One Man's Treasure

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That sounded dirtier than I meant it.

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"Don't I know it," Castle smirks, leering eyebrow and all. "Some photos are worth the trouble." He regards her with that look that says they'd be pictures of her and naked in his bed and he'd never lose them.

Beckett loses it. "Why do you always have to say something dirty?" she hisses. "You don't mean it. You're not gonna follow up on it. You only ruin it when you open your mouth. So stop."

Castle swallows, closes his mouth. Their eyes are hooked, neither able to look away, Beckett furious and half-ashamed for reasons she won't look at too closely, and Castle-

She has no idea what Castle thinks because honestly she never gets to see the real Castle, does she?

Alexis skips back to them through the bullpen and completely shatters the moment, but the girl is oblivious. "Thank you for letting me do that. She was so grateful for those photos. She didn't even know they existed."

"That was a good thing you did," Beckett tells her. His daughter is just so earnest. Beckett isn't sure she's ever seen someone so determined to do right.

Except maybe herself. Was she that green and raw when she was in the Academy?

Castle hasn't said a word; Alexis keeps prattling on about the brag book she returned to its rightful owner. Beckett glances over at him, but his eyes are on his daughter, and seemingly all his attention.

But she sees the troubled line stamped in his forehead.

She sighs and presses her hands into her lap, wishes she hadn't said it. Let him be smarmy if he feels he has to play up that image. She does see the real Castle. This is just - a facet. And it's one she knows isn't real, so she should be able to handle it with more dignity than she did.

"So, now what?" Alexis asks into that brewing storm. "I mean, is this all?"

Beckett straightens up. "You did a very good job, Alexis. The Sergeant over the Evidence Room says you've made a huge dent in his backlog. So thank you." Should there be more? Beckett doesn't know how to do this. She feels overly polite all the time, trying too hard not to try, not to want Alexis to like her so badly.

"I'm so glad," Alexis rushes on, beaming, apples in her cheeks, eyes squinting up just like Castle's do when he's excited and happy. "Dad? I guess we should get out of Detective Beckett's hair. Maybe spaghetti on the way home?"

But Castle abruptly turns to Beckett, and all of that loose and liquid charm is gone. He regards her with a solemn look and extends his hand. "Would you like to have dinner?" he asks. "With us. A good way to close the case, wouldn't you say?"

She's a little baffled by his sudden change in mood, the sober expression he wears. All that smarmy amusement is gone, but with it goes the goofy childlike innocence too. She doesn't know what to say.

"Oh, Dad," Alexis sighs. "Don't make her. Detective Beckett, you don't have to. I mean, I'd love to talk more, pick your brain, but you're busy and Dad is always in the way-"

"Not in the way," Beckett blurts out. She finds herself just as surprised as Castle looks, and she straightens up, elbows pressed in against her ribs, fighting of a strange wave of panic. "At least not all the time. Sometimes. Well..."

She cocks her head, trying to pass it off as a joke, one of their usual, but he doesn't take the bait. He's not laughing any more.

But he also doesn't call her out on it, as she did to him just a few minutes ago about his stupid sexual innuendo.

"So... we're on for spaghetti then?" he says finally, standing from the chair, still offering his hand to hers.

And she takes it, surprised even still, standing up from her desk. Alexis looks back and forth between them, still apple-cheeked and smiling, and Beckett is glad the girl is here. At least they have a chaperone.

She thinks they need one.

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