The woman moves with grace towards the four of them, together with Jenny. Kate anxiously looks for a blemish with Castle's date, Emily. But she finds none. She is perfect creature, standing inches above her shorter relative Jenny. She is wearing a deep blue cocktail dress that hugs her just in the right places. It doesn't compare with the dress Jenny is wearing - light blue dress with small white dots in there. They both look so beautiful. As they near Ryan's desk, Castle's eyes light up in silent awe and a slow smile creeps across his features. He wasn't expecting Emily to be that beautiful. Silently, he makes his way to Ryan's side.
"Hey honey," Jenny steps closer to her husband and plants a kiss to his cheek.
"Hey, sweetheart," Ryan answers as he pulls her to his embrace. Then the couple parts and Jenny looks at Esposito, Castle and then Beckett.
"Hey everybody," she says, waving to them.
They all say 'hi' back to her, including Castle.
"Hey Jenny, long time, no see," the writer initiates the conversation quickly.
"I know," Jenny agrees and winks at him. "It's not my fault," she points out and laughs. Then she turns herself back to her cousin and introducing her to all. "Everybody, this is Emily. She's my cousin, visiting us from Ireland."
"Hello," the tall and beautiful girl waves to everybody. Each and every one of the team nods to her, a greeting.
Jenny steps back to Emily's side and starts introducing the people to her. First, she points at Esposito. "Emily, this is Javier Esposito, he's Kevin's partner."
Esposito puffs up his chest and steps closer to Emily, extending out an arm and shaking hers while saying "Pleased to meet you, Emily."
"Same here," Emily answers back, her voice low and sweet as honey.
Jenny turns her to the female detective and steps few feet closer "And this is Detective Kate Beckett," Jenny continues, introducing Kate to Castle's date. Kate stands up and also extends her arm. Her eyes meet with the girl's and she sees up close how beautiful and relaxed Emily is, her shining blue irises look back at her with intensity and laughter in them.
"Very nice to meet you," Kate says, offering a smile to her.
Emily smiles back and extends her arm too, shaking hers. "Very nice to meet you too. I have heard a lot about you from Jenny and Kevin." she lets out a low, sweet chuckle.
"Oh?" Kate's eyes widen in surprise.
Ryan coughs and tries to save his dignity. "Ah, eh... sometimes we talk about work at home."
Kate laughs genuinely at Ryan and says "Ah, I see."
Emily adds with a soft smile, "Besides, I have read the 'Heat' series several times. It feels like I know you from the books."
Kate forces out a smile to the woman. I'm not Nikki Heat. "Well, it's mostly a fiction," she points out.
Before Emily can answer back, Jenny interrupts the two women and finally introduces the last member of the team. "Emily, this is Richard Castle, he is your date for tonight."
Emily shifts her gaze from Beckett to Castle and smiles genuinely at him. Castle responds to her with the same kind of smile as he extends his arm to her. He takes Emily's hand and brings it up to his lips and ever so softly he says, "It is very nice to finally meet you, Emily."
Kate is standing right next to Castle and she is watching his reactions to this new beauty. As she looks to the energy between the two of them, she thinks he seems to be in awe of Emily, completely captivated. Trying not to stare, she lowers her gaze to her desk. But before she does it, she sees his smile as he talks with Emily, the same kind of smile she thought was meant just for her. At that moment, a wave of jealousy starts coursing through her like a tsunami. She can't breathe normally anymore. She needs distance. She needs to be alone. Finally she decides to take few steps back and sit back to her chair. She tries to make her movement as unnoticeable as possible. She doesn't look at the pair, because she doesn't want to know how much Castle adores his date. Not knowing and not looking seems to be the best course action for her at the moment.
She hears Emily breathe in softly and say "It is very nice to meet you too, Mr. Castle."
"Oh, please, call me Rick," he gets back to her, the smile audible in his voice. He is happy. He is elevated.
"Rick," Emily says softly.
"Shall we get going?" Kevin Ryan bursts their little bubble as he asks from Jenny. Just as like feeling the distress of Beckett.
"I think we should," Jenny answers honestly. "Because we are kind of late for our reservation."
Ryan turns to Castle, who is standing in front of Emily, eyeing her intently. "Castle, you ready to go?"
Just like waking from some kind of spell, he breaks his gaze with Emily and nods to Ryan. "Yeah, I am all set. Let's get going."
Ryan picks up his jacket from her stool and Castle puts his iPhone he forgot he was holding, back to his pocket. Jenny starts walking out and Emily turns around and follows her, an amused smile playing on her lips. Then, she suddenly stops and turns back to Esposito and Beckett. "It was really nice to meet you, detectives."
Esposito shares a seductive smile to her and answers "The pleasure was all mine." Then Emily looks at Beckett, who is currently sitting in her chair. Beckett raises her eyes to meet hers and the detective shares a weak smile. "It was really nice to meet you too. Have fun."
Emily waves at them both and turns around to catch Jenny and Kevin. Before Kate can adjust to the emptiness of the homicide floor, she hears Castle saying, "Have a good evening, Detective. See you tomorrow."
She is surprised he was still there. She raises her eyes again to find him standing few feet away from her. She smiles, but her smile doesn't reach to her eyes. "You are going to be late, Castle."
Castle nods slightly. He turns to go and he catches Beckett's soft "Night," before he heads out the bullpen area. He stops and looks back to Kate. She notices him hesitate to say something. He smiles slightly, but turns around and walks away.
Jenny, Kevin and Emily are waiting in front of the elevator doors when he catches up with them. The moving doors open with soft metallic sound and they all step inside. Before the doors close completely, Castle looks up and gazes over the homicide floor. He sees Beckett there, both of her arms supporting her head as she sits at her desk. He swears he sees sadness in her half covered face. Esposito is looking at her sympathetically. Just as if he had felt Castle eyeing them, Esposito glances up and looks directly at him, his look judgmental and dangerous. Then his gaze lifts back to Beckett and he steps closer to her and says something to her that makes her wake from her spell of sadness.
He is interrupted by elevator doors closing in on him. He sighs and then turns his attention back to Emily and Jenny.
"Beckett," she hears the soothing sound of his friend and partner Javier coming closer to her desk. "Are you okay?"
She sighs. Damn, she wasn't as invisible she wanted to be. She looks up to the standing man beside her table and answers "Of course I am, why I shouldn't be?" Lies, lies, again the lies.Of course she is upset. Just as she started to fall more and more for the guy, he decides to go to a date. And he really seems to like the woman. Who wouldn't like her? She is pretty, she is gracious, she is tall. She is perfect for Castle.
Espo looks at her intently. He knows that she is not okay. He always knows. "Beckett, I know you. You are not alright."
"Espo," she warns.
"Come on. Ryan brings Castle's date in the precinct, right under your nose. It must have hurt. At least a little bit."
"Hurt?" she chokes in surprise. That man knows her. Her big brother, her guardian. He knows her so well.
"Espo, I'm a big girl," she sighs. "Castle is a free man, he can date whoever he wants." she tries to assure him.
"Becket," he tries again. He knows that something is up.
"Esposito, leave it alone," she warns him again, looking in front of her again, trying to focus on the paper she was reading.
"Alright, but I know something is wrong," he tries to make her understand. She snorts inwardly. Of course something is wrong. She is jealous. She shouldn't be. Castle can date if he wants. He doesn't need her consent.
"Javi. I am grateful that you are concerned, but I am okay," She looks at him again. He doesn't quite believe her. "I am," she smiles to him and tries to show that she is okay.
"Okay," he gives up with a sigh. Esposito heads to his desk and shifts through some papers. He looks at her for a second, "You know, it's late, you should head home. I, for example, am going," He grabs his jacket and gets himself going. Before he is finally out of the homicide floor, he turns around and shouts at her "Go home Beckett, tomorrow is a new day!"
She raises her arm in notion that she got the message. With that, Esposito heads out.
She, in spite of Esposito's message, stays at the precinct for hours. She wants to distract herself with the case, so she doesn't have to think about Castle.
When she finally leaves the precinct when it's some hours missing from midnight. She decides a pizza, wine and a hot bath would make her mood better.
Thank you all for putting up with the crazy fic of ours. I promise. We are trying hard to please us guys. But we are doing it in our own way. Slowly, but surely.
I really do hope that you like this chapter and you'll let us know how you did like it.
Thanks for lv2bnsb1 for reading it over and beta-ing for us. You are awesome. And thanks for Tycho, xs18, Tvjas, Blowsup, Jordan S and many others for keeping our spirits high with all of those awesome reviews. Just keep em comin!