The Breakup

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: As Yoda always told me, "Own Castle you do not." Rating: K+ Time: Still AU between Season Two and Three.

Castle stood just inside his front door, scanning for an approaching car. Three weekends had passed since Kate had come up for a week on the Fourth of July. Each time she had called him at the last minute and told him that she had to work. Each time she had sounded more unhappy and depressed. But at last she was on her way.

Down the road he spotted the flash of sunlight off of a car's windshield. As it got closer he saw that it was a black stretch limo. Since stretch limos were more common in the Hamptons than elsewhere, he held his breath. Then he saw the limo turn towards his house. "Yes!" He cried happily. "She's here at last."

He walked outside as the limo stopped. Kate got out of the back and stood by the door with her arms folded over her chest and with a dour look on her face.

Rick walked up to her, sensing something was wrong. "Honey, is there a problem?"

She nodded. "I'm not coming up here."

"Do you have to work again?"

She shook her head. "No, I mean I'm not coming back to the Hamptons. Ever. I'm breaking up with you."

"What? Why? What…what happened?"

She shook her head again. "Nothing happened. I just came to my senses. We're two entirely different people from two entirely different worlds. This is never going to work. I want to end it before one of us gets too badly hurt. Goodbye, Castle."

"You're a little late. Someone already did get hurt, Kate. Me. What do you mean, we live in two different worlds? We've gotten along just fine in each other's worlds. We solve murders together, Kate. You told me over the Fourth that you'd never been happier. What did I do wrong? Tell me."

"We do not solve murders together. That's over. You will no longer shadow me at the 12th Precinct. You will not see me anymore. We are over Castle. Over. Do you understand that?"

"No, not one bit. Kate please tell me what went wrong? What can I do?"

"Castle, I am not going to stand here and argue with you about a decision that I made and that is mine alone to make. Goodbye!"

Kate got in the car and it pulled away from Castle. He ran after it, but it soon outdistanced him. He reached for his phone and called Kate. The phone rang twice and then stopped. He called again, with the same result. The third time his call went straight to voicemail. She had turned the phone off.

Castle walked back into his house. What could he possibly have done to cause this? He thought back over every conversation he'd had with Kate. He couldn't think of a single thing that he'd done or said that would cause her to break up with him. She had been happy the last time they were together. He was sure of it. He had certainly been happy. Happier than he'd been in years.

Was it something she'd found in the house? Something from an old girlfriend? A photo? Anything? He started in his office. He read through everything in his computer. Federal Heat was almost done but he couldn't find anything that should upset Kate. Nikki Heat was smart, courageous, dedicated, and kind, as always. And hot. Kate had never said a word indicating something was wrong with Nikki. He went over Rook's dialogue. Sure, he flirted with Nikki, but it was obvious that Rook was after a lot more than sex, just like Rick was.

Rick went through the rest of the items in his computer. He had story lines, scraps of dialogue, the results of research, poems, jokes and a million other things a writer would pick up on and put on his hard drive. He looked at the photos on the hard drive. Mostly they were of him, Alexis and Martha. There were a lot of Kate, considering how short their relationship was, and only a few of Meredith and Gina. There were various photos of people he knew, but nothing that should upset Kate.

He searched through his desk. Nothing. He checked the bookcases. Just books. Nothing there that could possibly have upset Kate.

He gave up on his office and went to their bedroom. Yes, he thought, this is our bedroom and always will be. He pulled the covers off of the bed. Nothing. He looked under the bed, and checked both nightstands. Nothing. He checked the closet from top to bottom. He checked the bathroom. He found then same thing. Nothing.

He moved through the house and still found nothing that would explain Kate's sudden change of heart. He looked through his car and searched the garage and the grounds. There was nothing.

Hours had passed and he had found nothing. He called Kate again. She terminated the call without answering.

"The answer isn't here. I'm going to have to go back to the city." He packed a few things, grabbed his laptop and headed for New York.

"Richard! What are you doing home so soon? Is the book done?" Martha asked as he walked into the loft.

"The book isn't important now. Is Alexis here? Alexis? Are you here?" He called out.

"What is it, Dad?" She called back from her room.

"Could you come down here please?"

Alexis stood at the top of the stairs. "Is there a problem?"

"Yes." He said and explained about the sudden and inexplicable breakup with Kate. "Did either of you say anything to Kate that might have upset her? Upset her badly enough to think she didn't belong with me? With us?"

Both redheads shook their heads. "No. Nothing, Dad."

"I can't think of a thing, Richard. I think the world of Kate as does Alexis. And you, of course."

Rock shook his head in frustration. "Can you think of anything that could explain this? Did she get a phone call that upset her? Did anyone drop by? Anything?"

But neither one had any idea what had caused Kate's sudden change of mind.

"Kiddo, perhaps it just wasn't meant to be. Maybe you should just move on."

Rick shook his head determinedly. "No. Something went wrong. She was happy with me. She was just as happy with me as I was with her. She told me she was happy. She was happy! She couldn't have been faking that. I can be fooled, but she couldn't fool me that badly."

Rick thought for a minute. "Okay, I'll be in my office, working the phone. Don't disturb me for anything less than the zombie apocalypse, or Kate dropping by."

He sat at his desk and pulled put his phone and dialed. "Paula! How's my favorite agent?"

Paula laughed. "Still your only agent, so obviously I'm your favorite. Is the Nikki Heat book done?"

"Just about. Look, I need some information. Did you or anyone there call my house in the Hamptons, and particularly, did anyone talk to Kate Beckett?"

"I certainly didn't call you and I have no idea what Beckett's phone number is. Why?"

Rick ignored her question. "Could you ask the other people there if they called?"

"Rick, no one calls me but you. You know that."

"Paula, just ask. Please?"

Rick waited for several minutes until Paula came back on. "Like I said, Rick, no one called you or her. What's this all about? And when can you bring the draft of the book in?"

"Soon." Rick said as he hung up.

The next two calls were going to be harder. He mentally flipped a coin.

"Gina! This is Rick. Do you have a minute?"

"No longer than that." She said coldly. "Is the book done?"

"Almost there. Say, did you or anyone at Black Pawn call me, or call Kate Beckett?"

"I didn't call you and I sure as hell wouldn't call that woman. Why?"

"Could you ask around the office to see if anyone called?"

"I could but I won't. I talk to you about your book and nothing else. When is the manuscript going to be here? Tell me now."

"I'm working on it. Look, I really need to know if anyone called Beckett."

"Then ask her and don't bother me." Gina hung up.

Rick stared at his phone. "I don't know if she'd be happy to tell me if she did do something to screw Kate and me up, or if she'd keep quiet and laugh at me in secret." He muttered to himself.

Rick called up Meredith next.

"Helloooo." She slurred.

"Oh Christ!" Rick said under his breath. "Meredith are you okay?"

"Kitten! It's you? It is you, isn't it? It must be you. Who else would be Kitten?" Meredith began giggling.

"Meredith, did you call me or call Kate Beckett?"

"Of course I did, Kitten. We're talking aren't we?"

"No, I called you. Did you call me?"

There was a long pause. "I didn't call you?"

"No."

"Oh, sorry." And Meredith hung up.

"Meredith!" Rick yelled into the phone. He dialed the number again.

"Yo!" Said a male voice.

"Is Meredith there? This is Rick Castle, her ex-husband."

"Yeah, man. Meredith is right here, but she's, uh, you know, really wasted."

"I need to know if she called me in the last couple of weeks, or if she called a woman named Kate Beckett. Can you put her on?"

"Uh, she's kinda busy now. At least her mouth is. Hey, Pauly, did Meredith call her ex or anyone?"

"How would I know?" A male voice said in the background. "Get lost, man."

"Um, dude, we've been in Baja for almost a month. No phone service on the Sea of Cortez, man. We just got in range of San Diego about an hour ago. I can't be real sure, but I can't see how anyone of us could have called the US or anywhere else."

"Can you ask anyone?"

"Hey, man. Are you Rick Castle, the writer? Man, I've got a script you just have to read. Let me get it and I'll read it to you."

Castle could hear Meredith moaning. He hung up.

He dialed again.

"Mayor Weldon's office. How may I direct your call?" Said the cheery voice on the other end.

"Hi. This is Rick Castle. Is Bob there?"

"He just did walk out of his office, Mr. Castle. Just one moment."

After a slight delay. "Rick! What can I do for you? How's it going?"

"Bob, I need some help." Castle explains the breakup with Kate to the mayor as quickly as he can. "Look, I just need to talk to Kate. She won't take my calls and even if she did, she won't open up to me. Can you do something?"

Weldon didn't speak for a few seconds. "I'm not sure what I can do, but I'll give Roy Montgomery a call tomorrow and see if I can find out anything. Oh, say. Are you in for poker on Tuesday?"

"No, Bob. You'd better count me out. Talk to you soon. Bye."

Castle tried Beckett's number again and again it went straight to voice mail. He put down his phone and started to search through his office to see if there was anything he could find that could possibly explain Kate's change of heart. Hours later he finished looking through the loft.

"Richard, I do not know why you thought you'd find some mysterious piece of evidence in my room or in Alexis's to explain Kate's actions. Do you think we've been replaced by killer robots planning to sabotage the NYPD's murder investigations?"

Rick smiled at Martha. "That's as good an explanation as anything I've come up with. Kate was happy with me. She was coming out of her shell. She talked to me about…things. And then all of a sudden, everything changed. I can't figure out why. I've gone over everything I said or did and it makes no sense."

"Dad, it's late. You should go to bed and get some sleep. You'll feel better in the morning and maybe something will come to you. Go to bed."

Rick headed off to his bed, but he couldn't sleep. He had missed having Kate beside him before, but this was worse, far worse. No Kate to share his bed, forever? No, not no Kate to share his bed, no Kate to share his life. Kate was the one. She was his one and done. Be had to get her back, but how?

"You look terrible, Kiddo." Martha said as Rick came out of his bedroom the next morning. "Have some coffee, it might make you look like you were still alive. Did you sleep at all?"

Rick shook his head as he poured himself a cup of coffee. "Damned little. And when I did get to sleep, I'd wake up again. I'd feel for Kate next to me and when she wasn't there, I'd wake up. "

"You've got it bad, don't you?" Martha asked, sympathetically.

"You don't know the half of it." Rick pulled a small bowl of fruit and some orange juice out of the refrigerator and sat down to eat.

"Do you want me to make you a real breakfast?"

"Are you suggesting that suicide is my only way out of this?"

"Perhaps I should just leave you to your thoughts."

"Hi, Dad." Alexis said, heading for the door. "How was it?"

"Terrible, and thanks for asking."

"What are you going to do now?" Alexis said, opening the front door.

"I'm going to go to the precinct as soon as I get dressed. Someone has to know something there."

"Okay, bye. Good luck."