9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Morning again. Waking in the same place and position where she had fallen asleep, Beckett groaned and groped around for the alarm; and after dragging herself out of bed, she showered, dressed, had coffee, and went back to work.

All three detectives on the team reached the precinct about the same time; so within minutes of her arrival, the boys were asking Beckett if she had talked to Castle. She relayed his promise to call that morning; and they all took another look at the murder board, engaging in some speculation while they waited.

When Castle called, Kate let him know she was putting him on speaker, and the three detectives gathered around the cell phone on her desk. Following some brief small talk, he pointed out a few things he'd noticed and made a connection they hadn't yet seen. Then Castle asked a couple of questions, one of which triggered a new association in Ryan's mind. That linked to another piece of evidence, and after ideas were bounced around between them for another few minutes, things were looking more promising.

"You think you'll be back at the precinct after you finish the book?" Ryan asked Castle.

"If you can still use my help."

"I guess we could stand it," Esposito answered.

"How about you, Beckett?" Castle prodded.

"I guess I can stand you, too." She rolled her eyes, putting on a show for the boys.

"What about that vacation time you were telling me about? Think it might work out for you?"

"I'm not sure, but between a new set of eyes on the case and all of us getting a good night's sleep, it's looking better."

"So you're feeling hopeful?"

"Yeah," she answered with a little smile. "Hopeful is looking better all the time."

Castle laughed, enjoying her reference to what he would always think of as "their weekend".

"You're off speaker now. Thanks for the help."

In the background, the other two detectives called out their guy versions of appreciation loud enough that Castle could hear them.

"I hope it's helped enough to get you here when you planned," Castle answered quietly.

"Me, too. I'll talk to you later…let you know what happens."

"Let me know when you can leave. I'm sending a car for you…no argument. You're exhausted, and this way you can catch some extra sleep on the way. You can argue with me another time. See you soon."

"We can do that when I call with a progress report. Bye." Turning to the other two detectives, Beckett picked up the file, wiggled it in the air at them, and said, "Let's take this to the conference room, spread things out, and see what we can do with it. Espo, roll the murder board in. Ryan, get in there and boot up the computer. I have a good feeling about this."

They spent most of the afternoon matching their new suspicions to actual evidence. By Tuesday night, after interviewing a couple of witnesses again, the puzzle pieces were falling into place. There was still a lot of work to be done to pull it all together and round up the key players; but by Wednesday night, it was clear that Beckett wasn't leaving her partners with more than a normal workload. And, after the excessive overtime they had all put in on this case, the boys would be given a couple of extra days off as well. Ryan and Esposito insisted that Beckett leave on time and get out of town the next morning before something else could happen.

"So where are you off to?" Ryan asked.

"To see a good friend I haven't seen in way too long," she answered.

"We should have this wrapped up by the weekend, and Roy gave us Monday and Tuesday off. Don't worry about it. Have fun," Esposito told her.

"Thanks, guys. I'll owe you."

Watching her leave, Ryan asked his partner, "What do you think is going on with her?"

"I don't know, Bro', but something's different."

Beckett called Castle as soon as she was back at her apartment, and she jumped into conversation as soon as he answered.

"Hi. Warrants were served, suspects are in holding overnight, evidence looks good… The boys sent me home. They'll have all the details handled by the weekend, and they get the first of the week off, too. I can leave tomorrow morning."

"The car will be there at nine. The driver will call when he arrives."

"Castle…"

"Already done, Beckett. I just sent the email. All I had to do was fill in the time. The driver's name is Darrell. You'll like him."

"Believe it or not, I'm too tired to argue; so I'll just start packing. Wait. I hardly have to do that. Some of my clothes are already living with you."

"Can't wait for their owner to join them."

"Me, either. See you tomorrow."

"Take care of yourself. Until tomorrow, Detective."

Beckett's alarm the following morning wasn't met with any of the reticence of the day before. It was welcomed with enthusiasm. She showered and dressed in a new sundress, chosen a couple of weeks earlier especially with Castle in mind. Coffee was next, and she sat down to drink it with her cell phone beside her. Her purse and overnight bag were already placed next to the front door so when the driver called she could leave immediately. But when the phone finally rang, it was Castle.

"Couldn't wait to talk to me, Castle?"

"No. Just wanted to hear your voice to hold me until you get here."

"We're getting sappy."

"I can live with that."

"When Darrell calls, I'm ready to go. Aaand it looks like that call is coming in right now."

"Answer it and get in the car. I don't want to slow you down. See you soon." He hung up before she even had a chance to say good-bye.

She answered the other call and met the town car at the corner north of her building...and smiled. In spite of his occasional excesses, it seemed that Castle had known better than to annoy her by sending a limo. Darrell addressed her by name, attended to all his expected duties, and they were off to the Hamptons. "Mr. Castle requested that we have coffee and a bear claw waiting," Darrell informed her. "He said the coffee is your usual."

"I'm sorry he put you to all that trouble, but I do appreciate it."

"No trouble, Miss Beckett. Several of us have been driving for him for years. He takes good care of us, and we take good care of him."

She smiled and saluted him by raising her coffee cup where he could see her in the rear view mirror, and he smiled back.

After finishing the coffee and the bear claw, she watched the scenery for a while and eventually drifted into a nap. Checking the time when she woke, she thought she recognized a landmark she had identified relatively close to Castle's beach house.

"Are we almost there?" she asked, sounding surprised.

"Less than half an hour now."

"Oh. A much quicker trip than I thought." With a mischievous twinkle in her eye, she asked, "You're not speeding, are you?"

"Oh, no, Ma'am. Mr. Castle told me you're with the police," he answered good-naturedly.

"Enough of the 'Ma'am', Darrell. I'm Kate."

After Kate checked her hair and brushed it, she asked about a building they passed, and Darrell told her about it. Hair and make-up checked, she settled back in the seat and they talked about a couple of other interesting sights on the way.

"We'll be there in about five minutes, Miss Kate."

She immediately took out her phone and texted Castle. "Five minutes away."

"I'll be impatiently waiting," came back right away, and Darrell caught the smile that followed it in his mirror.

When the car pulled up in front of the house, Castle was waiting for them in the front yard; and Kate was out of the car before Darrell could get to the passenger door. She uncharacteristically ran to Castle, and they just held each other for a long moment, faces buried in necks, each simply breathing in the other. Then Castle lifted his head and leaned in to kiss her long and gentle and slow before realizing Darrell was standing at the back of the car waiting with Kate's bag. The driver had also retrieved her purse from the back seat while he was being completely ignored.

"Sorry, Darrell," Castle said sheepishly without entirely letting go of Kate, who was blushing at her own behavior. "I can take those."

"I'll put them inside the door, Sir. You take care of Miss Kate."

Castle turned her toward the house, and they followed Darrell up the steps and into the foyer. Telling her he'd be right back, Castle walked back out with the driver. "Thanks for taking care of everything for me."

"Looks like Miss Kate is worth it."

"She is. It shows, huh?"

"I hope to see her again, I don't think I've… Sorry, Mr. Castle. It's not my business…"

"No. I want to know what you were going to say."

"The smile…the look on your face. I've never seen you look that happy for anyone but Miss Alexis."

Castle looked down, a bit self-consciously for him. "You might be right. Keep it to yourself for now?"

"I will."

"I know that."

"If it makes any difference, Sir, I saw the same kind of smile from Miss Kate when I told her we were only five minutes away."

A smile lit up Castle's eyes. "Good to know. Thank you for that." Castle gave Darrell a manly clap on the arm as a good-bye and pressed a generous tip into his palm; then he returned to the house to enjoy Kate's arms and lips again.

She met him at the door, willingly allowing his close embrace. "I thought you'd never come back," she admitted. "I already embarrassed myself in front of Darrell once. I wasn't going to do it again."

"He sees it, too," he responded, leaning his forehead against hers.

"What?"

"Us. He said he hadn't seen me look this happy for anybody but Alexis…and that you had the same smile when he said you were almost here."

"What have you done to me? I don't go running across the grass into men's arms like a rom-com, and a total stranger doesn't usually get that kind of read on my feelings."

"It's just Darrell. He won't tell a soul. And he didn't say it in so many words, but I think he's rooting for us."

"I guess a few other people rooting for us can't hurt," she answered, moving her head to lean it on his shoulder. "Lanie's rooting for us, too."

"Did she demand a girls' night and give you the third degree?"

"Oh, yeah. And couldn't believe we kept it to kissing and snuggling. She's so proud of us for talking things out…and totally disappointed in both of us at the same time."

Castle chuckled. "I can almost hear the conversation."

"I think she knows that we were both happy with the way the weekend went, though. And I'm absolutely certain she knows how much we appreciate what she did for us. She loved the idea of a spa weekend, by the way."

Castle lifted Kate's chin with one hand and engaged in more kissing and cuddling, finally pulling away to take her hand and to pick up her bag and purse.

"Let's put your stuff upstairs…get you settled."

He led her up the stairs and stopped outside his room. "I know what we said last time you were here; but no pressure this time, either, Kate. I'd like to move your things to my room, but if you'd rather…"

"I'd like that, too. It was nice…waking up with you, but we don't need to put any pressure on ourselves about anything. How about no plans for anything but moving my clothes?" We just go with whatever feels right."

"Good plan. Let's empty the guest room now," he answered enthusiastically.

Both of them felt more at ease after clearing the air about expectations, and they accomplished their moving task in one trip. Castle hung her clothes in the closet while she filled the drawer he had cleared for her. The bag they had just brought upstairs was emptied; and, as she moved some necessities into the bathroom, Castle looked content. "It's nice seeing your things here with mine."

"It's looking awfully domestic," she answered, looking around.

"We looked pretty domestic last time you were here, too. Making meals together, neck massages, sitting together and just being… Anybody watching might think we'd been together a long time. It felt natural…to me, anyway."

"To me, too."

"But you look nervous."

"We got here so fast."

"I thought about that, too," he admitted, "but it wasn't all that fast. Think about it. We've been finishing each other's sentences since the beginning. We've felt something between us since the beginning, too. For you, it was probably laced with loathing, but you can't deny there was an attraction. We've been getting to know each other for a year and a half…seen the good and the bad. We work well together at the precinct. I trust you enough to take care of my daughter if anything happened to me…and to know you'd do that. I don't think it's odd that we fell into working well at home, too."

"Maybe not, but we're still not ready for big commitments."

"We'll still take our time," he promised, holding out his hand for her.

She melted against him instead of taking his hand; and he wrapped his arms around her protectively, knowing how hard she was pushing herself to be as open with him as she had been so far.

"It feels so good to be back here with you, Rick," she said softly.

"And it feels at least as good to have you here."

"So, you're ahead on your chapters?"

"Yep. I have one in reserve if someone gets demanding again, and another one very close to finished. You get a lot more of my time this trip, if you can stand it."

Pulling back far enough to look at him flirtatiously, she asked "So, do you need more proofing?"

"Looking for another sneak peak, Miss Beckett?"

"Me? I'm just trying to be helpful."

"You don't mind knowing what's in the book before it's released?"

"I can't believe I'm saying this, because I love sitting down with one of your new books and getting lost in it. I might miss that when it comes out, but I kind of liked feeling like a tiny part of what you're doing." She chuckled suddenly and looked up at Castle. "My mother wouldn't have believed this, but she would have loved it. She would have loved you."

"You think so?"

"I know so."

"How about your dad? He's still around to hurt me. How is he going to feel about trusting his only child to a man with a two marriage/two divorce record?"

"He's going to like you, too. I think I may have been talking about you more than I realized. Last time we had lunch on Sunday, he asked when he gets to meet you."

"Could Alexis and I have lunch with you and your dad one Sunday when we get back in the fall?"

"He'd like that. Will Alexis meet you here after her seminar?"

He nodded. "Mid-July. You should try to join us."

"We'll see."

Castle didn't push any farther. "Want to see some of the sights around here? We could take a car tour and you can decide what looks interesting.

"Sure. Sounds like fun. You going to play tour guide?"

"I could even bring my microphone if you want."

Kate laughed and rolled her eyes. "I think I can hear you from the other side of the front seat, Castle. Let's go see if you can impress me."

They locked up and got in the car for the tour, which Castle made as entertaining as he could.

"I'd love to see you as the father of a small child," she observed after one exceptionally theatrical explanation of a landmark. "It's enough fun seeing you with a teenager. Alexis must have loved growing up having you for a dad."

Castle just grinned at her, imagining a small child he and Kate might create…maybe a little boy. He wouldn't mention that thought yet, though. Small steps. Both of them needed to think in small steps for now.