“Are you ready?” Rick asked her as they stepped into the elevator. She could hear the excitement in his voice and rolled her eyes.
“You’re the impulsive one in this relationship, Castle,” she responded, nudging him with her shoulder.
He supplied her with a wicked grin that suddenly had Kate wondering if he had something more up his sleeve. “I was born to play this role,” he said simply.
Kate narrowed her eyes at him, telling him silently not to try to pull anything, and gave him an innocent smile in return. Let him stew about that, she thought as they broke eye contact. They stepped apart as the elevator doors opened and walked into the bull pen.
“Morning, boys,” she called to Ryan and Esposito as she sat down into her desk. Rick had gone into the break room to get her a mug of coffee. Castle, she told herself, laughing silently at the turn around of the familiar words. It’s Castle, not Rick. Castle.
Ryan and Esposito grunted in return, both engrossed in their paperwork. Kate smiled. This was going to be one hell of a day. She let her mind slip into another place as she started digging in to her own bulk of paperwork. Had it really only been yesterday that all this took place? Catching Lockwood, breaking up with Josh, going back to Rick, sleeping with Rick? So much in so little time. But then again, she thought as she signed her name at the end of one file, marking its completion, What took us so long to dive in in the first place?
The sound of a coffee mug being placed in front of her drew her out of her thoughts. “Wanna tell me where your mind just went?” Rick – Castle –asked as he sat down in his chair beside her desk.
“Just wondering what took us so long to open our eyes,” she murmured honestly, still sorting through her paperwork.
“I just want to take this moment to let you know that it was I who opened his eyes first.”
“I think I can justify letting you take this one,” she replied, letting her eyes slide to his face, “Just so long as you know how very grateful I am that you waited. Sort of.” Then she smiled to let him know she was joking. Sort of.
“I will tell you as many times as it takes how very sorry I am that I left you here to go to the Hamptons.” He always understands, she thought, shaking her head.
“You don’t need to, though it is nice to hear.”
Rick reached over and grasped her hand. “Then I only have two things to say to you. I’m sorry and I will be rectifying my wrong, and second, I love you.”
Kate felt a blush creep across her cheeks and she smiled. “Technically that was three things. And you’d better be glad we’re speaking in hushed voiced or you would have ruined our whole scheme.”
“Speaking of which, can we activate phase one?” His blue eyes glittered in excitement again.
Kate smiled and squeezed his hand before pulling away. “Only once we’ve got their attention, Rick. Not before.”
“Oh I’m pretty sure we’ve got their attention,” he waggled his eyebrows at her and she bit back a laugh and let her eyes dart to where they boys were sitting. They were staring, their jaws slightly open.
“Then let the games begin.”
“You know the first thing Esposito’s gonna do is text Lanie.”
“Oh I’m counting on it.”
“Now all we need is a case.”
