AN: Sorry this took so long!
The reason why this took so long was that I decided I really didn't like the ending of this episode very much after looking at the final scene. So I decided to use this episode as my next chapter for my other fic, The Fall. If you want to see how I would have liked this ep to end, you can read chapter 10 of that story (Is this shameless self-promotion? Yeah it is, isn't it? Sorry.)
Whether or not you read The Fall, please review and tell me what you think.
Rick really did just want to congratulate his partner. The lesser parts of him also wanted to make sure she heard the congratulations from him and not Demming, but he'd convinced himself he wasn't going to make this a competition anymore. He was a better man than that, right?
Well, he was now. Beckett had see to that, even if it had been unwittingly. She was a person, capable of making her own decisions, not a prize to be won. If she chose Demming, then he'd do what he needed to deal.
As he walked around the corner, he ran through what he wanted to say. No matter what, Beckett was likely to laugh and tell him he was being corny, that it was a group effort. But then she would hide a smile from him and he would know that, no matter what she said, she liked to be appreciated for her work. That hidden smile was everything to him.
When he spotted her, his lips started to curve into a smile of their own. Then he saw she was holding someone's hand and his heart dropped. He stopped dead in his tracks when the hand turned into Demming.
And she was smiling, actual smiling that she didn't feel the need to hide, as Demming leaned in and kissed her. His hand, the one not holding hers, was at her hip, making Rick's heart pump painfully in his chest.
The amount of times he'd imagined placing his hand exactly where Demming's was... He didn't even want to think about it. That wasn't even mentioning the fact that Demming was kissing Beckett.
He really wanted to look away. His sanity most likely depended on him looking away, but the tragedy of the whole scene playing out in front of him was too mesmerizing, too heartbreaking not to watch.
It had been a given to him, in the beginning, that Beckett would eventually fall in love with him. Okay, so definitely not a given, and maybe he hadn't really been thinking about love. Rick had been arrogant then; he'd just expected that it would go his way, that something would happen between Beckett and him.
Even though he'd gotten to know her, to want more than just a fling with her, that assumption that he would be her next... (what, love interest?), had never really subsided. And beyond that, he knew that he was falling hard for Beckett, in a way that gave him more than just goose bumps and chills, more than the restless nights trying to make Nikki forgive Rook.
Sorenson had been annoying; this was downright painful.
But he couldn't stand there and stare forever, so he forced himself to look away. This was her choice. Demming was her choice. Hadn't he just told himself that he would respect that?
He didn't want to, that was for sure. He wanted to drag her into the break room and show her all the ways he could fight for her, but he was better than that. It was one thing to battle against Demming about the case, another to throw a wrench into something that Beckett obviously wanted.
So instead he walked into the break room alone; there was no reason either Beckett or Demming needed to know he'd witnessed what had just happened. He couldn't help looking out the window though; he was a glutton for punishment.
He watched as she walked away from Demming, fingers at her lips, smiling wider than ever. Why couldn't he put that smile on her face? What was so different between Demming and him? That was a question of which he did not want to investigate the answer.
And then she caught his eye.
Crap. He was found out. Not only would Beckett twist his ear for this, she was likely to really do him some damage. Of course she'd already done plenty, but he was trying not to think about it when she was watching him.
In all honesty, he might welcome it; physical pain would be a nice distraction right now.
He busied himself at the coffee machine just as she reached the doorway. She was still smiling, so she couldn't be too mad. Of course that might just be the after effects of kissing Demming.
"Castle?" He looked up, trying to seem like his heart hadn't just been ripped out of his chest. Wow, pain made him really cliché. "What're you still doing here?"
"What was the question? Was it a question? He hadn't really heard exactly what she'd said.
"Hey, I was just about to leave myself." That made absolutely no sense. And it didn't even answer the question she asked, which he was only now deciphering. Why would he be making coffee if he were about to leave? "Good job solving the case."
That was what he had been so excited to tell her, hadn't it? Somehow it didn't feel as good as he'd hoped.
There was a split second where Beckett just looked at him, and Rick was sure that she knew. But then she smiled again.
It wasn't the smile she gave Rick; it was Demming's smile, the yes-go-ahead-and-kiss-me-in-the-precinct-hallway smile. Was that bitter? Yeah, that was bitter.
Rick didn't have time to rebuke himself about the bitterness yet; it would have to come later.
"Yeah well, we make a good team." For once, Rick wished she would just stop smiling. It would be a lot easier that way.
"Yeah." He managed a small smile back at her, knowing that was what she wanted, what she expected from him. It was probably the fakest smile he'd ever given her. "Good night." He wasn't going to last if this conversation went on much longer.
"Thanks, night." She turned to go and gave him a little half wave. She waved. It was so adorable, and it just shattered his heart completely.
Somehow, he maintained his smile until she turned around. After that all he could think about was one question: Who did she mean when she said "we make a good team," she and Rick, she and Demming, or all three of them together?
He was pretty sure he didn't want the answer.