A/n: thank you guys for being patient this week! Here's an extra long chapter for you! Enjoy!

Twenty-three

Castle spent the weekend after being stabbed resting in his apartment with both his girlfriend and daughter doting on him. By Sunday, Kate doubted he even noticed the pain in his shoulder; he was having too much fun bossing them around. Of course, after he almost had Alexis marching out the door to get him a different flavor of ice cream, Kate provided him with a much deserved reality check.

After visiting with his regular doctor on Monday, Castle was cleared to return to the twelfth for desk duty until his stitches came out; then he would be reevaluated. Unfortunately, since his injury occurred on his dominant side, he was told he would probably need to be recertified to carry a weapon before returning to active duty, but he told Kate he didn't mind; he was an excellent shot and that would never change. To this, Kate rolled her eyes.

When Castle returned to the homicide bullpen on Tuesday morning he was met with a rousing round of applause. He accepted it graciously and was all too happy to sit on the edge of his desk and recount his tale of heroism. As he regaled their fellow officers with his bravery, Kate was content to sit back in her chair and watch. After being stabbed he certainly had the right to a little revelry.

Unfortunately, their captain did not seem to share that opinion. Just after lunch, he called both Castle and Kate into his office, his expression as grim as they'd ever seen it. "Of course I'm glad you're alright, Detective," Montgomery said to Castle after he'd directed them both to sit, "but unfortunately we have some serious business to discuss."

Kate exchanged confused glances with her partner. "Is something wrong, sir?"

Montgomery clasped his hands together and rested them on his desk. "It has been reported to me that there has been some inappropriate conduct between the two of you and I'm giving you a chance to come clean with me about it. Is there anything you'd like to tell me?"

Kate sat back in her seat and thought. As Montgomery was bringing this up now, she could only assume that whatever conduct had been reported to him had occurred recently, but she could not for the life of her think of what it could have been. She had Castle were extremely careful not to show affection outside of their apartments just in case they would be seen. They hadn't gone out to dinner in weeks, nor had they done any other outings that could have been viewed in any other light than two coworkers spending time together out of the office.

Thoroughly at a loss, she looked over at her partner; he appeared equally befuddled. Turning back to Montgomery she said, "Sir, we have no idea what you're talking about."

The captain combed his fingertips through his mustache before giving them each a pointed look. "So you're not in a romantic relationship?"

In all honesty, Montgomery did not need to ask the question to know the answer to it. He'd had his suspicions for months, but he was alright with turning a blind eye. Their case closure rate was remarkable, and who was he to mess with a good thing? Unfortunately, when an incident was reported to him, he could no longer ignore what was going on between the two blushing detectives.

"Because," he continued, "you are aware of the NYPD's strict policy on personal relationships between coworkers."

Castle cleared his throat and leaned forward. "Well, sir, ah-"

Sensing a bullshit laden story coming, Kate stepped in. "Yes, sir; it's true." Kate ignored the incredulous look her partner was giving her; there was no sense in lying. She had known the captain long enough to know he wouldn't be broaching this subject with them unless he had actual evidence.

The captain leaned back in his seat. "Well, Beckett you put me in a difficult position here. Technically, this means I need to terminate your partnership immediately."

Shit! This was definitely not what she wanted. She opened her mouth to protest, but Castle beat her to it.

"Sir, please-"

Montgomery held up his hand to silence the detective. "The problem is you two have the highest case closure rate in this precinct. Hell, in half the precincts in Manhattan if not all of them. That puts me in a very difficult position because generally the mayor and commissioner value case closure rates over interpersonal issues." He paused and shifted his head back and forth. "If it was just me, I could let it slide, but this has been reported by one of your coworkers."

"Who?" Castle asked immediately.

Montgomery blinked at him. "You know I can't tell you that, Castle. So the question is: what are we going to do here?"

The detectives sat silently for a minute. Kate didn't know what to think. She understood Montgomery's dilemma. Technically, if their infraction was reported to him he couldn't not do anything about it, but how could she agree to terminating their partnership? How could she work with any other person now that she'd worked with the most important person in her life?

Castle felt the same way as she did, but was a bit quicker on his feet when it came to coming up with a solution. "Why don't you put us on probation? Unofficially, of course. If we do anything unprofessional, I'll transfer out."

"Castle!" Kate gasped, fearful of what such a deal could lead to in their future.

He turned to her with a smile. "It's okay, Kate."

Montgomery considered the detective suggestion and then nodded. "Those terms seem fair to me. You agree, Beckett?"

Kate looked at him and then back to her partner. When he gave her a subtle nod, she reluctantly turned back to their captain. "Yes sir."

The captain dismissed Castle, but asked Beckett to remain for a moment. When they sat in silence for a full minute after her partner had gone, Kate finally asked, "Was there something you needed, sir?"

"Oh no, no I was just giving you the opportunity to thank me—or would that be too much to ask for?"

Kate's brow wrinkled at her superior's cheeky grin. "Sir?"

"You know—thank me for forcing you to take Castle as your partner. That turned out rather well, didn't it?"

Kate's jaw dropped at Montgomery's tone of pure amusement and the older man let out a hearty laugh. "Just tryin' to keep you on your toes, Kate."

"Thanks," she grumbled at him. Then, she returned to the bullpen and scurried over to her partner's desk. She plopped herself on the edge before poking his right arm. He winced when he turned to her. "What the hell are you doing?" she demanded of him.

"What do you mean?" he questioned. She gestured towards Montgomery's office with a pointed look. His face relaxed. "Oh, that. Don't worry, Kate; we'll be fine. We'll just have to behave ourselves—which, by the way, I thought we were." He glanced around the surrounding area as he said, "We just have to figure out who the snitch is."

"Oh I think I know," Kate informed him. Castle glanced at her and noticed her nod in a direction that was behind him. Spinning in his chair, he saw who Kate was referring to. McCreary stared across the bullpen at them with a particularly malicious look. With a growl under his breath, Castle made to stand, but she stopped him. "No, don't; it'll only make it worse."

Reluctantly, Castle submitted to her request. Kate patted his arm before standing and walking back to her seat. She had only been sitting a few minutes before she craned her head around her computer screen to look at him. "Hey," she began, calling his attention. "After our shift can you come back to my apartment with me? There's something I want to show you."

"Is it lingerie?"

She gaped at his smirk. "Castle! Low profile!"

He shrugged innocently. "No one heard me."

As Kate unlocked the door to her apartment, nervous butterflies filled her stomach. She shouldn't have been nervous, she knew that. There was no way he would react negatively in any way to what she said—she was certain of it. Still, her gut churned.

Letting him in—letting him all the way in—was scary. The good kind of scary, but still scary, particularly since she had never let anyone in like this before. He was the right man to let in, though; no doubt existed in her mind.

When the door was unlocked, she took his hand and led him over to the makeshift murder board for her mother's case she created in her dining area. She stood in front of him and gestured to the walls lined with photos, notes, and files. "I thought about what you said—your offer to help me with my mother's case, and…and I think maybe we should work together on this. I've been through everything a hundred times, but maybe you'll see something I didn't. Wouldn't be the first time," she added in a lighter tone.

For almost a solid minute, Castle stared at her. He was elated with her invitation and had full intentions on accepting it momentarily, but he wanted to wait just another few seconds; he wanted to savor that moment. She was letting him in. Walls obliterated, armor gone; this was her way of saying that she loved him.

He stepped forward, extended his left arm and pulled her in. "Of course, Kate," he said gently to her ear. "I'll help in any way I can."

She pulled back from his embrace and kissed him, long and sweet. She nudged their noses together and skimmed her fingers down his jaw before walking towards the kitchen to see if there was anything for them to eat. Castle watched her go as a thought entered his mind. She had shared something with him, and it was time he shared something with her.

"Hey Kate? Ah, this is kind of odd, but there's something I've wanted to tell you, but I just couldn't find the right time. This seems as good as any," he added with a nervous laugh, rocking back on his heels.

Her brow wrinkled as she looked at him. "Something…bad?"

"No, no," he said quickly. "At least, I don't think it is. I, um, I've been working on a new book."

Her face relaxed immediately. "A book? Why didn't you tell me? That's great!"

He nodded; she had no idea. "It has been great—really great. I, ah—remember a few months ago when you found that stickie note on my desk with the name Nikki Heat?" Her head bobbed and he continued. "Well, she's my new character: a smart, savvy, sexy NYPD detective. And she's based on you."

Kate's face flushed. "Me?!"

"Yes."

"No…" When Castle nodded her head, Kate felt herself blushing even further. He couldn't possibly be serious! He must have been teasing her. "Castle c'mon. That's ridiculous."

"Why? I wanted Nikki to be someone amazing, strong, and brilliant at her job so who better to model her after than you?"

Completely flustered, Kate danced her fingertips across her brow. "Castle…you can't. I mean… wh-when did you start writing this?"

"A while ago, but I've been writing a lot more in the past few months. You're very inspirational."

Kate could feel her cheeks heat at his words. The way he was looking at her and the tone in his voice made every inch of her skin feel like it was on fire. His eyes worshiped her with a devotion she wasn't sure she could even fathom let alone reciprocate.

Noting his partner's positively embarrassed expression, he cleared his throat. "Look, I don't know if anyone will want to publish it, but I wanted to tell you about it…make sure it's okay with you."

Kate thought about this for a moment. She could hardly make that assessment on the little information he'd given her. "Can I read what you've written?"

"Ah," he cringed unintentionally. "Sure. I guess can show you a few chapters."

Kate nodded and then scrunched her nose. "But Nikki Heat? That's the name you're going with?"

He chuckled. "What's wrong with it?"

"She sounds a little…strippery."

"Well, that is her day job –ah! Kidding." He said, quickly rotating his body to escape a slap she'd directed towards him. "Jesus woman I was stabbed in that arm!"

She flashed him an amused look. "Sorry. But it's your own fault."

"Touché," he said before kissing her.

When she stepped back from him, she shrugged. "Well, I don't think I have any food so…"

"So let's go out—Brady's?" he suggested.

Kate arched her eyebrow at him. "The bar?"

"What?" he responded simply. "You like their burgers and I kind of want wings."

Kate glanced at his sling and then his face. "And how will you eat them with one hand?"

Castle's expression feel. "Damn it."

Kate laughed. "Let's go somewhere else."

"No, no—it'll be fine; I promise."

Despite Castle's promise, Brady's was not "fine." The moment they walked in, Kate spotted McCreary sitting at the bar. She told Castle they should just leave and go to a real restaurant, but he refused. He was going to speak with their coworker and she wasn't going to stop him that time. Just like with one of their cases, he wanted a confession.

Castle walked over, plopped himself down on the stool beside McCreary and didn't even wait for the man to look at him before demanding, "What the hell is your problem?"

McCreary glanced casually towards Castle. "I don't know what you're talking about."

"The hell you don't," Castle spat. "You turned us in to Montgomery." McCreary turned on his stool so that he faced the sling-wearing detective and the female standing beside him. When a smirk crossed his face, Castle continued. "Don't deny it; it had to be you."

McCreary picked up his mug of beer and took a casual sip. "So what if I did?"

"Why'd you do it? We weren't bothering anyone…"

Setting down his beer, McCreary looked at them both. "I just didn't think you two should allowed to get away with breaking the rules."

At that moment, another officer from the twelfth approached them with a chipper smile. "Hey guys, you wanna watch the—what's going on here?" His tone turned serious when he saw the expressions on the detectives' faces.

McCreary picked up his beer and used it to gesture at the couple. Just as casually as ever he said, "They're fucking each other."

Castle lunged for McCreary with his one good arm, but Kate was fast enough to grab his shoulder and pull him back before any damage could be inflicted. "Don't!"

Castle growled at McCreary. "Don't you dare talk about her like that!"

McCreary smirked and slid off his seat before the larger man could do any damage. "Just stating the truth, pal."

When he walked away, a moment of silence hung in the bar before the officer looked at Kate and Castle and asked, "So…are you guys going public with this now?"

"What?" they asked in unison.

The officer rocked back on his heels with a smile. "Well, I mean, we all kind of knew…"

"You knew?!" Kate shrieked.

He bobbed his head. "Sure…I mean we figured you couldn't have a partner for this long unless something else was going on. Besides, LT said he saw you coming out of that janitor's closet on the ground floor a few months back."

Kate covered her face and moaned while Castle let out a loud laugh. Once she recovered from her mortification. She smacked the uninjured shoulder of her boyfriend.

He recoiled, but still smiled. "Oh c'mon Kate; this is hilarious. How can you not see how funny this is?"

She folded her arms over her chest and looked at the cluster of officers across the room. They were all laughing—probably at her. "They all know about us."

"So? That's a good thing. We don't have to hide anymore though I guess we should probably stay out of the janitor's closet…"

Kate groaned and covered her face. Thank god that wasn't the incident Montgomery had confronted them about!

The longer she thought about it, the more Kate realized her partner had a point—not about the situation being hilarious, because it definitely wasn't, but about it being a relief; they didn't have to sneak around anymore. "I guess this means we have to come clean to my dad, and your mom…and Alexis."

Castle laughed again at the mention of his child. "Oh I think Alexis has us pretty well figured out, but you're right we'll tell her officially—together. Tomorrow night."

Kate swallowed hard. "Oh…don't you think you should tell her alone?"

He eyed her curiously. "Kate we're not going to tell her anything she hasn't already figured out. Unless…you want me to tell her alone?"

She shook her head. "No, no it's just…"

"What?" he asked when he saw her biting her lip. She looked up at him, uncertain.

"I don't want her to be mad at me."

"Mad at you?" he repeated. "Why would she be? She already knows; it'll be fine."

As Castle had predicted, his daughter was almost entirely nonplussed by the announcement of their official relationship. As she put it, she already thought it was official and, as far as she could tell, nothing would be changing between them. Castle found her declaration far more amusing than Kate, who was simply glad the girl didn't hate her.

Once Alexis had disappeared to her bedroom to work on homework, Kate turned to her partner. "So, about this book you told me about. Nikki Heat?"

Castle eyed her curiously. "Yeah?"

Kate smiled an innocent smile at him. "May I see it? Please?"

Castle grumbled. Letting anyone—his mother, daughter, and previous wife included—see his works before he was satisfied with their completion always made him feel more naked than he did without clothing on. It wasn't as though he didn't trust Kate; he did. He just wasn't convinced the story had reached its maximum potential yet. "Oh, Kate, I dunno. It's not…I mean, I'm not sure if-"

"Please?" she repeated, stepping up to him and looping her arms around his neck. "Just the first chapter? I want to know a little more about it."

She dusted a few kisses across his bottom lip and he groaned with submission; she sure knew how to convince him, which, he decided at that moment, may or may not prove troublesome for him down the line. "Okay, just….just don't be too harsh. I haven't really gone through it and there are probably some typos and-"

"Castle," she said with a laugh, "I'm a regular person, not your editor."

"Right," he nodded before walking over to retrieve his laptop. He shook out his hands and pressed the power button and then sat down, his foot tapping as he impatiently waited for it to boot up.

Kate walked up behind him and skimmed her fingertips over his shoulder. "It's kind of adorable to see you flustered like this," she informed him.

He glanced up at her. "I'm not flustered."

"You are," she assured him. He grumbled, but otherwise said nothing.

After her boyfriend reluctantly passed over his laptop, Kate took it to the couch with her and settled in for what she anticipated to be a very good read. She quickly found reading a word document on his computer was not as nice as being able to read an actual hardback novel, but in this case she would make an exception; she just wanted to learn a little more about Nikki Heat.

Within just a few pages, Kate quickly found the more she read, the less she wanted to stop. She had told Castle she would read only the first chapter, but she blew right past the first and second chapters without ever thinking about stopping. While she enjoyed his first two books very much, there was no question in her mind this was the best thing he had even written. True, her opinion was bias as she noticed more than a little of herself in Nikki, but she still believed it was excellent.

When Kate finished the third chapter, she finally forced herself to put the laptop aside. She bit down on her thumbnail and stared at the screen, reviewing what she had just read. The story alone was fantastic, but it was so much more than that. She could feel the love that Castle poured into his lead character. He was devoted to her; he worshiped her. He described her as though she was sent down from the heavens which amazed her even more as by his own admission he was, in effect, describing her.

To her great joy, she discovered a piece of Castle had entered the book as well. At the end of the first chapter, the reader was introduced to a character named Jameson Rook. It took her all of tens seconds to realize this character was Castle's reflection of himself. As the second and third chapters progressed, Kate realized that Rook, a journalist interested in doing an article on Nikki and her team, would become Nikki's love interest and that's when it hit her. The book wasn't just about her; it was about them—them falling in love.

Several minutes after she had finished reading, Kate still felt she was at a loss for words, but she could feel the eyeballs drilling into the back of her skull. Still silent, she turned around and found him tip-toeing up, a fear-laden grimace on his face.

"So what do you think? Do you hate it? Was it awful? Should I just start completely over? Or maybe I should stop all together because-"

Kate cut of his ramblings with her lips against his. She gripped his cheeks between her hands and pressed their bodies together until she felt his left arm slide around her waist. With their foreheads bumping together, she held his face close and whispered, "I love you."

Castle pulled his head back. "You love it or me?"

She laughed and brushed a tear from the corner of her eye. "Both!"

Castle's eyes searched hers, but he found nothing but joy and devotion reflecting back. When another tear slipped down her cheek, he brushed it with his thumb and his heart swelled more than he thought possible. "Are you serious?"

"Yes, Castle. It's incredible. You have to finish it—you have to publish it! It's going to be amazing. And," she paused to draw his body back into hers, "I'm sorry. I was scared, but I'm not anymore."

"Why?" he asked reflexively then quickly backtracked. "I mean not that I'm not thrilled because I am but…why?"

She shrugged with a happy little laugh. She couldn't fully explain it, but his words on the computer screen had spoken to her on an almost spiritual level. "I guess…I guess because I never let anyone love me like this before and I didn't understand how you could but reading this…I get it; I get it now."

His grin grew wider. "Good because Kate I-"

Again, she interrupted him with a kiss. "You know, Castle as much as I appreciate your talent with words, I really prefer being shown more than being told."

He groaned when she bumped their hips together. "Jesus if we were alone I would show you right here on this couch."

Kate let out a laugh before grasping his hand in hers and pulling him towards the bedroom.