Falling in Love at a Coffee Shop
He watched them drive away, the document still open on his desktop, waiting. The cursor blinked at him from the screen but he ignored it. From their conversation, one he still wasn't entirely convinced had happened and that he'd wake up anytime now, he'd learned a whole lot about this woman.
Like that she was a caffeine addict and that she went by Kate instead of the more formal Katherine. That she had some serious fashion sense and that she smelt faintly of cherries and vanilla, which had Castle wondering if it was shampoo or perfume or a combination of the two.
Though the winner on his list of new developments had to be the girl. Castle had not planned on that detail at all. Al, which had to be short for something because that was not a typical girl's name, was a mirror image of the cop. Curling brown hair that had streaks of dark blonde from time in the sun, still a little soft roundness around her cheeks but the hint of the same bone structure as her mother, and a startling ability to stand up for herself for her age. The only difference was those piercing blue eyes that he could have sworn saw right to his very soul, judging him from the inside out. Did her father have those eyes? Castle had to figure the answer was "yes" since Kate's were a warm hazel with no hint of blue in their shifting depths.
And no husband in the picture, at least for the moment. He didn't see her as divorced because who would let that woman go, but it was a possibility and would explain why she and her daughter were on their own. Castle sat back in the chair, taking a sip of his coffee as he puzzled this out. So the father was out of the picture, though he still wasn't sure if that was for good or if there were visits in a Barnes and Noble café before her father took her for the weekend.
She had said she had help with the girl. Her parents? Siblings? Friends? He wanted to think that the list included all of the above.
"Just more questions," he muttered, sitting forward and pulling the laptop closer to him.
Until he could answer them, he typed in the points that had been clarified while in line. He still wanted to know if there were brothers, doctor and musician or not, that she leaned on for help.
Her prime parking spot was gone so Kate parked in the garage. She took Al's hot chocolate so that the girl could carry her cookie tins on the walk from the garage to the precinct.
"Hi Peters!" Al called out, going to hit the button on the elevator before one of the detectives from Robbery could reach it. It was always a game, to see if she could beat someone to calling the elevator, one that she usually won through sheer speed or a flash of her smile. The detective didn't seem to mind, stepping back and looking over at Beckett.
"Hey there, Miss Beckett," the desk sergeant responded with a raised hand. "Keeping your mother in line?"
"Someone has to," the girl sighed dramatically as she stepped into the elevator right before Kate did.
The guy from Robbery glanced down at Al as he got off on the second floor, looking back up at Kate when the doors closed. She smiled, giving Al a little tug by the collar of her jacket closer to her leg, balancing the cups in her free hand and between her forearm and chest.
In her excitement to get off the elevator at the correct floor, Al nearly ran into one of the uniforms as they stepped in. The two dodged each other as Al ran around the divider at full-tilt, skidding to a halt next to her mother's desk.
"Hi boys!"
Both of whom were already on their feet and headed over to the girl.
"Hey Al," started Ryan, sitting on the edge of the desk as Al plopped into Kate's visitor chair, her feet dangling a few inches over the floor. "Good day at school?"
Kate grinned, leaning against the divider, her coat draped over her arm as she watched her co-workers socialize with the five year old. The boys had stood by her through some of her worst moments in the last half-decade. They'd seen her break down mid-way through the pregnancy, convinced her that she could do this when she had no faith in herself. They'd covered for her when Al had been sick as a newborn and needed to spend days in the hospital with the girl, both of them stopping by after shift to bring her food and company. They had taken on babysitting gigs when her father hadn't be available, playing dolls coming to them as easily as beating each other at Fantasy Football did and with no complaints about being seen as girly; Kate remembered a few times when they'd nearly come to blows over which of their Barbies looked better.
And Al adored them. Kate still got a kick out of the girl calling them "her boys" when in fact, Kate was certain that they both considered themselves "Al's boys."
"Mom! You gonna to come over?"
Al was looking across the bullpen from her chair, swinging her legs under the seat. What made Kate laugh was the similar expression of impatience on Ryan and Esposito's faces.
"Well if you insist," Kate said, walking over to sit in her own chair, putting her coat over the back, and pulling herself closer to the desk. "Are you going to hand out the cookies or make them suffer?" she asked, pushing one of the tins closer to her daughter.
"Suffering is always fun." Al was glancing between Ryan and Esposito, who were doing a stand-up job of masking their excitement at the prospect of food. "But I like you, so here." She popped one of the covers off and held the container out to the boys, making sure to keep it between them rather than favoring one of them. "But don't be pigs. Everyone needs to get some."
Both took a single cookie showing some incredible restraint. Kate knew they'd be the ones raiding the container in the break room after Al had disappeared, but she was happy to see them humoring the girl while she was there.
Esposito bit his first, then dramatically stumbled backwards, catching himself on the desk before he fell. Al was still halfway out of the chair, sprawled over most of Kate's desk in concern.
"Espo?"
"Sorry, sorry," he said, straightening. "Just blown away by how good this is."
Al sighed, sitting back into her seat. "You're silly. It's just a cookie."
Ryan shook his head. "No, Al. This is not just a cookie. This is a little piece of heaven."
"Mom, your boys are weird."
From over Al's shoulder, Esposito tossed Kate a wink before going to sit at his own desk, Ryan right behind him. "Tell me about it. Al, why don't you go see if Cap wants one?"
She got up, taking the open container of cookies and tucking it into her arm, and started toward Captain Montgomery's door. Then she paused, turning around and holding one out to Kate. "You need one before they run out."
"Thanks, kid," Kate said, placing the offered cookie on a spare napkin from her desk. "Go see Cap."
When Montgomery had risen, opening the door to his office to let Al in, Kate turned to Ryan and Esposito. "Anything new on the blotter?"
"All quiet on the front." Ryan had taken back the baseball from her desk and was tossing it to his partner. "The city must want it to be a nice visit for your daughter."
"How considerate," she said. A glance at her watch told her it was a little past one-thirty. Lanie might still be on her lunch break. "Can you guys watch Al for a little bit? I need to talk to Lanie."
Esposito shrugged, throwing the baseball to Kate, who caught it just before it flew past her head. "Yeah, no problem. Right Ryan?"
"No problem at all."
Kate smiled at them, giving Ryan the baseball on her way past his desk. "Thanks, guys." She knocked on Montgomery's doorframe when she reached it. "Hey, Captain."
"Your daughter has a career in the bakery business, Beckett," he said, waving the remaining cookie in his hand at her. "These are amazing."
Al took the container back from where she had placed it on the man's desk. "Grandpa did most of the work."
"Teamwork is always a good method," said Montgomery.
"Like Mom and her boys?"
The man grinned at the term, nodding. "Just like."
"Speaking of my boys, Al, you want to spend some time with them?" Kate asked, her hands hooked into the pockets of her pants. "I've got something I need to do for a little while."
"They'll let me bring cookies to the other people?"
"Definitely."
The girl gave Montgomery a last wave before bounding out of the office. "Then yes, I'll hang out with them."
"Something with the case?" he was asking, sitting back behind his desk. "Ryan and Esposito told me you were on paperwork for Kara."
Kate shook her head. "Something else with Lanie. The paperwork's nearly done. I'll have it filed by end of shift."
"Say hello to the medical examiner for me then."
She closed the door gently as she left. The boys and Al were already missing, bringing treats to the uniforms and detectives spread across the floor. Kate grabbed up her coat and keys, deciding this type of news had to be delivered in person rather than over the phone. Ryan and Esposito could entertain Al for hours, so a single one wouldn't be too much work for them, especially without a new case to work on.
"You save any of those cookies for me, Beckett?" asked Peters as she stepped off the elevator, swinging her coat on.
"I'm sure Al will be down with Ryan and Esposito to bring sugary heaven to you in a few minutes, Peters. New book?" she asked, the dark red cover unfamiliar.
He held it up, found that it was one of Patterson's that she had read ages ago. "Starting the series. Hopefully it'll keep me entertained until that Castle fellow gets his newest one out."
Kate managed to lift one shoulder noncommittally. "That series is good," was all she said before leaving to get to the morgue.
Since sitting at the coffee shop and staring at the document wasn't being very productive, Castle decided to switch around his previous story to fit the new facts.
He kept the brothers in, liking his characters for them even if they didn't exist in real life. After talking to her, he switched their occupations around. Instead of a doctor, the oldest went into the military, still helping people in the third world countries while serving his country. The youngest, though, stayed as a musician, toting his guitar from bar to bar in the back-towns of America.
Just as he scrolled down to the paragraphs of a story he had written for his mystery woman, his internet browser flashed, indicating a new e-mail. Castle clicked the button on the screen and immediately regretted the decision.
The e-mail was from Gina, demanding to know why the short story draft wasn't currently in her message inbox or on her desk at Black Pawn. There was a thinly veiled threat about kicking him out if said draft wasn't in one of the two listed locations by the next day followed by an overly-cheerful farewell.
Instead of opening the right folder and writing his ass off to get Gina off said body part, Castle decided to start over completely. Marlowe could pop up in another short story in the future. But right now, he had this lovely little biography of Kate Beckett and he wanted to use it.
Castle tapped his fingers against the table, frowning at the screen. Picking a name was always the hardest part of writing a story. He had tried writing without a name, but had never gotten far. He needed something to connect characteristics to and leaving blanks to fill in later hadn't worked for him. And this name was going to be important.
So he turned to his favorite source: baby name websites.
He started scrolling down the Top 1,000 names for the last few years, waiting for one to pop out at him. It was interesting to see what names people were choosing for their children these days as compared to years past. The fact that characters from Twilight were topping the list made him shiver, wonder where literature was going, and continue down the lists.
It didn't take him long to find the right one. There, about one hundred names in, was Nicole. "Victory of the people," he said to himself. "Nice."
In a new document, separate from Kate's short, albeit fictional, life-story Castle typed in the name. He didn't have a last name in mind and didn't need one. Nicole was a fine start.
Now to find her a murder to investigate.
Kate breezed down the hallways of the morgue, knowing her way from years and years of taking the same path, whether to see about evidence from a case or to gossip with her best friend. She was glad it was the latter reason today.
"Lanie, you won't beli-"
As she opened the door to the autopsy suite, Kate stopped in her tracks. There, next to a body, was Lanie. Not an unusual sight, though Kate had never walked in on her friend in the middle of weighing some unidentified organ as if it were nothing.
"What won't I believe?" she asked, not looking up from the scale as she read off the weight of the grey-pink lump of tissue.
Kate wrinkled her nose, not moving from the entrance of the room. "What is that?"
Lanie picked it back up and placed it in a blue bowl. "John Doe's liver. What won't I believe?" she repeated, taking her gloves off and tossing them into the trash.
She didn't beat Kate to the desk in the corner, but she did hook a thumb over her shoulder to indicate that the detective did not belong in her chair. Instead, Kate sat on the surface of the desk. "Who I met at the coffee shop after picking up Al from school."
"Who?"
Kate pulled her lower lip between her teeth, closing her eyes before speaking. "Richard Castle."
She was surprised not to hear her friend's jaw hit the floor. "Shut the front door!"