A Time to Heal

Chapter 5

Office Antics

THE first thing Castle did when he got to work the next morning was get on his computer and pull up the document he had created the night before. He had spent an hour creating a fake chapter for the book he was working on. The sex scenes he had written were more explicit than any he had written before, and certainly not something he would ever actually publish. He smiled, thinking about what Kate's reaction would be when she read it.

He walked over to the window and stood there, watching for her. This time when she came in and peeked over at his office, he was waiting and waved at her. She turned around quickly, no doubt mortified at being caught looking for him. He smiled and went back to his computer. He opened up his email, hit compose and addressed it to Kate. He wrote, "Thought you might want to preview my next chapter. Let me know what you think," and attached the document. After he hit 'send' he quickly headed over to where she was sitting, booting up her computer. He wanted to be able to see her face when she opened his email.

"Morning, Castle," Kate said when he came over and sat on the corner of her desk. She didn't quite meet his eyes, proof that she had been embarrassed to have been caught looking for him when she walked in.

Before he could respond, she turned around and put her password into her computer. As soon as the email screen popped up, she saw his email. She looked at him suspiciously, but he purposely kept his face averted, feigning innocence. She read the subject line of his email and nervously clicked the attachment icon, opening up the document he had sent.

Out of the corner of his eye, he watched her as she read the chapter. He could tell that she was struggling not to react, stubbornly refusing to give him the satisfaction. But he knew the descriptive sex scenes had to be making an impression.

Before she could finish reading, Ryan and Esposito walked up. She started scrambling with both hands, frantically attempting to close the email before they had a chance to see what was there. Ryan and Esposito looked at each other, puzzled at her strange reaction.

"You okay, Beckett?" Ryan asked.

"Yeah, fine. Why?" she answered trying to sound casual.

"You just seem a little jittery."

"Yeah," Esposito agreed. "Whatcha reading that has you so worked up?" He reached over as if planning to open the email she had just closed. She slapped his hand away. Remembering yesterday's conversation, he suddenly smiled. "It's not that juicy sex scene is it?"

"What juicy sex scene? What did I miss?" Ryan asked. "Geez, take one sick day and you miss all the good stuff."

Esposito laughed. "Come on, I'll fill you in." Putting his arm around Ryan's shoulders, he led him away telling him about the chapter Castle was writing for his new Nikki Heat novel.

Castle watched them walk away before turning his attention back to Beckett. "So what do you think?" he asked. "I know I enjoyed writing it. A lot."

Instead of answering, she simply said, "We better get to work." She stood up and brushed past him on her way to the white board. He followed her.

"Kate, you know I-"

"We're missing something," she said, cutting him off and studying the board.

"Hey. Are you mad at me?"

"Nope."

He laughed. "Yes you are." When she didn't respond, he put his hand on her shoulder. "Kate, it was a joke. I didn't write that chapter for my book. I made it up. You know I wouldn't do that to you."

"Come on, Castle," she said. "We need to get to work."

Although she didn't say so, he could tell by her tone of voice and the way her body relaxed that she was relieved. Convinced that she was no longer mad, he joined her in trying to figure out what they were missing. They quickly found their familiar rhythm and were soon building on each other's ideas and finishing each other's sentences. Before they knew it, it was time to break for lunch.

"Hey, Esposito, "Beckett called out. "How about you go pick us up some burgers for lunch. My treat."

"No problem. I'll be back in a flash."

Beckett, Castle and Ryan were waiting for him in the break room when he returned with his hands full of bags from the local burger place down the street. "Dig in," Esposito said, throwing each of them a paper wrapped burger.

As she watched the guys dive into their lunch, she suddenly had an idea. Thinking back to their date night and how obsessed Castle seemed to be with her eating habits, she had a plan on how to get him back for the email stunt he had pulled. She pulled out her hamburger and took a bite. She closed her eyes and let out a quiet moan. She then used her tongue to lick the excess ketchup and mustard from the corner of her mouth. She opened her eyes to see Castle's reaction. She smiled when she saw the look on his face. He had frozen with a fry half way to his mouth. Her smile quickly disappeared when she saw that Ryan and Esposito had also stopped to stare at her. She felt her face grow warm and hoped she wasn't visibly blushing. In her quest for revenge, she hadn't stopped to think about how her little stunt would look to them.

"Sorry, I… um. I just really like their burgers." Ryan and Esposito both looked down as if confused. Their burgers didn't taste all that great. She glared at Castle when he started coughing in a poor attempt to disguise his laughter. He knew exactly what she had been doing.

He had just gotten himself under control and taken a bite of his own burger when she reached under the table and placed her hand on his upper thigh. He gasped, causing him to choke on the bite of burger in his mouth, starting a legitimate coughing fit. Once again, Ryan and Esposito stopped eating to stare; this time at Castle.

Feigning concern, Kate asked, "You okay, Castle?"

He managed a nod, still trying to catch his breath. He discreetly reached under the table and put his hand on hers, where it still rested on his thigh. She turned her hand over and he laced his fingers with hers. They held hands for the rest of their break while studiously avoiding each other's eyes in order to avoid anymore suspicion.

TWO weeks later, Beckett grinned when she got an email from Castle asking her to meet him in his office. During the last couple of weeks they had fallen into a comfortable routine. Some days there were still some elaborate jokes, but usually they just found small ways throughout the day to sneak in some physical contact when no one was looking. Almost every day one of them would send an email to the other telling them to meet somewhere more private.

She grabbed a file and headed to his office. She always took a file with her. Once they had been kissing on the couch in Castle's office when the Captain came knocking. They had told her they were just talking about a case. She bought it, but after that Beckett always managed to have something with her in case they were caught again that would make an excuse more believable.

She went into his office, shut the door and went to sit on the couch. "Hey Castle. I have that file you were looking for right here."

He smiled and came to sit down next to her. "I can't wait to see it," he said with a smile before he leaned in to kiss her.

Several minutes later, when they finally pulled apart, Castle said, "You know, I thought maybe you could come over tonight. I could make dinner and we could watch a movie?"

She frowned. Avoiding his eyes she said, "Can I take a rain check? I've got some things I need to do. Maybe another time." She started to get up, but he stopped her by grabbing her wrist.

"C'mon, Kate. We haven't done anything outside of work since our first date. Besides, I know my mother would love to see you again."

"Oh, is your mom going to be there?" she asked casually.

"Yeah. Alexis too, if she doesn't have a date with Ashley."

"Well, I guess dinner and a movie would be fun. What time?"

"6:00 okay?"

"Sounds good. I'll see you tonight." Just as she walked out of the door, she turned around and said with a smile, "But I get to pick the movie."

His smile faded when the door shut. He knew he should be happy that she had accepted his invitation, and he was, but he couldn't help being a little bothered by the fact that she said yes only after he mentioned that his mother would be there. He could only assume that this was because she felt more comfortable knowing his mother would be there as a buffer. The easy way she had been flirting with him the past couple of weeks had made him think their relationship was moving along, but now he had to wonder if that was wishful thinking on his part.

Trying to think positively, he thought that maybe tonight would help them move in the right direction. Regardless, he was anxious to spend some time with her away from the office where he didn't have to pretend all of the time.