Running out of different ways to say that I don't own Castle, so I'm just going to copy and paste 'I don't own Castle.' at the top of every chapter. Seems clear enough. :')

...

A man returns home from his second coffee meeting with his former muse.

He quietly enters his apartment, a bright smile on his face. The one he hasn't been able to get rid of since he and Kate said goodbye about twenty minutes ago. He'd probably freaked out a few people on the walk back to his loft but somehow he doesn't care.

The rest of the meeting had gone so well. They'd sat and talked over another cup of delicious coffee. Tales of zombies and other great cases, he's jealous he missed out on, being told while he filled her in on recent events in his life which consisted mainly of stories about Alexis and his mother as he specifically avoided talking about his book in progress. He didn't quite feel like talking about that yet. He thinks he'll wait until they've met up a safer amount of times for such a conversation.

They'd finished the meeting off with a dash around the shop, bagging as much candy as they possibly could, completely embarrassing themselves by being the only adults amongst a large group of children. Especially when said children had ceased their own sugar exploration to stare at them like they were crazy, while they just continued to giggle and playfully shove each other in pursuit of the most candy.

He'd planned to give his bag to Alexis but upon tasting some of it, decided to get another one for her instead. They'd worked on that one together, Rick telling her what kind of treats Alexis liked most as she told him what was really good and definitely worth trying there, until they had a whole bag stuffed with sugary goodness. A small taster for what he planned would be he and Alexis' next lunch date.

"Richard!"

Damn. He could have sworn his mother was supposed to be at the school today. Maybe if he acts like he didn't hear her and just heads into his office...

"Richard Alexander Rodgers, don't you dare ignore me. I brought you up better than that!"

Uh. She'd used his given name, and in its fullest form. Now he really can't ignore her.

"Mother! I didn't see you there!" He doesn't bother to sound that convincing, knowing she wouldn't believe him anyway if he did.

"I'm sure you didn't. Now sit." He sighs unwillingly but complies nonetheless. "Where have you been?"

"I went for coffee." He answers, reluctant to even tell her that much.

"Last time I checked we had perfectly good coffee right here in the apartment Richard." She smirks at him mischievously and he knows she's been waiting for some time to have this conversation and is going to enjoy every second of it.

"I was meeting someone if you must know Mother." He goes to stand hoping to get away while he can with the excuse of writing. Which after today he feels completely inspired to actually do. But he is stopped by his mother's hand on his arm, pulling him down once again, giving him a look that says they're not done and he won't get away until she decides they are.

"Anyone I might know?" He averts his gaze and she knows she's got him. "A Detective Kate Beckett perhaps?"

She smiles victoriously when he doesn't deny it, his own small smile actually appearing at the sound of the woman's name.

"We've met for coffee twice Mother. Catching up, telling me about cases. No biggie." He stands up quicker this time and walks swiftly around the couch towards his office.

"No biggie Richard?" She calls disbelievingly after him, following him into the office as he sits down in his chair and turns on his computer. "You followed this woman around for two whole years, wrote four books about her and expect me to believe that after all this time you're just 'catching up'?"

"Yes Mother." He takes a deep breath, trying to calm his growing frustration. "I bumped into her when I was out shopping with Alexis and she agreed to a weekly coffee, that's all. Now are we done? I really need to start catching up on all that writing I haven't been doing this year."

"And what exactly have you been writing so suddenly Richard?"

"Just some...new material Mother."

His eyes have been fixed on his screen up until now, checking where he'd gotten up to last time he'd written and avoiding his mothers gaze. So he almost jumps straight out of his seat, not to mention his skin, when he hears her voice behind him, apparently having walked around his desk at some point in the last minute.

"Really? Then why is that file called Heat Returns?" He clicks off of it abruptly, but knows it's too late. "You're writing Nikki Heat again?"

"Yes." He replies hesitantly with a slight nod.

"Are you going to be shadowing her again?"

"I don't know." He exhales slowly and finally turns in his chair to face her. "We only just started meeting for coffee and I've got a lot to make up for, she's made that pretty clear. But if she allowed me to, yes, I would love to go back and shadow her again."

"And that's all you want to do? Shadow her again?"

"Mother." He thought he'd heard the last of this kind of talk two years ago.

"Well come on Richard, ever since you left the precinct you've been falling into this... this downward spiral of doom-" Martha Rodgers, still as melodramatic as ever. "-but after a chance encounter with her you're writing again and getting out of the apartment more. You're a different man, a better man. The man who brought up Alexis singlehandedly when Meredith was... well Meredith. The man who burnt his eyebrows off trying to make thanksgiving perfect for her. The man who I knew was always deep down inside you but got a little lost during the last two years."

Wow. His mother's right. He'd been so wrapped up in his talk with Charlotte and how he may have changed Kate, he hadn't even realised the massive change in himself.

Even the basic things like how he showers more regularly now rather than when the smell from his office became insufferable. Or how he's always clean shaven, whereas before he'd constantly have stubble and sometimes it had even got to the point where it looked like he was attempting the Guinness World Record for longest beard or something.

He got out of the apartment more, he was even thinking about hitting the gym once a week or more. He'd started jogging for now, something he'd never thought he'd make the effort to take up. But he'd looked in the mirror last week and realised that he'd put on quite a bit of weight, not majorly noticeable but enough for him to want to start taking action against it.

And he hadn't had a single drink since he'd run into Kate. Sure he wasn't exactly an alcoholic before; it wasn't like he was dependent on it. He'd merely had nothing better to do with his time, and now he did.

"I said it back then and I'll say it again now Kiddo. You need to go kiss that girl while you're still young and she's, I presume, single. Has what happened before taught you nothing?"

Yeah, he'd eventually told his mother about Demming, when she'd asked him why he hadn't yet returned to the precinct in the fall. She'd been sympathetic and upon realising that, at the time, he was rather happy in his new relationship with Gina, left him to his own devices.

But when they broke up and she saw her son beginning to lose his way she had told him to go back to the twelfth several times. But he wouldn't and she had to understand. She knew from personal experience that having to watch the person you love be with someone else was one of the most excruciating things a person could do.

Nevertheless she'd be damned if she was going to just sit there and watch while her son throws away what could be his last chance at true love. Again.

"It's just coffee Mother." A doubtful and slightly disappointed look is all he receives in response, he supposes he deserves it though.

But it's the truth right? Well...

He may go on about his mother's antics all the time but she knows it's all a façade (well partly) and that really he loves her dearly and always tries to be honest with her. So with that in mind, he speaks hopefully with sigh:

"For now at least."

...

So this is shorter than the other chapters since it was only meant to be the start of the third week chapter but got a bit longer than I expected and since I haven't updated as quickly as I'd hoped I thought I'd at least give you this bit as a chapter, besides I've seen much shorter fanfic chapters to be honest .

Thanks so much again for the AMAZING response and please keep it coming and review this. All types of feedback is welcome, so any queries or ideas just tell me!

In response to holdingonhope's review (thanks so much by the way :D) I'm not sure how many chapters at the moment. I think I could easily do the story not spanning over months as the curse, that I know the real show will avoid due to its amazing writers, of how once they are together and the others find out the fun of it all will be gone could very well occur since I am not near close to how amazing they are! But I think if people did want me to and kept giving me such amazing support and maybe even some ideas, I would try to sustain the story for as long as I possibly can. So again I'm asking you what you guys think, lots of chapters? And when do I get them together, soon or wait it out a while longer?