One of Our Own
The lobby of the theatre was crowded, the air conditioning blasting to counteract the mass of bodies shifting together as people milled about. Men wearing tuxedos stepped on the trains of the ballgowns that the women wore, a rainbow around the stark black and white of the suits. Servers in all black passed around trays of finger food and glasses of champagne.
Somehow, the two of them had found a relatively empty corner of the lobby after taking twin glasses of the sparkling alcohol.
"Thank you," he said, his free hand resting on her hip, gently pulling her a little closer to him.
Kate picked up the fluttering tiered skirt of her gown and stepped so that one of her heeled feet were between his polished black shoes. She smiled, brushing a kiss over his jaw before taking a sip of the champagne. "Not doing it for you, bud." When he leaned down to try and capture her lips, Kate laughed and moved her head so he kissed only made contact with her cheek, his mouth only teasing at the corner of her lips. "Martha asked me to come. You're my date, not the other way around."
"You're a cruel, cruel woman, Katherine Beckett," Castle muttered, trailing his fingers up her side. "And I still can't believe Mother asked you, not me. I feel so betrayed."
The lights flickered. Ten minutes until the show started. The majority of the people moved toward the entrance to the house in a steady stream.
Kate looped her arm through Castle's to tug him in the same direction. "Yes, but you love me anyway."
He bumped her hip with his, pulling their tickets from the inside pocket of his tux. "Mhm. I'm glad you're here, even if it's for Mother and not me."
"Oh, I never said that you weren't part of the reason I'm here. It was just that Leonardo was busy tonight and you were next on my list of men." She blocked the half-hearted punch toward her shoulder, grinning as she teased him. Then the clutch she had tucked under her arm vibrated. She counted three vibrations, hoped it would stop at a text but it kept going. "Shoot." They stopped, moving to the side of the lobby as she dug the phone from the silver clutch. "Beckett."
"Kate…" Castle said, his fingers in the crook of her elbow, squeezing her arm. A quiet warning, a reminder.
She waved him off, walking down along the wall further so he wasn't pressuring her with his steady gaze. "Yeah, I'll be there. No, it's no problem. Really. Okay."
When she looked back at him, Castle didn't look happy. Not completely upset, but not as carefree as he was a minute ago. "You said you were taking the night off, Kate."
"I know, but… Castle, they need me."
The few feet between them seemed like miles as their eyes held contact. The stubbornness that both of them were sending out into the air could probably be felt by the couples shifting around them.
Then Castle stepped forward, walked right past Kate toward the exit. "Let's go then."
She jogged to catch up, her skirt lifted up over her ankles so the thin heels wouldn't catch on the organza. "You're coming with me?"
"Partners, Kate. Even when I wish we'd spend the evening watching my mother's new show followed by enough mind-blowing sex to last a week."
"Castle," she hissed, walking around him as he held the door for her. "Really?"
"A man has dreams. Let me hold onto the hope."
"That hope that is such an event is dwindling the more you mention it in public."
The town car they had taken from the loft to the theatre pulled up against the curb, the driver got out and opened the door for them. Kate slid in, felt Castle's thigh press against hers as he sat next to her. She gave the driver the address Ryan had rattled off on the phone and Castle mentally placed it as somewhere in Chelsea.
"We gonna stop and change?" he asked, his hand resting on her knee, curling around the airy tier at the joint.
She shook her head, scrolling through the messages on her phone. "No time. Just going to have to class up the scene in our formal wear."
The scene turned out to be a warehouse right on the water. Castle sent the driver away for the night, insisting that they'd grab a cab to their next destination, and turned back toward the gathering of cruisers, unmarked next to black-and-whites, their lights flashing off the metal beams and windows surrounding the street.
Kate was already at the yellow tape, arguing with the uniform standing guard. "Listen, I'm Detective Beckett, 12th Homicide."
"Sorry, miss, but I'll need to see your identification if you want to come on-scene." The uniform's voice wavered but even Castle could hear the steel under the fear in the face of Detective Beckett, not Kate.
"Officer Reyes, I don't think you understand," Kate started until Castle feathered his fingers over her bare shoulder. "Castle, not now," she said back at him. Then she was back at the uniform, taking a step closer so her high heels hit the toe of his standard uniform shoes. "I don't have my badge. I don't have my ID. But I need to get in to see the rest of my team."
The young man was just opening his mouth again when Esposito appeared behind him. "Reyes," he called from the door of the warehouse. "They're with me."
Kate barely resisted the urge to smirk at the uniform as he lifted the tape for her to duck under, Castle following her.
"Sorry to tear you two away from your party," he said as they walked toward the wide metal doors of the warehouse. "But this one needs all the brain power we can get our hands on."
"What's so different about this one?" Castle asked, snagging Kate's arm before she stepped in a puddle.
The interior of the warehouse was chaotic. Controlled chaos. Her eyes scanned over the boxes piled high against the walls of the building then settled on the one item that didn't belong. There in the center of the room was a claw-footed tub. A pool of water had splashed out onto the concrete floor, the liquid tinted pink even in the low lighting; crime scene techs hadn't set up the large portable lights yet.
Kate glanced at Ryan who was standing at the edge of the shallow puddle, then back at Esposito and Castle. With the skirt of her strapless black gown raised in one hand, Kate moved closer, close enough to see into the tub but aware of the water around the basin that the crime scene people would not want her stepping in.
Blonde hair floated on the surface of the water in the tub, light strands against the deep red liquid. Slender arms and legs bobbed, the rest of the body submerged. Kate could see that someone had managed to print one hand, the black ink staining the finger pads.
"Do we have an ID yet?" she asked, accepting the blue latex gloves a uniform offered her.
Ryan stepped over to her side. "Working on it."
"Dock worker found it when he snuck in here for a smoke break." Esposito had his notebook out, pointing at the tub with the tip of his ballpoint pen. "Just waiting for the M.E. to get here and clear crime scene to pump out the tub. Ryan and I can wait here if you two want to change, meet us at the Twelfth." He had been giving them both pointed looks at her gown and his tux, out of place at a crime scene.
Castle shrugged, linking his fingers with Kate's even as she tried to wave him off. "Sounds like a good plan." He ignored Kate's glare as he spoke, returning the gaze. She hated it when he took her control away at a crime scene.
"You know what? Fine." She reclaimed her hand, stepping back toward the door and running into a uniform as she did. "But you guys call me as soon as we get an ID on the victim, okay?"
The boys responded with "Of course" and "Yeah, sure" before she turned to leave. Castle was at her back, on his phone with a cab company to get a ride back to the loft.
When he hung up, pocketing the phone, Kate let him tuck her against his side. Castle leaned his head down so his lips brushed the shell of her ear. "Bad timing, huh?"
Kate turned her head away from his mouth. "Yeah."
"Kate," Castle murmured softly. She could still hear the strength under the warm velvet. "What's wrong?"
Her smile was unconvincing when she stepped away from his body, looking up at him. "Nothing."
He crowded her, wrapping a hand around her lower arm. Not pulling her close again but keeping her near him. "Something. Come on, Beckett. Share."
This time, instead of moving back, Kate let her head fall onto his pectorals. "Tired. Sucky timing. It's okay."
A yellow cab came around the corner of the warehouse behind the black medical examiner's van. Kate took a step back, standing on her own as Lanie hopped out of the passenger's seat of the vehicle.
"Thought you two had a big date," she said, leaning back into the van to pull out her bag. "Didn't think that meant with a dead body."
"Fate intervened," Castle said, holding up a finger to the cab driver, signaling that he should hold on a minute.
"How long will getting a prelim exam take?"
Lanie looked over her friend from her curled hair, pinned up off her neck in an attempt to combat the sticky heat, to the black stilettos. "Maybe half an hour."
"Call when you- "
"Beckett!"
Esposito was in the doorway of the warehouse waving his notebook. "Got an ID!"
Even in heels, Kate beat the other two back to the building. "Who is it?"
There was an unsettling hush in the warehouse, silence echoing around them after the click of her heels quieted. Ryan and Esposito were side-by-side and neither looked entirely comfortable. Kate felt Castle at her back, a solid presence.
"Karen Wheeler." Esposito paused, glanced at his partner who had gone pale even for his fair Irish skin. "Officer Karen Wheeler."
Castle felt Kate's fingers reach back for his. He captured them against his thigh, cool lines he could feel on his warm skin through the fabric of his pants. "One of us?" he asked though he knew the answer already.
The small connection of her hand against his leg was the only weakness Kate showed, the only crack in her professional exterior. Kate's voice was steady when she spoke. "Yes, Castle. She was one of us."
She let Castle open the cab door. She let Castle hand her into the back seat. She let Castle hold her hand as they rode from Chelsea to SoHo.
They didn't talk. Kate didn't trust her voice and Castle didn't know which words would work for the moment.
He did thank the driver as he paid; she got out and waited on the sidewalk for him to join her.
"Back early," remarked Eduardo when Castle and Kate walked into the lobby. The elderly doorman had his usual cup of tea and a beat-up copy of the latest Time magazine open on the desk. "Martha's play not good?"
It was Castle who smiled at the other man, his pinky finger hooked around Kate's. "Couldn't say. Body dropped."
"Unfortunate." Eduardo looked at Kate, tried to catch her eye. He glanced back at Castle who nodded a little. "My apologies, Detective."
For the first time since Esposito spoke back in the warehouse, Castle saw Kate smile. Try to smile, he clarified; he could see the difference between genuine and forced. The expression didn't reach her eyes.
"Thanks, Eduardo," she said quietly, going for the stairs rather than the already-waiting elevator. "Have a nice night."
Castle unlocked the door of the loft. His every nerve was trained on the woman moving from the living room to the study. He was worried, not just about Kate but about the entire team. He wasn't a cop, no matter how he pretended to be one of the members of the force, so he couldn't possibly comprehend the shock of losing another one of their siblings in every sense of the word. So he waited in the living room, giving her space.
He searched the deep pockets of his jacket for his phone. There were a few new e-mails, some from Black Pawn wondering where the next chapters of the book were. Others were spam that he deleted. Then there was a text from his mother.
Where are you, Richard?
Shoot. How would she even notice his absence at intermission? He typed out a reply explaining the situation, apologizing for ducking out of the performance early.
The shower was running. He walked into the bedroom, tossed the stiff jacket onto the bed and watching as the organza of Kate's dress fluttered. He stripped off the rest of the tux, stepping into the bathroom, steam curling around him. Kate poked her head out of the glass shower, hair dripping onto the tile floor.
"You coming in?"
She let him crowd her up against the wall of the shower, pushing onto her tiptoes to press her mouth to the underside of his jaw. "I'm okay."
He shifted, capturing her lips briefly. "No, you're not. But that's okay." Before Kate could protest, he moved back, picked up the shampoo bottle and handed it to her. "Because you will be once you do this."
They showered quickly, a delicate dance with passed body wash and washcloths.
Kate pulled on jeans, the plum scoopneck t-shirt in her hands as she stopped to study Castle across the room. He, too, was only half-dressed, buttoning his dark-wash jeans.
"What?" he asked without turning his head; he knew that she was watching him.
"You're distracting." She tugged the shirt into place, adjusting the bottom hem over her jeans.
Castle found a deep green v-neck t-shirt, foregoing a long-sleeved dress shirt in the hot weather. "Same goes," he muttered just loud enough for Kate to hear.
She slipped her arms around his waist once his head popped out of the neckline of the shirt, letting her fingers curl up over his shoulder blades. Her wet hair was on his chest, dampening the shirt. "Castle, this is going to be a hard one. The press will be insane. IAB will be stepping on our toes the entire time. Longer hours, less sleep, poor eating habits." She tilted her face up and saw that he was shaking his head slowly. "What?"
He leaned down, kissed the little crease between her brows. "I'm with you, Kate."
She grabbed a pair of boots from the closet after she stepped away, balancing on the edge of the mattress and zipping them up. "You may annoy the hell out of me forty percent of the time," she said, getting up and shaking her feet so that her jeans fell over the ankle boots. Castle was staring, blinking widely, and she knew it wasn't at her silhouette. "But the other sixty percent of the time, you're so good to me."
"Makes you want me, doesn't it?" he teased, following her back into the front hallway, taking the coat she handed him from the closet.
When he swung the lightweight jacket on, Kate had stepped closer so her thighs brushed his. She rubbed the zipper pull between her fingertips, looking up at him through her lashes. "You have no idea."
"Oh, that's not fair," he whined, locking the door behind them. "That is so not fair."
"I believe it was one of your profession who first stated that the rules of fair play do not apply in love and war," Kate called back.
Castle snagged the sleeve of her khaki jacket, turning her to face him. "Even less fair to use a writer against me."
She grinned, hit the elevator button with the heel of her hand. "And we're back to the quote. One big circle of logic."