THE QUEEN OF HEARTS

A season 7 AU. Even though they are now a happily married couple, Becket's romantic past comes back to threaten her former lovers. Will she be able to eliminate the threat before the threat eliminates all her past lovers? Up to and including… her husband!

All standard disclaimers apply.

AN: Warning! Some secondary characters won't survive.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

CHAPTER ONE

Kate sat in front of the bathroom mirror combing out the tangles in her long locks caused by her morning shower. A slight frown tweaked her lips as she continued the daily battle she had with her hair. Had she made a mistake, she wondered.

The week before Castle had been found in that dingy floating in the Atlantic Ocean she had finally decided to trim her hair. It had gotten pretty long since she'd last shortened it for her job with the AG's office. It had been down around her mid-back again.

She had gotten about six inches cut off and Castle hadn't even acknowledged the difference. And he had thought it had only been a single day since he'd seen her last. While she didn't style her hair for him… well not only for him, it would have been nice if he sometimes made comments that were more than generic compliments on how beautiful she was.

Her hair hung down over her shoulders just shy of the bottom of her shoulders blades. It was a length that she had, except for those couple of times she let it go real long, worn most of the time these past several years. Basically since she had decided to grow out the short haircut she had when Castle first inserted himself into her life, and never left.

She had worn her hair long for the past five plus years. Was it time for a change? Had she been a coward the last time she trimmed it up? Did it even matter to Rick how she wore her hair? He'd lived his whole adult life with women and she doubted he ever voiced any opinion that hadn't been one of approval.

She imagined he would never dare criticize his mother on her coiffure and he had a daughter whose hair style hadn't changed in sixteen years. And Meredith and Gina. She was pretty sure he never offered an unsolicited opinion to either of them. So was she being unrealistic to expect him to offer an opinion as to how she wore her hair? Did she want him too?

She freely admitted that she liked long hair. It made her feel beautiful… when she put in the work on it. But long hair could be a veritable pain in the ass. She spent a lot of time drying, brushing, combing, and curling her long hair every morning.

As much as she liked her look with long hair, was it worth the trouble if her own husband was indifferent? Maybe she should chop it off again and see what he said. A little voice in the back of her head said he probably wouldn't say anything.

At that precise moment, Castle stepped into room and leaned down and kissed her on the head. "Why the frown? Something wrong?"

"No… yes." She turned toward him.

Castle placed his hands on her shoulders and began a massage. He could feel the tension in her muscles. "Tell me, what has you bothered."

"My husband doesn't seem to have an opinion on how he'd prefer I wear my hair."

Castle stopped massaging her shoulders. "Are you serious?"

Her voice signaled the frustration she felt. "Rick, when we first met I had short hair and you pursued me like you would have any page 6 debutant, yet most of the women you dated… or married, had long hair. When I let my hair grow out you still were attracted to me though you never mentioned any preference as to how I wore my hair."

Castle just shrugged his shoulders. "What can I say? You are beautiful no matter how you wear your hair?"

She raised her brow. "So you're saying that you'd think I'd look great even if I got up every morning and just pulled my hair back into a ponytail and went out like that."

He looked a bit uncomfortable. "Well, sometimes a ponytail is called for. Like if you wanted to do some painting, or cleaning, or gardening?"

"But if I just tie it back, or pinned it up because I was late for work?"

"Well I guess that would be okay too."

Kate was getting angry. "Do you have any opinion on how I wear my hair?"

Rick replaced his hand on her shoulder. "My opinion is, you should wear it the way it makes you happy."

"I was happy when I wore it short all those years ago."

"And I told you I thought you looked adorable with the short hair."

Kate looked confused. "No you didn't?"

"Oh yeah, that was the other you."

She rolled her eyes. "But I've been wearing my hair long for the last five plus years and you never singled out a style that you said you particularly liked."

"Can't I like them all? You have to admit that you've had a lot of variant hair styles since we've known each other and I can honestly say you looked great in all of them."

"So you are saying, that if I decided to go short again, you would think that would be great."

"Are you thinking of going short again?"

Kate glared at her reflection. "Yes, I am. I'm getting tired of all the hassle it takes to make my long hair presentable in my eyes."

Castle leaned down and kissed her head again. "So, cut it. I'm sure whatever you and your stylist come up with will look great on you. And maybe a change will be just what you need to get out of this funk you are dealing with."

Kate shook her head. "Nope. As my husband you are going to be a part of this decision."

She reached over to the drawer off to one side of the sink. She rummaged around until her hand fell upon that which she was searching for. She pulled out a pair of scissors. She grabbed his hand and slapped the shears into his hand.

"You decide the length."

She didn't know why she had started the argument with Castle or why it had gotten to this point, but she was stuck with it now. She was committed to her pronouncement.

She looked up at her husband. His lips were in a hard line. Great, she'd made him mad. Maybe she pushed him too hard to get him to have an opinion. Maybe she would be sorry.

"Okay, you want me to decide. You give me an hour to research some styles and I'll come back and give you my answer… with those scissors."

While waiting for Castle to do his 'research' she went out to the kitchen and made herself some breakfast. Well, what Kate might call breakfast. She toasted some bagels and smeared some strawberry cream cheese on them. She managed to make and drink two cups of coffee with Castle's high end machine.

It was a habit she hadn't gotten over yet. She still called everything in the loft as his and not theirs. Very little of her stuff had been brought over from her apartment when they made the move after the wedding.

In a stroke of luck, her cousin Sofia needed a place so Kate was subleasing it to her, almost completely furnished. Kate pretty much only brought over her clothing and a few personal items that she wanted to keep with her. The rest stayed put.

It being her cousin, and Kate being married to a rich man, she basically split the rent with Sophia in order for Kate to keep the apartment if they should ever need it. If Martha hadn't found a nice place near her acting school she could have had it. It would be a few years yet before Alexis would graduate and need a place off campus of her own.

It was more likely that Sophia would move in with a boyfriend before Kate and Rick would have a need for her old place.

Rick had denigrated the apartment's creaky floors and thin walls, but to her it was an awesome apartment and she was happy to continue the ownership of it.

A wholly inexplicable niggle in the back of her mind also thought it might become necessary as a place to live if she and Castle didn't work out long term. It was an unworthy thought, but she still wasn't that confident that he might not get tired of her. He hadn't managed to stay married twice already.

In fairness, Meredith never really wanted to be married. It interfered with her hypothetical movie career. She never really knew what had happened between him and Gina. She knew that Castle shut her out in regards to Alexis, but Gina never struck her as the motherly type. Apparently they were only destined to be business partners. That they did very well. Kate imagined that it had always been about business between them. Gina just struck her as someone who was always looking for a chance to advance her own career. And since her career success was heavily dependent on Rick's career she could see where that would be all they had.

"Kate, I'm ready." She heard him call for her from the en-suite bathroom.

She was still dressed in a pair of boxers and a short sleeve shirt that she had put on after her shower. She wasn't due in until this afternoon so she had planned to lounge around the loft all morning.

Her hair had since dried from her morning shower. She hadn't done anything to it so it hung strait down around her head and down her back. There was no wave or curl to it.

She walked in and saw that Rick had placed a chair in the bathroom with the back to the mirror. She wasn't sure she liked that. He had his laptop on the counter, obviously he'd been searching online to find a style he was going to use as his model.

He directed her to the chair. "Why can't I watch what you're doing in the mirror?" She frowned at him.

He shook his head. "Nope, no peeking." He smirked. "Besides, I don't want you to lose confidence in me because I have to keep checking with the instructions I've found."

Kate sat down somewhat hesitantly. "Will I have enough hair left to salvage some style if your masterpiece doesn't work out quite a well as you hoped?"

"Remember whose idea this was."

Kate shook her head, her long hair swirled around her head. "No, this was my idea and I'll own it, not matter how it turns out." She gives him a slight pout. "I will be unhappy if I'm bald when you finish."

He shrugged. "You said I choose the length."

"And I meant it. If that's what you choose to do, that's what will be. But I still will be very unhappy about it."

Castle nodded with smile. "Okay, no baldness, not even partial."

She nodded. "Good.

"We can forget the whole deal right now if you want. You don't have to go through with it."

She turned and grinned at him. "No, I know that now that I've forced you into this and you've done all this research on styles, you are dying to put those scissors to use on my hair. If only to prove that you can do it."

Castle just grinned, but didn't speak. Instead he reached over to the end of the counter and picked up a large bowl. He moved it over and set in on Kate's head.

She jumped up, grabbing the bowl off her head. "No way are you using a bowl to cut my hair!"

Rick was howling with laughter as he took the bowl from her hands and put it back on the counter.

"Sorry, just joking."

Kate glared at him. "You are not instilling confidence here."

"Sorry. Please sit, and I'll get to it."

He unfurled a large towel and wrapped in around her neck from back to front. He picked up a spray bottle of water and began to wet down her dried locks. He didn't want it soaked, but it needed to be wet enough so that the hair would stay together enough for more precision in the cutting.

Kate was tempted to close her eyes, but decided if she could face off murderers with guns aimed at her she could face a nervous husband with a pair of scissors. She just wasn't sure which she was more afraid of.

Kate felt a comb moving through her hair, sectioning different areas and clips being used to hold certain sections out of the way until needed. Then she heard the first 'snick' of the scissors. A hunk of hair she couldn't see fell to the floor. She bit her lip and looked straight ahead.

It took considerably longer for Castle to achieve what he was doing than it would in a salon. Usually a stylist didn't need to constantly check his reference videos as he cut. But cut he did. Kate gave up trying to follow what was being cut as she heard 'snick' after 'snick' continually. She snuck a peek at the floor near her feet and her heart nearly stopped when she saw how much dark hair covered the white tiles.

Rick promised he wouldn't make her bald, but she wasn't confident that she wouldn't wind up looking something like a modified G.I. Jane. If she could only learn to leave well enough alone when it came to Castle. She had a great guy for a husband who loved her and would never purposely hurt her. But she had to push him and now she would have to live with the results.

She estimated that Rick took nearly an hour before he was satisfied and called the haircut finished. Kate just hoped that it was savable. She could live with a real short haircut as long as it looked like it belonged on a woman. Of course, women were wearing super short buzz cuts now days. She just hoped she could still comb her hair.

She stood when he told her he was finished. She took some time to brush off the hair that had stuck to the towel and her shirt and boxers. She took a couple of deep breaths before she had gained the courage to turn around. Mentally she told herself, on the count of three. One, two, three. She turned.

Her first reaction to her reflection in the mirror was that it was somebody else looking back at her. She didn't speak. She turned her head one way, then the other. She lifted her hand and felt the back of her head.

She turned and faced Castle, a tear escaped from one eye. "I love it. And I love you."

She threw herself into his arms and kissed him till they nearly blacked out. She was happy and wanted him to know she loved him.

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

(AN: I purposely didn't describe the haircut because I wanted all the readers to imagine their favorite short haircut. It could be one from early in the show or just a short style that they happen to like. There will be no descriptive comments regarding the haircut beyond it being shorter during the rest of the story. This was just for me. I like short-haired Becketts)

%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%

Luckily they had set their phone alarms to wake them should they fall asleep after their late morning love making. They hadn't fallen asleep nor did they push themselves physically. It was soft, comfortable, and tender. No sweaty, spent bodies. Just a fulfilled loving couple restating their devotion to each other.

The alarms were there to remind them to get out of bed and into fresh clothing before they had to leave for the precinct. Kate made herself another cup of coffee while Rick made himself some toast and poured a large glass of orange juice. They made it to the precinct a whole three minutes early.

An undercurrent to murmurs and whispers followed their progress through the lobby until they reached the elevator, but no one addressed Kate directly. Their ride up to the fourth floor Homicide division was just the two of them.

Kate had known that few if any of her fellow officers and detectives would say anything to her. She had changed up her look often enough in the past that it wasn't any great shock to see that she had changed again.

She stepped out of the elevator car with Castle by her side and took a beeline to her desk. She sat down and began to boot up her computer in preparation for the start of her day when she heard her first comments.

"Hey Ryan, we got ourselves a new detective in today." Esposito called out when the Castles passed his desk.

"I see that. She looks somewhat familiar though." Ryan responded with a grin.

Kate glared at both of them. "I see I'm going to have to find some extra paperwork for you two. Something to keep your minds on your job."

Espo held up his hands. "Whoa! Slow down there, Beckett. We don't mean anything by our comments. We're just a bit surprised since you never mentioned you were thinking about making a change. It looks really nice."

Ryan jumped in. "Yeah, it does look really nice. It's just that you hadn't gone short in quite a while."

Kate gave them a careful stare. "Well, thank you. I found a new stylist and I let him do what he wanted." She glanced down at Castle. "He's good. I think I'll keep him."

And with that veiled statement the whole haircut discussion was finished. She grabbed some papers off her desk. Castle sat next to her checking his phone.

Kate addressed her 'boys'. "So, anything happen that I need to know? Any new information on the case?"

Esposito shook his head. "Naw, we're still waiting on reports from the lab. Lanie says she'll have her final examination report for us before the end of day.

Rick tapped Kate's hand to get her attention. She looked up into those cobalt blue eyes. She found herself gazing into those eyes and forgetting where she was.

"Kate?" He tapped her hand again. She shook off the effect that Castle's eyes had on her.

"Ah, what? Did you want something?"

Castle laughed. "I was just going to ask you if you want a cup of coffee."

Kate smiled. "Of course I would."

Rick stood up and headed for the break room. He wondered if he should arrange for a snack vending machine put into the break room. Giving it a second thought he realized that it would be a bad idea. People from other floors would consistently be coming in and using the machine. They'd have to have it refilled daily. Or even multiple times a day.

Rick brought the cup of coffee back to Kate's desk. He set it down.

Without even looking she reached over and grabbed the cup and took a long pull. "Thanks babe. I needed that."

Castle laughed. "Kate, that's your fourth cup of coffee already today. You're going to float away."

He made like he was going to take her cup away from her. She grabbed her letter opener and glared at him. He backed off. She pulled her cup closer to her.

Castle shook his head. "I can't believe you were going to stab me in the hand. That's how I provide for our family you know."

She smirked at him. "Who said I was going to stab you in the hand?" She let her gaze drop down to his lap.

A look of horror comes over Castle's face. "You wouldn't!"

Kate's stern look collapses with laughter. "Of course not, that's one of your best features. I'd miss Lil' Ricky way too much."

Their innocent foreplay was interrupted by Kate's phone. She pulled it out and noticed she had a text message. She opened it and was surprised what she saw.

Castle notice the look on her face. "What's up?"

Kate looked up at her husband. "It's from Jordan Shaw. She needs to talk to us on a secure line."

"Did she say why?" Kate rolled her eyes at Castle. He blushed. "Right, that's why she needs a protected line."

Kate pursed her lips as she thought. "I think there's one in a conference room in admin. Let's go down there and see if it's available." They both stood up. "Hey guys." Both Esposito and Ryan looked up at her. "I've got to go down to admin with Castle for a few minutes."

"You're not in any sort of trouble, are you?" Ryan looked worried.

Castle waggled his brows. "Not yet, anyway."

Kate shook her head as she slapped Castle on the arm. "No, I just got a text I need to check out. We'll be back in a few."

The couple hopped into the elevator and pushed the button for the second floor. Once their Kate walked up to the station's Administrative Secretary to see if the secure conference room would be available for a few minutes.

Sine there was nothing scheduled for the rest of that day, it was thought that it would be okay for Kate and Castle to use the room for a short time without a previous appointment. Kate still had to go through the paperwork connected with her request. It took her ten minutes to fill out the several official requests forms needed to just borrow the room for a short time. She had to block it out for a half an hour since that was the shortest increment that she could request.

After all the official paperwork had been completed, she and Rick settled into a couple of well-padded chairs at the end of a large conference table. Kate skipped using the large video screen and opted for just the small screen option on the table top. She read, then followed the instructions to make the hook up. In a couple minutes she had a line to Jordan Shaw ringing.

An image of an obviously tired looking Jordan Shaw was staring at them. "Kate, it's good to see you and Rick again. Congratulations on the wedding, by the way. It's nice to have another profile confirmed."

Kate was nodding, then stopped. "Wait, what?"

Jordan gave her a slight smile. "Oh come on Kate, even I knew way back then that you two were destined to be together. I just didn't realize you'd drag your feet so long."

Kate gave her a sour look. "Well, I wasn't the only one who made mistakes along the way." Castle tried to hide a sheepish look. "Anyway, why the call, and why the need for secrecy."

Jordan's expression fell. "It's not state secrets or anything, but something has happened that I think you should know. You would not normally be in the loop on this so it might be awhile before you found out."

Kate frowned. "I'm confused."

Jordan sighed. "I'm sorry I have to be the one to tell you this Kate, because at one time he meant something to you. Agent Will Sorenson was found dead last night. He had been brutally murdered."

AN: A little married domesticity and now, away we go.

Readers are appreciated, Review if you wish