Kay so, honestly I came up with the idea of this chapter all the way back in the summer, before Cuffed even came out.

The writers stole my idea.

No really.

They did.

...(I can go with that story right?)


"Alright let me get this straight." Castle paused for a moment to take a quick mental checklist of the situation. "We are currently trapped and tied up in our murder suspect's basement…"

"So it would seem." Beckett replied, sarcasm thick in her words.

"With no means to escape, no weapon, cell phones or anything that could aid us," He continued on, oblivious to just how many buttons of Beckett's he was pushing at the moment. "And not a single person knows where either of us are."

"Congratulations Sherlock, just want to figure the part where we get out of here?" The two of them were currently tied by their wrists back to back on opposite sides of a metal beam from the floor to the ceiling, tied around the beam by their wrists. Beckett was attempting to wiggle and twist her hands out of the intricate knots, but with Castle's hands not entirely sure what they were doing, it was next to impossible to sneak out of them.

The team had just been assigned a new case that morning, and started off as a simple robbing gone bad. However every corner they turned a new lead with new information and suspects had been laid out for them. Esposito and Ryan had left a bit after the end of their normal shift, Castle and Beckett had stayed behind in hopes of getting results from CSU back that night so they could scope out the lead it provided in the morning.

Of course one thing had led to another and here they were, stuck with no way out. Without second's hesitation Castle turned his head to look at her, his teasing on full force. "But detective, what if I simply wanted to stay here and spend more time with you?"

Beckett turned her head then to glare at him, their faces much closer than normal "If you intend to spend any time with me in the near future, I suggest we work on a plan."

"As you wish" he smirked right back to her. "Maybe, if we managed to stand up, rather than sitting on the floor, we could get untied easier?" He offered hopefully.

Beckett mentally slapped herself, Urrghh, why didn't I think of that?

"Okay we'll give it a shot."

Giving it a shot turned out to be harder than either of them anticipated. Since their hands were bound tightly together with not a lot of give in the rope, it was hard to move it up along the beam. It took several minutes of pushing, tugging, some minor rope burn, and a whining author before they were able to stand with their arms at a normal level. Then dragging their bodies upward were also another story.

With their last final attempts to stand up, they were both breathing heavy, slightly exhausted from the hard work that, in all honesty got them practically nowhere. "See," Castle huffed a little out of breath "No problem!"

"Mhmm…" Becket murmured, barely even paying attention to him and she began moving her hands about the beam, blindly attempting to undo the knots.

"Hey you could try –" Castle began.

"Shhh! I'm trying to focus." There was wiggling of her hands next to his.

"But I could help –

"Nah not another word Castle, and do not move… I swear I just about got it" Beckett warned him.

After about a minute of Beckett moving around behind him, Castle couldn't take it anymore.

"I think you got me – hey!" Beckett's hand reached out of nowhere and abruptly smacked his hand to silence him.

"If you want to get out of here, then I suggest you zip it Castle." More wiggling as he felt her hands brush against his. He instantly committed the soft feeling of her hand to his memory. He didn't want to forget it. With a heavy sigh, he pushed the beautiful thought away from his mind and did what he should've done several minutes before.

He loosely shook his hands that were behind him, and the ropes that had once help him tight fell to the ground. Castle then walked around to the other side of the beam to look at his partner.

The look that was on her face at the moment wasn't quite one that he made sure he would remember. Beckett was angry. She stared him down with a pointed look, and the phrase, if looks could kill flew through the writers mind. She still had both her hands bound behind her and he could tell she was much less than impressed that he managed to get out before her.

"Castle." She spoke his name almost as a question, challenging him to reply.

"Beckett." He answered back a smile on his face. He was somewhat happy that for once, she was not totally in control; it was driving her crazy. And he was loving it. And why wouldn't he? Here he had Kate Beckett, NYPD in front of him still tied up to a beam.

"How the hell did you get out of that?" Kate asked with pure disbelief in her voice.

"Honestly?" Castle asked as he hooked he hands behind him and rolled up onto his toes.

Her only answer was to stare him down, a mixed look of hate and envy.

This made his smile only widen. "You did it. The whole time you were trying to get it undone, you must've been working on the ropes that held me, because truthfully I did nothing. Like I was told."

"Well kudos to me." She muttered sarcastically. "Care to return the favour?" She shook her ropes to emphasise her point.

"Why Detective…" he paused, pretending to be surprised, "are you in need of my assistance?"

Oh boy, oh no no no, oh god no. Beckett could see where this was going. And in every scenario that was running through her mind it did not end well…for herself. Castle was going to take advantage of this, and there was nothing she could possibly do.

She sighed and put on her most fake happy face she could muster "Oh yes Castle! Please do help me."

At this point he crossed his arms in front of him, and frowned, "Now Beckett, why don't I believe you?"

The pretend happiness quickly vanished. "Oh come on Castle! Whoever put us here could come back any moment, now get me untied! Now is not the time to be fooling around!"

"Hmmm well then will you do me a favour and let me know when it is time to fool around?" He asked hopefully, as he raised his eyebrows suggestively. He was still pushing her buttons, he knew it. He was also glad she was being physically held back from him or else she would've had him in a super massive ear pull. And man, did those hurt!

Her only response was to narrow her eyes further, daring him to continue on with his little game here.

His was to slowly start pacing in front of her. "You know Beckett," He wondered aloud to her, never letting his eyes wonder from her form, "There seems to be a price to pay for someone in your particular – position lets say."

She hardly had time to roll her eyes at his ridiculous antics before she incredulously found herself agreeing to his terms, whatever they may be. "Yeah yeah okay whatever I'll pay up, just untie me!"

He stopped his pacing back and forth and turned his body towards her. He hadn't expected her to give in so easily, or quickly. "Seriously?"

"Seriously!"

Suddenly his eyes darkened, and a lazy half smile appeared on his face. He took a small step towards her.

"Alright detective, then I'll take my payment now. Before I decide to be generous enough to untie you."

The 'Oh no, oh god no' moment was returning again. She watched him take another step closer to her, from the cold metal beam at her back. Red flags were mentally going up everywhere. There was a very special line the two of them had, and she didn't want either of them to cross it. Yet, here he was doing what she did not want him to do – again.

"You see Kate," His voice dropped to a lower volume than before, almost like a whisper, "all I would like from you is a bit of honesty." Her mind managed to register that he was getting closer to where she stood with every word he spoke. Funny, it's what he had been doing for the past few years since they had known each other.

He was now only a couple of feet away from her now. "I need you to…tell me something,"

"Of course." She tried to nonchalantly shrug, her eyes flickering between his eyes and lips, very aware of how close he had gotten, how their conversation started to be spoken as a whisper, how her heart was beating out of control in her chest. But this was her key, the only way out of these ropes. It was his game and she had to play it with him.

He closed the distance between them remarkably quickly. His face was now so tantalizingly close to hers, his entire body in such a close proximity she wished she was out of her bonds so she could either push him away or pull him closer. She wasn't sure which. "All I want to know," he mumbled softly, his breath dancing over her face, "Is if you think we could-"

The door at the top of the stairs in the basement banged open, following by a chorus of menacing yells of "NYPD!" and a flood of light into the dark room. Among the voices, Ryan and Esposito could be heard.

But before any of them came tumbling down the stairs and where in eyesight, Castle was already behind her, hands rapidly fumbling with the course rope at her wrists. "We're over here boys!" He called out to them, letting them know there was no danger.

As the white light made its way down the stairs, all Beckett could truly think about was the reassurance of the warm hands that were currently trying to free her, keep her safe, happy. She told herself to remember the feeling, no matter the cost.

Ryan and Esposito came jogging over to them just as Castle finished with the last knot in the ropes.

"You guys alright?" They both asked in unison.

Castle and Beckett both started at the two detectives dressed in their Kevlar's, giving them incredulous looks for a moment. "You practiced that didn't you?" Castle muttered sarcastically.

"We're fine." Beckett truthfully told them, glancing over at Castle, only to find him looking right back at her with a similar look that held his face before the rest of the cops showed up.

Once the place had been looked over, statements were made, and more investigating continued, the team eventually managed to find their suspect making a run for it at JFK a few hours later.

It was now 6 in the morning and neither writer nor detective had gotten a bit of sleep since the night before. Gates told her team they had the day off considering the consequences and unexpected events of the night before.

Castle came wondering back to Beckett's desk, yawning widely as he dumped himself into the chair that always remained beside her desk. She looked over at him, amazed he was still here. "We just finished getting his confession signed, I think you can head home now Castle."

"Trying to get rid of me so soon?" He mocked disbelief and hurt.

She leaned towards him just an inch, "Of course." She winked quickly and moved back to the position she had been sitting in before.

A few moments passed before Castle broke the silence again.

"So I never really got that payment Beckett…" he mused trying to make the situation awkward for her.

She pursed her lips and tried to fight the slight blush that was crawling up her neck. "As I recall, you willingly helped me out of those ropes. I owe you nothing now." She really tried not to look over at him, but eventually gave in. All she could see was a down to earth smile on his face and honest eyes.

"Touché. But all I really had was a simple question. And since I was such a gentlemen and got you untied, you could do me the great pleasure of answering it for me." He offered innocently.

Oh damn him and his way with words… she thought somewhat bitterly.

"Okay fine." She gave in, willingly playing his game this time. She leaned back into her chair, anxiety building up, not knowing what he was going to say.

He raised his eyebrows, again caught off guard at her quickness to give into things today. He made a show of looking at his watch and took a visible deep breath. "Well now that it is… exactly 6:09 in the morning, it would be ridiculous to ask you if you wanted to go out for dinner, so how does breakfast sound?" He paused for a quick moment before all the words came tumbling out of his mouth at an alarmingly quick rate. "I know this amazing little diner in the city, and they have the best breakfast items you could imagine, and I know you're tired from being up for so long, but I swear it's worth it, and I will even –"

She silenced him by placing her hand on his knee. He looked down and almost did a double take before looking her in the eyes - he was cute when he was flustered, she thought.

"Breakfast sounds nice Rick." She smiled over at him as she reached behind her to grab her coat.

It took every ounce of his willpower to make sure his mouth didn't hang wide open, let out a victorious yell, or do a happy dance; because technically speaking she agreed to go out with him. So instead he carried a composed cover over to the elevator and out of the building with her by his side. Just where he wanted her.


I got carried away with this chapter, it wasn't how I thought it was going to turn out when I began it.

So please let me know what you think!

Thanks for Reading! =)