Castle
Rick Castle was sitting in his study, tapping away at his black laptop, lost in the newest Nikki Heat story. It was a scorcher.
He was lost in Kate Beckett's mind. He heard Alexis stomping down the stairs, just as he was getting to the sweaty stuff in the novel.
"Dad," she said breathlessly, "I was thinking."
"This is new," he replied.
"Ha!" said Alexis. She gracefully glided into the room and slid a hip onto his desk. "You know how we always take a wild summer vacation?"
He cocked his eyebrow, something was coming.
"Yeessssss," he answered.
"I was thinking that we could bum it this year? You know, stay in the city? Maybe even explore the city a little bit? There are places that we've never been, well, that I've never been."
"You don't want to leave the city?"
This was a first. Alexis was always the first to be packed and ready to go. She was the first teenager on the planet to have a GPS system when they first hit the market.
"Because I don't think you can go a month without seeing, talking to, talking about murder, or being with Beckett," said Alexis.
"Oh," said Rick. He hasn't thought of that. A whole month without Beckett at his side, or Beckett vibrating his phone, or Beckett chiding him for being a pain. The thought made him grow cold inside.
"And Grandma wouldn't be able to come with us, since she's working."
"This is true," said Rick.
"Can we? Stay?"
"I'll think about it. It's tradition, kid. How about you finish up the school year first, deal? I have a novel to finish. Now, you've gone far past your bedtime, young lady."
Alexis rolled her eyes and kissed her father's cheek. "I'm the daughter of Richard Castle, I don't have a bedtime, as you well know. I love you."
"As do I. Love you that is, not myself, but you. Though, I do love myself, but not in the way you are thinking…."
Alexis walked out of his study and was off to bed, rolling her green eyes at her father's antics.
Rick let his fingers caress the keys of the laptop, rereading the last few lines of his paragraph. He once again dove into the world of Nikki Heat and Jamison Rook.
Rick heard a noise. It was at his door step. Soft scrapping of metal on metal and his door knob jiggling ever so slightly.
Placing the laptop gingerly, as one might lay a lover down onto a bed of pillows; he rushed to the front door, grabbing the fireplace poker on his way to the door. He brandished the weapon, looked at it once and thought how useful this tool could be in a murder. His eye shifted in thought. Then the scrap-scrap of a lock picker at his door forced Rick back to reality.
Someone was picking his lock!
Someone was picking his lock!
The door began to swing open. Rick grasped the door knob and pulled hard. The lock picker tumbled into this entryway. She looked up at him with wild dark grey eyes. "Hey Castle."
"Kenzi," whispered Castle.
"I was going to surprise you," said Kenzi. The old teasing was in her voice, how he had missed that voice.
"When, umm, when did you get out?"
Kenzi sat up. Castle sat down next to her, he let the poker fall to his left, it was all forgotten, Kenzi was sitting on his entryway floor. He was nose to nose with her. He saw the dark smudges of dirt on her chin. The dirty clothes, but her eyes were once again alive with mischief and her smile was as bright as ever.
"I wasn't in lock down, Castle, I was in a voluntary program. I volunteered, remember?"
"Yes. I remembered that."
"I walked out a week ago," said Kenzi. She stood. Her long legs seemed skinner than Castle remembered them. She was far skinnier. Her face was pale. Her once long blonde hair was cropped short. And it had been done badly, as if someone had used a rusty pair of scissors to chop of the long mane of blonde hair. "I was tired of the meds."
"They were helping," said Rick. He stood. Feeling the wash of longing he often had when he walked by her books on his bookcase. He would often run his fingers along the spine, feeling her name there Mackenzie Knight.
They had met when they were five. They had reconnected every few years, by some quirk of fate or another. Once they were able, they became pen pals, no matter where one went, the other wrote. Kenzi's parents had been in the Army. Rick of course had traveled because of his mother's jobs. They were to pieces on a chess board they had often joked. A few years ago, Kenzi had begun to grow sick, not a physical kind of sick, but a mental sickness had overcome her. She'd handed the reins of her life over to Castle and had committed herself to getting better. She'd stopped writing. This had been the part that had pained Castle the most, there were no more words for her to spin and mold. She'd stopped being Mackenzie Knight, and she wanted to fight to get that back.
"They were blurring my thoughts," corrected Kenzi, she turned to face Castle. "I shouldn't have come."
"No," said Rick. He rushed to her. "You are, and always will be, my best friend on earth, Knight. I just didn't expect you here at 2am in the morning." He cupped her face in his hands, his thumbs instantly caressing her warm skin.
Kenzi's grey eyes darted left and right. "It's 2am?"
"It is."
"You were writing."
"I was."
"I am interrupting."
"You are."
A comfortable silence as he stared down into her eyes.
"Tell me what you need?" asked Rick.
"I need clothes. I need a shower. I need a safe place. Then I'll be out of your hair."
"All those you can have, and you are never in my hair." said Rick.
"What little there is left of it," said Kenzi reaching up and running her hand through his hair.
"I am sure I have a pair of sweat pants that fit you, and a decent shirt. Why don't you go to my master bath, I am sure you remember the way and I will lock up and be there in a few, ok? I want to save my work; we can stay up until dawn and catch up."
Kenzi kissed his cheek. He could smell the street grime clinging to her, but he didn't care, by all accounts she seemed fine. Lucid and alive. What had she gotten herself into? He watched her go up the stairs, two at a time. He closed and locked the door, then rushed off into his study. He was going to call the facility that Kenzi had been in, but then thought better of it. Calling at 2am was more than likely a bad idea all around. In the morning. He'd call that deplorable doctor that he'd never liked. The one that had asked for his autograph every single time he'd gone to see Kenzi. Kenzi had refused to see him often, he'd seen her five times in three years. A pittance of a glimmer, of a moment with his best friend, but he'd taken it and held onto the hope that she was getting fixed.
He heard the shower turn on. A welcoming sound, she'd smell much better once she was out. He did have to smile, having his best friend back in his life did feel oddly grounding. A warmth rose into his chest and his smile grew as he saved his latest additions. Kenzi hadn't read Nikki Heat yet, he was sure. Another childhood tradition, they would read to each other their work.
His phone buzzed. Beckett's number flashed on the screen. Well, there was no way he was going out on a murder mystery tonight. He would let it go to voice mail, Beckett might not mind some time away from him.
He pocketed the phone, grabbed his Nikki Heat novel from the shelf and walked towards his stairs. His right foot had just found the first step when there was a knock at his door.
He smirked. It was, after all, 2am.
"Who is it?" he asked in a hot whisper.
"Beckett, Castle, open up?"
Then she added, "Please?"
Something was definitely wrong.
"You said please," said Castle as he whipped the door open. "You never say please. Are you ok? It is my night for women being at my door step."
Kate's cheeks flashed red. "Is it now?"
"Umm. That didn't come out quite the way I meant it."
"It didn't?"
"No."
"Rick," began Beckett.
"Oh my god, what is going on? You just called me Rick. Are you ok? Did something happen to Ryan? Esposito? You, are you ok?"
"Can I come in?"
Rick stepped aside, hiding the Nikki Heat novel behind him. "Come on in."
"I caught a case earlier, but I didn't call you. I didn't call you because you're personally involved. I thought it best to come down here and talk to you about it before you saw it flashing on the news this morning."
Rick's face was drawn. Where was Mother tonight? Was she at her beau's house? Or had she been at rehearsal?
"Castle, no one you know is dead, at least, not anyone you might have cared for. I'm sorry. The murder victim was Dr. Samuel Travis. You know him?"
"Yes."
Castle's mind kicked into high gear. What had Kenzi done?
"I thought so. I did some digging when you started following me," admitted Kate.
Of course she had, thought Castle.
"I found that you had one best friend, who you dedicated several novel's too, Mackenzie Knight. She too, wrote novels, and dedicated a fair share to you too. Childhood friends. You are her power of attorney and sole heir to her estate if she dies. You have also been in control of her estate since she was committed…"
"It is a voluntary program," cut in Rick. "She went in on her own and that means she can leave on her own. What does this have to do with Kenzi?"
Kate smiled slightly. He had a nick name for her. They really were close.
"She left Hollow Oakes a few days ago, did you know that?"
He paused, not wanting to admit to anything and not wanting to throw a bad light onto Kenzi. "Yeessssss."
"Her doctor was found dead tonight."
Castle shrugged.
"Oh come on, Castle, you see the connections here. I've laid out the dots. You are going to make me say it, aren't you? You're friend is prime suspect. The last time she saw Dr. Travis she threatened to," said Kate, flipping open her watchbook, "take his head off with a rusty blade."
"Was he found with his head cut off with a rusty blade?" asked Rick.
"No."
"Then she didn't do it. Kenzi always keeps her promises."
"I do, at least I try too," said Kenzi. She came down the stairs, clad only in one of Rick's finer dress shirts. "Keep my promises. Going to introduce us, Castle?"
"Um. Kate Beckett, Mackenzie Knight. Detective Kate Beckett," added Rick.
"Hello," said Kenzi. "And why does it matter what I said to Travis? He was a stealing bastard, but I only kill on the page, not in real life, Detective Beckett."
Castle was grateful that she was clean. And not a rambling idiot as she'd been a few years ago, Rick now noticed how lucid she seemed. Something in Kenzi had changed.
"Mackenzie Knight, I'll have to ask you to come down to the station with me. After you get more clothes on," said Kate coolly.
"I'll…," began Castle. He looked at Beckett and tried to smile, but it wasn't happening. "Go. Um, get her some." He wagged his finger then dashed up the stairs.
Kenzi sat on the stairs.
"You might want to call a lawyer," said Kate.
"I might want to, but I'm not going too. I didn't kill Travis."
"That's for the evidence to decide."
"He loves you," said Kenzi.
"Excuse me?"
"Rick, he's taken with you. I haven't seen him look at anyone like that since…"
"His last wife? Or the waitress at Denny's?"
Kenzi smiled. "No, since me."
Kenzi sat in the interrogation room, feet on the table, clad in Castle's to large slippers. She was reading Heat Wave. Kate was standing outside the interrogation window, watching her. The woman who had been in Castle's life the longest, save for Alexis and his mother, was in that room. Oh what she would know about Castle. It annoyed Beckett that she couldn't sit and talk with the woman, instead, she had to interrogate her. The evidence pointed to her, but deep down, Beckett had a hard time picturing her as a killer. Or a lunatic, which is what Dr. Travis had first called her once she'd been admitted to Hollow Oaks.
"She didn't do it," said Castle.
"Did you call her a lawyer?" asked Beckett.
"She's refusing."
Esposito came bounding around the corner. He was waving some papers. "Found his blood on her dirty clothes. Lab is testing to see if it's the Docs."
"It wasn't," said Castle. "Look, I know Kenzi, she isn't capable of killing anyone."
"That's what they all say," answered Beckett.
"Kate," began Castle, "please listen to me. Mackenzie Knight didn't kill anyone, much less the man that had helped her the last few years to finally be free of whatever was plaguing her. You don't understand who she was is who she is now, but who she was then, was this shadowy shell of the woman I knew all my life."
Beckett rolled her eyes, leave it to Castle to muddle up saying that the woman was nuts and now she wasn't. Beckett walked into the interrogation room and let the door close before Castle could walk through it. He wasn't coming in here. This was one time where Rick Castle would have to sit on the sidelines.
"This," said Mackenzie Knight, waving the book around, "is pure heat. I haven't seen passion like this from him since we were kids writing a comic book together. I am impressed, Detective Beckett."
Mackenzie put her feet down and the chair slapped the floor, startling Kate.
"We found blood…"
"It's his. I reared back and punched him in the nose the day I left Oakes. I was wearing what I was wearing when I got to Castle's house last night. Was it only last night?" mused Mackenzie. She placed the book on the table, letting her hands sit on the cover for a moment. A thoughtful look on her face, lips pursed, her blonde hair was scraggly and ill cut. Beckett took her appearance in, the appearance did not match the voice that emanated from the woman.
"You see. I have motive. Opportunity. And I do have the means. I have the holy trinity of murder, I am your suspect," said Mackenzie. "I realize that all this lovely stuff is damning, and having written this stuff all my life, I'm feeling rather ugly about sitting on this side of the table from you, Detective Beckett…"
Castle burst through the doors, pushing passed Esposito. "Kenzi that's enough! You didn't kill him and now you need to shut up! I'm calling you a lawyer. I don't want you saying one more word."
Castle knew that Beckett would eat Kenzi alive. Kenzi was all but slapping the handcuffs on herself.
"Rick, relax. I didn't do it. I will admit," said Kenzi now rocking back on the chair, balancing precariously there, "I am a prime suspect. As Detective Beckett will most certainly point out to you, it does look like I did it. I didn't. I'm sure that if you trust in Detective Beckett she'll prove that I'm innocent."
Kate stood and shoved Castle out of the room, giving Esposito a deadly glare as she slammed the door closed. Kate turned back to Mackenzie and waited.
"I found out a week ago that Dr. Travis was using my ramblings, the stories I was telling him, to write a book. He'd published two already. It took me 18 months to start to be able to form a story again, Detective Beckett, and when I was able, I began to tell him stories. He taped them. Then transcribed them. Then he sold them. He was making millions off my ideas, off my thoughts, off my characters. You really are gorgeous, you know that?"
"How did you find out?" asked Kate not responding to the obvious attempt changing the subject or to throw her off guard.
Mackenzie smiled. "I was taken to his office, you see, he never did our sessions at the Oakes, but in his private office. I heard his secretary talking about his newest foray into the thriller genre, and how it was funny that he was treating a well known novelist and here he was, writing his own. Once she hung up the phone I asked her the name of his new novel, thinking that maybe, just maybe…. I was right. Check Mate." Mackenzie laughed bitterly. "Two detectives, Rook and Stallion…."
"Rook?"
"Yeah. That's a Castle and Knight thing."
Kate felt herself flush. Castle had used the name Jamison Rook in his latest novel. Had she sparked the same passion in Castle as this woman had?
"Anyway," said Mackenzie, "he opened the door and I lost it. I had been crafting this odd story about two detectives, giving him details, playing with plot lines and character development. I knew now why he was prodding me to tell him more. It wasn't because he was happy about me being able to tell stories again, it was because the bastard was stealing them."
"So Check Mate was your novel?"
"I guess so. Don't get me wrong, Detective Beckett, I don't need the money. That I have. More than Rick, more than I'll ever need. It wasn't about the money, I'd have let him have the money, it was about Rook and Stallion."
Kenzi stood up. Kate mirrored her.
"He took the friendship that I was missing, the love that I was missing and sold it. As his own. I can only imagine what his publishers said when they saw Rook, only months after Castle published this," said Kenzi tapping the book again. "He took what was mine."
"And you took it back."
"I didn't kill him."
"You said his blood was on your clothes. That's evidence."
"I have witnesses to my breaking that SOB's nose, Detective Beckett. I didn't kill him. If you want to arrest me on circumstantial evidence, that's fine. You know that it will be thrown out in court. I don't know, don't you think if he did this to me, he might have done something similar to someone else? Or someone knew about what he was doing to me and wanted a cut for their silence?" offered Mackenzie.
"Why did you go into the Oakes?"
"I was having trouble differentiating between reality and fantasy. I had become lost in my own worlds. Yet, I couldn't write, because when I did, my reality changed."
"What made you go into the Oakes?"
"Subtle. You are good. I almost killed Alexis."
"She was chasing a guy she thought was following her. She was driving but it was ok, I talked her into pulling over," said Alexis. "Look, Detective Beckett, Kenzi wouldn't ever hurt me. It was three years ago. Kenzi was sick, and Dad said she's better now," said Alexis.
Beckett had called Alexis, who had rushed to the precinct to see her father, and his best friend, Kenzi. Beckett wanted to know more about this elusive Mackenzi Knight. Now, Beckett was questioning her with kid gloves.
"You have to admit…"
"Detective Beckett, if Kenzi said she didn't do it, she didn't."
Kate sighned and she knew she was caught between a rock and an even harder place.
Beckett had interviewed the secretary, other patients of Dr. Travis', his wife, this three ex-wives, and his current mistress. All of latter had great motive to kill him. All had alibis.
Kate sat at her desk, looking at the white board, all indicating that she had killed him. There had been blood and his skin on her clothes. Beckett went over the crime scene again in her mind. There had to be something there.
"Kate."
"Rick."
"I want to help."
Beckett looked up at his pleading eyes. "I know you do, but you're to close to this one, Castle."
"Ah, we're back to Castle. I like it when you call me Rick; I have more leeway with you." Castle sat down next to Beckett's desk. "Tell me what you have."
Beckett resisted.
"Please. She is my best friend in the world."
"I have Travis' blood and skin on her clothes, but that's easily explained by her breaking his nose. I have the hospital ER report. I have the ME report, which I haven't looked at yet…"
Castle took the report. Leafing through it, never having thought in his wildest dreams that he'd be looking at a report of someone he knew. He had never liked Travis all that much.
"I found something else too. I looked into Mackenzie's financial situation…"
"Hmmmm…"
"She's broke."
"Excuse me?"
"There are several withdrawals, several large withdrawals, made by you, Castle. I think she was making her way to your house to kill you next. If she found out you'd taken money from her…"
"I didn't take that money out," said Rick as he and Kate walked up to his apartment door.
"Then who did, Castle?"
"I don't know, but I'm going to find out, and when I do…"
"Don't say it, don't say you'll kill them, because when they turn up dead, I might have to arrest you."
"Right," said Castle zipping his lips with his thumb and forefinger.
They entered the apartment to find music playing and Alexis and Kenzi playing Guitar Hero.
"Certainly isn't acting like a guilty person," muttered Beckett.
"No, she is not."
"I heard I'm broke!" called Kenzi over the music. "You're mother kindly informed me earlier. She paid for the take out, by the way, with your credit card!"
"Yes," said Castle.
"That's ok, I'm rich in other ways and one of them is in imagination." Kenzi set the guitar down and walked over to them. "I have a theory…."
Ryan, now carrying the Nikki Heat novel under his arm, knocked on the door.
The secretary, Miss Gardner, opened the door.
Esposito, who was just behind Ryan, said, "Hello Miss Gardner, we're sorry to bother you this late, but we've had a break in the case."
"Oh."
"Can we come in, we just need to verify a few details about the fist fight."
"Please, come in," she said.
Earlier…..
"His throat was cut," said Castle.
"Uh huh," said Lanie Parish.
"But not with a rusty blade?"
"No, Castle what do you want to know?"
"It was someone who was right or left handed?"
"Right."
"Ah ha!"
"What?" asked Lanie and Beckett in unison.
"Kenzi is left handed. So left handed in fact that she wears her watch on her right hand. But, who wouldn't know that? She's always written her characters as left handed. A quirk of hers."
"Like the way Nikki Heat…," began Lanie.
"Hush!" snapped Beckett.
"Who benefits most from his death?" asked Castle.
"His ex-wives suffer, no more alimony, his current wife gets it all, and his mistress gets nothing," said Beckett. She was now pacing the room. Lanie leaned back and watched Beckett's mind turning. "Castle, when you write who knows what you are writing?"
"No one."
"But, someone would know if Dr. Travis were writing something. He had the tapes transcribed by someone, didn't he?" asked Castle with his trademark smirk.
"The secretary," said Beckett. "How many of these stories did Kenzi tell him?"
"A dozen, if not more," said Castle.
Beckett began to walk. "And if Kenzi and Travis are out of the picture…."
"Then the lovely Miss Gardner has free range to publish, albeit she'd have some reworking to do. Any publisher would jump at a Mackenzie Knight like novel."
"The missing money?" asked Beckett.
"My guess, Travis took it. The bastard asked for my autograph more times than I can count. Unless…."
"Unless?" asked Beckett.
"Unless the secretary did that too?" said Castle. "No, to many variables. No, I am willing to bet that Dr. Travis is the one who withdrew the money. We can check his bank accounts?"
"Already being done."
"Will Kenzi be able to get her money back?" asked Castle. They had exited the building and were marching towards Beckett's car.
"If we can track it, I'm sure something can be managed. Castle…."
"I know."
"I'm just following the evidence."
"I know."
"I never thought you'd be best friends with a murderer."
"I know."
"You're a smug son of a bitch."
"I know."
"And then she threatened him…," asked Ryan.
Now in the integration room, Miss Gardner, Jessica Gardner, was sitting with her arms crossed.
"Yes. Should I have a lawyer?"
"Only if you are hiding something," said Esposito. "Do you want a lawyer?"
"I think that would be prudent," said Jessica.
Esposito and Ryan left the room. Beckett and Castle should be here soon, they closed the door and walked away. She wasn't going anywhere.
Kenzi tugged her hat down close to her eyes. She slipped into the office area, Castle and Beckett were at her desk, debating loudly with Ryan and Esposito. She made her way to the interrogation room, where the woman who had tried to frame her was waiting. The bitch wanted a crazy woman, then she was going to get one.
She pushed the door open, and before Jessica could say a word, Kenzi had shoved a chair under the door handle.
"What are you doing?" asked Jessica.
"I did threaten to cut his head off with a rusty blade, but you, you I'll pummel with my bare hands," said Kenzi her hands on the table. "You heard every syllable I uttered in that office. You took something that I created and wanted to make it your own…."
"Kenzi!" yelled Rick from the other side of the window. He banged on the glass. "Kenzi, open the door."
"No! She took from me and I think I'll enjoy taking from her."
"I didn't do anything!" yelled Jessica.
"You did though, didn't you? You took my ideas, something I hadn't had in years, you stole them!" ranted Kenzi.
"Get a battering ram, now!" ordered Beckett. "Mackenzie, don't do this. We'll prove it was her."
"See, that's the beauty, I don't have to prove anything, Detective. I'm already crazy. I'll just plead temporary insanity and come back to my life. And I'll have gotten my slice of you."
"I didn't steal anything, I swear," pleased Jessica. "I didn't know it was yours until I saw the bank slips with your Mr. Castle's name on it!"
Kate turned and didn't see Ryan coming with the battering ram. She threw her shoulder into the door. It wasn't moving. "Mackenzie!"
"You see, I'm a nut," said Kenzi calmly. "I'm a total nut case, I've been on every medication imaginable and for the last three months, I've been med free. Maybe, maybe I did kill him. Maybe I'll kill you."
"No, hey! You guys out there get in here."
"They can't protect you. Unless they have you in some holding cell. Crazy people can walk through walls…."
Kenzi threw the chair that Kate usually sat in against the far wall. It bounced and landed close to Jessica who scurried away from the lunatic.
Kenzi hadn't touched her yet.
Yet.
Castle, Alexis, and the detectives were close to getting inside.
"If you confess, you can keep the money," said Kenzi. "If you confess you can keep the books, publish them, I don't care. I'll never say or do anything, I just want them to know that I didn't do it!" yelled Kenzi. "I am not a killer! I might have lost my mind, but I didn't kill him."
Ryan and Beckett crashed into the room. Jessica ran for the door. "I didn't mean to kill him, I wanted to scare him. I wanted my cut of the profit. He was getting rich and I wasn't, I just wanted what I thought was mine."
"What was mine," said Kenzi.
"I wanted to scare him…" broke down Jessica. "..and it got out of hand…. And I cut him, it was an accident… I tried to stop the bleeding…"
Castle rushed into the room and swept Mackenzie into his arms. "What were you thinking?"
"I was thinking that she'd be scared that the crazy woman would kill her but you guys got here too fast. I wanted a little more time to torture her. I had this whole idea of crouching on the table until she squealed."
Ryan was leading Jessica Gardner out.
"I will get you!" yelled Kenzi.
"Enough," said Castle. "You're not crazy."
"Aren't I?"
Rick looked down at Kenzi, who was only an inch or so shorter than he was. He cupped her face and stared into her eyes. "You aren't."
"I'm not. But she needed to believe I was. Did that qualify as a confession?"
"It didn't need to. If you'd waited for Castle and I to come in here, we had proof she did it. There was blood on her bracelet. Castle noticed an odd mark on the back of his shirt, it was in the pattern of her bracelet. You wanted me to follow the evidence, didn't you?"
Kenzi smirked. "You were taking too long."
"It isn't like writing a novel, Kenzi. Things move at a different pace," said Castle.
"I'm going to have to charge you," said Beckett.
"For?" said Kenzi and Rick said in unison.
"Criminal withholding of Jessica Gardner, threatening with a lethal weapon, the chair. I can go on…," said Beckett.
"Fine. Book the crazy woman," said Mackenzie, extending her wrist in dramatic fashion.
"You're not crazy, but you are slightly out of control," said Beckett.
Captain Montgomery looked at the paper work, then up at Beckett, then back to the paper work. He closed the file. "Are you really going to press charges?"
"I was thinking I might."
"I was thinking you might not. The Mayor…"
"Him again, "grumbled Beckett. "Fine, whatever the Mayor wants, whatever Castle wants is more like it."
"You know the positive publicity that Rick has brought to the police force and to you."
"Uh huh."
"Are you going to the party that Castle is throwing in her honor?"
This had been bothering Beckett. She wanted to go see Castle, talk to him, but on the other hand, she didn't to see him talking to her so intimately. Seeing him talking to her in the interrogation room had rattled Kate more than she wanted to admit. Kate could see the love in his eyes when he looked at her. He wanted to protect her. "I don't know, Sir."
"I order you to go, I'm going."
"Yes, Sir."
Kate walked out of the Captain's office and headed home. To get dressed it seemed.
"There was this one time…," Castle was saying, recounting a tale about Kenzi to Ryan. The party was winding down, only Castle's real friends were left behind. Ryan, Esposito, Captain Montgomery, and Lanie Parish, and herself, Beckett had moved over to the stairs and sat down on the stairs. Martha was serving more drinks and if Beckett had one more, she'd never make it home.
"Have another one, darling," said Martha.
"No, I do have to make it home tonight."
"Nonsense, there is room here if you cannot find your way home. I'm sure my son could find something suitable for you to wear, besides your birthday suit, that is."
Kate smiled. She did like Castle's quirky family.
"Thank you." Kate took the drink and set it on the stair case.
"Martha, I think you need to go control your son, please? I'm tired of listening to how I was so perfect as a child," begged Mackenzie, slipping an easy arm around Martha's waist.
"Oh that boy simply won't be control, its why he's had so many wives you know."
"Mother, I heard that!" called Castle.
Kate and Mackenzie watched Martha glide to her son.
"They are hilarious," said Mackenzie. She sat one step below Kate. She's had her hair fixed, it was shorter now, framing her face perfectly. Kenzi looked up at Kate with a small smile playing on her lips.
"That they are."
"When did you and Castle hook up?" asked Mackenzie.
"Hook up? Us, no, never. Never been down that road. No. In his dreams, perhaps, or in his novels, but we have never hooked up."
Mackenzie laughed. "I meant how did he hook you into letting him follow you? I didn't let him visit often. I never found out. I didn't even know about Nikki Heat until a few days ago."
"Why didn't you let him visit you?"
Mackenzie mused this for a while. "You see, when I lost my marble, I felt like I'd lost Rick too."
Kate leaned forward. "I don't understand."
"That was our connection. Rick and I, we connected because we were slightly insane…"
"You can say that again."
"All right, slightly insane but we both were writers, we created these brilliant characters and vivid landscapes and mysteries. When I started having trouble with things, I started to lose my ability to write, to create. If I did, I got lost in it. Its infuriating to need to create and not be able too."
"You were afraid if he saw you that way he'd never look at you the same way."
"Pretty much," said Mackenzie. Mackenzie looked at Castle across the room and smiled. Best friends tended to be perfect in your mind, sometimes.
"He adores you."
Mackenzie laughed softly. "I adore him."
"So, why did you two never…?" Kate smiled and wiggled her eyebrows.
"Why have you two never?" asked Mackenzie.
Kate blushed hotly. "We have a working relationship."
"It's working alright," winked Mackenzie. "What has he told you about me?"
"Nothing actually. I knew only of your existence because I did a background check on him when he started tailing me. I wondered from time to time if you two had a falling out and just didn't speak anymore. I thought that was odd since he was still in your will and your POA."
"I don't think there is anything that could stop us from being friends. Well, we did stop talking for a while, once, when we were much younger," admitted Mackenzie.
"Ah, see….."
"He kissed me."
"Oh."
"Don't worry, Beckett, she's not my type," said Rick. He leaned on the railing and smiled demurely at Kenzi.
"Isn't she?" laughed Beckett having obviously had one to many drinks. "Castle, I thought anything of the female persuasion was your type."
"No, she's not my type. You're more her type."
Beckett processes that for a moment. Kenzi was laughing so hard one step below her that tears had formed in her grey eyes. "Oh!" said Kate.
"That was a classic response. And, Rick, Beckett is your type, not mine. Well, since I don't get that gay vibe from her," Mackenzie winked at Kate. "I'd love to stay and chat, but you know I have a flight to catch."
"Flight?" said Castle and Beckett in unison.
"Mmm, yup. Los Angeles. My publisher, our publisher called. I have some meetings and since the great city of NYC isn't pressing charges, I'm free to come and go as I please. It was nice meeting you, Kate. I'll call you tomorrow, Rick." Mackenzie kissed his cheek lovingly. "I promise, I won't be a stranger."
Mackenzie was gone the same way she'd come. Right out Castle's door.
"Rick?"
"Hmmm?"
"You're going to miss her, aren't you?"
"I have been missing her since the day I met her. She's like a chimera, hard to believe she is real and definitely hard to understand."
"Then, Castle, go after her," prodded Kate. "Tell her to stay, meetings can wait."
"No, you see," said Castle turning towards Kate, "That's why I adore her. It's why I miss her. If I learned everything about her, every nuance, every iota of her, then she'd cease to be who she is to me. Unlike you, Beckett the more I know about you, the more I want to be around you. With Kenzi, it's the complete opposite. Yet, you are both very much alike."
"Are we now?" asked Kate her smile flashing. "Do I give you the gay vibe?"
"No. You are both stubborn, hard headed, intelligent, difficult to read…"
"Hey!"
"Did I mention gorgeous?"
"No, you did not and flattery will get you nowhere with me, Castle."
"Yet another reason you two are similar. You both accept me for who I am."
"Rogue and all," said Kate. "I do have to get home. I, unlike you, have to work in the morning."
"Hey, Beckett!" called Ryan.
"Yeah?"
"We've got a case."
"A good one?" asked Castle.
"Twisted. It took places in a BDSM club," said Esposito.
"Oh I'm so in!" laughed Castle.
"Great."
It was back to the grind.