He doesn't make eye contact with her when she approaches. He looks up from his phone, but stares resolutely over her shoulder.
This is hardly how she'd imagined this reunion going. She'd thought about it, dreamed about it, fantasised about it. She had planned elaborate scenarios in her head.
Him refusing to look at her had not featured in any of them.
"Castle."
Finally he bears those twin blue pools over to her. They aren't quite as lifeless as they were before. There's something glinting inside them now. She doesn't know what it is yet, but it is better than nothing.
"Beckett." Not Detective at least, that was something. "We've got to stop meeting like this."
"Like this?"
"At crime scenes. I make this the third time. People will talk. You'll have to arrest me for real."
The jocularity is forced. He's sliding that Richard Castle funny-playboy persona in between them, a shield to hold her at bay. She can't blame him really.
"Third time's the charm. Maybe this time you'll have done it."
"Not guilty."
"Tell me." She puts a note of steel in her voice, turning the conversation serious. Whatever else she is, at the site of a homicide, she is a cop first and foremost.
"I was talking to Victoria inside, I guess around 10:30 or 10:40. She got a phone call, and she took it once she saw the number. That surprised me." He frowns as he recalls the memory. "She wasn't one to interrupt a conversation with a potential donor to take a call."
"And then?"
"Her face went white. Like she'd heard really bad news. I figured it was something personal. She excused herself, and left towards the direction of the kitchen. After about 20 minutes I got a bit worried, and asked one of the waitstaff to look for her in the back." He shrugs, eyes drifting sideways. Not quite telling the whole story.
"Why did you get worried?"
"Well, we were in the middle of a fairly important conversation, I expected her to come back to finish it."
"What was it about?"
"You."
She rocks back on her heels, gazing at him forcefully. She didn't know she was a topic of discussion when he was talking to attractive blonde women.
"Relax. She was asking if I knew someone trustworthy inside the NYPD. She had some troubling information and wanted to go with it to only someone who wouldn't…half-ass it or sweep it under the rug."
A small glimmer of a smile washes over her at that- that despite all that has happened between them, he would still trust her with something important like this.
"So what did you do when she left?"
"Wandered over to join a conversation between Congressman Morales and Daniel Waters. You might have heard of him. He only runs the FDNY. Very appropriate name for a fireman, I've always thought."
"Jokes later, Castle. Did she tell what she wanted to talk to the police about?"
"Not a hint."
"And what was your…relationship to Ms. Kruger?"
She tries to keep her voice cool and collected. She fails.
There is a painful smirk lurking there in his features. The juxtaposition makes the dull ache, muted ever since she's back in his company, throb painfully. Ghost-Castle, she also notes, has vanished in the real one's presence.
"Jealous, Beckett? It used to be cute. It isn't any more."
"C'mon Castle, you know I have to ask you this."
"We weren't sleeping together. Or dating."
"So?"
"I'm kind of a family friend, through her sister Elizabeth. Who I did date, a long time ago, between marriages. We'd lost touch because Victoria had moved to DC for her job, but then when she moved back to New York last year, she got back in touch. At first semi-professionally for her political work and soliciting donations, but we were…friendly."
"What was she like?"
"Smart. Driven. Ambitious. Not afraid to get her hands dirty with political in-fighting. She came back to run Jer Compton's bid for the Senate against Bracken, and she was going to fight hard for that seat."
He shrugs again, those broad shoulders lifting and falling in unison, distracting her momentarily. Her eyes drop down to his lips for just a bare nanosecond, but he notices. Damn the man but he notices.
"In truth, we hadn't really got on all that well all those years ago, but I guess I'd changed and so had she in that time. Whatever her flaws, she didn't deserve this."
"Married? Boyfriend? Kids?"
"Wife. Emma Karpinski. Architect. Away at a conference, Victoria told me, till next week. No kids."
"We'll track her down." The worst part of the job, really.
He nods, acknowledging how tough that is and then raises an eyebrow in that familiar manner, silently questioning her if she has anything else to ask him. She does. So much. And yet, this isn't the right place or time. They always had this knack for not needing words to communicate…a knack that had led them into trouble in the past, because sometimes the words are necessary, are vital, and they just get stuck in her throat.
"Listen Castle, you'll have to give an official statement down at the precinct. Why don't I give you a ride?"
She entreats him to say yes with her eyes, the only way she knows how. For an agonising second it seems he's going to refuse, going to avoid her, going to back away and her heart creaks inside her…
"Okay."
It's relentless, the power this man has over her. Three years later, and with one word he can make her or break her.
She can't stop the smile, the relief from spreading over her face, and for the first time tonight, since they've met again, she thinks that maybe he has an answering one.
Don't worry, they aren't going to immediately jump each other. Plenty more talking to come. No easy resolutions.
Thank you, by the way, for all the reviews. I keep meaning to send out individual messages, but I get distracted by real life and actually writing the fic. I figure you guys will excuse that. Keep the coming, because they definitely help me forge ahead.