Lanie looks at the three empty wine bottles and wonders where everything went.

The first bottle they polished off was drunk in utter silence. Kate never said a word. It had her worried about what she might hear from her friend. She only looked out into space. And by space, Lanie probably thought she was looking in on her soul.

It only took one glass from the second bottle for her to start talking.

"Lanie, I think I've lost him. I mean, I don't know when I became such an ass to him, this is so unlike me, and it's never like I've had him, but I think I might have destroyed our friendship. He's pulling away."

"Who are we talking about here, Kate? Rick or Josh?" Lanie thought she had a good idea but wanted to hear it from her best friend's mouth.

"Rick." She said sadly.

"Can you blame the man? I mean, come on, Kate, what did you think would happen? I don't know what's going on in that pretty little head of yours, but for the past two weeks now, you've been treating him as if he was lower than dirt."

"I know Lanie, I know. But I've been dealing with a decision that needed to be made, and I took it out all on him after I made it. I don't know what to do. God, I'm such a fool. I shouldn't have given him hope."

Lanie is now drawing a blank. She doesn't know what Kate is talking about but knows the truth will come out after drinking more of this delicious red.

She picks up the half-empty bottle of wine and tops off both glasses. Mustering up her courage, she dives into the unknown.

"Okay, Kate Beckett, tell me what's going on. And don't leave anything out."

Kate explains everything that happened since the end of the Temptation Lane case, albeit abbreviated. And all Lanie can do is sit there as if her best friend just slapped her across the face. Her glass of wine was still poised in her hand before her mouth, and she never took a sip.

She places her glass back on the coffee table and looks at her friend to ensure she has her attention. When she gets it, she says,

"I need you to start from the beginning and tell me everything because what you just told me couldn't fit on the head of a pin."

"You know that after the dirty bomb case, Josh has become kinder to me. He started to act like he worshiped the ground I walked on. He could tell that I quickly became tired of him being a player. Then, it was like he turned over a new leaf. He became attentive to my needs in the bedroom, no don't think like that…" Kate gave Lanie an eye roll, knowing exactly where her friend's mind was heading. "But he wanted our relationship to be more equal, you could say. We were doing things that normal couples should be doing when they are dating, even working the hours we do. We would go to the movies, try different ethnic foods together, ride to the Adirondacks on our motorcycles, and talk about our likes and dislikes. And it wasn't just something we would say to each other either; it was more like he was trying to get to know me as a person. He even postponed another Doctors Without Borders trip to stay and work on what we could have."

Again, Lanie sat there, totally overwhelmed by what she was hearing.

"Then we sat down and talked, and it's that talk that has me lost, so to speak."

"All right, girlfriend, what was the talk about?"

"It was about Castle. Rick acted like a best friend, not a man who wanted to be with me. He never acted on doing anything to the contrary, Lanie. And because he didn't, Josh took advantage of him by not doing anything. We have been getting closer in the last six months, and because Rick never made his intentions known, Josh asked me to marry him."

"And you said no, of course, right?" Lanie just sat silently, hoping the answer wouldn't be a yes. But she hadn't lost all hope until Kate blurted out,

"I told him yes, Lanie. It was like someone else had taken over my body. But I'm not sure that I didn't mean it. Rick hasn't been there for me as he was in the past when we first got together, even though I hated him in the beginning."

"Nuh uh, Kate Beckett, you need to back that wagon right up and tell me why you would do such a lame-brained thing by telling Dr. Motorcycle Boy you would marry him?"

"Lanie, I really like Rick, I do, but let's face it, he's been married and divorced twice. He's having more fun being in non-committal relationships with other women. Do you really think that he, a multi-million dollar author, best-selling author, would want to be brought down to reality with your everyday ordinary cop? At least with Josh, I think we have something that we can build on." Kate held her breath, waiting for Lanie to explode, and it didn't take long.

"I can't believe what I'm hearing. I'd expect it from Esposito or even Ryan, but not you. You can't be so one-sided in this. I've been watching the two of you do this dance for three years, and the man is crazy about you, Kate. You might not believe it, but it's true."

"If it's true, why hasn't he done anything, Lanie? I have a guy willing to put himself out there for me, and I took advantage of it. So I know you might be a little upset with my decision, but it's my decision, and I've made it, and that's that." Kate said stubbornly.

Rick tried to start the first sentence at least five times already. Every time he tried, his eyes automatically shot up to the Captain's office, where he saw Beckett talking animatedly with her hands, no doubt explaining how he knew Gordon Burns.

But once he started writing, he couldn't stop, and he just about had everything down on paper that he wanted to say.

Dear Kate,

Things have not been the best between us in the last couple of weeks, but I need to tell you something that's been on my mind for quite some time. Thinking about something and acting on it are two different things.

You can't force feelings. I know that. I also know you can't pretend to feel something you don't. You don't owe me anything. I wish that you could open up to me at the very least. It's not like I ever expected you to feel the same way, but in my dreams, you do. I was content with loving you without saying anything. But now you know I love you, and I don't think I ever intended for you to find out like this. That's the reason for this letter. But regardless, you now know. I don't expect you to love me, but I hope you do. I don't ever want you to not be in my life. But I don't know if I want to continue like this. It hurts a lot.

I will still talk to you every day like everything is okay, but it's not. I love you. I love you so much.

I know because your smile makes me melt and brightens my days.

I know because when we don't talk, I miss you and wonder where you are and if you're alright.

I know because when you're hurting, it's physically and emotionally painful for me, and I would do anything to make you smile again and take away your hurt.

I know because I can't go a day without looking at your picture on my phone (yes, I took it without you knowing) and staring in awe at your beauty, which you deny.

I know because your kind heart makes mine skip a beat, and you never fail to make me laugh.

I know because you're making my heart laugh, cry, and sigh. You own it. It's all yours. I love you. With all I am.

If that's what it takes, I'll get hurt a million times over to keep you in my life. You mean so much to me.

You'll never read this, so even though I just put my feelings and heart into this letter to you, I meant every word of it. I know you and the doctor are becoming closer, and that's okay, but at least I told you how I felt.

I Love You

Always,

Rick.

He looks up one last time and sees her nodding at the Captain.

He looks down at the letter he just finished writing, and before he knows it, she's standing at the desk looking at him with one of her looks. Before she arrived, he had the smarts to slide the letter under a case file on her desk so she wouldn't see it. He looks up at her, knowing that the letter is hidden safely, and she seems to be in a rush. She doesn't say anything about him sitting in her seat. And then she says,

"Come on, Castle, we found Gordon Burns's real apartment. I'm betting that we can find out what he was involved in that got him killed." She said as she pulled her coat off the back of her chair.

Always wanting to put the puzzle pieces together for their case, Rick jumps out of her chair and follows quickly behind her as she puts on her coat and heads towards the elevator, completely forgetting about the letter that is now safely under the case file on her desk where he can retrieve it later. It will be years until that letter is rediscovered and sees the light of day. He never realized that it was slid into the case file, not under it.

The trip to Gordon Burns's actual apartment in SoHo produced a story neither of them prepared for. It seems that more than pizza wars are going on between all of Nick's restaurants.

Rick felt something had shifted between them, and he couldn't quite figure out what it was. She has been more neutral since yesterday. Neutral in the fact that she was more at ease with the direction their 'work' relationship was heading.

It wasn't until later in the case that they had to return to the morgue that he felt something was wrong.

Lanie was very quiet when they both walked into the morgue. And the looks that Kate was receiving from Lanie put him on alert. He knew something was happening between them and remembered they had a conversation at the crime scene the other day. Maybe he thinks this is causing them to act like teenage schoolgirls.

Now is the time he should think about telling her how he feels. He has to find the right time to tell her.

Then a little voice inside his head sounding a lot like the medical examiner sounds off and says

There's no time like the present…

He quickly shakes off the thought and watches as Lanie starts giving them the last facts about what killed Gordon Burns.

Before he can initiate the conversation he so wants to have with her, they're leaving the morgue and heading back to the precinct. Now, he thinks that this would be a better time to talk. He can sit her down and explain how he feels about her.

But everything is working against him. The second they enter the homicide floor from the elevator, her Captain requests her presence in his office.

"Beckett, have a seat." He requests.

Then he looks to Castle and says,

"Castle, can you do me a favor and step outside? I need to have this conversation with Beckett alone." He says as he walks to the door and closes it, essentially separating Rick from the office.

Once Montgomery returns to his seat, he sits with a sigh. But he has to tell her what he learned from the Chief of Detectives earlier this afternoon. He knows this conversation will set her on a different path in her career. So, seeing that she is anticipating what he will say, he starts talking.

Rick, feeling left out, turns back to Kate's desk. It's past 8:00 p.m. And he's starting to get hungry. He knows they left pretty late in the afternoon to search Gordon Burns's apartment, and they found information that could break this case wide open.

He once again takes a seat behind Kate's desk. He's not paying attention to anything on her desk, more so looking at Ryan's and Esposito's messy desks compared to how clean hers is. Then it hits him. There is nothing on her desk. Only then does he remember the letter he was writing about how we felt to her. He looks down at the face of her desk and starts to panic. The case file, along with the letter, is now gone. He frantically lifts the desk calendar to see if the letter had become lodged under there, but then he remembers it was under the case file. His first thought is to go to the archives and search for the case file to get the letter back. Just as he's about to leave the desk, he realizes he has no access to the archives in the basement. Only detectives and the property sergeant have access. Also, he doesn't remember which case file the letter was under. At the time, she had four different case files on her desk. The only other thing that could have happened was that the cleaning crew came in, saw the letter under the file, crumpled it up, and threw it away, knowing it was a handwritten love letter and had no business in the case file. He cranes his neck to look over the side of her desk, and all he finds is an empty waste basket. He hopes this is what happened because if she ever read that letter, he can't imagine what she would think.

Kate sat in the chair across from her Captain. He just dropped a proverbial bomb in her lap. She was already on the list to become a Detective sergeant. That list had moved up exponentially. But with her high score on that test, the NYPD brass had bigger and better things in store for her. The Captain had informed her that she had the green light to take the upcoming Captain's exam, which was scheduled for this coming Friday. She only had a four-day window to prepare for this test if she agreed to take it. She needed counseling, and her Captain suggested that she take the next four days off to immerse herself in the course material he had sitting on his desk.

"Detective, if you have any questions, my door is always open."

"Yes, sir. Thank you, sir." Kate got up from the chair, picked up the study material, and returned to the bullpen. When she returned to her desk, she noticed Castle rifling through all the paperwork on Esposito's desk. He looked at her like a child with his hand caught in the cookie jar.

"I was just looking for a pad to write a note to you."

"Castle, there's a pad sitting right on my desk." She attempts to point at her desk, and her pointer finger quickly drops down, knowing that her desk is now spotless and no pad can be found.

"Who cleaned my desk off?" She asks.

Rick shrugged his shoulders and didn't know how to answer that question. But he noticed she had a massive book in her hands and was curious about what it was.

Kate sees him eyeing the test manual; now she knows he will have questions. Deciding to tell him what's happening, she goes into what was said in her Captain's office.

"One PP has allowed me to take the Captain's exam and become a captain of my precinct one day. I'll still have to score high on the exam this Friday, so Captain Montgomery has graciously handed off what is left of the Burns case to Detective Velasquez. Can I count on you to give her your support? I will be hard at work clearing up paperwork and giving her my notes for the case for the rest of the day." She asks Rick.

"Captain's exam, huh? Pretty soon, Beckett, you'll be looking down on us common folk," he said jokingly, but when she only gave him a half smile, he grew concerned.

"What's up Beckett? It can't only be about the Captain's exam."

She sits down in her chair, looking at him. She needs to come clean about her relationship with Josh. Only there is no good place to start...

A/N: Please don't chase after me with pitchforks and burning torches just yet. This chapter only moves us to the happy ending which we all know is coming. Yes, they are acting out of character, and it's only because the prompt that I took to write this story suggests they do so. So please be patient and let this story run its course.

Tom