Girls Night

Chapter 7, October 2010

Alternate title: Writing books and open-heart surgery, they can both save lives.

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Disclaimer: See Chapters three or four which will refer you to chapters one and two. Or simply just go to one and two.

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"I don't want to talk about him," Kate said with a determined glint in her eye.

"Too bad, I do," Lanie said, undeterred by the look Kate was giving her.

Kate sighed, "Lanie, I don't want to talk about Castle…"

"Who said anything about Castle?" Lanie interrupted. "I'm interested in," she paused and thought a moment then snapped her fingers as she remembered, "Josh!"

"Josh?" Kate asked in surprise.

"Yeah, Josh." Lanie said, and then leaned in toward Kate, "Where'd he come from?"

Kate smiled with a glint in her eye, "You're a doctor, Lanie. Didn't they teach you where babies come from?"

Lanie glared at Kate but couldn't hold back her smile, "Ha. Ha. Very funny. You know what I mean."

Still smiling Kate said, "I thought it was pretty good."

"Don't make me kick your skinny butt," Lanie said as she tried to hold back another smile.

Kate took a sip of her wine and said, "Oh please, like you could."

Lanie lightly slapped Kate's arm and said, "Spill."

Kate smiled and said, "We've only been dating a short time," at Lanie's questioning look she added, "Maybe a week or two after Castle came back."

"You mean after you allowed him back."

"What?"

"I know all about the bet you had with Writer boy, and…" Lanie paused and watched Kate carefully, "I know how you purposely lost the bet so he could stay."

'Bingo!' Lanie thought, when she saw the look on Kate's face.

Kate quickly put on a poker face and said, "Please, I didn't throw the bet."

"Uh huh."

"And I thought you wanted to talk about Josh, not Castle."

"Oh I'm flexible, Kate. I can talk about anyone at any time."

Now that Kate looked even more confused Lanie said, "So where did you meet him?"

"Who?"

"Josh, of course! Unless you've got another boyfriend hidden away from us."

"Oh! So that's what this is about," Kate said. "You're upset that I didn't tell you about Josh."

Lanie snorted and said, "Yeah, right. So where did you meet him?"

Kate picked up a carrot stick, dunked it in some ranch dressing and said, "Remember when I took that long weekend and rode my bike up to my dad's cabin?"

"Yeah."

"Well, that Sunday when I was headed home it started to rain so I pulled over at a diner to wait it out and he was doing the same."

"He rides a motorcycle?"

Kate smiled and said, "Uh huh."

"So you immediately had something in common."

"Yeah, even though he rides a Honda and not a Harley."

Lanie smiled and took a sip of her wine, "Well, they both start with the same letter."

"Please, there's no comparison."

Lanie smiled at Kate's Harley prejudice when suddenly it dawned on her, "Hey! You went up there in August!"

"Yeah?"

"You've been dating him since August? Girl we were all on pins and needles making sure not to mention Castle's name because you were unhappy he hadn't called and you were dating Josh?"

"What?"

"Kate, you practically moped around the precinct the entire summer! Hell, how many times did I ask you to get together and you kept saying no, and you had Josh for part of that time?"

Kate shook her head and said, "Ok, first, I wasn't moping this summer just because Castle was too busy with his ex-wife to pick up a phone."

Lanie snorted and replied, "Phones work both ways, you know."

Kate looked closely at Lanie and asked, "What's that supposed to mean?"

Lanie picked up her wine and took a sip, "Nothing," then waved her hand at Kate, "Go on, what were you saying?"

Kate took a moment to get back on her train of thought and said, "Second, no I wasn't dating Josh then even though he did ask me out."

"You were so moping around the precinct," Lanie said, then added, "Ok, so when did you start dating him?"

Kate looked down at her glass and mumbled something that Lanie didn't hear. "What was that? Stop mumbling to your wine and talk to me."

Kate looked up and said, "About two weeks after Castle came back."

Lanie thought for a moment and said, "Wasn't that around the time…?" then paused as she remembered how painful the memory of Royce's betrayal was for Kate.

Kate nodded her head slowly and said, "Yeah. I had lunch with my dad and when I was leaving the café I bumped into Josh as he was walking in. He offered to buy me lunch but I'd already eaten and then he asked if I'd at least have a coffee with him. Since I still had time and my dad had already left I said ok and I joined him. One thing led to another and I accepted when he asked me out."

Lanie nodded her head and decided that she had to get Kate's mind away from any memories of Royce. "What does he do and do we need to investigate him?"

Kate smiled and said, "You don't need to investigate him and he's a doctor…a surgeon really, who specializes in cardiology."

Lanie nodded her head and said, "That explains it."

Kate looked puzzled and asked, "Explains what?"

"His attitude."

"What attitude?"

"The condescending attitude."

"He's not condescending, Lanie!" Kate said with some heat. "He's a caring man who donates his time and talent to help others less fortunate."

Lanie nodded her head and said, "I have no reason to doubt you Kate, but that's not quite what I heard."

Kate narrowed her eyes and said, "What did you hear?"

"Kate, I have no doubt that when he's with you Josh is a great boyfriend and makes you happy, and if he does, that makes me happy too."

"He does, yet I sense a "but" in there somewhere."

Lanie nodded her head, "Mmm hmm, it's the way a person treats others that shows who he really is."

Kate smiled and said, "Well you have nothing to worry about then, because Josh donates time to Doctors Without Borders a few times a year."

Lanie nodded her head and said, "That's nice…", but Kate was still speaking, "The other surgeons know they can count on him to help when they need it. As a matter of fact the other morning he had to cancel breakfast with me in order to go in and perform open heart surgery to save a man's life."

"He sounds really nice."

"He is," Kate said but Lanie continued speaking. "But from what I heard he also can come across as condescending and arrogant." Lanie said.

"What?" Kate exclaimed.

Lanie put up her hand, made the sign of quotation marks and quoted, "Hey boys, catch any bad guys today?"

"What do you mean?" Kate asked.

"Boys?" Lanie questioned.

"They are my boys," Kate replied. "You've called them that yourself."

"But they aren't strangers to me."

"Ryan and Esposito…"

"Castle." Lanie added.

Kate waved her hand with a sigh, "Whatever."

"And Montgomery?" Lanie asked.

"Huh?" Kate said with her mouth open.

"You consider Captain Montgomery one of your boys?"

"Of course not!" Kate said.

"So why would Josh call him one?" Lanie asked.

"He didn't…"

"Oh yes he did. Esposito, Ryan, Castle and Montgomery were standing there when Josh called them boys."

"So?"

"So from what I heard, Captain Montgomery isn't too impressed with your new boyfriend's lack of respect."

"Lanie, that's…"

Lanie put up her hand to stop Kate and said, "Whatever, Kate. But you might want to remind your boyfriend that cops are as important as doctors, especially police captains."

Kate shook her head, "I don't think…"

Lanie put her hand on Kate's arm, "Kate, don't bother with what you think he meant or not, just know that Montgomery was not happy." Lanie paused a moment and added, "I'm just givin' you a heads up girl."

Kate paused a moment, thinking about something before she said, "He's not the only one who doesn't seem happy with Josh."

"Oh?"

"Yeah, Castle's been acting a bit weird since Josh came to the precinct."

"Well, being referred to as a 'boy'…"

Kate barked a laugh, "Oh please, if anyone deserves the title, he does!"

Lanie shook her head, "Again Kate, you and I know that, but Josh never met him before. We tend to forget that Castle is a world famous author with a couple dozen best selling books under his belt."

Kate paused for a moment and said, "Ok, but come on Lanie, Castle writes stories while Josh saves lives. There's no comparison."

Lanie stared at Kate for almost a minute before Kate finally asked, "What?"

"Weren't you the one who told me those stories of Castle's helped save your life?"

Kate had opened her mouth to reply but Lanie's words simply stopped her cold. Lanie continued and said, "Kate, if Josh makes you happy, and from what you say he does, then I'm going to support you and him one hundred and ten percent. You are my friend, my best friend, and I only want you to be happy."

Kate looked at Lanie and smiled softly, "Thanks, Lanie. He does. I know we both have crazy schedules and we're going to have to cancel on each other, but when we're together it's good, Lanie. It's really good."

Lanie reached over and patted Kate's hand. "Then I'm happy for you Kate," she paused for a moment and a wicked gleam came into her eye, "So when am I going to meet him?"

"Hmmm? What?" Kate replied.

"When am I going to meet him? The man needs to be vetted, Kate." At the surprised look on Kate's face Lanie added, "You've done the same for me."

Kate quickly gulped down the rest of her drink, "Let me get back to you on that."

Lanie chuckled and said, "Nice stall tactic girl, but I'll keep trying."

Kate waved to their waiter for another drink, she had a feeling she was going to need it.

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AUTHORS NOTE: From what we saw in the first few episodes of season 3, I firmly believe that Kate and Josh only started dating after Castle came back and Kate knew he was still with Gina. Unfortunately for Josh, if you look up the word "Rebound" in the dictionary you'll see his photo. As much of a Castle shipper as Lanie was, I have no doubt that her first priority was Kate and her happiness, and if that meant Josh and not Castle, then so be it, in spite of the fact that he came across as arrogant when he met the team at the end of 'Punked". But honestly, wouldn't you have loved to see Lanie vetting Josh? That would have been priceless. ;-)