57Yay Chapter one! This story takes place after Episode 17 of Season 4. After Once upon a crime.
Disclaimer: Unfortunately I do not own castle or any of its affiliates :(.
Chapter One
Kate felt the tension in her muscles start to dissipate as she sank further into the warm bath water. Felt the softness of the luxurious bubbles from the cashmere bubble bath she had added to her nightly ritual. Normally when she was this tired she would just simply take a shower to quickly cleanse away the day and the grim from the murder she was currently investigating or had recently put to bed. Tonight was different, while still needing to feel the symbolic cleansing powers of the water from today's case, tonight she wanted to think, reflect and accept.
The events of the case came back to her. Two people dead, as was the result of all homicides. This one was quite unique thus being hard for her to forget. The first woman clothed in a Red Riding Hood cloak found in the woods with evidence of a mauling. Seemingly as if the big bad wolf himself came and killed her. Her face silent showing the effects of being permanently silenced with the horrors of a fairytale sent askew.
The second woman was clothed in a Snow White costume the details approximate to the Grimm Brothers stories. "White as Snow, Red as Blood, Black as Ebony" written artfully across her chest. A poisoned apple was in her hand. Yet her face as peaceful and as white as the name she bared.
The third woman was found in her bedroom in the dress and state of Sleeping Beauty. In a sleeping state, waiting to be awoken by her prince charming. Though the details to the story were almost identical there were flaws in the third installment of the staging. While the bows in the previous staging's were horizontal this bow was strangely tied differently, vertically, there in lied the answer to the case. Sleeping Beauty was not beautiful at all but in her heart as wicked as the step mother in Cinderella, killing two of her high school friends to cover her murder 7 years prior and relying on her first victim's husband's blackmail to cover her transgressions. That one damn bow.
Relaxing further, her thoughts wandered toward her partner as they often do after they solve a case. This one had been special though, feeling as old times. The weight that had been weighing on herself, and as she had been noticing lately on castle, seemed to disappear. They were back to their old selves bantering on like nothing, short of the world delving into world war 3, had happened in the last month. As if they were not betrayed by one of their own, not only to the country, but personally as well. She thought back to her question in Sleeping Beauty's apartment.
"So what now, your prince charming?" She said smiling.
"Well if the shoe fits" said Castle.
She smiled again as she had in that moment. Thought to herself, you have no idea Castle, mimicking her words to him after their first case together four long years ago. She thought to the moment when Castle again made her breathless and smile, this time in the conference room with the murder board.
"You get cute when you get angry"
Kate looked up and glared at Castle.
"Just not when you are angry with me.."
She smiled thinking about how cute he looked when he realized his joking may have gone too far and that her service piece was very near to where her hand was resting. She was just about to make a playful response when Esposito came in the room with another lead. How did he always do that? Pick that one moment when they were so close to being actually in the "moment".
Something had changed in her today. Ever since Sophia Turner, CIA Agent and traitor, had been killed to protect the country from another World War, Beckett had been thinking about what she had told Castle.
"Do you think what Sophia said is true? That my dad is in the CIA?" Castle said with a faraway look in his eye.
"I think Sophia told a lot of Lies."
Beckett had said that just as much for Castle as for herself. She truly believed that what Sophia had told her about losing the spark with Rick had been a lie. At least it would not be true with them. They had had a longer time to get to know one another, build the kind of relationship that would make it through anything, explosions, shootings, betrayal and lies.
Lies. She hoped their relationship was strong enough to withstand in the face of the secret that she held firmly inside her. A secret that was growing bigger with each passing day, threatening to explode. Would they survive this last explosion? His hand... so soft in her own as she held it offering him silent comfort in the midst of humor. An action that she not normally offered so incoherently. It had felt natural to hold the man she loves hand while he was ceremoniously embarrassed by his mother's musings.
Yet she could not forget the look on his face the moment her hand had landed on his thigh, her fingers intertwined with his. The look of surprise, uncertainty, realization and finally love, all within a second. The smile that spread across his face as he rubbed the back of her hand in circles with his thumb. As he had done only a few weeks earlier in her apartment. The look of "This is nice" and then looking on to watch as his mother continued her story of her plights of being a hostage in her captor's, son's, life.
Yes, she thought, yes they would make it. She smiled to herself thinking about all the things she could and would do in the next few weeks to show, like the hand holding, that she was slowly but surely progressing to being ready to be loved by the one who she loved. Him.
He sat at his desk, staring at the blank screen of his computer. He had meant to write it all down, he really had. But, he kept drifting off into "Beckett Land". Her touch on the couch had left a permanent mark on him. Though it had seemed at first to be a casual expression of humor and comfort as he looked into her eyes, searching them to make sure she was ok with it, he had seen through to her core. He saw the love he had been suspicious of for the last couple months.
His mind flashed back to the moment in the bank vault. How their eyes had locked and the sense of need as Kate had reached out to touch the collar of his shirt... Her green eyes, like a sea that had calmed after a violent storm. Her eyes shining at him with the realization that yes he really was ok, he was alive. He thought of what she had said that day through the phone to the bank robber.
"Because if you pull that trigger, I will personally walk through those doors and put a bullet through your skull."
He knew she didn't know that he had heard her, but he had and in that instant he had felt safe, comforted, loved. Knowing that the woman he loved, the kick ass detective that was so practical and realistic to a fault, would risk her life and her job to avenge his death. That in itself made living that much more essential. Living. Is that what he, they, were doing? He thought of all the missed opportunities to show that he, they, needed to embrace what they were dancing around for all this time.
With guilt though, he also remembered why those opportunities had been missed, his secret. He needed to help her with this. That is what he told himself every day. He couldn't get her killed with what little information he had, whether it was new and relevant to her or not. He couldn't lose her again. He wouldn't make it if she flat lined again. This was not only physically but emotionally as well.
He couldn't risk telling her yet and have her explode on him, as she had put it earlier that day. He couldn't let her build that wall up again that he had been taking down brick by brick. He couldn't lose her. So for now he would wait. Wait for her signal. Wait for her to smack him in the head and yell that she was ready. Because when it came to her he would do anything, even sacrifice his own happiness.
Thank you so much for reading! Pleeeeeeease Review! :D