Random Musings
"Kate, you said you were going to be ready for lunch an hour ago! I don't have all day you know!"
Kate Beckett glanced up from the tower of paperwork balanced precariously on her desk to the face of her sister, impatiently staring down at her. Well technically it was her sister's face, but it was also hers as well. Katherine and Rose Beckett, born less than 20 minutes apart, absolutely identical from a distance. It wasn't till you got closer that you could tell the difference between the two women.
Rose was bubbly and upbeat, a smile never far from her lips. She was quick with a joke, always laughed the loudest, and an insufferable optimist. Her hair was cut back into a stylish bob, tucked just beneath her jawline.
Kate had bags under her eyes constantly, her smile just as wide as her sisters, but rarely surfaced to her lips. She had a wicked sense of humour, sarcasm and such, but hardly ever used it. She used to be an optimist, a long time ago, but that was burnt out of her one night when a police officer knocked on the door. Her hair was long and messy, the result of meaning to get to the hairdressers but never quite seeming to make it.
"Oh and what's the rush? Got a date or something?" Kate teased. Her sister was one of the most impatient people she had ever met, prone to fits of dramatics not even Kate could understand. She guessed it was why her sister was such a good actress. What she wasn't expecting was the faint blush that highlighted her sister's cheeks, barely noticeable if it wasn't for the start lighting of the police precinct in which they were sitting.
"There is a date! Come on little sis, tell me all the details! Who is he, where did you meet?" Kate continued, enjoying way too much the colour that continued to rise on her sisters cheeks.
"Okay, okay, okay, I'll tell you everything! Once we get out of this building though, the lighting in here Kate, it does awful things to a person's complexion. I don't know how you stand it!" Rose all but snapped back at her. "And I mean the coffee here is terrible too, I don't know how you drink that battery acid day in and day out!"
"I'll just grab my coat and check out with Espo. You can keep occupied for two minutes right?"
"I'm sure I can find something to keep me… occupied." Her sister retorted, her predatory gaze focusing in on the newest transfer to the 12th, a skinny cop out of narcotics called Ryan.
"So tell me more about this hot date" Kate continued as they stepped out of the foyer of the precinct into the warm August weather. There was a low cloud cover hanging over the city, like there normally was in August, trapping the fumes of the cars and buses in with the humidity of the coming rain, forming the perfect combination for Kate Beckett's worse enemy, frizz.
"Wow, Kate I think your hair just added about a foot's worth of volume in 30 seconds!" Her sister retorted, failing miserably at trying not to laugh. Kate just turned and gave her the KBex death stare (patented 1997), a look designed to strike fear into the hearts of hardened criminals. "Jeez Katie, there's no need to break out the death stare this early into our lunch! I hardly get to see you anymore, with your promotion and all that."
"I feel like someone's trying to change the subject on me here," Kate continued, "and leave the hair alone! Just because I'm not some big shot Broadway actress who can afford her own stylist and bi-monthly haircuts is not a reason to pick on the frizz!"
"Okay, okay, I don't actually know the guy. His mother's working in the same play as me at the moment, and she keeps on going on and on about how disappointing it is her son hasn't had a serious girlfriend in years, and about what a catch he is, and how all these vapid bimbos he seems to attract don't appreciate him. Honestly I agreed to the date just to get her to stop talking about him," Rose blurts out all at once, ignoring the dirty stares she just elicited from a passing group of senior citizens. "And now I'm going on this date with 'Rick' and I have a feeling he's going to be a shallow jerk Kate. And I'm really over shallow jerks. Remember what happened with Robbie?"
Kate nodded slowly. She'd learnt many years ago never to get in the middle of her sister in a rage bender. The best way to get through a Rose Beckett meltdown was to let her ramble until she ran out of breath. "You know, you could just call and cancel. I'm sure his mother wouldn't mind too much…" She suggested.
"Yeah but I have to work with this woman every day for the next three months. I think it's better if I go. That way if it doesn't work out, at least I tried. And besides, he could be ridiculously rich, cute and charming for all I know."
The sisters stopped out the front of a slightly dodgy looking diner, the signs out the front proclaiming it open 24/7 with the typically hideous neon flashing lights popular with the restaurants of the city. "Remy's?" Both sisters asked at the same time, smiles turning their faces absolutely identical for the few seconds it took for them to enter the diner.
Richard Castle, author, master of the macabre, yada yada yada, was 100%, utterly and completely, bored. He'd learnt early in his career as a professional writer that there comes a point where staring at a blank screen for hours on end was no good for his sanity, nay the sanity of anyone else in his vicinity. Unfortunately, that screen had been blank for a good couple of months, and it was starting to get on everyone's nerves. Especially his mothers.
"Richard darling, don't forget about your date tonight! I'm not quite sure how I got the lovely lady to go out with you, but she seemed quite interested. And be on your best behaviour, I have to work with this woman for another three months after this!"
The dulcet tones of his mother's voice shocked him out of the lull he'd been in for the last few hours. Most of that had been spent with his legs crossed underneath him while he spun around on his desk chair.
"Of course mother! How could I possibly do anything to embarrass you?" Unfortunately, that was the minute he decided to stand up, his left leg protesting violently after hours of inactivity. Unable to balance his weight, he went toppling off to the side of his desk, landing rather conveniently on the couch off to his left.
Martha just walked out of the room before the 'I told you so' could escape from her lips. "Don't forget dear, 7pm at that Italian place off Lex, you know the one. And Richard," she stated, turning around to stare daggers at her son, still tangled up in a pile of pillows on the couch, "don't stuff it up. I like this one kiddo."
Rick turned around, boring his face into the pillow like an ostrich trying to bury its head in the sand. "Oh god, this is going to be terrible."
A few hours later, drawn out by hunger and the lack of anything edible currently occupying the fridge in the loft, Richard found himself standing on the corner outside this dodgy looking diner he'd never been to before. If it wasn't for the fact that the broccoli in the fridge looked like it was about to mutate into a sentient being and destroy the world, he'd still be home, staring at that blank screen, possibly with no pants on. Yep, the writer's block had gotten that bad.
Unfortunately, there was a paparazzi outside the front of his favourite deli, obviously trying to snag a picture of him, so he'd kept on walking until he found himself out the front of 'Remy's', so proclaimed by the giant flashing neon sign. Just as he was debating about whether his hunger was great enough to risk the food poisoning inertly associated with places like this, the front door swung open, and the most beautiful woman he'd ever seen in his life walked out, trying to shove her wallet back into her jeans, a coffee cup in the other hand. He stood there, transfixed, for the grand total of three seconds it took for her to walk into him, coffee going everywhere (namely on his shirt).
"Oh god, I am so sorry", she proclaimed, bending down to fish the remains of her coffee, and some napkins, off the sidewalk. She stood back up quickly, trying in vain to blot the coffee off his previously white, and obviously ruined, shirt. Rick stood there in silence for a few seconds trying frantically to remember all of the details of her face. Her hair was long, tossed into a messy plat, with frizz going everywhere. Her eyes were a beautiful hazel, with just a hint of green around the iris, entrancing, but lined with bags not even makeup could quite hide. She stopped and looked at him too for a second, before he realized how increasingly awkward this situation was getting.
"Don't, don't worry about it, happens all the time you know," he started rambling, trying desperately not to stare at her face again, "this being New York, I suppose it's mandatory to get hit by a flying cup of coffee twice a year."
She looked up at him again, a smile playing at the edge of her lips, amusement slowly leaking into her features. He decided right then and there, a proper smile from this girl would be utterly mind blowing. However, a look of panic slowly began to overtake her face, pushing away the slight smile into a look of absolute horror.
"Oh god, you're Richard Castle!"
Kate stared at absolute horror at the coffee soaked man standing in front of her. Her lunch with Rose had ended less than 5 minutes ago, her sister running off to prepare for her big date, while she hung around for a coffee to take back to the precinct. She'd never admit it in public, but her sister was right about the coffee from the percolator tasting like battery acid. She was just walking through the door back out onto the sidewalk when she bumped into what had felt like a brick wall, but she now realized was actually her favourite mystery writer.
"Oh god, you're Richard Castle!" She blurted out before she could stop herself, one hand going up to slap close her mouth, preventing her from saying anything more embarrassing.
He was still looking at her, a look halfway between amusement and shock on his face. The face on the back of all of his books, including the complete collection she had stored in her apartment under lock and key, away from the preying eyes of her sister.
"Yes, I do believe I am," he replied, "at least I hope I am, otherwise I'll admit to be mightily confused about the matter. And you are?"
"Kate," she all but barked out, still in a tiny bit of shock after hitting her favourite author with a skim latte with two pumps of sugar free vanilla (a Remy's specialty).
"Kate," he repeated, still looking at her rather intently, "doesn't getting the entire contents of..." He pauses for a second to lick a drop of coffee off his shirt, "a vanilla flavoured coffee down the front of my shirt warrant me a last name? After all, you seem to be quite well acquainted with mine."
She continued to stare at him in shock for a good 10 seconds, before leaning towards him slightly. "Well, Mr Castle, I guess that depends on whether you let me buy you a coffee to make up for dumping one all over you."
"I guess I could go with that. I was just popping in to grab some lunch anyways. What's the food like at this place?" he replied.
"You've never been to Remy's?" she asked, shocked look on her face at his answering shake of his head. "Well then Castle, you're in for a treat."