Castle saw her as soon as he walked into the cafe. Kyra was already sitting at a table, her jacket over the next chair, still wearing a red scarf. She looked up when she saw him, and smiled.
He walked over and took off his coat, hanging it on the back of a chair, then he sat down.
"Hi," he said.
"Thanks for meeting me," she said, and he nodded.
"Are you OK?" he asked, and she shrugged.
"A little better now," she said, watching his face carefully.
He looked down at the tablecloth, and picked at a loose thread on the edge of a napkin. He was silent for several seconds.
"Kyra," he said at last, "I'm here because I'm your… friend. If there's something I can do to help, then I'll help. But you have to understand–"
"I know," she said quickly, looking away for a moment. "And I'm not here for that. I just wanted to talk to someone I can trust, Rick."
He looked at her for a long moment, and then he smiled. "Well that's me," he said, and she returned his smile.
Beckett picked at her lunch, looking at the TV without really seeing it.
She glanced over at the clock. 1:56 PM.
He had been at lunch for almost an hour now. She wondered for the twentieth time what they were talking about, and the worst-case scenarios ran through her head yet again.
I'm getting a divorce, Rick.
I've missed you, Rick.
Are you seeing anyone, Rick?
She dropped her fork onto the plate with a clatter.
"Stop it," she said sternly.
She picked up the TV remote and flipped aimlessly through a few more channels before leaving it on the news. She tapped the Home button of her phone, which was sitting on the couch beside her, but there were no new notifications. She briefly considered calling Lanie, but she knew there was really nothing else to talk about at this point – not until she'd spoken to him.
"An hour to go, one way or the other," she said, and picked up her fork again.
"Where were you?" Kyra asked, and Castle looked up with a start.
"What?"
She gave a small smile, with a look of curiosity on her face. "You drifted off for a minute there, Rick. What were you thinking about?"
He sighed. "Sorry. Just got some stuff on my mind."
"It sounded that way last night too. Do you want to talk about it?"
He shook his head. "We came here to talk about you. I'm not being a great listener."
Her smile became more genuine. "We've been talking about me for an hour. Even I'm getting tired of my problems."
"Greg will come round," he replied. "It's a big step, and I know why he's unsure. For what it's worth, having Alexis was the best thing that ever happened to me. I think you'd be an amazing mom, too. If he's like me, he's just looking for reassurance that starting a family isn't going to change things between you two."
She nodded gratefully. "And won't it change things?"
"Completely," he said, and she laughed. "But in a wonderful way."
"Thank you," she said.
There was a comfortable silence for a minute or two as they finished their meals, then Castle glanced at his wristwatch. It was just after 2:30 PM.
"Got somewhere to be?" Kyra asked, and she was puzzled at the look of apprehension that passed across his face.
"Yeah," he said, taking a ragged breath. "Going to see someone."
"About something bad?"
He heard the concern in her voice, and he decided to be honest.
"I'm going to see my partner, from the precinct. You met her."
"The kick-ass brunette detective," Kyra said, and he grinned. "Things not going so well between you two?"
He straightened in his seat, picking an invisible piece of lint from the sleeve of his blazer.
"Work is fine," he said.
"Not what I asked," she replied, and he glared at her.
"Not so well, I guess," he said at last. "But I brought it on myself."
She frowned. "How's that?"
He laid his hands, curled loosely into fists, side by side on the white tablecloth, staring down at his own knuckles.
"I fell in love with her," he said quietly.
"Oh," she gasped. "I… had a feeling, even last time we met."
He looked up at her, surprised, then he nodded wearily.
"So what's the problem?" she asked.
He gave her a quick summary of the last couple of weeks, culminating in the events of last night.
"Oh no," Kyra said. "She must hate me right now."
He raised an eyebrow in puzzlement, and she rolled her eyes.
"So what did she say this morning? When she called?"
He shifted in his seat again, and cleared his throat.
"Uh, this and that. It was confusing, actually. She wants to talk to me after we're done here, and I said I'd be out by three."
Kyra waved over a waiter and asked for the check, then she turned to look at Castle again.
"Listen, Rick," she said, in her no-nonsense tone that hadn't changed in all the years he'd known her. "She clearly has feelings for you. It sounds like the two of you are terrible at communicating, but give her a chance. I think she's probably worried she's lost you already. God, she must really hate me."
He coughed, then took a sip of water.
Kyra's eyes narrowed in suspicion. "Wait, what was that?"
He looked across at her, a little too innocently.
"Rick."
"Damn it," he said, and a small grin appeared around the edge of her lips. "She, uh, … I obviously had to say I was meeting someone for lunch. You. So she knows about that. That's all."
Kyra leaned forward slightly, with a worried look on her face. "Rick, what did she say? I'm a big girl. I just really wish I'd waited another day to call you now."
He pulled at his shirt collar, twisting his neck one way then the other. "She… yeah. She might have said… requested, I mean. She might have requested that I, uh…"
Kyra raised both eyebrows impatiently.
Castle blew out a breath, and looked down at his hands again. "She said please don't kiss her, OK?"
Kyra's laugh pealed out around the cafe, drawing the attention of several nearby tables for a moment.
"Hey," Castle said indignantly, pausing as the waiter brought the check and then retreated, "this is not funny."
"You're right," she replied. "It's hilarious. Or it would be, if it wasn't so sad. No, actually it's still hilarious at the same time."
Castle huffed, but the tightness in his chest that had been his constant companion for weeks now seemed to loosen a little.
"I guess it's a little funny," he said, and Kyra beamed at him.
He caught a glimpse of the woman he used to love, shining from her eyes. He felt a surge of affection for her, and when his gaze drifted to the two rings on the fourth finger of her left hand, his smile only widened.
"I'm really happy for you, you know," he said. "I know you're going through a rough patch, but Greg's a great guy, and you're going to get through this together and be great parents too. You deserve it."
She reached across and put her hand on top of his, squeezing his fingers.
"Go to her," she said. "It's almost three. I'll take care of this – I invited you, and I owe you, for a lot of things. Go, and listen to her. Maybe even help her. You've always been good with words."
He looked down at their hands together, and for just a moment, he could imagine that it was Beckett's hand, and when he looked up it would be her smile he'd see too.
"Thanks," he said, and when he looked up he saw that Kyra's eyes were glistening.
"Thank you, Rick. I said that last time I saw you too. Now go."
He smiled at her for another moment, then he nodded and stood up.
He gave her one last look, and she swiped away a tear that was threatening to fall, then she waved him away.
He turned and started walking towards the door, and he didn't look back.
The clock said 2:56 PM, and Beckett was now sitting perched on the edge of her couch. Lunch had been cleared away, and the TV was off. The only thing in front of her was her phone.
She looked at the clock yet again, and just as it changed to 2:57, her phone chirped.
She grabbed for it, and saw the message banner across the screen. It said Castle. She unlocked it and read the message.
Waiting in line for our coffee. On my way.