(Untitled)

[needthepractice]

Beckett didn't consider herself much of a drinker to begin with - except in social situations, or when the case called for her to blend in. Here, on the island, there wasn't much else to do after the sun had gone down, though she often found excuses to stay late, to linger in the IPD office after everyone else had gone, finishing up on files that

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[ffyddlon]

"Late patrol. Thought I'd actually stumbled onto something for once," Gwen says, a gleam in her eye. She slumps into one of the chairs, though, and she's wearing a wry smirk. "Turns out it's just a kleptomaniac monkey, not an actual thief. I'd give anything to have a real case to sink my teeth into, even something mundane. What about you?"

[ffyddlon]

"Keep on keeping on?" Gwen says, but her morale's a little lackluster today. It's hard to keep pretending everything's all right when it really, honestly wasn't. Still, Beckett's a good friend and she perks up some for her benefit.

"Tonight, we should have fun. Let our hair down, relax. It's been too long for me, at the least."

[needthepractice]

"Now that's a saying I can believe in," Beckett agreed, sharing a smile with the other woman. The Hub was just ahead of them now, and she held the door open for Gwen before filing in behind her.

"I'll grab us seats, you grab the drinks?" she suggested.

[ffyddlon]

"What's your poison of choice, then?" Gwen asks, already wondering if she's going to stick with beer like she usually drinks or if she's going to branch out to something different. She's a little shy of shots since her Hen Party but...the island isn't anything like Cardiff.

Perhaps that's not a good thing to assume, that it's safe, but nothing weird's really happened since they'd all changed gender and sex.

[needthepractice]

"That whiskey you mentioned earlier sounds pretty good right about now," Beckett replied, nodding after a beat. She'd already started moving towards the open tables, finding one with two free seats and taking one for herself.

She waited for Gwen to re-join her, nudging out the other chair with her foot. "Last time I was here, I was eighteen. Maybe nineteen, I never really found that out."

[ffyddlon]

"What about the boyfriend?" Gwen asks, ordering whiskey and having it brought to them before really settling in. She likes hearing about that weekend even if she never, ever wants to live it again.

"Woke up as a little boy, maybe?"

[needthepractice]

"Mmm, no, he was the same age," Beckett admitted, already attempting to stifle a smirk. "The only difference was that he was a woman."

Castle had actually adjusted fairly well to his own transformation, but not so much to hers. "I think he was more freaked out by the fact that his girlfriend was practically the same age as his own daughter."

[ffyddlon]

"As he should have been," Gwen says, highly amused at the idea of Richard as a woman. She's only met him the once, but he'd been entertaining and while he wasn't the type she'd have pegged Beckett for, they seem happy enough together. That's good enough for Gwen.

"I think I would have been a little more disturbed if I woke up with new bits and bobs. At least I've actually been a teenage girl before."

[needthepractice]

"He took to being a woman remarkably well. I'm not sure how worried I should be," Beckett confessed, with a grin of her own.

"Once he got over the initial shock that I'd reverted to a teenager, he was actually pretty okay with it. Though I don't think he was disappointed once everything went back to normal."

[ffyddlon]

"Well, you know how men are. A pair of breasts and they're occupied permanently," Gwen says, wrinkling her nose a little. "Was he at least a pretty woman, more or less? Most of the ones I saw that weekend were stunning. Island luck, yeah?"

[needthepractice]

"There's a truth," Beckett agreed, clinking her glass against Gwen's with a grin and downing some of its contents.

"Oh, he was pretty attractive. And I don't really find myself inclined that way normally, but for Castle, I'm willing to make something of an exception."

[ffyddlon]

"Sometimes it's about the person," Gwen says, thinking of Jack and thinking of kissing the girl when she'd first started with Torchwood. She prefers men, at the end of the day, but it wasn't unpleasant with a woman at all.

"At least, that's what my boss would have said."

[needthepractice]

"Maybe it is," Beckett agreed, grinning wider. Talking about bosses briefly reminded her of Roy, which in turn brought back memories of the team, and it was difficult not to visibly respond to those emotions.

"Remind me: where was it that you worked again?" she asked, trying to redirect her thoughts.

[ffyddlon]

"Torchwood. It's a government agency based out of London, but I worked with the Cardiff branch," Gwen explains. "It's...quite an experience. I've never worked anywhere exactly like Torchwood before. More like a life than a job."

[needthepractice]

"I know the feeling," Beckett said, leaning forward in her chair as both hands moved to encircle her drink.

"When you finally find your calling, doing the kind of thing we do - it tends to become more than just a job, doesn't it?"

[ffyddlon]

"It does. I was just going through the motions before," Gwen says, remembering those days before Torchwood. "I was happy, but only in the way a sheep is or something. I wanted more out of life and Torchwood and Jack gave me the answers I needed. It was a good life, my life back home. I miss it."