"Beckett! Take your lunch." She whips her head around towards Mike, blowing her bangs out of her face. She nods once and clears the rest of a family of four's fish and chips lunch.
She sighs, wipes her greasy hands on the apron. She pulls her cell out of her pocket and walks back to the kitchen. She shoves the phone between her ear and shoulder as she pulls a loaf of bread and a pack of turkey from the refrigerator.
She steps around a short-order cook, grabbing a paper plate from the cupboard as she waits for him to pick up.
"Still sober, Katie," he answers on the fourth ring. She purses her lips, closing her eyes. She tosses two slices of bread onto the plate with a sigh.
"I'm glad you can joke about this, Dad."
"You really need to lighten up."
She rolls her eyes. It's been two days since she's gone back to work, three since her father had left the hospital, and four since the last time she'd seen Castle.
But who was counting, really?
"It's just been a long morning, Dad. You need me to bring anything home?" She asks around a mouthful of turkey.
"We need a few things from the store, but I'll pick them up on the way home from my meeting."
Shit. She'd forgotten that his AA meeting was today.
"Right. I'll be home in a few hours. Call me if you need anything, okay?" She can't keep the worry out of her voice, doesn't even bother to try.
"It's gonna be fine, Kate," he reassures her. She nods, hopes so. "That's not all this is about though, is it?"
"What do you mean?"
He sighs. "You should call him."
"Dad…" she warns.
"Don't 'Dad' me. I know you haven't talked to him since he left. Call him."
"He has a phone too, you know." She sounds ridiculous and petty and she knows it. "I probably scared him off." She laughs bitterly.
"Or he's trying to give you space. Christ, Kate. I was in the hospital when he left." She bites her bottom lip. Maybe she should call him.
"Maybe you're right," she says quietly.
"Of course I am."
She rolls her eyes and chuckles. "Goodbye, Dad." She hangs up the phone, shaking her head, and picks up the plate with her half-eaten sandwich on it and walks out the back door to a picnic table for employees only. There's no one around except for a 40-something townie who flicks a cigarette at her side as she leans against the building.
Her thumb hovers over his name in her phone and she suddenly isn't hungry anymore. Her stomach rolls with anxiety.
She's being ridiculous. They'd left things on a good note, a great note, actually.
But maybe four days away…
No.
She presses SEND before she can change her mind again. She sighs, tucks a loose curl behind her ear. She shifts in her seat, knocking her knee against the wood of the table. She winces, grips the phone tighter in her hand.
"Fuck," she mutters.
"Kate?"
Oh. She didn't even hear him pick up.
"You okay?" he asks in amusement. She lets out a little breathless laugh.
"Yeah, just a little clumsy."
"Hold on, Alexis. I—yeah, honey. Just—okay." She strains her ear, presses it tighter against the phone. She can almost make out the little girl's voice.
"Kate, I'm sorry—I gotta go."
She deflates a little. "Yeah, no—it's fine." She nods vigorously into the phone as if she can reassure him that it's okay.
"I'll call you later, okay? What time does your shift end?"
"Three, but you don't have—"
"Kate," he cuts her off and she thinks he sounds a little…exasperated?
"Okay," she says quietly. "I'll talk to you then."
"I'm glad you called." It's soft and she almost doesn't catch it before the line clicks off. She flips the phone shut on a contented sigh, lets her head fall onto her closed palm.
"Oh, honey, you got it bad." Her eyes flick to the other woman, whose eyes twinkle in amusement. Kate's mouth twitches, but she doesn't say anything.
She doesn't want to share him with the world, wants the real Rick Castle to herself.
And she especially wants the one who puts his daughter before a woman he'd met only a week ago.
She hates that she waits by the phone all day, doesn't want to be one of those women. But hearing his voice for a minute after four days apart stokes the need in her.
She tries to keep herself occupied, she really does. She makes a full dinner for her and her Dad (something that she hasn't done in ages), catches up on Temptation Lane, beats the pants off her Dad in a few rounds of rummy, and cleans the bathroom.
She really needs to get a grip.
"Why don't you go take a walk?" Her father suggests. She's spent the last fifteen minutes tapping her fingers against the arm of her chair as he watches some game on television.
"Don't forget your phone," he teases wryly. She glares.
She spends almost an hour walking along the beach, even stops for ice cream at the same place where she'd taken him their first night together. When she gets home, it's almost 11:00 and her father is conked out on the chair. Breathing, she notes on a breath. Conked out and breathing.
When he calls, it's past midnight and she's half-asleep in her bed, one of his books perched on her chest, forgotten in her sleepy state.
"Beckett," she mumbles sleepily, rubbing her eyes.
"Shoot. Did I wake you?"
She burrows further under the covers, smiles at the sound of his voice.
"Mmmm. Maybe."
"I'm sorry, Kate. I meant to call you earlier, but I had a hard time getting Alexis to sleep. She's still on California time, it seems."
"It's fine, Castle."
"Still. Want me to just call you tomorrow? Or…later today, I guess it would be."
"No—I…" She hesitates, doesn't know how much she wants to fess up to already. She almost tells him she misses him, but stops herself. "Let's just talk now."
"Okay. What are you wearing?"
She laughs, startled, but pleasantly so. "Absolutely….nothing," She teases.
He groans. "You're lying to me, aren't you?"
"You are far too easy, Mr. Castle."
"Tell me something I don't know."
She rustles onto her side, flicks the bedside lamp off. She tosses his book onto the floor and rolls onto her back. She sighs, closing her eyes.
"I miss you," he says quietly.
Her eyes flutter open at his admission. "I miss you, too," she admits.
"I thought I'd hear from you before today." His tone is light, but it's forced. She can hear the hurt lingering in his voice. Damn, her father was right.
"This is going to sound crazy, but I was thinking the same thing about you."
"You're right. That does sound crazy."
She huffs. "Not any crazier than you waiting for me to call."
"Your dad was in the hospital."
"Exactly."
"I'm not following."
"My father was in the hospital, Castle. That's my point. And then…God…what? Eighteen hours later I tell you that my mom was murdered? It's enough to scare off any man."
"I'm not any man, Kate."
"I know," she says quietly.
He sighs. "Just…let's just not let this happen again, okay? I don't wanna wreck whatever this is between us because we're both too stubborn to pick up a phone."
"Yeah. All right."
"Now, back to your state of undress…"
Kate's next day is hellish. She woke up in high spirits after her hour-long conversation with Castle. She'd felt closer to him than ever, and they weren't even in the same state. He told her about a few of the outings he and Alexis had been on since she arrived home, about their trip to museum where he'd been slapped with a hefty fine after knocking over a dinosaur display.
"She laughed at me the whole way home," he'd whined.
"I'm sure you deserved it."
She assured him that her father seemed to be doing well, hadn't touched the bottle since his release. They'd even emptied all of the leftover bottles together. It'd been a healing experience, bringing them closer together.
After they hung up, she'd gone to bed sated and relaxed.
In the morning, she'd whipped up breakfast for two and even managed to squeeze in a run before work. She bounced into the shack on a high, ready to start the work day.
"Wipe the grin off your face, Beckett. Health Inspector comes in today," Mike grumbled. "He'll be watching like a hawk, so don't screw up today."
She'd brushed him off with an eye roll before refilling Table Four's coffee cups.
She still smiled when they handed it back to her, spitting that it was cold.
She still smiled when a group of teenagers on a cheap senior week trip managed to spill five glasses of sticky, sweet iced tea that she had to clean up right away because the health inspector had all eyes on her.
She still smiled when Mike told her she couldn't take a lunch today, or even a fifteen-minute break, because they were too busy.
She stopped smiling when a three year-old lost his greasy lunch of chicken fingers and French fries all over her favorite pair of Keds.
Finally, finally, it's seven and time for her shift to end.
"Mike, I'm clocking out," she calls to him as she unwraps her apron.
"Not so fast, Beckett. I need you to wait on Table Five before your replacement gets here."
She purses her lips tightly as she re-ties the knot in her apron with unnecessary force. She pulls out a pad from her pocket and yanks her pencil from its spot behind her ear. She lets out a puff of air and stomps over to the table.
"What can I get for you?" she asks, flipping through the pad to find a blank sheet.
"I'll take a tall, gorgeous, brunette waitress to go."
Her heart somersaults as her eyes lift. Her cheeks flush in happiness.
"Castle," she breathes.
I have a difficult time keeping them apart, it seems. Ah, well. Alexis will be making an appearance next chapter.
Thanks again to everyone who messaged me after my writing meltdown at the end of "The Day of Rest". I was having a bit of a rough couple of days, but I have no plans of quitting.
Olivia
