Fourteen

On a Thursday afternoon two weeks after Thanksgiving Kate Beckett sat at her desk slogging through an almost insurmountable amount of paperwork. The prior day, she and her partner had made not one but two arrests, much to the praise of their captain and colleagues. Well, most of their collages. Really, everyone except McCreary.

Earlier in the week, both she and Castle and McCreary and his partner, Landers, were assigned homicide cases that were seemingly unrelated. Kate's and Castle's crime was clearly intertwined with gang activity, so they simply needed to determine which gang member was responsible for the young boy's death (though that was much easier said than done). The other team's murder did not initially seem to be gang related, however, throughout their investigation, Beckett noticed the name of McCreary's victim popping up. The connection was an odd one and a seeming long-shot, but she and Castle made it work, receiving a full confession from each murderer.

While confessions and praises certainly made her day better, the loads of paperwork that came with it did not. Castle was doing his part, of course, but he always seemed to struggle to sit still long enough to fill out all the forms correctly. At one point she asked him how he was ever able to be a writer since creating a report, which was clearly the fraction of the length of one of his books, should have been a breeze. He explained to her that when writing from his own mind he was much more focused, but factual rehash bored him to tears. To give him a reprieve, Kate had sent him to retrieve a mid-afternoon coffee and snack for them both; she got more done when he wasn't around bothering her anyway.

Just as she stood from her chair for a much needed stretch, Kate noticed a red-headed woman approaching. The woman wore a bright blue cheetah print scarf with a leopard print jacket, skinny jeans and knee-high shiny leather boots. At first, Kate thought the woman must be a witness coming in to make her statement, but then, as she drew nearer, Kate realized exactly who she was. The hair, the face shape, and even the way she walked: they all screamed Alexis. This, she deduced, must be Meredith.

"Hi, excuse me," the woman said, approaching Kate looking more like a fish out of water than anything. "I'm looking for Richard Castle. Does he work on this floor?"

"Yes, yes he does. His desk is right there. He, ah, actually just stepped out, but he should be back shortly," Kate explained, gesturing towards the empty desk beside hers. The woman smiled. "I'm Kate—Kate Beckett. I'm actually his partner."

The woman shook Kate's extended had as her eyebrows rose. "You're Ricky's partner? A woman?"

"Ah, yeah," Kate said, unsure whether or not to be offended. "I'm a woman."

"Oh wait! Oh I know! I remember now—Alexis said something. You eat dinner with them sometimes, don't you?" the red-head said in a tone that made it seem like Kate was the homeless woman they charitably let into their home on occasion.

Kate cleared her throat. "I've eaten dinner with them a few times, yes. You're, ah, Alexis's mom?" Though she needed no official confirmation, she thought it polite to ask the question.

"Yes! Yes, I'm sorry—I'm Meredith; Meredith Castle."

Kate forced a smile. "And you…you live on the west coast, don't you?"

"Yes, in California. Actually I just—oh! OH! Ricky! Ricky! Over here kitten!" Meredith called out, bouncing up and down on her toes as she waived her hand high above her head. She acted as though they were in a crowded shopping mall and she had to act dramatically in order for her ex-husband to spot her. Though, in the twelfth precinct this was entirely unnecessary; Castle had seen her the moment he stepped off the elevator.

Kate turned to see her partner approaching, two cups of coffee and a paper bag in hand. He looked like he'd been rammed in the chest with an anvil. Kate suppressed the urge to laugh.

"Me-Meredith," Castle said slowly. He put the coffee cups down on his desk and stared at her as though she may have been a mirage. "W-what are you doing here?"

Meredith giggled and slapped his shoulder playfully. "I came to see you, silly."

"W-why…?"

"Because Alexis isn't out of school yet," Meredith explained in an isn't-it-obvious way. "And I thought I'd come say hi, Kitten. It's been forever." She grabbed him by the lapels of his jacket and smashed her lips against his before pulling him into a bone-crushing hug. Castle's arms hung limp at his sides as he stared dumbly across the room.

As she watched the scene unfold before her, Kate felt an uncomfortable tension filling her chest. True, she had been looking for a distraction from her paperwork, but this was not exactly what she had in mind. Thinking it was best to stay out of their conversation she reached over, plucked her cup of coffee from Castle's desk, and sat back down in her chair in an attempt to look busy.

It took Castle almost a full minute to regain his senses. When he did, he pushed himself out of Meredith's embrace and stared down at her. "I'm still not quite sure I understand why you're here—in New York."

"Oh, well," Meredith began, sitting on the edge of his desk. "Did Alexis tell you about my new play? It's a traveling show—we're going to hit twenty different states staring in January of next year and I had to come to the city for a costume fitting. Now, why we can't use costumes on the west coast, who knows? But I had to come and I thought, well why not visit my two favorite New Yorkers while I'm here."

"Right…" Though her touching him had confirmed she was not a figment of his imagination, Castle still could not believe that Meredith—Meredith!—was here. In New York. At his office. Just feet away from Kate. This could not possibly end well.

"So, darling, what time does Alexis get out of school?"

"Ah, um…three—three thirty."

Meredith glanced at the clock on her phone and hopped off the desk. "Oh well I'd better be going or I'll be late! I can take her, right? Out to dinner?"

He nodded dumbly. "Yeah, sure…sure that's fine."

"Perf!" She beamed. Then, she scooped up her handbag but before she walked away she leaned in close to Castle and stroked her hand down the center of his chest. "By the way, I'm at the Fairwick, room eight-eighteen if you want to come by and visit later," she told him in a not-so-quiet whisper.

Upon hearing this, Kate nearly choked on her coffee. Unfortunately, her spluttering did not go unnoticed by either Castle or his ex-wife. Trying to be as smooth as she could, Kate stood from her desk and grabbed her jacket. "I…I need to go out for…for something," she said in a tone that wasn't nearly as casual as she hoped it would be. Then, with that, she turned on her heel and headed to the elevator, not once looking back.

Dr. Lanie Parish looked up when the sounds of clicking heels entered the morgue. She was surprised to see her detective friend approaching. She did not have a body that belonged to one of Kate's cases, nor did she have labs or any other information for the detective. Yet, from the look on her face, Kate was definitely on a mission.

"What's up with you?"

"Me?" Kate responded, almost startled. "Nothing. I just…nothing. I had to get out of the office. Meredith is here."

The ME's brow furrowed. "Who's Meredith?"

"Castle's ex-wife; Alexis's mother."

"Ahhh," Lanie nodded. So that was the emotion etched into her friend's face. "Thought you were looking a little green today."

Kate's brow scrunched. "Green?"

"Jealous."

The detective snorted. "Jealous? Why in the hell would I be jealous?" Of course she wasn't jealous—that was ridiculous.

Lanie stood casually from her seat and approached her friend. "I assume you're looking for an answer other than 'because you're sleeping with him and he used to sleep with her?' Because you are still sleeping with him, correct?"

Kate cleared her throat and turned her eyes towards the ground. "Yeah, sometimes; whatever."

Lanie laughed. "Right; it's almost like I believe you."

The detective chewed on her bottom lip for several moments before saying, "I heard her invite him to her hotel room."

The ME considered this a moment. "And you think he'll go."

She shrugged. "He could go."

"…because you two aren't exclusive," Lanie concluded for her.

Kate nodded. "Right."

"You're just casually having sex."

"Right."

"Every night."

Kate clicked her tongue. "It's not every night."

Lanie groaned and rubbed her hand across her brow. Sometimes, her clueless friend frustrated her to no end. "Kate c'mon! Open your eyes – you're dating him."

Kate held up her hands in immediate defense. "We're not dating. We are partners… with benefits."

The ME rolled her eyes at Kate's official, yet oh-so-wrong position. "So you'd be totally fine if he slept with his ex-wife?" Her friend said nothing, but she did see a flicker of emotion cross her eyes as she bit down on her lower lip. "Ah!" Lanie proclaimed, holding up the index finger of her right hand. "I saw that—you don't want him to."

Kate folded her arms over her chest and with as much casualty as she could muster, she said, "Well, no. I just don't think it's a good idea for him to do that."

"You're frustrating," Lanie said, shaking her head.

"Why?"

"Because you don't see how crazy you're being!"

"I'm not crazy," Kate said simply. In fact, she was the sanest person she knew.

Lanie grumbled and took a step closer to her friend, softening her tone. "Okay, fine. Just hear me out, okay? Would it really be the worst thing in the world if you just…had a conversation about being exclusive?"

Kate refused to entertain such a preposterous notion. "Why would we do that? We don't need to do that. In fact—In fact, I've…I've actually been thinking about stopping this—what we're doing. It's probably not a great idea."

In truth, Kate had been thinking about that for over two weeks—ever since the two consecutive nights she spent at Castle's apartment. Waking up in bed with him. Waking up in bed as he stared at her, smiled at her, and kissed her awake. Eating breakfast in that bed with him. Laughing and making love while their kisses tasted of maple syrup. It all felt a bit too relationship-y for her and that, she knew, was dangerous territory.

Lanie's eyes widened at her friend as she expressed a sarcastic, "Ya think?"

Kate nodded. "Right so…it's just done; we're done."

"You're done sleeping with Castle?" Lanie repeated to confirm her crazy friend's thoughts. When Kate nodded, she continued. "So Castle is totally free to sleep with his ex-wife?"

"Totally," she said with a casual wave to her hand.

Lanie bit her lip and shook her head. "Oh, if only you really believed that."

When Kate returned to her desk, her partner was nowhere to be found. Upon looking at her email, she realized he'd left her a message stating that he had to deal with "the Meredith situation" and then he'd be back. She finished out the last two and a half hours of her shift, but he never returned.

On her way home that evening, she thought back on her conversation with Lanie and the decree she had made: no more sex with Castle. Was that really what she wanted?

Of course it wasn't what she wanted, she answered herself, but that was the exact reason their rendezvous needed to end. She enjoyed their couplings and had come to look forward to them, but that wasn't the kind of casual relationship she wanted. She needed something more casual than what hers and Castle's trysts had turned into. What they had was verging dangerously close to the relationship line and that was too close for her. Particularly since, despite what Lanie said, she had no desire to make Castle her boyfriend officially.

She had only been home a few hours when, much to her surprise, there was a knock at her door; it turned out to be Castle.

"What are you doing here?" she asked him. "I thought you'd be with Meredith."

"Alexis is with Meredith," he informed her as he stepped into her apartment. "They're taking Fifth Avenue by storm. I'm sure Alexis with have some ultra-fashionable and ultra-hideous clothes before the night is out. Seriously, you should see the dress Meredith bought her this spring. Orange—on a red head. Really? What…what's with you?" Castle's voice drifted into a tone of concern when he saw the slightly perturbed and most definitely closed off look on her face.

"Nothing."

Castle pressed his lips together. The word "nothing" coming from a woman's lips was essentially a land mine and ninety-nine percent of the time meant something was wrong. "It's not nothing. Why did you think I'd be with Meredith?"

She shrugged and turned to enter her kitchen, "No reason."

He followed her. "Kate. C'mon, Kate—tell me what's going on?"

Stopping beside her refrigerator, she turned back to him, relenting to the truth. "I…I kind of overheard you guys earlier."

"When earlier?"

"When she told you what room number she was staying in."

Oh.

Well, now suddenly it was all making sense to him except…was it? If Kate was giving him a cold shoulder after overhearing Meredith essentially invite him over to have sex did that mean that she was…jealous? Was that even possible?

Castle stared over at his partner and observed her closed off body language: arms folded over her chest, body angled slightly away from him, eyes downcast. She chewed on her lip like she did when she was anxious or avoiding something. Holy shit—she was jealous!

Castle fought very hard against the urge to clap his hands, laugh, or otherwise outwardly display his glee and pure enjoyment of her jealousy. Maybe there was hope for them yet.

Clearing his throat, he took a step forward. "Look, Kate, I won't lie to you. There was a time after our divorce that Meredith and I would…hook up for lack of a better term, but those days are long over and I won't be starting them again for many reasons the first of which being I don't actually want to; I've surpassed my lifetime limit of crazy with her. Plus, even if I wanted to I wouldn't. Meredith told Alexis over Thanksgiving that she broke things off with her alleged fiancé and I have no desire to be her rebound sex guy."

Kate looked up at him and shrugged. "Rebound sex can be fun."

Castle let out a loud laugh. "Oh, sex with Meredith was fun, but nothing else was—trust me. That's what I like most about you—you're pleasantly sane."

She couldn't help but mirror the smile he gave her. Then, with the nod of her head, she confessed, "Oh I can have my crazy moments."

He shook his head very seriously. "Uh, no, you haven't seen crazy until you come home and find all your belongings piled out in the hall of the apartment building, because your wife woke up and decided the apartment walls should be painted neon yellow. And when I say neon yellow I mean I'm pretty sure she somehow managed to find the same paint they use to put the lines on the street."

Kate considered this for a moment. Assuming the paint wasn't actually the street-line-painting paint (which she very much doubted it was) she didn't see too much wrong with that scenario. Playing the devil's advocate she said, "She wanted to redecorate—that's nice."

"Yeah, for five seconds. That's the Meredith way. She only painted half of one wall before she got bored. Then, on another wall, she decided to paint her own interpretation of scenes from the Kama Sutra."

Not expecting this, Kate laughed. "Oh."

Castle grumbled and ran his hand across his brow. Come to think of it, thought it was over a decade later he was still mad about that one. Just so Kate fully understood, he continued the story. "Alexis was two and a half; she asked what they were."

With this information, Kate's expression fell. "Oh."

"Yeah…"

"So what happened?"

He shrugged. "I asked her to paint over them; she didn't so I had to."

Kate nodded solemnly and gazed down at the floor. He sounded like a better person than she was; if that had happened to her, the guy responsible probably wouldn't have come through without injury. "I'm sorry that happened."

"Yeah well, it certainly isn't one of my fonder memories of her," he confessed. Taking a step forward, he reached out his hands and placed one on each of her arms. Stoking her biceps lightly he said, "Now you see why I won't be jumping in to bed with her again."

Kate nodded. Then, for her own peace of mind she added. "For the record, you could if you wanted to. I mean, I wouldn't mind."

Castle gazed at her suspiciously. He heard her words, but from her tone he very much doubted that would be the case. As he was enjoying this brief glimpse into the jealous side of her, he decided not to call her out on it. "No thanks," he told her. Then, he leaned down and kissed her.

Though she kissed him back, she made sure their kiss was brief before she stepped away from him and turned to walk into her sitting room. "What's wrong?" he asked as he followed her.

"Nothing." She sighed, thinking back to her earlier decision. Without facing him, she continued. "It's just…maybe we shouldn't do this."

Castle's brow wrinkled. "What? Why? Because of Meredith?"

Kate turned around, shaking her head. "No…not her. I just…I'm not really in the mood." Okay, it was a lame excuse. A horribly lame excuse, but she wasn't sure she was quite ready to say the words 'I don't want to sleep with you anymore—ever.' A decision like that required more thought.

Castle smiled a slow, enticing smile at her. He walked over, slid his arms around her back and skimmed them down to cup her ass. "Are you sure? Because you always seem to be in the mood," he said, giving her ass a gentle squeeze.

She put her hand, palm flat, in the center of his chest and he stepped back. "Not tonight, Castle."

He shrugged and took two steps towards the door. "Suit yourself; I'll see you tomorrow."

"Yeah," she said distantly as the door shut behind him. "Tomorrow…"