(Castle/Criminal Minds) Drowning for teenagewitch
Title: Drowning
Author: virtual-toast
Fandoms: Castle/Criminal Minds
Characters: Beckett, Castle, Ryan, Esposito; Reid
Pairings: Castle/Beckett
Rating: PG-13
Word count: 1,997
Spoilers: None
Warnings: None
Disclaimer: Castle and Criminal Minds belong to their respective creators
A/N: I had a lot of fun with this so I hope you enjoy! And thanks so much to aurilly for beta'ing and putting up with me!
Summary: due to FBI budget cuts, Doctor Spencer Reid visits Beckett's precinct for a regular review, but gets caught up in an unprecedented and uncontrollable event.
Beckett peeled off her drenched jacket and tossed it onto the coat rack as she stepped out of the precinct’s elevator. She strode into the bullpen with a purpose, repositioning the scarf around her neck until she was comfortable once more.
“Jeez, the rain out there’s freakin’ torrential today,” she complained, before glancing down at her colleagues. Ryan was nursing a cup of hot cocoa with gloved hands, staring intently at his computer screen, while Esposito was sporting a pair of fluffy earmuffs. Beckett hit him with a hard glare.
“What? It’s cold!” he stated defensively before changing the subject. “Castle’s in the break room with a visitor.”
“A visitor, eh?” Beckett cocked an eyebrow and made her way over. As soon as she had her back turned, Esposito sheepishly hid his earmuffs in the top drawer of his desk.
As Beckett neared the break room door, she heard Castle’s thunderous laugh followed by furious chatter. She entered to find her so-called partner sitting comfortably across from a skinny, well-dressed man with dark-ringed eyes. Each was holding a half-drunk mug of freshly brewed coffee.
“You must be Detective Beckett,” the newcomer stated, rapidly setting his drink down and standing to shake her hand. He almost tripped over himself in his haste. “I’m Doctor Spencer Reid from the FBI’s Behavioural Analysis Unit-”
“Yeah, they warned me you were coming.” She returned the handshake and Beckett had to remind herself not to roll her eyes. Instead she smiled sweetly as she helped herself to some of the leftover coffee. “Reviewing the precinct or something like that. How come they sent you and not some paper-pusher?”
“Oh, budget cuts and the like. We’re lucky we’re not losing more team members, frankly.”
“So are you here to do your job or make new friends?” Beckett managed to shoot a glare at Castle between adding sugar and creamer.
“Come on, Beckett, go easy on the kid,” Castle grinned. “He’s just a fan of my work. And you know how much I enjoy being told how awesome I am.”
“Well, to be honest, Detective,” Reid interjected, his cheeks colouring, “I’ve already done virtually everything required.” He took out a tiny notebook and checked a few things off. “The only thing left I need to see are the squad cars, if that’s possible?”
“Castle can take you. I’d help you myself but I really have a tonne of paperwork to finish. And Castle, you have… well, nothing to do, do you?”
She gave him a grin as his fell and went back to her desk. Castle turned to Reid.
“She grows on you. C’mon, I’ll show you the cars.”
As the two men left the room and made their way to the elevators, Beckett called after them.
“Take an umbrella or something! It’s pouring out there.”
“Thankyou, Captain Obvious!” Castle shouted back as he snatched an umbrella from the coat rack en route.
Mashing the appropriate button, Reid didn’t wait for the doors to close before letting loose with his professions of admiration. “I have to say, Rick, the way you dispensed of Derrick Storm in ‘Stormfall’ was phenomenal; rarely do I read a book these days where I can’t predict the ending, and yours I had to go over three times before I was sure of what I’d read.”
Castle grinned as his ego inflated even further. “Just out of curiosity, Spence - can I call you Spence? - which of my books is your favourite?”
“Well, it’s hard to choose, especially with your levels of production and diversity,” Reid’s words came out in an excited rush. “But I’d have to say that amongst my favourites are ‘Flowers For Your Grave’ and ‘When It Comes to Slaughter’.”
“Really?!” Castle was taken aback. “Not ‘Storm’s Last Stand’?”
“Well it’s without question that you have some fantastic works in your series, and this is not to say that I don’t absolutely love your newer novels, but personally I prefer the flair of your earlier, stand-alone works overall.”
“Huh,” Castle smiled to himself. “I wish I had that in writing. Remind me to give you an autograph before you leave.”
The elevator chimed and the doors slid open to reveal the precinct’s lobby and receptionist.
“Heading out?” she asked, flashing Castle a smile and a fluttering of the eyelashes that was a little too close to flirting for Reid’s taste.
“Just showing Dr. Reid here the cars. We won’t be long; wanna get back before the entire building is underwater,” he chuckled.
Reid tugged at his sleeve. “You may have spoken too soon, Rick…”
Puzzled, Castle swivelled and followed the Agent’s eye line out the front window. A few people ran by, looking far more distressed than usual, and a fallen tree sailed past of its own volition. Dropping his eyes to the floor, Castle finally noticed the large amounts of water beginning to seep through the cracks of the door and soak through the carpet.
“Guys, I think we should get upstairs…”
Castle had barely finished his sentence when the door burst open and sent a wave of water rushing in to engulf the foyer. With the flood already up to their knees, Castle, Reid and the receptionist made a mad dash for the stairs. Reid got there first and leapt the steps three at a time, the others hot on his heels. They arrived at the bullpen in a rush, half-drenched and clothes askew, the water slowly climbing the stairs behind them. They caught Beckett’s eye across the room and she scoffed.
“What the heck happened to you guys?”
Reid couldn’t contain his technobabble. “Well it seems that there has been-”
Castle interrupted. “Guys, we don’t have time to argue; the damn building is flooding!”
Beckett looked like she wanted to argue but the rest of the people on their floor were starting to notice the present danger. Screams could be heard outside and workmates, the receptionist included, were already hurrying to the stairs to get to higher ground. Reid edged back into the stairwell; the water levels had engulfed the foyer and then some, and were advancing fast.
“Guys, we’ve gotta move. Now.”
Beckett tried to devise a solution, but mass hysteria was quickly gripping the office and the scrum on the stairs to upper levels had already turned into a potentially-deadly mosh pit. Somebody screamed that the water levels were increasing even quicker; Ryan glanced out the window to see a trashcan floating past at floor-level and turned a pale green color. Something seemed to click in Castle’s mind.
“Smash out the windows!” he proclaimed, indicating them. Ryan and Esposito, happy to have something to contribute, grabbed the nearest blunt objects and went to obey. Castle ran to the back of the bullpen and, with the help of Beckett and Reid, retrieved two flimsy wooden tables.
“What do we do with these?” Beckett shouted over the din of panicking citizens and rushing water.
“Throw them out the window! They’re rafts!” Castle called back before lifting one on his own and turfing it out. Ryan and Esposito just stared in surprise as Beckett helped Reid lift the second one and toss it out too. It fell a few feet before landing in the water, which was now threatening to engulf their floor too.
The five officials gazed down at their makeshift flotation devices with extreme unease. “Are these gonna float with all of us on ‘em?” questioned Esposito.
“If you’ve got a better plan, I’ll be on the raft,” Beckett’s face was stern as she put a foot on the windowsill. Before anyone else could comment, she leapt from the window and landed square on one of the tables.
Esposito jumped right after her, landing on the second table. After some brief coaxing and a slight push from Castle, Ryan joined him. Reid followed, missing Beckett’s table altogether but catching one of the legs in his hand. Beckett pulled the now-soaking Reid on top with her, glimpsing Castle repeating Reid’s swan dive out of the corner of her eye. Ryan and Esposito pulled the writer out of the water with some effort, but eventually they were all afloat.
“What do we do now?” Ryan called out.
“We need to stay together!” Beckett cried. “The last thing I need is you guys on my conscience!”
Already, though, the rafts were drifting apart, and aside from the umbrella Castle was still clutching, none of them had any means of steering. Apparently on the same train of thought, Reid snatched up a passing plank of driftwood and tried to paddle in the other direction, but to no effect.
“Castle!” Beckett called, a hint of desperation entering her voice now. “Don’t you die on me!”
“I’ll be fine, just get to higher ground!”
“We’ll find you!” Esposito added as the makeshift rafts continued to drift apart. Soon, Beckett couldn’t hear the other men over the sound of rushing water. With mounting fear at this uncontrollable situation, she watched them float out of her line of vision, then took a glance to see that the precinct building, now in the distance, was completely submerged. She offered a silent prayer that everyone else made it out alive.
“Wh- where t-to now?”
Beckett turned to find Reid huddled into himself and shivering so hard he had to grip the table they were floating on to keep from falling off. Beckett herself was by now damp all over, but the young Agent was positively soaked through, so Beckett did the least she could and wrapped her scarf around his neck and shoulders. He gave her an appreciative look through his drenched bangs as he continued to clutch the edge of the table.
“I s-say we climb th-the n-next building we s-s-see that’s over s-six storeys,” stammered Reid.
“If we live that long,” Beckett offered unhelpfully. Reid gave a weak smile.
“We’ll b-be f-fine.”
They floated on in silence for what felt like hours but could have been minutes. Reid occasionally coughed and spluttered and Beckett felt her own joints beginning to freeze. A couple of times their raft almost got stuck on a lamppost or a dismembered tree, but with a few shoves from the driftwood Reid collected they were able to free themselves.
They hadn’t seen any buildings below four storeys in a long time and had to assume that the water had climbed that high, so when Reid saw two floors jutting out of the crushing waves he pointed it out to Beckett. With a little coaxing from the driftwood, she convinced the current to take them towards it. Clutching the fire escape, Beckett pushed Reid up the ladder in front of her so she could catch him if he fell in his weakened state.
Throwing one last, almost forlorn glance back at their raft as it floated away, Beckett followed Reid up the ladder at a slow but steady pace. His trainers slipped on the rungs a couple of times but he didn’t fall. They finally crested the edge of the roof and Reid collapsed onto his back, coughing and shivering once more. She was surprised when another set of hands laid a jacket over the Agent, and Beckett looked up to see Ryan, Esposito and Castle.
The former two were the driest of the lot, and, with a knowing nod, Ryan tucked his jacket around Reid to make sure the Agent would survive. Esposito was stripped down to his shirt too, and fiddling with his cell phone in an attempt to get service. Finally, Beckett gazed across the rooftop to Castle, not quite as soaked as Reid, and swathed in Esposito’s jacket. He all but ran to her.
“Beckett, thank God. I didn’t wanna die without telling you- aw, heck.”
Before she could protest, Castle grabbed Beckett behind her head and planted a deep, passionate, almost desperate kiss on her lips. She returned it with earnest, then abruptly pulled away with a playful smile.
“Get your own roof, genius.”
-END-
Prompt: freak weather occurrence
Author: virtual-toast
Fandoms: Castle/Criminal Minds
Characters: Beckett, Castle, Ryan, Esposito; Reid
Pairings: Castle/Beckett
Rating: PG-13
Word count: 1,997
Spoilers: None
Warnings: None
Disclaimer: Castle and Criminal Minds belong to their respective creators
A/N: I had a lot of fun with this so I hope you enjoy! And thanks so much to aurilly for beta'ing and putting up with me!
Summary: due to FBI budget cuts, Doctor Spencer Reid visits Beckett's precinct for a regular review, but gets caught up in an unprecedented and uncontrollable event.
Beckett peeled off her drenched jacket and tossed it onto the coat rack as she stepped out of the precinct’s elevator. She strode into the bullpen with a purpose, repositioning the scarf around her neck until she was comfortable once more.
“Jeez, the rain out there’s freakin’ torrential today,” she complained, before glancing down at her colleagues. Ryan was nursing a cup of hot cocoa with gloved hands, staring intently at his computer screen, while Esposito was sporting a pair of fluffy earmuffs. Beckett hit him with a hard glare.
“What? It’s cold!” he stated defensively before changing the subject. “Castle’s in the break room with a visitor.”
“A visitor, eh?” Beckett cocked an eyebrow and made her way over. As soon as she had her back turned, Esposito sheepishly hid his earmuffs in the top drawer of his desk.
As Beckett neared the break room door, she heard Castle’s thunderous laugh followed by furious chatter. She entered to find her so-called partner sitting comfortably across from a skinny, well-dressed man with dark-ringed eyes. Each was holding a half-drunk mug of freshly brewed coffee.
“You must be Detective Beckett,” the newcomer stated, rapidly setting his drink down and standing to shake her hand. He almost tripped over himself in his haste. “I’m Doctor Spencer Reid from the FBI’s Behavioural Analysis Unit-”
“Yeah, they warned me you were coming.” She returned the handshake and Beckett had to remind herself not to roll her eyes. Instead she smiled sweetly as she helped herself to some of the leftover coffee. “Reviewing the precinct or something like that. How come they sent you and not some paper-pusher?”
“Oh, budget cuts and the like. We’re lucky we’re not losing more team members, frankly.”
“So are you here to do your job or make new friends?” Beckett managed to shoot a glare at Castle between adding sugar and creamer.
“Come on, Beckett, go easy on the kid,” Castle grinned. “He’s just a fan of my work. And you know how much I enjoy being told how awesome I am.”
“Well, to be honest, Detective,” Reid interjected, his cheeks colouring, “I’ve already done virtually everything required.” He took out a tiny notebook and checked a few things off. “The only thing left I need to see are the squad cars, if that’s possible?”
“Castle can take you. I’d help you myself but I really have a tonne of paperwork to finish. And Castle, you have… well, nothing to do, do you?”
She gave him a grin as his fell and went back to her desk. Castle turned to Reid.
“She grows on you. C’mon, I’ll show you the cars.”
As the two men left the room and made their way to the elevators, Beckett called after them.
“Take an umbrella or something! It’s pouring out there.”
“Thankyou, Captain Obvious!” Castle shouted back as he snatched an umbrella from the coat rack en route.
Mashing the appropriate button, Reid didn’t wait for the doors to close before letting loose with his professions of admiration. “I have to say, Rick, the way you dispensed of Derrick Storm in ‘Stormfall’ was phenomenal; rarely do I read a book these days where I can’t predict the ending, and yours I had to go over three times before I was sure of what I’d read.”
Castle grinned as his ego inflated even further. “Just out of curiosity, Spence - can I call you Spence? - which of my books is your favourite?”
“Well, it’s hard to choose, especially with your levels of production and diversity,” Reid’s words came out in an excited rush. “But I’d have to say that amongst my favourites are ‘Flowers For Your Grave’ and ‘When It Comes to Slaughter’.”
“Really?!” Castle was taken aback. “Not ‘Storm’s Last Stand’?”
“Well it’s without question that you have some fantastic works in your series, and this is not to say that I don’t absolutely love your newer novels, but personally I prefer the flair of your earlier, stand-alone works overall.”
“Huh,” Castle smiled to himself. “I wish I had that in writing. Remind me to give you an autograph before you leave.”
The elevator chimed and the doors slid open to reveal the precinct’s lobby and receptionist.
“Heading out?” she asked, flashing Castle a smile and a fluttering of the eyelashes that was a little too close to flirting for Reid’s taste.
“Just showing Dr. Reid here the cars. We won’t be long; wanna get back before the entire building is underwater,” he chuckled.
Reid tugged at his sleeve. “You may have spoken too soon, Rick…”
Puzzled, Castle swivelled and followed the Agent’s eye line out the front window. A few people ran by, looking far more distressed than usual, and a fallen tree sailed past of its own volition. Dropping his eyes to the floor, Castle finally noticed the large amounts of water beginning to seep through the cracks of the door and soak through the carpet.
“Guys, I think we should get upstairs…”
Castle had barely finished his sentence when the door burst open and sent a wave of water rushing in to engulf the foyer. With the flood already up to their knees, Castle, Reid and the receptionist made a mad dash for the stairs. Reid got there first and leapt the steps three at a time, the others hot on his heels. They arrived at the bullpen in a rush, half-drenched and clothes askew, the water slowly climbing the stairs behind them. They caught Beckett’s eye across the room and she scoffed.
“What the heck happened to you guys?”
Reid couldn’t contain his technobabble. “Well it seems that there has been-”
Castle interrupted. “Guys, we don’t have time to argue; the damn building is flooding!”
Beckett looked like she wanted to argue but the rest of the people on their floor were starting to notice the present danger. Screams could be heard outside and workmates, the receptionist included, were already hurrying to the stairs to get to higher ground. Reid edged back into the stairwell; the water levels had engulfed the foyer and then some, and were advancing fast.
“Guys, we’ve gotta move. Now.”
Beckett tried to devise a solution, but mass hysteria was quickly gripping the office and the scrum on the stairs to upper levels had already turned into a potentially-deadly mosh pit. Somebody screamed that the water levels were increasing even quicker; Ryan glanced out the window to see a trashcan floating past at floor-level and turned a pale green color. Something seemed to click in Castle’s mind.
“Smash out the windows!” he proclaimed, indicating them. Ryan and Esposito, happy to have something to contribute, grabbed the nearest blunt objects and went to obey. Castle ran to the back of the bullpen and, with the help of Beckett and Reid, retrieved two flimsy wooden tables.
“What do we do with these?” Beckett shouted over the din of panicking citizens and rushing water.
“Throw them out the window! They’re rafts!” Castle called back before lifting one on his own and turfing it out. Ryan and Esposito just stared in surprise as Beckett helped Reid lift the second one and toss it out too. It fell a few feet before landing in the water, which was now threatening to engulf their floor too.
The five officials gazed down at their makeshift flotation devices with extreme unease. “Are these gonna float with all of us on ‘em?” questioned Esposito.
“If you’ve got a better plan, I’ll be on the raft,” Beckett’s face was stern as she put a foot on the windowsill. Before anyone else could comment, she leapt from the window and landed square on one of the tables.
Esposito jumped right after her, landing on the second table. After some brief coaxing and a slight push from Castle, Ryan joined him. Reid followed, missing Beckett’s table altogether but catching one of the legs in his hand. Beckett pulled the now-soaking Reid on top with her, glimpsing Castle repeating Reid’s swan dive out of the corner of her eye. Ryan and Esposito pulled the writer out of the water with some effort, but eventually they were all afloat.
“What do we do now?” Ryan called out.
“We need to stay together!” Beckett cried. “The last thing I need is you guys on my conscience!”
Already, though, the rafts were drifting apart, and aside from the umbrella Castle was still clutching, none of them had any means of steering. Apparently on the same train of thought, Reid snatched up a passing plank of driftwood and tried to paddle in the other direction, but to no effect.
“Castle!” Beckett called, a hint of desperation entering her voice now. “Don’t you die on me!”
“I’ll be fine, just get to higher ground!”
“We’ll find you!” Esposito added as the makeshift rafts continued to drift apart. Soon, Beckett couldn’t hear the other men over the sound of rushing water. With mounting fear at this uncontrollable situation, she watched them float out of her line of vision, then took a glance to see that the precinct building, now in the distance, was completely submerged. She offered a silent prayer that everyone else made it out alive.
“Wh- where t-to now?”
Beckett turned to find Reid huddled into himself and shivering so hard he had to grip the table they were floating on to keep from falling off. Beckett herself was by now damp all over, but the young Agent was positively soaked through, so Beckett did the least she could and wrapped her scarf around his neck and shoulders. He gave her an appreciative look through his drenched bangs as he continued to clutch the edge of the table.
“I s-say we climb th-the n-next building we s-s-see that’s over s-six storeys,” stammered Reid.
“If we live that long,” Beckett offered unhelpfully. Reid gave a weak smile.
“We’ll b-be f-fine.”
They floated on in silence for what felt like hours but could have been minutes. Reid occasionally coughed and spluttered and Beckett felt her own joints beginning to freeze. A couple of times their raft almost got stuck on a lamppost or a dismembered tree, but with a few shoves from the driftwood Reid collected they were able to free themselves.
They hadn’t seen any buildings below four storeys in a long time and had to assume that the water had climbed that high, so when Reid saw two floors jutting out of the crushing waves he pointed it out to Beckett. With a little coaxing from the driftwood, she convinced the current to take them towards it. Clutching the fire escape, Beckett pushed Reid up the ladder in front of her so she could catch him if he fell in his weakened state.
Throwing one last, almost forlorn glance back at their raft as it floated away, Beckett followed Reid up the ladder at a slow but steady pace. His trainers slipped on the rungs a couple of times but he didn’t fall. They finally crested the edge of the roof and Reid collapsed onto his back, coughing and shivering once more. She was surprised when another set of hands laid a jacket over the Agent, and Beckett looked up to see Ryan, Esposito and Castle.
The former two were the driest of the lot, and, with a knowing nod, Ryan tucked his jacket around Reid to make sure the Agent would survive. Esposito was stripped down to his shirt too, and fiddling with his cell phone in an attempt to get service. Finally, Beckett gazed across the rooftop to Castle, not quite as soaked as Reid, and swathed in Esposito’s jacket. He all but ran to her.
“Beckett, thank God. I didn’t wanna die without telling you- aw, heck.”
Before she could protest, Castle grabbed Beckett behind her head and planted a deep, passionate, almost desperate kiss on her lips. She returned it with earnest, then abruptly pulled away with a playful smile.
“Get your own roof, genius.”
-END-
Prompt: freak weather occurrence