Sleight of Hand
Summary: [Caskett] Rick tries to impress Kate with a card trick. But does he have something else up his sleeve besides a simple sleight of hand?
"Is it the Jack of Hearts?" Rick Castle asked his daughter feebly, holding up a playing card that was clearly an Eight of Spades.
Alexis looked up at her father's hopeful expression. It was funny how she thought how cute it was. Then again, she had seen that look many times before. She shook her head firmly, albeit regrettably. It was the fourth flop, after all. "No dad. It's the Eight of Spades," she corrected.
"What?" Rick asked incredulously, turning the card around to examine the face before sliding through the rest of the deck in a flurry of panic. "My counting's off," he complained, visibly annoyed with himself.
"You're getting there, Dad! Come on, you're doing this to impress Beckett, right?" Alexis teased with a huge smile in silent encouragement, patting him consolingly on the thigh.
Rick sighed, lowering his head shamefully, surrendering the deck of playing cards down on the counter. "I forgot how I even got started wanting to learn a trick like this."
Alexis put on a thoughtful expression. "If I remember correctly, your exact words were: "Beckett hasn't seen a card trick up close yet! I'm going to impress her with one!" Quickly followed by your realization that you were a writer with zero knowledge in the craft," she explained.
Rick looked at Alexis with a blank stare. "If I didn't know any better, you were rubbing it in my face that I can't do it," he accused.
"Well, what I have been noticing is the fact that your counting has been off consistently. So maybe you should do something to impress her even more~" Alexis suggested with a smile.
Rick looked at his daughter, impressed by the idea when she held up a playing card with a blank face and a permanent marker.
"Make it work Dad," the teenager urged, kissing him on the check before heading off upstairs to her room.
Rick took the materials as several words began to string together in formulation in his head to write on the blank card before his iPhone vibrated and lit up.
Incoming Call
Kate Beckett
The mystery writer drummed his fingers mere inches from the device, as if hesitant to pick up. Rick's eyes shifted from the white space and his phone several times before swiping the device and answered the call. "Castle."
"Hey, do you mind coming over to the precinct?" came the homicide detective's voice over the phone.
"Not at all~ I'll be there in 20," Rick answered, trapping the device between his cheek and shoulder, glancing down at the card and hurried pulled off the cap and scribbled a message on the blank face. After ending the call, he rushed to get dressed, swiping the deck of cards with the special card, replacing it in its box before heading off to the 12th precinct.
'Okay Rick, you got this,' he tried psyching himself as he rode the elevator up to the Homicide division floor. As soon as the doors pinged, Rick moved inside and walked into the bull pen where he saw Kate Beckett at her desk. "Hey," he greeted as soon as he was close enough.
Kate looked up from her paperwork and smiled. "Hey Castle," she greeted in turn as the writer lowered himself onto his usual seat.
"So, what's so important that I had to rush over here?" Rick asked curiously.
"There was a case, but Ryan and Esposito talked me out of handling it. I think they miss going solo on cases," Kate answered with a chuckle.
Rick pointed at the folders splayed out on her desk. "And those are from…?"
"The case last night," Kate explained.
"The… doppelganger murder," Rick identified, answered with a nod. Letting a few moments of silence pass, save for the scribbling onto paper, the writer pulled out the box of cards.
"Castle… are those playing cards?" Kate asked, mildly annoyed by at the same time curious.
The writer nodded, taking the deck out, shuffling it after sneaking a peek and keeping the special card at the bottom of the deck. "I've been working on something actually," Rick stated with a childish grin, as if proud of an achievement.
The detective set her pen down and leaned back to relax against the backrest of her chair. "A card trick?" she guessed.
"Not a very good one but one nonetheless," Rick eased, fanning out the cards for a while, holding them out to her. "Here, pick a card," he invited.
Rather skeptical but silently amused by it, Kate took a card and pulled it from the pack. "Should I look at it?"
Rick nodded. "Just look and put it back on top of the deck," he instructed, fixing the deck into a neat pile, holding it out, awaiting for the card.
Kate raised the card and took in the face – Queen of Hearts – before sliding it on top of the deck as Rick had said. Whatever would happen next was bound to be interesting. Rick could either make a successful attempt at a card trick or embarrass himself by failing. Either way, she would laugh.
It was the moment of truth. After a heavy intake of air, Rick slowly exhaled and skillfully shuffled the deck several times before relying on his counting skills and pulled out a card from the deck and showed it to her. "Is it… the Queen of Hearts?" he asked.
Kate's eyes widened, surprised at the outcome of Rick's card trick. "Yeah… It is," she said. Before she say anything more though, Rick quickly flicked the card away to reveal another card that had a personalized note that he offered to her to read, which she did out loud.
'Is there space in your guarded heart
for a guy like me to make you feel loved?'
Again, the detective's eyes widened in stunned surprise at the subtext that was jumping out of the card. "Castle, I-" Whatever Kate was going to say got caught in her throat when she looked up from the card and saw the writer on his knee presenting a small box with a ring with a small diamond. The precinct quieted down when they recognized the scene and kept a sizable distance from them to avoid any interruptions.
There didn't seem to be any need to any further words from the writer. If anything, Rick's sincere smile helped the process along as Kate's tears started to seep through her eyes, nodding wordlessly in response as Rick took the ring and slipped it through her left ring finger.
The office immediately exploded in a round of cheers, applause and whistles, Ryan and Esposito among them, both of whom had just returned from the crime scene.
"Looks like we picked the right time to come back," Esposito joked, fist-bumping with his partner Ryan.
Rick pulled Kate to her feet and smiled, wrapping his arms around her waist, pulling her close. "Can I call you Mrs. Kate Castle anytime soon?" he asked cheekily.
"Won't the office be in jeopardy with that," Kate joked, chuckling.
"I love you Kate," Rick said suddenly, tilting her chin up slightly before bending down and closing the moment with a much awaited kiss, right smack in the middle of the precinct for all to see.
END
There you have it. Reviews are much appreciated!