A/N: woah, like four days with no update - it's been a hectic week! But I'm back now - thank you for your response to whether it should go M or not, only one person said no, so if/when it does get to that, I'm just going to make it really obvious where the M parts are so you can skip it if you wish :) anyway - they're off to breakfast now, I should manage to keep that clean ;)

The diner they'd chosen to meet at was fairly busy when Kate arrived, but she found a free table and sat down, waiting for Castle. Her earlier excitement had dissipated a little, and she was feeling a lot more nervous right now - if this breakfast went how she was expecting it to, her and Castle were literally on the verge of a full blown relationship. Now that was a scary thought.

It wasn't that she didn't want a relationship with him, oh no, she could finally admit to herself that that's what she'd wanted for a long time now, but she was scared. She was an expert in screwing things up and that wasn't really too much of a problem before - she'd never really cared enough to be bothered about it working out or not, but now..well now she was desperate not to ruin everything. She was so ridiculously in love with him that she knew it would break her heart if everything went wrong..and that's why she was scared, she didn't really know how to do this whole serious relationship thing, not properly - she could hardly count her relationship with Josh. That had been sort of serious - by her standards, anyway - but he was never really around long enough for them to actually talk about taking it any further..but she knew full well that Richard Castle was here and he'd be here to stay.

When Castle walked in, it took him a moment to find Beckett, the majority of the booths and tables were in use, but he spotted her sat at a table in the far corner, seemingly deep in thought. He frowned a little - on the phone she had sounded happy and had invited him out to breakfast..but from the look on her face this wasn't going to be what he wanted to hear.

Taking a deep breath, he headed over to her table. "This seat taken?" He asked, attempting some humour.

He needn't have been worried - her face lit up like Christmas tree in Times Square when the saw him - whatever she had been thinking about quite possibly wasn't about him. "I don't know," she shrugged, playing along with his game. "I was waiting for my partner.."

"Well," Castle replied, looking around. "He doesn't seem to be here." He took the seat opposite her and she smiled. "What's he like anyway, this partner of yours?"

"Annoying, irritating, disobedient, a smartass, a complete child half the time.."

He would have been offended but the twinkle in her eye let him know she was joking. Sort of. He knew she felt like that about him some of the time but he'd still managed to worm his way into her life. "God he sounds terrible!" Castle laughed, "how on earth do you put up with him?"

"Ah he's not so bad," Kate grinned. "He's one of the kindest, sweetest, most genuine people I've ever met."

Jesus Christ he loved her. "I..um-"

"Out of words, writer boy?" She teased. "Hey, Castle," she said softly, still smiling at him.

"Morning, Beckett," he smiled back. They were lost in their own little world for a moment, staring into each other's eyes, both of them content to just sit there.

"Morning folks." They were interrupted by a waitress coming over to see to them. "Can I get you some drinks?"

"Uh yeah..coffee for me, please," Kate smiled.

"Same," Castle told her.

"Great, I'll get it brought over for you."

They both muttered their thanks as the waitress hurried away.

"So," Castle said, "to what do I owe the pleasure of breakfast with a beautiful woman?"

She rolled her eyes at his compliment but her insides burst to life, little butterflies floating through her stomach. "Thought it'd be nice.." She said.

"You sounded so..happy when you called me this morning.."

"Yeah, sorry about that! I was up early and I completely didn't think about you still being in bed.."

"Don't worry about it," he said with a wave of his hand, "I was up a bit later than normal writing but I'd been in bed long enough. So - no reason for this breakfast? Because after yesterday..I was just hoping you didn't kick me out of the precinct and now you're seeing me when you hadn't planned on it.."

Kate had been expecting this, Castle was never one to just accept things - he had to know the story behind it all. "I just figured we'd wasted enough time dancing around this," she shrugged. "It's not worth it anymore, putting it off and avoiding the subject..we both know there's something here and why wait?"

Castle thought he might explode, all of his dreams were coming true. "And..what I did? Not telling you about your moms case and stuff.."

"I'm not going to sit here and say it's fine because it's not. I'm still angry that you didn't tell me but I know you could say the same about what I hid from you. We've both made mistakes but I think as long as we're both open and honest, we could make this work." Did she really just say that? "Uh..if you want to, that is," she added. She knew how she felt and she knew he'd said how he felt but she wanted to make sure they were on the same page.

"Oh god of course that's what I want!" He told her, grinning from ear to ear. "That's all I've ever wanted and now..seriously? You want us to give this a go?"

She could help but laugh at the excitement in his voice. "Yes Castle, I want us to give this a go. It's going to take some work but I'm willing to try if you are?"

"Oh completely. One hundred percent, I'm in!"

The waitress came back with their coffee, apologising for the wait. They told her it was fine, they could see how busy it was and ordered pancakes whenever she was ready. The waitress shot them a grateful smile and disappeared to put their order into the kitchen.

"So um..does this mean you're my girlfriend?" Castle asked.

She hadn't really thought about that..she wasn't really one to put labels on relationships but she knew it meant a lot to Castle - he was sort of old fashioned like that. "Yes Castle, if that's what you want to call it then I guess I am," she smiled.

"Wait, if that's what I want to call it? So you don't?" He looked worried and Beckett reached across the table to grasp his hand.

"Hey," she said, "I hadn't thought about what it made us but it sort of makes sense. I mean..you could call it dating but then to me that sort of insinuates that it's not serious and there might be other people you're 'dating' and that's - wait, you're not seeing anyone else, are you?"

"No of course I'm not!" He laughed, how could she seriously think he was dating someone else? "If I'm not with you I'm with Alexis - who else would I be dating?"

Okay, now she felt like an idiot. "I don't know, that woman who works in the coffee shop near the precinct always flirts with you," she grumbled and realised a little too late that she sounded jealous.

"Katherine Beckett are you jealous?" He smirked and she narrowed her eyes at him.

"No.." She lied, "I was just making sure. So um, yeah, if we aren't dating I guess you're my..boyfriend?"

"Sounds good, doesn't it," he grinned and she couldn't help but agree.

"Yeah, Castle, it sounds really good."

Their food arrived and they sat in comfortable silence for a few minutes as they began to eat. "Um, Castle?" Kate began tentatively.

"Um, Kate?" He replied and she rolled her eyes at him.

"I was just wondering..would you mind if we sort of kept this a secret?"

"By this I'm assuming you mean us?" He asked and she nodded.

"I just..this is all new, to both of us and I know everyone at work would be happy for us..well, maybe not Gates but the boys would be but do you think we could just keep it between us, just for a few weeks?"

"Of course we can," he smiled. "Though uh, I think I might need to tell Alexis.."

"Oh god of course you will!" She said, "I never meant you couldn't tell her! In fact, I think I might have to tell Charlie too!"

"Okay..and then we just tell the others when we're ready?"

"Yeah..I just want you all to myself for a bit."

Well, how could he say no to that?

Monday rolled around far too quickly for Kate's liking. She'd had such a good weekend - the night at Castles on Friday, spending the day with him and Alexis on Saturday and then officially confirming their relationship over really good pancakes on Sunday..she almost didn't want to go to work, especially when she knew her and Castle would have to act like nothing had changed.

After their breakfast the day before, the two of them had walked hand in hand back to Kate's apartment to see Charlie - who practically squealed at seeing them together. When they announced they were actually together now Kate could almost see Charlie planning the wedding. They sat around and had coffee, telling Charlie that they were keeping it a secret for now, just her and Alexis would know, before Castle left them to it to go and spend some time with his daughter and let her in on the new developments. Charlie hadn't even made a noise of disgust when Castle kissed Kate goodbye - and she had plenty of reason to because boy, that man could kiss..

Kate grinned at the memory as she climbed out of bed on Monday morning..jeez, this man turned her into a pile of goo at the mere thought of his kisses!

"Morning Beckett," Espo called out as she walked into the precinct. "Good weekend?"

"Yeah not bad actually, yours?"

"Same old," he shrugged. "No new cases yet, guess we can just finish off that paperwork from the case we closed on Friday."

Kate smiled and nodded, sitting down at her desk. She glanced at the time, wondering when Castle was going to turn up. She began her paperwork and didn't have to wait long - he arrived twenty minutes later, placing a cup of coffee on her desk.

"Morning, Beckett," he said, fighting to keep the grin out of his voice. That was his girlfriend!

"Hey, Castle, thanks for the coffee."

"No problem, Detective," he smiled. God they were lucky no one else was around, they were bound to figure out something was going on right now. Focus, Rick.

They were interrupted from their morning meeting by Ryan. "Beckett, Castle - we've got a body!" He called, heading towards the elevator.

Thirty minutes later and they were all listening to how Lanie thought he had been killed, but didn't have an ID. They found lock picks in his shoe - that was suspicious in itself, but didn't have much more to go on.

Ryan filled them in back at the precinct. "He's a thief." He put the picture if their victim up on the murder board. "Orlando Costas. Couple of domestic B&Es but suspected of a dozen more. He used to run with the Cazadores."

"Cazadores?" Castle asked.

"They're a violent street gang that deals in drugs, arms, and larsony, but all of Orlando's priors are back when he was a teenager. He hasn't been arrested in years," Ryan explained.

"Maybe he got back in the game."

"I don't know," Ryan counteracted. "He went a long way to clean up his act. Did four years, active in the military, discharged with honors last year. He spent his rotation as an MP in Germany."

"Military police? He really did clean up his act."

"If this guy went straight, then how did he end up dead in an alley? Did you check for next of kin?" Beckett asked.

"Uh, his folks are dead, but we managed to track down a girlfriend, Marisol Castañeda. Esposito's bringing her in right now," Ryan told her.

After speaking with the girlfriend, they found the car - and the victims phone.

"I know where he was coming from," Esposito announced.

"Where?"

"His last entry was 299 1st Avenue."

"Wait, what's at 299 1st Ave?" Castle asked and Beckett answered.

"Captain Montgomery's house."

Castle was worried. He'd gone home alone that evening, leaving Beckett with her thoughts. He was worried because he thought he was finally getting through to her, getting her to realise that there was more to her life than risking it trying to find tiny pieces of evidence in her moms case. But what could he do to stop her? She was a grown woman and like she had told him so many times before, she didn't need protecting - didn't mean he wasn't going to try though.

He could tell the second he walked in the next morning that Beckett hadn't slept. God he hated this..he just wanted her to be safe, with him, but he knew how much she wanted this and she'd only just let him in - the last thing he wanted was to push her away now.

She refused to let the boys tell Gates that their suspect was the same person who had shot her but he agreed with the boys - he'd personally feel much better if she was off of this case, it was the entire point of the deal he's made with Montgomery's friend but he was helpless when it came to this.

He forced her to come back to his loft that evening, insisting that he wasn't leaving her alone - and she had reluctantly agreed, not that he was above kidnapping right now.

He'd just plonked her on the sofa with a glass of wine and a blanket when his cell rang - it was Smith.

A/N: as you can see I'm sort of going down the Always route, but it's going to be a lot different because they're together now - got a couple of surprises up my sleeve! Reviews are welcome :)

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