A/N: For what I consider obvious reasons, I set this in season 2. It's what happens when Siobhan is bored after finishing most of her packing and sitting in a mostly empty student house, wondering what to do – you can only be on Tumblr for so long after a whole day.

"Come on, drink up," Lanie ordered, placing a fourth glass of wine on the coffee table in front of a Kate. "You still haven't told me what happened with Demming on your date the other night."

"Nothing to tell, I'm afraid, Lane."

"What?" her best friend demanded. "He took you out for dinner and you don't have a single thing to say about him?!"

"Well, you know, I had the case and-"

"-You need to relax more, girl. You work too much."

"I'm relaxing now, aren't I?" Kate defended, picking up her wine and taking a generous sip of the red Cabernet Sauvignon she'd brought over to Lanie's apartment for the evening. They'd quickly drunk the two bottles of rosé Lanie had in the fridge, and were probably on the wrong side of sobriety for a cop and a medical examiner.

"I'll give you that one," Lanie replied. "But there is no way you are off the hook about this."

Rolling her eyes, Kate glanced away. This thing with Demming was new, obviously she wasn't going to have the kind of details Lanie wanted.

"At least tell me this, Kate. Are you going to see him again?"

"He wants me to meet him for lunch tomorrow," she confessed.

There was a pause as if Lanie expected her to say more, but Kate wasn't forthcoming with any other kind of information. "Please tell me you said you'd go." Honestly, Lanie didn't think she could take much more of Kate's ineptness when it came to dating. It was almost like she didn't want things to develop between she and Demming. It was thoroughly exasperating.

"I said maybe," Kate told her, biting her lip. "You think I should have said yes, don't you?"

"Of course! The guy is hot-"

"-Lanie," Kate groaned, almost drowned out by Lanie's voice increasing in volume.

"-and he's really into you. He's a cop, so you've got that in common. He's as busy as you are, he gets that you won't always have time to do things together. Plus, you know, his ass is cute. And he's probably the only guy who could ever keep up with you in the ring."

"You think I should call him?"

"Yes!" Lanie exclaimed, picking Kate's cell phone up off the coffee table and handing it to her friend. "Call him and tell him you're schedules cleared and you can definitely meet him for lunch tomorrow."

"Alright, alright." Kate accepted the phone Lanie repeatedly thrust at her, fingers fumbling blindly as she searched for Tom Demming's number and pressed dial. "It's ringing," she told Lanie. "It's been ringing a long time."

"Well, it's late. Maybe he's asleep. If he doesn't pick up, just leave a message."

For a few more moments, Kate listened to the continued ringing of the phone before it rang off and a woman's electronic voice told her to 'leave a message after the beep.'

"Hey, it's Kate…"

Lanie made a series of hand gestures, urging Kate to speak and fill the awkward pause she'd let fall as she tried to think of something to say. It probably wouldn't have been such a problem if she wasn't so tipsy.

"I just wanted to let you know that I'm actually going to be free tomorrow. For lunch. You know, if you're still up for it. If you're not, it's totally fine. So don't worry. Anyway, I'll see you tomorrow for lunch. Or not. You might be busy. Yeah…just let me know. Bye." She winced. "That wasn't as bad as I thought it was, was it?

"No, it was fine," Lanie lied. "I bet he'll call you first thing."

"Yeah, he probably will."

"Here," Lanie said, picking up Kate's wine glass. "Drink this. You'll be able to stop worrying about it."

Kate groaned as she came to, mouth as dry and abrasive as sandpaper. The pillow under her cheek was soft, but it sure as Hell wasn't hers. Where was she? Opening her eyes a crack, she only saw the coffee table. It definitely wasn't hers – it was too big. Closing her eyes again – the small amount of light entering her field of vision much too bright – she tried to think back. The only thing she could remember was enjoying a few glasses of wine and some gossip with Lanie. Was that reassuring? She couldn't decide.

She was just beginning to get worried about her whereabouts when someone said, "Hey there, sleepyhead."

"Lanie!" Kate shot up in relief before swooning as seemingly all of her blood rushed to her head. "God, how much did I drink last night?" Usually she held her alcohol pretty well. Had done since her mid-twenties.

"Trust me, quite a bit more than usual. I thought you might need this." Grinning, Lanie handed her a glass of water.

"Thanks," Kate grunted, shifting in the chair so she could sit comfortably and drink. "What time is it?" She didn't usually crash at Lanie's after one of their evenings and she didn't want to overstay her welcome and impose on what her best friend had planned for her day.

"Eleven fifteen," Lanie answered, checking her watch.

"Sorry, you should have woken me."

"I was about to, don't worry. You don't want to be late for that lunch later."

"Lunch?" Kate inquired.

"With Demming…"

Suddenly it all came flooding back. That horribly embarrassing phone message. How many glasses of wine she'd had afterwards…

"Shit! I need to call him and explain!" Lurching to her feet, Kate placed the glass of water on the coffee table and set about hurriedly pulling her boots back on before grabbing her jacket and bag. It only took a minute for her to be at Lanie's door, opening it and calling out a goodbye before shutting it behind her.

Her stomach rolled in the back of the cab with every turn they took, but she clenched her teeth and did her best to forget about it, focusing instead on trying to mentally list everything in her wardrobe so she could at least plan what she would wear.

After paying her fare, Kate dashed up the stairs to her apartment and barely paused to shut the front door behind her. Her bag and jacket were dropped unceremoniously on the couch while she dashed past, kicking off her boots on the way to the shower.

It had to be a record. She'd washed, dried, briefly pampered her body and dressed and put on her makeup in forty minutes. All that was left to do was wait for Demming to come and pick her up. If she'd had more time, she'd have called him and tried to explain that train crash of a message, but she reckoned he was probably already on his way to pick her up and that it might be just as easy – if not easier – to just tell him in person.

Her knees bounced as she waited, sat on the very edge of her couch and gripped by such inexplicable, excited jitters. Luckily for her, the shower and tablet she'd swallowed before getting dressed seemed to have cured her hangover, though she knew she wouldn't have the biggest appetite at lunch.

She almost didn't notice the blinking light on her answer machine. It was only when she paced past it when she couldn't sit on the couch any longer that she caught sight of it and hit the play button.

"Hey, Beckett, it's Castle…"

Castle? Why was Castle calling?

"I, er, got your message last night…" Message? What message? She didn't remember calling Castle. "And I just wanted to check that I hadn't forgotten making some kind of… plans with you…"

"Oh shit!" Beckett cursed for the second time that morning, grabbing her phone and pulling up the call records. Internally she prayed that she hadn't been so stupid. "No! Fuck! Oh God, no, no, no!"

Her breath caught as she saw him stride out of the elevator, cardboard tray with two cups of coffee in one hand. This was going to be so awkward.

She kept her eyes studiously trained on the email on her computer, reading the message about office supplies like it was the most important missive in the universe. A life or death situation. An apocalypse that she couldn't be distracted from.

"Morning, Beckett," he greeted, sliding her coffee towards her.

Her reply was mumbled from under her fingers. She didn't look at him, just kept staring at her computer monitor with her chin tucked into the palm of her hand and her elbow resting on the desktop just before her keyboard.

"Good weekend?" he asked.

Despite herself, her eyes flicked over to him and his nonchalant expression. Warily she nodded. "You?"

"It was okay I guess. Alexis and I went out to try that new Thai place that opened up on 5th and Lex. You should have come with us." She fixed him with a glare but he continued regardless. "I'd actually have just appreciated a call from you. I was having real trouble with how Nikki should react to a cop asking her on a lunch date." He barely ducked in time to avoid the pen she threw at his face. "Did I hit a nerve there, Beckett?" he laughed as she stalked away with her coffee to the breakroom.

"Shut up," she grumbled. Honestly, it was like he'd never received a wrong number call.

A/N: I hope you enjoyed this. Apologies if the ending was a bit rubbish. Like I said, I was just bored and looking for something to do and found this prompt on Tumblr so I wrote it (very quickly, I might add). Let me know what you think!