My brain is so totally fried from S3 spoilers/previews/promos! I kept trying to work on this chapter but all I could see was S3!
Sorry, we jump around between characters a little bit in this chapter but hopefully it's not confusing.
I do NOT own Castle!
For the three days that she had been texting Castle, something had been nagging at the back of her mind but it took her until just now to figure out what that something was.
Kate turned her body enough so she could keep an eye on the taco meat she was cooking, but still see the young girl, who was busy cutting up onions and lettuce for their Mexican dinner on the counter behind her.
"Castle does know that you are staying with me right?" They'd talked about a lot of things but not once had he mentioned anything about Alexis staying with her.
Alexis stopped dicing the onion she was working on, and looked up at Kate with a slightly guilty expression.
"Well, I told Gina to tell him but obviously he didn't get the message."
"And you didn't think to tell him during your daily phone calls?"
"I was waiting to see if Gina would actually tell him or not. Sounds like she's been too busy partying Hampton style though."
Kate turned back to the meat, to keep from appearing too interested. "Oh?"
She didn't know it but she wasn't fooling Alexis one bit. "Yup, it apparently took a while to get him to actually work on the book but now that he's making a lot of progress on it, she doesn't stay around much. She just calls or stops by to make sure he's working."
"I thought, from what I've heard about her, that she would stay after him all summer."
Finished with the chopping, Alexis got out the dishes they would need. "She is dedicated to her job and only does what she has too. No more, no less."
"You should probably tell him soon."
"Yeah you're right. If I keep it from him too long he might not be too happy with me."
With that said, they dished up the food and sat down for a nice home cooked meal.
"How can you do that?"
"Do what?"
"Write a bestselling novel while carrying on a conversation with us."
"Multitasking my dear detectives. Just because you two are incapable of it doesn't mean I can't."
"Hey! We can multitask too!"
"Oh right, I forgot. You finally mastered walking and talking at the same time."
"Ooooh, nice one bro!"
Castle smiled at the antics of the two male detectives he was currently talking to via voice chat. It was apparently an extremely slow day at the precinct and since they had found out that he and Beckett had been talking, they started talking to him as well.
"So Castle, got any big Fourth of July plans this weekend? Knowing you, you probably have something cooked up."
His fingers stilled on the keyboard for a minute. "This weekend?" He pulled up the calendar on his computer while the detectives watched him with slightly confused expressions. "Wow, where did this month go? I didn't realize that it was so close to the fourth. Guess that answers your question. What about you guys?"
Esposito's face twisted in a grimace and at Castle's questioning look, Ryan explained. "My family does a huge BBQ thing every year for the fourth. And because I didn't want to suffer alone a few years back, I conned Esposito here into going with me. Now they expect him to go every year."
"Dude, your family is freaky. And way too touchy feely."
Castle snickered at the two before a thought came to mind. "Are you going to take Jenny this year?"
Clearly Ryan hadn't thought of that either. "I don't know. I guess I should, right?"
"Better say bye-bye then. She'll run screaming down the road if she has to deal with your family. Hell, I might be running with her if that aunt of yours tries to 'hug' me again."
"Oh come on, they aren't-" Ryan cut his sentence short as the phone started ringing. He quickly answered it and took down the information before hanging up.
"Sorry, Castle. Looks like we got a new case. Talk to you later?"
"Definitely. Promise to tell me if it's gruesome or weird?"
"Deal."
The video went black, signaling that they had turned off the webcam, and Castle decided it would be a good time for a lunch break.
Castle decided on a BLT sandwich and brought it out to the beach so he could enjoy the peaceful waves while having lunch. He stayed out there just watching the waves for a good hour or two before deciding he better get back to work before Gina somehow sensed he was slacking. The woman had superpowers when it came to knowing when he wasn't working so he headed back to his study and plopped himself down at his desk.
Castle placed his laptop on his lap and instantly realized there were sounds coming from it. Like any person who has dealt with annoying ads, he figured there was an ad somewhere that was making noise so he set out to find it.
Just when he was about to give up and decide that it was one of those horribly annoying ads that keep playing even if you shut down the window it's on and restart his computer, he heard very familiar voices.
"Oh man, why did this case have to be a robbery and a homicide?"
That's Ryan's voice. Did they forget to turn the microphone off?
"Dude, don't you know it's gotta be awkward for Beckett to talk to the robbery division since she broke up with Demming?"
Castle gasped, and nearly choked on the sudden intake of air, very grateful that he had actually turned off his microphone earlier.
"Definitely. This case is going to be a long one if we have to work with the guys in robbery but hopefully they will just send their info over."
The detectives continued talking amongst their selves but Castle tuned them out in favor of his own thoughts.
She broke up with Demming? When? I guess that explains why she's actually been talking to me… But why? Did she break up with him, or did he break up with her? What if… What if this is the missing piece in the what-did-Beckett-really-want-to-say puzzle?
Needless to say, Castle didn't get much writing done for the next few hours as he tried to solve this latest mystery.
All morning long Kate Beckett had been stuck filling out extra papers from their last case. Apparently, the head detective on the case, namely her, had to fill them out so while she was suffering through paper work, the boys had nothing to do. After only a few minutes of working on the paper work, it was starting to annoy her that they had nothing to do so she gathered up her papers and went down to the morgue to work in Lanie's office. It was a nice quiet place to work, if you didn't mind the occasional sound of a saw or drill being used.
So she sat there for a while until all the paper work was done and just as she was about to find Alexis so they could have lunch, her phone rang.
"Beckett."
"Yo boss, we got a murder."
So much for lunch.
"Hi pumpkin, I know you are probably busy with classes so I didn't call but I found out something thanks to you convincing me to talk to her. Apparently she isn't with Demming anymore! But, I don't know exactly when though."
Alexis read the text from her father with a very Beckett like raised eyebrow. The way he said it, it sounded like Kate had told him herself but she knew that was very unlikely to happen. Still, she had to make sure.
"Wow really? How did you find that out? Did Detective Beckett tell you that? Yeah, I'm kind of in the middle of something so I can't actually talk but texting is fine, as long as you don't expect quick replies."
She went back to sorting the files she was working on while she waited for his reply.
"Er well no, I didn't hear it from her directly. Ryan and Esposito told me. More or less. Oh that reminds me, what are you doing for the Fourth of July? I honestly completely forgot about it."
More or less? Alexis wondered.
"Okay then. So? What are you going to do now? And as far as I know, we aren't doing anything special. Or at least I haven't heard anything about any plans."
"I don't know what I should do."
And so they talked back and forth for a while with Alexis carefully putting Phase Two into motion, and when they got off the phone, Castle knew what he had to do.
Or at least attempt to do. He had no idea what Beckett's reaction would be.
When he was talking to Alexis, it seemed like such a good idea but now that he actually calmed down and thought about it, he realized just how badly this could end.
But it was too late, the text had already been sent.
Detective Kate Beckett was taking a generous sip of her coffee when her phone signaled she had a text message. Thinking nothing of it, she picked up the phone and very nearly choked on the hot liquid when she opened, and read, the new message from Castle.
Oooooh cliffhanger! Sorry! That just seemed like the best place to end this chapter! Next chapter we will see what Castle is planning and how Beckett reacts to his plan. *Insert maniacal laughter here* Don't worry though!
Also after Kate and Alexis had dinner, it skips to the next day. Just in case that confused anyone.
I'm on Twitter! A lot! More than is probably healthy! My name on there is hallow888 because I had an account with hallow777 but I kind of killed it.