Wrapped Up In Death

Unfortunately, their post-bathtub plans for a home-cooked dinner and leisurely evening was spoiled by a call from the precinct, a fresh case with a crime scene that looked pretty messy. Kate didn't receive a lot of details over the phone but from the sounds of it, it wasn't going to be an easy close.

Lovely.

Which was why Kate and Castle were now watching CSU retrieve a mangled body from a dumpster filled with old Chinese food, while Lanie attempted to discern any type of usable information from the revolting mess of remains.

So not what Kate wanted to be doing at eight o-clock at night when the fixings for a delicious dinner were now waiting patiently back at home in the fridge. Not that she felt like eating now anyway. And she was pretty sure Chinese food would be off the menu for the foreseeable future.

By the time they'd gathered the usable evidence and witness statements and gotten at least the basic outline of the case set up on the murder board, it was after midnight and the entire team was weary and disgusted and in need of some shut-eye.

Castle and Kate trudged out of the precinct at nearly one in the morning, caught a cab since neither felt much like driving. He was nauseous, had been since the crime scene, and she was just plain exhausted. In fact, by the time they reached the loft, they barely made it to bed before both were out cold.

Another body surfaced the next day in a dumpster a few blocks away from the first, marred with similar injuries and the same awful appearance.

Double homicide. At least.

Again, lovely.

The case stretched on for nearly a week as the team searched for evidence that seemed to be doing its best to elude them. Lead after lead didn't pan out, and by the time Ryan finally put the missing piece into place, Kate was so repulsed and disturbed and exhausted by the whole thing that upon arrival to the loft, she made a beeline for the bathroom and took a scalding hot shower, washing her hair and body three times over.

While she sponged off, Castle spent some much overdue time with Alexis, catching up on the last week and listening to tales of the rest of her days in California, before taking his own hot shower.

Once all traces of the horrid crimes were scrubbed away, he stepped out into the bedroom wearing just boxers, hair damp, water droplets clinging to his eyelashes and tracing lines down his bare chest, and Kate looked up and smiled, the first genuine one all day. Maybe in two or three or four days. She had no idea anymore.

All she knew was that the entire team was run ragged and Castle had bags under his eyes that she was sure matched her own. She just wanted to forget about the last week. She wanted to crawl into a little bubble and block out murder and mayhem and psychotic men who beat the crap out of twenty year old girls and then tossed them into dumpsters just for the twisted thrill of it.

"You okay?" he murmured, crossing the room in a few long strides and slipping into bed next to her.

She shook her head, buried her nose into his neck and just breathed him in, focused on his scent and the two of them in their bed and his solid arms around her.

"I just..." Kate raised her head, forced back the tears that threatened to spill from the corner of her eyes. "People are so horrible sometimes."

"I know," he agreed.

She shifted next to him, unfolded her arms to reveal the journal that was clutched to her chest. Castle's words had always been her safe haven, the thing she turned to when the job or life became too unbearable or overwhelming and she needed to lose herself in something else, something more...hopeful.

Only now, she had a whole new book of his words; words written especially for her. Words that meant so much more, did so much more to calm her, especially when he was right there with her.

"You want to?" he asked softly.

She nodded, allowed him to slide it from her hands and thumb through to the correct page. He skimmed the brief letter, relieved to find that it wasn't a heavy emotional one. Light and comical was exactly what they needed right now.

"Yeah. I just need to forget."

He rested the book on his bent knee, held it in place with one hand while his other wrapped around her waist, held her to him. He feathered his lips across her temple, warm breath washing over her skin as he spoke against her skull. "Okay."

Dear Kate,

You're so cruel! Rigging the coffee machine to blow up on me. Making the chair fall apart when I sat on it. So evil, not to mention that you made me question both my competence and my weight. A person my size shouldn't break a sturdy chair like that. You sure know how to crush a guy's ego.

And then you know what happened after I supposedly 'broke the curse?' I came home tonight and cut my finger with a knife! Alexis thinks I'm just clumsy but I'm pretty sure there's more to it than that. There's no way all these things would happen to me in such a short period of time if there was no curse.

There most certainly is a curse. And apparently I'm still under it.

In that case, I'd better be done writing this now before my pen explodes all over me or the paper spontaneously combusts.

Until tomorrow, Detective (assuming I don't slip on a banana peel or get hit in the head with a falling hot dog before I see you again).

-Castle

Kate laughed, loud and full, head thrown back, hair cascading over her shoulders in gorgeous, damp curls. All hints of the stress of the last few days were gone, replaced by sparkling eyes and a wide smile. He grinned back at the sight, couldn't not smile at her when she looked like that, even if she was laughing at him.

"I shouldn't laugh," she wheezed, hands on her stomach as she tried to catch her breath and calm her twitching abdominal muscles, "but...God, I wish we'd had a camera. The look on your face when the coffee machine went up in smoke...priceless!"

"You really did rig that elevator, didn't you?" he accused.

"No. I promise, that wasn't me."

He leveled her with a clearly disbelieving look.

"Castle, how would I stop an elevator like that?"

"Hack into the controls."

"Right, I went to that much effort to convince you that there really was a curse."

"Well..."

She snorted. "A loose screw had you convinced. I didn't really have to try that hard."

"And a violent dog and an espresso machine mishap and a knife to my finger."

"Like I said, didn't have to try that hard," she teased, patting him on the cheek lovingly.

"You know I was scared of that elevator for a month after that. I thought I might still be cursed."

"You weren't."

"How do you know?"

She rolled her eyes. "Curses don't exist."

"Then explain everything that happened," he challenged.

"Coincidence and dumb luck."

"Even for me that was a pretty big coincidence," Castle admitted.

"Well that's all it was."

"Prove it."

"We happened to meet an unfriendly dog. The elevator was old and had mechanical problems, which they fixed that night, and the next day it worked completely fine. You did who-knows-what to break the curse that never was, went home and cut yourself." She snapped her fingers in refute of his insistent claims. "Dumb luck. Or incompetence. Or both."

"Hey now."

"Well..." she laughed again.

"I don't know if I buy that explanation, Detective."

She raised an eyebrow mischievously, threw him a saucy up-to-no-good smile. "Afraid you might still be cursed?"

"Well I did run into that parking meter a couple weeks back."

Kate snorted at the memory, Castle walking next to her and gesturing animatedly, completely unaware of the parking meter located conveniently in his path. Thankfully the collision spared his more... sensitive areas... and it'd been a point of comic relief in quite a few conversations since.

"Well if you really are still cursed after all this time, I think I know just the way to reverse it," Kate offered.

"Oh really?"

She leaned in to whisper in his ear, felt his thigh muscles twitch beneath her hand as her quiet words washed over him.

Well, if that was what she had in mind...

By the next morning, Castle was pretty sure there was a zero percent chance that the curse still existed.

Thoughts?