"Did you read the reviews?!"

The quiet of the library is shattered as Richard Castle comes bursting through the double doors, waving a hardcover in one of his hands. Kate bites back her smile – of course she's read the reviews – and comes around the front desk just in time to meet him.

"It's a bestseller, Kate. A bestseller!"

His childlike excitement illuminates the entire building and she smiles bigger than she has in years, so very proud of him. She laughs when he lifts her off her feet in the middle of the room, spinning her around before lowering her to the floor again.

"My agent is predicting I'll make millions and they're offering me a three book deal!" he tells her, beaming down at her, and her heart feels full, full with joy and happiness for him, but in the deepest corner of the fragile muscle, uncertainty blooms.

He's going to become a millionaire, he's going to write three more brilliant novels about Nikki Heat and Jameson Rook and he won't need her or her broken down library anymore.

He's going to disappear and as quickly as her heart had expanded with joy, it suddenly shrivels with hurt and crippling heartache.

He's still babbling, gushing over every new detail of his budding success and she forces herself to listen, to keep smiling and nod in all the right places, but he catches on when he looks down, around the same time her eyes start to sting.

"Kate?" he murmurs, setting the book he brought in with him on the front desk and using his freed hand to cradle the side of her face. "What's wrong?"

"Nothing," she insists. "Nothing, I'm just - I'm so happy for you."

He tilts his head in confusion, trying to study her as if she's a novel with a perplexing plotline.

"This is good, Kate," he says softer, his eyes simmering from the vibrant excitement to a calming shade of cerulean. "We'll be able to fix up the library, bring in new business and-"

"No, Rick," she shakes her head, sending his hand tumbling to her shoulder. "I don't want you spending your money on this place, on me."

"But we made a deal, remember?" He squeezes her shoulder, squeezes hard like he can feel her slipping away and needs to hold onto her. "And I love this place, I love-" He pauses to swallow. "I love you. Did you think that just because things are going to change, I would too?"

He looks hurt by the accusation he's come to and she closes her eyes, hates herself for putting that expression on his face when he had come in here overflowing with such radiant exuberance. And he loves her. They spend nearly every day together, they share a bed, share their stories and their hearts with each other, but they've never uttered those three words to one another until now.

"I don't want to hold you back," she whispers, keeping her eyes shut. "I don't want to be the thing that lessens your success."

"Kate, what the hell are you talking about?"

"You told me your agent pitched the idea of you portraying a playboy persona to the public," she reminds him softly with a sad smile, finally forcing herself to stop being a coward and open her damn eyes. "Where will a girlfriend fit?"

"I said she pitched it, I never said I accepted it," he points out.

"But what if-"

"Kate," he cuts her off, stern this time, bringing both of his warm, familiar palms to the hollow spaces of her cheeks. "I love you and I would never choose anything that would change that or risk losing you." She bites her lip, apprehension still rattling along her ribcage, but he smiles, soft and sure, and the panic stills. "I'm not leaving you."

The whimper slips unwelcome and unexpected from her lips, the tears do the same as they trickle over his hands, but they stem from the spread of growing relief in her chest, from the assurance that he'll stay when everyone else in her life that she's ever truly loved has gone.

She's only cried in front of him once throughout the near year she's known him, when she told him about her parents, about her mother's murder and her father's descent into the bottle that he never came out of.

"I love you too," she whispers, lacing an arm around his waist, drawing a hand to his cheek, dusting her fingers along the smattering stubble. "Love you so much, Castle."

The joy in his eyes reignites, bright flares of blue bursting in his irises, and he surges forward, kissing her hard enough to knock her back against the desk behind them. She moans, tugging him closer and opening for more, but her body pressed up against the front desk seems to spark something and he quickly detaches from her with a warm smile and reaches for the book he had deposited on the desk's surface.

"Here, I bought you the first copy."

She grins, accepting the freshly printed novel he places in her hands with eager fingers. She's read snippets, pieces of paragraphs he didn't try to hide from her, and she knows quite a few spoilers, but to have the actual book in her hands, the product of all of his hard work at her fingertips, is exhilarating.

"I'm so proud of you," she admits, using the advantage of her heels to lean forward and plant one more gentle kiss to his lips. "So proud, Rick."

A subtle blush colors the apples of his cheeks, but gratitude blossoms in his eyes at the praise before his focus returns to the book in her grasp.

"Open it," he prompts. "I want to know what you think of the dedication."

Castle releases his hold on her waist to migrate to her back, propping his chin on her shoulder and wrapping his arms around her middle as he waits. She rolls her eyes but flips the book open, splaying her fingers over the title page before gingerly turning onto the next.

To KB:

There are not enough words nor pages to capture how inspiring you truly are.

A/N: Thank you to those of you who came along for this little AU journey. While brief, it was a joy to write and I hope you enjoyed.