The Worst Possible Time, Chapter 2
Where we left: "The suspect weaves through the crowd, using bystanders as a sort of moving shield. Kate's not confident she can get off a shot without injuring an innocent. The uniforms are almost on their suspect. Kat continues shouting her litany – police, put down the weapon, don't shoot – when the boom of a gunshot rolls down the street."
Kate Beckett is pouting. Sulking because this was not supposed to be her weekend.
She is supposed to be in the Hamptons with Castle. She is not supposed to be in the hospital, recovering from a bullet to her right shoulder and surgery to repair the damage.
"Tom, I'm fine," she says for the third time in an hour.
She's also not supposed to be with Demming.
"I'm not leaving you here alone," he says for the third time as well. They're perfecting the art of a circular conversation.
Tom doesn't want to leave her alone, even though things between them are strained, and she doesn't want to call anyone. Their team has a rare weekend off. If she calls Kevin or Espo, they'll be here in the hospital. If not the hospital, then at the precinct helping tie up the loose ends from last night. Espo and Ryan need time off, and Kate refuses to be the one who interrupts that much-needed downtime because of a minor injury.
Montgomery knows. Beckett spoke with him briefly on the phone this morning, but he didn't push when she told him to enjoy the time with his family. He joked that he'd give her a few days to let her ego heal.
Roy got close to the truth with that joke about her ego. Right now, she very much wants to slink off into a corner to lick her wounds.
But Demming won't leave her alone.
"You should be proud," he says. Tom won't leave her alone, but he has at least refrained from taking the blame for Beckett ending up with a hole in her shoulder. Guilt lurks in his eyes, but there's a world of difference between feeling something and giving voice to it.
"I'd be prouder if I'd managed to avoid the bullet altogether." Already, Kate chafes at being sidelined. It doesn't bode well for the rest of her summer.
"You dove in front of a bullet and saved two bystanders from getting hurt. Pretty sure that's taking the protect part of our job literally."
Kate snorts. "Yeah, well, I should have been able to save them and avoid the injury."
Beckett's run those few seconds in her head multiple times since coming out from under the anesthesia. If she had to guess, she'd say she also spent the time while under anesthesia running the scenario, given how deeply it's already etched into her memory. She has yet to figure out what she could have done differently to prevent the collision of the bullet and her right shoulder.
Demming leans forward on his elbows, rubs his hands together. "Are you sure I can't call – your Dad?"
Castle. He was going to say Castle. Kate doesn't want Castle to see her like this, pale and weak and immobile. This was the weekend he was supposed to see at her sexiest, an object of desire and not an object of pity.
"He's fishing upstate. Out of cell range until Monday." Kate smiles. "It's good. This way I don't have to feel guilty about interrupting his weekend. I don't want to interrupt your weekend either, Tom."
"You're not. Besides, I don't know if you remember given all the drugs they have you on, but you did get shot yesterday." He looks at her bashfully, a faint tease in his eyes.
"I do remember that," Kate says. "The drugs they have me on aren't that good."
They share a smile. It's comfortable and familiar and wrong.
"Yo, Beckett, when you planning on telling us about all the excitement yesterday?" Espo stands at the door, holding a cup identical to the one Castle usually brings her.
Demming looks to Kate as well, eyebrows raised, and waits for her answer.
"I'm fine. I wanted you to enjoy the weekend."
Espo walks into the room and hands her the drink. "Peppermint tea. Helped me after I had knee surgery last year."
"Thanks. How'd you find out?" Kate asks. The cup is warm in her hands. Even with a faint caffeine headache, the idea of coffee roils her stomach. With a warm cup in her hands, though, something soothing sounds unexpectedly good.
Kate takes a tentative sip and hopes her stomach holds up.
"Ran by the precinct this morning and three people ask me how you are." Espo shakes his head at Beckett and looks over at Demming. "Her I don't expect to call, but you?"
Demming holds up his hands. "She told me not to call you. Speaking of the precinct, I should probably head over."
Kate frowns. "Thought you had the weekend off?"
He shrugs as he stands. "Given everything that went down last night, I wouldn't have the weekend off now even if I wanted."
"Have you heard anything else about that guy's motives?" If possible, Kate feels guiltier about Demming hanging out at the hospital when he should be at the precinct than she did when she thought he had the weekend off.
Tom fiddles with the rolled-up sleeve of his plaid shirt. His whole outfit today looks like it came from the Richard Castle casual wear collection. Kate half wonders if Tom did that on purpose. "No. He's not talking."
"If you – "
He chuckles and crosses his arm, looks at her with faint bemusement. "Beckett. You're in the hospital recovering from taking a bullet to your shoulder. And you're not even robbery. Trust me, we've got this."
Espo intrudes. "Yeah, but if you do need help, call me and Ryan. We might even forgive you for not returning Beckett in one piece."
"Will do." Demming says his goodbyes and departs.
Espo turns to Beckett, studies her, before sitting in the recently vacated chair. She sips the tea. While it's not normally something she would drink, already it seems like it's helping her stomach.
"Didn't call Ryan yet. He has some sort of Day of Fun planned with Jenny." That vague look of distaste that frequently accompanies any mention of the cute couple crosses his face. "But you should have called."
Kate really hates when Espo goes to his no-bullshit style. No one else gets to the point the way he does, and she respects him for it, even if, at times like these, she'd prefer Ryan's more circular approach. "Javi, I'm fine."
"If I got shot, wouldn't you want to know?"
"I wanted you and Ryan to have the weekend. I knew if I called, you'd be in the precinct, helping out robbery."
"That's our call to make."
"And it was my call to let you guys relax and enjoy the weekend. I'm fine." Kate shifts gingerly in the bed, careful not to disturb her shoulder, which faintly throbs even with the pain meds. "Besides, you guys are going to be busy enough without me around for the next few days."
"Days? Beckett, it's your shooting arm." Espo shakes his head. "You're looking at a month or two before you come back. Easy."
Kate knows this, but she'll beat the estimates. Never mind that, right now, even wiggling her fingers hurts.
"Castle been by yet?"
"No." Kate takes another drink of the tea.
"Ah. Haven't called him either."
Beckett decides it's time to change the subject. "How was the rest of last night?"
"Broke up right after you left. Montgomery wanted to get home to see his family, and Castle said he should hurry up and get on the road."
"So he left for the Hamptons." This feels like defeat to Kate, as if his leaving means she somehow failed.
"At six o'clock on the Friday of Memorial Day weekend? With that traffic?" Espo pins Beckett with a knowing look. "Guy's not stupid, Beckett. And neither are you."
Beckett recognizes Espo's interrogation tactics. She has sat beside him enough to know his style, but her head's fuzzy and her body's reeling from the shock of the past day. It's too much to combat him. She stares down at her tea. She mulls over her options, and maybe it's a side effect of the meds, but she settles for simple honesty. "Demming and I broke up."
"For real?" Espo sounds legitimately surprised.
"Yesterday afternoon." Beckett continues to look anywhere but at Esposito. She trusts Espo with her life. She shouldn't have a problem telling him about something as simple as a relationship ending.
"That explains the tension when I walked in," Espo says after a moment. "So why haven't you called Castle?"
This time, Beckett does look at the other detective, hopes she can warn him off with a look. "Javi, he's in the Hamptons. He – "
"You don't want him to see you like this." Espo breaks out his shit-eating grin. "Never knew you were that superficial, Beckett."
She is that superficial but no way she's admitting that to Espo. "I didn't call him for the same reason I didn't call you and Ryan. Didn't want to interrupt his weekend."
"Uh huh." Espo's downright smug, and Beckett's stuck in bed, forced to put up with a cocky Javier Esposito, which is the very worst kind of Esposito. "You'd gotta look a lot worse than you do right now to turn Castle off."
Kate's cheeks flame red. "Shut up."
"Here's what's going to happen." Espo's voice is serious now. "I'm gonna head over to the precinct, see if robbery needs any help. Because I want to, Beckett, and you don't get to tell me what I do or don't do on my days off, especially since you'd be chewing my ear off if I didn't call you after I'd been shot."
He has her there.
"Couple hours from now, I'm calling Ryan. Gonna let him have his day with Jenny, but he needs to know. Yeah, you're fine, but he should hear it from you or me instead of a uniform at the precinct." Espo's on a roll. Beckett knows better than to interrupt. "Tomorrow, he and I'll stop by after we hit up the precinct, rag on you for a couple of hours about getting shot at a supposedly-secure crime scene – " He gives her a look that says 'only you.' " – and let you know what's going on with the case."
Getting details about what's happening with the guy that shot her is the first part of the plan Beckett fully endorses.
"You're also going to let us know what we can do to help. Because we're friends, and that's what friends do. And because we're friends, I'll wait until tomorrow to call Lanie, because you look tired right now, and you just know she'll flash her doctor stuff and get in here after visiting hours."
"I already called her."
Espo's eyebrows raise. "You did?"
Beckett shrugs. "Left today to go see her family down South, remember? I wanted her opinion on some recovery options. If anything, Espo, I think she's pissed at you."
"Me?"
"You are supposed to have my back." Beckett just manages to keep her expression serious.
"Can't watch you all the time, Beckett." Espo shakes his head at her. "And you don't sit still well, even after getting shot, which is why you're going to call Castle after I head out so you have something to do."
Kate shakes her head. "Javi – "
"He needs to know, Beckett." There's no give in his voice. "If Ryan or I call him, he'll think we're sugarcoating how badly you were hurt. He needs to hear it from you. And while you're at it, you might want to tell him you're single."
"Since when do you play matchmaker?" Kate deliberately overenunciates the consonants.
Espo's jaw flexes back and forth before he finally speaks. "Yeah, well, you didn't see his face last night when you walked out of there with Demming."
An embarrassingly large yawn sneaks up on Kate. She hates the after effects of anesthesia, even if this particular yawn is well timed. Espo stands but hovers over her.
"He's gonna be hurt if he hears about this from anyone but you. He's proved he's got your back." Espo shrugs. "But you gotta do what you wanna do."
He looks at her again, shakes his head. "And hurry up and get out of that damned bed, Beckett. You're too pathetic right now to raze. And trust me, there will be razing."
His gaze is fond and warm, and Kate reads between the lines to what he's not saying. "Thanks, Espo."
"Anytime. Now get some sleep and then call Castle."
Kate watches him leave. She's tired, yes, but Espo's comments linger. Castle won't care what she looks like, even if pale and wane isn't part of her plan. And he will be ridiculously hurt if he hears she got shot from anyone else. He'll go around with that little boy sulk and make Beckett feel like she kicked a puppy.
Mostly, though, she wants to see him. After talking with Espo, Beckett's desperate to see Castle. A sliver of yesterday's giddiness lodges in her chest. She doesn't want to wait, even if she is the exact opposite of sexy at this moment. Maybe, somehow they can salvage some part of this weekend.
Kate debates how to have this conversation. Part of her wants to make a joke of it, something along the lines of: Hey, I'm single now. That's what I wanted to tell you last night. Also, I got shot. So the goods are, temporarily at least, slightly damaged. Still interested?
A ribbon of numb pain winds out of her shoulder. Beckett hates painkillers with a passion, hates the fuzzy nausea that accompanies them, but she's grateful for the meds today. Even with the drugs, she can't escape the angry throb of her shoulder.
Which reminds her: she's suddenly looking at several weeks of free time. It's presumptuous as hell, but resting in the Hamptons while Castle writes isn't the worst idea in the world. Maybe just for a few days, a redo of sorts to his Memorial Day weekend plans.
Setting down the tea, she grabs her phone. Her phone is fully charged. Tom was kind of enough to bring the charger she had at his place (along with some spare clothes, which was both kind of him and an easy way to handle some of the post-break up return of stuff).
Phone in hand, she hesitates. She's nervous and wishes she didn't have to tell Castle either of these things over the phone. He's going to worry. He'll probably drive too fast back to the city, even if she tells him she's fine and he should just stay out there. Within an hour of his arrival, he'll be driving her nuts and she'll wonder why she was so eager to call him.
She wants him to drive her nuts. Wants him to sit at her bedside and endlessly annoy her, because his antics will distract her. She pictures that grin he gets when delighted by something small and unimportant.
Plus, given the amount she's sleeping at the moment, he'll have plenty of time to write. He might even be more productive here since he told her once that he works better when he has something to occupy part of his day rather than a long stretch of open time.
She hits his number and raises the phone to her ear. She ignores how her hand faintly shakes in anticipation and nerves.
It's Castle. Just Castle, she chants as the phone rings. He needs to hurry up and answer so her stomach will untie itself. Right now, nerves are undoing what the peppermint tea fixed.
The call goes to voicemail. Kate has a pang of disappointment as his usual message plays. She debates hanging up but the beep sounds before she decides.
"Castle, hey, it's Beckett. I'm sorry I had to run out like that yesterday. I really do want to talk with you. It's been a crazy 24 hours. Call me when you get a chance? I'll be around." She pauses. That's all she needs to say, but she keeps talking. "I really wish I were with you in the Hamptons. I hope you're having fun. Anyway. Call me."
Beckett hangs up before she can panic and rerecord the message.
She buzzes with adrenaline. She wants to call him back and keep calling until he answers. He's most likely not picking up because he's writing. He did go to the Hamptons to write and try and make up for how far behind he is on the next Nikki Heat book. Much as she wants to disturb that, as his muse, it does seem like she would be breaking some tenet of the author-muse partnership by distracting from that.
Even the brief rush of the adrenaline can't outpace her fatigue. Checking to make sure her phone's volume is on, she sets it next to her in bed before sleep grabs her.
Author's Note: Thanks for the warm response to Chapter 1. While my goal is to post at a minimum of once a week, I will (as with this chapter) post twice if I reach a certain point in writing and editing future chapters.
