Late Night Snack

It was twelve thirty at night and they were already four hours into a long boring stakeout.
Castle was staring out the passenger window mentally writing a chapter of Nikki Heat when
his thoughts were interrupted by Kate rummaging around in the brown paper bag that sat
on the seat between them. She was digging in the snack bag again. Every stakeout had an
obligatory snack bag filled with candy, gum, trail mix and the like. It was something to keep
their hands and mouths busy while they watched the weeds grow in the cracks of the side-
walks. They were both distracted and they never noticed the car as it pulled in behind theirs.

Ryan and Esposito had decided to earn some brownie points with Beckett by relieving her
and Castle from their stakeout an hour early. They slowly rolled up on her car with their lights
off, not wanting to draw attention to their arrival at the building they were watching. Ryan
turned off the vehicle and they both looked out the windshield at Beckett's car. They could
see Kate's head turned to her right looking down at the seat and Rick was looking off to
the right.

"What do you think they talk about?" Ryan pondered aloud.

"How would I know?" Esposito replied.

"I was just…Whoa! Dude…did you see that?"

One minute Kate's head was there and the next it dropped down into the seat next to her.

Esposito leaned forward and peered intently at the scene ahead.

"Yeah…where'd she go?"

They both turned their heads towards each other, eyes wide with speculation. They quickly
turned their attention back to her car. They were just in time to see the back of her head
crest the seat and then disappear again. This happened several times, a then her head
stayed down. They could see Castle's head on the passenger headrest…unmoving. Minutes
passed.

Suddenly Castle's head tilted forward and then jerked back. They saw his right arm fly up and
strike the passenger window. They could even hear his voice as he yelled out. Kate's head
reappeared and it looked like Castle's arm was around her shoulder. His hands and his
focus then returned to his lap.

Kate's head then moved back to her side of the car and her hand came up to wipe something
from her face. Neither detective said a word as they watched, but their breathing became
noticeably heavier and their windows were starting to fog. Next they could see Kate reach
into the back seat and when she pulled her had back it was holding some type of cloth or rag,
hell they couldn't tell what it was, but she used it to wipe her face and then offered it to Castle.

He grabbed it from her and put it down to his lap. Moments later Castle opened his door and
stepped out of the car. He had the mystery cloth in his hand and was rubbing at the front of
his pants. He looked up for a second and saw the two detectives staring at him. He acknowledged
them with a nod and went back to rubbing his pants.

"Stay here," Esposito told his partner. He left the car and headed tentatively in Castle's direction.

"Hey," he called out to Castle, not knowing what else to say.

"Hey," he replied.

"What's going on?"

"Don't ask!" Castle said brusquely, throwing the cloth into the car.

That answer made Esposito even more curious. He moved to the passenger side of the car. He put
his left hand on the roof and he leaned down to look inside.

"Hey," he said to Beckett.

"Esposito…what are you doing here so early?"

He noticed that while she spoke she was picking things off the seat and putting them into a cellophane
bag she was holding.

"We…uh…got tired of waiting for our shift so we thought we'd relieve you guys a little early."

"Perfect timing," she said still picking at the seat.

He noticed the car looked disheveled and there was a travel mug on the passenger floorboard and a pool
of coffee on the mat.

"So…what's been going on here?"

"Damn candy bag. I tried to open it and it busted. Damn Runts went everywhere. I've been finding then
on the floorboard in the seat…hell, I even think some went into the A/C vents."

Esposito was now reassessing what he had seen from the car.

"So what happened to Castle?"

"Oh… I was picking up some of the candies off of his floorboard and when I sat up I bumped his arm and
he dropped his coffee into his lap and on me…you should have heard him, he yelled like a little girl."

"Hey, it was hot!" Castle yelled from the peanut gallery.

"We did," Esposito muttered under his breath.

"What," Kate asked

"I said…that sucks." Esposito looked at the mess in the car one last time and turned to Castle.

"I feel for you bro," he said slapping the writers arm in sympathy.

"Thanks…it looks like I peed my pants," he wined.

"You've no idea," Esposito replied. Shaking his head, he turned and headed back to his car to explain to Ryan
what really happened. He hated to bust his friends bubble, but damn if it hadn't been good while it lasted.