webnovel

23. Chapter 23

After Last Call

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: I own exactly as much of Castle as you think. None. Rating: K+ Time: See above and below.

June 2014

"Mr. and Mrs. Castle. Good to see you again." Brian, the manager of the Old Haunt, welcomed the owners. "How's everything?"

Rick slid his arm around his wife's waist and smiled. "Perfect, just perfect. Um, I think my lovely wife would like a glass of white wine and I'll have a Scotch on the rocks."

Brian shook his head. "Can't serve you, sir."

Castle stared at Brian in disbelief. "You do remember I own this place."

"Yes, sir. But House Rule Number One is, the owner may not be served if there is paperwork requiring his attention on his desk for more than three days. It's been three days, Rick." Brian smiled at Rick.

"Dumb rule. I'm changing it. Pour."

Brian shook his head. "House Rule Number Two: the owner may not change House Rule Number One. Sorry. Those are the rules."

Kate laughed. "Come on, Castle. I'll help you with the paperwork." She turned to Brian. "Open up the office staircase, please, Brian?"

Brian opened the stairway to the office downstairs. Rick put his arm around Kate and led her downstairs. At the bottom of the staircase, Kate stopped short. "Rick…?" She said. She smiled at him and looked again. "What did you do?" Across from her were two highly polished mahogany desks where before there had been just one.

"You're the owner of the Old Haunt along with me. You needed a desk, too. Like it?"

Kate walked over to her new desk and carefully examined it. "It's beautiful." She looked at Rick, who had a huge smile on his face. "It must have cost you a fortune."

He shrugged. "I had it hand made for you. It's exactly like my desk. You deserve the best."

Kate hugged Rick and then kissed him, a long, wet passionate kiss. "I have the best, I have you. Thank you so much."

"Okay, sit at your desk while I do the work. I got some pens, paper and other office supplies for you, but I figured you'd want to outfit your desk yourself. A computer, photos, maybe more elephants."

Kate examined her new desk while Rick worked. One thing she knew, since Rick had seven pictures of her on his desk, she'd have seven of him on hers. She thought back to all the times they'd been at the Old Haunt. She rose, walked over to Rick, pushed his chair back, sat on his lap and kissed him. She then breathed in his ear. "I was in love with you."

"Whoa! You were in love with me? Past tense? What happened?" He was smiling, but there was a look of concern in his eyes.

"I am in love with you, but I was in love with you when we first came down here when you were the new owner. Do you remember?"

December 2010

"Hello, Mr. Castle." Brian the bartender said nervously. "How are you?"

"Fine, Brian. See those three men looking at the pictures on the walls? They're my friends. Drinks are on me tonight. And this is Detective Kate Beckett. Her drinks are on me, too."

"Ms. Beckett? What would you like?"

"A glass of white wine, I think, Brian."

"And I'll have my usual Scotch."

Brian shook his head. "I can't serve you sir. Your rule about not allowing you to drink if there's paperwork to be done. It's down on your desk, sir. I laid it all out for you."

"Brian? I own this place, can't we…"

Kate laughed. "Your rules, Castle. You have to go do paperwork."

Rick sighed. "Okay. I'll be back, Beckett."

Brian opened the stairway to his office and Rick headed for the stairs.

"I'm coming with you, Castle. I've been dying to see you do paperwork for a long time now. I wouldn't miss this for the world."

Rick waited for her at the top of the stairs. When she joined him, he put his hand on her shoulder. "Be careful, the stairs are steep and kind of narrow. I wouldn't want you to fall."

"Afraid I'd sue you for every penny you have, Castle?"

Why did I say that?" Kate asked herself. I'm not some gold digger out to get rich off of Castle. Kate felt the warmth of his hand through the material of her blouse. How does he do this to me? The warmth of his hand is exciting. I wish his hands were elsewhere. They reached the bottom of the staircase and Rick took his hand off of her shoulder. Good! I couldn't have taken more of that. Why does that happen with him?

Castle sat as his desk while Kate looked around. "You've already made some changes, haven't you?"

Castle put down his paperwork. "I've had new carpeting put in. I'm thinking of having some new wood paneling put in, and the city has told me I have to close of the old tunnel to the outside. It's a health hazard they say. Since someone was murdered in there, I kind of agree."

"How does Gina like the place?"

"She hasn't seen it."

"I'm sure she'll love it when she does see it."

Castle grunted something as a reply.

Kate looked at Castle. Something was wrong here. "Is there a problem, Castle?"

"No." He said shortly.

She walked over and sat on the edge of his desk. "Castle, I'm a detective, remember? What's wrong?"

Castle looked up at her. For a second she thought he wasn't going to say anything, but he did.

"Gina hates it. She refuses to come here."

"Why, it's a beautiful place, filled with history. What's not to like?"

"Gina is a businesswoman. She says this is another example of my inability to handle money. She's right, business-wise, given what I need to do with the Old Haunt, plus what I want to do. The first couple of years will be a real money loser. Even when things are all set, I won't make much of a profit. But I'm doing this because it's fun, and that infuriates Gina. I made the mistake of telling her that in spite of my so-called inability to handle money, I'm far richer than she is, and that really set her off. If it were up to her, I'd spend half my life writing best sellers and the other half counting my money."

"She's just trying to help you, Castle."

"Helping is mentioning it once or twice, not trying to make it our sole topic of conversation." He snapped. Castle shook his head. "Sorry, I shouldn't take this out on you. Let's drop the subject, okay?"

Kate nodded and moved off his desk. It looked like Castle's relationship with Gina wasn't working out. She was sorry about that. She had come to like Castle, in spite of the fact that he did get on her nerves on occasion, but she had hoped that Castle would find someone.

She found a stack of files on the old bookcase. Inside were photos. "What're these?"

"When the Ledger did that article on the Old Haunt after I bought it, they dug into their archives for old photos of the place. I'm planning to have them framed and put upstairs. The first file are photos from when the Old Haunt was a brothel. They are from the period of about 1898 to about 1910." Kate looked at the photos. The girls were wearing what was probably very daring clothing for the era, but they showed less skin than the average Manhattan secretary did today.

"The next file is from the 1920s when the Old Haunt was a speakeasy during Prohibition. See the guy in the first photo? He's in the middle of the photo, looking right at the camera? That's Frankie Yale. He was New York's biggest gangster and bootlegger back in the day."

Kate decided she didn't like Frankie Yale at all. She wouldn't put his picture up.

"The next file is from the '30s. At the end of the bar? That's Papa Hemingway. According to the caption in the old Ledger he was just back from the Spanish Civil War and was blocking out For Whom the Bell Tolls."

"The last file is from the 40s. The last three pictures are my favorites. They were taken on August 14, 1945, the day the Second World War ended. That was probably the happiest day in US history."

Kate looked at the photos of a sea of young men in uniform, toasting each other, kissing their girlfriends and smiling hugely. Kate smiled when she saw a soldier who was kissing the same woman in all three photos.

She put the photos down and went over to a tarp covering something. "What's this?" She asked.

"Pull the tarp off. It's my new jukebox. Well, new to me. It's a 1956 Wurlitzer."

Kate looked at the beat up jukebox. "Does it work?" She asked.

"Yeah. I had a guy pull out the old system that used records, and put in one that uses CDs. I have music on it starting with ragtime and going up to the big bands of the 40s. My idea is to redo the Old Haunt like it was in its glory days, from about 1920 to 1945."

"How do you get it to work?"

"I don't have the payment system in yet, so just plug it in and select your songs. One thing, it'll be plugged into a speaker system upstairs when it's all fixed. Right now, I just have it hooked up to a small speaker down here, so it isn't very loud."

Kate plugged it in and began punching buttons. Maple Leaf Rag started playing, followed by Memphis Blues.

Kate looked over at Castle. He was done with his paperwork, and staring at the wall. He looked unhappy. Kate walked over to him just as What a Wonderful World began. "I love this song. Come on, Castle, dance with me."

Castle looked up at her, but didn't move. She reached down and grabbed his hand, pulling on it. He got up and she took him to the middle of the room. He tentatively put one hand on her back and the other on her shoulder and they began to dance. Kate was extremely conscious of his hands on her. I wanted to cheer him up, make him happier, and forget Gina's stupid ideas. But he's making me happier. He's turning me on. I can't do this! I have to stop. Instead, Kate leaned forward and rested her head on Rick's chest. This brought his hand to the back of her neck, under her hair. She felt him start to move his hand around in a nice, slow sensuous circle on her neck. His other hand did the same on her back. I can't let this happen. What about Josh? Somehow, trying to think about Josh made her think about Castle. Kate moved her hand from his shoulder to his neck and began to rub his skin. I should be ashamed of myself, but I'm not. I like it and I want more. And I'm terrified of more. Kate moved her head back and forth very slowly on Castle's shoulder, feeling strands of her hair moving over his neck and cheek. I won't stop, but I won't do more than this. But what if he does more? What will I do?

The music changed to Moonlight Serenade by the Glenn Miller Orchestra. Kate tried to remember how many songs she had played and if they were all slow songs. She couldn't remember, and decided she didn't care.

Castle was in shock. He had his arms around Kate, and was lightly stroking her neck and back. Her hand was on his neck and her head rested easily on his shoulder. He could feel her breasts move lightly against his chest. What the hell is going on? Why is Beckett doing this? Why is she letting me do this? Okay, I found out that she likes to sing, so it makes sense she likes to dance. But this? Normally, I'd expect I'd be on the floor, bleeding if I did this. I'm not complaining, though, and I'm not going to stop.

They continued to dance.

And then the music stopped. Kate remained with her head on Castle's shoulder for a moment, then slowly pulled her head away. "Thanks." She whispered, smiling at him. "Um, we should get back upstairs."

They walked to the stairway and Castle put his hand on her shoulder. She smiled.

JUNE 2014

"I love you, Rick. I love you so much." Kate whispered. "I love you."

Rick nuzzled her neck. "I know. I love you, too."

"I spent years pushing you away, denying how I felt about you. I owe you years of telling you that I love you to make up for it."

"I knew you loved me, just as you knew how much I loved you back then."

Kate kissed Castle again. "I should have kissed you senseless, dragged you to the desk and had my way with you." She whispered in his ear.

He shook his head. "We're not that kind of people. We were both with someone at the time."

"Then I should have kissed you senseless the first day we met, dragged you to a desk and had my way with you."

Castle laughed. "With Esposito and Ryan right there?"

"I'd have found a private desk for us."

"We have two private desks right here?" He leered.

She smiled seductively at him. "We have a private bed at home. It's bigger and far more comfortable."

"Why don't I buy us a drink and then we can go home, Mrs. Castle?"

"A quick drink?"