Those Meddling Newbies

Chapter 10

Lanie leaned over the body, a woman with a melon sized hole in the back of her head. CSI was bustling around her gathering the remnants of the office.

"Lanie, what do you have?" Beckett squatted next to her.

"Hello to you too." Beckett looked at her imploringly. "White, female, mid to late 20s. Gunshot wound to the forehead. No burn mark. So I'd assume that it was done from over there." Lanie threw her hand out to the entrance of the office where a uniform was standing.

"Yo Beckett! The building has security tapes in the entrance." Ryan yelled.

"Okay, go get it then."

"I have it." Annie walked in with the tapes in her hand. "Popo told Ryan to get them and then he told me to get them. And here they are."

'Popo?' Lanie mouthed to Beckett.

"Shrimp, if you call me Popo another time… I swear I'm gonna…." Esposito stormed in.

"You're gonna what?" Annie smirked.

"Yeah, Espo, what are you going to do to Annie?" Beckett straighten up. The smirk was evident on her face.

"Javi?" Lanie asked with a wicked grin.

"I'm…uh…" His eyes darted to all three women, and then to his partner, who was busy taking a statement. "I'm… uh…"

"Spit it out, Popo." Lanie said innocently.

"I'm gonna hug her!" Esposito wrapped Annie in a bone-crushing hug and lifted her up and spun her around.

"Whoa! Is it national hug day?" Castle appeared smiling widely in the door. Then he began lumbering towards Beckett.

"One more step Writer Boy, I dare you." Beckett said dangerously.

Esposito released Annie and she stumbled away. She tripped forward and crashed into Castle, who in turn crashed into Beckett. Luckily they missed the dead body, but Castle pinned Beckett down.

Both were breathing heavily. Castle grinned at Beckett, while she rolled her eyes.

"So Beckett…."

"Castle, get off me." Beckett hissed.

Lanie and Annie were holding back peals of laughter. Their eyes kept meeting then glancing away to hold back the laughter. Esposito was mildly amused judging by the expression on his face. He reached out his hand and fist bumped Annie.

"Castle off."

Castle stood up and reached out a hand to Beckett, who hastily grabbed it and pulled herself up. They stood there awkwardly brushing imaginary dust off their clothing. Lanie, Annie and Esposito were watching them with identical smug grins plastered across their faces.

"Sorry 'bout that Beckett. Annie fell into me."

"Actually it's Popo's fault. He picked me up and spun me, which caused me to fall into Castle." Annie pointed out.

"Oh, got to go. It's my publisher." Castle pulled his phone up to his ear. "Hi Gina." Castle strolled out of the office, leaving Beckett with a sad look on her face and Annie and Lanie with frustrated looks on theirs.

"Girl…." Lanie started.

"Not in front of the children." Beckett moved her head towards the two boys. Annie raised her eyebrows at Beckett. Glancing at the two, Beckett sighed. "Later."

"Mmmmmhhhhhmmmm." Lanie shook her head at her.

"So any idea on who are Vic is?" In an attempt to shift the focus, Beckett quickly asked.

"No. Wallet's gone." Lanie squatted down again.

"Ryan, who does this office belong to?" Beckett turned to the Irish man.

"Quentin Jordan. He's over there." Ryan jerked his thumb to a small, sniveling man standing in the doorway.

A shy, unobtrusive man, Quentin Jordan was finding this whole affair rather distressing.

"Hi, I'm Detective Beckett. This is Annie Wellington." Beckett smiled at the man.

He opened his mouth but no sound came out. He tried again, "He-he-hello, Detect-iv-ive. M-m-m-Ms. We-we-well-ing-ing-t-t-ton."

"Do you have any idea who the woman is?"

"N-n-no." Quentin stuttered. "I-I-I ha-have n-n-no idea." The last word was spat out in a hurry.

"What do you do for a living?"

"I-I'm an-an acc-cc-cou-count-tt-tant. Wh-wh-y d-d-id th-th-th-e-ey tr-ra-ash-."

"It may have been in the struggle. But nothing is definitive."

"O-o-oh-k-k-k-a-ay."

"We'll be in contact." Beckett turned and walked away. Annie followed quickly and fell in to step with her.

"Are we going to have to talk to him again?" Annie asked.

"Hopefully not."

"G-g-g-oo-oo-d." Beckett sent her a stern look, but struggled to hide a peek of a smile.

"Be nice." Annie snorted slightly.

"I'll try."

"Ryan, Esposito help CSU go through the files. Get Quentin to check."

"What the stutterer?" Ryan's eyes widened. "No, I thought you liked us." He pleaded.

"Talk to Esposito or as he now goes by, Popo." Beckett smirked as they walked away.

"Dude! What did you do?" Ryan's voice was an octave higher than normal.

"Nothing." Esposito said. Then they heard something about hugging and spinning.

::::::::

"Okay, Annie, this is the murder board." Beckett presented the white board with a slight wave of her arms. "We comply all of the info from the case on here. You saw the completed one for the Griffs case. So could you run down to Lanie and get the pictures she took?"

"Yep. Back in a few." With a swoosh of hair; Annie made her way towards the elevator. The metal doors pulled apart and Annie rushed in. But she met a large broad chest. Annie stumbled back. "Oh hi Castle."

"You need to stop running into me or…"

"You and Esposito really need to work on your 'or else's'."

"I'll have you know that I am quite accomplished at writing or else scenes."

Annie slipped into the elevator and turned to face Castle, her viridescent eyes flashing. "Key word writing." The door's slid closed over Castle's imitation of a fish.

Annie tapped her fingers against her arm.

The doors slid open and Annie left the steely box.

"Hey Lanie."

"Annie! You have got to stop sneaking up on me. Get some heels or something." They glanced at Annie's beat up Converses.

"I'll try not to. Just 3 brothers makes you kinda sneaky." Annie shrugged. "But any way, Beckett needs the pictures of the body."

"Speaking of bodies, good job on the whole knocking into Castle." Lanie bumped Annie's shoulder.

"Spur of the moment." Then Annie leaned in, "Honestly, it was kinda sorta an accident."

"Lanie! We need you to run a print!" Esposito yelled. The sound echoed through the lab and caused Lanie and Annie to whip around and glared at them. "Hey Annie."

"Boy, why do you think you can come in here yelling and screaming?" With pursed lips and raised eyebrows, Lanie glared at him.

"What are you two gossiping about?" Ryan's head poked in.

"Should we tell them?" Annie looked to Lanie then to the guys.

"Yeah, they could prove to be of some use." Lanie nodded.

"First, Popo XYZ." Esposito's cheeks flushed red as he turned his back to them. "Secondly, we're working on a plan to get Beckett and Castle together."

"So you two in?" Lanie glared at them.

Ryan and Esposito glanced at each other, their faces mirroring each other's goofy grins. "We're in." They said in unison.

"Okay, I vote we do the elevator thing as soon as this case is over." Annie leaned against one of the empty autopsy tables.

"Elevator thing?" Ryan glanced at the two.

"Annie has this plan. Once Beckett and Castle are in the elevator, we're going to 'break' the elevator."

"Dude, genius." Esposito leaned in and gave Annie a high five.

"Okay, we'll fill you in later. What's this stuff you were screaming about?"

"We found a torn finger of a glove. Can you check for prints?" Esposito handed Lanie a bag containing the finger of a plastic glove.

"Sure. Annie, the pictures are on that table."

Lanie pulled the glove out of the evidence bag with a pair of tweezers. She stretched it out on a board. With a brush of the dark powder, fingerprints appeared on the glove. "Gotcha."

"Something you all want to share with the class?" Beckett's voice rang through the morgue.

"Beckett!" Ryan had actually jumped a little. Annie and Esposito looked at him. "Hi! Yeah, we found a print on a torn glove."

"Uhhum." Lanie raise her eyebrows.

"Correction, Lanie found the prints." Esposito said.

"Thank you. I'm running it right now."

"Great. So what's with the party in the morgue?" Beckett raised her eyebrows at the small group.

"I was here first." Annie offered with the air of someone trying to be helpful.

"So while your all down here, I'll show you what we have." Lanie walked over to the body. "Gun shot wound to the head. Clean through and through. Left a fair sized hole in the back of her head."

"Guess she had a bad hair day." Castle walked in.

"Understatement of the year." Annie muttered.

"You two, be nice. Dead body." Lanie waved her arm across the table.

"Any id?" Beckett asked rolling her eyes at Annie and Castle's antics.

"None so far. I'd try the missing persons data base." Lanie shrugged.

"Okay. Annie, Ryan, Espo. You guys go look at the missing persons matching her description. We'll look through Quentin's files for any reason why there would be an attack in his office." Beckett ordered. She and Castle left the morgue in a hurry, but the other three dawdled.

"Sweet, you can tell us more about your brilliant plan." Ryan grinned.

"You do know how long these searches take?"

Annie's eyes widened.

"I wish you the best of luck, Annie."

I'm not sure about the ending but I'm tired so here it ends. Next chapter will be up tomorrow, well I guess today. :)

We hit double digits! YAY!

There's an opportunity for shout outs! 1. Harry Potter reference? 2. What color are Annie's eyes? It's briefly mentioned so see if you can catch it! Best of luck!

E