After Flowers for Your Grave

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: You guessed it. I don't own Castle. Rating: M, occasionally Time: See above.

"We're going to be great together."

Detective Kate Beckett bit her lower lip, then stood on her tiptoes, ran her lips briefly over his and then whispered in his ear.

"You have no idea."

One year later.

Kate felt a little self-conscious, standing there with the other drivers and holding her sign. But the other drivers paid her no attention and it was unlikely she'd run into anyone she knew at the airport. If she did, she had several cover stories prepared.

The first-class passengers debarked first and Castle was one of the first ones off. He stopped when he saw her and smiled. Then he noticed that she didn't smile back and then he saw the sign she held with the name Castle on it. Assuming a neutral look, he walked over to her.

"I'm Richard Castle. Are you my driver?"

She nodded, and in a breathless voice, said, "Yes, Mr. Castle. I'm here to take you…home."

He raised an eyebrow. "And your name is, Miss?"

"Beckett. Kate Beckett."

"Mike isn't driving me this time?"

"No, but don't worry. Mike couldn't give you the kind of…service I can."

"We should go pick up my luggage, I think."

"Don't worry, Mr. Castle. I'll handle…everything."

After getting his luggage, she led him to her car.

"Do you mind if I sit in the front seat with you, Ms. Beckett."

She pretended to consider it. "It isn't in accord with company rules, but you know the company's motto."

"The customer is always right?" Castle guessed.

"The customer always… comes first."

As they drove through the streets of Manhattan, Castle kept sneaking looks at Beckett. But she was staying completely in character and not saying a word. Castle decided he'd just play along with whatever she had in mind.

They pulled up in front of her apartment building.

"Excuse me, Ms. Beckett, but this isn't my place."

"But you'll find everything you want...inside."

As soon as they entered Beckett's apartment, she pushed him up against the door and kissed him. Not just any kiss, but a blinding, scorching magnificently erotic kiss. She threw both of her hands around his neck and rubbed her boobs against his chest. Then, she hooked one leg around his and rubbed herself against him.

He felt one hand leave his neck and opened one eye. She was taking off her jacket. Then she pulled her sweater over her head and threw it on the floor. She wasn't wearing a bra. She raised one leg to get a shoe off. He watched as her boobs swung enticingly. As she got the shoe off and reached for the other one, she looked up at him.

"Do I have to do all the work, Castle? Get undressed."

He managed to get his jacket off and threw it over the back of a chair. Then he began unbuttoning his shirt.

"What are you doing?" She cried, exasperatedly. She ripped his shirt open, scattering buttons everywhere. Then she pulled off his undershirt.

Satisfied that she'd gotten him properly started, she unbuckled her belt and pushed her pants over her slim hips and down her long, lithe legs. She had no panties on.

He was just standing there watching appreciatively.

"Castle!" She barked, then dropped to her knees, undid his pants and pulled them down.

"Lift your foot. "She ordered. He did so and she took off one shoe.

"The other one." There went the other shoe.

He stepped out of his pants, now wearing only his boxers. Those quickly were pulled down and off. He was hard, but not completely erect. She leaned forward and took his cock in her mouth.

"Beckett! It's been thirty-two days. If you don't stop now…"

She pulled her mouth off of him. He was fully aroused now. She grabbed him by his cock and pulled him to her bedroom.

She sprawled on the bed and pulled him down on top of her. He moved to slide down her body to start by kissing her boobs, and then planned to move lower to her pussy. She grabbed him and pulled him back up.

"Inside me. Now."

"Kate, I haven't seen you for…"

That was as far as he got. She threw one arm around his neck and used the other to grab his cock, then lifting her ass off of the bed, she impaled herself on him.

"My God but you're wet."

Using both of her arms, she pulled him down and kissed him. He felt her hard nipples and her soft breasts rubbing against his chest. Her legs wrapped around his hips and she bounced up and down as fast and as hard as she could.

He knew he wouldn't last long, but to his surprise she began to moan.

"So fucking good, Rick. So fucking good."

She pushed herself against him and moaned her climax. He soon followed. Her body softened and she relaxed, breathing deeply. He rolled off of her and pulled her to him.

"You're staying here for three days." She panted. "And you are never going on another thirty-two day long book tour. Never."

"Three days?" He said with a smile. "Suppose the building catches fire?"

"It wouldn't dare."

"You could come with me on a book tour, you know."

She shook her head.

"We can't let anyone know we're together."

"Look, that rule about colleagues not dating doesn't apply to us. I'm not NYPD and no one pays any attention to it anyway."

"No one pays attention unless something goes wrong."

"What could go wrong?"

"I'll tell you what could go wrong. You could keep talking while I'm waiting for round two. That would be very, very wrong."

He kissed the top of her head.

"Kate, we need to talk."

She pushed him away and leaped out of bed.

"We have to talk? Get the fuck out of here, Castle. Get out right now and don't ever try to see me again."

She turned around and ran to the bathroom, locking herself in.

He tried to follow.

"Kate? What's wrong? What did I say? Or do?"

He could hear her talking to herself inside.

"I knew it. I knew what he was like. He's a twice divorced playboy who lives on Page 6 with a different bimbo on his arm every night. I knew it but I told myself this might be different. But no, now he dumps me. He's probably had a different woman every night while he was gone."

He pounded on the door.

"Kate, I'm not breaking up with you."

She apparently didn't hear him since she went on talking to herself.

He raised his voice.

"Beckett, you're the most remarkable, maddening, exciting, infuriating, fascinating, frustrating woman I've ever met…No! Make that person I've ever met. I'm not breaking up with you."

There was silence for a few seconds, then the door opened. Kate was glaring at him.

"You're not dumping me?" She demanded.

"Of course not."

"Then why did you say, "We need to talk."? That's what every guy says when they want to dump you. That's what Kenny Davis said to me when he dumped me in sixth grade because I was five inches taller than he was and he said he couldn't even press his face into my boobs when we slow danced because he said I didn't have any. And those are the words Mike Roarke used in eighth grade…"

"Beckett! When I say we have to talk it means just that. We need to have a conversation. A discussion. A sharing of thoughts. I do not say that when I intend to break up with someone."

Kate put her arms around him and he hugged her.

"I'm sorry, Castle. I shouldn't have…" She stopped and he realized she was crying. Detective Kate Beckett never cried, he thought. Then he remembered when she'd had to kill Dick Coonan.

Castle gently led her back to the bed and covered them both with the duvet. She snuggled up against him.

"I almost turned you down when you asked me to dinner after the Tisdale murder, but then I thought that I deserved a good meal at the very least for putting up with you."

"Hey! I was a help. I brought the bad guy down, remember?"

"Being a help and being a pain in the ass are not mutually exclusive, Castle. Anyway, I was furious when you showed up at the precinct and announced you'd be following me around, without even asking me about it."

"If I'd asked you, you would have said no."

"Yes, I would have, but it's the principal of the thing. You should have asked. But, I was stuck with you and I knew there was just one way to get rid of you as quickly as possible."

"And that was…?"

"I'd have to sleep with you."

"You make it sound like a fate worse than death."

Kate rolled her eyes.

"I figured, a couple of weeks, maybe a month and you'd be tired of me and move on. And I'd get some good meals and adequate sex out of it."

"Adequate?" he cried. "Adequate!"

"Gotcha." She stifled a giggle. "But you kept coming around. A month passed and you were still around, and you were helping me. And, much to my initial anger, you found something about my mom's murder that I never found. You put up a hundred thousand dollars to catch him, and most importantly, to me, you said you were going to stop following me around because I had to kill Coonan to save you and the secret of who paid for my mom's murder died with him. Much against my will, I found I enjoyed being with you. Oh, I kept telling myself that it would never last, but there was always this hope that it would."

He kissed the top of her head.

"Kate, except for Kyra Blaine and Meredith, both of whom dumped me, I've always been able to see the end of a relationship after a month or two at the most. After a year with you I can't see an end with you. I don't know how this will work out, maybe you'll dump me and break my heart, but I want to take this to the end, whatever that is. Okay?"

She kissed him lightly. "Okay."

"Now, Detective Beckett, we need to talk, by which I mean we need to converse, exchange ideas, discuss things, and not breaking up."

"Agreed."

"Montgomery knows about us."

"What?" She yelled, hitting his chest with one finger. "Why did you tell him?"

"I didn't. He must have figured it out just like my mom and Alexis did." Castle knew he'd made a mistake.

"You let both of them know?" Her finger stabbed his chest again.

"No. I was coming home at four AM about two months after we got together. I was coming home at four because someone doesn't want me to stay the night because someone doesn't want anyone to know we're together."

"Castle…" She said threateningly.

"Anyway, we were both sneaking in the back way and my mother asked me why I was sneaking in so late. I made up a story about a case we were working on that ran late. It was a really good story. I'm going to use it in the next Nikki Heat. There's a murder in an expensive penthouse of a famous art collector who was thought to be dead…"

"Castle." She glared at him.

"Okay, so about a month after that, Mother and I ran into each other in the wee hours, both sneaking in. I had an even better story this time, it was all about… "He looked over at Kate. "But that's not important. I told her the story and she replied, "Richard, I hope you aren't hiding your relationship with Katherine because you're ashamed that she's only a cop and not some society babe." And I said, at once, "Of course not. How could you think that?" And she just smiled at me and went to the elevator."

Kate just rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"At least Martha hasn't told anyone. Or did she tell Alexis?"

"No, I came in one morning very early and found Alexis up, in her jammies, eating an ice cream sundae. She said she'd woken up with this craving for a sundae. She had chocolate fudge ice cream, cherry, the kind with real, whole cherries in it, cookies and cream, and chocolate chip mint. I had to join her, of course."

"Of course." Kate said sarcastically.

"So, I got out the cinnamon buns ice cream, the salted peanuts, the M&Ms, the butterscotch sauce…."

"Castle!" She said threateningly.

"We were sitting there eating and Alexis said to me, "You know, Detective Beckett is ten times better that any of those other women you've dated." And I said, "Ten times? I'd say a hundred times or a thousand." And then I realized she'd gotten me."

Kate shook her head, "How could you have done that?"

"It's very hard to put a numerical value on you, Detective Beckett. You're easily a hundred times better than anyone else I've dated, and a thousand seems reasonable as well. Ten thousand? I think I could…"

"Rick, how did Montgomery find out? Was he sneaking in after some scandalous liaison? Or did you find him eating ice cream in his jammies?"

TBC