Feeling good today, so I am updating both Coffees and Bricks, and Arise. Thanks to everyone reviewing and favoriting, etc. It makes my day!
Kate was still asleep two hours later when Castle put the last touch to their dinner, while Alexis was finishing mixing up the salad. "Are you going to let her sleep through dinner?"
The teenager had arrived an hour before and, if she had been surprised to found the detective asleep on their couch, she hadn't said anything. It didn't take a genius to know that the woman was going through a rough time, and if spending time with them at the loft was making her feel better, than Alexis was all for it.
Castle sighed as he shot the couch a look, hesitating at what he should be doing. "Maybe I should let her sleep a bit more."
Alexis caught her father's look and smirked, grabbing the salad and walked to the dining room table. "She's been sleeping for over three hours, dad. Are you afraid?"
"Me? Afraid of a tiny, sleeping woman? Who am I kidding, I'm terrified." Castle whispered in his daughter's ear, grinning. "Be a good girl and go tell her dinner's ready."
"What? She's your girl- um, your friend, you go." Alexis stammered and pushed her father to the living room, putting an end to the discussion. "She needs to eat, dad, so go while I put everything on the table."
Castle rolled his eyes but obeyed nonetheless and resolutely closed the distance separating him from his partner. She hadn't even moved from the last time he had checked on her, and that was telling the man just how much she had been pushing herself to the limits ever since coming back to work.
The man wasn't kidding himself, he knew there was more to Kate's problems than she was letting on, and he was willing to bet that sleep was one of them.
As he watched her sleep, he wondered what he could do to help. She had therapists to help with the rational and the physical part of what had happened to her and, if she and Dr. Burke were probably working on her emotional issues as well, it killed Castle to know that the woman he loved went back to her apartment alone to deal with everything day after day.
He didn't know what to do, but he could at least make sure she had at least one homemade meal in her today. His eyes drinking in the woman's peaceful features one last time, Castle reached out and ran small circles over Kate's hand as he tried to wake her up calmly. "Kate?"
He had to repeat her name two more times but the detective's eyelids finally fluttered open, her eyes darker than usual and completely unguarded. It took Castle everything to keep himself from running a hand through her slightly mussed hair and lie down on the couch with her, and have her in his arms again. "Hey."
"Hey. I fell asleep?"
"Yeah, you did. I'm beginning to think you've accepted my offer only to have a comfy couch to take a nap on." Castle chuckled and fell back on his butt as he moved back to avoid getting slapped by the detective's hand. "I'm sorry, Castle, I didn't mean to."
"The nap or the slap?" Castle smiled as he realized his hand was still clutching Kate's, and that neither of them seemed to be willing to let go. "Do you feel better?"
Kate took a deep breath and moved to sit up, frowning as Castle used their joined hands to help her up. "Yeah, actually."
"Then it's all good. Why, you seem surprised?"
"I don't...it's nothing, I don't really sleep well these days, that's all." Kate dismissed the comment with a wave of the hand and tried to get up but Castle tugged on her hand, pulling her back on the couch. "I don't mean to pry and please tell me if it's none of my business, but couldn't you...ask for something, you know to...help?"
Kate sighed and glanced at the window to her left, noting with a frown that it was dark out. Just how long as she been out? "I do have something but I don't like taking them unless I really have to, they completely knock me out when I take them."
"Like that day you weren't answering your phone and it freaked the hell out of us?" Castle gently brought up after a moment, remembering one morning a few weeks back when Esposito had called him to meet on a case only to be told once on the scene that Beckett couldn't be reached. The man had been about to jump in a cab when the Latino detective's cell rang with Lanie on the line saying that she was over at Kate's and that she was fine, just exhausted and hadn't heard her phone.
"Yeah." Kate omitted to reveal that she hadn't taken anymore of those pills ever since because she'd rather deal with insomnia and nightmares than to put through her friends through that kind of worry again.
"Oh. Okay. So I guess Lanie knows too then?"
"Yeah. But she won't say anything to the boys or Gates, so the same goes for you. Not. A. Word."
Castle nodded although keeping secrets from his friends, especially Esposito, felt wrong. "Trust my word, I won't talk." He promised with a squeeze of her hand before pulling her up to her feet. "So, hungry? Alexis and I made dinner."
Kate froze at the mention of his daughter. Both women were talking again but it was still awkward between them, as if they didn't know how to act around each other. At least it's how Kate felt, with the way the teenager had spoken to her the last time they had been alone. "Alexis?"
Castle looked around in the kitchen, where her daughter was nowhere to be found. "Yeah, she must be in her bedroom or something, she was putting everything on the table when I came to wake you up. Alexis?"
Castle missed Kate's cringe at his loud voice and stood awkwardly beside the table, waiting for the man and his daughter to show up. Alexis trotted down the stairs moments later, phone in her hand. "Sorry, Paige had a question about our algebra homework. Hey Kate, I hope you're hungry because my dad made way too much, as usual."
"Starving." Kate admitted as she sat in front of Alexis and to Castle's left side, the teenager's casual and friendly greeting throwing her off a little. "So, you're taking algebra this semester? I hated every math, algebra and statistic class I had to take in college, I sucked at them."
Alexis smiled as they all started digging in their plates. "I'm not too fond of them either, but our teacher, Mr. Melville, is really great and he uses all kind of fun examples to makes it easier to understand."
"That sounds like fun. In my time it was 'learn, don' talk' and 'don't fall asleep in class if you didn't want to end up in detention for a month'."
Castle laughed and poked Beckett in the arm and retreating before she had a chance to retaliate. "Yes, because you are so old. Now if you told me you had to get up at the break of dawn and walked for hours to go to school and had to learn in borrowed, musty old books, now that would make you old."
"Oh, you mean like in your time, dad?"
Kate's laugh echoed through the kitchen, as well as in the Castles' hearts.
Esposito and Ryan were in separate rooms questioning suspects by the time Beckett made it to the precinct the next morning, not long after nine. Letting them do their jobs she leaned against her desk and set her eyes on the murder board, studying every new detail that was added after her abrupt departure the day before.
From what the detectives had found so far, prime suspects were Victoria's ex-girlfriend Jessie Rowlands and Jessie's brother Thomas. Both girls had been seen fighting a lot over the past couple of weeks before Victoria broke things up, and Thomas Rowlands was known from the law enforcement for previous assaults, death threats and trespassing, as well as being over protective of his sister.
Beckett was still memorizing the board when Esposito came up behind her an hour later, a thick file in his hands. "Beckett."
"Esposito." She greeted him softly, "got any new leads?"
The Latino detective handed her the file and went to the board, taking Jessie's picture and removed it from the suspect side. "The ex-girlfriend's alibi checked out. She was at work during time of death and has several witnesses that can confirm it. Ryan is still with the brother but his alibi sounds strong too."
"Do we know why she was at the shooting range?"
"None so far but we're still looking into it." He stopped and watched her intently, surprised when she only held his stare for a few seconds before looking away. "Okay."
"We're about to go and interrogate her professors and students, see if anyone knows or saw something."
Kate glanced at her colleague and nodded, taking the file to her desk to finish reading it. "Beckett?"
"Javi, I'm fine, I promise." The detective locked eyes with her friend and let him stare as much as he wanted to, not shying away this time. The man must have seen something he liked because he graced her with a small grin as he leaned on her desk. "Care about going back to school?"
The powerful smell of ammonia and bleach assaulted Castle as he made his way to the morgue. Lanie had texted him and since he had some time to kill since Beckett and Esposito had gone to questioned students at NYU, he decided to take advantage of the impromptu time alone to pay the M.E. a visit.
The autopsy room was empty when he came in, and the girl's body was nowhere in sight either. Castle was looking around and, bored, texted Beckett to see what she was doing. "Hey, writer-boy."
"Gah! You don't sneak up on people in a room full of dead bodies!" Castle snapped around and almost dropped his phone as he glared at Lanie for scaring the heck out of him.
Lanie smirked and shrugged, happy to have startled the man. "What are you doing here, Castle?"
It was Castle's turn to shrug. "You tell me, you're the one who texted me."
Lanie stared at him, her eyes suddenly serious. "Is Kate okay?"
Castle didn't know where to start; he hesitated about voicing the shock he had when he first saw the body in case she'd think he was crazy. And as for Kate... "Yeah, she is. But why don't you ask her yourself?"
"She won't talk, you know that. You both left the scene yesterday, Castle, and from the looks of it it took you guys long enough to actually leave the place. It didn't look like she was okay to me."
"It's not as bad as last time, Lanie. She's not 'fine' fine, but she's dealing. We talked last night. She told me... about still seeing a therapist."
Castle thought he saw relief flash through the M.E.'s eyes but it was gone so fast he couldn't be sure. "She talked to you?"
"Yeah." Castle was exhausting again, the conversation bringing back the heartfelt discussion he had with the woman he loved last night. He debated about what he could tell Lanie, not wanting to break Kate's trust, but also knowing that the doctor was as worried at him about her friend. "I managed to convince her to come home to have dinner with Alexis and I and the talking kind of happened after she had to refuse the drink I was offering her."
Lanie's gaze startled and met the writer's. "She told you about...?"
Castle shook his head, recalling the day before. "She showed them to me. She said they're helping but I think part of why she got so upset at the precinct yesterday was because they didn't work as much as she want them to. Did you know she was wearing earplugs at the range yesterday?"
"I was wondering about that because her hearing wasn't as sharp as usual but no, I didn't know. Javi told me about her biting Ryan's head off after." Lanie admitted in concern. "Wait, she went home with you?"
"Yes. She even took a nap for a couple of hours and ate almost as much as me, which is a tremendous improvement from last time, if you ask me." Castle hoped he wasn't overstepping Kate's trust, but he knew that Lanie was worried as everyone else, if not more. He kept to himself the fact that the detective had napped in his arms, but he didn't see the harm in sharing good news with his friend.
Judging by the bright eyes and the pleased grin Lanie graced him with, he had made the right decision to tell her. "Don't repeat any of this to her though, my safe word can only take me so far."
Lanie laughed and quirked an eyebrow at the man. "Safe word, huh?"
Castle could still hear her laugh through the basement's hallways as he left in search for his favorite detective, a grin on his face.
"Is it me or this is just one big waste of time?"
"It's not just you," Beckett agreed on Esposito's dry words, sighing tiredly. They had just spent the last two hours running around NYU's campus and the main building where Victoria Stanford attended her classes with no concrete results. "Did we talk to everyone?"
"Um, yeah everyone but Damian Walberg. He's a TA in the vic's contemporary lit class; Jessie Rowlands said that he had a crush on Victoria for a while until she told he wasn't her...type."
"Oh. Talk about awkward." Beckett frowned and glanced down as her phone vibrated against her thigh. There was a message from Lanie, asking her to have lunch with her. She typed an apology before biting her lip and deleting everything, starting over. She quickly answered that she'd meet the M.E. in an hour before she chickened out and shoved her phone back in her pocket.
Esposito was watching her closely when she turned back to him, his gaze loaded. "What?"
Kate figured out in no time what the man was doing and glared in annoyance. "Cut it out, Espo."
"What?"
"I know what you're doing! I'm fine, okay? Stop looking at me like I'm going to lose it again unless you really want me to go psycho."
The detective closed the distance separating him from Beckett and locked eyes with her. "That wasn't why I was looking at you. I was about to talk to you about Lanie."
"Oh." Kate blushed and was suddenly mortified about her outburst. She had just showed how unstable she still felt to her colleague and surrogate brother and wished she could take it back, but from the concern in Esposito's dark eyes, there was no way he was going to act as if nothing had happened. "Javi, please..."
Esposito opened his mouth to talk but a movement to his left caught his eye. About twenty feet away was Damian Walberg, busy chatting and laughing with a small group of girls. "Beckett?"
Both set of eyes checked the small picture in the Latino detective's phone before sharing a glance. At 6'2", 195 pounds and bright red hair, Damian Walberg was easy enough to spot.
One short, silent discussion between the two detectives and they walked in the TA's direction, splitting as they reached an alcove, Beckett going straight for the student while Esposito rounded the alcove to the right in case the man made a run for it. "Damian Walberg?"
Green eyes snapped to Beckett and stood still as she walked closer. "Damian, I'm detective Kate Beckett, NYPD. I have a couple of questions to ask you regarding the death of Victoria Stanford... Hey!"
Kate had barely finished talking that the man fled, his school bag swaying on his back. She rolled her eyes as she took off after him, more than pissed. She couldn't understand why people kept making a run from the police every time they were being asked questions, thinking they could escape.
Both detectives drew their weapons and sprinted, quickly gaining ground on the suspect despite both of them being shorter, and one of them wearing four-inch heels. Choruses of 'sorry', 'out of the way' and 'police' echoed through the campus as Kate and Esposito raced the suspect, students getting out of the way but no one attempting anything to stop him.
Walberg pushed the people in his way to buy some time but he must have felt the cops closing on him because he suddenly turned left and ran along the building, aiming for the flight of stairs that would take him straight down into the crowded street.
What he hadn't planned was that Beckett was much faster than he could have anticipated. Kate had seen where he was headed and gave a final push as she tried to catch him before he reached the stairs, knowing she wouldn't be able to follow him without stumbling and breaking her neck on the concrete. She was quickly gaining ground on him, the countless hours spent over the last months running and training to get back to her original strength making her in better shape than ever.
What Kate hadn't planned was for Damian to suddenly drop his bag pack just before getting to the flight of stairs. By the time he abandoned his bag the detective was less than six feet away from him. Horror flashed before Kate's eyes as she was unable to stop or jump to avoid the bag.
She half jumped, half tripped on it just as Esposito shouted her name. The speed she had gained during her run came back to bite her in the ass as she was propelled forward and directly into Damian's back, both of them crashing down the concrete stairs.
Esposito had seen the bag falling off the suspect's back and knew his friend wouldn't have time to avoid it. Walkie-talkie already in hand, his fingers blindly searched and found the call button, yelling into the mike as he reached the stairs and jumped them three at a time. He quickly requested two ambulances and yelled their current position.
There was already a small crowd forming on the street where the two had landed and the Latino detective could see Walberg trying to get up, but there was no sign of Beckett. "NYPD! Police! Get out of the way now!"
Esposito saw two cops on horses racing their way to them as he jumped the last stairs and ran the remaining distance to where he finally spotted his boss and friend, lying on the ground five feet away from their suspect. The man's heart twisted at the sight of blood. "Beckett!"
Damian was still trying to crawl away, but Esposito grabbed him by the collar and shoved him back on the ground. "You stay there or I will shoot you."
Quickly kneeling to next to Beckett, the man cringed and put his hands close to the woman without touching her, not wanting to hurt her furthermore. "Beckett. Kate?"
Kate was curled up on her bad side, one arm still cradling her head and the other holding her ribcage tightly. Her hands were raw and bloodied, as well as one of her leg and she had a gash on her forehead running down her hairline. Esposito would've thought she had been knocked unconscious if it hadn't been for her ragged breathing and her whole features scrunched up in pain. "Kate? Kate!"