December 18, 2009
"How's my favorite M.E.?" Kate asks, peeking her head around the door to the morgue.
Lanie looks up from her makeshift desk, surprise flitting across her face.
"You came!" she shouts, jumping up from her seat and embracing the detective.
"Didn't you get my text?" Kate asks, pulling away.
"I thought you were teasing me. I didn't think you actually hopped on the next train out."
"Does that mean you're not ready to catch our movie?" Kate asks.
Lanie slips her phone out of the front pocket of her lab coat and reads the detective's latest text.
"Forbidden Planet...again? Don't you just want to grab a drink instead?" Lanie asks as she starts arranging the papers on her desk into neat piles. "It's late."
"I thought you liked it."
"You drag me along every time it's playing at the Angelika," the M.E. argues, grabbing her purse and jacket from the back of her chair.
"Oh."
"You and Will had a fight didn't you," Lanie deduces, buttoning her coat up.
"Wha—?"
"And this is about that glove guy," she adds, shouldering her bag.
"How…?"
Lanie crosses her arms and gives her a knowing look. "You always think of him when you're having relationship trouble and his favorite movie is Forbidden Planet."
"I think you're in the wrong profession."
"Honey, are you having second thoughts?" she asks.
Kate deflates onto a nearby stool.
"No. I don't know. Yes? I just spent the entire train ride thinking about not-my-fiancé but a guy I met a million hours ago. It's a picture in my head. You know I don't believe in fate, but it was like the whole universe existed to bring us together. And I'm here now...and I have this feeling in my gut. I just..." Kate's face falls into her hands.
"Oh, sweetie."
"I don't know what to do."
"How about I buy you a drink and you can tell me all about it?"
Yellow light spills into Alexis' bedroom as Castle quietly cracks the door open to check on her.
"Dad?" the girl says, sitting up slightly in her bed and rubbing at her eyes.
"Sorry, didn't mean to wake you."
"Time is it?" she asks groggily.
"Late. Please go back to bed."
"Where were you?" she probes.
"Uh, I was checking out some bookstores around town."
"Why?" she asks.
Castle hesitates.
"I'm looking for a rare book. Don't worry about it."
"Is this about Kate?" she whispers.
"Why would you say that?" Castle asks, sitting down next to her.
"I overheard you and Gram talking earlier," the redhead admits.
The writer leans forward and brushes back his daughter's bangs.
"Go to sleep, sweetie. You have Paige's birthday party in the morning," he deflects.
"Can you tell me more about her?"
"Pumpkin," he says warningly.
"Please! And then I won't ask anymore."
He sighs, defeated.
"Do you know the story of Cassiopeia?"
Beckett slams down her third shot and wipes at her mouth. Lanie eyes her friend, her lips slightly parted in shock.
"You really haven't been out in a while."
The detective signals the bartender and then shoots her friend a tired look.
"Will got his promotion."
"You don't seem happy about it."
"It's in San Francisco."
"Oh, hell no."
"Exactly."
"He really expects you to move again?" Lanie asks.
"He doesn't think it's a big deal."
"You think being a federal agent, he'd be less obtuse," Lanie scoffs.
"I was drawn to him because of how good he is on the job, and I'm proud of the work he does. I want to support him. I do. But how many times do I have to put his career ahead of mine?"
"What about long-distance?"
"We tried when he first got to Boston, remember?"
"All too well," Lanie says, hiding a grimace as she sips from her cocktail.
Kate looks down at her left hand, her thumb brushing against her new engagement ring.
"Is there something else?" Lanie probes, noticing the detective's contemplative face.
"I'm not sure. Just a hunch...but I think there's something going on with him and his partner."
"Ellie?"
"He's different around her. Whenever I stop by his office, it's like...like he sees her as more than a coworker."
"Oh, Kate, what are you going to do?"
"I don't know. I've fought so hard for this relationship, it feels too easy to give up now."
"When it's right, it shouldn't have to be so hard," Lanie provides.
Beckett fingers the rim of her empty shot glass, thinking.
"Another round?"
Castle sneaks into his bedroom, trying not to make a sound as he steps into the gently lit space. Gina must've been waiting up for him. Guilt churns in his gut. He spots her passed out on bed, where she's left a pile of clothes and other odd items from the depths of his closet spread across the duvet. He remembers her mentioning needing to make more room for her winter things.
He plops down unceremoniously onto the mattress, and shifts suddenly when a sharp edge pokes him in the back. He lifts his torso, his fingers searching for the perpetrator, running into a hard corner. Tugging at it, he brings the mystery piece forward, only for his heart to skip a beat at the sight of it—a Bloomingdale's bag. He recognizes the green and red crosshatch pattern immediately.
Kate.
He opens the lip of the bag and peers inside. A forlorn black cashmere glove sits within, crushed and bent. Shaking the parcel, he straightens out the wrinkles and reaches for the glove, his hand hitting something else. Confused, his fingertips seek out the new material and gently pull at a light paper. A receipt, he notes, flattening out the decade-old parchment with faded print.
He doesn't see a name, but he makes out an account number and purchase amount.
A flare of hope reignites in his chest.
He might be able to find her.