It had been a frustrating drive down to Montrose, Pennsylvania. Beckett was taking an "order leave" by her boss. They had just finished a pretty heavy set case, and Montgomery could see it was taking a toll on his finest Detective. Plus, she deserved the break. She rarely uses her vacation days and the Captain told her to take two weeks off.
Even though she was against it, she knew her father was in the next state over, visiting their family and decided it wasn't a bad idea to go and visit with him. The drive had been energy draining, and she hadn't expected to have to spend a night in a hotel before heading off towards her Uncle's farm house.
Pulling the suitcase out of trunk, she winced when the roller fell barely an inch from the tips of her heeled feet. She slammed the lid shut, double checking her vehicle was securely locked before hurrying her way into the well lit building, the sun almost done setting behind her.
She stopped up at the front desk, where a young girl who looked barely eighteen was seated on the other side, popping her gum around in her mouth as she side glanced the detective across from her.
The blonde was very disinterested in the customer in front of her, taking Kate's ID and credit card as she entered them into the computer, sloppily handing the occupant an old fashioned key.
"Your room is number 47. Enjoy your stay." The young lady muttered off in a monotone voice, obviously not caring too much about the person who was booking a room. Kate held the dark key in her hand, observing as the receptionist stood to her feet and went into the back room.
So much for pretending to like your job.
Kate ignored the rudeness of the woman and started towards the elevator, brushing off the bellboy when he came to take up her suitcase. After a few seconds of standing idly in the empty elevator, she stepped into the hallway and headed down until she saw the bright "47" of the room number displayed on the door.
She let out a relief filled sigh as she twisted the key and pushed the door open, pulling her luggage behind her as she shut it. The one thing she wanted to do, was take a nice shower before heading to sleep. She rolled her not so heavy suitcase behind her and laid it onto the floor before heading into the bathroom right next to it.
When Rick got out of his car, it was pitch black in the night. Just barely after eleven and he was ready to get to sleep. He had a signing in Montrose and really needed a good night's sleep before heading to the library that would be having his signing. Because with Gina all over him every possible second was not appreciated.
He dragged his own suitcase behind him into the building, and before he even got to the front desk, the once irritated teenager became overjoyed just at the sight of him.
"Richard Castle?!" She squeaked, making the older man smile genuinely. The girl was so excited, she seemed to forget she was at work. The girl excitedly sat back down and brought up the room reservations and barely noticing the empty place in room 47. After running his id and credit card, she handed him the extra key for the already booked room, her mind not registering the fact there should have already been another key there.
After he thanked her, he made his way up the elevator, the bellboy taking his luggage up. He tipped generously to the teen as he unlocked his room, making his way in. He sighed in exhaustion, placing his suitcase onto the double bed and zipping it open and rummaging through to find something to wear.
His ears twitched upwards when he heard a door in front of him and a gasp enveloped the room.
"What are you doing in here?!" His head tilted up and his eyes felt like they were popping out of his head.
Standing on the other side of bed, was a woman, her drenched brunette hair tied in a ponytail, wearing nothing but a white towel that barely went past hips.
"This is my room! How in the hell do you get in-" Her voice clogged in her throat when she saw his eyes staring back at her. Not only was this man in her hotel room with his suitcase open, the man was her favorite author. In the flesh.
As for the eruption that happened before, it was quiet as a mouse for a short 3 seconds before her throat cleared and she clamped her mouth shut, her right hand clutching the top of the only thing covering her water glistening body.
"Again, this is my room. Why are you in here, how did you get in here?"
Castle held a key up in the air, like it would solve the situation. "Obviously, I'm here because this is, my room."
She eyed him, and his so called key as she reached onto the night stand and held up her own copy of the room key. From that point on, the two just stared at each other, and the two keys. Minutes passed by before she spoke up.
"The hotel probably made a mistake, gave you the wrong key and number." He only nodded, but didn't seem to move, or leave to go report the mishap. "We can go down and tell them they booked us the same room."
"Yeah, we can do that." Neither still moved from their spots on either side of the bed.
"I need to get dressed.." It was obvious that he didn't take the hint there as she narrowed her eyes toward him. "Which means, you need to step outside." She reminded him, making him jump in realization and nodding quickly. He glanced once more to the towel that was currently hugging her curves.
Once the man who's books she read to help her cope with the loss of her mother had left the room, shutting the door behind him, she dug through her clothes until she found something to wear. She stepped into the bathroom, not that she thought Richard Castle would really try to peek at her, but she wasn't going to take a chance.
He was leaning against the wall when she crossed the threshold of the room and hallway. Together, they silently made their way back down to the ground floor and to the service desk. The lady before them was different as she looked up at them with question when they pulled out their keys.
She apologized for the mixup and looked up the unbooked rooms, and turned back to the two across from her.
"I'm sorry, but room 47 was our last available room, we have no other ones. You'll either have to share the room for the night, or one of you will have to find another hotel."
"We'll be fine sharing it, thank you." Her mouth fell open as she gaped at the man beside her. What on earth was he doing, speaking for both of them? She of course didn't want to go to another hotel, so she pressed her lips together and moved away from the desk and toward the elevators.
She smacked him in the arm and ignored the small yelp that escaped his mouth.
"What do you think you're doing?! 'We'll be fine sharing it.' I can speak for myself!" She accused, glaring at him as he massaged the spot she smacked with a wounded look.
"Well, I'm fine with sharing it for the night. Like you heard, that was the only available room. Would you rather have left and had to find another hotel?" She didn't answer him, only turned away from him, a sour look plastered on her face.
When they arrived back to their room, she zipped up her luggage and got into the left side of the bed. Castle grabbed some of his clothes and retreated into the bathroom. Neither were speaking a word to each other.
He came back out of the bathroom, drying his messy hair on a towel to notice his roommate was snuggled into fetal position on the bed. Her eyes were closed and her chest was rising and falling in a small, slow motion. He knew she was sleeping, because of how many times he watched his daughter sleep.
A gentle smile spread onto his face as he tiptoed forward, carefully pulling back the covers and laying them atop her relaxed body. He went to the other side, crawling in himself and watching her for a short moment, before closing his eyes.
She wrinkled her nose, before willing her eye lids to open, but she wasn't prepared for what she saw. The man who had slept in the same room with her the night before's sleeping face was inches away from her. In alarm, she glanced down between their bodies. She had snuggled up against him sometime during the night.
Biting her lip, she moved out of his embrace and quickly twisted the other way, holding her breath to hope he didn't wake up by her movement. When she only heard the soft pants of his breath indicating his slumber, she let out an exhale, and slowly stood from the bed and grabbed more clothes before disappearing into the bathroom.
When she emerged from the bathroom, brushing her chestnut hair, the author was was slipping on a shirt. A hot, red color formed onto her cheeks when she took in the pack of abs he had on him, and how well he looked shirtless. A soft 'hm' interrupted her thoughts and she jerked her up face up and swallowed nervously when she was greated by his baby blue eyes staring at her. He had caught her staring.
She descended her vision away from his and moved to repacking her suitcase, making sure everything was in order before a voice behind startled her.
"So..you have any time to get some breakfast with me?" She closed her eyes for a moment, pondering the question and whether it was a good idea to go for breakfast with her favorite author. She did have somewhere she needed to be, but she could always call her father and says she was running late.
Turning her head towards him, she shrugged a shoulder, standing herself up. "I think I can squeeze in a breakfast before heading off to Williamsport." She couldn't help but smile when he gave her a toothy grin.
The duo had put their luggage in their own cars after checking out of the hotel and decided to go on foot down the road to the small breakfast bar to eat their morning meal before Castle headed towards his signing and Beckett to her uncle's.
"Why don't you find us a table, and I'll get us some breakfast and a coffee?"
She nodded to his request, rattling off that she's like a crouton, with strawberry icing along with a two pump sugar free vanilla latte. She only got a soft smile in return and when he was turned around, she set off towards a small two person table in the back of the cafe.
He returned holding two cronuts, one with strawberry icing and one with chocolate. She smiled and bobbed her head in thanks as she sipped her coffee, humming in response to the taste, which made the man in front of her chuckle.
"So, Mister author man-" Her sentence stopped when Rick started laughing across from her.
"Anyway, what are you doing after this?"
"I have a book signing at Deloris' Book Store of Dares today, and then a few more in the coming week. And what about you, Miss snuggler." Her cheeks heated up again and she broke eye contact.
"I don't snuggle."
"You did last night."
So much for trying to make sure that didn't happen. "It happened during the night, okay. And to answer your question, I'm on vacation leave, visiting my family in Williamsport." She knew the next question before it even came out of his mouth. "I'm a Detective, and we just had a hard case, and I took some leave."
Castle seemed very interested in her work after that and even had the nerve to ask to follow her, which she refused and got back to eating her cronut. Silence overtook the conversation after that. When they were getting ready to leave, Castle started leaning over the table.
"You have a little something-" His thumb swiped the corner of her mouth where a tiny dash of icing had resided and popped his finger into his mouth to lick of the icing. Her eyes widened and she tried her hardest not to blush at the exchange that just happened. Even though she tried her hardest, he could see a small amount of pink in the middle of them.
They had left the cafe when they stared each other before Castle held his hand out, which she took and shook firmly.
"It was nice to meet you, and share a bed, Detective." She couldn't help but smile at his goodbye.
"Likewise." She replied, giving him a toothy smile before nodding in departure, walking in the opposite direction. He watched her silently for a few seconds before turning and hailing a cab towards the book store.
Hours passed, along with a bunch of fans and their books that he signed, smiled and greeted. He could see Gina out of the corner of his eye as the female fan in front of him, left, holding the signed book to her chest. Another book, one of his old ones infact, 'In Hail of Bullets' was handed to him. He flipped the front page open, pen posed ready.
"And who do I make this out to?" He asked, just like he asked everyone with a soft smile on display for them.
"Kate." His head jerked up at the voice, because he knows that voice. He got yelled at by that voice. His smile widened when he saw the brunette in front of him. The same brunette with beautiful hazel eyes, the one that slept in the same bed with him the night before, showing him a true grin. "You can make it out to Kate."
His eyes returned to book in front of him. He scribbled something down before returning the book into the warm hands, letting his fingers brush against hers for a small moment as he looked at with such happiness. "Thank you for coming, Kate." He said, watching as she nodded, mouthing 'goodbye' in his expence before leaving the book store.
When she was outside onto the sidewalk, she flipped open the cover of her book, and her face developed into a grin at what he had left her.
"Kate,
You have a beautiful smile, and you are a great snuggler. ;)
Thank you for being my roomie, and a being a fan."