Chapter Twenty-One

"What time do you need to be in at the precinct?" Castle asked, pressing a cup of coffee into her hand, and Kate frowned, looking at her watch.

"I should have been there half an hour ago," she confessed.

He winced. "You mean to say you wanted to get into work at seven?"

Kate shrugged. "Well obviously I didn't want to, since I haven't left yet," she pointed out, pulling her shirt on over her head and pushing her necklace below the neckline. "What time did you say your meeting with legal was?"

"It's at ten."

"Okay." So. She tried to work it through in her mind. If she got into the precinct by eight - and she wasn't sorry that she wasn't there already, not even a little bit - she would have time to check in with Esposito and Ryan before Castle could get wind of her off the books investigation. Maybe they would find a nice logical explanation that tied everything together in a neat bow, and-

"Hey." Castle nudged her. "You okay? Where'd you go just then?"

"Nowhere. Sorry," she apologized, bringing the coffee cup to her lips and taking a sip; the rich blend had her closing her eyes, a moan escaping before she could stop it, and Castle chuckled.

"I swear, if all I have to do to get that sound from you is supply you with caffeine, I'm not sure why we did what we did last night-"

"Oh, you have regrets, do you?" she teased, a smile tugging at her lips, and he raised his hands in self-defense.

"None. None whatsoever," he promised, and she grinned, letting him take the cup from her hands and place it on the nightstand before pulling her into an embrace, his hands splaying at her waist. He leaned in, his lips brushing gently against hers, before leaning back to meet her eyes. "Are you really okay with me coming in today?"

She shrugged, blowing her hair out of her eyes before answering. "Honestly? I don't really feel like I was given a choice." She raised a finger to quell the protest that she knew was on the tip of his tongue. "Not from you. I know we talked about it last night, and it's all been set in motion. I get that. So between you, Montgomery, and the mayor, I guess I'll just go with it."

"Just wait," he murmured, his lips finding their way to her ear, and she closed her eyes, his breath on her throat creating goosebumps on her skin. "It's going to be fun."

"Yo, Beckett. Check this out." Esposito, with Ryan hot on his heels, tapped on the open door of the workroom she was currently ensconced in, before stepping into the room and closing the door behind them.

"What's up, Espo," she asked, turning to see what they had.

"Kate, when you asked us to look into Bracken? What did you expect us to find?"

She shrugged. "I don't know. Possibly nothing. Why? Did something pop?"

Esposito pulled out the chair beside Beckett and sat down. "Not really. But I just wanted to fill you in. Back in the early nineties he was Assistant D.A. right here in Manhattan. It's after that that things start to get interesting. Now, he came from a family that was well off, but he wasn't that wealthy. Not wealthy enough to have the kinds of funds that he threw into his first Congressional campaign."

"Could be anything." Beckett pushed her hair out of her face, curious to see what Espo had to say. "What was he up to back then? Who was around? What was going on in New York in the early nineties?"

"You know who would know?" Esposito asked, tipping his head toward the Captain's office, but Beckett shook her head.

"We're not asking him. I've asked him about Bracken before. I'm not doing it again."

"No. Not about Bracken. Just get him talking about what it was like being a cop on the beat back then."

Kate shrugged a shoulder. "Bit of a needle in a haystack, Espo."

Esposito raised his eyebrows at her. "Beckett- you're the one who wants us to comb through the haystack."

"I know." She leaned back in her chair, closing her eyes for a second. "There's something to this. I'm sure of it." She pressed her fingertips to her temple, thinking. "So where did this money for the campaign come from?"

"Not from his own accounts, that's for sure. Or, at least, not the accounts he still has. I'm trying to track it down, but I'm hitting a lot of dead ends.

"God, Espo. The more I think about it, the less I understand. Montgomery- it's not just me, is it? He's been… strained this year. Right?"

Esposito nodded slowly. "Yeah. He has. But hey, maybe Evelyn's just trying to get him to retire again."

"I don't know why he doesn't," Kate said. "He's- I don't know. Am I out of line, Espo? Because until this year I felt like Montgomery had my back. He's mentored me throughout my whole career. And now he's lying to me about Bracken? Stopping me from reopening my mom's case-"

"Your mom's case?" Ryan's head jerked up. "What do you mean?"

"I mean, I asked if we could look into it again- don't look at me like that. I know what you're thinking. I can handle it. It's not like before- it's been years. But something Castle said got me thinking. I can't live my whole life not knowing. I can't be the person I want to be until I put this to rest." She sighed. "But it's futile, because Montgomery wouldn't let me reopen it. He said our case load was heavy enough as it is. None of this makes any sense."

Esposito sat up with a chuckle, and she frowned at him, surprised at his reaction. "I have a feeling your day's about to get better," he said, nodding at the scene inside the bullpen. "Your boy's here."

"Well. He'll love this- he loves a good conspiracy theory," Beckett sighed, standing up. "Seriously. Tell me. Am I out of line? Am I chasing shadows? Or am I on to something?"

"I don't know," Ryan said, his voice quiet with reluctance. "But I have an idea. And I don't think either of you are going to like it."

"What is it?" she asked.

"You think Montgomery has something on Bracken, right?"

"Right." Kate nodded, her hand already on the door handle, ready to turn it and find out what was going on with Castle.

"What if it's the other way round? What if it's Montgomery we need to be investigating?"

She whirled around to see Espo's expression frozen, a glare directed at Ryan. "No way, man," Esposito exclaimed, and Beckett released her grasp on the door handle.

Ryan held his hands up in a gesture of surrender. "Look. I'm not saying there's anything there. But if we're going to look into this we have to look at all possible angles. And this whole thing started because you had a sense that something was off with Montgomery back in February."

Kate drew in a deep breath, considering. Ryan was right. She hated it, but he was; she couldn't ignore this just because his good cop instincts were taking her places she didn't want to go. She shook her head. The truth can't hurt you, her mother had always said. Well, it was time to put that theory to work. "Let's check," she said at last, her voice low, meeting Ryan's eyes, and he nodded.

"You're both unbelievable," Espo said, shaking his head, his eyes dark with anger. "Montgomery brought us into homicide. What have we got?" He glared at Beckett. "A hunch. It's not enough." He threw the door open, storming through it, cursing under his breath as he went.

"He'll come round," Ryan told her, tilting his head toward Castle. "Go on. Show your boy the ropes."

"That looked serious," Castle said when they were alone at her desk, civilian consultant paperwork signed. "Everything okay?"

"Yeah. No. I don't know." She rubbed a tired hand over her face. "I think I just need a few days out of here."

"But I just got here!" he exclaimed, all puppy dog eyes, and she shook her head.

"Yeah. Well. You know how I feel about that, too." Her good humor from the morning was long gone, and any patience she'd had had evaporated in that workroom. She wished she could rewind, back to before they'd even had the Bracken case; this whole thing was troubling. But then you wouldn't have met Castle, a voice in her mind nagged, and she closed her eyes, pressing her fingertips to the bridge of her nose and drawing in a deep breath in an attempt to calm herself.

"Come on, Beckett. It's going to be fun."

"Fun? There's that word again. You know what I do, right?"

"Look. There's already a chair here. It's like you've been waiting for me!"

Beckett narrowed her eyes at him. "You think I put that there for you?"

"I think it's serendipitous," he said. "This little spring here is a little uncomfortable. Kind of sticks into me. And the edge is a little worn. Very authentic."

"You're getting serendipity out of an old office chair in the precinct?"

Castle nodded, laughing, and reaching out to pick up the line of elephants on Beckett's desk.

"Put them down," she said, breathing deeply again and letting herself sink into her own chair, more composed already now that Castle was messing with her. This, this, she could handle. "And you don't open any drawers, or answer my phone or look at any of my stuff."

"I've already seen your stuff, Detective," he said, his voice low and dangerous, and Beckett swallowed. Here it was. The kind of behavior she'd been expecting since Castle had wrangled this favor with the mayor. The ghost of a smile graced her lips as she breathed deeply, relaxing at the familiar flirtation. The flirting that she was going to give in to.

No. She had to stay strong. The precinct was no place for this. "No," she said, fixing him with another look and brandishing a pencil at him. "No flirting. Professional behavior at all times."

Castle laughed. "Come on, Beckett, take me on a ride-along."

She bit her lip, trying to think of a response that wasn't dirty and coming up empty. She looked up, grateful to catch Ryan's eye across the room. She nodded at him as he held up a pad of paper, tapping it, and she stood up. "Looks like we have a body," she said to Castle. "You comin'?"

"Are you really okay?" Castle asked when they were alone in her cruiser, and she nodded, thin-lipped. If he could just leave it. Even if Montgomery was insisting on the ride-along the last thing she wanted was for Castle to become involved. She bit back a grimace at the thought; in a few short months Castle had become her safe place, a calm in the storm. He had no idea - none - of just how forcefully he'd pushed away so many of her demons, and in spite of how much she was still keeping from him, she wanted to be able to confide in him in her own time.

Her gut clenched yet again at the thought of bringing him into this thing she and the boys were starting. She hadn't even told him about her mother yet. The idea of bringing him into a clandestine investigation shrouded in secrecy was nothing but a bad idea, but if he was going to be this involved in her life she didn't know how she'd be able to avoid it.

"It's nothing." A cloud passed over his face, and she could tell she wasn't fooling him. "Really," she insisted. "I'm fine."

He nodded, apparently willing to drop it, and looked around the car with a grin on his face. "This is so cool. Show me your cuffs again."

Kate threw her head back against the head rest, groaning. "I showed them to you at the last set of lights. And I showed you my gun holster at the one before that. And I am not throwing the gumball on, or running any reds. And-" she reached out and slapped at his hand- "I'm not letting you play with the police radio."

"This is awesome," he said, ignoring her rant. "Did you know I've never sat in the front of a police car before?"

"You don't say?" Beckett rolled her eyes. This was way worse than she'd imagined. She'd thought he'd get in the way. She hadn't counted on him being… cute. Ugh. This was terrible.

He was jumpy and eager and smiling and the whole thing was just so… inappropriate, the way he was sitting there, his hair all perfect and his smile dazzling. Not to mention the fact that sitting in such close proximity to him in her cruiser meant she could smell the light scent of whatever aftershave he was wearing, and she had to force herself to push his hand away from the radio rather than hold onto it. The light turned green, and she released the clutch, hitting the gas.

"Beckett, do you have the Memorial Day long weekend off?" Castle asked.

"Uh, it depends. If we wrap this case, yeah, I'm done with work at five today. Why?" Beckett asked. Where was this coming from? They'd spent the whole night together - her cheeks warmed at the memory - and he hadn't mentioned the long weekend.

"I was thinking of going up to my place in the Hamptons. You could come. New York's finest deserves a break. Oh, and there's a secluded pool. You could lay out, work on your tan."

"Wow, Castle, you're working really hard to see me in a swimsuit, considering you saw it all last night."

Castle smirked. "If you are not comfortable in a swimsuit, you can just skinny dip."

Beckett smiled. "I think I'll skip the skinny dipping, if it's all the same to you-"

"It's not all the same to me, but I'll accept both bikini and one piece as acceptable swim wear if skinny dipping is off the table."

Beckett rolled her eyes. "It's off the table."

"Beckett!" Castle whined. "Please tell me that coming to the Hamptons is on the table?"

She shrugged, pulling up at the scene. "Castle, we have a body. Can we talk about this later?"

"Who would murder a nun?" Castle asked again, when they were back in the precinct, confession obtained, and this time it was Ryan who groaned.

"Man, you obviously didn't go to Catholic school, so don't talk to me about nuns anymore." He turned around and stalked back to his own desk, oblivious to Beckett's raised eyebrow.

"I think he likes me," Castle commented, nodding at the man's retreating back, and Beckett swallowed a grin; she knew the detective well enough to know that he wouldn't be messing with Castle if he didn't like him.

"Castle, stop asking who would murder a nun. We know exactly who did it, and he's in holding right now, waiting to be taken down to Central Booking."

"Yeah, but a priest? And if he's in holding, what are we still doing here?"

"Yeah. A priest." Beckett nodded. "And we're still here because it's only four o'clock, and some of us have paperwork."

"Maybe the devil spoke to him…" Castle mused. "A devil who loves creating paperwork for the most extraordinary cop in New York City…"

Beckett suppressed a smile. "Castle?"

"Yeah?"

"Go home," she told him. "I'll be out of here in an hour. You can pick me up at my place at six. I'll come to the Hamptons with you."

A/N: Thanks for beta, K! And you guys, with your reviewing... thank you. x