684A/N: Majority of the votes went to the 4x01 AU, so that's what I'll be doing. Title will be Can't Go Home Again, so be on the look out! Any ideas as to what it will be about? :o
She doesn't want to get out of bed.
It's a lazy Friday morning, she has the day off, and she hasn't been sleeping much with having to make sure she's the least hectic person in their lives. With everything that's been going on, everyone expects her to be the most stressed out. But the truth is, both of them are pretty relaxed. She wanted to just spend the morning in bed, but when she stretches across the expanse of the bed, his side is empty. Spending a lazy morning in bed is depressing when she doesn't have him.
"I swear," She mutters to herself as she tosses the sheets off herself, "is it too much to ask that you sleep in for once?"
She's been thinking back a lot lately. She can't remember what her life was like before them. It seems so surreal to think that she actually lived through the life she did when she thinks about her life now. She remembers how she felt, how she justified herself holding back from having all this. But that day, it seems so long ago now, is when she stopped hiding, stopped being afraid, latched onto something she was terrified would become her all, and made it her all.
She drags herself out of their bedroom in her baggy, comfortable pajamas, scratching her unkempt hair and stops at the threshold of his office. Not dressed yet, she sees him just sitting down to their couch with the newspaper. Her eyes dance over him as she becomes flustered quicker than she had planned for. She sees him click on the TV on the wall and sit back, putting his feet up as he relaxes. Rubbing the band of her ring with her thumb, a tick she picked up a few days after putting it on, she roves her eyes over his calm smile... and his cup of coffee.
She sashays her way over to him, going along the edge of the room and coming up behind him. His head tilts back a bit as her hands find his shoulders, her palms sliding down his chest and moving around his neck. She leans down to him and brushes the hair above his ear with her nails and kisses just below his earlobe.
"Mmm..." He moans in a high pitch.
Her hand caresses his chest in a wanting motion as her lips tingle against the warm skin of his neck... while her other hand sneaks down to the arm of the couch.
"Good morning, babe." She moans against his jaw and plants another soft kiss to him and tries to grab for his cup.
But her fingertips just feel the fabric of the couch, and blindly, she searches for it for a second.
She lifts her lips off of him to look down and she finds him holding his coffee cup on the opposite side of him. She looks down to him just as he plants a loving good morning kiss on her jaw. "Nice try."
Kate deflates and lays her arms limply down his chest and her head down on his shoulder for a second, groaning in defeat. "You know, I've heard that some husbands get their wives their morning coffee."
"That may be true, Kate, but I've never heard of the marriages where the wife steals the husbands coffee instead."
Groaning again, she lifts her head off his shoulder and kisses his hair for real, hugging him and spins around and moves into their living room.
Sometimes, when she takes the time to actually think about it, this is the most home she's felt since she was a kid. It started as an offhanded, albeit annoyed comment about having to go back to her apartment before work to get something that wasn't here at the loft, and ended with him just saying she should just move in already. They moved what little remained in her apartment here that weekend. Her things now co-mingle with his, here at the loft.
Their home.
She's loved being engaged, but she really can't wait to be married. She's more looking forward to being married than she is to getting married. Everyone else in the family seems to be freaking out that she isn't freaking out about the wedding. It's going to be an amazing day, but she wants it to be over with. She wants to be married to him already. She has her vows all memorized, every inflection, every tone of every word, every breath and every pause well rehearsed, to say the words she's going to say to vow the rest of her life spent with him, and how much she loves him.
With her own cup of coffee, her eyes linger on the framed picture of their first Memorial Day together up at the Hampton's, his smiling lips pressed against her cheek, hugging her lovingly from behind and her face lit up with a giddy smile. After a minute or two, she is finally making her way back into the office and sits down next to him.
"What are you watching?" She asks and sits down in his side and lifts her mug to her lips.
His hand lifts the remote and turns up the volume. "They're talking about him."
"Craig Vernon, a violent serial killer that eluded police capture... for over a decade. Dubbed the Honeymoon Killer, for his targeting of engaged couples, Craig Vernon's case is finally put to rest today, as a memorial is put up for the nine lives lost in this horrific string of murders. The unveiling is set to take place this morning, and is to..."
Kate lets it turn to noise as she takes another sip of her coffee. "Did you plan on going?" She asks him.
Rick looks over to her with a lift in his brow. "Did you? I mean, they called you for a comment last night, didn't they?"
"Mmhmm," She hums and lays her head down on his shoulder as she scoots herself closer into his side. "I kind of just wanted to spend the day in, today. I'm feeling kind of lazy."
"Well, you do have the day off, you're entitled to feel lazy, Sweetie."
She chuckles under her breath and rubs her thumb against her engagement ring. She's loved being engaged, and his proposal was perfect. Coming home from a hectic day at the precinct, she stepped out of her heels as she neared the couch in the living room, then opened the door to his office and found a copy of Storm Season standing up on his desk with a rose and two candles lit next to it. The book she had signed by him all those years ago and lost when her apartment blew up, he replaced. And as she cracked the book open, the words "To Kate, count to five and turn around" written out on the first page.
With a pounding heart, she turned around and saw him approaching her in a pressed suit just before he knelt down and asked her the question that is leading her to the rest of her life.
She loves thinking about that night... and it gives her an idea. "You know," She says suddenly and puts her coffee down on the coffee table in front of her and starts to slither her way onto his lap, "since I have the day off, why don't we..." she says and puts her arms around his shoulders, sitting sideways on his legs, "go and celebrate our engagement."
His brow skyrockets and his eyes dance. His lips quickly open up to greet hers in a slow, sensual kiss as his hands rove her back and wrap around her side. "Mmm," he moans as she releases him with a slow, wet pluck, "couple problems."
"What?" She asks with a smile as she pets his hair.
"One, we're getting married in two days. And two... we celebrated our engagement last night."
Kate shrugs her shoulders and looks away from him. "I know, but come on, Rick." She says as he takes her left hand and pinches her engagement ring. "I mean, when our kids ask us about our engagement," her words make his heart stop and his eyes widen, finding hers with a sparkle, "what are we going to tell them? That we spent the entire time worrying about... place settings and centerpieces?
"D-did..." he stammers as he looks up at her with an all too excited twinkle in his eye. "Did you say kids?"
"Yes," she says matter-of-factly. "Wait, haven't we had this talk already?"
He's quick to shake his head, "No."
"Well," she says and takes a pause, "I want kids."
His small grin quickly turns into a bright, face-splitting smile. "You really want kids?"
"Yes," She chuckles. "I swear we've had this talk before."
"No," He chuckles back and shakes his head, "we have not had this talk before because I've had a speech prepared in my head for the past year and a half about... hearing 'I love you, Mommy' for the first time and... something about stepping on toys and me having to make funny noises to censor Mommy so the kids don't hear her curse."
"What?" She asks with a chuckle and pets his hair again.
"Well, I thought you'd need convincing but..." He says and snakes his arms tighter around her, "I like this too."
"Yeah, me too." She smiles and pulls his lips to her again, kissing him lovingly. After another long kiss, she brushes her nose against his and tickles his lips with her thumb. Then his eyes move back to the TV and his features harden. "What is it?"
His hand grabs for the remote and turns the volume back up on the news.
"This news is also coming in the wake of the final sentencing for former Senator William Bracken, who was found guilty on all charges. William Bracken, former Senator of the state of New York, was under investigation and was indicted by Congress after the FEC reported suspicious activity in Bracken's campaign funds in the spring of last year. This uncovered one of the largest conspiracies ever to rock the United States, and led to historic legislation requiring holder's of political office to declare all funds and to..."
Rick looks up to his soon-to-be wife, the woman whom he's going to promise his life to and who's going to promise her life to him, stare at the TV with the same small, content smile she looked away from him with.
"Kate..." he calls to her seriously.
She looks at him, tearing her eyes away from the screen to look at him.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, why?" She pinches her brow.
"You're not upset?" He asks her, caressing her back and her thigh to let her know that he's here to care for her as the TV shows them his face.
She chuckles again, "Why on Earth would I be upset, babe?"
"Kate, in two days, we're taking vows to spend the rest of our lives together. I don't want you to go into it with any resentment toward me."
"Rick," she breathes and gently puts a loving hand on his cheek, "I'm glad he's in jail. It doesn't matter to me that I'm not the one who put him there. You... matter to me." She tells him, petting his cheek with her thumb, gazing into his sparkling blue eyes. "More than anything else. And when I take my vow on Sunday, I'll be doing it because you're the love of my life and without a single shred of doubt or regret... okay?"
"Okay," he smiles and accepts her smiling lips in another loving kiss.
"His crimes linking back to the murder of for Captain of the NYPD Roy Montgomery and lawyer Johanna Beckett, mother of Detective Kate Beckett." The TV narrates in the background as they kiss in a slow, passionate pace. "Detective Kate Beckett and her fiance, Richard Castle, could not be reached for comment."
His lips pull off hers for a second. "I thought they called you for a comment last night."
"They did."
"Well, what'd you say?"
"We're getting married, leave us alone." He raises his brow and smirks. "Well, they asked what I had to say and that's what I had to say."
"In the spirit of that," He says and moves his arms underneath her legs and plants his feet on the ground, "I think we should practice."
"For- ah!" She squeals as her fiance lifts her up in his arms and stands up, making her giggle happily. "For what, carrying me over the threshold?"
He smiles. "No, having kids."
END