64. 66: Tuesday

66

"You are seriously driving me crazy."

Whoops. He's gone too far.

She shoves him away, escapes his grasp, and heads for the deck stairs, rushing to get down, away from him.

He sighs.

Yeah, he kinda saw that coming. But she was all over him yesterday, and friendly this morning, but they just had dinner and they came out here to watch the sunset because he thought it would be romantic but-

He should play hard to get, because Kate looked ready to murder him.

He tries to remember what he said. Something stupid. Something about her feet, and something stupid, and then something with a leer to it, and yeah, he went too far.

Castle sighs to himself and sinks down on the deck chair, rubs at his eyes. He'll let her cool off in the pool, the ocean, whatever, and then he'll-

What? Keep bothering her? Hang all over her? Pester her again?

Yeah, okay, change of venue is in order.

Castle gets back up and goes inside, surveys the place. The cleaning service comes in the morning if they're out of the villa, so - of course - that means the place hasn't been cleaned in three days.

He grins and moves to put their dirty dishes in the dishwasher, clean up the countertop, wipe down the coffee maker. He wanted to go out for coffee this morning and she argued with him about wasting the money, and then he wanted to head into town for lunch and she didn't feel like walking, and then he suggested drinks and a restaurant for dinner and she told him he needed to back off-

He's getting on her nerves. And funny enough, it doesn't bother him. People get on each other's nerves - it has to happen at some point. He likes her irritated, actually, and so yeah, he's probably been poking a bear with her. He'll stop.

He'll figure out a way to let her have some space.

To be honest, she's annoying him too. Which is probably why he's been messing with her - retaliation or something. She shoots down his best ideas and doesn't want to go out, and he thinks she's tallying up the expenses in her head, keeping track of it, as if she's going to try and repay him. And that ticks him off.

Like he cares. Like he doesn't have the money? Like-

Yeah, okay, some space is a good idea right about now.

Castle wipes down the counter one last time and heads for the back bedroom, searching for something to do. He finds her manuscripts in a pile on her side of the bed, her make-up arranged in neat rows on the dresser next to the full-length mirror, her dress from the other night hanging up over the closet door.

Her flipflops are kicked off in the bathroom even though he hates the thought of outside dirt on the tile floor, and her stuff is in the shower crowding out his on every shelf.

He turns slowly in the room, finds himself irritated by every little touch, every domineering piece of Beckett that-

"Castle!"

He jerks out of his building cloud at the sound of his name, heads towards the living room only to crash into her in the doorway. She huffs and draws a hand in a fist, holding him off with her other hand as if she's protecting something.

"What do you want?" he growls back and winces when her eyes raise to his with a flash of that earlier frustration.

But she shakes her head and opens her hand. "Look what I found on the beach."

He glances down and it all melts away, everything. "Oh my God. It's a baby sea turtle."

She lifts her head and meets his eyes again, a flare of shared awe. "I practically stepped on him."

"They hatch when it's dark-" he says, bewildered by the tiny flippers, the hard, rounded shell.

"The sun's already set," she says. "So I guess he just started early."

"Wait, sea turtles are endangered. You gotta get it back-"

"I know," she says, rolling her eyes at him. "I wanted you to see it first. Come with me back to the beach."

"Yeah," he murmurs, nudging her at the hip even as she turns and heads back through the living room to the sliding glass doors.

He follows her out onto the deck and sees the sky has already dipped into blue twilight, the moon just beginning to show at the horizon. Down the stairs to the beach, he watches Kate's bronzed shoulders, the play of light on her hair as she holds one hand cupped at her chest, the baby turtle cradled carefully.

With the rapidly cooling sand under his toes, Castle takes a few strides forward until he's at her side, reaches down for her free hand to curl his fingers around hers. She lets him, even nudges his thigh with their joined hands, her eyes flicking to his and skipping out over the ocean as they walk.

"Will you recognize the spot when you. . ."

Wow.

"I think so," she laughs, sounding breathless.

A host of baby turtles are streaming down the beach right in front of them, dark and round bodies coming up out of the sand and waddling down the shore, heading for the water.

She kneels down and releases the little turtle, aiming him towards the ocean, and for a moment, the tiny thing stutters, flippers churning sand but going nowhere.

Castle shifts on his feet, wonders if maybe they should creep a little closer and let the thing see his brothers and sisters. "Maybe we should-"

"Give him a chance, Castle," she says quietly, conviction in her voice.

And then the turtle gets going and makes his way, moving over the sand at a steady, dogged pace.

"They're so fast," Kate murmurs, still on her haunches next to him. He squats down beside her, watching the brown shells scattering across the beach.

"And yet, it's taking them forever," he says back, sinking down to sit in the sand. "They're so small and it's such a long way to go."

She sits next to him, her hand on his thigh, and he glances at her in the waning light, the way she's biting her bottom lip, rooting for the baby turtles.

"They go a foot and then they have to rest," she murmurs. "Look at that one-"

Castle laughs. "He's gotten totally turned around."

Kate turns her head and then frowns. "The lights behind us, from our room. It's confusing them."

"Why would they head to the light?"

"The moonlight on the water," she says. "They head for the moonlight."

"Oh. Want me to run back upstairs and turn all the lights off?" he says, getting back to his feet.

"Would you?"

"Of course," he answers, but he's already heading for the stairs leading up to their deck, missing the warmth of her hand on his leg.

Kate sits in the grey-blue light on the beach, runs her fingers through the sand as it gives off the last heat of the day. She watches the turtles wobble over the shore, pause to rest, give another effort forward, determined.

She can tell when Castle turns off all the lights because the beach is suddenly hazier, the shapes less distinct. She blinks her eyes and can still see the darker shadows of the sea turtles as they crawl towards the ocean, stopping only to take a short break, redirect their course, keeping going again.

A few start making it to the waterline, disappear under a wave that breaks. She holds her breath, but they're supposed to do that, they're marine creatures. They swim, they go find their families.

She hears Castle on the stairs and for once he's quiet as he approaches, sinks down to sit beside her again. His shoulder comes to her back and she leans against his arm, letting him brace her as they watch the indistinct shoreline and the little creatures moving over it.

She breathes out again, her eyes still on the baby she carried up and showed him, watching his progress to be certain he's making it.

"Which one's ours?" he murmurs in her ear, his breath skirting her neck.

She bites her lip and points towards a cluster of them. "Right there, trying to make it past that piece of driftwood."

"Oh, with all the others?"

"He's the one on the far left."

"Oh good. He made some friends."

She grins at that, glances back quickly to Castle. He's smiling too, his face softer than it was a few hours ago.

She's been prickly and closed off today; she knows that. She doesn't know why, but she took it out on him all day and then he got pushy and crowding and-

Yeah.

Kate shifts to nudge his side, lifts her mouth to place a gentle kiss at his jaw before she drops her cheek to his shoulder. He doesn't say anything more, just lowers his chin to the top of her head, lets them both have this moment to simply watch the baby turtles crawling towards the sea.

Heading home, all of them. Just trying to get back home.