(FIC) What are you Waiting for?
Title: What are you Waiting for?
Fandom: Castle
Characters/Pairings: Castle, Beckett, Josh (mention of Lanie and Esposito)
Occasion: castleland's "Be Mine" Valentine's day challenge. Prompt selected out of love for theaquamarine .
Prompt: "If you were waiting for the opportune moment, that was it." -Jack, PotC
Disclaimer: Of course I don't make money on this stuff. Unbeta'ed. Oh, and don't read if you haven't taken your insulin - the saccharinity of this fic might make you severely hyperglycemic.
He wasn’t sure what he was waiting for. He really wasn’t. The bouquet of roses, unmarked, stood in their curvaceous glass vase on Beckett’s desk. He watched her draw close to them, gently fluttering her eyelashes as she smelled one; he watched her softly smile at the scent and search the vase for a tag. He hadn’t left one, because he had planned to be standing right next to her as she accepted them. Now was the moment when he should be strolling over to her, saying something romantic, and sweeping her off her feet. But in that instant, his own feet felt like lead. So he stood, watching from afar, as she searched in vain for any sign of who it was that had cared about her. Hadn’t it been obvious? He cared; he had always cared; and now was his moment to tell her so. But he couldn’t move, so he just watched and waited.
He wasn’t sure what he was waiting for. He had the heart-shaped box of chocolates cradled gently in his hands as he walked past Beckett’s desk. He spotted the perfect place to leave them, in a conspicuously paper-free spot on her desk that appeared to have been left for exactly this purpose. He looked at the candy, and then at her desk. He just had to leave it, set it down and walk away… But her voice carried up the stairs, and with a start he hurried on, instead dropping the chocolate hurriedly on Esposito’s desk, babbling something about how Lanie would kill Esposito if he forgot to get her a box (from the look of realization and remorse on Esposito’s face, it seemed that the unexpected donation was a fortuitous one).
He wasn’t sure what he was waiting for. This time he was serious, he had to be serious, or his chance would fly out the window and would be gone before he had time to register that it had even come at all. He didn’t have the time to waste. And yet, there he stood, hovering over the coffee machine; at his feet, hidden on the floor under the break room counter, was a paper grocery bag hiding a purple teddy bear that held a white satin “BE MINE” heart.
He had it all: the flowers; the candy; the corny stuffed animals; the cheesy lines. He was prepared. So what was he waiting for? But when he spotted an identical bear in the hands of the motorcycle-riding, cardiac-surgery-performing boyfriend who stood at the top of the stairs, leaning nonchalantly against the wall, the forces inside him directing him both to act and to wait ground to a halt and he stared, dumbstruck. He watched the smile, the smile that should have been for him and him alone. He watched the sweet embrace, watched the kiss, watched the happy pair disappear together, down the stairs and into the night.
He wasn’t sure what he had been waiting for, but he was fairly sure that he had just missed it.