Chapter two

The last five minutes had been torture for Castle. Beckett still hadn't said a word, which only made him more anxious. Clearly she was moments away from ripping into him, and the waiting was getting to him.

It wasn't any easier for Kate, who was still trying to figure out exactly what to say to him. She should be mad. He locked them in a panic room after kinda-sorta breaking her heart. That was the kind of thing that made people mad, right? But when she saw him holding up his hands trying to convince her not to hurt him she just didn't know what to say to him. In all honesty, even back at the precinct she wasn't sure what she was actually going to say. Now? No idea, and she still couldn't stop herself from shooting glances his way.

With a frustrated sigh Kate threw herself down on the couch. If he wanted to talk to her he would.

Castle was, in all honesty, a little baffled by her behavior. The only time he'd been this confused about the way she was acting was the couple of days where she would suddenly find a reason to leave the room every time they both talked to Lanie. At one point, he was sure he saw her practically run out of the breakroom, where she had been talking to Lanie, as he walked in.

After spending the last few minutes waiting for Kate to tear him a new one, the lack of response was unexpected, to say the least. He wasn't about to sit down on the couch with her, just in case she was gearing up to something, so he stayed near the door, out of arms reach, attempting to look casual while leaning against the wall. Unfortunately, attempting to look casual does not actually guarantee you a casual mindset. So, when the phone started buzzing again, there was nothing he could do to hide the fact that he nearly jumped out of his skin. He tried to cover it by acting like he was rushing to answer the phone, and made a point of not looking in Kate's direction to see if he'd been caught out.

"Castle."

"Hey… listen, I have some bad news. Do you wanna put Beckett on the phone or do you want to tell her yourself?" Esposito sounded a little scared. That was enough to worry Castle.

"Definitely the former, hold on a minute." There was no way Castle was giving her the news. There's 'shoot the messenger' but more importantly there's 'shoot the messenger-who's-also-the-guy-who-got-you-locked-in-here'. As Kate loved to point out, she had a gun. Not gonna happen.

Castle held out the phone to Kate. "It's Esposito again."

Kate got up from the couch and took the phone warily, not keen on the look on Castle's face.

"You have an update?" She knew he'd be able to pick up on the frustration in her voice, but she just didn't have it in her to stop it coloring her voice.

"Yeah but you're not gonna like it." Kate could practically hear the grimace on Esposito's face.

"Just tell me." She was pretty sure today couldn't get any worse.

"Ok… so the engineer took a look at the door. Since he installed the room, we thought he would be able to override the lockdown somehow…"

Kate rolled her eyes. "I'm guessing you thought wrong."

"Yeah…" He was clearly hesitant to break whatever news he had.

"Esposito…" Kate almost growled his name in annoyance. "Get to the point."

"He needs to drill into the door to get the lock to release. It's gonna take… a while."

"How long is a while?" This was like pulling teeth, and Kate was losing what little patience she had left.

"He thinks maybe 5 hours." He said it fast so it came out a little garbled, like he was hoping she wouldn't catch it and would somehow let it drop without clarification.

"FIVE HOURS?" Beckett almost dropped the phone. Five hours trapped in a room with Castle? Okay, so the day could get worse.

"Uh… yeah, hopefully no more…"

"That's the conservative estimate?" Kate was seconds away from banging her head against the metal door. Repeatedly.

"Beckett, these rooms are supposed to be hard to get into. It's kind of the point. Anyway there's more."

"Great." What the hell was wrong with her life?

"We have to turn off the power so he can drill. That means no air con, no lights…" Esposito trailed off and waited for her reaction.

"Are you serious, or is this a really bad joke?" Kate was praying for a bad joke.

"It's the only way we can get the door open without the code."

Kate struggled to think of something to say to make it seem like she wasn't freaking out. Esposito did NOT need to know how much she was freaking out. In a tone she hoped sounded all business she asked, "Do we need to worry about air?"

"No, you guys should be fine, but it might get a little toasty without the air con. There's one last thing. With no power this phone's gonna stop working." From the tone of his voice it was clear that he wasn't enjoying his roll as the bearer of bad tidings. Kate was pretty sure he must have lost a bet with either Ryan or Lanie - or even both of them. Although, Lanie would probably be enjoying the idea of Kate and Castle locked in a glorified cupboard, particularly after how things went earlier in the day. After a few drinks she had once actually threatened to lock the two of them in a closet, claiming she'd had enough of listening to Kate complaining about Castle for what she said felt like a decade. For the next couple of days Kate had actually shied away from standing near any lockable cupboard, closet, or unoccupied room when in the presence of both Lanie and Castle. Where Lanie is concerned it was always better to be safe than sorry, which was actually true for Castle too, now she thought about it. God only knows what would happen if the two joined forces.

"Do you have your cell?" Esposito asked, snapping her out of her thoughts once again.

Kate grabbed her phone out of her pocket. "Yeah, but the battery's almost dead. I didn't get chance to charge it." She mentally berated herself for getting so distracted. Kate turned to Castle, who she had been studiously avoiding looking at during the conversation, and spoke her first words to him since arriving at the scene. "Do you have your cell?"

"No." Castle really should have realized that a one-word answer from him was a red flag.

"No? You always have your cell, you're unhealthy attached to it." The frustration of the situation was definitely creeping into her voice again, but there was nothing she could do about it.

He muttered something Kate didn't catch, and when she raised her eyebrow he cringed and repeated a little louder "Gina confiscated it."

Castle was pretty sure her eyebrow shouldn't be able to get as high as it did when she heard that. He was a little surprised when Kate just repeated that he didn't have his cell to Esposito.

For her part Kate just couldn't face saying the other woman's name. Esposito said he would text her updates to try and conserve her battery and that the power would be going out in the next few minutes.

After the phone disconnected Kate took a couple of seconds to compose herself before replacing the handset and turning back to Castle, who was doing his best to look apologetic. When she didn't say anything Castle figured, against his better judgment, it was up to him to break the ice.

"Soooo.. five hours, huh?"

If looks could kill Castle would really have something to worry about. Then again, she still had her gun.