Dating? She Knows...
A Castle One-Shot
Episode Insert for 5x04, "Murder, He Wrote"
by Laura Picken
A/N: Out of the many holes and disappointments people have picked apart when it came to season 5, one of the most common complaints that I saw was that we saw everyone finding out about Castle and Beckett's relationship *except* for Lanie. And as much as I searched, it seems like no one else has come up with this yet. So I figured I'd just jot it down and throw it out there. :-)
DISCLAIMER: I don't own Castle. If I did "Watershed" would have gone down very differently. This is all just venting. Always is, always will be. Should be no surprise to anyone, but SPOILERS up through US episode 5x04 "Murder, He Wrote". Place this between Ryan's phone call to Castle and when he tells Esposito to drop the 'investigation'. This is a one-shot, and will not go any further than this posting, so please, don't ask...
Comments, as always, greedily devoured and highly encouraged!
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Kevin Ryan was whistling as he strolled down the hallway to the morgue. Two of his best friends were dating. Finally. After more than four years of dancing around their feelings for each other, they finally figured it out.
*Finally.*
He didn't know why the news was making him so...giddy. Sure, he was genuinely happy *for* them. And, so far as he could tell, he was the first one out of their little circle of friends to figure it out...so there was a definite 'thrill of victory' aspect to the whole thing. But he was almost as happy as he was on the day he found out that *Jenny* was in love with *him*. Why?
A smile lit up his face as he recognized the source of his happiness. The guys at the precinct had been teasing him about being a hopeless romantic right up until the day of his wedding. But the truth was...being in love made him happy. His relationship with Jenny made him happy. And with all the sadness, and drama, and pain that he had witnessed in the life of his supervisor and friend, it made him just as happy to see Kate Beckett get a taste of that kind of happiness.
She, of all people, deserved it.
Ryan pushed those thoughts aside as he pushed open the doors of his other friend's office. "Hey, Lanie," he called out to the empty morgue.
A familiar voice called back through the door to the back storage room. "Yeah?"
"You called with the lab results on the Richardson case?"
"Oh yeah," Lanie replied. She came through the doorway holding a manilla folder in her hands. "Sorry, but Jane Richardson had a family history of a rheumatological disorder called Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome. And one of the primary symptoms is easy bruising."
Ryan's face fell only slightly. "So she wasn't being abused?"
"The pattern of brusing isn't consistent with it, and when you take the genetic disorder into consideration...I'm sorry, I can't rule it a homicide." Lanie looked up and noticed how Ryan's frown didn't quite meet his eyes. "What are you so happy about, Kev?"
Ryan blushed, suddenly unable to look Lanie in the eye. "Me? Happy? About not knowing how Jane Richardson died? Why would I be happy about that..."
Lanie cut off her friend's babbling. "That's not what you're happy about, is it? So what is it?" Her eyes widened as the first idea sparked to life. "Jenny's not pregnant, is she?"
Ryan's eyes widened to match Lanie's. "What?" he exclaimed, clearly shocked by the idea. "No!"
Lanie studied the pattern of conflicting emotions on her friend's face. She *knew* she had to find out what he was thinking about. "It's not your partner...you're too nice to be that happy for him around me unless I'm involved. Wait, *am* I involved?"
Ryan turned away again, trying to make the evasive maneuver as subtle as possible. "No! It's not about Javi..."
"Then what is it?"
Ryan chewed on his bottom lip, his soaring heart sinking beneath a sea of panic. "I...I can't tell you..."
It was in that last nervous expression that Lanie realized what could possibly put her friend through such a frantic range of emotions. "You figured it out, didn't you?"
Ryan tried to feign confusion. "Figured what out?"
"That Castle is Beckett's boyfriend?"
Kevin's eyes widened as the impact of Lanie's words hit him square in the face. "You *know*?!"
"Of course I know! I'm Kate's best friend, you didn't think I'd figure it out?"
Ryan was dumbstruck. "How long have you known?"
"Since the Mandy Michaels case," replied Lanie. "I could tell that Kate had started seeing somebody, but when I tried to figure out who, they panicked. They *both* panicked. And that's when I figured it out."
"But she didn't *tell* you."
"She didn't have to," Lanie shrugged. "It's her life, not mine."
Ryan was now genuinely confused. "But she's been lying to you all this time..."
"She hasn't been *lying* to me," insisted Lanie. "She just hasn't been ready to tell me yet. She'll do it on her own terms, in her own time. It's how she does everything."
Ryan slowly paced the room, trying to let the whole idea sink in...until *all* of the truth clicked in to place. "You *lied* to us!"
Lanie, for her part tried to play coy. "When?"
"When Javi and I tried to pin you down earlier! You said you didn't know and wanted to respect Beckett's privacy. But you knew that it was Castle and you *lied* to us!"
"Of *course* I lied to you guys!" Lanie insisted. A shot of panic ran through her as Ryan pulled out his cell phone. "What are you doing?"
"Calling my partner," Ryan replied with a mix of equal parts anger and excitement. "He *really* wants to know about this..."
Lanie ripped the phone out of Ryan's hands and cleared the call before it had any chance to go through. "Javi can't figure this out. Not *ever*."
Ryan could only stare at Lanie. "Why not?"
"Think about it. Does that man have *any* kind of filter on his mouth?"
Ryan opened his mouth to protest, then closed it with a resigned sigh when he realized that Lanie was right. "Not much of one."
Lanie nodded. "And now that you know? He'd want to talk about it with you. And since you guys mostly talk in the precinct..."
Ryan caught on immediately. "There's a chance that we'd talk in a place where Gates could overhear. And with Beckett's job already hanging by a thread..."
Lanie nodded again, satisfied that her point had gotten through. "Look, I couldn't be happier for them. I know you are, too?" Ryan replied to the implied question with a shy smile. "Then you understand that I was doing this to protect them..."
This time it was Ryan's turn to nod. "Yeah."
"So you won't tell him?"
Ryan looked at his phone in Lanie's hand and sighed. He held out his hand, silently asking for his phone back. "Not unless I have no other choice."
Lanie looked from Ryan's cell phone to his hand and back again before finally handing over the device. "Let's hope it never comes to that."
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A/N: And that's why I think we never saw Lanie finding out about Castle and Beckett's relationship (technically). I think we *did* see the moment she found out...they just didn't spell it out for us. Agree? Disagree? Think I have a screw loose? Let me know in the comments!