Once again, thank you all for sticking with me with this tale.
Out of the Blue - Chapter 8
"What do you mean there's another offer on the table, Connie?"
"I'm sorry, Rick. I just spoke to their agent and she told me another offer came in at around the same time as yours. It's compelling enough that they're sending you both back to the table and asking everyone to come in on the same day to, well, to duke it out essentially."
He sighs, rubbing his hand over his face. "They want a bidding war."
"Pretty much. Now, if you don't want to play ball, you don't have to. We can keep looking until we find a property with more cooperative sellers."
"No," he interrupts. "I'll play ball. The house is too perfect not to."
And it is. As soon as he saw the listing go up, he knew it was perfect. Lots of light, lots of charm, enough space for him, Kate, and the baby, plus any and all of their family should they come visit. It has the office he wanted, and a master bedroom big enough for a seating area like Beckett was secretly pining to have. It's on a safe street, in a good neighborhood, and it has all the security bells and whistles he likes.
So yeah, there's no way he's letting it go. He won't tell Beckett he found their perfect house and then lost it.
"When do they want to see everyone? I'm assuming they're scheduling it hoping for at least another offer or two to come in?"
"Next week, Tuesday, and that's the strategy. Can you fly down then? I know your fiancée has work that day, plus you said you'd like to surprise her with this, otherwise I would've called her, too."
Rubbing his neck, he shakes his head only to remember Connie can't actually see him. "No, no, don't call Kate, I really want to surprise her and get this weight off her shoulders. I'll bump a couple meetings up to this week so I can be there. What time?" If it's not too early, he'll fly in that morning, that way the Monday afternoon interview can go on and they won't have to worry about finding another time to do it.
Connie's smiling again, he can tell by her voice when she tells him. "Thanks for being so understanding, Rick."
"Thanks for calling to let me know."
The phone clatters onto his blotter before he can stop it. It's not the end of the world, of course, but he'd been hoping to go back to DC at the end of next week with good news. Instead that plan's going to get jumbled up.
On the bright side, he does get to see Beckett sooner. There's never any downside to that. And hopefully doing it in person will mean he'll be able to bring good news home to his fiancée on a random Tuesday afternoon.
Plus, maybe having something else to do will help him stop staring at the envelope he'd found on his desk after dropping his fiancée off at the airport just a few days ago. "If you open this, you lose… and you have to call me," the front says. It'sa funny message; funnier still because he'd stealthily put an identical envelope with a nearly identical message in her suitcase while she did her makeup.
He doesn't want to lose. He can't lose; he's just so curious to know. But then again, he knows she is too.
In the end, the desire for magic and surprise won out and they'd agreed not to find out the sex of the baby at her last appointment. Her doctor sent them home with two envelopes containing the answer, just in case they changed their minds after the fact.
Now his envelope mocks him.
He won't give in, though. He will not lose. He'll make it just as long as Kate, if not longer. He'd waited to find out with Alexis, he can wait now. All he has to do is walk away from the temptation.
The envelope calls to him again, a siren song of temptation. All he has to do is pick it up.
Maybe he'll call Paula and Gina from the other room. Yes, that's what he'll do. Book stuff first, house second, giving in to his curiosity last.
Suffice to say, both women are surprised when he requests they reschedule next week's meetings to this week. They're well-practiced in handling his usual desire to avoid the boring aspects of his job, the meetings and the negotiating; moving anything up is unheard of for him. They agree, though, especially after he explains that he'll be busy fighting for what he describes as the greatest house ever, not just goofing off.
It's a relief not to have them fight him on it. They both do take a moment to remind him not to be late to anything and to remember to actually write at some point, but it's less of a nag than it would've been years ago, so he's not going to complain.
He could write now, or he could call his fiancée and hear her voice.
He does the latter, stretching his legs out and propping his feet on the chaise. It's nice having his couch back. Really it's nice having his entire house back, though with Alexis back at school, Kate in DC, and his mother running in and out so often, it has started to feel more than a little lonely. Not that he'll ever admit that to her; the Rodgers ego needs no help.
"Beckett," she snaps, jolting him out of his mild pity party. Either he's done something and he doesn't know it, or she's having a bad day and didn't even look to see who was calling.
"Hey, it's me. Bad time?"
"Castle, hey," her voice gentles. "Sorry, I – long morning. Not a bad time, though. What's up?"
"Wanted to call to say hi."
"You're procrastinating again, aren't you?"
He scoffs. "No! Well, maybe a little bit."
Now she's smiling. "Uh huh. Don't you have another signing today?"
"That's later. What happened this morning?"
Kate sighs, and he can picture her fingers sweeping across her forehead to rub her brow.
"What hasn't happened? The damn blender exploded smoothie all over my shirt and I was late because of that. I'm getting the runaround from someone I was told was going to be cooperative, things are falling apart with the – " she stops abruptly, clearing her throat. "With a project around here. And to top it off, I'm going insane looking at your stupid smug challenge."
He can't help his laugh. "Yeah I know that feeling. I had to leave the room because it was staring at me."
"It doesn't have eyes, Castle, it can't stare."
"Figuratively speaking."
"Uh huh." She sounds happier now. It must help knowing he's in the same predicament as her. "I should've left it at home, but it came with me anyway."
"Tried to put mine in a drawer, but then I felt bad." He laughs again. "Sorry your day's sucked so far."
She exhales. "Thanks, babe. It's not that bad, but you'd think being on this side of the bureaucracy would help make things move faster than they did when I was on the outside."
"Is there anything I can do? Call one of my guys?"
"No, Castle. I shouldn't have even said anything. Just forget I did, okay?"
Yeah, this part of her job sucks. There's no more foreplay under the guise of building theory together, no more talking things out as they fall asleep, or shaking each other awake at 4 am with a breakthrough. She can't tell him much about her work and she gets frustrated because he knows she wants to fill him in on all the awesome details. But he knows she's still doing great work and he's proud of her for it.
"Okay," he agrees quietly. "Wiped from my brain."
"Thanks, babe, and I'm sorry."
"I know," he murmurs, trying to assure her he isn't upset.
"I gotta go," she says, disappointment heavy in her voice as she adds, "another meeting to sit in on. I'll call you after work, okay?"
"Done. And don't stress too much, Beckett. You got this."
"Thanks, Castle. I love you."
"Love you, too."
There's a spring in his step as he moves back into the office to do some writing. He's feeling inspired once again. Not that he was blocked before, but stress has a funny way of making the words more difficult than they should be. Now they're right there for the taking, ready to move from his head to his keyboard.
Instead of glowering at the envelope propped beside his daughter's picture as he opens his laptop, he grins. Judging by Kate's frustration, he is so going to win this one.
That'll make seeing her again on Tuesday even sweeter.
"You win," she growls in his ear just two days later, startling him out of his writing stupor. He'd only been half paying attention when he lifted the phone and drawled his name.
His feet fall slam against the floor heavily in his haste to sit up without sending his computer crashing to the floor.
"I win? You looked?"
"I opened it," she grumbles. "Because it wouldn't quit taunting me. But I haven't looked yet."
"Okay, I'm gonna open it, too, and we can look together. But I still win, right?"
Kate huffs. "Yes, Castle, you still win."
Fist pumping silently, he plucks the envelope off his desk. "Okay, I'm opening it now, too. Gonna put you on speaker so I don't mangle anything."
"Kay," his fiancée breathes. He can picture her with the paper pressed to her chest, waiting for him to catch up, and his finger shakes as it slips underneath the sealed flap.
"You're sure you wanna look?" he murmurs, averting his eyes from the growing opening to his fiancée's picture on the phone. "Wait, wait, maybe we should Facetime this?"
"Yes! Yes to both," she agrees quickly. "Let's do that."
She ends the call quickly only to Facetime him a second later. Her smile is bright, but nervous and he wishes she were sitting across from him as they did this so he could touch her and kiss her.
"You're sure? I mean, technically I won, but we haven't looked yet. We can wait until next weekend to –"
"We'll celebrate then, okay? I just… I need to know now. It was stupid to think I could wait."
He laughs softly. "And you say I'm the impatient one, Beckett."
"Shut up and finish opening it."
He does, locking his eyes on hers. "Okay, take it out together, but don't look."
She nods, sliding the ultrasound photo out of the envelope in sync with him. The paper crinkles as she presses it to her chest. Both of them toss the envelope to the side before taking a deep breath.
"Ready?" she asks softly.
"Yeah."
"One," she counts, fidgeting nervously.
"Two," he jumps in, watching her face. His hand's sweating a little bit, but he doesn't loosen his grip on the photo. It'd be just his luck to drop it instead of getting a good look.
"Three."
They lift their pictures at the same time, studying the gorgeous grey and white silhouette carefully before moving to the helpfully circled and highlighted portion of the photo. Thanks, Doc.
His throat tightens and he has to swallow hard as tears threaten. That's… wow.Wow.
Across from him, Kate sniffs too, covering trembling lips with her fingers.
"Wow," she says, somehow knowing exactly what he'd been thinking.
"Yeah," he husks, swiping at his eyes. "Are you – is it – what you were hoping?" She hasn't expressed a preference either way so far, so he's not sure what she's thinking. Is she disappointed? Is she ecstatic?
She laughs softly, sniffing. "It's so much more than that. God, Castle, it's –"
"I know, Kate, I know." He sniffs, too, scrubbing his face quickly. "It's perfect, it's beautiful, it's great."
Like the night she told him she was pregnant, he still hasn't found his words yet. He could say everything on his mind and it wouldn't be enough, not nearly enough to convey how he's feeling right now.
She gets it, though, she gets how overwhelmed and thrilled he is. She gets him. His wife-to-be beams, pressing her copy of the ultrasound against her belly.
"It's real. It's really real," she breathes, laughing again. He chuckles with her. "I mean, obviously I knew that, but it just feels so much more real now. Knowing everything is going well, knowing everything's healthy, knowing this… I'm so happy."
"Me too, me too. I love you, Kate."
"I love you, too. And we can't wait to see you next weekend."
God, he's glad he's flying down on Tuesday instead. He would never survive until next weekend.
Nervous energy. He's being consumed by nervous energy.
His knee bounces and his fingers drum against his tray table the entire flight, loudly and annoyingly enough that the other occupant of the regional jet's tiny First Class cabin glares at him every few minutes. He tries to apologize once they've landed, to explain that he's on his way to buy a house and see the love of his life, but the business man only offers him a baleful look as he makes his exit.
Well fine, be that way. He has a bidding war to get to anyway. Thanks to the delays at LaGuardia, he's going to be skidding in right on time instead of early like he'd hoped to be. The other potential buyers (actual losers is more like it) might even beat him there, which isn't going to look good.
Connie assures him everything's fine when he calls from the cab. She's already there, ready to act on his behalf if the gods of DC traffic choose not to smile on him. There's only one other person there, which he takes as a good sign. Maybe more won't be showing up and crushing his competition will be easier than he thought.
He runs in with just three minutes to spare, giving the realtor a smile. "Hey, Connie, I'm here. I'm here. Have we started yet? How's it going to work?"
"Glad you made it, Rick. We're about to start, but we're waiting for one more interested party. You'll give me your offer and any contingencies or requests you have, I'll take it inside, and I'll present it to the seller's agents alongside everyone else. Theoretically the sellers will consider all the offers and counter a couple or accept one flat out."
He nods. Okay, that's not too bad. He'll go in with everything he's got, make sure he looks like the best choice. "So who are we still waiting for?"
"I suspect it's the person who made the comparable offer to yours last week."
Damn, he was hoping they would've backed out at the challenge. "What um, how many am I up against?"
"Two plus the one on their way. It could be worse. Last month I helped a buyer get a property that had six competing offers on it."
Rick cracks his knuckles. "Well I'm glad you're in my corner, Connie."
The older woman is about to respond when the heavy door creaks open again and a voice calls, "I'm so sorry I'm late, have we started ye- Connie?"
What the hell? He knows that voice. He said good morning to that voice at 6:45 over a cup of coffee just a couple hours before he left for the airport to get here.
He spins. "Kate?"
"Castle?" Her brow furrows and he sees her hand drop to her stomach. "What are you doing here?"
"I- I'm trying to buy you a house!" he stammers, looking at Connie only to have her shake her head. She hadn't known either. "What are you doing here?" He looks back at his fiancée quickly.
Kate barks a laugh, covering her mouth with both hands for a second, only to reach for him. His arm winds around her waist and he leans into the fingers at his cheeks. "Trying to buy you a house, Castle. I saw the listing and I got so excited I just put in an offer on my own, only to be told to come back today and try again. I wanted to surprise you. Sorry, Connie," she directs over his shoulder before looking back at him.
This time he laughs, too, resting his forehead on hers. "I wanted to surprise you. It has everything we wanted. The light, the layout, the nursery for – even the secret lair."
"Surprise," she singsongs, kissing him heartily. Yeah, he's surprised all right. He's also a little bit more in love with her than he'd ever thought possible.
"Surprise," he echoes, grinning against her lips. Her tongue darts out, getting a taste of the last of his bitter airline coffee. He does the same for her, only he tastes sweetness, honey. She had her tea this morning. "Come on, we're up against two other offers. Get your game face on, Beckett."
Her thumbs slide against his cheeks as they both try to temper their giddiness, their joy. They can't let the competition know just how badly they want this place. "Let's go buy a house, Castle."