She can't. She's slipping.

She is too heavy, her own flesh unable to hold her now. This is how weighted she has become.

His name rips from her throat, agony sharp in every movement of her lips. She can taste it, her teeth aching with grief.

Every atom in her fingertips is screaming, crying out in agony, begging for release. She can't hold on.

The ledge is coated in a thin film of dust, nothing for her to grab against. The pads of her fingers are wearing away, her bones about to shatter the careful harmony of her skin.

She closes her eyes, thinks of his face and then the ground is rushing to meet her.

Her concrete ending.

She sits straight up, gasping for breath. Clutches her hands to her chest, bears down on her scar and feels her ribcage heave beneath her fingertips. Her eyes are closed, so tightly shut that she can't even entertain the notion of opening them. Tears slide out from the thick expanse of her lashes unbidden and she cannot wipe them away.

A hand at her waist makes her start. She feels someone's nose nudging at her ear and then strong, solid arms wrapping around her. He pulls her into his lap and she tucks her head against the curve of his shoulder, revels in how perfectly she fits.

He rocks her back and forth and finds her ear with his lips, kisses her temple and then whispers to her. "Shh. It's okay. You're okay. It was just a dream, Kate. Only a dream. You're okay."

She can open her eyes then.

He meets her gaze, his so blue that she forgets to breathe for a moment. She shifts in his lap, the long and fluid line of her legs bending, curling around his bare thigh. She can't sit still, delights in the shift of her naked body against his.

"Castle." Her voice is a soft line, bleeding out into the infinitesimal space between them.

He kisses her temple, her cheekbone, the tip of her nose, his fingertips feathering against the bullet wound again.

She pushes on his head just a little, can't stop the easy spread of her smile. "Rick."

He kisses her, light and soft, one hand cupping her cheek. "Hmm?"

She presses her forehead against his clavicle, sucks in a breath through her teeth. "I resigned."

He kisses the ivory line of her scalp against her riotous dark curls. "Okay."

She pushes on his pectorals, forces him to meet her gaze. "I resigned. Castle. Rick, I resigned. I-"

He pulls her against his chest again, her ear landing right over his heartbeat. "Shh. It's okay, Kate. Don't worry about it tonight."

Her mouth falls open and he takes her bottom lip between his, sucks on it gently. She smiles against his mouth, can't stop smiling even with the weight of her resignation. "I'm not a cop anymore. I-. Who am I now?"

He kisses her eyelids, searches for every piece of her he hasn't claimed as his own yet. Scatters kisses like a constellation of scars against the canvas of her skin. "You are the woman I love. We'll talk about this tomorrow, okay. I promise. Just, please. Kate please-"

She cuts him off with the bruising crush of her mouth against his, her swollen lips claim him. Allows him to push her gently down, his weight all over her.

She brings her heel up, rests it against the small of his back and grins at him. "What are you waiting for?"

He laughs, presses his face against the juncture of her neck and shoulder. The gentle curve the setting of their forever. "I love you." She takes the words in, cradles them close to her heart.

He shifts between her legs and she gasps out a sigh, closes her eyes and concentrates on the press of his body against her, the way he makes her feel.

Weightless.