Fate's Surprises
Chapter 15 - The Seminar
The Trip Up
They left Friday night after work. All had packed a bag and brought it to the Precinct, so they left from there. The car service included a driver, going up, and the next day, the Service Car had customers returning to NYC. For their trip back, the group had a similar arrangement, it would be the tail end of a trip that had taken customers from NYC and delivered to Atlantic City. The vehicle was an extended limo with mini-frig, bar, sound system, and even dvd player. The extended limo had a U shaped seating for the customers and the legs of the U were elongated into bench like seats. Tom had made sure he got the spot next to Kate in the very back. Since they were only four, each could have gotten their own space, which is what Karpowski and Castle did.
Rick sensed something was up with Demming when Tom took the seat next to Kate. Rick had intended to do the same, but Demming got there first. Rick could have taken the space on Kate's other side next to her, but that would have boxed Kate in between the two of them. It would make the seating arrangement a bit crowded for Kate. So instead, Rick decided to make himself comfortable with his own spot down from Kate, but across from Karpowski facing him. So for the trip, Tom and Kate sat in the back most space together. Rick and Roz opposite each on an elongated leg of the U shaped seating, Not the arrangement that Rick Castle would have wanted for their trip to Atlantic City.
There was of course the complimentary Champagne, a bottle of which was in the mini-frig. So they all filled their stem ware and started with a toast.
"Here's to a fruitful seminar", says Tom raising his glass.
"Cheers", the group says in unison.
"So I understand from Det Baker the PC's assistant, that the seminar is for team building and to motivate newly minted detective for their new jobs", says Karpowski.
"So you know Abigail Baker?"
"Her husband was a classmate of my brothers from grade school to high school and are good friends. He had many a sleepover with my brothers and they were all on the same sports teams together", replies Roz Karpowski.
"I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm already motivated, especially with the current company", Demming says all the while staring at Kate. The group understood what Demming was implying with the remark and especially the look. It is eye sex for Demming.
Kate knew something was up with Demming when he took the seat next to her. She also knew that Castle would have taken that seat if Tom had not gotten there first. So being the kind of thoughtful person he is, Rick took the next available seat not next to her. If he had insisted on taking the other vacant seat on her other side that would have put Kate in an awkward seating situation. She would have been wedged in between the two men.
From Rick's perspective, he knew that Demming was making a statement here. Tom with the gesture was daring Rick to respond. But that would have been too confrontational, so Rick took the more benign stance of ignoring the unspoken challenge. Rick sensed Demming was throwing down the gauntlet, but Castle was not about to appear jealous or possessive of Kate, unlike Demming who apparently was making a play for her now and choosing this place for it.
"So what are your motivations Kate, aside from the one the group already knows?", queried Demming, who look directly into Kate's eyes as he spoke. Again his eye sex with Kate does not go unnoticed by the group.
Kate goes for a familiar response, "My are no more different from the rest of you. Primarily I want to serve my city. The one I was born in and has been home to me for my whole life. I want to give back to my community."
"Really Kate! Just speaking the party line with the expected response. So let me restate, what are your unfiltered personal motivations Kate?", Demming is fishing for a tell, would Kate reply?
With that question Kate knew Tom was probing. She had answered him before on that matter, back when they had partnered on their joint case. So she repeats her answer from back then.
"My personal motivations are not quite different than any other woman of my age and background."
"Heard that before Kate, so specifically, what then?… marriage ….family?"
"Honestly, I haven't thought that far ahead! I have more immediate goals, of which I think the group knows what those are."
"Come on Kate, don't tell me you haven't thought about your perfect wedding and haven't
picked a wedding gown in your mind?"
"I guess I'm not like other women then."
"Stop Tom, Kate will not answer any further. She is bent on keeping her super cop persona that really shames us ordinary girls", admonishes Roz Karpowski.
"So Roz, what about you?", asks Castle trying to steer the conversation in another direction.
"Damn straight I have my wedding already planned and what wedding gown I will wear!"
"So what do you think of all this Castle", replies Demming giving a leading question to Rick, hoping for an answer that he can use against Castle.
Rick gives a thoughtful pause and then says, "I think Kate is extraordinary when it comes to her sense of civic duty and her need to express empathy with the families who have lost a family member to murder. That what makes her a super cop, she goes above and beyond."
"I won't argue with you on that Castle," Karpowski says, "I mean all cops have it. Kate just has it in numbers, it just pours out of her. She relates to them, having gone thru such a personal loss herself. That truly makes her extraordinary."
"Yeah she is, and in so many other ways", it's Demming again and still looking directly into Kate's eyes. It's undeniable eye play and Demming is having it with Kate openly.
Castle sees Demming flirting this way with Kate, but she is not returning it. Castle's been there also, and it is always hard to get a rise from her on such matters. Still, that one night they'd been together, they had connected. They each felt the other's pain from loss, for Kate, her mother, for Rick, his wife through divorce. They both had tried to relieve the other's pain that night, and it had been passionate and soul searching. This is what Rick wanted with her, to share that connection, that passion once again, and always. Rick knew Demming has never connected to Kate in that manner, as much had Tom tired. It appeared Tom was making a move for it now with Kate. It meant she might be exploited for her vulnerability by Tom during this seminar weekend. Despite Tom's aggressive approach to Kate, Castle sees that Kate is resisting…for now. How hard will Tom push her?
"So Kate, what is it you admire in a man! What qualities do you look for?", another probing query from Demming.
"I can't say Tom, what do you want from a woman? I ask the same back to you. Answer your own question, put yourself on the spot."
"I'm like any other man. I want a woman who supports me, cares for me and is there thru the ups and downs which we would share. A woman who wants a family and will be a good mother and wife."
"Oh come on Tom!", says Karpowski coming into the talk, "those are answers men think all women want to hear! What you leave unsaid it that she's got to be hot and good in bed also."
Rick lets out a subdued laugh, "Score one for Roz!"
"Karpowski!", exclaims Kate.
"Oh what, Kate? Did I break the girl code here? I will tell you what, woman want the same thing, if they are honest, the other items are the icing on the cake!"
"Roz, quit it, that sounds so superficial and shallow?"
"OK, tell me you then that you don't want it Kate?"
Kate is just sitting there, mouth open, flabbergasted and a bit embarrassed by Karpowski's disclosure and her question to her. Kate's blushing and her cheeks are a bit red.
"What, no response Kate! Too much frankness there? So supercop's poker face has left her. That certainly got a rise from you!", Karpowski says with some sarcasm and enjoying Kate's discomfort. Karpowski had gotten the response Tom had failed to get.
"I guess Karpowski hit a sour note there Castle!", both men are smiling and enjoying Karpowski's declaration and Kate's discomfort for being put on the spot.
After a while when the humor has died down from the men, Demming relents, "Okay. Enough already. Kate's already been embarrassed, and the butt for the group's enjoyment of her offended sense of propriety, or is that impropriety, on matters of physical intimacy between the genders. I suggest we have more bubbly", Tom says tongue in cheek and starts to refill the empty champagne glasses.
Despite their having fun at Kate's expense, Tom realizes he's seen a tell from Kate that she keeps hidden, especially from him. Tom senses that Kate could be a tigress in bed despite her telling reaction to Karpowski and the group. For Castle, he's been there with Kate. He knows how she is with a man that she has a connection with. She's all in when it comes to sharing her bed with a man of her choice. Rick having been that man for a night. He want it again with her, but for a lifetime in marriage.
So the trip goes on like that all the way to Atlantic City. Banter, innuendos, teasing flirtatiously with undertones of humor mixed with sexual inferences, at times subtle, other times not so. There was a sense of unresolved sexual tension in the vehicle from all this. Still, despite all of Demming's sometimes aggressive flirting with Kate, Castle showed no response to it. He let the two carry on, Tom pushing, Kate resisting. The chase is definitely on with Demming.
Castle was not about to be the jealous suitor here, that would play directly to Demming's ploy. Karpowski had noticed all this and envied Kate for having two hot men trying to pursue her. She recalls what her mother once told her about the 'chase'. The man chases the woman until she catches him. Which man would Kate catch? Karpowski now readies herself for the weekend to come and the fireworks that might happen from the two men in the group.
When the group gets to their hotel, it is well past 9PM. Their rooms are all on the 4th floor of the hotel where the Seminar is being held. Beckett and Demming share a room next to each other, and across the hall, Castle and Karpowski share rooms next to each other. Their rooms are identical with one difference, Demming and Beckett have a door in there common wall. It turns out their rooms were meant for families needing more than one accommodation and allowed the family to be connected by opening the shared door in the common wall. Team Demming had somehow gotten Abigail Baker in 1PP to assign those rooms to Tom and Kate. This effort by Team Demming for the weekend as that connecting door would be needed!
They all had decided to have a late dinner in the Hotel dining room. After ordering and then waiting for dinner to be served, the two female detectives excuse themselves to use the ladies room. Once there, Kate had asked Rosalind if her room had a door that opened into Castle's room.
"No we don't have a connecting door between our rooms. Why, are yours and Demming rooms that way?", she says looking at Kate.
Kate's reaction in her eyes tells Roz exactly what the answer is. Both had thoughts about it, but dare not speak it one to the other. Kate wondered if the assignment of rooms was by chance, or was something else going on here? Kate immediately ignored the thought. Tom was a good man and would never attempt to take advantage of the connecting hotel rooms they had. Besides Tom could never access her room unless she unlocked the connecting door. Still, Kate was puzzling over the matter in her mind.
Kate had no idea of Tom's intention for her this weekend. She intuitively sensed something had changed in him, but was still clueless to figure out what it is. Again the thought of Tom taking advantage of this weekend to seduce her was far from her mind. Thru the years she had come to trust Tom and would never think of him as an aggressor for a woman's affection.
Tom on the other hand had doubts about implementing the plan that he and Team Demming had come up with. Could he seduce her and deceive her into marrying him? This was not in Tom's character. He felt he was betraying the trust that Kate had put in him. Never had he tried to entice a women to sleep with him let alone marry him in the manner that had been planned for Kate. Could he carry out this deception? This seduction? Would he destroy the trust that Kate had in him. Those thoughts ate at his subconscious, so obsessed he had become in winning her heart. He is not thinking straight in this matter, but so driven was he that he could not see it.
He was losing his resolve, but all he could think about was what his Team had told him about it: 'desperate times, desperate measures'. Could Tom carry out his plan? So extreme that he had become with Kate, that it had driven him to carry out this plan. He was conflicted and doubted his actions here. Could he make the plan happen? It remained to be seen if he could.