Rick just stood in his living room as he watches Kate open his kitchen cabinets. He haven't even noticed Paula making her way up to him.
"A plant lady?" She asks incredulously. "Why do you need a plant lady? Why do you even have plants?"
Rick scoffed. "Women can come by from time to time and plants make them feel comfortable."
Paula laughed.
"So, that's way your past marriages worked so well." She says sarcastically and he gave her a glare.
His manager just shrugged before going back to their earlier topic. "So, Cora Corman?"
"Is that even a good idea?" He asks, moving to the kitchen to help Kate find his watering can.
"Of course it is! It's big money." Paula exclaims, following him.
"Okay, okay." He concedes. "I'll think about it."
"Great!" Paula applauds. "Because Cora is shooting a music video tonight and she wants to meet the two of us right after."
He fails to repond when he gets caught up looking at Kate doing his plants. Oh, that came out dirtier than he intended.
"Really?" Rick barely hears Paula say and so he startles when she grabbed his ear.
"Oww, Ow! Apples! Apples!" He exclaims trying to pull Paula's hand away from his ear.
He soothes it with his hand when she finally released it.
"Seriously, Rick, your plant girl?"
"She's a cop." He defends and Paula moves to reach for his ear again. He's quick to duck this time.
"Focus." She glares.
"Okay, fine. Sorry."
They were interrupted by a loud shrill of a phone from across the room. He sees Kate scramble for it, cursing as she tries to balance the watering can on her other hand.
"Beckett." She greets to the speaker. "Okay, I'll be right there."
"I'm sorry, something came up on work and I have to go." She tells him as she returns the watering can. "I promise, I'll be back."
She grabbed her things from his couch and he had to bite his tongue to keep himself from asking her where she works as she gets out his door.
"Cora Corman, 8 o'clock." Paula says sharply with an accompanying glare before following the other woman out of his home.
Kate Beckett ducked below the crime scene tape and made her way to her partners Kevin Ryan and Javier Esposito who are already stood beside a dead body.
She sees Ryan not so subtly elbow his partner as he sees Beckett approaching.
"Hey. Beckett!" Esposito greets mockingly obviously taking note of her late arrival. "What got you tied up?"
She hears Ryan snicker behind him. She rolled her eyes at them. "I had things to take care of, okay."
"Are you sure they're things and not some guy, Beckett?"
She huffed. "No. And even if it was, it's none of your business."
"Hey, Lanie." Kate greets the medical examiner crouched beside their body. "What have we got?"
Lanie raised a brow at her. "Me? What have you got? It's ten o'clock and you just got here. Case or not, you're usually at the precinct by eight. What changed?"
Beckett sighs exasperatedly. "Really? You, too?"
Lanie just looked at her still obviously waiting for an explanation. The dead body can wait, apparently. Well, it's not like it can complain.
"Fine. I had to water people's plants while a friend is away."
She senses Ryan and Esposito barely holding backa laugh.
"Hey! It's a decent job okay. And she earns pretty good money for a job you can do in five to ten minutes." She looked at them with narrowed eyes.
"Now can we go back to the victim please?" Kate asks, tucking an invisible strand of hair behind her ear.
Lanie finally acquiesed as she carry on to explain their current situation.
Rick and Paula stared at the woman dancing to some Indian themed song with guys all over her. Are these the kind of stuffs kids enjoy nowadays? Thank God his daughter does not like stuffs like this. Oh, God, she doesn't, does she?
"She seems like a very spiritual girl." Paula comments sarcastically.
"I am totally cutting off all television chords at home to keep my daughter from seeing this." He comments as he notice someone approaching.
"I'm sure your daughter won't suffer any more than you." Paula chuckled.
"Touche." He pouted.
"Hello, I'm Ray." The guy who came behind the production crew greeted them.
"Hi, I'm Paula. And this is Rick Castle." His manager introduced and he scrambles for a handshake.
"Hello, Ray-" Rick says, dragging out the name hoping for him to finish.
"Just Ray." The man replies and he hears Paula chuckle beside him. He casts her a glare before following Ray to where Cora Corman is.
"Mr. Castle," Cora greeted as she stood from her seat across the room. "It's a pleasure."
Rick grinned. "Likewise."
"Your song, Dance With Me Tonight, got me through my parents' divorce when I was seven."
Paula snickered beside him, while Rick let out a chuckle. He's not that old, is he?
"Really? Yeah, well, I recorded that when I was 9." He joked, making Paula elbow him on the side.
As if hearing nothing, Cora continued. "I want all my fans to know the spiritual uplift that your music gave me."
Rick barely held back a snort. Spiritual.
"That would be lovely." Paula interjected. "Rick here actually have a couple of tunes that would be great to update."
"Oh, I don't live in the past. That is so long ago. I want Mr. Castle to write a new song."
Rick almost choked. "A-a new song? Cora-"
"You see, I just recently broke up with my boyfriend. We've been together for almost two months. It's a terrible experience."
Rick and Paula attempts a look of faux sympathy.
"But then I read a book by Guru Madashavi called Way Back Into Love so that will be the title of our new song. And in two weeks, when I perform at Madison Square Garden, we'll perform it together." Cora finished with an enthusiastic smile leaving Rick gaping.
"Okay, here's the thing," He chuckled nervously.
"Oh, and we also need to add that on Cora's album, which is pretty much finished. So we need it by Friday." Ray interrupted.
"You mean this Friday?" Rick asks barely concealing his grimace.
"Oh, but no pressure." Ray added. "We have quite a list of people to contact who could do it so if you blow this up, we got it covered."
"Don't look at this as a competition, Mr. Castle. If it's meant to be, it will be. It's destiny." Cora adds.
Rick and Paula nodded.
"Or not." Cora says before folding her hands together and bows at them, Ray following suit.
Rick and Paula returns the gesture awkwardly as Ray and Cora turns to leave.
"Okay, this is crazy. I can't possibly write a song by Friday. What was she thinking?" Rick Castle complains as soon as they got out of the studio.
"Look, can I be honest with yoou?" Paula interjected.
"Of course not. You are my manager. I'm gonna have to fire you."
Paula just glared. "We need this."
"Well, let's not be desperate." Rick argues. "We have the state fair tours coming up and that's not very far."
"They've cancelled." Paula replied, stopping him in his tracks.
"They cancelled?" He asked, hurt. He's not that bad is he? He's sure he still got people who support him.
"We're still good for the Indiana state fair, okay? But Texas and Arkansas dropped us." Paula sighed, pulling him to continue walking.
"How about the apple picking?"
"The apple picking festival is still a go, but they only wanted three shows instead of ten, alright?"
"Oh my God, I had no idea! Why haven't you told me these things?" He asks incredulously.
"That's why I'm telling you now, Richard." Paula defended. "It's been 15 years since your band Pop. There's some new kid from youtube coming up all the time. Some boy band is on tour, S Club 7 reunion."
"I'm dead." Rick gasped in horror. "I'm dead, Im finished."
"You're not dead." Paula consoled.
"I'm gonna end up doing that boxing thing after all."
"No, you're not. Just that teenage kids now have no idea who you are."
"Well, that's good to know." He deadpanned.
"That's why I'm telling you to grab this opportunity with Cora Corman. How bad can it be?"
Rick laughed. "Paula, I haven't written any song for so long! Like you said, it's been fifteen years! And even then, I had my bandmate Bob as the lyricist. I create the notes. I cannot do this on my own."
"At least try, okay? I saw this new guy, his lyrics are hit on the teens. I'll make him show up at your door tomorrow morning." His manager pats him.
Rick just sighed. He's got no choice after all.
A/N: I'm sorry for the delay on this. I have clearly underestimated the powers of uni in keeping me busy :/ Anyway, there will be more Caskett scenes on the next chapter if you still think I should continue this or if you hate it, I can just delete this story ahaha Leave me a review below.