Fic: Exposure (Pt. 6/? of The Courtship of Richard Castle)
Title: Exposure (Pt. 6/? of The Courtship of Richard Castle)
Rating: T
Genre: Romance/Friendship
Characters: Castle, Beckett, Ryan, Esposito
Word Count: ~5500 words
Summary: In which Castle and Beckett find time to sneak in some old school lovin' while the author tries her hand at writing a case into the story.
Exposure
In which Castle and Beckett find time to sneak in some old school lovin' while the author tries her hand at writing a case into the story.
00000
It felt as if her head had barely touched her pillow before Beckett was roused from sleep by the harsh ringing tone from her cell phone. The familiar voice of the dispatcher relayed the message to her - murder, address, ASAP. It was nothing she hadn't heard before and she worked on autopilot, her mind still trying to dust off the last cobwebs of sleep from her mind. She held the phone between her neck and her shoulder, simultaneously taking down the address and pulling on the jeans she'd left out the night before.
The lingering memory of her heated exchange with Castle mere hours before was pushed to the back of her mind as the call ended and she tossed her cell onto the bed. It allowed her the full use of both her hands and the transformation from a sleep deprived Kate Beckett to Detective Beckett, one of the finest of the 12th precinct, began.
A short shower, a dash of makeup and a quick comb through her hair later, she decided that she looked decent enough to leave the apartment. Beckett snagged her bag off the kitchen table and slammed her front door shut, not particularly caring that it was three in the morning and the ruckus would have woken one or two of her neighbours up. Her cell phone was against her ear once again as she got into her car and she waited for her partner to answer.
Partner.
Yeah, right.
"Beckett?"
"No, I'm Beckett. Answer your phone properly, Castle."
"You're testy this morning. Caught a case?"
"Yeah, what else? I can pick you up or you can meet us there, your choice. It's not far from yours."
"I'll meet you there. It's three in the morning, and I do sleep, honey, so I'm going to need some time to actually get out of bed."
His unintentional slip made her start and she pulled the phone away from her ear. Honey? She glared at the phone for a beat before placing it back against her ear, catching the end of Castle's sentence.
" … mean that in a friendly sort of way, like 'pal' or 'buddy', and definitely not some cute couple nickname that I have for - "
She sighed. "Castle. Shut up. It's fine. Just be there in half an hour. I can't take your babble this early in the morning."
Beckett didn't give him a chance to say anything else before reciting the address of the crime scene and hanging up. She trusted that he knew her well enough not to take offence with her curt tone - she still needed her caffeine after all. Besides, she figured that she could just make it up to him later. She allowed a sly smile to cross her features before backing up and leaving her parking spot.
00000
The flashing lights of the cop cars were blinding in the early morning. She strode up to the police tape and bent to go under it, coming to stand beside her two detectives. The naked body at her feet was drowning in blood and she was careful not to step on any part of it.
"What have we got, boys?"
"Murder, bloody murder," Ryan grinned at her, way too chipper for that time of the morning.
"Vic looks like he's been smashed to death - I'm thinkin' crime of passion," Esposito piped up, pointing his pen to the mangled body. "He was found naked, no forms of ID on him."
"So, male vic, possibly mid-thirties, naked with no I.D. Not much to work with here, boys."
Esposito shrugged. "We've got unis canvassing the area for possible witnesses, but yeah. It's not looking too good at the moment considering what time it is."
"Okay, right. I'm going to talk to Lanie. You guys knock on doors to see if neighbours have - oh God, I smell coffee," she whirled around just in time to see Castle striding towards her with a plain Styrofoam cup in his hand. She held out her hand expectantly as he approached and grasped at the warm cup before taking in a deep breath, allowing the smell to invade her nostrils. Just smelling it made her feel more awake.
"Smells different," she murmured to no one in particular, turning her back to Castle before swallowing a huge mouthful.
"Yeah, I didn't have time to go see if our regular spot was open at this time of the day, so I made one for you from home," Castle said, his voice like velvet against her ear. She could feel his sturdy presence behind her, his free hand coming to rest low on her back. She leaned slightly into it, enjoying their sudden closeness.
And then she noticed the stares Esposito and Ryan were giving them.
"Did I stutter? Go question the neighbours. I'm going to talk to Lanie," she snapped at them as she inched away from her partner. Castle smirked and followed her as she made her way to the Medical Examiner's van.
"Did you have to do that, Castle?" She knew he knew what she was referring to, and true enough his hand left her back instantly, dropping back to his side.
"Good morning to you too, Detective. And you can't fool me, you enjoyed it."
"I did," she gave him a smile and wiped it off almost immediately. "But I'm not in the mood, Castle. It's too damn early, and I think you didn't make this coffee strong enough."
She ignored his hand that just slightly grazed against hers as they walked together, letting his knuckles slide over the back of her hand as they walked side by side to Lanie.
"Hey Lanie, got a TOD for me?" Castle asked before Beckett had a chance to swallow her gulp of coffee. Lanie raised an eyebrow at him and then turned questioningly to Beckett.
"Uh, I mean for us. You have a TOD for us?" he backtracked.
"Good save, Castle. Vic here died around midnight. Preliminary findings indicate he bled out, but I won't know for sure until I get him back to the morgue."
"What are you doing way over here anyway, aren't you usually near the body?" Beckett asked, pointing back to the naked man on the ground a few feet away.
"Had to get some tools and an evidence bag. I found a shard of metal embedded in one of the stab wounds. Might help identify the weapon."
Lanie shut the door to the van and stepped out to go back to the body. Beckett and Castle had both started walking in front of her and she noticed that Castle had been subtly brushing his fingers over Beckett's hand. Lanie waited for the usual indignant flare from the Detective, but after a few more casual strokes, it appeared that Beckett wasn't going to punish him for it. In fact, Lanie noticed that Beckett seemed to have drifted closer to her partner as they walked; their shoulders barely inches apart.
Interesting.
It was then that she noticed that Beckett had curled her pinky around Castle's and Lanie nearly tripped, falling over her own shoes. Her two friends stepped further away from each other as they turned around at the commotion, their hands no longer joined. Beckett fixed Lanie with a suspicious look.
"You okay there, Lanie?"
"Uh huh. I'm good. In fact, better than okay," she said as she narrowed her eyes mischievously and pushed past them. "Pinky promise."
Lanie didn't miss the rise of colour in Beckett's cheeks, realising that she'd been caught. "Shut up, Lanie," Beckett muttered. There was no point in trying to deny anything anyway. The best thing to do was to make sure no one made a big deal out of it in the middle of the crime scene.
00000
The victim turned out to be one Kendall Torres, a fact that was discovered only because they had managed to identify him by his dental records. A quick scan through their system also revealed that he had a prior record for assault, lodged by both his daughter and his ex-wife. The injuries were confirmed to have been made with a metal pipe, one of many that had been lying around the crime scene and the cause of death had indeed been from bleeding out.
It was close to two hours after they'd arrived back at the precinct that Beckett managed to locate his ex-wife and daughter. A quick call to their residence had set off her gut instinct; Cecille Anders, the ex-wife, didn't sound overly upset or surprised over the phone. She sent Ryan and Esposito out to see if they could bring them both in for questioning.
Castle was half dozing on her desk, his head pillowed against his forearms. She'd let him be, not really needing his help for the preliminary investigation and as she waited for her detectives to return to the precinct, she preoccupied herself with staring at his sleeping form.
"I thought you said staring was creepy, Detective Hypocrite," Castle said sleepily, his voice still muffled against his arms.
"Yeah, but it never stopped you from doing it."
"How's the case going?" He raised his head and angled his neck, wincing as it cracked from the lack of movement over the last two hours.
"Unis are going through Torres' apartment for leads, they'll call if something out of the ordinary pops up. Ryan and Esposito are bringing the daughter and ex-wife in for questioning. Seems like their divorce wasn't a very amicable one," she told him.
He grunted and laid his head back down on her desk. Beckett bit her lip and in an unexpected moment of quirkiness, ran her fingers into his hair, squeezed and pulled, lifting his head from its sleeping position.
"Ow, Beckett! Stop, stop - apples! Jeez!"
She grinned as he shot up, now more than fully awake and rubbing his head where her fingers had been not two seconds before.
"This isn't day care, Castle. If you're not up for this, just go home and get some sleep."
"No, no, I'll stay. I'll just … ugh, that seriously hurt, Beckett. "
Beckett knew she hadn't pulled that hard and that Castle was probably exaggerating, but whether it was from the lack of sleep or the general adorable-ness of Castle's 'just woke up' look, she found herself grinning at him, reaching out to his head once more. He flinched backwards, expecting another attack, but she was quicker and she cupped the back of his head, bringing it closer to her and she leaned in to place a kiss on his forehead.
"Better, Castle?"
Once more, he found himself rendered speechless.
By the time he registered what just happened, she'd already turned away from him, focusing back on the murder board.
"Evil woman," he mumbled as he too turned to the board. It was bare, only filled with the bits of information that they knew but Castle knew that it was bound to be filled up by the end of the day. It was still really early in the morning after all.
"I'm going to make coffee, do you want another one, Beckett?" he asked as he stood from his chair and stretched, attempting to remove the sleep from his bones.
Beckett turned to him and nodded. "Actually, I'll come with you. Nothing is going get done just staring at the board anyway."
The break room was soon engulfed in the aroma of freshly brewed coffee. Castle expertly frothed the milk and poured it into their respective mugs, handing one to Beckett once he was done. She sipped it appreciatively and leaned back against the wall in the corner of the room, enjoying the temporary respite from the case. She knew once the boys got back with the two women, she'd have to put her Detective Beckett persona back on and get down to some serious detective business.
Castle seemed to sense this and decided to take advantage of the momentary lull in the case. He finished his coffee, barely even noticing the scalding temperature before he stepped in front of Beckett, placing a hand next to each of her sides against the wall. Beckett was trapped with barely any space to move and she raised an eyebrow at him.
"What do you think you're doing?" She asked, a dangerous tone seeping into her voice.
Her voice cracked halfway through her question and she couldn't help but lower her gaze to his lips as he loomed over her. Damn, he was really tall.
"I don't know. It's really early and I'm not really capable of thinking about doing anything," he answered honestly, closing in on her. Beckett still had her empty mug in her hand and she pushed it against his chest in an attempt to create some distance between them, but to no avail. He resisted her gentle push and stepped closer still.
"Castle, I'm wearing my gun," she warned, but even as she the words fell from her lips, she knew they held no real threat. Her body was responding to his close proximity, sending shivers down her spine and she really didn't want him to move farther away, despite her contradicting actions.
"I just …" he was whispering now, his lips brushing against her earlobe. Beckett was well aware that they were still in the break room, in full view of anyone who could walk by, but she was content, and warm and so goddamned turned on that she didn't really care.
They were huddled in the corner, out of sight from the big glass windows and for the moment, Beckett decided that it was enough. It was still really early, she reasoned to herself. No one was around anyway. One of his hands found their way to her waist and grasped it, pulling her slightly to him and she followed willingly. She was flirting with fire and she loved every minute of it.
"You smell so good," he said huskily.
They were pressed up against each other, her hands falling to fist his shirt in her hands as he forced their bodies together. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she realised her mug had fallen from her grasp, but the lack of noise from shattering glass indicated that nothing had been broken. She raised an arm to pull his head down and -
Oh, finally.
His lips, oh God. His lips were so gentle against the skin of her neck and she clenched her eyes shut as she felt molten heat flow through her veins from his contact. Their knees knocked against one another and she pushed one of her legs between his just as he applied a gentle suction to her neck and she gasped. One of her hands travelled up his side to sink into his hair, clutching the short strands in an effort to remain upright.
"Shit, Castle," she moaned. She could feel his grin against her neck, and she tightened the hold she had on him. "You gotta … gotta stop. If you leave a mark, so help me, Cas-"
"Shh, I'm busy," he murmured as he nipped her skin with careless abandon. He hadn't even touched her lips yet!
As if he was reading her mind, he lifted his head and after a cautious look around them, he brought his lips down on hers. It didn't take long before she was parting her lips, a breathy moan escaping her as their tongues touched in a wild frenzy of desire. Her other hand slipped from his shirt to his hair, pulling him - begging him to press harder against her.
Beckett knew the situation was getting slightly out of hand, feeling the control slipping through her fingers the longer she allowed him to assault her senses. Every inch of her was deliciously in contact with him, his teeth nipping at her lips - his tongue soothing his bites immediately after. She could feel his excitement, his hips gently pulsing against her own in a tender simulation of something they both really wanted to do but couldn't, for fear of being thrown out of the precinct.
The precinct. Shit.
She moved her hands from his hair to place them against his chest, pushing gently.
"Castle, c'mon… not here."
He finally pulled back and blinked rapidly at her, as though he was waking up from a very good dream. Beckett exhaled and extricated herself from his hold, putting a good two feet between them.
Beckett took a moment to calm her nerves, forcing her heart to resume beating at a normal rate. Castle was grinning sheepishly at her, well aware of what they'd just done - in public, no less.
"Wipe that smile off your face, Castle. This is not going to happen ever again," she grumbled. She bent to pick the fallen mug from the ground, but Castle nudged her and she straightened up again.
"What, Castle?"
"Never gonna happen - at work, or never gonna happen, like generally?" He seemed genuinely curious and Beckett couldn't help but afford him a reassuring smile.
"Making out with you at work, you mean?" She ran a finger lightly across his jaw. She leaned in to place a chaste kiss on his lips, before shuffling back and winking at him. "No, not happening. Making out with you anywhere else, though, I'm open to that idea."
She knew she was being a tease, but the look on his face was priceless. Eyes wide, mouth open in an 'o' of surprise - yeah, so worth it.
Beckett could tell the moment what she just said sank in. His surprised look morphed to one of devilish glee, and he opened his mouth to say something. Before he could however, he was interrupted by two men crashing loudly into the break room, pushing themselves through the doorway that wasn't big enough for them to enter simultaneously.
Beckett shook her head in irritation as Esposito and Ryan straightened, smart enough to at least look embarrassed at their display of childishness.
"We got 'em, Beckett. They're in Interrogation, if you want to question them. What were you two talking about?" Ryan asked, pointing to the fallen coffee mug and Castle's dishevelled look. Beckett snuck a glance at her reflection on the glass window and was satisfied that she looked decent enough to pull off the innocent act.
"We needed coffee. It's still too early for either of us to function properly," she told them, picking up the mug and placing it in the sink. Castle nodded beside her in agreement and yawned for effect.
"Right. Sure," Esposito drawled. Nope, they weren't fooling him, especially not after their minor display of affection at the crime scene earlier that morning.
"Think what you want, Esposito. Some of us have a murder to solve," Beckett snapped testily at him before she strode out of the break room.
00000
Watching Detective Beckett the 'Master Interrogator' was always an interesting experience. In the three years Castle had ben shadowing her, he'd noticed that she always had a plan before going in for the kill, depending on the kind of information she wanted to extract.
It was almost like a dance, a very deadly dance if the occasion called for it and Castle enjoyed watching it as much as he did participating in them. Standing behind the one-way mirror, he took note of the casual stance she'd adopted as she walked into the room and figured out that she was going for the 'I'm your friend, tell me anything' approach.
The younger woman - the daughter, Summer Torres, looked barely eighteen, sporting a dark, pixie cut hair. She was small built and if not for the eyebrow piercing, the perpetual angry scowl on her face and very thick eyeliner, she could have passed off as just an average teenager. Her mother on the other hand, was the splitting image of a woman from the Upper East Side. She was immaculately dressed, not a strand of hair out of place and carried herself with an air of sophistication that could have only been honed after years of upper class upbringing.
Castle took in their demeanour, knowing that on the other side of the mirror, Beckett was doing the exact same thing. The mother seemed almost at ease in the room but Castle could tell that the girl was harbouring some very strong emotions underneath her stoic exterior. Her fists were clenched shut against her thighs and she refused to respond to Beckett's greeting as she entered the room. If looks could kill, Beckett would be fending off some very vicious attacks from the girl's intense glare.
Beckett sat down in the chair opposite them and folded her arms in front of her on the table, subtly pushing the folder containing the images from the crime scene towards the two other females in the room.
The dance began.
00000
The interrogation lasted a full half an hour before a lawyer was demanded. It turned out that the daughter had far more to hide than Beckett first expected and dear mother had been none the wiser. Castle was waiting for her as she emerged from the room and she was grateful for his presence.
"You think the daughter did it?"
"Maybe," Beckett muttered as they walked back to her desk. "Can't do much now that lawyers are involved. Did you notice anything while you were watching?"
"She was lying about being with her boyfriend that night, if that's what you mean. She was all … fidgety when she said it."
"Yeah, I caught that too. I'm going to get the boys to bring him in."
"You know, the kid could have just done it. I say go back in there and grill her until you get a confession," Castle offered, letting out another yawn as they approached her desk.
Three heads turned to look at Castle. He shrugged. "What, you can't expect every killer to be part of some big conspiracy theory."
Yeah, he realised how odd that sounded coming from him, but honestly? He was working on barely three hours of sleep. He wasn't functioning at a 100%.
"That may be the case, but it doesn't mean we rule out the possibility that something else is going on here. What happened to being 'here for the story', Castle? Isn't that theory too … simple for you?" Beckett asked her partner. It was true, usually Castle would jump at the opportunity to create some farfetched scenario but this time he seemed to come up short.
"That girl gave me the creeps. I just think that if we worked out what she's hiding, we'd be that much closer to solving this."
He moved to stand beside her, facing the murder board. "Besides, I can think of better things I'd rather be doing," he murmured in her ear.
Beckett whipped her head around, nearly knocking him off balance and gifted him with an angry glare. "I said not here," she hissed, her eyes darting around to see if anyone had caught what he said.
He smirked. "What, I meant like, eat, or something. What did you think I meant, Miss Brain-in-the-gutter?"
She narrowed her eyes at him, and the next thing he knew he was squealing in pain as her fingers grasped his ear and twisted. Hard. She got up, her fingers still firmly wrapped around his ear and dragged him away from the board, striding past her two very bewildered detectives.
"Castle, I have to focus, okay. I want to solve this just as much as you do, and if you can't stop distracting me, I need you to go home," she whispered as soon as they rounded a corner, far from prying eyes of the other detectives who had started filling in to start their day. Castle nodded silently and Beckett let go of his ear.
"Go with Ryan, pick up the boyfriend now, before Summer has a chance to warn him. No, I'm not taking no for an answer and if I hear another word from you, I'm sending you home."
Beckett wasn't kidding and Castle knew it. He resigned himself to his fate and walked back to the bullpen, notably more subdued and sidled up next to Ryan and Esposito. Beckett watched him sulking away in amusement before she picked up the file she'd left on her desk and started re-reading it.
Before the lawyers had been called in, she'd managed to confirm that neither woman were in consistent contact with Kendall Torres, which meant that if her (and Castle's, she supposed) hunch about Summer turned out to be wrong, she needed another lead.
God, she needed another coffee.
00000
In a fortunate twist of events, the moment they brought the boyfriend in that same afternoon, Beckett knew that the case was nearing its close. The first thing she learned as a beat cop moving towards getting her detective badge was that a case only lasted as long as its weakest link.
Dan Isles was the Torres Case's weakest link.
Castle had ambled in ahead of the other two detectives, whispering an excited "We've so got thisssss," in her ear, before producing a large cup of coffee and placing it on her desk. She grinned up at him, his elation was contagious and as Ryan dragged the boy - handcuffed - she noticed, she knew what he meant. He was a seedy looking boy and was simpering wordlessly as he was lead to the interrogation room. She eyed the handcuffs and Ryan shrugged.
"Resisted arrest and tried to lay one on Castle here. I had to."
She got up from her seat, shuffled her paperwork around and cracked her knuckles. Castle raised an eyebrow in silent question and she shook her head.
"I've got this. Watch if you want, or you can run out and get me something to eat or lunch - either way, you're not coming in with me. You're too distracting today," she said.
His pout at her dismissal only lasted a good five seconds before he decided that watching her take the boy down would be more interesting than pushing through the lunch rush at Remy's. It was show time.
00000
"Where were you between ten to midnight last night, Dan?"
"Out. Had a party, came home late."
Beckett raised an eyebrow, but didn't let her eyes leave the folder she had spread out in front of her. "Can anyone verify that? Some friends, maybe?"
"Look, lady, it was a big party. I'm not even sure who was there, okay?"
"Was Summer there?"
"Sum..mer?"
Beckett risked a glance at the one-way mirror, a triumphant smile curling at the edges of her mouth. "Yes, your girlfriend, Summer. Was she there? I'm sure you'd remember if she was there, right, Dan?"
"She … was, for a while. Yeah, yeah - she was there. For sure," he said, but Beckett caught sight of his fingers trembling against his thighs, the beads of sweat that were forming across his forehead. Shifty eyes - the most obvious tell of someone who was lying.
"What was she wearing, Dan? How long was she there for? Did she get there by herself? Did she go home by herself? Start talking, Dan, or I'm going to get very, very angry."
"Look - "
"I am looking, Dan. I'm looking and all I see is you, hiding something from me that could help with the investigation. You wanna know what that means here? It's obstruction of justice. Obstruction meaning being in the way of my investigation. Wanna know what I do with people like you, Dan?"
Beckett had been glaring at him intensely, punctuating each sentence by poking the folder in front of her and allowing him to catch glimpses of the mangled body of his girlfriend's father. She knew she was being harsh, but the guy was making it easy. His eyes were red, holding back tears as he turned away from the table and his interrogator.
He broke.
"I'm sure she didn't mean it, detective," he whispered. "She's always so angry, and she hates him - her dad. She hates him, but I'm sure she didn't do it. She … she can't have. I mean, they're just words, Detective."
Castle, outside the room instantly felt bad for the young man. He sounded so sincere, honest and his reaction to the photos seemed genuine enough. He watched as Beckett continued staring at the boy, knowing he still had more to say.
"Wanna tell me what words you're talking about, Dan?"
"If - if she said that she was going to kill him. She just said it, because Frances - Frances was just fooling around with him. Does that … does that mean … "
Almost immediately, Castle felt the rush of adrenaline coursing through him. Castle was itching to be in the room with Dan, itching to coax the story out of the boy, itching to spin some wild theory as to how a daughter could ever propose to kill her own father. Beckett seemed to have experienced the same thing, straightening up and fixing a steady gaze on Dan.
"Dan, I'm going to need to ask you to tell me everything."
00000
Summer had indeed killed her father. One teary, angry, violent interrogation later, Summer cracked and sobbed into her mother's suit - much to the latter's disgust - about how she stabbed her father to death after finding out that he had had a wild and torrid affair with one of her friends - Frances.
The lawyer had been dumbstruck, as they usually were when Beckett unleashed her mastery on them, and the girl had confessed freely to stabbing her father. Summer had been taking a walk when she spied her Frances' car parked on the side of the road where they'd found the body. She'd seen her father, stark naked in the backseat and in a fit of blind rage had pulled open the door, yanked her father out and grabbed the nearest object she could find.
As her friend drove away in fright, Summer bludgeoned her father to death with a metal pipe she found sitting by the side of the road. The evidence had been disposed of carefully, dumped into a sewage drain down the street where the body was found.
00000
"She killed her father."
"We know, Castle. Don't need to repeat it a million times," Esposito groaned from his desk, knee deep in paperwork. Beckett watched the exchange silently, her own mound of paperwork remaining untouched next to her monitor. After the initial exhilaration of realising they'd solved a case in less than twenty four hours - something that was rare to come by, the excitement had died down and Castle had been strangely silent, save for the occasional 'she killed her father' now and again.
"Castle," she murmured softly as he once again pulled out the folder to thumb through the crime scene images. "Stop looking at the pictures."
His eyes met hers, and she was mildly shocked to see the sadness in them. The frown lines on his forehead were more distinct, his eyebrows furrowed in a look of sorrow and regret.
"D-do you think Alexis would ever kill me?"
His question came in from so far off the left field that she dropped the pen she'd been twirling in her hand. "What?"
"I mean, I'm always here. I'm always getting into trouble and she's … actually, never mind. Sorry. Go back to your paperwork. I can proof read whatever you've done, if you want," he said, shaking his head. Beckett sighed and surreptitiously placed his hand over his on her desk. She curled her fingers over his, clasping them tight and then squeezed.
"You're the greatest father I know, Castle. Don't you ever doubt that even for one minute, okay? No one, Alexis included, will ever say otherwise."
What looked like a cross between relief and adoration flickered over his face, allowing a smile to grace his features. Beckett herself smiled at him, happy that for once, she'd been able to get a smile from him - usually it was him trying to get her to smile.
"Why, don't you two look mighty cosy over there! Beckett, is that you I see, softly caressing your partner's hand?"
They whipped their heads around, catching both Esposito and Ryan smirking from their desks, pointing at their joined hands on Beckett's desk. She felt a warm flush rise to her cheek, embarrassed at being caught (again). Castle tried to pull his hand from hers, but she held on, tightening her grip on it.
She'd made a decision and there was no two ways about it. She was going to try with Castle, and she was damned well going to be proud of her effort.
Lifting their still-joined hands over the top of her monitor so her two co-workers could see it clearly in their line of sight, she grinned.
"Yeah? Are you boys jealous, or what?"
00000
A/N: Guh, I'm so terrible at writing case-fic. Hope you enjoyed this though :)
Rating: T
Genre: Romance/Friendship
Characters: Castle, Beckett, Ryan, Esposito
Word Count: ~5500 words
Summary: In which Castle and Beckett find time to sneak in some old school lovin' while the author tries her hand at writing a case into the story.
Exposure
In which Castle and Beckett find time to sneak in some old school lovin' while the author tries her hand at writing a case into the story.
00000
It felt as if her head had barely touched her pillow before Beckett was roused from sleep by the harsh ringing tone from her cell phone. The familiar voice of the dispatcher relayed the message to her - murder, address, ASAP. It was nothing she hadn't heard before and she worked on autopilot, her mind still trying to dust off the last cobwebs of sleep from her mind. She held the phone between her neck and her shoulder, simultaneously taking down the address and pulling on the jeans she'd left out the night before.
The lingering memory of her heated exchange with Castle mere hours before was pushed to the back of her mind as the call ended and she tossed her cell onto the bed. It allowed her the full use of both her hands and the transformation from a sleep deprived Kate Beckett to Detective Beckett, one of the finest of the 12th precinct, began.
A short shower, a dash of makeup and a quick comb through her hair later, she decided that she looked decent enough to leave the apartment. Beckett snagged her bag off the kitchen table and slammed her front door shut, not particularly caring that it was three in the morning and the ruckus would have woken one or two of her neighbours up. Her cell phone was against her ear once again as she got into her car and she waited for her partner to answer.
Partner.
Yeah, right.
"Beckett?"
"No, I'm Beckett. Answer your phone properly, Castle."
"You're testy this morning. Caught a case?"
"Yeah, what else? I can pick you up or you can meet us there, your choice. It's not far from yours."
"I'll meet you there. It's three in the morning, and I do sleep, honey, so I'm going to need some time to actually get out of bed."
His unintentional slip made her start and she pulled the phone away from her ear. Honey? She glared at the phone for a beat before placing it back against her ear, catching the end of Castle's sentence.
" … mean that in a friendly sort of way, like 'pal' or 'buddy', and definitely not some cute couple nickname that I have for - "
She sighed. "Castle. Shut up. It's fine. Just be there in half an hour. I can't take your babble this early in the morning."
Beckett didn't give him a chance to say anything else before reciting the address of the crime scene and hanging up. She trusted that he knew her well enough not to take offence with her curt tone - she still needed her caffeine after all. Besides, she figured that she could just make it up to him later. She allowed a sly smile to cross her features before backing up and leaving her parking spot.
00000
The flashing lights of the cop cars were blinding in the early morning. She strode up to the police tape and bent to go under it, coming to stand beside her two detectives. The naked body at her feet was drowning in blood and she was careful not to step on any part of it.
"What have we got, boys?"
"Murder, bloody murder," Ryan grinned at her, way too chipper for that time of the morning.
"Vic looks like he's been smashed to death - I'm thinkin' crime of passion," Esposito piped up, pointing his pen to the mangled body. "He was found naked, no forms of ID on him."
"So, male vic, possibly mid-thirties, naked with no I.D. Not much to work with here, boys."
Esposito shrugged. "We've got unis canvassing the area for possible witnesses, but yeah. It's not looking too good at the moment considering what time it is."
"Okay, right. I'm going to talk to Lanie. You guys knock on doors to see if neighbours have - oh God, I smell coffee," she whirled around just in time to see Castle striding towards her with a plain Styrofoam cup in his hand. She held out her hand expectantly as he approached and grasped at the warm cup before taking in a deep breath, allowing the smell to invade her nostrils. Just smelling it made her feel more awake.
"Smells different," she murmured to no one in particular, turning her back to Castle before swallowing a huge mouthful.
"Yeah, I didn't have time to go see if our regular spot was open at this time of the day, so I made one for you from home," Castle said, his voice like velvet against her ear. She could feel his sturdy presence behind her, his free hand coming to rest low on her back. She leaned slightly into it, enjoying their sudden closeness.
And then she noticed the stares Esposito and Ryan were giving them.
"Did I stutter? Go question the neighbours. I'm going to talk to Lanie," she snapped at them as she inched away from her partner. Castle smirked and followed her as she made her way to the Medical Examiner's van.
"Did you have to do that, Castle?" She knew he knew what she was referring to, and true enough his hand left her back instantly, dropping back to his side.
"Good morning to you too, Detective. And you can't fool me, you enjoyed it."
"I did," she gave him a smile and wiped it off almost immediately. "But I'm not in the mood, Castle. It's too damn early, and I think you didn't make this coffee strong enough."
She ignored his hand that just slightly grazed against hers as they walked together, letting his knuckles slide over the back of her hand as they walked side by side to Lanie.
"Hey Lanie, got a TOD for me?" Castle asked before Beckett had a chance to swallow her gulp of coffee. Lanie raised an eyebrow at him and then turned questioningly to Beckett.
"Uh, I mean for us. You have a TOD for us?" he backtracked.
"Good save, Castle. Vic here died around midnight. Preliminary findings indicate he bled out, but I won't know for sure until I get him back to the morgue."
"What are you doing way over here anyway, aren't you usually near the body?" Beckett asked, pointing back to the naked man on the ground a few feet away.
"Had to get some tools and an evidence bag. I found a shard of metal embedded in one of the stab wounds. Might help identify the weapon."
Lanie shut the door to the van and stepped out to go back to the body. Beckett and Castle had both started walking in front of her and she noticed that Castle had been subtly brushing his fingers over Beckett's hand. Lanie waited for the usual indignant flare from the Detective, but after a few more casual strokes, it appeared that Beckett wasn't going to punish him for it. In fact, Lanie noticed that Beckett seemed to have drifted closer to her partner as they walked; their shoulders barely inches apart.
Interesting.
It was then that she noticed that Beckett had curled her pinky around Castle's and Lanie nearly tripped, falling over her own shoes. Her two friends stepped further away from each other as they turned around at the commotion, their hands no longer joined. Beckett fixed Lanie with a suspicious look.
"You okay there, Lanie?"
"Uh huh. I'm good. In fact, better than okay," she said as she narrowed her eyes mischievously and pushed past them. "Pinky promise."
Lanie didn't miss the rise of colour in Beckett's cheeks, realising that she'd been caught. "Shut up, Lanie," Beckett muttered. There was no point in trying to deny anything anyway. The best thing to do was to make sure no one made a big deal out of it in the middle of the crime scene.
00000
The victim turned out to be one Kendall Torres, a fact that was discovered only because they had managed to identify him by his dental records. A quick scan through their system also revealed that he had a prior record for assault, lodged by both his daughter and his ex-wife. The injuries were confirmed to have been made with a metal pipe, one of many that had been lying around the crime scene and the cause of death had indeed been from bleeding out.
It was close to two hours after they'd arrived back at the precinct that Beckett managed to locate his ex-wife and daughter. A quick call to their residence had set off her gut instinct; Cecille Anders, the ex-wife, didn't sound overly upset or surprised over the phone. She sent Ryan and Esposito out to see if they could bring them both in for questioning.
Castle was half dozing on her desk, his head pillowed against his forearms. She'd let him be, not really needing his help for the preliminary investigation and as she waited for her detectives to return to the precinct, she preoccupied herself with staring at his sleeping form.
"I thought you said staring was creepy, Detective Hypocrite," Castle said sleepily, his voice still muffled against his arms.
"Yeah, but it never stopped you from doing it."
"How's the case going?" He raised his head and angled his neck, wincing as it cracked from the lack of movement over the last two hours.
"Unis are going through Torres' apartment for leads, they'll call if something out of the ordinary pops up. Ryan and Esposito are bringing the daughter and ex-wife in for questioning. Seems like their divorce wasn't a very amicable one," she told him.
He grunted and laid his head back down on her desk. Beckett bit her lip and in an unexpected moment of quirkiness, ran her fingers into his hair, squeezed and pulled, lifting his head from its sleeping position.
"Ow, Beckett! Stop, stop - apples! Jeez!"
She grinned as he shot up, now more than fully awake and rubbing his head where her fingers had been not two seconds before.
"This isn't day care, Castle. If you're not up for this, just go home and get some sleep."
"No, no, I'll stay. I'll just … ugh, that seriously hurt, Beckett. "
Beckett knew she hadn't pulled that hard and that Castle was probably exaggerating, but whether it was from the lack of sleep or the general adorable-ness of Castle's 'just woke up' look, she found herself grinning at him, reaching out to his head once more. He flinched backwards, expecting another attack, but she was quicker and she cupped the back of his head, bringing it closer to her and she leaned in to place a kiss on his forehead.
"Better, Castle?"
Once more, he found himself rendered speechless.
By the time he registered what just happened, she'd already turned away from him, focusing back on the murder board.
"Evil woman," he mumbled as he too turned to the board. It was bare, only filled with the bits of information that they knew but Castle knew that it was bound to be filled up by the end of the day. It was still really early in the morning after all.
"I'm going to make coffee, do you want another one, Beckett?" he asked as he stood from his chair and stretched, attempting to remove the sleep from his bones.
Beckett turned to him and nodded. "Actually, I'll come with you. Nothing is going get done just staring at the board anyway."
The break room was soon engulfed in the aroma of freshly brewed coffee. Castle expertly frothed the milk and poured it into their respective mugs, handing one to Beckett once he was done. She sipped it appreciatively and leaned back against the wall in the corner of the room, enjoying the temporary respite from the case. She knew once the boys got back with the two women, she'd have to put her Detective Beckett persona back on and get down to some serious detective business.
Castle seemed to sense this and decided to take advantage of the momentary lull in the case. He finished his coffee, barely even noticing the scalding temperature before he stepped in front of Beckett, placing a hand next to each of her sides against the wall. Beckett was trapped with barely any space to move and she raised an eyebrow at him.
"What do you think you're doing?" She asked, a dangerous tone seeping into her voice.
Her voice cracked halfway through her question and she couldn't help but lower her gaze to his lips as he loomed over her. Damn, he was really tall.
"I don't know. It's really early and I'm not really capable of thinking about doing anything," he answered honestly, closing in on her. Beckett still had her empty mug in her hand and she pushed it against his chest in an attempt to create some distance between them, but to no avail. He resisted her gentle push and stepped closer still.
"Castle, I'm wearing my gun," she warned, but even as she the words fell from her lips, she knew they held no real threat. Her body was responding to his close proximity, sending shivers down her spine and she really didn't want him to move farther away, despite her contradicting actions.
"I just …" he was whispering now, his lips brushing against her earlobe. Beckett was well aware that they were still in the break room, in full view of anyone who could walk by, but she was content, and warm and so goddamned turned on that she didn't really care.
They were huddled in the corner, out of sight from the big glass windows and for the moment, Beckett decided that it was enough. It was still really early, she reasoned to herself. No one was around anyway. One of his hands found their way to her waist and grasped it, pulling her slightly to him and she followed willingly. She was flirting with fire and she loved every minute of it.
"You smell so good," he said huskily.
They were pressed up against each other, her hands falling to fist his shirt in her hands as he forced their bodies together. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she realised her mug had fallen from her grasp, but the lack of noise from shattering glass indicated that nothing had been broken. She raised an arm to pull his head down and -
Oh, finally.
His lips, oh God. His lips were so gentle against the skin of her neck and she clenched her eyes shut as she felt molten heat flow through her veins from his contact. Their knees knocked against one another and she pushed one of her legs between his just as he applied a gentle suction to her neck and she gasped. One of her hands travelled up his side to sink into his hair, clutching the short strands in an effort to remain upright.
"Shit, Castle," she moaned. She could feel his grin against her neck, and she tightened the hold she had on him. "You gotta … gotta stop. If you leave a mark, so help me, Cas-"
"Shh, I'm busy," he murmured as he nipped her skin with careless abandon. He hadn't even touched her lips yet!
As if he was reading her mind, he lifted his head and after a cautious look around them, he brought his lips down on hers. It didn't take long before she was parting her lips, a breathy moan escaping her as their tongues touched in a wild frenzy of desire. Her other hand slipped from his shirt to his hair, pulling him - begging him to press harder against her.
Beckett knew the situation was getting slightly out of hand, feeling the control slipping through her fingers the longer she allowed him to assault her senses. Every inch of her was deliciously in contact with him, his teeth nipping at her lips - his tongue soothing his bites immediately after. She could feel his excitement, his hips gently pulsing against her own in a tender simulation of something they both really wanted to do but couldn't, for fear of being thrown out of the precinct.
The precinct. Shit.
She moved her hands from his hair to place them against his chest, pushing gently.
"Castle, c'mon… not here."
He finally pulled back and blinked rapidly at her, as though he was waking up from a very good dream. Beckett exhaled and extricated herself from his hold, putting a good two feet between them.
Beckett took a moment to calm her nerves, forcing her heart to resume beating at a normal rate. Castle was grinning sheepishly at her, well aware of what they'd just done - in public, no less.
"Wipe that smile off your face, Castle. This is not going to happen ever again," she grumbled. She bent to pick the fallen mug from the ground, but Castle nudged her and she straightened up again.
"What, Castle?"
"Never gonna happen - at work, or never gonna happen, like generally?" He seemed genuinely curious and Beckett couldn't help but afford him a reassuring smile.
"Making out with you at work, you mean?" She ran a finger lightly across his jaw. She leaned in to place a chaste kiss on his lips, before shuffling back and winking at him. "No, not happening. Making out with you anywhere else, though, I'm open to that idea."
She knew she was being a tease, but the look on his face was priceless. Eyes wide, mouth open in an 'o' of surprise - yeah, so worth it.
Beckett could tell the moment what she just said sank in. His surprised look morphed to one of devilish glee, and he opened his mouth to say something. Before he could however, he was interrupted by two men crashing loudly into the break room, pushing themselves through the doorway that wasn't big enough for them to enter simultaneously.
Beckett shook her head in irritation as Esposito and Ryan straightened, smart enough to at least look embarrassed at their display of childishness.
"We got 'em, Beckett. They're in Interrogation, if you want to question them. What were you two talking about?" Ryan asked, pointing to the fallen coffee mug and Castle's dishevelled look. Beckett snuck a glance at her reflection on the glass window and was satisfied that she looked decent enough to pull off the innocent act.
"We needed coffee. It's still too early for either of us to function properly," she told them, picking up the mug and placing it in the sink. Castle nodded beside her in agreement and yawned for effect.
"Right. Sure," Esposito drawled. Nope, they weren't fooling him, especially not after their minor display of affection at the crime scene earlier that morning.
"Think what you want, Esposito. Some of us have a murder to solve," Beckett snapped testily at him before she strode out of the break room.
00000
Watching Detective Beckett the 'Master Interrogator' was always an interesting experience. In the three years Castle had ben shadowing her, he'd noticed that she always had a plan before going in for the kill, depending on the kind of information she wanted to extract.
It was almost like a dance, a very deadly dance if the occasion called for it and Castle enjoyed watching it as much as he did participating in them. Standing behind the one-way mirror, he took note of the casual stance she'd adopted as she walked into the room and figured out that she was going for the 'I'm your friend, tell me anything' approach.
The younger woman - the daughter, Summer Torres, looked barely eighteen, sporting a dark, pixie cut hair. She was small built and if not for the eyebrow piercing, the perpetual angry scowl on her face and very thick eyeliner, she could have passed off as just an average teenager. Her mother on the other hand, was the splitting image of a woman from the Upper East Side. She was immaculately dressed, not a strand of hair out of place and carried herself with an air of sophistication that could have only been honed after years of upper class upbringing.
Castle took in their demeanour, knowing that on the other side of the mirror, Beckett was doing the exact same thing. The mother seemed almost at ease in the room but Castle could tell that the girl was harbouring some very strong emotions underneath her stoic exterior. Her fists were clenched shut against her thighs and she refused to respond to Beckett's greeting as she entered the room. If looks could kill, Beckett would be fending off some very vicious attacks from the girl's intense glare.
Beckett sat down in the chair opposite them and folded her arms in front of her on the table, subtly pushing the folder containing the images from the crime scene towards the two other females in the room.
The dance began.
00000
The interrogation lasted a full half an hour before a lawyer was demanded. It turned out that the daughter had far more to hide than Beckett first expected and dear mother had been none the wiser. Castle was waiting for her as she emerged from the room and she was grateful for his presence.
"You think the daughter did it?"
"Maybe," Beckett muttered as they walked back to her desk. "Can't do much now that lawyers are involved. Did you notice anything while you were watching?"
"She was lying about being with her boyfriend that night, if that's what you mean. She was all … fidgety when she said it."
"Yeah, I caught that too. I'm going to get the boys to bring him in."
"You know, the kid could have just done it. I say go back in there and grill her until you get a confession," Castle offered, letting out another yawn as they approached her desk.
Three heads turned to look at Castle. He shrugged. "What, you can't expect every killer to be part of some big conspiracy theory."
Yeah, he realised how odd that sounded coming from him, but honestly? He was working on barely three hours of sleep. He wasn't functioning at a 100%.
"That may be the case, but it doesn't mean we rule out the possibility that something else is going on here. What happened to being 'here for the story', Castle? Isn't that theory too … simple for you?" Beckett asked her partner. It was true, usually Castle would jump at the opportunity to create some farfetched scenario but this time he seemed to come up short.
"That girl gave me the creeps. I just think that if we worked out what she's hiding, we'd be that much closer to solving this."
He moved to stand beside her, facing the murder board. "Besides, I can think of better things I'd rather be doing," he murmured in her ear.
Beckett whipped her head around, nearly knocking him off balance and gifted him with an angry glare. "I said not here," she hissed, her eyes darting around to see if anyone had caught what he said.
He smirked. "What, I meant like, eat, or something. What did you think I meant, Miss Brain-in-the-gutter?"
She narrowed her eyes at him, and the next thing he knew he was squealing in pain as her fingers grasped his ear and twisted. Hard. She got up, her fingers still firmly wrapped around his ear and dragged him away from the board, striding past her two very bewildered detectives.
"Castle, I have to focus, okay. I want to solve this just as much as you do, and if you can't stop distracting me, I need you to go home," she whispered as soon as they rounded a corner, far from prying eyes of the other detectives who had started filling in to start their day. Castle nodded silently and Beckett let go of his ear.
"Go with Ryan, pick up the boyfriend now, before Summer has a chance to warn him. No, I'm not taking no for an answer and if I hear another word from you, I'm sending you home."
Beckett wasn't kidding and Castle knew it. He resigned himself to his fate and walked back to the bullpen, notably more subdued and sidled up next to Ryan and Esposito. Beckett watched him sulking away in amusement before she picked up the file she'd left on her desk and started re-reading it.
Before the lawyers had been called in, she'd managed to confirm that neither woman were in consistent contact with Kendall Torres, which meant that if her (and Castle's, she supposed) hunch about Summer turned out to be wrong, she needed another lead.
God, she needed another coffee.
00000
In a fortunate twist of events, the moment they brought the boyfriend in that same afternoon, Beckett knew that the case was nearing its close. The first thing she learned as a beat cop moving towards getting her detective badge was that a case only lasted as long as its weakest link.
Dan Isles was the Torres Case's weakest link.
Castle had ambled in ahead of the other two detectives, whispering an excited "We've so got thisssss," in her ear, before producing a large cup of coffee and placing it on her desk. She grinned up at him, his elation was contagious and as Ryan dragged the boy - handcuffed - she noticed, she knew what he meant. He was a seedy looking boy and was simpering wordlessly as he was lead to the interrogation room. She eyed the handcuffs and Ryan shrugged.
"Resisted arrest and tried to lay one on Castle here. I had to."
She got up from her seat, shuffled her paperwork around and cracked her knuckles. Castle raised an eyebrow in silent question and she shook her head.
"I've got this. Watch if you want, or you can run out and get me something to eat or lunch - either way, you're not coming in with me. You're too distracting today," she said.
His pout at her dismissal only lasted a good five seconds before he decided that watching her take the boy down would be more interesting than pushing through the lunch rush at Remy's. It was show time.
00000
"Where were you between ten to midnight last night, Dan?"
"Out. Had a party, came home late."
Beckett raised an eyebrow, but didn't let her eyes leave the folder she had spread out in front of her. "Can anyone verify that? Some friends, maybe?"
"Look, lady, it was a big party. I'm not even sure who was there, okay?"
"Was Summer there?"
"Sum..mer?"
Beckett risked a glance at the one-way mirror, a triumphant smile curling at the edges of her mouth. "Yes, your girlfriend, Summer. Was she there? I'm sure you'd remember if she was there, right, Dan?"
"She … was, for a while. Yeah, yeah - she was there. For sure," he said, but Beckett caught sight of his fingers trembling against his thighs, the beads of sweat that were forming across his forehead. Shifty eyes - the most obvious tell of someone who was lying.
"What was she wearing, Dan? How long was she there for? Did she get there by herself? Did she go home by herself? Start talking, Dan, or I'm going to get very, very angry."
"Look - "
"I am looking, Dan. I'm looking and all I see is you, hiding something from me that could help with the investigation. You wanna know what that means here? It's obstruction of justice. Obstruction meaning being in the way of my investigation. Wanna know what I do with people like you, Dan?"
Beckett had been glaring at him intensely, punctuating each sentence by poking the folder in front of her and allowing him to catch glimpses of the mangled body of his girlfriend's father. She knew she was being harsh, but the guy was making it easy. His eyes were red, holding back tears as he turned away from the table and his interrogator.
He broke.
"I'm sure she didn't mean it, detective," he whispered. "She's always so angry, and she hates him - her dad. She hates him, but I'm sure she didn't do it. She … she can't have. I mean, they're just words, Detective."
Castle, outside the room instantly felt bad for the young man. He sounded so sincere, honest and his reaction to the photos seemed genuine enough. He watched as Beckett continued staring at the boy, knowing he still had more to say.
"Wanna tell me what words you're talking about, Dan?"
"If - if she said that she was going to kill him. She just said it, because Frances - Frances was just fooling around with him. Does that … does that mean … "
Almost immediately, Castle felt the rush of adrenaline coursing through him. Castle was itching to be in the room with Dan, itching to coax the story out of the boy, itching to spin some wild theory as to how a daughter could ever propose to kill her own father. Beckett seemed to have experienced the same thing, straightening up and fixing a steady gaze on Dan.
"Dan, I'm going to need to ask you to tell me everything."
00000
Summer had indeed killed her father. One teary, angry, violent interrogation later, Summer cracked and sobbed into her mother's suit - much to the latter's disgust - about how she stabbed her father to death after finding out that he had had a wild and torrid affair with one of her friends - Frances.
The lawyer had been dumbstruck, as they usually were when Beckett unleashed her mastery on them, and the girl had confessed freely to stabbing her father. Summer had been taking a walk when she spied her Frances' car parked on the side of the road where they'd found the body. She'd seen her father, stark naked in the backseat and in a fit of blind rage had pulled open the door, yanked her father out and grabbed the nearest object she could find.
As her friend drove away in fright, Summer bludgeoned her father to death with a metal pipe she found sitting by the side of the road. The evidence had been disposed of carefully, dumped into a sewage drain down the street where the body was found.
00000
"She killed her father."
"We know, Castle. Don't need to repeat it a million times," Esposito groaned from his desk, knee deep in paperwork. Beckett watched the exchange silently, her own mound of paperwork remaining untouched next to her monitor. After the initial exhilaration of realising they'd solved a case in less than twenty four hours - something that was rare to come by, the excitement had died down and Castle had been strangely silent, save for the occasional 'she killed her father' now and again.
"Castle," she murmured softly as he once again pulled out the folder to thumb through the crime scene images. "Stop looking at the pictures."
His eyes met hers, and she was mildly shocked to see the sadness in them. The frown lines on his forehead were more distinct, his eyebrows furrowed in a look of sorrow and regret.
"D-do you think Alexis would ever kill me?"
His question came in from so far off the left field that she dropped the pen she'd been twirling in her hand. "What?"
"I mean, I'm always here. I'm always getting into trouble and she's … actually, never mind. Sorry. Go back to your paperwork. I can proof read whatever you've done, if you want," he said, shaking his head. Beckett sighed and surreptitiously placed his hand over his on her desk. She curled her fingers over his, clasping them tight and then squeezed.
"You're the greatest father I know, Castle. Don't you ever doubt that even for one minute, okay? No one, Alexis included, will ever say otherwise."
What looked like a cross between relief and adoration flickered over his face, allowing a smile to grace his features. Beckett herself smiled at him, happy that for once, she'd been able to get a smile from him - usually it was him trying to get her to smile.
"Why, don't you two look mighty cosy over there! Beckett, is that you I see, softly caressing your partner's hand?"
They whipped their heads around, catching both Esposito and Ryan smirking from their desks, pointing at their joined hands on Beckett's desk. She felt a warm flush rise to her cheek, embarrassed at being caught (again). Castle tried to pull his hand from hers, but she held on, tightening her grip on it.
She'd made a decision and there was no two ways about it. She was going to try with Castle, and she was damned well going to be proud of her effort.
Lifting their still-joined hands over the top of her monitor so her two co-workers could see it clearly in their line of sight, she grinned.
"Yeah? Are you boys jealous, or what?"
00000
A/N: Guh, I'm so terrible at writing case-fic. Hope you enjoyed this though :)