A/N: Huge thanks to Diana not only for her beta skills but also for encouraging me to continue working on the next chapters even when my confidence took a huge dip.
Disclaimer: Not Mine.
Special Agent Kate Beckett was overseeing her team unload their equipment when the yellow cab pulled up to the curb in front of the 12th Precinct, dropping off one ruggedly handsome author. He hadn't noticed her presence yet, and Kate took that opportunity to study his profile.
He looked older – some grey strands of hair had begun showing more prominently at the top and his hair seemed thinner. His cheeks were slightly more sunken in, making his cheekbones more prominent than before. His posture belayed the weariness of his busy life slowly catching up with his age. Kate saw it in the way his shoulders sagged, as though the burden he carried was getting too heavy.
She must have been staring too long, because Castle swung his head around as though he could feel her eyes on him, which he probably could.
Their eyes met.
Kate was the first to drop her gaze, the guilt from her activities that morning causing her ears to heat, turning pink at the tips.
Cut it out, you have nothing to be embarrassed about. He doesn't know anything, Kate thought to herself.
She lifted her head again to look at him. Castle seemed flustered, as though he didn't mean to be noticed by her. Indecision plagued him, and Kate could read it clearly on his face.
Deciding to put him out of his misery, she walked the few steps over to join him.
"Morning, I'll see you upstairs? I've just got to make sure all our equipment are accounted for before we can set up upstairs," she said, gesturing back at her team with her head.
"Sure, Ka- Beckett. I'll see you upstairs."
Watching him walk awkwardly away, Kate couldn't help but feel the pang of disappointment when she noticed his empty hands. He didn't bring any coffee.
Castle entered the lobby, jabbing the "up" button multiple times as he waited for the elevator to arrive.
Hurry up, hurry up, he thought, bouncing from on foot to the other, constantly transferring his weight in an attempt to burn off the nervous energy.
It had been a full day since he'd seen her, but it still hadn't been ample time for him to absorb that fact and become acquainted with his new circumstances. Their conversation on the sidewalk had been awkward enough; he did not need to find out how they would cope being in the same elevator.
There was a time when he'd have done anything to have her trapped in the same elevator alone with him. But now, just the thought of being alone with her made his stomach twist and knot, and it wasn't in the good way. Kind of felt like indigestion.
Riding the elevator up to the homicide floor, Castle wondered if he should forgo coffee this morning. Kate's presence alone had reduced him to a jittery pile of nerves; how would he cope with the added caffeine in his system?
But somewhere along the five years of bringing coffee for Detective Beckett, Castle too, had become addicted to the drink. His day just didn't feel right without the wake up kick from his daily dose of caffeine in the morning. In the early days following Kate's departure, he had tried bringing three cups of coffee to the precinct. But, Ryan always seemed to have with him some detoxifying brew or a new concoction that Jenny was trying out.
And so he began bringing two cups of coffee every morning, but Esposito just wasn't that big a coffee fan and didn't want Castle to go through the hassle. Besides, that was his ritual with another detective, and Esposito found it a little weird to have Castle greet him with a cup of coffee every morning. In spite of Castle's insistence that it was quite all right, Esposito still felt as though he was imposing.
Eventually he stopped picking up coffee altogether, opting to fix his own cup of Joe in the precinct's break room instead. And so a new ritual had begun.
In a surprising streak of stubbornness, Castle was determined to stick to his new ritual. He didn't want Kate's return to have any kind of effect on him, so he greeted the boys and marched into the break room to fix a cup of coffee, steadfastedly ignoring the way his hand trembled as he gripped the mug.
By the time Castle had adequately composed himself, a small group had gathered around the conference room. It seemed that Beckett and her team of federal agents had begun setting up their equipment.
A small group of officers from the Twelfth stood nearby – they were probably additional manpower that Captain Gates had volunteered for the Feds' disposal. Some of them were exchanging greetings with Beckett while others hung close by, discreetly observing how things were going to play out. It seemed as though most people were still on the fence, unsure of how to treat her.
Castle could understand where they came from. Getting the federal government involved was an insult to them; it was as though they didn't think that the New York Police Department was capable of running this investigation. That was reason enough to dislike any agent. On the other hand, Beckett used to be one of them, and she was well liked and quite popular in the Twelfth. It was a rather perplexing conundrum.
Castle headed over, hearing Beckett introduce the boys and some officers to her new team as the agents plugged in their equipment and waited for their systems to begin running.
Castle stood with the boys as he heard Beckett introducing Agents Cooper, Lee, Dom, and Grey.
"New case, boss. Lookin' tired?"
Castle swung his head to look at the agent who said that as the others began chuckling softly.
Agent Cooper seemed content to continue tapping away on his laptop as another member of their team, probably Agent Lee, continued the teasing.
"Yeah, boss. How's the tablet? Do you need me to file for a replacement?"
Looking at Beckett, Castle noticed the dark circles under her eyes, the concealer she had applied not quite doing its job.
"Shut it, Lee, before I file to replace you."
A small corner of her lips tugged up, so he knew that she was joking. The rolling of her eyes told him that this probably wasn't the first time it had happened. An inside joke, maybe?
"Wonder what that's about," Ryan murmured to Esposito, who in turn shrugged and crossed his arms in front, taking a defensive stance.
Hmm, I guess he doesn't like how the dynamic has changed, or how well Beckett is getting along with her new team, Castle deduced.
Agent Dom must have heard Ryan though, because he shot a questioning look at Beckett, silently asking her permission to share the joke with the detectives. By then it was only the eight of them still in the room, so Beckett shrugged and told him, "It's not that good a story anyway."
Dom grinned.
"It's Ryan, right?" he asked, continuing, "It's not that good a story, but it's still pretty funny. See, Beckett has a tendency to file for new tablets especially when we get new cases or complex cases. Unlike normal people, she works all the time. When we get tired, we end up falling asleep on our desk or in the middle of dinner. Beckett ends up taking her tablet for a swim. It took two months and six tablets before she finally admitted that she's dunked her tablet into the tub each time she falls asleep reading up cases while she soaks in the bath."
"Well, she claims to be reading up cases anyway," Cooper added, the mild implication that Beckett might be watching other kinds of videos while in the bath sending Lee and Grey into another chuckling fit.
"That's what Dom's for, right?" Lee said, waggling his eyebrows at Dom.
Dom's mouth shut into a straight line as he frowned while Cooper and Grey wore matching expressions of shock. Beckett was, in turn, sending daggers through her glare at Lee.
Surprised at their lack of response, Lee asked, "What? What did I say?"
"Shut it, Lee," Dom muttered, walking away to login on one of the computers.
Lee swept his gaze around the room, looking around at the others' faces to see if they, too, were mad at him. Spotting Castle, he exclaimed, "Hey, you look kinda familiar! Do I know you from somewhere?"
"Richard Castle, I consult with the NYPD. Agent Beckett," he said awkwardly, the words feeling wrong to him, "didn't get the chance to introduce me yet."
"As in Richard Castle the author? Hey, I've read your Nikki Heat books! I- Ohhhhh," he trailed off as realization dawned upon his face. Looking nervously back at Beckett and his team, Lee stammered an apology.
"I- I'm so- I didn't realize… Sorry, boss. I'll go check on our network. We're good to go once it's secure."
He scurried away, hanging his head in shame as his cheeks stained pink. Castle could almost picture him as a fox, slinking away in defeat with his tail between his legs.
Clearing her throat, Beckett announced, "Let's get down to business, shall we?" She couldn't believe Lee could let slip something as stupid as that. Surely he should have known better than to try and pull that stunt in front of her old team.
She could tell from the subtle nudges between Ryan and Esposito that they had caught on to the Dom thing, or at least, they suspected that something was up. Knowing them, they would investigate it on their own, trying to get information from her team.
In that case, she'd just have to keep them occupied and too busy to go around minding other people's business. Besides, she trusted that no one on her team would dare to tell the boys after she deals out Lee's punishment as a warning.
Turning to the boys, she asked, "Anything in from this morning?"
"Do you mind being a little more specific, Agent Beckett?"
Kate felt taken back. She hadn't expected the biting tone Esposito had employed. Three years ago the boys would have just reported any new findings the moment they were discovered. Now she was expected to be more specific? Confused, she asked, "Erm, okay then. Any leads on the hair dye used? What about her laptop or mobile? Are the techs done with them? How about that boy she was getting close to, Sam, was it? Is he coming in for questioning today? Who's contacting Jenna's parents to confirm their arrival?"
"Nothing useful, no new leads, and don't you have people to do that for you?"
Kate arched an eyebrow, staring unfazed at Esposito's rudeness. Seems like she might be getting a slight attitude problem from the detective.
"Care to elaborate, detective?"
Esposito stared blankly back at her, the two of them in a staring showdown – a power contest. Ryan and Castle stared at Esposito in shock as he gave a non-committal shrug.
"You Feds want to come in here with your fancy gadgets and your smart agents, take over our case, go ahead. I gave you the details yesterday and co-operated, that's all I have to do. I'm sure you're more than capable of taking over from here, Special Agent."
Okay, Kate had underestimated his anger toward her. She was in store for more than a slight attitude problem.
Thankfully, Ryan quickly cut in.
"Erm, what he meant to say was the hair dye was a bust. We traced it back to the brand and manufacturer, but it's just too common and widely distributed, so no leads there. Techs are done with her phone, but nothing much on there. Just your average twenty-something year old's mobile. Her laptop's still with tech though, since it's spoiled. It hasn't been used in quite a few days, but the techs are still working on getting more info off of it. We did find out that she shared a vlog with her roommate, so there's that to go through."
Consulting the sheaf of papers in his hands, Ryan continued. "Sam's coming in for questioning at ten, while Jenna's parents are due to arrive at eleven. We still haven't arranged for someone to meet them because we weren't sure if you wanted to do that instead."
"Thanks, Ryan," Kate said, relieved that he could still remain civil with her and treat her normally. "Castle, anything to add? Any theories?" she asked, making an effort to keep him in the loop.
"Ehh, no, nothing at this point."
"Alright then. Lee, are we up?"
Upon getting confirmation from Lee that their system was good to go, Kate went straight to business.
"We don't have confirmation that 3XK is behind all this, but we'll keep the security detail provided from the Twelfth on Alexis and Martha until this whole thing blows over. While we are currently working under the assumption that Tyson's behind this, we don't want to miss out any other possible suspects.
"So, I want you boys to work this case like any other normal case, see if it might have been just a coincidence. Also, can you arrange to have someone meet Jenna's parents when they arrive? Let me know when they're at the precinct, I want to personally talk to them."
Ryan nodded to indicate he was listening, jotting down notes in his little notepad while Esposito stood there silently with his arms crossed.
"Lee, request for more manpower, get some officers from the Twelfth if you need more. I want you to canvass every single one of Jenna's hangout spots. Talk to the regulars there; find out when she'd last been there and whom she speaks to. Pull up old footage from traffic cams and that sort of thing if you need to. I want this done by the afternoon."
"What, the report we gave you yesterday not good enough now?" Esposito interrupted.
What was wrong with Esposito? She didn't need to explain her decisions to him. Nonetheless, she took a deep breath to calm herself before replying him. "The report was good, but the NYPD does not have the resources to canvass such a large area. Tyson studies his victims beforehand, gets to know them before planning his murder, so if there was a chance for him to strike a conversation with our victim, I want to know how, where, and when."
Beckett dismissed his interruption by turning to her agents and continuing her instructions.
"Cooper, he had access to her apartment. I want to know how, so look for an accomplice. The list of owners to the other units should be in our system already, so I want you to go through them and find out if one of them worked for Tyson. Grey, work with him. Her laptop was spoiled, so she might have looked for someone to repair it. Check and see if there were other opportunities for 3XK. We know he likes to pose as a repairman or security guard, so check that out at the soup kitchen as well. Go through her vlog, see if we can find out more about her life.
"Dom, you're coming with me to the apartment. I want to see the crime scene for myself and talk to the rest of the people there. Ryan, Esposito, start interviewing Sam if he comes in before I return. Everyone know what they're doing?" Beckett asked, glancing around her combined team. She was greeted by a sea of nods. Only Castle looked a little lost.
Crap, she'd forgotten about him.
"Castle, you coming along to the crime scene?" she asked, trying to be polite while giving him the option to choose between staying or leaving.
After a beat of indecision, he nodded at her, saying, "Sure, I haven't seen it anyway."
Everyone began dispersing, but Kate called out to Esposito.
"Hey Espo, a word in private?"
Without waiting for his response, she turned and headed into the break room. It was thankfully empty, so she turned to face the Hispanic detective that had followed behind her.
"Look, I know that you're mad at me but I expect you to put personal things aside and act professional while we're on this case. Like it or not, we're working this case together, and I've been placed in charge, so no more stunts like just now or I'll have to report you to Gates. Got it?"
"Sure thing, boss. Whatever you say," he replied, a tinge of sarcasm coloring his words. Kate turned to leave before rolling her eyes. She wasn't sure if his behavior was going to improve but at least she'd given him a warning in private.
Now she was off to visit the crime scene with Dom and Castle in tow. Great.
A/N: More case stuff coming up, but would you guys prefer a short break from the case? Cos I do want to develop the characters as well, but based on the reviews from the previous chapter, a lot of you guys hated it. So please review and leave me your thoughts?