Disclaimer: The wording is mine but the characters aren't
OOOOOOOOO
"Okay stop right there. That is the second time since we've been in here that you've raised doubt over my manliness."
"In the women's toilets." She deadpanned. "Besides I thought your point was that you did more than manly bonding. And video games do not count."
"Evil woman."
"You haven't seen anything yet."
He gave her a playful glare. "Don't encourage what you can't handle, Beckett."
"I think I can handle you, Castle."
OOOOOOOOO
"So, I have a question," he asked when they retreated to the break room again.
"Yeah?"
"Where are we going to sleep?"
She was briefly speechless at hearing the words 'we' and 'sleep' together in the same sentence.
"I mean, I'm cool if you want to head back to the loft with me…" she hoped he wasn't watching her reaction.
Who was she kidding? Of course he was.
"But then again…"
She was picturing walking in and trying to explain this to Alexis as he continued on. On the other hand, she thought Alexis would probably take it really well, she wouldn't even laugh too much.
"…when my mother finds out we are doing this for an act…"
They both shuddered.
"You're right," she agreed quickly. "We'll go back to my place."
She loved Martha but not enough to take acting lessons from her. Especially on romance scenes. She wasn't sure she was ready to go back to that experience any time soon.
She headed for the sink to dump her mug and he dumbly collected himself in time to follow before the cuffs snapped taut.
"You mean now?" He was caught a little off guard and she couldn't help grin at the squeak in his voice.
"I know you've memorized all the profiles. That's all we've had to do all afternoon. Basically unless we get any new leads, we're just waiting for Lanie to come back."
"Oh, ok." He still looked a little surprised but followed her back to her desk as she logged off and snatched up her keys and purse.
Neither of them looked into the eyes of l the other members of the 12th watching them leave together. In an unspoken agreement they just walked briskly (not too fast) to the elevator, heads held high and their gaze steady and waited for the elevator to make it to their floor.
Just as a light chime announced its imminent arrival, she risked a glance at him, and found him glancing over at her. A wide smile came over his lips, pulling them up into her favorite crooked smile and she couldn't help but reciprocate. The normalcy of it all under the painfully obvious stares of their co-workers had them fighting against laughing outright as the elevator doors slid closed behind them.
He was surprised how well she was taking it. He wondered about that as soon as he thought it. On one hand, he was constantly surprised by Beckett. On the other hand, why had he even thought that she wouldn't just take it in her stride and adapt with classic Beckett sophistication?
He may have had a fantasy about being handcuffed to Katherine Beckett once. In fact, he was pretty sure he had a few years back. She had cuffed him before after all. That tends to get a writer's imagination going.
He just never thought it would be like this.
The way she looked at him when she realised she was stuck with him for 24 hours had him checking to see if he still had any flesh left. She could have burnt it all off with that one look. He vaguely remembered the first time Beckett had brought him in for questioning. He remembered being enchanted and fascinated by the lines of her face, her subtle wit and no nonsense attitude. He especially remembered her shooting his charm down. That really upset his ego.
Maybe he had really been stupid. Or maybe he had grown up since he started following her.
Because there was no way that he could ever be that relaxed with her looking at him like that now. The more he got to know her the more he was sure one day she probably would be able to kill him with a look alone.
But somehow through routine, juggling and a lot of restraint (he had never been so quiet), they had made it through the afternoon. And when he wasn't memorizing profiles, he was mentally writing a list of all the things that were going to start going wrong pretty soon.
By some miracle they had negotiated the rest rooms. Both still alive and everything. It might have been his imagination but he thought he saw the exchange of some bills as they walked back to her desk from a ten minute visit.
At work they managed because they had routine. But they had never spent a night together. Well they had…if you count separate rooms, and space or Alexis between them as they watched movies on the couch.
A night…where were they even going to stay? He shied away from even thinking of what his mother would say.
How were they even going to sleep? He tried not to dwell on that one for decencies sake. He had also realised that neither of them would be able to even take their jackets off. Well, they could, minus a sleeve. That thankfully ruled out any bathing situations. It would make for a very uncomfortable evening though. Not to mention how much coffee they had been drinking…He would admit to having thought of a certain detective and a shower. He had never thought about her standing by his side as he relieved himself.
And now here they were suddenly confronted with her car.
They both just looked at each other. Like both of them had forgotten they were chained together.
Needing a game plan for everything was going to be exhausting.
Also trying to hide certain things was not getting any easier. It had taken a lot more control than he thought he had to keep her sitting on his lap all afternoon. He had been literally breathtakingly aware of the way she felt pressed on him. Not to mention the way all the small movements from her as she bent over to get files or reach for the computer pushed herself even closer to him in interesting ways. He knew she was aware, though not nearly as aware, of him because whenever he tried to move his legs discreetly to pump the blood back down to his toes, she would always find something that needed doing away from the desk. On a few occasions, he had to fake that before she felt a different part of him pressing against her.
He shook his head, confronted with this new dilemma.
They looked at each other for a split second before looking back to try and solve this new problem.
"I am not sitting on your lap and driving," she said flatly.
"How about taking a taxi?" He suggested.
He could see the defiance in her eyes. He knew that she liked her independence and he tried to compromise that as little as possible (for his own good). He drew the line when it became a health and safety issue.
Driving one handed in a compromised position (probably with a compromised attitude by the time they got into the car) was a definite safety issue. He still wanted to see Alexis graduate after all.
"The good news is that we are still on a case so we don't have to worry about getting called out in the middle of the night so it's not really like we need the car. We can easily just catch a cab tomorrow morning."
She gave a quiet sigh, acknowledging the idea and the way he was trying to make this easier on her. She briefly nudged his shoulder and in an uncharacteristic act of contact, took the hand still cuffed to her own and used it to spin and drag him out of the underground car parking.
