Kate watches as he guides her into the elevator. Giving her space to walk, his hands working alongside her, she slowly gets in, one foot in front of the other. She grabs onto the side, still standing straight, but feeling the drain in her leg. The pull inside her muscles, giving in as she put her weight to the side of the wall. Castle, looking straight ahead, keeps a distance from Kate, allowing her to have her freedom. Allowing her to move on her own.

The door dings and Castle moves his body in front of the impending doors, making sure they won't begin to close on her, and holds a hand out for her to move. He doesn't help her this time, giving her complete freedom to walk the few steps by herself. She does it. Without fail – showing him that she is getting better, but still giving him a slight tug in his chest. She's slipping away from him and there's nothing he can do. There's nothing he can say to make things different. If it weren't for that random, thoughtless, ignorant, excuse of a man then they would have never met. But, if Kate didn't go through all that she could be living her life happily – without fear – with whomever she decided to. And that made Castle angrier.

They arrive at his door, and he pulls out his keys to unlock it. He can't hear anything, but he knows his tiny family is on the other side. Alexis knows that Kate was coming over for dinner, and so does his mother, and Castle hopes that they wouldn't do anything too extravagant. He is making dinner, and they would sit around chatting for the time being, but Kate was fragile – in more ways than he could predict.

"And then he said, 'No, you!'"

The entire table bursts into laughter as Alexis finishes her story from school. Kate had paid attention – enough to laugh at it – but she couldn't think of anything but how nervous the night made her feel. How digging into this family might make it harder for them to see her go away. Harder for her. She liked them. There unit that was strong. Her fragility was becoming noticeable to her throughout the night. Leaving this house is worrying her. Kate knows that he will take her home and she hopes the conversation from the other night will be enough to dissuade him from doing anything. The slightest move makes her chest clench. But she wants him to. She wants him to walk her home. She wants him to stare into her eyes and to see what she is. Maybe if he does take control she will move past all of this. She will just accept that this is what's happening. Forget what had happened and become the person that she used to be.

Kate plays with the spaghetti on her plate – moves it around – she's full. She ate too much tonight, but she loved every second of it. Castle had cooked and they sat around the island as he did. They talked about her job – her life inside her apartment, sitting and watching movies. Martha asked her what big activities she had planned now that she was mobile. Kate didn't have any that didn't involve Castle. Maybe they would go to the mall. She wanted to get out and see things that weren't the walls of her apartment.

Dinner ended and everyone – but Kate – helped carry plates to the sink. She had stood up to take her own plate and Castle had motioned her to sit back down. He didn't want her to carry something and have all of her focus on that only to end up falling in the middle of his kitchen.

Castle let that scenario play in his head. Her standing, carrying, falling – injuring herself. The worry in him flooded his mind, but she was sitting there, peaceful. Watching everyone move.

When they had finished, Martha and Alexis excused themselves as they went upstairs. Martha having a look in her eye persuaded Alexis to say her goodbyes and work on the homework she had mentioned earlier.

Kate saw her look and her mind swallowed itself with nerves. She looked at the ground – and back to Martha walking up the stairs – then to Castle, who was walking in from the kitchen – and then to the shut door, which they would be moving through in a moment. She followed her fingers as the trailed up her cold arm. Anything. Everything. It was all happening and she hyper focused on it.

"Are you ready?"

Kate jerks out of her phase and turns to Castle.

"What?"

"Are you ready to leave? I mean we don't have to. We can sit around. It's up to you?"

The quicker this started the closer it was to being over.

"We can start home. It's going to take us a while," she smiled, playing with her words. Making sure that she wasn't rude, just concerned for her health.

They walked quietly to the street – the oddly silent New York City street. It wasn't busy at all. Kate looked around – it wasn't late.

"I wonder why there aren't any cars around?"

Castle looks as well, "That's weird."

They stand, watching.

"Should we get a cab or walk to the next block?"

"I think we have to walk to find a cab. I don't think we can walk home."
On a good day, when Kate's legs were working, she would have walked home. Maybe have even walked here. She liked it. Her iPod playing. Taking in the city without hearing the sounds of it. When she was with people it gave her the chance to take in the noise of the city, but when she could drown it out with some music, that's when she really saw what it was. That was something she was looking forward to. Walking with her iPod again.

They walk to the corner until they find a cab to take them back to her apartment.

Once they reach it, Castle helps her out of the car and onto the street. It's not late, but it's been a long day for Kate and her leg is tired. It's noticeable now. Her energy being dragged down by the muscle regaining its strength.

"Here we go." Castle lifts her over the curb, his arm around her waist. Her hands grabbed onto his coat. It was just like when she had the boot on. When she couldn't really walk. But now she could. And she was determined to do it – but some other time. Having someone to lean on was something new to her – and that she was still enjoying.

They reached her door – after getting into the elevator – and she fumbled for her keys.

"Listen, Kate."

Her chest imploded, her cheeks went hot. She felt the keys in her hands, but they were easily weighing her down. She couldn't look at him, but she wanted to all at the same time.

"I know that you have some things you need to figure out. And I get it. I don't get it, exactly, but I understand that you need your space. And I want to give it to you. But – I can't – Kate - I can't just let you leave my life."
He looks at her, holding her hand in his palm.

"I feel so guilty for being angry that you are getting better – because – because I want you to need me. I want you to call me and see what we're going to do for the day. I want to be there with you. And if that means taking a step back and waiting for you to feel okay enough – mentally – to want to go there with me, then I am willing to do that."

He backs up, just a bit. Pauses. Tries to see if she's understanding him.
"Here's what we can do. We can still do this until you're better. But, when you are, we can take it slow. Like, middle school slow. We can go here and there, whenever you want. And we can just enjoy spending time with each other – that doesn't involve you needing help getting around. And when that's over, we can see where it goes."

Kate smiles, looking down at her hands and then back to him. The anxiety left her. The feeling of a lump in her throat and a rock in her chest had left. Its presence was still being felt, but it was leaving.

"That sounds good, Castle."

I can't apologize enough for having put this off for so long. Just for an update, the chapters should be coming along now. I worked too much over the summer and I have just moved to London for the year for study abroad. Thank you for giving me time to adjust to things here before getting back to writing. I missed it! I just didn't know it :]

As always, give me your feedback!

- Meg