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"… get split jurisdiction," Jordan was saying to their captain.
Her words leaked through the door and reached the ears of two people perched on a desk, impatiently waiting just outside the door. Kate had sent Ryan and Esposito to dig up the case file and see if they could trace the call made to Castle's phone, leaving her and Castle waiting outside Gate's office.
After Jordan's surprising, but somewhat expected appearance, Gates had allowed several minutes for handshakes and 'how are you's before shooing them all out. The captain and Jordan had to discuss how exactly the Bureau was going to handle the jurisdiction split and how much the Feds were going to be involved – the latter being a matter of pride for weathered captain.
Kate crossed her arms and stared at the closed door of Gate's office, her mind still buzzing over the last few minutes. Hell, it was still buzzing over the last 24 hours. Today had supposed to be a quiet day. She had been expected to come in to finish off the paperwork of their last case then take the rest of the day off if no new cases came up, maybe even a casual lunch date with Castle if he wasn't busy.
Instead, her day had begun with Castle storming into the precinct, clutching his cellphone like he'd wanted to crush it in his hand. The thought of Maddox contacting her partner was enough to send her heartbeat into triple time. Gates allowing her to reopen the case and, even perhaps, end the damn thing once and for all was enough to make her stomach tie up in a Gordian knot.
She still didn't know how she felt about all this.
Now, Jordan Shaw was here as a liaison with the FBI to assist in solving the case. Secretly, Kate was glad they had picked Jordan to come; the Feds could've done a lot worse than the dry humored, veteran agent who seemed to know her work so well.
As if reading her thoughts, Castle leans over and murmured, "Helluva day, huh?"
"Hell of a day," she agrees.
Castle leans in closer, his low voice caressing the shell of her ear. "Wanna grab a late lunch after this?"
She twists around so she could glance up at the big clock hanging on the wall. "It's past three. I didn't even notice," she says in a surprised voice.
"Is that a yes?"
She smiles. Her face muscles feel stiff and cracked from the seriousness of the day. "Yeah, that's a yes."
He smiles back, and for a second everything's back to normal and the case they're working on is a regular Jack-shot-Bill-over-Jill and after this, they might go for drinks and bite to eat at the local diner. Then reality comes crashing in through the form of Jordan Shaw walking out of Gate's office. The agent walks briskly towards them and gives them a nod.
"Detective Beckett, Mr. Castle. Good to see you."
"Likewise." Kate responds.
Castle gives Jordan a welcoming smile and a quick handshake. "Nice to see you again."
Jordan sets down her bags and faces them, clapping her hands together to get their attention. "Where are we on the case?"
Esposito steps forward and plops the case file, clearly marked with Cole Maddox's name in bold capitalized letters, onto her desk with a hopeless thump. "I've been going over it but there's nothing there."
"Ditto." Ryan groans. "I've tried tracing Castle's cell but it led to a disposable phone which he probably threw away by now."
"Okay, so we start from scratch. Let's go over the facts." Kate rubs her hands together, her brow furrowing in thought. "We know he doesn't want us investigating – the phone call to Castle confirmed it – which means he's nervous."
"He's planning something big he doesn't want us knowing." Castle reasoned.
"That makes sense." Ryan dips in his head in agreement.
Her teeth launch an unconscious assault on her bottom lip in frustration. "We still don't know what's he's planning, though."
"We know it has to do with you two." Jordan pointed out. "He stabs one and calls the other. Can't be a coincidence."
"So it's about us, again." Castle says heavily. The words fall from his lips and slams through the air like falling concrete. Another sniper case.
But they all know, it's really about her.
Those words are the only thing Kate can think about as they try to process this dizzying case that threatens to spin them off their center. She's not the only one thinking how these types of cases seem to follow them around like a shadow; there's an unnatural stiffness in Ryan's solid stance and a muscle in Esposito's jaw ticks like a hammering pulse.
Castle catches her eye with a fleeting look that makes his sapphire eyes crinkle with worry. That's when she realizes that everyone is worried about her.
The concern marked in Ryan and Esposito's eyes is nothing short of brotherly and Castle is staring at her like she was composed of fine china and was about to shatter any second.
"I'm fine, guys." Kate speaks firmly.
"Beckett, you say 'fine' so much, it doesn't even sound like a word anymore." Esposito retorts, eliciting a small chuckle out of Jordan and effectively breaking the looming tension.
"Okay, so I'm not a 100% but I will be." She takes a deep breath. After this case is over.
Kate could feel the heat of Jordan's stare burning into her back. She tenses and turns around, dreading the argument that Jordan will surely have about her not being able to function correctly because of this, how she must be taken off of this case because it was too personal.
The agent opens her mouth, Kate winces –
"Then let's get to work."
Kate exhales a sigh of relief and simply nods. Thank god for Jordan Shaw.
They work for hours without stopping.
Her much anticipated lunch date with Castle ended up taking a rain check as Castle called the nearest Chinese place and ordered enough food to feed the entire NYPD force. So they fumbled with chopsticks and plucked egg rolls off of each other's plates while analyzing past records of any documents concerning Cole Maddox or a world renowned sniper. They knew he was simply a puppet sent out to do his master's bidding. They just didn't know who was holding the strings.
It's past twilight when they finally quit for the day. Just past seven, they've been working for about four hours.
Castle stands up from his chair and groans with relief when his back muscles release a series of pops. The others do the same and stretch with some relative measure of ease.
Ryan picks up his keys and shrugs into his jacket. "I've got to get home to Jenny. I'll see you guys in the morning."
"Same here. Later, guys." Esposito follows his partner out the door and into the brisk night air. Jordan had left an hour ago to try to find a hotel for the night. Now it was just her, Castle and the single light bulb of a lamp in the darkened area of the precinct.
"I should get going, too. Mother and Alexis is waiting for me," Castle tells her with a touch of an apology in his voice. He shouldn't be apologizing. It should be her for keeping him away from his family for so long.
"Yeah, I understand. Tell them I said hi, and that I want to hear more about their trip later." Kate gives him a quick smile and turns back to the stack of files on her desk.
Castle hesitates. "You wanna?"
She lifts her head back up, tilting it slightly in confusion. "Wanna what?"
"Hear more about their trip," he repeats. "You can come over for dinner and they can tell you about it. Alexis will talk about colleges and Mom will probably talk about men she'd met and we'll eat dinner and it'll be nice and…" His voice trails off due to uncertainty.
Her lips quirk upward at his rambling. "That's really sweet, Castle, but they just got back and I think they want to spend more time with you than your partner."
"No, they asked about you." Castle shakes his head fiercely. "Trust me, they'll be glad to have you. And Alexis is making her lasagna…"
As if planned, her stomach grumbled in appreciation.
A triumphant grin spreads across Castle's face. "See, even your stomach agrees with me. That's two against one. There."
Laughing, she leaned back in her seat. Castle must be more wired than she thought if he was counting her stomach as a separate entity against her. "Well, it that case… " she teases.
"Come on, Kate. Please?" Castle gives her the puppy dog eyes that worked so often on his mother, in the feeble hope they would work their magic on her.
A beat. She considered his offer with an aplomb she had been able to master over the years. Truth be told, she was starving. And the idea of spending the evening with Castle and a homemade dinner was ridiculously tempting. Plus, maybe this was just what she needed to alleviate some of that stress that she had managed to accumulate during this day.
"Well?" Castle looks at her expectantly.
"Lead the way." She beams back, loving the way Castle's face light up like Christmas lights. She can't remember the last time she had felt so excited over a dinner. Perhaps that's how she should have known that things were about to go really, really bad.
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