Falling in Love at a Coffee Shop
Al was acting out some sort of mini-dinosaur play on her plate that involved the T-Rex shaped nuggets becoming friends with the plant-eater nuggets thereby ending the life-long war between the two races. It was actually pretty entertaining and Kate caught herself watching the celebration party taking place in the Ketchup Pool, complete with smiley floaties, instead of eating her own dinner.
"Mom, eat."
Jim was laughing again as his granddaughter commanded Kate to finish her meal without looking up. Kate raised a brow as she cut a nugget in half and stabbed it with her fork.
Sometimes Kate had to stop and look around the table. It may have been too many re-watches of 'Lilo&Stitch' with Al, but she had to agree that their family was small and a little broken, but it was good. Her father had been sober since Al's birth, wanting to straight out not only for himself but for Kate and his granddaughter. Kate had reconciled the fact that she'd never know who had woken up next to her that morning and taken Al as a blessing instead of a burden. And Al had yet to ask about the missing father figure in her life, more than happy to take Ryan and Esposito as ever-present uncles and Lanie as the cool aunt.
"You're still not eating."
Kate blinked at Al who was glaring at her. Like looking into a miniature mirror. She lowered her fork to the plate, smiling. "Sorry. Lost in thought."
Al reached over and grabbed her mother's wrist, bringing the fork back up into the air. "Find a map so you can finish eating. Grandpa and I made cookies for dessert."
"Oh, well if there're cookies," Kate said, popping the chicken into her mouth. Al looked pleased and turned back to her dinosaur party. "Are there cookies?" she asked her father.
Before Jim could open his mouth, Al jumped in. "Mom, why would I lie about cookies?"
"We wouldn't lie about cookies, Mom," said Jim with a grin, stealing the other half of Kate's chicken nugget. "That's just wrong."
"Don't know why I suggested such a thing." Kate managed to snag one of her father's nuggets in exchange for her stolen one, dragging it through the blob of ketchup on her plate before biting off half.
"They're peanut butter chocolate chip and Grandpa let me have some of the dough before we baked them," Al chattered, dancing the T-Rex out of the ketchup before eating its head. "It was yummy."
Her phone vibrated in her pocket, sending out a single beep, and Kate took it out to check the message. It was Esposito, so she opened it, breaking her own rule of no electronics at the table.
It was short. "Confessed. Two life sentences, no parole." Suddenly, a weight was lifted from her shoulders as she took a deep breath. Then she put the phone on silent and pushed it into her pocket to take another bite of food.
"You save any of the leftover dough for me?"
Jim shook his head. "Used it all. We have enough cookies to feed your precinct."
"We baked all day!" Al was just finishing her last French fry as she spoke. "Mom, can we bring some to Espo and Ryan?"
"Definitely. Maybe you can visit tomorrow since you only have a half-day of school. Plan?"
Al slid off her chair, grabbed her plate, and went over to the dishwasher. "I love Espo and Ryan. Wait," she said, turning around after closing the machine. "Only half a day tomorrow?"
"Teacher day. They go to school, you don't."
"Good. Some of them need to go to school," the girl muttered, making both adults grin. "So I get to see your boys and Cap and Lanie?"
Kate got up, taking her dad's plate and hers over to place in the dishwasher. "Maybe Lanie. Remember? She works down in a different building. But the boys and Cap will be around."
It was like the girl's day had been made. Al skipped around the couch and looped her arms around Sadie's neck. "Lady, I'm so happy!"
"She should be crashing soon," Jim muttered as he carried empty glasses over. "She's been in constant motion all day."
"Thanks, Dad, for watching her."
"Don't mention it, Katie. I love spending time with her. Reminds me of you when you were her age." His hands were sudsy when he tugged on her hair.
Kate smiled, dotting her father's nose with a pile of bubbles. "Let's hope she skips the wild child phase."
"Cookies?"
Al's head popped up on the other side of the couch, tilted to the side so some of her curls fell over her face. She didn't brush them away, but instead blew air out of her mouth and watched the strands flutter back to her face with a giggle.
"Cookies," said Jim with a nod. He wiped his hands off on the dishtowel, tossing it at Kate before taking out one of the numerous Tupperware containers and popping the lid off. He held it out to his granddaughter who snatched one from the container and instantly plopped back onto the couch, one hand still petting Sadie's head.
Kate took a cookie, breaking it in half and following her father over to sit on the couch next to Al. The girl was watching anxiously as Kate ate one half of the cookie.
"So?"
"Delicious," she replied after a long pause meant to play games with her mind. "The boys will eat these in under a minute."
Al bounced on the cushions happily before going to sit on the ground with Sadie, holding her own cookie away from the dog's searching nose.
Not thirty minutes later, Al fell asleep on top of Sadie, using the dog's stomach as a pillow as she curled between Sadie's long legs. She had her arms wrapped loosely around Sadie's neck, not chaining the dog to her, but keeping her close.
"So, today…" started Jim, muting the TV from the game show they had been half-heartedly following and turning to face Kate.
When he didn't give up that stare that told her he'd sit there, waiting, until she spilt the beans, Kate sighed, sitting back into the cushions and closing her eyes. "It was a disaster, Dad.
He reached out, rubbing his hand along her arm. "Start from the beginning."
"The boys found two witnesses from the park that agreed to come in and talk. Renee, one of them, gave us enough for a sketch."
"Sounds pretty decent so far," Jim commented.
Kate smiled, but it wasn't happy. The pull of her brows relayed complete disappointment. "Yeah, well, I took a copy of the sketch to Tompkins Square Park, where the three girls might have gone with their parents, to see if other regulars might have seen the man. He was there, talking to another little girl. I got him, before he could do anything to her. Tackled him."
"That's where this came from?" he asked, his finger ghosting over the scratch.
"Yeah. On the ride back to the precinct, Al called and the guy heard her. He started…" she hesitated, told herself that this was just like a report, and pushed through it. "Fantasizing about Al. Oh God." Kate stumbled to her feet, bolting for the bathroom, somehow managing not to step on the tangle of girl and dog on the ground.
Her father pulled her hair back as she threw up, gathering it at the nape of her neck. He didn't speak but rubbed his free hand over her back. As soon as Kate sat back against his chest, a hand curled into his worn flannel shirt, pulling comfort from him.
"Sorry, Dad…"
"Don't apologize, sweetie." Jim pressed a kiss to her damp hair as if she were Al's age again. "You're allowed to break down once in a while."
"It's just that those girls," Kate spoke into his shoulder, her nose a hard line against his pectoral. "They were so like Al. And he just kept talking and, God, I don't know how I kept driving without turning around and punching him in the face."
They sat on the bathroom floor, Jim waiting for Kate to release his shirt as a sign that she was okay again.
But her voice surprised him again as she shifted forward, pushing her hair back from her face. "The boys got him to confess. He's gone for life."
"And Allie-bug is safe and sound."
"I know…" she sighed. Then she did lean back, placing a hand on the counter of the sink and pulling herself to her feet. She dropped a hand, helping Jim up before she found her spare toothbrush in the medicine cabinet and ran it under the water. "I know, it's just…"
Jim leaned over and kissed her forehead. "Take a few minutes. I'll go sit with Allie and Sadie, start Jeopardy up again." He stopped at the doorframe, looking at her through the mirror. "And be prepared because I'm about to take you for all you've got with this game show."
Her laugh was weak but it made his heart feel better. Kate was squeezing toothpaste onto the bright pink toothbrush when Jim turned away to go sit in his armchair. Al and Sadie were still cuddled on the floor, their heads under the coffee table with just two sets of legs peeking out. Jim ran his foot down Sadie's rump and the dog lifted her head, looking over at him from under still-sleepy eyes.
"Good girl, Sadie lady," he muttered as she let her head flop back onto the carpet, careful not to disturb the dozing girl. "My three good girls." Then he took the remote to un-mute the TV just as Alex Trebek announced the next categories for the Double Jeopardy round.
Two minutes later, Kate padded down the hallway. She smiled at her father before going into the kitchen, filling up the old kettle and setting it on the stove. She left a mug next to the stove, standing behind the couch and leaning her forearms on the back.
"What is King Lear?" she said quietly, the question that matched up to the answer being read off by the host.
Jim grinned back at her. "You were always a reader, weren't you?"
"Don't be jealous, Dad," she murmured. "King Lear is a classic."
"Only if you like daughters with names that sound like STDs."
Kate laughed, returning to the kettle just before it whistled and woke up Al. "You mean Goneril?"
"Seriously! Who names their child that and doesn't expect for them to grow up to hate their guts?"
With the tea bag added to the hot water, Kate crossed her legs as she sat on the couch, the mug warm between her hands. "A valid point, I suppose."
They continued to not only reply to the answers on Jeopardy, but discuss the responses. They mocked some of the competitors' lack of knowledge and made fun of the host's hairstyle. Then Jeopardy ended and Kate finally noticed the time on the cable box.
"Shoot. I need to get home," she said, getting up to wash out the empty mug.
"Stay in the guest room." He interrupted her protest with a single raised finger. "It's late and Al's already asleep. We can move her into the guest bed, which is definitely big enough to sleep both of you, and you can bring her to school from here."
His gaze told her that she wasn't going to win this argument. So Kate sighed and put the mug away. "Fine. Let's get her into the spare room."
It took some time to untangle her arms from around Sadie's neck, the dog watching them with big brown eyes, but eventually, Kate had the toddler cradled in her arms as she walked down the hall to the guest room. With Al curled on her side on the bed, Kate stepped back into the hall, kissing her father on the cheek.
"Thanks, Dad. For everything. I don't know what I'd do without you."
Jim gave her a hug that nearly crushed her ribcage. "Love you too, Katie. Go to bed. I'll be up tomorrow to get breakfast with my girls."
Kate slowly took Al's jeans and purple butterfly shirt off, folding them on the dresser and searching for a spare pair of Al's pajamas she knew Dad kept here. Finding the flannel pants and plain aqua t-shirt, Kate tugged them onto her daughter's sleeping body before pulling the covers up over her. Another search of the room turned up a pile of Kate's clothing that she must have left over one day. She traded the black pants and sweater for the over-large t-shirt and went to find blankets to bring to the couch.
Then she stopped. After today, did she really want to spend the night alone on her father's couch? Kate turned back around and snuggled into the bed with Al. They stayed on separate sides of the bed, but just being able to reach out and brush her daughter's hair was enough of a comfort for Kate to fall asleep quickly and quietly.
Meredith went straight to bed. Castle sensed she was more than a little angry with his level of distraction at dinner and that had been the reason for the cold shoulder on the ride back to the loft. He had to admit that he had spent an inordinate amount of time pushing food around his plate rather than bringing it to his mouth to eat it. All he really wanted to do was sit in front of his laptop and run down this plate number with his fingers crossed.
So when Meredith had declared to the otherwise empty loft that she had a headache from the day and would be going to bed, Castle had wished her sweet dreams, kissed her lightly, and watched her sweep through the study into the bedroom.
He had toed his shoes off, kicked them toward the closet, and went to grab his laptop from the travel case as the lights turned off in the bedroom. The couch was more comfortable than his chair at the desk, which only served as a reminder that he hadn't finished all of the writing he had meant to complete today. No, the couch was definitely the better choice. Less guilt involved in this little endeavor.
As he logged in, pulling up one of the semi-illegal websites that he kept on his bookmarks for research, Castle realized just how creepy his actions were. He wasn't looking at how to hotwire a car or hack into someone's computer; he was searching for a cop's car because he thought she was pretty.
"Castle, you've cracked," he muttered to himself even as he pulled the document containing the not-even-close-to-being-done short story and found the plate number at the end. "Completely off your rocker."
The computer was searching and Castle found himself tapping his fingers on the silver lining the keyboard, a mixture of impatience and nerves. He kept the document in a different window, trying to get some of the short story written, or at least outlined, while the database searched for a match. Just like back in the coffee shop, suddenly Marlowe was meeting up with a mysterious police officer, all tumbling brown hair and shaded hazel eyes, over coffee.
He was holding down the delete key when the other window blinked on the bottom of his screen. Castle clicked over, leaving the document mid-sentence, and checking the other site.
The first thing that came up was that the car belonged to the New York Police Department. It gave the address of Police Plaza downtown before telling him that it was officially assigned to the Twelfth Precinct. Not quite as narrowed down as he was hoping. He scrolled down on the touchpad, looking for a permanent owner. A few clicks later, he found the log of officers that signed out the car over the years.
Only two women. That helped. A little.
Now was she Katherine Beckett or Andrea Johnson?
The stall in his mini-investigation only lasted five minutes, during which he sat and stared at the screen, his eyes bouncing between the two names. Then he pulled up Facebook and searched for them.
Only Andrea Johnson had a page and her short-cropped blonde hair was definitely not a match for his mystery woman.
"We have a winner," he whispered to the computer screen even as he opened the document again and added the woman's name to her description. He also noted that she worked at the Twelfth, a precinct not far from the coffee shop he had seen her in. "Now stop before this gets too stalker-y and go to bed, Rick."
It took willpower to shut down the laptop, plug it back into the charger on his desk. He wouldn't go stake-out the police station until she emerged, but perhaps, if he kept showing up to that coffee shop, she'd return.
Besides, he liked the thrill of the secrecy of this whole deal. Like living out one of his stories.
He changed into pajamas and snuck to the edge of the bed. Meredith was curled in the center of the bed, both pillows yanked together under her head. He shook his own head as he slipped under the covers and scotched closer to her, pulling his pillow back toward him just as Meredith twisted to rest her head on his arm with a little smiling sigh.