She gets into the hall in full combat mode. Before she opens the door she takes a deep breath and gets ready to jump into action.
When she opens the door, she's met with a sight that makes her jaw drop in shock…
She's immediately on the look-out for her Principal between the dancing and partying crowd. Before she can step deeper into the room, he's the one to find her.
"Beckett!" he walks over to where she is with a bottle of champagne in hand.
"What the hell happened?" she's pissed alright, but she still examines him with her eyes to make sure nothing happened to him.
"We're just having a good time!" he says unbothered over the loud music.
"There is a freaking hole in the window!" she looks at the window in question, that's has a hole in the middle, and then back at him waiting for an explanation.
"That's actually a very funny story" he chuckles. "You see-"
He interrupts himself when he sees a guy in a suit flanked by two security guards at the door.
Beckett turns around and when she sees the guys, comes to the conclusion that's the manager and they're about to get thrown out. She sighs as she runs a hand over her face.
"Mr. Castle" says the manager.
"Yes?" busted.
"You have 20 minutes to clear both your rooms. And you'll have to pay a fine for the damages" the manager states matter-of-factly and then leaves.
Beckett turns around to glare at Castle. Did he just get them kicked out of the hotel? Really? She bites the inside of her lip and doesn't say anything. She walks over to the stereo and turns the music off. "Party's over! Everybody out!" she yells to the crowd.
In a couple minutes everybody has left and Beckett's still glaring at Castle. "And what are you going to tell Alexis?"
The whole time he plays with the bad-boy attitude. After all, this hasn't been the first time he's been thrown out of a hotel. But when she mentions his daughter he actually realizes how stupid this all is.
She's a little proud of herself when she sees the obvious shift of attitude from her boss. She gets the party, she even gets the stupidity, but the fact that he has his daughter there to look after should mean something.
"What happened?" Alexis asks Beckett when she barges into the suite.
"Ask your dad" she says simply before stepping into her room. He did something incredibly stupid and he's going to have to own up to it.
"Dad?" the teen looks at him expectantly. When he doesn't say anything, she sighs remembering all the stories he had told her about his crazy parties in hotels and how they usually ended with him being thrown out. "Did they throw us out?" she's clearly not happy about it.
"A little bit, yes…" he bites his lower lip.
Alexis rolls her eyes and goes to her room to change and pack.
They make it downstairs right before the 20 minutes run out. Before they get into a cab he calls Gina.
"Rick, what did I tell you last time? Our job is to get you into a hotel, but if you get thrown out, it's none of our business. You're going to have to find a place yourself" it's almost midnight and Gina's not taking any of it.
"Come on, Gi-" he can't even finish his sentence and she has already hung up. "Great" he mutters under his breath. He thinks about what to do for a second before he remembers something. He dials another number and figures he can still have a good time tonight.
Next thing you know they're in a cab. Beckett hopped into the front seat and Castle and Alexis are in the back.
"So, where are we staying?" the bodyguard asks the writer.
"With my ex-wife" he states simply.
This takes Beckett by surprise. She was expecting anything but that. "Wh- which one?" she knows one of them is Alexis' mother and the other one is her publicist. Given that Gina lives in New York, they're probably paying a visit to the first wife.
"Alexis' mother. Meredith"
"Oh" Beckett nods.
They're at the building in no time. Meredith is at the door to receive them.
She hugs Alexis and Castle and then notices Beckett. "And this is…" she asks Castle.
"Beckett, she's my-" Castle can't help but tease, though the bodyguard beats him to it.
"I'm his bodyguard"
"Really?" Meredith thought something else was going on.
"What?" Castle wonders.
"Nothing" she smiles. "It's just… I thought that you two were together is all"
"Not yet" he snickers at the same time Beckett gives him a firm "No!"
Meredith looks at them amusedly. "Let's go then"
They go up to her apartment. It's not as big as Castle's, but it's still pretty luxurious.
Alexis gets the guest room, Beckett offers to sleep on the couch and Castle doesn't seem to have a problem with sleeping in Meredith's room.
The bodyguard has a hard time getting to sleep. Let's just say Meredith and Castle are not exactly… quiet. Exhaustion finally takes over and she slips into a deep slumber.
Next morning she's up pretty early, mainly because the acrobatics in Castle's ex-wife's room seem to have started again. She shakes her head and gets up. She folds the sheets and then takes some clothes from her luggage to change into.
She emerges from the bathroom wearing her regular work-clothes after taking a shower. Nobody's out of their rooms yet and she's not too sure of what to do with herself, so she settles on reading.
A while later Alexis comes out of her room and into the kitchen. "Good morning" she smiles at the bodyguard.
"Morning" Beckett looks up from her book.
Then, Castle and Meredith come out of her room laughing and practically glowing. Ugh. Well, actually, he looks a little worried…
"Good morning" Castle says trying not to seem too bothered by the bombshell Meredith just threw him.
"Morning" Beckett replies dryly.
Castle eyes the bodyguard carefully wondering the reason of her reaction, but then shrugs it off remembering what he did last night.
"So, um… What are the plans for the day?" Beckett asks her boss wanting to shake certain images out of her head.
"Well, Meredith is taking Alexis shopping" the writer explains while taking some things out of the refrigerator to make breakfast. "So I figured you can come with me today"
Beckett nods.
During breakfast Castle, Meredith and Alexis get deep into conversation, something about Meredith moving back to New York… Meanwhile both Alexis and Castle don't seem too comfortable with the idea. But Beckett practically channels the whole thing out while being lost in her own thoughts.
She's his ex-wife, but they're still having sex? How does that even work? Yes, Richard Castle isn't exactly what you would call a normal kind of guy… But, seriously? She doesn't get it, and she's also pretty sure she won't ever completely get him.
Oh, well. He's her boss. She doesn't have to get him.
Are you sure about that? An annoying little voice at the back of her head – which has made its presence known more often recently – asks.
She shakes her head in an effort to clear the circling thoughts right when she gets up and takes her plate and mug to the sink.
When they're done with breakfast, Castle and Beckett leave the apartment.
When they're in the cab, the driver asks them where they're going, but Castle doesn't answer. Beckett looks at him and notices that he seems a little lost. "Hello?"
"Hmm" he snaps out of it and looks at her, who in turn glances at the driver who's still waiting for an answer. "Right, um, to the LA Public Library" the driver nods as he pulls into traffic.
"You okay?" Beckett asks him.
"I had sex with my ex-wife" he says mostly to himself, like he was just realizing what he did.
Really? Beckett rolls her eyes. She really doesn't need to know more.
"And she's thinking about moving back to New York. Do you know what that would mean to me? That would be a very special brand of hell. The hell of a deep-fried Twinkie" he actually looks horrified.
"A what?" okay, now she's lost.
"A deep-fried Twinkie" he repeats. "The guilty pleasure that you know is bad for you, so you only do it once, maybe twice a year for the novelty. But a deep-fried Twinkie every day is..." he shudders at the thought.
"Ugh" she rolls her eyes and decides to not inquire further. Yeah, she'll never understand him.
They get to the library and everything goes down without a glitch. At the end he has to talk to someone from Black Pawn, so Beckett's left perusing the shelves.
When he comes back, he finds her in the mystery section and smiles to himself. This seems like a good moment to talk to her about it. "So you like mystery novels…" he says casually, hoping she's in the mood to share.
Turns out, she isn't. "And you call your ex-wife 'a deep-fried Twinkie'" she retorts.
"Oh, trust me. As annoying and intrusive as you think I am, she's a million times worse"
"What about Alexis? Maybe she misses her mom. Maybe it would be a good idea to have her back in town" she knows the daughter-mother relationship between them isn't exactly easy, but maybe this could help them. From her experience… Well, maybe she shouldn't go there.
"Yeah, right" she has no idea. "This once, when Alexis was nine, Meredith dropped by to take her out to lunch"
"So?"
"In Paris. Paris! And then she acted like there was nothing wrong. She's like Auntie Mame on meth" he's dead serious. Bringing Meredith back to New York wouldn't be good for anyone.
"If she's so bad, then why'd you sleep with her this morning?"
"Let me tell you something about crazy people. The sex is unbelievable" and that's a fact he has proven many times. But that's a story for later.
Is he serious? "How shallow are you?"
"Very" he teases.
She rolls her eyes. She doesn't have time for this. "Should we get going?"
He nods, but not before taking a good look at her. She looks annoyed alright, but there's something else there. Is that… Does he detect a little jealousy in those seemingly-impenetrable, but beautiful eyes? He smirks a little gesturing for her to lead the way.
But she's not jealous. At all.
Are you sure?
AN: So Meredith is in the house! What kind of hell with that ensue?
I hope you're still enjoying this as much as I am!
Oh, and if there's anything you'd like to see happen during the tour or otherwise, send it my way and I'll see what I can do!