Chapter Four

Beckett was proud of her poker face as she set a cup of tea in front of Alexis and sat down across the table from her again. The last thing she needed was a teenager freaking out when she was having enough trouble trying to think straight. "If there was something wrong he wouldn't have told you not to worry, right?"

Alexis looked at her as if she wasn't quite buying the story before giving a dramatic sigh that would make her grandmother proud, "I guess it's not the first time he didn't realize his phone was off or maybe he turned it off on purpose. He does that sometimes if someone is calling and he doesn't want to talk to them."

Beckett was glad to see the girl was intensely focused on the brown liquid in her cup and not looking directly at Kate. It took Beckett a second to stamp down the little bit of hurt that probably crossed her face as Alexis made the simple statement of fact concerning her father's tendencies.

"There was this one time," Alexis looked back at her with a fond smile on her face, "He didn't have his phone on for almost three days when he was trying to avoid Gina because he was behind on Storm Fall." Alexis laughed at the memory. "He bounced a ball off the wall for three days before inspiration hit and he barely came out of his office for two days as he finished it."

Kate couldn't help smiling at the girl's fondness for her father, and hearing how difficult it must have been for Castle to make the decision of killing off the lead character in his series of novels. "That must have driven you crazy." She remarked.

Alexis shrugged, "Better him bouncing a ball than playing air guitar with the stereo cranked up until all hours of the night."

Kate nodded, "Yeah, that would get old."

"It's different now." Alexis commented, her brow wrinkling slightly. "Dad's different now."

"Are you sure it's not you that changed? A lot has happened in your life since your dad finished that book." Kate was genuinely curious. It was interesting to get a peek into Castle's life that he wasn't crafting himself.

"Oh, yeah, I've changed a lot, too." The teen agreed quickly, "But not as much as Dad. It's weird, because I've always felt so responsible and taken so much on myself that I didn't really realize how much he looks out for me. I never really thought about all the things he taught me, and he's spent a lot less time running around the world on book tours. He doesn't go out to parties and he's even eating healthier, except when he's here of course and he eats like a cop."

"He's probably cherishing his last few years with you before you're all grown up, and taking care of himself more because he's getting too old for late nights." Beckett supplied.

Alexis just rolled her eyes at that, "Right." She said sarcastically. "That's got very little to do with it." Alexis gave her a pointed look, "You know it wasn't me. You're a detective, there's no way you missed all the signs."

Kate stared at her a moment in stunned silence. She couldn't believe how horribly skewed a teenager's view on life could be. "You're not actually trying to imply that I had something to do with any changes in your father?" Beckett asked incredulously.

"I didn't think it was implied, I was pretty much just saying that exactly."

Beckett couldn't think of a response to that and let silence envelope them as they enjoyed their hot beverages for a minute in comfortable silence.

Alexis gave her an indulgent smile as she stood and carried her cup to the sink. She dumped the rest of her drink down the drain and rinsed it out before turning back to Beckett. "Look, I'm sure right now you think I'm just some dumb kid, but I don't mind. The fact that you can't see all the ways he's a better man because of you means you're either stupid or there's something else going on in your head." Alexis gave her a sarcastic smile as if saying they both knew Kate wasn't stupid, followed it up with a little wave and headed out of the break room.

Kate didn't want to be left alone to ponder her thoughts, not when they had been so thoroughly whipped into a frenzy by a few words from the girl who was walking away. "Alexis?" Kate called after her, unable to shake her earlier statement. "So you're saying he turned his phone off because he doesn't want to talk to me?" She finally asked, unable to stop herself.

Alexis looked at her with surprise in her eyes, "What? No. No way." she spoke with confidence, as if that were the most ridiculous statement in the world, shaking her head.

"I'm the one that was calling and he let it go to voice mail multiple times before he turned it off." Kate looked down at her glass avoiding the teen's questioning expression. "Sounds like I'm the one he's avoiding."

After a long silence, Kate looked up to see Alexis considering her carefully, "Did you guys have a fight or something?"

"Nothing like that." Kate shook her head. For a moment she wondered if she should really be having this conversation with the man's daughter of all people, but then she brushed it off. Alexis was easy to talk to and she was a hell of a lot more insightful than her teenage years should account for. "He asked for my help with his book. He said he was stuck and we decided to go to lunch and see if we could work through the problem."

"Hmm." Alexis seemed to consider that a moment. "He wouldn't walk out if you had lunch plans; that doesn't make any sense."

Kate shrugged, "Yeah, well, that could be said about a lot of things he does, so I guess we just wait it out." She tried to smile and alleviate any worry the teen was experiencing. "He'll throw a ball at the wall for three days and be back in here giving us all grief in no time."

Alexis nodded, accepting that version of the facts. "You'll call if you hear from him, right?"

"Of course," she responded. "I'll call when I hear from him." She made sure to remedy the teen's word choice. "Now, go have fun, but be careful up on the mountain. I don't want to have to talk your dad down from worrying about you. You know, he's not nearly as sensible as you are."

Alexis gave her a cheeky grin, her dimple making an appearance for the first time since she arrived. "I'll call when I hear from him, too." She told Kate before she turned and walked away, her step lighter than it had been when she arrived. Beckett hoped that she hadn't given the girl false hope just to crush it later.

She waited a full minute to make sure Alexis was officially gone before she made her way back out to the bullpen. Ryan and Esposito approached as she sat heavily in her chair.

Ryan glanced at Esposito as if unsure and after receiving a nod from both him and Beckett he glanced at his notes and started, "He was picked up in a cab just outside the precinct. The cabbie dropped him on 110th and Cathedral Parkway a little after one thirty."

"Anything in that area that stands out?" she asked, already fairly certain there weren't, but knowing the boys had checked into it.

Esposito shook his head, "There's a couple organic stores, farmers market and the park." He shrugged, "There's also a metro stop there, but nothing that screams Castle."

"So no toy stores or novelty shops?" she tried to lighten the mood, but just earned matching eyebrow lifts from the guys. "Ok, well, according to Alexis, he's been known to turn his phone off sometimes if he's expecting a call he doesn't want to take. So just get back to your paperwork. He'll turn up."

She watched them reluctantly go back to their own desks and didn't miss Ryan trying to whisper as they left, "That doesn't make sense, dude. If Castle didn't want to talk to us we'd at least know what we did."

"I don't think it's us he's avoiding." Esposito remarked, whipping out his phone and shooting off a quick text message. To Lanie, no doubt, the one person she didn't need trying to psychoanalyze what was going on.

Looking at the clock a while later, Kate realized it was almost six and wondered where the time had gone. She was just turning to tell Ryan and Esposito to call it a night when she saw they were already putting their jackets on. As she thought about it, this was the first Friday night in months where they had already wrapped up the case and wouldn't be working through the weekend. They weren't on call and Kate felt a sudden sense of loneliness as she waved a farewell.

"We're heading to the Old Haunt." Esposito chimed in, "Lanie's going to meet us there after she finishes her body. You game?"

Kate shook her head, "I don't think so, not tonight."

"Come on, Beckett." Ryan chimed in, though his pace towards the exit barely slowed, "Live a little."

"You guys have fun." She replied absently, trying for a casual brush off. She didn't like to think about how that sounded like something Castle would ask her to do. 'Live a little.' Sometimes she wished she wasn't a detective, because even with the reassurance of Alexis and her detectives, she still felt like there had to be something wrong.

Kate scolded herself for being ridiculous. He didn't have to answer her calls. He didn't answer to her. She wasn't his boss, he just followed her around. He brings coffee and cracks jokes. That's it. So why was she so worried about him not answering. He always answered his phone when she called or at least he called right back if he missed it.

She was about to walk out when she thought better of it and turned back to her computer. There had to be something there, something the made where he had been dropped off make sense. She couldn't figure it out though and the longer she stared at the screen the harder it was to make sense of anything.

Richard Castle was an enigma. He could have been researching a scene for his book, meeting an old friend, he could have been buying organic fruit for Alexis or that corner just happened to be the location of his favorite taco truck. With a groan she pushed herself away from her desk and headed in to grab another coffee.

As she made her way through the bullpen she noticed how quiet it had gotten in there. It took her a moment to realize that was the lull in a Friday night, almost everybody gone and the few people on duty out in the field.

Beckett had just gotten back to her desk when her cell started to ring. She pulled the phone out of her pocket, hoping to see Castle had finally come to his senses, but disappointed when it was Josh's number on the screen.

Kate shot a look at the clock, seven thirty; Josh was at her house to pick her up. Crap.

"Beckett," she answered, perhaps he would get that she was still working if she started in professional mode.

"Are you still at the precinct?" Josh asked and she could hear the hint of frustration in his voice. She had already told him there would be no case today and he'd been glad their schedules finally freed up enough to give them time together.

"Sorry, yes I got hung up here." She swallowed and wondered exactly how much to tell him. She finally decided that the truth was probably best, because it would explain why she hadn't even bothered to call him. "Castle went missing today and we aren't sure if he's been taken or if getting lost was his idea."

Josh's reaction was surprising as he laughed through the phone. "How long have you been looking for him?" he finally asked.

Kate stuffed down the feeling that told her she should defend the fact that this was serious and this was her partner. Josh shouldn't be laughing about it. Instead she just said, "About seven hours." Her tone was clipped and to the point, not giving away the frustration warring through her.

"Yeah, well," there was that tone again, the cocky one where she just knew he was smiling. Something about this was funny to him and she was about to tell him that if he wanted to joke about something that could be serious than she didn't need to talk to him right now. She was busy after all. The thoughts never made it out of her mouth as Josh continued, "From the ruffled suit jacket and wrinkled pants, I'd say he was sitting outside your door for at least a couple of those hours."

"What?" she was both stunned and surprised. If she had just remembered that she had a date with Josh she would have been home over an hour ago and wouldn't have spent the last sixty minutes beating her head against a wall trying to figure out the bazaar motivation behind Richard Castle. "Is he still there?" she finally asked.

"He left when I got here." Josh's tone was more serious now, "Is there something you need to tell me?" he finally asked.

"There's nothing to tell." Kate sighed, "I'll call and let the guys know that he's been spotted and wasn't carried away by rabid fans or psychopaths this time."

Josh chuckled as if she were telling a joke that he didn't get but could appreciate the humor in, "One of these days, Kate, you're going to tell me some of these stories."

With a sound of half-hearted agreement for 'someday', Kate finished the call by letting him know that the search for the resident writer had set her back a little in her paperwork and she wasn't sure when she'd be able to make it home. Once she had extricated herself from the conversation with an agreement to meet for Saturday brunch as long as he wasn't called in for surgery, Beckett hung up and immediately called Castle's number again.

When she heard his voice mail message she hung up, snapping the top of her phone down over the keypad in frustration and then opening it again as she dialed Ryan.

The sound of music in the background of the call let her know that they had already arrived at the bar. "Change your mind on drinks?" he asked in place of saying hello.

"Hardly." Beckett replied. "Castle's been spotted. He's still out of communication, but at least we know he wasn't abducted by the CIA."

"Or aliens." Ryan chimed in.

Once she had gotten away from that call, glad to have avoided Lanie, Kate sat in her chair and stared at the blank murder board. In her mind she was labeling the board with her evidence and nothing about today seemed to stack up to explain why Castle had left in such a hurry looking entirely stricken, disappeared for hours, and then showed up obviously looking rumpled at her apartment.

Mock whiteboard firmly committed to memory, Kate finally sighed and resigned herself to finding out the good old fashion way with hard work and god detective instincts. Something in her told her that he wouldn't go to his loft. He had already made the comment about not liking to be left alone in his house.

As Kate packed up her things and noted that it was nearing nine at night, she realized that was the exact opposite of what she wanted. She was glad to be going back to her empty apartment where the noise would all just melt away. Where she could poor a bath, grab a bottle of wine and unwind. Today had been stressful to say the least and knowing that they were heading into a full weekend off work with no excuse to call him, Kate felt a clench in her stomach.

It spoke of things that were wrong in the universe and that tingly sensation was usually her first sign of trouble. She didn't like it one bit, but knowing that he was not dead in a ditch somewhere was enough of a relief to have her heading for home. On the lonely trip down the elevator, Kate typed out a quick text message. By the time she got to her car she had talked herself out of, back into and then back out of sending it.

With one last thought of all the times he had been there for her, she sighed and hit send.

"Don't know what's up with you today, but call if you need to talk."

x.x.x

A/N: Sorry for the delay again. As I told you, I'm in the end stages of my other story and sucked into its vortex. If you're reading Retaliation, you know why I spent the last week writing like a maniac, because everything I seemed to write ended up stopping with a huge cliffhanger. If you're not reading Retaliation, well then, once you get to the end you'll understand why you wouldn't have appreciated me leaving you perched on those cliffs for very long.

Alas, after the new Episode I don't think Castle would believe Kate accepting a ring from Josh, but since this was started prior to Setup/Countdown, I'm going to keep rolling with it.

Review that made my day: Dee Hensley, because you're so used to me throwing in scary twists you're expecting one around every corner. It made me laugh and feel a little bit of evil pride at the same time.

Thanks to everyone for reading.