Prompt: Another take from me on 2x24 A Deadly Game
It's eating her alive. And she can't quite wrap her head around it.
"Why do you think he's following you around? What, research? The man's done enough research to write fifty books."
Esposito's words were running through her head, and looking at her partner's chair didn't help.
"Look, whatever reason, I don't think it involves seeing you with another man."
That is the part that annoys her the most. She can't get out the pictures in her head with those saddened expressions he got every time Tom was around.
"You ready?" Her thoughts are interrupted and she can't help but think speaking of the devil when she looks up and sees Tom stand in front of her desk.
"Yeah," she answers by automatic and starts raising to her feet, picking up her jacket. But then her eyes drift to his chair again and she stops in her tracks.
"It's not like he's leaving."
"Are you sure about that?"
Well, not anymore.
"Kate, you okay?" Tom asks and Kate looks up to him with what she's sure is a confused and a somewhat saddened face.
She quickly looks down again, biting her lip as she feels her eyes water a bit. She takes a collecting breath before looking up again, quickly scanning the bullpen with her eyes ending on Demming.
He's having a poker game, she knows he's having a poker game, but it doesn't stop her from arriving outside his door with her hand raised in a fist. Just when she's about to knock she freezes, should she really disturb them?
"It makes what I was going to say much easier."
Yes, she has to. She takes a few deep breaths before knocking the door. The wait is making her hands turn sticky as her belly is filling with butterflies, all signs of stress and nerves. Perhaps a bit of excitement as well.
"Beckett?" Castle's voice sounds surprised and his eyes are big looking at her. "What are you doing here?"
"I-uh," why is she suddenly forgetting the speech she'd practiced in her car on the way over? "I need to talk to you."
"I'm in the middle of poker night, can it wait till the morning?" He looks over his shoulder and she follows his gaze to see the famous writers around the poker table watching them.
"I don't think it can," she says and he opens the door wider stepping aside to let her in.
"I'm sorry boys, gotta talk to my muse but I'm sure you can manage one game without me winning," Castle says with an amused and gloating tone as they walk towards his office.
Kate smiles at the mention of being his muse but quickly takes control again when she realizes it. She hopes he didn't notice, hopes he was too focused on his writer buddies. She goes to stand by the big window as she waits for him to close the door and join her. Once the door is closed she notices he's taking a breath before carefully walk towards her, placing himself beside her. She can feel his eyes on her and tries to gather up courage to what she came here to say.
"Is there something new with the case?" he asks in a tone telling her he's expecting her to talk about the case.
"No," she says on an exhale. "I broke it off with Tom."
"Wha-why?"
He manages to change his tone to casual but not before she manages to hear the relief and surprise.
"He's just... not what I'm looking for, right now,"
She can practically hear the gulp he's taking and she can't stop her teeth sinking into her lower lip.
"Then… what are you looking for?"
The gentleness in his voice is so sweet that it makes the corners of her lips lift a little.
"It doesn't make sense yet, but-uh a weekend in the Hamptons sounds nice. That is, if the offer still stands?" she asks carefully, turning towards him to see his expression.
His expression goes from surprise to absolute joy in a matter of seconds and now she can't help but smile bright at him.
"Really? You're coming?"
She nods, feeling a lot more excited about the weekend now than she did before.
"Yeah, not like I can let you get bored enough to kill someone outside of your book," she teases and he chuckles.
"Touché," he says with a similar bright smile all over his lips.
Kate sucks her lower lip into her mouth in a try to keep the smile down.
"So, I'll see you tomorrow," she says as she starts to prepare to leave.
"Or, you could stay for the poker," he suggests.
She shakes her head, the smile still on her face. "Thanks but I've gotta go get some sleep." When his face shows a small portion of disappointment she adds, "We could always play poker at the Hamptons. If we don't have anything to play for we could always go for clothing." She shrugs her shoulder as she starts walking away from him, towards the door.
"Clothing?" he halfway exclaims and she smirks giving him a look.
"Mhmm, unless you're afraid of strip poker."
And then she leaves him. Knowing they'll see each other tomorrow has her heart pounding with excitement and knowing they have a full weekend to figure all of this out. God, she can't wait to figure it all out.
The End
