Hello, friends. This is the first installment of what I'm going to call the "from the vault" series: one-shots posted onto tumblr 4-6 years ago that never got cross-posted here. They might be edited, added to, or posted as-is. While they're not new, they're new to this site and potentially a lot of you, so hopefully you don't mind reading (or re-reading, maybe) these throwbacks while I try to work on actual new stuff.
I hope you enjoy some stories I'd even forgotten about myself. Thank you to the lovely person who reached out and asked me to post these here, you're greatly appreciated xx
let's be (lonely together)
He revels in the half-hearted eye roll, the glare he gets when he makes a comment about hospital officials and their affinity for lust, betrayal, and bed hopping.
"I've watched enough medical dramas to know that doctors are notorious for sleeping with each other," he tells her as they make their way through the hospital. "I bet as we speak, in this hospital, two doctors are in a break room doing it. And by it I mean—"
"I know what it means, Castle," she says, head turning towards him. "And that is just a fantasy. Four out of five doctors prefer sleeping with someone outside of their profession."
"How many of them like detectives?"
"One, that I know of."
Beckett's stride doesn't falter as she turns down the nearest hallway, and so he follows, skipping to fall back into step with her. "Motorcycle boy is a doctor?"
She scoffs. "Man, Castle. Motorcycle man."
"Fine," he concedes, though he has no intentions of calling him Motorcycle Man. "But he's a doctor?"
"Yeah, he is."
"What kind of doctor?" he asks. "Urologist? Proctologist?" He pauses, eyes wide. "Don't tell me he's a gynecologist."
"He's a cardiac surgeon," she cuts him off, a smirk on her face.
"Oh. That's..."
"Impressive? Yeah, it is."
He wasn't going to say impressive but, okay, he'll admit it. Motorcycle boy doesn't seem at all like a doctor, but he'll give credit where credit is due.
Doctors are impressive, but so are best-selling mystery novelists.
"What hospital does he work at?" he asks, keeping his voice light.
She hesitates. "This one, actually."
She doesn't say more, just looks ahead and continues walking, and he lets it go. He wants to know if he's working right now, if they'll have the pleasure of running into him, but he can tell that she doesn't exactly want to talk about her relationship right now.
So he stops.
Though, if he's honest, he hopes they don't. He's not sure he can take watching the little love fest that'll ensue, Motorcycle Boy pulling her into a hug and the kiss that'll no doubt accompany.
He shudders, and she must notice him in her peripheral because she turns to him with a quirked brow. "Got a chill," he lies, grateful she just gives him a look in lieu of a comment.
"Let's go, Castle," she says, nodding towards the person who appears to be their suspect.
It takes him a few seconds but he follows, trailing behind her and up to the young attending who's already in the middle of flirting with Beckett.
Get in line, kid.
"He's a flirt with the female residents, but I don't think he's our killer," she sighs, running a hand over her face.
"I bet he's one the statistics talk about," he says, looking to her with a sideways grin. "The one you'll find in an on-call room or in a hallway closet with another doctor."
She rolls her eyes. "Oh there are statistics now, are there?"
"They're very compelling statistics. In fact—"
"Castle."
"Fine," he relents. "I'll spare you the riveting details. For what it's worth, I don't think he's the killer, either. It's all wrong."
Beckett laughs. "I'm sure there's an explanation on its way."
"It doesn't feel right," he continues, ignoring her scoff. "It's too easy. We learn that someone with medical experience administered the syringe that caused the air embolism, and he's the first person we talk to? No way it'd be him."
She turns past the nurses station, leading them down another long hallway. "You'd think it being easy would be a good thing."
He shakes his head. "That's not a good story, my dear detective. No one wants to read a murder mystery that's solved within the first ten pages."
"My mistake, how could I ever have been so wrong," she deadpans.
He gives a curt nod. "As long as you recognize your wrongdoings."
Rolling her eyes, she continues down the hall and he follows, taking the time to look at the wall decor. It's not much, just red and blue stripes running horizontally down the middle of the wall, but it gives some color to the otherwise white and drab theme.
It's a hospital, sure, but being sterile doesn't mean it has to look so dull.
A door opens a ways ahead of them at the end of the hallway and two doctors exit, the guy flattening his hand over his scrubs and the woman fixing her top, also scrubs, and Castle's face lights up with glee. When the man looks down the adjacent hallway, seemingly checking to see if the coast is clear—though he doesn't look their way, his back still toward them, which seems like a rather poor strategy if he really wanted to cover all of his bases—before he leans down and presses one last kiss to the woman's mouth, Castle barely suppresses a squeal.
"See, Beckett," he stage whispers. "I told you! Right here in this very hospital, two doctors were having sex."
She huffs. "This confirms nothing."
"What?" he squeaks, stretching his neck to look over at her. "This confirms everything."
There's a slight curl of her lips, a dip in her cheek where he can tell she's biting down on it, and he latches onto that. He takes a few long strides until he's surpassed her pace, walking backwards as he faces her. She's actually grinning now; she's still shaking her head, clearly wants to be annoyed by his antics, but she can't hide the amusement.
"Come on, Beckett," he needles, doing a little dance as he tries to avoid colliding back-first into someone or something. "Just admit it. I was right."
She purses her lips, twisting her mouth to the side as she tries to suppress yet another smirk. "No."
"Beckett," he whines.
She shakes her head. "No."
"You know you want to," he sing-songs. "No need to deny it. Lying to yourself isn't healthy, you know."
He watches her eyes roll so hard he's almost concerned they're about to roll into the back of her head, but then something changes, the grin falls from her face in a split second, and now he is concerned. Her face turns ashen, eyes wide, and she stops in her tracks.
"Beckett?" he asks, the humor gone immediately as he stops in front of her. "What's wrong?"
She doesn't answer, but he hears a faint "Josh?" and he turns, follows her line of sight. The man they just watched come out of one of the on-call rooms, the one they just watched kiss the woman with the rumpled clothing, is in front of them once again. Beside him is the woman, one hand resting comfortably on Josh's hip and the other on his shoulder, but this time the pair is turned in their direction.
Color him surprised when, somehow, they're face-to-face with Doctor Motorcycle Boy.
His expression is almost blank, a muted surprise etched in each line of his pale face as he catches sight of his girlfriend. Castle can feel his hands slowly balling into fists at his side.
"Kate, hi," Josh says, faking a smile as he takes a few steps forward. He tries subtly (but not really so subtly) to put space between himself and his side-room-doctor who, to her credit, looks equally as shocked, as if she didn't know there was a Kate. "What are you doing here?"
Castle turns to look at Beckett and he's not sure what to do. He's not sure what the right thing to do in this situation is; sure, he's found himself face-to-face with his cheating wife before, but that doesn't mean he's an expert. This isn't something he's aiming to be an expert in.
His first instinct is to slam Josh into the nearest wall and hold him there by his scrawny little cheating neck. Alas, despite the shock, he knows Beckett wouldn't be on board with that course of action and the last thing he wants to do is upset her even more.
So, he holds in his anger and instead inches closer to her, not crowding but supporting.
"An interview," she says, her voice clipped but controlled.
"Oh. I'm—listen, I can explain," he starts, one hand—maybe unintentionally—gesturing behind him, but Beckett just lets out a humorless huff. "This isn't what it looks like."
That's how he's playing this? No, Doctor Dick, that's not about to work, and he's pleased to see that Beckett doesn't seem to think so either.
"So she didn't just have her hands all over you?"
"I mean, her hands... that was nothing. We're friends."
"You come out of vacant on-call rooms adjusting your clothing with all of your friends?"
Josh's eyes widen, taken aback by the knowledge that she'd seem them. He splutters a bit.
"Well, tell me. You kiss all of your friends on the mouth after coming out of on-call rooms together and adjusting your clothing?"
"Kate, come one, be reasonable, this isn't—"
She shakes her head, and Castle has to commend her for keeping her composure. He's close to losing his. Be reasonable? He thinks it'd be entirely reasonable to slap that exasperated look right off his face.
"Right. Goodbye, Josh," she says, and then she's walking again, away from Josh and the other woman and away from Castle, too.
"It was just this once," Josh tries to say, to call after her, but she doesn't turn back, doesn't even hesitate. Her pace remains steady as she walks away.
Castle's left stunned, confused, and angered by what's just happened in front of him. He watches Beckett walk down the hallway and make a left, and he's about to run after her, but his feet stay rooted to the tiled flooring for a few seconds longer.
Josh is looking at him, an expression on his face as if Castle's about to pity him. To feel sorry for him. There's a bit of hesitance, the tiniest flinch when Castle takes a step closer. Good.
It might look as if he's about to hit him, and he wants to, would love to, but he doesn't.
No, he's not worth it, not worth the pain the punch would cause his knuckles. Beckett is worth it, worth the bruised knuckles and the potential assault charge, but it's not worth the pain it would cause her.
"You lost something great today, you know that?" is all he says before he turns on his heels and leaves the same way Beckett did.
He wanders around the corridor for a few minutes before he eventually finds her outside, sitting on one of the benches farthest away from the entrance. Her head's leaning back against the brick of the building, and he watches on silently as her chest rises and falls more quickly than he likes.
She must hear him approaching, or maybe just sense a presence, because she turns and her head dips, both hands rising to wipe hastily beneath her eyes.
He hovers a little, shifts on his feet. He wants to reach out, to tell her how shitty her now-ex is, but for once, in this moment, he doesn't have the words.
"Well, Castle," she manages, looking up at him with glistening eyes, voice gravely. "Looks like you were right after all."
Oh, no. This isn't what he wanted.
"Hey, no," he says quietly, sitting next to her, a hand falling to rest gently on her shoulder. "This isn't—I didn't want to be right like this."
She's quiet, fingers brushing away more rogue tears as she shakes her head. "I should've seen it coming," she says softly. "They always say you know, you see signs, but I didn't."
"This is in no way your fault," he says firmly.
Slowly, she turns toward him.
Her eyes are starting to turn red around the rims, watery though he can tell she's doing her best to fight it off. He knows it's not solely because of what Josh did, but because of the shock of it all, of witnessing it right here, right now, and he can't blame her.
He's shocked, too.
He hates that she's crying at all, that Josh did this. Most of all, though, he doesn't understand how someone could cheat on Kate Beckett. If he were lucky enough to call her his, to proudly introduce her to people as his girlfriend, he'd cherish that. Her. Treat her how she deserves to be treated.
"I know," she says with a small nod. "I know it's not, I just..." Her voice tapers off and she sniffles, tongue darting out to trail across her bottom lip.
"It sucks, I know," he says quietly. When her eyes lift to his, he sees the recognition, the realization. "It's not easy, but there is a positive." She quirks a brow in askance. "You end a relationship with someone who doesn't appreciate you. You realize that they weren't the one for you, and you find someone who's worth diving into that relationship with, someone who knows the value of what they have."
She sighs, lets her hair fall into her face as she clears her throat. "Yeah. Yeah," she nods.
"You don't deserve this, Kate," he says, and she gives him a faint hint of a smile. "You're extraordinary, and yes I will say it as many times as it takes until you believe it," she shakes her head with a light chuckle, "and you deserve someone who sees that. But more importantly, he doesn't deserve you."
Pulling her bottom lip between her teeth, she holds his gaze. "Thank you, Castle," she says, her voice still rough. "Sorry, I shouldn't even be—"
"No," he says immediately, shaking his head. "Don't apologize. This isn't on you, it's on him. You have every right to be upset."
She doesn't say anything, just gives another small nod in reply before she takes a deep breath, brings her hands up to her face to wipe away any last remnants of tears. Her face rests in her palms for a moment as she collects herself, and then she's sitting up straighter, hands braced on her thighs.
"Let's get out of here," she says, moving to stand, and he follows suit.
"You okay?" he asks quietly.
It takes a couple seconds, but she gives an affirmative. "Yeah," she breathes. "I will be. It's not like we really saw much of each other anyway."
"Still, coming out of a relationship can be lonely sometimes."
Beckett huffs a watery little chuckle. "I'm never lonely when you're around, Castle. You won't let me be."
He knows she means it as a dig in jest, an attempt at lighthearted humor, but he takes it for what it is between the lines. Meaningful. His skin warms at her words.
"Damn right," he says easily, enthusiastically. His voice softens then, sincerity dripping from his words when he says, "I'm here for you, you know."
Beckett stares at him for a moment, eyes still glassy, a soft curl pulling at the corners of her mouth. "I know," she whispers, her fingers brushing against his forearm for a moment before the touch is gone.
They walk in silence on their way back to the cruiser and he inches closer, hesitates for a moment before wrapping one arm around her shoulder, tugging her closer to him. He holds his breath, waits for her to stiffen or pull away, but she doesn't, and he swears he can feel her list ever so slightly into his side.
"This is why he's Motorcycle Boy," he murmurs, reveling in the genuine laugh that manages to pull out of her.
She looks up at him, a real smile on her face despite the tear lines staining her cheeks, and his heart stutters, breath caught in his throat. If he had any doubts, any at all, they've all disappeared.
He's going to spend every moment he can trying to keep a smile on Kate Beckett's face.
Prompt: set in 3x05 where c&b are in the hospital josh happens to work there and during investigation they see him coming out of an on-call room after some fun time. beckett runs away upset and castle follows her
