In another lifetime - a lifetime that really wasn't all that long ago - she would have run from this exact situation.

Curled up on the couch beside Rick with his arm around her waist and his hand buried under her shirt, tracing patterns against her bare skin... all while his mother and daughter sat mere feet away from them. Mortifying.

The soft kisses he pressed to the side of her head. Mortifying.

The fact that he was so warm and comfortable and smelt so damn good she felt a constant fluttering of butterflies in her stomach. Mortifying.

But, after Rick had declared during last night's dinner that they wouldn't be watching his Late Night segment, Kate had fought for her right to be here, to witness his 'failure' (his words, not hers) with her own two eyes. As much as she would love to hide away and pretend this wasn't happening, that wouldn't do her any favours in the long run. So, out of fear of being kicked out before Terri Cohen's program even began, she sat silently and allowed the touches Rick found so comforting in this moment. Even if it meant she'd be compulsively checking out of the corner of her eye all night to make sure his family wasn't watching.

They weren't, though. They didn't seem to care. At all. Maybe one day she would get used to how comfortable this family was with affection and intimacy.

That thought alone had the corners of her mouth twitching up into the slightest smile. One day... it seemed so hopeful. She had really convinced herself she wouldn't feel that kind of hope again, that - after having her one day come crashing down around her - she would never allow herself to dream so foolishly again. Yet, here she was, taking that risk with someone she should probably 100% be deeming too big of a risk.

But everything that, on paper, made them polar opposites... it all somehow worked for them. He was a little drop of restlessness in the routine that had become her mundane life; a touch of impulse that pushed her outside of those perfectly drawn lines, even if it was just for a moment. And she was his respite; the shadows behind the spotlight, where he could let his guard down and be the person he wanted to be, not the one everyone expected him to be.

Kate only realised just how far she had drifted with her thoughts when Alexis and Martha began to cheer playfully and she snapped back to reality. She had been staring off into space, not paying attention to the screen at all and, when she turned to look at Rick, his eyes were already on her.

"You okay?" he whispered and she nodded. "It's not too late. We can go do something else."

Kate smiled. "Nice try."

Rick's arm tightened around her body as she returned her focus to the TV, to the close up shot of Rick walking out onto the stage, waving and smiling to the audience. Kate couldn't help but smile, too - he really was ruggedly handsome - but her smile faltered the moment Rick greeted his host with a hug and a peck to her cheek. A frisson of energy, something that felt a little too close to jealousy for her liking, rushed through her body. Rick hadn't said much about his lunch with Terri earlier in the day but as she watched the beautiful woman - with silky gold hair and emerald green eyes that one could only dream of having - clutch onto Rick's bicep with a flirtatious smile, she suddenly despised the idea of them having spent hours together... alone.

But Rick wasn't Adam. He didn't have a wandering eye, didn't have an ex-wife on stand-by. Okay... maybe the ex-wife was there, lingering in the background, but it was for different reasons. Regardless, the tall, tanned Goddess on the TV screen wasn't a threat. So, she focused on what really mattered: on Rick.

She placed her hand on his thigh and squeezed. "You look good."

"Ew," Alexis commented from the other side of the couch.

Shit.

Kate's head snapped to the side, an apology on the tip of her tongue, but Alexis was looking at her with a smile.

The girl chuckled and shook her head. "You didn't have to say it like that."

"Like-" Kate cleared her throat. "Like what?"

Martha laughed. "Like a woman in love," she explained with theatrical gestures.

Oh.

"Mother," Rick said in a low, warning kind of tone.

Alexis leant back into the couch, seemingly heeding her father's warning, but Martha waved her hand dismissively. "Relax, kiddo. We're just playing."

"Teasing Dad is the only reason we still insist on having these family viewings," Alexis quietly explained to Kate.

"Oh, thanks," Rick muttered sarcastically.

"But-" Alexis took a dramatic paused. "we'll keep the jests and jibes strictly to you, Dad." She placed her hand over her heart. "Promise."

"You watch all of his interviews as a family?" Kate asked.

"All of them," Martha confirmed.

Kate had seen one of Rick's interviews, years ago when he was only just really becoming a household name. She couldn't remember the details - which TV program it was on or how many years ago this was, she couldn't even remember which of his books he had been promoting - but she could vaguely remember him with his bright blue eyes and overly-flirtatious answers. It felt strange to her that his family would want to watch that but she supposed they knew him well enough to know it was all some carefully crafted persona. That's probably where the aforementioned teasing came into play.

"It's so much fun to watch him squirm," Alexis added with a wide grin.

Kate hummed and looked at Rick, who was already cringing. "That does sound like fun."

She was teasing him. He hoped that was a good sign. A sign that maybe this wouldn't be quite as disastrous as he originally thought.

But, no, he couldn't let himself relax, couldn't let himself believe that he'd get out of this unscathed. She might have been putting up a good act for his family but he knew her better than that. He'd already caught her zoning out, too caught up in her own thoughts to be able to focus on the world around her.

He'd give everything he had just to be able to see into that crazy mind of hers.

But as the teasing settled and his girls all fixed their focus to the TV screen, he considered that maybe he would give everything he had just to be anywhere but here.

Terri - on-screen Terri - was flirting with him. That was pretty standard. Still, he wound his arm tighter around Kate's waist, traced patterns up and down the bared skin at her hip. Not once in the duration of this interview had he even entertained the idea of flirting back. That wasn't standard and he knew that Kate knew that. She'd seen first hand how easily he slipped into the persona of Richard Castle and he hoped that seeing him refrain from doing so would bolster her confidence in him, even just a little bit.

And then, it happened: Terri spoke those four words that triggered his downward spiral. "You're seeing someone, right?"

Rick squeezed his eyes shut, tight enough that little dots of colour began to dance behind his eyelids. He wasn't sure why, but not having to actually watch himself crash and burn seemed like it might protect him somehow.

But he heard Kate's soft chuckle, felt the squeeze of her hand on his thigh and... God, he loved this woman so much.

In his mind, he could see it all so clearly. The photos - of he and Kate, standing outside of her easily recognisable apartment; their kiss goodbye outside of the precinct, her badge clearly on display because his hands on her hips had lifted her jacket; Kate and the boys at a crime scene - on display on an entirely too large screen behind them, Terri's face and the victory in her eyes as she rattled off everything she had learned about Kate, the way he froze up and let her continue spilling all these details that he knew Kate wouldn't want the world to know. Terri had talked to guests from Conrad's launch party - careful to avoid anyone who may actually report back to him on said discussions - and had photographers stake out his favourite coffee house. Rick had almost forgotten that, before she sold out for her annual eight-figure income, Terri Cohen had been quite a successful (and ruthless) investigative journalist.

But he didn't hear any of the words she said to him yesterday. He never heard Kate's name, never heard Terri talk about how funny it was that someone like him was dating a cop, never heard her insultingly question how a cop could afford to live in one of Manhattan's most sought after buildings or the insinuation that perhaps Kate had some ulterior motives for dating the best-selling author.

She sure seems to be benefitting from this relationship but what exactly does she bring to the table?

That's possibly Rick's biggest regret: letting that remark slide. In his defence, he was too outraged to speak. He had tried but, short of seeing red, it was as though his brain had ceased to function. He had certainly made up for his lack of words at lunch today but he had assumed it was too late. He had thought that, if anything, he had added fuel to the fire.

"That wasn't so bad," Kate said softly, with another reassuring squeeze of his thigh and... what?

She was supposed to hate him, supposed to be so furious at the remarks and how epically he had failed to defend her.

He opened his eyes, looked at TV screen and then to the beautiful woman smiling up at him. "It's over?"

"It was, like, two minutes of talking about your book, a micro-second of you blushing over your girlfriend and then it just ended," Alexis stated, sounding rather disappointed in the lack of teasing material the segment had provided for her.

Rick let out a heavy sigh, the breath he had been holding anxiously for too long now, and laughed.

He was safe. For now.

After the rather uneventful interview, Alexis and Martha had made themselves scarce. Alexis had claimed she had promised to Facetime her mother and dashed upstairs before anyone could question her.

"I'll bet any amount of money that her phone call to Meredith lasts no longer than five minutes and she spends the rest of the night on the phone to Ashley," Martha said to Rick with a smirk before she also disappeared upstairs, leaving he and Kate alone for the rest of the night.

Lightened by Terri's favour, Rick was back to his usual, playful self and he wasn't ready to say goodnight yet. He asked Kate to stay the night, despite the fact that she'd pulled the weekend shift - again - and would need to stop by her apartment in the morning, anyway. But he had challenged her half-hearted protests with a wicked smirk, grabbing her hand and leading her toward his bedroom.

"Bet I can make you change your mind," he claimed confidently.

Little did he know that she had already changed her mind the moment the words slipped from her lips. Of course she'd rather fall asleep in his arms. Still, she gave him a look of defiance and sung back to him, "Bet you can't."

Because when Richard Castle was on a mission... oh boy.

It was impossibly late by the time they both curled up in bed, somewhat resentful of the 4am alarm she had to set.

Kate had tried to leave it be, to just be grateful that whatever had caused Rick to be so tense was evidently not aired. Now, they could move on. But, in the dead of night, curiosity was already eating away at her.

"Will you ever tell me what really happened?" she asked, trying to add a hint of amusement into her tone.

Rick sighed and rolled onto his side to face her, his expression grave, as if he'd hoped she wouldn't want to know. "Do you need to know right now?" he asked softly.

She wished the answer was no. But she knew that if she wanted to sleep tonight, she needed to know. What had Rick been so worried about?

"Yes," she whispered. "I'm sorry."

Moonlight streamed through the window, illuminating the gentle smile on his face as he leant forward and pressed a kiss to her temple. "Don't be sorry." He smoothed his palm down her spine and over the curve of her hip, pulled her closer. "It really wasn't what was said, not really, anyway. I'm used to those sorts of comments it's just- just the fact that it was being said about you. I got mad - furious - and I just- I wanted to tell her that you're not like that but I-I froze up."

Kate curled her fist in the cotton of Rick's t-shirt and pressed her cheek to his chest. "Like what?" She felt the movement of Rick's shoulders shrug, heard him mumble a doesn't matter, but it did.

"I just hate that I didn't defend you," Rick admitted.

"I don't need you to defend me."

"I know." He squeezed her body tighter. "I just hate the idea of anyone thinking anything even slightly negative about you."

"I don't care if people don't think I'm good enough for you, Rick. As long as you're happy, I'm happy."

"You're too good for me, Kate."

But she shook her head; how could he possibly think that?

"Maybe we just balance each other out," she suggested.

Rick hummed thoughtfully and Kate tilted her head to look at him. "I like that," he said.

"Me too."

She shifted to press a kiss to his lips.

"I love you," he told her when she pulled away.

"I love you, too."

"Can we sleep now, though? Because if we have to get up at 4am I'm going to need my beauty sleep."

Kate giggled. "Don't get up at four, Babe."

"But if I don't get up at four, who is going to make you coffee?"

"I can get one on my way to work."

Rick's jaw dropped and he scoffed dramatically - more like his mother than he'd ever care to admit. "You know it's not as good as mine."

She rested her head on his chest again, smiling to herself. "Not even close."

They drifted off with ease, both sleeping more peacefully than they had in days, until her alarm had them rising before the sun.