'Tough break, Castle. Not much beats a full house, except of course, my pretty little quartet of nines.'
'Yeah, yeah.' Castle grumbled, drained his drink. Had he known what a card-shark Meredeth Coleman was he'd have planned a different night to have the gang meet her, instead of having his hyper-toned gambling skills openly mocked by the newcomer. 'Just you wait, you're going down.'
'I'm sorry, I can't hear your over the sound of all those twenties flying out of your wallet into my purse. Maybe I'll buy you some private poker lessons.' Meredeth bared her teeth in a fierce grin.
Esposito grinned broadly, couldn't help himself; leaned over and gave Meredeth a noisy, smacking kiss on her cheek that made her eyes squint shut in delighted glee. His girlfriend was just too cool for words. 'Or maybe you can buy me something pretty I can wear to the station and rub in his face.'
'I knew you were sizing up that tie we saw at Ralph Lauren the other day,' Meredeth finished on a yawn. She was thoroughly enjoying herself, but she was exhausted. 'Castle, do you mind if I go pass out on your couch?'
'Why don't you go take the guest room? Upstairs, across from the bathroom.'
'Thanks. I just need like twenty minutes to lie down.'
An hour later, as Esposito had suspected, Meredeth hadn't reappeared. He couldn't blame her though, she'd had an action packed week of work, followed by the amazing sex they'd had on her kitchen floor - damn if that wasn't hot, he mused - followed by meeting his friends and co-workers. Even the most skilled social butterfly would want to cry for mercy after a week like that. Downstairs, however, the card game was still going strong, with Beckett well in the lead while Ryan was barely hanging on to his buy-in. Esposito sipped his cold beer, studied his hand. He had a good shot at winning this round, maybe taking a chunk out of Beckett's earnings, use it to take Meredeth to see a show at the theatre. He couldn't stand all the singing-and-dancing, but it was worth it to see how her face lit up.
So long as he could keep Castle from beating him to it.
'I'll see your ten, raise you another ten,' he said in his best old-west saloon voice, making Beckett shake her head at them.
'I'll see your ten, raise you another ten,' Esposito echoed.
'Dangerous to play with money. I'll see your ten, and raise you one question about Mere.'
Esposito's eyes frosted over. 'Oh, now that's playing dirty. I'm not discussing my private life like some gossipy teenager.'
'What gossip? You weren't even the one who told us you were seeing someone! We found out from Lanie!'
'Can you blame him?' Beckett jumped in, tossing in her cards as she could see where this was headed. 'If he wants to keep his thoughts to himself even after he poked his nose into everyone's business, that's his slightly selfish prerogative.'
Esposito shifted uncomfortably. Beckett had a rather uncanny way of sounding like a guilt-tripping mother when she wanted to find out info just as much as Castle. 'Fine. I call your one question.' He threw down the cards on the table, leaving Castle groaning in frustration - his miserable pair of red twos were no where near Esposito's flush of clubs. 'Fine. Looks like you get my money and you keep your dirty little secrets to yourself. I'm curious to know what kind of lucky sign you have to be born under in order to blow off Rachel Shepard and pick up Meredeth Coleman in the same night, though.'
'Well, thanks to your generous betting tonight, I'm-'
'DAD!'
Esposito heard the urgency underlined with ripe panic in Alexis' voice as she shouted down the stairs, and knew in an instant what the situation was. Before Castle had even left the table, Esposito bolted up from his chair, nearly tipping it over as he all but flew up the stairs to the guest room, knowing what he'd find there. Sure enough, he saw Meredeth lying on her back, talking in her sleep in that same panicked child-like voice the first time he'd seen it happen.
'What happened?' Castle demanded of his daughter, who stood beside the bed gulping for air, her porcelain face nearly grey with worry.
'We were watching a film, and she fell asleep, and then all of a sudden she started crying and kicking. I- I didn't know what to do.'
'I don't know. Esposito-' Castle turned to ask his friend what to do, but Esposito had already sat on the edge of the bed beside her, grabbed her shoulders and shook firmly, oblivious to the crowd that had gathered.
'Mere, wake up now.'
'No. Get them off.'
'Mere-'
'No!' The words ripped from her throat as she sat upright, gasping for air, fingers brushing at her arms and legs.
Esposito caught her face in his hands, tried to get her to focus. 'Mere, it's alright. It's alright, there's nothing there.'
'Javi?'
'Shh, it's okay, baby, I'm here.' Esposito gathered her close, felt her heart racing as Alexis looked on in abject worry. 'It's alright Lex. Can you grab me some water for her?'
Alexis dashed out to the kitchen, past Castle, Beckett and Lanie who stood crowded by the door as they watched, worried, as Esposito soothed his girlfriend. The only sound for a long time was Meredeth's uneven breathing and Esposito's shushing. Finally, Meredeth spoke quietly. 'I think I just scarred my number one fan for life.'
'Lex is tougher than she looks. Was it a bad one?'
'No, just sudden. I didn't even realize I'd fallen asleep.' She looked up, her cheeks turning tomato red as she saw the others hovering by the doorway, staring at her in concern. 'I'm sorry I interrupted your game.'
'Nonsense.' Castle's voice was low, to disguise the shake in it. 'Are you okay, should I call somone?'
'No, really I'm fine. I have night terrors,' she replied, explaining the story of Colby and Baby to the trio. The looks of pity on their faces made her feel even more like a circus freak. 'They're not as frequent anymore, but when they hit, they hit hard. Thank you, Alexis,' she added, as the girl returned with a pitcher of ice water and glass. 'I feel so embarrassed.'
'Don't apologize, it's not your fault.' Esposito pulled her close, kissed the top of her head as she rested it against his shoulder. 'You want me to stay with you for a few minutes?'
'Please.'
Without saying a word Esposito helped her settle back on the bed, stretched himself out beside her, keeping her close while the rest of the party went downstairs, looked around at each other with numb disbelief as they sat around the poker table. No one would dare tease him now about cuddling with his girlfriend, not after hearing that her sleep problems made Ryan's insomnia look like a trip to Candyland.
'Well,' Beckett said after a long pause, 'I think it's safe to say you'll get to plan another wedding, Castle.'
'They've barely been together a month.'
Beckett shook her head. The look she'd seen on Esposito's face when he'd begun to soothe his distraught girlfriend, holding her so close and tenderly, wasn't a man infatuated, but a man who'd taken the head-first unavoidable fall into the love of his life. 'Just trust me.'
R&R&Enjoy.
