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Chapter 4 – Castle & Bones

Castle having brought Kate back to greet his mother and daughter scans the room looking for any interesting tidbits to feast on.

This was his dirty little secret that Alexis knew too well; Castle loved juicy gossip and was more than willing to add fuel to the fire, but never in a vicious way.

He often deflected it from others who didn't appreciate the glare of the paparazzi, he was effective in turning the glare onto himself. He found it to be a game and so far, they had never crossed the line he had drawn many years ago.

No coverage of his mother or daughter, but he was pretty much game for anything else. No smut, just good clean fun.

Castle was consider a good ole boy by the paparazzi, Rick occasionally step up into the limelight and gave them a day or two of good material to work with. It was a competitive but fair arrangement really.

Castle understanding of human nature offered them scraps which contented them and keep them at bay for the most part. But, he understood the need for juicy news; he had an innate appetite for it himself.

He half tuned out the conversation around him, he noticed Tempe coming back in with Agent Booth," seeing Tempe's flush cheeks and just kissed look. He smiled and thought, now that looks interesting.

Agent Booth looked like his hand is permanently attached to Tempe's waist as though he'd drown if he let he go, seeing something that wasn't there earlier he realized something had changed. It looked like a golden opportunity; Castle mentally rubbed his hands together and excused himself for a moment with a valid excuse of getting drinks.

Castle strode to the bar with his best Bond impression, once reached he dramatically paused to greet Tempe. "Tempe, wow you look amazing, have you been here long?"

Castle admiration is clear as his eyes travel over the beautiful figure the woman in the decadent dress. Internally he chuckles as he spots Booth's grip tightening even more on Tempe's waist.

Brennan clearly more in tune to Booth's moods then she'd have given herself credit for, sensed a confrontation. She pressed a hand to Booth's chest as she leaned forward to kiss Castle on the cheek. "Rick, how are you, are you here with Detective Beckett, I'm dying to meet her. I want to compare your characterization of her to the real life person."

Adding, "I've never used real people for my characters, but I can see the advantages."

As Brennan glanced around looking for Kate, Booth and Castles' eyes meet over Brennan's head and a clear eye roll indicates just how clueless the lovely Dr. Brennan is. This action alone sooths Booth's initial irritation with Castle.

"Yes, as a matter of fact she's over at my table, just there beyond the end of the bar, give me a moment and I'll introduce you," gesturing towards the bar he added, "I've been ordered to bring back drinks."

"Sir, can I help you," the Bartender asks.

"Yes, I'd like one Cosmo, two Dirty Martini's and one tonic water with lime," he paused then turned to Booth and Brennan, "Can I get either of you anything?"

"I'm fine, the champagne is going down very well tonight, I think I'll stick with that. Bones?" Tempe, nodded her head, "I agree more champagne would be great."

Castle returns his focus back to the bartender, "Can you add two flutes of champagne as well, thank you."

He turned back to Booth and asked, "Bones? Isn't that taking her line of work a little literally even for a writer," Castle inquires, raising that trade mark brow.

Booth and Bones exchanged glances; Booth smiled then explained, "Actually I started calling her Bones on our first case 6 years ago. She was the bone lady and impressed the hell out of me with her knowledge, genius but she was arrogant pushing her doctorate it seemed every thirty seconds. So I guess in retaliation, I started calling her Bones, so I wouldn't' have to address her all the time by Dr. Brennan. She hated it for about a year and half and now only Parker and I get the privilege of calling her Bones, though my son calls her Dr. Bones."

Brennan smiled as she leaned back into Booth's embrace, a gentle smile gracing her lips over the memories. Castle quickly determines from the constant looks, touches that they are definitely in a relationship, but realized it was relatively new one if his powers of perception were accurate.

The bartender offers to have a waiter bring the drinks to their table, once he realized how many drinks he was managing for the three people before him.

They took this as their cue to return to the table, Castle lead them back with Temperance in the middle and a very attentive Booth, guiding her with his ever present hand on the small of her back. Though Booth fought the urge to let it slide just a hair further down, he gave himself a firm mental shake and prepared to meet Castle's "group".

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Castle, clearly proud of his little entourage, introduced them.

"This is my mother, Martha Castle you may recall her, she often appeared in film and on the stage and continues to act in a show currently on Broadway, you may have heard of it "Wicked"?"

Booth leaned forward lifting Martha's hand and kissed it lightly, "You're every bit as lovely as you were when you co-starred in "My best Friend's Wedding", your acting added so much credibility to the film."

Booth used his charm smile to its full advantage and looked directly into her eyes, Martha was mesmerized. Instantly she thought who is this man and how do I get one.

Martha glanced up at Booth she smirked, "Are there anymore more of you at home, perhaps a long lost uncle?" Booth simply smiles and shakes his head no.

Castle realized, Booth had a significant amount of charm at his disposal and seeing first hand it's affect on women moved on quickly before his mother really embarrassed him.

"Dr. Brennan, I'd like to you to meet the most important person in my life, my daughter Alexis. Who happens to love the science in your books, which I'm positive you are personally thrilled to hear about," Brennan reached out to Alexis shaking her hand.

"I'm so happy to hear you enjoy the science, lately I feel as though Andy and Kathy are running away with the romance and taking away from the science. I'm glad you find that to be the most compelling portion of my stories," pausing, she questioned. "But I have to ask why? Why not the romance, I'm thinking a teenage girl would always think the romantic elements were the most important aspect?"

Brennan though often was considered clueless when dealing with children, clearly wasn't. Having been a teenager she knew how that major demographic worked. She was curious, why would Alexis find her science more interesting?

Alexis responded in a very pragmatic way, she began by glancing up her father, "Having one teenager in the house is enough, one of us has to be the adult," she shrugged her shoulders.

Gravely Brennan nodded, "I understand, I had to grow up quickly as well".

Alexis taken aback from the remark tries to correct Dr. Brennan's misinterpretation, "No Dr. Brennan I was kidding, my dad's the best. I'm just the more realistic person in my family, I live with two very creative forces acting and writing. I've chosen to work my way empirically thru evidence rather than emotions," Alexis clearly impressed Brennan with her thought out explanation.

"Oh, clearly I misunderstood, you and I are definitely kindred spirits, anyone who values the empirical sense of right and wrong, I can't help but respect, are you considering a career in the sciences?"

Alexis nodded, "I definitely am but I'm unsure of what my major will be. But, I'm only a sophomore in high school so I don't have to declare for a while."

Brennan smile broadens, "Please contact me on any questions you may have on science or what options may be when deciding on as your major, your father knows how to contact me, I'd be insulted if you didn't."

Alexis nodded enthusiastically as she agrees.

Observing this Castle is touched by the interest Dr. Brennan has in his daughter's future, thinking so many people have her nailed as a cold fish. He then thought smugly, that he hadn't been one of them.

Castle then moved onto the most electrify person in his sphere of influence.

"Dr. Brennan, Agent Booth I'd like you to meet the inspiration for my Nikki Heat series, Det. Kate Beckett NYPD," clearly Castle is proud of Kate.

Dr. Brennan leans forward to shake Kate's hand, "I'm very happy to meet you Kate, I hope I can call you Kate and you can call me Tempe."

Booth extends his hand to shake Kate's, "Well it's certainly wonderful to meet the inspiration for Castles' Nikki Heat series, I have to ask," Booth lowers his voice is a false whisper, "Do you do everything Nikki does?"

Kate realized she was being teased, but knew just where to strike, "So Andy, how do you manage that maneuver on page 187, Castle, Ryan and Esposito are killing themselves trying to figure it out?"

Booth, rather than blushing at the mention of sex takes up the challenge and with a sexy laugh suggests, "Practice, baby, practice." Castle, groans over the implication of what that means.

Tempe of course jumps not on the page 187 references but on Kate's implication, "Booth isn't Andy Lister," she turns to Booth aggravated, "everyone thinks you're Andy and you're not."

Castle sensed a good debate steps in before Booth can smooth out Tempe's feathers.

"Well Tempe, let's do this empirically shall we," he paused dramatically as he waited for her nod to continue.

"Det. Andy Lister is assigned to a Forensic Anthropologist to bring murders to justice in an unusual partnership; I believe that would describe your partnership with Agent Booth, would it not?" not waiting for a reply Castle continues.

"Agent Booth has saved your life many times while you have been in pursuit of a murderer and has upon occasion thrown himself into harm's way, am I correct? Isn't that what Andy Lister has done many times?"

Again no answer from Brennan, Booth continued to watch fascinated how Castle controlled the argument and not Bones'. That alone was worth watching. Castle continued, "Andy Lister, is shall we say and I quote the NY Times Book Review Section, "Detective Lister, is the sexiest man to have a badge and gun, protects Kathy our hero from harm while finding the evidence to put murderers away. Clearly this generations Harrison Ford in paperback, if you want to lust after a gorgeous dark haired, brown eyes, heart of gold man with the courage of champion, read "Bred in the Bone"."

Castle mimed a slam dunk, as he stated the rest of his argument. "I know you think Booth isn't the inspiration, but if we use your methods of dissecting information, you can see the evidence leads us to Booth."

Brennan sputtered then argues a bit ineffectually, "But Booth never misses and Andy does, and Andy speaks 6 languages and Booth doesn't," but even to her own ears, she realized it's a weak argument.

Her eyes widened, she turned to look at Booth and mentally continued her comparison, for the first time she realized Booth was indeed her inspiration for Andy. With that realization her mouth formed a big "O" shocked that she hadn't seen it before.

"Well as much fun as that was, and you have to believe me we've been trying to convince her it's me for years. I think I'll take this lovely lady to the dance floor, nice to meet you folks," with that Castle watched them walk away, with a small smile of victory gracing his lips.

Booth smiled and pulled Brennan back to the dance floor knowing he's got to put his beautiful scientist back together again. He chuckled a little under his breath, poor Temperance, two major shocks in a matter of minutes.

A/N: Reading and Reviewing is always appreciated