There was no way she could have worn a white shirt to work, but that wasn't her biggest problem.
Her biggest problem was that she needed a wild theory to solve this case. Castle had gone AWOL, she hadn't heard from him since this morning, despite numerous texts and calls. All of which made the delivery of her cup of coffee and a bear-claw with a signed paper napkin even more audacious. No note. Just his name scrawled in black permanent marker.
John Ackerman was dead and no route that Ryan, Esposito or she had explored had panned out. Okay, so the team was working down-a-man. A little desperate, she tried to think like he would.
Zombie, CIA, Ninja assassins . . . okay this was bad, she had landed on Ninja assassins for the sheer novelty of it. But then, John Ackerman had been shot, so it seemed unlikely. She made a face.
"Girlfriend has a record," Esposito approached her, infused a little hope, squelched it just as quickly, "for possession of marijuana . . . at age 18."
"That doesn't help much."
"This will," Ryan joined, "beneficiary of the life insurance? One Paula Johnston."
"Paula Johnston? Not the same Paula Johnston, Castle's Publicist?"
oxoxoxoxoxoxoxox
"Nikki Heat," Paula stuck her hand out to shake.
"Actually, it's Kate Beckett." It was a little too warm for her to be wearing a very necessary black turtleneck.
"Yes, of course I know that, where's our boy?"
Esposito snickered at that one. Kate was rethinking the need for a second detective on this visit.
"I'm sure he's off writing something." Even as Kate said it, she wondered for herself. "We're actually here to see you. Do you know a John Ackerman?"
"Jack? Sure. I do his public relations work, he's a writer, mostly historical romance stuff. Ladies love him. He uses a nom de plume."
"What is that Ms. Johnson?" Espo broke in.
"Ever heard of William Holden?"
Kate felt a hint of embarrassment. Oh, those kind of books. The kind that don't go out on the shelf for company to find.
Espo was reading her face, "According to the insurance company, you are his sole beneficiary."
"Jack is dead?" Paula looked horrified. "Shit." She sat down in the chair nearest her desk, covered her mouth with her hand.
"Anything you can tell us about that?"
oxoxoxoxoxoxoxo
When she got back to her desk there was another cup of coffee and a sandwich with an envelope. His name was written in a beautiful scrawl. That was all. Just his name. She smiled at the memory from this morning.
Where are you? She texted.
It took her half an hour to run William Holden and Paula Johnston through the databases and financials. Both came up clean. She checked her phone. Still no text from him.
Now she was irritated. Contact me or I am hunting you down, she texted.
ILY, was all he wrote. For all his ridiculous speeches, his drawn out theories, and his stories, he could only come up with a three letter text? It was enough for now, Ryan hovered.
"Turns out Paula was right, Ackerman . . . Holden, our vic's lawyer confirms, there is a codicil in the will, Paula gets the money, but she just distributes it to his charities. A children's fund, an environmental group and something called Jessica's Fund."
"Get me some background. And Espo? Did the girlfriend's alibi check out?"
"Oh, you mean his muse?" He smirked. "Yeah, her alibi checked out."
Beckett won their rather short staring contest.
oxoxoxoxox
At six, the bullpen was starting to thin out. She was up to her neck in financial records for Jessica's Fund, and something wasn't sitting right. She sent Ryan home and Espo was making phone calls in the bull pen.
She missed him. Her mind drifted back to this morning.
She had woken to a light tickling across her chest.
She was slow to adapt to morning. He knew that already, had known it long before they had started sleeping together. If her caffeine addiction didn't give her away, it would have been obvious from her consistent lack of breakfast.
Gradually conscious of his out -of- place presence, her intuition was suddenly very persistent. She opened her eyes to find him leaning over her, Sharpie permanent marker in hand.
"What are you doing?" She asked wide-eyed.
"Signing your chest." He said casually.
She sat straight up, clutching the sheet to her naked chest. He re-capped the pen as she looked at the scrawl now covering the curve of her breast. Looked up at him, horrified.
"What the hell Castle?"
He grabbed the back of her head and brought her forward to kiss her forehead.
"Just so you don't forget me today."
He was out of the room before she could respond.
oxoxoxoxoxoxoxox
She was still smiling at the memory, subconsciously rubbing her finger over the spot on her chest. Suddenly she was making a conscious decision. She was choosing him over the task at hand. She wanted to be with him. She bit her lip, rolled her eyes at her own ridiculousness. Her focus was fully shifted, what was he up to all day?
Esposito interrupted her thoughts, "Yo, Beckett, something you got to hear." He was not alone.
"This is Jessica Markus." He introduced Beckett across the interrogation room table. Adding,
"As in Jessica's Fund."
Oh.
"Ms. Markus, tell Detective Beckett what you told me."
The young woman looked nervous, hesitated before she started. "I had cancer as a child. Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia. My mom was single when we found out and completely terrified, but really it is the most curable of the leukemias. I've been in remission since I was 12."
Clearly this woman was in her early 20s, pieces were starting to come together in Beckett's mind. Why on earth would there need to be a fund for a cured cancer patient? Jessica continued.
"During that time, my mom met a man. Brian became my stepdad less than six months after they met. He's the one who started the fund in my name. Here's the thing Detective, I haven't seen him in years. I was shocked to find out that there was still a fund in my name. As far as I know, those medical bills were paid long ago."
An hour later she and Espo were visiting a judge with the search warrant to be signed. Two hours after that, evidence and confession in hand, the case was over.
At midnight she stumbled in the door of her apartment. On the ride home she thought about Rick. A whole day with so little contact, and they weren't even fighting.
Xoxoxoxoxx
He was curled up on her couch, papers littered the floor and coffee table. What on earth was he doing?
She slipped off her shoes, hung her coat and snuck a peek at the papers. They looked like contracts. Had he spent all day with his lawyers? God, she knows how bored he gets after a day with them, complained about it for a week the last time. Little yellow sign here flags were everywhere. She moved to grab the blanket off the back of the couch to cover him.
"Hey," he said sleepily.
"Go back to sleep, I'm gonna take a shower."
"Without me?" He grabbed her wrist, he was waking up, "I seem to recall you had a spot that needed extra attention to get clean."
"I think I can manage." She said flatly.
"Hold up, I've been waiting to talk to you for hours." He sat up, pulled her down to the couch. "I went to my lawyer today. I wanted to make some arrangements Kate."
"Arrangements?"
"Yeah, I just need you to sign some things." He handed her a pen.
"What is this?"
"Just making sure you get something from the royalties for Frozen Heat."
"Wait, why?"
"Because Kate, I want to make sure that you are taken care of financially."
She sat down beside him, "something you want to tell me?"
"Just creating motive should you ever make good on your threat to shoot me." He leaned in the meet her lips. She cupped his cheek and smiled as he pulled away.
"Come on now, I put my signature everywhere today, it's your turn."
"I haven't read any of these, and you want me to sign them at midnight?"
"Alright, I'll take out the one where you agree to be my sex slave."
She smirked and bumped his shoulder.
"No, leave that one in," she teased.
And then she was too preoccupied to sign them.
oxoxoxo
In the morning, she sat down with the documents in a giant pile. She did stop trying to read them midway through the stack, probably what he expected, until she reached a contract toward the bottom, the font style caught her attention and she flipped back from the page with the flag to see what it was.
An application for a marriage license for the State of New York.
His name was already signed. She noted her personal data was already filled in. She hesitated a moment before signing in her neatest handwriting, returned the signed stack to him nonchalantly as he sat in the chair by her desk. He didn't mention it then and neither did she. They'd been here before; he had a secret and so did she. This time she was sure it would end in a much less anxiety-producing reveal.
He'd signed across her heart so she'd signed across his.
oxoxoxoxoxox
A/N: Okay readers (my muses), this is a first in my summer hiatus experiment. No angst Season 4.5, C and B together quasi-fluff pieces where I attempt an actual PLOT (I know, even I thought that was crazy). This is just a little taste, if you like it, hit the review button so I know someone's reading it. If you hate it, send me an anonymous review.