Close Encounters 4

Kate was grateful that Christmas was just another day, and at the same time, she felt the difference between them. The dog was independent, like he'd promised, and laid on the floor by the door with her head in her paws while Kate attempted breakfast. Sasha watched, but she didn't come begging for food.

Her tail swished the floor when Kate brought her broken bits of bacon, and Sasha's tongue licked Kate's fingers for the last of it. When Kate moved back to the kitchen to wash her hands, the dog lifted up and stood by the couch, waiting.

She carried the breakfast tray back with her and the dog followed, a little more energetic now, but Kate was surprised that she never got underfoot. She was a puppy still and yet seemed well-trained and possessed of a natural reserve.

Kate put their breakfast down at the foot of the bed and crawled up until she hovered over Castle; his eyes were already open and his body turning towards her. She could never get the drop on him.

"What're you doing?" he laughed, reaching a hand up to splay at her back.

"I made breakfast."

"Really?"

"Yup, stay there," she said, bending her elbows so she could kiss him. He growled and nipped her bottom lip and Kate laughed, pulling back. "Careful. Sasha will think she's got to fight me for you."

He chuckled and pushed to sit up against the headboard even as she sank back on her feet and reached for the tray. Castle jerked forward to help and Kate settled in at his side, their breakfast laid out in front of them.

"Sasha," she called, patting the side of the bed. The dog gave her a look and then bounded smoothly up to the bed, circled at the foot before lying down. Sasha was giving Castle this pitiful, adoring look that made Kate laugh.

"She is in love with you."

Castle grunted. "Whatever. Have you taken her out?"

"Not yet. And she hasn't seemed desperate, so I thought she could wait." She sat forward to cut a piece from her pancakes, licked syrup from her wrist when it dripped. Castle was eyeing her tongue and she darted it out against her lips to tease him, slowly catch the sticky maple.

"Looks like," he said roughly. "We'll take her out after breakfast. After. . ."

Kate hummed and wouldn't look away, purposefully watched him as he stared at her. "After?"

"After this," he murmured and stroked his hand through her hair to grip her neck, pulled her against him for a kiss.

Her knee hit the tray, but she came anyway, her hands finding his shirt and slipping underneath. His kiss was a little dark, a lot desperate, and she wanted to abandon breakfast. It was Christmas Day and they could definitely start a new tradition here.

And then he stopped, pulled her away with his hands at her jaw. "Breakfast."

"It can wait."

"No, no. You made me breakfast. In bed. I'm having it."

"Let me have it."

He laughed and kissed her roughly, put her away again. "Breakfast and then we can have it."

She sighed, but she had to admit she was proud of her breakfast, and he sat forward to dig in, so she did the same. The dog was looking at them both with that raised eyebrow, and Kate grabbed the bacon from her plate and offered it.

"Sash, come on." The dog lifted her head and nosed forward, licked it clean from Kate's fingers.

"Ah, I see how it is. You're cheating to win her affections."

Kate grinned and didn't deny it.

He stood at the dog park watching Wolf - Sasha - investigate her surroundings. A few others were out, their dogs keeping well away from the wolf, and when Sasha seemed satisfied the place met her standards, she ran and played. Kate had thrown the ball for her, and Sasha went for it, but she didn't bring it back. She played with it on her own.

"I've never seen a dog do that," Kate laughed, turning her body into his. He obliged her unspoken request, wrapped his arms around her waist to block the wind.

"Me either. Though my experience with dogs is limited. She's cute though. Still enough of a puppy."

"She's big."

"Honestly, I thought she was small when I first visited her. But you're right; she's bigger than most of these dogs."

"They're avoiding her, Castle." Kate curled her arms at her chest and peered around him to watch their dog. "Why are they-"

"You sound like a fretful parent."

"Shut up."

"You do," he laughed. "And they're avoiding her because - like you pointed out - she's a wolf. And she's bigger than them."

"But she's so gentle. If they would just-"

"Kate," he grinned, interrupting her. He leaned in and pressed a kiss to her forehead. "I didn't take you for the worrying mother hen type."

"I'm not worried."

"Uh-huh."

"I'm not. I hate you. You made me fall in love with a dog."

He laughed again and squeezed her tighter, wished there weren't so many layers between them. "I'm glad you do. I kinda - took her on without telling you and just hoped you'd like her."

"I trust you," she murmured. "I was surprised, but. . ." She let out a long sigh and rubbed her cold nose against his neck. "If you'd asked, I'd have talked you out of it."

"I asked Carrie to take her when we're gone."

"And I have training after Ryan's wedding," she murmured.

"But I'm going to stick around here though. So Sasha will have me, at least."

"One of her parents," she laughed, lifting her face to him. She was in flat boots so her head was tilted back, and he dropped a kiss to that smiling mouth. He knew they were thinking the same thing - how this might mimic life with kids, how it might work out for them.

"We'll have a few more days together, though," he said quietly, cutting his eyes to the dog to check on her. Sasha was jumping over the ball and crouching like it was some evil creature she had to be wary of. "And when you're done with training - I've already got planned the first stage of our assignment."

"Yeah?"

He nodded. "Arms dealer in Copenhagen."

She hummed and stepped back from him, dropping her arms from his neck but hooking them around his waist. He glanced back at her and could see the excitement, the anticipation in her eyes.

"You're ready to go, aren't you?"

Kate sighed, a little smile lifting her lips. "Yeah. Kinda was going stir crazy before you dropped a dog on my lap."

He laughed and kissed her again. "I'll tell you the details when we get home."

"Yeah?" Her excitement seemed to mirror Sasha's - her head came up, she was on her toes to look at him.

"Yeah," he sighed, shaking his head. "Soon as there are less ears around."

"Call your dog, Castle. We're going home."

She reviewed assignment pieces while the dog sat half in her lap, the rest of Sasha's long body laid out over the couch. Kate petted her between the tall, pointed, ever-alert ears, and Castle leaned on the back of the couch and made comments over her shoulder.

"Remember when I told you about Foley?"

"Yeah."

"This is a tentacle of his group. We cleaned up what we could and now we're getting the long arms. It's a process."

"There's not a rush on this?" she asked, scratching behind the dog's ears as Sasha made that guttural purring.

"Not like you're thinking. We do need to get it done within the year, but it's not something we can do quickly. The others would know we're coming and fold up shop."

"Hmm," she murmured, reading the details on his laptop. "I get it. This looks do-able."

"I think so. A little tricky there at their stockpile-"

"This old house on the outskirts?"

"Yeah. It's a farm."

"Of course it is," she muttered. Castle laughed and leaned over her to click through to the next page.

"And see, we'll probably have to blow the place. Problem is getting far enough away without them noticing-"

"And finding the explosives?" she asked.

"Exactly."

"Hope it's not like the moonless night over the Channel," she murmured, looking over her shoulder at him. He grinned and kissed her, a quick and tight thing that made her hum. Sasha sat up and nosed between them, nudging her head into Castle's jaw.

He laughed and Kate shook her head, dropped her hand over Sasha's back.

She and the dog - both in love with him.

Castle was seriously loving their holiday traditions. Sex. Lots of sex. As much as they could, whenever they could, locking the dog out of the bedroom - and one time the bathroom - and just exploring and loving and making up for lost time.

These past two weeks - the one leading up to Christmas and the one leading up to New Year - had been some of the best time he'd spent with her. Not just the sex, but just being together, living together. She'd been restless and a little edgy not having work, and she'd admitted she spent most of the holidays at the 12th, but it had made the sex fantastic.

He found that even their conversations were intense. He'd never shared things before, had never cracked himself open and gutted out his insides to someone like this. He'd never wanted to, never felt the need, but Kate seemed to make it all spill out effortlessly.

He'd accused her of interrogating him and she'd only raised a slim eyebrow, a ghost of a smile slipping across her face.

So she was.

He'd never had anyone that wanted to know.

She made him meet up with his mother for drinks at a cafe one evening before the new year, and then he took Kate home and he tried to get drunk just as he tried to ignore the way it gnawed at him - the not knowing. But she kissed him and poured his second shot of vodka down the sink and took him to bed.

When he was with it again, when the haze of pleasure cleared from his brain, he realized she was draped over him, laughing at how fast that had been.

"I hate you," he grumbled into her neck, wrapping his arms around her and flipping them. She laughed again, a little breathless under him, and kissed her mouth.

"You love me," she murmured back, her tongue quick and clever. "Don't try to deny it."

"You make me crazy."

"You love that too."

"I do," he sighed, giving in to the soft and yielding form of her body.

"I know it's - hard," she said softly. "But you're being a good son. Not pushing her for what she can't give."

"I just want to know," he growled, scraping his teeth at her collarbone.

"I know," she sighed, gave him a little strangled laugh. "Believe me, Rick. I know what it is to live with the questions. To not understand. To have the answers so close, so tantilizing, but no way of getting them."

He slumped down into her, forehead to forehead, pressed his lips to hers. Oh, Kate. She opened for him and accepted him inside, and he rolled off of her to align them side by side. He wanted to look at her face.

"Are the answers we have. . .are they enough?"

"No," she whispered. Too honest. She loved him, and he knew it by that simple answer. Her inability to deny him the truth.

"I'll get him, baby. I promise. I'll get him."

She shook her head. "In court, right? He'll go to trial for it."

He opened his mouth, but the love worked both ways. He couldn't promise what he couldn't deliver, and he had to be honest. "I'll take him out."

"No, Castle. Don't. Please."

"Don't worry about it - it won't be soon. There's time yet to build a case. We're still working on it."

"When is time up?" she asked, her fingers coming out to trace the ridge of his eyebrow. "When do you make that call?"

"When we're done investigating him."

"And if - when we're done - he's still here, he's still untouchable?"

"I'll kill him."

"No," she insisted, gripping his ear and tugging him closer. "We do it again. We go at it again, Rick."

Her hands were clenching him, tight and on the edge. She didn't have control of herself when it came to this case, and he wouldn't - he couldn't - let it go on that long.

He'd kill the man, and he'd have it done.

"Tell me," she groaned. "Tell me. We go at him again. You and me. Rick. Justice. Tell me."

"We go at him again. Justice."

She let out a shaky breath and wrapped her arms around him, her face buried in his neck, her legs coming to tangle with his.

And it wasn't entirely a lie. If go at him included putting a bullet between his eyes, if justice included poisoning him so he died a painful and agonizing death - or any other method of assassination that Castle could implement.

"Thank you," she murmured, something like a cry tangled up in her voice. "Just - you and me, Castle. Partners."

There was no way in heaven he was going to let her get sucked back into that case again.

Even if she hated him for it.

She held his hand as they walked up the long, wide steps to the church. The arch of the blue front doors reached far above their heads, and they joined the throng of guests shuffling inside.

Esposito was an usher and Beckett saw him first, hurried over to him as she released Castle's hand. Javier ducked his head but allowed the hug, her camera accidentally hitting him in the back as she embraced him.

"Oh, isn't it beautiful?" she murmured, her eyes on the sanctuary behind him. When she pulled back, she turned and grabbed Castle's hand, pulled him to her side.

"Esposito," Castle said with a head nod.

Kate glanced back to her detective and noticed the chill in his eyes. "No. Not-uh, Javier Esposito. Not here. Not today."

He glared at her. "What?"

"You two make up. Right now. I took a bullet for him, he saved my life and broke open my mother's case. So man up and say you're sorry."

"I ain't sorry-"

"Castle," she said, let her fierceness extend to him. "You too. Say you're sorry."

"If he's not sorry, I'm not-"

She reached out and twisted both their ears, brought them low. Castle whined and Esposito snarled, but she tugged their faces close.

"You will apologize and bury the hatchet. And not in each other."

She let go and Castle was up first, rubbing his ear and looking pathetic, if so very handsome. Esposito stuck out his hand, his jaw jutting, eyes narrowed.

"Truce."

Castle studied it almost a moment too long; Kate was just reaching for his ear again when he took Espo's hand and shook.

"Truce. And woman-" He turned to glare at her. "Don't ever do that again."

"I will when you make it necessary."

They stared each other down and then Esposito coughed into his fist. "Can I show you to your seat?"

Beckett broke first, took the arm that Javier offered, but held out the other for her spy. Castle sighed softly and came to her side, allowing her to thread her arm through his and hang on to his bicep.

Esposito glanced back at them, then untangled his arm from hers, patting her hand and letting her go as he stepped into the interior of the church.

"Follow me," he murmured.

Kate walked under the arch with Castle at her side, and his fingers came to tangle with hers against his arm, his lips bowing over her hand to press a kiss to her knuckles.

Ryan was getting married.

And someday. . .

end of Close Encounters 4: Diamonds Are Forever

and now a sneak peek at Close Encounters 5: The World Is Not Enough

She gave him a look when he held his hand out for her, but she came nevertheless, letting him pull her against his chest and ease her out to the dance floor.

Castle sighed and felt the whole social scene fall away, the sense of manners and propriety and being on his toes. He'd told a lot of lies at Ryan's wedding tonight, and always he caught her smirking at him, but the lies were necessary for their safety.

"So," she hummed against his neck, swaying to the music. Her lips were soft as they brushed over his skin. "From sports agent to the UN?"

He sighed. "I had to give them something."

"Saying you work for the UN doesn't exactly stop the questions," she laughed.

"No, well. Sports agent was a joke between Eastman and myself. I'm terrible at that cover. I don't have time for sports and I guess that's something guys usually get from their dads? I don't know that usually works."

She fluttered her fingers at his neck. "I learned from my dad," she agreed softly. "But the UN?"

"It's right here in the city. It requires travel. They already have a staff on-site who will route inquiries back to us."

"Really?"

"Yeah, and - this is stupid, but. . ."

She hummed a question into his cheek, so tall in these shoes, and he skimmed his hand up and down her back, delaying. He loved the feel of her in these shoes, in this dress, the warmth of her skin.

"Rick?"

"I had to have a cover identity to adopt that damn dog."

She laughed brightly at his ear, her voice like bubbles popping and fizzing, the champagne of her amusement. "Oh, oh, Castle. Really?"

"I had to send in an application and have a job and references and - I used your dad and my mother."

"Your mother?"

"It didn't go so well," he reported darkly.

She cupped her fingers at his nape and curled her fingers through the short hairs there. "Give her time. It'll come."

He sighed and fit her closer against him; he realized he'd slid his knee between hers and she was sighing out softly and resting there, one hand under his jacket and pressing into his back.

"It's just the cover story I made for the dog," he said finally.

"I kinda love that you're telling everyone the story you had to make up for our dog."

He gave a little laugh and nuzzled her nose with his, kissed her under her closed eye.

"What else, Castle?"

"Well, as you heard, it's Rodgers. So don't let anyone hear you with that Castle stuff, huh?"

"Yes, sir," she murmured, deliciously decadent in his ear. "Richard Rodgers. Hmm, I like it."

"I work as a translator at the UN. There's even a number to call. The address I gave is yours-"

"Better be," she muttered, but she was still laughing a little.

"And I tell everyone I meet that you're engaged to marry me," he finished.

She gasped a little at that, pressed her body closer to his, her hand gripping his neck. "Oh, yes. Though in some places, we already are."

He smiled into the bright light of the ball room, the dazzling decorations and the soft music, and her body - oh, Kate Beckett's body aligned with his, her voice in his ear.

"They keep asking if we've set a date," he murmured. "But I can't give them one, Kate. I can't give you one either, and I'm so sorry-"

"Rick," she murmured, shaking her head against his cheek.

"I want you to marry me. Not Richard Rodgers. Not some damn cover story. Me. But I - I don't know when that will be possible."

"We'll figure it out. And Rodgers isn't a cover story, love. That's your real name."

"Not anymore."

She soothed him with her fingers against his nape. "Okay, all right. Castle. I don't care when we get married. Or how. That you asked is enough. The wedding in Italy - beautiful. That's all I need."

But he wanted to give her so much. A huge wedding in New York with all her family and friends, with a groom who could stand up beside her in public.

But it might never be.

stay tuned. . .