Yes, I know I was supposed to have this up yesterday... But it's carolune's fault! She talked me into doing "Owning the Haunt" instead.
There will be more chapters to this, just not for a little while. I want to try to finish Daughter for a Summer soon, plus I have to do the rest of the Fanfiction Christmas Presents, so unless I get really inspired to write on this, it probably won't be updated until after Christmas is over.
This is for carolune04 from twitter.
I do NOT own Castle.
Pushing the door open with her foot, she took in the sight of the two Castles, and one Rodgers sitting off to the side with her glass of wine, surrounded by towers of boxes.
Her mind just shut down at the realization that Richard Castle had just moved in next door to her. She just stood there staring stupidly at Castle, sitting in the middle of the box towers, as her brain ran through every possible scenario that could happen now that they lived so close to each other.
Not only did he drive her insane at work, now he could easily bug her after work. She didn't even bother to hope that he would respect her personal space, and wishes, after work now that she was living just a few feet away.
It suddenly occurred to her that everything would end up working out better if she tried her best to keep him from finding out that she was living right next door, starting with moving out his doorway before he saw her.
Of course, he had to pick that exact moment to look up and catch her still standing in the doorway.
"Detective Beckett?" He sounded so shocked at her presence that it got the attention of both his daughter and mother, who both turned to look at her as well.
So much for that idea.
The way she saw it, she had two choices. Turn tail and run like hell, or suck it up and get it over with.
As much as she desperately wanted to go with the first one, she forced herself to do the second. Only, she'd apparently been standing there for a few minutes with a far off look on her face while deciding what she should do and Castle spoke up with concern in his voice.
"Beckett? Is something wrong? Are you okay?"
She could hear the concern in his voice, but he hadn't made a move to leave his spot on the floor, as if he wasn't sure she was really there.
"Yes, something is wrong. I was trying to enjoy my new book but some idiot decided to make a racket by moving in next door. Who even moves into a new place on Christmas Eve?"
Her statement was met by three matching faces of confusion and surprisingly, Alexis was the first to realize what it meant.
"If you can hear us, that means you live in this building too?"
There was no use denying it, they'd find out anyway. "Yes, and of all the floors that have vacant apartments, you end up choosing the floor I live on."
"Wait, so you're our neighbor? The one in 4A? Huh, so that's what the manager meant when he mentioned that we'd get along." Castle said as he stood up from his place on the floor and walked over to her.
"Well seeing as there is only one other apartment on this floor, I think it's a pretty good guess that yes, I'm the one in 4A."
Castle got a ridiculously giddy look on his face but before he could comment, Martha asked a question that suddenly came to mind.
"No offense dear, but detectives must get paid more than I thought if you can afford to live here."
While they had been talking, Alexis had been clearing off a space on the couch for her to have a place to sit, and since she knew that Castle would most likely just follow her back to her apartment if she left right now, she went ahead and took the offered seat before answering Martha's question.
"Jason, the manager here, has been a good friend of my father's since they were in high school together. Apparently my dad had enough of me complaining about the tiny sublet I moved into after my apartment blew up and happened to mention it to Jason. He agreed that if I helped him out from time to time, he'd cut down the rent to something I could afford. So of course I took it. Now what about you? What prompted this change?" She directed the last part to Castle who had moved back to the middle of floor.
"Just felt like it was time for a change." Castle said with a shrug before turning back to the boxes surround them and Beckett took that as her cue to leave.
"I have to go put up the groceries I just got, so I guess I will leave you guys to your unpacking." As she headed out the door, she heard Castle mention to Martha and Alexis that they should go pick up some groceries too so she left the door open for them.
It didn't take her long before she was back in her apartment, food put away, with a book on her lap. Now that they were finally through making noise, she could enjoy her book which was an extremely good thing as it kept her from thinking about how bad it was going to be with Castle living right next door.
Beckett was completely engrossed in a particularly suspenseful scene when a loud crash came from next door, nearly making her fall off the couch in shock.
A quick look at the clock told her it had only been about forty minutes since Alexis and Martha had left, and judging by how crowded the stores were when she went out, it was a good bet they weren't back yet.
In seconds, the book was tossed aside and she was rushing next door to make sure Castle was okay. Sure he was the most annoying writer ever, but she didn't want him to get hurt. Especially if there was no one else around to help him.
When she reached his door, she tested the doorknob just in case they hadn't locked it when they left, and was grateful when it opened for her.
"Castle? You okay?" She called out once the door was opened and received a small groan, that she barely heard, coming from a pile of boxes on the other side of the room in reply.
Beckett quickly maneuvered around the boxes and haphazardly placed furniture to see Castle struggling to get out from under a few boxes that had apparently fallen on him.
"Makes you wish you hadn't kept all this stuff, doesn't it?" She moved to push the remaining boxes off of him and he climbed to his feet.
"I was wishing I hadn't kept it all while we were packing. I didn't really think that unpacking everything would be just a big a job as packing it all was. Thanks for coming to rescue me, though."
"I assume you were trying to move some of the boxes to the rooms they are supposed to go in?"
"Yeah, but then I accidentally bumped into a stack of them and they all attacked me...What are you doing?" She bent down and picked up a box before turning to him.
"Knowing you, this won't be the last time a box 'attacks' you so I'm going to help out, at least until Alexis and Martha get back. Now, where is your room?" She turned the box so he could see where he had neatly written 'bedroom' on it.
He blinked at her before pointing to a room that was down a short hallway, then picked up another bedroom box and followed her as she walked away from him.
They continued moving the boxes out of the living room and into the rooms they belonged in and made small talk while they were at it.
He found out that she had moved into this building during the summer, which was why he didn't know she lived here, he'd just assumed she was still in the same place she was when he left.
They had gotten quite a bit of progress made by the time Martha and Alexis made it back. Beckett really had planned to retreat back to her apartment as soon as they got back but before she could head out the door, Alexis was asking if she would eat dinner with them and she just couldn't say 'no' to the girl.
There was a slight problem with that though, seeing as the kitchen was still full of boxes and nothing had been unpacked there.
She was tired, and getting kinda hungry since it was getting close to dinner time, and that was the excuse she would stick to if anyone questioned why she opened her mouth and mentioned that Alexis could use her kitchen to fix dinner.
Deciding that that was much easier than trying to unpack the kitchen right now, Alexis gathered up the food she would need and headed next door to get started. Martha quickly followed, saying that she would be more help in the kitchen than she would moving boxes, leaving Beckett and Castle alone again.
It would be rude to go back to her apartment and lounge around while they were all working, so she picked up another box and, after reading the writing, carried it to the kitchen.
Poor Beckett, she just knows that him moving in next door is going to be the worst thing ever, but I'll bet she'll be changing her mind soon enough. If he doesn't drive her nuts first, that is.
Not extremely happy with this one either... But, I've had so many different ideas floating around my head about different ways this story should go so it's kinda hard to weed them out and only use the at least slightly believable ones.