Just a little something I came up with, during the weekend. I hope you'll like it. Let me know, suggestions, critics etc. All welcome. Enjoy reading!

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"How much longer?" He growled, while trying to keep up with her. They had been walking for hours that felt more like days to him, it was raining, he was freezing and tired. To be clear: He really had enough. He wanted to rest! Somewhere warm. He wanted to have a cold beer and a movie but instead he was hiking through the woods in the middle of nowhere. Damn this case that brought them to Sterling Forest. He was a city boy! He had no business roaming through the woods.

"The cabin must be about half an hour away," she said without even looking back.

"What?" he panted. "Could we just rest for a second?" He made a mental note to himself that he needed to go to the gym more often. Or better; Needed to start going at all. For Beckett this all seemed to be a Sunday afternoon walk, while he felt like running a marathon.

"We need to be at the cabin before it gets dark," she replied, but to his relief stopped and turned around. "It will be nearly impossible to find the way in the dark and once the last daylight is gone, temperatures will drop." She left it hanging there.

"Even more?" he whined in disbelief.

She nodded and turned to continue their path through the brushwood. A small smirk on her lips. She had to admit she enjoyed his whining just a little bit. "You're coming, Castle?"

He sped up to fall into a trot next to her. "How do you know about this cabin, anyway?" he asked.

"It's my father's," she stated without looking at him.

He stopped and watched her, while she continued on this invisible path that she seemed to know by heart. Now he knew why. The rain was steadily pouring down on him, while he tried to process this new information. The rest of the way they spent in silence until Beckett finally stopped and pointed at something between the trees.

"There it is," she walked ahead and pulled a key out of a log that lay beside the door. She turned around and realized that he hadn't followed her. She found him still standing where they had come out of the brushwood. She shot him a questioning look, "Castle?"

He nodded and quickly crossed the small clearing. They stepped into the little cabin and Beckett immediately started to move around, opening cabinets, pulling various things out. He just stood and took it in. So this was where she had been hiding for three months. From the world. From him. He tried to get a feeling for this place, tried to find a connection to understand the Katherine Beckett that had came back from these woods.

"Okay, let's get the fire started," he heard her say and nodded absentminded. "And then we need to get out of these clothes." She looked up, expecting a cocky remark from her partner, but to her surprise he just nodded. She studied him, he looked tired, which wasn't surprising after their forced march through Sterling Forest, but she also saw something else in his eyes. Was it sadness?

What she did next was normally something she suppressed when it came to him, she went by her first instinct and stepped closer, her hand coming to rest on his shoulder and he jumped a little at the unexpected contact. He turned around to find her standing incredibly close, which almost made him jump again.

"Everything okay?" he asked when he saw the worried expression on her face.

"Actually I was going to ask you just that," she said and tilted her head slightly, her eyes never leaving his. Studying and taking him in.

Wet strands were falling into her face, they were both soaked to the skin, tired and weary and still she looked adorable.

He nodded, "I'm fine. Just tired."

She didn't buy it. There was something else going on in those blue eyes of his and then it hit her. It was her and it was this place.

"Listen Castle," she stuttered and her eyes fell on the floor.

"It's okay, Kate. Really." He tried to wave her off, not wanting this to become all awkward.

"No, it's not. I want you to know that I'm sorry," she started.

He held up his hand, "Kate, you don't have to do this." The look in his eyes almost broke her heart.

Her hand reached out and came to rest on his cheek, forcing him to look at her. "Yes, I have to do this. I'm sorry. I'm sorry for pushing you away and locking you out the way I did. It wasn't fair and you deserved better, you deserve better."

"You had a lot going on." He said and realized that her hand was still resting against his cheek, "It's long forgiven."

"Still I should have told you that I needed time. The last thing I wanted was to hurt you. But I did and for that I'm truly sorry."

His own hand reached up and covered hers before he took it and placed a feather light kiss on it, "Thank you!" He smiled at her and was rewarded with one of hers.

"We should really get this fire started," she mumbled and pulled her eyes from his.

He smirked, "I like the sound of that and what was it you said about getting out of our clothes?"

She shot him one of her famous eye rolls and shoved him towards the fireplace. "Make yourself useful." He smiled from ear to ear and when she turned around to see if she could find something to eat for them, she did the same.

An hour later they sat next to each other in front of a sparkling, warm fire, wrapped up in some blankets Beckett had produced from one of the cabinets. Their wet clothes were dangling from clothesline and they were having something out of can, that couldn't be defined.

"This," he held up his can, "Is delicious. You're a good cook!" He grinned and was delighted when he actually saw her chuckle.

"I'm glad you like it," she bumped her shoulder against his and smiled.

"So what's the plan?" He asked when he had finished his dinner.

"Tomorrow we walk to the main road and then there's a gas station about five miles south. We can contact the next PD from there and then we hopefully can go back to civilisation."

"Interesting, but that's not what I meant. I was thinking more about sleeping arrangements." He shot her a weary smile.

"Oh!" she looked up. "Well there's the bedroom and then," she pointed at the bench in the small kitchen, "This." She got up and walked over to the bench, carefully holding her blanket in place. She pulled some cushions and another blanket from under it. "It's not very comfortable. Normally my dad has an extra camp bed here. But he took it with him for the winter."

"It'll be just fine," he said and was suddenly very close. It irritated her, to know that he had nothing on under the blanket but his boxers. Her right hand clutched her blanket just a bit tighter to herself, while her left hand played with a strand of her hair. He looked down at her. Was she actually blushing?

"Good," she mumbled and avoided his eyes. "I'll be just in there, if you need something!" And she even blushed some more when she realized what her words could imply.

He nodded, never taking his eyes off her, when she retreated to the bedroom.

"Good night, Kate!" he said.

She turned around and smiled at him, "Good night, Rick!"

When the door closed behind her, he shook his head and let out a little gasp. There was something about these woods… When he climbed into his sleeping quarters he couldn't help but think that despite all the hiking, rain and mud this day had turned out to be quite wonderful.

He watched the fire dance, watched the shadows on the walls and felt content. He closed his eyes and sighed, slowly drifting off to sleep.

Kate on the other hand was wide awake. A million different thoughts running through her head but all centred around one certain writer that was sleeping just next door. It was getting harder and harder not to give into her feelings, to not dive into it. To just stay away from him. And she wasn't sure anymore that she should. She wanted to be happy. And he had been the one to say that she deserved it. But what if it didn't work out, what if …? There were so many what ifs.

When she finally fell asleep, it didn't last long. She awoke shivering. It was freezing inside her room. There were no more blankets and the warming fire was next door. She debated her options and finally climbed out of bed, pulling the blankets around herself she tiptoed to the door and peeked into the other room and was surprised to find Castle looking directly at her.

"Can't sleep?" she asked.

He shook his head, "Something is poking into my back." He got up and rearranged the pillows. "You?"

"I'm cold." She said and walked closer to the fire place. It had almost burned down, but still offered enough heat to warm her cold feet.

Castle looked at her and ruffled his hair before he walked into the other room.

"What are you doing?" she asked and followed him. She saw him lifting the mattress off her bed and jumped out of his way, when he carried it through the door and placed it down in front of the fire place.

"Voilá!" he presented his work with a big grin on his face. "I surely don't want you to freeze to death."

"That might be a bit overdramatic, but thank you, Castle!" She smiled and as so often found it incredible difficult to take her eyes off him.

"Anytime. Anything," he replied. He had intended to make it sound light instead the air around them became even thicker. She knew she should walk away. She should climb into her new bed and say good night. But she couldn't. She just couldn't turn around. He stepped closer, reaching for her hand and to his surprise she didn't pull away. He looked down at their joined hands and was all of a sudden incredibly nervous. "Well if you need anything else, I'll be right over there," he nodded to his bench.

She just looked at him and then to her own surprise she said, "It's terribly uncomfortable over there."

"It's okay."

"If you promise me to behave, Castle …," and he thought he was dreaming, when she pulled him with her to the mattress.

"Kate?" he asked unsure.

"You can't let me freeze to death and I can't let you hurt your back. It's just sleeping," she said more confident than she felt.

Castle swallowed. He wasn't sure that this was a good idea, but before he could protest she was already pulling him down next to her. He found himself lying next to her, his arms firmly placed over the blanket and he was so close to her that he feared he couldn't control himself. All that separated them from each other were the blankets they had each wrapped around themselves and he knew that there couldn't be much clothing left under it.

And then, to make things worse, she took his hand into hers and placed a soft kiss on it, just like he had done it earlier.

"What was that for?" he asked surprised.

"For being you!" She simply said.

He frowned, "I thought you find me rather annoying," he grinned.

"You know that's not true," she said and turned around to look at him. "You know that, right?"

He was surprised to find her so close and since he didn't trust his voice, he just nodded.

"You're a good man, Richard Castle," she said and placed her hand on his bare chest. She could feel his heart beat quicken, and her eyes moved to his and before she could blink, she felt his lips on hers. He kissed her ever so sweetly and it was happening so quickly that she couldn't even protest, but as sudden as it had started it ended.

"Kate, I'm sorry! I shouldn't have. I better," he was already climbing out of their self-made bed, but she held him back. "Kate," but he was stopped by her finger on his lips.

"Shh," she shushed him, taking his hand and turning around, she pulled him with her and he came to rest right behind her. She placed their right arms over the blanket on her stomach, making him hold her close. Her now slightly uncovered back was firmly placed against his bare chest and the temperature was definitely rising. He could smell her and hear the rapid beating of her heart that matched his. Was he dreaming? Or was he really holding his detective in his arms?