We have to stop doing this. It felt like he told himself that every time she came back to the city. If only so I don't have to pay for having my pictures re-framed and my bed repaired.
Meredith panted, "Top ten, at least." Castle wasn't so sure, but let her carry on. "Makes you wonder why we ever got divorced."
He mentally eye-rolled. "I know, right? I mean, except for you having an affair with your director and moving to Malibu and serving me with divorce papers, I think we really had a chance."
"I'm moving back." What?!
"To New York?" No, no no no!
"I miss it. I miss Alexis. I miss you." This cannot be happening!
"Um, what about your career?" Please, no!
"Oh, LA's changed. The juicy roles just aren't there for an actress of my calibre. I need a change. Like Broadway, maybe. The legitimate stage."
His eyes widened, "Whoa. Wow. Time-out. Hang on. Meredith, hold on. Have you really thought this through?"
"What's to think about? You, me, Alexis, all living in the same city. It's gonna be just like old times." No! No it won't! It can't be! She started to kiss her way down his broad chest and he just pressed his palm to his forehead in an attempt to quell the growing terror. Oh help.
As her mother ushered her out of the vice principal's office, sniffing into her handkerchief, Alexis whispered to her, "Uh, Mom, Grandpa died six years ago."
"I know, but a death in the family? Always a good excuse to get out of school." Alexis was horrified, but Meredith talked her round with the promise of shopping and lunch that wasn't in Paris. Because they all knew how well that had gone last time.
Castle read aloud from his desk to an increasingly frustrated-looking Beckett. Can't say I blame her, really, I mean, she's in my office listening to me reading from...
"'Unholy Storm'? You dragged me here so that you could read from your own book?" She almost exploded.
Castle looked more upset than he really was, "Hey, there's a lot of good stuff in here, and some of it is factual."
Beckett got up with an exaggerated roll of her eyes, eliciting a little burst of panic from Castle. "Where are you going?"
She answered without turning around as she made her way to the front door, "I have a murder to solve."
That's what we're doing! "I thought that's what we were doing. Okay, I... I'm just kidding. I have another source."
"And you call your ex-wife 'a deep-fried Twinkie.'" I wonder if she knows I can hear her raising her eyebrow without even seeing her face.
"Oh, trust me. As annoying and intrusive as you think I am, she's a million times worse."
Beckett frowned, "What about Alexis? Maybe she misses her mom. Maybe it would be a good idea to have her back in town." Castle just scoffed.
"Yeah, right. This once, when Alexis was nine, Meredith dropped by to take her out to lunch."
"So?"
With a pause for dramatic effect, Castle replied, "In Paris. Paris!" Paris, for crying out loud! It's not exactly a quick trip! "And then she acted like there was nothing wrong. She's like Auntie Mame on meth."
As she reached the front door, Beckett finally turned on her heel to look at him. "If she's so bad, then why'd you sleep with her this morning?"
Oh, Detective, please let that be a little hint of jealousy I spy in your demeanour... "Let me tell you something about crazy people." He lowered his voice to a hushed whisper to share his secret, "The sex is unbelievable."
He could almost hear her internal disgust, "How shallow are you?"
Castle smirked, "Very." He deflated a little inside. I'm not really, Beckett, I just have to go with this for a while longer...
There was a knock on the door, and he opened it with a genuine smile. "Detective Beckett, meet my other source..."
Later, Castle perched on the end of Beckett's desk and discussed the case with Ryan and Esposito while they all stared at the murder board looking for inspiration. A familiar voice drifted across the bullpen.
"No, I am not going to wait downstairs. Do you have any idea who pays your salary? Me and my taxes." Castle shut his eyes as the terror from earlier threatened to take over once more. Ugh, can she just go away? Please? He didn't catch Beckett's confused glance at him, but he did hear her question.
"Is that...?"
Castle sighed and opened his eyes again. "Yep." His first ex-wife was laden with shopping bags, almost shielding his beyond-embarrassed daughter from view, and picking a fight with one of the uniformed officers until she spotted him and waved.
"Richard! Over here!"
Esposito could hardly tear his eyes away from the spectacle to speak, "Deep-fried Twinkie?"
Another sigh escaped Castle's lungs, "Afraid so."
Beckett nodded to the uni to let them through so the bullpen could return to pretending to work while actually watching the show.
Castle didn't even try to sound sincere, "Meredith, what a surprise." Why are you here.
"I know, isn't it great?" Not really, no. She turned to Beckett with a wide smile, "In LA, no one ever just stops by. Don't you just love this town?"
Beckett could hardly contain her amusement. "More and more by the minute," she replied.
I guess there's no avoiding this now... "Uh, Meredith, these are Detectives Ryan, Esposito, and Detective Beckett."
Meredith's smile grew wider, "Oh, Beckett. Your new muse. Alexis told me all about it..." Alexis' eyes grew wide with horror and she gaped at her mother before giving her father the same look. He blinked sympathetically. I know, pumpkin, I know. "...and I simply had to stop by." Meredith lowered her voice, "You know, I was his 'inspiration' once." If it were possible, Alexis looked even more horrified as the conversation continued.
"Were you, now?" Beckett toed the line between politely interested and incredibly amused with those expressive eyebrows.
"Still am from time to time." Meredith turned to Castle and tilted her head in a way she probably thought was cute, "Right, kitten?" Beckett crossed over the line and tried not to smile too widely at Castle's squirming.
"Kitten?" She tilted her head to mimic Meredith.
Argh. He looked sincerely at Beckett as she sauntered past him, "I had this dream once, only I was naked and far less embarrassed."
"Come on, Pumpkin, let's get you home." Castle extended his hand to Alexis to pull her off the sofa in the break room. Meredith had deigned it easier to leave her daughter here instead of taking her home herself. Not that I mind a bit of extra daddy-daughter time. He grabbed her bag and nudged her out of the door.
"Bye Alexis! See you tomorrow, Castle." Ryan called over the bullpen to them, and Castle waved in reply as they walked into the elevator. As soon as the doors closed, Alexis took a deep breath and turned to her father.
"Dad, about what Mom said about Detective Beckett... I swear, I didn't tell her anything! I just said you were shadowing her, she made the rest up, and-"
"It's okay, Alexis, don't worry." He put his arm over her shoulder for a hug. "I don't think Detective Beckett was upset about what she insinuated, and I'm not upset about it either. So you certainly shouldn't be." Oh Meredith... why do you do this to your own daughter?
Alexis returned the hug, her reply muffled by Castle's jacket, "Thanks, Dad."
The elevator dinged and the doors opened to the lobby of the precinct building. "So, when we get home, is it laser tag, or ice cream?" Ooh, say both, both would be great.
Alexis looked contemplative for a moment and then grinned, "...both?" Castle grinned right back at her and fist-pumped into the air.
"Yesss!"
Beckett got her phone out and called dispatch for back-up. The next thing Castle knew, he was tackling her to the floor while the suspect shot at them and Beckett was shouting to the woman who had unwittingly bought the purse with the concealed passport to call 911. Vases were shattering all around them from Baylor's wayward gunshots while they used the sofa as cover to crawl around to behind the kitchen island. They paused and took stock of the situation.
"I've written this scene about a hundred times. We give him what he wants, you know how it ends? Badly. And by 'badly' I mean us dead."
"Just stay down."
Pfft, like I can do that if you don't. "You stay down."
"I can't shoot him from down here!"
"Yeah, he can't shoot you, either."
A cautious peek over the kitchen counter was rewarded by another shot in their direction. "I can't see him."
Oh, wait! That's it! Castle got his phone out, called up the app he wanted, and stuck his hand up to take a photo of the room. That earned another couple of shots, but it gave Beckett the visual she needed.
"I don't have an angle on him from down here."
Baylor shouted out, "I will kill you both!" Helpful, thanks. Come on, Rick, think...
"When we shoot, he shoots, right?" Beckett nodded, uncertain of where Castle was going with this particular train of thought. "He'll be exposed. I'll set the pick, you take him down."
"Set the pick with what?" Castle pulled a bottle of bubbly out of the wine rack in front of him and started to take off the foil and wire around the cork. Beckett could hardly believe the plan she began to see unfolding in front of her. "You're gonna get yourself shot."
"Not if you make your shot count."
"Castle!"
"Just be ready." You can do this, Beckett. I hope to God you can do this. He gave the bottle a good shake.
The suspect shouted again, "This is your last warning!"
"Now!" As Castle popped the cork from the champagne, Beckett popped up from behind the counter and shot Baylor with her last two bullets. "Huh." That actually worked. Awesome! "I'd say that calls for a toast." He took a long gulp of the champagne while Beckett concentrated on getting Baylor handcuffed.
Castle found a glass and poured the champagne out. Might as well be civilized about it. He took his drink out into the hall to keep out of the way of the paramedics, and that's where Beckett found him, leaning nonchalantly against the wall with a smile on his lips.
"You okay, Castle?"
Are you kidding me?! "My first gun battle." It was awesome!
"Your last gun battle," Beckett replied, with a twitch of an eyebrow. That's what you think, Detective.
"Hmm, don't be so pessimistic. I think I handled myself pretty well."
"Yeah. Probably saved my life." Damn right I did.
"'Probably'? I definitely saved your life. And you know what that means, don't you? It means you owe me."
"Owe you what?" Confusion fluttered across her forehead. Like a butterfly's shadow... oh what the hell, Rick, shut up.
"Whatever I want." Castle nudged himself off the wall and moved slowly towards Beckett. Hopefully I'm mostly staying in a straight line, this champagne has gone to my head quicker than I thought it would, I mean, come on, making up poetry about how she frowns? For crying out loud... Uh, where was I? Oh, right. "And you know... exactly... what I want, don't you? You know what I really, really, want you to do." Beckett looked like a rabbit caught in the headlights and it was all he could do to keep his poker face on as he leaned towards her face, altering his course at the last second to whisper in her ear, "Never... ever... call me kitten."
With that he turned on his heel and walked away, leaving Beckett to smile indulgently at his back. Please let her take that seriously and not adopt Meredith's nickname for me. It was bad enough that his first ex-wife still called him it, without having to hear it from Beckett too.
Phew. He shut the door on Meredith with a sigh of relief. Next time will not be top ten. There will be no next time. Castle explained to Martha and Alexis about the indie film Meredith had been offered a role in, and how he'd basically funded it in order to get her to stay in LA. Not one of his prouder moments, but preserving his daughter's sanity was more important than getting worked up about going behind his ex-wife's back. After a quick hug from Alexis, he went into his office to 'do some work', shutting the door quietly after him. He opened the middle drawer of his desk and moved some papers around to get to a small box, which he carefully lifted out. He opened the box and removed the small piece of parchment to re-read the words sent by... what, a divine messenger? He frowned. What if this is actually just some trick of Mother's? Or my own mind. Maybe this is what madness feels like. As looked at the parchment, the words faded and were replaced with the same beautifully perfect cursive.
"It won't be your last gun fight. The better prepared you are, the better you can protect her."
Huh. Mother never said anything about her scroll changing. He looked out of the window across the rooftops before putting the parchment away again. With a sense of purpose, he woke his laptop up to start searching for kevlar vests.
A/N: ohi. This week I have learned how awesome fic writers who post a different story update every day are. Wow, you guys, huge respect for the amount of work you do! This one chapter has taken me all week, and it seems huge compared to the last one, I kept thinking I'd finished, then I'd think of something else I should put in!
I'd like to thank lika-mikala on livejournal for her transcribing of Castle episodes (posted on scriptline dot livejournal dot com), without which I would be re-watching the episodes again just to get the dialogue right. I'm trying to get away from sticking to the script, but I need to intersect with canon so often it's proving difficult. Any tips on that gratefully received. Anyhow, see you next week!