82. Chapter 82

When he and Ellery go upstairs for lunch, Kate and Dash are playing tug of war in the living room floor with the dog. Kate's hair is air-drying, curly and messy around her head, and Dashiell is crawling all over her as they fight with Rex for a toy. Castle lets Ellery down in the floor, her wet feet slipping, a little hand grabbing his trunks to keep her balance. She catches sight of Dash and the dog, and she starts towards them.

He sees Dash wrench the dinosaur toy from Rex, then throw it hard down the hallway, not looking.

The dog bounds after it full speed at the same moment that Ellery runs for them. Castle moves, but Rex gives a yelp and veers off course, thudding into the wall even as Ellery jerks to a stop inches from the dog. The toy rolls to Castle's feet.

His kid has a good arm. His kid has an even better dog.

Kate is already in the hall, loving on Rex, thanking him, so Castle bends down and scoops up the toy, heads for the squirming tangle of bodies.

Dashiell tugs on Ellery's arm to run back to the living room with him. Rex wags his tail to follow, pauses when he sees the toy. Castle gives it over, watches the dog bound after the kids, back to the game and the boy showing his sister how to wrestle with Rex.

Kate is heading for the kitchen, so he follows. She turns at the fridge and gestures towards the living room. "We've already had lunch. You hungry?"

"Yeah. Ellery started complaining."

"Audibly?" she smirks, a lift of an eyebrow as she opens the fridge.

"Mostly pouting. And then her stomach growled. So I figured it out. What'd you eat-"

But Kate is already handing him sandwiches, three, stacked on a plate. "Made you some. Want chips or-?"

"You made us lunch?" What he means is, You made me lunch?

She ignores him and hunts for potato chips in the pantry, sets out the stuff on the kitchen bar. "There's a banana or apple sauce." She grabs the plate of sandwiches from him, rolling her eyes, and calls out to the girl. "Ellery. Lunch."

Castle watches her a moment more, not because he's surprised she made Ellery a sandwich but because he's surprised she made him two. Ella comes barreling into his legs at that moment, so he doesn't say anything, just lifts his daughter into the seat at the bar and spreads a paper towel in front of her. Kate gives her a couple of chips, separates the two halves of her peanut butter and jelly sandwich, offers her the choice of fruit.

Castle takes the plate - two sandwiches - and circles the bar to sit beside his daughter, glancing at Kate as he does. She shoots him a confused look, grabs Ellery's cup and refills it with water, spins the top back on it. She gives it to the girl, then grabs a clean glass from the cabinet, gestures to him with it.

"What do you want, Rick?"

She's getting him something to drink?

"Do you need to tell me something?" he blurts out, sitting stunned at the bar.

"What?"

"Nothing. Ah, water's fine. Thanks." He watches her fish out ice cubes - she's even getting him ice - and then pour water from the filtered pitcher. Ellery is crunching up her chips and sticking them inside her pb&j, her little mouth smeared with jelly.

Kate sets his glass in front of him, then leaves the kitchen, heading for Dash and the dog with Dashiell's water bottle.

Rick glances after her, looks back down at the sandwiches she made, the water with ice, and wonders why he's so surprised. Does she really not ever-? No. That can't be true. She does stuff for him, grabs something he left or keeps track of his wallet or smears sunblock on the hard to reach places.

"Oh hey, I used your laptop," she says, coming up at his back. She lays her chin to his shoulder, loops an arm around his neck. "Checked my email. But I saw you had more of the story?"

"Felix?"

She rubs her fingers over his ear and kisses it. He still hasn't taken a bite of his sandwich, can only sit there and feel her draped over his back.

"Yeah. Can I read it?"

"Before it's done?" She never wants to read ahead of time.

"Yeah. You mind?" Her mouth brushes his jaw before she slides down his back, then sits on half of Ellery's seat. The little girl climbs into her lap so Kate swings her feet forward and wraps an arm around Ella's waist, still looking at Castle, leaning back in the chair.

He glances down at his sandwich, the icewater, then back up to Kate. He grins widely and picks up his sandwich. "You already read it, didn't you?"

She blushes hotly, but doesn't try to evade. "Yeah. I did." She winces. "I couldn't stop myself."

He laughs and takes a bite of creamy peanut butter, tangy and sweet grape jelly, flavored with her apology. It tastes good. "Uh-huh. Pretty shameful, Kate."

She kicks at his leg with her bare toes, glares at him over Ella's head. "Just give me permission already."

"Don't you mean forgiveness?"

Kate narrows her eyes, but he still finds lurking embarrassment in those dark depths. He's completely amused.

"And you know, the half-hearted apology might have worked a little better with some seduction behind it-"

She leans over and twists his ear - not too bad, really, some seduction in that move too, if he's honest - and then she releases him, presses her thumb to the spot, amusement in her eyes now as well.

Really, that's what he was hoping to see.

"It's really good, Rick." She shifts Ella to one leg and rubs her other thigh with the heel of her hand. Ellery is picking apart a banana, mushing pieces flat with her fingers.

"The sandwich? Yeah, it is-"

"The story. The character. I really - the training scene with his mom? With Nikki. I thought it was really well done."

He can't help the grin that splits his face wide. Silly and proud. His chest is warm with it. "Yeah?"

"Yeah. Hey, baby, no. You'll get in your hair," Kate grabs the girl's hand and wrestles the banana away, drops it back on the paper towel. "Eat it. Don't play with it."

Castle watches a moment, Ellery struggling against her mother's grip, the mute rebellion. Like old times. Kate leans over her, murmurs something in her ear; the girl goes still, releases the second handful of smashed banana.

Maybe just looking for her mother's attention. Hard to know. "Ellery, eat your lunch so you can play with the dog."

She glances over at him, swings her head to the rowdy game of tug of war in the living room floor, then slumps back against Kate. She picks up a corner peice of her sandwich and pushes it into her mouth.

Kate loosens her grip and turns back to him. "So what's Felix's first case going to be?"

Castle meets her eyes, takes a second to gather his thoughts. "I don't know yet."

"What age group is this geared towards?"

"Felix is twelve, so I guess middle school, but I'm worried about that because I plan on being pretty specific. And Felix will be getting into serious danger."

"Oh?"

"Locked in a freezer," he grins, then laughs at the distaste on her face. "Yeah, I know, but at least the research is already done."

"His parents rescue him?" Kate leans across and snags one of his chips. "Or he figures a way out of that refrigerated unit that we couldn't?"

"No. It's a deep-freeze in a restaurant. At least, it is at the moment. If you'd been a little better detective, you'd have found that scene on the laptop too."

She snort at him and steals another potato chip. "But you don't know what mystery he's solving?"

He shakes his head.

"Is that how you usually do it? The plot I mean. A scene here and there."

"Yeah."

"So that's the middle of the book, isn't it?"

"Could be. I don't know yet." He glances over at her as he eats, watches her studying him for answers. "Got any good ideas?"

"The restaurant people are bad guys."

"Well, duh."

She glares, steals another chip, an arm around Ellery to keep the little girl from slipping. "I'm not doing your work for you, Castle."

"Darn."

"When's this due?"

"First three chapters by mid-November."

She gapes at him, shakes her head. "That's in two weeks."

"Work best under pressure."

"You haven't worked much at all." She takes another chip, but he grabs her by the wrist, eats it from her fingers. She huffs at him, but her eyes darken.

"I'm working enough."

"You're gonna be a bear next week. Do I need to have Dad keep Ella when she's not at preschool?"

"No. I'll be fine. She entertains herself."

Kate laughs at that, raises an eyebrow as she looks down at the squirmy kid in her lap. "You finished, Ella K? Because you're just playing with it now."

"All done," Ellery says, twisting in the chair to slide off, out of Kate's lap.

Kate lets her go, pushes back from the bar a little, swinging her knees back around to his side. "So."

"So?"

"I wanna read more."

"You're nuts."

"Can you write tonight?" She slides her foot to the rungs of his chair, her toes brushing his ankle. "The girls are playing beauty parlor. So I'll be getting my hair done." She grins at him, eyebrows dancing in a look that probably she's gotten from him. Was that supposed to be sexy? It's cute, sure, but sexy? Eh.

Okay, well, Kate is pretty much always sexy. He'll have to give it to her.

"You'll have time," she adds.

"What are Dash and Rafe going to do?"

"I don't know. Dashiell said he wants to show Rafe his Incredibles movie. And you could write while they watch?"

"Jeez, what is with you and this story?" Castle pushes the last of his sandwich into his mouth, takes a gulp of water as he chews. Kate's foot is stroking the back of his calf, over and over, and he thinks she's not even doing it on purpose. Hard to know. She can be quite calculating.

"I really like it," she says quietly.

He swallows and looks over at her. Cute, curling hair and dark eyes, her hand propping up her chin on the bar, nothing at all like the Beckett he met and lusted over that first year. But actually, it could be the girl who read his novels after her mother died, read every word and absorbed them into herself, a talisman and a lifeline.

That's an arresting idea. Katie and his books.

"Okay," he says softly back, reaches down and curls his fingers around her knee, stroking. "I can write tonight."

She slides off the stool and into him, her arms around his neck, her mouth against his, a quick taste.

"Mm. Peanut butter."

He laughs against her lips, snags another kiss. When he leans away, her hands are resting on his shoulders lightly, her eyes smiling at him even if her mouth is still parted, still waiting.

"More?" he asks, smirking at her.

She clamps her mouth shut, glaring at him again, but she can't maintain it. Her expression breaks into a rolling-eyes-smile; she pats his cheek with a hand and steals another potato chip.

"You made me lunch so you could just steal it back. I see how it is."

"I made you lunch because I was already making lunch. Not too hard to just make a few more."

He shakes his head. "You made me lunch because you snooped on my computer and read my story before I was even finished. A bribe." Castle leans in and kisses the tip of her nose, even as she crinkles it at him. She kinda maybe hates that? He can't be sure anymore of what things definitely aren't cool with her. She's called him baby a lot lately, and he used to be certain that pet names were non-negotiable.

"I did not try to bribe you," she says back, shifting to the side to claim his mouth again, a little lighter, a little less heat in it. More tenderness. She really likes this story, doesn't she? She really likes it.

"It's cute. Attending to me. I like it." He strokes a finger up her side, under her tshirt, brushing hot skin.

"Shut up, Castle."

"Sure, babe."