Go Out Fighting 3: Never
The next morning, Esposito found them on the terrace at the back of the bungalow; he had a bag of bear claws and two coffees from the place down the street from the precinct. Castle longed for a bear claw, but the idea of tearing through thick pastry had him wilting on sight.
Kate gave him one anyway, with a look in her eyes that said she meant for him to eat it, come hell or high water.
He sighed and stared forlornly at the bear claw.
"Dude, you look like a refugee. Eat," Esposito said, dragging a deck chair over to their table.
"The one time in your life you can eat like a teenaged boy, Castle, and it's like I'm torturing you," Kate said, rolling her eyes at him. She sipped her coffee and sat back gingerly. She watched him for a moment longer, and he realized he was worrying her.
"Espo," he got out, narrowing his eyes when Esposito did a double take.
"Whoa, bro can talk! It's alive!"
He growled and set to picking apart the bear claw, tearing it into small pieces. With his jaw wired shut, Ryan and Esposito had taken to calling him Frankenstein. At least until he'd pleaded so hard for Kate to straighten them out (with his eyes and the tight grip on her hand of course), and she had. She'd told them that Frankenstein was the mad scientist; the monster didn't have a name.
Didn't make the boys stop, though.
He glared at Espo in remembered indignity. "Shut up. Tell us what you got."
"Man, you sound like Beast from the X-Men. Are you gonna-"
"Javi," Kate said, cutting into the banter with a lift of her eyebrow.
Her quiet defense of him maybe said too much, if she was looking to keep this between them (or looking to deny it later, which he was mentally preparing himself for because it was always one step forward, two steps back with her).
Castle saw the intrigue flare across Esposito's face, the flick of his eyes between them, curiosity and speculation.
But instead of saying anything, he leaned forward in his chair and pulled a thick file out from under the bag of pastries. The rubberband came off with a snap and Esposito hissed, shook out his fingers. "All right. We have a few things."
Kate sat forward as well, her hands around the coffee cup. Castle saw her eyes dart to him with a little frown so he pushed a piece of pastry into his mouth and let his saliva start dissolving it.
"Judge Varner recused himself." Esposito caught Beckett's eyes and nodded once. "That's three so far."
Three judges had excused themselves from the case.
"He part of things?" Castle got out, pushing the piece of pastry around with his tongue.
"Could be. Or just that they're friends, they know each other, and so he'd be biased," Espo said.
Beckett shook her head. "Could be he's being pressured."
"For what purpose?" Esposito flipped through the top two pages of the file, handed Beckett and Castle two different photos. "We haven't seen anything like that."
The photos: Markway and his wife, Markway and a man in sunglasses.
"We're doing surveillance, but we're not getting anything. He's out on bail, and he knows we're watching, so he's making a point of sticking close. His wife. A guy we ran down, found it's a paralegal working on his defense team."
"Who gave him bail?" Castle worked to get the words out, caught the faint glimmer of pride on Kate's face as she looked at him.
"Judge Dread," Espo joked. "You know the lady. The one with the white hair and that permanent scowl-?"
Castle hummed in remembrance and nodded.
"Anyway, Dread-"
"Espo."
"Judge Fredericks recused herself after she set bail; she was the second to do so, remember? We've got stuff on her that could be connected. But yeah, Beckett's right. These recuses? - some of this is just these guys covering their asses. They've known Markway for so long; their lives connect in all kinds of ways that could be completely innocent."
"Markway-" But Castle stopped and shook his head. They already knew that the judge had been an acquaintance, that the man had done him favors, that even Castle himself could look guilty in the wrong slant of light.
"What about the trial, Esposito?" Beckett shot Castle another look and he pushed more pastry into his mouth.
"The defense attorney is looking to get a change of venue because he says no one in the city can be impartial."
"He's right." Castle said finally, swallowing the mushy bear claw with a wince. He'd managed not to chew any of it. "Can't find a judge."
"Maybe not," Esposito said. "But good news. Pembroke came through with the warrant. We're going through Markway's phone records and bank statements now."
Beckett sat up in her chair; Castle saw what it cost her, the wrench of pain that shuddered along her body. But she was ignoring it.
"You got something for me to do, Javi? Please say you brought bank statements with you. Something."
Esposito shared a look with Castle; they were both grinning.
"You saying you want the dull, boring paperwork?"
"Yes," she said heatedly.
"Castle can't keep you entertained at night?"
Castle growled, kicked Esposito's chair with his foot. "Perfectly capable of-"
"Boys," Beckett said, pressing her lips together as she stared them each down. One by one. "Esposito. Bank statements?"
"Actually, I got phone records for you. That's what's in the file. Shouldn't have, though. You know they're more likely to throw out evidence-"
"I find anything, I'll show you. You can claim the discovery."
Esposito nodded and Castle realized that what they were doing probably broke chain of evidence procedures or some other rules about who was allowed to do what. Kate herself wasn't unbiased, and having her looking at Markway's call logs could be a detriment to the case the prosecutor was building.
"All right, guys. I'll leave you with that; see what you can find."
Beckett was already pouring through the massive stack. He couldn't fathom trying to get through that, but he'd do it.
"Espo." Castle snagged the detective's sleeve as he moved to stand. "That all his calls?"
Esposito shook his head. "Man that's only the tip of the iceberg. That's just the weeks around Mrs. Beckett's death, no more. I figured-"
"Hardest case to make," Beckett said with a sigh. "Right? This other stuff will be easier to prove - racketeering, extortion, conspiracy, bribery, fraud. But murdering my mother-" She stopped and swallowed, pressed a hand under her sternum, right below the wound.
Castle grunted. "We'll get it."
Esposito gave him a negative with the cut of his eyes. "We may have to settle for getting him on these other charges."
"I might find something in all of this," Kate said, and her eyes were like stone as she stared at the printouts. "I might."
Castle nudged her knee with his, waited until she was looking at him again. "We. We might find something."
She hesitated, and he didn't know what she was thinking. But then the cramped and hunted look drained out of her eyes and she nodded.
They might find something.
He whined low in his throat like a dog until she relented, changed into a swimsuit, and walked slowly beside him down to the pool. The west bungalows shared a figure-eight-shaped expanse of water nestled into a jungle theme complete with waterfall. The west end of the treatment center was empty but for them - he'd arranged it that way.
Empty but for Tony and Evan and Parker, the three-man security team he'd hired. It was Tony who guarded the walkway down to the pool and it was Evan who was stationed at the back. He had no idea where Parker was, and one day he'd joked that the third man was probably in sniper position, and he'd been met with stone-cold silence.
He was paying very good money for their bodyguards, so he hoped the rotating third man actually was on the roof of a building somewhere or in a tree, strategically set up with an excellent angle.
Fight fire with fire.
"Can't believe you're making me swim," she sighed at him, and her slow and careful walk down the path proved all over again how much she needed it. She was the first one to stick it out when she had physical therapy, to do extra, but for some reason he couldn't understand, she didn't want to do the pool exercises. At least, not when he was around.
"Need it."
"I had PT yesterday morning."
"Do exercises today?"
"Complete sentences, Castle."
He pouted but worked his throat clear, tried to come up with the words. "Did you. Do your exercises. Today?"
Kate brushed the back of his hand with her own; he wasn't sure if it was on purpose, but she was studying him.
"Is it harder to talk after you've eaten?"
He nodded, sighed in relief. She wouldn't make him-
"Then you know how it feels to swim the day after a therapy session," she shot back.
He gave her a soulful look but she shook her head.
"You have to work those muscles same as me, Castle."
True. But he hated having to try and try and mostly fail - all while she watched. He also hated how talking made it harder to eat the next time it came around. It was a never-ending cycle of weariness and exhaustion.
"Look, I'll make you a deal. I'll do the pool exercises, if you talk to me while I do them."
Bum deal. Her exercises would make her tired, and yes, they'd be painful, but she'd still be able to eat lunch in two more hours.
"And-" she started, slid her hand into his. "Maybe other things."
He lifted an eyebrow at her, felt the right side of his face smiling but couldn't be sure about the left. The way her eyes seemed so very amused, he had a feeling his mouth wasn't cooperating. She called it his crooked smile.
"Other?" he said. Trying that much at least. The ache in his jaw was like someone had stomped on his face.
She paused on the path and made him stop with her, the brilliant sunlight highlighting how pale she looked, how the pain made her skin tight. He waited and she lifted her free hand to curl a finger at him; he bent down so she could get to him, eager for that other.
Her lips were gentle, barely there, open against his skin. She used her tongue in the corner of his mouth, the right side, where he could feel it, then traced a line to the left, where the sensation disappeared, reappeared, flickered in and out. She teased there for a moment, drawing out the exquisite unknown, before pressing her mouth fully against him.
When she backed away, released the hold she had on his neck, he came up for air and blinked at her.
"Hot," he croaked out, and it wasn't because his jaw hurt to speak.
She smiled slowly at him and ran her finger down his tshirt. "So come cool off in the water with me. Talk to me; tell me a story."
He nodded, feeling her hand wrap around his.
"And Castle?"
She leaned in and kissed the hollow of his throat where his voice had been trapped for so long now.
"I'll even let you talk dirty to me."
"Once upon a time, there was a little old lady and a little old man, and they lived together in a little old house. They were so lonely."
He was sitting on the bottom step leading to the shallow end, her hands balanced on his thighs as she kicked slowly in the water, her body horizontal in the water. He had his fingers wrapped around her wrists, his back to the edge of the step, water up to his chest. Her forehead was buried at his neck, her breathing hard; he could feel her arms trembling as she moved her legs.
"So the little old lady decided to make a man out of . . . stinky cheese."
Kate groaned a laugh into his neck.
She was building back up her core muscles. Her body was nearly floating in the water, her legs the only movement, and he could feel the tension through her whole body as she struggled to move through the exercises. He felt her teeth in the tendon at his neck and pressed his cheek to the side of her head, aching for her.
But he kept telling his story. He'd read this book to Alexis when she was little so many times that he had it burned in his brain.
"She gave him a piece of bacon for a mouth and two olives for eyes-"
"Oh, jeez," she panted. "This is so your kind of story."
"I know, right?" He pressed a kiss to her ear. It hurt like hell to talk; his jaw felt like it was going to split apart all over again, but she was in more pain than he was. This was the deal. "And two olives for eyes, and put him in the oven to cook."
"I thought this was the gingerbread man."
"Stinky cheese man. Don't - don't make me explain." His jaw ached fiercely.
"Keep talking. Distract me."
He growled and nipped the edge of her earlobe. She turned her head on a laugh, her nose hitting his cheekbone, her legs slowing down.
"Five more reps," he husked, felt the hinge of his jaw pop strangely.
"Story. Stinky whatever. Go."
Castle worked his mouth wider and tested his tongue against the roof of his mouth. A tingling sensation had started below his left ear. He struggled to remember the rest of the story.
"Castle," she panted.
"When - when she opened-" He stopped and shifted his jaw a little. "Opened the oven to see if he was done, the smell knocked her back."
Kate groaned, half laugh and half pain, and he felt her chin dip lower. Castle raised his hand from her wrist, put his fingers at her neck to keep her head above water.
"'Phew! What is that terrible smell?' she cried."
"And he hopped out of the oven, ran off, right? Can't catch me. All that," she muttered.
He hummed into her ear, nudged her chin with his shoulder so she'd lift her head out of the water. She laid her cheek against his shoulder; he wrapped his hand around her wrist again to keep her stable.
"The old lady and the old man sniffed the air. 'Well, I'm not all that hungry anymore,' said the little old man. 'And I'm not really all that lonely,' said the little old lady. 'At least, not that lonely.'"
He could feel Kate's breath as she huffed again, but he was counting down in his head and squeezed her wrists for her to stop.
"Done. Stop."
She immediately stopped her slow kicks, let her legs sink down to the bottom of the pool. She kept a death grip on his thighs so he slid his arms around her waist and brought her close enough so that he could keep her floating. She left her head on his shoulder as she gulped air.
He pulled a hand out of the water and brushed her hair back from her face. She curled her knees up to her chest and bobbed on the surface, practically in his lap. He couldn't remember the middle of the story.
"Ran. Ran away from cow, goat, other animals, but they didn't chase him. He stank. Came to a river." Castle cleared his throat and winced, tilting his head back as if that could ease the ever-tightening pain in his jaw. "Saw fox beside the river. Fox offered to let Stinky Cheese Man on his back. They started across, but then the sly fox got whiff of this terrible odor-"
"Gotta be kidding me-"
"The fox tried to hold his nose, no good-"
"This is ridiculous."
"The fox started to gag, couldn't keep it down - smelled so bad - and the Stinky Cheese Man was thrown off the fox's back. Into the river. Where he fell apart. Because he's just cheese."
She was silent.
"The end," he added.
"What?" Her head jerked back from his shoulder; her bare toes touched his thigh under the water. "What the hell kind of story is that?"
"Stinky Cheese Man and Other Fairly Stupid Tales," he got out. His throat was raw with the effort of pronouncing every word; the ache in his jaw had upgraded to a flaring agony, like knives or blades of fire.
He could tell she was trying to hold her own, sit up, put her feet down and stand. She squeezed his shoulder, slid her feet to the bottom of the pool, slowly tried to stand.
But she couldn't. She collapsed the moment she let go of him, forcing him to reach out and catch her, curling her into his chest. She made a noise, like grief or pain, but didn't try to move. He stroked her back to keep her there, to say what he just didn't have the energy to say anymore: Stay, stay right here, I've got you.