He's All Yours

She is watching. She can't help it. She knows that whatever they are talking in the conference room is none of her business, but she can't help the pang of jealousy in her heart when she sees them together after all that's happened in the last couple of days. How he's been all smitten. How she had to fight to keep tears back when she saw the surveillance pictures of the night before where he was kissing her. It's been too much to swallow after the way their own relationship has decayed in the last couple of weeks. It feels like she's lost him for good and, as she watches them talk just mere feet away from her, her heart shatters a little bit more. They sure are broken beyond repair.

She just came by to say thank you. That was the plan all along, but when she got to the precinct and witnessed the tension between Detective Beckett and Rick once again, she had to do something.

She's looking at him right now, sitting in front of her, with slumped shoulders and his eyes lost on the ground, and she can't believe that this defeated and hopeless man is the same one she dated a good 18 years ago. She needs to help. She owes him - them - that much.

"Can I ask you something?" She asks, running her hands up and down her thighs, feeling nervous all of a sudden.

Rick just nods subtly and smiles. "Sure."

Kyra sighs and bites the bullet. "What's going on between you and Beckett?"

"I have no idea what you're talking about."

She takes a step forward. "Come on, Rick! I know you, remember? I can tell there's something going on. You have feelings for her, but there's something else. You resent her. Why?"

Castle runs his hands through his hair and shakes his head, his eyes tightly closed. "Can we, please, not do this?"

"Why?" She asks, smirking. "If I remember correctly, when we were together you liked to talk things out over and over again, so much, that whatever reason we were fighting about ended up making no sense."

He purses his lips. "Not anymore"

"Why?"

He sighs loudly again. "Kyra…" He warns. "Please."

"Why, Rick?" She inquires again, walking even closer, her hand landing on his shoulder and making him flinch.

"Things change."

"Oh, do they?"

Castle rises his eyes from the floor and finally looks at her, his eyes pleading and full of fear. "I thought you had to go plan a wedding?"

"I do." She sighs. "But, let me tell you something first." She squeezes his shoulder and kneels down so they are eye to eye. "If you love her, like I know you do, don't let whatever happened between the two of you to keep you apart. People are flawed, Rick, you write about it all the time in your books. We all make mistakes. She does, and so do you. Don't you think she deserves a second chance? Wouldn't you want that in her place?"

"What does it matter?" He whines. "She doesn't love me back."

Kyra smiles sadly and shakes her head. Stubborn man. That didn't change over the years… "Wow. Those two divorces really did a number on you…"

"Excuse me?" He exclaims, his eyes guarded and defensive.

She just shakes her head. "You forgot what it looks like."

"I don't think I'm following."

Another strained smile. It's so sad that he's lost that never ending hope of his. "Love, Rick. You forgot what it looks like when it comes from someone else."

"And what's that supposed to mean?"

"It means that I know love when I see it, and that woman out there? She is crazy about you."

He snorts, then frowns, then laughs again and looks at her like she's crazy. "Beckett? She doesn't care if I live."

"You keep telling yourself that, but deep down, you know I am right. It's just easier being angry, because that way you don't have to put your heart out there again. I've been there. I know how hard it is, but if I had held onto that anger forever I wouldn't have let Greg in and I would have missed out on the best thing that's ever happened to me."

She sees him deflate. His shoulders go slack and his eyes soften and she knows she's got him. He needs some time to think.

She kisses his cheek and smiles. "Just think about it, Rick. I am getting married tomorrow and I'd love to have both of you there."

When Kyra comes out, she's still reading the same stupid file. The same stupid line, actually. She feels ridiculous and inappropriate, and she wishes the for the ground to open up and swallow her, so she doesn't have to face his perfect ex-girlfriend smiling knowingly at her, like someone let her in on a secret she still doesn't know about.

It takes her a few seconds to finally acknowledge her presence, rising her eyes from the cardboard folder in her hands and grinning awkwardly at her.

"He's all yours." Kyra says, smiling at the mixture of surprise and longing she knows the other woman can see in her eyes.

"All hers?" What does she even mean by that?

But by the time her brain catches up with her mouth to ask her about it, she's gone, leaving her absolutely confused, and with the brittle flame of hope burning up again in a little corner of her heart.