A/N: Thanks again guys for all the support and kind words
Unfortunately when the next morning came for Beckett it was at quarter past four with a call from dispatch. Castle was groggy, eyes like slits as he peered blearily at her, when she slipped from between the bedsheets and began dressing in the dark bedroom.
"Might have to take a rain check on that lunch date, Castle, I've got a case." He groaned in disappointment, wrinkles deepening on his forehead until she smoothed a hand through his hair and kissed him goodbye, her lip gloss leaving smudges across his forehead and his mouth. "I'll see you later, okay? Go back to sleep and I'll call you when you're up."
Tiptoeing out, Kate didn't pause in the kitchen to make a quick to-go coffee, but left as silently as she could, shooting a rueful smile at the night doorman on her way out into the dim morning streets.
Her car was chilly after spending the night in the garage, and even though she cranked up the air con, the streets were so quiet that when she arrived at the crime scene, her fingers still felt cool. As she stepped out of the car, she noticed Espo stumbling out of a cab just a few metres further down the road.
"Ryan didn't pick you up this morning?" she asked, calling out the question and startling her partner.
"Huh? Oh, uh, no, I had to dash back to my apartment, so I told Ryan I'd catch a cab and meet him here."
Beckett arched an eyebrow at Espo's unashamed smirk as he made it obvious that he'd hooked up with someone the previous night. She hadn't been aware that he and Lanie had agreed to see other people though. She couldn't help having a sneaking suspicion that that wasn't the case. Usually her best friend told her everything, but she could remember all too easily how Lanie and Javi had attempted to hide their relationship for months two years ago.
"Why'd you not just get Ryan to pick you up from your lady friend's place and then take you back to yours?"
Esposito shrugged and brushed her off, muttering something about being right over the other side of the city. Biting her lip to refrain from laughing, Kate shook her head. Javi couldn't have confirmed a nightly "meeting" with Lanie any easier. Espo strode forwards, leaving her to follow him into the apartment building and into the ground floor unit to join the medical examiner in question and their other partner with the body.
"What have we got?"
"Anna Boozer," Ryan said, throwing a purse over the body into Kate's hands. As she flipped it open, Kate inspected the picture on the driver's licence, comparing it with the face on the body.
"Lanie?"
"Two stab wounds." The ME stopped writing her notes and used the pen to point to the victim's abdomen and shoulder. "The knife severed the brachial artery so she'd have bled out pretty quickly once that happened. I'll hazard a guess that that was the second puncture after the first attack to the stomach."
"The knife was taken out but left on the scene," Ryan added. "It's still covered in blood. CSU are checking it for prints right now."
Kate nodded, mulling over the information as she strode around the tiny apartment, noticing the blood splatters both around the body – even on the wall above her – and on the kitchen surfaces. "The knife was left here?"
"Yeah, taken from the kitchen too," Ryan answered, pointing towards the knife block on top of the counter. When Beckett looked, it was easy to see the space where the biggest knife had been taken. On closer inspection of those left in the set, she couldn't help noticing how sharp the edges were.
"B&E?" Espo suggested, glancing towards the door where the crime scene techs were dusting for prints.
Ryan shook his head though. "No sign of a forced entry."
"She married?" Again Ryan answered negatively and then Espo said, "Alright. I call boyfriend then."
Ignoring the bickering beginning between the boys, Beckett sank back down beside Lanie and the body.
"Anything on time of death?"
"The blood hasn't dried so definitely within the last six hours," Lanie replied. Beckett nodded, inspecting the sticky and wet looking pools of blood coating their victim's clothing as well as the carpet all around her for herself.
She had to interrupt Ryan and Esposito, calling out, "If you're done, real police work needs doing." Chastened, the boys returned their attention to the case at hand and not their assumptions about it. "Who found the body?"
"Guy down the hall – Mick Jarvis – heard shouting and a commotion," Ryan said, quoting from notes a uniform handed him, "came to investigate and found the door unlocked."
"So, Anna and our guy were arguing, things got heated, he stabbed her and then fled moments before the neighbour arrived and discovered her," Beckett summarised.
The phone rang a few times before the nineteen year old answered brightly, "Kate! Hey! What's up?"
"Nothing," she assured Alexis. "I was just checking in, wasn't sure Castle'd be up yet."
"Oh, no, he's up. You want to talk to him?"
"Is he there?" Kate asked, chewing on the end of a pen for a moment.
"He's in his office, but I can take him the phone-"
Interrupting, Kate said, "That's okay, Alexis. He's probably trying to get some writing done or something. How do you think he is?"
There was a pause before Alexis responded. "He's…okay, I guess. I gave him the binoculars but he didn't seem very interested…"
"Oh, I've got a plan for that," Kate replied, voice turning sly as she spun her chair and watched Ryan and Esposito tacking up crime scene photos onto the murder board. "Don't worry about it, Alexis."
Unconvinced, Alexis glanced back at the binoculars sitting abandoned, resting on top of the box they came in, on the coffee table.
"I told Rick last night I'd stop by to have lunch with him, but I'm not sure I'm gonna be able to make it. If I make an order for that deli over on Bond Street, will you guys be in?"
"Trust me," Alexis muttered, peering into the study at her father slouching over his desk with his chin barely propped up by his hand, "we're not going anywhere." She had no idea how long her dad had been awake, but judging by the way his eyes were drooping, it was probably ever since Kate had left for work.
She could have made the order online and had a second delivery for the bullpen but at the last second, as her cursor hovered over the 'place order' button, she changed her mind and dialled for the delicatessen on her cell.
"Mile End Deli, how can I help?"
"Hi, can I place an order for delivery?"
"You sure can, Ma'am!"
The persistent knock at the door roused Castle out of the unexpected nap he'd fallen into at his desk while browsing through the electronics on Amazon.
"Dad?" Alexis called from…upstairs? "Can you get that?"
Sighing, he pushed the wheelchair back, almost colliding with the desk chair he no longer needed, and only just made it to the door in time before the delivery guy got back into the elevator. The man spun at the sound of the door opening and pointed a questioning hand at him.
"Richard Castle?"
"Yeah…"
"Got your order right here, sir," the guy – Jack, according to his name badge – said, approaching and passing Castle a heavy paper bag. "It's all paid for," he added, noticing Castle's frown. "Have a nice day!"
Castle was still sitting there just outside his front door, confused about who had ordered him lunch from his favourite deli, the delivery guy himself probably already down at the ground floor and exiting the elevator, when Alexis popped her head out and asked what he was doing.
"Nothing," he told her, trying to sound bright as he held up the bag and added, "Your lunch is here."
"Oh, that's not mine." At his puzzled look, she explained, "Kate's too busy with the case to come back for lunch, so she organised this as a surprise."
Rick peered inside the bag and sure enough, not only was his favourite sub sitting at the top, but so too was what looked like a feast for at least six people. When he began removing the contents and setting them on the table, he saw that everything was labelled. There had to have been a mix up. He was holding a Caesar salad in his hand for Kate and a meat and mustard sandwich for Esposito.
Smiling, he looked at Alexis. "Feel like taking your old man out on a little trip?"
Kate was on the phone when Alexis pushed him out of the elevator and onto the homicide floor. Esposito and Ryan saw him straight away though, the both of them throwing down pens and pushing their chairs with their feet to meet him halfway.
"Dude, what took you so long? Been waiting for our lunch for half an hour now."
Esposito nabbed the bag from his hands, rifling through it for a moment to pull out to wrapped and labelled baguettes, throwing one to Ryan and then handing the bag back to Castle.
"Beckett did this on purpose?"
He jumped when Kate's hands slid down his shoulders and settled against his chest. Her mouth was beside his ear, "Mmhm. I couldn't go to you for lunch, so I brought you and lunch here." He twisted, infinitesimally so as to avoid a twinge in his immobile leg, and was about to press his grin onto her own smile when she shook her head. "Gates is in her office. Why don't we go take this into the breakroom?" She took the bag from his lap and led the way into the break room, leaving the boys behind with their sandwiches to get on with keeping the phones manned.
"Okay, I'll see you tomorrow, Dad."
"You're not staying, Alexis?" Kate asked, spinning on her heel to see Alexis already outside the open door.
The redhead checked her watch and pulled an awkward expression.
"I've really got to get to class."
Kate nodded. "Okay, well, here, take your lunch with you," she said, locating Alexis' wrapped sandwich and carefully tossing it to her.
"Thanks! Bye, guys!"
"So tell me about the case," Castle requested before Kate had even sat down, leaning his elbow on the arm of his wheelchair and tilting his chin into his palm the way he might when looking at her across her desk.
"Nothing much to tell. Boyfriend and girlfriend arguing, got out of hand. We've got the knife, the prints, witness statements. Only thing we don't have is the boyfriend since he legged it obviously. We've got a BOLO and an APB out though so it's only a matter of time."
Castle pouted for a moment, then asked, "Are you sure he wasn't under mind control after a chance encounter with a sorcerer bearing a grudge against the victim?"
Kate arched an eyebrow. "You can't be serious, Castle."
Kate had to help manhandle Castle into the back of his town car before going back to work. She didn't miss his mutters and sighs, fed up of being unable to do things by himself after just a week and a half. It probably didn't help matters that his mind was so affected by the strong painkillers keeping his knee from being too much of a bother, that his theories and suggestions about their murderer and where they could find him got even more unbelievable, making less and less sense.
"When are you going to be home?" he asked, leaning out the wound down window like an excitable dog might. The only difference was that there was no pleasure or happiness making Castle grin. She'd just had to say no to his suggestion that he come back to the precinct and help out with each case she had again.
"Probably soon. There's no point hanging around the precinct if we can't catch Simons. I'll see you back at the loft, okay?" Kate asked, ducking to catch his lips with a quick kiss before he retreated into the car and wound the window back up.
A/N: Hearing your opinions would be great.
Sidenote – it felt so odd, giving them an easy and open and close case…