Rick, Kate, Ryan, Esposito, and Captain Montgomery were all sitting in the conference room, drinking a well-deserved beer after Bradford and his partners had been arrested and the bomb neutralized.

"No, really, you should have seen his face. Because he stopped, he looked at me, he grabbed all the wires and he just yanked them."

Kate made a tugging motion, imitating the wires being pulled from the control panel of the dirty bomb, while Roy started to laugh at what Castle did.

Ryan looked over to Castle in wonder and said, "All of them?"

"I figured one of them had to be the right one," Rick admitted.

"You know, the mayor wants to give you guys a medal. I didn't have the heart to tell him that you had no clue what you were doing."

Espo looked directly at Castle, knowing how badly it could have gone.

"Captain's right," he said. You guys don't know how lucky you really are."

Rick lowered the beer bottle from his lips and looked over to Espo, and then to his partner.

"Actually, I do."

The soft knock on the door drew everyone's attention as Agent Fallon stepped in.

"Can I talk to you two for a second?" he asked, looking towards Rick and Kate.

The two partners looked at each other and decided to go with him to see what he wanted, with Castle leading the way. Fallon turned towards them as they came to a stop right outside the conference room.

"I just wanted you two to know that the U.S. Attorney's office is going to be charging Bradford with multiple counts of conspiracy to commit terror. Thanks to you two, we won't have to add the murder of innocent New Yorkers to that allegation."

"Well, we were just doing our job. Actually, I was doing my job I don't know what the hell he was doing." Kate grinned.

"Hey, but that's true." Castle shrugged.

"Listen," said Fallon, "what I do is not who I am. It's just how I have to be."

Rick looked at Fallon, who was trying to be more open with them and possibly succeeding.

"I hope you both understand that."

"Why don't we say it was it a pleasure?" said Kate. "And that we hope that we don't have to do it again."

"Fair enough." Fallon turned to leave when Rick spoke up.

"If- it does happen again, maybe you could just text me, have a code word… Run."

Rick watched as Fallon walked away. When he turned back to Kate he sighed loudly, then noticed the smile on her face.

"Hell of a day," he said.

"Hell of a day," she agreed.

"You know, I was thinking… I was thinking maybe…" Rick glanced past Kate's left side for a split second and saw Josh walking off the elevator. Josh was still far enough away not to hear him, so he decided to say something else to Kate instead of what he really wanted to say.

She noticed Castle's eyes move away from her for an instant, and then his expression changed. He stumbled in his speech, and she could tell that he was going to say something other than what he really wanted to say to her.

"Maybe I should go home, get some rest. Long day. Good night."

All she could do was look at him hoping he would really say what he was thinking. But he was already on the move towards the elevator.

"Good night?" When she said it, it sounded more like a question even to herself as she watched him walk away. She did notice that he used his playboy smile, the fake one he used with fans he met on the street when he wished her good night.

Then she felt hands covering her hips and at first, she was startled, until she turned into Josh's embrace with a gasp. With her head resting against her boyfriend's chest, she watched Rick's progression all the way to the elevator. When he got in and turned around, leaning against the back wall of the elevator car, she could see the angry and somehow sad look on his face, and she knew why.

Xx

Rick knew that staying in the precinct while they played kissy face would be humiliating for him. So he came up with the excuse that he was tired and hoped she bought it. But he didn't care either way. He was tired, but if Josh hadn't shown up, well, maybe he would have found some energy to stay with her. Hell, they almost died this afternoon - who was he trying to kid? - he would have loved to stay with her. And then Dr. Motorcycle Boy had to come up here and practically dry hump her right there on the homicide floor. No, he had better things to do than to watch these two show their love and affection for each other in front of him.

So he entered the elevator and leaned against the back wall, watching every move they made until the doors slid closed. The look on his face was probably one of either shame, sadness, or anger, not that he really cared either way. But what he did know was that he needed a drink. By the time the elevator reached the lobby, the day shift patrol section was leaving and the night shift was taking over. He walked through the maze of patrolmen heading for the front door. He looked up at the 12th precinct entrance one last time, not knowing if he would return. Instead of taking a cab home he decided to walk to the nearest bar.

Xx

Kate turned in Josh's arms and looked directly at him. She never told him to come over to the 12th precinct to see her, and she wondered why he was here when he should have been on a plane, heading to Haiti for his Doctors Without Borders assignment.

"Josh, why are you here? You know that I'm working."

"Kate, less than twelve hours ago I was treating you for a severe case of hypothermia in the back of an ambulance after your partners found you-you and that tag-along writer. I just came by to see how you were doing."

"You do know Rick was in the freezer container with me as well, right? We almost died that night."

"Kate, I am with you. I'm not concerned about Rick Castle, seeing as that I'm dating you not him. And I know he's your partner and all, but he just left thirty seconds ago and to me, he looked just fine." Josh stated the obvious.

"Josh, he's been my partner for almost four years now. And while he might have looked fine to you, something was off with him."

"I'm really not here to talk about Castle. He's the furthest thing from my mind," Josh said. "I just came by to see how you were and to ask you what your plans were for dinner tonight. Because if you don't have plans for dinner, I would like to take you out."

"I wish you would have called first," Kate told him. "Right now, I'm in the middle of finishing up the paperwork for the case we just closed, so dinner will have to wait."

"Well, tomorrow morning I'll be heading to Haiti. I wanted to spend some time with you before I left and I figured dinner would be nice. Can't you at least for once just have your junior detectives finish the paperwork for this case?"

"My junior detectives! Josh, you do know that Esposito has two more years on the job than I do? That makes him senior to me," Kate said, disgusted at his perception of her teammates.

"I didn't mean any harm by it, Kate. I just wanted us to go out and have a meal together before I left. Is that too much to ask?"

"Is that too much to ask? You've got to be kidding me, right?" Kate was angry now. "Two innocent men were murdered, Josh. A child was left fatherless. All because of one man's vision to make our country pay for men lost in the Gulf War. And a very large section of the city was almost…."

Kate could not finish that sentence; she couldn't let it be known that there had been a dirty bomb in Midtown Manhattan. For the most part, Josh looked like a petulant child not getting his way because of what she had to do in order to do her job. He never really did understand what she did. But Rick, on the other hand, understood and gave her the time to get the case buttoned up paperwork and all. And that's what gave Kate the idea to say what she needed to say to Josh next.

"Josh, I need to stay, to finish this paperwork, so why don't you head down to the pub on the next block, grab some dinner, and then I'll meet you back at your place in about three hours."

"Kate, I was serious about the two of us going out for dinner. This is the last meal we'll share before I leave for Haiti tomorrow."

Kate sighed. "I realize that, but what you need to understand is that I have a job to do now, and with the Federal angle for this case the paperwork is almost tripled. So give me the time to finish what I can and I will see you at your place in three hours." She made it excruciatingly clear that he was not meant to be here by the look she was giving him.

Josh raised his hands in an admission of defeat and told her that her plans were good enough for him. With that settled, he turned and headed back for the elevator, knowing it was useless to try to get her away from here.

She watched him as he stepped on the elevator and left the homicide floor. Knowing that Agent Fallon had left a half hour ago, she started on the NYPD forms first since there were fewer of them to complete.

Xx

Rick walked in a daze of sorts since he left the precinct. He knew that Kate was with Dr. Motorcycle Boy, but did he have to show up and ruin everything between them by flaunting what they had in front of him? They had risked their lives to save the city today! Josh would never know what he could have lost if that bomb had detonated. He could only hope that Josh was treating Kate with the respect she deserved.

He spied a pub to his right that looked like a place where he could whet his whistle and still be able to hold his own with the people inside. He looked at the entrance, which featured a door more elaborate than he'd ever seen, made from a hardwood that presented itself as very thick. He gave it a tug and it opened easily, so he entered and was immediately at home within the walls of this pub. To his right, he saw an older man who looked like one of the regulars. The man looked at him as if trying to figure him out.

"Howdy stranger," says the bartender.

"Hey," Rick returned as he climbed up on a barstool.

"What can I get you? And I might add that we don't serve those pansy drinks that have those stupid umbrellas in 'em.'

"Well, I am grateful for that. Scotch on the rocks, and not the swill that you serve the common people. Pour me a glass of that Macallan 25 year and then leave the bottle."

"Mac, this bottle is $1,850. I'm no way in hell going to be leaving you this bottle," the bartender replied.

Rick reached into his pocket and pulled out his spending cash. He threw down twenty $100 bills and told the bartender to keep the change.

Needless to say, the bartender left him the bottle.

Xx

Josh walked without any direction. Once Kate had told him to leave, he wanted to fight her decision but realized that it was neither the place nor the time to do it. He walked out the front door of the precinct and turned right. He'd taken the time to figure out a plan to get her to commit more to their relationship than she already had. Now all he had to do was think of a way to impress her that would knock her off her feet. Maybe he'd think about staying here for a little longer, or even cancel his upcoming trip to Haiti. He needed to think about what he wanted.

He walked for about a block until he saw a sign suspended over the sidewalk that announced a pub named Reilly's was coming up. It was an Irish pub and it looked like it was a decent place to have a drink. He could stop in, have a drink and give some more thought on how to become more interesting to his girlfriend.

Xx

Rick had already thrown back six shots of the very fine Scotch whiskey before he decided to slow down. The first four shots took the edge off. Now the bottle was down to about two-thirds left when he decided to slowly sip it rather than drinking it quickly. He looked around the bar and he could tell that Reilley's was a true Irish pub. This place was probably one of the best places to be on St. Paddy's Day. Directly behind the bartender was a wall-mounted mirror as long as the bar itself, with green shamrocks around the edges. It would be impossible not to notice anyone coming into the establishment if you were sitting at the bar. Which was why Rick's face dropped when he looked behind the bartender and noticed Joshua Davidson walking through the door of Reilly's with a very confused look on his face. Knowing that any interaction with the man would be disastrous for both of them, Rick slowly eased off the bar stool and moved over to a booth, hoping not to be seen by Josh. He didn't even make it halfway across the pub's wooden floor before he heard…

"Castle?"

A/N: This is a story that has been written over the last few months and it's just about complete, only the epilogue remains. This story has a story of its own. For a while, I was wanting to write a story where Kate was given a choice in her life. This is what I came up with. But that's not where this ends. This story has had many hands in it. It is a collaboration between three Castle Fan Fiction writers. I had the idea but not the plot. That's where Persplex13 came in. During his many trips to and from DC (and yes even when he lost his laptop temporarily) we figured how to move this forward.

Perfgen has been a godsend. Without his cutting-edge ideas, none of this story would have been possible. His insight into a man's (or woman's) mind is boundless. He was able to get me moving in the right direction even after I whined about how I was going to finish this. If you read some passages you'll see his style in this story because he wrote them. I would hate to meet him in a dark alley. I would be shaking in my boots if I did because he'd kick my ass.

Her Pegship is an American goddess! There is nothing else I can say other that she is one of the hardest working Beta's on this site. She has added her distinct style to this as well. Her stories bring the reader anything you can imagine so why not check out her stories because they're excellent! She, Perfgen, and I present to you...

"No Man's Land" Please enjoy!

P2P

A/N2: Updates will be on Sundays and Wednesdays. :)