You Can't Pay

[Nicole:]
There's no way,
Cause you can't pay.

"Castle, how do you manage to think up this crap?" Beckett turned to face him while she sat at her desk. She had a slightly amused, slightly annoyed, slightly awed look on her face.

"The crap about being frozen to death inside a refrigerator, or the true crap about our case?" he asked, looking slightly into the air, as if lost in thought. When he came back to earth, he smiled slyly at Beckett. She rolled her eyes and shook her head.

"Either kind of crap." She said simply.

"Hey, the true crap caught our murderer." He said, pointing his finger at her. She smiled slightly at him and begrudgingly nodded. He let the moment lie for a moment before he said anything else. "I'm starved. Remy's?"

"Ooo, that sounds amazing." She said, looking at him out of the corner of her eye. "Paperwork can wait, right?"

"Oh my god, did hell just freeze over?" he jerked, pretending to feel the shock waves of an earthquake.

"No, but I just saw a pig fly by that window." She said, not looking at him. She was trying to hide her smile.

"Oh ho ho. Funny." He said, smiling at her. She finally looked up at him and smiled back. "And there's the smile."


They sat down at their usual booth in the diner, and Kate tugged at her hair just a bit. She looked out the window, seemingly lost in her own world.

"Penny for your thoughts." He said, a vague smile on his own face.

She turned to face him, a lie on her tongue. But the honest, sincere look on his face made her blush. "I was just thinking…." She said and trailed off.

"See the point of that phrase is that you actually elaborate on WHAT you're thinking about." He said, talking with his hands. She rolled her eyes yet again at him, just as the waitress walked up. Castle looked up at the woman standing in front of them and turned on a little charm. "We'll have two cheese burgers with everything. Extra fries. And two milkshakes, one chocolate and one…" he trailed off studying Beckett with his eyes. She raised an eyebrow at him, waiting to see if he'd get it right. "Strawberry." He said, a smile slowly spreading across his face. Beckett couldn't help but smile back as she nodded. Once the waitress left, he looked encouraging again. "So you were about to say what you were thinking about."

"Why don't you tell me? Apparently you're a mind reader." She said, leaning back, challenging him.

"Mmmm, you're thinking you really want to see me naked." She rolled her eyes yet again. "Oops, sorry that's what I'm thinking." He winked at her from across the table. "Seriously, I only had three choices of shakes. Call it luck."

"I was thinking about what I said earlier." She said after a moment's hesitation. The waitress came by and placed their plates on the table. Beckett nodded and smiled her thanks before eating a fry. "Sometimes I wonder how you think of all that you think of. I mean, it's one thing for me to assess the situation I have at hand, theorize how it happened, and place together pieces from there. But you…..you create the elaborate details. You imagine all the pieces of the puzzle." The honest moment surprised even her as she finished talking. Castle picked at his food for a moment, thinking.

"We work in opposite directions. You start with a victim and you build from there. Me? I start with a murderer, imagine what kind of crime he would commit. I imagine who his victim would be. Then I imagine his movements and what types of evidence he might have left behind on accident. I have the answer before I start. All you have are questions." He said, eating a fry. She nodded as she took a big sip of her shake. "That's just the murder part though. For the other, more spicy details, I just use my dreams as inspiration."

She jabbed the heel of her shoe at the spot she imagined his foot would be. Unfortunately, she missed slightly and wound up brushing her foot against his under the table. He raised an eyebrow at her cautiously. "Your foot was supposed to be under my heel." She said, in lieu of an explanation. She picked up her cheese burger and missed the smirk on his face. He brushed his foot back against hers, leaving it slightly on top hers. She nearly choked on her food, making him laugh. He moved his foot away from her, going back to his own food.

They sat like that in silence for a few more moments, just eating and enjoying one another's silent company. Finally he broke the silence between them, after thinking about what she had said for a moment.

"Do you really think it's hard, what I do?" He asked, sincere once again.

"I think there's no way I could do it. I think it's amazing that you work on one case and one novel for so long. I'd get bored." She said with a shrug.

"I guess it's just second nature to me." He looked down at his empty plate, surprised to find their dinner had passed by so quickly. The waitress brought the check and laid it on the table. Castle picked it up and looked it over before standing. He moved to the register to pay for their meal.

Suddenly, while he was standing in line, someone jerked the check from his hand from behind him. "You are not paying for mine." He heard Beckett's firm whisper in his ear.

"Why not?" he turned to face her as he asked.

"You gave us the missing piece to the case. So I should be treating you." She shrugged, not really looking at him. She bit her lip. In her moment of inattention, he snatched it.

"There is no way you're paying for mine." He said, giving a her a weak glare.

"Why not?" she asked, hands on her hips.

A smug smile appeared on his face as he answered, "My mother didn't teach me much that I live by. But she did teach me that a gentleman never lets a woman pay." He winked at her.

"It's not a date Castle." She said, still staring him down.

"I'm currently trying to decide if I'm more scared of you or my mother. It's a dead tie." He said, looking truly torn. Beckett looked up to see that they had moved to the front of the line and the person behind the register was looking at them expectantly.

"Fine. But I get the next one." She said, crossing her arms. "And don't try to weasel your way out of it."

"Wouldn't dream of it, Detective."