Falling in Love at a Coffee Shop
When he opened his eyes, Meredith was gone from under his arm. It wasn't a surprise since she was always an early riser. He'd find her lounging in the living room with a cup of coffee, reading the newspaper's style section and dog-earing outfits that she wanted. The copy would make its way to his study, strategically placed on his desk right where he could see it.
Rubbing a hand over his hair, he shifted to see what time it was by glancing at his phone. Nearly nine o'clock. Maybe Meredith wouldn't be here. She did have a meeting with her agent about the audition yesterday at ten and she might have decided to go grab coffee before heading to the office.
He got up and went to start the coffee machine in the kitchen. No sign of Meredith other than a handwritten note on the kitchen island letting him know that she'd be back sometime tonight. Something about a lunch date followed by a trip to the theatre with her girlfriends.
Alone for the day.
Castle took a shower before pouring a large mug of coffee and sitting at the desk in his study. He resisted the urge to open the document from last night with the information about the enigmatic Detective Katherine Beckett. A vow was made that as soon as he finished this short story, without mentioning the woman's likeness once, and sent it to his publisher for editing and he could pack up and head to the coffee shop to wait for her to appear.
His concentration only lasted twenty minutes. Then he found himself playing with the bouncy ball he found on his desk, throwing it against the bookshelf that divided the living room from the office and catching it. Marlowe was stuck in the mobster's house and Castle honestly had no idea of how to get the man out of the situation. While throwing a bouncy ball wasn't exactly helping figure things out, it was better than staring at his desktop knowing his publisher was going to slit his throat with a grin on her face when this draft didn't make it to her inbox by five o'clock tonight.
"Come on, man," he muttered, letting the bouncy ball hit the bookshelf, ricochet off the spine of a Fairstein novel, and roll toward the windows. "Just get this done."
He opened iTunes, found a playlist of rock-and-roll songs from the 80's, and started trying to get his character out of the house.
This time he made it ten minutes. He found himself on the phone with one of his connections, talking about finding Meredith a new agent since she was so obviously unhappy with her current one. He wasn't sure why, exactly, since the man was getting her decent roles in some big television shows and even a small role in a movie that had done well in the box offices, but if he could pull some of his strings to make her happy, he would.
By the time he had hung up with the fourth of his friends in the show business, Castle was fairly sure he had lined up two options for Meredith to look at when she got back from the theatre with her friends.
And still, Marlowe was staring down an Italian mobster with a gun against his temple.
If Meredith were at the loft, Castle might have her tie him down to a seat and watch as he tried to free himself in the name of character research. But the idea of being stuck alone in his apartment with his hands tied to the arms of his chair wasn't particularly appealing. But if Meredith were there, willing to break him free, maybe after some light teasing as she was wont to do, Castle would be all over that.
Instead of giving into temptation, closing the laptop, and moving to the coffee shop to stake out the counter, Castle moved to a different scene, deciding to work backwards to find out how he'd get out that way.
He'd change locations at noon. Grab lunch at one of the sub shops nearby before watching for Miss Skim Vanilla Latte at the shop.
Kate's phone rang as her set alarm went off from under the pillow. She pulled it out, dismissed the alarm, and rolled over to face the ceiling. She leaned her head on her palm and gave Al's shoulder, barely visible under the pile of sheets, a little wiggle.
"Hey, kid. Time to get up."
Al groaned, but sat up, pushing back her hair. "You gotta get up too."
"Oh so pushy," Kate muttered as her daughter jumped off the bed and headed toward the bathroom across the hall. She did get out of bed, stretching her arms over her head and hearing her back give a quiet crack. While Al brushed her teeth, Kate found her black pants and tugged them on. She'd run back to the apartment and change after dropping Al off at school.
Her father was already in the kitchen, scrambling eggs in one frying pan with bacon going in another. But what Kate could smell over that was the coffee. He had broken down and bought one of those single-serve Keurig and already had his cup made.
"Morning," he said, flipping over the sizzling bacon before turning to the eggs, sliding them from the frying pan into a large, shallow bowl.
Kate chose one of the little cups from her father's spinning rack, placing a mug under the machine, and hitting start. "You didn't have to make breakfast," Kate commented, reached around her father's shoulder to put bread into the toaster.
"I like cooking." He took a sip of his coffee, handing her the bowl of scrambled eggs. "I don't get to do it as often as I used to. You remember how much Mom loved making breakfast."
"That she did."
Kate was smiling when Al came into the kitchen, rubbing her eyes. "Do I have to go to school?"
"Yes. The sooner you eat breakfast, the sooner you'll get to school, which means you'll be visiting the boys even faster." Kate set a plate in front of Al, handing her a fork. "Eat up."
She took her cup of coffee back into the spare room, gathering up Al's clothes and her sweater and folding them on the bed after making it. She found a maroon and grey striped shirt in the drawers and figured Al could wear the jeans from yesterday again. Kate would just wear the black pants and sleep shirt back to the apartment before she changed.
She rejoined them in the kitchen, sipping the coffee as she spooned out scrambled eggs on an empty plate before stabbing some. "You haven't lost your touch, Dad."
"Glad to hear it." He pushed three pieces of bacon onto her plate, ignoring her glance that told him she could feed herself.
Kate still picked up one of the crispy bacon slices and bit into it. "Hey, Al. Clothes on the bed for today."
Al put her plate in the sink, reaching on her tiptoes to get it into the basin, then bouncing down the hall to get dressed. Kate figured the prospect of chilling with her overprotective uncles for the afternoon had her bouncing off the wall and pitied her teacher for the morning. Al was normally an energetic girl so the idea of seeing some of her favorite people would magnify that to epic proportions.
"You going to be okay, Katie?"
She looked up from the eggs on her fork at her dad. "Yeah. He's going away and not getting out. I'll be fine."
Al came back out, dressed and holding Kate's sweater under her arm. "Mom, can I borrow your scarf?"
"The grey one?"
"Yeah. It'll match my shirt."
Kate shrugged, pointing over toward the couch where the scarf lay on top of her jacket. "Go for it, my little fashionista."
The girl looped the soft grey scarf around her neck, playing with the fringe as she slipped her shoes on. "Gotta leave, Mom, or we'll be late."
"So glad you have her, Katie. You'd be lost without her keeping time for you." Jim was chuckling as he went to wash the dishes, adding soap to the frying pans before letting them sit in the hot water.
Kate added her plates to the suds, giving her father a shove on his shoulder. "Shush, you." Then she turned back to grab up her coat and put her shoes on. "Let's go, kid. Get you to school to do some more math."
"Eww…" the girl whined as she walked back to Jim and was enveloped in a hug. "I don't like math, Grandpa."
"Me neither," he responded, placing her back on the ground. "But then you'll see Espo and Ryan and Cap and give them the cookies we made." He handed her two containers of the cookies. "Give them all my best."
Her little salute was enough to have the man grinning. "Aye-aye, sir."
Kate gave Jim another hug, her arms squeezing his back before letting go. "I'll give you a call tomorrow sometime. I owe you."
"Of course you don't. Now go before my granddaughter pulls you from the place by your hair," he muttered, gesturing to Al as she tapped her foot against the hardwood floor. "Love you, Katie."
"Love you too, Dad."
As Kate swung her coat on, gathering up her sweater and a third tin of cookies, Al waved goodbye to Jim, waiting for Kate to open the door.
"Pick a CD, Al," Kate said, turning the car on and pulling into traffic. The girl handed her the Winnie the Pooh one that Kate had ejected from the player after listening to 'Little Black Raincloud' on repeat. She barely held back the roll of her eyes as she pushed the CD into the player, letting the theme song she had sung for Lanie fill the car, Al's voice joining in. It was going to be stuck in her head for the rest of the day…
The school parking lot was crowded but Kate parked a block away and walked Al up to the front door. The girl gave her a brief hug before running to catch up with her friends just inside the school building. Kate watched to make sure she was safely inside before turning to head back to the car. She needed to swing by the apartment, change her clothes, and get back to the precinct. A glance at her watch said she should have plenty of time.
She stuck to side roads, avoiding the worst of the traffic, and screeching to a stop outside her apartment building. It took her less than five minutes to get up the stairs, unlock her door, place the tin of cookies on the counter, pull off the sleep shirt and trade it for a loose blue-green button up over a charcoal camisole. Then she was back down in the car and retracing her route to the precinct.
Kate sensed a good day ahead when one of the few spots directly outside the precinct were open and she was able to pull in there rather than take the trek from the garage. She jogged up the stairs to the Homicide floor.
"Hey, boys," she said, taking her coat off and draping it over the back of her chair before sitting. "Got good news for you."
Esposito looked up first as Ryan continued to type for a few more seconds.
"Al's going to visit after she gets out of school."
"Yes!" was the simultaneous response before Kate held a hand up.
"And she's bringing cookies that she and my dad made last night."
The two men turned into squealing children at the prospect of sweets.
"Guys!" Kate had to shout a few times before they stopped fist-bumping and talking about food and turned to face her. "Can you update me on the case from yesterday?"
Ryan grabbed a folder, going to sit in the chair next to Kate' desk and handing it over. "His name's Stephen Kara. Forty-three years old, lived a few streets away from the park. He had been arrested for public indecency in the past but never registered as a sex offender."
She was flipping through the completed report, frowning as she read about the past arrests. "The system needs to straight out that whole registration thing."
"Anyway," said Esposito, "We got Kara to confess to all three cases, though the D.A. will only try for two life sentences for Jenna and Olivia, though they're going for twenty-five to life for Molly. They seemed pretty confident about it."
"Good." She placed the report on the pile. "Thanks, guys, for yesterday."
"Seeing that child of yours will more than make up for it," said Esposito.
Kate grinned, turning on her computer as the boys went back to their desks. "So glad my daughter can be used to get forgiveness from you two."
"That and the cookies she's bringing," added Ryan with a smile.