A/N: A longer chapter this time, guys! Yayyyy!
"Castle, I'm going to work!" Beckett called out, waiting until he rolled his wheelchair out of the bedroom before she disappeared. "Just call if you need anything, okay?"
He nodded, wishing her a good day as she kissed his cheek before turning on her impeccable choice of heels and leaving for the day. After their late night talk, Rick's spirits were much improved, though he seemed to get surly whenever she reminded him he needed to take his painkillers, complaining that he couldn't do anything afterwards. Kate felt happier leaving him alone until Alexis could drop by though; Castle was hopefully aware enough of his moping and grumpy attitude to at least temper it somewhat.
She smiled as her phone beeped in the car and she risked a glance away from concentrating on where she was driving to read his text.
I miss you already.
She rolled her eyes but less than five minutes later she had another message from him.
Do you reckon you could swing back round to the loft and pick me up? I could help with your paperwork.
Scoffing, Beckett forced her attention back onto the road, mentally laughing at the idea of Castle actually helping her fill out her case files for once. She had no doubt that it would only take ten minutes for him to grow bored, especially if his concentration span while on the drugs was as bad as he grumbled every morning. Explaining his presence to Gates alone would be enough of a headache without having to keep him entertained on top of that.
Pwease?
Another text came in less than a minute later.
I mean, pLease
Were the drugs affecting him that badly or were his mistakes a ploy to make her give in? She couldn't tell. He was still sending her texts that only half made sense when she arrived on her floor of the precinct, almost running right into a flustered-looking uniform not watching where he was going. At the speed he jogged, t-shirt not properly tucked and coming loose at the side around his holster with all of the movement, he had to be a rookie. She still remembered what it was like that first year out of the academy, all the razzing from the older uniforms and the detectives, the pressure to make an arrest and do it right. She could let him off.
"Hey," Ryan and Esposito said in near unison, both of their faces brightening as they caught sight of Kate.
"How's Castle?" Ryan asked, grinning as Kate's expression darkened.
"I swear he's driving me up the wall. Forty texts, he's sent me this morn- no, wait, make that forty one texts," she exclaimed as her phone vibrated in her hand and she found her boyfriend's face lighting up the screen again.
"Guy can't even entertain himself for thirty minutes?" Esposito questioned in humour while Beckett continued to seethe.
"Apparently not." After a cleansing breath as she sat down at her desk, Kate softened however. "Actually, that was something I wanted to talk to you guys about." Both men nod, requesting her to go on. "I came up with an idea for Castle's birthday but I'm gonna need your help with it."
"So long as I don't have to dress up fancy in a suit, I'm in."
Kate had to smother a grin. "Nothing like that, Espo. I've been working with Martha to set up a fake murder investigation for him that ends in a surprise party."
The two men guffawed.
"So you'll help?"
"Oh yeah, chance to see Castle investigating by himself? Making a total idiot of himself? No way we could pass that up." Ryan was positively beaming at the idea. "So, what's the crime? A vengeful spirit on a murder-spree? Ooh, or a golem loose in New York, killing on its creator's orders?"
Beckett and Esposito stared.
"Dude!"
"What?" Ryan asked.
"How do you think we'd even get a golem?" Beckett enquired, still looking at the Irish detective with a mixture of disbelief and disconcertion. "Martha and I agreed on an affair scenario. The lot across from the loft has a vacant apartment you can see right into. She's still got to check whether her actors are available, but we were thinking the boyfriend finds out the girlfriend's cheating on him. Castle maybe sees him pull a knife on her?"
"Oh, yeah, that would be a lot easier," Ryan agreed, turning slightly pink at the ears and smiling sheepishly.
"So where do we fit into all of this?"
"It's nothing big; I just need you guys to take Castle's calls about the murder. Martha came up with the idea of us finding no evidence and making him think he's invented the whole thing, only for me to go round there and confront our so-called murderer and then, we've not really worked out all the ins and outs of it yet – Martha needs to take a look round the place with her actors, scope out how the action can all unfold – but he'll see and call you guys for back-up. And everyone else - Alexis, maybe a few of his poker group if we can make sure they'll keep their mouths shut - will already be in the apartment, ready to surprise him." Beckett shrugged. "Sound okay?"
Lips pursed and eyebrows raised, Ryan nodded, impressed. Esposito, however, looked less convinced.
"What if he calls 911 or does something that we can't predict or expect though?"
Kate had to admit that Esposito had a point. Her boyfriend, despite how well she knew him after five years working together, had a knack for doing the unexpected, or rather, doing something stupid.
"Maybe you should explain the situation to Gates?" Ryan suggested. "If Castle called, she could instruct dispatch to just send us?"
Beckett chewed on her lip. Could she tell the Captain?
Her knock was lighter, less confident than usual and she hesitated a second longer than usual after Gates called for her to enter, taking a moment to remind herself that if she could hold all the cards in an interrogation, she could do the same while asking her boss for a favour.
"Captain, could I talk to you for a moment?" Kate asked, poking her head around the door before stepping in when Gates motioned to her.
"What can I do for you, Beckett?"
"Well, Sir, I'm sure you've heard about Castle-"
"-Heard about Castle? Believe me, Detective, I'm celebrating." Beckett tried to keep her expression stationary as Gates leaned forward on her elbows with wide eyes and an expression that looked far too pleased considering there had been a moment when Kate hadn't been sure whether Castle would ever walk again.
"Right, well, I've been planning something to keep him occupied." She paused, was that a poor word choice? Were her palms sweating? Unclasping her hands, she crossed her arms instead, quickly adding, "He's been texting me for case updates." Oh God, that sounded worse, didn't it? What was she, an untrained rookie let loose on their first interrogation? "Well, occasionally." Kate swallowed. She had to get herself under control. "Castle's mother and I have been working on staging a fake homicide of sorts-" Beckett broke off as her captain interrupted her once again.
"-That's enough, Detective." Kate held her breath. "I don't want to know any more about this than necessary. I trust you and Detectives Esposito and Ryan will stop him from doing anything illegal?" Kate nodded. "In that case, why are you here, Beckett?"
"Espo and Ryan mentioned the possibility that Castle might call the emergency line instead of them. I don't think it'll be a problem – Castle knows calling them or me directly would be quicker than going through dispatch – but they thought it would be pertinent let you in the loop should a situation arise in which Castle requests actual police resources."
"If police resources are used at any point in this plan of yours, Beckett, there will be consequences."
"Noted."
"Anything else?"
Kate hesitated for the smallest of seconds, wondering if perhaps she ought to say something about the surprise birthday party attached to the whole idea before coming to the conclusion that, firstly, it would likely bring more questions about why she was going to these lengths for her supposedly completely platonic partner, and, secondly, Castle probably wouldn't want her there.
"No, Sir. Just that there'll probably be a role for you to play." Her Captain's sharp, enquiring gaze had her explaining, "I've paid for a storage facility and we're intending for Castle to break in under the belief that the murderer he's been spying on is storing the body there. The whole point is that there's going to be no evidence, that we're not going to believe him, but for this to be realistic enough to fool him, I think I'm gonna have to have the owner of the storage space call it in. I'll drive us in, you can dress us down-"
"-I can berate Mr Castle? Say no more, Beckett."
She paused. "Is...that okay then, Sir?"
The Captain smiled, the oddest and biggest-looking grin Kate had seen since she'd returned back to work after her shooting. "Oh yes, Detective. If that's all, I'll get back to these reports then."
The glasses going back onto Captain Gates' nose were Kate's cue to leave. The second she'd closed the door behind her, she was exhaling a sigh of relief at how close she must have come to blowing everything in there. Worringly, getting her Captain's agreement had felt too easy. Breaking her moment of peace though was the urgent buzzing of her phone. Castle.
Kate tried to keep her tone light as she answered, "Hey, are your ears burning?"
She could hear his smirk as he replied, "Been talking 'bout me, Beckett?"
"Moaning about you more like," Kate teased, walking away from Gates' office lest she overhear. "So what're you doing?"
"Been writing."
She frowned. "I thought you couldn't concentrate enough for that."
"Oh, I can't," he assured her. "I just used the words manic calm alongside each other."
She chuckled as she sat back down at her desk, glad that despite the fact he couldn't do the one thing he normally could, he still seemed to be in reasonable spirits.
"So, what's up?"
"Nothing much," Castle replied, his not-so-subtle tone letting her know exactly what he was up to. "How's your paperwork day going?"
"Fine, I guess, though Ryan and Espo have dumped theirs on me as payback for leaving them with the last of mine to go skiing and I've barely even started it."
She could see his shit eating grin in her head, could hear his smug smirk in his voice when he said, "Oh? Well, if it's that bad, Beckett, I guess I could catch a cab and drop by to offer my speed reading services and neat block capitals…"
"If you wrote unintended juxtaposition in your novel, how are you gonna fill out my case files?"
"It's paperwork, not writing for a Pulitzer or Nobel prize."
She clucked her tongue. "You insinuating my job's easier than yours, Castle?"
"Only one way to find out," he replied, voice dipping with suggestion.
Laughing, Kate said, "Castle, you don't even have a badge number. I can't let you fill out paperwork-"
"-I could leave the badge number blank for you to fill in."
"Which would leave me still having to spend more time reading over what you'd written." She heard him sigh heavily, her tone – despite its gentle quality – making it clear that she wasn't going to accommodate him this time. "Look, Castle, how about I leave a little early today?"
"How are you gonna manage that?"
"I was already going to bring some of the paperwork back home, I'll just bring more and come keep you company in front of the TV, yeah?" Her suggestion was met with silence. "I'll get pizza and we can make a night of it. Castle?"
"With eggs? And chorizo?"
Kate wrinkled her nose, but agreed to pick up a pizza for him with those toppings. One thing was certain – she would be getting her usual order spinach, mushroom and capers. There was no way she could share her boyfriend's disgusting pizza, no matter how nice he insisted it was.
"Okay? So, I'll you later?"
"Yeah, see you later. I love you."
Even though she didn't repeat the words, just told him, "You too," before hanging up, Beckett still found herself glancing around the bullpen but found only Ryan and Esposito had been paying attention to her conversation anyway.
"What'd Castle want?" Espo asked, repeatedly throwing a baseball up into the air as he perched on the side of Ryan's desk, the two of them dossing about now that the remainder of their paperwork resided up on her own desk.
"To help with my paperwork apparently. Who knew it'd only take an injury to get him to want to do his fair share?" she joked, looking at the boys with an eyebrow arched in mockery.
Espo nodded, thinking for a moment before grinned. "You should have taken him up on the offer. Good luck finishing that by yourself," he said, pointing at the large pile of folders sitting on the side of her desk. "Ryan, you wanna go grab a bite?"
While the boys went out for lunch, Kate worked in silence, diligently working her way through file after file, her hand writing almost on autopilot while her mind tried to plot out exactly how she and Martha would pull off their fake murder. By the time the boys had returned, leaving a paper-wrapped sub on her desk as they passed by, heading to their own chairs, she had already decided that they would need to get Castle some binoculars and make sure they dropped hints about using them.
"Yo, Beckett, about that surprise party?"
"Yeah?"
"Lanie's invited right?" Esposito asked, looking down at his cell phone.
"Of course," she answered, feeling her own phone pulse with vibrations in her pocket. Upon pulling it out, she found she had already received a text from Lanie.
Girl, what's this I hear about a surprise birthday party for Castle? Where's my invite?!
She held the phone aloft and called to Espo, "Thanks for getting Lanie mad at me," with sarcasm colouring her tone. Taking her phone with her, Beckett abandoned the shrinking pile of paperwork for a moment in favour of brewing a coffee. While she let it cool on the side, she dialled Lanie, waiting five rings while her best friend likely removed her gloves and the grime of whatever autopsy she was working on before the call was answered.
She couldn't even get a word in before Lanie was giving her sass. "Girl, how come Javi knew about the party before I did? You know I could help organise this. Telling the boys first is like choosing someone else to be your Maid of Honour-"
"-Lanie, I told the boys first because they need to be prepared for when Castle calls them, thinking I'm in the clutches of some murderer-"
"-Okay, now I'm really confused. Girl, you better explain yourself!"
Explaining the plan to Lanie, with her new ideas about Alexis maybe subtly encouraging Castle to take a look around the 'crime scene' and finding fake blood, filled her with excitement for what was to come. It had to be how Martha felt whenever she was on the stage, playing a role, and for a moment getting to enjoy the audience's emotions.
When she was done, Lanie was cackling. "Oh, Writer-Boy's definitely got a shock coming. I better be allowed to be waiting in that room for when he charges in, expecting to find you with a knife at your throat."
"You'll be there," Kate promised, collecting her coffee and taking a sip. Catching a glance at her watch, she sighed. She should really get back to work – no-one else was going to do her paperwork for her. "Lanie, I gotta go, but I'll keep you posted."
She slipped the phone back into her jeans and, with her coffee, returned to her desk, abandoning the drink to take a bite of the lunch the boys had brought her. As she chewed, she frowned, resisting the urge to gag.
"You guys got pickles in this, didn't you?" Espo and Ryan's laughs confirmed what she already knew from the bitter taste left in her mouth. "Dicks," she muttered, opening up the paper around the sandwich and pulling the two halves of the baguette apart so she could dig through it to remove the offending vegetables.
The boys were still chuckling quietly about their little prank hours later when she clicked her pen and set it down, beginning to gather together the remaining files she had to fill out and slot them into her messenger bag, having to stuff the last few messily into the shrinking, cramped space until her bag was far heavier than usual and bulging out at the sides.
"Right, I'm done for the day," Kate announced once she had her belongings together and had organised her desk into a reasonably tidy state. "I'll see you guys tomorrow."
"Oh, Beckett?"
"Yeah, Ryan?"
"You'll tell us exactly what you need us to do for this whole fake homicide thing right?"
She nodded. "I'll call you."
A/N: Thank you for the continued support and kind words, guys.