This idea formed in my brain and pushed its way out, there was nothing I could do.
So well, here I am again :)
Thanks to Shiny Shin (BonesBird) for her beta work and first feedback!
...
Not easy to keep this secret
Richard Castle woke up without even knowing the reason that pulled him out of his rest. Well-deserved rest, if he may say so himself. He noticed that his left arm was still deeply asleep though, maybe because a woman, his woman, as he somewhat proudly corrected himself, was sleeping on it.
He took the time to revel in her soft and warm weight on him, her breath on his skin. He needed to take his time to enjoy it and, once again, to truly believe that it was all real. She was curled up against his chest and her hand was right on his heart, just like he had learned she always did. It was one more thing he had discovered about her. He loved it. He loved that he knew her so well, and yet there were still so many mysteries that he had left to uncover. Some of them he uncovered very recently. Quite literally, too, he chuckled. He looked at her and his face softened in the most natural smile. In that very moment he realized just how truly happy he felt, as happy and content as he could remember being.
A small sigh of annoyance coming from Kate reminded him of the reason he woke up in the first place.
A vibrating phone. He thought he had turned it off completely, just to avoid this kind of interference. Any kind, actually. Two days and the only contact with the outside world he wanted or needed to have was only the one with the person right beside him and he had no intention of wasting a single second of it.
The vibration stopped. Finally the caller desisted.
Anyway, thanks to some very fortunate events he'd never left the house in more than two days, but he was never alone, not even for a single minute.
Luckily for him and his, well, their plans, Alexis had called him the day before to say that she would not be home for lunch, since she happened to be in Vegas with her friends. She had been kidnapped by a girl who had an even richer dad who had paid for them all on a weekend trip as a graduation present. She didn't even have the time to come home and pack, she had just found herself on a plane. And, for once, he wasn't worried. Not too much anyway. He had already learnt many times that he could trust her with anything. This time he just wanted to let her enjoy her freedom. She was so grown up after all and, even if that thought made him wince every time, it also made him feel so proud. Seeing his daughter growing up to be the fantastic young woman that she had become, indubitably was the greatest achievement of his life.
His mother, on the other hand, was conveniently on a last minute weekend reunion of her old acting school in Los Angeles and she had left New York on a night flight right after Alexis' graduation ceremony.
What an impressive timing for all of that, he had to admit. After Alexis' ceremony ended he was ready for a miserable night spent with lonely video games, sad movies and lots of candies to stuff himself with. But his luck had turned and fate had finally decided it was the right time to knock at his door. Literally. In that case, fate was one, soaked, NYPD detective showing up on his doorstep in the middle of the night.
No one knew yet. They decided to keep it to themselves, at least for a little while. It was all so new and amazing and overwhelming that they just wanted to enjoy it without all the drama and all the questions. They needed time to get used to being where they wanted to be. Time to realize, in each and every moment, that they were exactly there, that they had finally made it.
Just as he closed his eyes again, deeply savouring the feeling of waking up and falling asleep with her by his side, the phone started vibrating again. Kate buried her face more into his neck trying to tune out the annoying noise, and this time he was the one who had to desist. His free right arm stretched as far as it would go, barely reached the phone on the nightstand and quickly took it to his ear.
"Hello" he answered groggily and slightly annoyed.
Nothing on the other line. His heartbeat quickened. Given his experience as a crime novelist and basically a cop, that usually wasn't a good sign.
"Hello?" he repeated.
Still no sounds. Then a gasp. And then…
"Hello sleeping beauty, did I wake you up?"
His eyes widened at the unexpected familiar voice.
"Uhm, no, I was… already awake" he lied.
"Yeah, I can hear that… Of course, it's almost 1pm, why would you still be asleep?" she laughed "Are you ok?
"Yes, sure I am… why are you asking?" he answered nervously.
"Oh, just checking. Haven't seen you or heard from you in a while and I was starting to worry. But if you're ok…"
"Yes, I'm good." he answered, still trying to figure out the weird call. Why would she be calling him? Plus, there was something in her tone that made him cautious. What was all that about? "I've just been quite… busy.. these past couple of days."
The not-so-sleeping woman by his side let out an amused giggle at his choice of words. He knew she couldn't hear the speaker's voice, then.
"Oh, I see…" the woman on the phone said, her voice strangely mushy. He had the strong feeling that she was mocking him. "Is Beckett up yet?"
"I don't know, how would I know?" he bluffed, trying to remain calm. There was definitely something going on with that call.
"Really? I just thought you would know."
"Well, I don't." he insisted "Maybe you should try calling her."
"Yes, actually I did. But she didn't answer" There it was. That mocking tone again.
He needed help to figure it out.
"All right, Lanie, what do you want?"
As he had expected, the woman laying comfortably against him immediately bolted upright on the bed, wide awake, staring at him quizzically. After the shock had passed, Kate's eyes widened as she looked closer at him and her mouth fell open in shock.
"Ouch!" he gasped loudly as she slapped him hard on his arm which, he noted, had gained back its sensitivity. "What was that for?"
"What was what for?" He could hear that Lanie was trying not to laugh.
Kate closed her eyes, shook her head without saying a single word and collapsed back on the bed with a sigh, burying herself under the blankets.
"Lanie, can I call you back?" Castle panicked, sure that now he was the only one who didn't know what was going on.
"Hold on, writer boy, don't you dare hang up on me!"
"Lanie..."
"Richard Castle, put Beckett on the phone. Now!"
He tried to save it in extremis. "As I said, why don't you call her?"
"I just did!" she admitted, exasperated.
Oh. The meaning of that weird call finally dawned on him. Oh no. Oh no, he didn't. He took the phone away from his ear and looked at it. He did. He turned pale as he realized his mistake. His huge, massive mistake.
"Busted" the girl's amused voice echoed from Beckett's cell phone.
Kate groaned loudly in frustration from under the covers. With nothing left to do, Castle patted her gently on the shoulder and she peeked up at him with a glare.
"Detective Beckett, Lanie is on the phone for you" he said half-jokingly, hoping to reduce her anger and at the same time his eventual punishment for it.
She shot him another deadly glare, slapped his arm again and grabbed her cell phone.
"Hello Lanie" she greeted her friend, trying to sound as normal as possible. She immediately had to move away the phone from her ear as Lanie started to threaten the safety of her eardrum.
While she waited for her friend to stop squealing and screaming she kept eyes on her boyfriend of two days, who was rubbing his arm and looking at her like a wounded puppy.
She shook her head and mouthed a few words in his direction. He widened his eyes, immediately stopped complaining and stood up, taking the discarded bed sheet with him. Changing his mind, he kneeled on the mattress again, leaned down, kissed her lips and took the escape route from his bedroom.
Her high heeled shoe followed him on his way out.
...
