Disclaimer: The wording is mine but the characters aren't
NB: Still writing this so, the updates won't be daily, sorry.
Collaboration
OOOO
"You're serious."
"Yes. Yes I am."
"You're deranged," she muttered, resentful that he had already roped her into this.
"Ah, but I'm not deaf."
OOOO
They picked up a double homicide and it was a week before they had time to have another writing night.
As a consequence, she spent a week using her free moments to imagine Castle dragging her away from everyone to dark corners and enclosed rooms. It had made sense, with Rook shadowing Nikki this time and spending so much time at the precinct.
Unfortunately, after she had allowed herself to speculate even once, the fingers of obsession- which writing and planning had quickly become- closed in on her and she found her mind wandering straight back to it as soon as her full attention wasn't required. And damn it if Castle's eyes weren't following her all day, thinking the same thoughts.
She had walked in on enough of her colleagues and heard even more to know more about the unmonitored corners of the precinct than she ever wanted to know. Until now.
You'd think that a police station would have a lot of security.
You'd be right.
There was no way she or Nikki would be slinking off during working hours. But wanting what she couldn't have? That was a manner of seduction in itself: the anticipation and the opportunities to drive your partner as close to the breaking point as you could.
It sounded like a lot of fun actually, even to write – until she remembered this time around Rook would be the one giving out hell.
Just as she recalled this Castle gave her a smirk.
Bastard.
When she finally escaped to her apartment, thinking she was free, her mind invariably relived the scenes from the prior books. She was a goner.
She couldn't even glance at her laptop as she ran out the door without blushing at the fantasies Castle's challenge had encouraged to sneak out of her carefully constructed Castle-box and wreak havoc with her consciousness.
...
"So, Detective, did you bring your scene?" he finished storing the last plate back in the cupboard as she dried her hands and re-hung the dishcloth.
She pulled the flash drive from her pocket and waved it at him. He bounced forward to take it from her and she handed it to him with a put-upon sigh. Inwardly, she was remarking how controlled he had been all night. However when he flounced towards the office rather than the lounge, she reached out and caught his sleeve.
"Where are you going?"
"I'm going to go and print it out," he said matter-of-factly. "What name did you save it under?"
"Castle," she hissed. "You can't print it out."
"Why not?" he looked genuinely confused.
Her mouth opened a little. "What if Alexis finds it?"
"Why Beckett, is it too salacious for my daughter? I can not wait to see it." He pulled himself out of her grip and scurried for his printer leaving her gaping.
"You can go ahead and get started on mine while you wait," he called. "I recorded it with the program into the computer and printed out a copy for you."
They were exchanging love scenes. There had to be something wrong with this.
She made her way somewhat helplessly over to the couch and saw the papers beside the laptop. It was a good ten pages.
"Beckett?"
"Mmm?" she realised he probably wouldn't have heard that from the other room.
He continued on regardless. "What was it called?"
"Punishment," she called back a little louder.
She could hear his grumbling, though she had a suspicion it started to disguise a laugh. She had no doubt that he would find the file she had saved as 'Homework'. She should have named it punishment.
His good natured grumbling persisted until he made his way back into the room with her flash drive and the chapter.
"You started reading yet?"
"No. I was waiting for you." Procrastinating.
It occurred to her when he was right in front of her, that he was a speed reader and would finish her smaller scene much faster than she could his. And of course he was going to watch her read the love scene. Looks like her mother was right when she told her that procrastination would only turn around and bite you in the ass.
Like she needed his eyes on her when she was going to be picturing the scene for the first time.
But to her surprise, as if aware of the potential awkwardness of the situation, rather than taking his now customary seat against her side, he opted for the oversized arm chair off to the side of the couch.
She choked back the irrational discomfort at this new dynamic in favor of relief: she wasn't comfortable with proximity for this, because despite the different names, that scene was all them. She felt a sneaking lack of confidence and anxiety as he picked up her pages.
What had she been thinking? He was a best-seller. Like her work could ever impress him.
And now in retrospect, it was painfully honest.
His eyes traversed the page with alarming speed, snapping back home like a typewriter with the same regular rhythm. She found herself studying his face, hoping for any indication as to what he thought of it, but it stayed carefully focused as he put down page after page.
She watched on tender-hooks and marveled sourly at the nervous tension. Maybe being a writer wasn't as easy as she thought, even when the words were committed. You got invested them, and protective.
She watched as his speed began to decrease, but noted that his breathing had picked up ever so slightly and a red flush on his neck.
And suddenly she wasn't waiting for a review, she was a voyeur. Had she really been watching him this whole time?
She snatched up his pages and headed for the kitchen, hypocritically hoping to read through as much of his scene as she could before he came and found her. She took their mugs out and put the coffee machine on as she passed, knowing it would stall him before settling on the bar stool.
She took a steadying breath, and started, both hoping and dreading being pulled in to a brand new, completely unfamiliar Richard Castle chapter.
OOO
She found herself seduced by the scene, aching with Nikki, but without the fulfillment. It wasn't that the scene was hot, because most of it was not, or at least not overtly. The majority of it wasn't even technically a love scene. It started as a pleasant, everyday warmth and somehow built the fire with no fuel at all. Or no extra fuel.
It was just them- startlingly and awkwardly open and loving. Neither deliberately leading, but both going somewhere together.
His seduction wasn't just about one night. He was letting Rook seduce Nikki into a life – their life.
When she put down the last page, she wrapped her fingers around the mug he had put at her elbow as she read and stared at the milky contents. She was aware of him sitting quietly the next stool over.
She had failed. She should have known not to take the word seduction at face value, especially when she knew what Castle had wanted this scene to accomplish.
"I'm too late," she said quietly. "Aren't I?"
He seemed to know better than to be anything but completely truthful. "It would have made a perfect scene in an earlier book. Even as the first scene in this book."
"But?"
"But, Nikki's still limited."
She knew that. Because it wasn't Nikki and Rook in that scene. It was them. And she was limited.
"How do you do it?" it was a whisper, but she knew he would hear her.
His blue eyes were soft. "I write to help them from A to B, and hope we can make it to Z. We just keep moving forward. I let them rest a little, even try and sidestep every now and again but we always ultimately move forward."
"And you always know when it's time?"
"They're as human as you and I. No one's time can stop forever."
"Even if it's not safe for them? It'll be hard," she dropped her eyes away from his too clear gaze. "You might not know what to write."
"Then that would be a sign that I'm doing something right."
Her eyes lifted to him again, and she could feel her frustration and a little desperation in them.
"Just because they're fictional, it doesn't make their life any easier, Kate. Making them continue on is the difference between readers and writers."
You're already moving. Baby steps at a time.
I was thinking of posting the chapter/scene Castle wrote as a separate story, probably tomorrow.
Collaboration: Castle's seduction