Would you look at that! Another chapter! Now that I'm out of school I should be able to post at least a chapter a day and get the full story up here in no time. Same goes for my other in-progress stories. Enjoy!
Castle rocked on the balls of his feet the entire elevator ride up to his apartment. Beckett glanced at him from the corners of her eyes without moving her head. She'd quickly adopted this method for staring at Castle whenever she didn't want anyone to know she was staring at him – in other words, all the time.
"Castle, I'm sure she's going to be fine. It'll all be a big misunderstanding." Beckett tried to reassure him.
The elevator doors opened and they stepped out, Beckett following Castle as he practically power-walked over to his apartment door. He inserted the key in the lock and turned it, pushing the door open.
"Alexis!" Castle called, entering the apartment. "Alexis, honey, are you home?"
Beckett followed him, heading towards the stairs. "I'll check upstairs, if that's all right." She said.
Castle nodded distractedly.
Beckett hurried up the stairs, peering into the guest bedroom, bathroom and Alexis' room. She avoided the closed door that led to Martha's bedroom – there was most likely no way Alexis would be in there, and she would have felt rude looking in.
Alexis' room made her pause. It was decorated in a very soft pink, with black accents. The bed frame was made of black walnut, and held a few clearly beloved stuffed animals on it along with a plethora of plump pillows. Something coiled tight in Beckett's chest as she gazed about the room, and a wave of nausea swept over her. Alexis better be all right, or so help her…
"It used to be pink and white."
She hadn't even heard Castle come up behind her, and she turned slowly. He was gazing into the room, his eyes a little moist. "We changed it to pink and black a few years ago, to make it more sophisticated."
"It worked." Beckett said slowly, swallowing. She'd rarely seen Castle as anything other than energetic, and even when he was serious she'd never seen him this close to tears.
"I just got a call from one of Alexis' teachers. Apparently, she told Paige she had to go to the bathroom and never came back." It was as if the words were choking him on their way out of his mouth.
The tight coiling in Beckett's chest slithered up and began to squeeze her guts, forcing air out of her lungs and creating a terrible vice on her stomach.
"I'll put in a call." Beckett said.
She stepped out into the hallway, trying to ignore Castle as he stood dejectedly in the doorway, gazing into his daughter's room. She pulled out her phone and made the necessary calls.
"No, that won't be necessary. Yes, that would be great. I'll be handling the investigation myself." Beckett spoke authoritatively. Out of her peripheral vision she saw Castle sit down on the edge of Alexis' bed.
"Thanks, Espo. Get down there and start interviewing. I'll hit the museum and scope it out, see if there are any clues." Beckett instructed. "Tell Gates whatever the hell you want, but I want everyone on this. Uh-huh. Yeah, I owe you guys one. Call me when you're finished. Bye."
She terminated the call and put her phone back in her pocket. She turned, looking over at her partner. Castle looked so forlorn and distressed, and she knew this was tearing him up inside. Beckett approached him. She wanted to hug him, but opted instead for sitting next to him on the bed.
"Hey…" She said gently. Castle didn't stir, didn't look at her. His hands were resting on his knees; Beckett placed her hand over his own. Slowly, Castle raised his eyes to her. There was so much hurt and fear there that Beckett fought back a gasp. Beckett knew that this was only half as bad as she'd looked when talking about her mother and a new wave of gratitude for Castle swept over her.
"We're going to find her." Beckett whispered. She squeezed his hand, using her thumb to gently rub little circles at the juncture where his thumb and forefinger met.
Castle nodded slowly. "I hope so." He swallowed dryly. "You put yourself on the case."
"Yes." Beckett confirmed.
"You're not missing persons; you're homicide."
Beckett nodded.
Castle looked at her, and despite the tears threatening to spill his cornflower eyes were steely. "You are going to be in severe trouble with Gates for this."
"Damn Gates." Beckett was surprised with the intensity with which she said it. "Even if I didn't care about Alexis – which I do – I'd still do it to help you out."
Absently, almost subconsciously, Castle flipped his hand so that he was holding hers. He mimicked her motions, rubbing tiny circles in her palm with his hand. He opened his mouth as if to speak, but then closed it, offering up a weak smile instead.
Beckett realized how close to each other they were. The almost magnetic pull she felt towards Castle whenever he was around intensified and she stood up. If she'd spent any longer that close to him, like that, she would have kissed him.
She kept holding his hand, though, using it to pull him up to stand next to her. She remembered when they'd been handcuffed together and forced to hold hands to make it more comfortable. She would never admit it, but she'd gotten used to the feel of his hand in hers, and had to stop herself from reaching for his hand once they were away from the tiger and back home. Now that she had the chance to hold his hand again, she really didn't want to let go.
Castle cleared his throat, and Beckett became aware that not only were they still holding hands, but they were standing unnaturally close. In fact, if she leaned forward she'd be able to press her lips to his neck, just above his collar…
"Let's go, Castle." Beckett said, whirling around and dropping his hand. Burying herself in her work had always proven to be the most effective form of ignoring personal problems, and so she did that now.
It didn't help that her stomach was in knots from fear of what Alexis was going through.
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"Do you feel anything?" Alexis called.
The three of them were feeling along the walls for any cracks or weak spots that they could break through. Benny had made a few 'hidden door' jokes.
"If you find a secret passageway, I will call you Nancy Drew." She'd warned, grinning. "You certainly have the hair."
They were sweeping the walls, one person per wall, but they'd found nothing.
"There's nothing over here." Benny called. "And I'm finished with my wall."
"Nothing over here either." Emmett called. "What about you, Shortcake?"
One more nickname and she was going to kill him. She was sure she could get it labeled as justifiable homicide.
"I don't have anything." Alexis said. "I guess it's just the door on the far wall, then."
On the far wall there was a set of stairs that led up to a door. Although they had examined every inch of it and strained against it, the thing was solid and wouldn't budge.
"So what do we do? Just sit here and wait for someone to cut off our ears?" Benny asked, walking back over to the mattress and plunking down onto it. The mattress was the only bit of furniture in the room.
"Let's find a light switch – there has to be a lamp around here somewhere." Alexis said, feeling around.
"Who put you in charge?" Emmett asked.
"I'm not in charge. I'm simply making suggestions. Do you have any bright ideas?" Alexis asked. She shook her head at the wall. "I don't see a light switch anywhere."
"Hey Miss Prissy, look here." Emmett pointed upwards.
Hanging from the ceiling was a thin chain. He yanked on it, and the room was flooded with light as a large, industrial grill lamp turned on. It swung a little, casting writhing shadows that danced grotesquely for a moment as they basked in the glow of the light.
"Don't call me that." Alexis said, trying to sound calm.
"Hey, I have to entertain myself somehow." Emmett replied with an easy grin. Every time he grinned Alexis felt something tug at her; she hated it.
"Maybe you could be doing something more productive?" She suggested.
"Like what?" Emmett asked, stepping closer to her.
Was it just her or did the temperature of the room suddenly rise a couple degrees?
"Like trying to find a way out of here, for example." Alexis said calmly.
Emmett laughed and took another step towards her, closing more distance. "Take a look around you, 5.0. These people are professionals. They kidnapped us in a public place, stripped us of all identification, and haven't killed us yet. Can you say 'professional kidnappers'? They can't take any chance of us escaping, or they lose their ransom."
Alexis opened her mouth, and then closed it. Annoying and bordering on arrogant in his attitude he may be, but Emmett was more intelligent then she'd given him credit for.
Not that she'd tell him that.
"No plan is foolproof; I was hoping there was something that they had overlooked." Alexis said, trying to hide her annoyance.
"I know how it's foolproof." Benny joked. "They didn't know the parents of the kids they were kidnapping."
Alexis laughed. "They'll have the NYPD on their tails in no time." She assured her.
"She wasn't talking about your dad." Emmett said shortly. He stalked over to the stairs and sat down, his back to them.
Benny sighed and shifted uncomfortably on the mattress. Alexis quirked her eyebrow questioningly, and then when to sit down next to the girl.
"Is everything okay?" Alexis asked.
The other girl pushed her short hair behind her ears. "We don't exactly have Hollywood poster parents." She explained. "Sometimes I think Mom forgets that we exist."
"I'm sorry." Alexis said honestly. Despite her father's shortcomings, he had been an amazing parent to her and they were very close. On the other hand, Alexis had never really had a mother in her life – Meredith didn't count, she was more of a DNA provider then a mother – so she could sympathize with Benny.
"It's worse for Emmett then me; Dad's always pressuring him when he's not caught up in work." Benny said. "I just get ignored but Emmett gets lectures."
Alexis bit her lip and looked over at Emmett, who was scuffing his feet along the concrete stairs. "I didn't know." She said lamely.
Benny shrugged. "It's okay. It means that if we are being held for ransom, our parents will just pay it and not put up a fuss. We'll be out of here." She grinned again. "Unless your dad's cop friends storm the place first which, I have to admit, would be pretty cool."
Alexis smiled tentatively. She trusted her father's intelligence and sleuthing skills, and she also trusted Beckett and the team, but she still worried. Whoever had kidnapped them had the daring to do so in a very public place – they must have been confident enough in both their plan and their abilities to pull it off. She only hoped they all weren't in over their heads.
Her train of thought moved from the police in general to Beckett. Alexis really admired Beckett; she was an amazing cop and a great person, and she'd overcome so much. But Alexis also didn't appreciate the pain that she put her dad through. Was Beckett really that blind to emotions that she couldn't see how much her dad loved her?
On the other hand, Beckett had always been good to her. She'd insisted that Alexis call her Kate, for one thing. That wouldn't have been much – women were always trying to be buddy-buddy with her so they could impress her father. But Beckett hadn't followed it with any attempts at bonding or speeches about what a special friend to her Alexis' father was. She just asked that Alexis call her Kate.
Then there was how she included Alexis. Whenever her father was dating someone, Alexis got shut out. The women wanted to spend time with her father, not her, and she'd never been included. Her dad had done his best to include her, of course, and kept everything polite and private, but still; it ate at her. And then Beckett, whenever she came over to the loft, treated Alexis like an equal. She'd even make Christmas cookies with Alexis last year.
But then came the shooting, and the shut out, and her father hadn't heard from Beckett for four months. Four months of watching him tear himself up inside, lost and wandering, like some sort of cursed spirit. She'd hated that, couldn't stand to be around it, so she'd spent the summer taking extra courses and spending all of her time at the museums that peppered NYC like zits on a teenage boy.
She'd hated Beckett. She'd hated her for abandoning them – and then she'd wondered why she'd felt abandoned, when really, only her father had any right to feel that way. Her father was the one in love with Beckett – so why did she feel like she'd had something precious torn from her?
And then… then came the bank robbery. Standing there, helpless, knowing that the two people who had been her world were trapped inside. Panic had risen in her like some filthy swamp bile, and the very air she breathed choked her.
Then Beckett was there.
Even though she'd seen her only for a moment, just long enough for Beckett to shove her behind the yellow police line, she'd felt calm and safe. Beckett would take care of things. She'd save her father and Gram.
It wasn't until later, at dinner, that Alexis realized she'd also seen fear in Beckett, and that had also calmed her, knowing that Beckett actually cared. The way Beckett and her dad had looked at each other over the table, the way they made each other laugh… and the fact that, after this case, Beckett had come home with him. She'd come home and she'd shared dinner with them, fit in so wonderfully like a piece of the puzzle that they hadn't known was missing.
That was when Alexis knew that Beckett loved her dad.
And that was when she got mad at her all over again.
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"Okay, thank you." Beckett turned away from the security guard and back to Castle. "We'll have full access to the video footage. Security cameras are trained on all of the bathrooms, so we'll be able to see who went in before Alexis."
She sat down in one of the desk chairs in the museum's security office, while the head of security and other members moved out of the way respectfully. Castle leaned over Beckett's shoulder to watch the footage, placing his hand next to hers on the desk to steady himself. His chest was inches from her shoulder and his head was directly next to hers. She drank in his scent like it was water and she was a dying man in the Sahara.
Mentally shaking her head clear of such thoughts, Beckett pressed the play button. She fast forwarded through the video feeds until she saw Alexis enter one of the restrooms on the ground floor. Her stomach clenched at the sight of her, so young and carefree, vanishing from sight.
"There!" Castle said as she hit pause.
Rewinding the video, she hit play. Alexis walked over to the restroom, entering it and vanishing inside.
"Okay, now we wait until she comes out." Beckett said.
Only Alexis didn't come out. A few minutes later a cleaning person left with their cart, a closed trashcan and various cleaning materials piled on it.
Beckett turned to the head of security while Castle continued to watch the video feed. "I'm going to need to interview your cleaning crew." She said.
The man shook his head. "I'm sorry, Detective, but that's not our crew. The cleaning crew comes in at six; an hour after the museum closes. They usually finish up around eleven or so, and then they leave. We have regular museum staff do a restroom check every hour or so just to restock toilet paper or whatever, but that's it. No one should be cleaning the restrooms."
Beckett whirled back to pause the video, but Castle had evidently been paying attention and had already rewound it. They watched again as someone dressed as a cleaning crew worker left the restroom, wheeling a cart stocked with a trash can, towels and supplies.
"They left the restroom exactly five minutes after Alexis went in." Beckett noted.
"Is it just me, or does that cart look heavy to you?" Castle asked, pointing.
Sure enough, the person appeared to be straining to push the cart. While they were in total control of the cart and weren't overly exerting themselves, it was still clear that its contents were heavy.
"That would have to be one full trash can to make them push that hard." Castle observed.
It hit them at the same time, and they turned to each other. "She's in the trash can!" They shouted at once.
Despite their circumstances, Beckett couldn't help the grin that spread over her face. Connected, as Castle had once said gleefully; she'd burst his bubble by replying with "conjecture", but he was right. They had something.
Beckett turned back to the video, rewinding to when the person first exited the restroom and paused it. "Can you see their face at all?" She asked.
Castle shook his head. "They're facing away from the camera."
Beckett frowned. "I guess we're just going to have to go back on the video and find when they entered." She said.
The security guard watched the two working with amusement. They were quite the odd couple, but they seemed to work well together. It was so cute to see coworkers that dated.
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"How is it that out of all the people in our class they could have kidnapped, they chose the most pig-headed, annoying, arrogant, lazy, cocky jerk in the entire school?" Alexis demanded, shouting.
"Probably the same way they picked the most stuck up, stubborn, narrow-minded, insufferable, prissy goody-two shoes!" Emmett shouted right back at her.
"You know, this is one instance where I wished the movies were real. I would have no problem getting rid of you to evade a trap." Alexis said, trying to stop herself from shouting and failing miserably.
Their argument had started when they were talking about school and the subject of foreign languages had come up. Alexis knew French, Latin, Spanish, German, Polish, Swedish, and was learning Chinese. Emmett knew Japanese, Scandinavian, Portuguese, Hindu, Vietnamese, Russian, and was learning Farsi. Benny knew Spanish from the housemaids but that was the extent of her knowledge.
"You forgot one." Emmett had said when they'd finished.
"What's that? English?" Alexis asked.
"No; prissy." Emmett deadpanned.
The fight had only escalated from there.
"Whatever you two do, don't kill each other." Benny grumbled from where she lay on the mattress, watching the proceedings. "If you two die the kidnappers will blame me for losing their ransom money, and our parents will blame me for letting their kids die."
Both Alexis and Emmett ignored her in favor of stepping closer to one another and arguing some more. Benny rolled her eyes.
"If you two ever get captured by the mob, you'll be their favorite victims. You two will murder one another and do their job for them." Benny muttered. She stretched out and lay down on the mattress. "I don't know about the odd couple here, but I'm going to sleep." She announced, turning on her side away from them.
Neither Emmett nor Alexis heard her. They were too busy insulting each other in various languages.
So? How's it going? I'll be doing this story from Beckett and Alexis' viewpoints only, because while getting into Castle's psyche is always a fun trip (especially in this situation), I want the focus to be more on them.
This chapter is again dedicated to the lovely Vesja, as well as the awesome fanfiction writer chezchuckles. I stole his idea of making Christmas cookies from his story "Advent" – if you haven't read it yet then go do so!
Now comes the time where I, like PBS hosts during pledge week, beg for your contributions. Only you don't even have to donate money! Just a few kind words or observations; click the blue link below. C'mon, you know you want to… it's calling to you… cliiiiick me… cliiiiick me.
Okay, so that was bordering on pathetic. But hey, it got your attention, didn't it? ;)