Moment in Time

Final Nail

Castle stood miserably next to Beckett on the sidewalk in front of Damien Westlake's townhouse. "'Show me a hero and I'll write you a tragedy.' F. Scott Fitzgerald said that." Beckett offered.

Castle closed his eyes and shook his head. "It must have been Ernest Hemmingway who said, "Man, I sure could use a drink about now,'" he replied.

"Lead the way," Beckett told him. "I'm buying."

"It's Valentine's Day. Shouldn't you be at a nice candlelit restaurant, wearing a new dress, ordering surf and turf?" Castle asked.

Beckett sighed. "No, Josh just called. He has an emergency surgery tonight."

"Well, you can't damn the guy for his dedication," Castle commented. "But it's his loss. Old Haunt?'

"Fine," Beckett told him. "I have an in with the owner."

Castle settled into the comfort of the booth where he had written "In a Hail of Bullets," with Beckett sitting across from him. The bar was decorated with hearts and suggestive pictures of cupid. Castle kept his eyes away from the celebratory cascade, staring at the surface of the table. "You okay, Castle?" Beckett asked.

"Yeah, I'm fine," he answered.

Beckett punched his arm. "Liar. You want a beer?"

"I'd like a scotch, but I'm not sure it would help. Let's get away from all this," Castle said, indicating the decorations. "I have some things downstairs in the office downstairs."

"What?" Beckett asked.

"I'll show you when we get there."

With slight hesitation, Beckett descended the stairs with Castle. He went to the desk, pulled a large gold box out of a drawer, and opened it. "Belgian chocolates!" Beckett exclaimed.

Castle smiled. "I see you share my addiction," he said, extending a small dark globe toward her mouth.

The scent of cherries arose as Beckett bit into the creamy richness Castle held out to her. Beckett closed her eyes and breathed it in. Castle wished for the appearance of some gun toting guardian of evil to give him an excuse to kiss the sweetness from her lips, but he had to console himself with a chocolate of his own. A coffee center created the enticing sensation of mocha on his tongue. Castle and Beckett demolished about half the box.

"We're going to get sick if we do anymore of this," Beckett said regretfully. "maybe we should go back upstairs."

"We can work it off," Castle told her.

"How?" Beckett asked. "You want to wander in the tunnels?"

Beckett was glad to see Castle laugh. "No, how about a game of twister?"

"You have twister down here, Castle? I don't even want to think about why."

"Detective! Get your mind out of the gutter. Alexis and some of her friends had a party here. I had a collection of amusements for them. Twister was one. Are you game?"

"Are you kidding, Castle? I'll beat your pants off."

Castle smirked. "Oh, please do."

It was not as easy to beat Castle as Beckett had imagined, simply because he took up so much space. Even with her long limbs, reaching over him was difficult. They finally ended up in a tangle of arms and legs, with his lips inches from hers. The room was suddenly pitched into darkness. Beckett sprang to her feet. "Not funny, Castle!"

"I had nothing to do with it!" Castle protested. He pulled the phone from his pocket to use the flashlight application. "Let's see if it's a circuit breaker. I think the panel is over here."

Beckett pulled out her police issue Mag-lite and shined it on the switches. "I don't see anything flipped," she said.

"I don't either," Castle agreed. "Maybe it's a blackout. Let's go upstairs and find out. Grabbing a couple of the lanterns from the storage closet, they made their way back through the trap door. The room was in darkness and several patrons had already gone to the door to look out. The situation was obvious, with horns blaring impatiently as traffic had already slowed to a near halt with lights no longer controlling its flow.

"It doesn't look like anyone is going much of anywhere," Castle observed. "We might as well make things as comfortable for the customers as possible. Castle enlisted the staff to bring up whatever lanterns remained downstairs. Without a cash register or credit card reader, Castle allowed the customers to sign for chits for drinks. Brian, the bartender was encouraged to serve as many drinks as possible at room temperature and kegs were tapped by hand.

With the flow of alcohol largely uninterrupted, the atmosphere was surprisingly upbeat. The piano player took requests by lantern light and several patrons decided to sing torch songs to their dates. After more than a little urging, Beckett leaned against the piano and sang "Blue Eyes" to the howls and whistles of the crowd.

"That was really good," Castle told her, "but doesn't Josh have brown eyes?"

"Yeah, he does." Beckett agreed.

"My eyes are blue," Castle told her.

"Really Castle, I never noticed."

"Who's the liar this time?" Castle asked.

One patron had apparently been indulging long before showing up at the Old Haunt. He approached Beckett. "I reeeally liiked your soong," He told her. "And I reeeally liike yooo," he said, grabbing her arm.

"You really don't want to do that," Castle told him.

"Why? Whaat are yooo gonna doo?" The man asked.

"Me? Nothing," Castle replied. "But she will."

The man suddenly found himself face down on the floor wearing Beckett's cuffs.

"That was thoughtful," Castle told Beckett. "At least you didn't break his arm, or knock him unconscious."

"Wouldn't want the paperwork," Beckett replied, regarding her hapless suitor. "He's already passed out. Let's put him in a booth, I'll take the cuffs off and he can sleep it off."

The lights came back on without warning. The customers lingered, settling their tabs, waiting for the traffic to smooth out, and finishing a last drink. Slowly they began to drift out. Beckett's admirer had regained consciousness and was loaded into a taxi. "Are you ready to go?" Castle asked Beckett when the population had thinned to Brian and a few regulars. "We can probably get a cab for ourselves now."

"I had a nice time tonight," Beckett told Castle as the hack approached her apartment. "Weird, but nice."

"Even with Prince Charming?" Castle asked.

Beckett laughed. "Especially with Prince Charming. If I'm ever stranded in a blackout on Valentine's day again, Castle, I'd be happy to be stranded with you."

"Detective Beckett, it's a date."