"Kate!" He calls across the bar to her back as she disappears up the stairs to street level, but the name is lost in the piano music and bar noise, so he refrains from calling her name again until he hit the stairwell, "Beckett!" But the door closes and he's taking the stairs two steps at a time following her out onto the street, "Kate." She stops where she's standing and slowly turns around to face him as he takes the last few steps to her, "Kate?"

"Castle?" She cocks her head, and he can see the war of emotions passing over her eyes, relief that he chased her, fear over what comes next.

He suddenly can't seem to find the right words, "Did you mean…" he pulls in a deep breath, he shouldn't be this out of breath, and tries again, "Did you really mean that?"

"Mean what?" She blinks at him, her face an emotionless mask, trying to keep it together whatever happens next. She doesn't think she'd be capable of it without her years on the force, but she's damn grateful for it. She slips her hands into her coat pockets so that they can ball into fists and express some of the tension she's feeling in this moment.

He mentally curses her for that deadly cop calm that she's using to make him work so hard, but he forges on, they've made it this far he's not going to give up now. Trying to project the same level of calm she has, he asks, "That you love me?"

"Rick…" she bites her lip and looks at the ground quickly, and for a split second he finds himself admiring the way the light from the street lamps is haloing around her head in the mist. But then she speaks again, to the floor, "I…" but she doesn't get any further than that before she snaps her head up again and looking him in the eye, "why would I tell you that if I didn't?"

"I…" he goes to reach for her, thinking that if maybe he can just touch her he'll be able to get a better handle on the situation, "I don't know…" but he decides better of it in that moment and instead just uses his hands to gesticulate his point, he has to do something with them. "You told me that you don't remember what happened on the day you were shot but I know that you did." He's not proud of it but his voice cracks on the last phrase, the all the hurt that he's been poorly managing the last few weeks came pouring out.

She gasps his name, "Castle…" one hand flies to her mouth, "Rick…" and the other reaches out to land on his arm, "Oh god how'd you…" she shakes her head, "it doesn't matter…" she pulls her hand back tucking her hair behind her ear, "I wasn't ready for that." She stamps her foot out of frustration with herself, "it's stupid…" she looks out over the street, trying to pull herself together, "I should have told you…" and failing miserably, "shit…" she focus' back on him, "Castle…" her voice breaks, his name on a sob, "Rick…"

He takes pity on her and steps just a little bit closer. He's been there through so much else; he can walk her through this. "But you love me?" he asks, she nods her head, and so he asked the question that's been plaguing him for weeks, "like a friend?"

She's now the one that steps closer to them, personal space basically evaporating. Softly she shakes her head, "Not just like a friend," she whispers, a hand coming up to hover above his arm.

"How then Kate?" he's desperate now.

Her hand lands solidly on his bicep and she squeezes, "I love you Castle." She pulls in a deep breath, "I am head over heels in love with you, Rick."

"Why now?" It's a plaintive cry of trying to understand why now and wanting just to move past the last three weeks.

She huffs, taking a step back, disengaging herself from him. "Because I think that I'm finally able to accept everything that happened on that day."

It takes everything in him not to follow and try to get to the bottom of this. "Including what I said?"

She can see the distress on his face, and isn't quite sure why it's there, but she can't lie to him anymore, "Including what you said…" his face doesn't change and she realizes that she was right two weeks ago when she said that he's moved on, he wasn't stepping back to protect his heart, he was moving on. "But if you don't feel that way anymore I understand," and then she's walking away hair bouncing in the mist and he's scrambling after her again.

"Kate!" he exclaims, catching up to her and snagging her elbow, forcing her to turn around and face him again. "Where are you going?"

"Home." Simplest answer in the world.

He shakes his head, a small smile forming. "You are infuriating. You know that right?"

Her mouth, twitches and her eyes soften, "I've heard something about that," but she doesn't smile back, not yet.

He drops her elbow but doesn't back away, "Fortunately it's one of the many reasons that I do." His voice has dropped, rolling through him and washing over her.

"Do what?" she asks, on an exhale, relief flowing through her.

He shifts closer her, wading into her personal bubble as slowly as he could manage. "Love you," he finally answered.

"Okay then." She sighs, on the verge of tears happiness and relief the moisture glittering in her eyes as she steps closer wrapping one hand around his lapel as the other lands on his shoulder. "So what now?" she asks with a sly smile brushing her nose against his as her breath ghosts across his face.

He's delirious with how close she is, and so relieved that everything is falling into place, that even as his hands land solidly on her hips his mouth runs away without him, "Well I was thinking."

Fortunately she has her wits about her, "Castle, shut up," she breathes against his lips before they're oh so softly slipping over his, and the hand that was resting on his shoulder has wrapped around the base of his neck. She's smiling against his lips, as he becomes an active participant, the hands that were on her hips wrap around her back pulling her flush against him.

Air became necessity and she's the one to pull back, resting her forehead against his so that green meets blue, and the hand that tangled in his lapel comes up to cup his cheek, her thumb brushing over his cheek bone, "I love you so much."

His smile could light up the city, "I love you too," he kisses her again quickly. "Oh god, Kate, you have no idea how much I love you," he whispers into the small space between them.

"We should go," she finally whispers, not making and movements to untangle herself.

He's grinning, his hands slowly moving on her back, tracing circles. "Not afraid of the dark are we Detective?"

"Never know, there might be zombies," she's grinning back even as she presses another kiss to his lips, before stepping back and taking his hand in hers.

"Seriously, how cool was that though!" The little kid in him was back. The entertaining, creative, charming, wonderful man that he was, it was all back.

"Castle…" she groans. She couldn't be more relieved, but the side of him that was fascinated with ninjas, mobsters and zombies wasn't want she wanted to focus on at this moment.

"Sorry," he tugs her back to him, so that she collides with his chest. "I'll relive the awesomeness that was this case later," he captures her lips this time, taking them deeper than any previous kiss.

She's struggling to pull in air, as she raggedly whispers in his ear, "Take me home Rick."

Confession this was supposed to be a one-shot but I ways inspired by your reaction to the original part and inspired by it that I wrote this for you. Thank you so much for reading it and I would love to hear your thoughts.

Babyrose