Now What? Chapter 1
Panic edges Rick's voice. "Thirty seconds."
Anguish radiates from the image of Mark Fallon on Kate's phone. "I can't see anything! I'm sorry. I'm sorry."
"Castle!" Kate whispers desperately.
Staring at the bomb, Rick takes Kate's hand in his, reaches out, and pulls every wire.
Sparks flash and then – nothing. Mouths wide with disbelief, Rick and Kate slam together in a hug. Warmth suffuses bodies still holding a freezer's latent near-deadly chill, and their lips meet.
Slowly, as if shaking off a dream, they pull apart. "We need to get out of here," Castle realizes. "The bomb didn't go off, but it's still radioactive, and I don't need any more guys in spacesuits dragging me around."
"Me either," Kate agrees. "As soon as the bomb squad gets here, let's go back to the precinct."
"So, now what? Beckett, we need to talk," Rick says as she threads her unit through traffic toward lower Manhattan.
"Castle, if you mean about the kiss, it was in the heat of the moment."
"I don't think either one of us believes that, but put the kiss aside for a minute. When we were in that isolation tent wondering if we would die agonizing deaths from radiation sickness, you told me what you really wanted in a guy. You wanted to be there for him and have him be there for you and dive into it together. Is Josh really that man?"
Kate's hands tighten on the wheel. "He canceled his trip to Haiti."
"All right, I'll give you that. But what about all the other times when you needed him, like when Mike Royce was killed? Where was he for comfort and support? And don't try to tell me we weren't an inch away from something happening when we were in LA."
"But nothing did happen, Castle."
"OK, then just before you almost died in my arms in that freezer, what were you about to say?"
Kate's teeth sink into her bottom lip. "That no one had been at my side the way you have. That I wouldn't want any other partner."
"Is that all?"
"Castle, I don't know. I was almost unconscious."
"You're fully conscious now, Beckett, and you can't deny there's something between us, something more than a friendship or a working relationship."
"All right, Castle. Maybe there is. But when Josh canceled his trip to Haiti, he was showing his commitment to me. I can't ignore that. I have to see where our relationship goes now."
"Fair enough, Beckett. But a leopard doesn't change its spots. The next time you're without a dive partner, remember I'm here, right here, and I'm not about to leave you to cry alone."
Montgomery hands out cold beers to the group gathered around the 12th's conference table. "Castle, the mayor wants to give you a medal. He has no idea that you didn't know what the hell you were doing."
"Well, I figured one of those wires had to be the right one, so if I pulled them all, I'd get it," Rick says.
"Man, if those guys dreamed that anyone would try to defuse their bomb, they would have built in a secondary timer," Esposito asserts. "You're just lucky they were as clueless as they are crazy."
"We're all lucky," Montgomery chimes in. "Hey, you're pretty quiet, Beckett. Are you all right? Still suffering the after-effects of freezing?"
Kate wraps her arms around herself. "Something like that, maybe. I think I'll go home."
"And I'm kind of tired. I think I'll go home too," Rick says, following Kate out the door. "Hey, Beckett! Kate! Wait up!"
"Castle, I don't want to talk anymore right now. See you here tomorrow. Bright and early, OK?" Kate strides off before Rick can answer.
"No, It's not OK," he murmurs to himself, "but I'll be here."
Josh, as usual, is back on duty at the hospital when Kate huddles into a corner of her couch with her DVR's remote control in her hand. She's always found comfort in Temptation Lane, as she did watching with her mother when home sick as a child. Tonight, however, the machinations of Fox and Cannon seem more inane than comforting. Characters on soap operas rarely tell each other the truth, probably because if they did, the episodes would only be about two minutes long. But at this moment, Kate isn't sure what the truth is. She's grateful to Josh for giving up on Haiti to be with her. But he isn't with her now, and she's not sure she cares. In that freezer, when she was in Castle's arms, not once did she wish she could have been with Josh. She didn't even think about Josh. Except for the tiny niggle of guilt that kept her from sleeping with Castle when they were in LA, she hadn't thought about Josh then either.
Josh is fun when he is around. They both like motorcycles. He's good in bed – well, sometimes. As often as not it seems like his mind is in the operating room or the Amazon jungle rather than on her. Of course, she can get his attention. But then, getting a man's attention is no trick, at least it's never been for her. Keeping it is another matter, and Josh's wanders more than most of the men she's been with, maybe all of them.
Castle is different. She doesn't have to work at getting his attention, if anything she has to work to avoid it. He's always there, ready to jump into a case or just listen. She told him about the day on the beach with her father after her mother died. She's never told anyone else about that, not Josh, not even Lanie. And she can get hotter reading his books than thinking about sex with Josh – a lot hotter. But she can't break things off with Josh, not now, not when he gave up on Haiti for her. She'll just have to concentrate on her work and keep Castle in that arena. The little voice at the back of her mind tells her it can't stay that way forever. She just isn't ready to listen.
Running a scene as Joseph Fox, Lance Hastings opens a closet on the set of Temptation Lane. The body of Sarah Cutler falls out, an axe embedded in her back. For a moment Lance believes someone's played a sick joke. But he realizes the sticky stuff around the wound isn't the washable mix that Makeup uses to imitate blood. It's the real thing. The head writer's been murdered.
Rick's phone rings as he's estimating the damage his mother can do while attempting to clean the kitchen. When Beckett's ID flashes on the screen, he hesitates for a moment before answering it. Lately, she's been keeping him at arm's length. But murders always bring them together. He accepts the call. "1777 21st Street. Right, I'll meet you there."
Martha turns from her efforts with a start. "1777 21st. That's the address of Gemstar Studios, where they film Temptation Lane. I was on that show for a while. Maybe I should go with you, to be your inside source."
Rick sighs. Coping with Beckett's standoffishness is bad enough. He doesn't need the added complication of his mother's presence. "Mother, for now, the medical examiner will be my inside source, but I'll keep you posted." He hurries out the door before Martha can follow.
