Civil War
Synopsis: A comedy about the Civil War. Beckett V Castle over domestic bliss. Season 4.5.
Chapter 3: Surrender at Appomattox
"So far we've ruled out the wife, the partner, the receptionist, and the hygienist. Did this guy kill himself? Why kill a dentist?" Gates is standing at the murder board with Beckett.
"Feeling better Captain?" Castle approaches bearing coffee.
"Solve this case and I will be," she spits out and then steps around him.
"She isn't ever going to warm up to my charms, is she?" he says, handing her a coffee.
She reaches to take it, but he doesn't fully release it, "what about you Kate?"
"Am I going to warm up to your charms?" She's thoughtful a moment," Are you going to stop acting like there is some other man out there for me besides you?"
"I could do that." He smiles and relinquishes the cup.
Ryan moves in, "I've got the paper and the Powerpoint presentation Lee and Grant were working on."
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"I was wrong, there is something worse than going to the dentist . . . reading about the dentist," Castle quips, looking up from a huge stack of papers.
Beckett stretches her arms above her head, cracks her neck.
Ryan and Esposito are huddled over a computer, "yeah, we aren't finding anything, all these are x-rays, dental records."
"Huh," Castle huffs.
"What?" Beckett questions.
"Just thinking how ironic it is that this guy produced dental records and then when he dies, he's identified by them."
"Dental records . . . Espo, who do the dental x-rays in that presentation belong to?" She and Castle move from the table to stand behind Ryan and Esposito at the computer.
"Doesn't say, but we can check with the receptionist?"
"You're thinking this has something to do with the dental records?" Castle asks.
"Dental records are impossible to fake, and what other uses are there for dental records?"
"Body i-dent-if-ication," he sings, smiling at her.
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Esposito hangs up the phone in the conference room they've been working in, "Clara gave us the names of the patients that were part of the study for the doctors' presentation, seven in all."
"Let's run those names, see if anything pops," Beckett orders.
"No need, she mentioned something else," Esposito says smugly, "one of them," he checks his notes, "a Jeff Frampton, died in a house fire last week. Turns out Lanie's office has been calling for his dental records."
She smiles and nods her head, "we need some background on Frampton."
"Already on it."
"Hey Beckett?" she turns to Ryan, "I ran down that other project you asked me to."
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The eruption of detectives from the room jars Castle from his thoughts.
"Hey man, gig is up. Run." Ryan hisses walking quickly by him as he sits in his chair.
"Beckett is gonna kill you bro." Espo whispers, without slowing his traveling pace either.
"I'm sorry Castle, I didn't know." Ryan yells over his shoulder and ducking around the corner.
"Guys?" Alarmed, he's standing, turned in the direction they've run.
She stalks him from behind and he senses the danger. Whips around.
"Ka-ate."
She presses two fingers into his chest until he plops into his chair by her desk.
"So, anything you want to tell me?" Her face is inches from his.
"You look pretty today?" he whispers.
"Ryan ran down my flower-sending-secret-admirer."
"Oh yeah?" He swallows.
"Turns out they were charged," she pauses, and then her voice raises, "to one Richard Castle."
He smiles proudly.
She pokes him hard in the chest.
"Ow, Kate," he flinches.
"Detective Beckett," Gates calls, uprighting Kate instantly, "9-1-1 call at the dentist convention, get down there."
"We are not done talking about this," she hisses at him, her mouth tight.
He thinks she's walked away, and rises to follow, but she quickly retraces her steps and pokes him again, hard enough to make him sit back down in his chair.
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"That was not why you did it. You did it hoping I'd confess something and I'd have to defend myself to you," she's hissing the tail end of the conversation at him as they meet up with Esposito and Ryan in the hotel lobby.
"I saw him, I saw him Detective," Clara Iverson is running toward them, "Mr. Frampton, he was right here in the hotel! I'm so confused, he's supposed to be dead."
Esposito has a driver's license picture of Frampton, flashes it at Clara, "this him?"
"Yeah, that's him."
"We need to get this guy, he's probably after Grant's files," Beckett deduces, turning to Clara, "do you know where Dr. Grant is?"
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All four of them are lined up outside Grant's hotel room; three of them have guns drawn.
"I don't know where it is!" They can hear Grant pleading from inside.
"NYPD," they scream in unison, stopping short at the scene before them.
Frampton is clearly alive and standing in front of them holding a gun, attached to it, a silencer. He's got it aimed at Dr. Grant. The determination on his face tells them.
This is a stand-off.
"Jeff?" she lowers her weapon, trusts the boys to have her back, and holds out a hand to the space between herself and their suspect.
"Jeff, it's over, we know what you did."
"I had to, I had no choice."
"Put down the gun and we'll explain it to the DA. He can make a recommendation, if you cooperate."
"No!" he's definitely escalating, "this can't be the way that it ends."
"It doesn't have to end someone else's life, Jeff. Put down the gun."
"You don't understand, I owed more than the house was worth, my ex-wife wanted more alimony and my business is in the crapper. I just needed the money."
"So you faked your own death in that house fire, hoping to collect the insurance money," Castle takes over the story," but you knew they'd be looking to compare your dental records to the body, you needed your file."
"That's right, and it would have been so easy. Nobody secures a dental office, it was simple enough to jimmy a window and let myself in."
"But then you realized your file wasn't in the office," Castle adds.
"No, I'd forgotten I'd signed a waiver so they could use my case as part of their research. Imagine my shock to find it missing."
"So, you figured out the doctors must have it at the convention, drove over here, confronted Dr. Lee, but it didn't go like you planned?" Beckett questions.
"I brought a ski mask so he couldn't identify me, no one was supposed to get hurt, hell, I was just going to steal the files and get out of here, but Lee told me he didn't have any files, they were with his partner, Dr. Grant. I searched everywhere, but before I could go through the adjoining door Lee jumped on my back. I shook him off and before I knew it, I was firing my weapon at him. I never expected it to go that far."
"It doesn't need to go any further Jeff, stop fighting with yourself, this isn't going to work out the way you wanted it to," Beckett is still holding out her hand when he finally drops his aim.
Ryan and Esposito are on him in a moment.
"He sacrificed himself for me," Dr. Grant says incredulously.
"Yeah, well, that's what partners are supposed to do," Castle says, glancing at her.
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At the end of the day, when she unlocks her door, dozens of candles light her apartment. Bolero is playing softly. She smiles and leans against the entryway wall, waiting. He steps into her view dressed in a dark suit with a white dress shirt open at the collar and he's got a huge bouquet of red roses in his hands.
She crosses her arms, swings one leg over the other, her stance straight out of a western, she stares him down.
"So," he starts, his voice rich and charming, "you may have been right, sometimes flowers are a good way to smooth the path for an apology." There's a moment of silence, before he says sincerely, "forgive me, I was wrong. I'm sorry."
She stares a minute, her lips twitch, and it is unclear how she'll respond.
"I don't know Castle," says slowly, "someone once told me flowers also say, 'I'm thinking about you, my heart is with yours."
He smiles and then moves toward her, tossing the flowers on the counter before he reaches her, "Jeez Kate, I don't need flowers to say that," he grabs her waist, pulling her from the wall roughly, and waggling his eyebrows as he says, "I can say that in better ways."
And then he's kissing her deeply, pressing her backward, bending her in half, and her hands come up to caress his face.
"Oh, you are so going to be in charge of our anniversaries," she whispers looking up at him.
A/N: This is the third episode in season 4.5, if you liked it, you can find the others on my author's page. Reviews are as anticipated as Season 5 of Castle. Well, maybe not that anticipated, but definitely appreciated.