AN: Hey guys! Sorry for the long wait but December was a little crazy so... Well, here it is.
"Who- Who knows about your phone?" she looks up and he shrugs.
"You, Ryan and Alexis? I haven't even had time to go out yet."
"Dad? Beckett?"
Castle looks up and the bodyguard whips around to see Alexis at the threshold. She probably just got up, and looks confused, wondering what Beckett's doing there so early.
"Sweetie," Castle walks towards her and both adults smile comfortingly at her.
Something's up, is the first thing that the teenager thinks seeing the look on their faces. "What's going on?"
"Go, I've got it" Beckett reassures her boss, before he nods ushers Alexis out of the office.
The bodyguard turns back to look at the box and tilts her head to the side. She sighs as she puts on her gloves to check the contents of the package without compromising any possible evidence, though there probably won't be any. He's never left any evidence. But then again, he's never gotten this close.
At least, not that she knows of.
That thought alone is enough to make her shudder.
She lifts the smaller iphone box revealing a note at the bottom of the package. She places the small one on the desk before taking the paper folded in half.
She opens it and her heart speeds up when her suspicions are confirmed. It's the same guy. He followed them to Boston...
She's snapped out of her thoughts by the ringing on her phone. "Beckett," she says into it.
"Yo, I found him."
"Did you get a good look?" despite of herself, she starts getting excited. One clear shot of his face and they got this son of a...
"Well... No. I sent you the files so you can see it for yourself. We'll be at Castle's in five." he hangs up before she has the chance to say anything else.
Beckett checks the video files feeling the excitement give way to dread and failure. Elevator, hallways, lobby... Nothing.
All she can see is a guy of regular build wearing a large black hoodie and jeans, looking away from the camera in every shot. He knows they're watching, and where all the cameras are. He's careful. Too careful. And that's not good. Not good at all.
She sighs, but before she puts the phone back in her pocket, she dials another number.
"911. What's your emergency?" a female voice answers at the other end of the line.
"Yeah, uh, we received a suspicious package this morning. We already opened it and there was nothing dangerous in it, the problem is that it was delivered by a stranger and it has no return address or anything written on the box, so we thought we'd report it."
"Alright, don't touch it anymore or move anything, we'll send some officers to check it out. What's the address?"
The bodyguard gives the dispatcher the address before pocketing her phone, already knowing it'll probably take a while until they're there given that it's not an emergent situation.
She goes back to staring at the box and the note in her hand as a bad feeling settles in her gut.
Here you go, Ricky. The best phone for the best author.
When she hears the writer approaching the office behind her, she instinctively shoves the piece of paper into her coat pocket, completely throwing away the possibility of finding any evidence. Not that she was very hopeful to begin with.
She can't let Castle find out where this came from. He'd flip. She's already hid enough of this from him already. If he discovered any of this now… It wouldn't be pretty.
He walks into the room running his hand over his face and she looks up at him, playing it cool.
She's got all this under control.
"What'd you tell her?"
"Um, that… We'd gotten a package and we don't know where it came from. That it's probably nothing but we're gonna have to be a bit more careful for a while, until we figure all this out."
She can see it's already wearing him out, and now understands why Gina asked her not to tell him anything. Who knows what he'd do… She would've preferred no to have him find out anything about this mess at all, but it was bound to get to him at some point. Now she'll just have to downplay it. And it's probably easier said that done.
"Did you find out anything?"
"Not really," she gets down to business. "Just the iphone box. No name, no address. I also called the cops. They should be here in a while."
Castle nods when they hear a couple of knocks on the door. He looks up to look at his bodyguard. The cops can't be that quick… "I'm not expecting anyone…" he says, his head already swirling with the possibility of…
"It's probably Espo and Ryan," she reassures him, already walking in the direction of the entrance followed by him. "I called them to talk about this breach and how we're gonna work the security after this."
When she gets to the door, she looks at the peephole, for good measure, before letting the boys in.
Castle, from a few feet behind Beckett, reacts surprised as Esposito and Ryan walk in. "Whoa!" he says, making the three bodyguards look at him.
"Sorry," he says, grabbing his chest and breathing heavily in a dramatic completely Castle-like manner. "Sorry about that. That tie took me a little by surprise," he says trying to contain his laughter, motioning to Ryan's particularly loud tie.
Esposito snickers and Ryan rolls his eyes. Beckett shakes her head, but can't help being just a little bit amused.
"Okay," Ryan nods, having already expected the teasing. "Get it all out. This is a gift from my girlfriend."
"Girlfriend?" Javier says, this news being a surprise to him.
"Today's our two-week anniversary."
"Oh!" the three say in unison, obviously amused at their partner's serious relationship.
"Two weeks!" Espo exclaims. "Is that the paper or the silk?"
"I believe it's the… whipped," Castle adds.
"Good one," Javier congratulates his boss before they chuckle.
"Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah," Ryan waves off their childishness. "Don't we have a serious matter to discuss or something?"
Beckett nods both her features and Castle's suddenly turning somber again.
He motions them to the kitchen, where he gives them coffee. They sit at in the living room and get down to business.
"So… What will the cops do? Hunt this guy down or…?" he asks them, completely at loss for what to do.
"Well," Beckett naturally takes the lead. "Nobody got hurt nor did he threaten to harm anyone so… I'm not sure there's much to be done here. They'll take the package in as evidence, write an incident report and that'll be that."
"What about the footage, do we have him on tape? Won't that help?"
"We didn't really get a look of his face," Ryan explains, almost apologetically.
Beckett pulls out her phone and shows Castle a couple of still from the footage. "That's the best we've got. Does it ring any bells?"
He takes the phone and goes through the pictures a couple of times, but no matter how hard he tries, he can't think of anyone. The novelist gives his bodyguard her phone back and he sighs. "Not really. He could be anyone."
Beckett nods. That's what she thought.
At that moment, Alexis walks down the stairs, already wearing her uniform. She stops at when she reaches the floor, noticing the boys. Something's really not right…
"Um, I'll show the boys the package," Beckett gets up, ushering her partners into Castle's office. There's no reason for the kid to worry more than she already is.
Once they're inside, she makes sure that Castle's busy having breakfast with his daughter before she slumps down in his chair and runs her hand over her jaw thoughtfully.
Espo and Ryan stand in front of the desk, observing the nondescript package. It's not long before Kevin speaks up. "You don't think we should get the cops involved already? About everything?" they haven't said anything until now, only following their boss' orders. But it wouldn't be good to let it get out of hand.
She looks at them pointedly. As if she hadn't thought about that already… "You've read the letters. He doesn't make any direct threats. As a matter of fact he doesn't make threats at all. There's no way the cops will take this seriously. They don't have time to track down every crazy fan who writes letters."
They shrug. It was worth a shot.
"Besides, I already sent a couple to a friend of mine. They didn't find anything."
"So how we gonna treat this?" Espo asks.
"Well, I don't think there's much to do," Beckett sighs, leaning forward. "We'll continue with the same MO, but being more careful scanning the crowds. Anyone suspicious or that we see twice is a red flag. There are no coincidences," she says pointedly. "We snap a picture of them for future reference and make sure they don't come close to Castle. And remember, not a word about any of this to him," she finishes sharply.
A few moments later, Castle walks into the office and Beckett immediately stands up.
"Um, I know it's probably not necessary, but… Does one of you guys mind going with me to take Alexis to school? I usually just send her in the car service but…"
"Yeah, sure. I'll go with you," the brunette quickly replies, and Castle smiles, relieved. "Though you should probably stay to talk to the cops."
"Oh, right," he nods before going back out.
She follows him, but stops when she reaches Esposito. After making sure Castle can't hear them, she takes the piece of paper from her coat and gives it to her partner. "Tell the cops this was below the phone box, and make sure they don't let Castle know."
"As you wish," he nods as she walks out of the office.
Alexis sits at the back of Beckett's car, thoughtfully looking out the window.
"Is my dad in danger?" she takes her bodyguard out of her reverie, and she momentarily looks at the teen on the rearview mirror. "Or are we in danger?"
"We don't think so," the brunette goes for the truth, just like Castle always does. "But we'll be a bit more careful now, just in case."
The redhead nods in understanding, taking it in. "I know my dad is a public figure, so there'll always be a risk," she shrugs.
"Don't worry, kid. We won't let anything happen to him. That's what we're here for," she reassures Alexis softly. "Even if he sometimes makes it difficult for us to keep him out of trouble," she adds with a small smile, which the girl mirrors.
The silence hangs between them for a few seconds before Alexis speaks up again. "Beckett?"
"Huh?"
"I know my dad can sometimes be a handful. And by sometimes, I mean all the time."
Beckett nods with a smile. Smart girl.
"But I really appreciate everything you've done for us. And I also appreciate the honesty," Alexis says seriously. Outside of her family, most adults usually treat her like a little girl, but Beckett.
The bodyguard's features soften at the confession, and a warm fuzzy feeling takes hold of her heart.
This is so not making it easier for her to be able to separate feelings for the job… But she wouldn't have it any other way, she finds herself adding.
AN: So, besides wishing you guys a great 2015, I also want to ask you for your input on how you think this is going. I'm almost at the 30th chapter and I'm still amazed at the reception I've gotten for this. I want to thank you all for the support you've given me for this ride, and let me warn you, it'll not be a short one, but hopefully it'll be a fun one ;)
Happy New Year!