A/N: thank you all so much, can't believe how good the response is to this, never imagined so many of you would like it! I wasn't going to do another update today but I decided to anyway because you've all been leaving such wonderful reviews, thank you!

"So," Charlie said, "you gonna tell me why you lied to Castle about hearing him say he loves you?"

"I..what do you mean?" Kate asked, desperately trying to find a way of talking herself out of answering the question. She never in a million years would have thought Castle would tell Charlie that, what had they been talking about?

"Katherine Houghton Beckett don't you dare pretend you don't know what I'm talking about." Kate almost crashed again when she heard Charlie's tone. Her twin was the more laid back of the two, never worrying too much or getting angry with people.

"What did he tell you?" Kate asked, keeping her eyes firmly locked on the road ahead.

Charlie sighed. She should have known better than to expect a straight answer, Kate would never make things easy for her. "I asked him how he felt about you and he told me that he loves you. Well, I already knew that of course, you can see it every time he looks at you, but it was nice to hear him say it all the same. So then I asked why he hadn't told you, I mean I knew he had but I wanted to see what he said - and maybe that was a good thing given that you didn't tell me you lied about remembering him saying it!"

"Look, Charlie, it's complicated okay?" Kate was more focused on the fact that Castle had told Charlie he 'loves' her - present tense, he still did even though the only major thing to happen since her shooting was her breaking up with Josh.

"How complicated can it be, Kate? Because to me it looks like you're finding every possible way to stop the inevitable. Because that's what it is, inevitable. You're going to be with Castle and everyone knows it - except you. So maybe it's time you stopped putting it off and put the poor guy out of his misery, like I said, he isn't going to wait forever." Charlie coincidentally timed the ending of her sentence with their arrival at Central Park. She climbed out of the car and didn't bother to look and see if Kate was following her.

Charlie was angry. It was one thing a guy telling you he loved you when you were shot but to then pretend you hadn't heard him? What on earth was she thinking? It was one of those instances where it was blatantly obvious that despite the fact they were twins, it really was only their looks that were the same, Charlie could never imagine being in a situation like Kate's and not doing anything about it.

"Charlie, wait up," Kate called, jogging to catch up. "Look, let me explain, please?" She said as she reached her sister. She wasn't too sure why Charlie was so angry, she hadn't expected her to agree with what she had done but on the other hand, she hadn't expected a reaction like this.

"Okay fine, but only because you're my sister and I love you," Charlie conceded and Kate let out a breath she hadn't realised she'd been holding.

"Thank you. Come on, let's walk and talk," she said, setting a slow pace around the park. "When Castle told me he loved me I had a boyfriend."

"Okay, point one to you," Charlie said and Kate shot her a confused look. "Well so far it's a good enough reason to have not said anything. Possibly not for this long but keep going."

"Yeah, right..okay. Anyway, Josh and I had been together for around a year, I didn't love him and Castle knew that. I mean I never told him directly but I'm sure you've noticed he's very good at reading between the lines. About a week before I was shot, we had a huge argument and he said 'I know you crawled inside your mothers murder and didn't come out. I know you hide there, same way you hide in these nowhere relationships with men you don't love.' And he was right, I hid behind my relationship with Josh so that I didn't have to face how I felt about Castle."

"From what I understand, you and Castle have pretty much been inseparable since he started shadowing you, how'd you have time to meet another guy?" Charlie asked.

Oh wow, she was really asking for it now. "Castle spent the summer at his Hamptons house with his ex wife," Kate said, conveniently leaving out the part where he had asked her first and she had declined.

"You know, I was about to fly off the handle at that, how could he do that to you etc, but then I looked at your face and I think it's pretty obvious you're missing out a big part of that story."

Kate damned her sister for knowing her so well, and for the fact that she wouldn't be able to worm her way out of this one. "Okay..so he asked me first and I said no..and then he asked Gina. She's his ex wife and publisher, bit weird but it works. But while he was doing that, I was breaking up with my boyfriend at the time to go with him. I was about to tell him I'd go when Gina showed up."

Charlie was silent for a minute, taking in everything Kate had just told her. "So maybe you were both in the wrong?" Kate shook her head. "What?"

"Castle didn't do anything wrong..well apart from not calling but that's a whole different story."

"One which I shall be expecting to hear soon. Okay, so he didn't technically do anything wrong, but what kind of a guy asks a girl to his holiday home and immediately asks his ex wife when the first says no?"

"Yeah okay, that probably wasn't his finest moment, but I'd already said no. Thing was, I broke up with Tom, thinking Castle and I were finally ready to start something and I had it all thrown back in my face the moment miss perfect blonde barbie came running," Kate said scathingly and Charlie stifled a laugh.

"Oh Katie, seeing you jealous over a guy is not something I thought I'd ever see after Brent Edwards!" Charlie had loved the jealousy when Kate and Maddie had argued over the same guy back in high school.

"How did we get from Castle telling me he loved me to Brent Edwards?" Kate asked. "Anyway, we're losing track of ourselves. Well, Josh and I broke up not long after I'd been shot. I guess it was half the fact that Castle had said he loved me and half the fact that Castle pointed out I was hiding in my relationship with Josh. Whatever, it was because of Castle."

"So..you broke up with this Josh and still didn't tell Castle you remembered?"

"No..I just couldn't do it. I'd told myself from day one that he was not my type and that it would only end in tears, but he changed Charlie, god, if you could see the difference in the man I first met and the man you've just met you wouldn't believe the difference. He used to be this self-centred playboy but he's not like that anymore."

"No, he's not," Charlie replied, "and that's why I'm so angry you haven't told him. Kate, Castle is one of the nicest guys I've ever met and a little over 24 hours ago, I didn't know him from Adam. He loves you so much and so does his daughter, I don't understand why he's still chasing you like a lovesick puppy!"

"Charlie, when I was shot I was a mess. I put on a front at work but I think Castle saw through it. He knew me well enough at that point to not push me to talk about, but he didn't know I was already seeing a therapist. It took me three years of looking into moms murder to even contemplate a therapist and yet I was seeing one three weeks after I was shot. He did that, Charlie, he made me realise that there's more to life than death and I owe him everything." She took a deep breath but continued quickly, not wanting her sister to interrupt when she was on a roll. "I'm scared. Scared I won't be enough for him, scared I'll hurt him..scared I'll get hurt. He deserves so much and I'm just worried I can't give it to him."

"Oh sweetie, don't be silly!" Charlie stopped at a nearby bench and Kate sat down next to her. "That man loves you and I think the best thing you could ever do was tell him how much you love him!"

"You really think it could work?" Kate asked quietly, she hadn't realised it until now but all she'd really needed was her sister to talk this through with.

"I do. I promise you Kate, you would make that man the happiest on earth if you told him how you felt. And who cares if it doesn't go according to plan, you need to at least give it a shot!"

"I know I do, and I'm so close to jumping in..I guess I just needed that extra push."

"What are sisters for, hey?" Charlie smiled and Kate hugged her. "Now, I fancy a hot chocolate, you want one?"

Kate agreed and Charlie left her sitting on the bench as she went to buy them. Her mind was made up, first chance she got, she was going to tell Castle how she felt. She felt as though a weight had been lifted off of her shoulders at that and she felt lighter than she had since the shooting, it was a great feeling.

She suddenly remembered she was supposed to have arranged lunch with their dad for tomorrow. Pulling out her phone she dialled his number and got his voicemail. She was too busy leaving a message to take notice of what was happening in the queue where Charlie was currently waiting..

Charlie felt a hand rest on her ass at the same time a voice whispered "hey gorgeous, how are you?" In her ear. Slapping the mans hand away, she turned to him in shock.

"Who the hell are you?" She asked, rather forcefully. Well, he had been touching her up..

Confusion registered on the mans face. "Wow, well, I know it's been almost a year but I didn't think you'd forget me completely.."

"I'm sorry," Charlie told him, "I think you've got me confused with somebody else, I'm pretty sure we've never met before."

"Oh I get it," the man said, his tone turning cool. "Now that I'm out of the picture I guess you and writer boy are free to get it on." Writer boy? Who the hell was that? "Just don't think you can come running back to me when you realise he can't give you want you want."

Having spent the last five years on a different continent to her sister, she forgot that being back home meant people would confuse them again. "Ah, you must be Josh?" She asked.

"Kate, what is wrong with you?" He asked.

"Im uh, not Kate. I'm Charlie, her twin sister."

"Of course you are," he said sarcastically. "And I suppose the moon is made of cheese, too?" Was he for real? Don't get too bored with writer boy!" He called as he walked away, leaving Charlie no chance to explain that she really wasn't Kate.

Returning a few minutes later with their drinks, Kate said, "you were gone ages, what happened?"

"Um I..think I just met Josh."

"My Josh?" Kate said and Charlie nodded, before launching into the tale of him mistaking her for Kate and getting annoyed when she said she was Kate's twin. When she had finished, Kate was practically doubled over with laughter. "Oh my god, wait until I tell Castle you met dr motorcycle boy!"

Charlie was confused, first writer boy and now dr motorcycle boy? "Uh Kate, what's with the the weird nicknames?"

"Oh..uh I don't know, I think Castle came up with the name for Josh..he never did like him..."

"I wonder why," Charlie retorted, "maybe it had something to do with the fact a guy other than him was getting into your pants?"

"Oh shush," Beckett said and Charlie smiled. "Anyway, I phoned dad and he didn't answer, but I left a message to see if he wants to do lunch tomorrow."

"Cool, sounds good to me. How about we pick up pizza on the way home and you can tell me more about the time Castle didn't call.."

"Deal."

A/N: Next chapter is meeting with their dad and I'm sure that's going to be fun! Reviews make me happier than Castle with a case about ninjas ;)

twitter - holaitsjade | tumblr - stanaabanana