"He's at the hospital tonight, I think."

No, she wasn't lying to him.

It was more of an omission of facts. In Beckett's experience interrogating more than her fair share of crafty, slimy, smartass criminals, it wasn't really technically lying. So Beckett maintained her composure, turned to her desk and started packing up.

Why she was casually letting Castle think she was still with Josh, she didn't know. A part of her wanted to tell him, but a bigger part of her wanted to keep that particular development of her personal life to herself for a few more days. After all, no one could honestly say they that a conversation about being broken up with was something to look forward to.

"Well then, I predict a night of mischief and mayhem at Casa Castle – whoa, that's has a nice ring to it, doesn't it? Casa Castle. No, La Casa del Castle. Yeah? Beckett? Laser tag tonight?"

His excitement was infectious and Beckett couldn't help but allow herself to smile at his childish delight. Unfortunately for him, she was still wallowing in her own little world of self-pity, even if she had been single for nearly a month. Mucking around his house, hiding behind overturned couches and chairs shooting lasers out of plastic guns seemed a bit too much for her to handle.

"Not tonight, Castle," She sighed as she slipped her arms into the sleeves of her coat. She started walking and heard Castle scrambling to keep up with her before he neatly edged into the elevator before the doors slid shut.

"But you're free tonight! It's only seven, we can go get a pizza, prank call Alexis and interrupt her date, get her home-"

"I said no, Castle," She almost regretted the biting tone she had taken with him, but reminded herself that it was the only way Castle would ever let it go. His shoulders sagged as he quietened down. He really was like a little kid sometimes. Beckett took pity on him and snuck a glance at Castle, knowing he would be watching her closely enough to notice.

"Raincheck, okay? Some other time?"

And with that, he regained some of his earlier cheer and nodded enthusiastically. "Yeah, and we can ask the boys if they want to come over too. I've got new sets and they come in different colours, you can take the pink one, because Alexis refuses to be stereoty – and you're not listening anymore, are you?"

"Nope."

The elevator doors slid open and she stepped out, leaving Castle to smirk at her back. She lifted her hands and gave him a little wave.

The air outside was cold as she stuck her hand out, hailing down the first cab that drove past. She got into it, ignoring Castle's cries of protests to share the cab and automatically recited her address, slamming the door in the process. She gave Castle one last furtive look from the cab window. The man had his hands in his pockets, his head faced upwards towards the sky and the only thing she could think of at that moment was how adorable he looked. As the cab pulled away, she missed seeing the big black motorcycle pulling up behind them, stopping in the spot the cab had been parked at not two seconds earlier.

00000

Rick Castle was hungry, and he was craving for a pizza. But Alexis was on a date and Beckett was … busy being busy. He sighed and shoved his fists further down his pockets in an attempt warm them up. He contemplated calling for a cab, seeing as how Beckett had so conveniently stolen the only one around but in the end decided to just take a stroll home. The night wasn't too bad, and if – was that Doctor Motorcycle Boy?

The motorcycle slowed down just as the cab Beckett stole from him left and he cocked his head in confusion. Oh, was this a case of tragic miscommunication between the golden couple? Josh got off the bike, pulled his helmet off, and kicked the stand in place, all in one swift motion. Show off.

"Uh, hey – you just missed Beckett. She went home." He called out as Josh walked towards him. Castle's confusion only increased as Josh shook his head.

"I'm not actually here for Kate."

"Right."

"Listen, I would have come a lot sooner but the hospital had a crisis and I didn't have the time," Josh said, and Castle realised that he was actually talking to him. Castle. Which, considering the circumstances, was highly suspicious. If Josh was going to drag him into some harebrained scheme to surprise Beckett for her birthday, he was so not going to agree to it.

Because he already had his own harebrained birthday surpriseall sorted out.

"… just that I'm leaving for Haiti soon and I don't know, take care of her, okay?"

As Castle's mind had wandered into the realm of surprise birthdays and bunnies jumping out of oversized cakes, he had missed the first half of Josh's sentence. He rewound the conversation in his head.

"Take care of Beckett?"

Josh fixed him with an unnerving glare, and then chuckled. "You really do have the attention span of a goldfish, don't you?"

Castle let out an indignant grunt before focusing back on the conversation. Taking care of Beckett because … oh.

"You guys broke up?" Castle tried to keep his voice neutral.

Josh nodded slowly as he realised Castle was still totally in the dark. It took Castle nearly a full minute before he could come up with an appropriate reply. Half of him wanted to punch the other man and after that run straight back into the precinct where he knew there were a few cops who would be on his side. The other half of him though, the more mature, serious half told him to stay right where he was to finish the conversation. After all, if he was going to hurt the guy he might as well hear everything he had to say first.

"I'm sorry to hear that."

It was the best he could come up with. Damn, Patterson was so taking away his Writer Card once he heard about this.

"Yeah, we weren't on the same page relationship wise. I know you two are close, being partners and all, and I get that. It's actually been a while since we broke up … but Kate's not really … can you just make sure she's okay?"

Honestly, Castle knew that this piece of news shouldn't have come as a total surprise. The last month had been significantly devoid of any 'Josh-related' activities. Everything clicked into place in Castle's mind. 'Quiet' Beckett, 'Moody' Beckett, 'Go away, Castle' Beckett, all started making sense. Although to be fair, the last one was pretty much normal Beckett anyway.

He was slightly annoyed with himself. He was meant to be good at these sort of things, these 'read Beckett like a book things', and he hadn't even realised she'd broken up with her boyfriend of nearly 7 months. Knowing that his partner had been going through this alone and he was clueless about it hurt. A lot.

"Earth to Castle?"

"Uh, okay. Totally. I'll make sure she's fine," he finally said. That's what he was there for, right? They were partners, in life or death, or in the present case, break ups. Even if the other half of the partnership totally disregarded that fact and failed to notify him of said break up. Castle looked back up at Josh, only to notice that the other man was already making his way back to his bike.

Josh got onto his bike and kicked the stand, revving the engine twice.

"And, hey … Castle?"

"Huh?"

"She's all yours now."