I'm noticing a common thread with where I'm starting these updates lately, but here I go again: I'm sorry! These updates are taking much longer than I'd like them to. I'm not even going to attempt to make any promises about speed anymore, because it's just not working out. This chapter did not want me to write it. It didn't want me to start writing it in the first place, and then once I did it fought me tooth and nail the entire time. The ending went a little quicker, I guess. But in general, I don't especially like this chapter. Yay, filler. Anyway, hopefully you disagree with me there. Often you do. But it is mostly filler, for sure.

Hah, related primarily to the last chapter, apparently drugged-up Alexis was a hit. :) I'm glad. Maybe we'll get to see more of her soon. Anyway, enjoy! And I think I'm skipping my customary end-of-chapter author's note because I'm out of things to say, so... remember my love of reviews when you get there. Hehe. Hopefully the next chapter won't take forever for me to finish and will have a bit more substance.


"You're a stalled car in the desert,"

She didn't make it back to the precinct until the next morning, and it must have been a little on the later side because the boys were already there, standing at Esposito's desk. "Okay, where are we with the case?" she asked immediately.

"Hold on, what happened?" Esposito asked before responding.

"Yeah, how's Alexis?" Ryan chimed in.

"She's gonna be okay. Got into an accident on her scooter."

Before either detective could press further, Montgomery poked his head out of his office. "Beckett," he said in his calm-but-stern voice. He simply nodded for her to join him.

The boys said nothing, but she didn't miss their smirks. She couldn't help but be a little nervous. After all, she'd left work the day before without permission, without even really saying anything to anyone about it, and she hadn't returned. That was certainly something she'd never done before, and she was sure it wouldn't sit well with the captain.

There had been plenty of times yesterday when she could've left the hospital and come back to the station. But every time she thought about it, something, or someone, stopped her. There were the few times that Alexis actually told her not to go, but more often it was something far more subtle. There were little nonverbal messages from Martha—a nod of gratitude, a smile of encouragement—and then there were the times that she caught Castle's eye, or let her eyes flick across his face when she thought he wasn't paying attention. Despite the constant assurances from the doctors and now Alexis herself that she was going to be fine, he was afraid. Not nervous, not upset, not angry… afraid. And despite the fact that he was distracted and she was barely even talking to him directly, she found that she couldn't leave him like that.

They wanted to keep Alexis overnight, and while the teenager, though still heavily medicated, wasn't thrilled about this idea, her father, who had the final word since Alexis was a minor, was more than happy to oblige. Beckett did eventually leave, but not until almost midnight, by which point it made a whole lot more sense to go home and try to get a little bit of sleep than to go back to the precinct and try to catch up on what she'd missed.

Still, she knew she should've at least called the captain and told him what was going on at some point. But while she was at the hospital, it was frankly the farthest thing from her mind. As she walked into his office, she hoped fervently that he'd understand this.

"Sir, about yesterday—" she started, closing the door behind her as she entered.

But he interrupted her. "Sit down."

She sighed, but obeyed.

When he started speaking, it wasn't what she'd been expecting.

"So Ryan and Esposito told me everything they knew, but that wasn't much. How's Alexis? What happened?"

She gaped at him for a fraction of a second before recovering herself and answering the question. "Um, she got into an accident on her Vespa. She got a little beat up, but she's going to be okay."

"Oh, thank God. How's Castle?"

"He's… been better. Look, sir, about yesterday, I shouldn't have just left like that."

He shook his head. "Beckett, that's not why I called you in here. You did the right thing."

"But I should've at least called, or… something?" The fact that Montgomery wasn't angry with her wasn't adding up in her mind. As far as she could figure, he should've been.

"I'm sure that was the last thing you were thinking about. You know, occasionally you're gonna have something that's a higher priority than work, and as your boss I have to be okay with that." Something akin to, although not quite the same as, a smile began to form on his lips. "As long as it doesn't happen too often. But what I do want is to get the whole story and to see if there's anything I can do to help."

She nodded. "I know it was a crash with a minivan of tourists. She has a concussion, two broken ribs and a broken leg, and they did surgery to repair her spleen, but apparently it went really well. That's really all I know."

"Ugh. Poor Alexis. Poor Castle. I can't even imagine if that was one of my kids. I'd be a wreck. I'm sure it was good that you were there. Have you talked to him lately?"

"Uh, last night. Sir? How is this relevant?"

"Relevant? Come on Beckett, just trying to figure out what I can do to help the guy out. I assume from the time you spent together yesterday that the two of you have come to some sort of an agreement?"

She shrugged but then nodded. "I guess so. Yeah."

"Good. Why don't you call and ask him for me."

She sighed. She'd spent most of the day before with Castle, and she still wasn't completely over her hostility toward him. She really didn't want to call him now, to have to be the one to make the move yet again. It seemed to her that she'd taken a pretty big step toward forgiving him when she not only drove him to the hospital, but stayed there with him and his family all that time. It seemed that it should be his turn now to do something, to make some kind of gesture that would make her want to forgive him. Even if it was just a courtesy phone call to let her know that everything was still okay.

"Okay guys," she said, going again to Esposito's desk where he and Ryan were still talking. "Where are we with the case?"

"Oh, come on Beckett, you don't really think that's going to work," Ryan said, not phrasing it even remotely like a question.

"Yeah, what'd Cap want?" Esposito chimed in. "And what happened yesterday? Details."

She raised her eyebrows at Esposito. "Don't you think you've filled your annoying quota for at least the month?"

He smirked. "That all depends on what went down yesterday. You guys reconciled?"

"That all depends on what you mean by reconciled."

"Talking?" Ryan asked.

"Yeah. We're talking."

"He gonna go back to working with you?" Esposito asked.

"I don't know yet. I'm sure he'll probably stay home and take care of Alexis for a few days, at least."

"Yeah, what happened with her, exactly? She okay?"

"Concussion, broke a couple of ribs and her leg, and ruptured her spleen. But they repaired the spleen and she's gonna make a full recovery." She was beginning to feel like a broken record. Why was she the one who had to relay this information to what seemed like every person she'd ever known?

"Poor kid," Ryan said while Esposito grimaced.

"Anything we can do?" Esposito asked.

"Not that I can think of. Montgomery asked the same thing. He wants me to call Castle and ask if there's anything, but I don't want to bother them." That was just an excuse, and a feeble one at that, but she hoped the other two detectives wouldn't catch on.

No such luck. "Oh, come on," Ryan said. Ryan. The one who'd been on her side. "Call the man."

"Yeah, if you weren't bothering them at the hospital yesterday I'm sure calling wouldn't be a problem," Esposito put in.

"Exactly."

"Figures you guys'd be on the same page now," Beckett muttered. "So are you going to tell me what I missed yesterday or not?"

"Nope," Ryan said.

Esposito shook his head. "Captain's orders. You call Castle, then we brief you."

She rolled her eyes. Everything was coming together now. "Oh, I see. All three of you are conspiring against me. It makes sense now."

"Conspiring, yes," Esposito fired back. "Against you, no."

"You know, I'm not even going to glorify that by asking you what in the world you could possibly be talking about." But honestly, at this point she was acting a little bit. She knew what he meant. She knew that he and the captain and now Ryan were just trying to give her an extra push toward making a full reconciliation with Castle. And honestly, she was done telling herself and everyone else that she'd been perfectly fine while he was gone. She hadn't. Maybe they were right. Maybe making things right with him would ultimately make her happy. And it was obvious that, no matter whether it would or it wouldn't, she didn't have much choice but to call him now.

With a sigh that was at least half for show—she honestly did want to know how everything had gone since she'd left the hospital—she went to her desk and picked up the precinct's phone, just so there could be no doubt about whether she'd actually made the call, and dialed his number. She hoped her colleagues, who were still watching her closely, didn't notice how quickly his number came to her fingers, how she didn't have to look at anything to know what it was. Since she primarily used her cell phone and all of the numbers she needed were stored in her contacts, there were few she knew by heart anymore. The fact that she knew his, she told herself, simply reflected that she had to call him often for work, and sometimes from the precinct's phone. But still, she doubted Ryan and Esposito would see it this way, so she preferred that they not to see it at all.

It rang a few times and then went to voicemail. She remembered that he was probably still at the hospital, and cell phones were generally discouraged at hospitals. "Hey, it's just me," she said after the beep. "Uh, no big deal, just call me when you get a chance. Hope everything's good." She hung up and then turned to the boys, who were both looking at her with seriously mistrusting expressions. "What? He must still be at the hospital. How's it my fault he didn't answer his phone?"

They nodded reluctantly.

"So now what? Do I have to wait for him to call me back to get the details on the case?"

"No," Esposito conceded, dejected. He nodded for Ryan to get the file, which he did. They'd just barely started going through the new information they'd gathered the day before when her cell phone rang.

"He would," she grumbled without even looking at the caller I.D.

"Is it him?" Ryan asked.

"Calling at the least convenient time possible? Who else could it be?"

Sure enough, when she looked at her phone display it told her what she already knew. Richard Castle. But she couldn't help picturing the way he'd looked the night before, that intense fear in his eyes, and she consciously softened her tone before answering. "Hey, how is she?"

"She's okay," he sighed. "We're just getting ready to take her home."

"That's good. I'm sure that'll be more comfortable than the hospital for all of you."

"Yeah. Yeah, you're probably right. I just hope it's not too soon."

"Castle, I'm sure they wouldn't be releasing her if she still needed to be there. She's gonna be fine."

"You're probably right. Anyway, I'm sure you didn't call just to listen to me worry. What's up?"

"Well I did want to know how Alexis was doing. And Captain Montgomery wanted me to ask you if there was anything he could do for you guys… you know, her, or… you… Ow!" She felt someone kick her foot, and when she looked she saw that both of the other two detectives were glaring at her expectantly. "Esposito and Ryan wanted me to ask you that too," she added, and they relaxed, although they still didn't even so much as bother to pretend they weren't listening. She looked down at the foot that had taken the abuse. She was wearing one of her favorite pairs of shoes, and they hadn't been cheap. The right one now had a gorgeous scuff mark across the toe. "I'm gonna kill whichever one of you that was," she hissed under her breath, covering the mouthpiece of her phone with her hand.

Castle chuckled, and she wondered how much of their clownish antics he'd been able to hear. "Tell the guys thanks for the offer," he said, "but there really isn't anything. We have all we need, you know that."

"Yeah, but it wouldn't have to be monetary. Anything at all."

"Like what, a police escort home from the hospital? I can't think of any particular reason that would be helpful."

She sighed. "I don't know. I couldn't think of anything either, but they insisted I call you. If you do think of something just let me know though, okay?"

"I will. How's the case coming?"

She rolled her eyes and looked pointedly at Ryan and Esposito, only half-aware that they hadn't heard Castle's question. "As far as I'm concerned, it's not. Apparently getting caught up on what I missed yesterday is a slow process."

"Sorry. That's my fault. I should've let you leave."

"Hey, you tried. It's okay. If I'd really needed to go, I would've. I'll catch up, don't worry about it."

"Okay, well then I'll let you get back to that. And I have to finish getting Alexis checked out."

"Okay. Remember to call if you need anything."

"I will. Bye."

"Bye."

She hung up and felt her expression harden as she turned to her partners. "Okay, who was it?"

Each pointed to the other, and she sighed. "What are we in, fourth grade?"

Ryan gaped. "How do you do that?"

"What? Act like an adult? It's really not all that hard, you should try it some time."

"No, you go from being all nice to him to being all scary with us in like a second."

She rolled her eyes. "'Scary'? Really? Maybe fourth grade was generous."

"He's right, though," Esposito put in. "You're all mad at him for calling at the wrong time, and then as soon as you answer the phone you don't say a thing about it? Doesn't sound like you to me."

"Don't you think he's been through enough in the last day?"

"I guess, it's just…" Ryan started.

"He couldn't think of anything for us to do?" Esposito asked, interrupting his friend.

"No. Just like I figured he wouldn't."

"Yeah, well, at least you asked."

She sighed. "Yeah. Can we focus on the case now? Please?"