Disclaimer: I do not own Castle, the idea belongs to ABC
Forty minutes later, when she was finished showering and getting dressed she ventured into the kitchen and pulled open the fridge. If she were lucky, Castle or Alexis would have made a pot of iced coffee she could just heat up in the microwave before she had to go. Although, as she stared at the bright fridge all she saw was cold water bottles. She sighed as she grabbed one, this would have to do for now. She would grab a coffee at a gas station on the way over to the crime scene. As she shut the refrigerator door, she leaned up against the counter and stared at the light hanging from the ceiling thinking of the dream once again.
"Well you're certainly up early," Richard Castle said as he moseyed into the kitchen clad in plaid flannel pants and a maroon tee shirt.
The sound of Castle's voice pulled Kate out of the sickening memory that she could not seem to rid herself of. She smirked at him as she took another sip of the cold water as she willed it to wake her up. "Yes, well murder never sleeps, does it?"
Rick frowned at the beautiful homicide detective in front of him. "Murder? Esposito seemed under the impression that it was a suicide."
Kate raised her eyebrows in surprise, did Esposito not trust her enough to bring Castle along for the ride. Sure, she considered leaving him home to sleep, just to spite the boys, but she would never deprive him of a case. Even if it was for a very selfish reason, had she left him at home, he would have found a way to make her feel guilty about it. "You've spoken to Esposito all ready this morning?"
"Oh yeah," Rick said as he opened up one of the cabinets looking for where his mother had stored the coffee the last time she used it. "He seemed to think you would leave without telling me, and let me miss out on a case. Don't know why though, I would have thought we were past that," he said as he turned around and grinned at her.
Kate bit her bottom lip, if he only knew why Esposito thought she was going to leave him home, she thought as she observed Castle's crooked grin. He was right, he certainly was ruggedly handsome, even more so when he wasn't speaking. "I wouldn't have left you."
Rick smiled to himself as he turned away from Beckett to open another cabinet. So contrary to what she'd have him believe she didn't mind having him around. "Ah! Found it!" he rejoiced as he pulled out the white and green coffee Tupperware that Alexis had bought him as a divorce-from-Gina present. Surprised by the silence that followed his outburst, Rick turned around to find Beckett stone-faced and silent. "You had the dream again, didn't you?"
Hearing Castle's voice directed at her again pulled her out of her thoughts. She blinked a few times and shook her head. "I'm sorry, what?"
Rick looked at Beckett sorrowfully, he knew without a shadow of a doubt that she was thinking about the dream she had, had so many times before. "The dream, about your apartment, you had it again last night, didn't you?"
Kate looked at Castle stunned. How was it he knew every time she was thinking back on the incident? Kate blinked and exhaled strongly before she answered. "Every night, how did you know?" she asked Castle's back as he filled up the coffee maker with water.
Rick shrugged. Aside from the fact that he too, had the nightly nightmare of standing out in the street watching his partner's apartment explode with her still inside while there was nothing he could do but call her name out? "Well I heard you wake up and then I heard your phone ring, so I knew it wasn't that," he said as he turned around to face Beckett.
Kate looked down at the floor when she saw Castle turn around; he had heard her wake up? How was that possible, he was across the hall, unless he too was awake he wouldn't have heard her gasp. "You were awake?"
Castle nodded his head as he pushed off from the counter opposite from Beckett that he was leaning up against. "I would have come in and checked on you, but, I didn't want to get shot," he said and dodged a kitchen towel that Beckett chucked at him. he smiled playfully at his partner. "Coffee should be done in a few minutes, if you're making them up-"
"Cream, two sugars?" Kate interrupted as she watched Castle walk down the darkened hallway toward his bedroom.
A smirk made its way across Rick's face as the words came out of Beckett's mouth. He turned around and began to walk backwards. "See, I told you, you were my work wife," he said as he disappeared behind his bedroom door.
Ten minutes had hardly passed before Rick came charging out of his bedroom like a bat out of hell. "All right, ready to go!" he announced as he charged into the kitchen.
Kate, who was now sitting at the kitchen table, looked up from her creamy coffee and frowned at him. "will you try to be quiet? You're going to wake Alexis!"
Rick smirked arrogantly. Alexis was his daughter, not Beckett's, why should she be worrying if she woke up or not. "she's not a child Beckett, she'll go back to sleep."
Kate raised an eyebrow at him. "Do you think I can get a recording of you saying that? Just so I can play it the next time you freak out over Alexis hiring a violin tutor."
Rick glared at Beckett before laughing sarcastically. "Oh you're so funny Beckett."
Kate smiled smugly to herself, it was so much fun getting a chance to drive Castle crazy for a change, rather than getting driven crazy by him. "Coffee's on the island," she said off handedly as she took a sip out of her mug.
Hurriedly Rick pulled open a cabinet, grabbed two to go mugs, and poured his coffee into one and rushed the other one over to Beckett.
"Castle, just sit down and drink your coffee," Kate said shaking her head as she took another sip of coffee before pouring it into the to go cup in front of her.
"No, no time for sitting and drinking, we have to get to the crime scene!" Rick said as he slipped on his shoes, jumped up and began to pull Beckett's wrist like an overeager child waiting to go to a theme park.
"Castle!" Kate snapped as she yanked her wrist out of his grasp. "Try not to get so giddy every time we go to a crime scene, kay?"
Rick looked back at Beckett and smirked. "Just because someone's dead doesn't mean you have to be grumpy."
Kate rolled her eyes. She had heard Castle tell her that multiple times before. "Oh, you want to see grumpy? How about my mood after Montgomery finishing speaking to me because I let you go to a crime scene wearing that," she said as she nodded to the flannel pajama pants that he was still sporting.
Rick frowned at Beckett for a minute and was about to ask what was wrong with what he was wearing, when he realized he had never changed into the pants he had pulled out of his closet. He had been standing there babbling like an idiot in his pajama pants. "Really? You would have let me go to a crime scene with my pajama pants on?"
Kate smirked as she shrugged her shoulders. "The boys would have enjoyed it, and I'm sure you would have gotten a whole new fan base," she said as Castle rushed into his bedroom.
"So you do admit that I am good looking?" Rick responded smirking as he hopped out of his bedroom still pulling his pants on.
Kate rolled her eyes and ignored the question, he needed no more help fueling his ego. "So Esposito thinks we're sleeping together again," she said as they walked out of the front door.
Rick frowned at Beckett as they walked the short distance to the elevator. "Really? He didn't say anything to me about it." he was quiet for a second before he added, "You know I was thinking, maybe if we just do it everyone will stop questioning us about it," he said as he hit the down button and they waited for the elevator.
Rick felt Beckett's hazel eyes glaring at him even before he had the chance to turn back around to face her. "Yeah, okay, Castle. how about in your dreams?" she asked as the elevator door opened and the two entered.
Rick smirked he knew there was going to be some future form of payback for what he was about to say but he really didn't care. "Oh that's happened many times," he said and chuckled at the expression on Beckett's face as he pushed the button for the parking garage. "I'm just kidding…well actually I'm not…Why would he think that again?" he asked as he turned around toward Beckett, who was standing with her arms folded over her chest.
"Because he asked me why it was going to take me longer to get to the crime scene so I made the mistake of mentioning that I was spending the night at your place," Kate said as the elevator doors closed.
Rick nodded his head as he leaned against the back wall of the elevator as it began to descend. "Ah, well if it makes you feel any better I know that I'm not sleeping with you, and you know that, and the whole prescient knows that, but they say stuff like that because Esposito and Ryan get a kick out of seeing you get flustered when the subject of us comes up."
"There is no 'us', Castle," Kate said as she looked at him through the dim lights of the elevator.
"Yeah, I know," Rick said and looked up at the numbers of the elevator going down.
Kate looked over at Castle as he responded. Was it just that he was tired or was he truly upset by the words she had just said? Swallowing her pride, she spoke up. "Castle..." she said and waited for him to look at her. "I'm sure, I can do much worse than people saying I'm with someone who is there for me for no matter what I need."
At Beckett's words Rick was taken aback, just like he had been the night when she told him she had gotten used to him pulling her pigtails. He gave her his crooked grin, "Thanks, Kate."
As Rick led the way into the parking garage of his apartment building, he turned toward Beckett. "So what kind of case are we looking at? Theatrical, like hanging someone from the monkey bars in their underwear covered in caramel? Or more traditional, like a pop and drop?"
"Umm, probably something more along the lines of someone laying in a pool of their own blood with their wrists slit, or on the side of the street with their hands wrapped around a knife that's in their chest." Kate replied as they walked through the rows of cars towards her own.
"Wow, that last one was really Romeo and Juliet. Are we going to find a vile of poison at the crime scene as well?"
"No, Castle," Kate said as she shot Castle a look that seemed to let him know his morbid sense of humor was not needed. "It's only a single suicide."
Rick smirked for a second at his own joke before looking down at the ground. "Sorry," he said as he looked up. "Hang on a second, do we normally deal in suicides?"
Kate shrugged her shoulders. "Well, we have to check out the scene anyway, and there is a chance that she did not kill herself, which is why I'm here. Esposito took the call cause he thinks there may be a chance with a girl who called it in if he came to her aid."
Rick snickered to himself. "Smart man, good way to get lai-never mind," he said as Beckett turned her head and glared at him for a brief second.
At Castle's words a wave of intense jealousy reared up inside her so strong it caused to stop in her tracks.
Noticing Beckett's stall Rick looked at her. "Are you alright?" he asked his face now a mask of concern.
"Yeah, I'm fine," she said as she shook her head in an attempt to think of an excuse for the stall. "Come on Castle, body's waiting."
Ten minutes later, when Beckett and Castle turned on West 100th they saw the entire street lit up by the lights atop squad cars. Kate pulled alongside the curb a good three hundred feet away from any of the other cars. Rick looked toward her and smirked.
Feeling on eyes on her Kate looked at Castle and the look he was giving her made her jump. "What?"
Rick shook his head. "Nothing, I was just right," he said and kept the satisfied smirk across his currently arrogant face.
Kate looked at him appalled. "Right about what?"
"The walk up," he said as he looked at her again. "I wrote it in Heat Wave on a hunch that you do this, and it looks like I was right. I'm so good sometimes, I amaze myself."
Kate looked at Castle annoyed. She wasn't doing any a walk up. She just didn't like to get too close to the squad cars. "Castle, you've been with me hundreds of times, on hundreds of different cases, have you ever seen me do this before tonight?"
Rick smirked again satisfied. "So you're giving me credit for it? You do the walk up because Nikki Heat does. I'm so touched!" he said with false sincerity as he placed a hand on his chest.
"Just so you know the only reason I have parked this far away is because those squad cars have a tendency to peel out of here, and I'd rather not have my car in the way."
At Beckett's words Rick nodded his head. "So, it wasn't because of my idea in the book?"
Kate rolled her eyes. "Come on, Castle. Crime scene," she said as she got out of the car and walked up to a yawning Kevin Ryan who was in his sweat pants. "Morning Ryan."
Kevin turned around to face Beckett and Castle. "Ah, morning, you're here," he said as they began to walk up to the scene. "Vic's a female, early twenties, no I.D., she was found hanging from her neck in this tree by a flight attendant who lives in the building near an hour and a half ago. Esposito is talking to her now."
"Wow," Castle said as they crossed the police tape and looked at the scene. "Guess she didn't get the memo that you were supposed to hang a tire from that and not a body."
Lanie Parrish turned around with a shocked expression on her face. It astounded her how callous Castle could be sometimes. "Castle? What are you doing here? It's five a.m. You're not even paid to be here!"
Kate pursed her lips and rolled her eyes. "Esposito invited him. How's it going up there?" she said referring to the two police detectives who were gingerly trying to remove the victim from the tree without causing any further damage.
Lanie shook her head at a loss for words. "I don't know if it's the incompetence of men, the earliness of the hour, or the knot that's preventing them from getting her down but those two have been up there for almost thirty minutes now!" she said aggravated. "I don't know how they expect me to determine a COD if they keep her up there long enough to decompose."
"Cause of death? Do you really need to do an autopsy to find that the girl killed herself? Isn't that obvious to anyone who looks at her?" Rick said as he watched the two investigators finally get the victim down from the tree.
Kate rolled her eyes and shook her head. Hadn't Castle been with her long enough to know this was procedure? "Yes, Castle, it's obvious, but we need to find out what killed her,"
"Like was it her spinal cord snapping or her wind pipe being crushed as a result from hanging from a rope," Lanie said as the investigators got the body down one of them carried her over to a blanket that she had laid out with her equipment on it. "Lay her down here," she said as she bent down next to the blanket.
As the two investigators laid the body down and Lanie moved her hair out of her face to try to get an ID on her, Kate felt her breath catch in her throat. "L-Lanie?"
Hearing the hysteria in Beckett's voice Lanie looked up to see her friends hazel eyes glazed over in fear. "What's wrong Beckett?" she asked frowning.
As Kate continued to stare at the victim's face she couldn't help but be sure of who she was, yes it had been much too long since she had seen her last, but everything about her fit. "Do we have a positive identification yet?"
Lanie shook her head. "No, there's nothing in her pockets, giving any hint to who she is, and our witness doesn't recognize her."
Kate's breathing picked up. No, it couldn't be her. But everything fit, there were too many variables for her not to be her.
"We can get uniforms to start canvassing the area, see if maybe her ID fell out of a pocket when she made the drop," Kevin said as he walked up behind Castle.
"Ooh, nice one!" Rick said as he joined his thumb and finger tips together and them turned upside down so Ryan could tap Castle's hand with his own.
"Enough!" Kate said firmly as she turned around to face the two misbehaving men behind her.
A smile was in place on Rick's face when Beckett turned around. "Oh come on, Beck—what's wrong?" he said when he saw the stony expression that was her usual cover up for emotion.
Kate took a breath before turning back around and looking at the victim again. "A murder-or in this case a suicide- scene is not a place to make crude jokes or humor," she said thickly.
Rick frowned. Something was wrong. He knew it. She never cared before if he and one of the boys cracked jokes at murder scenes, unless of course, the families could hear, but no one was here. Swiftly he walked over to Beckett, grabbed her arm, and led her away from the victim. "Beckett, what's wrong?"
Kate shook her head as she refused to make eye contact with Castle. She didn't want to go telling people her suspicions just to find out that they were wrong, which is what she was hoping for. "Nothing, Castle, don't worry about it."
As Beckett turned to walk away Rick grabbed her arm, once again, and spun her around. When she turned and faced the other direction again, she caught her breath in her throat. Castle's face was not three inches from her own. As she looked up in his eyes a feeling of butterflies erupted in her stomach. Butterflies! She hadn't gotten butterflies since she was in high school. First, that question this morning, and now butterflies? What was wrong with her?
As Rick looked down into Beckett's hazel eyes he fought the urge to complete the distance between the two of them. He couldn't though, and he knew that. With a deep breath, he pulled back away from Beckett's face. "Beckett, you and I have known each other long enough, for me to know, when something strikes a chord in you. Now what is it?"
Kate looked into Castle's eyes and cleared all emotion from her. It was easier to deal with things if she was more detached. She'd do well to remember that next time she found herself face to face with Richard Castle. With a deep breath she said, "I think I know her."