Our Dear Old Friends
Castle
Summery: Beckett's old roommate, Lulu, moves to New York after a horrible break up. She decides to move on and throw herself at a certain famous author. Will jealousy sidetrack Beckett from the murder of Castle's high school crush?
Chapter one:
Detective Kate Beckett worked most days of the week. She wasn't used to being sent home, as there was no work for her to do. No cases, no paperwork, no Richard Castle, author of the Nikki Heat series embarrassingly based off the detective herself.
Beckett lent against the bench of her apartment kitchen, fishing through last nights Chinese. In the background, Shania Twain's 'Man! I feel like a woman!' was pounding through the stereo and Percy, the overweight goldfish Detective Ryan gave her after commenting how isolatated she lived, swam on the spot. Strong gusts of wind shrilly cried outside, rattling the window. The sun had not shone all morning. Just a dank fog and the occasional spit of rain.
Mess surrounded Beckett's kitchen; old boxes of take-away, cartons of milk, overloaded trashcan full of coffee cups and a sink piled with dirty dishes. Beckett was always one for cleanliness and order however she was only home from very late in the evening to early in the morning. She just didn't have the time for cleaning. Except today, she had all the time she could ask for and more. Not that she wanted any time off, especially for washing dishes. Usually Beckett had a cleaner but because it had been weeks since her last case, her income had decreased. Very slightly but enough that lacked the money for the cleaner. She could reduce her coffee sprees but she'd need to buy coffee to give her that kind of will power. It just wasn't going to happen.
Tap, tap, tap. Tap, tap, tap.
Detective Beckett groaned and slammed the cardboard container of noodles on the bench. Just to irritate her even more, a handful of dirty dishes fell from the stack in the sink and crashed on the bench and floor. The broken shards sprayed out in all directions. Both of the aggravated woman's hands flew up to the air as she tried to suppress a scream eager to escape. She puffed out her cheeks as she blew out the steam inside her and stormed to the window where half a dozen pigeons flocked. They stared through the window, metaphorically licking their lips as they eyed the petrified Percy whom didn't dare move in his round fishbowl. The hungry, small-minded birds pushed each other and tried to get through the closed window. Beckett had moved Percy several times because of the pigeons and was sick of it. He seemed content on the small coffee table anyway.
Beckett stepped around the couch to the window, glancing down at the ebony gun bobbing loosely in the red coat pocket she wore. She tried to hold her anger that wanted to pull the gun out of it and aim it at the clueless birds.
The pigeons jumped back a foot when she swung open the window and began screaming at them. Except the hungry crowd were used to this game and decided to try something different. They flapped their wings vigorously and darted to the open window and woman shooing them away.
"No!" Beckett wailed when the birds charged at her. Inside the apartment, some birds had already forgotten Percy and pecked at the leftovers on the counter. The rest circled the coffee table like vultures. "Get out!"
The now desperate woman jumped over the couch to the coffee table. She gripped the edge of the fish bowl and scooped it into her arms.
"Get away!" Beckett yelled, covering the top of Percy's bowl as pigeons swooped at her.
At that moment, while rushing around the appartment, Beckett realised something was ramming against her front door.
Distressed, she tucked Percy under her arm and yanked her pistol just in the nick of time as the door broke in two and a broad figure literally rolled through the door frame.
Bang!
"Shi-"
"Castle?"
On the floor cowering by the ruined door, an utterly terrified and innocent-looking man gawked at the bullet hole in the wall, under his right arm, which was raised up, gripping what seemed to be a mobile phone. His tooth-marked lips were agape, cinnamon eyes glanced up at the overwhelmed detective and hands shook with a cold sweat.
"Yes, Castle!" he cried sharply as though it was the most obvious thing. Averting his eyes from the gun Beckett still had in her hand -which still made him nervous- to the apartment, Castle couldn't help but smile. Pigeons cooed and knocked over assorted objects –every crash causing tension in the finger at the trigger- as they tried to free themselves from the confinement of the small apartment. When his eyes fell back onto his admirable detective, he was grinning widely. "What happened here?"
Stiffly Beckett dropped the pistol by her side, "why did you break down my door?" Castle turned where he sat to point at the visable hallway, where an anxious manager peered. "I heard screams outside your door and thought-"
"Why were you outside my door?"
Castle jumped up from his cowering position so he could stand almost eye level with the woman before him and said, "was going to ask you if you could come gift shopping with me?" He dusted down the casual yet stylish dark trousers he wore then continued to do the same with his shirt and coat.
"And why do you need me to come shopping with you?" Beckett asked as she grabbed a tea towel from a kitchen cupboard and used it to herd the pigeons back out the window. "Are you that incapable that you can't buy a gift?"
Castle chuckled sarcastically and pulled up a seat. He tapped on the glass fish bowl Beckett left on the counter. Percy stared at him.
"The gift's for an old high school friend living just outside the city," he said. "I would pick it out myself but he's invited heaps of people from high school, like a reunion like thing. Anyways, I want to get him something to show how much more maturer I've grown since then."
Beckett breathed a sigh of relief once she successfully rid her apartment of the crazy pigeons. She rested her head against the windowpane. "You really can't do that yourself?" Glancing over to the kitchen bench, Castle had his face pressed up against Percy's glass bowl and was pulling 'funny' faces at him. She then remembered how childish Castle really was. Percy stared at him. "Fine then. Lemme' grab my bag."
Castle looked up to Beckett whom was rolling her eyes; his eyes were squinted, fingers tugging the corners of his mouth and cheeks blown up. He smiled and mumbled, "great."
Just as he somewhat said that, sirens whooped below and feet jogged up the apartment. Castle straightened his face while Beckett glared at him with a combination of annoyance and bewilderment.
"We better wait a bit to sought things out with Ryan and Esposito," Castle remarked, pointing to the door frame where moments later the two detectives appeared, pistols and all. " I called them just before I heroically saved the day and all."
Seeing Castle standing by the kitchen bench talking to Beckett whom was blushing because of all the attention he had caused, Esposito sighed, crossed his arms and lent against the door frame of her apartment. Ryan, who was right behind him, gazed at the broken door, bullet hole, and then turned to the other officers rushing up, waving for them to go back.
"Told you. False alarm," Ryan whispered to his best friend while waving his arms in a huge gesture that everything was fine. "You owe Lanie and I twenty-five dollars." Esposito glancing from Castle to Beckett with a should-have-known look. Yet he still reached for his wallet in his back pockets and counted the notes stashed in there.