Author's Note: Here's hoping the issues with alerts and reviews have been fixed…

The Best-Laid Plans

Chapter 22

Kate would have been the first to admit (and had, privately, to Castle) that she did not really expect they would be able to go on their first real date on Friday, assuming a case would come up. But as it happened, she was wrong and was, for once, pleased to be so.

They did get a new case on Tuesday but it turned out to be relatively straightforward and they were able to close it the next day, after which she accompanied Castle back to the loft to have dinner with Alexis. (Kate prudently, if reluctantly, returned to her own apartment after that dinner, only for Castle to come over later, after Martha had returned home to take over watching Alexis.) Thursday and Friday therefore proved to be paperwork days–and she anticipated the official end of her shift on Friday more than she could remember doing in months, dreading the call from Dispatch that fortunately did not come.

She found she felt a little flustered and more excited at the prospect of this first date than she ever had for any first date before but then again, this was a different kind of first date from any she'd ever had before. She and Castle were already together, already knew each other so well.

So yes, she was excited, although she managed to hide it fairly effectively behind her usual precinct facade. Unlike Castle, who spent most of Friday afternoon fidgeting until she threatened to shoot off his fingers, and he (for once) prudently decided to return home rather than lingering at the precinct, and told her with a private smile, that he would come by her apartment to pick her up at 7.

She did not rush out of the precinct the moment her shift ended. Doing so would raise too many eyebrows so she forcibly lingered in the precinct for an additional half hour after her shift was over before leaving, a little earlier than usual but not so much as to attract undue attention.

A little over an hour later, Kate surveyed herself in the mirror with feminine satisfaction, although she made a mental note that she should arrange a shopping trip with Lanie soon to get some more dresses and pretty lingerie and underwear. After her old apartment had exploded, her priority had been to replace her work wardrobe and she hadn't prioritized fancy underwear or dresses since she hadn't really expected she'd need them in the near future. But now, with Castle in her life (her bed), some sexy underclothes would be welcome. As it was, she had needed to go shopping just for tonight's date.

She'd styled her hair and put it up, except for a few strategic curls, and put on more makeup to fit a night out. Her dress was a forest green, deceptively simple from the front, appearing like a basic sleeveless one-piece, albeit one that neatly outlined her figure, until one saw the back that consisted only of two criss-crossed straps, otherwise leaving most of her back bare. She shrugged on a wrap, a little smile playing on her lips, as she thought of the moment of reveal when she would take the wrap off, letting Castle see the rest of her dress.

A knock on the door announced Castle's arrival and she felt a giddy little thrill go through her.

She hurriedly stepped into her heels before opening the door, feeling her mouth go a little dry at the sight of him. Because he looked good, having changed into an impeccably tailored dark suit that showed off his height and broad shoulders and a wine-red shirt that made his eyes seem even bluer in contrast.

He was staring at her in turn, his eyes having flared a little, skimming up and down her from her head to her toes. "You look… wow," was all he managed after a long moment.

She smiled, a pleased flush creeping into her cheeks, something in her chest fluttering a little. He was so not smooth, not at all the suave man about town she knew he could be, and knowing that just seeing her could do that to him did something to her, made this all seem more… real.

"Thanks. You clean up pretty well yourself," she quipped.

"I like to think so," he preened.

She laughed softly and stepped in close to give him a quick kiss, although she stepped back quickly before he could capture her for more, longer kisses that would no doubt lead to them missing their dinner entirely.

She turned, bending to pick up her phone from the couch and tucked it into her clutch before turning back to him. "I'm ready now."

His eyes flew up from where they'd been fixed on her butt. "Ah, right. Me too, just not for food," he muttered in an aside.

She choked back a laugh. "Smooth, Castle."

His eyes went wide. "Oh, did I say that out loud?"

"Yeah, you did."

He grimaced. "Remind me to fix my brain-to-mouth filter."

She patted his arm teasingly as she closed and locked her apartment door. "I didn't even know you had a filter."

"Just the effect I was going for," he quipped.

She laughed and linked her arm with his. "Come on, Castle, I believe you promised me dinner."

"And then can we have dessert?" he asked with a wiggle of his eyebrows.

"Maybe, if you behave," she returned.

"I'll behave," he promised quickly.

"To quote Alexis, I'll believe it when I see it," she teased.

He laughed as he held the door of her building open for her. "Your chariot awaits."

Oh. Her steps hitched a little as she realized what he meant. He'd hired a luxurious town car, complete with a uniformed driver, who was already opening the car door for her. So this was what a date with a multimillionaire celebrity would be like.

She tried to seem calm and composed, as if having her own private town car was a normal thing rather than an unheard-of luxury, as Castle nodded at the driver. "Beckett, this is Adam. Adam, Detective Beckett."

Adam inclined his head. "Good evening, Detective."

"Hello," was all Kate managed, accepting Castle's hand as she slid into the car to be joined by Castle.

Adam smoothly closed the car door once Castle was inside.

There was a privacy screen in between the back seat and the driver, she noted, with a little relief but lingering discomfiture. This was so not what she was used to.

Her thoughts scattered as Castle leaned in to nuzzle a kiss to the sensitive little hollow just behind her ear lobe. "Have I mentioned that you look amazing?"

"Not in so many words, no," she responded, her voice a little uneven, but found her eyes going to Adam's silhouette through the privacy screen and couldn't help but stiffen a little, abruptly conscious that while the screen did mean he couldn't hear them, there was no doubt he could still see them.

Castle took the hint, straightening up a little. "Is the car too much?"

"Not exactly; it's just… new," she tried.

"I wanted tonight to be special."

She reached out and took his hand. "It is. Don't mind me, I'll get over it." She gave him a quick smile. "How was Alexis's last day of school?"

He brightened, as she knew he would at the mention of his daughter. "Great. She won't know her grades until her final report card comes out early next week but she says she thinks she did okay on all her finals. Which, translating Alexis's usual modesty, means she'll probably get straight A's again."

"Not surprising, knowing her."

"Not surprising at all. She's brilliant, just like her dad."

She hid a smile at his preening. "And how is Martha? She's leaving for her tour this weekend, isn't she?"

He grimaced a little. "On Sunday," he confirmed. "She's in the middle of packing so her room looks like a bomb has gone off. She keeps changing her mind about what to bring and what not to bring. They're only allowed to bring one bag and my mother is not a believer in packing light so the packing process is a real battle."

"One bag for, what, two months on tour? That does sound like it'll be a challenge."

"She's done it before so she'll manage, somehow. It's just the process of getting there that's rather painful. Plus, now that she's about to leave, I think she's feeling a little torn, guilty about leaving her current boyfriend for so long."

She had to pause a moment to come up with a response as he had moved from tracing her fingers to turning her hand over where it rested on his knee and was now tracing light circles on her palm, sending little shivers of sensations streaking up her arm. "But her boyfriend supports her in her decision?"

"Oh, yeah, Chet was the first to tell her she should go when she got the part and my mother does enjoy going on tour."

She closed her hand around his, capturing his fingers so he could no longer keep up his too-distracting caresses to her palm. "So it's just last minute nerves?"

"Yeah, also my mother being dramatic," he made a wry face, his thumb now stroking the back of her hand, mesmerizing little sweeps back and forth. "My mother, as you might imagine, doesn't believe in keeping any of her emotions to herself and every doubt has to be turned into some big emotional conflict."

A small, breathless laugh escaped her, along with a tiny wiggle in the seat, the sensations in her arm seeming to streak through her to pool low in her stomach. It shouldn't even be possible for him to do this to her with nothing more than touching her hand. Maybe part of it was something about the sheer contrast of it, the mundane conversation compared with the small, deliberate caresses, knowing that to all outward appearances they were only chatting while he was somehow managing to wind her up. "I imagine that's served her well in her career."

"True but it is one reason not to get involved with actresses. It's what I like about you."

"You like that I'm not an actress?" Unlike Meredith or Ellie Monroe for that matter, but she pushed aside the thought because Castle had chosen her. His past didn't matter.

He slanted a smile at her. "Among other things. Fishing for compliments, Beckett? Because I–"

He broke off as the car pulled over and stopped. "Oh, we're here."

Adam opened the car door and Castle slid out, holding out a hand to help her.

She glanced around as she stepped out of the car, a little surprised to see that they were barely 10 blocks from her apartment so hiring a car really had been an almost absurd luxury. She was more surprised to see that the restaurant was not some flashy, crowded place, but instead looked discreet and tasteful.

Castle dismissed Adam, saying he would call when they were finished, and took her hand again as he led her to the restaurant that proved to be just as quiet and elegant on the inside as it had appeared on the outside, reasonably busy but the sort of place where everyone spoke in low murmurs and so the noise level wasn't overwhelming.

The host greeted Castle with discreet familiarity and led them to a table in the back. Castle pulled her chair out for her and she thanked him with a small smile that deepened as she slipped off her wrap, revealing the back of her dress (or lack thereof) to Castle, who sucked in his breath audibly, brushing his hand against her bare back in a little caress before he sat down.

"I'm surprised, Castle. I would have thought your usual date night would be at some glitzy, trendy place."

"It normally would be but I figured you weren't the sort of person to appreciate that kind of thing, would like this place better."

"Good call," she thanked him with a smile.

"This place is one of the few places that my mother, Alexis, and I all like so it's one of our stand-bys for special occasions."

"So you've been here a lot, I take it."

"A few times a year, I guess. I was last here for my mother's birthday."

"Do you have any recommendations for what's good?"

"You really can't go wrong with anything here but Alexis is a fan of the risotto and my mother almost always orders the duck."

"And you get the steak," she guessed.

His lips curved. "I guess you really do know me by now."

"It's not that hard to figure out your taste in food."

"Maybe not but it still means you've been paying attention."

She fought back a flush. "I'm a detective. Observing goes with the territory."

"I think it means you like me," he smirked.

"What are you, a 12 year old?"

"Oh Beckett, I thought I'd proven to you that I am all man but I'll be happy to prove it all over again later."

This time she couldn't help the heat flaring in her cheeks. It was his voice that did it, that low, husky tone of his that had her reacting as if to a touch. It wasn't fair, she thought disgruntledly.

The server returned at that moment, providing a welcome distraction, as Castle ordered wine and, with a faint smile at her, the steak, while she opted to try the gnocchi.

The interruption had allowed her to regain her composure and she decided he couldn't have it all his way, being the one to throw off her composure. "Can I ask you something?"

"Of course. You can ask me anything."

Although, she couldn't help but note, he did not promise to answer all her questions. "Why did you kill off Derrick Storm?"

Something flickered across his face. "Because it would annoy Gina?" he glibly responded.

She narrowed her eyes a little. She hadn't expected he would deflect about this but she was learning that in some ways, he could be as reticent as she was, only he was better at hiding it, deflecting and distracting behind humor and jokes. But she wasn't sure why this subject bothered him. "Castle."

He made a small face of resignation. "The short answer is that I was bored. Writing about Storm had become routine, Storm doing the same old thing, using the same tricks to save the world with a side of wisecracks. I knew everything he was going to do or say so there were no surprises."

"You're the writer, don't you always know what's going to happen in a story?"

"Not like that." His gaze became distant as he clearly tried to formulate his thoughts and then he blinked and focused on her again. "I know the end of the story, how it's going to play out, and I have a rough outline of the major points along the way. But in the end, I like to think of my writing as character studies, exploring what makes people tick, and usually characters develop a life of their own, giving a story their own twists along the way. But with Storm, I realized that there just wasn't enough depth to the character so I ran out of things to say about him."

She felt a little spark of intrigue, excitement, along with a faint sense of surrealism. She was listening to her favorite living author talk about his writing process. And she thought, not for the first time, that she liked him like this, liked listening to the way his mind worked.

"You couldn't have just had him retire or something rather than killing him off?"

He shrugged a little. "Go big or go home, right? Besides, I knew it had to be something drastic and final because otherwise, Gina would never stop bugging me to write another book about him."

There was a brief interruption as the server returned with the wine Castle had ordered, filling their glasses.

She lifted her glass. "Cheers, Castle."

Castle mirrored the gesture. "Here's to us."

Us. It really was absurd how much she liked the sound of that, the idea of it.

She tamped down the silly flutter in her chest, returning to their earlier conversation. "I take it you didn't exactly warn your publisher that you were planning to kill off Storm."

He grimaced a little. "No, I kept it a secret until I turned in the first draft. And after that, Gina tried to get me to change the ending so he wasn't dead but…"

"But you stuck it out," she finished for him mildly.

He made a rueful face. "Yeah. I wasn't entirely kidding when I said I killed off Storm to annoy Gina. Things with us weren't good at the time and I was in no mood to listen to anything she said."

"Oh," was all she could think to say. And then found herself asking, prodded by the look on his face, "Do you regret it?"

"Killing off Storm? No, not really. I was ready to move on to something new." He paused and shrugged a little. "But it was still the end of an era for me; I'd spent a lot of time writing Storm, years, so it was… weird, if that makes sense, to know it was ending. And that, combined with everything that went down with Gina right about then…" He trailed off, made a small face. "Well, it wasn't my best year, let's put it like that."

She hadn't considered the timing of it but she remembered now that his divorce from Gina had been finalized mere months before the publication of Storm Fall–which meant that his reaching the end of the Storm series had coincided with the end of his marriage. It occurred to her that maybe this was what bothered him when it came to talking about killing off Derrick Storm. He was more disturbed by his second divorce than she'd realized. Curiosity about his marriages pricked at her but she could not ask about them now.

He blinked and pasted on a brighter expression. "Anyway, after Storm, I knew I was looking for a character with more depth, more complexity, and luckily for me, I met this detective who inspired me more than anyone else I've ever met."

"A detective, huh," she drawled, sternly biting back a smile. "What's she like?" She wasn't-she really wasn't–fishing for compliments but she did wonder sometimes because she didn't think she was anywhere close to being the extraordinary person he apparently thought she was.

His lips curved slightly. "She's complicated. She carries the weight of the world on her shoulders, thinks she can leap tall buildings at a single bound, but still manages to laugh at some of my jokes."

"She sounds like a handful."

"Yeah, I think she's the most frustrating, remarkable person I've ever met. She let me follow her around, pull on her pigtails, and in doing so, she challenged me to be a better man."

Oh, how did he do this to her? It was like a reverse of what he usually did, making her feel the prick of threatening tears and then managing to make her laugh, and this time he'd started with humor and ended with the threat of tears.

He paused, his lips quirking more definitely, as he finished, "But really, the most important thing is that she's tall."

This surprised a bubble of laughter from her, dissipating the threat of tears. He really was so good at that, making her laugh when she needed it.

"You have this strange fixation with height, you know that?" she managed.

"And you wear those crazy high heels of yours only because they're so practical to run in?" he parried.

"Size matters not. Judge me by my size, do you?" she quipped.

He gaped at her. "That is the hottest thing I've ever heard you say."

She laughed. She'd known he would react like that. "You are such a geek."

"Says the person who just quoted Yoda in the middle of an unrelated conversation."

She lifted one shoulder in a half shrug. "I guess you're a bad influence on me."

He smirked. "Alexis tells me the same thing."

"She's a smart girl."

This silly exchange was interrupted as the server returned with their meals, necessarily leading to a brief break in the conversation.

Their conversation was sporadic, desultory, as they ate, because the food was good enough to be worth appreciating without distraction.

But they weren't given enough time to finish even half their entrees before she became aware of the buzzing of her phone from her clutch. She pulled it out, sending Castle an apologetic grimace, before answering. "Beckett."

She listened, mentally noting the details about the crime scene, even as something inside her chest seemed to melt because Castle was already raising a hand to flag a waiter, asking for their meals to be boxed up and the check to be brought out, without so much as a flicker of an eyelash to indicate that this interruption was unwelcome. And then he was calling Adam to ask for the car to be brought around.

All of which he did even before she got off the phone with Dispatch and told him, "We have a new case, a body was found in an alley behind a restaurant. Sorry about this."

"It's the job, Beckett. Don't worry about it."

Yes, but it was her job, not his, and she couldn't help but feel a little flutter all over again at how seriously he took their partnership–for her sake. It had to be for her because Castle certainly wasn't getting paid for it (not that the NYPD could have paid him any amount large enough to make a difference to him) and he certainly didn't need to do this much research.

They were able to leave the restaurant within a couple minutes, faster than she would ever have expected to be able to leave considering they'd been interrupted in the middle of dinner.

Adam was already waiting for them with the town car and she opened her mouth to direct him to return to her apartment but Castle forestalled her by giving the same instruction along with the injunction that they were in a hurry.

He caught her quick glance at him. "I figured you'd need to change before we head to the scene. As hot as you look, I don't think you want to show up to a crime scene dressed like that."

"I don't know," she quipped. "You don't think it'll make witnesses more inclined to cooperate?"

"More like it would make any male witnesses incapable of coherent thought."

She huffed a laugh, turning to kiss his cheek. "Such hyperbole but thanks." Although she rather thought she was thanking him less for the compliment than for his understanding.

Back at her apartment, after dismissing Adam for the night, Castle offered to take care of putting the remains of their dinners away in her fridge while she hurriedly changed back into the clothes she'd been wearing earlier and then they were on their way to the crime scene.

She had hoped that the darkness and the distraction of the new case would keep the boys from noticing, or at least commenting on, Castle's change of clothes but she realized she'd underestimated them to even hope for such a thing.

Ryan came up to them, meeting them at the entrance to the alley, some yards away from where she saw Perlmutter crouching down by the body. Ryan nodded at her in greeting before turning to Castle and then didn't even bother with a greeting as he took in Castle's appearance. "Castle, I'm flattered. You didn't have to get all dressed up just for us."

Castle gave a sarcastic laugh in response.

Espo came up and immediately joined in. "What's with the fancy suit, Castle? You were on a date, weren't you? What, did you just leave your date unsatisfied? A common problem for you, I bet."

She managed not to choke at this unsubtle tease since she had all too good reason to believe that Castle had likely never left a woman unsatisfied, in that sense, in his life. "Do you two comedians want to focus on work, the dead body?"

She shouldn't have drawn attention to herself, not that meekness was her forte in any event, as both boys turned to her.

"Beckett, you changed your hair," Ryan noted.

"And are you wearing lipstick?" Espo joined in before he narrowed his eyes, glancing between her and Castle. "Wait, were you two on a date together?"

Kate suppressed a sigh, although she supposed it had been too much to hope that they could try to keep this relationship a secret from the boys for even a week. They were detectives after all. She glanced at Castle, met his eyes, and then back at the boys. "Yes," she answered succinctly. "Now do you mind focusing on the dead body, the reason we're all here?"

Predictably, her attempt at a distraction failed miserably.

Ryan gaped a little. "Whoa, wait, you two are dating? Since when?"

"You want to know the details, you should read my diary," she returned sarcastically–not that she kept a diary in the first place.

"Why the curiosity, anyway? Are you expecting to make money off of that bet going around?" Castle interjected.

Wait, Ryan hadn't–had he? She shot Ryan a narrow-eyed look that made Ryan figuratively retreat, holding up his hands in mock surrender. "Hey, now, don't give me that look, Beckett. I have nothing to do with that bet."

"He really doesn't. You know he's a terrible liar," Espo added. "We want to know as your friends. And as for you–" he turned to Castle, pointing two fingers at his eyes and then at Castle in an unsubtle warning that he would be watching.

"Esposito!" she clipped out. "Knock it off."

Espo shot her a small disgruntled face.

"I can do my own threatening if Castle ever needs it," she added dryly, throwing Castle a small smirk while beside her, Castle coughed on a laugh.

"Now does anyone want to tell me about the dead body, do our actual jobs?" she went on with just enough of an edge to her tone, along with a warning look, that both the boys knew better than to continue with their teasing. She could only be thankful that Perlmutter was the ME on the scene tonight since he disdained human interactions with the living and wouldn't be interested in the last few minutes' exchange. Unlike Lanie, who would have been a fascinated audience and likely joined in.

Ryan had the grace to look half-abashed for a moment. "The vic's a young Caucasian male, found when one of the kitchen staff at the restaurant here," he jerked his head towards the building just to the right, "came out for a cigarette and thought he saw something behind the dumpster that turned out to be the victim. No ID on him but unis are going through the dumpster on the off chance the killer dumped it in there."

She glanced over at the dumpster where two uniforms were resignedly sifting through the garbage. "Thank you. Why don't you go see if there are any witnesses who saw anything?"

"On it," Ryan nodded and turned away.

She let out a breath and then (finally) proceeded down the alley to where the body lay. She had too much experience to react outwardly but even so, she had to steel herself a little to take a good look at the victim because there was quite a bit of blood. The victim appeared to have been beaten before being killed. And he was, as Ryan had noted, young, looked to be around her own age.

"Perlmutter," she greeted the ME. "What can you tell me about cause of death?"

Perlmutter barely spared either her or Castle a glance. "Detective; Consultant." As usual, there was a faintly sardonic edge to the title he accorded Castle, which Castle accepted with his usual good humor. "Immediate cause of death looks like blunt force trauma to the head, caused by this," he picked up a broken piece of a brick from the ground that was, she saw, smeared with blood. "But as you can see, he's got a lot of other injuries, all of which are peri-mortem."

"Any sign of defensive wounds?" she asked. The use of the brick indicated a crime of passion, just using whatever came handy, and from the looks of it, the killer had been enraged.

"No, not from my initial look. My guess is the victim was surprised, didn't have a chance to defend himself. But I'll let you know for sure once I get him back to the morgue."

He hadn't quite finished speaking before there was a little shout from one of the uniforms in the dumpster.

"Thank you, Perlmutter." She always tried to be polite, avoid unnecessarily offending Perlmutter, and possibly for that reason, she knew that Perlmutter respected her, or at least, didn't actively disdain her, which for Perlmutter, amounted to the same thing. (The fact that Perlmutter didn't extend the same tolerance to Castle was more evidence of Perlmutter's general misanthropy.)

The shout from the uniform turned out to be because he had found the victim's wallet so they had an ID, one positive step. The killer had taken the credit cards and cash but left the driver's license, although considering the level of anger in the beating, she strongly suspected the theft was just opportunism. The victim turned out to be Evan Hardesty, age 33. He really was young.

At that hour of the night, there wasn't much they could do as far as the investigation. She directed the boys to get a jump on requesting the vic's phone and financial records while she looked up the victim's information from his driver's license to find his next of kin, a brother who also lived in the City. She could never decide if it was better or not, if a victim wasn't married, had no kids. In a sense, it was easier for her, not to have to tell another child that they'd lost their parent, but it was always more tragic, the younger the victim was.

"You could wait, call the brother tomorrow," Castle suggested quietly.

She met his eyes. "No, putting it off won't make it any easier and families deserve to know."

He nodded as if he'd known she would say just that and then briefly rested his hand on her back as they left the precinct to talk to the victim's brother.

Breaking the news to the victim's brother, Timothy, and sister-in-law was as difficult as such conversations always were as she and Castle had to wait out the initial disbelief, shock, and dazed grief. But after a while, Timothy calmed enough to answer their cautious questions, telling them that Evan had worked as a realtor and, more interestingly in terms of the investigation, in his last conversation with Evan, Evan had mentioned in passing that he was going on a second date tonight with a woman he had just met, Helen, Timothy thought her name was.

She caught Castle's quick glance at her. This woman appeared to have been the last one to see Evan Hardesty alive. Kate thought back to the crime scene, the sight of the wounds on the victim. It didn't seem likely that a woman could have inflicted such damage on Hardesty but she would reserve judgment on that. Hardesty had not been a particularly large man and if a woman were tall enough, strong enough, and angry enough, it was theoretically possible. She saw Castle's lips twist slightly and understood that he was considering the same thing, although knowing Castle, he was more likely exonerating this Helen on those grounds.

A few more questions convinced her that Timothy didn't appear to know anything more that would be relevant and more importantly, that the shock was wearing off enough to let the grief break through and become overwhelming so he wouldn't be thinking clearly. Kate quickly wrapped the interview up, leaving her card with them to contact her if they thought of anything else and promising to be in touch herself with any news on the case.

Once outside again, she took in a breath, trying to shake off the atmosphere of sorrow that lingered with her after such conversations. She felt Castle step closer, slide his arm around her waist, and for a moment, allowed herself to lean into him since they were away from the precinct so no one was around to notice or care.

She appreciated, though, that by now, he knew her well enough not to ask if she were okay or make some other statement of concern. Instead, all he asked, after a moment, was, "How are we going to find this Helen?"

She met his eyes but didn't answer him directly, only pulled her phone out to call Esposito to update him, and by extension, Ryan, on what they'd learned and tell the boys to try to expedite the victim's phone records so they could go through it to find this Helen. If they'd had a date scheduled, then there should be some record of communication between the two to schedule the event and if they were lucky, the pair had confirmed the date over text so they would have an immediate way to identify Helen's phone number and get her identity. At that hour of the night, there wasn't more they could do so she told the boys to call it a night and they'd push forward with the investigation tomorrow.

She ended the call and looked at Castle again. "Come on, Castle, let's go home."

"Come home with me?" he asked hopefully. "We should have the place to ourselves," he added.

"Yeah, sure," she agreed blandly, hiding the little twist of surprise she felt because she'd belatedly realized at his question that when she'd suggested they go home, she had, unconsciously, been thinking of the loft, assuming they would both return to it, together. Not that the loft was home, at least not hers. It was just a slip of the tongue, she told herself.

They did return to the loft, which was, as Castle had predicted, dark and still. Castle flicked on the lights while she went to put her gun away in the safe and, when she returned to the front room, Castle reached out and grasped a hand to tug her to stand in front of him. "Listen."

She did but heard nothing in particular. "I don't hear anything."

He grinned. "Exactly! It's the sound of total and absolute privacy. Which reminds me, it has been way too long since I kissed you."

Her huff of laughter was swallowed by his mouth as he suited action to the words and kissed her, long and deep. She sank into his kiss, as always, and the thought darted into her mind that he might be right, it had been too long since they'd kissed.

The kiss abruptly broke off at the sound of Castle's stomach growling.

He released her, shooting a disgruntled look at his stomach. "Really?" he demanded of his stomach.

She laughed and hooked her arm with his to tug him towards the kitchen. "I'm hungry too so I think it's time we finally eat our dinners."

"And then we can get back to the kissing?"

She threw him a smirk. "Feed me first and then we'll see."

It was his turn to laugh and then he did feed her, pulling out sandwich fixings and making them both sandwiches in short order.

They finished their sandwiches quickly since they were both hungry and Kate was the one to move to put their plates and cups in the sink. (One thing she had learned during her short stay at the loft after her old apartment had exploded was that Castle was not very good about putting his dirty dishes away.)

He moved behind her as she made quick work of washing their dishes. "Now can we get back to the kissing?"

She bit back a laugh and made a show of finishing the dishes and drying her hands before turning and sliding out from between him and the sink. "I don't remember promising any such thing," she told him with mock seriousness.

"Aw, Beckett." He pulled an exaggerated pout worthy of a five-year-old being denied a promised treat.

It really was amazing how a grown man could look so… adorable.

"But I was thinking," she let her voice lower, put a seductive curl into her tone, "it's because of me that we had to cut our date short so I should make it up to you."

"I agree," he responded, his lips curving.

She danced backwards, moving towards his bedroom, and shot him a look from beneath her lashes. "You coming, Castle?"

He didn't bother to respond in words, only surged forward, and she laughed, retreating just fast enough for him to catch up with her at the entrance to his office, sliding one arm around her waist. "Caught you."

"No, I think I've caught you," she returned, backing up and pulling him with her into his bedroom, while he kicked the door closed behind him.

And then she proceeded to strip off his clothes followed by hers until she was pushing him back onto his bed and used her hands and her mouth and her tongue to make it up to him until he was groaning helplessly.

It wasn't until later, as she drifted to sleep, feeling lax and warm and cozy, that she remembered their new case and then was vaguely amazed, not only that she could have forgotten about it so thoroughly, but that she still felt so… content. Maybe it was simply that she was too tired, too physically sated, to muster up any negative emotions but she suspected it was really just because of him.

~To be continued…~

A/N 2: Thank you, as always, to all readers and reviewers.