"Are we there yet?"
Kate narrowed her eyes as she watched the road ahead, resisting the urge to hit the man next to her. He'd been asking that same question every ten minutes and it was getting incredibly annoying.
"If you don't stop asking me that my name won't be the only thing you scream tonight," she said, looking over a bit to see his response. He was speechless, and his mouth was open a little bit as his mind probably filled with mental pictures. She smirked, glad to have shut him up and teased him a bit, and continued to drive.
They were on the road to the address listed on the piece of paper Ryan gave them on their way out. It was way out of town, and quite a far drive. They'd been driving for a few hours and weren't even close yet. It was driving Kate crazy to have to drive this far with Castle as her passenger, but she remembered how important of a lead this was and how much they needed it.
"I say the butler did it," Castle said from the seat next to her. He was staring out the window and seemed to be deep in thought, but clearly about nothing useful.
"There's no butler," Kate said obviously.
"A place this far out and into the countryside? There's gonna be a big house, therefore a butler. So there."
"And why would the butler want Amber dead?"
"I dunno," Castle muttered, defeated. Kate shook her head and didn't bother to reply to her crazy theory that no doubt sprung from his obsession with butlers. He was probably rambling about butlers just to annoy her, so she wouldn't give him the satisfaction. He liked to drive her crazy, but she loved him anyways. The car filled with silence and Castle kept his eyes out the side window.
"What would you say about moving in with me?" Castle said suddenly, still looking out the window. Kate nearly slammed on the brakes in surprise, which wouldn't have ended well for anyone.
"Moving in?" She squeaked, letting the idea absorb into her mind. That was a huge step.
"Yeah, I mean, you're always over anyways…" Rick elaborated sheepishly, his voice low as he didn't make eye contact with her. Kate let out a small sigh. She wanted to say yes more than anything, but something in her mind told her it wasn't time yet.
"I'll think about it," she answered quietly, her tone telling him that the conversation was over, for now. Regretting bringing it up, Rick looked out the window again and fell silent, which was unusual.
"What if they genetically experimented on monkeys and made like monkey/tiger hybrids? Wouldn't that be so cool?"
Kate rolled her eyes at his outburst, happy he wasn't too hurt by her decision and that he was back to his old self in a matter of minutes. "Wouldn't that be something," she said flatly, trying not to smile.
"I'd buy one," he added.
They pulled into a long dirt road, one that they couldn't see the end of. Rick's phone rang, and he picked up with an excited greeting of "Castle!"
"Yo, Castle. Are you guys there yet?"
"That's what I keep asking her!" Rick said with a look towards Beckett. She pursed her lips and kept focusing on driving, not giving him the satisfaction.
"Lemme know when you guys get there," Esposito replied, taking the hint.
"Why?" Rick asked, unwrapping a sandwich they'd bought just a bit earlier and finally taking a bite. "Wanna know if we got there safely?"
"I thought something happened, you've been gone for hours."
"That's because Beckett sucks at driving," Rick said in between bites. "Ow!" He yelped as Beckett hit him, but he couldn't help but smirk at her annoyed expression. "And the place is farther than we thought."
"Alright. Good luck."
Castle hung up the phone and slipped it into his jacket pocket, taking another bite of his sandwich just as they pulled up into a graveled road. They snuck a glance at each other as a man on the side of the road waved them to a stop.
Just a short walk away, a large building stood. It looked like a house, a beautifully modern house with a few floors and some lights coming from a couple of windows. Kate drove the car up towards the man, stopping and rolling down her window.
"Do you live here?" She asked. The man leaned down so that he was at eye level with her.
"May I ask who wishes to know?" He asked Kate. At that moment, another, larger man approached the car, this time on Castle's side, flashing him a warm smile which Rick returned.
"I'm Detective Kate Beckett, NYPD, and this is Richar—"
Before she could finish her sentence, both of the men's eyes widened and they used all their force on both partners. They had hardly a second to realize what was happening before everything went back.
A/N: Again, another short chapter. I apologize. Leave reviews anyways!