Disclaimer: Castle is owned by Andrew W. Marlowe and all the grand high mucky mucks of ABC. No copyright infringement is intended and no money was made from this of course. Any similarity to any other story not my own is coincidence.
Title: Cold Coffee
Genre: Castle, angst
Rating: G
Timeline/Spoilers: Spoilers for "Punked"
Author's Notes: Written for a challenge at
castleland “Hold the elevator,” Kate called from down the hall, making a dash for it.
Richard fumbled the pastry bag and two paper cups of coffee into one hand and managed to block the elevator door open with the other. He watched as the unusually late detective Beckett raced down the precinct hall and practically slid into the open elevator.
“Thanks Castle,” she said a bit breathlessly.
“No problem.”
He eyed her slightly disheveled appearance and smiled a bit.
“Good thing I brought breakfast this morning; looks like you didn't have time for it today. You know, breakfast's the most important meal of the day, you shouldn't skip it.”
Richard waggled the white bag in his hands a bit.
“I got you two bearclaws today from Maxie's. I know how much you like them with your morning coffee.”
Kate blushed unexpectedly and Richard suddenly took note of the overly large shirt hanging loosely off of the detective's shoulders and the small blueberry syrup stain on the collar.
“Oh, that's nice of you Castle, really, but...” the detective replied quickly, trying to surreptitiously tuck in the man's shirt she wore and blushing even more fiercely.
“You already had something,” Richard supplied.
Kate met Richard's eyes briefly and gave a slight nod.
“I did,” she replied. “And I'll probably...”
“Not be skipping any more breakfasts in the future, so I should just hold off on the bearclaws and coffee for a while,” the writer interrupted quietly.
Kate gave another small nod just as the elevator bell rang and the doors opened.
“I'm sorry, Castle.”
Richard gently waved away her apology as unnecessary, and took a moment to hand off the coffee and donuts to a nearby officer. He watched Kate for a moment filled with a helpless sort of longing before plastering a smile back on his face as she called, “Are you still coming Castle?”
He nodded as positively as he could and followed her into the police bullpen...