Disclaimer: (crickets) (sniff, sniff)

Notes: Happy Castle Monday, FINALLY! We made it! And fair warning for those reading this final chapter: Here there be FLUFF. If that's not your thing, the plank is thattaway. (Points to the left.) Last chance to abandon ship! And most importantly, to all of you on the eastern seaboard in the U.S., all the best in dealing with Sandy. Stay safe!

Castle and Beckett shuffled into her apartment a little after nine. They'd tried the loft first, but Martha was entertaining some theater colleagues, so they'd gone right back out the door and headed to Kate's instead.

"Think we'll get him?" asked Castle as he flipped on the lights while Beckett balanced against him, finally shucking off her shoes.

"We'll get him, Castle." They'd talked game plan and strategy on the ride home, and Kate was confident they had enough to make Dalrymple fold.

"They might have to offer him a plea, but he won't get off. Finding his accomplice, though… that'll take some work," she sighed. "Especially now that he has some money. But we'll do it."

She smiled and Rick nodded, bolstered by her confidence.

"How's the ankle?" he inquired casually. He'd avoided asking until now because he knew she'd have shrugged it off. Here in their private sphere, though, she was more likely to be candid.

"I just tweaked it, Castle. I think it'll be okay in the morning."

"So you don't want anything? Ice pack? Ibuprofen? Foot rub?" he asked, walking into the kitchen.

Kate thought for a moment. "No to the first two, but I might take you up on the third."

"Just say when. You're lucky you didn't break both legs," he commented as he dug a couple of bottled waters out of the fridge.

She boosted herself onto the counter and thanked him as he opened the first one and handed it to her. "Next time, I get the elevator."

Castle grimaced at the thought of running down all those flights. Or worse, up them.

"Maybe we could share it?" he asked hopefully.

"Because you don't like stairs," Kate wondered, pulling him into her and wrapping her calves around his thighs, "or because you like being in elevators with me?"

"Well, I was envisioning the stairs, but now that you mention it…."

She laughed against his mouth and they kissed languidly for a minute before Kate put a hand to his cheek and pulled back to look at him appraisingly.

"Hey," she said softly. "How are you?"

Castle tilted his head in silent query.

"I'm sorry I didn't ask before, but… Whitney? You knew her. Are you… ?"

Rick took a long drink of water while he considered her question. He tried to call up an image of Whitney pre-attack, but even though her picture had been on the murder board for two days, he couldn't quite manage it. He had barely known her and, sadly, what was under the sheet in the morgue was more prominent in his memory.

"I'm all right, Kate. I'm sorry for what happened to her, of course. And it's surreal when someone you know…."

He trailed off with a wince, but Beckett waved her hand in a dismissive gesture, so he continued, "…when someone you know dies that way. But truth be told, her death wasn't what made this case so difficult."

The last 48 hours had been unsettling and emotional and nerve-wracking, but it had nothing to do with the fact that a woman he once slept with had been murdered. Was it really just this afternoon that he had told Beckett about the epic failures that were his marriages? Was it just one day ago that he'd tried to explain (and bury, he hoped) his playboy days?

Castle shook his head as if to clear it, and Kate placed their waters on the counter before coiling her arms around his neck and drawing him close again.

"I know it wasn't easy," she said, her thoughts mirroring his. "And Castle? I'd like to thank you for being so forthcoming. Seeing things from your point of view, having a better understanding… it helps. It more than helps."

She held Rick's gaze a long time, willing him to see the truth in that statement.

"I'm glad," he finally murmured, closing his eyes and touching his forehead to hers.

Then he was stepping back, catching her right foot as it fell away from his leg, bringing it up to examine it.

"Hey!" she exclaimed, giggling as he tickled her instep. He grinned then ran his fingers over her ankle, checking for swelling, giving her a stern look when he found it.

"Given your line of work and your shoe collection," Castle said, rummaging in her freezer, "you really ought to have an ice pack or two. Or some frozen peas, at least."

Kate's smile faded as she watched him fill a ziplock with crushed ice. He was changing the subject, distancing himself, and she wondered if he felt too exposed, too raw.

"How was Heidi?" she asked abruptly, following his lead and steering the conversation in a different direction. If he needed a little personal space in the wake of his confessions, it was the least she could do to give it to him.

He shot her a grateful glance as he unfolded a kitchen towel and secured it around the improvised ice pack. "She took it all very matter-of-factly. She's a cool customer, that one. I think the only emotion I saw from her was annoyance when she realized she'd need to find a new husband."

They shared an amused look, but Beckett got the feeling there was something he wasn't telling her, so she made a go on gesture that brooked no argument.

"She asked if I'd be interested in the job," he admitted bashfully. "She assured me it would just be for show, nothing real."

"I see. And what did you say to such a generous offer?"

He smiled softly, held her gaze, but… was he blushing?

"I thanked her for her consideration, but told her that neither of my first two marriages had been real, either, so I was trying something different this time around."

Beckett felt her own face redden at his admission. Oh. Well then. So much for space.

Castle stepped up to Kate and stroked a thumb across her cheek before wrapping his arm around her hips to tug her off the counter.

"She seems like a nice enough lady. It's unfortunate she's so… jaded," Castle said as they moved to sit on the couch.

He got Beckett settled against the arm with a pillow at her back, then sat down at the other end and encased her foot between his hands, warming it while the ice cooled her ankle.

"Not jaded, Castle," she corrected. "Guarded."

"Hmm."

Beckett nudged his knee with her good foot. "I have some experience with walls of that variety, if you'll recall. I recognize them when I see them."

Castle merely smiled and gave her toes a squeeze.

"I wish…" she started, only to fade away, lost in her own thoughts.

"You wish?" he eventually prodded.

Kate sighed. "I wish I could have talked to her, I guess. Offered her some hope."

"Yeah? And what would you say to her? Assuming she would listen."

"I think I'd tell her a story," she replied, a slow grin breaking open across her face.

"Looks like it's a good one. I'd like to hear it," Castle implored.

Beckett dropped her left leg off the side of the couch and motioned to her partner. "C'mere."

He released her foot and scooted up the couch, turning until he was stretched out between her legs, his head pillowed on her chest, her arms wrapped around his shoulders.

"Once upon a time…" he began for her once they were situated, but she tightened her arms against his neck threateningly.

"Hush. This is my version."

He quieted and Kate kissed the top of his head before she began.

"I would tell her that, someday, a special man will come into her life. He'll be exasperating and presumptuous and so very unexpected, and she'll panic a little at first because, even though she wants to dislike him, he'll still manage to charm her."

Castle huffed, tried to swallow his laughter, didn't quite succeed. Becket squeezed his waist with her thighs and brought a finger and thumb to his mouth, sealing his lips with a silent zip it. He nodded dutifully.

"Anyway, they'll start spending time together, get to know one another, and pretty soon she'll consider him a friend. She'll look forward to seeing him every day. He'll remind her how to laugh, and she'll smile more, be happier when he's there.

"They'll continue to get closer, be there for each other, help each other grow, and one day, she'll realize that she trusts him above everyone else in her life.

"She'll be scared then, because she'll have started to understand just how much she relies on him, how much he gives her, how much she cares. It will be overwhelming. And she'll want to run from it, because she's so afraid to need him."

Kate paused in her narrative, rested her cheek on Rick's head, tangled her fingers with his before resuming.

"And she might run. But she'll come back, because she does need him. Because even if she's not quite ready to accept it, she'll know what he is to her. What they are to each other.

"But she'll still have work to do. She'll have to deal with that wall around her heart. She built it to protect herself, as a support to help her stand alone, but she'll come to hate it, because she knows he's on the other side of it, waiting for her. Loving her. And she'll want nothing more now than to be out there with him.

"So she'll put everything she has into tearing the wall apart. And because she wants it—wants him—badly enough, she'll bring it down, and they'll finally be together."

Kate took a deep breath and hugged Castle as tightly as she could from the position they were in.

"Even then, though, it won't be a fairy tale ending. She'll still have insecurities, moments of doubt. But her blessing is that that special man will have the strength and patience and humility to stand with her, reassure her, even when it's him she seems to be doubting.

"He'll give her what she needs to feel secure, whatever the personal cost. He'll do everything in his power to protect her heart. And she'll love him for that. For a lot of reasons, actually, but it's his defense of her heart, his determination to care for it that will finally allow her to tell him how utterly he commands it."

The silence as she finished her tale was complete, and if not for the slight hitch in his breathing, she would think he had fallen asleep.

When it had stretched on for a number of minutes, Beckett asked,"You're still awake, right? That wasn't meant to be a bedtime story."

Castle's voice was husky with emotion when he answered her. "I'm still with you. I was waiting for, 'And they lived happily ever after.'"

"Ah. Well, Heidi seems the pessimistic sort. I doubt she'd buy that line. But since she's not here, and you are….

"They lived happily ever after. Mostly."

She felt Castle's chest vibrate with suppressed laughter. After a long exhale, he kissed the inside of each of her wrists and pulled her arms tightly around his chest.

"I love you, Kate."

"Yeah, you do," she said, sliding out from behind him, forcing him back against her pillow, settling herself on his thighs, linking their hands, smiling that radiant smile she reserved only for him.

"I love you, too."

Castle grinned. "Knew I'd charm you into it eventually," he whispered, bringing her hands to his mouth, kissing her fingertips.

She leaned forward and replaced fingers with lips. "Why don't we head into the other room. See what else you can charm me into doing."

"Katherine Beckett," he scolded. "Are you asking me to put my charms to lascivious use?"

"I am, absolutely, yes," she confirmed. "Do you mind terribly?"

"I guess I can be persuaded to do your bidding. Just this once," he said, sitting up fully, cradling her in his arms as he did so. "Grab that ice."

"Cubes, Castle. My trick is with cubes," she said, but reached around to snag it anyway.

"And I'm looking forward to the day you show it to me, too," he confided as he stood with her in his arms, "but this ice is for therapeutic purposes only."

Kate sighed and snuggled against him, nipping at his neck, then sucking lightly at the spot she'd just bitten.

"You sure?" she purred as he nearly careened into the door jamb.

"You keep that up," Castle chided, "we'll be icing a lot more than your ankle."

She giggled. "Oh, so you do want—"

The rest of her sentence was lost to his kiss and forgotten as she let her head fall back, felt his mouth work its way down her throat, down to the scar in the center of her chest.

Castle set her down lightly at the foot of the bed, tossed the ice pack onto the mattress and waited until Beckett's eyes regained some semblance of focus.

"Kate," he began, softly framing her face with his hands. "What you told me just now?"

She grasped his wrists and nodded her remembrance, unabashedly meeting his eyes and smiling at the adoration written so plainly on his face.

"It's a beautiful story. Thank you for sharing it with me."

End

A/N: I can't believe I completed a multi-chapter fic. For a girl with ADHD who cannot sit still or focus worth a whit for more than two minutes at a time, this is a major feat! If I attempt a longer fic in the future, though, I may have to hit someone up for some Ritalin or something first. LOL….

Anyway, thank you all so very much for reading/following/reviewing. I truly hope you had as much fun with this fic as I did!