This chapter is shorter and a little bit of a filler, but I tried to inject some humor (via Ryan and Esposito, cause who doesn't love them?) to make it more interesting. Please continue to review!

I still don't own anything, blah, blah, blah...

CHAPTER 3

September 21, 2012, 2:10pm

It was taking too long. Why the hell was it taking so long? It should have been simple. Castle's gun didn't kill Matthew Davis, he hadn't even fired the damn thing in the past couple of weeks. Yet Castle was still sitting there in the interrogation room. Waiting. And he knew he was being watched. Beckett was behind the one-way glass, he could sense it. Ryan and/or Esposito and Maddox were probably there too.

Unless Maddox was just keeping him there to watch him squirm. That was actually a very real possibility. And Beckett was pissed too, she might not mind keeping him on ice for a while either. Whatever the reason, Castle wished they would hurry the hell up. They had a killer to find, and Castle wasn't doing a damn bit of good sitting on ice in interrogation with nothing better to do than keep thinking over the last few days.

Castle had some theories, of course. When didn't he have theories? But they had very little basis in evidence or fact. He didn't know what, if anything, they had found in Davis's phone or financial records. All he knew was that the man had been in some kind of trouble, he was staying in a cheap transient hotel, and he had ended up shot to death and dumped in the East River. Sounded like mob trouble, if you asked Castle. Of course no one had asked Castle. They had shoved him into the wrong chair in Interrogation1 and let Satan's mistress have at him.

Castle wondered, not for the first time, why Maddox hated him so much. Of course he had given her a piece of his mind on a few occasions, but she had hated him long before that. Maddox had hated Castle from the moment she set foot in the Twelfth precinct. Maybe he'd ask her why. Unless of course she got him convicted of a murder he didn't commit. But Ryan and Esposito wouldn't let that happen. They had his back, if no one else did.

September 20, 2012, 6:45pm

Beckett's day had been filled with nothing but paperwork. Her team was behind on case reports, and the quarterly reports were due by midnight as well. If it hadn't been for the entertainment provided by Castle, Ryan and Esposito she would have pulled every strand of her hair out by lunchtime. Their constant teasing and bickering was better than a sitcom, no matter how annoyed Kate pretended to be at their antics.

Since the end wasn't in sight by six, Castle left to pick up dinner for everyone. Or, he would have left at six, but Ryan and Esposito argued for twenty minutes over what they wanted to eat. Ryan wanted Chinese, Esposito wanted pizza. Castle thought he should choose, since he was buying, which started another argument. The boys didn't think he deserved to choose because ''you've just been hanging around distracting us all day and not working your ass off finishing these damn reports" as Esposito said.

Kate finally ended the argument. "Thai" she said firmly from her desk, and all three boys shut up and looked at her. "Get Thai."

Ryan made a face. "I don't want Thai" he whined.

But Castle nodded. "I'll be back in a few minutes."

"Come on, bro. How come you'll listen to her and not us?" said Esposito.

Castle shrugged and pulled on his coat. "Because I'm not sleeping with you'' he said, as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.

With that, Castle turned and exited, Ryan and Esposito glaring after him. They shot Beckett identical dirty looks, but she merely smiled smugly and went back to her paperwork.

Castle had been gone for over thirty minutes when a shadow fell across Beckett's desk. "It's about time you got back" she said with a smile, looking up from her paperwork.

Kate's smile fell when she saw that it wasn't Castle. Matt Davis was standing by the corner of her desk looking exhausted and ashamed of himself. "Can I talk to you for a second?" he asked softly.

Kate hesitated, shooting a glance at Ryan and Esposito. They had arrived at he 12th after Matt had left, and they were gazing with open-mouthed curiosity at the handsome stranger. Not that Kate thought Matt would try anything, but if he did the boys would be on him in two seconds flat. "Let's go in the break room" said Kate, standing.

Kate closed the door behind them, rolling her eyes at the boys' mouths still gaping open. She took a deep breath and turned to face Matt, who was sitting on the couch with his head in his hands.

"Kate, I am so, so sorry" he murmured before lifting his eyes to meet Beckett's. "I don't even have a reason or an excuse. I just…I'm sorry."

Matt's voice was full of sincerity, his eyes shining with anguish. Kate moved to the sofa and sank down next to him. She didn't know what to say. "It's okay" wasn't really true, it wasn't okay. Nor was "don't worry about it." She hoped that Matt would understand that he was forgiven, but the incident not forgotten, when she gave his hand a brief squeeze.

"If I was Castle I'd have killed me" said Matt with a small smile.

"You're lucky he didn't" said Kate, remembering the way Rick was shaking with rage when they first entered her apartment the night before, and the force with which he slammed Matt into the wall. "Rick might look like just a rich pretty boy, but he's tough as nails." Matt merely nodded. "What's going on, Davis? Are you in some kind of trouble?"

Matt hesitated, looking down at his shoes. "Why do you ask?"

Kate gave him a look. "I don't know, the way you're acting? I do know you pretty, well, remember? You're stressed out, worried about something."

"I guess I shouldn't even try to pull one over on you, considering you're such a brilliant detective" said Matt with a weak smile.

"What is it, Matt? Maybe I can help."

He shook his head. "I can't get you mixed up in all of this. Not with these guys. I'll be fine." He smiled and squeezed Kate's hand. "Just make sure Castle takes care of you. Don't worry about me."

September 20, 2012, 7:11pm

Castle re-entered the precinct with a bag of Thai and Chinese takeout in one hand and a pizza in the other. He wouldn't ordinarily have catered to Ryan and Esposito quite this much, but truth be told he didn't feel like Thai either. And if he was going to get pizza like Esposito wanted, he damn well better get Chinese for Ryan too.

Esposito looked up from his computer. "Took you long enough, bro" he said, glancing at his watch. "We're starving, here."

Castle raised his eyebrows. "I brought you a pizza, but if you're gonna complain I'll just take it home with me."

Esposito jerked the box out of his hand, as Ryan looked on in offense. "What…Why...?" the Irish detective motioned to the box and looked to Castle with hurt in his blue eyes.

Castle shook his head and passed the container of Sesame Chicken over to Ryan. "Where's Beckett?" he asked, glancing around as he sat on the edge of Esposito's desk and grabbed a slice of pizza.

Ryan motioned toward the break room, his mouth full of food. He swallowed and said "in there talking to some guy."

Esposito nodded, a twinkle in his brown eyes. "Good looking guy. Really tan, surfer guy…" He was trying to make Castle jealous. Esposito was just being Esposito, teasing Castle just like Castle always teased him, and Castle was careful not to direct his anger at Javi. But he was angry, and Kevin and Javier picked up on it.

"What's wrong, Castle?" Ryan asked through a bite of chicken and fried rice.

"That's Matt" said Castle. "We had a bit of an issue with him last night."

"Everything okay?" asked Esposito.

Castle nodded. "Fine. How did Beckett seem?"

Ryan shrugged. "Okay. The guy asked if they could talk, he seemed a little upset, and she took him into the break room."

Castle nodded and watched the break room door wordlessly until Beckett and Matt emerged a few minutes later. Matt looked at Castle with a strange mix of fear, anger and distaste on his features, and Castle didn't take his eyes from Matt's.

"Thanks, Kate" Matt murmured, and then passed the three other men rather quickly on his way to the elevator.

"Okay, boys" said Kate, her tone somewhere between affection and annoyance, "you scared him off. Everything's okay." She rolled her eyes, and that told Castle that she was fine more effectively than anything else could have. "Did you go to every restaurant in town, Castle?"

September 21, 2012, 12:16am

Kate was searching through her bag for her keys when Rick opened the door to his loft. "Having trouble, Detective?" he said with a smirk. By the looks of things, meaning the adorable way his damp hair was sticking out at odd angles and the fact that was still shirtless, he had just gotten out of the shower. God, Kate couldn't help thinking, that is a beautiful man. He kissed her lightly before ushering her into the quiet loft.

"Where's Martha?" Kate asked. Rick had left the precinct around eight, saying that he wanted to go home and spend some time with his mother. The boys had teased him about making excuses to escape from the remaining pile of paperwork, but Rick had reminded them who had paid for their dinner and shut them up rather quickly.

"Upstairs" Rick replied, flopping down on the couch with a smile. "Divas need their beauty sleep, remember?"

"How could I forget?" said Kate, sitting down next to him and snuggling into his side. "Did you two have fun?"

Rick didn't quite meet Kate's eyes when he said casually "yeah. We did." He slid closer and ran his fingers through her hair. "Did you get everything done at work?"

"Finally" said Kate with a sigh. "Maddox called at eleven fifty to make sure we had finished everything."

"Are you serious?"

"Unfortunately. I just hope she gets promoted soon. At least then she'll be out of our hair."

"Mmmhmm" said Rick, kissing her neck. "I bet tomorrow you'll have a nice, gruesome, weird murder to solve and you'll hardly have to deal with Maddox at all."

Kate shot him a look. "Are you seriously hoping someone gets murdered?"

"Of course not" Rick insisted innocently. "I'm counting on the fact that someone always gets murdered in Manhattan, and I'm hoping for our sake that it's strange and brutal so that we can challenge our collective crime solving brilliance." He smiled, the corners of his sapphire eyes crinkling. Why had Kate avoided being with him for so long? She really couldn't remember.

"Uh huh" said Kate, but she let him pull her in and kiss her. The kiss quickly turned steamy, and they spoke little more than vowels until Kate's phone rang at four thirty that morning with the news that a body had been pulled out of the East River.