Yeah, so... I had this idea Monday night, but I didn't get a chance to start working on it until like Thursday... And I just now finished it.
I'm dedicating this to AliasCSINYFriendsER as a late birthday present, just because she is an awesome reviewer and mentioned that her birthday was the other day.
Aw man, I know I had a lot more stuff I wanted to say here, but I can't remember what it all was now!
(Since I'm posting this one, no update for One A Day today.)
And thank you my twitter peeps for always helping me out, you know who you are.
Oh and, I know Fallon is supposed to turn out to be a good guy in Countdown, but he had to be a douche for this story. (Also, I hope no one minds the nickname I came up with for him)
I do NOT own Castle.
"The guy locked them in a freezer, they obviously found something. Why can't you give their line of thought a chance?"
"It doesn't matter, we checked everything out there, and even with the body, there was nothing to go on."
Esposito and Fallon argued back and forth, Ryan jumping in every now and then to help.
"How many terrorist threats have you handled, detective? Zero? How many have I handled? Too many to count. Why don't you grab your partner there, and go check on those two at the hospital."
"But-"
"That's an order. Go and come back when you've calmed down, or I'll kick you off this case completely."
"No need." A female voice spoke up from behind them and they all turned around to see Beckett and Castle standing there, looking a little worse for wear, but alive.
"What the hell? A couple hours ago you two were practically popsicles, why aren't you still in the hospital?" Esposito said with a shocked look on his face.
"Castle here apparently hates hospitals. They didn't want to listen to him whine anymore so they let us go. Doctors said we were fine to go back to work, given the circumstances. Have you found anything? There was a van with the bomb in it at that warehouse and it's set to go off at four today. We've got to find it."
"No, we have got to find it. Not you two."
"What?" Castle and Beckett said at the same time, looking at Fallon with incredulous expressions on their faces.
"Go. Home. We don't need you two here getting in the way. Leave it to the more capable people, alright?"
They both stared at him unnervingly.
"You can leave here willingly, or I can have my men escort you out. Your pick."
Castle glanced at Beckett, who glanced at Esposito. "I'm sorry that you have to deal with him, but good luck."
Then she turned around and left, with Castle following, knowing that Agent Douche wasn't going to change his mind about them.
As soon as they were out of earshot of everyone, Castle couldn't help but ask what they were going to do now.
"Well, if that guy felt it necessary to lock us in a freezer, I'd say we were on the right track. You didn't take down our Murder Sheet, did you?"
"It should be right where we left it earlier." He grinned, knowing where she was going with this.
"To your place then."
When they made it to Castle's building, Beckett parked in the spot she normally parked in, then grabbed her bag of extra clothes out of the trunk before following him up to the loft.
Once they were inside, she told him she was going to go change clothes and headed up the stairs to the bathroom before he could say anything.
She shut the bathroom door behind her and quickly stripped off her clothes, glad to be out of them because they were the same ones she had worn in the freezer, and they kept reminding her of their near death experience. She wasn't sure she would ever be able to wear that outfit again.
Automatically, she pulled out her extra suit of work clothes from the bag, before realizing that it was three in the morning and she might as well be comfortable, so she put them back in and pulled out the leggings and t-shirt she kept in there, just in case she had to stay overnight somewhere.
When she made her way back downstairs, it looked like the living room couch had suddenly grown a large blanket tumor on one end of it.
"Castle?" The large bundle of covers shifted around more until the writer's head poked out.
"Laugh all you want at my cocoon, but I'm finally feeling warm."
"I wasn't going to laugh, I was going to make you share."
He blinked stupidly at her for a full minute, while she just stood there in front of him, until he slowly lifted one of his arms and opened up the blanket cocoon he had made.
It took a bit of arranging, but eventually they were able to sit side by side- shoulders touching- with the blankets covering every part of their bodies, except for their heads.
"Okay, let's go over what we know again." She said, and they did.
They sat there in their cocoon going over every piece of evidence they had, and spinning multiple theories, but still coming up with nothing.
Castle tried to stay focused on the Murder Sheet, and case, but his mind kept wondering back to the fact that he wasn't sure if he was ever going to be warm again.
Sure he wasn't freezing cold like in the freezer, and his temperature was perfectly normal- according to the hospital nurse- but he could still feel the cold. Even under the many, many blankets he had hauled onto the couch, he could still feel it.
Judging by the fact that Beckett was in there with him, it was a safe bet that she was feeling the same way.
"Huh what?" Castle said when he finally realized that she had been trying to get his attention for a while now.
She pointed out something on the murder sheet and he delved into a wild theory, but after a while, he realized that it was pointless for them to be trying to do this at nearly four in the morning. And so he told her that.
"So what? We are just supposed to sleep while there is a bomb threat out there?"
"Actually, yeah."
She turned to look at him as if he had lost his mind. Maybe the freezer had damaged more of his brain cells than they had originally thought.
"Look, we aren't getting any where right now, and even if we continue to stay awake, we probably won't get anywhere. If we get some sleep and look at this with fresh eyes, we might see something that we are over looking because of our sleeplessness."
She started to say something, but he cut her off before she could.
"And before you say that it wouldn't be worth the drive home, you can sleep here. Although, if I were you, I wouldn't sleep in Mother's room, she's been doing some redecorating and it's kinda scary in there."
"Fine, get off the couch then. I'll sleep here." She didn't put up too much of a fight, knowing that he was right.
Plus, she didn't want to admit it, but she was exhausted after the freezer incident and really could use some sleep.
Castle regretfully climbed his way out of the blanket cocoon then turned to look at Beckett who was still inside it.
"You know, I'm going to need some of those covers back, I pulled them off my bed."
Making a face at him, she started untangling herself from some of the covers when he spoke up again while her back was to him.
"It would be easier, and warmer, if we both just slept in my bed."
She didn't turn around, but she had stopped moving and he could tell she had tensed up, so he hurriedly started explaining his reasoning.
"I mean, we did just survive being locked in a freezer together, and we were just sitting wrapped up in blankets on the couch, so how could sleeping in the same bed be any worse? At least in the bed we wouldn't have to be right next to each other, unless of course you want to, I would totally have no problem with-" She interrupted him by freeing herself from the blankets and turning around to put a finger to his lips.
"Castle, it's like four in the morning, shut up." With her finger still on his lips, she found herself actually considering it.
The couch was comfy, but she was only going to get a few hours of sleep, so she might as well get those few hours on a no doubt comfy bed.
And he was right, this wouldn't be any worse than huddling together in a freezer.
"I will be sleeping with my gun, so if you even so much as shift towards my side of the bed, you know what will happen."
"I'll keep that in mind, after you." He gestured for her to walk ahead of him, through the office and into his bedroom while he followed behind her with the huge pile of covers in his arms.
Castle dumped the covers on the bed then headed into the bathroom to find a new toothbrush for Beckett to use, then let her have the bathroom while he made up the bed.
She took her time doing her nightly routine so when she came out, she found that Castle had already finished with the bed and was sitting on what she assumed was his side of the bed.
She climbed into the other side of the bed while he took his turn in the bathroom, and was comfortably settled by the time he came out and slipped into his side.
It didn't take long after the lights were turned off for them both to fall asleep, their bodies needing the sleep after the day's events.
When the alarm Beckett had set went off just a few short hours later, the first thing Castle realized was that he was actually warm for the first time since they had gotten locked in that freezer.
And when a hand moved from its place on his chest to reach across him to whack the alarm clock, he realized that it wasn't just because of the many, many layers of blankets that were covering him.
Kate Beckett was practically sprawled across him, her legs tangled in his and her head and arms on his chest.
He had a split second of absolute fear that she was going to kill him for invading her personal space, but then he realized he was still on his side of the bed.
After successfully silencing the annoying alarm clock, Beckett snuggled back down into her 'pillow', obviously not fully awake yet.
"You warned me about invading your side of the bed last night, but now you are using me as your personal huggy pillow? Now how is that fair?"
Startled at the sudden voice, she tried to jump away from him, but didn't get very far since they were tightly wrapped in blankets, and her legs were still tangled in his. So instead, she settled for staring up at him until she woke up a little more and remembered the events of yesterday.
"Yeah well, life isn't always fair, Castle."
"So you can touch me, but I can't touch you? I'm strangely okay with that."
She rolled her eyes at him and he spoke up again, this time offering a 'good morning'.
"Good morning, and I'm sorry about-" She gestured to their close proximity, "-well, this. I probably should have warned you that I have a habit of migrating towards whoever is next to me if I get cold."
"That was the first time that I've actually been warm since that whole freezer thing, so I'm not complaining, not that I would anyway. Complain, I mean."
"Right, well uh..." She moved to untangle herself from the blankets, and his legs, and he let her, watching as she got out of bed and stretched, wishing he would get to see that sight more often.
With a sigh, he pulled his still tired body out of bed and headed towards the kitchen, passing Beckett and calling out to her over his shoulder as he walked.
"I'll get some coffee and breakfast going, why don't you go take a shower and then we'll hit the sheet again."
She gave him a look that said she was clearly not impressed with his choice of words, but headed upstairs to take him up on his offer, knowing that Alexis and Martha wouldn't mind her using their bathroom, and bathroom products.
Half an hour later, she came down the stairs, clean from her shower and dressed in her other suit of work clothes, ready to tackle this case head on.
As soon as she got some coffee.
They quickly ate a filling breakfast of pancakes, along with many cups of coffee, and soon they were back on the couch wrapped up in blankets- separately this time- hashing out new theories.
And that's how Martha and Alexis found them a little while later, apparently someone had told them about the freezer incident so they had rushed home as soon as they could.
Alexis rushed in, nearly knocking her father over with a crushing hug while Martha moved at a slightly slower pace, and seeing that her son was occupied, she pulled Beckett into a hug instead.
A few seconds passed before Alexis let go of Castle, only to attach herself to Beckett while Martha got her turn with Castle.
Their concern for her well being was touching, but they obviously needed some family time, so Beckett quietly got up and headed into Castle's office to borrow his computer so she could research a few things while they were talking.
She couldn't hear everything that was said, but she heard enough to increase her determination to solve this case without the bomb going off.
It was time to go pay Agent Douche a visit.
EDIT: Now I remember what else I was going to say. I didn't really intend it to be, but chapter 38 "Keeps The Bomb Away" of One A Day can be viewed as a continuation of this story.