The Eyes Have It
by Castlefan6
Authors Note: This is AU; Builds on Episodes 3-14, 16, and 17. Castle sees what he thinks is the event to seal his departure from Beckett, but do his eyes deceive him? Sometimes things aren't the way we see them.
I don't own Castle; I only use the characters for amusement purposes, except the ones I create.
Also, we take liberties with the timeline from Canon and use events to make this more believable fiction, thanks. Remember This IS AU. Timelines, Events, and Outcomes may vary from the Original Script.
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Chp 7
12th Precinct
Same Day
Castle silently cursed himself for drinking so much coffee, and for trying to hold it too long, he was in pain as he approached the closest urinal. The feeling as though his bladder was going to explode if he didn't relieve himself soon had him almost bending over from the pain. He began to take matters into his own hands when the bathroom door swung open, and Esposito entered.
Every guy knows the unwritten code of public urinals for men. There are rules you just don't break, no matter what. The first rule was never to choose a urinal next to one already occupied by another guy.
Guys just didn't do that to other guys, regardless of if you knew and hated the individual, or they were perfect strangers.
Obviously, Esposito knew nothing about this unspoken etiquette, or he chose to be one of the free spirits who followed no rules. He quickly broke rule number two immediately after breaking rule number one. He sniffed louder than necessary, turned his head for a quick glance in Castle's direction, and then proceeded to start to unzip his pants outside the cover of his urinal cover shields, and with a slowness that did nothing to ease Castle's discomfort.
Rick squirmed uncomfortably, wishing his bladder wasn't as full as it, unfortunately, seemed, praying that Espo would do his thing and leave, letting Rick drain his tank. The moment he cleared his voice, Rick knew that this wasn't going to happen, he was about to break the last rule.
Since he was five years old the rules hadn't changed for men in public toilets, Chuck, his mother's current boyfriend at the time and his mentor had taught him that. Chuck had summed it up for the young child in one sentence, when using a public urinal, NEVER stand too close, don't peek or look anywhere but straight ahead, and last, but not least, don't talk, ever.
"So..." Esposito casually started. Thank God at least this time he was looking straightforward, focused on a tile more interesting than the tidy bowl itself.
"So..." Castle replied just as casually, carefully zipping closed his pants to avoid any unpleasant damage. This is one area men could not afford to lose focus, not without a great deal of self-inflicted pain that could last for weeks. Every guy has felt the wrath of the zipper God at one time or another in their life.
Espo cleared his throat, then continued, "Beckett told us about your upcoming movie tour."
Well, he should have seen it coming Rick thought. As protective of her as the guys were of course they would have their say, whether or not Beckett knew of or condoned, it didn't matter.
Castle knew exactly what Javier's words meant. Disguised as polite small talk, it was crystal clear he was asking him what the hell he was doing. He cautiously approached the sink to wash his hands. "I'm sorry, I should have told you guys myself. I wasn't sure how fast or who Beckett wanted to know so I deferred it to her." Rick said sincerely,
"We understand you had to tell Beckett first." Esposito conceded, finishing his own business and joining Castle at the sink.
"What did she tell you?" Rick asked, curious as to how much either of her boys knew.
"You know Beckett, she didn't share anything that wasn't strictly necessary," Esposito explained, glancing at Castle through the mirror. "You're leaving, you won't be back." That's all she told us, that and that we shouldn't hassle you about it."
Castle said nothing. He left the hot water tap open for his friend and stood in front of the wall, his hands outstretched under the hot blow of the hand dryer machine. When both the loud blower sound of air stopped and the water ceased flowing, the silence grew heavy in the room. It was Esposito who spoke first.
"Castle, You're breaking her heart, ya know?" He said, in a surprisingly sincere way,
Rick knew that he would feel pain when he made his decision to leave, he just didn't know that it would come this quickly and hurt this badly.
"I think you guys know that it was never my intention, I wouldn't hurt Kate for the world if I could help it," he replied.
Esposito nodded again understanding and once again everything went quiet for a moment, then Javi opted for the disposable paper towels on the opposite wall, so he went around Castle and dried his own hands with a couple of them then disposed of them in the waste can.
"You know," he spoke again, turning to face him once he was done with his hands "last summer when you left for the Hamptons with Gina, she was miserable."
If Espo was attempting to piss him off, he was off to a great start.
She was miserable? *SHE* was miserable? Rick thought, hell I was miserable the whole God Damn summer.
He had never worked so hard on a simple invitation in his life. For two days, he almost stalked her, offering every alluring thing he could think of to convince her to join him, only to hear the lie about her plans for the weekend when her boyfriend Demming visited her on the floor.
"Javi, I don't know what story you heard, but I asked her to come with me, but she declined. What was I-
"She chose you." He interrupted,
"Excuse me, what did you just say?" Castle hissed under his breath.
"I said she chose you over Demming," Esposito repeated slower as he was speaking to a child. "She broke up with Tom before she can into the party, when she asked to see you outside, she was about to tell you, BUT that's when Gina showed up."
Espo knew by the look on his friend's face, this was new information to him, shocking information,
"She... she never told me that, why wouldn't she just tell me," Castle said almost babbling.
Esposito shrugged. "That doesn't mean it didn't happen, bro."
Castle wracked his brain for something witty to reply to Espo, but he came up empty, replaying the sad look on Beckett's face as he and Gina strolled out of the precinct arm in arm.
"Whatever, that was then, this is now and she's with Josh now, so I'm not stepping on another man's territory, it's been done to me, but I refuse to do it to others."
"Exactly." said Esposito "Don't you see a pattern here?"
"What I see or don't see isn't important, Espo. She's free to make her choice and she has, she chose Josh." Rick snapped,
"No, but what you feel is important, man. It's important to you and whether you know it or not, it's important to Kate." Esposito crossed his arms over his chest watching emotions once again struggle on his friend's face.
"So, Rick, what's your idea on how to fix this, go to Los Angeles and bang every hot chick in the studio. Come on man, we both know you're bigger than that. Besides, it won't make you forget about what and how you feel about Beckett, you already tried that" Espo said, it was a message Rick needed but didn't want to hear.
"You know Javi, maybe that's exactly what I should do," Rick said, not cocky, just sadness echoing in his throat.
"Come on Rick, you know better than that. Don't be a fool, dude. What you two got is something different from what she has with Josh." Castle threw him a 'you don't tell!' look, but Esposito just ignored him and came closer, poking him lightly in the chest to punctuate his words. "You two have IT, and by IT, I mean the spark, bro."
Castle shot him a look. "You know, Esposito, you sound awfully like Lanie, she wouldn't have put you up to this now would she?"
The detective shrugged, a smirk appearing on his face. "We might have discussed this once or twice."
"Yeah, sure. Once or twice, my ass. Lanie is the best friend Kate will ever have, she's not afraid to tell her when she's full of crap, so I hear a lot of Lanie telling you what to tell me.
"Don't get me wrong, I do appreciate it, but Javi, sometimes you just gotta stop chasing them and see if they will come back to you. If they do, it's love, if not, it was never meant to be." Rick said,
"What I'm trying to say here is don't give up on her." Espo pleaded, "Sure she's difficult, she's stubborn, but isn't that part of the reason you fell so hard for her? Tell me I'm wrong Rick, I dare you" Esposito said,
"It's not that simple, Esposito," Rick begged off,
"Then make it simple, the only two people making it hard are you and the woman you love, and I know loves you. I can't figure out how two intelligent adults can be so stupid when it comes to matters of the heart"
Rick pressed his hands into his eye sockets, growling. "Ahhhhhhhhh Beckett. That woman will be the death of me." He groaned
"If I don't kill you first, man." Esposito grinned and slapped him on the shoulder a little too hard to be considered friendly.
Castle immediately straightened his back and watched as the cocky detective was already halfway out of the door.
"Christ, everybody but the person I need to say go for it is weighing in". as he followed Esposito back to the bullpen.
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Two Days Later
"I understand. Thanks for your help, sir." Ryan hung up the phone and looked across his shoulder at his partner. "Gayle Bodnar alibies out. Just spoke with her doorman and he confirmed she worked late the night of the murder."
Their main suspect had just alibied out and Beckett had called no more than five minutes before to inform them that Castle and her visit to Gayle's husband Ron's house had been pointless since he wasn't home, and his neighbors hadn't seen him in days.
Ryan joined his partner at the murder board and leaned against Beckett's desk crossing his arms over his chest, staring thoughtfully at the timeline and information. His partner stood beside him, both at a loss for where to go next. After a couple of minutes of contemplation, Ryan broke the silence. "Bro, we have to be missing something."
"We are Bro, her calls." Esposito's face lit up.
Ryan frowned confused. "Javi, the victim's phone has already been examined. If you think they missed something-"
"No, I mean Beckett's calls," Espo responded,
The first reaction from Ryan was a disapproving scowl, which turned into a perplexed frown as he further mulled over his partner's discovery, "What about them?"
"Today she declined at least three calls. Since she surely would never decline work calls, I can think of only two people that could piss her off enough for her to not answer her phone." Javi said,
Ryan nodded his head, indicating he was following his reasoning. "And Castle was with her all day."
"Exactly," Javi said,
"So, you think she was trying to avoid Josh?" Ryan asked
"Maybe." Espo shrugged.
"How did it go with Castle?" Ryan asked,
Esposito grinned like the kid who got caught with his hand in the cookie jar, throwing the marker still in his hand on his boss' desk. "He has it bad, bro. You should have seen the face he made when-"
The ding of the elevator and the loud resounding of Beckett's heels on the floor stopped any further gossiping.
The two detectives watched from a distance the duo approaching them. They walked at a reasonably safe distance aside from the fact that Castle's hand was discreetly placed at the small of Kate's back, carefully guiding her to avoid the mess a new detective had made when his coffee cup hit the floor only moments before.
"Anything new?" Ryan inquired when they were close enough.
"Nothing, Ron wasn't home, and his handyman said he hasn't shown up in two weeks," Beckett explained.
"He's supposedly visiting his brother in Maryland, he said," Castle added.
All four remained quiet for a while, searching the murder board for something they could have missed.
Kate was the first to break the silence. "Since Gayle alibied out, Ron is our only suspect at the moment. Espo," she called, turning to the Hispanic detective "get a search warrant for his loft, asap." Beckett turned to the other detective. "Ryan, send some uniforms to his brother's house in Maryland if he has one."
"On it, boss," they said almost at the same time before heading to their respective desks.
Beckett shook off her jacket and sat in her chair opening her pad to go over her notes once more.
It was about ten minutes later when she cast a glance at her partner, sitting in his usual chair but unusually quiet, he hadn't said a word since returning to the precinct. He seemed to be brooding over something.
She leaned back in her chair and crossed her hands in her lap. "Rick, I can hear you thinking."
Castle looked up startled to see her smiling softly at him. "Oh, I'm Sorry."
"Anything you care to share?" She asked gently
He shook his head softly indicating it wasn't something really important. "Random thoughts about tomorrow night." He said finally after a period of silence, although he knew Kate knew he was lying.
She raised an eyebrow. "Random thoughts?"
"Yeah. You know," he shrugged "the usual things. Will we raise enough money? Will the food be good?"
She knew that wasn't what was really bothering him, but she couldn't suppress the grin that appeared on her face as his whining tone of voice punctuated each of his 'concerns'. What will my mother say to embarrass me? Mostly though I am thinking just how revealing will Beckett's dress be?" As he smiled, the first time he had said something close to sexual since that night,
She captured her lower lip with her teeth to stop the remark on the tip of her tongue.
So, she opted for a far less dangerous "That must be stressful." that earned her a grin of his own, nonetheless.
God, it was good to see him smile, and she hated how her insides could turn upside down every time he did.
She cleared her voice and forced herself to drop Castle's gaze and go back to the files. She had a job to do, a murderer to catch. She couldn't waste time admiring something which soon would be taken away from her.
Less than a couple of minutes later though, Castle was interrupting her.
"Beckett?" he called, and his voice was nothing like before. It was tight and unsure.
She looked up when she heard him shift in the chair. Even if he was trying to conceal it by crossing his legs, his posture was now stiff and tense. "Can I ask you something?"
Suddenly she felt inexplicably nervous. "Since when do you ask permission", then seeing the hurt look replace the smile on his face, she said, "Go ahead, shoot."
He seemed to ponder for a moment the best way to ask her what he was about to do. "Have you ever considered there's a chance we may be in the same room with him tomorrow?"
Kate didn't need to ask; she knew who he was referring to. The man who had her mother killed.
He was a powerful man, that was the only thing they knew for sure about him. Powerful and rich. So yes, that was a thought that crossed her mind too. He could come, donate or even be bold enough to speak to her, a twisted way to prove to himself he had the upper hand on them.
"Yeah." she straightened into the chair. "I have."
Castle waited for her to articulate her reply, but she didn't.
"Do you think we should increase the surveillance?"
She shook her head no. "Tomorrow is a celebration, not an investigation. Besides, he won't try anything that could put his façade at risk." She could see he was genuinely concerned and not at all convinced, so she reached out to cover his hand on the desk and squeezed softly to reassure him. "Don't worry, Castle, everything will be fine."
He held her gaze and nodded, interlacing his fingers with hers and squeezing softly back. The hands remained interlocked for a few moments, then Kate spoke.
"Oh, and Castle?"
"Uh?"
Never adverting her eyes from his, she rose from her seat, her right hand still intertwined with his. She dropped her gaze only as she leaned forward reaching with her left hand for the farthest armchair, her face disappeared somewhere near his left ear, effectively trapping him in his chair.
When she spoke it was in her low sultry voice, barely above a whisper. "To answer your previous question..."
He gulped comically and she stifled a chuckle. "A lot." she purred in his ear.
And suddenly she was gone, leaving Castle with his mouth gaping like a goldfish, unable to do anything except furiously trying to force air back into his lungs.
"Come on Castle," she smirked, all the while putting her jacket on "It's lunchtime and I'm suddenly hungry."
She turned her back to him and headed for the elevator, adding more sway than necessary to her hips. When she passed the boys' desks, she could swear she heard Ryan quietly snickering to Esposito "She has it bad too."
Today would be the first time they had a full lunch since the K day, meaning kiss. She had been apprehensive about being alone with him, but she needed a safe space to tell him about Josh, or better the end of Josh.
She was hoping they could keep it light, for at least a little while, and let her ease into the conversation. Unfortunately, the first question Rick asked was, "Is Josh OK with you attending the Benefit without him Kate? I don't want to cause you problems at home"
So much for easing into the conversation, Rick, there is no Josh, at least when it comes to me. You don't need to worry about his petty jealousy anymore, it's over, and done with us." She said,
"I'm sorry Kate," he said, trying to look sad,
"Are you really Rick?" she asked catching him by surprise,
TBC
A/N: I hope the guys enjoyed the scene at the public urinals, and for the ladies, it's true, the code is unspoken but just as valid in real life as this story,