A/N: Thank you to Lindsey and Callie for brainstorming with me on this one and answering any questions I had and also for the encouragement to just do it. And to Lindsey for taking time out of your busy schedule to beta this for me. You've made it much simpler.

Ch. 1

She gets to work early this morning, feeling refreshed and alive from all of the sleep she got the night before. She's been sleeping better, finally, and she knows it's due to both her therapy sessions and her time spent with a certain writer.

Dr. Burke has been helping her see that it's okay to take time to heal and that she can do that while simultaneously moving forward in her relationship, if she could call it that, with Castle.

She told Castle what she could on the swings when she came back from hiding last summer and since then, he's been by her side with more fervor and patience than seems possible.

Beckett doesn't feel like she deserves his devotion, but she's still working on herself and in return trying to give him the devotion he's deserved all along.

It's been easier than she had expected. Giving the man she loves more of herself (and yes, she knows she's in love with him, has known her feelings before he ever told her in the cemetery) has been so fulfilling and freeing. She can feel the heavy chain around her neck loosening link by link. She's still stunned that giving her heart away has been so rewarding and healing in and of itself.

And since the bank explosion a month ago, she's allowed herself to lower her walls even more, though that wasn't the original plan.

Screw the original plan.

Castle is a healing balm to her blistered heart so Kate's letting him in, letting him see a little more of her each time they're together, letting him slowly put her back together in a new and better way.

Thinking back to that night, she can't get the surprised look on his face out of her head. They had eaten dinner with Martha and Alexis and then she'd joined Castle for one last glass of wine on the couch. When she finally made her way to the door, she left him dumbfounded after having planted the softest of kisses to his lips before she left.

She had no idea that such a small kiss could bring so much joy and peace to her heart… or his.

So here Beckett sits, wide awake and ready to work at six in the morning, all because this one man has turned her tragic life on its head and allowed her to find rest.

Her smile couldn't be any bigger this morning as she taps at her keyboard, inputting data from the previous case they worked. The precinct is sparse with people at this hour, but even if it wasn't she'd still allow the grin to break free. That's what he's done for her.

He's turning her into a sap and she couldn't care less.

At 7:36 am, Beckett realizes she hasn't even had coffee yet. Oh God, she thinks, love is better than caffeine. As soon as the thought crosses her mind, she feels her body react in protest. Her brain and heart may be high on love but the rest of her body hasn't caught up as they cry out for sustenance.

Hesitating to get up, she realizes Castle should be here within the hour with her usual coffee order. She can make herself wait for his gourmet drink rather than fix herself a less than acceptable cup of coffee, even though her body reacts with horror at the thought.

Forty minutes later, Kate has immersed herself in the evidence of one of Karpowski's cases. Standing in front of the murder board deep in thought, she doesn't even notice Castle make his way into the precinct, let alone him standing right behind her.

A hot rush of air washes over the back of her neck and left ear. "Good morning, detective."

She startles. Is he trying to kill her with his deep seductive voice in front of everyone? "Castle," she hisses as she turns around right into his space.

He doesn't move, doesn't even waver a little bit at her proximity.

"Sorry. But I figured if I said hello with my normal voice, I'd scare you even more."

He's smiling and she can see that he's not even a little bit sorry despite his apology. She reaches up with her hand and squeezes his bicep. Oh, she should not have done that. She won't be able to get the firm feel of his arm out of her mind. "It's okay, Castle. Morning," she smiles.

A blooming grin makes his eyes crinkle and crease at the edges and God, if that's all it takes to make him happy she can keep touching him like that for the rest of her life.

Wow. Okay, slow down, Kate.

"So I see we don't have a new case. That's good news, right?" Castle hands her the coffee and watches her take the first gulp of many.

Her eyes close at the burst of flavor on her tongue and she hums. "Mmm, yeah, it's great news. I've gotten a ton done just in a couple of hours this morning."

She's looking at him now with bright eyes and a smile on her face. He takes a seat in his chair as she sets her coffee cup down on the desk, then slides into her own seat and rolls up to the desk. "You seem really…" he hesitates. "...happy this morning. Did I miss something?"

She turns her head to give him what she hopes is one of her better looks. "What, can't a girl be happy? And you say that like I'm never happy. Geez, Castle."

His eyes widen and he lifts his hands in surrender. "No, no, You're happy a lot. It's just…" He trails off, and she can almost hear him thinking of what to say that won't make it worse for him.

"It's okay. I'm just teasing you." She leans back in her chair and chuckles at her own mischief. "I just slept really well last night and I feel great this morning," she says, trying to will him into understanding that it's because of him.

By the smile on his face, he seems to understand. And she needs to get back to work, because right now she just wants to lean over to the side where he sits and have that smile of his pressed against hers.

What is happening to her?

Finally able to gain her wits about her, Kate takes a few more sips of coffee and tells Castle she still has some data to put into the NYPD's database.

Never minding that she has actual work to do, Castle nods in understanding and opens his phone to start a new Angry Birds game.

It's been another twenty minutes when she is jerked out of her concentration by a loud clack. Kate whirls towards Castle and sees that he's dropped his phone. She sighs and tries to calm her racing heart down to a normal pace.

She's about to make a smart remark about his clumsiness when she notices that he hasn't moved to pick his phone up.

Beckett looks him over, trying to figure out why and how he dropped his phone, but he doesn't even seem to care that it careened to the floor. His eyes are glued to the television on the wall behind her desk and his mouth is left hanging open. The look on his face terrifies her. She's seen it just one other time: when she was lying on the ground in a cemetery, bleeding out to her near death.

Beckett's own curiosity has her ignoring him so that she can turn her attention to what seems to have caught his.

Breaking news scrolls across the screen as a young male reporter talks into his microphone while standing on a beach as waves crash behind him.

Frowning in confusion, she looks back to Castle to see that he is still enraptured with the news story, so she turns back to it again. The scene is now showing pictures of an older couple, male and female. She doesn't catch the names but she hears that these two people have been found murdered on the beach this morning.

Turning to ask Castle what the significance is of that story, her eyes find themselves locked on the back of a retreating Castle. He's around the corner and out of her sight before she can even get the words out to ask where he is going and what's wrong.

Beckett sits, stunned. Nothing like this has ever happened. Castle has always clued her in if he needed to take care of something urgent or had to leave quickly.

Her brows furrow as she looks to the corridor where Castle had just ran to. "What the hell just happened?"