This is a short tag to tonight's episode of Castle. If you haven't seen the episode this is full of spoilers.

This does not belong to me. Just the idea. Everything belongs to, and rightfully so to Andrew Marlowe.

Like I said. SPOILERS.

Read and review.


He walked down the street, her hand warm in his, her shoulder brushing his. She hadn't left his side in days. The morning after Jerry Tyson went over the bridge and into the water, she took him home, fed him, put him in bed and worked from the loft. He was mute for most of the time. A word here. A word there. Never complete sentences.

She'd kiss him, his hands were on her hips, his body warm against hers, but they'd never go further. She was careful with him. Gentle. He was fragile.

Emotionally and physically fragile.

And now it was her turn to take care of him.

This was the first time she was able to get him out of his apartment. Alexis had begrudgingly went back to school, Martha to hers; they all knew Castle was in capable hands. They stopped at a red light and Kate felt him shift closer, his hair brushing against her temple. She looked up at him, her head tilted. He pushed at her when the light turned green. Her burrow was furrowed. He was closer to her know, the grip on her hand tighter. He was nervous. He was scared.

She pulled him into an alley way and pushed him against the wall. A palm at his cheek, the other hand wrapped up in his coat.

"Hey," She said coaxing his eyes up to hers. "Rick, look at me."

He did. Slowly. And she gave him a small, pained smile at the amount of hurt and shame in his eyes. He was doing so much better.

"Hey lover," She smiled. "What's on that mind of yours?"

"He's watching us, Kate," He said. It wasn't the first time. It wasn't going to be the last. "He told me he was going to disappear so no one would look for him."

"Castle, you shot him," Kate reminded. He knew. He knows what he did. He relived it almost every night. "He took a dive into the river."

"You shot him too," Castle said. "You shot him to the point he would look like cheese, Kate and he still got up and kicked your ass. He was going to shoot you and shove you over."

"Yeah, but see," Kate said pressing herself up against him. "He didn't. I'm safe. I'm right here. Alexis is ten minutes away. We can walk if you want to. And your mom? She's just a phone call away. We can have her meet us at the loft for lunch."

He showed no flicker of emotion. No, nothing.

He was doing so much better.

"He's not dead, Kate," Castle repeated. "He's not going to stop. He likes to torture people. He was going to kill me to get at you. To watch this eat at you. Watch my daughter break down over her father being dead and my mother? She'd have no one. He was going to revel in that."

"Rick," Kate said calmly. "You need to trust me on this. You have two security guards following us. I have plain clothes following us. And Gates is starting to buy into this crazy theory that you're right. That he didn't die in that river. She has people out there looking for him."

"He's going to take him time, Kate," Castle said shaking his head. "He took how many years to plan this. Three? Four? He had to set up surveillance to watch me walk around town with Alexis. For you and I-god Kate. He saw us."

"CSU flipped your place inside and out Castle. No bugs. No cameras. No nothing," Kate shrugged her shoulders. "I don't know what to tell you, Rick."

He pressed his lips against hers hungrily. His hands taking her in, his fingers buried in her hair. She gasped at the contact, stumbling into him even though it was darn near impossible. He pressed his forehead against hers.

"This isn't over, Kate," Castle said, his voice a soft whisper. "God Kate-"

"Shhh," She pressed. "It's over, Castle. He's in the wind. He'll come back when he's ready and when he does; you'll be waiting for him. We'll be waiting. For now. Let me take you home and get some food into you."

"Yeah," He agreed. "Yeah, okay."

As they walked back the way they came, he couldn't help but feel like he was being watched. He rolled his neck, gave the woman at his side a smile and pressed his lips against her hair letting his eyes roam the crowd of people.

Nothing. No abrupt movements. Nothing out of the ordinary.

It was over.

For now.