Then there was that time
One in a series of one shots. Completely random. Enjoy...oh and they aren't mine.
Kitten Heels
"It was bound to happen sooner or later," Castle didn't seem to get his foot in his mouth fast enough to stop the words escaping. However with the careful transfer from standing to the couch complete, he just sat at her hip and the relief of having her finally settled removed the brain-mouth filter.
"You don't want to patronize me right now," she growled.
He stayed quiet for a whole thirty seconds. "I mean, it could be a whole lot worse," he tried to explain."You know considering the way you went over on it like that."
"Of course," she looked disgusted. "Blame it on the shoes."
"Well…"
"Well nothing, Castle," she snapped. "My shoes had nothing to do with it."
He wisely stayed quiet.
"When it's me, everyone automatically assumes it was the shoes," she continued. "But if you sprain your ankle, everyone would just say, 'Well, it's Castle'. I'll have you know there is nothing inappropriate about my shoes. I spend the majority of my time sitting down."
"And the rest of the time engaging in shoot outs and chasing criminals through dark, heavily littered alleyways which trip countless New Yorkers everyday."
She narrowed her eyes at him, "Don't get cute with me."
He hand up his hands in defense. "How about some more ice?" he offered. "Rest, Ice, Compres…Ah! Kate!" He squealed as the condensation covered icepack made full contact with the back of his neck. "That's cold!"
"Well I guess that answers your question," she smirked, unable to repress some of the snark. "I don't need any more ice."
"I think you could do with cooling down," he muttered and pushed himself up. "I'll be back in a minute."
"God," she exhaled to the ceiling.
It was mortifying enough to have slipped during the takedown, but the way he hovered and the way the rest of the precinct smirked, especially the boys…it had used up all her patience. Now she was snapping at him because he was just reminding her of the fact. Couldn't he just be thoughtful about something else until the memories faded from her memory a little?
"I'm glad it isn't worse," his voice preceded him back into the room.
"Castle," it came out a plea. Couldn't he leave it alone for just a few minutes?
"No, seriously. I rolled on my ankle once in a laser tag game with Alexis and it was a lot uglier than this. It looked like I'd crammed a baseball down my sock," he absently lifted the fresh icepack and repositioned it carefully.
"Yeah, well you might actually have the heels to thank for it looking this good."
"Because they?"
"They really work your legs," she offered with a tight lipped teasing smile. Castle was definitely a legs man and she knew he would appreciate that. "They also really focus on your knees and ankles; strengthen them."
"That can't be good for you in the long run," he observed.
"Probably not," she admitted. "But it came in handy today."
"I would agree if I didn't think they were the reason behind all of this in the first place."
"Castle, trust me. I know by now if any misstep I make is because of my shoes."
He seemed content enough to accept that. "By now? I assume there is a story behind that statement?"
"One or two," she admitted candidly.
"Just one or two?" his eyebrow raised in questioning delight.
"I've been wearing heels a long time, Castle."
His face lit up at the chance to ferret out some new information. "How long is long?"
"Are you really asking me how long, Castle?"
"Oh, Kate. I happen to know for a fact you have no issues with length," he paused to kiss the protruding ankle bone. "But all attempts to evade my question are futile. I'm asking you how long you've been wearing these shoes."
"Every little girl walks around in her mother's high heels at some point, Castle."
"Some boys too," he confessed.
"What?" she laughed.
"My mother's friends loved dressing me up backstage when I was between Nannies."
"You're serious."
"Oh yes. It's well documented."
"Oh, this I have to see."
"Tit for tat, honey. I know you have some photos somewhere."
"I do," she agreed, oddly eager to share them with him. "But for those I want to see Alexis's photos too."
The energy they had revived never flagged and he said it so easily, but his return hit her low. "She never really did that- the exception to your rule."
"Martha never abducted her?" Kate deliberately avoided the Meredith subject, her throat still suspiciously heavy. So smooth.
"She wasn't living with us when Alexis was little, and she was working a lot more then too," Castle explained easily. "I did come home once to find her made up straight out of CATs though," there was a nostalgic smile growing on his face the longer he obviously recalled the image.
"Please tell me you took photos," Kate smiled, wanting to share the memory.
"It would have been criminal not to," he looked offended. "But, no more distracting me. I am the Master Interrogator, thank you."
"Fine," she gave in, preparing to have a girls night in with her boyfriend. "My first pair were for my junior prom. They were these strappy silver things and looking back I'm pretty sure they had these low wedge heels," she laughed at the memory. "I wouldn't even count them as high heels now."
"And?" he pushed eagerly.
"And I was so proud of them I wore them around home for a week to wear them in, feeling so grown up and tall," she shook her head, looking back on it now and thinking what her parents must have been really thinking. They had made sure to drop compliments often, which had secretly (she thought) delighted her, though she acted embarrassed and annoyed every time. What teen needed fashion advice from their parents?
"That can't be the end to the story," Castle broke into her reminisces. "Where is the disaster?"
She snorted, "They came off after about an hour on the dance floor."
"What no injuries?"
"I don't even think it's possible to go over on things like that. That came later when I lost the chunky training wheels."
"Do tell." If he had a tail she imagined it would be wagging.
"It kind of went an inch at a time, like resistance training," she recalled. "One hour then two hours the next time," she shook her head. "The first time I hit more than four inches out clubbing with my friends at Stanford, I spent most of the night sitting down."
He grinned.
"Not that I minded all that much," she smirked. "It got me a lot of free drinks."
"I don't doubt," he sounded admiring. "I'm still not hearing the disasters. You promised me stories, Beckett."
She chuckled, looking away from him down to her swelling red joint, or what she could see under the ice poultice. She was proud to admit she didn't have many impressive can-out stories. Catching the heel on uneven pavement was hardly worth mentioning. Getting her heel stuck in a grate? Too Wedding Planner..
Most women in heels over a certain height went over on their ankles at least once a day, however minor. It was almost expected. After the first few months, her heart rate didn't even blink at the sudden loss of balance. Those could not be considered stories by any stretch of the imagination.
If it was an actual story, she really only had one.
"Okay," she gave in. "I do have one."
He rubbed his hands together gleefully, "This is going to be good."
"Know however, that this story is never to be retold," she warned him and he just nodded eagerly. Kate smiled, already feeling a blush at the memory. She had not been as gracious at the time. "I was at Stanford. I had only been out there a semester and my parents wanted me to come home for the break, but I had managed to just get myself a part-time job about month before and I didn't have any time off."
He looked at her knowingly.
"It's not like that. When I got away from home, I actually began to realize how cool my parents were, so it's not like I was avoiding them per say."
"Per say?"
"There might have been a guy I liked working there," she admitted with a cheeky grimace. "Who had just broken up."
"Scandalous," he sounded delighted and it made it easier for her to remember the incident without the underlying grief she always felt for not going back and spending that last holiday with her mother.
"Yeah, well," she shrugged. "Anyway, by that point I had tried starting to match some of the upperclassmen who were always tripping around in these amazing autumn boots. I say amazing now, but looking back, they were completely impractical, it's a good thing LA doesn't get a lot of precipitation. So my roommate and I got a pair each."
"Debbie Winnaker?"
"No, she was my roommate at NYU."
"Understood. Continue."
"I was working at the Barnes and Nobles closest to our place. It wasn't the best pay, but it made for flexible work hours I could fit in with my timetable, plus there was coffee and a discount on the books."
"You worked at a bookstore?" he asked in surprise.
"Keep up, Castle," she shook her head affectionately. "I was getting a lot of close shifts after my classes and picked up extras during the holiday, and I didn't mind the late nights. I met some interesting people and the regulars were always good for a chat when I worked in the cafe."
"And this boyfriend of yours worked closing too, I'm guessing."
"He may have," Kate acknowledged.
"I'm still not seeing how this ties into high heel hell."
"Trent was easily 6'2. At first I didn't mind the difference, because I thought I could make it work, looking up at him through my lashes, but after a couple of weeks, I had to admit I wasn't getting anywhere and started wearing the boots. Needless to say, that by the end of my first shift in them, I was almost ready to cry."
He didn't bother teasing her, just sitting tense with an expectant energy as he, Master of the Macabre, was completely engrossed in her narrative.
"It would have been mid week, because I remember the wait at the emergency room wasn't that long. It always tends to get crowded with drunks in the weekends but we only had to wait a half hour or so," she shot him a sly look and sure enough his mouth had fallen open.
"The hospital?" he squeaked, shifting his eyes to scan her ankles as if he expected to find emergency surgery scars.
"I was shelving just after the doors had been closed. There was a new book coming out the next day that the manager wanted all set up on display the night before. Which was fine. Trent was working that night so I didn't mind, but he was sent to work on the displays on the floor while I got to stock the actual cases."
"Too bad. Two young lovers alone in a bookstore at night? Totally hot."
"Castle!" looks like he recovered from his hospital imaginations.
"Don't deny you were thinking it at the time," he scoffed.
"That's beside the point," she returned primly. "I don't need my boyfriend now thinking about me with anyone else."
"Accepted. Continue."
"I was up on the ladder," Kate continued.
"Oh no," Castle groaned. "Don't do it."
"Do you mind?"
"Yes, I do."
"In my heels," she added impishly, accurately anticipating his groans. "I kept the box balanced on the top rungs and loaded the shelves from there. I don't even remember the book now, it might have been a travel writing thing by one of the celebrities, I remember being in the travel section. Anyway, Trent finished up early and came to give me a hand so we could get out of there, passing up the next box and holding the ladder steady."
"Did you get to talk?"
"No. He was more the strong and silent type. Years later, I still appreciate silence in a man."
"Were you in a skirt?" he ignored her.
"Yeah."
"Explains why he was speechless."
"Give the guy some credit, he wasn't as perverted as you."
"College boy," he disagreed, his tone added the duh.
"He was passing up the last box for the top shelf, but he didn't have enough upper body strength and the box slipped when I reached to get it, he couldn't get it above shoulder level. I wanted to try and catch it, but in the heels, I wasn't too steady up there anyway. As it happens, the box hit the ladder on the way down and I had to jump ship. It was the first time I had ever really jumped in heels, so I think my heart rate got a little dangerous for a second there when the adrenaline kicked in. Luckily I tried to land on my balls rather than the heels."
"Oh god, and you went over on the heels anyway? Because of that wimpy idiot?"
"No," she gave a throaty chuckle. "I stuck my landing, but the ladder came down anyway and hit Trent in the head- knocked him out and left him with about four stitches."
Castle looked jubilant. "Serves him right," he gloated.
"Castle!"
"What?" he whined. "Give me minute to bask in the just image before I have to go back to being a responsible adult."
She shook her head and watched as the grin faded and he sighed contentedly.
"So?" he prodded.
"So?"
"That's it? That wasn't your fault. Where is you tripping and falling on your face?"
"Oh, that happened later. With the way Trent was bleeding, I took him in to the Emergency Room once I brought him around and sat with him until a doctor could see us. He was a little unsteady so I had to help the nurse get him to the treatment clinic. He vomited on the way from the blood loss."
"Too much information."
"And," she continued. "I knew the very moment my heel caught it and I slipped. I could feel it give out and I ended up on my butt."
"Not in the vomit!" Castle sounded appalled.
"Thankfully I missed that, but I will never forget how slippery lino and stiletto heels do not mix."
"Are you serious?"
Her eyebrows both rose and her mouth pursed cheekily, "Yes?"
"Really? So did this traumatic incident bring you and Trent closer? It obviously failed to put you off high heels."
"Uh, no. I had to fill out incident reports with him the next day and I think he was so embarrassed after the play by play, he quit."
"Such a shame," Castle said, shooting for earnest with an almost severely straight face.
"Yes," she smiled. "Yes, it was."
He grinned at her and repositioned the ice pack again. He was right, it didn't look that bad. She attributed it to the heels, all the little turns she made on them strengthening her ankles, but she knew it was more his insistence that she had stayed desk-bound with ice while he got her cleared to go home.
"And that, Mr. Castle, is my story."
"Yes, yes it is."
"I seem to recall payment was due? Some photos of Castle junior and senior while I'm laid up?"
"Laid up, are you Detective?"
"Yes. Now show me those photos."
"Yes, dear," he sighed with exaggerated resignation, earning him a kick to his behind from her good foot as he stood up. He squawked and she laughed, watching him limp into his office where he kept his albums.
Richard Castle was a genuinely good man. So often she was distracted from the fact, the overall truth. Sometimes he was a good partner, sometimes a good friend, a good cook, a good father, a good lover. But in the end, she was every so often taken off guard to acknowledge that all these combined made for one hell of a guy.
Her guy.
The only one who could make her smile when she was so close to screaming.
"Kate!" The exclamation from the entranceway startled her from her staring match with the door Castle had disappeared through. The movement drew her breath through her clenched teeth and the ice pack slid from her ankle to the floor.
She opened her eyes and saw Alexis heading straight for her, the heavy bag slung over one shoulder dropping loudly to the floor.
"What happened?" Alexis blurted, concern vivid across her face.
Before Kate could reply Castle slid into the room, his shoulder clipping the door jam when his socked feet didn't stop when the rest of his body tried to. His face was identical to his daughter's at hearing the loud thump and she couldn't help but shake her head at how ridiculously cute they were even when she was annoyed, because really how could you be less than touched that they cared?
"Nothing," she assured both of them. "Just a sprained ankle." The relief that swept over Alexis' face was strong enough it took her off guard; she wasn't really sure what to do with it.
"What happened?" Alexis approached the couch and bent gracefully to retrieve the ice pack.
"Just tripped on some stairs," Kate shrugged, accepting the ice from her with a smile.
"In her defense she was fully running down them," Castle decided to join them, album tucked under one arm.
"Really?" Alexis blanched and dropped her eyes to Kate's ankle. After a few seconds, she hesitantly offered, "It doesn't look too bad."
"It's not," Kate told her. "A day or two and I'll be fine."
"Kate Beckett, Super Detective," Castle intoned, kissing Alexis' cheek and replacing Kate's feet in his lap. "Don't you have class, sweetie?"
"Cancelled," she shrugged, sitting down on the arm of the couch at Kate's head. "So, what were you guys going to do today? Movie marathon?"
"Actually," Castle told his daughter brightly. "We were just discussing our firsts."
"Oh my God. Dad!"
"Castle!"
…
