Disclaimer: The wording is mine but the characters aren't
There is a lot of fanfic out there at the moment, so I appreciate you reading this. I don't want it to get clichéd (any more than it is), so ideas and comments would be great. I just want to write a story I would like to read.
Also someone asked about security, and I'll get too it, because at the moment they still don't really know anything...hard to protect against every stranger you see.
Are you following?
…..
"Kate," he squeezed her hand. "I'm sorry."
"Castle," she expelled quietly. "We don't know anything. She could just be unhinged and using Thomas as a substitute for you."
"I don't care if this has anything to do with Nikki Heat or not. I'm still sorry."
"Yeah, me too."
…
5.
"You two can back down," she sighed when she returned to the main room. The remaining members of her team had backed Donovan into the couch where he seemed too anxious to move.
"Kate," he exclaimed happily, standing, his intent to go to her broadcasted across his face. He found his path blocked by Ryan and Esposito who eyed him darkly. "What are you doing?" he flinched. "She told you to back down!"
The more she thought about Donovan's erratic behavior, the more she had to consider that he might be not altogether mentally stable. Not just a creep. The suave, collected man had crumpled too quickly.
"Detective Beckett," Esposito stated flatly. His open reluctance to let Donovan free seemed to make the smaller man even more nervous.
"What?" Donovan asked.
Ryan was solid at his shoulder. "You can call her Detective Beckett."
Their objection and disgust on her behalf was endearing, but she was unsure as how to answer it. Though the idea made her sick to her stomach, she considered using the opportunity to play good cop and get Donovan on her side.
"Kate?"
She caught a glimpse of Donovan throwing both hands out, a very clear 'not me', before she turned to look at Castle coming down the hall, surprised he was using her name in front of everyone else.
"Yeah?"
"All ready to go," he hefted the laptop case in one hand and crossed the room to join her, a hand coming to rest on her hip. She hadn't told Donovan they were taking the laptop yet. She shot a look at him, trying to prepare herself for the argument that was going to cause, and sure enough his face was tight with outrage.
His eyes weren't on the black travelling case however.
Of all the times for Castle to go and make a dominant gesture, he had to do it now? Kate turned slightly to give her partner a hard look but he was focused on the other men in the room. She knew him well enough to know he was trying to tell them he knew what he was doing, but it probably looked like a challenge to Donovan. Part of his plan? It better be; if there was one thing she really didn't like, it was men used her to boost themselves. But this was Castle. She hoped he knew what he was doing.
"Thanks," she gave him a hard smile, playing along. His grip tightened on her in reassurance.
Seeing this, Donovan stalked away from Ryan and Esposito towards the front door, clearly wanting them gone. From the ways his hands were not completely steady, he had reached his limit. He fished up his cell phone on the way. Crap.
"I'll be sure to tell Louise you were here," he said shortly.
"And that she can claim her computer at the 12th precinct," Kate's answer spurred the boys into action and they moved to file out the door. Castle however, didn't budge. His grip on her kept her stationary as well. When they saw Castle and Beckett weren't following they paused just inside the door.
Donovan still had his phone but she couldn't think of any other way to stall or remove it from him. Castle's hand moved to wrap fully around her waist and hold her against him.
"Kate," he spoke from far too close her ear, speaking in a voice that would carry to the other three, but echoed against her eardrums. Deliberately flaunting his right to use her name and touch her.
She twisted in his grasp, fully intending to thank him for trying to deafen her, but he used her momentum to pull her flush against his chest. She narrowed her eyes at him dangerously but he didn't look repentant at all, instead he flickered his gaze towards the door in a move so quick, it would have been impossible for Donovan to pick up on it, especially in his unsettled state of mind.
This was his plan? What was the plan exactly?
"Don't touch her," Donovan's voice was strangled and barely made it out of his throat, let alone to them.
Castle bent his head and lovingly indulged her with a series of Eskimo kisses. Whether this was a side-effect of his plan, her heart rate was responding, witnesses or no. He may have been using the situation to his advantage, but the feeling in his face was genuine, the hard light she had seen in the bedroom lifting slightly. She felt her breath leave her and her lips part without her permission, but Castle always had been able to get her to do things she wouldn't otherwise. He could make her shameless.
"Kate!" Donovan called out, his voice stronger now and the tremors didn't sound like fear. "Get away from him!"
"Kate," Castle whispered in her ear, barely a caress to make up for the earlier assault of sound. He traced the curve of her ear to where it joined her neck and he was content to breathe there, in full knowledge the anticipation was making her impatient.
Because he liked it when she couldn't take his teasing anymore and took control.
"Kate!" Donovan barked. "Don't!"
Never tell Kate Beckett she couldn't do something. Her eyes flashed and the hand that shot up from his chest to his hair was almost violent in its grip. Rather than waiting, Castle hungrily closed his mouth over hers in uncharacteristic heat; the sudden onslaught leaving her reeling. This was for special occasions, or when she had worked him to near breaking.
The moan that tingled on both of their tongues could have belonged to either, but she relished it: the taste of it and the way it served to pull them impossibly closer.
Then there was a sharp pain that snapped her eyes open and propelled head back violently.
"Castle!" she exclaimed, her speech slightly affected and her hand flying to her forehead.
"That's going to bruise," he sounded resigned and a little breathless, his free hand also against his forehead.
"You bit me!" she resisted the urge to extend her tongue and inspect it for damage, but that hurt.
"Yeah, sorry about that. That was not part of my plan."
Plan? She looked around, abruptly conscious of their surroundings again and the way she had wrapped herself around him. She dropped her knee from where it was hitched over his hip and followed the noise to Donovan, struggling wildly between Ryan and Esposito. Kate looked between them and the man she had just very publicly claimed as her own.
His eyes were on the ground behind them. She followed his gaze and saw the scattered plastic and electronic parts then finally piecing together what must have happened, taking in the slight dent in the wall.
Castle had pushed Donovan to the point he threw the phone to break them apart.
"Did that hit you?" she asked her partner. "Or was it the sound that made you jump and head butt me?"
"A graze," he shrugged.
"Nice plan," she complimented him.
"I enjoyed it," he returned with a smile.
"Yes, well thank you very much for the show," Esposito broke the moment. "Now what are we going to do with this?" he looked disdainfully on the more than half-slumped form in his grip.
She shrugged, fiercely resentful that she couldn't even bring him in for assaulting an officer, because all said and done, Castle wasn't technically a member of the New York Police Department.
"You could press charges for assault," she suggested offhand to Castle noting the statement didn't really register with Donovan who had raised his head at the sound of her voice to stare at her in betrayal, as if she had cheated on him.
"I don't think so," Castle replied. "If our positions were reversed," he broke off with a shrug, but his jaw had tightened. She wondered at the reaction but stored it away for later.
Kate nodded shortly and directed him towards the exit. Ryan and Esposito let Donovan go, Ryan taking point and Esposito waiting until they had passed out of the apartment before following them and closing the door.
"Ryan, can you run the computer?" she asked quietly.
The man looked a little surprised but took it from Castle. "Wouldn't Tech be better?"
"They can have at it later if we need to," she murmured. "But I would rather we dealt with it ourselves," she felt Castle come to hover protectively against her back. She didn't know what else was on that computer, and she wasn't going to trust her personal life with anyone else.
"I'll get started as soon as we get back," he nodded.
…
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