During a break at work she slipped into an interview room with her phone, aware of what she had to do. Her heart beat a little faster than it should've, a strange kind of foreboding. She'd cancelled dates before. She'd cancelled dates with Josh before. So why was her hand shaking, although ever so slightly, as she dialed?

"Kate," he answered. She could hear the smile in his voice, which made her feel worse about what she was about to do. She'd expected his voicemail, and she wasn't sure if she was glad he'd answered or not.

"Hey, Josh. Aren't you at work?"

"Yeah, I'm in my office. Got a little bit of a break."

She nodded, although she was aware that he couldn't see her. "Same kind of thing here."

"Nice. Is that why you called?"

She sighed. "No. It's about tonight."

"Come on, Kate, you're not gonna cancel on me again, are you?"

"Sorry, Josh. It's been a long week, and I'm not really up for going out."

"Well, we don't have to go out. I'll come to your place. I just want to see you."

Josh was being sweet, but it was making this so much harder. "I'm sorry," she said again. "Something came up."

"Work?"

She paused, trying to come up with a good enough answer, but he spoke again before she could.

"Something or someone?"

She floundered. This was really not going according to plan. "Can we do this later?" she finally asked.

"When is later?"

"I don't know, tomorrow maybe."

"You're not going to cancel on me again?"

"Come on, Josh. Of course not."

"I don't know if I believe you. And if I'm never going to get to see you, I don't know if I see the point of what we're doing here."

"Josh, come on," she pleaded. "We're both at work. Let's not do this now."

"We're both always at work. And when we're not, you're talking about it. And about him. I'm not stupid, Kate. I went to med school. I've seen your face when you're talking about him. And I'd be an idiot if I tried to ignore it any longer."

"Ignore what?" she demanded, but she knew.

"I'm not even going to glorify that with an answer. You are a brilliant woman, and you know what I'm talking about. I'm sorry Kate, I love spending time with you, it's been fun, but… I can't do this anymore. I can't keep lying to myself. And neither should you."

"Josh—"

"Goodbye, Kate."

"Josh!" But the line was dead. He'd actually hung up on her. Broken up with her over the phone, at work, and then hung up on her.

She blinked a few tears from her eyes. This wasn't the time or place. She took a deep breath, steeling herself, and went back to doing her job.

"Alexis, darling, will you answer the door?" Martha called from her spot on the couch. "I'm on the phone."

Alexis got up from the stool in the kitchen where she had been sitting with her laptop and went toward the door. "Any idea who it is?" she asked.

"Not the faintest," Martha replied.

"Great," Alexis muttered. "You're a big help."

She opened the door and found Beckett, smiling a little awkwardly. "Detective Beckett," she greeted her, confused. "Come in."

"Thanks," she said, entering the apartment.

"What are you doing here? I thought you had a case."

She nodded. "Yeah we did, but we got the guy. Ryan and Esposito are wrapping it up now. Just paperwork, technical stuff." She looked down and shuffled her feet a little. "How's your dad?"

"He's been better, but he'll live. He's sleeping now." Alexis looked at her grandmother for help, but she was still on the phone, apparently completely unconcerned even with finding out who was at the door. She rolled her eyes. "This makes me feel safe," she told the detective. "If you had been an axe murderer, she would have no idea."

Beckett smiled, the awkwardness lifting a little. "Important call?"

"Who knows?"

"Well, I promise you I'm not an axe murderer. I send the axe murderers to jail."

Alexis smiled. "Yeah." She started back toward the kitchen, where she'd been sitting before Beckett showed up. "Sit down," she offered. "Can I get you anything? Water? Coffee? Tea?"

"No, I'm good" she said, taking the stool next to where Alexis's laptop was. "Thanks." She hesitated, and decided to voice the question that was currently on her mind. "So, your grandma's on the phone, your dad's asleep… is Gina around?" She wasn't sure she should've asked, but she didn't especially want to run into anyone she wasn't expecting.

Alexis scoffed. "God, no. She's staying far away. Scared to death of getting sick."

Kate couldn't help but smile, both out of amusement that Gina felt this way, not that she was particularly surprised, and pleasure. "Understandable," she said simply.

"So… you're feeling better?" Alexis asked, sitting back down in the stool next to Beckett's.

"Oh yeah," she said, nodding. "I'm still not a hundred percent, but I'm getting there. Just tired now, mostly. It's good your dad's getting his rest. I think that was a lot of my problem. You get burned out doing what we do." She caught her mistake and blushed. "What I do."

Alexis nodded. "So… did you want to talk to my dad about something?"

"Honestly? I'm not sure why I came. I guess I just feel bad. It's my fault he got sick. I wanted to see if there was anything I could do to help."

"It's not your fault you got sick," Alexis said, fascinating herself with her computer screen, although not really looking at it. She turned to Beckett, gaining confidence. "And it's not your fault he went to your apartment last night. He's a little stubborn when he wants to be, I'm sure you've noticed that. You couldn't have stopped him."

"I could've sent him home, though. He asked me if I wanted him to leave. I told him no."

"Did he really just stay there writing all night while you slept?"

Beckett laughed. "Yeah. He told you that?"

"No," she nodded to the living room, "Gram did. Apparently he didn't want me to know."

"That's weird. I swear, that really is all that happened."

Alexis nodded. "I believe you. Them, maybe not, but you I believe."

Beckett smirked. "I'm glad you have so much trust in your family."

"You've met my family."

"Good point. But, I mean, really, can I do anything?"

"We're good," Alexis said. "Really."

"Okay. Then you can just tell him that he was a bigger help last night than I think he knows," she said, getting up to go.

Alexis stood up to walk Beckett to the door, and saw the tall figure of her father standing behind her. "I think he heard you," she said.

Beckett turned around quickly. "Castle," she said. "Hey. How're you doing?"

He tried to say something but his voice didn't come out.

She smiled. "I guess that's as good an answer as any. I'm sorry, this is my fault."

He started to say something again but realized it wasn't going to work, tried to clear his throat, and grimaced in pain.

"Get him tea or soup or something," Beckett told Alexis. "Something warm. It'll help, trust me."

"He doesn't really like tea, but the soup he had Gram pick up is in the fridge. Do you want that?" she asked her father.

He nodded, and Alexis got it.

"That's the same stuff you brought me," Beckett noted, recognizing the container.

Castle smiled.

"It's the best chicken soup in the city," Alexis said, putting the bowl in the microwave. "We always get it when someone's sick. He swears it has 'magical healing properties.'"

Castle nodded his agreement.

Beckett looked at him. "You know, I'm sorry you're sick, but I could really get used to this whole you not being able to talk thing." She turned to Alexis. "You have no idea how helpful this would be at crime scenes."

Alexis smiled. "Or when Ashley comes over. Plus it's actually convenient now. He can't complain."

Castle glowered at them, and finally held up a finger, telling them to wait a second. The microwave beeped as he walked away. "Your soup's done," Alexis called, but he was apparently on a mission and didn't even turn back to acknowledge her. He came back with a notepad and a pen, jotted something down and showed it to Alexis and Beckett.

"You mock me in my weakened state," it said. "I'm hurt."

"You'll get over it," Beckett said.

Alexis handed him the soup. "Here, eat it before it gets cold," she told him.

Castle took it and sat down on the stool where Beckett had been sitting, Alexis reassumed the seat in front of her laptop, and Beckett perched on the end of the only one that remained, on Castle's other side, feeling more than a little out of place.

It occurred to Beckett that Castle didn't ask her what she was doing there. Granted, he couldn't really talk, but he hadn't really even looked confused when he saw her. She knew he heard her saying how grateful she was for everything he'd done the night before, so he knew that was one of her reasons. She decided to pose the same question to him that she had to Alexis.

"Castle, this is probably the only time I'm ever going to ask you this, so you might as well enjoy it, but don't get used to it. Is there anything I can do for you?"

He nodded, but kept eating.

"What? Write it down."

After a couple more spoonfuls, he pushed away his soup and traded it for his notepad, writing something down. He showed it to her. It said "Stop feeling guilty. It's not your fault I'm sick."

She half-smiled, rolling her eyes. "Anything else?"

He shook his head and went back to eating the soup.

"Okay, I guess I'm gonna go then," she said, standing up. "If it works the same way for you that it did for me, you'll be feeling much better tomorrow, so I'll expect to see you at the precinct on Monday."

"Wait," he croaked as she turned to go.

She turned back toward him. "Hey, your voice is back," she noted. "See, the soup helps."

"I know it helps, I was the one who gave it to you in the first place, remember? How did the case work out?" He swallowed carefully. Talking still hurt, but at least he could do it.

"It was an easy one. Boring. Clear-cut, and we got a confession. You didn't miss anything." What she said wasn't exactly untrue, but she was downplaying it.

"Yes, okay, but sometimes the ones that seem boring are the ones that turn out the weirdest at what seems like the last minute."

"Castle, it was a straightforward case. They can't all be like something you'd write about."

"They all should be," he grumbled.

"Oh, come on. I thought you'd be happy you didn't miss anything exciting."

"He's not really happy about anything when he's sick," Alexis said.

"Well, as someone who had the same crappy thing twenty-four hours ago… yeah, I can understand that." She smirked, remembering something he'd told her the night before. "I thought you never got sick."

"Did he tell you that?" Alexis asked, rolling her eyes. "No. He just likes to think it."

"I don't normally get sick," he croaked, glaring at his daughter.

"I mean, it's not like you get sick a lot," Alexis amended, "but you're not a superhero. It happens."

He pouted. "You spoiled my secret."

"Trust me, Castle," Beckett said, "I know you're human."

"You just haven't discovered my superpowers yet," he tried to say as he raised his eyebrows suggestively, his voice breaking on the last word.

Alexis made a face, closed her laptop, and walked out of the kitchen.

Beckett rolled her eyes. "See what happens? You scared your daughter away."

"That was tame. She's heard far worse." There was just a little tone left under Castle's whisper.

"You need to give your voice a rest, it's getting bad again."

"You just want to make me be quiet."

"Well yes, that too." She smiled, trying to mask her concern but apparently not fully succeeding.

"Come on, Beckett." His face was cheerful enough, but the fact that he was practically whispering shattered the illusion of normalcy. "I thought you'd be on the same side as my mom, serves me right for staying at your place all night."

She shrugged, keeping the painted smile on her lips. It was weird. She knew Castle wasn't as fine as he was acting, but why was he acting at all? She'd expected him to be complaining and overdramatizing, not downplaying it. "How are you feeling?" she asked, changing the subject a little.

"Like crap on toast."

She made a face. "Why do people say that?"

He shrugged, swallowing. Apparently he wasn't anxious to talk much more or she knew he would've retorted. A silent minute later he frowned and wrote something on his notepad again.

She was a little taken aback when she read it. It was only two words, but not two she was expecting. It read, "You okay?"

"Me?" He was uncharacteristically pale and missing a voice, and he was asking her if she was okay?

He nodded, his face serious, the same concerned look in his eyes that she'd seen last night. How the hell did he do that? If he was feeling half as bad as she'd been the day before, how did he still manage to focus on her? She'd been so self-absorbed when he'd come over she doubted she'd have noticed if he'd been missing an arm. And yet, here he was, still observing her, noticing a little extra awkwardness, or maybe even a little of the sadness she'd been trying so hard to hide from everyone, herself included, since her conversation with Josh.

"I'm fine," she said. "Still a little tired, that's all."

"Really?" he wrote.

She started to nod, but he was still making that face at her, and she found that she couldn't lie to him. "Josh and I broke up," she said quietly.

Slowly, he nodded. "Sorry," he whispered.

Hope you liked it! Reviews are always, always, always appreciated. Trust me. Please do it.

Just a couple of points. One, we really don't know that much about Josh, so if I made him a bit... more of a jerk... than I should've, it was probably my own personal biases getting in the way. Although I do think it's realistic that he'd be frustrated.

Aand point number two. A lot of the reason, as some of you noticed, I've been updating this so fast is that I originally wrote a lot of this as one big chunk, and have mostly just been editing and adding scenes, which doesn't take all that long. I'm now completely caught up, meaning I've posted everything I had written. Right now I'm thinking this will probably only have one more chapter, but I'm not an outliner, so it's entirely possible that it will have its own ideas about when and how it wants to wrap up. Since I do actually have to write a whole chapter before I can post it now, and I have a huge project due this Thursday that I haven't exactly started... it will probably be a few days before my next (last?) update. Although I had no intention of getting this up today, so I guess anything's possible.