Thank you again to everyone who has commented on this story. I'm glad you are enjoying it, and I hope I don't bore you with it.
Disclaimer: Castle does not belong to me, although I wouldn't mind if he did.
Castle walked into his loft and hung his jacket over the back of a chair as he walked through to the kitchen.
Feeling defeated from getting nowhere at the precinct, he decided he would make himself a coffee then get straight into his own investigation. He walked to the cupboard and pulled out two mugs instinctively. He had not had a coffee alone in a while, it had become a habit. Looking in his hands and noticing he only needed the one mug, he breathed out a huge sigh.
"Maybe if I make her coffee, I wont feel like I'm in this alone," he thought to himself. "But who am I kidding, I am in this alone"
"And I am going to get to the bottom of it," he said out loud and determined.
Putting one mug back he looked around the loft, hoping that he would notice something out of place, something that Kate may have left for him to find, but there was nothing. Nothing was out of place. It all seemed normal.
He'd just finished making his coffee when there was a knock at the door. Castle didn't want visitors, so he tried to stay silent in hopes that the visitor would go home thinking there was no one there. But they knocked again, and he heard Detective Ryan call through the closed door.
"Hey Castle, it's Ryan, open up,"
Castle thought suddenly that maybe him and Esposito had found something or had heard from Beckett, so he just about ran for the door almost tripping over his own feet, but managing to steady himself.
He pulled the door open in an instant, "did you find something? Where is she?"
"No Castle," the detective said as he pushed through the door. "But I'm here to help. What can I do?"
"I don't know. I don't even know where to start. Honestly, there's nothing out of place and nothing is missing. Only Kate. Kate is the only thing that's missing."
"So she was here last night? Start there and we'll work this out."
"Yeah, she was here, and then she wasn't," Castle responded, taking a seat next on the sofa and motioning for Ryan to do the same.
"Well, did she say anything or did anything seem out of place last night."
Castle started running through everything that had happened the night before in his head again. Reliving what he was trying not to imagine as his last night with Kate.
"Well, by the time we had closed the case last night and left the precinct it was probably about 10:30. We came straight here from there, so we arrived before 11 sometime and nothing was out of the ordinary. Alexis is at college and mother is in the Hamptons for the week, so no one was home. The door was locked as usual and nothing seemed out of place. Kate was fairly exhausted but thought we would have a glass of wine together before heading to bed," he recalled.
"After a case like we had this week, I think we all needed a glass of wine last night," the detective interrupted.
"Yeah," Castle said, letting out a small deflated and breathy laugh.
"So you had your glass of wine? Then what?" Ryan questioned.
"Well, I was half way through my glass when Kate had finished. We were just sitting curled on the sofa here talking. It wasn't long before she had just about fallen asleep on my shoulder, so I picked her up and took her to bed."
He purposely left out the part where he had helped her change her clothes, while she practically slept in his arms. He folded her jeans and shirt in a pile and pulled one of his own t-shirts over her head before laying her down. Then placing kisses on her head, nose and gently on her lips he had tucked her under the blankets. Those moments were personal, and didn't need to be shared with her fellow detectives. And besides Kate was pretty much out of it, Castle was sure she wouldn't remember it.
"Once I was sure she was settled, I came back out here, finished my wine, took the glasses over to the sink and then went to bed myself. I must have been tired too, because I'm pretty sure I was asleep within minutes of laying myself down. It's strange though, I didn't feel that tired when I got back. That wine just knocked me out."
"And that was it last night? So what happened this m…" Ryan stopped himself mid sentence, taking note of Castle's expression. He was deep in thought.
"The wine," Castle stated. "Somebody must have drugged the wine."
"Was the bottle open before you had some last night?"
"Um.. no," he said defeated once more. "Maybe it wasn't the wine. Unless they drugged us once the wine was in our glasses."
"Castle... That would mean that someone was in your house while you were here. Did you see or hear anyone? Did you ever leave your drinks alone?"
Rick tried to remember every thing that had happened that night. He was struggling to remember everything exactly as it happened. There wasn't much to remember but, he knew he was missing something. He put his head down and hit his head with the palm of one of his hands as if it was going to knock a memory into his mind.
"Yes!" he suddenly called out. "We were both away from our glasses for a few minutes."
"So both you and Beckett left your drinks alone in this room?"
"Yes, we took them from the kitchen, and placed them on the coffee table, I was ready to get comfy on the sofa when something flew out of nowhere and hit Kate right in the eye. I thought it must have been a bug. Whatever it was, Kate said it stung her eye and she needed to go wash her face to make sure there was nothing in her eye. I have to admit, I thought she was over reacting to a little bug in the eye but, the way she kept winking at me…"
He saw the smirk and heard a little giggle Ryan tried to hide.
"No not that type of winking…". Ryan's smirk quickly disappeared.
"As I was saying, she was winking because her eye was stinging and she thought it would help. So although I thought she might have been over reacting, I didn't say anything as she went to the bathroom. After a couple of minutes I wanted to make sure she was ok. So that's when I left our drinks here and nobody was in the room for a few minutes. I went to check on Kate, and watched as she washed the last of her make up off, then we came back out to our wine."
He again, didn't mention the personal moment they shared in the bathroom, and he hoped that the look on his face didn't give it away either. He had watched as she removed her left over make up. He loved seeing her fresh, and free of any make up. It was his belief that Kate Beckett looked more beautiful without it than she did with it on, but he knows better than to try and argue that with her when she's getting ready in the morning. While Kate had dabbed her face with a towel, Castle had come up behind her, wrapped his arms around her stomach, pulling her back into his chest and whispered tender, loving words in her ear, telling her how beautiful he thought she was. She had spun around and captured his lips with hers and they got slightly carried away for a few minutes before going to back to the sofa where their wine waited.
"Ok, well that's enough information for me. Castle, I believe you when you say something's not right. Both Esposito and myself do, but I can't make any promises that we're going to find anything that will convince Gates to let us help you more. She's a tough one to crack!"
"I know," Castle responded, happy that Ryan was willing to do what he could.
"You wouldn't happen to have those glasses would you? Or did you wash them already?"
"Actually," Castle answered. "I haven't washed them. I was going to do that this morning, but then with everything that's happened, I never got round to it."
"Right, ok, well if you can get me those glasses and the note that was left here. I will take them to the guys at the precinct and get them to look for traces of drugs and prints. Prints alone may not be enough but if we find any remnants of drugs in the glasses well then Castle, we'll send a team over to search your place."
Rick got up and found the glasses and note, gave them to the detective and thanked him for his help.
"And Castle, we'll find Beckett. She's going to be okay," Ryan said patting the writer on the shoulder. "I'll call you as soon as we get anything."
And with that Ryan was back out the door leaving Castle alone in his loft.
And so now the search begins... will they find Kate?
Until tomorrow...