Beckett stood in the doorway of the office of the Old Haunt, staring at Castle in awe. There he was on the floor, leaning against the bookshelf that opened into a tunnel on the other side. Next to him was a third of a bottle of scotch and an old lantern. It was bright enough so she could see him, but not enough so that she could see what exactly he was doing.
She flicked the light switch on the wall next to her and looked over to him. With one hand he was playing with a loose string on his jeans, but the other was hidden in the back of the bottom shelf.
"What are you doing down there?" Beckett asked walking over to him. "Are you stuck?"
Castle looked up at her and his face lit up. "Beckett, Beckett! I can't …. It won't … come out," he said, pulling on his arm pretty intensely between his words. After a small moment he gave up on it again and patted the ground next to him. "Come sit by me. Have some scotch," he added taking a small swig straight out of the bottle.
She'd never seen him act like this before. But then again, she'd never seen him actually drunk before. Why on earth would he be drinking now? At four in the morning? If not working with her at the Precinct with her anymore was a big enough deal to get drunk over, why didn't he just stay?
"Okay, Castle let me see it," she said getting down on her hands and knees, looking underneath the first shelf.
There was a small hole in the back of the shelf, and sure enough his arm was clear through it. She grabbed his forearm with both of her hands. Despite the chill in the basement of the old haunt, she could feel the warmth of his skin through the thin fabric of his shirt. It was kind of nice. Mentally slapping herself to focus on the situation, she tightened her grip and gave it a small tug. Nothing, it wouldn't even budge.
"How did this even happen?" she wondered, turning to face him. He was sitting close enough that their faces were only inches apart. She scooted back a bit and pointed at his arm, directing his gaze to keep him on task.
He brought his gaze back up to her face again and looked at her with smiling eyes. "Did you see what happened?" he asked her wriggling his stuck arm as much as it possibly would in front of her. "The doorway, the shelf – cuz the shelf is a doorway- it wouldn't open. I tried, and I couldn't get it. So I … um … and then I just … I kicked it. Look it hurt my toe."
She looked down at his feet to find one of his feet without a shoe on it. He wiggled his toes around and struggled for a minute bringing his foot up to his hand so he could show her up close. She couldn't see anything wrong with it, but maybe it just hurt when he kicked straight through a bookshelf.
"Kiss it!" he whined wiggling his foot in front of her.
"What?" Kate asked looking at his face to see if he was serious. Even in his drunken bliss, he looked serious and what he had just insisted. "I will not kiss your foot."
"But it hurts! Kate, kiss it pleeeasssse," he begged her, sending her puppy dog eyes.
Oh God, not puppy dog eyes. Kate looked into his face and found it so hard to resist. She contemplated herself for a minute, then looked down at his foot wiggling in front of her. Wait, what? Had she really just contemplated kissing his foot? This was ridiculous.
"Not going to happen," she said nudging his foot away from her. "Where is your shoe? I'll go get it for you."
Now he just sighed. "Over there."
"Over where?" she asked him, looking around the room. It wasn't anywhere that she could see.
"Over therrrre," he said with a hint of impatience and glanced at the bookshelf.
"You don't mean … ?" she asked pointing at his hand stuck in the bookshelf. He sent her a slow nod with a serious face and wide eyes. "How the hell did that happen?"
"It came off. I kicked it and my foot, it went right through. So I pulled out *giggles*, I mean I pulled it out. But my foot … I mean my shoe …. My shoe stayed over there. I reached in there to get it, but now I can't get out!"
If Kate wasn't so upset with him at the moment, this would actually be kind of funny. But she was. He had left her high and dry just earlier that day, and now was pulling this stunt at four in the morning. And he said he'd wanted to go to the Precinct. Maybe he'd forgotten something. Thinking about that just reminded her how much she wanted him to stay. It was a little touching that she was the one he relied on enough to call, though.
It was her turn to sigh, and she leaned down to get another look at his arm. While she was looking at it trying to think of what to do next he started to play with the ends of her hair, making sound effects while he swooshed it around.
Kate got frustrated quickly enough and looked over at him. "Come on, stop it Castle. Do you want to get out of her or not?"
Castle just made a pout face and turned back to the loose string on his jeans. Meanwhile, Kate spent the next twenty minutes trying to pull, shimmy or jerk his arm out with no luck. Giving up at that, she started examining it more closely, and realized something.
"Hold on a minute," she said reaching behind her to tap his shoulder even though he wasn't paying even a little bit of attention. "I think it's just your shirt that stuck, not your arm."
That got his attention, and he shot up a little bit. Looking over at her, his only reply was, "What?"
"Castle take your shirt off," she ordered.
"And how do I know you don't just wanna see me without a shirt?" Castle asked her with a smirk.
She let out a snort and rolled her eyes. "Come on, you're just drunk. Take it off and we can get your arm out. Aren't you tired?"
"Suuuuuuuurrrrreeee," Castle let out and looked down to his shirt. He stared at her while he undid his buttons with the same smirk planted on his face. All Beckett could do was roll her eyes again.
Once all of the buttons were undone, Castle bit his left sleeve and tried to get his free arm out of his shirt. He struggled with it and grunted. Beckett couldn't help but let out a small laugh at his attempt. She gave in, though, and leaned closer to him to help him out of his shirt. Then she held his right sleeve still while he pulled his arm free from the shelf.
Letting out a breath of relief, Castle massaged his own wrist. All of that tugging had hurt his wrist a little bit. Kate stood up and grabbed his hand, planting her feet to help hoist him up. She let him go when he was finally on his feet and he hovered around a little bit before slumping over against the wall. He automatically lifted his hands to his head. Apparently he had started to feel the effect of two thirds of a bottle of scotch.
Kate stepped forward and looked at him. There he was leaning against the wall in the basement of the old haunt. His hair was slightly messed and he had a little bit of stubble. His arms were lifted up to his head causing his biceps to flex slightly, and his chest was big and muscular. All he had on was a dark pair of jeans and the one shoe.
Kate bit her bottom lip, taking it in for a short minute. She had to admit he looked good. Then when he looked at her, her eyes shot up to his face a little too quickly. "Right .. so um … let me just get your shirt."
She got back onto her knees and reached her own smaller arm into the hole in the back of the bookshelf. Sure enough his shirt was caught on a nail in the back of the bookshelf, and she lifted it loose. It showed how much money he spent on his nice clothes, the seam didn't even rip when they had been pulling on it all night.
She reached into the hole in the bookshelf one more time to get his shoe before she stood up. Looking over at Castle, she gave him a small smile that didn't quite reach her eyes. "Well, looks like you're free."
"Yea I guess I am," he replied giving her a genuine smile.
Kate knew it was a good thing, but it meant that it was time for her to go home. This would be the last she saw of her partner. She wasn't ready to accept that. "Castle, I need to ask you something." That caught his attention and he listened to her more intently. "What did I do? Why don't you want to work with me anymore?"
That's where I'm going to end this chapter. I had a lot of fun writing it. Thanks guys for the comments and follows and whatnot. I'll update again soon so I don't leave you all hanging.