Chapter 7

Curiosity


"What the hell...?" Beckett is the first one to voice her thoughts.

"It's empty!" Castle squeaks, stating the obvious. "Whaat...?"

They stare at the empty room, Beckett slack jawed while Castle raises his hands to his mouth.

"He was right here!" Castle exhales through his fingers, starting to sound a little bit panicky. "Where is he, Beckett?"

"I don't know," she answers, looking at the same place where Donnelly's fake Machbarien Star Destroyer was located just two days ago. The place is wiped clean, there aren't even scratch marks on the floor or anything that would indicate recent usage of the room. Kate takes a step closer to the middle of the room and crouches down to touch the floor gently with her right hand.

"It feels like this garage has been empty for a long time, did we break into the wrong warehouse?"

Castle looks at the door, then up at the ceiling. "No, I think it's the same. I mean, look at the ceiling." Waves towards the tiled arches. "It has to be the same..."

He falls silent as he notices something. There are tiny holes in the ceiling. Small ones, but visible to the eye.

"Hey, look, holes in the ceiling!" He points upwards, looking at Beckett. She turns her gaze up as well and notices the same thing.

"He was here," she breathes out, feeling a bit lighter "That's where the laser pointers were located."

They weren't wrong about the location, they just didn't find what they were looking for. Castle slumps his shoulders and lets out a long sigh. Donnelly is really not here. How are they supposed to get answers now? He was the only one who could possibly know what is happening to him. But now that Donnelly's gone… where he is going to find the answers he needs?

"Castle, don't worry," she tries to sound cheerful after seeing him so deflated by Donnelly's absence. "We'll figure something out. I promise."

Smiling weakly, he nods. Yes. They will figure something out. They always do. There has to be something. At least.

Beckett looks around the big, echoey room. It seems a lot bigger now when there is no equipment there. She takes a step towards the darkened end of the warehouse to see if there is anything there that could give them a clue as to where Donnelly might have gone. But nothing catches her eye.

Castle is on the move as well, eyes bright, searching for clues. He is going towards the alcove on his right, where Donnelly's workbench was once located, having realized the same thing that Beckett had.

After a long moment of silence, Castle suddenly asks, "What if I lose my hair?"

Beckett turns around, eyes squinting and one eyebrow raised high. "Huh?"

"I mean, I am turning green. Who knows what kind of a monster I will be. But I wouldn't want to lose my hair!"

Beckett stares at him for few seconds and then a snort of laughter erupts from her. "Castle, what's with you and your hair?"

"Me and my hair?" he asks, his voice squeaky.

"Yeah, you seem to have an obsession with it," Beckett smirks, her eyes roaming over the empty room.

"I don't have an obsession!" he protests loudly, his voice carrying around the room and a tiny piece of wall covering drops to the ground, startling both of them.

Apparently, Castle has a hard time controlling his telekinetic powers under duress. Much like his mouth.

She smirks a bit as she shakes her head. Not only can he not control his powers, but he's in denial about his hair.

Beckett throws him a glance, trying to figure out if he is just messing with her. When Castle looks back at her with a look of surprise and confusion written all over his face, she realizes that he really believes what he says.

Suppressing a giggle, she steps closer and asks. "Seriously?"

"What?" Castle arches up his brows, stressing his bewilderment.

"You never stop talking about your hair!" Beckett teases. "You did it at the precinct and then I had to listen a long rant about it back at the loft. And now? Seriously? I appreciate your hair, it's so soft and silky, but…" she trails off from what she wanted to say, as she notices how Castle's initial astonishment has turned into a cocky grin.

It's her turn to be confused. "What?"

"You like my hair?"

Beckett rolls her eyes so greatly, for a moment he's afraid she'll strain her facial muscles. "That's your take-away, Castle?!" she asks disbelievingly.

"Well, isn't it the most important part?" he winks at her, making her to let out a long sigh. He lets out a chuckle. She is so adorable when she is frustrated.

Beckett ignores his attempt to derail her and presses forward. "But haven't you got some kind of freakish bond with your hair, like a true New York Dame...?"

Unfortunately for her, he doesn't really listen what she is saying anymore because he just spotted something at the other, darker end of the room. His eyes fixated on it, he starts moving towards it, interrupting her. "Do you see that?"

"Castle? Are you trying to change the subject? Oh no, no, that's not gonna work," she smirks. But Castle doesn't turn to face her as he continued to stare at the back end of the garage.

"Shhh... Do you see that?" he points at a piece of paper on the ground. Beckett, who finally turned herself in the direction where he was pointing, sees the same thing.

"Ohh…"

"Let's see what it is," he smiles at her and straightens his arm towards it. The paper flies into his hand. He opens it and reads, brows furrowed.

Beckett takes few strides to stand beside him and cranes her head to see the scribbles on the paper. Written on the pale yellow post-it note are the words:

'Donnelly! Be careful, they are coming!'

Castle turns the paper over to look at the scribbled numbers '61/2 SSSR'.

"What do you think it means?" Castle looks at her while shifting the paper closer to her. Beckett takes the tiny note from his hands and turns it to every direction.

"It's probably some kind of a code," Beckett offers, shrugging.

Castle's eyes widen and just as he begins to open his mouth, she quickly covers it with her hand.

"Castle, if you even think of mentioning the 'DaVinci Code' right now, I'm leaving."

"Secret cipher of the Illuminati?"

She opens her mouth to stop his crazy array of thoughts, but the shrill of her phone interrupts her thoughts. With one swift move she takes it out of her coat pocket, clicks 'answer' and raises it to her ear.

"Hey Lanie," she greets her friend with a smile on her face.

Castle pouts, but listens in what Beckett is saying. It's interesting that Lanie is calling her now, since they just closed a case and nobody has called in another murder, yet.

"Oh... okay. We'll be right there," she answers and clicks off. She turns her gaze to Castle who is watching her with narrowed eyes.

"Uh, Lanie wants to talk with me," she explains apologetically. "We need to go to the morgue before we head to the precinct. Is that okay with you?"

"Yeah, yeah," Castle nods. "Why wouldn't it be?"

"Okay, then. I think we are done here, let's get going." She gives the piece of paper back to Castle before she turns to walk out of the empty warehouse. "But don't worry. We will figure this thing out."


"Hey," Beckett greets her girlfriend as soon as she and Castle enter the morgue.

"Heey! It's about time you showed up. I was beginning to think you wouldn't come," the M.E. answers with a big grin.

"Sorry, it took a little bit of time. We weren't at the precinct," Beckett explains apologetically.

Castle smiles and nods, carefully watching the interaction between two friends. He knows a little bit of what Kate told him after the 3XK case - hat Lanie, together with Esposito and Ryan, know about their relationship. But knowing doesn't stop her from teasing them, sometimes mercilessly.

Lanie raises eyebrows. "Oh really? Where were you then? Making pancakes again?"

Kate lets out a frustrated sigh and tries shrug off her friend's not-so-subtle enquire "It doesn't matter Lanie, what do you want?"

"Ah... so, no small talk? Just jumping right into things?" Lanie teases, pulling out an envelope underneath a pile of paper. "Girlfriend, you need to take lessons in communicating with friends. Sometimes I wanna talk, too, you know."

Beckett steels her features, says nothing, and just waits. Lanie reads her loud and clear

"But I am betting this is not the time..."

Kate doesn't let herself get bothered by the gentle teasing from Lanie. Castle chuckles lightly and steps closer to Beckett in order to understand better what the two women were talking about.

Lanie shakes her head with a sweet smile on her face. "Seriously, Kate, sometimes you need to loosen up a bit. It's all work with you. But yeah, I didn't ask you come here for girl-talk this time. Here," she gives Beckett the envelope. "I need you to take this to Javi."

Kate doesn't want to take it at first and stares quizzically at her friend.

"Why won't you give it to him yourself?"

"A body just dropped and the detectives on the case are very persistent. They want me to get some information on the body today. Thus, I can't meet Javier as I was planning to do. I am really counting on you Kate. Please?" she begs.

Beckett finally nods and takes the envelope.

Castle perks up next to Beckett. "What's in there? Are you sending your boy some money?" he attempts to crack a joke. But instead of a smile, he receives a stern glare from Lanie.

"It's none of your business, Castle. And you'd better not peek in there!" she warns.

"Damn," he mutters. "I was hoping."

Beckett smirks, trying to ignore him, but failing. She loves the glee written all over his face when he's happy. Silently, she thanks the universe for small miracles. He has clearly forgotten about his current state of distress and is actually acting normal at the moment. Well. Somewhat normal.

"So, what's with the body? Jimenez has a case, you say?"

Lanie nods.

"They found the body in front of some shoe store on 2nd Avenue. Frank said that the pedestrians who noticed the body thought the man was sleeping. But he was dead by the time they decided to call 9-1-1. When uniforms found him, they thought that he had committed suicide because there were no marks on his body to suggest otherwise."

"Why is he here then, if they thought it was suicide?" Castle asks, clearly sucked into the story.

"Good question," Lanie raises his index finger. "I asked the same from Frank. But apparently the body is covered with some kind of chemical I need to identify first. Hopefully it will lead to the cause of death."

Beckett squints her eyes at Lanie. "Chemical substance covering the body?"

"Look at it yourself," the M.E. laughs. She is slowly sucking them both in. Those two. Always suckers for a good murder. She raises the sheet that is covering the dead body and both Beckett and Castle gasp in unison.

"What?" Lanie doesn't understand the utter surprise of the partners.

Castle squeaks. "Beckett? Is that….?"

"Yeah," Beckett sighs out in frustration. The body in the morgue is one Benjamin Donnelly.

Suddenly Castle grasps his right hand, the same one that is slowly turning green. He grimaces in pain. "Ow, ow, ow. Beckett. It hurts."

He automatically steps back from the body. Trying to ease the pain in his limbs. But this is too much.

Beckett stares at her partner, who is squirming in pain. "What the hell is going on?"


A/N: Seriously, thank you each and every one of you who have taken some time and read the story, reviewed it and stuck with it. I know I suck at updating, but you have to believe me when I say I am really trying. Real life can be a biach sometimes. But oh well, what you, poor soul, can do.

Thank you beta-Shena.

I hope you had fun time reading new chapter and I am looking forward for your responses. Feel free to rant or yell… or tell me you love me. Hehehe