EPISODE 7 - "FAMOUS LAST WORDS"
He can see how Alexis' fear that Hayley Blue has, in fact, been killed is eating at her, tearing her apart.
"Look," Castle assures his daughter, "if there was any truth to it, I'm sure Detective Beckett would've called by now."
But isn't that always the way? The moment he finishes his sentence, his cell phone rings. Glancing briefly at the display on the phone, Castle immediately looks back at the girl in front of him. He reads the evident apprehension and anxiety written all over Alexis' face as he answers the call.
"Hello... Detective…" He simply listens to the voice on the other end of the line, trying very hard to school his features, give nothing away - like the champion poker player he is. His eyes lock on those of his daughter as he absorbs Beckett's words.
"Mmm-hmm…" he acquiesces into the speaker as Alexis stares at him, leaning forward, wide-eyed and inquisitively anxious as she mouths 'What?' at her father.
"Okay… I'll meet you there," he states before ending the call.
"Was that about Hayley?" the red head asks, voice cracking.
"I- I don't know," he whispers softly, running his hand gently up the side of her arm as he attempts to comfort and soothe her.
"Dad…" she chokes, looking up at him, his hand coming to rest on her shoulder.
"She didn't say…"
He reads the pain in his daughter's eyes, glistening tears welling as she swallows, but no words exit her throat.
"I gotta go, Pumpkin…"
He watches her nod once, head hardly moving, before he releases her shoulder. As he turns to head for his bedroom, he stops in his tracks at the sound of her mousy voice. "Dad…?"
Pivoting to look back into his office, he's momentarily startled by the crushing weight of arms wrapped around his torso, small head tucked underneath his chin, tiny hands gripping the back of his black t-shirt, tears soaking through the cotton covering his chest.
She doesn't say anything - she just holds him as if she's holding on to life itself. He returns the embrace, pulling his daughter tight against his body, pressing his lips to the crown of her head. "I know, sweetie," he coos softly. "I know."
Beckett is waiting for him at the mouth of the alley when he arrives.
"Everything okay?" she asks, lifting the police tape.
"Yeah," Castle affirms, ducking under the yellow ribbon, "why?"
"When I phoned..." she hums, leading the way as they approach the crime scene. "You just seemed so… uh… so..."
"So…?" he prods, not quite sure what she's trying to insinuate.
Her face scrunches slightly before she squeaks, "Not your typical wise-ass self..."
"Ah," he nods. He's quiet for a brief moment before clarifying. "Alexis… she heard news that her favourite singer might have been killed last night…"
She sighs understandably, face growing solemn. "And then I called…"
"And then you called," he reiterates half-heartedly, voice saddened at the thought of his daughter's sorrow.
Nothing more needs to be said when they meet Perlmutter at the base of the fire escape, staring up at the corpse which is hanging from the ladder. His heart plummets at the sight of the dead woman.
"Broken neck," the crass M.E. concludes. "At least that's my prelim. No wallet, no phone, no ID."
Castle finds his voice, but wishes that - for once - he didn't. "She doesn't need ID."
Perlmutter turns to face the writer. "You know her?" Castle simply nods in response, heart in the pit of his stomach.
"Are you sure it's her?" the detective asks.
"That's Hayley Blue," Castle confirms. "I took Alexis to see her band, The Blue Pill, last year…"
His eyes rake over the make-up covered face of the young singer as he wonders what happened to the unfortunate girl, but he doesn't really listen to the M.E.'s response as he can only think about Alexis.
He's only ever wanted to protect her… keep the rose colour on her glasses as long as possible. But now? He thinks about all the music artists and actors he loved as a teen, and how much it hurt when some of them died tragically.
For a man who lives by the written word, he begins to worry about finding the right ones to use to break this tragic news to his daughter.
Castle's quiet as her cruiser comes to a halt in its space in the precinct's underground parking. Beckett looks over at him, slightly concerned about his lack of cavaliere quips.
"You okay?" she asks as they enter the back elevator.
Castle releases a heavy sigh, eyes fixed on the floor numbers as the illuminate while the elevator climbs. "It's just…"
His voice stalls. Looking up to meet Beckett's sympathetic gaze, the writer tries again. "Alexis adores Hayley Blue. I just don't know how… what I'm supposed to tell her… what to say…"
Beckett nods understandingly as the doors slide open. He's been indirectly seeking her advice and opinion more often lately with regards to fathering a teenage girl - but she doesn't have his gift for language. She bites her tongue lightly before opening her mouth.
"The death of a favourite musician can be like losing a friend sometimes," she begins, Castle looking up at her light smile. "But I'm sure you'll find the right words, Castle…"
"Yeah," he exhales as they approach the Bullpen, "I hope so…"
She's at a loss. She's not sure what else she should say, but as they round the corner, Montgomery's voice breaks the uncomfortable silence.
"It's about time you got back," her Captain remarks, stepping out of his office. "We've got a very persistent citizen waiting to ask you some questions."
Beckett's heart clenches momentarily as Alexis follows Montgomery into the open space. She's seen the girl only on a few occasions thus far, but seeing Castle step into his parental mode always has a disarming effect on her. There's just something about him as a doting father that she finds undeniably adorable.
But thoughts of Castle's parental charm dissipate quickly as Alexis mentions that her victim might have had a drug problem. And the detective can't help but be amused by his parental paranoia.
"Ahhhh… Okay! You know what," Castle interrupts Alexis' statement. "I think it's time we reset the parental controls on your computer."
"Please," his daughter counters, sass lacing her words. "I had to set the parental control on your computer, remember?"
"Speaking of which-" the writer pleads, but is unable to complete his thought.
"No!" she cuts him off with a wave of the hand.
Beckett purses her lips together as she observes the exchange, trying to mask her amusement and slight discomfort. If Alexis is upset, she's hiding it very well behind her sarcastic bravado. A coping mechanism perhaps? The apple doesn't seem to fall far from the tree. Like father, like daughter.
However, the show ends quickly as Esposito draws their attention.
"Beckett."
"Yeah?" she pivots to face the Latino.
"Street was negative for cameras…."
He continues to fill her in on what he and Ryan have managed to uncover, and the detective has never been more thankful for one of their interruptions.
Father being parented by daughter - though amusing, always a bit awkward to witness.
Beckett re-holsters her glock as she watches Esposito callously shove Franco Marquez into the back of one of the police cruisers, slamming the door on Hayley's stalker.
She slows her pace as she approaches her Crown Vic, Castle standing behind the open passenger door, observing the action with wide-eyed enthusiasm.
"I can't believe it," she remarks dryly, garnering his attention.
"What?" he remarks curiously.
She doesn't answer, instead running her tongue along the inside of her cheek, deep in thought, as she looks back at the blue-haired suspect in the back of the police car.
"What?" he presses, now completely wrapped around her little finger.
She looks over at him seriously, face betraying nothing. "I've never believed in miracles," she replies as she peels the bullet proof vest from her torso, his expression evidently still intrigued, "but I might have just witnessed one."
Castle doesn't follow, watching her round the back of the car. "Huh?"
Tossing her vest into the trunk, she sidles to the driver's side, opening the car door. She pauses momentarily, milking the moment to its fullest as she watches Castle's eyes bounce between the bus, the suspect and her. She can practically hear the gears of his brain grinding as he tries to figure out what it is she saw that he - inexplicably - missed.
He looks back at her, face asking what his mouth isn't. Her deadpan eyes meet his lost gaze before a light smirk teases the edges of her lips.
"You stayed at the car," she grins slyly as she sits down behind the wheel. "Will wonders never cease?"
She revels in the sound of Castle's exasperated exhale, watching him out of the corner of her eye as he climbs into the passenger seat.
"Ha. Ha. Okay, you got me," he states flatly as he closes the door.
Turning the key in the ignition, she gently bites the inside of her mouth to suppress the desire to enjoy a laugh at his expense.
Point: Beckett.
The writer remains quiet for about five minutes before she hears him say the words she's been fearing since they left the recording studio.
"My first car chase," he mumbles, a giddy smile forming, eyes beginning to twinkle.
She shoots him a no-nonsense stare. "Your last car chase."
"I think I handled myself quite well, detective," he grins playfully.
"Read my lips, Castle," she declares. "Never again."
"Never say never, detective," he replies with a wiggle of his eyebrows. "And if you think I'm only okay when going slow, let me assure you that I like going fast sometimes too…" he adds canting towards her, his voice deep and husky and suggestive.
Her stomach flips, hands tightening their grip on the steering wheel as she endeavours to quell her erratic heartbeat. Seriously? She just had this guy wrapped around her finger a minute ago and now she's trying ignore the fact that he smells so good…
She keeps her eyes locked on the road, steels her expression before she notices him leaning in closer. But he doesn't look at her - instead, he looks at the dash. Her eyes follow his, glancing at her speedometer.
"Apparently you like it fast too…" he smirks.
Before she can catch herself, her foot lifts from the gas pedal - which she'd been apparently pressing into the floor - the car's velocity slowing quite abruptly.
She can sense the heated stare of his eyes, the lust burning against the side of her face. He knows what he just did to her. And he knows she knows it too.
Crap.
Castle stares at the grunge guitarist as Beckett ends her phone call. This guy is such an arrogant, uneducated prick. Cease and resist letter? Seriously? Idiot.
"Hayley's sister is on her way to the morgue to identify the body," she remarks, glaring at Zack. "Don't leave town."
Following behind her as she returns to her cruiser, Castle can't resist adding, "But feel free to bathe."
He walks away, revelling in the fact that the guitarist is most likely still trying to glean what was being insinuated.
As Beckett backs out of the warehouse, Castle's eyes lock on the filthy, drug addicted musician. "What a douche," he mumbles, pulling out his cell phone. "I can't believe girls fawn over…" he waves his hand openly searching for an accurate adjective, "...that."
"It's a female thing," Beckett reasons, not really thinking about her words as she pulls into the flow of traffic. "Most girls find bad boys attractive."
Beckett quickly bites her tongue as she realizes what she just admitted to the bad boy writer, but heaves a silent sigh of relief as he seems to be focused on his phone. "I really hoped my daughter would have more sense than that," he mutters.
"What are you doing?" she asks.
"Sending a text to Alexis," he replies, eyes locked on his phone while his fingers fly across the key pad, "letting her know I met her idols." Returning his cell to its home inside the breast pocket of his jacket, he groans heavily.
"She liked Hayley, Castle. And the band's music," she reminds him, quickly steering the conversation in another direction. "Not Zack Metzger himself."
"Yeah," he breathes, "thank god."
She smiles softly to herself as she senses the man beside her relax a bit as he looks out the window to his right, evidently lost in thought as the hypnotic flashes of New York brownstones flash by. Father Castle is so refreshing.
They enjoy a comfortable silence for several minutes before the inquisitive and suggestive lilt of the author's voice fills the car once again. "So… detective?..." He turns to face her. "What do you find most attractive in a bad boy?"
Crap.
Castle lifts his gaze from Alexis' laptop screen, processing what she just revealed about John McGinnis. About how he could profit from Hayley's death.
The wheels in his head are turning rapidly as his mother's voice breaks the silence. "Now, does that man look like a killer to you?"
"Everybody looks like a killer to me," the writer muses, deep in thought. "It's a job requirement."
"You didn't say that about Sky," Alexis teases.
"Just... let me have this moment," Castle stutters, legitimizing himself for a brief moment before he pulls his cell out of his pocket and dials a familiar number.
Wrapping his arm around his daughter's shoulders, Castle squeezes her against his side as the phone begins to ring.
"Hey Castle," Beckett's teasing voice echoes on the other end. "Did Alexis crack and admit to killing Hayley?"
"No such luck," the writer beams at his daughter as her blue, doe-like eyes stare back at him, evidently confused by his remark. "But I think I have a better suspect for you."
"Reverting back to the Butler?"
"Not this time," he grins. "I think it might be worth looking into John McGinnis, Hayley's former manager."
"What makes you think that?" the detective wonders.
"Apparently she and McGinnis might not have been on the best of terms," Castle explains. Before she has a chance to reply, he adds, "Besides… he looks like a killer to me," winking at his daugher and hastily ending this call.
He grins slyly as he slides his phone in his pocket. What he wouldn't give to see Beckett's exasperated reaction right now.
Good thing he has a fantastic imagination.
What the…? Castle and Beckett rush towards the back room of the band's warehouse just in time to watch a beer bottle leave Sky Blue's hand and fly across the room, smashing on the wall just above Zack's head.
The two fling insults at each other as the writer and the detective rush in, separating the fight.
"What did you do to her?!" Castle demands, violently turning Zack away from Sky, gritting his words through his tightly clenched teeth as he shoves the musician down into a ratty, orange club chair.
"Nothing, man! She attacked me!" the guitarist shouts defensively, fingers pointing wildly at Hayley's sister. "We were riffing on one of Hayley's songs. One minute, she's singing along, the next minute, she goes postal, starts telling me I'm stealing from Hayley! She's crazy!"
Castle feels his fist clenching, his body burning with rage. He can't believe the gall of this guy. This guy who wouldn't hesitate to hurt a young, defenseless woman… a young woman not that much older than Alexis. This asshole!
"It doesn't look good, Zack," he retorts firmly, accusatory, the heat and volume of his voice increasing incrementally as he stares down at the guitarist. "Beating up one Blue, killing another."
Zack starts to get up from the chair, insistent and frustrated and resistive. "Look," he shouts, "I already told you guys-"
"SIT DOWN!" Beckett slams back in his face as she rushes towards the offending man, growling as she bares her fangs and claws, finger pointed firmly at his face. "SIT!" Castle is stunned silent as he watches the guitarist falls back into the orange chair, hands up and open in defense. "Now talk," she demands.
Castle glares at Zack - eyes intense and piercing - as the guitarist pleads his case, protests his innocence. But as much as he is disgusted by the grunge musician, he's completed rapt by Beckett. The control and power. The commanding presence. The sheer dominance she has every time she faces off against the sleaze of society to defend the defenceless and give voice to the voiceless.
She is a force to be reckoned with.
Hearing the sniffling, Castle watches silently as Beckett moves to the back of her cruiser to find Sky curled in on herself, tears flowing freely from her eyes, streaks staining her cheeks.
Beckett crouches down beside the young woman, voice soft and gentle. "Hey."
"I was singing her words," Sky sputters, looking up at the detective, choking on the words as they crawl up her throat. "I could hear her voice. I could feel her like she was here."
Castle remains silent, listening to the sound of his own breathing mixing with theirs. He wants to be able to say something - do something - but his throat dries. He doesn't know the first thing about dealing with people who are suffering in this way.
He shifts his focus from Sky to Beckett, observing the pain and empathy swimming in the depths of her deep, dark eyes. He knows she has her own demons. Her own personal ghosts. But she pushes them down. Uses them to inspire the right words. The words Sky needs to hear. The truth.
"That's because your sister was strong," the detective whispers, voice tender and honest and sincere. "You thought that she was using again, but she wasn't. She was clean."
He remains silent as he watches Sky turn towards Beckett, reading the truth in the detective's face.
The women exchange no more words, allowing their eyes to communicate everything that words cannot. The shared pain of the loss of a beloved family member. Knowing what it is like to be haunted by her presence. The ghosts that stay with them in the words they speak. In the objects they treasure. In the air they breathe.
Beckett holds her hand out, extending it, opening it up, inviting Sky to take hold. To allow someone to help her up… to help her up in every way. He watches Sky look at Beckett's outstretched palm for several deafening minutes before she finally, hesitatingly, reaches up from her cocooned position and grips Beckett's hand with her own.
Beckett nods demurely, a slight expression of understanding and support crossing her face, as she slowly rises from her crouched position, helping the broken and distraught young woman to her feet.
Sky says nothing, but just looks Beckett in the eye one last time before turning around and heading off on her own.
Castle can do nothing, say nothing… he simply watches. Observes how Sky went from being completely broken to being willing to be rebuilt in a matter of moments and through so few words.
He'd always knew Beckett was extraordinary.
What he didn't realize was just how extraordinary she truly is.
And watching her slide into the driver's seat of her car, he thinks he probably never will.
Returning to the warehouse, they find Sky in a dark corner, shivering and stuttering and doused in sweat. Castle and Beckett rush to her side, terrified that she relapsed, but Sky holds out her hand, a wad of cash crumpled within her grip.
"I'm clean," the girl stammers. "She's gonna help me, right? Wherever she is, she's looking out for me, right?"
Beckett crouches down, smiling at Hayley's sister, proud that she was able to slay her demons. "She's already doing it."
"Come on," Castle reaches down to help her stand. "Let's get you out of here."
Helping Sky into the back of her car, Beckett and Castle rush the young woman to the nearest hospital.
As Beckett and one of the nurses accompany Sky to a room, Castle turns to the young man working behind the admitting desk.
"She's going through hell right now," the writer explains as he completes the information form. "Whatever she needs to get better, make sure she gets it." The young man nods, taking the form from Castle.
The young man looks over the paperwork to ensure it's completed correctly as Beckett returns.
"She's asleep," the detective remarks, reading the concern on Castle's face. "The doctors assure me they'll look after her."
Walking side by side as they exit the hospital, Beckett quietly mutters, "I have no idea how she's going to pay for this…"
"She won't have to," Castle whispers as he opens the car door.
Beckett looks up at him, curious.
"I wrote my address in the billing section," he explains softly as he climbs into the car, no sense of hubris or pride at all in his tone.
The detective remains standing for a moment, absorbing his words. He might be an immature jack-ass most of the time, but sometimes…
Sometimes there's a wonderful, warm, caring, loving, generous, selfless man that emerges.
Sometimes he surprises her.
A mystery she's never gonna solve.
Beckett smiles as she watches Castle head towards the elevator. Hayley Blue's killer is in custody. Sky Blue is recovering well.
And Castle…
She watches him stop in his tracks, pause, and pivot, returning to her desk.
"Come with me?..." he asks gently, standing toe to toe with her, cobalt blue tenderly peering into dark hazel.
Beckett is confused for a brief moment before she has her epiphany. She nods once with a smile that lights up her eyes, grabbing her scarf and coat off the back of her chair. "Let's go."
After picking up Martha and Alexis at the loft, the four head to Alphabet City for the outdoor memorial concert. There's already a large crowd gathered around the stage, the sound of Sky Blue's voice floating in the night air.
Picking up their candles, Martha and Alexis light theirs off of Castle's flame. He then turns towards Beckett, holding up his candle, the flame flickering in the light breeze. The glow of the soft light dances in his eyes as she looks up at him, smiling warmly, her pulse beginning to match the rhythm of the drum beat in the background.
Time slows as she silently reads over the volumes of his face, the warmth in his eyes.
"Dad?'
The silky voice of his young daughter wakes her from her hypnotic reverie… and apparently him as well. She shoots him a gentle smile before lighting her own candle - using his flame - the metaphoric action not lost on her.
But she quells the fluttering in her heart as she follows Castle and his daughter to meet Martha near the stage.
As Sky begins to sing her sister's lyrics, Beckett really hears them for the first time.
"People change… and instantly…
I'm not the same girl I used to be.
I can't erase all the memories,
But I can explain if you're listening…"
With Castle standing beside her - arms lovingly wrapped around his daughter - Beckett can't help but feel an ethereal glow of happiness from alighting inside.
She didn't even see it happen, but it did.
She's changing.
She's changing.
xxx
Due to the father-daughter nature of this episode, it was a bit more of a challenge to find the Caskett-y filler moments, but I think it worked out.
As always, typos belong to me. *le sigh*
So there you go... Judge away. ;)
