Falling in Love at a Coffee Shop
The white board was a mess. Handwriting, scribbled out in whatever color marker the owner's hand managed to grab from the well, covered most of the surface. They had interviewed co-workers and visitors that some of the uniforms snagged from the museum who claimed to be frequent visitors and might know something. No one knew anything.
Ryan and Esposito were hitting up some of their informants with fingers crossed that one of them was willing to spill on a priceless viola hitting the market today. Apparently there was quite a market for Stradavari instruments that might have been stolen from a museum.
"I'm gonna call Demming. See if he has anything new," Kate decided, setting the half-empty coffee mug down and picking the phone up.
Castle scowled but focused on his own phone as he was in the middle of a heated game of Words with Friends against some of his mystery buddies. His fingers might have been hitting the letters of the keyboard a little harder than needed but he didn't seem to care much for the safety of his phone.
"Demming, it's Beckett. Just wondering if you've…"
She heard her own voice echoing, a few seconds of delay. When she looked up, Demming was rounding the corner, phone falling from his ear.
"Hey," Kate said, hanging up the desk phone and spinning around to face him.
"Hey. I was just coming up to give you some stuff we found on a canvass of Paulhardt's apartment building." Demming edged onto her desk, his hip pushing aside some of their notes and folders piled on the corner. "Apparently there was a music student living in the building."
"So?" Castle spoke up, eyes stuck on Demming in a narrow glare that had both Kate and Demming blinking at him.
"So, the student wanted a job with Paulhardt at the museum and Paulhardt constantly turned her down. Said she wasn't right for the job." Demming leaned over, hand braced on the desk until he could see the white board. "Doesn't look like you have her up on the list there. Care to come with me and interview her, Detective?"
Kate let her eyes drift back to Demming from where she was scanning the board. Again, he was much closer than expected and Kate caught the hint of cologne, too strong. "Uh," she started, glancing at the clock in the corner of her computer screen. Al needed to be picked up and she hadn't told her dad that she couldn't get her. "I can't."
"Can't?" Demming quirked a brow, moving further away, back on the edge of the desk and not leaning across it. Withdrawing. "I can give you a ride if that's the issue."
She grabbed her keys, getting up. "Not the problem. I just, I need to do something first. Give me an hour?"
"I got it," Castle said, plucking the keys from her hand before she could tighten her grip. Dancing away from her reaching hand, he shook his head. "I'll handle this. Go interview people with Demming."
The three of them took the elevator down to the garage, a tense ten second ride from the fourth floor to below street level. Castle tried to twine his fingers with Kate's and after three attempts that had failed, she finally let him capture her hand against his thigh.
"Careful with the car, Castle," Kate reminded him as she broke off with Demming for his vehicle. "Last thing I need on my record is you breaking laws in my unmarked."
He jingled the keys. "Promise, Beckett. Good luck," he called as they headed in the opposite direction. He noted that Demming was edging closer than usual to Kate, that she laughed for a second before stifling the sound with the press of the back of her hand to her mouth.
Arrogant bastard, Castle thought as he found Kate's car and got in.
He was sitting in his chair, Al having claimed her mother's in order to spin in slow circles. She had the baseball that made the rounds of the bullpen in her hands.
Kate and Demming weren't back yet and Castle refused to let his writer's imagination run wild. Still, all he could picture in the darker, completely unrealistic corner of his mind was the two detectives flirting over coffee, giggling.
"Catch, Rick!" Al shouted suddenly, throwing the baseball at him.
The thud of the ball against his chest jolted Castle from the image of his… of Kate and Detective Slicked-Hair-and-Chiseled-Jaw sharing coffee. "Oof. Careful there, kid. I'm breakable."
Al fumbled off of Kate's chair, climbing up into Castle's lap a moment later to butt her head against his shoulder, laughing loudly enough to draw attention to them from around the bullpen. "No, you're not, silly!"
"You attacking my partner, Al?"
Castle had never been so happy to hear her voice. Looking over Al's head, he saw Kate getting off the elevator, Demming following her with a grin. "She is. Rescue me, Beckett!" Castle said dramatically, slumping in the chair as Al struggled to get off of him. "Vicious child!"
Kate ruffled Al's hair as she walked by on the way to the whiteboard. "You can handle yourself, Castle." She picked up the red marker, crossing off two of the names on their list. "Demming, this is my daughter, Al. Kid, that's Tom."
Still happily settled against Castle's chest, Al waved at Demming. "Hi, Tom!"
Castle's arm tightened around Al's waist, protective of the girl as Kate nibbled on the tip of her thumb, studying the board. Demming crouched in front of the chair, smiling at Al. "Hey there, Al."
The urge to get up, run to the break room with Al on his hip, and dragging Kate behind him was overwhelming. He wasn't worried, Castle told himself. He wasn't worried that Kate was going to abandon ship and go off into the proverbial sunset with a man she just met today. But damn, those cavemen-esque instincts of protecting his women were kicking in.
"You know, you remind me a little of my Nick."
That had Castle blinking in surprise, abandoning the other option he had been playing with: capturing Kate in one of those Gone with the Wind kisses with Kate bent over his arm as he very publicly claimed the woman as his. Instead, he loosened his grip on Al's waist, letting her squirm forward to listen to the other man.
"Who is Nick?" Al asked, curiosity painted all over her face.
Demming sat back on his heels, one hand on Kate's desk for balance. "Nick's my son. He's got all these blonde curls," Demming said, reaching out to tweak one of Al's brown ringlets, making her giggle, "and big brown eyes."
Kate sat at her desk, pulling her own notebook closer to write down their findings. On a glance over to Castle, she caught his confused expression and only shrugged. "I'm going to get coffee. Want some, guys?"
When Castle raised his brows, she nodded. "Up we go, Al. Take over the command of the bridge," she said, setting Al on the desk chair. "Demming, you want something?"
The man stood, moving toward Castle's chair but stopping as soon as he saw Castle's glare. "Uh, coffee would be great, actually. Thanks." He leaned against the desk, already back into the story he was telling about the time his son got A.J. Burnett's signature on a baseball he caught on a home run.
Kate managed to elude Castle's reaching fingers until they got to the break room. As she pulled down three mugs, his hand slipped under her t-shirt again, five lines of warm pressure against her stomach, tugging her back against him.
"What's gotten into you?" she asked, a clip in her tone that told him that she was more than a little annoyed.
"You're fawning over him."
She turned, batting his hand away and immediately missing the heat. "Fawning? Over Demming? Castle, are you insane?"
He narrowed his eyes, shifting away to block her exit from the break room. "No. But I saw how you looked at him, Kate. What's going on?"
"Nothing. Nothing is going on between Demming and me. We're working a case together." She poured coffee out, adding milk and sugar to hers and stirring with one of the metal spoons piled in a drawer. "Departments have to work together when cases overlap. We don't know how to work robberies just like they don't know how to work homicides." Sliding her cup aside, she started putting sugar in Castle's mug, mixing it in. "And what do you mean, how I looked at him?" she asked, turning her eyes enough to see him in the corner.
"All flirty and… stuff," Castle said, losing steam and letting his hands fall to his side again. "You were flirting with him!"
"I was not."
"Then what was with the little glances, the smiles?" Castle pushed off from the counter, pacing the length of the room. "I'm not making those up, Kate. I'm not paranoid."
She sighed, tossing the spoon into the sink to wash later. "You want to know?" He raised a brow as if to say 'duh' so she nodded back toward her desk where Demming was entertaining Al with a game of catch. "He's divorced, raising their son alone. Nicholas is seven, a little older than Al, and Demming only gets to see him on the weekends, the rare holiday. It sucks." Kate shook her head, tucking the escaped strand of hair from the motion back behind her ear. "I can't imagine only getting to see Al on the weekends. The situation's different, with me not having a clue who Al's dad is, but single parenthood is the same all around. We shared stories, troubles we both faced.
"But, Rick," Kate said, touching her fingers to his wrist, drawing his eyes back up to hers. "That's it. Remember? No running. Either of us."
"Okay," he muttered, turning his hand over to let his fingers tickle her palm. "Okay."
He wasn't smiling, eyes still fogged with sadness and uncertainty and heartache. So she braced her free hand on the counter to boost up, feathering a kiss over his lips, breaking her rule. "He's a good guy, Rick. You don't need to like him, but try to be civil? At least until we close up this case."
Castle squeezed her fingers, releasing them to trail them down her neck. "You find anything out doing interviews with the musician?"
"Yeah. The girl's missing and her school has no idea where she is." Kate pours out the last cup of coffee, replacing the pot on the hot plate. "Got to go put out an APB and hope that someone sees her, calls it in." She picks up her mug, Demming's cup, and starts back toward her desk, brushing past him with a whispered "Behave."
"And that's how Nick got hold of Barnett's home run ball," Demming was finishing with a grin, tossing the baseball back to Al, softly so that she could catch it against her chest. "Pretty cool, huh?"
"Very cool," Kate said, handing him the mug. "It's just black; I wasn't sure how you took your coffee."
Demming smiled, blowing across the surface of the liquid to cool it. "Black, actually. Your daughter is a charmer, Beckett. Must be in those genes."
Kate scooped Al up, sitting on the chair before settling Al on her lap. "I'm rather fond of her, you know," she said, pressing a kiss to Al's cheek. "You two talk baseball the entire time, kid?"
"Can we go to baseball?" Al asked, eyes lighting up. "I want to go to baseball!"
"Sure. Maybe this weekend for your birthday? As a present?"
"Yes!" She turned back to Demming, holding up two hands, six fingers. "I'm turning six."
Demming grinned, sipping at the coffee. "All grown up. Listen, Beckett, I'm going to go back downstairs, work on narrowing down our lists. Let me know if anything hits on the APB on Charlotte Fairstein?"
"Will do. Thanks, Demming."
As she types out the APB to send to the precincts, Port Authority, and the airports, Al babbled about baseball to Castle, spinning the ball in her hands.
"Al, wherever did your love for such a silly game come from?" Castle wondered, nudging Al's leg with his knee.
She tossed the ball at him, hitting him in the chest before Kate could grab her arm. "Al! No throwing without telling!"
"Mom," she whined, turning to pin Kate with eyes that shone with tears. "He said baseball was silly! S'not silly!"
"No, it's not. But we don't throw things. Okay?"
Al stared at her defiantly for a few seconds before nodding. "'Kay."
Kate nodded toward Castle. "Apologize to Rick, Al."
"Sorry, Rick," she mumbled, twisting the corner of Kate's blazer in her hands. "Didn't mean to throw."
"Accepted, kid," he said, handing the baseball back to her. "I still want to know about the Beckett women's fascination with baseball."
Kate shrugged. "Genetic. Dad loves the game and I sort of grew up on it. Al and I haven't been to a game in years. But we'll go this weekend, see our pinstripes win again, right?"
"Right!" Al said, tossing her hands in the air, baseball staying safely in her lap. "Rick! Can Rick come to baseball, Mom?"
"If he wants," she said, taking the baseball and putting it back on her desk. "Ask nicely and see if he will."
The phone rang, interrupting Al's impassioned plea for Castle to join them at the baseball game. "Beckett. Really? No, that's great. We'll have someone meet your guys in the lobby. Thanks."
"Mom! Mom, he said 'yes' so can he come with us?"
She smoothed Al's hair down, nodding. "Definitely. Maybe Grandpa will be free, too."
"And Martha!"
"We'll see if Martha is around." She looked over her daughter's head at Castle. "Charlotte turned herself in at a different precinct out of guilt. They're transferring her over to be processed."
"Why'd she do it?" he asked quietly, unsure if Al needed to hear all the gruesome details of murder.
Kate shrugged instead. "We'll find out once she gets here. Ryan and Esposito can take the interview. Need to get this girl home and to bed!" she said, bouncing her knees so that Al squealed with delight. "Start planning the baseball game."
"Rick coming with us?" Al asked as Kate gathered up the keys and files that she wanted to finish writing up that night. Her D5s were mostly done, expedited with Castle around to read the information off to her as she typed, but there were a few left dangling. Working through the details before sitting down to write up the reports would be faster than trying to organize them on the spot.
Kate arched a brow at the man, a grin teasing at the corners of her mouth. "So? You coming home with us, Castle?"
"Duh. No where I'd rather be," he said.
"Let me just call Demming, let him know this is as good as closed," Kate said, digging in her pocket for the Post-It with the other detective's number on it. She walked away, dialing the number into her cell, holding a single finger up to Castle. It took less than a minute for her to return, tucking her phone back in her pocket. "Alright, team. Lift-off!"
On the walk to the elevator, Al between them, Kate finally let Castle snag her hand, raising it up to kiss the base of her thumb. Al ran ahead to press the elevator button, grinning at one of the uniforms waiting for the elevator as well.
"I never doubted you, Kate. You know that, right?"
Kate ran her thumb over his lower lip, nodding slowly. "I know. It was kinda sweet, seeing you try to defend my honor."
"Try? I think I did more than try," he returned, mildly offended as he grabs hold of Al's sleeve to stop her from running into another person already in the car.
"Oh yes, because all of the oh-so-subtle touches were definitely firming up the fact that we're together for the world to see. Must be the male genes that see that as defending a woman's honor."
"That must be it," he murmured, mouth just a little too close to her ear for public. "Thank you for correcting me, Detective."
Picking Al up onto her hip to keep the girl with them in the busy lobby of the precinct, Kate gave him a little nudge with her elbow. "That's the woman's job, right, Al? Be the one who is always correct."
"Duh," Al said, giving Castle a tiny push with her hand against his bicep. "We're always right."
"So glad I have all these women to keep me in line," he said, flicking Al's nose. "How ever would I survive?"
"Well, you'd be wrong. A lot." The comment earned Kate a heated look that she smiled at. "And probably still running around with a club and hunting mammoths."
"Oh, you wound me!"
Kate ducked her head to Al's, brown curls blending with brown curls. "So dramatic. Must get it from his mother," she said before stepping out into the garage before Castle.
"That's right. You better run."