AN: Short, Relatively meaningless, and never intended to see the light of day. Yet, here it is. Not likely to be seen in season 6, but set around premiere. Also, this starts under the assumption that they've broken up in the finale. I hate it, but fear it as a possibility.

P.S. the setup is loosely borrowed from an older, favorite TV show. Extra impressed if you can identify it...

Thump.

Kate heard a subtle noise that she couldn't place. At first she simply ignored it, returning to the task at hand. Many changes had come to pass in the last months, the end of what had been the most intense and meaningful relationship she'd ever experienced, and the start of a new career.

She felt as if she'd had no choice. When pressed for an answer about the future of their relationship Castle couldn't respond. It was her greatest fear where they were concerned and it proved to be true. She saw them going in one direction, marriage and a family, and he…well, he'd been simply enjoying himself. He must have been, she reasoned. Otherwise why would he have been so adamantly against discussing their future?

Kate was too old for that type of relationship; she didn't have time to invest herself in something that was going nowhere. Truth be told, she loved him too much. She wouldn't have survived it when he tired of her. She had to move on and the job offer had provided the opportunity to do just that.

It was ironic that it took a year of therapy to prepare her to make the decision to be with Rick, and it was that self-awareness that ultimately drove her to leave him.

Those changes, although heartbreaking and terrifying, were nothing in comparison to the changes that were staring Kate in the face as she looked at the solid pink plus sign on the stick in her hand. Son of a Bitch. She thought to herself once again, glancing at the stick again and again as if it would change the results.

Thump. Splat.

It was louder this time, and it seemed to be coming from the bedroom window of her new apartment. She rose from her couch in confusion, moving toward the source of the disturbance. Then she heard it, she heard him.

"Kate!" Thump. Slpat. Thump.

"Katherine Beckett! I know you're in there!" He yelled. Splat.

She turned on the light in her bedroom just as another solid thump hit her window. She saw that with the thump there was a solid smearing of white powder. Snow. He was getting her attention by throwing snowballs at her window in the middle of the damn night.

She opened the window, only to dodge another snowball just in time.

"Castle! What the hell?" She shot at him, trying to keep her voice down, urging for him to do the same.

Afterall, it was the middle of the night. Even if they hadn't left things amicably, this was uncalled for; not to mention a bit extreme.

When she'd demanded to know where they were going, he'd shot back with resistance against her pushing him. He accused her of using the job offer with the FBI as an ultimatum. That's when things really fell apart. That was when she'd left the loft for good.

That was nearly two weeks ago and now here he was, standing in the snow in the middle of the night, on a street corner in Washington D.C.

"Kate, let me in or come down here!" he shot back at her.

"Castle, what the hell? Why are you here?"

"SHUT UP!" Came an angry voice from the apartment building across the street.

"Do you know what time it is?" More neighbors screamed.

"So help me GOD! I'll call the police!" another threatened.

"She IS the police!" Castle shot back before turning his attention back to the task at hand.

"I'm sorry, Kate. I froze. I panicked. You wanted to know where we were going, and I didn't have an answer. I can tell you this…apart isn't it." He urged her.

"Apart is not the answer, Kate! You want to move to D.C. and join the FBI? Fine. I'll follow you. Here I am!"

"Rick please." She pleaded with him, unsure of how to handle a desperate Richard Castle, shivering in the snow.

"Kate. As long as we're together we can work it out!" He threw his hands into the air and dropped to one knee in the blanket of snow beneath him.

"Do you want to get married? Do you want to marry me?" He held a box in his hands. Although she could barely make it out under the dim, gold lighting of the streetlight, she had no doubts as to what it was.

"Castle…I…" She began.

"And don't say that I'm just asking you because you left. I've had this damn ring for years, Kate." He added before she could give a proper response.

"Say the words and we'll get married right now, tonight. As long as we're together Kate, I don't care where we go. Just tell me we can do it together." He pleaded with her.

Kate laughed. She couldn't help it. Here he was, Richard Castle, in the middle of the night, in the cold snow of D.C. down on one knee and proposing, for all the angry neighbors to witness. She couldn't help herself.

There was no rational explanation for what came out of her mouth next. Instead of an answer to his question she simply shouted,

"Castle. I'm pregnant!"

He gasped and fell over into the snow.

That was where she found him, laying on his side in a snowbank on the side of the street, under the golden glow of a streetlight in downtown Washington D.C. It was clear that he'd been expecting a yes or a no to his proposal. A pregnancy announcement clearly hadn't been on his radar.

She fell to her knees to join him, laughing with relief as she saw the mixture of joy, confusion and pure disbelief in his eyes. He pounced on her then, rolling her beneath him and kissing her soundly.

"Marry me?" He asked again. She laughed, tears in her eyes as she cradled his face in her palms.

"Take me home." She responded, kissing him soundly.

Thus ended Kate Beckett's brief association with Washington D.C. and the FBI.

As I said…short and meaningless. Anyone recognize the setup? It is from a TV show that is no longer on the air…Here's a clue… "DONNA! Get down here!"