wow you guys went nuts with the alerts :D thank you...
Disclaimer: I own nothing and no one ... but if I did... Lanie would be in charge, certain people would be confined to a bedroom for at least half of each epi and espo would be speaking mucho spanish :D
Chapter one.
The call goes out, far and wide...
THE DUMB-ASSES NEED AN INTERVENTION!
It doesn't take long for the first responses to come in, which shows her just how much the people around them are emotionally invested in the outcome.
In fact the very first reply takes Lanie by surprise when it arrives with a merry chirp less than a minute after she'd sent it. And from barely five feet away.
Of course she observed the moment the message went through. The loud tonal beep causing everyone in the room to stare and the cheeks of the recipient to flush pleasantly pink.
"Oops."
Lanie smiles and is actually pretty impressed with the subtle reactions. Both Castle and Beckett are only inches away but there is barely a flinch from the girl as she turns her back on the pair.
Alexis doesn't laugh or groan, or, as Lanie feared she might, storm from the room. Instead her fingers fly across the screen rapidly before she pockets the phone and turns back around, facing them all.
Lifting her head and tilting it in appraisal of the young girl, Lanie finds the trade mark Castley blue eyes suddenly staring back at her. The resignation burning behind the smile she's greeted with. With a sharp flash of her eyes in the direction of her father and his disgruntled partner.
Kate drops down, crouching by the door, her hand almost skimming Castles knee in her search for balance as she tilts too far sideways. She catches and rights herself, but its too late, he saw the movement.
Their eyes meet and the tension seems to flood the room. Only it's not the good kind of tension, the rip your clothes off kind. It's more the, we should talk but that would make this simple and we're both too stubborn and too stupid for simple, kind of tension that pisses Lanie off.
She turns from the pair before she gives in and slaps one of them with her latex glove. Twisting and reaching for her phone as she feels it vibrate in her pocket.
Though Alexis hid her reactions well, Lanie is not as subtle when the response tell me about it! comes flying back to her at lightning speed. She stutters a laugh, a loud giveaway of a laugh, quickly turning it into a cough when the subjects of her little scheme both turn to stare at her.
"You ok Lanie?" Castle queries, his brow furrowing with concern. He is standing next to Kate as she rises from the floor and his hand falls to hover over the small of her back, unconsciously protective as he speaks.
Kate moves around him, her hand almost skimming his arm as she does. Lanie rolls her eyes as they repel each other like magnets, drawn in and pushed away, never quite touching.
Idiots.
"Dr. Parish?" The concern in her friends voice, the soft tilt of her head, almost break Lanie and she has to swallow thickly, biting at her cheek to stop the laughter bubbling out.
It shouldn't be this hard to keep a straight face, with the dead body on the floor and the confused faces of her friends staring back at her. It doesn't help that the teen is now standing behind them with her hands folded across her chest and a look on her face that clearly says 'I'm judging you.'
"Swallowed a bug." Lanie finally mutters turning around and pretending not to hear Castle murmur a disgusted 'eww' under his breath.
Little Castle? Who would have thought?
All that frosty determination and focused, narrow minded, dislike, and it's Alexiswho answers first. Maybe she should have given the girl a little more credit for protecting her father, maybe she should have...ah hell she doesn't even care. The girl's in, that's all that matters.
Lanie holds the girls gaze when their eyes meet the next time and a brief nod is exchanged. It's quite covert and kind of a shame that the one person who would most get a kick out of all the secret messaging that's going on is one of only two people they can never tell.
She would feel guilty, except they so totally deserve everything that's coming to them.
The next message she gets about ten minutes later when she has relocated away from prying eyes. Clearly there has been a little conferring going on because this time when her phone beeps Alexis looks up expectantly.
The grin she gives the older woman is telling, it betrays her eagerness to see her father happy, to do the right thing, or the secret sneaking around thing. The lightness behind the smile, the familiar looking crinkle to her eyes all seem to prove to Lanie this was the right decision.
And she doesn't care if it's not she's had enough.
They need a little push, hell a great freaking shove up the backside. Some flood lights shined on the obvious love between them, and at this point she is not beyond stealing Javi's handcuffs and locking them up together somewhere.
The last handcuff incident seemed to bring them closer together, maybe another one would do the trick. Yeah, that's definitely Plan B.
Sitting side by side in the M.E's van as she reads the message from Martha, Lanie chuckles softly before handing the phone to the girl beside her.
lets get this show on the road!
The third response comes at the worst possible moment because both Castle and Kate are doing that new thing they do of completely missing each other cues and stepping all over each other sentences.
It's nowhere near as much fun to watch as when their joint association of ideas leads them towards the killer, bippity boppity boo, voila.
No, this, this is painful, grating even.
Lanie grinds her teeth as they clash behind her. Watching their reflections in the glass of her lab as they rant and rave at each other, using the case as a surrogate for the issues that are eating away at them. The hidden words they bury behind stupidity and subtext and...Lanie puts the scalpel down, just to be safe.
"Well clearly the killer had to bend down to enter the room and gain access to the victim." Kate moves gesticulating with her hands as she goes.
"Is the circus in town?" Castle sits down leaning across a slab, his head in his hand, sounding bored. He's toying with his phone and Lanie watches Kate glare before her hands fist at her sides, knuckles turning white.
She smirks, watching Kate, seeing every eager yearning she has play across her face. It looks a lot like she want to scroll through the phone and delete certain names, all the names that aren't hers. Maybe even pull the thing from his hands and throw it at the wall.
But, as usual, they remain impassive, actions denied and words locked away, blah blah morons the both of them.
"I'm sorry what?" Kate turns, stopping dead to stare at the man who has clearly lost all interest or maybe just his mind. Even Lanie is thrown off, intrigued by the sudden change in direction.
"Maaaybe," he drags out sarcastically "the killer was short." he shrugs his shoulders
Kate pauses for a second, rubbing a hand over her eyes, before she catches on "Are you suggesting that performing circus midgetsteamed up to take down our 300lb victim?"
beep beep
Lanie bites back the halleluiahthat wants to explode from her mouth when her phone goes off and interrupts them before they can get going again.
It's Ryan and his response is pretty much what she expected, though she's surprised it arrives before his little buddy has had a chance to get in first.
I will deny all knowledge of this if I'm asked, but I'm in. Tell B we have a lead.
Rolling her eyes Lanie smiles before swivelling in her seat. "Ryan needs you, so..." She smiles sweetly "Get out!"
"The fine Doctor wants rid of us Beckett." Castle stands, raising his phone to his face again " I have...a call to make." He breezes out of the room, the door swinging loosely back and forth behind him.
"You know for two grown adults you do a fine job of acting like teenagers." Lanie twirls her pen between her fingers, tapping her foot as she watches her friend drag her eyes from the door reluctantly.
"Shut up." Kate hisses as she throws her jacket over her shoulder, glaring before she stalks after Castle.
The last message comes through as she sits down with a glass of wine, her tiny feet plonking down heavily on the sofa as she stretches out.
U mess with Beckett's love life & she'll hurt u!
Lanie smiles, she doesn't need a confirmation from Esposito that he'll help. He's a softie, a not so secret romantic. In fact he's almost as pissed off with everything that is happening as Lanie herself. There is no way he wouldn't want to be a part of it.
she'll have to catch me first
Lanie replies quickly standing as she hears the knock at the door. She reaches it and pulls it wide, smiling up into the face of the man whose message she has just answered.
"You couldn't tell me that in person?" She asks with a knowing smile.
"Chica, you didn't call me here to talk." He smirks as he walks past her into the apartment, but she can't contradict him, he's not wrong.