CH8

It is now the next morning: (Just 3 days till April 1, 1999)

Rick woke up first. He found Kate was still in bed with him with his arms wrapped around her. He instinctively tightened them for a moment. Kate was hurt and his heart was breaking. Someone was going to get a home visit by him and Rick was going to teach this guy the error of his ways.

Kate was obviously still asleep and the ice bag, likely long since melted, had fallen away revealing that Kate's right eye looked to be in bad shape. Bad enough that he was going to take her to a doctor to have it looked at, especially if her eye was red. Swollen was one thing, internal damage was another.

Still he could feel her body up against his and it had him remembering their stay in St. Lucia. If Rick was being honest with himself he had wanted to make love to Kate every day they had been back, however he didn't want to rush her any. He did have plans to find out how receptive she was to a repeat performance after their next date, which would likely have been next week. Now he didn't know.

Rick settled back and waited for Kate to wake up which apparently the little sneak already was.

"It seems like someone is happy to see me." Kate commented softly. Her hand moved and Rick quickly found her fingers wrapped around him as his penis was brushing up against her.

"Maybe later, first we need to look at that eye and possibly take you to the hospital." Rick kissed her head.

"Spoil sport." Kate fake pouted.

"Come on sleeping beauty, into the shower then we are going to look at that eye." Rick worked at getting them both out of bed.

Rick was warming up the shower while Kate was standing with only her panties on while staring into the mirror running a finger around her swollen and now discolored right eye.

"Lean forward for me." Rick asked standing right behind her. "Can you open it as wide as you can?" Rick lifted a hand and pulled the bottom of her eyelid down to expose the eyeball itself a little more.

"I don't see any blood, thought it is red." Rick covered her good eye. "What can you see?"

"It's a little blurry, but I see pretty much everything. And my head hurts." Kate felt a pounding in her head.

"That is probably part hangover from the popsicles and part eye. … Come on gorgeous, into the shower." Rick slapped her butt and started pulling off his sleeping pants. It got a yelp out of Kate who turned to watch Rick strip and head for the shower.

With a grin on her face Kate sliped off her panties and stepped into Rick's arms in the shower.

After some initial fun Kate soon had her legs wrapped around Rick while he has her back up against the shower wall. He thrust in and out of Kate while he listened to Kate moan. "Faster Rick, …harder, …PLEASE!" Kate bit his shoulder which sent him over the edge with Kate only a step behind him.

Kate was resting up against his chest while calming down. "I've wanted you to do that all week." Kate finally confided to Rick.

"You could have said something. I'm not here for my own pleasure." Rick answered back and kissed her head. "And now that I know I'm going to make love to you every day from here on out, we're going to find out just how much stamina you really have." Rick teased though he meant it too.

"Hhhmm, bring it on Castle." Kate started working on his nipples, trying to bite them off, which only results in round two.

Kate was still in the bathroom looking at her new hickeys. "I'm going to be forever marked if we keep this up." Kate wasn't sure if she was complaining or happy about it, however the smile she saw on her face suggested she was more happy than sad.

Kate went to the spare bedroom where she found all her bags and started looking for something to wear. All dressed, Kate found Rick in the kitchen cooking eggs with toast that had butter and jam already on it ready to go.

"I'm not really much of a cook, this is about as domestic as I get when it comes to cooking. I've probably got a new life form in my refrigerator from all the take-out I order and bring home." Rick apologized for serving just scrambled eggs, which he hadn't started out to make, they just ended up that way.

"That's okay, my mother taught me everything she knows." If Kate was going to be the cook, that was fine with her. Besides she wanted to feel useful.

Rick was standing in the kitchen on the other side of the tiny 2 person breakfast bar, while Kate was still sitting. Rick had everything in the dishwasher and had cleaned up. He may not know how to cook, but he knew how to clean.

"You ready to tell me what is going on?" Kate saw it on his face. He wanted to know and could see the pain of her being hurt on his face.

'Might as well start now' Kate thought. "Start at the beginning." Kate sighed and slumped down, defeated and sad.

"I was away at Stanford studying law. I was going to be a lawyer like my parents. Become the first female Supreme Court Justice. I was home for Christmas break. Dad works corporate law while mom worked mostly for clients that couldn't afford anyone else, or those who couldn't find anyone else.

Mom was the champion of the little guy." Kate started off with.

"David verses Goliath." Rick added softly; Kate nodded her head. Kate was proud of the work her mother had done.

Kate was trying very hard not to look at Castle, afraid that she would break down and not get to finish what she knew he deserved to know about her, before they got too involved. If it wasn't too late already, since her heart was involved, or more accurately she wanted it to be involved.

"Dad and I were waiting for mom to join us after work at a restaurant. Except she never showed. When we got home, we found a detective waiting for us.

He told us mom had been killed. Stabbed and left to bleed out in some alley way somewhere. Mom still had her purse and everything in it so it wasn't a mugging gone wrong. They chalked it up to random act of violence, some gang member chose her so he could get in, or make a name for himself." Kate still wasn't looking at Castle. She didn't want to see what his face looked like. Kate really didn't want to break down all over again.

"I quit school and moved back to New York. Dad isn't taking it well. He's started drinking." Kate stopped, she really didn't know what to do for her dad.

"I take it he's not a good drunk?" Castle asked his first question, and Kate shook her head.

"Please tell me he didn't do this." Kate felt his soft touch over the area of her right eye. Kate didn't trust her voice so she only nodded.

"DAMN! …I was going to go out and beat who did this to you to a pulp. I was going to give him everything he had coming to him and then some." Rick knew he couldn't go beat up Kate's father, that just wasn't an option.

He did however get a crack of a smile out of Kate. Kate thought it was sweet that he wanted to defend her that much, but he was also right, she didn't want him touching her father. It was the alcohol talking and hitting, not her father.

Rick collapsed down onto the counter reaching out to Kate who just sat there. "You need to unpack and since my dinky closet is already full you will have to use the one in the spare bedroom. I seriously doubt there are enough hangers so I need to go out and get likely a lot more.

I know I don't have any 'feminine products' so you'll have to tell me what to get, and if suddenly there is going to be cooking taking place around here we need to go grocery shopping also.

We need to find you some sunglasses. The kind that are really big, like Harry Caray wears." That got a chuckle out of Kate.

"You watch baseball?" Kate suddenly had hope since Castle knew who Harry Caray was.

"Of course, just who do you think you are talking to? Do I watch baseball?" Rick feigned being stabbed in the heart. "Oh no, don't tell me. Dodgers?" Kate saw hope written all over his face. "Mets?" Rick tried again.

"OH GOD." Rick hung his head low. "I hate the Yankees." He watched Kate make faces at the names of the teams he suggested.

"WHAT!?" Kate yelled out. "How could you hate the Yankees, you live in New York." Kate was shocked.

"I moved out here from L.A. remember. Of course I hate the Yankees, everyone outside of New York hates the Yankees. Their payroll is twice the size of half the other teams in baseball." Meaning they buy their way to a championship.

"You're going to have to convert Castle." Kate wasn't joking.

"I suppose you're going to tell me that you're Jewish too?" Rick asked and looked at Kate's reaction. "Muslim?" Rick tried again getting the same look. "We'll talk. First you need to go unpack and I need to go shopping." Rick was happy she wasn't Jewish or Muslim, not that those were deal breakers, it just meant less fighting.

"Yankee lover." Rick mumbled as he reached the front door, only to have a throw pillow hit him in the head. "Is that all your clothes or did you leave any behind?" Rick asked as he launched the pillow back at Kate who simply caught it.

"I still have a few clothes and some shoes and coats." Kate answered his question.

"We'll figure out what to do about those later. I'll be back. …Oh and I need to find that spare set of keys." Rick thought as he exited and closed the door.

It had Kate smiling all the way to the spare bedroom. Castle was going to just give her a set of keys so she could come and go as she pleased. It wasn't until she had run out of hangers that it occurred to her. "I'm moving in with Castle, how the hell did this happen?" Kate sat down on the bed.

Suddenly Castle was back and poked his head in. "You didn't tell me what brand or kind to buy. …God this is going to be sooo embarrassing." Kate started grinning and told him what she used.

Castle was gone again. "How many men do you know who buy this kind of stuff mom? Is Castle the right guy mom? Would you approve?" Kate could really do with an answer to her question and it had her starting to hyperventilate. Her mother wasn't here to help her and never was going to be again. Some low life waste of space had taken her from her.

Kate was lying on her back on the bed when Castle suddenly showed up with 40 plastic hangers for her clothes. "Here's your …box and I bought you some sunglasses. We can search for some better ones later and I bought a few more medical supplies. As soon as you're done unpacking your clothes we can go grocery shopping. You're going to have to pick what to buy because I haven't got a clue." Rick was forced to admit.

"What do you have Castle?" Surely he had something, he was cooking eggs after all.

Rick opened his mouth to ask her what part of nothing did she miss, but just snapped it closed again and went into the kitchen to look for himself since he actually did have a few things.

Kate had her bags unpacked, had filled the tiny closet, and had used a few of the drawers of the dresser that was in the spare room too.

Kate found Castle still in the kitchen. "Okay out of the kitchen Castle." If he was useless she might as well get him out of it. Kate started searching and looking to see what Castle did have.

"Did you make toast with this Castle?" Kate held up the bag that had bread in it.

Castle shook his head. "I used the one in the freezer. I thought it would last longer if it was frozen." Kate started smiling since he had the cutest "Please don't shoot me face" she had ever seen.

"Good thing Castle, this stuff would have made us sick." Kate threw the moldy bread into the trash.

Turns out Castle had a few of the basics. A few canned foods, just nothing to make meals with. Some pasta that had never been opened and was already a year old. It went right into the trash.

He had peanut butter and jelly, some orange juice that went down the drain and then into the trash. Ketchup, mustard, mayo (that went into the trash). Then things went downhill fast.

Castle only had the one frying pan, one pot, no cookie sheets, no aluminum foil, two whole plates, no glasses except for coffee cups, service for 4 at best with no specialty spoons, no tongs. "We need to go to Macy's too Castle, you don't even have anything to cook with let alone anything to cook." Kate did however find Castle's new life form in the refrigerator and it went into the trash too.

"I'll get my wallet and find you your keys." Rick hung his head low and headed for his bedroom.

It left Kate to keep searching the kitchen. "No Tupperware, one whole knife-this is going to be bad." Kate was fearing they needed to rent a panel truck to get it all home with.

Rick was amazed. Macy's actually did have a kitchen department.

Krups Coffee Maker and Espresso Machine.

KitchenAid 9 speed hand mixer.

Quisinart 9 cup food processor.

All Clad Stainless Steel 10 piece cookware set.

Wusthof Gourmet Cutlery 23 piece knife set.

OXO 15-piece Kitchen Utensil Set.

OXO pop containers – 6

Measuring cups and spoons.

Cutting Board.

OXO non-skid Mixing Bowls.

OXO 12 disk cookie press.

Pyrex 16-piece bake and store set.

Fiesta Dinnerware – (4) 5 piece set.

Wallace "Palatina" Sterling Silver Flatware Collection. "It doesn't have to be made of silver Castle." It went into the pile anyway with Kate shaking her head.

Godinger Dublin Gold Collection – (4) sets of four.

"Oh and one of these." Kate grabbed a plastic bowl full of holes and added it to the list.

"What was that?" Rick didn't see any use for it, especially since it was full of holes.

"Pasta strainer." Kate answered back and waited while Castle arranged for someone to deliver it all tomorrow.

Castle already had a two slice toaster and a can opener. Kate simply added the first glass pitcher she could find and they were done with Macy's. Castle arranged to have it all delivered since they had no way of getting it all home themselves.

Next up was a trip to the grocery store where Castle pushed the cart while he watched Kate take things down off the shelves and drop them in their cart.

Kate was having fun looking at Castle's face at some of the stuff she was dropping in their cart. "Relax Castle I'm not going to poison you." Kate was smiling at his obvious discomfort.

"You're sure we couldn't just get take-out every day?" Rick was having trouble with the concept of making at home what you could buy ready made somewhere else. It would have saved a lot of money today.

Next came watching the lady in the deli slicing meats and putting them in plastic re-sealable bags, followed by different types of bread. Then it was on to the meat section where they got beef, ground beef, ground turkey, whole chickens, cut up chickens, sausage and bacon.

Next came the produce section, and Rick watched Kate select and bag various items till his cart looked like a bed of vegetables on top.

They each had two large grocery bags in their arms while Rick had several plastic bags dangling from his fingertips. "Where are the keys Castle?" Kate asked as they stood at his front door.

"In my pocket." Rick did his best to glare at Kate. He did his hardest to convey the thought "like where else would they be?"

Kate put her bags down and shoved a hand down into one of his pants pockets. Kate gets a sudden inhale of breathe out of Castle. "That's NOT the keys Kate."

Kate was grinning wide. "Maybe not but it sure feels good." Kate went diving into the other pocket since the keys weren't in that one.

Rick had filled the cabinets in his little kitchen with all of the dry goods, while Kate filled his apartment sized refrigerator/freezer with everything else. Kate had noticed that his was taller than normal and skinny, unlike any refrigerator she was used to.

"You don't even have a dining room table Castle." Kate was looking the place over more carefully for the first time.

There was a love seat, coffee table, an end table with a lamp on it, a cabinet that had a TV on it and that was about it. There weren't even any pictures on the walls. Kate had heard of minimalist before, but this was taking it to the extreme.

"I found this place the day after I moved out here and bought only what I needed the next day. I spend most of my time in the gym and at the library, I didn't think I needed much else. I don't usually spend much time here.

This place isn't really me so why put down roots for when I do find a space that I like and want to stay and spend time in?" Rick countered.

"And yet you have a bedroom set in the spare bedroom." Kate didn't understand.

"It was on clearance and I thought "What the hell" maybe I'll need it one day." Rick shrugged his shoulders. "Hey you want to help me look for a new place. Something more permanent? We could go shopping again or hire a decorator maybe, get some really nice furniture. Something with a really big kitchen, give you some room to cook.

Oh, you need those keys." Rick strode into the bedroom to search for the spare set of apartment keys.

He left a shocked Kate in his wake. Moving in with Castle for a while till she found a job and her own apartment that she could afford was one thing. Helping Castle find a home for them to move into was another. "Too fast. … Is it too fast?"

Kate knew she didn't have anywhere else to go. If she hadn't met Castle she didn't know where she would be right now. And she knew she was falling for him. They had made love twice and Kate had the feeling that Castle was going to make good on his pledge to make love to her every night, and he was so damn good at it too.

There was presently a war going on inside her head. Kate wanted to move in and make love to Castle every night; she wanted to feel him close to her constantly.

However she needed to start her life, get a job and start growing up. It was turning out to be just her now. "Except for Castle..."