Dropped Call

by Castlefan6

Authors Note: Castle missed his going away party because something unexpected came up and the Castle/Gina/Hamptons thing didn't happen etc. Castle assumes Beckett is with Demming and goes off the grid for several months. Would our favorite couple ever reconnect? From a prompt from Kato769. NOTE: AU not canon

I don't own Castle, I use the characters for amusement purposes only

Chapter 6

Previously

Trey is silently fisting the covers and looking for something to smash, she's angry, hurt and feeling pure hatred for one Kate Beckett, NYPD.

Finally, after about 5 minutes of silence her voice asks in a very shaky tone,
"Rick, can I invite Kate to Toronto for dinner?"

"Do you really want to do that Trey, and if so why?

"Yes I really do, and why, I want to throw her ass off the top of the CN Tower, then I want to pick her up and do it again, Oh Rick, I'm sorry no one deserved that, " as tears fall from her eyes.

Tuesday After Memorial Day

NYPD 12th Precinct 6:00 AM

Kate had spent the remainder of her holiday weekend, trying to think of how things had gone so far wrong. One minute she was enjoying flirting with the new good-looking Detective, the next she had been ostracized from Rick's life all together. Paula held the key to any contact with him, which meant that she wasn't going to be able to contact him anytime soon.

Now that she had broken up with Tom, she was back to her usual Single status. Dating Tom was a mistake, she knew that then, and she knew it even more now, but Rick was supposed to get jealous, not step out of the way and give him an open lane, which wasn't her plan.

Castle never did what he was supposed to do, why the hell did he pick now to be the gentleman, why didn't he put up a fight for her? She had just about convinced herself that this whole mess was Rick's fault for not fighting for her when she hears a noise coming from the elevator. Habit forces her to look quickly towards there, in hopes it would be her writer, but not today, it was the maintenance man changing the bulb that had been burned out for weeks.

She is startled when she hears, "Beckett, I want to see you in my office, now" booming from the direction of Roy Montgomery's office. How did he get in without her hearing? Get a grip, Kate, you never needed him anyway, let it go she thinks to herself as she forces one last mental picture of Castle from her mind.

"Sir you wanted to see me" she says as she enters Roy's office knowing this isn't going to be pleasant.

"Beckett, you mind telling me what the hell is going on with your department?"

"Sir, I'm not sure what you mean, we've been off for the holiday so what is it that happened that you need clarification on Sir?

"Well for starters, I get a call from Captain Sipos on Friday afternoon right after the party that Demming would not be back to help on any further cases, and to refer all questions to you."

"Sir, as you are aware there was a personal relationship between Tom, I mean Detective Demming and myself, but I severed that last Friday before coming into the party. I'm not sure why he can't separate work from pleasure, going forward Sir."

"So, you used him to parade around in front of Castle to do what Beckett? Make the man jealous? What kind of High School logic is that? Never mind don't even answer that," Roy is fuming, and Kate doesn't understand what has made him so angry.

"So, did you enjoy your Holiday, Detective? Because I can think of better ways to spend my day off than answering questions from Mr. Mayor about why Rick Castle has submitted his resignation effective last Friday, especially when I didn't even know he was leaving. Care to shed some light on that subject Detective?"

"Sir, I only knew that Castle was going to the Hamptons as he typically does each Memorial Day, I had no knowledge of his resignation, I fully expected him to return today based on our last conversation here Sir" a very shaken Kate Beckett is able to squeak out.

"Quite a different story than Mr. Mayor relayed to me, I knew that you and Demming had really popped it to him, but to make him feel like he had nothing to contribute, and he wasn't a real cop, so he should just leave it to you, and go write his Nancy Drew books?

That by the way was what I personally heard, the Mayor would not go into details he just said the Rick felt it best for all parties to break clean and complete."

"Sir, this could be all my fault, I knew when he left last Friday he had planned to come back for the party, surprise is not Espo's forte, but when he said he had something better to do, that was a series of mistakes and breakdown in communication.

I found out later through his publicist that he was stuck in traffic on the LIE where they had the trailer jackknife and 3 people die in the accident, I should have know he wouldn't just blow off a promise like that. In fact, Paula his publicist has texted Ryan and Espo Rick's apology and he provided floor seats to an upcoming game."

"Why would his publicist do that Kate, why wouldn't Rick? Have you talked to him since then?"

"I tried Sir, but apparently between the beer and the vodka I had at home I did not portray myself with the message I wanted to, Paula retrieved it from the cloud and refuses to give me Rick's contact information."

"Kate, don't tell me you went off on one of your rants using every cuss word a cop has ever heard, did you?"

"Sir, I didn't know it till Monday when I got in touch with Paula and she played it back, it was awful sir, and I'm so embarrassed, on so many fronts"

"Well the worst-case scenario has been confirmed, I don't think we could get Rick back here if my life depended on it. It's too bad you had to let your perception take over and not even give the man who had been by your side for two years the benefit of the doubt.

What makes it worse is you used another man to try to achieve whatever the hell you were trying to achieve, it was Stupid, and unprofessional, now get out of my sight Detective, Dismissed"

"But Sir I*"

"I said DISMISSED Detective, close the door on your way out"

Kate was rattled, Roy had never talked to her that way, not even when he forced her to go to therapy. She slipped out of his office to see Espo and Ryan sitting at their desks, trying to act nonchalant, she asked

"Hey guys, how was your weekend?"

This would usually generate some discussion about basketball, football or whatever sport was in season it didn't matter they never agreed on any teams. This morning was different, very different, both responded in unison,

"Fine" and nothing else.

"Aren't you going to ask me how mine was guys?"

Once again in unison, "Nope"

Kate got pissed all over again, how dare Castle fuck with her even with he wasn't there, now he had turned her Captain and her team against her. She didn't know why, well she knew but she didn't want to accept the fact that she had cost the entire Precinct a very good, loyal and well-connected friend. One who more than once had helped out a lot more people than just her.

"OK you two, Conference room NOW!" she barks.

As they file into the conference room, first Ryan, then Espo, Kate notices that there is no longer the look of apprehension on Kevin's face as is normally the case.

"OK I know what's going on and what I want to know is how the hell do you think what happened between Castle and me is any of your business?" Kate spits out angrily

"Because you just cost us one of the best friend this department has ever know, and you used another Cop to further your agenda Beckett, if one of us had done that, we would be parking cars at the Port." Ryan speaks up with anger in his face and voice

"Something to add Esposito," Kate asks

" Nope, it wouldn't do any good anyway, you'll still blame any and everyone but you for what happened," he replied with distain.

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"Just what I said, your voice mail was over Rick missing a party that we had setup, because YOU had paraded another man, a cop, in front of him till he couldn't take it and took the gentleman's way out, leaving you to your new toy.

BUT wait a minute, you didn't want Tom, who by the way isn't a bad guy, he just made the mistake of getting tangled up with you and got played. No guy wants that Beckett anymore than you do, how would you have felt.

Then you go off on Castle about missing the party, and you knew he was in route back from Princeton, you heard the calls for shutting down the LIE, and it never occurred to you that Rick could have been injured, or if not was in one hell of a traffic jam?

You had the facts of where he was, he apologized in a text to Ryan and me, but God Damn it Kate you knew all along the route he had to take. Don't you have any heart at all? To not even have enough concern about one of our own, and yes, he wasn't a cop, but he was a hell of a lot better than a lot we've seen, AND he cared, about us, and especially about YOU. Looks like Tom wasn't the only guy that got played,"

Kate is shaking by the time Espo is finished, instead of disputing him she heads for the door, and hears one final shot,

"If you're looking for Lanie, she wanted to relay a message to you, She's Busy, don't call her unless work related."

Kate rushes out of the room and into the bathroom, crying and losing the little bit of the morning bagel she had gotten down, talk about fucking up, this was he Gold Medal moment for that. How could she fix this? God only knows but one thing is for certain things would never be like the used to be.

TBC

Before anyone says I'm rough on Kate, remember what she has done in THIS story, not canon, and to play one cop to get attention then blast a friend like she did, well enough said,