As promised, Rick had started to pull himself out of bed the moment her alarm sounded.

Kate, however, wasn't quite as enthused. The city was still quiet. Soon enough the sounds of traffic and chaos would drift through the windows and, for now, she just wanted to bask in the peace. She didn't need that extra long shower before work. She didn't need to get in early to catch up on paperwork. What she needed was right here. So, she draped her hand over Rick's stomach and curled in closer to his side.

"Just five more minutes," she mumbled into his chest.

Rick chuckled - his voice raspy, tired - and gave into her request without any resistance whatsoever. "Five more minutes," he agreed before curling his arms around her and closing his eyes.

Five minutes turn into ten, turned into fifteen, turned into twenty. As much as she would have loved another five minutes, she knew she was already pushing her luck. It would take at least twenty minutes to get back to her place - and she decided she did need that extra long shower - and then, now that she'd missed the early morning traffic lull, at least another half hour to get to the precinct: she'd be lucky to get there for the 7am shift change.

She tried not to wake Rick as she slid out from between the sheets but even the slightest movement was enough to stir him.

By the time she was dressed and ready to leave, he had her coffee (as promised) and a bagel ready for her.

"Love you," he said with a kiss to her cheek.

As she walked out the door she glanced over her shoulder and gave him a bright smile. "Love you, too."

"Even I've noticed," Ryan commented under his breath as they walked into the thrift shop later that day.

They'd caught a murder two hours ago; just finished clearing the scene in the small park across the street when Kate noticed the security camera out front was pointing right at them. In the short journey to the store, she had felt eyes on her. It wasn't unusual for people to crowd a crime scene - giving in to their morbid curiosity and such - but this felt different, like they were watching her specifically.

"People are staring at you."

"You're more paranoid than I am," she replied bitterly. The last thing she needed was for Ryan to feed that paranoia but she had to admit that it did feel different.

Ryan frowned but didn't push the topic any further. She appreciated that.

"Hey, I saw you on TV!" the young woman behind the counter said excited as Kate and Ryan approached.

Kate ignored Ryan's muttered told you so and smiled politely at the woman. "Uh, no, I don't think so."

"I mean, not you you," the woman continued. "But your picture. You're dating the writer guy!" Okay, so maybe she wasn't just paranoid. "He is such a catch."

Ryan's focus caused a flush if embarrassment to crawl up her neck and burn her ears. She could picture his smirk, the amusement dancing in his eyes as the cashier continued to stare at her expectantly. She wasn't sure what the woman expected, though. Were they meant to swoon together? Was Kate meant to agree that Rick was totally dreamy and gush about how lucky she was? God, why did she have to notice that camera outside? Why wouldn't they have just gone back to the precinct?

Kate pulled her badge from where it was clipped to her belt and held it up to show the cashier.

"We need to see the footage from that camera-" She pointed over her shoulder to the shops entrance, where the camera was mounted above the door outside. "from around 7 o'clock this morning."

"Oh, no can do," the young woman said with a slight shake of her head.

"Why not?"

The cashier looked left and right, making sure no one was around to overhear whatever she was about to say. "It's a fake," she whispered conspiratorially.

"Fake?" Ryan questioned.

"Well, the camera is real but it's not hooked up to anything. It's mostly just to scare people off. We get robbed a lot."

Kate deflated, her shoulders slumping forward as she let out a sigh.

Of course it couldn't be that easy.

"Were you here this morning?" she asked the cashier.

"No, Rodney opened this morning. He left a few hours ago."

"Did he mention seeing anything unusual?" Ryan asked.

"Rodney lives in his own world most of the time. This whole shop could be going down in flames and he'd barely notice."

"Still, we should talk to him," Kate said to Ryan, then turned her attention back to the cashier. "Do you have his contact details?"

Five minutes later, they were walking back to the car with Rodney's phone number and address in hand.

Kate slipped into the driver's seat while Ryan rode passenger. She could feel him watching her carefully.

"What?" she asked, slightly clipped.

"How's it feel?" Ryan asked in return. "You know, your new-found fame as Castle's hot cop girlfriend."

She pulled her eyes from the road to glare at her partner, which only seemed to increase his amusement. His smile beamed, even though he was trying to hide it. She turned back to focus on the road ahead.

"I hate you," she grumbled.

"No you don't."

Kate had messaged Rick not long before her shift was due to end, explaining that she would be putting in some overtime. Naturally, he had told her that wasn't an issue at all (despite the fact that they were meant to meet up for dinner) and that he'd just see her tomorrow.

Selfishly, he didn't want to have to wait that long.

He figured he could do something nice for her; have dinner cooked, ready to be reheated at whatever time she finally made it home. Surely that would help alleviate the stress of a long day. But once he was there, he couldn't bring himself to leave again. He wanted to see her, to spend time with her even if it was only to crawl into bed and sleep. The overwhelming desire to be in her space, breathing the same air she was breathing, probably wasn't healthy but he didn't care. Last night could have gone very differently. Had Terri not (for whatever reason) cut the majority of his interview, there would be a very real chance that Kate wouldn't even be talking to him right now, he was sure of it. He knew that, sooner or later, Terri would call on that favour he now owed her but that was another thing he simply did not care about. As he had reassured Kate, Terri wasn't a bad person, she was simply what some might call blindly ambitious, so he wasn't concerned about her dragging him in to anything too bad.

There was a small part of him - a tiny, very quiet voice in the back of his mind - that considered the fact that maybe he should have waited for a response from Kate before he made his decision to stay at her apartment tonight but remembering Kate's reluctance to leave him this morning had bolstered his confidence in his decision. He cleaned up the dinner dishes and placed a shrink-wrapped plate in the fridge for her, then he went upstairs and readied himself for bed knowing that if he had been the one to have had a long day at work he would love the idea of coming home to a homecooked meal and being able to crawl into bed beside the person he loved.

But now it was nearing midnight and Kate still hadn't replied. He knew better than to call her while she was busy trying to break a case - and he didn't want to seem too overbearing - but he wondered if maybe she wasn't planning on coming home at all tonight. In the past she had mentioned that the precinct had a few cots in one of the back rooms, and that she wasn't a stranger to spending days on end there, surviving on caffeine and cat naps during some of their busiest cases.

If it weren't so late - and he hadn't already changed into the pyjamas he kept here - he probably would have considered going back home. He was sure Kate wouldn't mind him sleeping here, even if she didn't come home, though. So he curled up on his side of her bed and tried not to worry too much about the fact that she'd been working for sixteen hours straight, after getting not much sleep at all.

He had pulled his fair share of all nighters, especially when he had chapters due, and that was mentally exhausting but he couldn't begin to imagine how physically and mentally exhausting these difficult cases must be for Kate. Not to mention the emotional toll they would take, given the unsolved homicide that still haunted her family. How she did it was something he may never fully understand. She'd told him that finding closure for others was enough and, sure, he could see how that would help her. What he didn't understand though was how she was so easily able to tuck her own tragedy away as if all those unanswered questions didn't matter to her. He knew they did; that was why she kept Pulgatti's letter in the jewellery box on her dresser, the same jewellery box she kept her mother's ring and her father's watch. Each morning when she put on the watch and took a moment to hold her mother's ring (she didn't wear it every day, only on the days when that short moment of connection didn't feel like enough) she saw the folded pages of the note, yet she acted as though it didn't exist. Rick worried, how long could she keep up that act?

Before he could marinate in that doubt for too long, he heard the front door open and close. He smiled to himself and tossed the bed covers back, pulling himself to his feet as quickly as possible. She hadn't bothered to turn on the downstairs lighting, so Rick flicked on the table lamp on his side of the room then walked to the stairs. He made it to the top of the staircase just in time to see Kate sluggishly walk toward her couch, and then flop down into the cushions.

The light from the lamp barely illuminated the bottom of the staircase, so the majority of the apartment was lit only by the soft glow of moonlight. Rick could barely make out the details of Kate's face but he could see that her eyes were closed and she, apparently, had no intention to move any further than her couch tonight.

He approached slowly, not wanting to startle her, but when he lowered himself beside the couch and rested his hand on her shoulder she jolted awake. She shot upright, one hand pushing on Rick's chest while the other moved down to her hip. Rick wrapped his fingers around her wrist before she had a chance to pull her weapon, thankfully.

"It's just me," he assured her.

He cupped her cheek with his free hand and she tilted her head into his palm, relaxed into his touch.

"Sorry," she whispered, sleepily. "Scared me."

Her body canted forward and she rested her forehead on his clavicle. Knowing that she was with him, that her weary mind no longer felt the need to be defensive, he let go of her wrist and wrapped his arms around her body.

"Didn't mean to scare you," he whispered into her hair and pressed a kiss to the top of her head. "I sent you a text to let you know I was here."

Kate groaned a response Rick couldn't quite understand and then she pulled herself out of his embrace. "My phone died." She rubbed her hands over her face and then looked around the dark room. "Just need to charge it, grab a couple hours of sleep before I head back."

Rick stood, placed his hands under Kate's forearms and helped her to her feet, too.

"You were just gonna sleep on the couch?"

"If I get into bed with you right now I won't want to leave," she grumbled and guilt twinged in Rick's chest.

He took small, slow steps back toward the staircase, still holding her arms so that she would follow.

"I can leave," he offered but Kate shook her head and tightened her grip on his arms. "Do you really only have a couple of hours?"

"Our vic's husband is-" A yawn cut her off as the two of them began to ascend the stairs. "He's in Portugal for work. We can't reach him but it's, like, 5am there so I'll try again in a few hours."

Rick huffed in frustration and Kate pulled away from him slightly, staring at him with annoyance in her eyes.

"You need to sleep."

"What if it were me?" she asked him. "If I had been brutally murdered while you were away on business wouldn't you want to know that someone had been trying to get in contact with you? Or would you be totally fine with being left in the dark because the lead detective on my case was a little sleepy?"

Shit, he'd hit a nerve with that one. He knew he should concede, but his lips were moving before his brain could catch up. "A little sleepy? Kate, you can barely muster the strength to get yourself to bed."

She forced herself further from his grasp, her stubborn streak forcing her legs to carry her up the last few steps to the bedroom.

Rick followed.

"Kate-"

"The first 48 hours are vital." She didn't yell, but her frustration was evident in her firm tone.

"I know."

"We need to keep pushing, need to get all the information we can in that time before-"

"I know."

Rick moved over to where she stood at her dresser, having locked her weapon and badge in a drawer. He put his hands on Kate's waist and pushed gently, leading her backward to her bed. The back of her knees hit the mattress and she dropped down to sit on the edge. Rick lowered himself to his knees, unzipped her boots.

"It's not always like this," Kate assured him as she watched him set her boots aside. Rick nodded, but didn't say anything as he began to undress her. She shifted her hips to help remove her jeans. "Okay, maybe it's like this more often than it should be. I might be a little bit of a workaholic."

Rick huffed out a laugh. "Really? Never would have guessed," he said sarcastically.

He stood, pulled her shirt over her head and then walked to the dresser. Instead of a set of pyjamas, he pulled one of his cotton shirts from his drawer and gave it to her.

"And... I'd want to know as soon as possible," he told her, somewhat reluctantly, when she slipped his shirt over her head.

Kate stood, pressed her palm to Rick's cheek and kissed him; soft and sweet.

"It's normal to worry," she assured him. "But I'm okay. I promise. Just tired."

She turned, took a step toward the stairs but Rick grabbed her hand.

"Where are you going?"

She smiled at him. "I need my phone."

"I'll get it," he offered. "You should go to bed."

"I need to set an alarm, remember?"

Rick smiled. "I think I'm capable of doing that for you."

"For 3am," she reminded him.

"Should be criminal," Rick mumbled. "But, yes, I'll set it for 3am."

He placed his hands on her shoulders, turned her around and pushed her toward the bed.

"Okay, I'm going!"

By the time Rick found her phone and came back upstairs, she had drifted off. He plugged the phone into her charger, waited for the screen to come to life and then he set her alarm and put the phone down on her bedside table. He briefly considered sleeping on the couch, or maybe even just heading home again, so that he didn't disturb her but - almost as if she could sense his internal debate - Kate reached out for him, rolled closer to the centre of the bed and pulled him in behind her.

Author's note:

I just need them both to be all kinds of clingy right now. Forgive me.
More coming soon (hopefully, I make no promises though!).
Thank you all for being so incredibly patient with me.