Disclaimer: The wording is mine but the characters aren't
Now you might see why I never shared this. Andrew Marlowe used cuffs about three weeks after I wrote this part.
OOOOOOOOO
She started off for the break room, unable to take all the other cops staring at them handcuffed together. Coffee sure as hell wasn't going to solve the problem, but it was an escape.
She felt some resistance before Castle snapped back to reality and began following her.
OOOOOOOOO
He was sure she was angry with him. She didn't talk and she didn't look at him. She just ignored him. He had to admit that wasn't too unusual, but it was surprisingly painful when he was literally chained to her side.
"You want to talk about this?" He asked when they had planted themselves down with coffee and the table as a barrier between them.
"No."
"Cool."
They went back to staring at their mugs. He could see her getting grumpier by the second.
"I'm sorry," he said finally. If they were going to be chained together, he felt it was in his best interest to head off a full-scale eruption.
"Castle," her voice was warning.
"We don't have to talk about it," he said defensively, "I just wanted to say I'm sorry."
He fell silent and they spent another full minute ignoring each other again. He watched her face as the wheels in her mind worked, thinking what he might have been talking about. He usually would have found the drama crossing her face amusing.
"For what?" She burst out.
He just frowned with a slight shrug. "I upset you, and then we failed the test."
The way he was taking all the blame on himself instantly banked her frustration.
"You mean the test where she told me to kiss you?" she asked directly, squashing her own feelings about it.
He shifted uncomfortably in his seat.
She looked at their left hands on the table between them.
When she didn't continue she saw him retreat back again, and she gave her a mental slap for letting herself hurt him. And logically…it's not like he had done anything wrong. He had even warned her he was going to prove he could be a gangster. It wasn't his fault that she couldn't deal with it. And it was true. He hadn't done anything. He hadn't even touched her as a gangster. Somehow that only made it worse.
Since when had talking to Castle been so hard? She had intended it as a rhetorical question for herself, but she got her reply almost instantly. Because she and Castle had never talked about their relationship. It was the one area protected by an unspoken treaty. And here was the result.
"Castle," she said awkwardly. "It wasn't your fault." When he didn't respond she continued on truthfully, cringing a little at having to say it out loud and face it. "She asked me to kiss you, not you to kiss me."
He finally raised his eyes to hers and it was her turn to shift in her seat.
Oh god, she mentally panicked. Are we really going to talk about this? What if he asked her why she didn't kiss him? God…I don't even know…He was Castle…Castle, so…
"But she was right," he sighed. "We couldn't pull off the act."
She thanked him with a small smile for the subject change. "And now we're in handcuffs," she sighed.
They both looked down at their hands. They were side by side on the table because as they sat on opposite sides of the table it was the only place they could comfortably rest them. Side by side, meeting each other halfway. Kind of symbolic. She knew this wouldn't escape the writer's attention.
"24hours," he said thoughtfully.
She looked up into his face and saw the worried look on it. It started her thinking about what he was worrying about. At that point the mental list stared. In just a few seconds, she had compiled a pretty long list.
"I don't suppose there is a spare key you could get from Esposito?"
"I thought about it," she admitted.
"But?"
"I lost the bet which means…"
"No bitching," he finished her sentence. They were quiet a few seconds longer. "I don't think it would be worth it anyway," he said suddenly. "If she caught us we would be dead."
"That was quite a little act she put on herself."
"She would be good in the box," Castle sounded a little admiring.
She rolled her eyes and stood up, trying not to use her left hand to push herself up.
"We going?" he asked rhetorically looking up and getting to his feet. He took both cups in his hands and stepped around the table awkwardly. She allowed herself to follow him to the sink where he deposited the cups. Then she turned and he followed her to her desk. It seemed almost normal. She had a brief second where she thought that maybe she wouldn't have to kill him after all.