478. Chapter 478

After Nikki Heat

Episode 3.11

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: I'm mad as hell and I won't take it anymore! I don't own Castle! Rating: K Time: See above.

Kate stopped suddenly as she looked through the glass airport doors and saw a horde of cameramen between the door and the stretch limo. "Castle! What are they doing here?"

Castle smiled at her. "Waiting to photograph the newest star in Hollywood's galaxy: The beautiful, talented and extraordinary Captain Katherine Beckett-Castle." He leaned in and kissed her, causing an explosion of flash bulbs from the other side of the doors.

"I'm not a star. I'm a cop. Can't we have the car meet us somewhere else? Somewhere with no photographers?"

"Why are we here?"

Kate sighed. "I'm playing a minor character, a very minor character, in the movie of Naked Heat."

"And why did you take the part, my lovely and brilliant partner and wife?"

Kate rolled her eyes. "Because I'm donating my salary to my favorite charity, the New York Victim's Fund. And before you ask, it's because I know what it feels like to be a victim and a lot of victims don't have the resources I had."

"Very good, Captain Beckett-Castle." Castle did his best to look puzzled. "But wasn't there one more thing you were going to do?"

"Generate publicity for the Fund." She said wearily. "And that means going out and smiling at all those people. But I'm still terrified of all of this. All I want to do is to force myself to do my scenes before my stage fright kicks in and go home. "

"Correct. Kate, you've gone to book release parties with me, you've gone to booksellers and publishers conventions and you even chase killers. You can do this. Smile, Kate."

Kate walked to the limo with her arm around Rick, smiling the whole way. Even so, she was relieved to make it to the limo and drive away from the mob of reporters.

"There are snacks there on your right, Mr. and Mrs. Castle and drinks there in the mini-fridge. Glenfiddich Scotch for you, sir, and Sancerre for you, ma'am." The driver said.

As Castle poured Kate's wine, he asked the driver, "What hotel are we going to?"

The driver chuckled. "Not a hotel, sir. The studio is going all out for you. They rented a home in the Hollywood Hills for you two. Seven bedrooms, six and half baths, a pool, of course, built in wet bar, and a twenty five seat theater. And a few other amenities. Just your basic celebrity hang out."

Kate had been impressed with Castle's loft when she first saw it and with his house in the Hamptons, now their loft, and their house. But, she was still impressed when she saw the rental. "Rick, what will we do with all of this space?"

"Relax?" He teased. "Play hide and seek?" She glared at him. "Seriously, they may want us to entertain here."

"Really?" Kate said, not sounding too happy.

"Don't worry. Just remind everyone that you carry a gun. It worked with me back in the day."

"Castle…"

"Or we could make sure that the beds work?" He took her hand and led her upstairs.

Bright and early the next morning they arrived at the studio to find everyone hard at work. The first person to greet them was Natalie Rhodes who immediately dragged Kate off with the promise of a grande skim latte with two pumps of sugar free vanilla.

Kate had just swallowed her first sip when Natalie asked, "So, we're you really sleeping with Castle when I shadowed you?"

Kate shook her head. "No. We didn't get together for almost a year and a half after that."

"Why?" Natalie asked. Seeing Kate was uncomfortable, she added. "Look, just about all of your relationship is public knowledge because of Bracken's trial and all that went with it. I'd just like to hear things from your perspective. In the books, Nikki and Rook slept together in Heat Wave and were a couple by Naked Heat. It was clear to me and just about everyone else that you two each individually wanted to be together. But weren't. And I swear, I won't tell a soul."

"You'll just use it in a movie?" Kate asked a bit sarastically.

Natalie nodded. "I'll use it, but who's to know where it came from. Just my imagination, I'll say."

Kate looked around. "You know my mom was killed by Bracken, or rather on his orders, which is why I became a cop. Losing my mom hurt so much, I could never allow myself to let anyone close to me again for fear of having that horrible pain of loss again. And even when I admitted to myself that I did love Castle, and that was pretty early on…"

"How early?" Natalie broke in.

"Do you remember telling me that I clearly had feelings for Castle?" Natalie nodded. "Do you remember that I didn't contradict you?"

Natalie smiled. "That early? Cool."

"And Castle didn't appear to be the kind of person who'd be able to avoid breaking my heart. In fact, he had already broken my heart before you came along."

"He did? Why did you stay with him? I'd have kicked him right out of my life."

"The first time was when he looked into my mom's murder against my wishes. I had failed to find anything in my own investigation and needed therapy to finally let go of the case. I was really starting to like Castle then. But, in spite of my wishes, he'd done the right thing. He found evidence and it eventually led to the death of the man who killed my mom. I'm a cop. I have no business ignoring evidence in a murder case just because it's painful to me."

"When else did he break your heart?" Natalie was fascinated with Kate's answers. She could already see how this would work with Nikki and Rook.

"He got an offer to write three James Bond novels, but it would have meant no more Nikki Heat books. We had a stupid fight at the book launch for Heat Wave and I basically told him that I didn't want him around. I was too afraid to tell him I wanted him to stay, and he wouldn't stay if he thought I'd be happier with him gone. But, Heat Wave was a big success and he stayed and wrote more Nikki Heat. But I was still too afraid of any kind of commitment to tell him anything."

"Any more?"

"I was dating another detective to try to convince myself that twice divorced, always on Page Six playboy Richard Castle would never be the man for me, when he invited me to his place in the Hamptons for a weekend. But, I told him I had plans with my boyfriend and turned him down. At the last minute I changed my mind and was going to accept. But he had already invited his ex-wife Gina to go with him. I stood there in the precinct, watching him go with her and feeling my heart getting shredded."

"But you told him you were with someone else? Why would your heart be broken?"

"Because the heart wants what the heart wants." Kate said. Natalie wrote that down at once, knowing she had to get that into the movie somehow.

"So how did you two get together?"

"I was at a real low point in my life. I had screwed up a case, my own shooting, in fact and I was in trouble with my new captain because of it. I just couldn't take any more of being walled off from any feelings or emotions by my own fear of intimacy. I knew by then that Castle wasn't the flighty playboy I had thought he was. But I still thought that I loved him a lot more than he loved me. I knew he'd eventually leave and really break my heart, as bad as when my mom was murdered, but I didn't care. I just wanted to love and be loved by Rick Castle. It took another year or so, but I finally figured out that Rick loves me every bit as much as I love him. And here we are."

"That is such a great story!" Natalie enthused. "I'm going to have to try to get some of that into the film."

"I don't see how." Kate said. "Everyone knows that Nikki and Rook had problems, but nothing like Rick and I had. And everyone knows they got married."

"That doesn't mean that Nikki can't get her heart broken in Naked Heat. I think I know just how to work that in. When we do the scene, I'd like you to tell me how you like it."

"It had better be fairly soon." Kate said quickly. "We're only here for a couple of days for my few scenes."

Natalie gave her an odd look. "For a few scenes? Hasn't anyone given you the revised script? Captain Kathleen Barker is no longer a minor role. She's Nikki's old friend from the Academy and before. You'll be in half of the scenes."

"What? Since when?" Kate was shocked.

"Since Castle sent us he script changes he insisted on. He has creative control on the script, you know. "

"No, I did not know!" Kate smiled at Natalie. "Excuse me, I really have to go find my husband."

Kate stormed off, looking for her husband. "Castle! Where are you?"