AN: I am so terribly sorry that it's taken me this long to update. I never intended to leave this for so long. I promise I had good reason, but I still feel horrible for taking so long. It should never be this long a wait in the future, if I can at all help it. I hope there are still people reading this, and again I am so sorry for making you wait this long.
Kate manages to avoid Lanie for the first week she's back, her friend seemingly content with vague threats sent via text that let Kate know she hasn't forgotten and will find out eventually. It's gotten to the point where Kate just sighs at every text, wondering if she should just tell her friend and get it over with, but knowing she won't. She knows Lanie will make a bigger deal out of things than they are, and Kate doesn't need that added distraction as she works through what has and hasn't changed between herself and Castle since that weekend.
She knows the boys are starting to notice, that their behavior is different enough to start raising questions. Castle's changes are less noticeable, he's still annoying and childlike, but he also listens more. He actually follows directions when she gives them, listens without comment when she explains police procedure.
Kate's behavior on the other hand is noticeably different, and she knows it. She's actually laughing at his jokes openly, rather than hiding a smile to avoid encouraging him. She's genuinely concerned when they go into danger, no jokes about paperwork or brushing it off as him risking Ryan or Esposito the way she'd hidden her concern after the standoff. Now she goes into every potentially dangerous situation with him seeing his daughter's small, worried face, and knows she can't let him risk himself. Can't let anything happen to that little girl's father.
When she catches herself fixing the strap on his vest she knows she's taking it too far, but she can't help herself. The grateful look he sends her way is enough to distract her from the curious and far too knowing looks the boys are shooting their way as they suit themselves up. As she leads the way into the building, Castle safely behind her without argument, she can hear muttering from the two partners, and knows when they reach the precinct she'll be facing two interrogations. One with her facing the suspect, the next with her facing the two detectives.
She wishes for a moment that even a single part of her life could stay private, and then pushes the distraction to the side. Unless the suspect got rid of the gun, something he doesn't seem smart enough to do, he'll be armed when they go in. "Stay back" she allows herself to order Castle as she stacks next to the door, receiving a nod without argument and earning raised eyebrows from the boys before her glare focuses them once more.
The takedown is thankfully quick, their suspect not able to get to the gun's hiding place before the three detectives reach him. His attempts do manage to save them some searching, and Kate again thanks whatever force is responsible for stupid criminals for making her job that little bit easier.
It's a short interrogation with the suspect, no more than thirty minutes of trying her patience with the classic "that's not my gun" excuse. The man acts like he's following some idiot criminal script, and if there wasn't a young woman in the morgue because of said idiot, Kate would almost be amused.
Stepping out of the interrogation room to let the man write out his confession, Kate catches sight of her fellow detectives waiting for her and almost wishes eh would have asked for a lawyer. She would still have broken him, but it would have taken longer, and she would have more time before facing the boys.
Instead she's turning the door over to the uniform who will take the killer down to holding and walking into the bullpen. The boys let her settle into her chair, turning to face her with matching expressions. She knows she's in for it now, and wonders where Castle has gotten off too. She's not sure whether she wants him here for this or not.
"So, you and Castle huh?" No, she definitely does not want him here for this. Esposito is entirely too smug, and Ryan is looking at her like Christmas has come early.
"Castle and I what?" Even knowing what they're implying, she's giving no ground. She's performed enough interrogations to know when to play it safe.
"Well, you seemed awfully comfortable at that crime scene. Helping him with his vest, the way he just let you order him around. You two been practicing while off duty?" Esposito is still smug, but Ryan is starting to look like he just opened socks on Christmas, like he can't believe his partner is really going there.
"What, I'm not intimidating enough while on duty? You seem to follow orders well enough." The glare almost sells it; she can see Esposito waver and Ryan fight not to turn back to his desk. But she's trained them to be persistent, and now it's coming back to bite her.
"Come on, Beckett. A week ago you couldn't stand the guy, now you're straightening his vest and laughing at his jokes. What changed?" Apparently the glare only accomplished getting Esposito to drop the innuendo and go straight for answers. And she can't think of any answer that isn't going to get her in trouble. It's masterful technique, and she's strangely proud of how well he's pulled it off. They're barely into the conversation and he's nearly got her cornered.
"I helped him out when he was sick, okay Espo? Now will you drop it and focus on your paperwork?" She doesn't have the patience to keep the game going, and Lanie already knows, so she figures there isn't much risk in letting him know that much. And maybe answering will get him to shut up.
"How domestic of you" he smirks instead, not noticing Ryan wince next to him.
He notices her glare though, dropping the smirk and looking down at his paperwork. Apparently this glare was more effective than the last one, because Ryan is spinning around to his desk to avoid it, filing through paperwork she's pretty sure he's already finished trying to look busy.
She watches the two for a moment, both of them studiously avoiding her looking at her as they pretend to work. She knows them well enough to know they'll probably go after Castle next, and get the rest of the story, but for now she has a reprieve. She just hopes he leaves out the 'talking for hours' part of the story. Lanie might end up getting that out of her, but there's no reason for the boys to know.
Castle comes in after they've been working on paperwork for a few minutes, the boys still silently focusing on their own work. He shoots her a curious look as they he walks by them without any reaction, and she responds with a simple eye roll and shrug, hoping he'll take the hint.
Apparently he does, because he continues past them and sits in his chair next to the desk, glancing at his watch to check the time. "Is there somewhere you needed to be?" she asks him, pitching her voice low to avoid attracting the boys' attention.
"Just checking how close it was to the end of school, making sure I have time to pick Alexis up" he responds at the same volume, following her gaze towards the boys. "Is there a reason we're whispering by the way?"
"The boys think something is going on between us" she replies with another eye roll. "They think they've noticed some things, and I'm not giving them any more ammunition to use. You know how they get when they're stuck on something." She notices him getting one of his mischievous looks, and immediately starts to worry. "And so help me Castle, if you encourage them in any way or spill any secrets, I will get Lanie to help me hide your body. Let them be."
"Fine" he pouts, turning away from staring at their desks. "But think how much fun we could have had messing with them."
She doesn't even bother to respond to that. "I told them I helped out while you were sick. That's all they know, and that's all they need to know, got it? They're my coworkers, and there are things about my life that I might not want them to know."
"Kate, all you did was help when I was sick, what more is there to tell?" They're still whispering, and Kate glances over at the boys to make sure they're actually focused on their work, not trying to eavesdrop on the conversation. The last thing she needs is for them to overhear any of what they're talking about.
"They said it was 'domestic' of us, okay Castle? So no feeding that fire when it was just friends helping each other out." The smirk is back, and she narrows her eyes at him until he drops it.
They sit quietly after that, all three of the men seemingly scared into silence by her glare, and the peace gives Kate enough of a respite to finish her paperwork fairly early. Glancing at the clock, she mentally tallies up transit time to the morgue and Lanie's schedule, and decides she should have enough time to make it before the ME leaves for the day. She's hesitant to leave Castle behind with the boys, but with as quiet as he's been she's less worried he'll let something slip he shouldn't.
"I'm going down to see Lanie" she announces as she stands, surprising the boys with the sudden interjection into the silence. She tries not to smirk as all three stare up at her, but she's not sure how well she succeeds. "Not case related, Castle" she says as he starts to stand with her, shooting him a look that has him dropping back into his chair before turning and walking out.
xxxxxxxxxxx
Walking into the morgue, Kate is glad to see Lanie sitting at her desk working on paperwork, rather than in the middle of an autopsy. She knows her friend is always okay with being interrupted during paperwork, but once she's started an autopsy you'd better be dying before you break her concentration. If she's going to get this over with, it's better to start with a happy Lanie than an annoyed one.
Clearing her throat to get her friend's attention, Kate almost starts to second guess her plan as her friend's face lights up. Maybe coming to Lanie and making this easy for her wasn't the best idea. Though with the alternatives being either at Lanie's apartment on her friend's home ground, or at her own apartment feeling defensive, maybe the more neutral location of work will be better.
"What is this? Kate Beckett making it easy on me and saving me the trouble of hunting her down? Did the sun rise in the west today?" Lanie is leaning back in her chair smirking up at her friend, and Kate starts to think she knows how the boys felt earlier.
"It's not like it's a big deal, Lanie. I took care of his kid, that's all." Kate says as she perches on the edge of her friend's desk.
"You took care of his kid, for multiple nights, at his house. And there's something about it you aren't telling me. So don't tell me it's not a big deal when you're hiding part of it."
"What makes you think I'm hiding anything?" Denial might not actually work, but she's definitely not giving in to Lanie as easily as she did to the boys. She can't give her friend a single sentence and a glare and get out of the conversation.
"I know you, Kate. Sometimes it seems like better than you know yourself." Kate's look of disbelief at that is matched by a knowing smirk as her friend continues. "You're hiding something from me, something to do with Writer Boy, and it's not what his daughter likes for breakfast. And from your look, it's not what color his sheets are either." It crosses her mind that technically she does know the answer to both of those questions, but she files that under things Lanie doesn't need to know.
"Now, Esposito mentioned things between you two have been a little weird for the past week, including fixing his clothing, and normally I'd think that was just him being an idiot about anything resembling a relationship like normal, but when added to the fact that you're hiding something from me, it adds up to something. I may not know what yet, but I know there is a what." She'll have to give Esposito dumpster duty for that piece of gossip, Kate decides as she listens to her friend.
"It was his Kevlar vest, and we were going into a potentially armed suspect's apartment." Kate argues, trying to play it off. "Not like I was fixing his collar or his belt"
"Come on, Kate, I'm your friend. Why are you holding out on me? What, was he some one night stand in a bar years ago?"
"God, no! Why would your mind go there?" Coming to the morgue was definitely a bad idea. Can't she just take it back, go back to the precinct and pretend to spend an hour on paperwork?
"Well you're not giving me anything else. Okay, so if he wasn't a one night stand, and you've only known him since that first case" her friend's face changes in the middle of the sentence, and Kate knows she's busted. "I know that look girl, you knew him before the case. Don't even try to deny it, I saw that wince. So what? College fling? He dated your best friend and you were jealous? He dated you and your friend was jealous?"
"No, Lanie. It wasn't college." She's already caught; maybe if she starts talking now, she can limit the damage. "We went to elementary school together for a semester, that's all."
"Aww, you two were babies together! That's adorable." Okay, limiting the damage might be harder than she'd thought.
"Lanie, we were ten. Hardly babies; and it was a long time ago."
"Compared to where we are now, ten was a baby year. And I don't see why you'd hide that from me. Going to school with the man is not a big deal." Lanie still has the look on her face that means she's thinking, and it's starting to worry Kate.
"That's what I've been trying to tell you!" Please just let it end here.
"No, you've been trying to tell me nothing has been going on and you weren't hiding anything. And since you were definitely hiding something, I think there's more to it. Were you two like elementary school sweethearts or something?"
"No!" Crap, as soon as she gives the answer, she knows it's too vehement, and sure enough Lanie latches on immediately.
"I know that 'no'. That 'no' means there's something. Now, you can tell me, or I can keep guessing. Maybe even call Writer Boy and see who he's more scared of, me or you." There's no way she's getting out of this now, even if she knows Castle will be more scared of her than Lanie
"Fine. But just so you know, he'd be more scared of me." Before her friend can ask, Kate continues. "While I was at his place we started talking about memories and how we finally remembered knowing each other after all these years. He'd gone by his middle name, long story" Kate explains as she catches the questioning look on her friend's face. We ended up sharing stories about the time we spent in between that semester and now, and let's just say I have enough dirt on him to keep him behaving for years."
"And you're not going to share any of it with your best friend?" Lanie exclaims as Kate falls into silence.
"No, because he has just as much dirt on me" Kate has to admit, not looking her friend in the eye. It's true, the man now knows things about her that she hasn't told her friend, and she's not sure how Lanie will take that.
"Wait a second here. You've told that man things sober you apparently can't even tell me after how many drunken nights, and you're still trying to convince me you're not dating? Kate, let him take you out to a restaurant so you get the rest of the package, because you two are an item now." Well, that went over surprisingly well, if in a startling direction.
"Lanie, we're not dating. We're just old friends who caught up after a long time apart. Plus there's his kid, and that playboy thing he's got going on. I'm okay being friends with him, Lanie, but I don't know that I'm okay with dating him and having him get bored." There it is in words, the reason she's been feeling unsettled and why she'd tried to hide from her friend. Somehow Lanie has a way of getting her to admit things she hasn't even let herself think.
"One, he obviously trusts you around his daughter, and I'm sure she likes you if she let you take care of her all weekend. So that argument is off the table. The playboy thing I can see, but if you think any man can get bored of you, then you need to take a moment and reconsider who you are. And I'm not just talking about the fact that you have cuffs and we both know Castle would be into that. Besides, how much of that playboy have you seen lately?"
Lanie has a point, Kate has to admit. He hasn't been cutting out for dates lately, not since maybe the third month of him following her around, fairly soon after she'd let him stay for the later evening police work. He's even stopped boasting about hot dates and supermodels. He's still annoying and childish, but she hasn't seen the playboy persona in a while.
"That doesn't mean I should just go ahead and date him" she tries to stall.
"But it also doesn't mean that you should avoid even the thought of letting yourself care about him" comes the quick response from her friend.
She's not ready to face the idea just yet though, and Lanie seems to catch that, changing the topic to something lighter as they sit and talk. It's still there, still buried in the back of her mind, but she'll deal with it later.
