A/N: Thanks Trish for the awesome beta and for being so patient with me! I'm aware that there's another ficathon entry based on this prompt, but Trish assures me there are differences when we go AU (I haven't read that story in order to remain uninfluenced.)
Disclaimer: Castle and its characters do not belong to me. I'm merely borrowing some scenes and lines from 2x24 A Deadly Game to set up the premise of this story but after that it's all AU.
Prompt: In A Deadly Game, Gina shows up 30 seconds later.
"Ocean view from my patio. It does not get better than this."
Beckett continued to stare ahead blankly as her peripheral vision took in Castle's phone and the cup of coffee he had slid in front of her. Was he really trying to get her to go to the Hampton's with him?
She had been intrigued by his invitation earlier that morning. After all, who wouldn't? Bonfires and a private pool, not to mention the ocean just beyond the stretch of soft sand.
And that flippant line he threw out about skinny-dipping. Beckett had had to literally bite her tongue to keep her retort unvoiced.
But she shouldn't- really, she couldn't, it wouldn't be appropriate. Things between them were… confusing, more so ever since they teamed up with Demming to solve their latest case. Best to change the topic and focus on the case instead.
She gave him a look, and he was attuned enough to know that her mind was on other matters.
"What's wrong?"
And just like that, she had an opening to discuss her findings about Fastwater Global Services with him. This, talking about their case, bouncing ideas off each other, this was what they do best. This was safe territory.
Things progressed quickly after Castle uncovered the message recording in the pen. After clearing things with Captain Montgomery, Beckett and Castle went to the cafe to meet with the victim's contact. It was sort of funny watching Castle fail so miserably at establishing contact. The way he returned to her – tail between his legs after getting shot down by the lady he was sure had to be their person – Beckett hated to admit it, but it was sort of adorable.
They took a reprieve to survey their surroundings, see if it could have been anyone else. Unfortunately, Castle took that opportunity to ask her about the Hampton's once more.
"Speaking of off the grid, I was serious about this weekend," he said, keeping his voice low.
She looked to him. "You're seriously asking me to your place in the Hampton's?"
She figured he was just being polite earlier. After telling her about what he and Alexis used to do for their summers, maybe he felt bad about telling her about his place so he extended an invitation to her, knowing she would turn it down. She didn't expect him to actually mean it.
"I promise, no funny stuff. Just a… friendly getaway. It will be fun."
The way his voice rasped as a result of keeping his volume down was… distracting.
"Yeah, I…" the words flew out of her mouth before her mind could even catch up. Wait, did she actually say that out loud? No, that was a terrible idea. She couldn't go up there with him. It would most definitely not just be a "friendly getaway". Not with him in his board shorts, lounging by the pool. Or was he more of a jog-down-the-beach kind of guy?
Nonetheless, he wouldn't have to continue wearing his dress shirts if they were on vacation. There was nothing wrong with a well-put together man, but somehow Beckett had a feeling he would fill out a T-shirt just fine as well. She could picture the soft cotton material, thin from constant wear, stretched over his pecs. Oh yeah, sometime during their partnership Castle had most definitely began working out, and the results were impressive.
The dress shirts he continued wearing provided good cover, but Beckett could tell that he was in better shape by the hints of muscle and the general definition and shape of his body. Not that she was paying particular attention to his body. It was just part of her job as a detective to notice small details.
No, spending the weekend with him, just the two of them in his mansion would be a bad idea.
"No. You know… some of us have to work for a living." Her rebuttal was weak and she knew it. Besides, she was with Tom now. It wouldn't be… appropriate. Beckett turned her face away from him, hoping he would take it as a sign to drop the conversation and just let it slide.
No such luck.
Raising his eyebrows, Castle asked, "On memorial day?"
Thinking quickly, Beckett tried to save herself. "Yes, I spend all of my vacation days looking for a new place to live."
She was prepared to justify her answer, but Castle started shushing her instead. Tensing, she immediately became alert and quickly noticed what had caught Castle's attention. They both froze and slowly turned away from each other, trying not to attract attention to themselves. It was time to make herself scarce as Castle attempted to establish contact a second time.
This time, he had better luck.
Beckett kept an eye on their exchange, prepared to step in at any moment. When their contact pushed Castle against the wall, Beckett immediately drew her gun against him.
"NYPD!" she announced, voice clear and firm. No one threatened her partner. No one. As the other man slowly turned around, she continued, "Hands up."
Of course, her partner was the one to raise his hands in the air. Beckett tried not to roll her eyes - she had to remain focused on the other man instead.
"Not you, Castle."
Thanks to Castle's breakthrough the previous evening, they had new leads for the next morning. Kate had been waiting for her partner to arrive in the morning when Tom dropped by. He began telling her about the case he had closed last night, leaning forward to surround her, his body caging her in while his low voice in her ear made the story seem funnier and dirtier than it actually was.
One moment she was leaning in, trying to hold back a giggle, and in the next she saw Castle walking towards them, his pace considerably slower than usual.
Kate pulled back. Suddenly she felt like the teenager who got caught making out with a senior behind the bleachers. She felt her cheeks burn even though there wasn't a valid reason for her to feel embarrassed. She wasn't doing anything wrong with Tom, but then why did she feel self-conscious with a twinge of guilt? Why did she feel responsible when Castle's face fell and his eyes turned downcast for a millisecond before he was able to school his face into blatant indifference?
Thankfully, Tom finished his story quickly - maybe he, too, sensed her awkwardness - and straightened up. He saw Castle and murmured a quick "See you later," before leaving.
Kate busied herself, grabbing her binder and red leather jacket in order to avoid watching the exchange between Castle and Tom.
"Didn't mean to break up your party."
"No, no party. I was actually waiting for you," Kate turned slowly, turning down Castle's polite apology automatically.
She brought him up to date with her progress on the case as they headed down the bullpen, and then decided to change gears as she remembered something from before Tom's arrival.
"Oh yeah, and your ex-wife called. She said that you had been avoiding her because you were late delivering your manuscript of-" Kate turned sharply to face him, "Naked Heat."
Her struggle to maintain her composure had nothing to do with how good he looked in that red dress shirt. It had nothing to do with the way it complemented her red leather jacket. No, Kate was keeping a tight lid because she didn't want him to know how she was secretly mildly thrilled by the title of the next Nikki Heat book. He would automatically interpret her demeanor as trying to suppress the grief she had gone through after Gina let slip the title.
She pushed on before Castle could come up with a defense. "That's a catchy title. When were you going to tell me?"
"Well, I was waiting for the perfect time, it just never… happened." Castle was tilting his head to one side; in fact, he was almost cringing, as though he was prepared to save his ear lobe from her fingers.
Her fingers itched to pinch something. Anything. Instead, Kate remained outwardly calm and continued; "She's naked on the cover again isn't she?"
Really, she shouldn't be expecting much, especially since the cover of Nikki Heat - which was still doing really well, according to Castle - was of the detective holding a strategically placed gun. This book was titled Naked Heat, all the more reason for Castle to pick a cover that was-
"Kinda, yeah."
"That's great," she bit out, turning to walk away. "No one's gonna make fun of me."
The trip to Spy Ventures led them to another player, who gave them a new lead to run down. As Ryan checked the locker at the bus depot, Beckett and Castle interviewed the victim's wife and his business partner. The interview didn't turn up much, but now that they'd identified the victim, Beckett sent Esposito to check his financials to see if anything popped.
She and Castle then took their usual spots in front of the murder board, hypothesizing and bouncing ideas off one another.
"Speaking of red flags," Castle murmured just loud enough for Kate to catch, before continuing at a more normal tone, "Hey, Demming."
Kate turned to watch her boyfriend greet her partner somewhat awkwardly, "Hey, Castle." She stood to join him, standing slightly away from Castle so they could have some privacy for whatever Tom wanted to say. As Tom began talking about the beach house and a reservation opening up, Kate transferred her weight uneasily, unconsciously using her body to shield her boyfriend and their conversation from her partner.
Tom left after she said that she would check into it, and Kate had no choice but to turn around as the cat was let out of the bag.
Castle was smiling at her, but his eyes were somewhat distant, as though he was closed off from her. "Beach house. Thought you were working this weekend."
Kate looked down as she apologized, not daring to look him in the eye. "Yeah, I'm sorry Castle, I should've just told you, I just didn't want things to be…" She gestured with her hands, the movements helping with her uneasiness as she struggled to find the correct word.
"Awkward," she finally settled upon the word, looking him in the face, "between us, now that Tom and I are… together." Great job at not making things awkward there, Kate, she mentally chided herself. However, Castle's face was a picture of acceptance and understanding, and somehow that hurt her even more.
They stared at each other for a few long beats, Kate trying to see past his mask while trying to convey… something! Damn it, this was something important and she needed Castle to know-
He was the first to break their holding gaze. Whatever connection they had, that moment, it was gone. He was gone. "No, I get it. Yeah, you want your private life to be private."
It's not like that, her mind replied, but instead, she took the opening from the excuse he came up for her. "Yeah, I just- I don't want anyone to feel uncomfortable." She walked past him quickly, heading for her desk. She couldn't look at him now - he would read her like a book, and Kate was afraid of what he would see.
"No, of course not," he offered, always the gentleman. Kate heard him stand and walk over to her as he continued, "Actually that makes what I was gonna say a little easier."
Suddenly he was towering over her, and all Kate could do was to keep a lid on the confusing emotions that were swirling within her.
Castle settled on the desk in front of her, leaning slightly forward and pinning her with his hypnotic gaze. "Uhm, what with my book due, I was thinking it would be a good time for us to take a break."
What? Maybe she shouldn't have told him that she was together with Tom. She knew Tom rubbed him the wrong way and maybe she shouldn't have- Castle was still looking at her with his deep blue eyes, his undivided attention sent the thoughts in her head scattered in a thousand different directions.
Kate had her heart in her throat as she echoed his last words. "A break."
Castle continued rambling on, but Kate had partially tuned him out and was having a little trouble keeping up. Her brain was still stuck on those three words.
Take a break.
What did he mean by that? Kate struggled to keep the frown off her face, piping up in time to ask him how long he would be in the Hamptons.
"The summer, at least."
Kate nodded robotically even though her brain rebelled against his words.
"I thought this would be our last case."
"So, Castle's last case, huh? Ryan and I thought we'd do a little going away party."
"Yeah well, it's not like he's leaving forever," Kate offered looking back to her murder board while attempting to comfort herself, playing it light.
"Sure about that?"
His words shocked her, and Kate stilled. She whipped her head around to look at Esposito.
"Why'd you think he's been following you around all this time? What, research? Guy's done enough research to write fifty books." Esposito was laying it straight for her. "Look, whatever the reason is, I'm pretty sure it doesn't include watching you be with another guy."
Esposito walked away, his parting words echoing Kate's earlier thoughts.
The murder board wasn't talking to her. The case wasn't talking to her. Try as she may, Kate just could not focus on the case. Castle's words replayed on a loop in her head, punctuated by Espo's remarks and her own thoughts. Giving up, Kate went to her desk and tried to work on something else to clear her mind.
Instead of finding another distraction, her gaze dropped to the empty chair beside her table.
Castle's chair.
He'd been with her for so long that she could hardly imagine working without her shadow anymore; her partner. Of course she would be able to continue solving murder cases. After all, she'd been a pretty good detective even before he came to the Twelfth, but thinking of her earlier years brought on a certain sadness.
She used to be okay with her life revolving around murder cases day in and out, but Castle made it fun. He made her laugh and took care of her. He was a constant annoyance but he was also a constant companion. He forced her to slow down and enjoy life once in a while, showing her that there was more to life than the four walls of the precinct.
Footsteps alerted Kate to the presence of someone approaching. She looked up, hoping it was her partner. Maybe he came to tell her he had a change of heart after all. Maybe-
Oh.
It was Tom.
"Hey, you ready?" He asked, smiling happily.
Kate felt a stab of guilt as she belatedly remembered her boyfriend.
"Yeah," she replied, turning to grab her things.
Tom invited her over to his place, but she begged off, telling him the case was on her mind and she wouldn't be good company. The truth was, she just wanted to go home alone and curl up with a nice glass of red wine. Hurricane Castle had left no corner of her mind untouched.
He came in with only one cup of coffee the next day. It was hard, trying to hide how much that hurt. Coffee was their thing. It had been their thing for over a year. Ever since he found out her order and started bringing her coffee so that Esposito or Ryan wouldn't have to. Maybe she really was losing him.
"Hey, uh, I was just thinking," he gestured to the chair, asking for permission which she promptly gave. Maybe he was going to discuss their partnership or try and fix this thing between them. Maybe he decided staying in the Hamptons for the whole summer was too long. Maybe-
"I've been thinking, maybe we're looking in the wrong place. Maybe the murder has nothing to do with the game. Maybe it just offered the killer an opportunity to act."
So many maybes, but none of them were what she had hoped for. She forced out "That's so funny," even though it wasn't, not at all, "because I was thinking the same thing when I woke up this morning."
Liar, liar, pants on fire, her brain supplied. It was a complete hindrance at a time like this.
"Maybe we got so caught up in the game that we stopped looking at what really mattered." She hoped Castle would be able to pick up what she was trying to convey – after all, they were experts at reading between the lines and communicating without really speaking – that he mattered to her, that she might have been caught up with someone new, but she didn't want it to be at the expense of her relatio- partnership with Castle.
He nodded emphatically, sprinkling metaphorical nutrients all over her little seed of hope and she subconsciously mimicked his gesture.
"The victim."
Ye- No. Not the victim. Them.
If she had telekinetic powers, her desk would have flown into the opposite wall. If this was to be his last case before their break, then she'd do her damned best to make it a good one. Show him how flawlessly they worked together as a team.
"Exactly. So check this out," she told him, pulling up a dossier. Kate explained the bankruptcy suit, and Castle had no problem picking up where her thoughts left off. Before either of then realized, they were finishing each other's sentences as though it was the most natural thing in the world.
A few twists and turns later - seriously, was everyone related to this case caught up in an affair?– Their murderer had been caught and the case was closed.
Kate filled in Captain Montgomery when they got back to the precinct.
"Hmm, two affairs, a loveless marriage, it's sad a man had to die because all of the people involved were too scared to say what they really felt," He commented, looking at Beckett expectantly, but Kate looked over her captain's shoulder to see her partner on his phone instead.
"Yes, it is sad," she replied distractedly as her boss departed. Castle was walking towards her, finishing his call and in a much better mood than he had been the past few days.
"Hey, I gotta run. I gotta drop Alexis at Princeton but I will be back in time for that little surprise party the boys are throwing for me, what, what?" He trailed off, looking at her weirdly.
Kate smiled; his happy mood was clearly rubbing off on her. On top of that, she had come to a decision that she couldn't wait to share with him, but she should wait. She could wait. Let him send off his daughter, and then he'd be back at the precinct and she could tell him her news.
The voices in her head were finally silent now, and she didn't mind waiting for him.
"Nothing." She tried to keep the tremor out of her voice. She didn't want to betray herself too early, but her excitement leaked into her voice anyway, the little smirk in her tone coating her words with victory that was so close.
"Okay," he didn't buy it completely, but left it at that, smiling as he turned to go. "I'll see you."
Kate tracked Castle's progress as he made his way through the bullpen, struggling to keep the smile off her face. Suddenly, she saw Tom and a colleague heading for the break room, presumably to use the coffee machine Castle had gifted the Homicide department.
Her smile dropped. There was something she had to take care of, she had to end this properly - for Tom and for herself.
And then, her heart swelled in anticipation, and then I can talk to Castle.
She knocked on the door and joined Tom and his friend, making small talk and telling each other about their recent cases. When the coffee cups were empty at last, Tom's friend excused himself, sensing the other two detectives needed a moment to themselves.
Kate led Tom away from the break room into an empty corridor, somewhere quiet and secluded so they wouldn't get interrupted.
With halting words and a low but soft tone Kate told him that their plans for the weekend wasn't going to work out. She tried to let him down gently, but Tom was more astute than he led on.
"It's not just this weekend we're talking about, is it?" he asked, walking back towards her after he had loosened his tie and unbuttoned his collar.
Kate gave him a sad smile, telling him the truth because they both deserved more than this. "No."
"Was it something I said, Kate? Something I did?" he asked. Bless the man - he really was a good person, always trying to fix things or take care of her. She had to stop him from going down that track, because he didn't do anything wrong.
He could be the perfect man - charming, handsome, smart and caring, all qualities of the perfect boyfriend, but just not the right one for her.
"No, you're great. You're really great, and I really like you. It's just, I don't think that this is what I'm looking for right now," she told him. She felt horrible for making him go through this, for hurting him, but she couldn't drag this out any longer.
Kate blinked as she felt tears prickling at the corner of her eyes.
"Then what is it you're looking for, Kate?" he rasped, his voice barely a whisper as he struggled to hold it in. His shiny eyes mirrored hers as the words stuck in her throat.
My partner.
But she couldn't say it. She didn't want to be cruel to Tom, so she settled for looking down and shaking her head in silence, begging him to understand what she couldn't put into words. Looking through the blinds, she saw her team gathering in one of the rooms, ushering Castle in and showing him the collection of beer the boys had stocked up. Even Lanie had joined them since it was already after shift.
Tom followed her gaze and cleared his throat. "Well, uh, I hope he makes you happy, Kate." Tom stepped into her space, dropping a kiss on her forehead.
Kate snagged his arm before he could leave.
"For what it's worth, Tom? I hope you find a great girl, one that makes you happy. You deserve that, and I just- I can't-"
"That's alright, Kate," he took pity on her and cut her off. "It was good while it lasted," he gave her a wry smile, squeezing her hand one last time before walking away.
Kate dropped her head, hating herself for doing this to Tom. She took another minute to gather herself before crossing the room to join the party.
She entered as they laughed at something the Captain said, Castle's boisterous laughter causing her to chuckle along softly as she headed to grab herself a beer.
"Oh, look who's off duty," he teased, eyes twinkling playfully.
Twisting the cap off, Kate replied, "Yeah well Castle I'm not all work."
"Don't get into a drinking contest with her, she can take you," Lanie offered the friendly advice to Castle, for which he thanked her.
Maybe it was her newly single status, or maybe it was because she had been waiting for far too long for Castle to return to the precinct, heck, maybe it was his impending departure spurring her into action, but Kate was feeling a little feisty.
"Oh I don't need to drink to take him," she said, her voice laced with innuendo.
Lanie teased her, but Kate focused on Castle instead, asking him to step out for a private moment.
She shut the door, doing her best to ignore her colleagues who were sure to be speculating back in the room.
"What's up?" he asked easily.
Facing him, she suddenly felt like an awkward teenager again. "Look, I know that I'm not the easiest person to get to know, and… I don't always let on what's on my mind, but this past year, working with you… I've had a really good time."
He smiled encouragingly at her. "Yeah, me too."
This was her partner. This was the Castle she knew and lov- cherished. Open and light; always easy and quick to infect those around him with his happiness. It was nice to have him back after the broody version she had gotten the past few days. It gave her the courage to plunge onwards.
"So, uhm, I'm just going to say this, and hope that we're still on the same page here," she smiled up at him as he looked on curiously.
Kate bit her lip, a nervous tick of hers.
"I'll go to the Hamptons with you. I mean, I'm free, if the offer still stands, and I, uhm, I broke up with Demming. So I was thinking that I could go up and spend the weekend with you, and maybe we could work something out for the summer, because I'd still be working and-"
"Richard, you ready?"
Castle struggled to keep the horror off his face as he slowly turned and greeted, "Hey, Gina. Uh, Beckett, you remember Gina, my ex-wife."
A/N: Don't kill me.