My take on the auction during Home Is Where The Heart Stops. I imagined the events playing out as a cross between what really happened and those of the Gilmore girls episode A Tisket, A Tasket. My story veers off before they notice 'donor girl's' boyfriend – it kind of screwed with the story anyway. Here it goes.
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Finger pressed to her ear, a very nondescript thing to do when at a high society event, Katherine Beckett spoke to detective Esposito. "Negative on anyone matching our sketch. How are we doing on vendors and staff?" He was standing just outside the doors, in a much different world than the one in which she now found herself.
"No red flags yet. Hey, so what's it like in there? Is it buffet or passed hors d'oeuvres?"
Making a disgusted face, she took yet another look around the crowded room. "Both. Hey have you seen, um…" Before she knew what was happening, a hand wrapped around her wrist and she was pulled into a soft, warm body. Positioning their adjoined hands in the age old dancing stance and his other hand on her lower back, he pulled her flush against him. "Castle? What are ya doin'?" Kate asked as she wrapped her arm around his back and placed her hand on his shoulder from behind.
In a quiet voice, he answered. "Sorry. This is the only place I knew we could talk and not be overheard." Castle was an awkward dancer at best. Kate found herself wondering if it was simply the situation, or if he was just a terrible dancer. She hoped it was the former.
Rolling her eyes, Beckett scowled. "Sure it is."
"I was just talking to the head of, uh, donor development over there…" Twirling her swiftly out from his body, he aimed her glance in the correct direction. As he pulled her quickly back to him, Kate couldn't help but notice that they were just a little bit closer than before and that their cheeks were near touching. "She seems to know an awful lot about me."
Kate cringed at the recollection this piece of information brought about. "She's not the only one." Pressing her lower body further into his in order to lean backward, she looked at Rick's face. "Did you know that they call you the 'White Whale'?"
His eyes were focused not on Kate, but instead on the woman he was determined to indict in their current string of crimes. "The 'White Whale'?" Rick questioned, finally looking the woman in his arms directly in the eyes. "Not 'Moby D…'?"
"No!" Katherine interrupted, not allowing him to finish the crude thought. Men could really be disgusting sometimes. A change of subject was most definitely in order. "She's in donor development. It's her job to know about you. Besides, she doesn't strike me as a criminal mastermind." Although she could feel his fingers through the ties on the back of her dress, Kate wished that they could have a bit more skin-to-skin contact.
Eyes back on Rachel, he spoke. "Still, I think we should take a second look." Moving only her eyes, Kate gazed up at Rick. "One, two, three, dip." A low dip gave her an unobstructed, upside down view of the pair. Kate still didn't believe that either of them had anything to do with it. They both seemed so clueless.
Kate soon noticed that Castle's gaze was directed somewhere in the distance rather than on the director and her friend. She also noted how long she had been in the uncomfortable position. "Castle? A little help?"
Pulling her back upward quickly, her eyes followed his. "It's Pawel."
A crease grew between her brows. "The jewel thief?"
As Castle strutted determinedly toward Pawel and the atrocious woman who had refused to relinquish her donor list earlier that day, Katherine found herself shocked into stillness. "I don't believe this," Castle demanded of the pair before him as he reached them. "The two of you were in on it?"
Anne Greene, the director of the Dance Theater, wore a confused, yet naively innocent look upon her face. "Don't look at me. It was his idea."
The anger in Castle's voice slowly began to make it to the surface. The previous murders he had worked during his time with the NYPD were just that, murders. Although it was beginning to sink in that these victims were real people with real families that cared about what happened to them, the reality didn't start to permeate his conscious mind until this case. This case was close to home. This case was more real to him than the others and because of that, he felt an incredible need to solve it. The fact that Kate had made a promise to the latest victim's daughter just seemed to exacerbate the issue Rick seemed to have. He would follow Kate to the end of the desert if that were what it took to keep her happy. "You really had me going didn't you?" He looked directly at Pawel as he said these words. "The wine, the cheese, the code of conduct. And here you are, making me look the fool."
Waking from her stupor, Kate shook her head and began to make her way over to the dispute currently taking place just across the room. "I just wanted to have a bit of fun," Pawel explained.
"Fun? You call what you're doing fun?"
Slipping silently beside him, Kate appraised the trio. "Castle, what's goin' on?"
His gaze trained on the pair before him, Castle answered her question. "They're in on it together. They've all but admitted it." This seemed to peak Kate's interest as she squared her shoulders and furrowed her brow. This Kate was all business.
"I'm so sorry." Anne's face was almost devoid of emotion as she delivered her apology. She clearly didn't mean it to any depth. "I had no idea it was such a big deal."
Rick's anger bubbled back to the surface. His face contorted in rage. "Big d…?! Two people are dead!" Kate sensed that he would soon begin to throw a tantrum if she did not intervene.
Instead, it was Ms. Greene that spoke. "Dead?" She asked of Pawel. "What's he talking about?"
His thick accent, one that reminded Kate of Hannibal Lecter, filled the air between them. "Good lord, Rick!" An awkward smile spread across his face. His less than white teeth shone in the artificial light of the room. This guy was definitely creepy; Kate couldn't deny that. "You didn't think…?"
Confusion covered the evident fury of Richard's face as he looked between the woman and older man before him. "Then, what were you two whispering about?"
Nodding his head in the general direction of the stage, Pawel implied that the group focus on it instead. It was then that Rachel took the stage and began to speak. "Thank you all for coming tonight," she said through the microphone before her. "Now it's time for all of us to open our hearts as we auction off some of the city's finest items for one of the finest causes. To start the bidding, please welcome: Martha Rodgers!" As a look of utter horror overtook Castle's features, a smile began to play at the corners of Beckett's lips.
"What have you done?" he demanded of the older man on his right.
The smile that formed on Pawel's lips was nothing compared to the one that continuously grew toward the far edges of Kate's face. "Just a little payback."
Back on stage, Martha took hold of the microphone with her right hand while reaching toward Rachel with the other. "Welcome." Taking the book in her hand, she continued. "The first item on our list is a signed first edition of Storm Season written by, well, by my son. There he is." Pointing through the crowd with the book in her hand, she gestured for the spotlight to be placed on Castle. He squinted under its penetrating glare. "Wave darling so everyone can see you." Against his better judgment, he waved his hand in the air, a fake smile plastered across his face. The fear in his eyes, although overlooked by the sex-crazed women filling the room, was utterly obvious to Kate, which only caused her grin to expand. "Oh isn't he handsome? My still single son, ladies. So, as a special bonus, the winning bidder will also receive an enchanting evening in his company." Kate wondered if her face could handle a smile any larger than the one she was already sporting when it seemed to grow undeniably larger. This discomfort on Castle's face made her happier than almost any other thing could at that moment. "Alright ladies, that's the best I can do, the rest is up to you. Okay, do we have an opening bid?"
"Twenty-five hundred,' yelled the woman who just minutes ago, had been debriefing Kate on the inner workings of these dull parties and Castle's sullied reputation. These women could definitely be catty.
Unaware of the diatribe going on inside Beckett's head, Martha continued. "Twenty-five hundred, beautiful lady in blue! Thank you so much. Do we have three thousand? Three thousand? Girls, don't be shy." At that moment, a man with manicured facial hair, who looked to be in his early forties, raised his glass. "We have a gentleman bidder!" Katherine's excitement once again bubbled to the top as Richard's worry etched its way across his features. "Oh, and isn't he attractive? Oh my goodness, aren't we broad-minded!" Beckett secretly hoped the man would win. She could just imagine the look on Castle's face. It would be priceless. The thought of him going out to dinner with this man almost had her on the floor laughing.
"Four thousand!" Another woman called out a dollar amount, bringing Kate back to the present time.
"Oh, there we have it. Four thousand. Alright ladies, the gauntlet is down." Martha seemed to be enjoying herself almost as much as Pawel and Kate were. It seemed as if the only one getting the short end of the stick in this situation was Castle.
Looking to his right once more, Castle appraised the look on Pawel's face. "Now we're even," the retired thief informed him.
Turning his full attention to Kate for the first time in a number of minutes, he addressed her. "Look, I have money. Anything you pay, I'll pay you back!"
"Oh, not a chance in hell, Castle," Kate murmured over her shoulder as she made her way to the bar. She planned on throwing all caution to the wind. It didn't matter any more if she was on duty. This moment was going to be so much better when she had a little hard alcohol in her.
"Come on!" He begged as he followed her across the dance floor. "My mother thinks I need a woman!"
Looking briefly over her shoulder as she walked, Kate rolled her eyes at Rick. "You do. One with a nice couch and a deep knowledge of Freud."
Almost running to catch up with her, Castle scoffed. "If you're gonna tell me I have an Oedipus complex, I'm not going to be your friend any…" Realizing he didn't have time for smartass remarks, he changed the subject to something a little more pressing. "You have to bid on my book!"
Reaching the bar, Kate spoke to the bartender. "Vodka martini, please." Turning her attention to Castle, she addressed his outrageous stipulation. "Are you serious?!"
"Yes?!" he explained, nearly throwing his hands in the air. Luckily for him, no one else in the room seemed to notice their exchange. They were too busy raising the price on his book, and by extension, him.
Turning back to the bar to grab her drink, she smiled at the bartender and made her way back toward the crowd. "I have never in my life, taken part in one of these crazy group flip outs. I'm not about to start now."
Castle's childish whining took on a new decibel. "But! Over there…" he cried, pointing toward his mother on stage.
Kate shook her head. "Just buy your own book," she told him, taking a sip of the martini in her hand. Open bars were never stocked with the best alcohol, but it would have to do the trick. Not that Kate planned on getting drunk. She hadn't done that since her twenty-first birthday and vowed never to do it again.
"I cannot buy my own book!" Castle complained, throwing his head back in a fit of temper.
Castle was cute when he got upset, not that Kate would admit it to anyone – ever. "Why not?"
"Because!" he exclaimed, flinging his arms out to the side. "That is pathetic!" Stopping in her tracks and turning once more to face him, she didn't expect the grown man to come crashing into her chest and almost knock the drink from her hand. "Sorry."
Pushing him backward, she took a deep breath to regain some sense of composure. "And chasing me around this ballroom begging me to buy your book isn't?"
Throwing his arms up in mock defeat, he continued to gripe. "It's also pathetic. But that is a pathetic I can live with, where that," he gestured toward the stage, "pathetic is a truly pathetic, pathetic. And only you can save me from the double pathetic. Please!" he pleaded, lowing himself to his knees and taking Kate's only free hand in both of his. "Please, Kate."
Closing her eyes, Kate sighed and shook her head from side to side. "I can't believe I'm doing this," she said, slipping her hand from his and swallowing the rest of the liquid in her glass in one large gulp. This could be one of the worst ideas she had ever agreed to.