Kate Beckett stands in a small room, staring through the one way glass at Richard Castle in the room next door. She's absentmindedly tapping her wand against his file on the table behind her, which is making the pages toss and turn. When Ryan enters through the small door his eyes dart to her wand and she quickly stops.
"Not nervous are you Beckett? He's only a writer." His smirk is unbearable and she hits him with the butt of her wand.
"I don't get nervous." She retorts back, waving her wand and the stack of files rises in the air and follows her to the door.
"Does he look a bit queasy to you?" Ryan asks, leaning against the one way glass, staring intently at Castle.
"Apparently he's not good with apparation. He argued with me the moment we stepped into the ally. He's looked like that the second we landed on the precinct steps." She couldn't help but laugh a little to herself. People usually get over the sickness feeling after their first few times, but apparently not him.
She walks around the corner and puts her hand on the door handle, muttering words of encouragement under her breath before she pushes down and opens the door.
He looks up as she enters, a crooked smile spreading across his face, still a little green in his cheeks. She stands at the table opposite of him and lets the files fall in front of her.
"You look like you could use something for you stomach, Mr. Castle." She looks down at him, trying not to smile. He just shakes his head.
"I'm fine." He mumbles, sitting up in his chair, full attention on her. He sits there for a moment, and she decides to take her seat. "You know you have gorgeous eyes."
She looks at him, trying really hard not to roll her eyes because it would just draw more attention to them.
"I'm flattered." She's sizing him up, trying to figure out if he's hiding something before he tells her what this is all about. A few more silent moments pass and then she opens the file in front of him.
"You've got quite a reputation. Misuse of muggle artifacts, numerous uses of magic in front of muggles and," She flips to another file. "An entire file on muggle misdemeanors. You stole a muggle's police horse while you were naked?" The smile he responds with churns her gut a bit and she has to stand to brush it off.
"It was spring." He scratches at the scruff on his chin, she catches his fingers twitching but doesn't want to draw attention to it. She waves her wand at the file and it flips to photos of the crime scene which all pan out in front of him on the desk. She stands back a bit, giving him space, but more to give herself some space from him.
"Do you know this woman?" She points to the middle photo. "Allison Tisdale, daughter of a muggle business man uptown." He just shakes his head. "Or this man?" She waves her wand and the photo changes to a picture of another crime scene.
"No, I don't know either of them." His eyes dance to the other photos.
"Both of these people were murdered. I didn't put it together until I saw this crime scene but," She pauses as she waves her wand and a photo falls in front of him.
"Flowers for Your Grave." He mutters, sitting back a bit.
"Yes, and the other crime scene depicts a scene from Hell Hath No Fury." She says, as she lets the photo change. She feels on a roll now, and she sits back in front of him to get a closer look at this reactions.
"Someone's a fan." He says, eyes still dancing between pictures.
"Yes, we believe someone is copying the murders from your books."
"No, I mean you." He looks up at her, blue eyes so close to hers she has to control how fast she jumps back from him. "Hell Hath No Fury? Come on, only the big Castle fans read that one." The smile on his face is so smug she just glares at him and decides to brush it off.
"Where were you last night between twelve pm and three am?" She doesn't break eye contact no matter how bright his eyes get. He sits back and contorts his face up in thought.
"Home, writing, or..." He gives her a sheepish smile, "pretending to write. Didn't go to bed till almost five am. My mother got in at two, you can ask her."
"This murderer is quite likely a fan of yours. Do you ever get fan mail?" She waves her wand and the files and photos organize themselves in front of her.
"You wouldn't believe how many owl snacks I give out on a day to day basis, and the state of my window ledge is horrible. And before you ask, yes, I keep it all." She just glares at him some more.
"We're going to have to look through it, see if anything is disturbing or stands out."
"All my fan mail is disturbing, it's an occupational hazard." He looks up at her as she walks to the door and knocks on it. A few short moments later it opens and the man on the other side hands her a wand and a piece of paper. She reads it as she walks back over to the desk. She looks at the wand in her hand, a delicate dark cherry wood, warn but well taken care of. Incredibly simplistic, something she hadn't expected to come with the wild reputation of Richard Castle. He catches her staring at it.
"Yes I know, simple, why don't I just go out and buy a new one with the buckets of money I have." He says it sarcastically like he's heard it a thousand times.
"I wasn't going to say that. Tests came back, shows you haven't even cast a spell in the last sixteen hours." She looks up at him a little taken aback by what she's read. He just shrugs his shoulders.
"You'd be amazed at what you can do without a wand Ms. Beckett. Or can I call you Kate?" He stands with a grin on his face.
"It's Beckett." She says firmly as she hands over his wand. He takes it and swiftly places it back in his jacket pocket. "We'll send someone over soon to pick up your mail." He nods at her as she opens the door for him to leave.
"It's been nice meeting you Beckett." He says, and makes his way out the door and across the floor of the bull pen. She watches him all the way to the elevator that is rarely used. He pushes the button and waits patiently for it to arrive. She looks away to put a file in a slot on the wall and when she looks back up, he's staring at her from across the room and doesn't look away until the elevator door shuts in front of him.
"Odd guy." Ryan comes up beside her and makes her jump. She hates it when they get the best of her like that. She turns to him.
"The guys barely a wizard at all." Espo adds as he exits the observation room with a coffee cup floating in front of him. Beckett just looks at him.
"Ya well Espo, not everybody uses magic for every little thing they do."