So this is my first Castle fic, it's meant as a one-shot but if you guys want me to continue i'd be happy to do it, I actually have quite a good idea to go on with the case etc. but anyway, enjoy!
"Beckett we got something for you" Esposito said as he walked towards her desk, two mugs in his hands and a file clamped between his arm and ribs as he put the mug meant for her, in front of her.
Beckett looked up with a smile "you do?" as she immediately sat up straight, dropped the papers in her hand and reached for the steamy cup and let out a disappointed sigh as she looked at the clear water.
Esposito threw her a tea bag and shrugged "you know Castle is going to kill me if he sees me bringing you coffee" and sat in front of her, taking a careful sip of his own coffee.
Kate rolled her eyes and pushed herself away from her desk as she tore the wrapping around the tea bag and let it soak in her mug "I am allowed to have coffee once in a while-" she grunted and placed a hand on her very pregnant - 7 month old stomach and absentmindedly rubbed it, the baby had been kicking up a storm making it unable for her to really concentrate on her work "-besides Castle is not even here, he's writing at home" she added.
When Kate found out she was pregnant she quickly got set on desk duty, which she expected and certainly in the beginning didn't have a problem with because she knew it was to keep her and her baby safe. But after already a few days she was going crazy, having to sit still while everyone around her was catching bad guys, including her dear husband, and without her, drove her insane. And honestly she just missed the action and the thrill. And the longer she was behind that desk the crankier she got, which made the whole precinct suffer. So after a while, Gates caved in and allowed her to interrogate suspects of low-danger and minor cases, still no fieldwork, but it made the mother-to-be a lot happier and Castle very nervous.
Esposito smirked "I know… but I am not getting in between the middle of you guys!" and uncrossed his arms and handed her the file that he had been carrying "anyway we got a murder case, the victim is called Karlie Delano, no records, no family, but we found some DNA on her clothes by someone named Lauren Scott, 20 years old, probably a friend, who identified her and our only connection to the victim, but honestly I don't think she could have done it"
Beckett just nodded and looked inside the file "you found the girl with multiple stab wounds in the chest, arms and neck, you think she was a prostitute?" and grabbed the attached photo of the victim lying on the streets in a pool of her own blood.
Espo nodded "we think so, looking at what she was wearing and the streets she was found in…"
Beckett bit her lip and nodded "she was killed in a lot of rage, drug deal gone wrong? Angry pimp?" she thought out loud and let out a deep sigh, dreading the fact she had to get up from her chair, that with her now quite big baby bump was getting to become a real struggle. Esposito immediately stood up and without asking helped her by reaching out his arm for her to have something to hold on to, which she gratefully did, and hoisted her out of her chair.
Beckett gave him a nod to thank him and walked, or waddled, her way to the interrogation room, leaving a very strong, and cold, cup of tea on her desk.
"Beckett wait!" a familiar voice said as Detective Ryan ran up to her just before she was going in "remember we couldn't find any details on the victim well I just got back from Lanie, and apparently our victim Karlie-" and handed the file over to Kate "-used to be a Karl…"
Beckett raised her eyebrows and opened the file, looking at the picture of a dark haired boy with soft facial features "transgender?" she whispered reading through the information and closed the file "thank you" she said to Ryan
Ryan nodded "I'll try and contact the family"
Kate walked in the room, the file in one hand as she pushed the door shut with the other. The suspect looked up, she had clearly been crying as her eyes were red, while her blonde hair stuck to her face, she looked up to when she heard someone get in and wiped her runny nose with the back of her hand. She immediately noticed that the person that had walked in was heavily pregnant which surprised her and it made her sit up as she used her fingers to comb her hair out of her face.
"Hi my name is Detective Kate Beckett-" Kate said as she introduced herself and slowly sat down again, one hand on her belly as the other was holding onto the back of her chair, trying to not lose her balance. She scooted the chair closer to the steel table as her belly gently touched the edge.
The girl in front of her had dyed blonde wispy hair. The dark roots of her former hair colour were clearly showing. She has shifty piercing blue eyes, even bluer than Castle's, and quite strong facial features. Her fragile and thin body already made Kate suspect she wasn't strong enough to do such a crime but chose to continue anyway.
"Who did this to her?" Lauren asked softly, her body weight resting on her arms that were placed on the table in front of her as she was fidgeting with the sleeve of her shirt.
Kate gave a reassuring nod "that's what we're trying to find out" as she placed her arms on the surface of the desk too, her hands folded "-so let's start by telling me how you know each other"
Lauren sat up again and leaned back into her uncomfortable chair "Karlie and I are- I mean were-" as she swallowed her tears back "-girlfriends, we share a crappy apartment, we met working on the streets and just connected"
Kate nodded "why hadn't you told the NYPD that Karlie was actually named Karl-" as Beckett opened the file in her hands and pushed the old picture towards her suspect.
Lauren's bottom lip started quivering as she took the picture and held it in front of her, silent tears escaping from her eyes "-because I promised her" and put the picture down again "she wanted to be known as Karlie, we know what we do is a very dangerous and we promised that if something ever happened… we would do anything to keep our identity, she was so unhappy and like me, her family shunned her after she told them she didn't belong in the body she was born in, nobody cared for her and she ran away from home, we met on the street here in New York when she still looked like that" and tapped on the picture with her finger "-and we just connected because at the time I was transitioning into a female by using female hormones and eventually we just… fell in love" Lauren answered with a faint smile.
Kate tried to take in all the new given information and nodded understanding
Lauren bit her lip and looked down, trying to pull herself together "who did this?" she asked looking back into the detective's eyes.
Kate swallowed, she felt like Lauren's eyes looked right through her and into her soul, and averted her eyes "we're still investigating but-"
"-but you think it's a angry client who found out she wasn't really a woman or a drug deal gone bad like you see hundreds of every year right?" Lauren interrupted her, clenching her fist in rage, her nails digging into her own skin leaving an indentation.
Beckett slowly shook her head "I can't say anything with any certainty it's still an on-going investigation" she soft-balled not wanting to aggravate Lauren even more
Lauren shook her head looking down and crossed her arms "you don't know how hard it is trying to survive when nobody cares about you, I loved her, she loved me, we were together and now I am alone again-" as tears kept streaming down her face "-and she's dead"
"I really am sorry for your loss, but I have to ask you, where were you between 11 and 2 this morning?" Kate asked
Lauren looked down again and rubbed her face with her hands, she sighed and looked back at Kate "with a client"
Knowing Lauren wasn't the killer, she was just too skinny, too fragile and she had no motive, Kate nodded and waved detective Ryan in to finish the interrogation as she felt dizzy and needed to get out of the room. Kevin Ryan had walked in and tried to help her up from the chair, but she refused as she slowly made her way out of the intoxicating room.
"Detective wait!" Lauren said, as she suddenly stood up, not moving from her place "do you already know what you're having A boy? A girl?" as she shakily pointed at her round stomach.
Beckett had her hand on the doorknob but let go as she turned around and shifted her weight from her one foot to the other, feeling like it was a bit inappropriate question but answered anyway "we didn't wanna find out yet" she said and placed her left hand just below her ever growing belly
Lauren nodded and bit her lip "please promise me you'll love it regardless of the gender it's born with, or later chooses to have" her blue eyes glistening with tears. She didn't even look sad anymore, there was just an aura of hopelessness around her.
Beckett immediately felt a lump in her throat that she tried to swallow down and nodded "I-I promise" and quickly made her way out of the room, her hands covering her face, feeling embarrassed and annoyed she wasn't able to control her feelings and missed being her old independent self.
"Are you ok?" Esposito asked quickly coming up to her as he had been watching the interrogation through the one sided mirror.
Beckett nodded "yeah, yeah, yeah I just-" as she looked down and placed her hands on her belly "I am just going to stick with desk work from now on, that's where I belong right now"
He nodded and raised his eyebrows a bit surprised "yes, of course"
Beckett walked over to her desk and grabbed her coat "I'm taking an early day, see you tomorrow"
"Want me to call Castle for you?" Esposito asked, already holding his phone.
Beckett shook her head "no, no, I'm fine" and hastily got into the elevator, looking at everyone's surprised faces at the precinct before the automatic doors shut.
"Castle… are you awake?" Kate softly asked, she wasn't able to fall asleep and not because of the baby kicking her insides this time, but the case that kept haunting her thoughts. Those sad and desperate eyes of Lauren, it reminded her so much of her husband's and she just couldn't shake it off.
Castle groaned and let his head drop to the side so he was looking right into her eyes and smiled "well I can't really sleep when my pregnant wife keeps stirring and kicking me"
Kate immediately felt guilty and bit her lip "I'm sorry, I'll keep still, go back to sleep" and awkwardly tried to turn around which doesn't go as smoothly as a few months before.
"No, no please Kate I didn't mean it like that come here" Castle said and placed his hand on her shoulder which made Kate land back on her back again "look at me" he said,
Kate sighed and turned around so she was facing him again, his kind eyes looked worried.
"What's wrong? Is the baby keeping you awake?" he asked and placed one of his hands on her bare stomach which was clad by one of his old promotional shirts for one of his books that she 'stole' because it was the only thing that really fitted her even thought it was already stretching around her bump.
Kate placed her hand on his and intertwined their fingers as he slowly rubbed her stomach "no" she smiled and scooted a bit closer to him, her belly now gently pressed against his stomach.
Castle was waiting for her to say something but she just kept looking at him, she was frowning.
"Tell me, what's wrong, I this why you have been behaving a bit strange all day?" Castle asked breaking the silence.
Kate shook her head and sighed, "will you promise me something"
Castle raised his eyebrow surprised and nodded "of course, what is it?"
"will you promise you will love this baby no matter what?" she asked as she finally found the courage to do so.
"of course I will-" Castle answered but got quickly interrupted by Kate
"Let me finish" she whispered and grabbed his hand that was first resting on her bump and brought it to her heart "will you promise me you will love this baby regardless of sexual preference, gender or disadvantage?"
Castle could see tears forming in her eyes and he suddenly got very worried as he squeezed his wife's hand "of course I will!" he exclaimed, surprised she even felt the need to ask him "I don't care if the kid comes out green, with three legs and one eye, it's our baby Kate" and smiled at her
"Castle please, I'm serious" Kate begged, not feeling her husband's humor at the moment.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry… but what I meant is that of course I will love this child no matter what
Kate nodded and sighed "I just needed to know Castle, I just needed that conformation" as she felt a tear go down her cheek and onto her pillow.
Castle was still worried and pulled her as close to him as he could and wiped some of her tears away with his hand "what brought this on though?" he carefully asked.
Kate sighed and closed her eyes for a few seconds and took a deep breath "-there was this case today, beautiful girl stabbed to death, turned out she was transgender, nobody was there for her, not her parents, no one… except for her girlfriend and I just can't-" as she tried to swallow the lump in her throat down, guiding her husband's hands down her bump again "-imagine carrying this baby for 9 months, giving birth to it, love it, take care of it and then shun your own child for not feeling like he or she was born in the right body"
Castle suddenly felt an incredible surge of love for his wife through his body and kissed her, tasting her salty tears on her lips "I'm so sorry Kate"
Kate shook her head "I don't know why I got so emotional about this case" she whispered "I could barely keep my tears down in that interrogation room, doesn't make me a good cop does it?" she said with a faint smile.
"I think it does make you an amazing cop!" Castle smiled back and intertwined his fingers with hers again "you know why?" and softly kissed her "because you care" and gave her another quick kiss as he could feel the corners of her mouth curl up as his lips were pressed against hers and broke the kiss to just look at her face, that looked a lot more relaxed "it also makes you an amazing mom"
"You think so?" she whispered
Castle nodded "there is one thing though…"
Kate frowned "what?"
"I will be a bit concerned if the kid comes out half black" he joked and winked at her which immediately was followed by a playful slap by his wife
"You're the worst" she said with a big smile and curled up against him, feeling a lot better and was finally able to finally fall asleep.
thanks for reading, again if you want me to go on with this case/story please leave a review, I'd love to know! (it also keeps me motivated to write more so yay) x