I don't own these characters. Now, for a story...
I hate my hair right now.
Kate Beckett looked at herself in her nude strapless bra and matching underwear, full face of makeup in her bathroom mirror and sighed in frustration.
"Ouch!" she winced in pain as the curling iron got a little too close to the delicate skin of her neck. Her hair never did what she wanted it to. She had always envied people lucky enough to have truly straight or naturally curly hair. With straight you could just blow dry and be done. With curly, add some gel and a few hair pins and voila, call it an 'up-do'. But her hair? No way. It was some evil hybrid of hair between the two that mocked her anytime she tried to use something more than a straight iron. The contempt she held for her hair was bubbling over tonight as she readied herself for the New York County Medical Society's Holiday Benefit Gala.
I can't believe I'm going to a "gala".
She continued wrapping her hair around the curling iron carefully.
Josh had invited her months ago. He had insisted on buying tickets as soon as they were available, which was just before Halloween. She had warned him that she wouldn't know her work schedule for another 2 weeks at the time, but he had gone ahead and bought the tickets anyway. As it turned out, she had managed to get the night off, not because Kate herself had made the request, but because Richard Castle had.
She remembered that day in mid- November when Castle had shown up at the bullpen, her coffee in hand, with an especially giddy look on his face.
"What, Castle?"
She could see the flicker of mischief in his eyes. Those eyes were always his tell.
"Good morning to you too, Mary Sunshine," he said sarcastically because Kate was not smiling. "Coffee?" he said holding out her cup.
"I know you. You're up to something. Either that, or you got laid last night. Indulging in Deep Fried Twinkies again?" she said, accepting the coffee as he settled in his chair next to her desk.
"Deep-fried Twinkies? No way, Meredith is in California… and lord only knows where Gina was last night… so there was no 'laying' to be had," he replied, surprisingly serious.
Kate instantly wished she could take back her statement. She knew Castle had been going through a rough time lately. He and Gina had been off-and-on for the last month or so, although lately it seemed more 'off' than 'on'. Normally, she and Castle didn't talk much about their respective relationships. However, with his recent difficulties with Gina, Castle had approached Kate wanting a woman's perspective that didn't include his mother, who had never really liked Gina, or his daughter because well, that was just 'too weird' as he had put it. So they had gone out for drinks a few times after work, and Kate had listened, trying to be as supportive as she could be considering she really didn't think Gina was good enough for him.
"Sorry. I just hadn't seen you smiling like that in awhile," Kate said apologetically.
"No worries. Anyway, the reason I'm in good spirits this morning has to do with you actually," Castle said as he leaned back in his chair and took a sip of his coffee with an amused smile on his face.
"Me? What have I done?" Kate asked, genuinely surprised with his response.
"Well, it's not something you have done, more like something you will do, or at least I'm hoping you will," Castle said, leaning towards her now.
"I don't like where this is going…" Kate said and turned her body to face him directly. "What do you mean 'will do'?"
"So, just let me finish before you decide to yell at me, and don't shoot me. Swear?" Castle said extending his hand and sticking out his pinkie finger.
"Are you seriously making me pinkie swear? How old are you, 10?" Kate said, crossing her arms, exasperated that he was dragging this out.
He raised his hand a little higher and cocked his head, implying that he was, in fact, serious.
Kate rolled her eyes as she linked her pinkie with his and they shook. Castle smiled and clasped his hands together with excitement.
"Okay, so there's this holiday benefit-thing in December, all proceeds go to local hospitals around town. And Gina has a friend who's on the organizing committee and they have a silent auction that she's helping to arrange. So her friend called me last night and asked if I would donate something to go up for auction," Castle rambled, pausing to catch his breath.
"Yea, so? What does this have to do with me?" Kate questioned cautiously, beginning to fear where he was going with this conversation.
"Well, seeing as how both Nikki Heat novels are such a success, naturally I thought something related to her would bring top dollar…" he trailed off, moving back slightly from her desk, starting to stand instinctively.
Kate's eyes widened and her nostrils flared in anger as she stood from her chair, "You didn't! Richard Castle, I'm going to…"
"Ah, ah, ah. Pinkie swear, remember?" he said holding up his right hand with his pinkie in a hook as if it were a cross to stave off a vampire. "Plus it's for charity, Beckett!"
"Did you honestly think that I would agree to have myself auctioned off, like a piece of meat?" Kate said, walking towards him as he backed away, pushing her index finger into his chest with each word for emphasis, "What right do you have…"
"Whoa, whoa! I'm not auctioning just you. It'll be me too! For a ride along, with the two of us. You know, 'a day with the writer and his muse'," Castle raised his arms with his hands together and then spread them apart in the air like he was revealing the title of a movie on a theater marquee.
"Great! Just great! Did you ever stop to think that maybe having one 'citizen' following me around all day was enough, huh? Besides, the Captain is never going to approve this," Beckett said matter-of-factly. She instantly felt better knowing that this would never make it past Montgomery.
"Well, the Captain didn't, but the Chief did, so I think Montgomery will be alright with it," Castle said rather smugly. "It's good publicity for the NYPD, after all. Plus, he owes me from a poker game."
Kate narrowed her eyes, shook her head with irritation and said, "You always get what you want, don't you, Castle?"
"No…not always," Castle said seriously, looking her straight in the eye with a deliberate tone of regret and sadness to his voice.
Kate paused from her hair-styling, remembering how he had looked at her with so much longing in that split second, that she had almost gasped when she realized he was referring to her.
And then another thought had quickly popped in her mind. Was this the same event that Josh had invited her to?
"Wait. Is this the New York Medical Society's annual holiday fundraiser?" Kate asked.
"Uh, yeah actually. Why?"
"Cause I'm already attending it, that's why. With Josh," she added, to be clear.
She thought she saw a look of annoyance cross Castle's face before he recovered, smiling smoothly and said, "Great! Perfect, actually. Gina's friend said we're both invited anyway. She said it'll be useful if we can be there, you know 'mingle' to spark interest in bidders. She thinks we're going to be one of the top items this year," he said rather proudly.
"Ha. I'm sure. But to be clear to the bidders, 'we' are not an item," she said moving her hand back and forth in the space between their bodies.
She had caught the hurt look on his face before turning on her heel and walking to the break room. She had immediately regretted being so harsh on him. After all, she knew his heart was in the right place, but it just infuriated her to no end that he assumed she would just go along with whatever he wanted, without at least discussing it with her first. She had apologized upon returning to her desk, and Castle had done the same for not asking before committing them to the auction.
Castle proved that he learned his lesson when he had asked Kate later that day if he could talk to Montgomery about the ride along and the gala, including asking if she could have the night off. Normally, Kate would have done that herself, but she still felt guilty about snapping at him earlier, so she had agreed.
Castle had left a few days after that and had been out of town for a little over 2 weeks now as part of the Naked Heat book signing tour on the West Coast. When Kate had started getting texts from him soon after he left, she had assumed his messages were out of guilt after everyone had given him such a hard time for not communicating over the summer. She had fully expected that the texts would taper off as he got busy on the tour, but to her surprise, the texts hadn't only continued they had increased in frequency.
At first, most of the messages were related to the latest case that Kate was working on. She knew that it was driving Castle crazy that she was solving murders without him. But quickly, the texts became more social. Kate had kept him filled in on the latest Ryan-Esposito antics and also on the budding relationship between Esposito and Lanie. It wasn't official yet, but Kate felt pretty certain it was only a matter of time before her suspicions about the ME and the detective were validated judging by the stolen smiles she witnessed at the crime scenes lately.
One of Castle's favorite things to send her involved snapshots of the uniform cops hired for security at the various signing events. For some reason he found the uniforms quite comical, as only Castle would. He also claimed that they showed more "skin" as he moved south from Seattle to San Diego. He sent the photos as attachments to Kate with a ranking according to "style" and "functionality". He called it his "Cop Catwalk".
Kate's response: You do realize I'm a cop and you're sending me photos making fun of cops?
Castle: No, no- I'm making fun of the *uniforms*. You have to admit they're pretty awful. Wonder who designs them anyway? Maybe the losers of "Project Runway"?
Kate: *rolling eyes* You really are SO metrosexual.
He had been in California the last week, so he had been making a few blonde jokes because, according to him, there seemed to be an "unnatural" number of blondes in line at the signings there. Although normally Kate didn't find blonde jokes particularly funny, she secretly thought these were amusing mainly because Gina was a blonde. He had also been letting her know indirectly that he was homesick, complaining about how he was sick of room service and how the hotel must have concrete slabs for mattresses because his back hurt.
While Kate had found that she actually looked forward to Castle's texts to break up the monotony of the work day, the message she anticipated most was purely personal in nature. It had almost become part of her nightly routine. She would settle into bed with a book, like she did almost every night before going to sleep, except now she found herself paying less attention to the book and more to her phone.
Without fail, every night around 11 PM the same message: Until tomorrow, Detective.
To which, her reply was always: Night.
Kate realized that this simple message from Castle shouldn't make her heart flip the way it did, considering they were both seeing other people, but she couldn't help herself.
Kate misted her hair lightly with hairspray and glanced down at her phone for the 10th time in the last hour.
Hmm, still no message. She assumed that meant he must be traveling today, hopefully heading back to New York.
I really will kill him if he doesn't show up to this thing and I have to 'mingle' by myself.
She instantly felt a pang of guilt.
Well, technically Josh will be there, but knowing him, he isn't going to want to talk about Nikki Heat.
Josh made no secret that he was not a huge fan of the Nikki Heat novels. He had nothing against the character herself, more that Castle had based the character on Kate and he didn't like that Rook 'seduced' Nikki into sleeping with him. Kate had laughed at this because, obviously, Josh had not really read the books or he would have known that Nikki Heat was a strong, self-sufficient, albeit sexual being and that she wouldn't have slept with Rook if she didn't want to.
Of course, they both knew he harbored some jealousy towards Castle. After all, Castle got to spend nearly every day with Kate while she and Josh found it hard enough to spend even two days or nights together a week, what with their equally crazy schedules. Kate rationalized that it was their hectic work schedules that had made it difficult for she and Josh to take their relationship to the "next level" emotionally, and for that reason she had kept it fairly casual up this point.
In reality, Kate knew it was her fear of intimacy and probably unresolved feelings for Castle that had caused her relationship with Josh to become a bit stagnant. After all, Josh had made it clear that he wasn't interested in seeing anyone else but her. So tonight, Kate found herself a little nervous about their date. She knew that she would be introduced to a lot of Josh's work colleagues and it all felt a bit overwhelming to her.
Kate stared at the mirror. Some of the frizz had settled down, so her hair now hung in loose curls around her face. Good enough.
She stepped into the blood orange colored sequined gown that she had spent half a month's salary on, closing the side zipper, and touched up her lipstick in the mirror.
Her phone chirped that she had a text. She assumed it was Josh telling her he was on his way to pick her up, but was pleasantly surprised to find a message from Castle:
Finally! Made it back after delay in L.A. FYI: Brunette to blonde ratio in baggage claim- 4:1, redheads to blondes- 2:1! I love this city for its diversity.
BTW, missed my 2 redheads and brunette. ;)
Kate found herself laughing aloud and also blushing at the thought that Castle was obviously grouping her in with Alexis and Martha.
God, I've missed him so much.
She stared at the phone with this realization, frozen.
What the hell am I doing? I'm supposed to be working on my relationship with Josh, not texting Castle every waking moment.
I like Josh, right?
He was intelligent, caring, understanding of her crazy work life, and well, of course very hot. She was attracted to him physically, enjoyed her time with him, but she still hadn't been able to open up with him like she did with, well, Castle. When they had been seeing each other for almost 6 weeks, Josh had casually asked about the necklace she wore with her mother's ring. In true Kate form, she had immediately deflected the question, changing the subject and essentially clamming up for the rest of the night.
For some reason, she just couldn't tell him. They had been seeing each other for almost 3 months now, and she had only recently told him that her mother had passed away when she was in college. She still hadn't used the word murdered though. Josh hadn't pushed her either. He had sensed that she would tell him when she was ready, but Kate wasn't sure she ever would be. She had always found it difficult to talk to boyfriends or even just friends about her mother's death. She hated the inevitable look of "you poor thing". She didn't want people feeling sorry for her and most of all she didn't want to talk about all the aftermath including her father's alcoholism and her own obsession with finding her mother's killer that nearly destroyed her.
Granted, Castle had essentially forced the issue when it came to her mother's murder. Hell, it had almost ended their partnership. But Kate knew after that rocky start that he finally 'got it' when it came to how her mother's murder permeated her being. While she knew he of course felt sympathy for her, he somehow managed to support her without making her feel weak or needy.
"Because you're tall," he had told her just before she interrogated Coonan. It was all she had needed to hear.
Her phone chirped again.
Got the bags, but I'll be a little late to the party. Feel free to 'mingle away' without me.
She started to type a reply, but then deleted it.
I've got to stop doing this.
She shook her head. Was it wrong that she was more excited to see Castle than her supposed boyfriend whom she hadn't seen in almost a week?
Yes, yes, yes! So wrong on so many levels.
Kate looked at her reflection in the mirror.
I can't do this.
"You've got to stop this before someone gets hurt," she told her twin in the mirror firmly.
The reflection didn't protest.
A/N: Okay, so I'm kinda cheating on my other story Landslide right now, because this popped into my head and it was like a fruit fly in my brain that I had to get out. I'll be updating both stories though.
I know there's a lot of background in this chapter, but since I was going to include Josh, I feel like I had to give some perspective on him since we haven't really had any on the show (why is he on the show, again?) Also, hope I'm not making Beckett look like too much of a cheater, more just conflicted, you know? Anyway, the gala is next and Castle/Beckett will be "interacting" soon. Any feedback is appreciated!
