Chapter 16: Of Hickeys...

A month later, Kate sat in the precinct mulling over a mountain of paperwork. She had come in early to the precinct as usual to get a head start on the day. Rick, on the other hand, was still at home either sleeping or typing away on his computer in order to meet deadlines for his second book. He had decided to take the morning off and actually work on his book, which he was far behind on in writing.

Kate usually made an effort to try and show up to work separately from him. Daily simultaneous entrances were bound to stir up rumors in the precinct and she wanted to maintain a professional status in the workplace.

It was hard enough to keep her private life and public life separate after Rick started following her around to base his next series of novels on her. The publicity had skyrocketed her into the spotlight and her life was bared for virtually everyone to see.

They had been able to conceal their relationship from her coworkers for the most part, thanks to Kate's strict precinct rules. However, most of the precinct had assumed long before that they were an item or something along those lines. The ones who knew her well, such as Ryan and Esposito, already knew that they were living together in the interim and no longer thought twice about their living arrangements.

She had gotten quite a bit of paperwork done in good time that morning. Whenever she did paperwork, Castle would usually sit there quietly watching her fill out documents which, now that she thought about it, was kind of weird. She did enjoy the few hours of rare silence without him that morning.

Beckett was just stacking up a pile of papers and tidying up her desk when Esposito walked by and noticed a particular blemish on her skin.

He stopped in his tracks and tilted his head sideways. "Is that a hickey?" he questioned, pointing to her neck.

His remark caught the attention of his partner who was walking just behind him.

"Dude, that's totally a hickey," Ryan affirmed.

Beckett's eyes nearly bugged out of their sockets as she touched her neck instinctively, recalling the events from last night. She didn't even realize that Castle had given her a hickey as she was too preoccupied by the other wonderful things he was doing to her body.

They both chuckled as Beckett blushed and tried to cover up the red spot strategically. She cursed Castle under her breath for marking her so visibly like that.

"Seriously guys, don't you have something else to do?" she snapped at them.

"Nope." Ryan smiled at her. "It's a slow day," he said bluntly.

"And you're just going to stick around teasing me about a hickey? What are you, in high school?"

"Well this is far more interesting than doing grunt work. You know how it is around here. Rumors spread like wildfire."

"Especially about a certain writer and his favorite detective."

"Why are you two such gossip mongers? Is it really necessary to get involved in someone else's personal life?"

"Come on, Beckett. You know we're just giving you a hard time." Esposito taunted.

"Yeah, lighten up Beckett. We like teasing you about Castle because it irritates you so much," Ryan added.

Beckett gave them her signature death glare and they took it as a sign to back off.

"Hey, we were just trying to have some fun. Sorry." With that the two detectives quickly shuffled away.

Beckett grumbled to herself, but she was interrupted by a phone call. She quickly answered in a professional manner and listened for details about their new case.

"Got it, thanks." She hung up and grabbed her keys as she stood up.

Motioning to her boys, she filled them in on the meager details she knew so far about the case as they walked. They all filed into the elevator to head to the crime scene together.

A while later the elevator bell dinged and Castle strode into the precinct, nodding to a couple of police officers and offering them a good afternoon. He made his way to Beckett's desk and noticed that she wasn't there.

Looking around, he spotted Ryan and Esposito at their respective desks doing what appeared to be busywork.

"Hey guys, what's up. Have you seen Beckett around?"

"She's still at the crime scene canvassing the area and questioning the neighbors," Esposito answered as he hung up the phone.

"Oh. Huh, why didn't she give me a call?"

"She's a bit annoyed right now. You might want to be on your best behavior today."

"Annoyed? That's odd. She seemed fine this mor- I mean, the last time I talked to her," Castle quickly caught himself.

"We know you two are still living together, bro. She's irritated because we were teasing her about that hickey you gave her."

"Oh that, umm..." he said awkwardly. Castle wracked his brain for a plausible excuse.

"Don't even try to deny it. It's so obvious that you two are together. But she's really touchy about it, like she's still trying to hide it."

"Well we're not exactly a couple yet. We're still trying to figure things out."

He wondered when they could finally make their relationship official. Castle was ready to tell the world that she was his as soon as she would give him word.

"But it's getting serious?"

"Hmm..." Castle thought. "I guess you could say so."

Esposito eyed his partner. "Then it's time for the talk."

"Ah, the talk" Ryan repeated, nodding his head knowingly.

"What talk?" Castle asked.

"You know we're like brothers to her. So we gotta look out for her when it comes to personal stuff."

"We're bros too" he tried, motioning between them.

"Yeah, but we've known her longer."

"Plus she's our boss," Ryan added.

"So if you two have decided to start something, that's up to you guys. But if you hurt her, we hurt you," Esposito stated menacingly.

Castle winced. "I would never want to hurt her intentionally..."

"We know that dude, but we're just being protective of her. Especially after Sorenson."

"What did he do?"

The two detectives glanced at each other and shared an uneasy feeling.

"Uhh. That's for you to find out from her, man. Not us."

"Got it."

"And don't mention this conversation to her."

"Yeah, she would totally kick our asses if she knew that we were protecting her like this," Ryan chimed.

"Nothing to start your day off like being threatened by your friends," Castle muttered to himself. Esposito caught his side comment and glared at him pointedly.

"Hey man, just looking out for our own," he finished.

Just then, Beckett came back into the bullpen after returning from the crime scene. She ordered the two other detectives to look into the victim's personal history, financials, and report from the ME—the usual work up.

They headed out to the morgue together, grateful for any alternative to paperwork. She spotted Castle by her desk and greeted him as she sat down.

"Hey. Is this for me?" she asked, referring to one of the two coffee cups on her desk.

"Yup," he replied, leaning over to kiss her on the cheek.

Beckett deftly avoided him and gave him the look. "What did I say about being in the precinct?"

"No touching of any sort while we're at work. Sorry," he frowned dejectedly.

"Mhmm..." she murmured. Beckett took a generous gulp from the coffee cup.

"Right, best behavior today," Castle mumbled to himself.

"What was that?"

"Nothing." He glanced over at the file she was reading. "New case?"

"Yeah."

"Why didn't you call me to visit the crime scene with you?"

"I knew you were planning on writing this morning so I didn't want to bother you. Plus, you're really behind on your deadlines..." she looked up at him knowingly.

"Ugh..." Castle groaned. "Wait, how did you know that?"

"I'm a detective, remember?" she answered smartly.

"Plus, your ex-wife has been calling. She doesn't appreciate that you've been screening her calls. Please tell me you got some writing done today..."

Castle looked at her sheepishly. "A little..."

Beckett shook her head at him. "This is why I didn't want to get you involved with this case. Just another distraction."

"Mhmm..." He ruminated for a moment on his recent writing habits. His brow furrowed when he came to an unsatisfying conclusion.

"I haven't written much all month," Castle realized.

"Why's that? Writer's block again?" she frowned.

Castle thought for a second. The murder cases they worked on were more than enough fodder for his writing. He was getting more material on a weekly basis than he could fit into his novel.

"Nope, the creative juices are flowing just fine."

"Then what is it?"

Castle looked at her and it dawned on him. "I have the biggest distraction at home."

He smirked and leaned in close to whisper in her ear. "How am I supposed to write when I have the most beautiful woman in my apartment distracting me with sex?"

Beckett bit her lip and smiled as she felt her face flush slightly. "Get your priorities straight, babe. Work first, play later."

"This is work. What do we have?"

She took the file to the murder board to distance herself from him. They couldn't keep whispering to each other in such close proximity. It looked really suspicious to any onlooking bystanders.

Beckett expertly switched to detective mode and suddenly was back to all business. Grabbing a marker, she talked with him through the case while she wrote on the whiteboard.

"The victim is 27 year old Grayson Pierce, an electronics engineer, found dead in his apartment from blunt force trauma." She attached a photograph of the victim to the board with a magnetic clip.

"His place was also sacked. Someone was obviously looking for something. CSU is searching the place right now and the M.E. should be examining the body soon. We'll have details about the DB later. Neighbors heard some commotion late last night at around 11 to midnight, which should narrow our TOD. We're trying to locate his next of kin right now." Beckett finished by drawing a rough timeline and denoting the time of death window.

Castle tried his hand at the file, speed reading through the information.

"Ooh, and it was his birthday," he winced. "Hell of a way to celebrate your day."

"Interestingly enough his wallet was on him, which means this wasn't just any other B&E. The murder was looking for something specific."

"An electronics engineer, you say? Maybe he was working on some high tech government project and someone wanted to quiet him."

Beckett rolled her eyes at him. "Again with your conspiracy theories." She chose to disregard his wild theories of top secret government conspiracies and focus instead on the hard evidence.

Another cop came up to her and handed her a file of papers. "Thanks," she said absently. Beckett turned back to Castle with her eyes trained on the file.

"Grayson's financials are in," she said as she quickly scanned the sheet for red flags. "The last charge he made onto his credit card was at... Gourmet Haus Staudt."

"That's a German beer garden not too far from his place," Castle noted. "Field trip?" he asked, offering her coat.

At the dimly lit bar, the pungent smell of alcohol and cigarettes permeated the air. Castle and Beckett made their way to the bar to talk to the bartender.

"Hey there, what can I get for you guys today?" he greeted.

Beckett flashed her shield. "We're here on official business actually." She showed him a picture of the victim. "Do you recognize this man?"

"Sure, think the name is Grayson. He was here last night celebrating his birthday. Is he in some kind of trouble?"

"He was murdered last night."

"Oh, that's terrible." The bartender grimaced.

"Did he have any problems with any other customers? An argument or an altercation?"

"No, not him. I didn't have any problems with his group last night. It was his birthday and he was enjoying himself."

"Do you remember who he was with? Or who he left with?"

"Man, there were a ton of people. He was partying it up pretty well. Everyone was drinking, laughing, and having a good time. But now that you mention it, he was with another guy who was buying extra rounds drinks. They seemed to know each other. I'm not sure if they left together but I can pull up the records of the transactions."

"Please."

The bartender checked his logs. "He was with a... Chris Riordan." He gave Beckett the customer's contact information.

"Thanks," she said and left the bar with Castle.

Here we are wandering aimlessly roaming
And when it's done we will walk
Where the road meets the sun

A/N: This fic isn't going to be case heavy. I had to include it for a reason... you'll see why later. :P