What if Castles reaction to Kate's confession was different, but a whole lot worser? With a twist.

"I WAS SHOT IN THE CHEST AND I REMEMBERED EVERY SECOND OF IT! And so can you!" Kate Beckett yelled at Bobby in the interrogating room. But what she didn't know was that Rick Castle was watching the whole thing in observation.

He ran out of observation and towards the elevator, ignoring Ryan and Espo calling his name.

Soon Kate came out the interrogating room, all pissed and frustrated. Bobby wasn't talking. "He's not talking, boys." She then saw a familiar cup on her desk. A coffee cup. The exact same coffee cup that Castle gives her. "Castle's here?" She asked.

"He was. He's not anymore." Replied Espo as he walked over to his desk.

"What do you mean?"

"He means, that Castle walked in here with two coffee cups. Placed one on your desk. He than asked where u were. We did. He walked into observation. Minutes later he walked out. Upset and frustration on his face. It's like he just received the most heartbreaking news of his life." Explained Ryan.

"Or someone just told him something that he couldn't handle." Suggested Espo. Kate thought a moment.

Something clicked in Kate as realisation ran through her like a tsunami. "Was Castle in observation, while I was in the box with Bobby?" She asked.

Espo nodded, "yeah,"

"How long was he in observation for?"

The boys thought a moment, "like 5minutes," told Ryan.

Kate looked down at her watch' "oh no! I'm late!" She grabbed her stuff and ran to the elevator.

"Where you going, Beckett??" Shouted Espo.

"I'm having lunch with my dad at 12:30pm." Espo nodded and Kate ran to catch the elevator. She can't believe she just lied to her co-workers.

-•-•-
Kate knocked on the familiar door she has got to know over the years. Soon, the door opened and a young redheaded teenage girl was standing there. Her smile vanished once she saw the detective.

"What do you want, Detective Beckett?" The redhead asked harshly.

"Hey, Alexis, is your dad home?" Kate asked.

"Why do you wanna know?"

"I need to talk to him."

"Well he's too busy to come to the door right now-"

"Who's at the door, Lex?" Replied a man. The man soon appeared at the door.

"Her, dad. She's at the door." Alexis told him as she pointed at the detective. "I'll be in my bedroom, studying for my test tomorrow. Love you dad." And she walked off without saying anything to the detective.

"Beckett-"

"Castle, please! Don't hate me!" She pleaded.

"Beckett, what are you doing here? Do you want my help in the case? Is that why you came?  To beg me to come back and help you? And-"

"CASTLE! STOP IT!" She screamed. Castle staggered backwards. "Can I please come in? I really don't wanna stand here in the hallways." So he let Beckett in.

"Wanna drink? Water, wine, juice?" Rick offered.

"Water, please." And rick got two waters. He handed one to Beckett and kept one for himself.

"So what brings y-" kate stopped him.

"You heard, didn't you?" Kate got straight to the point.

"What?"

"Interrogation. You were in observation while I was interrogating Bobby." Kate didn't make any eye contact with rick. Or she might breakdown if she did.

"How-"

"The boys told me." Answered Kate.

"Of course they did." Replied rick, blankly.

"Rick-" she was cut off.

"Beckett, why are you here? What do you want from me now?"

Kate stared at the floor a little longer, then she looked up and into his blue ocean eyes. She saw hurt, sadness and anger. Tears threatened to fall from her eyes. She blinked them away. "I- I- I- I-" she couldn't speak.

"Beckett, if you have something to say, just say it. I have a book that needs attending too. A book that needs his chapters finished. And right now, I can't do that because-" Kate shutted him up with a kiss on the lips. She kissed him with everything she had within her. Her hands roamed his hair. Her tongue explored his mouth. But rick wasn't kissing her back. He push her away. Tears started to fall down her cheek as she realised that she might have missed her chance to be with the man she has fallen in love with over the years.

"What was that for?!?" He yelled. Kate was crying. "Are you trying to shove it in my face? Why are you actually here, Kate?"

"I made a mistake. I came here to tell you something important, but now I think I missed my chanced with the man that has changed my life completely. I came here to tell you how I really feel about you; to tell you that I love you, Rick. But I might as well just go. I broke your heart and now I've broke my own heart. Also I came here to tell you that I remembered what you said to me when I was shot. I love you, Rick. With every fibre in my body." And with that said, Kate ran out the loft, leaving a speechless writer.

"Dad, is it okay if Paige comes over? We were going to study for our big test thats tomo- what's wrong dad?" Alexis asks once she saw her dad's state. "Where's Detective Beckett?"

"Kate's gone. She- she- she-"

"She what, dad?"

"She said she loves me. She said that she remembers what I told her when she was shot. She kissed me." Rick explained, still unable to move.

"Then go get her dad. Go chase the woman of your dreams. Go get your Kate back." Encouraged Alexis as she walked up to her dad.

"But you were mean to her."

"I know I was. But that was before she told you that she loves you. And she the one I look up too. She's more of a mom to me than my actual one. Go get her back before she gone forever. Help her, dad. I know you love her and now we know that she loves you too. Go catch Kate, before she's falling to far down in order to be saved. Please dad, Kate needs you and you need her. And I need Kate too. Please dad!" She was now practically begging.

Rick nodded, kissed Alexis on the forehead, grabbed his coat, phone and keys. Put his shoes on and ran out the door like flash.

-•-•-

Kate didn't know where to go, her apartment doesn't feel like home no more, plus it's always so cold. She couldn't go to the prescient, not in the state she's in now; red puffy eyes and tear stained cheeks from all the crying. So she whet to the one place that she knows, The Swings.

She sits down on her side of the swings, thinking. Just thinking and crying. She knows Rick loves her and she knows she had feelings for him back. But she's broken and fragile. She doesn't want to be broken any more. She's fed up with it. She hates being vulnerable and weak in front of people. She just wants to prove that she brave and strong. But sometimes she just can't do that. She needs to be fix. She needs someone who can mend her broken heart and who's better that the man who's been with her through thick and thin? The man who's done nothing wrong than just being himself? The man who's became her everything, her true love, her one and done. The same man has become the love of her life. She misses him, but she has hurt him. And she can't live with that. Knowing she has just the only man she's ever truly loved. She starts crying. She can't help it though. She just let's out all her emotions out to no one in particular. She hears something rattle in the distance but ignores it. She continues to cry.

Minutes pass and she soon feels a hand on her shoulder. Her detective skills kick in and she jumps up outta her set and  karate chops the hands.

"Woah! Kate! It's just me!" She stops and looks up at the man. It's Rick. Kate sits back down on the swings again and looks down at the ground. Did Rick follow her here or did he just come here to clear his head out?  Kate's head was pounding and it was hurting her head like hell. She couldn't sit here knowing the man next to her is the love of her life. So she stood up and started to walk away. But she ran into something. An object. A figure. A tall muscular figure. She looked up and noticed that it was Rick. He was blocking her path.

"Rick, move outta my way." Kate ordered. He didn't move. "Rick, get out of my way!!" He still didn't budge a muscle.

"No, Kate. I am not moving anywhere. I am staying right here. And you are going to talk to me. Tell me what is going on. Tell me what's bothering you. You can tell me anything and everything. I'm all ears." He told her. Was he really gonna stay here with her after she just told him she lied to him?

Kate let go of a breath she didn't know she was holding. "Fine." She sat back down on the swings. Rick following in her footsteps too. Rick than looked at her, waiting for her to explain herself. "What do you wanna know first?" Rick sighed.

"Why did you lie to me that first time I asked you if you remembered the shooting?" Kate looked down at her fingers in her lap.

"I don't know. I guess I couldn't believe it. I guess I didn't know if you said what you said was in the heat of the moment. Ever since my mother's murder, I've been broken. I always thought that now I'm broken, nobody will love me. I'm not the girl I used to be when I was a teenager. So I blocked everyone out so I couldn't hurt them and so they couldn't hurt me. I only lied to you because I needed time to process everything that happened on that dreadful day." Kate was still looking down at her fidgeting fingers.

Rick placed a hand on her shoulder. "Did you think I would stop loving you because you're broken?" Kate sniffed and nodded her head. "Oh Kate, i could never stop loving you. You don't know how much i tried to stop loving you," Kate whimpered out a cry. "But no matter how much or how hard I tried, I couldn't stop. I just fell more in love with you." Kate lifted her head up to look at the man with beautiful sparkling blue ocean eyes. She smiled. "And you maybe broken inside, but you are not broken on the outside. No, on the outside you are a pretty and beautiful young girl that just wants her life to be different than it is now. But you can't change the past, but you can change the future. And we can face the past when the time comes. So, Kate, what will you choose? The past or the future?"

Kate just stared at Rick. "We? As in, you wanna help me face my past?" Rick nodded. Kate smiled. "Thank you, Rick. And I choose the future. I faced my past so many times on my own. I think it's times for me to take a break from It all and start living my life with the man I love more than anything in the whole world. Rick, I love you more than solving my own mother's murder. I still wanna find justice for her, but I wanna have a life with you and I really don't wanna go down that rabbit hole again. So Rick-" Kate was interrupted my Rick kissing her. Kate immediately started kissing him back. Rick wrapped his arms around Kate's waist and pulled her towards his body more. So she ended up sitting in his lap. On his swing. Kate wrapped her arms around his neck and roamed her fingers through his hair. Silky.

Moments or minutes later they pulled away because their lungs were screaming for oxygen. When they realised each other, their foreheads rested on each other and they were panting like dogs who just ran a Marathon and are in urgent need of water.

"Shall we go back to the loft and continue this there or-" Kate stopped him.

"As much as I would love to finish this at the loft, a case is still alive. And we are going back to the precinct to finish it." Kate told him as she got up off his lap.

"But won't the boys question us?" Rick suggested.

"Hmmm, you're right. Well I told the boys I was going out to meet my dad for lunch. So that's my excuse. What's gonna be yours? You whet out for a walk and when you were walking back to the prescient, you bumped into me and we walked up to homicide together?" Kate implied.

"Yeah something like that or I could just steal that idea from you." Rick teased.

"No! Think of something yourself. You have a writer's imagination. Use it." Kate strictly told him.

"Nahh. My mind rather be focused on you than anything else." Rick wiggled his eyebrows in a teasing manner.

"Maybe later or after the case is wrapped up nice and warm and toasty."

"Mmmm." Rick stared at Kate not really paying any attention to what she is saying.

"Earth to Rick. Come in, Rick, Do you hear me? Kate to Rick, do you hear me? Over." Kate said as she waved her hand in front of Ricks face. Rick jumped back in fright. Kate just laughed and walked off. Rick realised what's happening and ran off after Kate.

The both of them walked off to the prescient. Giggling like two teenagers again. Rick really did bring out the fun side of Kate. And Kate is thanking her lucky star for giving her the man beside her. And Rick is thanking His lucky star too, for giving him the girl beside him. He loves Kate and now he knows that she loves him back.

And now they are two happy people who are about to embark on a magical roller coaster together.

I hope you like this chapter. It took me awhile to write it. Thank you for being patient for this. ♥

2417 words used.

(Published on Monday 1st January 2018)