New York's Finest
Chapter 1
The black dress hangs off her shoulders, loose fabric swaying back and forth over her breasts. Lanie had promised her she looked chic and expensive. She feels like a five year old playing dress up in her mother's closet.
The toe of her cobalt pump catches in a crevice in the sidewalk and she barely catches herself, a palm scraping along the brick of the building, before her ankle rolls. She shouldn't be doing this. This isn't her.
Kate sucks in a deep breath- a practiced, if mostly ineffective way to still her nerves. She needs to get it together. She's a professional. A professional who's been walking in four-inch heels since she was nineteen. This is just like any other day, any other job. Any other job where her companion for the evening is a millionaire playboy and her favorite author.
She straightens, dusting her raw palm on the skirt of her dress and with one more level exhale pulls the glass door to the building open.
"Hello," she greets the middle aged man behind the desk when he looks up from his half-filled crossword puzzle. Just at a glance she can tell 2 across should be 'helium'. Oxygen isn't a noble gas, but she pastes on a wide smile instead, and leans over the counter just far enough to give the attendant a pleasant view. "I'm here to see Richard Castle. You can tell him that Kate from NYF is here."
The man's- Edward according to his name tag- Adam's apple bobs as he peels his eyes away from her chest, the loose fabric of her top now pulled low and taut against the edge of the desk. If there is one thing Kate has learned over the years it's that men don't have a tendency to ask too many questions when confronted with the right amount of cleavage.
He gives a stuttered nod, one hand fumbling for the phone, and Kate takes a step back, smirking as Edward swipes a sheen of sweat off his brow with his free hand.
"Mr. Castle? Yes, yes sir. I'll send her right up." The phone clatters back to its cradle and Kate turns her attention back to the bumbling man behind the desk. "Ma'am, madam, um miss?"
"Yes?" Kate responds, her teeth catching her lower lip around her easy smile and Edward shifts in his seat.
"F-fifth floor. Apartment one."
"Thank you, Edward. You've been very helpful." She throws a wink over her shoulder as she turns toward the elevator, making sure to add a little extra sway to her step. Maybe Mrs. Edward will get a little extra something tonight.
Kate leans against the back wall of the elevator and pulls her compact out of her black clutch as the doors slide shut, effectively cutting her off from Edward's rapt attention. She dabs the makeup pad to her nose, a fruitless attempt to tame the shine. She shoves the compact away and is adjusting her barely socially acceptable length skirt around her thighs when a high pitched shriek shoots through her eardrum.
"Jesus!" Her body jolts, shoulder slamming against the mirrored wall of the lift, one hand flying to her ear.
"Sorry, Beckett." A voice crackles from the other end and Kate wiggles the earpiece in her ear with a finger. "Technical difficulties."
"No shit," she snaps back, her hand falling to press over her heart. "Just be happy I was alone or else I would've been blown."
"And not in the good way, eh Beckett?" The voice chuckles at it's own joke and Kate rolls her eyes.
"Keep it in your pant will ya, Tucker?" A huff flies off her lips and Tucker's voice crackles across the line again.
"Remember, we're recording everything, You just need to get him talking about his "research" with the mob."
"Oh, is that all?" Kate drawls as the elevator dings and she yanks at the hem of her skirt again before stepping into the hall. "I must have missed that in the briefing we were all in."
"No need for the sass, just figured you might like the reminder. You were laying it on pretty thick with the doorman, don't want you turning to the dark side."
"Yeah, well, the more you sell it the fewer questions they ask."
Tucker's retort is lost in a sea of static and Kate resists the urge to pluck the bud from her ear and stomp it into oblivion. One would have hoped that vice would have sprung for new, working equipment by now.
"Look guys, I hope you're actually getting what you need, because I'm only picking up half of what you say. Just leave this to me, I'll get him to talk." Kate strides down the hall as another string of gibberish gurgles over the line. She straightens her spine, shoulders shimmying as she pauses in front of the door, fist poised to knock.
Show time.
A/N Prompt: Pretty Woman AU from casket-copop83. A thank you for her generous donation to GoodLuckStana.
Special thanks to airbefore for the help with this plot and Kate Christie for the beta.
This will be a short multi-chapter story. Hope you enjoy the ride!