Chapter 4

It had been four days since Castle had been assigned as Beckett's bodyguard. Montgomery had since ordered Kate to stay home for the next few days as their prime suspect was believed to be back in the city. The last thing he needed was Beckett wandering the streets, she may as well have a bullseye on her back. Instead, she was going insane sitting in her apartment with nothing remotely entertaining to do.

Castle, however, kept himself amused on his laptop during the day. Most of the time he was going through files relating to the case, but in the evening he was notorious for online gaming. Kate had watched him play a few times, he had even invited her to join but she was not a gamer and had no intention of becoming one. She was spending most of her days rereading books she had read a thousand times before. All she wanted to do was go back to work or meet some friends for drinks.

"What're you doing?" she asked, peeking over Castle's shoulder as he typed.

"Just writing notes down regarding the case." She leaned in over his shoulder, her face directly beside his. Turning to look at her, he closed his laptop and said, "You're very nosy."

"Those weren't case notes," she said.

"And how can you be so sure of that, detective?"

"Because I'm pretty sure I saw the words 'making love'… and I highly doubt that's about my case." She smiled at him, knowing she had caught him in a lie. "Wait," she said coming to a realisation. "Are you writing fanfiction?"

"What?" he laughed, his voice jumping up an octave. "How do you even know what fanfiction is?"

"Don't change the subject."

"If it means you'll get out of my hair, then yes. It's fanfiction." Castle put the laptop on the table and made his way across the living room.

"Well it has to be something you're embarrassed about, otherwise you wouldn't be so secretive."

"I'm not secretive, you're just nosy," Castle said pointing to his nose. "I'm going to the restroom."

Kate sat herself onto the couch and sighed. The boredom was hitting her hard, it always did at this point in the evening. She glanced at the coffee table where Castle had left his laptop. She was battling with her morals about whether or not she should open in. He seemed to spend all his time on it so surely it will tell her something about him she doesn't already know, not that she knows anything about him at all. But she knew he wouldn't be happy with her if she did go through it.

Before she knew it, the laptop was opened on her lap and her eyes were scanning through the opened document. It was a story, but it didn't look like fanfiction. The way it was written looked more like that of a book. She scrolled up to the very top where she began to read. The writing style and concept reminded her of the books she had been reading the last few days. It was evident from this short piece that Castle was extremely talented.

"Ahem," Castle cleared his throat snapping her from her thoughts. "Ever heard of privacy?"

"You write?" Kate asked in a surprising tone. A glare from Castle changed her reaction pretty quickly. "I'm sorry." She closed the laptop and placed it back on the table. "You have a real talent, Castle. What I read was really good."

"You shouldn't have done that, Kate," he said disappointingly. "If I had wanted you to read it I would have shown it to you."

"I just wanted to get to know you a little better, that's all."

"Then ask me questions, don't root through my personal files."

She knew he would be disappointed but not to this extent. "Well forgive me for showing a little interest into your life. You've been a closed book since you got here. You know all about me, hell you studied me before taking this job. But you haven't offered up a single thing about yourself since you got here."

"The difference is it's my job," he said defensively. "I have to know every single detail about you. You, on the other hand, don't need to know anything about me. You've overstepped and invaded my privacy."

Kate scoffed. "You think your privacy has been invaded? I'm the one who's had my life invaded. You've been forced into my life, my home! I can't even wash my hands without you looking over my shoulder."

"I was assigned to do this for your benefit. You, however, chose to read what I'd written even though I repetitively told you I didn't want to talk about it."

"I didn't realise you having hobbies was such a big deal. I'd understand you being mad at me if I rooted through the files on your laptop, but I didn't! All I did was read an extract from your writing. Why are you so mad about this?" she asked. "You've got a real talent, Castle. But for some reason you don't trust me enough to know anything about you or your life."

"This is a job," he reminded her. "You're a client, I'm providing a service to you. That is it." He snatched his laptop from the table and made his way to the kitchen island.

She knew this was going to come back and bite her in the ass. Kate approached him cautiously and took a deep breath. "Look, Castle… I'm sorry for overstepping. I shouldn't have touched your laptop, I know that. I just wanted to know something about you. Like it or not, we're gonna be stuck together for a while. It could be weeks, it could be months. So I was just trying to make this easier on us both."

"I don't form relationships or bonds with my clients," he sighed. "If I do, it can compromise my ability to do my job."

"I'm not asking you to tell me your deepest darkest secrets," she asserted. "I just wanted to find out something remotely particular to you. All I know is your name and your occupation." Castle sat in silence failing to make eye contact with her. "Fine," she conceded. "I tried."

Kate left him sitting at the island alone with his thoughts. Castle had no idea why he reacted the way he did, he had never snapped at someone over something so silly before. He didn't care if people knew he wrote, so that wasn't the problem. He didn't feel betrayed by what she had done either, so why had he shut her out like that?

Maybe because he was afraid of them becoming closer.

Castle was tossing and turning all night replaying the argument in his head. His mind was racing rendering him unable to get a wink of sleep. He still didn't quite understand the reasoning behind why he attacked her the way he had; what she had done wasn't serious enough to deserve that reaction from him. Unlike when he had basically jumped on her in the restaurant a few days previous, this wasn't going to be as easy to move on from. He knew he had to do what he could to make amends.

Before she woke, Castle made it his mission to have coffee and breakfast ready. He transformed his sleeping area back into a living room, then got started on the food prep. A quick glance in her fridge gave him a surprising amount of breakfast options to choose from. Pancakes, bacon, eggs, a fruit salad. So he made them all.

Kate lay awake in her bed unwilling to get up, until she smelled coffee. Wandering out into the living room in sweats and a vest top, the smell of a homecooked breakfast hit her. She could see Castle stirring something with one hand, then flipping a pancake with the other. The reason as to why he was doing this became clear to her pretty quickly.

"Am I hosting a breakfast morning I forgot about?" she said strolling into the kitchen.

"Hey," he said chirpily. "Sit down, breakfast should be ready in a minute. How do you take your coffee?"

"Black is fine." Looking down at her table she could see an assortment of options. "So, you cook?"

"Occasionally! How did you sleep?" he asked as he plated the last pancake.

"Good," she assured, wary of the tension that still may be lingering.

Castle put a plate of food in front of her, one that had a little bit of everything. "Bon appetite!"

Smiling down at the effort he had put into this, she said, "You really didn't have to do this…"

"No, I did," he admitted. Clearing his throat he added, "I overreacted last night. I shouldn't have said those things to you when you were just trying to be nice. I meant when I said I don't form relationships with clients, but sharing a little about myself every now and then couldn't hurt, right? We are human after all."

"I don't know," she said smiling at the floor. "You being a robot would explain why you don't form relationships." She looked across the table to see him smiling timidly at her.

"Touché, detective," he chuckled.

"But I'm sorry too," she added. "You were right. I crossed a line and shouldn't have poked around. It was selfish and you had every right to react the way you did."

The room fell silent for a moment and Castle smiled to himself. "It's funny. In all my years on the job, no one has ever shown an interest in my life. I guess maybe that's why I didn't know how to properly handle you last night."

"I'm sure you could handle me just fine, Castle," she said smirking at the innuendo as she fed herself a chunk of watermelon.

"Just eat your breakfast," he laughed.

Any worry or uncertainty that had been lingering in their minds had since been pushed aside. They both knew they were at fault, both willing to admit it to one another. Kate knew that when he was ready Castle would share more about himself and maybe his writing. She didn't know much about him but being closed off suggested to her that maybe he had a hard time trusting people, so she wasn't going to test that boundary. She liked him, she did. She was unsure exactly just how much, but nevertheless there was admiration towards him. It just needed time.