Chapter 53

A portion of this chapter was written for Mr G Snow who is an SK fan, and who happened to share a moment that had him remember his late mother.

"So long as you have fun and be home before the street lights come on." He smiled, took a first sip of coffee and paused to savour its qualities on his taste buds. "Flavour country."

They ate at the kitchen counter, their conversation mainly about his experience with the Russian poker game and what Beckett had done when she had saved his ass. Because she had cooked Castle let his daughter go to get herself ready for the day. He cleaned up their breakfast dishes, then decided to remove Kate's bag from the door way before his mother sighted it. The bag was left at the end of the bed. A quick check on Kate showed him she was in exactly the same position he'd last seen her in so he continued through to the study to do some writing.

"Hey."

"Well, hello. Sleeping beauty awakens." Rick hit save and sat back in his chair as Kate approached him. She smiled at his comment, laughed a little. A softness in her tone didn't go unnoticed, aroused his senses, brightened his mood. He cast his eyes down her bare legs. The muscles were toned, probably because she'd spent time running during their separation. She wore his dress shirt he'd worn yesterday, and her hair was ruffled from sleep. His arms opened to accept her on his lap.

She reached to his shoulders as she sat upon his thighs. He embraced her, and she snuggled in. "Hello," she whispered, kissed his cheek.

"Hello."

"You smell like heaven, Rick," she whispered, snuggling against his head.

"You're all warm," he commented.

"Mmm." She gave him a kiss, placing her hand to his jaw, "I slept in really late."

He glanced at his watch. "It's lunch time." His palm rested to her knee then ran up her leg to her hip. "You must have needed it."

"Haven't slept much lately so it was good to get some sleep."

He raised an eyebrow, betting with himself she hadn't been sleeping while they had been apart. It wasn't something he'd done a lot of during their break up either, but last night he'd slept well.

"What you writing?"

"Working on my first Nikki Heat."

"Oh." She pressed her face against his neck, and softly seductively inquired, "When can I read it, Baby?"

"You can read it," He murmured, "When I give you the first print." He let his hand slowly sneak its way to her inner thigh. The urge to have her was almost stronger than him but he needed to wait for them to settle back into their relationship.

"Please." She pleaded.

"Later. Let's go do something."

"Stay here." She suggested in hushed tones, fingers combing through his hair. "Just be us." Long legs folded up so her feet were on the arms of the chair, her weight against his chest.

"In that case, why don't we stay at your place," he suggested, his hand resting on her knee. "No red heads, we can do what we want for a couple of days."

"Bring your laptop –"

"So you can read my manuscript?"

She laughed. "Mm."

"We stop for lunch on the way."

"We could visit that special shop." She said with a giggle, grinning mischievously.

He chuckled, "You wouldn't believe the amount of porn I watched when you weren't here with me."

"I watched our videos." She bashfully confessed.

"Our videos.." Rick repeated. "They are good."

Kate started a gentle path of kisses along his jaw, liking that he turned his head to kiss her lips as she progressed. She cupped his head, tenderly kissing him.

Her stomach rumbled with hunger which caused them to break. Both peered down at her tummy.

"Go get dressed. I'm hungry too."

It was rather confronting the moment Rick stepped inside Kate's bedroom. As usual, the generously sized room was reasonably tidy, the bed was made, and the furniture was lightly littered with her accessories and he was delighted to inhale the air that carried with it Kate's intoxicating scent. He loved her bed room. However, the sight of a collection teddy bears sitting on the bed, staring at him stopped him in his tracks.

"Fucking hell, Kate." The bears were all arranged by their size, the largest bear propped up against the bed head in the middle the smaller positioned to each side.

"What?" She asked, her foot falls sounding on the floorboards.

He felt fingers at his back as she peered around his left shoulder, emitting a little giggle.

"Oh, yeah, Babe," she softly emitted, "Allow me to introduce you to our off spring," she invited.

He coughed, "Offspring?"

"The products of our fight perhaps?"

"That sounds better." He assessed the collection of teddy bears, suddenly conscious of why Kate had been a little upset at him about his gifts.

"Overwhelming?" She suspiciously asked.

"I see your point."

"And the flowers that turned my home into a florist shop have mostly died."

"You came home to this …"

"And the flowers…" she reminded.

"Every day."

"Yep."

"Mm." He playfully caught her hands in his as they sneaked around his waist, and held on to them. She hugged him from behind. "They are cute," he slipped in cheekily.

She laughed, "Yes, but what are we gonna do with them, especially the big fella?"

Rick grinned, "He's a ripper, right?"

"Yep. He's big."

"Yeah, I saw him in the teddy bear shop. I decided he was my last shot at getting you back."

"I slept against him for a couple of nights," she shyly confessed.

"Uh huh. I'm pleasantly surprised you shared."

"Yeah but I did. You told me I don't talk..,"

"Thank you," he paused, took a breath, "I bet he has my scent on him from when I carried him here." He confidently said.

"Carried him?"

"Walked him the entire way." He had a chuckle noting she chose to respond to that, "You wouldn't believe how many women made comments, wanted to give me their number."

"Castle." She squeezed him, pressed her lips to the back of his shoulder.

"So, he smelt of me," he softly pushed. "Divine."

"Not. But, yes, he did smell of your cologne, you," she admitted, then patted his tummy, "But what we gonna do with him?"

"Put him and his mates in storage until we have babies of our own," he answered without hesitation and reclaimed her hand so she couldn't escape.

"Babies?" She squeaked. She coughed.

He laughed at her tone, her reaction. "Do I need to have that talk with you?"

"I know what babies are," she replied, "And I know how to make one."

It was followed with a grunt of pure approval, "You most certainly do, Miss Beckett. Very good at it in fact."

A cute squeak and a little wriggle came from her before she replied, "I know. But thank you."

He smirked, "You're welcome."

"Now, let's not jump too far ahead, and deal with this offspring," she suggested.

Rick waited as he gave some thought about a solution. "I have a storage garage…"

"I could take them to my Dad's. I have things out there that I'm storing for the future."

It was a must to look over his shoulder at her face, and a surprise to see how calm she was about the conversation when he had in the past minute or so, expected the swift arrival of a mini panic attack. Their conversation was pushing the boundaries of their relationship, but here she was perfectly relaxed. Yesterday, he'd thought they were over and today they were suggesting babies were possibly a part of their future.

"Okay. We'll store it with your stuff," he agreed.

"Dad's expecting me to visit. Wanna do it today?"

"Sure, Baby. Let's rock and roll with the bears."

What was funnier, Rick couldn't decide. The sight of Kate or the teddies. But he didn't care because everything was okay. He had the collection of bears stuffed tightly into the back of the Ferrari, the roof off and a girlfriend who had spent the better part of the trip laughing her ass off about it. Her smile was breathtakingly beautiful, her hair was blowing widely about in the wind and her head was spinning between looking out the front, around them, and back at the soft toys. She fondly observed other people or children who saw the soft toys.

He couldn't help but laugh in amusement at her, particularly after the conversation they had at her place about what to do with the damn things. It was refreshing to see someone who was serious most of the time, drop her guard and just be herself.

He pulled the car into her father's driveway stopping behind a dark grey sedan.

"Daddy!" She called when she sighted her father come from the front door.

"Daddy?" Rick echoed teasingly, so only Kate heard, at which second she shot him a look. Her father smiled and waved.

"You have a daughter. You understand how it makes him feel."

"I know. Fires up that buzz only a daughter can fuel." He nodded in the direction of Jim who approached.

She got out the car, closed the door and went to her father, greeting him with a big generous hug.

"Katie, good to see you happy." Jim said setting Kate back so he could see her. "You look happy. You have him back."

Kate glanced over her left shoulder to ensure Rick was on his way to them, "I do. I stopped being …"

"You." Jim finished, then reached his hand out to Rick's for a hand shake.

"Good to see you, Rick."

"Same, Jim."

"You brought along some friends?" He pointed at the toys.

"Kate wanted to bring our offspring over to meet you." Rick seriously replied.

"I was thinking you two were going for a picnic." Jim smirked. Rick laughed. "Where did they all come from?"

Kate rolled her eyes, "Long story, Dad."

"And a lot of money." Rick added.

"Oh, this, these toys, evidently have something to do with you two breaking up. About time, Kate." He half scorned his daughter.

"Dad," she groaned. "Yes, we're back together and we want to store the collection of bears with my other stuff-"

"Until we have kids running about." Rick added and playfully dropped his arm around Kate's shoulders and drew her in close.

Jim stared at Rick for several seconds, then focused on his daughter, seemingly unable to process what his ears had just sent to his brain. The writer was playing with Kate, teasing her, and it was something Jim wasn't familiar with seeing his daughter respond to in a long time. He was however stuck with the bit about having kids.

"Kids?"

"Dad," Kate warned, "Don't listen to Castle. He's spinning bull shit."

"No, Sir. No. I'm not. She said it at her place." Rick defended, glancing between father and daughter.

Kate ducked out of Rick's hold and reached out to the giant bear she tackled out of the car, requiring a little assistance from the writer. She managed it into her arms so she was hugging it about its middle.

"Its huge." Jim commented, amused by its size. "Big as you."

"Weighs as much," Rick replied.

"So, you want to store it with the rest of your things until a baby comes along." Jim commented leading the way inside the house.

"Dad." Kate scorned.

Jim smiled at his daughter's reaction, "Makes sense, Honey. If your kids are anything like you were, they will love it."

"Good to know." Rick commented with a smile and took the bear from Kate because she was struggling to keep it from dragging on the ground.

"So they live here until kids." Jim confirmed thoroughly enjoying the sight of a rosy glow in his daughter's cheeks. It amused him no end.

"Yes." Kate replied, "And we have storage bags to put them in."

"Alright. Are you having a coffee or just dropping off the kids, I mean teddies."

"Dad," she whined.

"I would love a coffee, Jim." Rick keenly replied as he and the bear squeezed through the doorway.

"Sounds good. I'll put the coffee on."

"You have a lot of stuff, Honey." Rick poked about in the walk in robe that Jim's father had generously allowed his daughter to use to store things.

"This is culled," she replied, "When Dad moved out of our home, I had to downsize my childhood things."

"That's a shame." Against a single wall were plastic storage boxes piled up neatly in rows and clearly marked with their contents with marker in Kate's neat hand writing. Books, clothing, miscellaneous. Yep, exactly the same sort of stuff he had stored away.

"What's in there?" He asked, following her to a cupboard at the end of the room.

"My Mom's clothes. I want use something." She slid along four or five jacket bags until she selected the one she wanted. She lifted it out. "Can you hold it up for me, please?"

"Sure." Rick held up the hook as Kate unzipped the bag. A smile appeared when she reached inside.

"Pretty as I remember," she murmured and brought out a cream wool coat with fur lined collar. "This was my mother's coat. She bought it the winter she died. I've never used it."

"You want to take it home?" He felt the fabric. "Cashmere."

"Mm. I will use it …"

"I would like to see it on you, Kate.." The short summer dress she wore was not something she would generally wear the coat over.

"Sure."

He took the coat from her and held it open.

She slipped her bare arms into the sleeves, shook her shoulders into it and turned about to face the boyfriend, who had been a respectable critic. Usually, he had good fashion advice.

"Luckily I'm the same size my mother was. I wear her evening dresses. She had good taste."

She turned a couple of circles to show Rick the coat and he smiled.

"It suits you and it's a classic cut." Rick had scanned the photographs of Kate as a teenager with her mother when they had walked through the house and up the stairs. She was the image of her late mother.

"It has pockets." She said as her hands dug into each pocket." She paused, her expression changed and she extracted her right hand. She looked at Rick, "Oh God."

"What is it?" He discarded the cloak cover on a box and stepped closer to Kate. She lifted her hand and turned it over, revealing a handful of Hershey's kisses. He glanced between her hand and eyes, unsure what was happening in her mind, "Candy?"

"Must have been my Mom's. They were her favourites." A little flustered by the shock of the find, Kate buried the candy back in the pocket but simultaneously brought her left hand out, her expression changing to curiosity. Hanging from her middle finger was a gold ring. She brought it up, studied it.

Rick waited in anticipation.

"My ring!" She exclaimed.

"Your ring?"

"Oh my God. I've found it."

"You found it?" He leaned in. The diamond ring was perfectly shined, appeared brand new.

"She had it fixed." She murmured. "She must have fixed it. I thought I lost it." She burst into tears.

"Kate?"

Rick patiently waited for Kate to settle down, watched her push the ring up her middle finger until it was in its rightful place.

"Tell me about it," he requested.

"I broke it. Mom must have taken it to be repaired but never said anything. A while after Mom died, I noticed it missing. I searched every place for it…"

"Well, not every place." He said, with a bashful expression and reached out to push a rogue strand of hair from her eyes. "She must have wanted to surprise you."

"I thought I had just lost it somewhere. I broke the claws, the diamond fell out-" She wiped her eyes then brought out a piece of candy, preserved in its wrapper. "I haven't had this out."

"Kate-"

She put back the candy then swiftly shrugged herself out of the coat, dismissing what she had found. With the coat folded over her lower arm, she walked out of the small room. Rick remained there a moment, processing what he'd just experienced. Ten years on, Kate was an opened wound when it came to her mother's death. But it went deeper and he now understood how deep. She lost her mother permanently, she lost her father to alcohol for an extended period. It was he who was the only person who had got in close since. She was terrified of losing him.

"Rick?"

He raised an eyebrow when she re-appeared. She was saddened by her finds. It was all over her face. Slowly, hesitantly, he reached out his left hand towards her. "Come here a minute."

She obeyed and returned to him, letting him give her a hug.

"She loved you, Kate. This was a reminder that she's present in your life in many ways." He stroked her head, "You have her gorgeous eyes, her beautiful smile. Her old candy."

Kate laughed and squeezed his body. "Her beautiful coat."

He laughed and gave her backside a playful pat. "Get outa here. We have a hotel room waiting for us."

"Stop it." She slapped at Rick's hand as his palm slid up her inner thigh and she laughed with him.

"Annoying huh?" He leaned over towards the driver's seat, glancing between the road ahead and Kate who drove the Ferrari like she'd just escaped hell. His hand remained at her inner thigh, the wind gushed around them, changing direction as she tight hugged the car into a corner. The gears dropped, and as she drove out of the turn she accelerated seeing the road was clear ahead.

"It's a good thing you're a cop," he shouted which caused her to grin. "You have a lead foot Beckett."

"It turns you on, Ricky."

He laughed. "What turns me on is what you did before, while I was driving."

She glanced to his eyes, his groin, back to the road, her top teeth biting her bottom lip, then said, "Certainly got a reaction."

"Yeah, like this will." He replied as his fingers wandered higher between her thighs. "Oh, no panties, Beckett!"

She giggled, she squeaked, and her hips bucked when one of his fingers found the spot. Her eyes shot down to his hand beneath her dress.

"Commando day." He commented, then ordered. "Keep your eyes on the road."

Kate couldn't help but part her knees, her foot not faltering on the accelerator. His thick finger slid gracefully over her sensitive bump for the first time in weeks which caused her to think she was going to shatter right there and then. She held her breath, her stomach muscles clenched.

"Fuck. Rick." It was gasped. Fingers slipped back over, twice and she was shuddering uncontrollably. He laughed out his wickedness. He lowered his finger. Hoped, prayed he kept going. Down the silky smooth skin, there he was, just outside of her. She drove his car on a country road and he was about to plunge his fingers inside her. He knew he was unravelling her, he knew he was going to cover her today. He had been amorous the entire day and she had seduced him most of it. They hadn't had sex in weeks. For days, Kate had been climbing the walls because her body hungered for Rick.

"Weeks." She spilt out. He ceased to move. The movement of the car agitated his hand against her.
She glanced at his confused face, then explained, "It's been weeks."

"Since we fucked about?"

She swallowed and nodded.

"No shit Sherlock. Its fucking killed me." He squawked.

"I'm so sorry," she offered with a giggle, "I've been desperate to have you. I was so scared."

"Hey," he cut in with concern. "I don't want apologies, Baby. We're past that now. Its time for action."

She nodded again, glancing down at his still hand, wanting him to wriggle his fingers against her, "I'm past it," she agreed eyes back on the road.

Rick laughed, "I know." He checked the road ahead, aware they were about five minutes from the hotel. That was enough time to have her wound up for the room, "I just want you to enjoy our foreplay, and I know you are.. um.. enjoying it quite a bit. You are so damn wet," he groaned. "Oh God I missed this. Hours of torment. So ready."

Kate slowed the vehicle, "Castle, shut up. I'm going to cum and then the party will be over, if you keep up that dirty talk." She smiled cheekily and bit her bottom lip.

He laughed. "You just focus on getting us to the hotel, and I will focus on how much I am going to make you cum when we get inside." And with that said he pushed himself inside her body instantly feeling her response. Her body jerk, muscles flexed then relaxed, the car slowed then increased in speed.

"Oh," she squeaked, "Oh, Rick."

He watched her face, felt her body respond, the growl that came from her was exquisite. She drove the car perfectly, slowing as she approached the town the hotel was in.

"Excellent." Rick grumbled, leaned right over and pressed his lips to the side of her head. "You are so ripe for the picking." He sat back in his seat.

She shot him a dark look. "Ripe?"

He laughed, thoroughly enjoying the torment. He loved to tease her. "Take the next right."

"Rick, you are in so much trouble." She warned and proceeded to enter the intersection.

"Next left, there is the house …."

"The weatherboard?"

"That's it." He pointed to the old but beautifully renovated Victorian house. "And we are right on time."

"Rick, it's gorgeous."

"It used to belong to a coachman. Stables are still out back."

"You said we were staying at a hotel."

"I lied. We have the entire house to ourselves for three days. Gives us more room and I have the laser tag with me to kick your ass."

She squeaked with excitement looking at the house as she slowed the vehicle right down. "Oh Castle, its beautiful."

"Wait till you see inside. Pull in that drive way."

She obeyed, "Laser tag?"

"And Scrabble."

"Scrabble?"

"We can play strip Scrabble." He pointed towards the door to the house. The screen door opened. "The guy with the keys."

"The guy with the keys…" she echoed as Rick jumped out the car to meet the ban on the porch.