Kate watches Fringe

On the elevator ride down Castle could tell this was serious. Kate had called an hour ago for him to come meet her at her building, and on her day off no less. She was on edge all day yesterday, and Castle could pinpoint exactly when this sudden drive had started to simmer: after she checked her phone during lunch. Hardly said a word afterwards, aside from wrapping the case up with a fervor he hadn't seen since she got back on her mother's case after getting shot. But this was different, and of course he would be able to tell.

As they rode down in silence—a very loud silence on his part because who wouldn't be horribly curious as to what this woman was up to?—Castle fidgeted and cast glances at her in a not subtle way. Finally it worked and she turned her determined gaze on him.

He asked, blurted really, "What's going on?"

"We're going to California."

Castle blinked. California? Again? Against orders? Is that why she's going on a day off? Nothing had happened that required they take a trip to California, and the movie premiere wasn't for another few months, and, briefly, he imagined an entirely not plausible scenario in which Beckett—Kate—was dragging him off to…

Another glance at her face, fierce and frightening in that cute way, cut off that fantasy in its tracks. This had to be work related in some way.

Castle suddenly paled, his finger numb. She hadn't found another lead without him, had she? About her mother? Did…had she also been looking at the case behind his back? She wouldn't, would she? She didn't want to fall down that rabbit hole again, she'd said before, but what if…what if she was tired of waiting?

In a dizzying swap, his whole body swung from cold and numb to warm and very not numb and excited and maybe more than a little terrified and other things he didn't want to name at the moment

He worked moisture into his mouth before asking as calmly as he could, "Sooo what's in California this time?"

Her jaw clenched, flexed, and she opened her mouth but the elevator doors dinged so she darted out like a woman on a mission and all Castle could do was follow like he always did, always would.

They climbed into her waiting car and she shot them into traffic slightly more recklessly than normal.

Castle was about ready to burst, beg her to tell him what was going on, when she sighed a long-suffering sigh that really did nothing to assuage his nerves but he'd take it anyway.

"We're going to California to speak with someone," she said, strangling the wheel.

From his angle Castle spotted the case in the backseat where her gun was stored for travel across state lines in an airplane. She was really serious.

"Beckett. Kate."

"They're canceling it, Rick! Alright? It's not—" Beckett took a deep breath, let it out, and whipped the car into the next lane to take an upcoming turn. "It's not been announced yet, not officially, but it's on good authority. I want to make sure that doesn't happen."

Chest tight, leaning forward from the pull of sudden braking, Castle stared at her profile. "What? Who's canceling what?"

A lip-gnawing pause. Another breath. Then a growl, "Fringe. FOX might not renew it." She shot the car forward the moment the light turned green. "They're not doing this to me again."

Mildly edited version of what was posted on Tumblr.

Sometimes I don't even know what is going on in my own head.

'Tis a lovely place nonetheless.