A/N: I've tried to keep this from just being a verbatim copy of the episode. Hopefully I've succeeded…
Castle was already awake when she woke to her alarm. After his early morning the previous day, he'd wasted no time in heading to bed early after dinner, likely still sulking after her refusal to let him back into the precinct - in part because she knew he would be of no help and because of the fact that she'd spent a full week planning his surprise party and it was just about to get underway. Exactly why he had been up so early, she had no idea.
It was unusual for her to get woken by her alarm before her phone rang with a fresh homicide, but the rarity didn't stop it from happening that morning. She jotted the details down while sitting on the bed, still in her pyjamas with her hair likely a ratty mess after a night of tossing and turning. She waited until she had been in the shower before she called Ryan and Esposito though.
Finally dressed, with hair blow-dried to perfection, she wandered out into the living room and discovered exactly what it was that had brought him out of bed before six thirty. While she poured herself a cup of coffee and flicked through the newspaper at the breakfast bar, he poured over the manual of the latest gadget he'd had delivered: a remote control helicopter.
"Thanks for the coffee," she murmured after the initial sip, only getting the tiniest of reactions. His hand rose from the booklet and appeared beside his forward-facing head, waving slightly for a moment before he had to make use of his fingers with turning the page. "What you got there?"
That got his attention. He craned his neck, looking at her with excitement as he said, "What haven't I got, Beckett?! It's a Syma RC copter! Second edition, brand-spanking new. It even has two frequencies so I can fly two at the same time!"
"Small problem there, Castle, you've only got the one helicopter."
"I can order another," he replied, unperturbed by her scepticism. "You working today?"
"Hmm." Now she was as distracted as him, though her narrowing focus was directed at the headlines rather than a set of instructions for a toy. She didn't hear him ask whether she should be leaving, only coming back to herself when she finished the interview with Bracken that had been included.
It didn't take a genius to work out that his groaning was as he tried to reach an itch, the helicopter set down somewhere and forgotten about for the moment.
Picking up her mostly-full coffee cup and the paper, Kate handed the news headlines to Castle, a subtle hint for him to find a better means of distracting himself, before situating herself on the arm of one of the chairs and scratching the top of his foot for him.
"Almost there, Castle. Just another two weeks."
"It's already been two weeks," he moaned. "Two weeks is an eternity."
"Yeah, well maybe next time we go skiing you're not gonna be such a showoff." It wasn't the first time she'd scolded him for his antics, refused to pity him; it probably wouldn't be the last time either.
"I wasn't showing off!" Kate's doubtful expression had him backpedalling and correcting himself. "Okay, I was showing off a little bit, but I swear to you I can do a tail grab with my eyes closed. And without breaking my kneecap." He added the last part as an afterthought, but really he still didn't know how he'd even managed to cockup his trick quite so badly. He could tell himself that his age was beginning to catch up with him, but that would involve admitting to himself that being in his early forties was the beginning of being old.
"Mmhmm."
She couldn't resist teasing him, would probably have said something else had his mother not floated down the staircase at that moment and announced her leaving to a very petulant Castle.
As his mother stopped by the kitchen counter to make a once over her bag, throwing a conspiratorial wink unseen by Rick at Kate, she returned to his chair and folded her arms around his shoulders, leaning down to press her cheek against his.
"Oh, c'mon, Castle. Stop feeling sorry for yourself. I'll get us a reservation and I'll take you somewhere nice for your birthday."
"As nice as Bora Bora?" he groused, pulling a sigh from her. She'd thought he'd been getting better and forgetting about their cancelled holiday, but it appeared he'd fallen back into a mood swing he didn't want to be pulled out of.
She hadn't checked her watch, but the boys were right on time as Martha opened the door to go. Castle was nowhere near pleased though.
"I'm missing another case? No! C'mon, take me with you!"
She made a face that clearly told him they'd already discussed why that wasn't going to be happening. While she gathered her things, she could hear the boys chatting with him and grinned as she heard Ryan's comment about Rear Window. Although Martha had wanted to keep things scripted, she was glad she'd argued against it. Ryan was already doing great planting the seed to look at the building across the way.
"So, how'd we do?" Espo asked as he nosed his red Dodge out from the curb.
"Yeah, how long do you reckon until Castle caves and starts looking out the window with the binoculars?"
"If he hadn't bought that ridiculous helicopter I'd say twenty minutes tops, but who knows how long it'll take him to get bored now."
"Psssh," Espo snorts, briefly flicking his gaze away from the road and up to the review mirror to look at his partner in the back seat. "Trust me, Beckett, those things lose their novelty after five minutes. Even my ten year old nephew can't play with those things longer than a half hour."
"That may be the case for any normal forty three year old but this is Castle. It's probably going to take an infinitely better offer of distraction or some kind of disaster. Maybe I should have told him he could phone consult." She chewed on the end of her thumb, musing over whether she could still call him, looking up when she realised there had been no response from the front seats.
Espo and Ryan had both twisted round, both of them giving her alarmed looks.
"Did you not hear his comment about Charlie's Angels?"
Rolling her eyes, Kate slapped at Espo's arm.
"There's a reason I don't normally ride with you guys, you know? Just concentrate on getting us to the crime scene in one piece, would you?"
Her silent phone felt like a deadweight in her pocket because she'd expected him to call by now. But then again, she'd said she'd call him, hadn't she? Still, she'd thought that he'd have grown bored of the helicopter and picked up the binoculars to check out the imaginary woman about to take off her towel. It had been hours after all.
She'd stopped expecting him to call so much that when he actually did, she paused to check the caller ID and had to take a moment to remind herself that casual nonchalance was of the essence.
"Hey, Castle."
"Where are you?"
His tone gave her pause. He sounded distracted. Was he already using the binoculars? "I'm… at work."
"You said you were bringing home dinner."
"Yes, on my way home," she said, trying to tamp down a smile as she felt the boys looking at her and listening in on her half of the conversation. It was quite plain that Castle had at least grown bored of the radio controlled helicopter.
"So when are you leaving?"
She checked her watch, but rather than specify a specific time simply told him, "Soon."
"When soon?"
"Like in…half an hour?"
"Fine," he sighed, hanging up.
Playing Castle was beginning to feel easy. She gave it a few minutes then sent a text because Castle had to be looking out the window through the binoculars. And if he was looking then it was go time for Michael.
"You think Castle's falling for it?"
She was almost ninety nine per cent certain that Castle would have already watched Michael and Emily at least once, knew for a fact after a text from Martha that he'd at least witnessed Emily and Brent's faux love affair. A slight tilt of the head was the only response she gave though because there was still that niggling one per cent. Richard Castle always had had the ability to surprise her but she liked to think that after five years of partnership and over half a year of a relationship that she could predict his actions with more accuracy.
Sure enough not even ten minutes had passed before her phone rang again, Castle's picture lighting up the screen. She made sure to put on a tone of exasperation when she answered, only to be cut off but his panicked, "No, no, no, no! Beckett – Beckett, listen! I think I just saw a murder!"
Hopping off her desk, she grabbed her keys and instructed him, "Castle, slow down, tell me what happened."
"I looked out the window and I saw him!"
"Saw him what?" Kate asked, nodding at Espo and Ryan to get ready too.
"Take the knife into the bedroom! Beckett, you guys have to get over there. If you hurry, maybe you can save her!"
"Castle, we're on our way. Which apartment was it?"
"I- I don't know." He sounded frustrated, breathing heavily as he presumably pushed his chair back to the window and looked out once more, trying to count how many windows up and along the apartment was to guess at the number. "Fifth floor definitely."
"Okay, Castle, just relax, we'll figure it out. The boys and I are in the elevator right now, they can go check it out and I'll come home, okay?"
"Kate, hurry!"
He hung up and before she had even pocketed her phone the boys were asking, "So are we on?"
"We're on," she said, unable to refrain from smirking. "You know what to do?"
"Oh yeah," Espo replied.
It was Ryan though who detailed the small plan they'd worked out over the course of their few days planning. "We turn up, sirens going, rush the building – make it look convincing, then let Castle watch while we talk to the guy, look round the apartment. Then we go back to the Loft and tell Castle that there was nothing there."
Beckett nodded, stepping out of the open elevator doors first and calling to them, "I'll see you there," before ducking into her own car.
A/N: Please let me know what you thought about the level of episode content in this chapter so I can edit around the next one if needs be!
