Evening Blues Chapter Three

Beckett looked up at Castle studying his expression on his face, he seemed scared at what she might say or do now that he already asked her. She grabbed her coffee, sat back in her chair; she was just about to tell him a short version of what happened when her phone buzzed. She picked up her phone, looked at the caller ID "M.E. Parish".

She answered it "Beckett".

Castle sat back in his chair, slightly annoyed that their conversation gotten interrupted, he watched her as she talked on the phone. Beckett got off the phone, stood up to grab her keys

"Lanie found something; I'm going to go down to the morgue".

Castle stood up and was going to follow her before he could even put his coat on she turned around and place her finger against his chest to stop him from following her

"you stay here and see if you can figure anything else out, I'll be back soon",

with that she put her phone in her pocket and walked towards the elevator. Ryan and Esposito watched as their boss walked out without her shadow, they exchanged suspicious expressions before walking towards Castle. Castle slumped in his chair and took a sip of coffee. Ryan leaned against Beckett's desk and Esposito crossed his arms and stood in front of Castle.

Ryan poked Castle's shoulder and said 'why are you here and Beckett just went out the door, aren't you her shadow?"

Esposito gave a light chuckle and said "yeah bro, what did u do to make her leave you here?"

Castle looked at both of them and let out a sigh "she told me to stay here and she would be back in a few minutes".

Ryan shrugged and walked back to his desk; Esposito patted Castle on the shoulder and went to the murder board. "Twenty bucks says something happened with Josh and Castle nosed his way in"

Ryan looked at Castle and then looked back and Esposito, "you're on bro!".

Beckett was walking up to the morgue; she tried to hide her emotions every time she thought about her fight with Josh, it made her angry. She took a deep breath and walked in. Lanie noticed her face almost immediately when Beckett walked in.

"Hey Lanie, what did you find?" Beckett walked over to the other side of the body examining the bruising patterns on the vic's arms and legs.

Lanie grabbed the evidence bag with the vic's cell phone in it and handed it to Beckett, Beckett went to grab when Lanie pulled it back "what's going on girl?"

"Nothing Lanie, now give me the cell".

Lanie crossed her arms and had a suspicious look on her face "I'm not giving you this phone until you tell me what is going on".

Beckett sighed and crossed her arms she gave Lanie her best cop glare and let out a deep breath "last night we were working on a case and I forgot to call Josh to cancel our date."

Lanie sat down on the stool to insist on Beckett to continue "and?"

Beckett knew if she didn't tell Lanie now Lanie would just keep on. So she continued to tell Lanie about their fight they had and how she made him leave.

When she was done Lanie stood up, handed her the vic's cell phone and said "see now what that so hard?" and walked out.

Beckett rolled her eyes and walked back to her car.

Beckett rode the elevator back up the precinct. The elevator chimed and she stepped out. Beckett quickly scanned the precinct; Ryan was on the phone writing down notes, Esposito was engrossed his computer studying something, and Castle was nowhere to be found. Beckett walked over to Ryan, gave him the vic's cell phone and told him to pull the sim card.

Beckett walked over to Esposito "find anything?"

Esposito rolled away from his desk and crossed him arms "nada".

She sighed, and leaned against this desk "where's Castle?"

Esposito leaned back into his chair "he went to pick up lunch".

Castle had just picked up a supreme pizza for Ryan and Esposito; he wasn't really feeling pizza so he went to Beckett's favorite Chinese restaurant and bought some Chinese takeout for him and Beckett. He walked back into the precinct and Ryan and Esposito grabbed the pizza from his hands and raced to the break room. Castle noticed Beckett was at her desk again, jotting a few notes down, he quietly sat down and started to pull out the Chinese food, as he sat the containers on her desk, she pushed back the paperwork to make room for the food.

She grabbed a pair of chopsticks, and handed him his pair. He leaned back in his chair and started to take a bite. "Thanks Castle, I wasn't really feeling pizza either" as she watched the boys eat there supreme pizza. Castle gave a light chuckle and began to eat.

They had almost finished their meal when Beckett leaned back in her chair, sighed heavily and blurted out "Josh and I broke up".

Castle tried not to show his smile finally Doctor Motorcycle Boy is out of the picture! "I didn't ask..again", he said as he took another bite.

"Well you did ask once and you were not asking again very loudly" she smiled as she took a drink.

After the finished their meal and cleaned up her desk, Ryan and Esposito walked back to the murder board, Castle joined them.

Esposito leaned against his desk "so bro, did she ever tell you why you were grounded to the precinct while she went to the morgue?"

Ryan let out a quiet laugh and stood beside Esposito. Castle gave them a glare and smiled as he said "Her and Josh broke up and I guess she needed some space".

Esposito looked at Ryan with a cheeky grin, "I told you bro, now time to pay up".

None of them noticed when Beckett walked up "time to pay up for what?" Ryan grinned and gave Esposito a twenty dollar bill and went to his desk,

Esposito had a guilty look on his face. "Umm I bet Ryan I could eat more pizza than him".

Beckett looked at Ryan then looked back at Esposito "uh huh", "now get back to work".

Time flew by and it was 8:23pm, the team finally solved the case and Ryan and Esposito were putting their jackets on as they walked towards Beckett's desk.

Castle stood up, put his phone in his pocket and started to put on his jacket. "So you guy want to go to the Old Haunt, my treat?"

Esposito and Ryan agreed as they headed for the Elevator. Beckett stood up and put on her coat.

"So Detective would you like to join us for a drink, and cash in that rain check you had to take last night?"

She smiled and holstered her gun and put her phone in her pocket "Sure Castle, let's go".