A/N: So it seems e-mails are working again, I got like thirty yesterday which was pretty funny. Anyway, thanks for reading, reviewing and choosing to be alerted when I update. Hope you enjoy this part. (Sorry, my disclaimers suck for this story... lol) :(
Chapter 3
I stood outside of the M.E. office freezing my butt off, and wondering where Kate was. I couldn't get in as I didn't have a card or a badge, and the woman manning the front desk seemed to not like me all that much. She knew who I was and knew I usually came with Kate, but for some reason she basically told me to go to hell.
Shivering, I tried Kate's cell again and hoped that I'd get lucky and she would pick it up the sixth time I called. The problem was I didn't know if she was already in with Lanie, or if she didn't get here yet as the M.E. office is closer to my part of town than hers. Then again, if she was at the station then she'd be closer and would have beat me here.
"Come on," I said and jumped a little to try to get feeling back in my feet. The night had brought a lower temperature and a drizzling rain that felt like ice in my hair. I was not a fan of the cold, I'd much rather it be summer again where I could be out on the beach enjoying the sun. Though, fall did have its own charms.
A car pulled up and it took me a moment to recognize who it was. Kate. She parked and got out in a hurry, zipping up her jacket as she did so and slammed the door. I smiled at her as she mounted the curb and came toward me.
"Sorry, sorry," she said as she stopped in front of me. Her cheeks were red and her hair was matted to her head as if she had been standing out in the drizzling ran for too long. I doubted I looked much better. "Got held up."
"By what?"
"Nothing important, just couldn't get away. Why are you out here?" She said and I made a mental note to push for information later.
"I'm just a little ole writer, they won't let me in without you," I said and pointed with my thumb at the large building behind me. "Ms. Stickler-For-The-Rules is heading the front desk."
"Then she's doing her job in keeping out the riffraff." Kate said with her face serious, and walked pass me.
"Yeah, but I'm a special kind of riffraff."
"You're special all right." She called, heading for the front door.
I followed her into the building, the bright light of the reception area blinded me for a moment after coming from the darkness, but it didn't take long to find Stickler sitting at her desk and eyeing me with anger that I didn't quite understand. She wasn't a looker by any means and I never flirted with her, so there wasn't that. I don't think I've ever broken anything in there when waiting for Kate… but who knows? The other woman at the desk during the day liked me well enough, but this one? Yikes.
"I.D.?" Stickler said and Kate fished out her badge from her jacket pocket and handed it over before bending down and signing a logbook. It was something I had seen her do a hundred times, and yet for some reason I found myself paying a bit more attention to it.
"Thank-you, he with you?" Stickler pointed to me but didn't look over. I was waiting for her to say they don't let dogs like me in. She didn't though, just shrugged when Kate nodded and said yes. I rushed forward and walked beside Kate as we headed for the stairs and she hit me with her shoulder, a playful nudge that caught me slightly by surprise and knocked me off step for a moment.
"She really doesn't like you." She said smirking and gave me a sidelong glance.
"I tend to grow on women." I said and then paused. "That sounded dirtier than I intended."
She shook her head and laughed. She seemed slightly different now and I couldn't quiet place what had changed. Was it that she was playing along again? No, there was something else going on. Something that for some reason made me think of Demming. I shuddered at the thought and followed her into the morgue.
Usually when going into the morgue Lanie had the lights down low, as if setting the mood, when we came to see what she had. It was odd to me that a girl with such a personality like hers would choose to spend much of her time around dead bodies, and yet hard to imagine Lanie not doing so. She was a particular breed of woman and I liked her for it.
This time though the lights were up and Lanie was no where in sight. Kate and I peeled away from each other, going to opposite sides of the room. I weaved my way through the tables to the cold storage and popped open the door. Nothing but dead bodies. It was sort of creepy the longer I stood there with the way the fog came down off the ceiling vents, the bodies covered with plastic, looking like rolls in sandwich bags. So very creepy…
"Lanie?" I heard Kate call and I turned around and walked out of the freezer, rubbing my hands together.
"Isn't she usually here this late?"
"Yeah, she told me she'd be here." Kate said.
"When was that?" I asked, fishing again for information as to why she was late.
"Just before I called you. Like I said, I called to see if you wanted to come along with me." She took a look out in the hall, but no one was there. She came back inside and pulled her cellphone from her jacket. "Maybe she went out to get dinner?"
"At eleven at night?" I asked, but when I thought about the idea it made a bit more sense to me. Like cops, M.E.s sometimes worked on completely different schedules than us normal people. Their dinner might be our late night snack.
"Yeah, she sometimes does." Kate said and leaned back on one of the tables, her one hand gripping the edge while the other brought her cell phone to her ear. I watched in silence, still trying to place the odd vibe I was getting off of her. Her eyes darted to me as she listened to the rings from the phone, and it was then that I realized what it was.
She seemed happy.
Not ecstatic or anything like that, but when she looked at me I didn't see the slight contempt that use to be behind her eyes. She looked at me a bit like she had looked at Demming, and that was why I couldn't place it. She never looked at me like that, and to see her now doing so sent a shiver down my spine. I had been waiting years for her to even glance at me like she was.
"What?" She asked, a sliver of a smile wrinkling her mouth. Her brows rose when she spoke.
"Just thinking," I said with a shrug and dropped my eyes to the floor for a moment.
"Those poor braincells."
I chuckled and placed a hand to the back of my head. This was so strange to be acting like this after the past few months, and yet I was loving every minute of it. I couldn't get enough of Kate being happy.
"Hey Lanie, Castle and I are in the morgue waiting for you. Give me a call." Kate hit the end button on the phone and pursed her lips. "Voicemail." She said looking to me.
"She might be busy." I said with a waggle of my eyebrows and Kate rolled her eyes. "You never know."
"Actually I do know, and why is it always about sex with you?"
"Because I am male. We are pigs, it's well documented. Though we do try to be good." I said through a grin which she returned.
"That's for sure." I turned to find Lanie standing behind me in the doorway. She had her arms crossed and her head cocked to the side. "I'd appreciate you not trying to figure out my sex life, Castle."
"Sorry, was just trying to past the time." I said with a small salute. She gave a nod and dropped her arms as she entered into the morgue and went to a log book that sat on one of the tables by a computer.
"You know, there are lots of things you two could have done to pass the time." She said waving the pen behind her.
"You told her." I said, and turned to Kate who had her mouth slightly open.
"I—no, I didn't."
"Told me what?" Lanie said dropping the pen to the book and spun around.
"Nothing, just drop it." Kate said and placed a hand to her forehead. "What do you have for us?"
"Depends what you have for me."
"Lanie."
"Okay, but you will tell me sooner rather than later." She said with a look on her face that didn't convince me that she didn't already know. It would explain what had taken Kate so long to get to the office. She probably called Lanie to make sure she hadn't lost her mind in agreeing to go out with me.
And hey, I had told Alexis, so I guess it was only fair that she told her best friend, not that Lanie wouldn't have been able to figure it out on her own. Kate may be hardheaded sometimes and queen of the box, but she couldn't hide when something she thought was good happened to her.
Lanie walked between us and over to a table that had our John Doe on it. She placed a hand on the table and one on her hip and looked back to us. "Met Mr. Tim Regal, forty-two years old, married with two kids. The wife will be in tomorrow to I.D. the body, but fingerprints came back as a match. He was in the system for a DUI eight years ago."
"And cause of death?" Kate asked, ducking her head under one of the lamps to get a closer look. I could see just fine from where I was. No need to get an eyeful of the man.
"The two G. in the upper back. They didn't go through." Lanie said and twisted around to point at a table in the back of the room. It was brightly lit with two microscopes on it and I could see two squished bullets sitting to one side of everything.
"Nine mil?" I asked, moving over to them and looked at one through the magnifying glass she had stationed over top.
"Yup, nice catch."
"Don't encourage him," Kate said and walked over next to me. This time she leaned forward, her head an inch or so away from me. I glanced over, trying not to make it obvious. Her eyes were dancing over the bullet, probably taking in everything at once and filing it away for later use. She turned to me for a moment before she turned all the way around.
"Any idea of the type of gun?"
"It's a small hand gun, that's about all I can say. You get a suspect with one and I can try to match the bullets." Lanie said crossing her arms. "I'm still waiting on lab work for a few fibers and such that I found on his clothes, but they won't be done until Friday, at the earliest."
"Okay, thanks Lanie. I'll get Ryan and Esposito to track down what our guy may have been doing the past couple of days." Kate said and began to walk out. I moved in behind her, but somehow Lanie got between us and grabbed Kate by the arm, pulling her to a dead stop. No elbow for her of course, and even if Kate did I was sure Lanie would have ducked it. She was no where near as slow as I was.
"Lanie? What the hell?" Kate said, trying to keep her balance as Lanie turned her.
"Don't think you'll be walking out of here without giving me some information about what you were talking about before." She said, glaring and I shrunk away slightly, moving toward the door. This was going to be a glare-fest and I wanted no part of it.
Kate turned around to look at me as my hand touched the door, and seemed to plead with her eyes for me to stay, so I did. I moved away from the door and came to stand just a foot or so behind her.
"Information on what, Lanie?" Kate asked, returning the glare, and I had that feeling again that I wanted to be in another place. I was waiting for a black-hole to form between them, the two glares creating a vortex of stare death.
"What's going on between you two? You're acting all flirty to each… well, more than usual."
"Nothing has changed, we're acting like we always do."
"No, something is different between you two. What were you talking about before? Come on, spill."
Kate looked over to me, her eyebrows raised and she seemed almost lost. I stepped in.
"What do you think happened? I asked her out and she said yes? Come on, Lanie. I've asked before and she shot me down like a clay pigeon. Nothing has changed between us, other than Beckett being a bit more moody than usual." I said smirking and tried my best to sell it and for a minute I didn't think Lanie would be buying. She looked between me and Kate and I had my best poker face on. "Could be hormones." I whispered, but Kate heard of course and I figured she would.
"WHAT?"
I side jumped away, holding my hands up in defense as Kate raised hers. She went to grab my nose, but stopped halfway to it. Probably remembering what she had done to it earlier that day. "See? She's moody."
"What is wrong with you, Castle?" Kate said. She landed a good punch into my shoulder and I gave a cry and a laugh mixed in one.
"I was kidding," I said, still laughing and shook out my arm. God, I keep forgetting how strong she is. "You're so touchy."
"You keep it up, you'll have another bloody nose." She said and raised her arm. I took a step back and nodded, covered my nose and tried not to grin.
"I was wondering what happened to you face," Lanie said and walked toward me. Her hands, went to my face, pushing at the sides of my nose and I winced. Why did everyone keep touching it, especially when they saw the bruising? "Damn girl, you did a number on this. Lucky it isn't broken."
"I know, it was an accident."
"Can you breath okay?" Lanie asked as she dropped her hands away and looked up to me.
"Fine now, don't worry about me." I said and grinned, and she gave a small nod before turning back to Kate.
"What happened?"
"He grabbed my shoulder and I reacted. Knocked him flat. He's had it coming for a long time now, don't you think?" She said her eyes on me and was obviously amused.
"Can't say I'm too surprise, but something else is amiss."
"Lanie, seriously, nothing is going on. Just the same stuff that's happened with us before." Kate motioned between us with a finger.
"Yeah, I remember what happened a couple of months ago between you two." Lanie said and gave a heavy sigh. "All right, I can see you won't tell me what really happened—"
"Lanie—"
"But, I'll lay off for now. You two do know I will find out though, right?"
"If there was anything to find out Lanie, you would be the first to do so." I said and turned to walk away. I heard Kate turn on her heel and give a small 'see you later' as she followed me out.
In the hall she found her way next to me as we headed for the elevator. Even the smell of industrial disinfectant couldn't hide the scent of her and I found myself moving slightly closer, just out of reach of touching. I don't know why I wanted to be so close to her, maybe it was because I couldn't be for so long, but now that I could it was all I could think of doing. Just standing near her now made me insanely happy, and it scared me a little bit.
No woman had made me feel like Kate does, and I'm not even sure what that feeling is. Kyra probably was the closest, but even then the feeling was a bit different. I didn't want to ever lose this new one.
We came to the end of the hall and she let out a sigh when she pushed the button for the elevator. She twisted around and placed her hands against the wall and then placed the small of her back against them. Her eyes were down, searching out the floor.
"I didn't think it was obvious." She said.
"What's that?"
"That something had changed between us?" She looked over to me and gave a shrug. "Maybe Lanie can pick up on changes in me better, I don't know."
"Has something changed between us?" I asked when the elevator opened it's doors. I held my hands out, letting her go first. She did and waited for me to get in before hitting the button.
I had felt the change of course. How could I not? It wasn't exactly subtle, neither was Kate for that matter. She'd changed enough for me to notice that she was acting toward me like she had Demming, only in a bit lower key. I'm not sure she was even aware of the change, as if she had been holding it back for some reason. Not that I could really blame her if she was holding it back. At the time we both were, she just did a better job of it.
She moved to the back of the elevator and I took the spot next to her, leaning slightly toward her and she looked over.
"Well, has something?" I repeated, smiling.
"Yeah, Castle, I think something has, and hopefully it's for the better."
"You don't think it is?"
"Time will tell," she said with a shrug. "What about you?"
"Me?" I asked, caught myself staring and turned away.
"Do you think something has changed between us?"
"God, I hope so," I said and ran a hand through my hair. "I can't stand this anymore I don't think."
"I know," her voice was soft and she pushed away from the back wall. "What are we doing, Rick?"
I frowned and looked around the small elevator for a moment, wondering what she meant. I threw out a guess, knowing it wasn't what she meant, but I had nothing else. "Riding an elevator?"
She shook her head. "No, smart-guy, I meant what are we doing? Why are we hiding this from them?" She pointed toward the doors. "You don't think they'll figure it out?"
"No, I'm pretty sure they will." I said, fighting a smile. I knew they would all figure it out before long. Lanie figured it out sooner than I expected but I was pretty sure we could play along with that for a bit to keep her guessing if we really were dating. Or rather, going out on a date.
"Then—"
"Because, it's our business—that and I didn't think you would want them to know. I mean dating me after working so long together? You know how cops are, you'd never hear the end of it."
"True…" She said and began to bite at the nail of her thumb. She was worried about something; I had seen her do that a few times over the years, though I don't think she realized I was watching.
"What's wrong?" I asked just as the doors to the elevator opened. She shrugged and turned to get out but I reached past her and hit the close door button and she stopped as they began to shut. "Kate. Come on, tell me."
She stood looking at the doors for a moment, her thumb still against her lips and she seemed to chew on the nail a bit harder. Finally she turned around and dropped her hands to her side.
"I want this to work out." She said and avoided my eyes. "I don't want to get this close and have it all fall apart around us. I also don't want to explain down the road to Lanie that we went out on a date and it didn't work ou—"
"See, you need to stop that." I said and stood away from the wall, reached out to grab her hands. She jerked them slightly, but I had already had them clasped between my fingers. I brought them up and looked at her, squeezing them gently. "We don't know what's going to happen, but if you go into this expecting it to fail then there is a good chance it just might. Do you want that?"
She looked down at our hands and she brought her lips in and seemed to bite on them for a moment before shaking her head. "No, like I said, I want this to work out."
"Then don't plan for when it won't. I know that'll be hard for you, but trust me, it'll be better if you don't."
"So you don't have a plan if this doesn't work out?"
"When have you ever known me to plan, Beckett?" I said and released one of her hands before hitting the open door button. I still couldn't believe she had let me hold her hands. Before today she would have probably clocked me or asked what the hell I was doing, this time she just looked at them and I could feel her flexing her fingers in mine, as if to get use to the feel.
Our hands fell from each other the moment we crossed the threshold of the elevator. I missed the warmth.
We passed by Stickler and I said a heartfelt goodnight, but she ignored me. Hey, I at least tried to get her to hate me less. Her ignoring me didn't bother me though, I felt too good about everything. Really, I should have been worried then. It was already early Thursday morning, the date was the next day and I still didn't know where we were going.
A nice restaurant would probably be a good place to start, and then maybe a movie… I didn't know, it had to be something special, but not too over the top. She'd hate it if I went all out and would probably think I was trying to buy my way into her heart. I wasn't, but that didn't mean I wasn't going to use what I could to make sure Friday turned out to be the perfect night for her.
"Want a ride?" I stopped outside and looked around. I had been thinking all the way out and it took me a moment to realize what was going on. "Castle?"
"Uh, sure," I said and she gave a small nod before getting into the car. I made my way around to the other side, dodging traffic and hopped in.
There was an actual comfortable silence between us as she drove. It was really the first one ever that I could think of. I didn't have a need to try to talk, to make some joke to pass the time. We just sat there, the radio off, the rhythmic sound of the tires on pavement washing over the inside of the car. It was a good time for thinking, and I had been doing that a lot lately.
As always, a jumbo jet sized thanks to ChrisS for betaing this for me.
