It was late and they had been the only one sitting in the old fashioned booths in Remy's. Seemed to be the case more and more often as they tended to leave the precinct last. The cook at Remy's now knew to expect the detective and writer as they stumbled in well past normal dinner hours, already had their burgers on the grill and a basket of fries out for them to munch on until the meat was cooked.
Tonight had been no different. The clock on the dashboard of the Crown Vic declared it as nearly ten o'clock, the city long gone to bed around them as they left the open-all-night diner.
"We really need to set a curfew for ourselves."
Kate glanced over to the passenger seat where Castle was stretching his arms over his head as best as he could in the cramped car. "What do you mean?"
He shrugged. "Every time we grab dinner after work, it's later and later. Can't be good for our sleep patterns."
"So glad one of us is looking out for our well-being," she tossed back, taking a sharp right before a cab could cut her off.
Castle grinned back at her. "Hate to see you run yourself into the ground…"
The rest of his sentence trailed off as the car shuddered to a stop along the side of the road.
"Or you could just run the car into the ground."
Kate's glare told him it was not the time to joke. "Maintenance was supposed to look it over after the engine light wouldn't go off last week." She twisted in her seat, digging in the back for the flashlight on the ground, clicking it on to make sure the batteries were still good. "Get out and see what's wrong, Castle."
"Me?" he asked, holding his hands against his chest. "No way." When Kate only raised a brow, pushing the flashlight closer to him, Castle shook his head. "Do you see the area we're in? No chance I'm getting out and risking my life for this car."
"So what's the grand plan, Castle? Sit in the car and wait for someone to come rob us as we hang out?" Because Kate had to admit, the area of the city they had found themselves in wasn't exactly the most welcoming.
"Why can't you go out and poke around the engine?" he probed, giving the flashlight a shove back toward her.
"Because."
He gave a short laugh. "Now you sound like a parent. Because why, Kate?"
"You're a guy! You're supposed to love taking apart cars to see how they work!" She was rolling her eyes and he could see that typical Beckett move even in the low light shining in from a flickering street lamp. "Castle, you are the only guy in this car. Get out there and check what's wrong or I'm kicking you out and leaving you here to fend for yourself."
The threat worked. Castle grabbed the flashlight from Kate, climbing out of the car as she reached down to pop the hood up. Only the pale light from the flashlight shone around the metal sheet. She rolled the window down, sticking her head out to try and watch this.
"See anything?"
His voice was muffled as he looked at the car parts. As much as he wanted to be the dude that perused hot rod magazines and knew how to fix engines with a twist of his wrist, Castle really wasn't. But he wanted to impress Kate, so he was moving things around in the hood of the car, hoping and praying that he wasn't doing more damage to the already beaten-up police-issue vehicle.
"Um… I think it might be good." His head appeared on her side of the car, the flashlight held against his side by his arm. "Try turning it on again?"
Kate turned the key in the ignition. The car stuttered to life, slowly and painfully. "You did it!"
Castle had run around to his side of the car, jumping in. "Let's go before it decides to die again."
"What did you do?"
Act cool, Castle, he reminded himself as he gave a shrug. "Oh, you know. Guy stuff."
Kate smiled as she took the next corner a little slower. "I'll have to let Maintenance know that you could lend your expertise to them for a while. Get you out of my hair for a while."
As they pulled up to the curb outside his building, Castle reached over and tugged a strand of her hair. "Detective Beckett, I am very happy staying tangled up in your hair at the moment." He got out of the car quickly, avoiding her grab for his ear. "Have a lovely night, Detective."
She wasn't sure if she wanted to laugh or attempt to run him over as he jogged up to the front door. Not wanting to risk the car doing an encore performance, she decided heading home and planning just how she was going to get revenge on the people down in Maintenance. Maybe sending Castle down to them would be painful enough…