This will be a two-shot. This first chapter is a prelude to the first scene of Need to Know, and the second chapter will be set after the last scene. I'll upload that after the episode airs in the US, as it contains major spoilers for the case. Chapter one inspired, in part, by a Nathan Fillion quote.

Yes it's short. Get over it. Sorry, don't mean to be snippy. Daylight savings just started here and I'm so tired. Yeah, excuses, excuse. Call flight centre, lowest airfares guaranteed.

Beckett woke up to her alarm and tried to call Castle but couldn't get through. She saw a missed call from Castle and smiled. They'd tried to call each other at the same time. She got a text.

I'll call you, ok?

Ok.

The phone rang and she answered, agreeing to partake in face-time, grinning sleepily from ear to ear when she saw him.

"Impatient, are we, Agent Beckett?"

Beckett sighed, glad to hear his voice, glad to see his sleepy face and bed-hair.
"Good morning, my heart," she said.

"My heart?"

"Yeah," she said, voice laced with sleep. "Shut up, I'm tired. Plus, you are."

"Am what?"

"My heart."

It was amazing how much he could convey with a look. How much that simple statement meant to him was written all over his face.

She knew he wasn't really staring at her. In order to make it appear like he was, he was actually staring at the camera. He was doing it for her; he knew now what an affect his piercing gaze had on her. She would never feed his ego by telling him how beautiful he was, inside and out, but that didn't mean she didn't tell herself.

He's such a beautiful goofball. And he wants to marry me.

All she wanted to do was touch him. Those little touches that she'd taken for granted, not knowing just how much they meant, until she was miles away from him and no longer got to run her fingers through that hair, wake up in those arms, with that warm breath coming out of those full, satin lips against her neck, those thick fingers intertwined with hers. The shiver up her spine, the warmth of his skin, the fluttering in her chest, smile on her face, knowing she got to lie next to him, got to touch him whenever she wanted. Lying here, seeing him curled towards her on the screen on his side of the bed, was almost enough.

"It's like our morning kiss. One way to say without actually saying it; 'Good morning, my heart, how are you doing?'"

- Nathan Fillion