It has been pouring rain for the past week here in France and I decided to turn my frustration with the rain into a Castle FF.

This is going to be a two-chapter OS. Not meant to be any longer.

Comments, as always, are very much appreciated :)

BLAME IT ON THE RAIN

Chapter 1

"Well that was a bloody waste of time", declared Beckett as she and Castle were heading back out of Central Park.

Castle, his hands shoved in his pockets kicked a small stone in front of him. Then he looked up at the sky

"Is it me or has it gotten way darker in just a few minutes?"

Beckett looked up as well and just replied with an absent "Hmmm".

"It feels like it's going to rain."

And sure enough, a couple of minutes later he felt a few drops of rain on his hair, then a few more and then it was down right raining.

He was about to start running but he turned to his partner first to see if she was following him. But Beckett wasn't right by his side anymore. He turned around and saw that she had stopped walking and was standing perfectly still under the rain.

Her eyes were shut, her head only slightly tilted up, her arms hanging loosely down her body.

He wanted to call out to her, make her follow him but something stopped the words from coming out.

He observed her instead. She looked calm, peaceful with a hint of amusement. As far as he could recall he'd never seen her face so relaxed. Oh he'd seen her laugh and smile and be happy plenty of times – and he had loved every second of it – but he had never seen her so quiet, so carefree, so innocent really.

He wasn't sure he recognized the woman standing there. It was like the rain had washed away the Beckett he knew and had put Katherine in her place.

The sky was dark now and the rain was pouring down, soaking them both.

Castle was cold, the rain was relentless. He could see Beckett's body start to shiver.

"You're cold."

She was indeed. But she didn't care. She couldn't feel it.

Castle took a step forward to be in front of her. He took his long winter coat off and placed it over her shoulders. It was a dumb thing to do, he knew it. Not only his coat was already soaked and therefore useless and but now he was standing under the rain in just a polo shirt. But he didn't care.

Beckett grasped the sides of the coat and a small smile crept over her lips. She opened her eyes to be faced with deep blue eyes staring at her with much tenderness and a hint of puzzlement.
They stood there in silence, only the sound of the rain falling hard on the grass beneath their feet surrounding them. Even the sounds of the city seemed to have disappeared, drowned by the rain.

Kate's damp hair stuck to her face, and Castle stared at a particular strand that was stuck across her cheek, reaching the corner of her mouth until he couldn't resist anymore and he reached for it.

Her cheek flinched at his touch but she didn't move to stop him. With a gentle finger he pushed the strand back into its place, behind her ear. He let his finger linger there, on her jawline, wanting so badly to let it draw a trail back to her mouth. But he stopped himself and let his hand fall back to his side.

Her eyes followed his hand back down and remained there, fascinated by the image of raindrops falling on the grass.

He wondered what had gotten into her. What had brought on this sudden change. He knew it had to do with the rain, quite obviously, but he wondered what the story behind it was. The rain seemed soothing to the detective, like she was in her happy place and she wouldn't come out of it... No matter that she was soaked to the bone and shivering. She was still smiling, a small, almost invisible smile. He really did love her smile.

As he was about to move, feeling his limbs going completely numb under the cold rain, she spoke. It sounded more like a whisper to him, barely audible with the noise surrounding them, but he heard it nonetheless.

"I really like your books Rick".

Although, when he heard it, he wasn't sure he heard it right. It felt so out of character and like it came out of nowhere.

He wasn't sure what to respond to that. He wasn't sure she expected a reply. Or that she expected to be heard at all.

Then she lifted her green eyes to meet his blue and saw him staring at her.

He knew he probably shouldn't stare. That she didn't like it. That he could lose a limb, possibly an eye in fact. But he also couldn't help it. The woman standing in front of him was captivating, mesmerizing... When he looked into her jade eyes he forgot everything, who they were, where they were, the rain, the cold... it was all forgotten, replaced only by the warmth he felt when he looked at her, replaced by the love; the love of a writer for his muse.

"Is that how you see us?"

This time he was sure he heard right. But he wasn't sure what it meant. Or how to respond, again.

Her eyes were still set on him, unblinking. But he wasn't sure what he was seeing in them. He blamed the rain for his blurred vision. He cursed the rain in fact for his blurred vision. The smile though, was definitely gone. Her voice hadn't sounded mean but... there was definitely an edge to it. He couldn't tell if she was simply asking a question or criticizing him in a veiled manner like she always did. He knew for a fact Beckett didn't like his books much... or at least he thought he knew that, up until a few seconds ago. But he definitely knew she was annoyed at the resemblance between the characters and themselves; although he had assured her countless times they were fictional characters.
So, he replied the same way he usually did, hoping to reassure her, praying it was the right answer.

"They're just characters in a book Kate," he whispered gently.

He might as well have shot her in the heart at that moment.

Instantly he knew it was the wrong answer – although he didn't understand why.
He saw the sudden change in her eyes, a veil came over them and everything in them disappeared. Her whole face turned to an unreadable stone. Blank. He knew that face, he'd seen it countless times. Kate was definitely gone, Beckett was back.

He tried to think of something to say or do to make it better, he wasn't ready to lose Kate just yet, he liked Kate. But it was too late.

"We should go. We're gonna get wet."

She started off, turning her back to him and walking away. He looked at her disappearing form.

"We're already wet," he added more to himself than anyone else before catching up to her.

When they got to the car, she reached into her pockets, looking for her keys but found gloves that didn't belong to her in their place. That's when she realized she was still wearing his coat.

She shivered. In all honesty she couldn't tell if it really was from the cold. She took it off, missing its added warmth immediately. She reached for her keys in her own pocket and when she finally opened the door she tossed the long coat in the back of the car where hers soon joined it with a glorious splash.

Once they were both in the car, she quickly turned the ignition on and the heat way up. Castle thankfully put both his hands on the small heater while she started driving, forcing her trembling hands to stay still around the wheel.

The rain hadn't slowed down in the least and it made her drive really slow through the streets of New-York. They drove in silence, the sound of rain hitting the body of her car the only ambient noise.

The wheels were turning fast in Castle's head. He tried to understand the brutal change in her behaviour. He knew it had to do with his answer but he couldn't understand why. A large part of him started thinking maybe she liked the idea of them being Nikki and James but another part of him dismissed the idea, realizing it was crazy and impossible. But then why the question?
And her comment about the books... Surely he had heard that right. But maybe she was talking about his books in general. He knew she liked his writing after all. Why she'd decided to say that at this particular moment however was a mystery.

As he observed her while she drove he realized he missed the woman from the park already. He liked Beckett, a lot in fact. He found her fascinating. But from the very few glimpses he had had in the past of Kate he knew he liked that woman even more. Kate Beckett was a complex, multi-faceted woman. She could be so strong and confident one moment and fragile and vulnerable the next - although not a lot of people got to see that side of her. He felt privileged he had.

"I'm glad you liked them," he tried, hoping to get back to the conversation and get it right this time.

He failed.
She remained silent, her eyes on the road, focused.
So he tried again.

"I enjoyed writing them." A pause. "You really do inspire me."

He saw no reaction. Not even her usual annoyance when he talked about her as inspiration.

Unsure of what to say to break this wall that she had suddenly erected between them he decided to remain silent for the rest of the journey, he turned his face to the window and stared at the raindrops gliding down the glass.

When the car parked in front of his building and she turned the engine off he moved only to turn to her.

"Would you like to come in? Maybe warm up a little, you're shivering like a leaf?"

"I'll dry off when I'm home" were the first words she spoke since the park.

A loud thunder resonated through the city.

"You really want to drive all the way back across town under that weather?"

"I just want to go home Castle." she snapped, a little too harshly even to her taste "Now if you could just get out of my car, I could get going."

Her cold, distant words were enough to push him out of the car. Bracing himself he opened the door and got out. But before closing it he turned around and peaked his head back in.

"It could be us you know. If you let it."

And he shut the door before running to the front door of his building.