Part 2

Ok, so today I've decided to be really mean to Kate and let Rick really hit the ball home hard…. Last night I couldn't do it to her and it was getting late. I have not seen S05E02 as the time I'm writing this. I'm on my way home to watch it tonight. So I will virtually pick up where I was and go from where I want the changes to be. I can't do track changes in this format which is unfortunate.

I'm not sure where the story will go and how mean I can be to Kate. So lets see where it goes….

At almost 1.00 am Kate fished through her purse to find the security card to Rick's building. She had just bid Mason farewell from the taxi, the driver of which was patiently waiting for her to safely get inside the building. Once the door was secured behind her she waved Mason good bye and the taxi was driven forward.

She and Mason had left the night club fairly wasted. Mason had been an excellent date, a great companion and she was sure she had found herself a new dance date. She waited almost a minute for an elevator checking her phone for any messages from Rick. For the past two or so hours Rick had not answered any texts she had sent him and in the end she had given up sending him anymore. Whilst they had been at the night club she had bumped into Esposito who had been with some girl who wasn't Lanie. Kate figured Javier and Lanie must be back to bootie call sessions only.

The elevator arrived and the doors opened. By the time she clumsily swiped the security card on the elevator to Rick's apartment the doors had swallowed her and the elevator started its journey up. She leaned against the wall, feeling rather intoxicated, her inhibitions lessoned by the effects of the alcohol. She had thoughts of Castle in bed sleeping, and she crawling over the bed up his body to his mouth to arouse him from slumber. She could easily imagine herself seductively waking him from sleep. She smiled with closed lips, deep in thought contemplating seriously whether she would wake him to make love to him. That's if he was in bed. He could, in fact, be anywhere.

Her shoes dangled from the fingers of her right hand, swinging slightly back and forth. She wore a black faux fur coat she pulled tightly about her body still feeling a little chilly from the October evening.

Her mind went back to the fact Rick hadn't answered her texts in ages. She was suddenly free aggravated over that. In addition, she was almost driving herself crazy wondering what he was up to, where he really was.

The elevator bell tinged and the doors opened to the penthouse, distracting her thoughts. She silently walked along the hall way to the doorway to Rick's loft and using her key, unlocked the door. She stepped inside expecting to find the night light on and Richard in bed. But no. He was sitting on the couch with a brunette woman who was straddled upon his lap facing him. Rick innocently turned to the doorway and smiled at Kate.

"Castle?" Kate's jaw dropped, her eyes widely glaring at him and the brunette, the gorgeous brunette straddled across his lap. She was dressed, fully dressed Kate observed and she wore red lipstick. So did Rick.

Rick held his breath. He'd had Mason text him when he was dropping Kate off at the loft so he and Nadia would be ready when Kate arrived. He knew by Kate's expression he was in the shit!

"Hey Kate. You're back. Did you have a good time Honey?" He greeted with a pleasant smile and casually assisted the woman off his lap. He stood, deliberately wiping his mouth. Acting perfectly normal, he knew he had to pull this off to get the most affect. The expression Kate had on her face was torturing him. She was somewhere between pissed off and devastated.

"Richard?" She murmured, her fingers unconsciously dropping her shoes on the floor. The idea of him dating someone had seemed easy but seeing him in the privacy of his own home with another woman alone was a different story. She let him help her out of her coat which he laid over the chair by the door. He checked out Kate in the black dress he had bought for her that day.

"Lovely dress, Kate." He commented, taking her elbow gently with his fingers to escort her to Nadia. "Kate, this is my date Nadia and Nadia, my girlfriend Kate." Richard introduced them feeling very awkward, but this is what Kate wanted. "Kate, Nadia has been a great sport tonight. I'm sure I won't have any problems at the precinct tomorrow."

Kate stepped forward and numbly shook Nadia's hand noting her lipstick was not smeared at all. She glanced to Rick noticing he didn't have any suspicious stains over his mouth but there was a single lip stick stain on his right cheek. She turned back to the brunette who was probably an inch taller than Kate if they were both barefooted. "Hi Nadia. You are gorgeous." She commented, taking in her long straight brown hair, large blue eyes and tanned complexion. Tall, shapely and stunning.

"Hi. You are lovely too. Rick told me so much about you." Nadia smiled. "In fact I feel like I really know you."

"Oh. Well, I'm sure Rick will have plenty to tell me about you." She stated looking between the two of them, noticing Castle was behaving as though he was a little uncomfortable. "Why won't we have problems tomorrow?" She inquired at Rick.

"Nadia and I even managed to bump into Gates when she was leaving the precinct. She certainly works back late… she was quite.." He stopped seeing Kate was not listening to him at all. He glanced to Nadia shrugging his shoulders.

"I bumped into Espo." Kate replied almost vacantly. She saw on the coffee table, two empty wine bottles, two wine glasses and two coffee cups. Coffee? "Coffee is ours." She murmured.

"We decided to come back here after the restaurant."

Kate's mouth formed an O as she stared at Rick, trying to make sense of what she was internally feeling about all this. Her emotions were in total turmoil currently and she knew Castle could see that.

"I had better go." Nadia said to Rick, sensing the awkwardness in the room. She took Kate's hand and said firmly to Kate. "Rick was a perfect gentleman, Kate. Please be rest assured."

Kate smiled trying to brush it off. "I'm sure he was. Very nice to meet you. Do you know Mason, out of curiosity?"

"Sure! We've all been friends for years. Lovely guy."

Kate nodded in agreement.

Castle walked Nadia to the door and assisted her into her coat. They politely said goodbye and Nadia left. Richard locked the door behind him and put his back against it, it hands behind his butt, his eyes staying on Kate for several moments. She was staring at him, arms crossed over her chest, her expression extremely hard to read. He nervously swallowed.

"How was your date?" He carefully asked.

"He was gay Rick!"

"So? He was safe. I knew you would be safe with him because he's masculine enough to keep other men away and to protect you."

"I'm a cop, I can protect myself."

"In a beautiful dress like that and heels like these?" He pointed to the floor and picked up the heels he struggled to see how she managed to walk in. But she did. He put them gently down by the end of the couch so no one would trip over them. "I wasn't letting you out into the city at night alone. And I don't trust any of my straight friends to take you out and not try to hit on you."

"You're avoiding the problem here." She angrily stated.

"What's the problem? We both went on dates, pretended we're single and now we are here, in private and we should be doing things I cannot repeat to anyone else but you." He stated, walking towards her making a decision to close the gap between them.

"She was straddled across your lap with her chest in your face Rick!"

"Well, that's not technically correct." He replied.

"I walked in the door hoping you would be in bed."

"In bed? With Nadia!" He squawked in disbelief.

"No!" She yelled. "My God! In bed alone." She stressed and sniffed, feeling extremely emotional about the scenario she had walked in on. "Did she kiss you?"

"On the cheek. Once when we met and just before when I promised her I will take you with me to see her show. She's an actress." He calmly told her. "Did Mason kiss you?" He asked, and he thought justifiably so. He knew Mason was gay but he had been known to swap teams occasionally.

Kate smirked, hearing the subtext in his question and seeing his worried face. She wiped her left cheek of the tear that rolled from her eye. "Yes, on several occasions and he was very touchy feely all the time."

"Uh huh! Should Rick be jealous?" He inquired taking another step towards Kate, hating her looking so upset.

"Well…. Probably, but not as jealous as Kate is feeling." She replied and looked to his eyes. "I can't do this Rick. I can't see you with other women. It hurts." She offered him. "Why was she on your lap?" She was so confused by that image.

"Because I told her to do it. Mason sent me a text to tell me you were on your way up. I wanted you to receive an impact from this Kate. I know what it's like to be cheated on and I don't want to feel that again. I don't want you to have to experience it in reality."

"I am experiencing it." She replied trying her hardest not to cry. She looked around the loft blinking away the tears developing in her eyes. "God Castle, it hurts that I fear you were kissing her."

"I didn't kiss her. I didn't touch her. It's you I want. I want to touch your face, play with your hair, kiss your beautiful lips, hold your hand, throw snow balls at you, push you in the pool, and mess with your head. I want to grow old with you. I waited four years for you. Four years Kate! Do you think I would give up what we have for another woman?" He took a breath and stared at her face.

"Throw snow balls at me? Push me in the pool?"

"Is that what you're taking from what I just said?"

Kate smirked, wiping her eyes. She was looking everywhere but to him then finally locked eyes on him. "I took it all in. I'm sorry. Let's not do this again. I can't cope with you seeing other women unless you can find a really gay woman who has no chance of being interested in you."

"Let's just not do it." He smiled and reached out to her chin with a finger, tilting her face so she had to look at him again. "No more dates." He urged.

"No more. Did you have a good time?" She asked.

He pulled her into his arms. "I had a lovely evening catching up with an old friend. She's happily married babe and has two kids. Her husband is one of my best friends." He calmly told her.

"Castle. You could have told me that!"

"What? And ruin all the fun I just had proving my point it's not fun seeing other people?"

"You could have told me earlier." She reiterated and whacked his backside as she leaned into him for a big embrace.

Sorry, can't hurt her too much…. That's it. Once again a one off draft.

Anyone who wants to add in or continue please feel very welcome to amend it as I have that open for anyone to do… could be fun to see where someone else would go with it….