Disclaimer: Answer's still no.

Significant Progress, Other Than…

Chapter 1: Intimate Knowledge

Kate watches the door close on a significant portion of Castle's past, when his ex-wife swans out into the hall, trailing a lifetime's worth of luggage (baggage) in her wake. And while she expected to feel relieved once the woman was finally out of their hair, what she actually feels is a little bereft and a whole lot bewildered.

The actress' parting comments about why their marriage failed – that Castle ended up knowing everything about her, while he largely remained a closed book – set Kate thinking, spiraling actually, as he dances away towards the kitchen, chattering on about making her a smorlette for breakfast, his relief that no more of his secrets will be revealed almost palpable.

Kate lets her questions germinate and then begin to ferment in her brain as she picks at her food. She watches Castle's nervous energy spike giddily as he reacts to the relief of getting his life back in order, everyone back in their own little compartment; no bleeding between the lines, no comingling, separate boxes for everything, and everyone in their appropriate place.

And this is how she thinks he must handle it - having no father - yet still being able to be one of the best she's ever seen: he compartmentalizes, he ring-fences the truth about his feelings from himself, never mind her. He must do, otherwise how would he stay so upbeat all of the time?

He's been her shoulder to cry on, even when she didn't want it, her sounding board and confidant for years now. He knows about her childhood, stories about her parents, he's met plenty of her friends, he even lives in her world day-to-day. He knows many of her closely guarded secrets, her fears, her weaknesses, he knows the details of her mother's murder just as well as she does – all the things no other man has ever been privy to or ever came close to knowing.

He's see her at her absolute worst - broken and battered and bruised and in tears, held her through nightmares, got help for her when PSD struck her down and she was at her most vulnerable.

He watches her sleep, has seen her naked in every sense, stripped bare in front of him emotionally and physically. When he moves inside her it feels like no one else; the intimacy they share, the communion, the connection, the ways they move one another to tears, to song, to fall even harder. She lets him see everything.

And she's supposed to be the closed off one, the messed up therapy case in this relationship? The one with all the issues.

And yet, aside from the odd piece of advice he's asked her for with regard to Alexis, he doesn't lean on her for anything. Meredith is right – Kate is an open book to Richard Castle. She said he had enough information about her to write a million books by the time their marriage ended. He has actually written real books about Kate Beckett, albeit thinly disguised as the fictional Nikki Heat. So, what happens when he knows all of Kate's secrets? How many more layers of the Beckett onion are left for him to discover? How long will she hold his interest and fascination then, when he gets to the very last page? And what does it say about their relationship, about how close they are, that he shares nothing about himself, other than the day-to-day thoughts that pop in and out of his head?

"Kate?"

"Hmm?" she asks, whipping her head up from her plate to look at him.

"You…your breakfast," he says, pointing at her plate. "You've hardly eaten a thing. You're not sick are you?" he asks with some concern.

"I had mono when I was seventeen, Castle," she smiles, trying to throw him off the scent. "I think I still have immunity."

And trying to throw off this mood that's settling over her; this feeling that maybe she doesn't know this man as well as she thought she did, that maybe all she gets to see is the same surface gloss as everyone else.

"And…you're not feeling nauseous or anything?" he asks nervously, arching his eyebrow and giving her a look – a look laden with worry and panic.

Kate stares at him for a second, wondering just what on earth…and then it dawns on her, just exactly what he's referring to.

"No. No!" she all but yells, frowning so hard her eyebrows almost meet in the middle. "My period isn't due for like a week, Castle," she whisper-hisses. "And then there's the small matter of the pill. So you can take that look of horror off your face," she tells him, still frowning hard.

And as much as she doesn't like the thought of falling pregnant right now, she likes even less the idea that he is clearly appalled by the whole possibility.

"Good to know how you'd have handled that news though," she snaps, jumping down off the stool, after dumping her linen napkin on the counter. "I'll set up an alert on my phone, shall I? Make sure we avoid any false alarms?"

"Kate?" he calls after her, looking completely bewildered by her outburst.

He watches as she stalks away towards the front door, where she left her luggage, in these unbelievably sexy, tight, olive green cargo pants, brown suede boots, and that loose-knit linen sweater, hanging so tantalizingly off one shoulder, the strap of her rust-colored tank calling to him and his naughty little fingers.

"Kate, please don't go? You've hardly eaten anything," he implores, trailing her to the front door, where she's throwing on a brown leather jacket that just…oh, has him biting his own knuckles, and…

"Suddenly lost my appetite," she informs him dryly, zipping the zipper.

"But…what? Did…is it something I said?" he squeaks, desperate for her to stay and sort this out. Because if she goes, and he has no idea what he did wrong, how will he know how to fix it next time?

"More like something you didn't say," she mutters, kneeling down to get a scarf out of her case.

"Something I didn't…?" he repeats, exasperated.

And did she really say that loud enough for him to hear?

She needs to get out of here now. Go home, cool down in her own space, and take some time to think about this, before she says something she might regret.

"Kate, I'm drowning here. Give me a clue? I thought we just spent a great few days together," he says, sounding like the little boy she's helpless to resist. "Meredith aside," he adds, with that leftward tilt of his head.

Yes, and maybe that is his plan all along. His mother is an actress after all. Maybe he acts out this part to distract anyone (any woman) who gets close to him from learning anything of substance about him?

"Kate?"

He's standing quietly in front of her now, looking…worried, frankly. And she does feel sorry for him. He is after all the same man she's gotten to know over the last four years, even if she now realizes that she knows a whole lot less about him that she thought she did a couple of days ago. And they did have a good time…playing house, she thinks, smirking to herself when she remembers just how he woke her up at six-thirty this morning.

"I had fun. Thank you, Castle. You were the perfect host," she says, patting his chest, and then toying with his collar as he watches her with worried, puppy dog eyes.

"Does your invitation to come stay at your place still stand?" he asks, catching hold of her sleeve as she turns away.

"Meredith is gone, and Alexis is still sick. Why don't you spend some time with her? Just a couple of days," she suggests, giving him a soft, sympathetic smile.

All while thinking, and give me some time alone to figure out what all of this means for us. What is says about you and me.

"I should go," she says quietly, stepping close to him, welcoming the feel of his arms as they slide under her jacket to encircle her, his hands linking against the small of her back.

"I can't help feeling that I've done something wrong, Kate. And I'd be really grateful if you'd just tell me what it is," he says, looking imploringly at her, then resting his chin on her shoulder like a little lost boy or that doggy in the window.

A long sigh escapes his lips, ruffling the hair right next to her ear. But she hardens her heart to it, and then pulls back enough that they are nose to nose.

"Everything's going to be fine," she assures him, crossing her fingers behind his back, but planting a soft kiss to the tense line at the side of his mouth all the same. "A little space will be good for us. You get to spend time with Alexis…"

"And you get to what?" he asks, a little sharply this time. "What, Kate? Go back to your single girl life? Is that what this is all about? You get a little taste of family time, and now…now what? You're running again?"

"What? Nooo!" she says, stubbornly backing away from him. "Do not blame this on me. We agreed when I asked to stay here. This was a temporary thing. Do not attempt to guilt me into staying, Castle. Because in case you haven't worked it out yet, that is the fastest way to force me out of that door."

She picks up her purse, grabs the handle of her wheeled case, and heads for the front door.

"I will call you later," she throws over he shoulder at him, as he stands there, looking bewildered, beaten up, and forlorn in his own foyer.

Kate softens her parting blow with an apologetic smile.

"Don't worry," she says, reaching out to squeeze his arm. "Everything will be fine."

And he hopes to god that it will.

A/N: Jeez, not sure where this little bit of escalating angst came from because I LOVED this episode, apart from a couple of lines I would have changed. But, hey, I'm never satisfied. Guess that's why I write fanfiction.

Probably a couple of chapters to come on this. Haven't forgotten 'What If' for those reading that story. The muse just grabbed me by the throat and told me to get this down. And I might need to take a deep breath before that story goes into M territory anyway. Love to hear from you. Liv