Disclaimer: I do not own Castle or the recognizable characters who appear in this story. Any other names, for characters or businesses, are fictional, uncompensated, or are in the public domain.


Any doubts about the direction of this discussion are dispelled as Josh approaches the table at which Beckett sits. The clothes, the hair, the makeup, it all looks the same as usual. But there's something about her posture, the air around her – this must be how she is at the police station. She hardly looks approachable, and just in case he had any last doubts, the fact that she sits with a single cup of coffee drives the circumstances of their meeting home.

"Kate," he says, hardly recognizing the tone of voice that emerges. She rises to her feet and offers not a smile but a hand to shake. The less-than-subtle clues keep piling up, he thinks.

As he looks at her hand, Josh realizes that her overture is even more pointed than he realized. Her right hand is extended, with her left holding her coffee. It's a way to guarantee he'd use his right hand to greet her, except it's currently fractured. Which she knew. So, with a sigh, he clasps her right hand with his left, knowing better than to lean in to kiss her cheek.

"I'm just gonna go get a drink," he says with a vague nod toward the counter, using the opportunity to buy some time to think and to let her know that he's aware of the dynamics at play. It's only when he's in line that he realizes she hasn't yet said a word.

He slips into the seat across the table from Beckett a few minutes later, setting the coffee he'll probably neglect on the table in front of him. "Thanks for calling," he offers, not sure how to get this discussion started.

"I thought we should talk," she replies evenly.

"Is there anything new to say?" he asks, studying the blank expression on her face. "I'd hoped maybe we could give things another try, but you don't have to be a detective to read the signs," he says with a wave that takes in her coffee, her posture, and her position behind the table.

"I'm not interested in giving things another try," Beckett answers, still working to keep herself calm. "I thought that was clear from our last talk."

"You mean our talk where you dumped me out of the blue, after asking me to stay here for you?" he asks in reply, a little bitterness creeping into his tone.

"Look, Josh, I'm not going to go through all this again," she replies flatly. "And, frankly, I don't understand why you want to. What's going on with you? When I left your place on Saturday, you were happy enough to see me go."

"It was just a fight," Josh replies, shrugging away her comment. "People have them all the time. It doesn't mean we're done."

"Of course we're done," she replies flatly. "As was completely clear from the conversation – that was the whole point of the conversation. Besides, you don't say the things you did, make the kinds of accusations you made, then expect everything to get patched up," she replies, anger starting to bleed into her words. With a deep breath to calm herself down, she reaches for a much more relaxed tone of voice. "Why the revisionism now?"

"We were good together," he whispers, voice lilting to suggest playfulness but trailing off in the glare of her stony look. "I thought we were building something together," he tries instead.

"You see this?" Beckett says, gesturing to a section of empty tabletop.

"Yeah?" he asks in confusion.

"I went through my apartment and car to make sure I returned anything of yours," Beckett explains. "This is it," she says, gesturing again to the empty spot. "What does that say about us?" Seeing him about to charge in again, she quickly adds one more comment. "And I'm sure there are as many of my things at your place."

His response forestalled, Josh takes another tack. "I miss you," he offers with a shy shrug, shifting approach again.

"I doubt that," Beckett replies not unkindly. "You miss the idea of me. At heart, that's all we really had – ideas and expectations, impressions and references. We didn't spend enough time together to have more."

"But I stayed to give us that chance," he replies, sounding both disappointed and upset. "You asked me to stay and I stayed."

"No, Josh, you didn't," Beckett answers softly. "You didn't leave for Haiti, but that doesn't mean you stayed."

"Of course I stayed," he reacts immediately, offended. "I'm here, aren't I?"

"You might not've gone to Haiti, but you spent just as much time at the hospital here. We were never going to build anything more than we had without spending time together."

"That's a bit of a double-standard, don't you think?" Josh asks, surprising Beckett. "You can talk about me always being at the hospital, but you were gone just as much as I was."

Shutting her mouth with an audible clack, Beckett reminds herself that arguing is only going to send this conversation spiraling downward. So, she pulls herself back and addresses Josh's motivation rather than his accusation. "You weren't happy. I wasn't happy. I don't understand why you're so anxious to move backwards when it's clear that it wasn't working for us."

"I wasn't unhappy," Josh replies, and Beckett sighs. If 'not unhappy' is the best that can be said of a relationship, there's little hope. "It's just that you decided we were done and then..."

"Wait a minute," Beckett says, lifting a hand preempt the flow of words. "Is that what this is about? You're upset that I'm the one who ended things?"

"What? No," Josh replies quickly and confidently.

Too quickly. Beckett's been in far too many interrogations to miss these tells. All this – the tortured conversations, Castle's black eye – just because of his pride?

"That is what this's about," Beckett contradicts incredulously, shaking her head. "Sniffing out lies is part of my job, Josh, and I recognize one when I hear it."

"And working on hearts is part of my job," he retorts, uncomfortable at having been called out. "What does it say that I can't find one in you?"

"If we've devolved to name-calling, it's time to wrap this up," she answers peremptorily. Collecting her empty coffee cup, Beckett's preparing to stand when Josh catches her wrist with his (currently) uninjured hand.

"It's not name-calling, it's fact," he accuses, holding tight. "Castle told me all about it, you know," he continues, warming to this line as he sees Beckett's look of confusion. "He said you bounce back and forth from him to others without a care for who gets hurt. If that's not heartless, what is?"

"Remove your hand or it'll be in a splint, too," Beckett growls in such a shocking voice of low menace that Josh lets go instinctively, seeming surprised by his own actions. "And don't think you can lie to me about what Castle said."

"Oh, is this the mighty detective's lie detector again?" he asks sarcastically.

"I know exactly what Castle said to you," she replies fiercely, surveying this man who at one point seemed like someone in whom she could confide. "And I know exactly what you said to him."

"What, was he wearing a wire?" Josh jibes, laughing at the thought.

"I suggested it," Beckett says with a smile, enjoying how her words freeze her ex in place, "but he refused. So, instead, we just talked about your meeting. While I held an ice-pack to his head," she says with a smirk, recalling their discussion about whether the pack should go on the front or the back.

"I bet he just ran back and told you all about it," Josh scoffs, annoyed again at what he considers to be Castle's plan to bait him into taking a swing. "Couldn't wait to have one more lever to pry us apart."

"No, he didn't, actually," Beckett replies, her voice straddling the difference between fondness at the recollection of catching her partner unawares in his office and anger at Josh for losing his temper and resorting to physical violence. "I had to ask him what happened. And, for the record," she says while staring him down, "there was no 'us' to pry apart."

Ignoring her repeated reference to the end of their relationship, Josh forges ahead. "So, you're willing to believe what he said," he asks, "without even hearing my side of things?"

"I trust Castle," she replies simply and with conviction, leaving the inverse unstated.

"He wants you, you know," Josh pivots. "He'd say anything to win you."

Oddly, his words make Beckett break out in a wide smile. It starts as a look of fond reminiscence, before shifting into something more pointed. When he recognizes what's nearly a feral grin, he gulps and thinks again that he's seeing Detective Beckett, not Kate Beckett.

"Win? You think this is some game?" Beckett asks leadingly, happy to quote the lines that Castle relayed to her after his meeting with Josh, the words that had touched her more than she could bring herself to admit. "I can't be won – I'll choose who I want."

"And that's Castle," Josh laments in a low, defeated voice.

"Yes," she finally admits aloud, committing herself and feeling both free and a bit guilty. "That's Castle. Finally." When Josh doesn't reply, she thinks about another point that had come up in the pre-punch conversation, deciding that she needs to admit the same thing Castle did. "I owe you an apology," she admits, surprising Josh. "I was in a bad place when we started, reeling from a misunderstanding with Castle. It was a terrible foundation for us that could only end in heartache. It wasn't my intent, but I'm still sorry it happened."

"He's gonna hurt you," Josh predicts.

"No more than I've hurt him," she answers easily, thinking about the conversations she's already had with Castle and looking forward to more, looking forward to being on the same page so they can stop hurting each other accidentally and move forward together at last.

"He's probably already seeing someone," Josh charges. "Probably more than one, knowing him."

"He had a date Saturday night," she replies, watching him knit his brows at her casual statement. "But we were done in time for me to see him before then."

"He's going to leave you," Josh persists, unhappy that his words don't seem to be affecting her and offended that the timing of their breakup seems coordinated with Castle's social calendar. "You know how he is with women."

"I know exactly how he is with women," Beckett answers, thinking about Alexis and Martha, about how hard Castle works to care for them, how they – even if it's hidden behind a veneer of teasing comments – enjoy a foundational security in the certainty of his love for them. "I can only hope he'll treat me the same way."

Looking at her askance, it's clear that he has no idea what she's talking about. Her private knowledge makes her smile, confirms that she and Josh were never meant to be. It brings her peace of mind, though clearly the same isn't true for him.

"So, that's it," he summarizes. "You're going to run off with the playboy and get your heart broken. Don't come crying to me when it all falls apart."

"I promise," Beckett vows happily, "you won't see me again. Unless," she adds, voicing growing hard with another tone of menace, "you think about doing anything to Castle. Karpowski already talked to you about the consequences of your adolescent idiocy," she growls, watching Josh pale. "But I'll also promise you this: next time you'll deal with me, not him, and I can hurt you in ways even your medical training didn't cover."

"You…," Josh trails off, gulping down his comment that she wouldn't do that to him. Because the way that she's looking at him now suggests that it would take very little provocation for her to prove her resolve.

"The only reason you didn't spend a night in Holding," Beckett replies, still sounding like she'd like to see this happen, "is because Castle wouldn't cooperate. He gets to use that play once," she says, emphasizing the point with a raised finger. "But anything happens again, and it comes crashing down. Understand?"

This time, Josh can only nod.

"Goodbye, Josh," Beckett says as she stands, taking the higher road by taking her coffee to the trashcan rather than disposing of it as Josh had done after his altercation with Castle. That's the one little bit of their meeting that Castle hadn't shared, probably because he recognized how upset she was by everything else she'd heard without that addition. But as she drops her cup into the receptacle and pushes through the door without looking back, she adds it to the tally of things that Castle's done in deference to her.

As she steps out of the coffee shop and into the evening sun she pauses, looking up to feel the warmth on her face. She's finally done. Done with hiding, done with denying, and done with Josh. She breaks into a breathtaking smile, there on the sidewalk with her head tilted back, as she realizes that she and Castle are free. Free to see each other, free to flirt with intent, and free to pursue where that flirtation might lead.

Dropping her head but keeping her smile, Beckett starts striding home, mind already spinning with options and opportunities for her date with Castle. The giggle that escapes surprises her, makes her smile even more blinding. They are going to have so much fun.


A/N: So, I've got a little dilemma. I have an idea for the Halloween Fanfic event, but I'm pressed for time. So, I'm trying to decide between getting started on that or finishing this story with Beckett's surprise for Castle. I'll give it a think and see what happens, but I'm leaning toward finishing this before moving on.

Also, time for a little advertising! The magnificent Griever11 is arranging another Castle Fic Stream, this time covering two weekends! There are some really great authors participating, including authors of some of my favorite stories. GeekMom, Aalon, and I have a session during the first weekend, so please drop in if you can or send some questions in advance (if there are no questions, maybe Aalon and I will just come up with increasingly bizarre suggestions for the GeekMom's next chapter of Courtship). PM me if you want details.

Finally, please take care down south and watch out for Hurricane Matthew. Stay safe.