Disclaimer: I don't own Castle.

Prompt #28: Declaration - They were not expecting their super-serious Beckett to shout "Bam, said the lady!" and slap Castle a high five.

Words: 512


"Something's wrong," Esposito said uneasily to his partner.

"I agree," Ryan said. "It's really creepy, right?"

"Yeah. Especially since nothing's happened yet."

"Right? They're being...real weird."

The two men looked across the bullpen to where Beckett and Castle were sitting at Beckett's desk chowing down on Chinese food. It was a normal enough picture, but the conversation happening between bites was anything but.

"It's totally plausible."

"Absolutely not. The logistics are all wrong. You'd need more power than that."

"But that's the beauty of it. An arc reactor would definitely - "

"You need to get your facts straight."

"What facts? We just find a genius and it can be done."

And so the banter continued. But unlike the usual stream of things, Beckett didn't show any signs of ending this argument anytime soon. In fact, she seemed to be feeding Castle's argument with a genuine smile on her face.

Ryan glanced back at his partner. "You know, under normal circumstances, this wouldn't be that big a deal."

"But this isn't normal," Esposito pointed out. "Something has to be wrong."

"But what?" asked Ryan. "Castle hasn't done anything stupid or acted dense lately, has he?"

Esposito shook his head. "Nope. Not that I've seen. Lanie hasn't said anything about it either."

"So what's got them acting so weird?"

That, it seemed, was the million-dollar question. And for the life of them, the two detective couldn't figure out the answer.


"Oh my god, did you see their faces?" Beckett laughed later that night, dropping onto the sofa and kicking up her feet. "They looked so confused!"

"Wasn't that the general plan?" Castle clarified, handing her a glass of red wine.

"Yeah, but I didn't think it'd be so funny!" She took a sip and set down the glass before her giggles made her drop it. "I feel bad for them."

"Liar. It was all your idea."

"We were both fighting to keep a straight face all day, mister," Beckett accused.

"Yeah, but in my case, that's normal. You? That was freaky for them." Castle's sudden smile was pure mischief. "You wanna really throw them for a loop?"

Her smile flashed with devilish glee. "Yeah!"

"All right then, tomorrow let's go in and..."


When the ballistics report came in, Castle could barely contain his excitement. "The slug in the victim matches the ones dug out of the witness's wall! Both came from Roger's gun! He did it!"

"Bam, said the lady!" Beckett crowed, slapping his outstretched in a triumphant high-five. He caught her hand in his and pulled her against his side in a clearly intimate embrace, causing Beckett to laugh in surprise.

"Javi," Ryan said, eyeing the partners with something akin to alarm, "this is really getting freaky."

"Courage bro, courage," Esposito said, patting him on the back.

Nestled beside Castle with her head resting on his shoulder, Beckett almost couldn't contain her fit of giggles.


Review please!