It had been a long day. The team had gotten an easy case: your basic run of the mill Jack shot Jill over Bill scenario. They had caught the killer hours ago and were working on the piles of paperwork. It seemed weird to Detective Esposito that suck a small, quick, easy case could generate such a large amount of paperwork.
By now it was pushing eleven. Ryan had gone home to his six month pregnant wife, which left Beckett, Esposito and Castle to finish up the work.
Kate looked up from the form she was filling out and rubbed the back of her neck. Everything hurt; her back ached, her head pounded and her eyes burned like she had opened them while swimming underwater.
She made sure none of the boys were looking before opening the bottom drawer of her desk and pulling out the makeup bag she kept in there. She checked again to see if she was being watched. When the coast was clear, she scampered off to the ladies room.
She pulled her hair back and took her contact lens case out of the makeup bag. She pulled out her contacts, first right then left, making sure they were both securely in their case.
Splashing cold water onto her face woke her up and re-calibrated her senses. She dried her face off with a paper towel, before pulling on her glasses.
They were simple black rectangular frames. She looked into the mirror-her green eyes looked hazel in the florescent light of the bathroom. She took her hair out of the clip it was stuffed into and watched as the copper curls fell down her back.
She put everything back in its proper place in her bag and headed back to her desk. She was glad none of the boys had noticed she was gone, or if they had they were doing a fantastic job of hiding it.
Richard Castle came out of the break room holding two fresh cups of coffee for himself and his muse. he set of the cups onto her desk before sitting in his chair beside her. He turned to speak to her but before the words could get out she held up a finger instantly silencing him.
"I swear to god, if you laugh or make any jokes, I will hurt you" she said looking up at him. His expression changed from one of confusion to shock to almost loving. He had never seen his girlfriend wear glasses before; he didn't even know she owned glasses before tonight.
"Kate," he began his voice a whisper. "I think you look adorable, I have to get a picture," he said laughing and pulling out his phone.
"Castle, don't," she said pleading. She was embarrassed enough. But unfortunately her plea was not fast enough and a second later she heard the distinctive click of a picture being taken on an I Phone.
She was self-conscious enough. She didn't need her boyfriend spreading that picture all over the internet, like she knew he would given the chance.
Esposito, hearing the commotion at his partner's desk, got up to investigate.
"What's going on?" he asked.
"Nothing," the couple replied at the same time.
"Ok," Espo said not really believing his friends. "By the way, Beckett, I love your glasses. My sister has the exact same ones." He smiled trying to reassure the shy detective that her wearing glasses at work was not that big of a deal. Just as Esposito was about to walk away, Kate spoke up.
"If any of this gets out, I will start telling people about what happened at Ryan and Jenny's wedding reception." The boys shuddered as memories of what happened when you mixed an open bar, a slew of cops and a karaoke machine.
Kate smiled and went back to her nearly completed paperwork. She knew none of her boys would ever tell about her four eyes.
