Falling in Love at a Coffee Shop
Kate had to dig herself out from under her pile of blankets to turn off her alarm clock. It took a few tries, her hand missing the right button on the top of the clock. The temptation to just stay in the cocoon of warmth was whispering in her ear, but she fought back the urge to hide her eyes in her pillow by swinging her legs out from the sheets. She winced when they hit the chilly hardwood floor as she vowed once again to find a rug to put there.
She scraped her hair back into a ponytail, the strands waving from sleeping on them while they were still damp. Her toes curled against the floor as she brushed her teeth. She could hear movement from Al's room; the girl was probably up since she actually liked mornings.
"Mom!"
With the toothbrush still in her mouth, she called back, "What?"
"Your phone is ringing." Al appeared in the doorway holding Kate's cell. The girl looked sleepy still, but Kate knew she would take a nap when she was over Jim's.
Spitting into the sink, Kate took the phone and glanced at the caller ID. Her father. She hit the button to answer the call, cradling the phone against her shoulder. "Hey Dad."
"Hey, sweetie. Just letting you know I'm on my way over to pick up little Miss Allie."
Kate shifted the phone so the mouthpiece was further from her mouth to whisper to her daughter, "Go get dressed, Al. I'll get breakfast before Grandpa gets here."
Al ran out of the room calling back that she wanted Pop-Tarts.
"She'll be ready. You bringing Sadie with you?" Kate asked, dancing on one foot as she tried to take her sweatpants off while still balancing the phone. A pair of black trousers was pulled from her drawer, tossed onto the unmade bed as she kicked off the sweatpants.
"No. Sadie's at home, searching the apartment so it's safe for our favorite granddaughter. Plus, cabbies don't exactly like dogs in their backseat."
Kate heard the blaring of a horn through the phone before a string of curses from who she assumed was the cab driver. "Dad, she's your only granddaughter." She switched over to speakerphone, placing the cell on the bureau as she pulled on the black pants and buttoned them.
"All the more reason to love her, Katie. I'll be at your place in five and I expect to see my girls' smiling faces when you answer the door."
"Of course, Dad. See you in five."
Kate let him hang up as she scanned her closet for a shirt. She pulled down a light grey v-neck sweater and switched her sleep shirt for it. Barefoot, she went to put Al's Pop-Tarts in the toaster oven and pour out a glass of milk, setting it at the girl's place on the dining room table. She started the coffee machine, waiting to hear the clunking that told her it was really on. There had been a few mornings where she had been coffee-less for the ride into the precinct because the machine had teased her.
As she passed back to her room to find shoes, Kate glanced into Al's room. Half of her closet was on her neatly made bed and Al was only wearing a pair of jeans.
"You going to put a shirt on?" she asked with a smile.
"I can't decide which one!" Al was holding up two different shirts. One was purple, long-sleeved with sparkly white butterflies on it. The other was a black sweater but Al had a black, white, and grey floral scarf held up with it.
Knowing Sadie, the dog would shed like crazy after the two rolled around her father's apartment. The black sweater, which being Kate's first choice, would be coated with dog fur in an instant. "Purple."
Al already had the shirt halfway over her head. "Thanks, Mom!"
"No problem, kid," she replied, moving back down the hall. "Breakfast's in the toaster."
Kate figured she should probably should admit to a shoe obsession at this point. The floor of her closet and a good part of the floor directly outside the doors was covered with shoes. Kate kicked a few around to uncover more with a sigh. Yes, definitely a problem. Who needed this many shoes? Kate decided that she did as she bent down to pick up a pair of dark grey heels and carried them out to the living room.
Al was at the table, breaking her Pop-Tart in half.
"Grandpa's on his way over," she said, sitting at her own spot after pouring coffee. "Sadie's at home waiting for you."
The girl barely contained her dance of happiness, the halved Pop-Tart still in her hand. "I get to stay with Sadie all day!"
"Until tonight when I pick you up, you are all Sadie's."
Someone rapped on the door and Al turned in her chair as she bit into the pastry with a grin. "Grandpa?"
"Let's find out," Kate said, taking her coffee cup over to the door. "Looks that way."
She opened the door to Jim Beckett who quickly pulled his daughter into a hug. "Hey, Katie."
"Hey, Dad. Your favorite granddaughter is impatient to be with your dog."
Al was scowling from her chair. "I like Grandpa too!" She scrambled down from the chair just as Jim scooped her up and swung her around. "Hi Grandpa!" she managed around the giggles when Jim set her back on the seat.
"Good morning, my Allie-bug."
Kate perched on the arm of the couch to pull her heels on, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear when it fell forward. Downing the rest of her coffee, Kate placed the empty mug in the sink before gathering up Al's empty plate.
"Drink your milk and you can let yourself be swept away by Grandpa, Al."
The glass was empty in a minute and the girl climbed off the chair to run into her room, telling the adults she needed to get her shoes and bag.
Kate went to get her own bag of files, untouched since she brought them home, and settled them next to the couch. "I'll be by as soon as I can get free from work to get her," she was saying as she dug in the bag for her keys, checking that they were in the right pocket. "We're close to breaking this case open so it might be later than usual."
"That's fine. She can sleep over if needed. I'll take the couch."
"Dad…"
Jim shook his head. "It's all good. Just know that it's an option if it gets too late."
Kate smiled. "Thanks." She passed Al on her way back down the hall, a tote bag slung over her shoulder and ballet flats on her feet. Kate unlocked the safe in her drawer, took out her gun and badge; she'd leave the clip out of her weapon until she got into the precinct. But the badge she tucked into the pocket of her jacket before she put it on.
"Coat, Al," she reminded, picking up her daughter's bright red peacoat and holding it out for the girl to slip her arms into. Kate pulled on her own navy coat, buttoning it up as she locked the apartment door behind the three of them.
They walked down to the ground floor together, Al and Jim chattering happily while Kate checked her messages for anything to do with the case. Nothing except Ryan's saved message from yesterday.
Outside the building, Kate gave her father a last hug as he whispered, "Let me know if you need to use Plan B tonight."
"I'll call you if it's too late. Promise." Then she squatted down in front of Al. "Behave for Grandpa, okay? I'll be by tonight to pick you up."
Al threw her arms around Kate's neck, her nose in the thick fall of Kate's hair. "I will, Mom. Love you."
"Love you too, Al."
Kate waited while her father hailed a cab and loaded Al and her bag into the backseat. "Love you, Dad."
He reached out to squeeze Kate's hand. "Back atcha, kid."
Once the cab had taken the corner at the end of the street, Kate walked to her car. It was still early for rush-hour traffic to be clogging up the city streets so she was able to take some of the major streets up the island to the precinct without too many stops. She didn't pull over in front of the Starbucks she always frequented, not wanting to risk getting caught in line behind the commuters and finding herself stuck in the traffic she had been avoiding. The precinct coffee would have to work until she could go out during the day and get something that tasted like the real thing.
Peters wasn't at the front desk this morning. Instead, the grouchy woman who worked his off-days was sitting in his place, examining her fingernails. Kate didn't bother saying hello but went directly up to her floor. Ryan was at his desk, typing something into the computer.
"Morning," she called as she rounded the divider into the bullpen.
The other cop looked up and nodded. "How'd girl's night go with Lanie and Al?"
"It was nice," Kate said as she put her bag on the ground near her desk. "Lanie gave me some news. Molly Sergeant wasn't sexually assaulted."
"Wonder why that is," Ryan mused, turning his chair to face Kate. "Jenna and Olivia were."
"Your two witnesses coming in today?"
"They are. Sometime this morning."
Kate snapped the clip into her gun, put it in the drawer of her desk. "Good. You and Esposito can take one of them, I'll take the other." She shed her coat and went toward the break room. "Then Esposito said he found something with an after-school person."
She poured her second cup of coffee, adding cream and sugar, stirring it on the walk back to her desk. Esposito had shown up, chatting with a woman that didn't look familiar. He nodded back at her when she raised a brow in his direction. One of the witnesses then. She stopped at her desk to pick up her legal pad and pen before going to Esposito's desk.
"Detective Kate Beckett, this is Renee Gallagher," Esposito said as an introduction.
Kate took the woman's hand with a smile. "I'm glad I can help the NYPD," the petite blonde woman said.
They moved from the bullpen into the lounge. Renee clasped her hands on her lap, sitting on the couch across from Kate.
"So, Detective Ryan told me that you might have seen something in the park to do with Molly Sergeant?"
"It might be nothing," she started.
Kate gave her a gentle smile and a shake of her head. "Anything could be important, Miss Gallagher. Just tell me what you saw."
"It was Sunday, maybe. I was in Tompkins Square with my little boy. We sometimes go there to play even though it's still cold outside. Anyway, Molly goes to the same school as my Tyler and they'd play together if Nora brought Molly over at the same time. Well, Sunday while Tyler and Molly were playing across the park while Nora and I talked, I saw this man talking to the kids. It might have been nothing but it felt off. You can sense things like that, you know?"
Kate nodded, agreeing. "So this man, did he touch Molly or Tyler?"
Renee shook her head. "No. Just talked until Nora and I got over to the kids. Then he ran off in the opposite direction."
"Could you sit with a sketch artist and describe the man?"
"I only got a glimpse of his face before he ran, but I could try." Renee twisted her hands together before she picked at a hangnail without looking down. "I hate to think of what Nora and Brandon are going through. I want to help in any way I can, Detective Beckett."
Kate sat Renee down with one of the sketch artists in the lounge before going back to her desk. As soon as Ryan and Esposito finished with their witness, Kate wanted to get over to Tompkins Square Park and canvass some of the families there. If this was where the man hunted, someone would have seen him and perhaps gotten a better look at his face than Renee.
In the meantime, Kate sipped at her lukewarm coffee and typed up the notes from the interview into her computer. Her phone vibrated across her desk as she saved the document. A photo message from her dad showed Al and Sadie cuddled up on the most comfortable couch Kate had ever known, fast asleep on one another. She was grinning, saving the photo on her memory card, when the boys emerged from the conference room.
Ryan shook his head as Esposito thanked the older man who was walking behind them.
"Nothing?" she asked, setting the phone back down next to the keyboard.
"Nothing. You get anything from Renee?"
Kate pointed toward the lounge where they could see the sketch artist holding his drawing pad up for Renee to look at. "She didn't get a good look at our possible guy but she said she'd try and get a sketch together. I'll head over to the park once they're done, see if anyone else saw him."
Esposito stopped at her desk, crossing his arms. "We can take the after-school angle. Maybe the same guy followed her to extracurricular stuff, stalking her."
"Sounds like a plan." Kate rose just as the sketch artist and Renee came out of the lounge. She thanked both of them, handed Renee one of her business cards in case the woman thought of anything else that had been off, and took the rough sketch from the other officer. She made copies of the face of the man Renee saw, handing one to Ryan and pinning another up on the murder board under the column for suspects.
"Let's meet back here, share whatever we find."
"Deal," said Esposito.
Kate fingered the handcuff keychain as she jogged down to the sidewalk to her car. Catch the creep so that people like Al were safe.
He's breathing heavily, an arm thrown out over his head, the other trailing over the woman's trim stomach. Lazy and tired and sated. There are definite perks to no set hour to wake up and stealing a little love from his girlfriend just as the sun rises is certainly one of them.
The woman rolled over, draping herself over half of his body to press a kiss to his bare chest. "Mmm… Richard, we need to stop this," she purred.
"Why?" he asked, reaching up to thread his fingers through her red hair, massaging her scalp. "It's fun."
"Yeah, it is," she said, trailing hot kisses up his throat to his lips. "But one day, we're going to break something trying to top our list or end up with a little one in the oven and then we'll be sorry."
Meredith seemed to ignore his statement, curling herself into his side with a little grin and a contented sigh.
The alarm next to him beeped again, going off for the fifth time after he hit snooze all the other times. Castle wasn't sure if he managed to stop the alarm with his hand or his foot or elbow, but the beeping had stopped for the next ten minutes each time and that was all that had mattered at the time. He finally switched the clock off, letting his arm flop onto the mattress next to him.
Meredith rubbed her nose against his cheek, whispering into his ear. "What time is it?"
"Almost ten. Why?"
The woman was a flurry of activity, snatching most of the sheets off the bed and wrapping them around her naked body. "Shit! I have an audition at eleven uptown!" Meredith disappeared into the bathroom, the sheet trailing behind her as she flashed a temptress smile back at Castle that she knew he wouldn't be able to resist.
Five minutes later and a shower cut short by another encounter against the wet tiles, Meredith was dressed in a pretty dark green dress and black heeled boots, fluffing her hair in the mirror. Castle had a towel hitched around his hips, following her around the loft, his fingers tickling her side as she turned to say goodbye.
"I'll be back tonight. I have a meeting with my agent after this audition. Dinner tonight?"
He backed her up against the front door, kissing lips there were at his height thanks to her heels. "Of course. I'll pick you up."
Meredith ducked out from under him with a laugh and a pat on his butt. "Wish me luck, Richard."
"Break a leg, hottie," he said, taking one last kiss from her before she left the apartment in a whirlwind of red hair and vanilla perfume.
He got dressed, edging toward casual instead of business formal since he didn't have anywhere to be. His publisher would want another few chapters of his new book soon but after days of sitting at his desk and getting distracted by the Internet and the remote controlled helicopter he couldn't resist buying, Castle sensed a change of scenery was required.
Dressed in jeans and a black v-neck, he gathered up his laptop and charger in the laptop case Meredith had bought him for his birthday, pocketed his phone, and pulled on his jacket. There was a coffee shop a little uptown where he could spend all day, then just pick Meredith up from her meeting and bring her out to dinner. Perfect plan.
Castle used the car service the publishing house provided to get to the shop. It wasn't a Starbucks, so the crowd was thin and less asshole-y. He ordered a large black coffee and claimed a seat near the window to people-watch while writing. Normally a distraction, the strangers that passed the window told their own stories and he often found places to infuse some of their characteristics into his own tales.
He managed to get a full chapter done and the two more outlined in the following three hours before he needed to get more coffee. Standing in line with an eye on his table and laptop, Castle scrolled through his twitter feed on his phone.
The woman behind him was on her phone, talking to someone named Al about a Sadie. Castle shifted enough to see what she looked like and blinked slowly. Brown hair in soft curls fell over her shoulders, a contrast to her navy blue peacoat, hazel eyes smiling along with her mouth. She was rocking back on her heels, her black pants covering legs that seemed to go on for miles.
Then he started writing her story. Al was her friend, someone she knew since high school. They'd hung out, never moving past friendship despite the fact that everyone around them saw they might have made a good match. Sadie was Al's current girlfriend and Al was looking for a present for her. He called the brown-haired woman up to get advice from a woman's point-of-view on a gift that Sadie would love.
"What can I get you, sir?" asked the barista when he reached the front of the line.
Same coffee order, same size. He needed the caffeine to keep up this writing spree. Castle gave "Rick" as his name, trying to lay low in public.
As he stepped to the side to wait for the second cup, he studied that woman again. She was giggling, holding a hand up to her mouth to hide a sparkling smile. Maybe Al wasn't just a friend. That would mess up his whole story.
She glanced over and saw his frown. When she tilted her head to the side, her smile fading slowly as her brows drew together, Castle looked away, tucking his hands in his pockets. She paused, shook her head a little, then put the phone to her shoulder to order her coffee. A skim latte with sugar-free vanilla. Not quite frou-frou, not boring black coffee. A nice balance.
The barista called his name and he claimed the cup. His eyes stayed on the woman as she waited for her drink. When she turned, pacing three steps along the counter, Castle saw a badge clipped onto the belt of her jacket. A cop. He pursed his lips, then opened a new document on the computer and started writing in her traits. Never know when one would need a beautiful police detective in a story and this woman was definitely an inspiration.
With her own coffee cup in her hand, the phone in the other, the woman opened the door with her hip and a last, lingering look at his face.
Castle watched her walk down the street to a beat-up blue Crown Victoria, placing the cup on the roof as she unlocked the door and climbed in. It was illegal, very illegal, but he quickly jotted down the license plate number on the document after her traits he had noted.
This mystery woman was more interesting than his current main character. Determined to get to know her, he made a silent vow to return to the coffee shop and wait until the pretty detective returned.
Because now, more than anything, Richard Castle wanted to know her personality, not just her physical appearance.