A/N: once again, I apologise for the slow update, work has been busy again this week!
Hope you're all still with me, got something I'm pretty excited about planned for the next few chapters :)
I'd like my job back." Clear, calm, confident. Kate Beckett had that down to a tee, that was for sure.
"Excuse me?" Captain Gates questioned, narrowing her eyes as she removed her glasses and crossed her arms over her chest.
"I said, I'd like my job back," Beckett repeated, keeping her voice as even as possible. It had taken a lot of courage and a few pep talks from Castle and Charlie but she was here, asking politely for her old job back. Much easier said than done..
"I heard what you said, dete- Ms Beckett," Gates replied stonily, catching herself just in time before changing the title she addressed Beckett with. "I guess I'm just a little confused, especially given the circumstances under which you left."
Beckett had expected this. She had resigned with such anger and disgust that it was only natural that Gates would question her motives right now. The truth was, she wasn't entirely sure she actually wanted her job back, not after how things had been left with her and Captain Gates, but she could see no other way to investigate the break in on her apartment. She might have been one of the best detectives in New York City but even she was limited in what she could do without her police resources.
"I may have acted a little hastily," she began, lying through her teeth. She still stood by her decision to resign but now wasn't the time for arguing. "I was upset and angry and I let my emotions get the better of me, for that I apologise." Not for actually resigning though, no she wasn't apologising for that. However, she had acted in a way that was so unlike her and she'd been raised better than that - despite her insistences that she had been right, her parents had taught her from an early age to respect other people the best she could, which meant apologising when she was in the wrong.
Gates studied the other woman for a moment. She admired the former detective for coming in here and apologising, it was the mark of a good woman, someone who could admit when they were wrong and be open about it. "I accept your apology, Beckett, however I simply cannot allow you to take up your previous position here."
"I..why?" Beckett spluttered.
"Because the events of that day are still clear in my mind and I personally think you resigning was perhaps the best choice. You were right when you said you let your emotions rule your actions that day and I can't be sure that it won't happen again and neither can you. As I told you that day, I cannot have my best detective playing games with suspects simply due to family members being involved. I believe you know the right thing would have been to come and see me first, and yet it was left to Mr Castle to make the decision to tell me what was going on. Had he not, I highly doubt you and I would be having this conversation right now. Also, would your coming here to ask for your job back have anything to do with the break in that happened at your apartment yesterday?"
Got it in one. "I'm a homicide cop, Captain," Beckett reminded. "The break in on my apartment is being headed up by Detective Demming down in robbery."
"You were a homicide cop, Beckett, but you're not anymore."
There was a note of finality in Gates' voice that stopped Beckett from arguing back, simply dropping her head and walking out of her office.
"Did it not go well?" Espo asked as she re-entered the bullpen.
"No," Beckett sighed. "She's having none of it, looks like you're going to have to do this without me."
"You don't really mean that, right?" Ryan asked, a hint of a smile evident on his face.
Beckett chanced a glance over her shoulder back towards the office she had just exited, happy to see Captain Gates was now engrossed in some paperwork. "Of course I don't," she hissed. "Except Gates is already onto the fact that I was hoping to get my job back in order to help to on this case. I told her it was all down to robbery but I don't think she believed me."
"So what happens next?" Esposito asked.
"Not here," Beckett whispered, noticing Gates was now shooting her confused looks. "Come over tonight after work. We'll get some pizzas in and talk it through."
"Beckett, is there any reason you're still here?" Came Gates' voice from the doorway to her office. "My detectives actually have work to do, they don't have the time to dilly dally with you."
"Of course, sir, I was just leaving," Beckett replied, rolling her eyes at the boys. "I'll see you tonight," she whispered, heading towards the elevator.
"So..that's it? You're giving up?"
Kate stared at her boyfriend with a questioning look on her face. "How long have you known me, Castle?" She asked with a slight laugh. "Of course I'm not giving up, this is just going to be a little more difficult than I first thought."
"Difficult as in..acting like a cop but not actually being a cop?"
"Precisely. Hey, I can be just like you!" She teased.
"Funny, Beckett," he pouted. "Really funny."
"Awe, did I upset you?" She cajoled, a teasing grin still on her face. "Want me to kiss it better?"
"Might take a lot of work," he replied lightly, now grinning himself.
Castle was denied his kisses by a knock at the door. "I swear to god if that's Espo and Ryan I'm going to use their own guns on them," he muttered. "What is it with those two and interrupting us just as we-"
"Hey Castle!" Charlie smiled brightly as she breezed past him towards Kate. Charlie was closely followed by Ethan who was just finishing up a phone call.
"Sorry about that," he apologised as Rick let him in. "Sometimes I really hate my job!"
"That's alright," Castle reassured. "Come on in, I think Charlie has already bounded over to Beckett somewhere so good luck getting any sense out of either of them for the next half an hour!"
"Tell me about it," Ethan laughed. "Sometimes you'd think they'd gone back to not seeing each other in five years again!"
The four of them carried on their separate conversations, Charlie and Kate chatting away like teenage girls at a sleepover whilst the boys grabbed a beer and talked sport. How very stereotypical. Their current situation was disturbed by another knock at the door, this time it presumably was Espo and Ryan.
The girls hadn't even heard the door, too wrapped up in their conversation to even notice they had been joined by two new people. The boys used this to take it upon themselves to order pizza, deciding Beckett and Charlie would just had to make do with whatever they had ordered. Castle knew full well the only reason they were doing that was because both he and Ethan knew Charlie and Kate would eat anything without mushrooms, neither of them would have dared to order for them otherwise. One mad Beckett woman was bad enough but two? Now that was pure hell.
"Oo you ordered already?" Kate said as the pizza arrived, her and Charlie not even paying attention to the others.
"We did," Castle confirmed, planting a kiss on her head. "Shall we take it to the living room? We can all sit around and discuss what's going on that way."
"So, you got any leads yet?" Kate asked as they all settled down with pizza and beer.
"Absolutely nothing," Espo said, sounding disgruntled. "He was careful, that's for sure. Not a fingerprint or stray hair in sight and I know CSU scrubbed that place from top to bottom."
Charlie had been allowed back in as soon as CSU had finished, but much to the relief of everyone else currently present, she had been staying with Ethan ever since. None of them thought for a second Maddox would break in twice, but they didn't want to take the risk, Charlie was much safer with Ethan.
"Not to piss any of you off or anything because you all know a hell of a lot more than me but how can you be absolutely sure that it was this Maddox guy?" Ethan popped up with.
"We can't," Kate admitted. "And it could simply have been a random break in or someone attempting to break in to another apartment and making a mistake, but in my experience not many burglars are careful enough to leave absolutely no shred of evidence."
"There's always something," Ryan continued. "And if there's not immediate evidence, we can usually figure out a narrower list of suspects by what they took or the enemies of the victim."
"And given that they took nothing, we're left with looking through anyone with a motive to want to break into that particular apartment," Esposito concluded.
"Which brings us back to Maddox," Castle supplied, as if he felt the need to add something of his own.
"Okay, consider me officially impressed," Ethan laughed. "Man, Charlie told me you guys were good but wow.."
"You should see Beckett when she gets going on a murder investigation," Castle told him.
"Oh yeah, nobody gonna be messin' with her when she's in the zone!" Espo added.
"Yes, thank you Esposito," Kate said, rolling her eyes at him. She had to admit though, the fact that the guys thought that about her was pretty cool, being a woman in a mans world wasn't the easiest of things but she did okay.
"So Beckett," Ryan said, changing the subject. "Have you thought anymore about how you're going to convince Gates to give you your job back?"
"No," Kate sighed. "I'm not sure what I can do. In a way, I can kinda see where she's coming from and I think with the way I quit, she's right not to let me back. Not saying she should have hauled me in there for the reasons she did," Beckett added hastily, "just..I didn't exactly leave quietly."
"There's not much you do do quietly," Castle muttered. Seriously, the way she stomped about the loft sometimes made him wonder- his thoughts were interrupted by sniggering and coughing from their friends. Looking to Kate, he noticed a blush had formed on her cheeks. What the hell? "What did I-" oops. He suddenly remembered what he'd said and how else it could have been taken. "I didn't mean it like that," he said with a wave of his hands. Well, he did, but he highly doubted Kate would appreciate it if he brought that up right now.
"Ice cream, anyone?" Kate offered loudly, heat still flooding her cheeks as she reiterated Castle's original point and stomped off to the kitchen like a herd of baby elephants.
"She'll give in eventually, you know," Ryan said softly, joining Beckett in the kitchen to help serve ice cream. "You're the best homicide detective this city has ever had, we know that and Gates knows that. Give her time now that she knows you want back in and she'll be begging you to come back in no time.
"Thanks, Ryan," Beckett smiled, nudging him with her hip. She just had to hope he was right, she wouldn't be at her best until she had her badge back.
A/N: been a little quiet on the response front, would be lovely to hear your thoughts :)
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