Rick Castle nods but just as he's about to leave, his phone begins to buzz again, he looks at the caller id then nods to Akira, "I need to take this call, It's Agent Verdanscky from field location at 12° 41' 22.6032", 53° 29' 11.49", Please send off Agent Heiddich to speed off to those co-ordinates and then please go and handle the extraction, Detective Beckett, You're free to either follow me back to my office, or you could follow Akira back to Alexis, whichever suits you better"
"Understood" Akira replies almost immediately and gets to work. Akira's ability to act upon her orders is almost automatic as if it were muscle memory, Kate notes as she watches the asian woman tap into a small earpiece requesting to be put on a certain frequency followed by the same orders going down to the channel along with a Red flag tag.
With absolutely no wish to travel with Agent Akira Rice, she begins to wordlessly follow Rick back to his office, trying not to eavesdrop as he speaks to multiple channels through his phone's mouthpiece. The irony of the situation doesn't escape her, ten years ago he would be crippling in a corner from a knee to the groin for asking her to follow him.
Then it suddenly hits her, Rick was walking back shirtless to his office, not only that, but she was sporting nothing more than a sports bra and capris. Well somethings never change…I guess. she mentally berates herself then runs up and pokes the busy Commander hard in the rib, the only one clear of any scars. He doesn't seem to even react, as if he can't feel it, so in an effort to get him to stop, she digs all her nails into his arm, he still doesn't seem to notice so she retrieves her hands and runs up in front of him holding her palm out at his face to stop him.
"One second" he whispers into his mouth piece before fixing a glare at Kate. "What is it? I'm trying to ensure one of my agents doesn't die due to my curiosity"
"And you continue doing that, but don't forget your clothes behind, or at least let me grab mine and then follow you, as much as SHIELD may admire your half naked body, I doubt mine's anywhere near admirable to the people here and I am certainly not interested in being admired by a bunch of people I might have to work with"
He points his finger to the door just behind them and she some how manages to recognize it, jumping in, she quickly opens the panel where her clothes were earlier placed, and changes back into them, coming out to find Rick now shirted but his buttons were still undone. She couldn't help but bite her lip at the sight of Rick in sweats and an undone shirt. Somehow it made her extremely nostalgic and reminded her of all their college days when she'd walk into his room without warning and find him in nothing more than sweat pants and an unbuttoned shirt, or a t-shirt with some sci-fi related thing on it. It reminded her of the happy memories, back when everything was unicorn and daisies, when they could sit and laugh for hours over a 24 hour long sci-fi marathon, only surviving it with a crate of red bull, some sneaked in alcohol and a large tub of popcorn.
Her nostalgic moment aside she finds that she had mindlessly followed him back to the grand office of his. She didn't need to be told twice and so she happily slid into one of the guest chairs as Castle found his own seat and continued issuing commands over his mouthpiece. A couple minutes later he began to fidget with a few buttons on his desk and a keypad before a holographic screen popped up from one of the projectors. Beckett studied the moving map what looked a Birds eye view of said Agent on said location trying to find their way to extraction point without interaction with any local troops. She payed attention as she heard Castle direct this agent and realized a big hitch in the way he was sending the agent. Always keen to save a life she snatched the piece out of his hand she yelled "No, turn about and take a right, you will walk into one single opposition, I'm pretty sure you could stun them, no killing required I bet, take the door to the left and then go down the corridor till you reach a dead end, you'll find a maintenance closet there, hold yourself for 5 minutes, the scouts should be finishing a circuit around then, if you make a dash for it all the way down straight out of the maintenance closet, you'll make it to the side exit, time is essential here"
She didn't know who was more shocked, the Agent, Castle or she herself. Never the less she figured the agent complied as she watched the red arrow follow her directions while narrowly missing a scout and then hide in the maintenance closet. The moment the agent made it to the maintenance closet, Rick was ready to spring up but he had learned never to show his excitement. So he stayed in his seat but turned to place a steel glare on the detective.
"What do you think you're doing?"
"But Castle if you sent him/her down the right, in time with their speed I'm guessing they would come in conflict with this troop here" she illustrated by pointing to a yellow dot "and this troop here" she again pointed out another yellow dot.
"Agent Verdanscky is a field agent, she's more than capable of executing those men and getting out of there and she has an abundance of ammunition"
"Executing?"
"Killing"
"Yes I know what that means, I'm just asking why would you want to kill any of those men if there's a safe passage without any killing?"
"Kate this isn't the NYPD, you don't run after murder suspects and catch them!-"
"Um, excuse me Commander?" The earpiece bleeps and Rick snatches it from Kate "Yes Verdanscky?"
"How do I run with the package?"
"No do not run. I repeat, no running"
"But Commander-"
"There's a scout coming in 7 seconds, open and shoot" he instructs and even as he does he hears the sound of a shot muffled by a silencer "Good" he adds "Now, very carefully make way to drop point B its at your 9 O' Clock, Heiddich is there, secure the package first, and shoot any issues. See you soon Agent Verdanscky"
"See you soon Commander"
And with that the call went silent though the map was still up with the yellow triangle approaching the point steadily and carefully.
Rick who had been too upset with being overridden by Kate's orders hadn't realized what he'd said. But even once he did, he stood by it. He put the communication device down and turned to find Kate glaring at him.
"What the fuck Rick, this package and curiosity of yours suddenly justifies killing innocent men who are just doing their job and patrolling their area?"
It is only once he heard these words did he realize he really didn't want her around all this. He was trying to protect her but how could he protect her in a huge air ship filled with people who risked their lives daily for the greater good. By asking her to join he was essentially asking her to risk her life for the greater good, risk her life in ways far more torturous and painful than she's ever had to witness or think of before. Bringing a check on his anger he finally makes his decision final.
"Please keep out of SHIELD operations Detective Beckett"
"Excuse me?"
Now she was truly shell shocked. She ought to agree it shocked her to hear Rick order out someone's death but here he was back to calling her Detective Beckett. And after that invitation to join SHIELD and hours worth of touring he's telling her it's none of her business?
"Miss Beckett I do believe our business here is over, I made a mistake believing you would be a good fit for SHIELD"
"Excuse me?" She repeated, still in shock. I thought we were doing fine Rick. What happened?
"Miss Beckett, accommodation for you has been arranged due to the bombing of your previous residence, please follow me and I shall be escorting you back to New York City"
"Huh?" Accommodation? Bombing? What the fuck is going on….
"Agent Hunt has been in conversation with the Defense Minister of the Uniter States and the Mayor of New York, your protection will still be provided by SHIELD. However I must inform you that during your time spent on the Eagle's Nest, your apartment was bombed-"
"By?"
"-SHIELD has arranged for a new and safer accommodation for you which should also look into an easier commute to your workplace"
"RICHARD CASTLE!" she finally lost it and yelled, he looked back at her, his face betraying absolutely nothing.
"Please clip down your tone when you're in my office Detective Beckett-"
"Why you sn-"
"It's not completely sound proof from the rest of my living space, Alexis happens to be there currently"
That seemed to calm her down and so she shut up and looked at him apologetically even as her eyes were filled with rage. Rick knew this was far from over but either ways pressed into his earpiece and issued a string of commands soon after which an Agent appeared at the entrance to the office.
"Hoult come in"
"Yes Commander?"
"I am to leave in 15 minutes for a personal mission, please inform Lieutenant Hunt once him and Tracy are done with their fuckery. Meanwhile I want protocol Merlin to be activated. I also need you to convey to Lieutenant Kaye that she has to take her beloved dream team off for mission tag Alpha- Uno- Demitri- 5-1-8-4. She will be controlling it from the playground"
"Yes Commander"
"Oh and Agent Danberg should be arriving shortly. Please have her debrief and she'll probably need medical assistance so have Simmons ready. Permission to enter my personal quarters or office is granted to Level 8 or above Agents only"
"But Commander… Agent Danberg may not-"
"Dismissed"
"Yes Commander"
and with that the Agent left.
With the agent gone, he quickly got up and exited using the backdoor Kate had noticed earlier. She didn't know if she was supposed to follow him or just sit there, the shock was still deep in her bones and she was trying to work it out so she continued to sit as a myriad of thoughts went into her head. What just happened?
A/N: I just really wanted to apologize for how slowly i've been updating these chapters, I guess real life plus the mountains of procrastination don't really help. /p