A/N: Hi guys! Thanks for being patient and waiting an extra day for your update. Comic Con was fun. I enjoyed meeting James & Oliver Phelps (Fred & George Weasley) and Michael Rooker ( TWD & Guardians of the Galaxy). I also thought Hayley Atwell (Agent Carter) was excellent and I now want to go back and watch that show because of her.

Now on to the chapter!

Nine

Kate Beckett awoke the next morning and opened her eyes slowly. As the haze of sleep drifted away, her surroundings came in to focus. She was in her own bed, naked. And alone. She pushed herself up to rest on one elbow to enable a better view of the room. At the foot of her bed, a pile of clothing was gathered. Her clothing, discarded the night before. If she was not mistaken each item was folded neatly. Looking around, she saw no other clothing strewn about, which meant he was gone.

Castle. She had slept with Castle.

Twice.

Given their near coupling from a month prior, the subsequent kiss in the gym and monumental sexual tension between them it was not shocking to her that they ended up between the sheets. More so, it seemed inevitable. Rolling back against her pillow, Kate's eyes drifted towards the empty side of the bed as she let out a long exhale. Sex with Castle had been…nice. Better than nice, actually. Given how disastrous Castle's mouth was in most situations, it was pleasantly surprising to her how useful it could be in others.

Though she loathed admitting it, sleeping with Castle had actually been exactly what she needed the night before. What was it about funerals, or in this case wakes, that made people fall into bed when they otherwise wouldn't? Perhaps, she rationalized, it was because grieving people craved reminders of being alive, of living life to the fullest, and what said that better than sex?

Knowing her alarm would be going off any moment, Kate rolled out of bed and shuffled her way to the bathroom. She absentmindedly walked to the shower, cranked the water all the way on hot and then walked back to the sink to grab her toothbrush. When, from the corner of her eye, she caught sight of something on the mirror, she froze in surprise. There, in the dead center of the frame, was a yellow stickie note. On it, clearly scrawled in her partner's hand, "You don't snore when you sleep; good to know. See you later –C."

Still curious, she pulled the note off the mirror. Oddly, the question forefront in her mind was, "Where the hell did he find the stickie notes?" As far as she was aware, she did not have any lying around her apartment where they would easily be seen. Did he carry stickie notes with him in his pockets?

Shaking her head, she let the note flutter into the trash before she stepped underneath the shower spray. As the water cascaded down over her, so did the memories from the night before. Feverous kisses and hot breath on skin. Hands gripping her hips and running through her hair. His strong, taunt body on top of and then underneath hers.

Slow down there, Kate, she chastised herself, or you're going to have to turn the water to "cold."

As she exited the shower, the next dose of reality hit her. She needed to get dressed and ready for work. Work—where she would see Castle. Sit across from him at their adjoined desks. Sit beside him in their squad car. All, after they had slept together.

Were they ready for this? Was she?

Her mind buzzing with a dozen different scenarios—many of them ending very poorly—Kate decided what she needed desperately was a little bit of girl time. Preferably before she entered the twelfth and had to formulate words to say to Castle.

Kate sped her morning routine just enough to make it to the morgue when Lanie began her shift. She walked into the chilled basement room, coffee cup in hand, and found it to be mercifully empty of bodies (alive or dead) save her friend. Thank god.

"Oh sweetie," Lanie greeted her with a sympathetic expression and a hug. "I heard about Anderson; I'm so sorry. I know you really liked him. Are you okay? Do you want to talk about it?"

Kate blinked at her. There was no sense wasting time on pleasantries. "I slept with him."

Lanie's eyes widened. "Anderson?"

"Wha—no." Kate shook her head. "Castle."

Lanie's jaw dropped an inch. "Castle."

"Yes."

"You had sex with Castle?" she repeated the question just to clarify that she had the information right.

Kate bobbed her head. "Yes."

"When!?"

"Last night."

A slow smile crossed Lanie's face and she folded her arms across her chest. "Damn girl."

Kate felt her cheeks heat and she pulled her coffee cup to her lips to mask some of her embarrassment. "Don't look at me like that."

"Like what?"

"Like you're kind of proud and jealous at the same time."

Lanie let out a light laugh; Kate had nailed her emotions exactly. "I am. So how was it? My god, you two must have gone at it like crazy!" As she was more of a "Let's enjoy the moment" girl than a "wait and see" one like Kate, Lanie had not had many experiences with put off releases of long-built sexual tension. The few she had gave her just enough knowledge to realize that Kate and Castle's coupling could have neared atomic bomb detonation status.

Kate smiled gently and tucked a strand of hair behind her ear. "No, it wasn't like that—not the first time." She paused when she saw her friend mouth "first time" with wide eyes. Laughing, she continued. "It was…he was actually really sweet."

"Castle?" Really?"

She tilted her head to the side. "Why do you sound shocked?"

"I dunno. It's just…Castle." Lanie scrunched up her nose. "He could have been a bumbling mess with no clue."

Kate smiled. She could definitely see this being the case. Fortunately, she thought as she replayed one particularly talented moment of his in her mind, it was not. "No, no he definitely knew what he was doing."

"Damn girl." Lanie laughed. "Look at you smiling!"

Embarrassed, Kate tilted her chin downward. "Yeah well…"

"So…is this a thing now?"

"Oh, I don't think so…I mean, I don't know. I'm kind of avoiding him," she confessed to her friend.

Lanie immediately rolled her eyes. Of course. "Do you want it to be a thing?"

"Wha—ah, I, um, I dunno. I really…I'm not-"

"Kate," Lanie cut off her friends ridiculous and school-girl-crush level stammers. "I didn't ask if you wanted to marry the man… sheesh. Let's start with something simpler: do you want to sleep with him again? Or was this just a once and done thing?"

"I don't know—I." Kate paused and thought for a moment. Then, she shook her head as her thoughts were still far too jumbled. "Really—I don't know."

"Then," Lanie concluded wisely. "That's probably the first thing you should figure out."

Walking into the bullpen, Kate froze almost immediately. Castle was already at his desk. How the hell had that happened?

Oh. Right. She was almost half an hour later than usual because she'd been hiding in the morgue with Lanie.

But it was fine. It was totally going to be fine. She just had to take a deep breath, square her shoulders and walk to her desk like this was any ordinary morning. Except. Oh, damn. Anderson wasn't coming in this morning, was he? As most of her attention had been focused on Castle, she nearly forgot. Well, she'd dwell on that later.

Head held high, Kate walked directly to her desk, sat down her coffee cup and pulled out her chair. "Morning," she said to her partner. Her tone didn't sound happier than usual, did it? And it didn't sound too grumpy either, right? God, she was a mess.

His head snapped up and, if she was not mistaken, a soft twinkle could be seen in his eyes when he said. "Good morning, Beckett. Sleep well?"

Had she been sipping her coffee, she probably would have choked. Fortunately, no liquids were presenting her mouth so her splutter wasn't obvious. "Ah, yeah—yeah I did. You?"

"Like a baby."

His grin was wide—a bit too wide. Damn, why did he have to look so foolish? He was going to give them away!

Taking a casual sip of her coffee, Kate opened her email inbox and began to scroll through the messages. When she spotted the one from Montgomery announcing the plans for Anderson's funeral she skipped it; she wasn't ready to read that yet.

A few minutes later she was so engrossed in reading an article someone had emailed her she failed to notice her partner had sat down in the guest chair beside her desk until he cleared his throat. She jumped and nearly spilled her coffee. She panicked momentarily before she realized that him sitting there was fine; he often took that seat when they were deep in discussion over a case.

"So, ah, about last night," he began softly, resting his forearm against her desk. "Sorry I had to leave but Alexis-"

She shook him off. "It's fine; I understand." Truthfully she was glad they didn't have to do the awkward morning after dance while they were both still naked; that definitely made it worse.

He smiled gently at her. "But, ah, just so you know. For the record, I mean. Last night was really nice. Really, really nice—ah, good. Really good." Despite tripping over some words, his smile grew as he spoke. So much so that Kate couldn't help feeling a little silly but smiling in return.

"It was good."

If she didn't know better, she would have thought he looked relieved. "Good—great! So, ah, why don't you come to my place for dinner tonight? I mean, are you free?"

"Oh," she began, tucking her hair behind her ears and turning towards her computer screen. Oh no. This was definitely not the direction she wanted this conversation to go. "No."

His brow wrinkled. "No you're not free? Or no you don't want to?"

Her eyes darted towards him. "Just no, Castle."

Slightly wounded he asked, "Why?"

She grumbled. "Because…just because we," she lowered her voice to an almost whisper, "you know—doesn't mean you—I mean, you don't have to do…this."

Amused at how such a simple invitation had ruffled her feathers, he asked, "What?"

She shook her head and took a deep breath. "Whatever it is you're trying to do."

He skimmed his hand over his chin for a moment before leaning in a bit closer to her. "Actually, Alexis has a school assignment for her life studies class. She has to make a meal for a non-family member so I thought maybe that could be you."

Oh.

Oh.

Well, she was an asshole, wasn't she? Here she thought Castle was trying to turn their night of passion into a relationship when really he was just trying to help out his kid. Though, in her own defense, his timing was suspect. "Oh, ah, yeah…yeah I can come over for dinner."

He beamed. "Great! Alexis will be thrilled." He made to stand up but then thought better of it. Turning back to her, he lowered his voice and said, "Oh, and for the record. I also think it would be nice for us to share a meal, all things considered."

Kate "hmmph-ed" under her breath as he walked away. So she had been right the first time! He was trying to turn their work partnership into something more. Well, she would definitely need to nip that one in the bud before it progressed any further.

As the day went on, Kate felt as though every time she looked at her partner she caught him looking back at her, smiling. The first few times he tried to look away when she caught him, but by the middle of the day he'd given up on it entirely. The fact that his smile made her give one in return annoyed her greatly. How could he have this effect on her? Castle—he was just Castle. The exact same man he'd been the day before when he only made her smile occasionally. Once a day. A few times a day…five times a day—at most!

By mid-afternoon, her annoyance had faded away in exchange for more rational thought. Maybe this situation wasn't as bad as it seemed. Maybe sleeping with Castle again wouldn't be such a bad idea.

Relationships were far too much work in her opinion. With the high stress and long hours of her job, she found she rarely had the time or the energy for them. Despite living in a city as large as New York, meeting new people she liked had never been her strong suit and, despite Lanie's insistence, she was not yet ready to try internet dating. Yet, as a woman, she had needs.

Before the prior evening, the last time she had sex was…well, she didn't want to dwell on that, but what was she supposed to do? One night stands had never been her thing, and as she was now within months of the thirty-year-old mark she no longer viewed them as an option. Yet, having a casual sexual relationship with someone she knew and was comfortable around seemed to be a decent solution to her problem. In that case, she thought, why not Castle? If he was willing and able then it would appear she found a simple—albeit unexpected—solution to her problem. She just had to make it very clear her intentions were not to become Wife Number Two.