Notes:
Thank you for all of you who reviewed. I get that this is a Crossover ficand the summary might be a little vague as well so expecting rave reviews is expecting a little too much. I'll try not to let it get to me though, this story is more like a passion project to me so I've kept my expectations low on feedback anyway. However any feedback you do provide will be appreciated, whole heartedly!
Onto the next chapter! Enjoy!
Chapter Five
Two months later a case involving a robbery introduced the team to one Detective Tom Demming and Demming immediately set his eyes on Kate. He didn't know what to do, he didn't want Demming and Kate to become an item but he didn't know what the Detective meant to her, all he knew was that he loved her so when Demming asked him if they were involved he shook his head and said they were just friends. He would leave it up to Kate. He knew he was keeping a lot from her and if he started something with her before revealing all she would never forgive him.
From what he saw between Demming and Kate he knew she found him attractive but damn if it didn't hurt to see them together near the vending machine. And then she caught his eye, he tried to school his features, failed then turned around giving them some privacy. He went through his Occlumency exercises trying desperately to keep a cool head. He was no longer that person, he thought before he acted, this was for the best. But then why was there tears in his eyes?
Kate cornered him in the break room while he was making coffee. "Castle you know I was just being polite to Demming, right?"
His eyebrows rose up at that. Were they really doing this? And was sheactually initiating? He shook his head.
"Its none of my business," He said thickly handing her her coffee feeling as if the right to give her the beverage was no longer his, he was being ridiculous. It was coffee for Merlin's sake!
He turned away to make his own coffee, and to avoid looking into those deep hazel green eyes, he expected her to leave it, she was after all the Queen of avoidance and she didn't do complicated, not yet.
Demming was easy, Demming was simple, Demming was fun, He was just not all those things, he could be, with Ginny and then Gina he had been but it was not him. And he could never be just that with her and she knew it so history dictated that she would take the coffee go to her desk ponder him for a while before deciding that she didn't need to borrow trouble and then call Demming and that would be it for the time being. Oh it wouldn't last, that was what gave him hope, made him stick around; because he knew it would not last and when she got tired of running he would be there to pick up the pieces and put her back together.
But she shocked him by grabbing his wrist and stopping him from turning away, blue met hazel and the world melted away then came back sharper and more vivid than before and he almost fell over with the force of emotions coursing through them.
"You know whose business it isn't, Castle?" she asked her voice soft and pliant. "Demming's. It's not his business to question our partnership, it's not his business to doubt your usefulness and it's certainly none of his business if we are together or not." There was a dangerous and stubborn glint in the woman's eyes and his lips trembled as he tried to get a handle on things, the situation was slipping away from him.
"Oh," he said swallowing hard. "Y-You... uh... you heard that, did you?"
Kate smiled, a warm caring smiled her hand was still gripping his. "Yes I did," she replied rubbing her thumb over the inside of his wrist causing little shocks of tingles at every movement. "I turned him down, Castle. Demming is not what I need right now, ever actually."
"Oh," he said dumbly. He felt again like that first time asking Cho out to the ball, his tongue felt thick, his lips didn't move when he wanted them to, Merlin he felt like a fucking teenager again.
Kate smiled, an inviting one this time. "Yes, oh." And she waited...and waited... and waited..."Castle, that your queue."
And his face fell. He turned away from her pulling his hand away and gripped the cappuccino machine tight. He couldn't believe his shitty luck, all his life he had tried and tried to be content, tried not to get angry at life and existence in general for the bullshit hand he had been dealt with.
His Mom and Dad were dead and he was put in an abusive household and he didn't say anything. He was thrust into a new and crazy world at the age of eleven with no warning whatsoever and he didn't say anything. His Godfather was taken from him three years after he had met him and he didn't say anything. Cedric, Dumbledore, Lupin, Tonks, Fred, Dobby and he didn't say anything. He was asked to do the impossible and he did it and it destroyed him, so much so that he had to leave his life behind and he didn't say anything.
He had only wanted one thing to go right, this one thing to go perfectly, if not perfectly then smoothly enough. But no, she was right there and he could say yes and be with her and he knew it would be amazing and yet again life was asking him to do the right thing. How could the right thing be saying no to this amazing beautiful woman who actually wanted him. Him. She wanted that Potter boy who the neighbors had scrunched up their noses at. And he had to say no? How could he say no?
"Castle?" her voice was small, hesitant. God how much courage had she needed to admit these things to him? He knew her. To be this open? She was risking a lot and if he didn't handle this well he would lose her forever. He would have preferred that she choose Demming, he knew that wouldn't have lasted and she would have come back to him. This? This was agony.
He blinked as he felt the table shake, the coffee in the mug that Kate had put down to move closer to him was rippling, he was losing it, after twenty plus years of total control he was losing it here, he couldn't afford to lose it here not now, not ever.
He glared at the coffee cup and reached inside himself into his core and encased the fluctuating magic with his ironclad control, his eyes glinted, a little green showed through. He was not this. He didn't lose control. He was the Man Who Conquered dammit.
And the shaking subsided. He took a deep breath, released it and the green from his eyes subsided leaving behind an electric blue, he turned around and pulled Beckett close to him taking her mouth with his fusing their lips together, he put an arm around her waist pulling her lithe body flush against his as he plundered her mouth with his tongue, the guttural moan she let out spurred him further on, his hands plunged into her long glorious hair and he let the silken strands fall over his fingers as he sucked her lower lip into his mouth and nibbled on it, her hands on his shoulders gripped him tighter and her nails bit into his skin through the clothing as she responded eagerly.
The privacy charm he had cast told him that someone was approaching and he backed off slowing the pace of their kissing, pulling back until it was only a gentle caress of lips on lips til with a last kiss they separated and he put his forehead on hers and touched his nose with hers nuzzling revelling in the feel of her, he opened up his Occlumency walls and took in the sight of a well kissed Kate Beckett so he wouldn't ever forget because what was coming next could potentially mean that he would never get to do this again.
The knock on the door startled them both and they looked up to see Demming looking in the door. "Guess not just friends after all?" he said with smile. "See you around Kate, Castle I was wrong; you help more than you think. I'll see you guys." And with that he bowed out leaving Detective and Writer speechless.
They looked back at each other and their heads collided causing both of them to pull back and rub at their sore forehead grinning at each other foolishly. He laced his fingers with hers and pulled her hand to his lips kissing her digits lovingly.
"You're done for that day?" he asked and got a nod in response. "Come to the loft with me?" An eager nod this time and he hesitated. "Just to talk okay Kate, I would love to do everything you thinking about right now but it's not the right time, I need you to trust me okay?"
Kate looked at him like he was losing his mind but nodded her agreement all the same and they were soon in a cab, then out on his street, then into the elevator, and into the loft.
He wished he could take out his wand, remove the wards and show her everything but he knew he couldn't, she couldn't handle it right now, maybe not ever. What he needed to do was to put their relationship on hiatus without her running for the hills and for that he needed tact.
He clasped her hand in his and sat down on the couch beside her, she was smiling brilliantly all of her beauty and trust out on display. He closed his eyes and prepared himself for the conversation.
"Kate," he said softly looking into her expectant eyes. "You know by now that I care about you very much, certainly that kiss should tell you..."
The conversation went better than expected; yes she had been disappointed but she understood that while he wanted to, there were some things that prevented him from having a full and real relationship with her, with a heavy heart he told her that he didn't blame her if she didn't choose to wait for him, she didn't need his complications in her life, she had surprised him by squeezing his hand as saying that overcoming complications was what made a relationship worth while and if there was anyone worth the effort it was him. He wished he could believe that.
She said that she was tired of easy and meaningless relationships and if she had to wait for the real thing then she could do that. She was shocking him with all of this insight and he couldn't help but think that it was too good to be true.
He longed to show her the memories and give her her mother's killer and just have her arrest the man but then he would have to explain his methods, how he came to his conclusions and that would involve him revealing the Wizarding World; breaking the Statute of Secrecy and that would have the entire Ministry of Magic on his ass, it would be enough to have his wand snapped and the Minister would be just looking for an excuse to do it himself.
Then there was the fact that he actually stood a very real chance of losing Beckett, he had deliberately ignored her wishes and continued investigating her mother's case, that was definitely going to piss her off. Then there was the fact that she didn't believe in the supernatural and it would take a lot of persuasion, not to mention tons of evidence before she even considered the idea.
He wondered, if after all of this effort and asking her to wait if she chose to walk away from him, how would he take it? He had suffered enough tragedies in his life and had come out well, if not totally whole, on the other side but this one? Losing her, might finally break him.
In the end he decided to wait and see and in the mean time offered a compromise.
"Listen Kate, during the summer Alexis and I like to go to our Hampton house and spend Memorial Day there, I was thinking... maybe if you have some vacation days left... then you could join us there?"
Kate scrunched up her nose in consideration of that request. "When are you guys leaving?"
"The coming Monday," he replied waiting on tenterhooks for her reply.
"That's very short notice Castle," she said her smile going down.
"Well I was going to cancel because of the case load you guys have but then... "
She nodded. "Demming made you question your contribution to the team."
He nodded sadly hating this old feeling of insecurity, it always made him think of his cupboard. "Gina has been pushing me to complete the second book so it was all sort of a perfect storm so I promised Alexis that I would take her there."
Kate smiled. "And there's no way you're going to break a promise to Alexis." It wasn't a question.
"Never have if I could help it Beckett," he admitted. "So Detective? Will you come? I don't like the idea of not being able to see you for more than a week, much less a month."
She smiled her bright smile again and nodded. "I'd love to."
End Notes:
So that's the end of Season Two and Chapter Five! Hope you enjoyed and are looking forward to the next chapter. Tell me in the reviews how it was and I'll see your guys in the next one! Bye!