In celebration of the new season of Castle, I decided to write this short two chapter piece. It's a bit OOC, pure fun, and not to be taken seriously, of course. I hope you enjoy it. BTW. In this one Beckett never dated Josh, Montgomery isn't dead, and Castle is still moving in the right direction vis-a-vis Beckett, while she is still in a slight state of denial. This one gives them the needed shove. Gregg.
Disclaimer: I don't own, or profit from, these characters or franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
Ryan and Esposito were in the surveillance van listening in on what was happening inside the club. They had been forbidden going into the club for a more hands on approach to the surveillance as it was a topless bar. Not a strip club, but a bar & grill where all the waitresses worked topless. Beckett had gotten the short straw out of the female detectives and was working undercover in there on a tip that a serial killer that had been identified, but not located, frequented the place. Actually forbidden was not quite the word for how Beckett put it if they were in there before it hit the fan. Her words were more along the lines of immediate castration with a rusty hacksaw. The penalty for letting Castle know about this undercover assignment had been even more leg crossing. Beckett had a really foul mouth on her when she was threatening someone!
"I still don't see why we have to be out here when we could be in there with all the honeys," Esposito complained, taking a sip of the truly horrible coffee. Of course he would never let on to Lanie that like all guys he enjoyed the sight of beautiful women as that would bring on the old if that's so I'm going to do some ogling of some male flesh line of argument from her. There would be none of that while Javier Esposito was taking care of business on the home front!
"Two reasons," Ryan replied, grimacing over his own sip of coffee. "Singing soprano courtesy of Beckett, and having to explain to our significant others why we were in a topless bar ogling some other woman's boobs."
"Oh, yeah," Esposito slumped, thinking of the nightmare that would come his way if Lanie found him ogling some other woman's goods. He knew Jenny would make Beckett's wrath look tame by comparison if Ryan was found in there. He'd gotten increasingly stern glares from Lanie all day. He looked up at the monitor of the sidewalk outside the club and spit out his coffee promptly. "Oh, shit!"
Ryan looked up from his crossword puzzle. "What?"
"Castle! He's heading towards the club with someone!" Esposito nearly shouted as he pointed at the monitor.
Ryan groaned. "You don't think he's going to go in there do you?" he asked the dreaded question.
Esposito offered a silent prayer pleading for Divine Intervention, and then cursed as he saw Castle and his friend enter the place. "We are doomed, Bro," he said out loud, voicing the thoughts of both of them as nothing good could come from this. He and Ryan hunkered down and listened intently through the earphones what was going on in the club. The new micro receiver/transmitter that Beckett was wearing would let them listen in and know when to kiss the jewels goodbye. She was going to be pissed! In their shock over this unplanned turn of events it never occurred to them to warn Beckett of who was about to see her topless as soon as she got off break.
"Oh, come on, Mike," Castle said with exasperation when they entered the bar. He gave his old college buddy a look of disgust. "A topless bar? We're not in college anymore!"
Castle was a bit surprised that he was the voice of reason, and that his personal opinion of this was one of mounting disdain. He'd been changing over the last few years, and he could lay it all at the feet of one Kate Beckett. He had to admit that the ambiance, topless women in g-strings aside, was pretty upscale, but if it wasn't Beckett he just wasn't interested in seeing naked women. He still had yet to make a move on Beckett and convince her that he was going to be her one and done, so he was still having to live on nightly fantasies with his mind filling in the blanks with a canvas that included the full frontal shot of Beckett he'd seen for all too little time when her apartment blew up.
"What? The Rick Castle I knew would be drunk and loving every second of this!" Mike Gallagher said as he lasciviously eyed a couple of waitresses walking through the tables taking orders. "Don't you like topless women anymore? Or are you batting for the other side now?"
"Of course not!" Castle said vehemently. Sex with a guy? The very thought made him want to hurl.
"Then lighten up, Man! Let's get a table, order some drinks, and watch all the naked titties as the girls cater to our needs!" Mike proceeded to cut a swath to an empty table.
"I knew it was a mistake going out tonight," Castle muttered as he followed his friend to the table.
Beckett took another sip of her coffee in the small break room that was used by the waitresses. She was not happy about this undercover assignment at all. It wasn't so much the, ahem, exposure, she was concerned about. She considered herself a somewhat liberated woman sexually, and when traveling in Europe she had gone to a number of topless and nude beaches. So the idea of strangers seeing her topless and in a g-string was not so difficult. What was difficult for her was the fact that when she called in the cavalry upon spotting their target, she would be in the back rapidly getting dressed and missing out on the real action.
She'd been shocked at the nature of the undercover work on this one. Posing as a hooker on some vice stings was one thing, but a female police officer working as a topless waitress undercover? It seemed somewhat extreme. It had been amusing to see the Captain stuttering and stammering through the explanation of the assignment. Ryan and Esposito had been quite enthusiastic about it, until she gave them a rather stern lecture on what would happen if they went in there and saw her in the waitress outfit. Their enthusiasm had taken a noticeable nosedive, which had given her and Lanie a good laugh. She had also placed a proviso on accepting the assignment. Castle was not to know about it.
Castle. The one person she was drawn to, yet was afraid to let get too close. Were her feelings for him what everyone suspected? Of course they were. She would not have allowed him to continue shadowing her for all this time if her feelings weren't far deeper than she allowed herself to admit aloud. She knew that things were moving closer and closer to where she would have to admit to him that she loved him, but she wasn't quite ready. Having him in this club seeing her like this would mean going from zero to sixty in nothing flat! On both their parts! That's why she made it abundantly clear that Castle was not to be informed of the assignment. Looking at the clock she sighed. Time to go back out there to be ogled by a bunch of horny guys so she could find and have arrested a serial killer. The things she went through to get the bad guys!
Castle was getting very annoyed. Mike was acting like some lust crazed teenager. For once he was seeing what Kate saw in the early days of their partnership. It wasn't a very flattering picture. Sure he'd been acting up at times in order to give the press some of the Castle image he'd become known for, but the last year or so he'd been removing himself from that more and more, especially as his feelings for Kate had become much more pronounced.
"Hey Rick!" Mike practically yelled. "How about the ta-tas on that one?"
"Give it a rest, Mike!" Castle said almost angrily.
"Another drink guys?" came a voice next to Castle.
Castle turned his head and before the image caught up with his brain he said "I'll have a beer, Kate."
That's when he froze and realized that the topless woman next to him, in nothing but heels and a g-string, was none other than Kate Beckett. Being a man in love with her his eyes zeroed in on the naked flesh, particularly the perky, firm breasts of the love of his life. Christmas had just come early in the world of Rick Castle!
"Castle?" Kate hissed, suddenly very self-conscious over her state of undress, but being a very good undercover cop she didn't flinch or react outwardly. "What the Hell are you doing in a place like this?" she demanded, though in her mind she was planning the torture and murder of Esposito and Ryan.
"Shouldn't I be the one asking you that, Kate?" Castle asked, his eyes taking in the view, and while he was a bit concerned that these other horn dogs were ogling her, he was definitely enjoying what he was seeing. His mind was brought back to Earth when Mike chimed on.
"You know this hot piece of tail?" Mike exclaimed, raking his eyes over Beckett's form.
Before he knew what was happening, Castle launched a powerful left jab to his friend's jaw, knocking him out. At that moment a fight erupted all over the bar. The waitresses were all screaming, and he saw one bouncer getting clocked with a chair shattering across his back.
"Castle you idiot!" Kate shouted as she pulled him away from the ruckus.
Esposito and Ryan spewed their coffee all over when they heard what was happening.
"Shit!" Esposito shouted as he and Ryan rushed from the surveillance can and ran into the club.
"Over there!" Ryan shouted.
They went right over to where Beckett was chewing Castle out, seeming not to mind that she was still, ahem, uncovered. They tried to ignore the state of undress of their boss, but to no avail. They were guys. Their eyes raked over Beckett's form, and when she turned a glare on them they knew they were in deep shit.
"You two!" she yelled. "Get this under control! Work with the Uni's when they get here! And stop ogling! You're supposed to be gentlemen!"
Then she turned to Castle. "Come with me!" she yelled, and they made their way, carefully, to the dressing room.
Beckett was more turned on than she could remember being in a long time. For some reason the combination of Castle seeing her like this, his Neanderthal reaction to his friend's lecherous comment, and the thrill of the fight going on around them was extremely arousing. Pulling him into the dressing room, she sat him down and silenced him with a glare.
"We are going to get this taken care of, report in at the precinct, and then go back to my place where we will be having a serious conversation, Castle," she said firmly as she pulled on her clothes. She noted that Castle followed her every move with rapt attention, especially the way her breasts swayed as she moved around. "Eyes up, Castle," she said in an exasperated tone, though she was getting turned on by how affected she was by his delight in the sight of her body.
"I'm sorry," Castle tried to sound contrite. He hoped his own lecherous behavior had not gotten her too pissed. He did, after all, have hopes of enjoying the delights of her nude body in the future.
Beckett stopped and smirked, striding right up to him, lifting his chin in her palm. "Don't worry, Kitten," she practically purred in a husky, sexy tone. "You'll be seeing them again, and a whole lot more, real soon."
Castle had to think of every disgusting thing he'd ever imagined in order to keep the threatening hard on at bay so he could follow her out of there and back into the din of the wrecked bar. The Uni's were there in force, and all was under control. He saw his friend being attended to by a couple of EMT's. Mike's jaw was obviously broken, and during the fight his unconscious form had apparently taken some hits or kicks. Castle wasn't the least bit sorry. Beckett was his to ogle, though he would never dream of talking so possessively about her until he knew how this night was going to wind up. But he had more high hopes than ever.
"Castle!"
"Coming, Detective!" he called back, a wide smile on his face as he walked over to where she was talking to an officer.
A/N: Okay, there's the setup, and next up in a day or so is the fun! This is OOC, I know, but what's the point of playing with our favorite characters if we can't give them some unusual situations? I hope you all are enjoying this one. Gregg.
A/N2: I know that I have another Castle story left unfinished that I began at the beginning of Summer, but ill health, and a couple of projects have put it on hold for a short bit. I will be getting back to it, though, soon. Gregg.