This a oneshot about the characters from one of my earlier fics called Autumn Skies. If you haven't read it then you probably won't understand this chapter. Those of you who have, have fun catching up with the little family I created :)
Rockin' Robin
She was arranging her things on her desk, not sure where she wanted them. It was too distracting, the sounds of the bullpen pulling at her inner ears, tugging at her psyche. Every shriek of a desk phone, or call in on a radio attached to an officers hip as they passed by, only seem to rattle her nerves. Every now and then she'd check her own hip, only to remember she no longer had one.
It was a reflex. One that made her shake her head at herself as she fumbled with her things, picking up a picture, her nervous hands had knocked down and smoothed her fingers over the faces looking back at her.
Their smiles gave her hope.
The confidence in herself. That knowing that she could do anything she set her mind to, because they were always there to back her up.
She wouldn't be here without them.
Especially her.
A sigh escaped her lips, hand moving from the picture frame back to her other things. She wasn't sure If the placement was right, or even if she wanted some of those things there. Her mind kept wandering... wondering what came next. What her life had been like up to this moment, and what it would be hereafter.
It was hard, adjusting. Or maybe it just was in this one moment, as her hand wrapped around a small statue.
Her finger brushed upwards, over it's back and curved down it's head, to then fall to it's face. She poked her finger into it's sharp mouth, indenting her own flesh as she looked at it curiously and absently fell into her desk chair.
It was harsh, black reflecting in her pupils outlined in a soft brown. It's beady little eyes looked into her's not with malice or mischief, but intelligence and understanding.
She had never got the meaning behind it. But now, as she set it on her desk, she understood. She was the guardian of the dead, and she never once took that placement as ominous or forbidding. It was a job worth doing, and she had drawn a sense of pride in it.
Just like her mother before her.
"Detective Castle!" A booming female voice rang out over everything else, and she nearly leaped out of her chair.
She looked up from her desk, spotting her sister walking towards her, two cups of coffee in hand and her couriers bag banging against her side as she moved quickly and deliberately.
"What are you doing here?" she asked, smoothing down her braid, a nervous habit.
Her sister placed the cup in front of her, grabbing a chair outside an interrogation room, and thoroughly placing it by the desk before flopping into it. "Just dropping by, seeing how your first day as Detective is going." She replied, poking at her sisters newly placed stuff.
"I just got here." She said, taking a sip of her coffee and humming loudly into it. "Thanks." She then said, lifting it up.
The other lifted her own, a sly grin on her face. "To the new member of the 12th precinct." She said, "Detective Robin Castle..." she trailed off, taking a long drink from her cup as she thought loudly with the furrow of her brow. "Or Detective Beckett?"
"Autumn..." Robin rolled her eyes.
"Shhh, I'm trying to find your superhero name..." She was answered by yet another eye roll as her younger sister swiveled around in her chair to turn on her computer. "Or would it be, Detective Beckett - Castle..." Autumn pulled her notebook out of her bag, pushing the eraser of her pencil into her mouth. "Got it!" She said, raising it in the air with triumph. "Detective Caskett!"
"Do. Not!" Robin whirled around. "I repeat... do not, write that in the article."
"What article?" Autumn replied nonchalant, "And... it fits." She added, not so subtly pressing her pencil to the paper, that wild devious grin she could only have gotten from her father, playing on her lips.
"Did you clear this with the Captain first?" She was scolded as she continued to write across her page.
"Pfft." The older sister replied tucking her hair out of her face with the tip of her pencil before looking over at her younger sister briefly, and then casting her gaze to the captain's office.
The Captain was standing at the window, blinds pulled down, and quickly dropped them. Autumn laughed, pushing at her sister's arm, and nudging her head at the door as it opened.
"Uncle Kevin's all for it."
"That's Captain Kevin Ryan." Robin murmured as he drew near.
"Suck up." Autumn said into her coffee when he stopped beside the desk and regarded them for a moment. "Captain." She saluted.
"Good to see you two." He said with a soft smile, placing a reassuring hand on Robin's shoulder, and she let out a long slow breath, finally relaxing her shoulders. "First day is always nerve racking." He mused, looking off as if remembering his first day. "But it gets easier, just ask your mom."
"Oh she's gotten the speech." Autumn smirked. "Both versions, but we won't be listening to dads will we?"
"No I think that one is more for you." Robin shot back, finally letting her infectious smile spread across her face, and she stopped playing with her braid.
Autumn put her hands in the air, her coffee in one of them, thumb holding it her to palm as she spread the rest of her fingers, "I promised I wouldn't shadow...I just need to follow you for..like.. three days to get this piece done."
Robin sighed loudly, setting her coffee down and pushing her fingers to the side of her head in frustration.
"Uncle Kevin."
"Captain." Robin mumbled.
"I don't work here." Autumn defended.
"Thank god for that."
"Guys!" Ryan threw an arm between them. "Now robin." He continued, and she looked up at him, "It's only for a few days. And Autumn." He then turned towards the older sister, now wielding her pen with vengeance, lip between her teeth as she stared back at him innocently. "Please, please do what your are instructed...unlike your dad."
Both women laughed, thinking back to the countless stories of their parents good old days at the 12th. Their father having shadowed a few times in the years up to their mothers retirement.
It was always a family tradition around the dinner table. The kids bent over their plates in anticipation as their parents bickered back and forth about the ramifications of each case he 'helped' with.
"Yeah." Robin perked up. "We don't need you getting shot and having to explain to mom and dad why Alexis had to patch you up in the ER." She laughed, while Autumn scowled at her.
"I won't get shot.. and anyway, I borrowed dads writer vest."
"Yea well, you won't get to use it because you'll be staying in the car."
"You are your parents kids." Ryan said in mock awe as he patted them both on the shoulder and went back to his office. He turned at the last minute, head poking around the door and stopped the two mid bicker, "I hear your brother just got into the academy, tell him congrats for me."
"We will." Robin replied as Autumn saluted.
"Sooooo." Autumn drew the word out annoyingly as Robin turned to her desk once more, unpacking the rest of her things and setting the box beside her chair. "What's on the agenda today little Raven?"
"Don't call me that here." Robin hissed, looking around at all the other detectives.
"Detective Caskett, no hassle Castle?"
"Need I remind you, I have a gun."
"First order of business would not be to shoot your own sister." Autumn tisked at her as she turned towards the murder board and then looked over at Robin as she arranged the statue of a Raven a little better on her desk. "Where's your team anyway? I mean, mom had Uncle Kevin and Javi... and dad... and Lanie.. oooo have you met the medical examiner yet? are you going to become best friends like-"
"Hey, Lois Lane!" Robin cut her off. "First, they are out on a call, second the medical examiner is like... a sixty year old man. And third, as you can see the board is empty." She gestured as Autumn jotted down some notes and then hummed in thought.
"What do you think the case is?" She asked, finally getting serious. Her journalist mind reeling with endless possibilities.
Watching her now, Robin could tell she had perhaps always had a knack for was a highly curious person, serious when need be. And when put on the spot, shoved into the limelight or pulled into a high risk situation, she held herself with such grace. A trait Robin knew Autumn had gotten from their mother.
Along with a few, if not more overpowering ones she'd also gotten from their father. Which shown through now as she got up from her chair, notebook in hand as she paced in front of the empty murderboard.
"What if." She started, brows furrowed and chin tilted up in deep pondering.
Robin sat back in her chair, and waited. Here goes.
"What if." Autumn said again. "There isn't a body."
"If there wasn't a body my team wouldn't be needed."
"But what if." She said again, picking up a dry erase marker and uncapping and capping it annoyingly.
"Don't say body snatchers."
Autumn glared and then opened her mouth.
"Or Alien invaders."
"Body snatchers of the fourth kind?" The writer stuck her tongue between her teeth, making an "ah ha." sound before waggling her eyebrows at her disinterested sister. "Who work for the CIA." Then her eyes grew wide.
"Autumn." Robin warned.
"Or special agents of Jordan Shaw."
"Will you shut up!"
"Or the russian mafia."
Robin sighed loudly.
"With nice tats..." She trailed off, almost salivating at the idea of hot russian men.
Robin rolled her eyes. One exaggerated circle of her soft brown eyes before they landed in Autumn's smug green ones. "Who put you up to this?" She asked just as her desk phone rang and she answered it.
"I don't know what you're talking about." Autumn replied, putting the marker back down, and grabbing for her bag.
"Was it dad?" Robin mouthed as she jotted down some notes and started to get out of her chair.
Autumn shook her head, "No." She replied, walking off towards the elevator a smile creeping onto her face before she threw a look over her shoulder at her sister, "It was mom." And then she stopped, watching as her sister fumbled with her jacket and trying to fit her little notepad in the inside pocket. "Oh, and she wanted me to tell you, try not to get cuffed."
Robin made a pfft sound, as she caught up with her at the elevator, and both stepped in.
"Unless it's to someone ruggedly handsome." Autumn bumped her shoulder, and then froze, letting the statement sink in.
"Ew," Robin said with a shudder.
Autumn laughed, "Like dad."
The whole precinct could hear Detective Robin's horrified response, "shuuut uppp," as the elevator doors closed.