Hi and thanks for stopping by :)
This is a partner story by TWardFan and cupcakekat, aka "Tikettle".
We very much appreciate comments and ratings and hope you enjoy the story! :)
Also, it might be important to know that Caskett isn't canon yet in this story ;)
Disclaimer: We own neither Castle nor NCIS
The large room was crowded with voices, all chatting, discussing or snickering about the topic of the evening: Mastering the high art of dramatic performance. What could be the best fabric for an authentic renaissance costume? Which method was the most effective for memorizing lines? Or what should you eat on the days leading up to opening night? With other words, the Annual New York Gala of Dramatic Arts was in full swing.
Men in suits and ties and women in pretty dresses complimented each other on their latest work and in the background one could hear the soft and polite music of a three-man jazz band.
Aside from all the mess, at the bar in the far left corner of the room, sat a middle-aged man with dark blonde hair, sipping on a brightly colored cocktail, scanning the crowd from afar as if searching for something or someone. On the counter next to him sat a fully loaded plate with all kinds of various snacks and finger food, served as appetizers along with the drinks. Apparently, the sleek man with the shiny shoes was hungry.
He was just reaching for a cheese-grape-skewer when a tall brunette stepped in front of him, sceptically raising her eyebrows at the sight of the overly filled plate.
"You were not planning on eating all of this, were you?"
He stopped mid-motion, his mouth already opened - ready to pop in the grape.
"I'm...hungry. Not that this was any of your business, Maria!"
The exotic looking woman smirked and pilfered the tiny yellow cube from the plastic skewer in her companion's hand.
"So tell me, Michael, anything you might want to tell me, concerning our...friend?"
"Haven't had a glimpse on him yet. What about you?"
"I did not see him anywhere. Are you sure he's even here?"
"Well he better should! We shouldn't have come all the way here for nothing!"
He glanced at the woman who wore a very flattering, silky, dark green shimmering dress and high heels that made him dizzy just by looking at them. "Even though seeing you all dressed up in that slinky dress was definitely worth it", he teased and chuckled over the irritated look on her beautiful face.
She shook her head as if shooing away a hazy thought and casually rearranged a strand of her chocolate brown curls that had made its way out of the thoughtfully done put-up hairdo.
"You almost look the same as usual, Mr...Heartly, yes? Although the glasses give it a nice touch."
Her tone was as teasing as his but her words seemed to awaken a long forgotten memory.
"Your dress that night was green as well if I remember correctly", he said, "not that you were wearing it for a long time anyways."
He chuckled once again.
"Also, this dress is a lot prettier."
A smile crossed her face when suddenly something started vibrating violently in Michael Heartley's pocket. He pulled out a small cell phone and hit the answering button.
"Boss?"
The woman observed his face grow more serious as the conversation proceeded. He said "Hmm" a couple times, accompanied by a nod each time and finally hit "End Call" after a few minutes.
"Alright Miss Gonzales, looks like we really came here for nothing. Our friend had already left the time we arrived and made acquaintance with the boss."
He looked up and realized that his companion was talking on the phone now too.
"Yes, I will tell him."
Her gorgeous features showed a worried expression. She hung up and looked him right in the eyes.
"That was your father."
Her face was very serious now.
"My..my father?"
He gave her an unbelieving look, eyebrows furrowed, eyes squinted at the word "father", caught off-guard by the unexpected information.
"He wants me to convince you to check on his girlfriend."
"Seriously now? Why would he even think we would..."
"Because she might be in danger", she interrupted him harshly.
"He told me that he received a call from her, she apparently seemed to be scared and fearing for her life and the connection got cut off. And since we are in New York at the time he thought that we could maybe go and check on her."
"And at which point have I become his girlfriend's babysitter?"
"At the point she might be dead!", the pretty brunette snarled through clenched teeth, annoyed by her partner not taking the situation seriously enough.
"Come on, let's go, Michael!"
"But what about the boss?", he whined, a pained expression crossing his handsome face when he was pulled out of his chair and led towards the exit. "He will manage, now come!"
He knew exactly why his father had called her and not him. Although he really didn't approve of his father's habits at all times, for example the one that included dating women Maria's age, with other words, younger than him and therefore making him feel awfully uncomfortable.
His father's current better half was called Tanya Steiner, a twenty-something woman with short blonde hair and a face that looked like it could as well belong to a china doll. He hadn't met her all too often, just because he found it utterly embarrassing how she - along with all of the ones before her - seemed to worship his father to an almost ridiculous extent.
Although thinking about it, he had to admit that his father had shown signs of actual care about Tanya in comparison to other women before her, which made it a lot harder to refuse his plea of checking on her and causing him to take it just a little more seriously.
They carefully, yet still quickly maneuvered through the thick crowd until they had reached the main entrance of the building, heading straight towards the large glass portal.
"By the way, we don't even know her address!"
"Your father told me."
"And you were able to memorize it that fast? Maria, Maria, I'm still amazed everytime you..."
At that moment a tall man in a dark gray suit bumped into him, cutting him off before he was able to finish the sentence. He was accompanied by a teenage girl, a redhead in a teal cocktail dress, assumingly the man's daughter or maybe niece.
"Pardon", the guy politely apologized and held the door open for the two of them to pass through.
They both politely responded with a nod and a smile and after exiting the building, they began to increase their pace again. Reaching the curb they waved at a taxi, that was slowly approaching the building complex, hopped in as the yellow car came to a halt in front of them and disappeared between the countless lights of a chilly New York City night.
The room was filled with people of all heights and shapes laughing and chatting, some of them slightly nodding their heads or tapping their feet to the rhythm of the song the jazz band in the right corner of the room was playing. The men in their fancy suits and the women, most of them wearing the occasional cocktail dress, were clearly enjoying themselves while the waiters, looking a little stressed-out, were carrying tablets with champagne glasses or tiny appetizers on them.
In the middle of all the lively bustling, Richard Castle was just about to end a conversation with an elderly couple about the development of stage lighting techniques throughout the last few decades, politely excusing himself to 'go look after his companion'.
Once he had managed to escape, he started searching the room, letting out a sigh of relief when he spotted the petite redhead on the right side of the room. With a few steps he approached her, rolling his eyes at the amused grin she gave him.
"Tell me again why I let her talk me into this." he mumbled, nodding towards Martha, who obviously savored the admiration of a well built man in his late fifties just a few steps away from them."Easy one. You ruined her party last week by appearing in your laser tag suit and therefore causing Jonathan Blurr's second heart attack", Alexis immediately replied, giving him the most innocent smile possible while trying not to giggle at the image.
"Thank you very much for reminding me of this tragedy", he hissed, his face scrunching as in pain.
"However, Jonathan Blurr lived and I'm going to die here if one more person tries to tell me about the advantages of the double lens system in a profile spot."
"Well, you might be lucky", his daughter told him, a suspicious glint in her eyes.
"Miss Been Watching You All Evening over there doesn't seem too interested in talking about lighting systems."Castle slowly turned his head following her gaze and instantly flinched when he saw Theresa van Chanton on the other side of the room, smiling and gesturing for him to come over. She was a slim brunette in her early forties, very pretty and even more talkative and tonight he was clearly not in the mood for listening to one of her endless monologues.
When he didn't react to her waving, she started making her way through the room, coming towards him in a surprisingly fast pace seeing as she had to maneuver around countless people."Help me!", he mouthed at Alexis who just shrugged apologetically.
"Richard!", he heard the unmistakable squeaky voice behind him. Putting on a smile he turned around.
"Theresa! It's good to see you."
He quickly hugged her, already trying to figure out how to choke her off best when suddenly his phone started buzzing in his pocket. Not once had he been so thankful for anyone to call him.
"I'm sorry, I gotta take this", he told Theresa, before taking the call without even looking at the caller ID.
"Richard Castle."
"Castle, it's Beckett. We've got a new body."
Apparently his bad luck was about to turn around.
"I'll be there in a minute", he said once Beckett had told him the address.
Then he turned towards Theresa once more, giving her an apologetic look.
"I'm afraid I'm gonna have to go!"
With another quick hug he said goodbye, then turned to his daughter
"You wanna stay?"
"To learn some more about dramatic lighting?", she grinned. "I'll pass."
Chuckling, Richard grabbed her by the hand and started walking towards the exit, so glad to have found a way to flee this insanity that he almost ran into the dark-haired man going for the door at the same time he did. In the nick of time they both stopped in their tracks.
Noticing he had apparently cut the guy off in the middle of talking to his extraordinarily gorgeous companion, he mumbled "Pardon", opening the door for them to walk through. A polite but hasty nod from both of them was the reply.
Once they were out of sight Castle let some air out through his teeth, creating a whistling sound. That tall brunette really had been a pretty sight to look at. Not as pretty as Detective Beckett, he thought, but then again who was to him?
Putting this thought aside he gestured for Alexis to continue walking and followed her to the car. They hopped in and Castle started the engine, throwing his daughter an amused look at the relieved sigh she let out.
Then they just drove, away from the gala and towards what would hopefully be a more entertaining evening.
Michael Heartley and Maria Gonzales were spat out of the cab again on Baxter Street, Lower Manhattan, discovering their desired destination being a huge apartment complex.
The man paid the taxi driver and was then led by the woman towards the entrance of the building.
"There it is, Tanya Steiner, apartment 4C!", she mumbled and opened the door.
The building was dimly lit on the inside seeing as several neon lights on the ceiling were merely flickering and only a couple of them working properly. The elevator didn't look too trustworthy either and despite the groaning of the male, silenced by a "Just look at my shoes. Am I complaining?" by his friend, they started up the eight flights of stairs leading up to the fourth floor.
As they arrived on top of the stairs they tried to be as quiet as possible, walking up to the door of 4C, when the man took a gun out of a holster under his suit jacket.
"Dear god, did you have to bring that!", she hissed.
"You can never know, there might be an emergency", he responded, slowly approaching the door.
There were scratch marks all over the metal around the keyhole, as if someone had tried to unlock the door with a picklock but didn't succeed and decided to break it completely. The woman pointed towards the splintered wood of the door frame and the man gave her a nod.
She silently put her hand on the broken door and started to slowly push it back until it swung open with a soft yet remarkable squeak.
Her companion stepped forward into the apartment - gun pointed - and quickly looked into all rooms, eyes fixed on whatever was in the last one and lowering his gun.
"Clear", he mumbled absentmindedly, without turning his gaze away from the sight of the dead body.
Somewhere outside, in the distance, you could hear sirens. A dog barking. Even traffic. But upon the apartment on Baxter Street lay a deadly silence.