A/N: This chapter was requested by lutheranapriljones. I hope you guys like it!
Adjusting the knot on his tie, Rick scrutinised the blue and silver stripes to make sure they were at a forty five degree angle exactly. The reflection of the clock hanging behind him told him he still had about ten minutes before Beckett arrived, though the promotional party for Naked Heat wouldn't start until six thirty, half an hour later. That didn't mean he wasn't nervously fussing over his appearance, however. This was the first public engagement in a while that he'd actually forgone his roguish appearance for. His jaw and chin were clean shaven, his hair blow-dried and brushed into a kind of flat, meek submission he usually only achieved through hair gel, and his suit had been cleaned and pressed especially for the occasion.
Prepped and pristine, he dropped his hands and stepped back, taking one last look in the mirror before going out to wait for his muse in the living room, where he'd be able to open the door for her. He checked his watch a few times, the action growing more frequent as the hands ticked towards six and he didn't hear a knock on his front door. Confused, he wandered over to the door and poked his head out, looking left and right down the empty hallway before his eyes locked onto the floor display of the elevator, which showed it was apparently on the way up.
That must be her, he thought as it stopped on the top floor, but when the doors opened, it was not Kate Beckett who walked out. Instead, a Chinese takeaway delivery boy nodded at him, coming to his door with what had to be dinner for Alexis. He paid for the food and left it on the kitchen counter, shouting for his daughter.
When Alexis appeared, cheeks rosy from sprinting down the stairs and skidding into the kitchen in just her socks, she frowned in confusion.
"I thought Detective Beckett was meant to be meeting you here…"
"She was," Rick replied distractedly as he checked his watch yet again before pulling his phone out on the off chance that he'd somehow missed a text to let him know Beckett was running late or had changed her mind or something. He frowned again, but gave her a few more minutes, knowing all the while that Gina would probably berate him for being late arriving. Their rekindled relationship didn't stop her from doing her job in the slightest.
At quarter past six he stopped waiting and decided that he would go to Kate. The entire drive to her apartment he worried that something may have happened to her so much so that his relief at hearing her laughter from the other side of her door pulled him up short for a moment.
Curiosity had him pressing his ear up against the wood and a frown took over his face as he heard multiple voices before her laughter rang out again. Was there a man there with her? He knocked quickly, balling his hands into fists as he heard her footfalls on her hardwood floors.
The door swung open revealing her there in nothing more than a pair of tiny shorts and the baggy red t-shirt he'd told her months and months ago that she could keep.
"Oh, shit, I completely forgot," she exclaimed the second his attire registered with her and reminded her that she was supposed to be going to the Naked Heat release party with him. Before he could say a thing, he had dashed back through her apartment to the bedroom.
"Guess I'll just come on in then," he mumbled to himself, shutting the door behind him and going to take a seat on her couch. He realised then that the voices he'd been hearing were coming from her TV and that Beckett had been watching Star Trek. That intrigued him, Beckett watching Star Trek – the original series, no less – since it had aired before she was even born. Who knew that his muse was a sci-fi fan.
He continued watching where she left off as he waited for her. She popped out a few times to tell him she would only be ten minutes maximum and she was sorry she'd been distracted, but for the most part he was left to watch Friday's Child, incidentally one of his ten favourite episodes.
He was so engrossed in the episode, saying the lines at the same time as the characters, that he didn't notice Kate come out of her bedroom, dressed in a brand new ivy-green dress with her hair loosely curled and pulled neatly away from her face with the help of a few hair grips.
"There's a cave in there. Probably the only shelter around here," Castle recited along with Kirk.
"Oh, my favourite line is coming up," she said, her sudden speech surprising him and making him jump slightly, head whirling round to her so fast he probably got a crick in the neck. "Look, I'm a doctor, not an escalator!"
A grin cleaved Rick's face in two. "You really like Star Trek, don't you?"
"Yeah," Kate replied slowly. "There something wrong with that?"
No, it just makes me even more attracted to you.
Instead of speaking his thoughts, Rick shrugged and arranged his face into a neutral expression. "Just a bit unexpected."
An awkward silence settled over them, a silence that only broke when she apologised again for forgetting about the party. "I had a shower and figured I'd just let me hair dry naturally, so I put the TV on while I waited and then found Friday's Child – which is my favourite episode-" He did a double take at that. Could Kate Beckett be any more perfect? "And I just lost track of time."
He waved away her excuses. "Don't worry about it. Shall we?" he asked, gesturing to the door with his hand and letting her lead the way out. He let her slide into the back of his town car first too, only just remembering once he was safely seated and belted into his own seat to send Gina a text to apologise for his lateness and let her know he was on his way now.
"So Friday's Child is your number one top Star Trek episode?" he asked, pocketing his phone and turning his attention onto the beautiful woman sat at his side who was sadly not his date for the evening.
"It's underrated," she replied, prepared to argue her reasons only for him to nod in agreement with her. "I didn't know Richard Castle was a Star Trek man."
"What can I say? I love good sci-fi."
A/N: Thank you to everyone who has reviewed. I profusely apologise for being really lazy recently and not responding to your reviews. I'm making a renewed effort from now on. I hope you liked this chapter. Let me know what you thought, and thanks for reading!