A/N: Set shortly after 2x06, Vampire Weekend.

"Your days of betting with the boys are over, I hope you know that."

Castle shifts from his spot in the grass to catch a glimpse of Beckett a few feet away, glaring at the night sky through the thick tendrils of naked branches overhead, fidgeting with the ring attached to the chain around her neck.

"Hey, you think I like this any better? I'm supposed to be at home binging on candy right now," he points out and Beckett reaches forward to shove at his shoulder for it.

"It's your fault," she hisses, poking him once – hard – before adjusting her back against the bark of the tree behind her and crossing her arms over her chest, narrowing the blazing slits of her eyes on him. "You're the one who made a bet with the boys, a bet you roped me into without my permission, and now we're stuck in a cemetery on Halloween."

"You were just as into the bet as I was once you found out you were on my team again!"

"We're all supposed to be one team," she snaps, the leather of her jacket stretching with the heated breath she takes. "If you guys would grow up, stop turning murder into a competition, then we wouldn't be here right now."

"Fine, I learned my lesson," he huffs, slumping back against the tree next to her. This still isn't his fault, though. It was Ryan and Esposito's and they may have won the bet where the case was concerned, but were so going to lose part two after he and Beckett emerged from the cemetery at daybreak. "Just pretend this is a stakeout."

"The case is already solved, Castle. There's no reason for us to be having a stakeout," she mutters, closing her eyes and dropping her head against her uncomfortable resting place of the large oak in the middle of the cemetery.

Looking at her now, dreary with exhaustion at one in the morning after sitting in a cemetery with him for the last two hours, guilt begins to swirl through his insides, clenching in his stomach. It was wrong of him to include her on the bet without consulting her, he knows that, but they had done so well together last time, on the Cosway case a near month ago, narrowly avoiding the losing punishment of shaving their heads. He thought this would be a breeze.

But he had been all wrong about their killer and Beckett had learned of her role in the bet far too late to do any damage control, and well… now they were in a creepy cemetery on Halloween night, stuck here until dawn with Ryan GPS tracking his phone to ensure he doesn't sneak out early. He doesn't know what Ryan and Esposito will do if they give in and leave before the sun rises, but he knows it won't be pretty.

"Here," Castle tries, tugging out a throw blanket from the backpack he packed back at the loft, while Alexis had shaken her head at him in severe disapproval. "Try to get some sleep."

"You think I'm going to be able to sleep here?" she growls.

"I know it's kinda scary, Beckett, but-"

"I'm not scared," she mutters, sitting up from her perch against the tree and rising to her feet, and Rick quickly shoves his blanket back into his pack. She may not be scared, but he sure as hell doesn't want to be left alone in an eerie yard of graves. "It's not as if I haven't spent the night here before."

"Whoa, really? Why?" he asks, all kinds of scenarios springing to mind. "Actual stakeout?"

But Kate suddenly looks uncomfortable, frowning down at her boots, hunching her shoulders up to her ears even though it's not yet too chilly for late October in New York.

"You know, I really don't see why I have to stay here with you. It isn't my phone the boys are tracking. They wouldn't even know if I left," she muses, lifting her gaze to the cemetery gates across the grounds.

"No, no, you can't leave," he whines, grabbing for her wrist when she makes a move to stride past him. He earns the exact look he expected, an arched eyebrow, a threat to break his arm if he doesn't release hers simmering in her gaze, but he doesn't let her go. "I'm sorry for dragging you into this, truly, but – but we're partners, aren't we? Do you really want to leave your partner alone in a cemetery filled with potential ghosts on the scariest night of the year?"

Kate Beckett doesn't hesitate. "Yes."

"What if I make it up to you?"

"How?"

"However you want," he pleads, watching with hope and maybe a tiny bit of excitement, when the corner of her mouth twitches with amusement.

Even in dire situations such as these, it's always an accomplishment to make her laugh.

"Fine, Castle. I make it through this night with you, you owe me. Big time."

"Yes, whatever you want," he acquiesces, grazing his thumb along the inside of her wrist, circling over the thin flesh over the steady thrum of her pulse.

Kate jerks her hand back, narrowing her gaze on him, and strolling back towards the tree, plopping back down to the grass with a sigh, and Castle withdraws the blanket once more, offers it to her to use as a pillow. A barely discernible grin flickers across her lips as she takes the fleece, folds it behind her head and doesn't flinch when Castle sidles up beside her, flattening his back against the wide trunk.

"I also packed snacks if you get hungry," he murmurs, placing the backpack between their legs, allowing her a clear glimpse into the sack filled with Tupperware containers Alexis had helped him fill with easy finger foods. "And Halloween candy stashed in the outside pocket."

A breath of laughter puffs from her lips. "Thanks, but I'm good for now."

Kate relaxes back into the tree, the rounded edge of her shoulder brushing his, the sleeve of her jacket touching him, and Castle decides that propped up against a tree in the middle of the night with Kate Beckett at his side, he's good too.

Kate startles awake beside him an hour later, her head jerking up from his shoulder, and her hand flying to her chest.

"Hey, Beckett," he murmurs, shifting sideways to invade her vision, coaxing her to focus on his face and gently touching her arm with his hand. "You're okay. It's okay, it was just a dream."

"What-" She has to pause, clear her throat, and Castle quickly retrieves a water bottle from his bag, offers it up to her, but she declines with a shake of her head. "Did I fall asleep?"

"Just for a few minutes," he nods, placing the water bottle to the side and resisting the urge to reach for the fingers still trembling at her sternum. "Beckett?"

"Fine," she gets out, taking a deep breath, releasing it slowly. "I'm fine."

She's not, but there's no use in pushing her, in agitating her for the sake of a more truthful response.

"You said you had stayed in this graveyard before?" he asks, hoping to distract her from whatever nightmare had claimed her mind, but Beckett sighs, arches her spine to crack the stiff ladder of her vertebrae and gets to her feet.

"Come on, Castle," she murmurs, holding out her hand and tugging him upwards when he accepts her fingers without hesitation. "There's someone I want you to meet."

Rick's heart bumps nervously against his ribs as they trek through the cemetery, heading deeper into the rows upon rows of tombstones until Kate begins to slow, stopping in front of a gravestone that he has to squint to read in the dark.

Johanna Beckett

Vincit Omnia Veritas

"Beckett," he croaks, taking a step back out of surprise or respect, maybe both, but Kate allows a gentle smile to grace her lips, small and tinged with sorrow.

"Figured I'd dream about it if I fell asleep here," she admits, and oh god, he brought her to the graveyard her mother was buried in, made her endure who knows how many bad memories and old wounds. "The last time I was here this late, it was only a year after she had died and I just... I wasn't in a good place then, couldn't handle another night alone in my apartment, couldn't handle seeing my dad." Something dark flickers across her face, one of those painful memories he probably helped push to the surface, but she regains the control within seconds, tucks her hands into her pockets and releases a steady exhale. "So I camped out here for a few hours. I have to admit, Castle, this time around was a better experience."

A grin tugs at the corners of her mouth, waning but soft, tender, and he just wants to hug her as he whispers a million apologies into her hair.

"I'm sorry. This was - so disrespectful, Kate, I'm-"

"Shh," she murmurs, knocking her knuckles against his, catching his pinky finger with her own. "It's okay, Castle. Like I said, I've spent the night in this cemetery before. Thought I might as well explain why."

He feels like a jerk. A terrible, insensitive monster making jokes while they had sat side by side against that tree, telling ghost stories, stories of the people buried beneath the dirt, and this entire time she had been wearing a brave face about it, sitting with him in the dark surrounded by the dead for company.

"Let Ryan and Esposito win this part of the bet," he decides, tentatively tangling his fingers with hers, embracing her palm in a gentle squeeze when she doesn't tug her hand away. "Let's go."

"We don't have to," she murmurs, glancing down to their clasped hands. It's the first time he's been allowed the opportunity to hold hers, to feel the slim weight of her fingers encased in his, to feel the heat of her palm spreading warmth through his blood. "I don't care about the bet, but maybe we could just… sit here, for a few minutes?"

"Of course." He's already folding his legs beneath him, taking a seat in front of her mother's headstone as he replies, dragging Kate down with him. "Of course, we can stay as long as you want or you can stay and I can go or I could-"

"Are you always this nervous meeting the parents, Castle?" she teases, her shoulder nudging his, and when he turns his head, he finds that she's grinning.

His lips quirk automatically in return. "Your mom is important."

For a moment, she can only stare back at him, surprise illuminating her eyes, parting her mouth, but she looks… happy with him, pleased and maybe even a little grateful.

"I've never brought anyone to actually… meet her before," she explains, diverting her gaze back towards her mother's resting place, pursing her lips together. "Thanks, Castle."

Is she seriously thanking him? He's been a supreme jackass this entire day, he's still attempting to make up for last summer, to tend to the leftover wounds he inflicted after betraying her trust and reopening her mother's case after she had specifically told him not to, after he had hurt her. He was the one who was thankful, overflowing with gratitude to her for taking him back, for staying with him tonight even though they both knew she could have walked out of the cemetery hours ago, for sitting with him in front of her mother's grave right now with her guard down and her heart laid out and vulnerable on the dew covered grass in front of them.

"No, Kate," he murmurs, relishing in the rare taste of her first name on his lips. "Thank you. For everything."

Her brow furrows softly at the sincerity of his tone, the intensity that he's sure he's doing a poor job of hiding, but she doesn't retreat like he expects. Beckett's knee bumps against his when she leans into his side, propping her cheek on his shoulder and releasing his hand to loop her arm through his. Rick hesitates for only a moment before lowering his cheek to rest atop her head, inhaling the faint scent of cherries clinging to her skin.

"She would have liked you," Kate murmurs, her cheek lifting against his arm, the evidence of a growing smile. "She already did, read your books all the time."

"She did?" he whispers, trying so hard to picture it, to imagine Johanna Beckett alive and curled up with one of his novels, maybe with her daughter by her side, reading over her mother's shoulder or simply enjoying the peace of a night in with a decent book.

"You were her favorite, Castle," she chuckles, listing a little heavier against him, the warmth of her so pleasant, he yearns to unwind their twisted arms, loop his around her shoulders and cradle her against his chest. "After she died, I went through her entire bookshelf, and – and that's how I started reading your work. She had all of your novels to date, so the night after I helped my dad clean out the apartment, I opened up Gathering Storm. Been kinda hooked ever since."

Under normal circumstances, he would tease her endlessly, crow with delight over such treasured information spilling from her lips, but he wouldn't fathom disturbing the peace of this moment with her, the sanctity of her confession.

"Your books gave me hope," she murmurs, her fingers dancing mindlessly at the inside of his wrist. "They made it seem as if justice was attainable, made me twice as determined to find it for her, for every victim I came across in this line of work."

Castle gives in, slips his arm from hers and coils it around her shoulders, holding his breath until she curls in closer to his side, allows him the privilege of wrapping an arm around her. But Kate doesn't settle against his chest, doesn't stiffen or relax, instead she cranes forward to dust a kiss to the corner of his mouth.

He catches her chin before she can turn her head away, meets the soft mixtures of bottle greens and amber browns swirling in the golden pools of her gaze, gives her enough time to back out before he brushes a whisper of a kiss to her lips.

"Thank you for telling me," he breathes, his fingers falling from her chin to ghost down the side of her throat, coasting along the cutting bone of her jaw.

He can't recall a time he's ever seen Beckett appear shy, but he thinks that there must be a first time for everything as her lashes flutter to her cheeks to hide her eyes, a subtle pink blossoming across her cheeks, up to her ears when his thumb strokes her temple. No, he's never seen this side of her, not even close, and while he knows she has walls built specifically to shut him out, he thinks that maybe he's never been allowed this glimpse of her simply because he never gave her a reason to show it.

It's exposed now, though; he's seen her soft smile and tasted her lips, memorized the fit of her hand in his and the weight of her body leaning into his side, and he doesn't want to give this piece of her up.

"Kate?" Her eyes flicker up to meet his, her bottom lip becoming trapped beneath the pin of her teeth. "I know you're probably exhausted, but maybe tomorrow - well, later today - could I take you out for dinner?"

Beckett's nose nudges his cheek and oh, he hopes over exhaustion isn't the reason behind any of this, because he's already growing too addicted to these little touches.

"Sure, Castle. In the spirit of Halloween, gonna allow me to bite you afterwards?" she teases, dusting her thumb over the tiny scar he still has from their case from a few days ago, where a faux vampire had taken a nip from his neck.

"Beckett, not in front of your mother," he scolds, reveling in the sweet sound of her laughter in his ear. "I'm trying to make a good impression."

"Don't worry, Castle," she chuckles, lowering her cheek to rest comfortably against his collarbone, surely able to hear, feel even, the gallop of his heart in his chest. "You've gained her approval."

He loses the bet, and his Ferrari for the following month of November, but he's allowed to take Kate Beckett out to dinner that evening, kisses her goodnight at her front door afterwards, and it only affirms what he already knew. She is better than any other winnings he could have gained.