Hi everybody,

I just finished the next chapter. Hope you have fun reading it.

Disclaimer: I don't own Castle.

Chapter 8

"Can you tell me anything yet, Lanie?" Kate asked as she entered the autopsy. Sure enough they have gotten a new case this morning, the call arousing her from her sleep before even her alarm clock got the chance to. Kate had had more problems to get out of her soft and comfortable bed than usual, the payback for her extra drink with Rick.

A man had been stabbed to death in his apartment, his daughter found him in the kitchen of the apartment this morning. Emily, the daughter of their victim, had just turned fourteen. They lived alone, her mother had apparently left them when Emily had just reached the shy age of three years. As Kate had seen Emily, she remembered back to where she had been in the teen's shoes. Sure she had been already nineteen and still had her father at the time, but losing a parent was horrible, regardless of the age difference.

Lanie brought Kate back to the present with an irritated glance towards the detective. "I just came back, haven't even opened the body yet. We were stuck in traffic. Our new driver doesn't know his way around here yet."

Kate blew out a deep breath, driving her hand through her hair. This day already was promising to become a stressful one when she had first seen the murder scene. "When do you think you could have something for me?"

"In time."

"Lanie I have a distraught teenager upstairs, who had to see the lifeless body of her father in their kitchen, laying in his own puddle of blood."

"I know, Kate. As soon as I have something, I'll call you. I promise." Lanie replied, starting on the Y incision. "How was the rest of your night out?"

Kate rolled her eyes, unbelieving that her best friend would want to start this conversation while working on the body of their victim. Though she should know by now that Lanie wasn't irritated by those things, being able to talk about anything in any situation. "It was good."

"Good? That's all?"

"What do you want me to say?"

Lanie glanced briefly at Kate, shrugging. "Spilling all the juicy details maybe?"

"There are no juicy details. We drank the drink you shoved into his hands, and talked for some time before calling it a night."

"When are you meeting again?" Lanie asked curious.

Kate sighed. "Well we planned to meet up for lunch today, but I called him earlier to cancel."

"What? Why did you do that?"

"Err Lanie, new case? A man had been killed in his apartment? Remember?"

This time Lanie rolled her eyes. "I remember perfectly, especially when said man is laying right in front of me. Thanks for the reminder though. I just mean that you could have still met him for lunch. The boys would be fine enough to be on their own for an hour. Promise them to get them coffee and a burger and they'd have been happy." Lanie exclaimed.

"I already know that they're easy-care."

"Then call that hunk of a man and tell him you've changed your mind. Tell him something about having time since you have to wait for some results, which you do by the way." Lanie said nodding towards the body she was working on.

"I can't."

"What's the problem? You just have to pull out your cell, dial and speak. I know you know how to do this. I've seen you plenty of time doing this procedure with successful results."

"That's not what I mean. It's already lunch time. He works as a fireman, Lanie. He can't just suddenly drop everything just because I changed my mind at the last minute. I'll call some time later and reschedule, okay?"

"I'll ask you later if you really called him."

Kate wanted to reply as her cell chirped up, glancing at the display she noticed a text from Ryan. "That's Ryan. Maybe they have something. You'll call me when you have something?"

"Sure."

Stepping out of the elevator Rick slowly made his way over to the bullpen, taking a good look at the open room. Some people hurried along the floors, different telephones were ringing, giving the place a busy buzz. Every person who passed him didn't even spare a glance at him, making him feel somewhat lost. He had no idea where to look for Kate.

Entering the open office space and taking a quick look at the people, he spotted a familiar face. Two, as a matter of fact. He recognized them as the two men whom worked with Kate. As he walked towards them Rick tried to remember their names, recalling that one of them had a first name as a surname.

The Latin detective seemed to notice his presence, looking up at him while he nudged his colleague to inform him of the presence of their visitor. "Can we help you?"

Rick cleared his throat, still not being able to find Kate anywhere close by. "Yeah, I'm searching for Detective Beckett. Is she here?"

The Latin detective squinted his eyes, mustering Rick throughout. "Yo Ryan, does he seem familiar to you too?"

Ryan! That was his name. God, such a simple name and he couldn't remember it. Combing through his memory, Rick tried to remember the conversation from the night of the explosion of Kate's apartment. But there was nothing. No name. Either he hadn't heard it then or they had never said it in the beginning. His eyes flickered quickly towards the name plate on the desk in front of him. Detective Esposito. Great. Finally a name to the man's face.

"Yeah, definitely."

"Are you a friend of Beckett?" Esposito asked.

Was he a friend? Well, he would say he was definitely more than a stranger, but still less than a friend. But was he really stressing over his status with Kate? Definitely too soon for that. "I've met her two months ago. We wanted to meet up for lunch today."

"Oh yeah! You're the fireman who carried Beckett out of her apartment." Ryan remembered.

Esposito widened his eyes as he realized that Ryan was right. "Half-naked. How could I forget that?"

Rick shrugged. "Just call me Rick, please."

Now Ryan and Esposito stepped closer, a sparkle in their eyes that told Rick that they were up to something, the new closeness to them making him a little uncomfortable. Not that he would show them that. "So, Rick. We didn't know that you and Beckett are in contact with each other."

"Yeah, how often have you two already met up?" Ryan asked, not giving Rick any time to respond. Though before he could even open his mouth he was cut off by Esposito again. "Are you dating?"

Rick waited for them to end their tirade of questions, not even attempting to interrupt their babbling. It amused him a little, their curiosity about their colleague's private life. Kate must be a very private person, not telling a lot of people about the things going on outside of the workplace.

When he thought that it was safe to speak, he put down the bag he had been carrying the whole time and took a deep breath. "First of all, Kate and I are not dating. We've met by chance last night when she had been out with a friend of hers. We had a drink and planned to meet up for lunch today. That's all."

"With whom had she been out last night?"

"I don't know. Like I said, we don't know each other that well. But she said her friend was the M.E.?"

"Then she was out with Lanie." Esposito concluded.

"Okay," Rick began. "So back to my first question. Is Kate around or not?"

"No. She went to Lanie. But she should be back any minute."

"Would you mind if I'll wait for her?"

Ryan and Esposito glanced at each other. "We don't know, man. We've got a new case this morning and she'll probably not have time to grab lunch with you."

Pointing to the big bag behind him, Rick replied. "Good thing that I brought lunch with me."

"You've got lunch?" Ryan asked hungrily, the two detective suddenly forgetting all about Rick's presence as they stared at the white bag. Their day had been pretty busy until now, and they haven't had the chance to stop and eat something yet.

"What've got?"

"Chinese." Rick replied.

"Man, what I wouldn't give for some egg rolls."

"And chow mein."

"Lo mein."

"And don't forget the sweet and sour pork."

Rick rolled his eyes at them, the only thing missing of their appearance of starved human being was the drool running down their chins. But it probably wouldn't take long for that to happen. "You know guys, I probably brought too much with me anyway. I couldn't decide on what to get Kate, so I took a little of everything. Why don't you take something out of the bag?"

"Thanks, man!" Esposito answered, already grabbing for the bag.

"Yeah, Rick. That's really nice of you."

Shrugging, Rick succumbed to his fate to spent lunch with Kate's colleagues rather than with the woman herself, but he was here without her knowledge after all. She didn't even know that he was here.

The two men dug through the bag. "Didn't you bring coffee?"

"No, but I'll remember that for the next time." Rick replied sarcastically.

"You should." Esposito murmured munching.

"Ya, Beckett needs her caffeine."

"Beckett without caffeine is dangerous."

"Especially in the mornings."

Rising his hands in surrender, he internally smiled at this strange situation. "Okay, okay. Should I ever bring lunch again, I'll remember the coffee."

"Not just lunch. Any time you stop by you should bring coffee."

"And doughnuts."

Rick scoffed. "I get the feeling you're listing all the things I should bring you."

"Well, we'll probably be here most of the times you'd stop by. It would be mean if only Beckett gets all the good stuff." Ryan shrugged.

"I'm a lieutenant with the FDNY, not a delivery guy."

"We're not saying that you should just come here to bring food and coffee. We just want you to consider that we're hard working detectives whom need their food and caffeine to function, and that we'd appreciate it when a visitor brings one – or even both things – with them."

Humming at their irritating sense of hospitality, Rick took a seat on the desk behind him while he watched the two detective inhaling their lunch. He was just about to respond something as he heard the clicking sound of high heels making their way towards them. However before he could turn around, he heard a voice behind him.

Her voice.

"Rick?!"

So there it is. The first official meeting of Rick and Kate's partners. I hope it was okay.

Next time some Rick/Kate interaction again :D

Wish you a nice evening.