The Stakeouts

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: If I owned Castle they'd have been together since Season Three, right? Rating: K Time: AU, between Season Two and Three.

Castle got off the elevator with two cups of coffee in his hands. He looked down the bullpen, but there was no one at Kate's desk. Perfect. He thought. I can be in place by the time she gets back.

Someone grabbed his arm. "What are you doing here?" Esposito growled in his ear.

"I just want to see Beckett. Something's wrong."

"Yeah, something's wrong and you're the something. Back on the elevator. This is a police station, you have no business being here." Esposito started moving Rick back towards the elevator.

"Espo, what's wrong with her? She won't talk to me. I've got to find out what's wrong."

Esposito stopped, and quickly looked round. "You used to be a friend, and you did some things for me, so I owe you. I don't know what's wrong with Beckett, but she's been miserable for weeks. I don't know what you did to her, but you hurt her badly. Real badly. She told all of us that you're not allowed in here to see her or anyone else. And Captain Montgomery backed her up. The welcome mat is no longer out for you." Espo gripped Rick's arm more tightly. "Now, I said I owe you, but I owe Beckett a lot more. So, you can get on the elevator by yourself, or I'll put you on it. And that will involve pain."

Rick handed Espo the two coffee cups. "Okay, I'm out of here. No reason for two cups of coffee to suffer for me, though. Give them to someone." As the elevator door closed, he saw a familiar flash of brown hair through the closed blinds of Montgomery's office. What was wrong with her?

Rick pushed the elevator button to go to the morgue. Maybe Lanie would help him.

"What are you doing here, you bastard?" Lanie snarled as he walked in the morgue.

"I want to talk about Kate. Something happened, she broke up with me and I don't know why. You're her best friend, so you must know. What happened?"

"What happened?" Lanie was looking angrier by the second. "You don't know? Well, isn't that just like a man? You broke that poor girl's heart and then you stomped on the pieces. Do you know that I've caught her coming out of the ladies room twice with her eyes all red from crying? Crying! Kate Beckett does not cry, but you managed to make her so miserable I don't think she does anything else when people aren't looking. Now get out of here."

"Lanie, I don't know what happened. Look, I'll do anything for Kate. I'll do anything to get her back, but I don't know what I did. Help me here. What did I do wrong?"

Lanie's eyes narrowed. "She's too proud and too stubborn to tell anyone what you did. I just know how my best friend feels." Lanie picked up a scalpel from a morgue table. "Now get out of here before I do something I might not regret."

Castle found himself out on the sidewalk in front of the 12th Precinct. Okay, I can do this. I've been trained by the best cop on the planet. I've got a mystery, I know who the players are, and I know how to investigate. I have to stakeout the suspect's place of employment.

Castle found a place by the window at a nearby coffee shop and ordered a coffee. Be began watching the precinct. By the fourth cup of coffee, his bladder was about to explode. Suppose she came out while he was in the men's room? He managed to hold it for another five minutes and then had to run for the toilet. When he came back, someone had taken his table. He ordered another cup of coffee and looked for somewhere to sit where he could keep an eye on the 12th Precinct. In the end, he stood, getting some odd looks since there were plenty of empty table in the back.

Lunchtime came and went with no sign of Kate. But the manager of the coffee shop approached Rick. "Sir, you've been here a long time. Some of my customers and the girls who work here are kind of worried about you. Would you mind leaving?"

"This is a coffee shop, right?"

"Yes, sir."

"And I've been drinking coffee here, right?"

"Yes, sir, but…"

Rick took out his wallet and held up a hundred dollar bill. "And if I gave you one of these, and another one for each of the young ladies, would everyone feel better?"

The man looked at the bill. He was tempted, Rick could tell.

"Look, I'm not an Arab terrorist, or a robber casing someplace. I've got a problem with my girlfriend and I want to see her, but she won't see me. So I just want to wait here until she walks by. Okay?"

"A hundred bucks for each of us? Three hundred?"

Rick smiled and handed the man his three hundred. "Now be sure to give the girls their share."

The manager walked back behind the counter and called the two girls over. He whispered to them and handed them a bill apiece. The two girls looked over at Rick and smiled. Rick smiled back.

By a quarter to five, Rick was convinced that either Kate hadn't left the precinct, or he had missed her. Luckily, he had other options. He got up and headed for the door. One of the waitresses intercepted him. "Have a good day, sir. Come back any time. And I hope your girlfriend takes you back. But if she doesn't, my name's Nanci. Nanci with an I." She gave Rick a big smile.

Rick smiled back. "Nanci with an I, I have a daughter who's not too much younger than you. Thanks anyway, though."

Rick headed for the subway station and bought a ticket. He leaned against the wall from where he could observe anyone coming in and waited. And waited and waited and waited. Finally he saw a familiar figure walking towards the subway trains. Rick fell in behind him.

"Castle, why are you following me?"

"Very good, Ryan. You picked me up that easily?" Rick moved up to walk beside Ryan.

"I'm a cop. Remember? What do you want? As if I didn't know."

"Look, something happened with Beckett. She won't see me and all she'll say is that she decided to break up with me. She said we're from two different worlds. I've talked to both Espo and Lanie and they both say she's been miserable. Do you know what happened? What did I do wrong? Or not do? What happened?"

Ryan pulled Rick behind a pillar. "Look, I shouldn't be talking to you. But, as it happens, I don't know anything. I have no idea why Beckett is so unhappy, but it obviously has something to do with you. And before you ask, I'm not going to help you get into the station, or talk to Beckett, or anything else."

"Ryan, can't you help at all? I'm desperate. I'll do anything to get Kate back. Kevin, you know me. I'd never intentionally hurt Kate. Whatever I did, it was a mistake. But I don't know what I did. Help me here."

Ryan looked around him, as if expecting Kate Beckett to appear magically and smite him for talking to Castle. "One thing, it's not just that she's miserable. She's screwing up on the job, too. Last week she asked Espo to get the phones and financials for one of our vics. The next day she asked me where they were. I said I didn't have them and she blew up at me, she was screaming. Espo spoke up and said she'd told him to get them and that he had them. She grabbed them out of his hand and went back to her desk. I asked her what was wrong and she said she'd made a mistake. And she was nasty about it. "I made a mistake, Ryan. People make mistakes. Didn't you ever make a mistake?"

"And that isn't all. She screwed up an interrogation. She completely lost the thread of the case. She could have cost us a conviction if Espo and I hadn't taken over. When it was over she just mumbled, "Sorry." And pushed right past us. She just hasn't been Beckett for the last couple of weeks."

"How was she when she came back from her trip on the Fourth of July? Was she upset then?"

Ryan thought for a minute. "No, she was fine for two or three days after that. More than fine. She was happy and smiling."

Rick nodded. "Okay. Thanks. You've been a help."

"No, I haven't. I haven't helped you at all because I never saw you and never talked to you." Ryan hurried away.

Rick walked back to the street from the subway. He now knew one thing. Whatever had happened, it hadn't happened at the Hamptons, but he was no closer to finding out what had happened.

As he stood there, he had a thought. Lanie could help him! She knew how close they were. She had seen them in the Hamptons. Sure, she was mad, but if he could talk to her, she'd help. Rick knew she would help. He realized he didn't know where Lanie lived. He looked at his phone. He had her number, but no address. He checked his notebook. He had everything in there but Lanie's address. He smiled to himself. Lanie loved jazz. She went to a club called…Called what? Pete's Pit! That was it. And it'd harder for Lanie to cause a scene in public. He'd find the Pit and talk to her there.

A quick check of Google and Rick was in a cab headed for the Pit. He was in luck. Lanie was sitting by the piano player, singing along.

"Hi, Lanie." He said, sitting down beside her.

She turned around and threw her drink in his face. "Jerry, can't a lady come in here without getting groped by some slimeball?"

"I didn't do a thing…" He began to explain. A pair of very large hands grabbed him and half dragged and half carried him to the door. A very, very large bouncer deposited him outside. "Dr. Parish is a valued customer and a friend. You don't come back here, ever. Understand?"

"Look, I just…"

The bouncer's fist slammed into Rick's stomach. "Wrong answer. Understand now?"

"Got it." Rick wheezed, all bent over.

Rick had one more person to check out. He staked out a certain donut shop. He waited, and then, success.

"How's things, LT." He said to the cop, holding out a large coffee and a tray of assorted donuts.

"No, no, and no, Castle."

"What?"

"No, you can't bribe me with donuts. No, I have no idea why Beckett has been so miserable lately. And no, I won't help you get in touch with her. I have no desire to make enemies. So long, Castle." He turned away.

"Hey, at least take the coffee and donuts." Castle put them down on a table and left.

LT waited until he saw Castle get in a cab before he took his first sip of coffee and bit into the first donut.

He had just gotten back to his loft when his phone rang. "Hello?"

"Rick. How are you?"

"Fine, Bob. I hope you have some good news for me. Today has been bad." He rubbed his still sore stomach.

"Sorry. I really can't help you. Nothing I can do."

"What do you mean? You're the mayor. Of course you can do something."

"I talked to Roy Montgomery over at the 12th. He said that Beckett does not want you around. If you come around, she'll charge you with harassment. She also said that if I interfere in this, she'll file a harassment suit against the city naming me as a co-defendant. She'll also file a grievance with the police union. A hostile workplace complaint. Look, Rick, I'd like to help you, but your problem isn't with a cop, it's with a woman. I can't help your love life, Rick. Sorry."

"Thanks for trying anyway, Bob. It means a lot. See you."

Castle thought briefly about talking to Roy Montgomery. He quickly discarded that idea. Both Esposito and Bob Weldon had indicated that Montgomery supported Kate in this. He knew Montgomery well enough to know that he would side totally with his best detective and not Rick.

Castle spent another long night wishing Kate was next to him.