CH7

It is now one week later: (Just a few days before April 1, 1999)

(RC POV)

Rick has woken up after a night of unbelievable pleasure. It was precisely how he thought Kate should be treated, how to get Kate to feel what he felt. It was the exact opposite of how Meredith had wanted sex, what Kate and he had done was not sex. Thought technically in some book somewhere or under the description of sex that was what they had done. To Rick he had put his soul into making love to Kate. Hopefully she could feel that.

Kate was still in his arms and still asleep and he could feel the heat of her body up against his, it was a feeling that he wanted to cherish. Another picture perfect moment forever placed in his mind. Kate appeared to be in a lot of those lately.

They had an early morning flight so not much time that morning. Just pack and get moving. Turn in the Jeep and go through security. It had warmed his heart when Kate had taken his hand and held it everywhere they went, until she needed it for some other reason.

Even the plane ride home sitting next to each other in first class she kept a hold of his hand.

They had talked about nothing and everything all the way to his place, where he left her in the taxi to go to her home in. "See you in the morning Castle." And Kate had lifted up on tippy toes to soundly kiss him again.

It had Rick floating up in the elevator to his third floor boring and minimally furnished 2 bedroom apartment. He still needed to think about finding someplace that was more him. Some place to live, not just exist in.

For that week back they had developed a routine. Rick would go to the gym before going to the library to keep writing and when he got to their usual place he would find Kate sitting there, reading a book, usually a library book.

Only now he would walk over to Kate after dropping his stuff on the table and bend down to kiss her, only to have Kate lift up a hand and pull his head down to make sure that she got to kiss him back. Using her tongue to ask for entrance and when granted, search his mouth. "Morning Castle."

He still left alone to go get them lunch and ate at his table while they talked even more. Rick was learning things about Kate fast. What she did when she was little, what foods were her favorite, favorite color, literally countless things.

Rick did however stay away from trying to find out why she spent her days in the library. It had gotten her to run last time and he didn't want that to happen again, so he waited. When she was ready she would tell him. Till then he was just happy to have her company and kiss her every chance he got.

Rick had gotten used to staying until the library closed which was when Kate usually left and would wait with her to flag down a taxi to get her home in. "You don't have to pay for a taxi Castle, I usually just take the subway." Kate told him knowing that until all this week that's what she had been doing.

"Please Kate, I just want to know that you're safe and it isn't about the money. It's just that it would kill me if something happened to you if I let you take the subway in the middle of the night when I could have prevented it." Rick then proceeded to kiss Kate and put everything about how he felt about it into the kiss.

Kate was resting in his arms working on getting her breathing under control. "Fine Castle, I'll take the taxi." Kate relented quietly. "Thank you." Rick gave Kate a quick kiss and helped her into the taxi.

"Don't forget we have a date tomorrow." Rick reminded her.

"I remember Castle, I'll bring something nice to change into." Kate confirmed knowing that Rick had asked her to dress up a little this time. Not too much, just more than blue jeans this time.

Rick wasn't telling her what it was he had planned. Kate had been trying to kiss it out of him for the last 2 days and was starting to pout that he wouldn't tell her.

Rick had plans, maybe too big of a plan, but he was willing to see how it goes.

Like all the other days Rick found Kate in her chair and bent down to kiss her, and kept smiling at her till lunch watching Kate stick out her tongue at him for not telling her his plans. Rick came back with a simple chicken salad for lunch since his plans included dinner.

Rick let Kate take a shower and get dressed and lock up her clothes in the locker downstairs of his apartment building. Rick didn't understand why she didn't want to come up, but he went with it.

Rick was back downstairs finding Kate in a dress that fell off of one of her shoulders giving him a hint that she wasn't wearing a bra. "WOW Kate, I always thought you were beautiful but I was wrong. …You are simply gorgeous." All Rick got in return was watching Kate blush.

"1170 Broadway." Rick tells the taxi driver, which turned out to be The NoMad Hotel.

The restaurant was dark and quiet, with a dark red carpet, a different shade of red on the chairs, columns of light that had a red hint of color to them, the walls were mostly black that sucked up a good deal of the light.

Castle ordered an appetizer of apple with marinated scallops, sea urchin & fennel. They shared what Rick had ordered and the apple itself had a nice taste to it.

They settled on chicken for two: foie gras, black truffle & brioche accompanied by lentils, brussel sprouts & cotechino.

Kate's eyes opened up when tasting the black truffle. "I take it we found something you like?" Rick was smiling watching Kate try to keep it all in her mouth while smiling wide. It had Rick's heart melting from the look she was giving him.

They noticed the restaurant had an open second floor on the way out that they hadn't noticed before.

"One more place." Rick informs Kate. "542 West 12 street (between 10th and 11th avenue)" Rick informs the taxi driver. Turned out to be the McKittrick Hotel.

Once inside Rick took them up to the roof.

For such a swoon-worthy city, few bars top Gallow Green for a place of romance in New York. Riding up the elevator to the rooftop (it's located at the top of the McKittrick Hotel, home to Sleep No More), you'll feel transported to a twinkly lit, lush green forest overlooking the Hudson River. Late weekend nights can bring out a party-hard city crowd, but drinks under the canopy give way to butterflies and kisses under the stars.

The Gallow Green turned out to be another bar restaurant; however this place had a rooftop garden. There were plants everywhere, several of which had little white lights tangled in the branches or vines. There were even some Christmas trees that still had lights in them.

They had gotten there late and found there was a live band. It was made up of 5 elderly men dressed in clothes of yesteryear. One played a trombone, one had a horn, one had a banjo, and one had a tuba-looking instrument in his lap while the other man had a clarinet.

They played tunes that neither of them had heard in a long time save for something watched on a movie on TV perhaps. They were really good and Rick saw Kate smiling the entire time. It was a look that he wanted so very badly to keep on her face.

Since they were sitting and looking at the drink order till Rick found something that he finally managed to talk Kate into. "Vodka and Peach Popsicle Pitcher"

It arrived in a big bowl filled with a vodka mixture with slices of peaches, a slice of orange floating on top and 5 berry flavored frozen popsicles immersed in the vodka.

It was so tasty that neither of them noticed just how much vodka was already in the popsicles until they tried standing. Rick watched Kate crash back into her chair. "What was in those popsicles?" Kate had eaten 3 of the five, since she couldn't stop.

"We should stay and eat a little something, and get some water." Rick offered not feeling all that steady himself.

Chocolate Foole : Chocolate cake, chocolate mousse, whipped cream, zested chocolate.

It was here that Rick found out that Kate was a sucker for chocolate. It explained why she agreed so quickly.

It was really late and they had switched to drinking soda with ice and nothing else. Definitely with no vodka, or rum or anything else with alcohol in it.

Kate didn't think when Rick asked her where he could take her and gave him her address where she was still staying with her dad. A father that she hadn't seen in almost 2 weeks. He was never up when she was. She still continued to clean the place before she left each morning.

Kate was in Rick's arms outside her place while the taxi driver waited for him. "Thanks Castle that was a lot of fun." Rick was holding Kate tight to him while Kate was talking into his chest.

"Do this again next week?" Rick didn't want to stop now, only getting an Hhhmmm from Kate for a response. He took that as a yes. "Have pleasant dreams Kate." Rick kissed Kate who was kissing him back trying to search his mouth with her tongue.

"Hhhmmm, you still taste like popsicles." Kate smiled into his lips after breaking from the kiss and it had Rick laughing.

"Go sleep it off Kate and I'll see you in the morning." Not that Rick was sure he was going to be on time or even make it to the gym since he was likely to sleep in.

Rick watched Kate walk up just a little unsteady and go inside before he got back into the taxi and gave the driver his address.

Rick was ever so slowly removing his clothes, one piece at a time with lots of time in-between each piece. "Ohhhh, those popsicles were killers." And Rick only had two of them, though he did have some of the punch that the popsicles were in, not to mention the peaches that were soaked with vodka.

Still Rick had enjoyed his time with Kate and knew he was going to have to start planning for next week soon.

Rick had finally managed to get into his sleep bottoms when someone was at his front door. "Oh this is not possible!" Rick moans, since all he wanted was to get into bed. He was even too tired to think about having Kate in it with him as he shuffled his feet to his door. Not even bothering to peak out to see who it was before opening the door.

(KB POV)

Kate hadn't wanted to lose contact with Castle after last night, she was afraid if she did he would turn into a dream and she would never see him again, so she held his hand everywhere they went only letting go when necessary and even then she barely took her eyes off of him.

Kate could feel her heart pounding in her chest the next morning while sitting in her chair in the library, waiting for Castle to show up. She had even gotten here early which only made it worse.

Was Castle going to show? Was last night a one night stand? If it was it was the best one she had ever had. Kate was still debating if it was and what it meant if it wasn't, when Castle walked in, set his stuff down on the table and walked over and kissed her.

It had her heart soaring as she reached up and held his head in place so that she could really kiss him. Let him know that she wanted him here. "Morning Castle."

They had developed a routine of sorts for that week. Kate would rise early and clean up the house, run a load of laundry, dump the bottles of alcohol down the drain, check the mail and arrange payment of any bills, which were thankfully few now.

Kate didn't have access to any of her parent's money, only hers so she was paying the bills out of her account. With no money going in it just kept getting smaller. It wasn't an issue yet, but Kate knew it couldn't stay this way.

Each morning she would go to the library and wait for Castle who always walked over and kissed her first thing. Kissed her again when he went out for lunch leaving his stuff behind for her to guard, and then kiss her again after lunch and finally at the taxi that would take her home.

"Don't forget we have a date tomorrow." Castle reminded her.

"I haven't forgotten Castle." Kate kissed him and got in the taxi. It took her close to 45 minutes to decide on what to wear. Castle had said dress up a little, just not too much above blue jeans. She ultimately found a flowing red dress that fell of one shoulder and used her strapless bra even though her breasts were not that big.

Kate now knew that Castle didn't care about her chest size, especially given how much attention he had given them earlier. Kate could still just make out the hickey marks on her breasts, thighs and neck. But then she knew where to look too.

They were going to a hotel? Why dress up if all he wanted to do was make love to her? Except they went straight to the dining room and ate dinner. It was dark and quiet and it allowed them to talk. The food was pretty good too.

This was followed by still another hotel. It had Kate wondering if he was finally going to make love to her again. Kate was starting to miss having his body pressed up against hers, she was starting to want him, badly.

"WOW!" Was about all Kate could get out while she looked around. A garden on the rooftop of a hotel that also had a restaurant and bar. It also had a live band that played music that was definitely old school. It was only now that Kate notice there was no one even close to her age here or even Castle's age for that matter.

However they were really good and the main guy who did all the talking was actually rather funny. Then Castle ordered something about popsicles with vodka.

The vodka looked to be what was in the punch bowl and the popsicles were delicious, so much so that she had beaten Castle to the third one before he could. She even smiled at him and stuck her tongue out at him, while giggling.

Giggling, I'm actually giggling.

It wasn't until she started to get up that the world started spinning on her. "WOW what was in those popsicles?" Kate let Castle talk her into staying a little longer and have something to eat and drink that didn't have vodka in it.

Kate was letting Castle hold her up while they walked and was ready to fall asleep leaning up against Castle on the drive to her place. Kate was standing outside remembering how much fun tonight had been when she kissed him. "Hhhmm, you taste like popsicles."

It left Kate wondering what else he tasted like, but she was too tired to try and find out. Kate watched as Castle waited until she was inside before the taxi left.

Kate leaned up against the front door, wishing she had gone with Castle instead of come here. Except this was home, it had all of her clothes and her father was still here.

Kate was still dreaming when her father staggered into view carrying a bottle of alcohol of some type, drinking from it as he went. "JO!" Jim had spotted her and staggered his way over to Kate and landed in her arms. "JO! I've missed you."

"Dad? Dad you really need to stop drinking." Kate tries talking to him, something she hasn't done in over a week, maybe over two.

It was now that Jim pulled back and the light that was in his eyes a moment ago was gone. "YOU! What the fuck are you doing here? ...Get out, I can't stand seeing you. GET OUT!" Jim yells at her and takes another drink to make her go away.

"Dad please, don't do this. ...It's me Katie. ...Your daughter, I just want my father back. Dad please." Kate's tears were starting.

Jim dropped his empty bottle. "I said, GET OUT!" And then he did what Kate thought was impossible-he slapped her, hard. It had Kate stumbling backwards to the front door.

"Get out of my sight, I don't want to see you here. ...I said get out!" Jim reached out and took her arm and threw Kate into the middle of the living room, where Kate stumbled over her own feet and fell to the floor.

By the time she was back up, still crying Jim was on her again. This time it was a punch to her face that had both of them falling backwards down to the floor. Kate was down because of the punch and Jim was down because he was off balance and drunk.

It left Kate with a hand over her face from where her father had hit her as she continued to cry. The second Jim moved a little Kate was up off the floor and flew down the hall to her room slamming the door closed.

Kate was lying on her bed when she heard Jim pounding on her unlocked door yelling at her to get out. A now hurt and scared Kate Beckett grabbed the biggest suitcase she had and started stuffing it full of clothes. Then grabbed her carry-on bag along with a large tote bag and filled them to overflowing with everything else. Some of her shoes were getting left behind.

When Kate opened the door she found the hallway was empty, so she put on two coats and grabbed her bags and started for the front door. In the living room she found Jim lying on the sofa, passed out, with a bottle still in his hand on the floor, half empty already.

"Daddy!" Kate didn't want to leave, he was all the family she had left, however when he groaned and started to move, Kate ran for the front door and flew out it never looking back or even closing it.

Problem was, now what? The library was closed, the park would be cold and she might get mugged and lose all her stuff. Kate knew she didn't have much cash on her, since Castle had been buying everything.

"Castle." He was all she had left, and he was her best friend. The walk to the subway station was a little ways down the street.

The train was mostly empty at this time of night and Kate did her very best to stay as far away from people as she could.

It took time but Kate was finally outside of Castle's apartment building. Once inside she had a choice. Kate knew the code to get into the common area. She could sleep on the sofa that was in there, except the manager might find her and throw her out. Or call the cops and have them throw her out.

That left one choice and Kate soon found herself outside of apartment 302 and knocked, softly a couple of times. When it opened Castle was standing there wearing what looked like oversized sweat pants or something and nothing else.

Any other day Kate might be smiling and thinking different wicked thoughts about what she could do with this, but not right now. Kate was pretty sure what Castle was seeing now was a hurt and crying Kate Beckett carrying her worldly possessions with her.

"KATE, MY GOD!" Castle started to try and wrap his arms around her but suddenly stopped, then he stepped out into the hallway and started looking up and down it. "Don't move." Castle told her and ran off down the hallway towards the elevators and hit the door to the stairwell and was out of sight for a moment.

However he returned soon, escorted her inside his apartment, and closed and locked the door. "This way." Castle escorted her into what was probably the spare bedroom and had her sit on the bed.

"Did you bring anything? …Never mind, I'll be right back." Castle dashed out the door and was back in under a minute. "Let's get you out of this coat, or coats." Castle soon found out she was wearing more than one.

"Take everything off and change into this. I'll go get the ice bags." Castle looked uncertain just what to do and settled for kissing the top of her head. "Get changed, I'll be right back."

Kate was mostly on auto-pilot as she started stripping off clothes and was sitting on the bed in just her bra and panties when Castle came back with his arms full of stuff.

Castle spread it all out on the bed. "Let's get you cleaned up a little." He started working on her face while Kate just sat there looking at him.

"You probably don't want to talk about it do you?" Castle asked while whiping at her face, and watching her shake her head. Kate knew now that she would have to eventually. She was going to anyway, she just didn't think it would be this soon.

"Does the other guy at least look worse than you?" It sounded like a joke and it had Kate chuckling for a second, till she remembered it was her own father they were talking about.

It took a few moments and they were quiet while Castle worked on her face. "We should get the ice pack on that eye to keep the swelling down. You're going to have a beauty come morning. Good thing you had those three popsicles or this would likely be hurting more than it already is." Castle told her.

'So that's why it doesn't hurt." Kate thought.

"We should get this t-shirt on you and get you into bed with this ice pack." Castle helped her put on the t-shirt which was way over size for her and started pulling the bed covers back.

"NO, don't leave." Kate wanted Castle close, really close not just down the hall.

Kate saw Castle hesitate for a moment. "Okay, come on." Castle took her down to his room. While he pulled down the bed covers, Kate slipped the t-shirt off and removed her bra just as Castle turned around. He watched as Kate crawled into his bed.

Castle was soon lying right next to her while Kate snuggled in close like she did in St. Lucia. He placed the ice bag gently on her face.

"Get some sleep Kate, we can talk in the morning and you can tell me who I'm going to beat the crap out of, because he is so going to get it for this." Castle kissed her head.

Kate decided to remain silent while she pressed her skin up against Castle's skin and tried to go to sleep feeling Castle use his finger to draw doodles on her skin while holding the ice bag in place.

It was after one of the endless little kisses that Castle had been giving the part of her that he could reach when she finally fell asleep. It was however a sleep that was filled with dreams that Kate did't want.