Post-Ep for 8x11 'Dead Red'.

He hears the gasp first, the soft inhale of air that puts him immediately on edge. His mind spins a dozen theories in as many seconds, listing all the ways that their life could be turned upside down on just that intake of oxygen.

Rick is on the verge of abandoning answering the text from Hayley; his insistence that she merely go home and enjoy the rest of the afternoon only a half composed sentence on his phone screen. The iPhone dangles from his fingers, well on its way to a crash landing on his desk at the pinprick of sound; just a soft rustle of paper, the crinkle of something even lighter.

The laugh is soft when it comes. Soft and full of a delight that immediately soothes the anxiety and worry that's stirred up in his soul. Rick shoves all of it away, his lips already curved into a grin though it's beyond him why his wife is giggling inside the depths of his secret room.

He would have thought she'd be thoroughly exhausted given their antics at the embassy and, then, the torture of their cab ride when one of the aides had found them and insisted they leave the premises.

He hadn't quite managed to sleep with his wife in, technically, a seventh foreign country, but the frantic, primal way they'd finally come together against his bookshelves had suited them both just fine.

"Castle, what is this?"

The beep of his phone announces that his text to Hayley has been sent, and he discards the thing on the desk with a determination to forget about it for as long as Kate can stay here with him. She's crawled out of the blanket cocoon they'd collapsed underneath on the couch, unearthed his wrinkled dress shirt from the floor though he's not convinced she's bothered to close any of the buttons.

He can't tell, not when there is a tiny baby-sized kevlar vest blocking his view, but that's enough of a distraction to make him go silent, for the burning heat of a blush to begin at the tip of his ears and flare bright and hot across his cheeks.

"It's…nothing….." he tries, extending a hand for the vest though his wife anticipates the move and steps out of his reach.

The flash of creamy skin that meets his eyes confirms his suspicion about his shirt, not that he can focus on it now. That unquenchable thirst for his wife, for the connection that they share comes second to his panic and embarrassment. After all, there was a reason he had kept the vest here in his office and it began and ended with the fact that he hadn't wanted his wife to know.

She kept secrets to keep him safe. He kept secrets about what he wanted their future to be.

A ridiculous baby-sized kevlar vest just happened to be at the center of most of them.

"Nothing, huh?" Kate grins at him, those long legs graceful and delicate when she dances away from him. He follows her without reservation, as he always has and always will, flipping the lever that both closes the secret door and keeps it from being activated from the other side. "You don't blush over nothing."

"I bought it for Ryan." He tells her because, at least initially, it was the truth. A gift purchased because he enjoyed the symbolism and the humor, even if the practicality was a bit lacking. "Actually, I bought a bunch of things for Ryan, but mother and Alexis didn't think they were appropriate gifts."

And he's still pouting about that a bit; annoyed that two of the most important people in his life failed to find the humor and good gesture in some of his gift choices. Everyone else, including Beckett, would bring the practical, baby-shower appropriate gifts so he had wanted to bring a little fun.

"Oh…." That teasing lilt has evaporated from her voice, that sparkle of amusement fading into something far more serious and reserved. "This is a great gift, it's very….well, it's very you."

He only shrugs at that, shuffling over to take a seat on the couch with half a thought to putting on something other than his boxers. His pants are lying in a heap near his feet, just an arm's length away and impossibly tangled with a lacy piece of material that he recognizes as Kate's bra.

How that happened he doesn't know, nor does his wife really allow him to dwell given that he's suddenly faced with a sleep-warm body gazing at him with one of those intensely thoughtful looks of hers. "Rick…" his name falls from her lips like a sigh, a level of warmth and love in the curl of it that ignites something deep within his belly. She's grinning at him when he looks up, those green eyes glittering with fleck of gold that only burn brighter once her mouth has lowered to capture his.

It's a lazy kiss, the sort that they share after a long day at work or an early morning that's so often filled with whispered plans for their next rendezvous. He loves these moments, just as he loves her Kate but no matter how many kisses or how many secret trysts they have, it doesn't erase his longing to have his wife back in their home and back in their bed full time.

Neither of them want a part-time marriage. It's only that certainty that makes any of it bearable.

His hands are skimming up her sides, tracing the hollow spaces between her ribs and continuing upwards to graze the sensitive underside of her chest before he's really given it a thought, though there's something continually fascinating at the way Kate's breath hitches in her chest and her eyes darken to the color of pine needles with that endless deep green.

She's already sliding onto his lap when their lips meet again, heat sparking between them as it so easily does these days in their borrowed hours where every minute and every second has to count for all the others they spend apart. And he's still kissing her when she sighs into him, teeth gentle in how they bite against his lower lip, her smile brilliant and heart stopping when they separate.

"Why did you keep it?"

Being as intoxicated as he is by the creature known as Kate Beckett, it takes him a ridiculous amount of time and brain power to backtrack. His shirt has fallen off her shoulders and now sits gathered at her elbows, the fabric gaping open and leaving absolutely nothing of his wife's body to his imagination.

It's a sight that makes it incredibly difficult for Rick to think, and if not for the vest discarded in the chair across from them, he's sure he'd never have gotten there.

But even with his very naked wife in his arms, that flare of little boy embarrassment returns with vengeance. Yet again, he feels his cheeks go hot with it though, this time, the heat is soothed by the cool touch of Kate's fingers.

"I think I know why," she tells him, her mouth skimming across his jaw with the shadow of a grin. Kate follows the path to his ear, her smile still curving against the shell of it, her breath tickling against the sensitive skin with her whisper. "You kept it for us."

It's so easy to nod once she's whispered the truth to him, the vise of fear at her reaction and the embarrassment of being so sentimental about a concept they've only approached with 'maybes' and 'what if' scenarios. All of it evaporates when he looks at his wife, absorbs that loving, beaming grin that she's giving him.

One day that smile, that complete, besotted level of happiness and joy will be the death of him. One day his heart is going to have skipped one beat too many from living in the shadow of Katherine Beckett and her brilliant light.

"I kept it for us." He confirms, his own smile stretching at his lips at the gentle laugh that Kate gives to his words. "I kept it because, one day, I want our kid to have a ridiculous kevlar vest that he can wear around to look like mommy and, sometimes, daddy."

Kate gives a nod to his words, something new and exciting changing that face carved with those razor sharp cheekbones and big eyes. It's more than happiness, more than want. For the first time in their relationship, she's hungry for it, eager for the possibility that he's placed out there by being a bit too sentimental. "Yes, Rick," she whispers, her voice colored with both a wish and a promise. "Soon."

After she's home. After LokSat is gone. After the dragon has been slain and their life is back to normal.

And that's enough, he decides, drawing Kate down to kiss her again. Seeing how much she wants it, knowing how determined they are to build their life together. It's enough to keep him going for a little longer.