The Beginning (a Castle Beckett story)

Chapter 4

The next month flew by in both Castle and Kate's eyes. They didn't get to spent much time together after he dropped her off at her apartment on that Monday morning, a month ago. When they got to the precinct, they got a triple homicide and 5 more murders after that. They were all one after the other. Just when they closed the case on one, they were called out to another. By the end of this month they were all pretty tired. Luckily all three detectives had the next 3 days off and that meant Castle didn't have to go in as well.

After Castle and Beckett said goodbye to Ryan and Esposito; they went back to Castle's loft. Kate liked going to Castle's more than him going to hers. Even though it was her apartment it didn't feel like home, but at Castle's it did. It might have been that there were normally people at his, or it was Castle himself. She really didn't know, she felt sad when she left from the bubbly loft to her dark and quite apartment.

They were in this relationship together, everyone knew that they were together and they really didn't mind; they were happy. Captain Gates had been surprisingly on board with it. She even said it was only a matter of time; good timing in fact because she won the pool that was on them. Most people thought of her as a hardnosed captain; no one expected her to be a part of the pool. As long as they kept it out of her precinct she really had no problem with it.

The time they did have alone during this hectic month; wasn't taken for granted. Every meal alone in the break room going over evidence, the rare times when Kate went home with Castle to sleep in a real bed, to catch up on the much needed sleep. Every time she went, she left stuff at his loft; there was a slowly building pile of her stuff in the loft. Her clothes were in one half of his closet, her shampoo in his bathroom.

Castle really wanted Kate to move in with him. He was going to ask her soon. He just didn't know how to bring up the subject. He didn't want her to think that they were rushing into things. But after all they had known each for over four years and missed the part of getting to know each other. They both knew each other's strength and also there weaknesses. They knew when to stop and when to encourage the other.

So on that night, when they got to his loft after the month of never ending cases; he knew that he was going to ask her. They got to his door and Castle let them both in; Kate stopped at the door to take off her shoes and jacket. This is something she did every time she came into his loft; something about doing this made it feel just a lit bit more like home. Then Kate made her way to the couch where Castle was already seated and turned on the TV. He was flicking through the channels to find anything to watch. After about 2 minutes he gave up and turned the TV off and faced Kate.

Castle was staring at Kate. "Will you move in with me?" he said unexpectedly.

It took Kate awhile to answer and Castle thought she was going to say no but he was surprised with what she said. "Yes."