The awkward silence of the elevator ride up was finally broken by the ringing of her cell phone. Kate pulled it out and answered it, surprised at how good the reception was.

"This Kate Beckett?"

"It is."

"I'm Ross, pizza delivery from Iota's. I'm in front of your building, but I don't see any doors."

She grinned and glanced to Castle, reflex mostly, since he couldn't possibly have heard that. "Right. I'll come down and let you in. It's around the back. Alley on the right-"

"Got it. Meet you back there."

She hung up and the elevator doors opened on her floor. "Pizza guy is here. Waiting at the back."

Castle nodded to the beer she still cradled against her chest. "Take that in to the boys; I'll go back for the pizza." He pressed a hand to the elevator doors and waited on her to get off.

Instead, she set the beer on the floor and reached in her back pocket for her wallet, even as Castle was shaking his head. "You already bought the beer."

"Peanuts. Let me buy the pizza. I didn't have to do that much heavy lifting, and I'm eternally grateful. So let me feed them." Castle nudged the case of beer with his toe, pushing it towards the doors in a not-so-subtle gesture for her to get going.

Kate took out a couple of twenties and put her wallet back in her pocket; she folded the bills over and looked at Castle with a mock glare. He stood stoic in the car, not giving in, so she took one step closer and shoved the money in the front pocket of his jeans with two fingers, making sure she kept eye contact, lifting her lips into a smile as she did.

She felt his chest contract against her forearm, heard the catch in his breath, and her smile stretched wider as she bent down to pick up the case of beer. He couldn't see her face, thank goodness, but he was probably checking out her ass. She didn't look back, simply walked off the elevator and down the hall.

She hoped he remembered to tip the pizza guy.


Inside her apartment, the boys had broken out the box labeled electronics and were setting up her television. It wasn't where she'd have chosen it to go, but it would do for now. She dropped the beer on the kitchen table that wasn't in the kitchen-the one she'd bought that day to work as a dining room/work space right against the wall of windows. The kitchen chairs, all of them straight-backed wooden slats and painted in a variety of faded shades, were arranged around the television now but would go over here as well. She usually brought home a couple of cases a month to spread out on a flat surface and pour over in the silence, and sometimes, just sometimes, she still arranged a murder board for her mother's case.

So the kitchen table would be a nice place to work at out here. And she'd eat at the one Castle had made for the small breakfast nook.

"Where's the pizza?" Ryan said, standing up from behind the tv where he'd been twisting in coax cables. "Also, I can't believe you don't have an HDMI cord. This tv is awesome, but you're wasting its potential."

"Castle's getting the pizza right now. And what's HDMI?"

A collective groan went up from the boys, who turned as one to face her down. But she was smiling at them, a smirk on her face, and they caught it in time.

Javier stood up as well and grabbed the box of electronics, rifling around in it. "You do have one?"

"I do. But I think it's in a bag in my room."

Ryan made for the stairs. "I'll get it."

Of all of the boys, yeah, Ryan was the one she trusted to go in her room and come back out without messing with anything. "I got beer, though."

The grumbling turned into cheers and they all got up and swarmed the table. Kate took that time to escape up the stairs after Kevin Ryan, trying to remember where that bag of tv accessories and computer cords had gone.

Ryan was standing in the middle of her room with his hands in his pockets when she came in. He turned back to her and lifted his hands. "I didn't touch anything. Sorry. I forgot."

She arched an eyebrow at him, but said nothing else. Always worked better if she remained a bit of a mystery. Kate stepped past him to dig through the open box she'd collected odds and ends into. "So, that joke you told Alexis-"

"Oh man," he groaned and slumped against the doorframe.

"Was it really dirty? Castle thinks it's dirty."

"It wasn't dirty!" Ryan bounced off the doorframe and paced the room. "It was Esposito that made it sound dirty."

Ah. That explained things. "It wasn't that story you told us about Jenny and the priest?"

"No!" He blushed fiercely at that and rubbed his hands over his cheeks. "And don't you dare tell Jenny that I accidentally told you guys."

"I won't. If the price is right," she grinned back at him over her shoulder.

"Castle really thinks I'd tell his daughter a dirty joke?"

"Well, no, he doesn't. That's the problem. He can't believe you'd do that, and yet, everything makes it look like you have."

"Did Alexis tell Castle what Esposito said?"

"No." Kate found the ziplock bag of cords and held it up in triumph. "You gonna tell me what Esposito said?"

If possible, his blush deepened. "No." Ryan rubbed at his neck and followed her out the door. "I can't repeat that. In fact, I don't think I can ever tell that story again. Not after hearing the way Javier said it."

Kate chuckled and shrugged. "Well, I don't care either way, Ryan. But you do know that Castle is persistent. He will wear you down."

"I know," he moaned and started clattering down her steps.

The guys still standing around her tv (but now with beer) turned to look at them, and Kate raised the HDMI cord in the air. "Found it. Catch."

Of course, Esposito managed to barehand it while also holding his beer and he gave her a head nod before handing it over to one of the beat cops. "You got this Mitch."

Mitchell (Kate could never remember if it was his first name or last name) started connecting the television to the blu ray player, and Kate made her way downstairs. At that moment, Castle crashed in the front door with four pizza boxes in his hands, using his elbow to shut it again.

"Pizza!" Castle's entrance had every eye on him, and in a drawn-out silence, every man in the room gave him an evil grin.

Castle glanced to Kate in bewilderment, then to Ryan, who looked absolutely terrified, and then to Esposito, who (Kate saw) looked entirely too pleased with himself. Castle hesitated at the kitchen table beside her, the pizza still in his hands, then realization swept across his face.

"Everyone in the room knows this joke but me, don't they?"

Esposito gave him a thoroughly self-satisfied grin and took the pizzas out of Castle's hands. "Whatever do you mean?"

"Oh, this is so not funny."

Kate took one look at his face and burst out laughing, covering her mouth with one hand and turning her face away to gasp for breath. "Oh, Castle. Hilarious."

"It's not at all." He sounded like a petulant child. "Someone better be telling me this joke." As he talked, the boys were jostling around him to get at the pizza. Kate had paper towels to hand out, but no clean plates. She didn't think they cared.

"Come on. Someone tell me the joke already."

Kate smirked to herself as she grabbed a hot slice of sausage, pineapple, and extra cheese, and she was faintly glad that Ryan hadn't gotten a chance to tell her which story it was that Esposito had made sound so dirty. At the same time, teasing Castle mercilessly was turning out to be so much fun. "Get enough beer into 'em, Castle, and I'm sure they'll tell you eventually."

"Ha!" Castle grinned in triumph and pulled out a beer from the case. "Good idea. Espo?" He held out the beer like a challenge and, to his credit, Esposito took one long, last swig of the bottle in his hand, then reached for the one Castle was offering.

"Thanks. But it ain't happening, hombre."