These two episodes are far more complex to write between without retaining some of the original works, hence a longer chapter. When writing I presume readers know the show quite well, which enables me to jump between bits or summarise, but in this storyline it's been quite difficult. Enjoy and thank you for taking the time to submit comments/feedback. Really look forward to reading them.

Chapter 82

Castle stumbled into a stop, grabbing at stair railing to save him from a fall. He stared in disbelief and concern at the flames spilling from the windows licking the walls. Sirens were going off everywhere. His heart broke.

Kate's apartment had blown up with her inside it. Instincts took over. The phone was dropped into his pocket and he sprinted over the road and into the foyer of her apartment. Panicked residents spilt out the fire stairwell and ran for the entrance. Castle thrusted up the stairs taking them two at a time to Kate's floor pushing past residents of the block. They tried to stop him, but he shrugged them off and rushed up the stairs.

He jogged down the hallway to her doorway, briefly wondering what he was going to do when he got there. The answer came to him. Save her.

The key. He had keys to her place. A hand dived into his jeans pocket to retrieve his keys.

"Kate, are you in there?" He called.

With what seemed like ten thumbs he managed unlocked the door, all the while able to feel the heat of the fire through the wood. The lock was hot. Smoke billowed from under the door. Lock released, he pushed the door open but it abruptly stopped.

"Fuck!" She had the damn door chain on. Thick smoke streamed through the gap. He coughed. Using every bit of strength he had, he threw himself at he shoulder against the door. Three times later, the chain gave way with the hot and weakened hinges. Wood split. He fell into the entrance on top of the door.

"Ouch. Ow!" The heat had Rick jump to his feet.

"Kate? Kate!" He searched through smoke and spraying water for any part of Beckett' body.

Castle heard coughing. Kate's cough. His heart thumped with joy.

"Kate?"

Beckett continued to cough,

Castle followed the cough, tried to avoid the water spraying from the sprinklers. "Kate. Kate."

Luckily for Castle, Beckett coughed, unable to breathe. Like following a trail, he finally traced the sound to the bathtub. The bathroom had taken the impact of the explosion.

Castle stopped in the middle of the bathroom. Crouched in the wrought iron tub, wet and covered in soot was Beckett. Disorientated and afraid, her fingers searched to anchor on something sound and safe. She cried.

"You're alive." His hands shot to his lips, "Whoa. And you're naked."

"Castle?"

"I'm here. What a time to be naked."

"Castle, hand me a towel." She wiped at her eyes and blinked. "I was in the shower when you called."

Castle turned about to where he knew the towels hung and saw one smoldering towel, "Your towels are on fire."

"Well, what about the bathrobe?" She cried then coughed, "The fire department will be here any second."

Castle searched about him, "I know. Thank God you're still alive.

"Naked, Castle," she stressed between coughs.

"Alive, Beckett. Do you have anything to wear that's nonflammable?"

"Castle!"

Castle quickly replied, "Sorry."

"Give me your jacket."

Castle whispered, "Okay, okay." He extracted himself from the beige jacket, glanced up at the sprinklers still spraying water everywhere. The water although annoying, had extinguished the flames.

Beckett ordered, "Don't look."

Castle frustrated, said, "Seriously? I'm not. It's me, Kate. For fuck's sake, get out of the tub now and put this on before a stranger gets here and sees you like that." He held out his jacket for her and she slipped her arms into it, then quickly buttoned it up.

When she turned about, Castle said, "All right?" He noticed blood streamed down her shin and pointed. There was also a trickle from her hairline.

Beckett looked at him, nodded, "Yeah." She reached for his shoulders with blackened fingers. "Okay. I dove into the tub just as it blew."

"Lucky. I was fucking freaking out when I saw the explosion." He helped, well, he basically lifted her out of the tub, to the floor. "You're shaking." He softly said and ensured she didn't collapse by keeping his hands on her body.

"Shock." She replied. She was mostly depending upon him and didn't let go.

"I'm in shock. I thought I lost you." He drew her close to press his lips to her forehead, "You're okay."

"It scared me." She confessed then groaned unable to put weight to her left leg.

"What is it?"

"My knee."

"Can you walk?" He held her up from around her waist. She limped but otherwise miraculously seemed unscathed.

"Ugh. Yeah, just… a little banged up and my ears are ringing."

"It was loud. Okay. Come on. Nice and easy." He soothed feeling her body tremble but he chose not to mention it further.

"Slow, Castle. It hurts." She hung on to him, tightly.

"Nice and easy, Kate. Besides your knee and the shin there, are you in any pain?"

"Well, not nearly as much as you. It's killing you, isn't it?"

Castle glanced to her, unsure, "What?"

Beckett hobbled over the debris, her breathing heavy. "Having to wait this long to tell me how you banged down the door."

"Oh, I see. You're distracting yourself." Castle smiled and asked, "You want me to start from the beginning?"

"Floor is hot."

"C'mere then." Without further ado, he turned about, shifted Kate to where he wanted her and once she reached around his shoulder, he picked her up off the floor. Carefully, and faster he evacuated the apartment and carried her down the corridor to the stairwell.

"Castle, my butt is bare." She complained.

"Nobody's interested in your butt right now." He replied falling in behind other residents who were headed for the stairs. As they got there the fire department burst from the stair well, startling them. When Kate struggled, her let her back to the floor, but kept his arm about her waist.

"Down that way." Rick nodded his head, "Her apartment and she's the only occupant."

"Thank you. Please evacuate the building now." The first fireman said as he continued to the fire cupboard seeking a fire hose.

It was harder to get Beckett down the stairs than Rick had anticipated. Her knee gave her hell, and she didn't want to be carried down the stairs mainly because she was afraid he would stumble but also because she had nothing on underneath his coat. With everyone else in the building mostly evacuated, she was free to gradually make her way down the steps to the ground floor. Out on the street, residents could be heard cursing about their disrupted evening. Beckett remained quiet as she walked onto the pavement, only to be swooped up by a paramedic when she was spotted in the crowd. The paramedic wrapped her in a long blanket, she gratefully accepted. She was wet from being in the shower and it was cold out.

Tired of seeing her struggle, Rick carried her to the ambulance, and once she was seated inside it, he too climbed inside mainly to escape the hounding media. The paramedics closed the rear doors to stop the intrusion. By the time they were examining Kate, shock had really set in. She complained she was cold. She relayed her knee was painful. Her wrist was drawing her attention but beyond a cut, Rick couldn't see anything.

Rick listened to Beckett's shaky words when she answered paramedics questions. She knew what day it was, who the President was. Meanwhile, he texted Esposito asking him to bring Beckett's spare clothes from the Precinct. She was banged up more than she had admitted in the apartment. The paramedics cleaned up the wounds on her knees, wrist and face.

"Is it cold?" She asked Rick.

He rested his hand to her bare thigh. "Yes, but you are in a shock." He pulled the blanket over her legs a little more, then touched near her hair line. "You clouted your head."

"Mm." She reached up and touched his fingers, if not briefly, but he was sure it was to re-assure herself.

"You're gonna be fine," he whispered and in response she gave a nod, lowered her hand to her lap as he retracted his.

It was a quarter hour before Esposito and Ryan arrived with spare clothing and her Police boots by which time Beckett had relaxed and settled. Montgomery had been there marginally longer but Beckett refused to let anyone enter the ambulance until she had clothing on her body. When the clothes were delivered, she dressed then sat for the paramedic to dress the wound on her wrist. The back doors were opened.

Rick stood with Esposito outside the ambulance and observed the gathering crowds. People were panicked by the explosion. It was overwhelming to see the firetrucks, police cars and media there. The firemen had fire under control but smoke billowed out the broken windows.

"I can't believe you saved her," Esposito commented.

"Me neither," Castle cast his eye line from the windows of Kate's apartment to her sitting in the back of the ambulance holding out her wrist that was being bandaged.

"Got lucky."

Rick gave a nod of agreement. A part of him felt he was the luckiest person in the world, "Yep, fucking lucky." He pointed when he saw that Agent Shaw had turned up, and was flashing her FBI badge to enable her a clear way to the ambulance. "This will piss off Beckett."

"Sure will." Esposito gave a wave and smiled at the Agent who acknowledged the two men.

"We need to hear this," Castle commented and stepped closer to the ambulance.

Shaw stopped outside the back of ambulance and greeted, "Beckett? How you doing?"

Beckett looked to Shaw with dark, impatient eyes, "Yeah, I'm fine."

"What'd you see when you came home?"

Beckett thought about it. "The, uh, the doors were locked like I left them, the windows were shut and… I don't know. Nothing seemed out of place." She shrugged her shoulders, glanced to her two friends then back to Shaw, "But I don't know, you know, because I thought the case was done."

"It's not," Shaw said, "But you are."

Beckett's eyes widened. "What?"

"Till we find the right guy."

Beckett held up her uninjured hand to halt the decision. "Wait," she ordered. "This is my apartment. Okay? My life and my case."

"Okay, fine." Shaw replied, "My rules. You do what I say when I say and how I say it. And there will be a security detail on you at all times."

Beckett pressed her lips together then said, "Fine."

"Good."

Montgomery returned to the rear of the ambulance and said to Beckett, "Fire's out. You can head up now if you want."

"I'll go up." She looked up to her apartment windows then to the paramedic who was finishing up with the bandage on her wrist. She smiled, "Thanks."

She checked the bandage before she turned about on the seat to step out of the ambulance.

"Wait a second." Castle called out and came to her assist her. He reached to her hand and allowed her to use him as support when she lowered herself to the ground.

"How's the knee?" Rick asked.

"It hurts, but let's go see the damage."

Inside Beckett's apartment CSU were taking photographs, everyone was searching for evidence or personal stuff that might not be burned. Three men were in search of a secondary device that might be in the apartment.

Given a few minutes of searching in the area she'd last seen it, Beckett happened to find her late mother's ring. It was on the floor, still attached to the chain. But, no matter how much she searched and much to her dismay, she couldn't find her father's watch, which had been in the same place as the chain.

With Rick beside her, they went to check on the condition of her bedroom. Upon entering it the first place she looked was to the corner where their antique chair was. As luck would have it, she'd hung scarves and throw rugs over it during the week at different times, and those items had collectively protected the upholstery of the chair. She pushed her hand beneath the stuff to feel the velvet of the back of the piece of furniture.

She turned and looked to him, whispered so no one else would hear, "Oh, Castle, its dry."

Rick exhaled, "Thank God." He heard the relief in her voice. He knew how hard it would be to find a replacement chair. He wouldn't. This number was as rare as hen's teeth. He also knew how much she loved the chair. "If there's any damage, I will take care of it." He quietly told her turning about to ensure no one else would hear their conversation. He stepped to her walk-in robe. Her clothes were okay but infused with smoke and water and the entire wardrobe would need to be cleaned.

Kate went to the night stand on her side of the bed to check whether she had absent mindedly discarded her Dad's watch on the night stand. It wasn't' there. The bed was saturated with water. Like most of the belongings in the living area, the items in the bedroom were water damaged perhaps beyond repair.

When Beckett ducked under Rick's shoulder to check the walk in, he heard the cry of pure despair. She loved her clothes, her shoes. It was a bonus she stored her footwear in plastic boxes. Shoes were safe.

He quietly placed his hand on her shoulder and whispered, "Don't get upset."

"It's hard not to." She replied. She sounded very young.

"We can fix it."

"There's nothing of yours here?"

"Nothing anyone would recognize. C'mon." He encouraged her to leave the walk in, and they returned to the living area where Kate continued to search for any valuables.

Minutes later, Beckett called out, "Did anybody find my father's watch?"

Castle replied, "It's not in the hall."

Esposito who came from the bedroom said, "The damage isn't as bad in your bedroom. But your clothes do smell like smoke and explosives."

Beckett inhaled, sighed, then replied, "Yeah, I just saw it all." She gazed about at what was left of her personal belongings, her thoughts still on the missing watch and her clothes, "Does anyone know if insurance pays for dry cleaning?"

Shaw who had ignored the talk, called to the CSU guys, "I've got the blast seat here."

Beckett was immediately drawn to Shaw's focus of attention, "Well, it had to have been a small device, otherwise I would've seen it."

"The lab will have the breakdown by morning, but that's cyclonite." Shaw said pointed at floor, "Same thing we found in Ben Conrad's apartment." She looked to Beckett, "So, what tipped you?"

Beckett put her jewelry into a pocket for safe keeping, "It wasn't me. It was Castle."

"What was it?"

"Uh, well, our supposed killer, Ben Conrad, shot himself with his right hand, yet the man that Detective Beckett and I saw in the window was holding the gun in his left hand. The shot went off just as soon as he stepped out of view. He wouldn't have, couldn't have had time to switch hands that fast. Our real killer shot Ben Conrad, placed the gun in his hand, making it look like a suicide."

Shaw exhibited low level exasperation, replied, "We were outside the door. We heard the shot. There's no other way out of that apartment. So, if Ben Conrad didn't kill himself…"

"Then our killer was in the apartment the whole time." Beckett concluded.

"How the hell did we miss him?"

"I don't know, Agent Shaw," Castle answered, "But let's go find out, shall we?" He glanced at the ladies who thought for several seconds then moved to prepare to leave.

It didn't take long to find a place the killer could have hidden himself in Ben Conrad's apartment.

They searched for a hiding place in the flooring, cupboards and walls. It was Beckett who found a secret door underneath a shelf. She disrupted the removable board then crept inside the narrow opening.

Inside the space, which was roughly the size of a wardrobe, she found personal items and discarded clothing. The air in the space was stale, reeked of body odor. She examined the clothing and found the pieces were exactly the same as what Conrad had worn when the FBI team had found him. There was also a fake beard to match Conrad's. The killer had wanted the cops to think he was Conrad. It explained why the man that they saw in the window, the one from their eyewitness accounts, led them straight to Ben.

In a brief conversation, the team concluded the real Ben Conrad had been held hostage in his own apartment the entire time.

Duct tape was also found, evidence that Conrad must have been bound, and probably had no idea that he was blamed for three murders.

Castle held open an evidence bag for Beckett to deposit the duct tape and said, "Each of our victims was carefully selected for their connection to Ben Conrad, Kate, making him the perfect Patsy."

Shaw who heard Castle replied, "The killer's a chameleon, changing his identity to get close to the victims. He becomes Ben Conrad, he becomes invisible. Nobody's looking for him."

"And then," his eyes connected with Beckett's, "We come here, and we find exactly what we expect to find, our suspect dead on the ground. Case closed."

Beckett said, "Meanwhile, our killer was right here, hidden in this secret room. He was here the whole time, and we missed him."

Beckett's cell started to ring.

Shaw said, "I'll get the evidence team down here, see what they can find." She exited the room with the phone to her ear.

Beckett nodded as she took the call, not familiar with the caller id number. With the phone on speaker she curtly greeted, "Beckett."

"You are supposed to be dead."

Beckett's gaze returned to Castle's blue eyes as he stepped in closer to listen, "I'm sorry to disappoint you," she replied.

"It was supposed to be over, Nikki. It was supposed to be done. But now… now, I have to keep going." He sounded quite pissed off and his tone caused a knot across Rick's brow.

A woman screamed out, "No! No!"

Their eyes widened.

Three gunshots sounded. The line went dead.

Castle called out, "Jordan? We have another victim."

"Geezus, Castle. We gotta find him."

"Trace the phone number." Rick replied and found his phone to call the Precinct. They organized for the cell number to be traced as they followed Agent Shaw out of the building.

They were at the crime scene within a quarter hour. The killer had left the victim's cell phone on which had allowed the police to trace it. The victim was Gloria Rodriguez and her ID badge showed she was employed by a hotel in midtown.

They found a slug but this one didn't have letter etching.

Agent Shaw concluded that this murder was done out of anger, and was about the killer wanting to be in control. They left the CSU squad with the crime scene and headed back through the night to the Precinct.

Beckett repeated to her audience of one in the elevator, "All because I lived."

"You can't blame yourself for that, Kate." Rick calmly responded while he tapped on his phone screen, "But it does make sense that he knows you lived because he was at the apartment when it blew up."

Beckett nodded and said, "He was watching… At the aftermath." Then she really looked at him, "He saw you with me, Castle."

He lowered the phone, "So?"

"So, he knows you're my partner."

"It doesn't matter." Castle replied, "He always knew. Nikki Heat?"

"Mm." She grunted realizing her momentary lapse. "I don't want you hurt."

"I'm okay. Everything about this guy's profile tells me he was watching at the other crime scenes."

"Yeah, but the first thing we did was compare crime scene photos." Beckett sipped her coffee.

"Yeah, I know. The FBI ran them through their fancy facial recognition software."

"And it didn't work, Castle, but he was there. I know he was there."

"He wouldn't be in the crowd, Honey. He'd know that's where we'd look."

Beckett pressed her lips together, stared at the numbers slowing passing. They were nearly on the homicide floor. "No," she agreed, "Shaw's right, he hides in plain sight. It's like he's a chameleon, Rick."

"We didn't see him in the crowd, Beckett, because he was dressed as one of us, well one of you. Cop of paramedic."

Their eyes locked just as the door to the elevator slid open.

With fresh mugs of strongly brewed coffee from the fabulous coffee machine, Castle and Beckett joined the FBI team. They searched pictures of the crime scenes and always happened to identify the same individual dressed as a fireman but none of the photos were clear.

Exasperated, Shaw said, "Same cop, 30 photos, not one of them has a clear shot of his face. That is not a coincidence."

"He knew where the camera was." Castle commented.

"And, he knows our playbook.

"He does, Jordan," Beckett said, "I'm gonna get Ryan and Esposito to canvass the other uniforms. Maybe they can get a description."

"No, Beckett." Castle replied, "It won't do any good." Beckett looked at him and encouraged him to explain, "The last sketch we got of this guy, he looked like Ben Conrad."

"Okay, do you have a better idea? 'Coz I am all out. And if we don't catch him soon, he's gonna kill again."

"You can't take this personally. Kate," Jordan replied.

"The hell I can't. He just blew up my apartment. I think that's pretty damn personal."

"Do you know how they caught Son of Sam?"

Castle raised his hand as he answered, "A parking ticket. Berkowitz parked too close to a fire hydrant."

"Yes," Shaw said, "All we need to find is our parking ticket, and we catch this son of a bitch. As smart as he is, he's got a fatal flaw, hubris. It's not enough for him to be smart. He wants us to know it. He wants us to know he fooled us. All of his victims, the personal injury lawyer, the dog walker, the taxidermist, they all link back to the death of Ben Conrad's dog. How could our killer known all the players in someone else's life?"

Castle replied, "He must have known Ben Conrad."

"So that's where we start." Shaw instructed, "We treat Ben Conrad as the first victim in this case."

Beckett who had calmed, said, "And then we find out where he intersected with our killer."

And they proceeded to program the FBI computer to help find that intersection.

When Castle opened the front door of his loft he didn't expect the screech of, "Dad!"

Castle entered, closed the door and abruptly collided with his daughter who hugged him, "Hey. Hey. Oh! Hey." He hugged her right back, "Aw, I'm all right. I'm all right."

Alexis stepped back and walked with her father to the black leather sofa. "Where's Detective Beckett?"

"I left her at the Precinct," he glanced at his watch, "And maybe not." He sat down and leaned back, and his daughter sat right beside him.

Martha exhaled, "I can't imagine how she survived that explosion. Where was she when it went off?"

"She was there. She, uh… jumped into the bathtub. The bathroom door and the cast-iron tub protected her from the blast."

"Oh! Thank goodness Katherine is fine."

"She's a little banged up and got scared, but she'll be right"

"Dad, why is that person going after Detective Beckett?"

"Well, at the moment, all we have is a theory. But – but we know more now, and we have a strategy."

"Do you think he'll come after you?"

"Oh, sweetheart." He reached for his daughter, "I'm gonna be fine. You are stuck with me for a long, long time." His reassurance came with another decent hug.

"You know, I'm supposed to move out today," Martha said, "I think I should stay here with Alexis."

"Well, there's no need, Mother. Montgomery has someone keeping an eagle eye on our building. But all the same, we should be on the alert." He sat up and sniffed his clothes in disapproval. "I need to go change…" He stood, "And go back and help." He started off towards the bedroom, tugging at his top to get it off.

Martha hugged Alexis, "See. He's okay."

There was a light tap at the door.

"That's probably Beckett." Rick called out. "She here to clean up."

"Go open the door for Katherine, Darling." Martha requested. Alexis hurried to the front door and opened it.

"Hey." Kate greeted with a shy smile. "How are you Alexis?"

"Hey. Good thanks. How are you?" Alexis let the door go, scanned Beckett from foot to head and stepped away to allow her to enter the loft. The Detective closed and locked the door. With her keys in the bowl and shoes by the door, she followed Alexis to the couch and greeted the older woman with a press to the cheek.

"Good evening, Martha."

"Katherine, how are you?" She touched the hand that had the bandaged wrist.

"Feel like I went to boot camp." Kate watched Alexis go upstairs to her bedroom without saying anything. "How are you? How did he know?"

"He was looking at the photos, sorting them out for you and he started talking about left handed people."

"He saved my life, Martha."

"Thank God he did. He wouldn't survive without you. He adores you." Martha softly said as Kate sat on the edge of the sofa beside her.

"He'd be fine." Kate reassured holding Martha's hand, but briefly thought about how she would be without him in her life. The time they'd been apart had been a good indication to her that she did better with Castle in her life and she hoped he felt a similar way. Then she softened, gave Martha's hand a light pat and added, "I would struggle without him too."

"What happened to your wrist?"

"Hurt it in the explosion."

She pressed her lips together then pointed towards Castle's bedroom. "I'd better go see he's okay."

"He's worried about you."

"I'm okay." She stood. "Need a shower. The last one had my apartment blown up."

Rick was in the shower by the time Kate closed the bathroom door.

He heard the door close. With a swipe of his palm across the steamed glass, he saw Beckett undressing in a hurry.

"Hey." He said. It seemed she sought the warmth radiating from heat lamps she stood directly beneath. On another night, a while back when she'd come home off a shift, wet and cold, she'd said that the heat brought comfort. She hastily stripped her body of clothing.

"Hey." She threw her clothes in the hamper.

"You got here faster than I thought you would." He commented as he cast his eyes down her lean body. She was sporting a couple of decent bruises.

"I stink. I had to get out of those clothes."

"Me too." He opened his arms, and without hesitation, she closed the space between them wrapping her arms firmly around his torso. He got a whiff of the smoke in her hair that hit the steam as soon as the hot water soaked her.

He cradled her head and took a few moments to just hold her bare body to his. Her heart pounded. Breathing was shallow but slowing.

He stepped back a little and checked her eyes, "You alright?" Two fingers swept wet hair from her left eye.

She gave him a bit of a smile. "I am now."

"Just a bit roughed up, but you'll be right." He touched her cheek and kissed her lips when she reached for his affection. Once again. he drew her in against his body, his arms wrapping firmly around her. He calmly said, "I phoned your father to let him know you're okay."

Kate pulled away a little, turned her head to see his eyes, "My Dad? Oh shit."

"Yeah just in case he heard about your apartment blowing up."

"Oh. Yeah. My Dad." She bit her lip in thought then grabbed the shampoo. It gave her pause and she looked at Rick with concern, "Was he mad I didn't call?"

"He understood you were under duress to find the guy," he replied. "I said I called because you were tied up with Agent Shaw." He soaped up his sponge and observed her, noting she didn't ask when he had made the call, which had been while he'd been sitting with her in the ambulance. She should have heard the call take place but it seemed quite clear she had no recollection.

She grunted in disgust, he assumed because of the mention of a certain FBI agent. Just as quick she moved on. "I do have clothes here, Castle, like sweaters, jackets?"

He chuckled in amusement. "Oh Beckett, I believe you'd be right for about a week living out of your clothes in my wardrobe." He saw her frown, so he rescued the moment, "But we could go shopping after we've caught the guy."

"I guess."

Muffled thumping overhead had them momentarily fall silent. "That's Alexis going to bed." Rick commented. "She's happy."

With the conditioner in her hair Kate got busy with washing her body. She had to get back to the Precinct, "I'm pissed at myself for not calling my Dad, Castle."

"You nearly died Kate. You're chasing a serial killer. Give yourself a break." He rinsed his hair. "He understood."

"Well, thanks. I'm very sorry I didn't think to call him."

"Look at the upside, Beckett. I scored a few brownie points with your Dad tonight."

"His approval is that important to you?"

"Equally as important that I approve of my daughter's future partner, yes. Its paramount to me that your father likes me. He's entrusting me with his daughter, his only offspring," he stressed.

Kate gave pause to assess Castle and think about his comment. She laughed. "Seriously? You know what year it is?"

"Okay. Call me traditional."

"What about me?" She turned off the faucet to her shower.

He grinned, playfully reached around her waist and drew her back to his body with a low growl. "I already know what you think of me." He said with a deeper than usual voice, "That is the most important thing in the world." His hand sneaked up her body until his forearm was against her chest, his fingers at the side of her neck, and he held her there, under the flow of steamy water. "You're alive." There was a kiss to her right shoulder, to the side of her neck. It was enough to have his lover turn about, her hands reaching to the sides of his jaw.