Title: The Suit and the Pen
Chapter Title: Letting Off Steam
Rating: PG-13 overall, NC-17 in spots
Chapter Word Count: 1,055
Overall Word Count: 17,263
Spoilers/Warnings: Spoilers for all of season 1 of Suits and up to the end of season 3 of Castle. Also huge spoilers for Heat Rises, a tie in book to the Castle series.
Summary: With Castle's life spinning apart if he doesn't make a decision on writing the next Nikki Heat book, Harvey comes in and picks up the pieces.
Author's Note: I do not own Suits or Castle.
Harvey drove to Castle's apartment, trying to keep his mind on the traffic but having all sort of different thoughts come into his head. The first was if Jessica was sick or dying, but he dismissed that as she probably would have told her. The second about Jessica being pregnant, where Harvey would be insanely happy for her. He knew that she had wanted a family - she down played it, of course - but it was what she wanted. He knew that he was a bit defective in not really wanting a family or being tied down to anyone. Well, a few select someones he thought as he waited at the last stop light before he got to Castle's place. He drove right past though, looking around to see if he could spot any idiots with cameras. As he didn't, he drove into the visitor's parking garage and then made his way over to Castle's apartment. He sighed and knocked on the door, smiling when Richard answered. "Did I beat the food?"
"Sadly, no. Food got here five minutes before you," Castle replied as he stepped back to let Harvey in.
"You've actually cleaned," Harvey said as he looked around. "And that odd smell is gone."
"That's what happens when you hire a cleaning crew," Castle replied. "And stop being so surprised."
"Right," Harvey said as he eyed the laptop on the kitchen bar. He went over to it and smiled as he read a bit of the new novel. "You're writing."
"Not very well," Castle said. "It's more of trying to force something out of me. It helped when I killed off the boyfriend. I wrote more that night than I've written in a long while."
"I just hope that muse doesn't show up dead," Harvey said.
"What, you gave up criminal law?" Castle asked with a chuckle. "Help yourself - I ordered a few you like and I few I like. I figured that we're going to be here for a while."
"Right," Harvey said as he walked over and fixed himself a plate. He paid more attention to what he was doing, mostly for the fact that he could feel that Richard was watching him from behind. He turned and walked over to sit down with him. "So, how was your day?"
"I thought that tonight was to talk about yours," Castle pointed out.
"It can wait for a few moments while I hear about yours," Harvey said as he ate a bit of egg roll.
"A good amount of writing today," Castle said and shrugged. "I had a Q&A with a signing in the afternoon at Comicadia but otherwise...coffee and writing and more of the same." He stopped for a while and looked at Harvey. "How is everything going with talking the publishers into giving me more time?"
"We're looking into all the loopholes that may or may not be there," Harvey said. "You've just got to show up on Monday at nine am at the office and look put together. So, suit and a tie would work."
"My ties are usually in use," Castle retorted.
"I bet we could get the knots out of at least one of them," Harvey said. "And it's not my fault that I know how to tie knots well."
"No, of course not," Castle said and smiled.
Harvey smiled a bit before looking down to his plate. "Jessica made me second in command."
Castle nearly choked on a bit of cashew chicken. "That was extremely fast."
"A bit," Harvey said. "She wouldn't let me leave before I signed the paperwork. There might be something wrong."
"Could be cancer, could be a million things," Castle said. "Could be that she found your secret account and is using the money to flee from you to the Caman Islands."
"Always the writer," Harvey said.
"Only when I want to be," Castle said. "I'm still thinking of killing off Nikki."
"Which is something that we're going to have to talk to them about," Harvey said. "If there's nothing in your contract saying that you have to keep with a character for a set amount of books. But you do have to realize that the public wants you to keep on with them."
"You mean the millions of people on the internet?" Castle asked.
"More like Donna," Harvey said.
"Well, if it's Donna," Castle said with a chuckle.
"I'm serious about this," Harvey said. "I think you need to weigh what you want to do and what she would want you to do."
"She hated the idea in the first place, remember?" Castle asked. "She wanted nothing to do with it and wanted to box me out. It took a while to win her trust and even that was sometimes misplaced." He sighed softly. "And - I got to say the words but I'll never know if she heard them or not."
Harvey sighed softly. "Which is why you should have said them sooner," he said quietly. He had this conversation before and he was getting tired of it. "Richard, you're not going to be able to make her come back. If there's an afterlife, you'll see her there. But if you don't, then you have to actually live. And more than just cleaning out your apartment and making sure to show up where you're supposed to. You have to realize that life is about taking risks rather than living in shadows."
Castle just stared at Harvey before he opened his mouth to ask a question. "How are you not a writer?"
"Because I like arguing more than I like putting down my thoughts," Harvey said. Since he was done eating, he got up and kissed Richard's cheek. He wasn't surprised when he was pulled down into the writer's lap and kissed passionately on the lips. "And I mean with more people than just me."
"You're the only one I want at the moment," Castle said. "And it doesn't bother you? That I loved her and still love her?"
"No," Harvey said. "I'm what you need right now and I'm okay with being that. But I won't wait forever," he said and kissed Richard passionately. They had their fun at the dinner table before moving to the bedroom where Richard wrapped around Harvey and they both went to sleep.