This was a nightmare. The case had started out so normally. Or at least it was normal for a Beckett-flavoured case.
Dead body found. Call Castle. Arrive at the scene and the preliminaries from Lanie. Normal.
So how had she ended up in a tent with Castle in upstate New York?
At least the warm summer night had made it unnecessary to take Castle up on his offer to 'pool resources' so they didn't get cold.
Where were the sirens and traffic noises that lulled her to sleep every night? It was quiet. Too quiet.
How the hell did Castle sleep through this? Almost unconsciously, she turned her head to glance at her partner who was snoozing peacefully in his own sleeping bag. He looked so cute with his arms wrapped around his pillow and his hair sleep-tousled.
Dammit. She shook off the thought and rolled over so her back faced him, hoping that doing so would quell the impulse to smooth his hair out of his face.
She thought back over the case to try to distract herself from the slumbering form behind her.
That morning, Melanie Garcia had been found shot dead. Her sister had informed Detectives Esposito and Ryan that the only person she could think of who would do such a thing was Melanie's estranged husband.
When they went to Mr Garcia's apartment, the entire place had been tossed. Although initially it appeared to be a break-in, the detectives realised Garcia had done a runner and put an APB out on him.
They found out his electronic toll tag had been 'ping'ed heading North and went to ask the victims sister where he might be headed.
When the sister mentioned a cabin in the Catskills, Beckett and Castle knew they were in for a road trip.
Because of the rugged terrain, Captain Montgomery made Beckett switch her car for an SUV.
That was when Detective Kate Beckett's day had started going downhill. She was now stuck in an enclosed space with the man who simultaneously acted like a small child hyped up on sugar and set her pulse racing with his come-hither blue eyes.
Although Kate had been hoping to go grab the guy and come home in the one day, Castle had other ideas. When Kate the giant bag he wanted to bring, she had to laugh
"I'm sure you don't need to bring Alexis with you."
At his confused look, Kate nodded at the bag.
"Oh Alexis isn't in there. That's another body I figured you could help me dispose of since we're going into a remote place where noone will find it." His mischievous grin made her stomach flip so she turned and fiddled with some papers on her desk til the redness faded from her cheeks.
Soon they were on the road and, true to form, Castle spent the trip being childish and annoying. Kate bit her lip trying desperately not to give in to the itch to take out her gun...although it would have been funny to see his face.
It was getting dark and they still hadn't found the cabin. Their GPS navigator did not help when they were trying to find a cabin deep in the woods.
Eventually they decided to pull over in a clearing and wait til morning to continue their search. That was when Kate found out what was really in Castle's duffel bag.
He quickly pulled out a tent and sleeping bags plus food and within half an hour had a decent campsite set up beside their SUV.
"Well, well, Castle the mountain man." Kate was amused by this new practical side to Castle. He had even brought bug repellant.
"Alexis and I used to go camping. No big deal." He liked the admiring glance he had caught Beckett sending his way during his setting up.
Seeing him set up the tent and put the sleeping bags inside it, Kate started to protest. Castle merely adopted that highly annoying tone and expression where it sounded like he was talking to a stubborn five year old.
"It'll be more comfortable in the tent. We're both adults. I can control myself even if you can't." Seeing her glare he turned and walked away rather quickly, though he reflected later, there was no way he could have gotten far enough away if she decided to finally follow through on her threat to shoot him.
Kate was seething after his 'control yourself' comment and concentrated on phoning in to the precinct to let the Captain know they were camping and would continue to the cabin in the morning. The Captain wished her a good night and for her to be careful the next day.
When she hung up, Castle cautiously called to her that dinner was ready.
After a surprisingly good meal, considering Castle cooked it on a small hot plate placed over the fire, they decided to turn in.
Fixing Castle with her customary glare, Kate warned him, "I still have my gun on me."
Turning away so he didn't see the grin on her face elicited by flicker of fear that had crossed his face, Kate walked to the car to get her pj's out of her bag. Checking that Castle wasn't watching, she quickly changed into them and crossed the campsite to the tent, trying to ignore the prickling on the back of her neck that usually indicated Castle was watching her. She crawled into the tent and into her sleeping bag.
She watched the play of Castle's shadow on the side of the tent as he banked the fire. He disappeared for a few minutes then reappeared at the doorway of the tent.
Holding very still so he thought she was asleep, she snuck a glance at him and had to remind herself to keep breathing when she saw he was sleeping in just a pair of track pants. His broad shoulders and defined chest made her heart start pounding so she pretended to be moving in her sleep and faced the wall of the tent. Without his bare chest directly in front of her, she was more confident of not doing anything stupid.
So here she was. Tossing and turning in her sleeping bag in the middle of nowhere and inches from the man who had plagued her for the last two years. The man who had broken her heart last summer by leaving on vacation with his ex-wife. The man who she had given her heart to.
What! Kate jolted awake at the last thought. Castle did not hold her heart...did he? She had been devastated when he had left and it had taken her most of the summer to fight back the pain under which she had found anger. Anger at herself for acting too slow and anger at Castle for moving too fast. Seriously. Who asked a girl to the Hamptons then when she said no, had a replacement on his arm by the end of the afternoon? Even if it was his ex-wife.
While all these thoughts were whirling around in her head, her eyes had drifted shut. When she realised this however, she snapped back to full alertness. She hated it when that happened. Moments from drifting off then you realise you're drifting off and suddenly you're yanked back from the edge of sleep to continue fretting.
She sighed and opened her eyes in defeat. She found herself face-to-face with a slumbering Castle. She jerked back and was about to yell at him then realised that in her tossing and turning, she had managed to work her way across the tent so she was almost side by side with him.
She smiled to herself. Lucky she had noticed it was actually her at fault not him. She would never have lived it down if he realised she had gravitated towards him in her sleep. She carefully inched away from Castle, trying to make as little noise as possible so he didn't wake up. Though he didn't seem to have any trouble sleeping.
She rolled over so she was facing the wall of the tent. And stopped. Every muscle in her body froze as she saw a shadow on the outside of the tent inches from her face. It was a spider.
Weighing up her choices, which pretty much consisted of waking Castle and admitting she was afraid of a spider or deal with it herself.
Just then it moved. Down the wall. Closer to her. All decision-making was out the window.
AHHHHHHHHHHHH
She screamed and shot across the tent, landing between Castle and his wall of the tent.
Castle, on the other hand, had been having a fine time. He had been having this dream about being on a beach with Kate and ... well it was wildly inappropriate. If she had known, she would have gotten her service weapon and put a proper hole in him.
Anyways, he was suddenly rudely awakened when he heard a loud scream from right next to him. He barely registered the scream when he was hit in the chest by large mass that then rolled off him and landed between himself and the tent wall. Where there wasn't much space...
Blearily, opening his eyes he found Beckett cowering by his side, her eyes fastened to something on the other side of the tent.
"Beckett?" She didn't move. "Kate!"
She started then realised where she was. The blush that tinted her cheeks went all the way up to the roots of her hair. His arm had automatically worked it way from where she had landed on it and was now around her shoulders as she lay against him.
"Er...sorry Castle...umm...there was a spider." Castle was quickly returning to full alertness. "A spider? I thought you were fine with spiders...not that I mind playing valiant protector but could you manage it so I'm awake when we start playing next time? I was right in the middle of.."
"Castle! I'm sorry I woke you okay? It was HUGE and was right next to my face..."
"Inside the tent?" Kate giggled at the look on his face when he thought there was a giant spider in the tent with them.
"No! It was on the outside. I could see its shadow."
"Uh huh. Well you just stay where you are and I'll protect you from the nasty spider." Castle wriggled his shoulders to get comfortable and gave her a squeeze. His eyes were drifting closed again when Beckett, rather viciously, shoved him in the ribs.
"Oww! What?" He flinched away and removed his arm, thinking she was mad he was going back to sleep without letting her go.
"Castle look! Its back!"
"What?" He sat up and glanced to where she was pointing. And nearly ended up in her lap.
Kate smirked at "mountain man's" reaction to the spider.
"See? I told you." He turned to glare at her and found her face inches from his. If they both weren't terrified by the arachnid holding them hostage, it would have been far too close for both of them.
As it was, both sets of eyes drifted down to the lips of the other. Then they both saw the shadow move. They both instantly sprang apart, grabbed their respective sleeping bags and shot out of the tent.
They were standing, clutching their sleeping bags for dear life, between the tent and the fire for several moments before they glanced at each other and laughed at how ridiculous the other looked.
"So now what? How are we going to get sleep now?"
"Well..." Beckett bent down slowly, watching Castle's eyes grow wide with whatever scenario his mind had come up with to go with her actions. Lifting one pyjama pant leg, she pulled her .22 from the holster on its holster on her ankle. She had left her service weapon in the car. If Castle had tried anything, she only wanted to put a small hole in him. She had thought it was funny at the time. But now she was mad that a spider had so thoroughly interrupted her musings and Castle's beauty sleep. Mainly annoyed about the latter because it meant she would have to deal with a nine-year-old on a sugar rush who was also sleep-deprived tomorrow. She glanced at her dad's watch. Well today.
She levelled her firearm at the wall of the tent and pulled the trigger. A loud pop and a hole appeared in the fabric of the tent wall.
"Beckett!" Castle was a bit shocked. He was never going to interrupt Beckett's sleep..or at least while she was armed...if this is what happened when a spider did so.
They both walked closer to the tent. Castle gave a sort of strangled yell when he saw the shadow was still on the side of the tent. Beckett saw it at the same instant and emptied her magazine into the shadow. The tent wall was now in tatters.
Suddenly Castle was struck by the familiarity of this scenario. Spider on the tent. A gun being fired repeatedly at the tent in a attempt to get rid of the spider.
Beckett turned to see Castle nearly doubled over with laughter, wondering what on earth was so funny.
"Have you ever seen 'Call Me Bwana' Detective?" He managed to choke out before doubling over with laughter again.
" 'Call Me..?'" Kate realised the joke and cracked up laughing.
"Bob Hope movie. There's a famous...a famous scene where... where there's a ...a spider...in the tent and the guy...he uses a rifle to get rid of it. In the morning there's nothing left of the tent...but the middle pole...and the spider on top of the pole." Castle had to physically sit down and hold his sides to try to stop laughing.
Beckett sat next to him, laughing so hard tears were forming in her eyes.
Half an hour later, they were finally able to look at each other without descending into giggling again.
"Well, its still only 2:30. How are we going to get back to sleep now? We have no tent."
"Well.."
"No, Castle."
"You didn't even hear my idea!" Oh great. Sleep-deprived nine-year old is already here, Kate thought. "I know you, Castle. As a general rule, you should ignore the first idea that pops into your head."
"You sure?" He wiggled his eyebrows at her suggestively.
She smirked and nodded an affirmative.
Looking decidedly less enthused, he suggested sleeping in the open.
"You can but no way I am. I'm a city girl. I don't sleep under more than 5 stars."
"Oh so Detective Beckett is a wuss...?"
Refusing to rise to the bait, she looked around and spied the SUV.
Without a word, she walked over and unlocked it. Laying down the back seats revealed a space large enough for two adults to sleep.
Glancing back at Castle, she smiled.
"So you sleeping out here? Or are you going to keep your hands to yourself?"
He grinned and zipped himself into his sleeping bag so his hands were stuck inside it and hopped towards the SUV.
Beckett smiled at the sight and climbed into the car. After several tries, Castle released his hands so he could get into the vehicle.
They laid down, careful not to have any parts of their bodies touching.
"Night Castle."
"Night Beckett."
The next morning, the alarm on Beckett's phone sounded from somewhere near the foot of her sleeping bag. She had had it under her pillow so she would hear it but in the excitement it was lost to the depths of the sleeping bag.
She opened her eyes to find herself staring at the back of Castle's head. A very close up view of the back of Castle's head. In fact she was fairly sure she had woken up with her forehead against the back of his neck.
He hadn't moved in response to the alarm so she was fairly sure he hadn't noticed. His breathing was still regular and even.
She sat up and gave him a shove to wake him up.
"Come on, we've got a suspect to pick up."
Castle made a show of yawning and stretching as he woke up. He had in fact been awake for over half an hour. Revelling in the feel of her closeness and being able to feel her breath on the back of his neck.
The rest of their day was pretty uneventful. They packed up the camp, thoroughly checking the tent for the spider and went to pick up their suspect.
Kate was waiting for the teasing about the spider incident to start but throughout the day Castle seemed preoccupied with other things.
Garcia broke fairly quickly saying he lost his temper when she said she wanted a formal divorce so she could get serious with someone else.
They transported him back to New York City and handed him over to Lock-Up.
Kate slowly let her guard down once they got back thinking Castle was too tired to pull any pranks.
However she nearly dropped her coffee when she saw the large spider sitting on the pile of reports on her desk. Hoping noone saw she moved cautiously closer and realised that for one thing, it was plastic. And for another it had had several bullet holes drilled into the abdomen and thorax and a leg or two broken off.
Looking around for Castle to yell at him and wondering when he had had time to set this up, she spied Detectives Esposito and Ryan smirking at her from their desks across the squad room.
"Hope you had a nice vacation upstate, Beckett." Esposito called, " 'Cause we just caught a new case. Brutal murder of an arachnid. Definitely Beckett-flavoured."
Beckett glared at them and grabbed the toy spider. She stalked past the boys and went in search of Castle, formulating a plan of revenge as she went.
"Bro, he is in soo much trouble." Esposito commented to Ryan.
"Soo much." confirmed Ryan with a grin.