"I can be the one.
I will never let you fall (let you fall).
I'll stand up with you forever.
I'll be there through it all (through it all).
Even if saving you sends me to heaven.
It's okay. It's okay. It's okay."
- Your Guardian Angel -- Red Jumpsuit Apparatus

Kate Beckett had cursed God a million times that Richard Castle was her shadow. She cursed the mayor, she cursed the captain, and from time to time she even cursed Ryan and Esposito for laughing with him.

Then at other times, like this moment, she was thanking God that he was her shadow.

The man certainly had his moments. Times when everything she had ever thought about him just flew out the window and was replaced with feelings of other things. Things that were an awful lot like falling in love. Or at least a very strong resemblance to falling in love.

"Who should I make it out to?" His self described sultry voice was low as he knelt beside the old lady and took out his pen. Besides his willingness to always make time for the fans, he had a way with people that often had Beckett second guessing her opinion of him.

"Oh deary, just make it out to 'Ruth' and we'll be okay." The gray haired woman smiled down at him and pinched his cheek as he signed his pen flew across the page. His smile widened as he leaned forward and kissed her cheek.

Kate felt her own smile spread her lips at the image and the warm fuzzy feeling that had spread through her. He had done that on a few occasions, caused some warmth and affection to spread through her.

Granted it was a welcome relief from the cold disposition he usually left her with, the temperature change just made the warm that much more shocking and inviting.

She swallowed thickly as he got back on his feet and stood beside her replacing his ever ready pen in his pocket.

"You two make quite the cute couple." Kate nearly choked on her breath at the older woman's words, and was quick to respond:

"Oh were not." Castle had said the same sentiment with her, and Kate's cheeks were warmed now with the rising blush that was there. Normally she didn't blush, or was angry at people when they said those words, but in this moment she too had been thinking the same thing.

"Pish posh." The woman began and Kate looked at Castle in shook. His face too was red with a blush, which cause her own cheeks to warm a bit more. "You're both healthy young folk. Why not jump in the sack. This Mr Castle writes a mean sultry scene. Climb that mountain while you can."

Kate was infinitely glad that the woman hadn't said, "Save a horse, ride a cowboy."She might literally have died of embarrassment. Which she was sure would slowly kill her if Castle was around long enough.

The both watched in stunned silence as the woman turned her wheelchair and rolled off down the street, the normal crush of bodies on a New York street parting for the woman as if she were Moses.

"Did you tell her-" She began, only to be cut off by his terse reply.

"Of course not Beckett." So his sultry voice soothed her nerves a little, which only further angered her, because she was a grown woman who didn't swoon at men's voices.

Or swoon a lot, at any rate.

"I have never, and I am being totally honest, implied that you and I are otherwise involved. I don't think my reputation could handle it. You are a fine upstanding woman. I usually only go for the trashy ladies. Much more image conscious you see."

Kate wondered if he sensed the thinly veiled compliment he threw in there as much as she did. Choosing instead to ignore it, for fear of having to reply in kind, she started off down the street in the opposite direction of the elderly fan, hoping to distance herself from the implications that she should become another notch on his bedpost.

"Come on Castle," She called over her shoulder, "There is a fabulous grocery just around the corner and I want to pick up some oranges."

She didn't turn to see him following her, but instinctively knew that he had. He was always following her. Even when she told him to stay in the car.

"Detective Beckett, are you telling me that you actually eat fruit? I've only ever seen you consume take-out or coffee. I didn't know you could process anything real." His voice contained it's usually child-like joy and mischief and despite her better intentions she felt herself swoon just a little as she rolled her eyes.

"Shut up Castle." She responded weakly, still feeling his overwhelming presence behind her. She could always sense when he was near, even when they were both silent, could feel the essence that was Richard Castle. She'd kind of gotten used to it as well, in fact missed it when he wasn't around.

So she knew, without having to look that he was right behind her, smiling even, following her every step. He was a lot like a puppy that way. Following the hand that gave it attention. Though she tried not to be one of his drooly little fan-girls, she couldn't help the fact that she was attracted to him.

She controlled it yes, but that didn't stop her body from reacting when he was around.

"Castle what's the difference between 'love' and 'lust'?" She asked, wondering what his answer would be. As far as she saw the only people he loved were his mother and Alexis. Himself too, but she was sure that was absorbed from the legion of strangers that loved him.

"About two feet." He responded quickly. She turned sharply to see how far the distance between them was. Already in the grocery, he was on the aisle over looking at some processed package, and not even looking at her. She had thought that his answer might have been a reference to them, but he was at least five feet away, maybe more.

Turning back to her oranges, she rolled her eyes at herself, and the disappointment knowing that he wasn't talking about them.

"What do you mean?" She asked her fruit.

"You know," She really didn't, so she turned to look at him hoping his body language would spell it out better for her. When she looked at him, deep azure eyes looked back at her and she felt her temperature rise a little. One of his hands was on his chest covering where she could only imagine his shrivelled heart rested; while his other hand covered his groin. "Here to here, about two feet. Less for a little person, more for Yao Ming who is like six million feet tall."

Despite herself she laughed and went back to choosing her fruit. It felt odd shopping with him, but they had been in the area, and she really did love this place. It had been on her beat when she was a uniform, and the elderly couple that ran it always had a cup of coffee for the nice officer that had caught the robber who tried to get away with a case of beer and a fistful of cash.

"I am ready to go Beckett." He was smiling like a child, and no wonder considering what he held in his hand. An ice cream bar and a bottle of soda. Though the items were essentially Castle, she found herself craving the ice cream rather than the oranges.

"Me too." She held up her own oranges and strawberries, and they headed for the lone checkout.

When they neared the till a man burst into the store holding a gun and wearing a ski mask. Her hand immediately went for her gun, dropping her fruit, but a second robber was at her side instantly pointing his own gun at her.

Castle made a sound and she tried to cover his body with hers. Waiver or no waiver, she was now more than personally concerned for his safety. She didn't know what would happen if he got injured, what with Alexis and his mother depending on him, and her own need to have him around.

"Don't even think about it lady." The one robber beside her sneered through his mask, and the anger within her rose. She could hardly catch a break.

"Give me all the money." The first man pointed a gun with one hand and held out his other hand towards Mr Greenwood, the owner of the store.

Before she could even try and talk them down the door opened, and both of the robbers turned their guns toward the door and Kate took her moment and tackled the guy that was standing beside her. His gun went off and she was showered with plaster from the steering wheel.

Screams filled her ears, and more gun shots went off as she saw from the corner of her eye a blue flash fly by her towards the first robber. She knew it was Castle, and once again cursed him for not staying behind her where it was safe.

Still fighting for control of the gun between her and the man, she looked over his shoulder and saw Castle laying on the floor fighting the other one for the gun. Part of her realised that he was doing a good job of not getting himself killed, the other was still cursing him for doing something stupid like that.

Seconds later another gunshot sounded, moments after the doorbell rang again distracting the man she was fighting enough that she was able to gain the upper hand and punch him in the face while pulling the gun out of his grip and pointing it at him.

"Castle are you okay?" She called, quickly forcing him onto his stomach and cuffing him. "Castle?" She asked again finally looking at where he had been struggling with the other robber. What she saw chilled her blood.

He was leaning against the counter the register sat on, his face contorted with pain. Putting the safety of the gun she stuffed it in the waistband of her jeans, she rushed to him and quickly kneeled at his side.

He held the gun in his blood soaked hand which was lying on the ground pointed at where she had just come from, while his left hand was pressed against his abdomen, blood escaping between the white fingers there. She knew instantly that he had been shot, and her blood chilled her as she pressed her own hands to his abdomen.

"I don't think so."

Disclaimer: Anyone else ever notice how sad it is to constantly write that you don't own something. I mean it's just constant reaffirmation that you are basically poor in the ways of owning things that people thing are awesome. Which, let's face it, fanfiction is all about. So no, I don't own Castle. Or any of the characters. I am, however, from the same town as Nathan Fillion. So I think that I should get at least one share in the Castle market. Only fair right?

AN: This here is my first attempt at a Castle story. I don't know how I did. I kind of like a whole host of things, but you know. It's hard to find them sometimes.
Wait that's totally a lie. This is not my first Castle story. It's the first that I am putting up on FF. Most of the other stuff is meaningless fluff that I wanted to read, and hadn't been done.
So, really this is like... the fifth or something Castle story. But the first on FF. *breaks champagne bottle*
Mosltov!
Also.... this feels... dry to me. Like a really bad cliche. Does anyone else feel that way?
Should I even continue with it? (If the answer is 'no' I'll post a second chapter with the outline that I have prepared so you all know how it ends.)

Happy hunting. Oh, and can I ask for a review? It would be appreciated.