Castle brushes against her side as she heads for the Crown Vic; he can't help wanting to touch her, reassure himself with the heat of her skin, the firm flex of her arm. Kate steps away from him again, opens the car door as she shoots him a look.
"Am I still banned?" he says with a sigh.
She raises an eyebrow, as if he should know.
"Kate."
"Castle. You were supposed to go home and chill out. Not go running around the city investigating on your own," she hisses at him. Her eyes are dark over the roof of the car but he doesn't step away from the passenger door.
"It doesn't do you any good to send me home. We've been partners for how long? You should know that by now."
She holds his gaze steadily. "Castle."
Ryan interrupts their staredown by hustling towards them. "Hey, boss."
She turns away from Castle to look at Ryan and Castle sighs, testing the door handle with a flick of his fingers. Locked. She'd really keep him out?
"I talked with the uniforms here and it looks like they've put the break-in on high priority," Ryan is saying.
Kate growls, crossing her arms. "That means there's no way Glenn is going to hand this one over."
Castle shifts, glancing back to the house. "Are you gonna tell Detective Glenn about-"
"No," she says quickly, giving him a swift look. "This doesn't go past the four of us."
"Oh and well," Castle starts, hesitating at the horror that erupts on Ryan and Kate's faces. "I told Alexis. I - she - I think she deserves to know."
"Yeah, okay," Kate sighs, rubbing her forehead. "You're right. But no one else. Not Glenn, for sure."
"So what do we do about this?" Ryan gestures to the Montgomery house, phone in his hand.
"Glenn won't give it over, and honestly, if we show anything more than friendly, protecting-our-former-Captain interest, he's going to start asking questions." Kate puts her hands on her hips, shaking her head. "We can't afford that."
Castle inserts his opinion into the mix. "Glenn is smart. He will start asking questions. He wanted to know why I showed up-"
"Why did you show up?" Ryan asks.
"Had a hunch Montgomery might have left something here."
Kate shoots him a look he can't identify, but she unlocks the car doors with the remote and he immediately opens his door, just in case it was a fluke.
"Let's head back to the 12th, figure out what comes next," she says finally. "And Castle?"
"Yeah? Yes. Anything."
"No more private investigating. You're not Nancy Drew."
"I should hope not. I'm thinking Frank Hardy-"
"Get in the car."
She shakes off his questing hand and glares at him.
"How was the new Captain?" he murmurs, watching the hard set of her eyes.
He knows he's hit the heart of her attitude when she stiffens, a muscle working in her jaw. "Not good. You are not her favorite, Rick."
"Okay, so I'll charm her down-"
"I don't think you can," she mutters. "Really. Castle. What the hell-"
"I know. I know. Look, just - can we let this one go? Stupidity, male posturing, whatever you want to call it. I lost it, Kate. Okay?"
She sighs and presses two fingers to her forehead, her elbow propped up on the door as she steers with her other hand low on the wheel. She isn't looking at him.
"Kate."
"Castle, you've just made it very difficult for me."
He grits his teeth and glances out the window, buildings passing and his eyes not really registering. "I know."
"I have no standing with her," she says quietly. "She has no reason to trust me. What she does have is my husband losing it in an interrogation-"
"Kate," he grits out, but she makes a noise to stop him, interrupt his exasperated response.
"Rick. I know your worth; I know your value to my team. I know we wouldn't have the success we've had without you. But I can't make that case to Captain Gates after this. Which means your access to the 12th is severely restricted."
"What does that mean for this case?"
"It means that I'm not sure you should even come up in the elevator with us."
He sighs and tilts his head back, closing his eyes against it. His own damn fault. If he'd just held it together a little while longer. If he'd just kept it under control. . .
"Hey," she says softly, and the tenderness lacing her voice has him opening his eyes to look at her. She gives him a quick glance, edgy and anxious but soft towards him all the same, and then she sighs. "Not for good, not for always. Just for now."
"I don't like this," he says, looking away again, the skyscrapers, the scaffolding, downtown New York.
"I don't either," she says back. "But this is what we have to do."
After a long moment, he turns his head to look at her, and she's biting her bottom lip. "I can go by the docks and check the dead drop," he says finally, quietly, watching to see what she says to that.
Kate glances back to him with a sucked in breath, then looks away quickly. He can tell she doesn't like that idea.
"Kate. Someone wants that file - went to Montgomery's house to look for it. And we know who has it. So. I should go check the dead drop."
"Not without me."
"You went without me," he says back.
"I. . ."
He waits, and she's practically gnawing on her lip now, her hand clutching the wheel so that her knuckles are white.
"Okay," she says finally. "Check the dead drop. But Castle-"
"I know," he says calmly. "I'll be careful."
Castle leaves the guys at the elevator, takes Kate by the elbow towards the lobby and the metal detectors. She feels like she's going to throw up; she doesn't want him anywhere near those docks without a gun. And if she's being honest with herself, it has nothing to do with the file.
"I'll be fine. I'm just going to walk by, see if anything's different."
It doesn't sit right with her. "This guy. . ."
"Friend of Montgomery's, remember?"
"Doesn't make me feel better," she sighs. She can't help catching his hand and squeezing his knuckles, crunching them together. He huffs at her, giving her a look, and she steps into him, pushing their joined hands together against his chest. She opens her mouth to tell him no, don't, never mind-
"Yo, Beckett," comes Esposito's voice through the lobby.
She backs up and glances to Javier as he jogs towards them.
"Just got a call. Our DMV search has been bumped."
Kate grunts at that and catches Castle's eyes on her. "Someone rich and famous. High profile case got pushed to the front of the line."
He has the decency to flush at that, the line-jumping is so his thing (or used to be), and she sighs and glances back to Espo. "Okay, so what does that mean for our case?"
"We're stalled until we get the results of that search," Esposito says, shaking his head at her.
Kate feels Castle come up to her back, his heat like a statement he doesn't even need to say. Because she gets it; she knows. Perfect opportunity.
"Then Castle and I are gonna explore a lead on our own," she says. "Can you guys stall Gates if-"
"We got your back," Esposito says, nodding.
"Don't stay up there too long. Put in an hour or two and then head home, okay? Because I will need you here tomorrow - bright and early."
Ryan has made his way towards them and he steps into their circle, staying Beckett with a quick hand. "You guys need back-up on this?"
Kate glances to Rick, searches his eyes, then shakes her head. "No. It's probably a dead end."
Ryan and Espo share a look of their own but let them go.