It had not been a good day.

They had been spending the last few days going after a man that had been targeting rich drug addicts...mainly snobby trust fund babies that thought they were cool by passing around some coke at a party and acting like they were a drug kingpin. The killer was lacing his stuff with poisons and already they had 40 people in the hospital and 15 dead from two parties where his product had been passed around.

After days of grueling working they had finally caught a break, getting the scent of a dealer whose mother had worked for one of the victims until she was fired. The son had sworn vengeance and Beckett had been more than happy to give him a nice stay in lockup.

For once, Castle had behaved and agreed to stay in the squad car. Beckett had noticed he was doing that more often, sticking to the sidelines and leaving her to do the heavy lifting. While in the past she would have loved for him to behave like that, she now found it rather off-puting. She wondered, not for the first time, if Castle had taken so many risks in the past because he wanted to impress her and now that he felt she was no longer a suitable target for his affections had decided that it would be best to simply play it safe.

It was a bitter pill to swallow...it spoke of how things had once been, of what she had missed out. Every day it seemed Castle was taking a step back, even as he tried to play the role of friend and act like everything was normal. It was making Beckett run to try and keep up with his backpedaling and she worried that she wouldn't be able to keep up with his pace.

She glanced at him from the breakroom, sitting so forlorned by her desk. She could see a few of the other detectives glaring at him, and he seemed to shrink with every second.

He'd stayed outside during the raid, remaining in the squad car without protest. However, when he'd dropped his phone he'd accidentally bumped the switch to the siren, signalling the the suspect that the cops were outside. He'd been able to turn it off after a few seconds, and they'd been able to nab a couple of the man's cronies but the big fish had managed to wiggle out of their net.

Juggling the two cappuccinos and the apple twists (Beckett had begun the baking thing as a way to get Castle closer and found she actually enjoyed cooking...color her surprised!) Beckett made her way back to her desk, setting the treat and the caffeine rush within his reach before sitting down at her desk, turning on her computer. Castle kept staring at the desktop, as if waiting for her to rip into him.

That...broke her heart.

She had no one else to blame, of course. It was her own fault for setting up the expectation, that she was the mean witch that would always come storming in. She'd made him expect only cruel words instead of heartfelt sympathies, and now Castle was like an old dog, so worn down that he didn't even muster the energy to open his eyes when master come home in a foul mood.

Castle reached for his coffee and Beckett cringed as it teetered, nearly spilling over onto her desk. It was only the quick had of a passing Esposito that saved her paperwork. However, one glance at his face made Beckett realize that any thank yous she might have been storing up needed to be choked back.

"Watch it there, Mr. Magoo," Esposito said. He had that tone in his voice the one that dared you to claim that he was insulting you. He'd play it off all innocent, like it was just another one of his goofy quips...and most times it would have been. But it wasn't even Castle's flinch that told her the whole story...it was that dark glee that flashed in Esposito's eyes, the same one he got when he cornered a perp and was taking great pleasure in watching him squirm.

"Knock it off, Esposito," Kate said, trying to keep things casual. Castle glanced at her, surprised by her statement yet also waiting for the other shoe to drop, for her to hit him with her own little insult. From the look on Esposito's face, like he'd bitten into a lemon when he thought it was an apple, he was surprised but also waiting. "Where are we with Douglas?"

Esposito frowned, thrown off by the change in their normal routine. "Right...uh...well, he's gone underground, now that he knows we are after him..." Esposito leveled another glare Castle's way.

"Which wouldn't have happened if you had connected the dots a bit quicker," Beckett stated, her tone so casual she might as well have been discussing the weather.

"Wait...my fault...I'm not the one who got so into Angry Birds he slammed on the siren-" The rest of his statement caught in his throat, the glare Beckett was flashing at him enough to make him wonder if it was too late to find out if they made adult diapers in his size.

"We are not playing the blame game, understand? I want to know what our next step is, ok?"

"...right..." Esposito said, startled, while Castle looked upon her like some avenging angel descended from heaven. Beckett forced herself not to smirk...things were turning out nicely.

~MC~MC~MC~

"Ok, what the hell was that?"

Beckett looked up from the magazine she had been leafing through, her fork hanging inches from her mouth, the piece of salad dangling upon it, threatening to tumble off onto the table below. She had been expecting this blowup to come, though truthfully she had been hoping that Esposito would wait till after lunch.

"What do you mean?" Beckett asked, wincing. She could tell her voice was chirpy; she hated it when suspects' voices got like that...it usually meant they were getting ready to was like they were choking on their fibs and were weazing out the answers.

Esposito clearly was thinking the same thing, leveling a nasty little glare her way. "I am talking about you calling me out back in the bullpen when it was writer-boy who screwed up the bust." He shook his head in disgust, clearly annoyed by what he felt was a MASSIVE faux pas. "He just blew the case for us and instead of letting him have it, you are defending him! What gives?"

"She's in love with him."

Esposito and Beckett slowly turned as one, staring at Ryan has he calmly ate his veggie mini-pizza.

"W-what did you say?" Beckett stammered.

"You're in love with Castle." Ryan wiped his mouth with his napkin. "And judging by the way he's been acting, I'd say he has fallen out of love with you, so you are trying to win his heart back."He shook his head, not even bothering to glance up. "Really sucks for the two of you...when one finally realizes-"

"Why do you think Beckett and Castle..."Esposito asked.

"Bro...I have eyes," Ryan said before taking another bite of his pizza. "Not like I am the only person that knows."

"Huh?" Beckett and Esposito exclaimed.

"Well, Lanie knows...and Bob down in Burglary. And Frank and Sammy in Narcotics...and Gates-"

"The CAPTAIN knows?" Beckett squealed.

"Uh...yeah. Have to be pretty blind not to notice...sorry bro."

Esposito shook his head. "I can't believe I'm the only one that doesn't know!"

"Well, Castle doesn't, if that helps," Ryan said, tossing his water bottle into the recycling bin. "So, the big question is... are you going to stand there all mad...or are you going to help get Castle and Beckett into bed?"

"RYAN!" Beckett cried out, looking around as if she expected Castle to leap from the shadows.

"I was going to say knocking bookends together,because he's a writer, but I wanted to stay classy."

Esposito sighed. "...alright, I'm in."

Beckett's head was a whirl as the two lead her away, plotting away and leaving her wondering when her lovelife became everyone's problem.