A/N: To those of you who left nice reviews - thank you, means a lot xxx
PS: I know some of you think Castle might have forgiven her too quick, but there's a reason for it and I shall explain when I get to it, probably in a couple of chapters time.
PPS: (added after finishing) I've just read this through and I kinda hate it so I apologise if it's completely crappy.
"You and Castle looked pretty cozy tonight," Charlie stated as they made their way back into Kate's apartment.
"I don't know what you're talking about," Kate replied nonchantly, "that's what we're always like." Liar. They weren't always like that and she knew it - and she suspected Charlie knew it too.
"Right..so that's why Lanie asked me if the two of you had finally gotten together then? Because nothing was out of the ordinary..besides, you didn't even tell me the two of you were talking again."
"We weren't until this afternoon," Kate admitted, "he came to the precinct to say he'd been thinking and although he was still angry, he wanted us to try and move on."
"And tonight? What was that all about, because I saw his hands under the table and I don't think they were resting on Esposito's leg now were they?"
"Oh shut it," Kate grumbled. "I don't know what was going on, okay? He made some flirty comments about Marco's pizza and the smile it put on my face and-"
"And you made love eyeballs at each other all night, I was there, remember? I mean, I know you were all caught up with lover boy but still, I'm a little offended that you didn't remember your own sister being there!" Charlie teased, a grin on her face.
"We did not make love eyeballs at each other!"
"Oh you so did, jeez the two of you are sickening!"
"Yeah well I'm not the one who had their tongue down someone's throat, am I Charlotte?" Kate counteracted, "what happened to not putting out on the first date?"
"It was actually our second date and I haven't slept with him yet. What am I, 16? God, you sound like mom." They both froze at her last comment, turning to face each other with what they imagined to be matching wide-eyed looks. "I..god-"
"Don't worry about it," Kate whispered, half a smile crossing her face, "it's just a saying..and you're right, that's probably what she would be saying to you right now."
"She would, wouldn't she?" Charlie laughed, both of them glad to see the tension had left the room. "I miss her, you know," she whispered.
"Me too," Kate replied. "But she'd be proud of us..her little girls all grown up. And I know you don't want to talk about it but one day I'll get justice for her, I promise."
"Just..don't get hurt, Kate. I couldn't face losing my sister."
"I won't," Kate walked the short distance to where Charlie was standing and wrapped her arms around her. "Besides, I've got the best partner in the city if you listen to Castle, he wouldn't let me look into it if he thought there was any real danger." Little did she know how true her words were. "Now come on, it's late and I've got work tomorrow..hey, you should come down..Gates isn't in and I know you've always wanted to see what we get up to.."
"Can I see the dead bodies?" Charlie asked excitedly.
"God you sound like Castle," she laughed, "yes, if you're good I'm sure Lanie won't mind an extra visitor."
"Great!" Charlie exclaimed. "Night Kate."
"G'night Charlie."
Stripping her clothes off and leaving them in a pile on the floor, Kate heard her phone beep just as she was climbing into bed - Castle.
'Hey, you get home okay?' It said.
She grinned at his doubtful tone, sometimes she wondered if he forgot she was actually a trained NYPD detective and not a poor, defenceless woman. 'Nope, I got kidnapped by a mob boss. He's probably taking me somewhere to have his wicked way with me..' She typed back, not being able to resist teasing him. Lying down, she placed her phone next to her to wait for his reply - she knew he wouldn't be able to resist replying to that.
A few seconds later, her phone rang instead. Glancing at the caller ID, she rolled her eyes. "Castle, I was joking," she laughed, "I'm all tucked up in bed."
"Yeah I knew you were joking, I just wanted to commend you for making a joke."
"Er, thanks?" She said, "not like I haven't made jokes before.."
"Yeah well, I liked this one," he replied and she could practically see him shrugging his shoulders as he said it. "Wait, did you say you were in bed?"
"Yeah..it's usually what happens at the end of the day when it gets dark.."
"What are you wearing?" He asked and she replied before she could even think about it.
"Nothing."
It wasn't until she heard the groan on the other end of the phone that she realised what she'd said and her cheeks flamed. "Jesus Beckett, are you purposely trying to drive me insane?" He ground out and she could tell it had had some sort of effect on him.
"Trust me, Castle, if I was trying to tease you I'd make sure you knew about it," she replied flirtatiously.
"Stop. Unless you want this conversation going down a whole different path then you need to stop."
"And if I don't?"
She heard him take a deep breath before he replied. "Then tell Charlie to make herself scarce."
Shit. Oh god she had not expected him to say that and she had most definitely not expected the fluttering low in her abdomen.
He sensed her hesitation to reply and let out a laugh. "I'll let you get some sleep, Beckett. Oh wait, I was thinking - do you and Charlie want to come over on Friday night? I'll invite Espo, Ryan, Jenny and Lanie..and Charlie can invite Ethan. Just a little get together, we can order take out and have a few drinks.."
"You know what, Castle - that sounds good. I'll tell Charlie and we can tell the boys tomorrow."
"Great, until tomorrow?"
"Night, Castle," she laughed, cutting the call off with a grin.
Leaving her bedroom the next morning, Kate found Charlie already in the kitchen making coffee.
"You're up early," she said, gratefully taking the steaming mug Charlie pushed towards her. "Thanks."
"Woke up and couldn't get back to sleep. Figured rather than coming into the precinct later, I'll go in with you if that's alright?"
"Course it is. You decided what you wanna do yet or are you going to join Castle and follow me around at work everyday?"
"Not a bad idea..Castle and I could create many elaborate theories on your cases.."
"Don't even think about it," Beckett warned. Castle making ridiculous comments was bad enough without Charlie encouraging him.
"I'm sure you've got your hands full with Castle," Charlie laughed. "I'm not sure..I mean I want to go back to teaching, it's what I love but it's a hell of a lot of work. I've got more than enough money for a few months, so maybe I'll just take some time out? Schools almost out for summer, anyway, if I want to go back to teaching then it'll be September."
"As long as you're happy," Kate said, "now come on, we've got killers to catch!"
Beckett remembered her conversation with Castle from the previous night when they were stuck in rush hour traffic heading towards the precinct.
"Castle asked if you wanna go round Friday night?" She said, "he's going to invite the boys and Lanie and Jenny, said you can invite Ethan too if you want. Just drinks and take out at his place."
"Sure, sounds good, I'll text Ethan now," Charlie smiled, digging out her phone and rattling off the text message. "Wait, why didn't you say last night when we got home?"
"I um..forgot."
"Yeah? You do know you can't to lie to me right?"
"Oh fine, he called last night, happy?"
"For what? Katherine Beckett did you and Castle have phone sex last night?"
"No we did not!" Beckett exclaimed, her cheeks burning up in embarrassment. "He text to see if I got home okay and I said I'd been kidnapped by a mob boss. He called to say he liked my joke and we talked for a bit, that's all." Sort of.
"Uh huh, remember what I said about lying to me?" Kate was saved from replying by Charlie's phone alerting her to a new message. "Ah, Ethan can't make it Friday, he's flying to Dallas on Thursday night for business meetings."
"Okay, not a problem, you're still coming right?"
"And give up the chance to see you and Castle make more love eyeballs at each other? Wouldn't miss it for the world."
Beckett ignored her last comment.
"Yo Beckett, lab results are- wait, you're not Beckett.." Espostio said, pausing his results.
"Well technically she is, just not the one you want. What've you got, Espo?" Kate said, arriving just behind Charlie.
"Here," he said, passing her the results he had in his hand. "How come you're both here?"
"Charlie wanted to come in for a bit, see what we get up to. Gates isn't in so I guess it's fine," Beckett said, glancing over the results. "Didn't think these were in until this afternoon?"
"Lab rushed the through, don't question it. At least we have an ID now."
"Good point. Wait, how did you know Charlie wasn't me?" Kate asked, she didn't think it was that obvious.
"The shoes," Espo replied glancing down at Charlie's white converse - not something Kate wore to work. "What," he said at their looks, "I'm a detective."
"Okay..moving on. Let's get next of kin for our vic, see where that leads us." Kate led Charlie over to the murder board, now able to pin up a picture of their victim.
"Wow, it's all systems go around here isn't it!" Charlie said, glancing around at the busy hustling of police officers and detectives. "Is it always like this?"
"Pretty much," Beckett shrugged, "if we've got a few cases going, it's normally a rush in here."
Ryan came over to say hi just as Castle arrived. "Good morning my favourite detective - and Beckett. Wait, there's two of you? Oh my, am I dreaming?"
"Stop being so dramatic, Castle," Kate said, "Charlie's here today, wants to see what we get up to."
"Figured you might need some help on your crazy theories too," Charlie grinned.
"Oh this day just gets better!" Castle squealed.
"Right, well while you two are making things up about ninjas and spies, we're going to do some actual detecting," Kate said as her and Ryan headed over to Esposito.
"We've got an address for the next of kin," Espo said. "Want us to check it out?"
"Please, I'll take tweedledee and tweedledum over there to the morgue to see if Lanie has a CoD yet, see if that ruins their mood slightly," Beckett sighed, today was going to be a long day with Castle and Charlie to control.
"Sure you don't want us to take one of them?" Espo asked and Kate couldn't help but laugh, it was as if they were babysitting toddlers, not working with her sister and her writer. A writer, she corrected herself - he wasn't hers yet.
"No, it's fine, I'll get Lanie to calm Charlie down a bit - talking her through the way she does an autopsy should do it, call me if you get anything. Come on you two, we're going to the morgue."
"Oo, it's like an adventure!" Charlie said and Beckett groaned again. Why was her sister acting like a child? Surely being here wasn't that exciting..though she had to admit, her sister and Castle were pretty similar in some ways.
"Good morning, Lanie," Castle called as the three of them entered the morgue. "And how are you this morning?"
"Someone's chipper for this early," Lanie grumbled, "don't tell me you two went home together last night?" She teased, looking from Kate to Castle.
"No, we didn't," Kate replied, ignoring the stare she knew Charlie was giving her, "which you would have known if you and Espo hadn't snuck off so early."
"Oh, so that's where you went!" Charlie said, "I was wondering why I couldn't find you.."
"Alright alright, stop," Lanie said, "I take it you're here about the victim?" Kate nodded. "Well I've got a cause of death - trichloromethane."
"A what now?" Charlie asked, throughly confused.
"Chloroform poisoning?" Castle and Beckett said in unison and Lanie nodded. "She was suffocated?" They said again at the same time and Charlie looked at them in bewilderment.
"Are they always like this?" Charlie asked Lanie.
"Yes to both questions," she replied, "there's traces of the cloth used around her mouth and these two are always doing that shared brain thingy."
"Great, thanks Lanie," Kate said, "let us know if you get anything else."
"Hey Kate, can I have a word?" Charlie said as they rode the elevator back up to homicide.
"Sure, what's up?" Kate asked and Charlie looked at Castle.
"I'll go make coffee," he said and Kate smiled at him appreciatively as he went, allowing her to speak with Charlie.
"Hello?" Charlie said, "stop staring at his ass, I want to speak to you."
Crap, she had been as well. "Sorry...what's wrong?"
"Well I was thinking..you know Friday when we all go to Castle's?" Kate nodded. "Well how would you feel about us trying to convince him you're me and I'm you..?"
"You want us to do it when everyone else is there too?" Kate asked skeptically, she wasn't sure they could convince them all.
"Oh come on, it'll be fun!" Charlie said, "we know I can convince Castle I'm you, everyone else should be much easier and I figured if Ethan isn't there then we can do it."
"Why does Ethan not being there have anything to do with it?"
"Because although I'll be pretending I'm you and shooting surreptitious glances at Castle, I didn't think you'd be comfortable snuggling up with the guy I'm dating," Charlie pointed out.
"Okay, fair point. Fine, we can give it a go," she agreed. God, who was she and what had she done with Kate Beckett?
A/N: see what I mean? I don't know why I hate it, can't put my finger on it precisely so that's why it's staying like this - can't change it if I don't know what to change! Thoughts would be appreciated, let's see if any of you can figure out what I did wrong in this chapter!
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