her mouth, because maybe he had played a part in sneaking a few blouses, her favorite pairs of jeans, and even some of her underwear to his place. But she had been staying over at the loft more than her own apartment for the last few months, her place practically barren most of the time, so he didn't see a problem.

"I feel no shame."

She came around from the kitchen, bypassed him with a smirk to grab a box of books and head into his office.

When he didn't hear from her after a good fifteen minutes, Castle followed her footsteps, poked his head into the study and found her curled in his desk chair, something cradled in her hands.

Kate met his eyes, unfurled her fingers to reveal the velvet box in her palm, and he immediately tensed.

She had found the ring.

"You need to find a new hiding place," she murmured quietly.

"You need to stop snooping through my drawers," he countered with a hesitant grin, approaching her cautiously, unable to gauge her reaction to the gift she was not yet supposed to have received.

"How long has it been in there?" she whispered, staring down at the little blue box in her hands, caressing it reverently with her thumb, and he nervously rubbed at the back of his neck.

"A few months. When I – after you came back to me."

Her eyes darted back up to him, the pools of amber sparkling, soft and alive with hints of liquid gold.

"I was saving it for Christmas. Guess I'm going to need to find you a new present," he chuckled to hide the apprehensive note to his voice, though she knew him so well, he was sure she had caught it with ease.

"Ask me." She offered the box up to him, pressing her lips together, her mouth tight in an adorable line to hold back her excitement.

His heart began to pound.

"Really?"

"Yes," she urged, grabbing his hand and curling his fingers around the box. "Ask me to marry you, Castle."

This was actually happening. Shit, he hadn't even – he still needed time to rehearse, make the words just right.

Rick took a deep breath and lowered himself to one knee, stared up at her in his office chair, the early morning light shimmering down on her and making her smile shine even brighter.

"Katherine Houghton Beckett," he got out shakily, carefully flipping open the velvet box and slipping the ring free from its soft confines, holding it up between them. "Will you marry me?"

He hadn't even been able to put the ring on her finger before she was practically launching herself at him, pitching from the seat above to fall into him, arms around his neck, lips crushed against his. He splayed a palm at her back, clutched her tight in something close to disbelief.

Castle laughed, teeth clacking with hers as their smiles bumped, and grasped at her hand when it slid to rest at his chest.

"Yes," she breathed as she dropped her forehead to his, watched him slide the sparkling, silver band onto her finger.

"I didn't think you'd be so excited," he admitted sheepishly, stroking at the delicate, papery skin beneath one of her eyes because she was near tears. Glimmering eyes, beaming smile, her entire face illuminated as they sat in a tangled mess on the floor of his study. He'd never dreamed he could make her this happy, that she would want this as much as he did. "Are you – are you actually crying?"

"Shut up," she huffed, ducking her head to bury her face in his shoulder.

His fiancé. His wife - he couldn't wait to call her that.

Kate curved her hand at the back of his neck, slipped her fingers into the fine hair at the base of his skull. "The thought of marrying you has always made me excited."

Has always made her… She had thought about this before? Had she-

"It's always been yes," she whispered, tilting her face up to press her lips to his jaw.

It struck him - as it so often did - how they had gotten here, made him want to believe in magic and destiny and all the other things he used to scoff at in the past. Their life together wasn't easy; the release of Heat Wave in September had the press pouncing on them again, and the battle with the Dragon – a battle they had yet to win – was far from over, her deal with the dirty senator who had killed her mother - tried to kill her - still thin and uncertain. But he wasn't scared of losing her anymore.

They were certain, bound together with trust built over time. Partners, lovers, everything he could have imagined for them and more.

"We're going to be great," he promised her, but she shook her head against him, the smile still unwavering on her face.

"We already are."

The End.

I'll attempt to keep this final author's note short, but I just wanted to sincerely thank every single one of you for reading, reviewing, favoriting, and following. The response I got to this little story blew me away and your support means more than I will ever be able to put into words.

A huge thank you to Liz, who read over every chapter while simultaneously convincing me this story was actually worthy of being read by others. Thank you for always making me feel like a better writer than I really am.

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