Wrong Place Wrong Time

Chapter 4

Martha stood at Castle's bedside displaying the weighty diamond. "So you're not engaged but you're wearing the ring?" Castle asked.

"I told Chet I'd think about it and he told me to wear the ring as encouragement," Martha replied.

"I can see where that hunk of rock would whisper 'keep me, keep me.'" Castle offered. "So what are you going to do?"

"I think I'm going to have to give it back," Martha said regretfully. "There's no spark, no magic. I've been trying to feel it, but it's gone."

"I know what you mean," Castle agreed. "It was like that all summer with me and Gina."

"But not with Katherine?" Martha asked.

Castle smiled and shook his head. "She walks in and the room could catch on fire. When I get out of here I may have to invest in a fireproof suit."

"Did the doctor say when you'll be discharged?" Martha queried.

"She's going to do another MRI, and if that and my blood work look good, tomorrow," Castle replied gleefully.

Beckett stood in the doorway. "Am I interrupting?"

"No!" Castle exclaimed. "I was just telling Mother they might be letting me out tomorrow. Come in. Please!"

Martha eyed the eager look on her son's face. "I need to be going. I have preparations to make for an audition."

Castle watched his mother leave. "She's about as subtle as a pile driver."

"I think that runs in the family," Beckett quipped. "So you're feeling better?"

"I'm feeling bored," Castle told her. "Tell me there's a new case."

"There's a new case," Beckett repeated. "This one is just up your alley, Castle. It's Vivien Marchand."

"The psychic medium?" Castle asked.

"Uh hmmm," Beckett confirmed. "I thought you might know about her."

"More than that," Castle responded. "She did a reading for me at a party a few years ago. She told me a beautiful woman would move into my loft and stay forever. She neglected to mention it would be my mother."

"Isn't your mother living with Chet?" Beckett asked.

"She's been alternating between residences," Castle corrected. "But she just told me he proposed and it sounds like she's got cold feet. I think she'll be back full time. The opportunity of turning her room into a home theater was just too good to be true."

"It may be just as well," Beckett opined. "You'll need somebody there when you go home."

"I'll have you know I intend to return to dogging your steps as soon as possible," Castle rejoined. "So tell me all the juicy details."

"Vivien's daughter Penny came to find her mother. When she couldn't, she tried her cell phone. It rang from a convertible couch. Vivien was stuffed inside it. She'd had been stabbed with an ice pick."

"Any clues so far?" Castle asked.

"A man in black was seen banging on the door," Beckett replied.

"Intriguing," Castle commented.

"We're still canvassing and waiting for phone records and financials," Beckett continued. "Espo's on it and he has Karpowski working with him while Ryan's on suspension."

"Ryan and Jenny were here yesterday, Castle reported. "They were trying to put a good face on things, especially Jenny, but they're having it tough."

"Well he did shoot you, Castle," Beckett reminded him. "You have more sympathy for him than the department does."

"Hey," Castle replied, reaching for her, "if it hadn't been for that bullet, you and I might still be pretending we're just friends."

"Castle, you could have died," Beckett protested.

"But I didn't," Castle responded. "And I think now I'm just beginning to live."

Beckett grimaced. "Castle, you'd be ashamed to put a line like that in one of your books."

"Give a sick man a break," Castle cajoled.

"You're sick alright." Beckett agreed, "Let's see if this makes you any better." Their lips met like opposite poles of magnets, the pull inexorable. Beckett cupped the back of Castle's head as he tangled his fingers in her hair.

Beckett's hand was finding its way under Castle's hospital gown when a cough sounded from the doorway. "Mr. Castle, I need to get some blood."

Beckett hurriedly stood up as Castle sighed. "Until I came here I thought vampires only came out at night."

"I have to get back to the precinct anyway," Beckett quickly put in.

"See you later?" Castle asked hopefully.

"I'll try," Beckett agreed.

Alexis fussed around her father in the loft while Martha went to Chet's home to bid adieu to both the very large diamond and to Chet. Though Castle usually enjoyed the attention as Alexis fetched juice and inquired if he needed another pain pill, it was beginning to cloy. He wanted to be on the case with Beckett, who in his absence at the precinct was being singularly unreceptive to his theories. When a letter was found from Vivien Marchand, giving some details of the murder, Castle was sure that the psychic had foretold her own death. Beckett, always the skeptic, insisted that the killer had left the note to throw the police off track. Beckett had found a promising suspect in a retired mobster, who had been driven into bankruptcy by investment advice that Vivien promised would yield eternal happiness. When it turned out that the mobster's financial collapse had reunited him with love of his life, Castle declared that Vivien was right. Beckett maintained that it was merely coincidence. Castle felt he could be a lot more convincing if he could pursue the case in person instead of receiving the evidence from Beckett's jaundiced point of view.

Still there was an upside. Beckett was making visits to the loft to share the evidence with Castle. The relative privacy of his own home was better than the constant intrusions he suffered in the hospital. Had Beckett not been so wary of his wound, things might be progressing beyond kisses and caresses. Castle was hoping that his follow up with the doctor would give him an all clear to get back to more vigorous activity with Beckett, in both business and pleasure.

Castle's thoughts were interrupted when Martha came dragging back into the loft. "Mother, you're still wearing the rock," Castle noted. "Am I going to have a new stepfather?"

Martha headed straight to the kitchen to pour a glass of wine. "Oh Richard," she revealed sadly, "I couldn't give it back. Chet is dead. He had a stroke. His kids, Boomer and Lottie, said I was the love of his life. They were trying to console me! How could I tell them I had come to break it off?"

Castle took her hand in his. "You couldn't, Mother, but Chet died with the hope of love. You gave Chet a gift many never receive. Believe me, I came close to being one of them."