Chapter 14:

Rex

As Castle was packing up to go back to his loft for the evening, he heard a knock on his dressing room door. He glanced a wary look at Ryan, who merely shrugged. Sighing, Castle walked over and opened the door.

On the other side, another man stood. Clad in what seemed to be a costume from a performance, Castle could only assume that he was a fellow dancer.

Act cool, Castle reminded himself. You don't want to raise the alarm in case he's one of the ones you have to watch out for.

"Hi," Castle greeted him cautiously. "Can I help you?"

"Hey, I'm Rex Salinger," the man said, extending his hand in a seemingly friendly handshake. "I heard you were going to be one of our new dancers, and I thought I'd come over and introduce myself."

"Thanks," Castle replied, extending his hand and shaking Rex's. "I was a little worried that everyone here was going to freeze me out. New dancer initiation, I guess."

"Oh, we're not like that at all! We're all quite friendly, actually. I'm sure that if the others weren't so busy, they'd be rushing over here like me."

"No worries. I understand that everyone has their own routines and that they are very hard to break."

"Yeah, but we still manage to make an effort to welcome the new dancers eventually. So tell me, what brings you here to The Gilded Stallion? You don't seem like the typical type to dance here."

Castle shrugged. "I just needed a change of scenery. My old job was getting mundane, so I left. I took a few dance classes here and there over the years, and I really enjoyed it. I guess I just kind of wanted to find someplace where I could continue to dance."

"That seems like a popular answer lately," Rex replied, sighing heavily. "Although we do occasionally get a few that started dancing after a bad breakup, or just to get away from angry wives and girlfriends. I personally think doing It for that reason's a bad idea. It almost never ends well."

Castle's interest piqued. "What do you mean by that?"

"Well," Rex began, hesitating a moment before continuing, "let's be honest. Would you want your girlfriend anywhere near a strip club? Would you be okay with her stripping for someone else, much less having them touch her? Would you be okay with knowing that occasionally she'd have to…."

"Okay, I get it now," Castle interrupted quickly, before Rex could finish speaking.

"I'm sorry, but I never caught your name," Rex ploughed on.

"I'm Rick Montgomery," Castle said. "And this," he continued, indicating Ryan, "is my brother Jack."

"Ah, a family affair!" Rex exclaimed excitedly. "This is also extremely rare to find."

"Well," Ryan said, finally breaking his silence, "my brother has always been there to support me through all of my endeavors, so I wanted to return the favor. He never asks for anything."

"You're lucky your family supports you," Rex replied, fidgeting with his hands. "My family was extremely disappointed that I left college and became a dancer. They threatened to disown me."

There was another knock on the door then, but before Castle could make any sort of move toward the door, Esposito entered, practically yelling at the person he was trying to have a conversation on the phone with.

"Hey Rick," Esposito began, noting Rex and choosing to be discreet, "it's for you. It's your sister."

"But I don't have a…." Castle started to reply before correcting himself and continuing, "oh, you mean my half-sister. Which one?"

"Katherine," Esposito responded quickly. "I think you want to take this call."

Ryan grabbed Rex by the shoulder and began pushing him to the door. "Sorry, but you understand. Family matters. Rick will see you later."

Rex struggled free of Ryan's hold and smiled nervously. "Yeah, I know. Well, it was nice to meet you both. I guess we'll see each other later."

"Yeah, sure," Castle managed to get out before Ryan gave Rex a shove out the door, slamming it behind him almost harshly.

"Kate? What's wrong? Are you okay?" Castle asked, his focus having turned to the caller on the phone.

"I'm alright. I'm just checking in to see how today went."

"It was fine. I passed the first test. My first show is on Thursday, so I have a lot of work to do."

Signaling to Ryan and Esposito, Castle quickly motioned for the two of them to make themselves scarce. He didn't really want the two men standing around eavesdropping on the conversation and using it against him later. When they finally took the hint and left, Castle breathed a sigh of relief.

"Sorry, Kate," he said excitedly. "I had to get rid of the boys. I didn't really want them around while I talked to you. They'd probably never let me hear the end of it."

"It's okay, you're probably right. As I recall, they're still giving you hell about the elevator malfunctioning a year ago."

"Don't remind me. I'll probably be hearing about that when we're old and gray."

She chuckled softly, then paused. "Did you…?"

"I read your letter, " Castle cut in, and before she could interrupt, continued. "I love that you don't know what to say when you're describing how you feel. Hell, if you knew right away and could vocalize your feelings, I think you'd pretty much scar the crap out of me. I wish that this case would progress faster so that we could have more time to spend with each other. I miss you…I miss working with you, hanging out….everything. Just knowing that this case may take months is going to kill me."

"I know. I feel it too. However, we promised ourselves that this thing between us wasn't going to distract us from work."

"Can you do me a favor then? I met one of my fellow dancers today, and I would like to know as much as I can about him."

Kate snorted. "Any particular reason why?"

"Not really, but if dancers are being murdered by someone here on the inside, I'd really like it if the killer was caught sooner rather than later."

"Why? You afraid someone's going to come after you?" Kate joked, trying to lighten the mood.

"Well, yeah. Aren't you?"

"No," Kate's voice was serious and left no more room for argument. "Don't worry, Castle. I'll protect you from the big bad wolf."

With that, she hung up, leaving poor Castle to his own thoughts.

A/N: There you go, it's FINALLY starting! What do you think? Oh, and I'm absolutely obsessed with what's been happening on Castle, so I thought that in the spirit of things, I'd post the next segment of this story to ease the pain of the next two weeks that Castle isn't on. REVIEW!