A/N: Hey guys, thanks go to GeekMom, hfce, alwayscastle2, caskett09013, TORONTOSUN, jellybean96, PrettyLittleGG, htbuzz, Marlene and the anonymous reviewer. Also, sorry you didn't like the ending of the last chapter Marlene. Hope you guys all enjoy this chapter.
Castle groaned, recognising the pounding in his head as that of a headache caused by a hangover from the feeling of his brain being pressured as though it were under a vice of squeezed by a shrinking skull. He tried to roll over, only then realising that he was sitting in a chair; not lying down, and that he couldn't move his hands because they were currently handcuffed together behind the chair. Blinking, he opened his eyes and stared around in confusion as he realised he was chained to his chair at Beckett's desk. "What?" He had no idea what was going on, he didn't even remember going to the precinct. The last thing he could recall was Patterson yelling, 'Let's hope this one lasts longer,' as Esposito and Ryan helped him out onto the street, telling him they would take him home.
He craned his neck, searching for either of the detectives and finding no-one behind him, the precinct apparently empty.
"Help!" he bellowed, trying to make his voice carry as far as possible. Where the hell was everybody? The precinct was open and running all hours and there was always at least one team of homicide detectives working. "Help! Anybody here?" After a few more shouts, he gave up, wincing because he'd only worsened his headache and apparently for no reason since nobody came running.
"Okay, very funny guys, unlock the cuffs now."
Again, nothing happened. He sighed and tugged against the cuffs, even though he knew from experience how pointless it was. This time, he didn't even have Kate for company. He didn't even realise he had fallen asleep until he was forcefully woken.
"Mr Castle!"
He jumped, or rather he jumped as much as was possible when you were locked to a chair. In front of him, the gathered crowd of detectives and lingering uniforms chuckled, covering their laughs with coughs or alternatively being 'discrete' by holding folders in front of the faces. Trying to twist his neck to see behind him became impossible because of the awkward position Castle had been forced to sleep in and the painful crick that had developed in the right side of his neck. He could see feel unabated wrath directed at him from his right side though. There was only one person it could be.
"Captain Gates?"
Her breath brushed his ear as she leaned close and asked, "What are you doing in my precinct? I can assure you that this isn't at all funny!"
"No sir," he agreed, trying to roll and loosen his muscles. "And for once, this wasn't my idea." His words did little to temper the pulsing vein in Gates' forehead. In fact, if anything, she just glared at him harder, her gaze narrowing as if she didn't trust him. Which, Castle couldn't help thinking, was completely ridiculous. Why would he ask to be handcuffed to his chair and spend the night in the precinct when he had a luxurious memory foam mattress and Egyptian cotton sheets waiting for him back at the loft? He groaned, muttering, "I'm going to kill Esposito." He had no doubt that the shorter of his two best men was the mastermind behind his current predicament.
Those seemed to be the words Gates needed to hear, for se then straightened up and entered her open office, leaving the door open.
"Get back to work!" she yelled as she looked out the window, holding the landline phone up to her ear as she waited for the line to connect, and saw the employees under her command still standing aimlessly around laughing at Castle. When she did speak into the phone her voice carried out to Castle over the background noise of phones ringing, keyboard keys being pressed, papers being shuffled, printers churning out paper and people talking, as he rested his eyes again, trying to ignore the throbbing in his head and the pain behind his eyes. "Detective Beckett?"
She could feel the sunlight warming her back through the slight gap in Rick's curtains. It brought a smile to her face, but she kept her eyes closed and savoured the peace the early morning brought. Rolling over expectantly, she reached out a hand for the other side of the bed only to be met with bare, unruffled sheets.
"Castle?"
Her eyes snapped open, finding the bed lacking her fiancé, the sidetable devoid of steaming coffee. Sitting up slightly, she rested her weight behind her on her eyebrows and strained her sleep-ridden eyes to peer into the office, looking to see Rick sat at his desk, feverishly tapping away at the keyboard. She couldn't even count on both of her hands the number of times she'd found him in that position, numerous empty mugs around him, each stained with coffee around the lip from his struggle to stay awake long enough to hash out whatever compelling idea was bouncing around his head, until his eyes were red and weary, almost hollow with exhaustion, from staring at the screen so long. Unfortunately for her, he wasn't there and she could think of no reason for his absence other than he was obviously still enjoying his time with the boys, so she pushed back the sheets and left the comfort of the bed to begin the day. Picking her phone up on the way, she padded out barefoot to the kitchen and set the coffee machine to brew before sitting on one of the high stools at the breakfast bar.
She'd barely poured out her coffee when her phone buzzed on the table and the 12th precinct flashed up on the caller ID. Eyebrows knitting together, she thought backwards, sure she wasn't scheduled to be working today, and picked up.
"Hello?"
"Detective Beckett?" It was Gates.
"Sir?" She felt more confused than ever. Why would the Captain be calling her? That almost never happened.
"We've got a bit of a situation at the precinct. It's Castle."
"I'm on my way," Beckett replied, trying not to think about what could have happened, praying that he hadn't been arrested. Again. She hung up and abandoned her coffee on the side and rushed back into the bedroom, foregoing a shower as she hurried to get dressed and brush through her tangled hair. She didn't even bother with makeup, just grabbed her phone, badge and car keys and scribbled a note to Martha and Alexis before hastening out of the building.
Castle grimaced as he heard Gates say Beckett's name. He struggled to think how Kate would see the positive in what was going on.
As soon as she finished speaking with Beckett, Gates dialled the phone again and barked down it, as soon as whoever was on the other end had picked up, "Esposito, you're needed at the precinct." After calling Esposito, Gates rang Ryan and that was how they came to be in the precinct, looking at Castle in confusion.
"Dude, what happened?"
"What do you mean what happened?" Castle snapped. "You guys handcuffed me to the chair and left me here. Now get the keys out and unlock me."
"We did?" Ryan asked, obviously not recalling everything that had happened the previous evening. "I don't remember being that drunk."
Esposito shrugged at Ryan's questioning glance, accepting Castle's story as he patted his pockets, searching for the key to what were presumably his handcuffs. Castle stared insistently, urging him to hurry up – he really wanted to be out of the cuffs by the time Kate arrived.
"Why would we handcuff you to a chair?"
"How should I know?" Castle demanded of Ryan, ignoring Gates looking on disapprovingly from her office, glowering at them through the open blinds of her window. "Just hurry up and get these off me!" He lifted his wrists away from the chair.
"I don't think I've got the keys, bro."
"Kevin?" Castle asked desperately, glancing between the detective and the lift, expecting Kate to walk between the doors at any second.
Ryan nodded, and began searching his pockets, pulling out their contents. Beckett's desk soon became littered with a handful of loose change, crumpled receipts and randomly bottle caps. The three of them just considered it lucky that Ryan had pulled on his jeans from the previous evening as he jumped out of bed that morning after being woken by Captain Gates' call. But there was still no key.
"Shit," Castle muttered, watching Gates approach them.
"Why is Hector Mendoza in lockup?"
Esposito shrugged, mirroring Ryan's confused expression. At their supposed lack of knowledge, Gates turned to Castle.
"Nothing to do with me," he assured her. "I don't know who that is."
"Really, Mr Castle? Perhaps, you could read the arrest report here." She thrust a piece of paper in front of his face and tapped above a line which bore his name.
"So that's what happened to my ribs."
"He's the guy that attacked you?" Esposito asked. "Why?"
"Slaughter," was all Castle said, unwilling to talk about the Detective who had locked Gilberto Mendoza in his car trunk in front of Captain Gates.
Kate hurried past the desk sergeant and into the elevator, nervously tapping her foot as it steadily climbed up the shaft, oblivious to the annoyed sighs of its other occupants behind her. When the doors opened on the second floor, Kate burst out into the bullpen and then practically stopped dead in her tracks as she took in the sight of Castle sat in the chair beside her desk, Gates, Esposito and Ryan stood all around him.
"What's going on? Castle?"
"Kate," he said slowly, "It's not what it looks like."
"So you're not currently handcuffed to your chair?"
He didn't hear the hint of humour in her voice as she imagined what a wild night he must have had with Esposito and Ryan. He just floundered, looking for something to say. She found it hard not to smirk at the vacant glaze of his eyes too, the tell-tale sign that he was hungover. With her three detectives there, Gates left with the orders for them to sort out the situation and get Castle out of the precinct.
"Okay, I think you can unlock the cuffs now," Kate told Espo and Ryan, taking pity on Castle. She ducked down and checked his wrists behind the chair, running her fingers over them softly to make sure the metal hadn't bitten into his skin.
"Well there's the hitch…" Esposito began.
"We can't find the keys," Ryan finished, looking awkwardly at Beckett before giving Castle another apologetic look.
"So were you trying to emulate The Hangover?"
"Huh?" Castle asked.
"Well do you know where you left the keys?"
"No," Espo and Ryan answered simultaneously.
"Do you remember anything about last night?"
"Not really," Castle admitted, still struggling to recall how he had managed to end up handcuffed to his chair in the precinct. "You got any boltcutters we can use?"
"You know, Castle, that's just the kind of thing I carry in my bag."
"I could really not use your sarcasm right now, Beckett."
"Don't take this out on me, Castle; it's not my fault you're in this position. You guys didn't have to get drunk," she replied, directing her words to Esposito and Ryan too, since all three of them were to blame. Sighing, she walks around Castle so she can sit in her seat. "Look, maybe you guys could work backwards to work out what happened to the key."
Esposito and Ryan nodded to one another. "I guess that would work. We can do that."
"What about me?" Castle asked, looking from Esposito to Ryan to Beckett. "What do you want me to do?" Esposito and Ryan stared at him for a moment. "Oh, right, guess I'll just…sit right here."
Kate pulled open one of her draws, retrieved an almost empty packet of painkillers and popped one of the pills out.
"Aren't you going with them?"
She shook her head as she rose and went to grab a cup of water. "Someone's got to stop you driving Gates crazy," Kate told him before pushing the pill between his lips and tipping the cup up to allow water into his mouth. To be honest, she was surprised he hadn't asked her to stay with him. It was what he did with her, wasn't it? Stayed when he shouldn't, like when she was stood on a bomb all day. She thought he'd want someone to be his handcuffed-to-a-chair-buddy.
"Thanks," he said quietly.
"So, good night?" she asked him after a moment of silence.
"You mean aside from-" Castle broke off to shake his handcuffs again. Kate nodded, finding no humour in the situation this time. "Yeah, I guess. What about you? Nice weekend."
"You're not fishing for information there, are you, Castle?"
"Would I?" Beckett only had to quirk one eyebrow for Castle to backtrack and admit, "Yep, you're right, I would. But aren't you curious about what happened to me last night?"
She pondered it for a moment. "Honestly?" Castle nodded in response to her question. "Not that much. I think I can guess anyway." And that right there is what made Castle do it.
"You can guess?" Beckett nodded an affirmative. He had thought she was bluffing – how was she able to guess what had happened when he couldn't even remember half of it? "Go on then, Beckett. Give it your best shot," he said, watching her lips twist into a confident smile not too dissimilar from his own on the first case they'd worked together, when he'd hit the nail on the head concerning why she'd become a cop.
"You went drinking-"
"Nice job there, Captain Obvious. What tipped you off? Was it the receipts on the desk or the blatant fact that I'm hungover?"
Kate rolled her eyes but continued regardless. "Old Haunt?" She didn't wait for Castle's nod. "Javi and Kevin took you, managed to surprise you with a party and a stripper-"
Castle's eyes went wide, unintentionally confirming Kate's story. "They sent you the email, didn't they?"
"I know Esposito," Kate corrected. Castle breathed a sigh of relief until she added, "And you've still got lipstick on your neck," and he choked.
"You tell them," Esposito said as they left the elevator.
"Why should I tell them?"
"Because they like you more. You're the baby of the family. Nobody can stay mad at you, Ryan, not even Mom and Dad."
"Baby of the family?" Ryan demanded.
"Yeah."
"How am I the baby of the family exactly?"
"Well, you know, you wear all those adorable three piece suits, the vests, you drink honeymilk, you've got that cute little Irish ancestry going for you-"
"What about you? You've got Latin fire-"
"-Exactly," Esposito interrupted. "That's why they're going to blame me!"
"Well, it was your idea."
"No it wasn't," Esposito argued. "You wanted to handcuff him too!"
"Yeah, but only because we were going to 'arrest' him. You were the one who hired the stupid stripper, Javi," Ryan countered.
Kate and Castle listened to their voices rising as they got closer and apparently angrier with one another.
"How is that my fault? I didn't know she was going to follow us-"
"You shouldn't have hired her in the first place! Anyone could see Castle was uncomfortable-"
Kate glanced at Castle, glad that he hadn't wanted a stripper. Sometimes the changes in him she had witnessed since they had first met, even since they'd started dating, made her marvel at him.
Before Ryan and Esposito's argument disrupted the whole bullpen, Kate said, "Guys! Enough! Just tell us what you've found out."
"Yeah, we can all be angry with each other once I'm out of this chair," Castle agreed.
Esposito and Ryan looked at one another, seeming to continue arguing with just their eyes. You do it. No, you! It's your fault!
"Spit it out," Beckett repeated.
"The stripper's got the key," Esposito finally said. "Apparently she's new and the organisation hadn't followed up her references. Leaving guys tied up is, and I'm quoting her old manager here, 'her thing'."
"How did she get the key?" Kate asked.
"Well, Esposito here brought her with us after we 'arrested' Castle," Ryan began before awkwardly continuing, "and then she kind of, er, gave him a lap dance during which point she stole the key off the desk and suggested we leave Castle to sleep."
"And where's the stripper now?" Castle asked, trying to peer around Esposito to see if she was being brought in behind them by uniforms.
"Off the grid," Ryan admitted reluctantly.
"Great."
Beckett gave Castle a sympathetic look. "We'll get you out," she promised "We're just going to have actually get some boltcutters."
An hour later, Castle was finally released and settled in Kate's passenger seat.
"Worst. Day. Ever," he muttered, eyes closed against his persistent headache. "Never again."
"Good job I'm a one-and-done girl then, Castle, and that you don't need to have another bachelor party."
Kate threw a few glances his way as she drove, checking on him and finding him snoring softly. When they arrived at the loft, she had to shake him awake, pressing a soft kiss to his forehead as she ran a hand through his hair.
After a short ride up in the elevator, Castle hung behind Kate whilst she unlocked their front door and let him in, shutting the door behind him. She helped him with his coat – his shoulders too stiff from the way his arms had been handcuffed behind him to do it himself.
"There you are, darling," Martha said, looking up from the script she was reading at the table.
"Mother," he greeted, doing his best to keep the gravel from his voice and not show how rough he still felt.
Alexis emerged from her bedroom at that point.
"You've been gone ages, Dad."
"Oh, yeah, Esposito and Ryan just had something they wanted to talk to me about and we ran kind of late," he lied, waving his hand.
"Right," Alexis nodded, not completely accepting his story. At the table, Martha shook her head and tutted to herself.
"I'm just going to go and get some work done," Rick said, pointing a finger in the direction of his office. "Nikki beckons."
As soon as the door between the two bookcases shut, Alexis said, "He's hungover, isn't he?" She met Kate's eyes and shook her head with a laugh as Kate nodded.
"I'm just going to go and check on him."
Kate found Rick lying fully clothed on top of the bed. She had expected him to be already falling asleep, but instead he was holding his phone up. Esposito and Ryan's voices drifted out loudly as Castle had set his iPhone on speaker, and he met Kate's eyes as she snorted quietly at what their friends were saying.
"So what else happened?"
"Well after Mendoza was arrested-"
Kate shot Castle a questioning look as she sat down on the bed beside his feet, to which he mouthed, "Later," and returned his attention to what Esposito was saying.
"-You suggested a darts tournament between a writing legend and a writing prodigy-"
"-Connelly and Conrad? Who won?"
"Connelly, of course," Ryan answered. "It may have escaped your notice, Castle, but Conrad can't exactly hold his alcohol. So then, as per the terms of the tournament, Conrad had to buy all your drinks for the rest of the night – hence you ended up completely wasted."
"He was still throwing up when we spoke to him earlier," Espo added, making Castle guffaw. The previous night was beginning to make sense. He remembered Conrad falling over as their large group left the Old Haunt and began to go their separate ways, Esposito and Ryan helping him duck into a taxi since his hands were cuffed behind him, the stripper sliding in close beside him. The only thing he didn't understand was how Esposito and Ryan had managed to clear out the bullpen and why no-one had been there when he woke up. He supposed that it was just an unfortunate coincidence of a call requiring the on duty detectives to go out and whoever had been left behind perhaps being in the toilet at that precise moment he had called for help. All he knew was that Karpowski had been the one who had called Gates in to work early.
Castle had slept through dinner, but when Kate slipped into the dark bedroom later that evening he was wide awake, phone on and illuminating his face as he played Angry Birds. He set it aside though and turned on the light in time to watch her undress.
"So, you know mine. Does that mean I get to hear about your bachelorette party?"
She laughed. "I don't remember making that deal, Castle."
"Play fair, Beckett."
"Oh I'll play alright, Castle," she said, crawling up the bed to him in just as shirt and her underwear. "But I can't promise I'll be fair."
He surged upwards, meeting her lips halfway and claiming them with his own.
"God, this is so not fair," he muttered against her lips, before he fell back down to the mattress, arms aching.
Teasing the edge of t-shirt between her fingers, Kate leaned down and pressed a kiss to the underside of his jaw. Her hands slipped under his shirt and ran along his abdominal muscles, feeling them twitch in response to her touch.
"Kate," he groaned, wishing he had the strength to reach up and pull her down closer to him.
"How about a bath to relax your muscles?"
"With you, definitely."
He grinned as she rolled her eyes and shifted below her, already trying to make his way to the bathroom.
Castle nuzzled Kate's neck with his nose, leaving bubbles on her skin from the lavender bubble bath she had poured into the water to help his muscles, enjoying her humming every time he did it. It couldn't just be the relaxing bath that was making her so tranquil though. When he did it again, she turned her face towards his neck and pressed a kiss there.
"You're a bit schmaltzy right now, aren't you?"
"Blame Antonio," she murmured.
"Antonio? Who's Antonio?" Castle demanded, wondering exactly what Antonio had done to his fiancée.
A/N: Thanks for reading! Let me know what you think!
