427. Chapter 427

After Flowers for Your Grave

Episode 1.01

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: See all prior disclaimers. Rating: K Time: See above.

Hi, my name is Bob H. and I'm a Castleholic. I wrote my last Castle fanfic about eight hours ago. But I can quit any time. Really, I can.

Kate Beckett grabbed Richard Castle as soon as they left Captain Montgomery's office. She pulled him into Interrogation One. "What are we doing here?" He asked,

"You are not following me around."

"But I am." Castle said with a smile that infuriated her.

"You. Are. Not. Following. Me. Around." She enunciated each word carefully and clearly.

"The Mayor says you are. And I do believe the Mayor outranks you."

She was even more infuriated. "In case you don't know, and I'm sure you don't, the police have a union. One of the things the union does for me is it keeps politicians from interfering with police work. When the Mayor tells me to let you follow me, I'll tell him I'm going to complain to the union. And he'll back down."

Castle shook his head. "He won't call you, Beckett. That's not the way New York works. If you say you won't let me work with you, the Mayor will call the Police Commissioner and yell at him. And the Police Commissioner will call the Chief of Police and yell at him. And he'll call the Chief of Detectives and yell at him, who'll call Montgomery and yell at him. Now Montgomery strikes me as the sort who'll stand up for his people, so Montgomery won't yell at you, he'll yell at the Chief of Detectives and that'll make the Chief of Detectives mad and he'll call the Chief…and you see where this is going? Montgomery will get in trouble, not you." Castle smiled. "Is Montgomery the political type? Someone who's owed a lot of favors by people in One PP? Someone who can talk his way out of this kind of trouble?"

"You wouldn't?" Beckett said coldly.

"No. The question is, would you?" Seeing the confusion on Beckett's face, Castle pressed his advantage. "Look, it's not that bad for you. I helped you solve the murder."

"You got lucky." Beckett shot back.

"Lucky?" Castle scoffed. "I guessed that Kyle Cabot couldn't have made the errors in staging the crimes that the killer did? I was lucky in figuring out that Johnathan Tisdale was dying?"

"And you bought Harrison Tisdale's alibi completely." Beckett cut in.

"And I figured out he'd have a second passport. And I talked Judge Markway into signing your search warrant. Without me, you'd still be going through TSA records while Harrison was enjoying his ill -gotten millions."

"And you almost got yourself killed."

Castle shrugged. "The safety was on. I was perfectly safe."

Kate rolled her eyes. "Do you have any idea how easy it is to take the safety off? How close you came to getting killed?"

"If he killed me that would be my fault. But what if he'd killed you? How could I have let that happen?"

"How could you…" Kate began. "That's my job, Castle. It is not your job to keep me safe."

"Of course it is. You're the inspiration for my new character. I'll do whatever it takes to keep you safe."

"You'll…what?" Kate got her temper under control. She was a highly trained homicide cop. She could handle one difficult, make that, very difficult, writer. "Castle, you got lucky, and maybe with the involvement of the plots from your novel, you had some useful input on this case, but only this case. You're not a trained police officer and you're certainly not a trained homicide cop."

He smiled again, infuriating her further. "You're not a fan, of course, but you have some familiarity with my books. You must know that I do a lot of research to get the details just right. I do know a lot about police work."

"Doing research is not the same as the years of training and experience that I, and every homicide cop in the precinct, has had."

"Oh! Well, it may interest you to know that I know things that you don't and can get information that you could never get."

"Castle! Do you really believe that? I'm a trained investigator and I can get warrants and subpoenas. I can compel people to talk to me."

"Oh? Could you have gotten "Tough Tony" Abruzzi, the head of the Chicago Outfit to talk to you?"

"What? Abruzzi is dead! And he's from Chicago, not New York. What does that have to do with anything?" Beckett said, mystified as to where this was going.

"He was dying of cancer. I happened to need some information about the Outfit for one of my Derrick Storm books. I asked around and one day I got a call. "Tough Tony" wanted to talk to me. It turned out that he just wanted someone to talk to. He was old, dying, lonely, and he wanted to talk about the old days. He just talked about himself and people who were long dead. I never was told anything that might have hurt any other living members of the Outfit. But, my point is, that every one of the Five Families in New York knows that Tough Tony Abruzzi knew me and trusted me and nothing happened to anyone in the Outfit because of me. I know people in the Five Families. People who'll never talk to you in a million years."

"And who'll never testify in court either." Kate replied.

"I know ex-jewel thieves, art forgers, counterfeiters, and cops, a Texas Ranger, a French flic and a guy whose family has been tracking Nazis and neo-Nazis since the end of World War Two. I know a hired gun who killed an African politician in the 1970s who was protected by East German bodyguards and a company of Cuban troops. Shot him with an elephant gun at arrange of nearly a mile. I can be a help to you."

"Unless you get killed the first day out with me."

"I can take care of myself. I head butted Harrison Tisdale, didn't I?"

"So, you have a black belt in which martial art?" Beckett scoffed.

"Not martial arts. Rugby at Faircroft Prep. Rugby is supposed to teach you to play up and play the game, but mostly the scrums taught me how to fight dirty."

Beckett smiled. "So you think you can handle yourself?"

A half an hour later, Castle and Beckett faced off against each other in the precinct gym. Castle found that Beckett looked amazingly hot in her workout clothes.

She glared at him. "Okay, tough guy, let's see how good you are. And if you grab anything and I think you're enjoying it, I will hurt you badly."

Castle nodded. Then he found himself sitting on his butt. Beckett had kicked his legs out from under him.

"Get up."

He did.

She knocked him down again.

He got up again.

She feinted with her right hand and slammed her left fist in to his ribs, knocking the air out of him. She followed with a punch to the stomach which doubled him over.

"Castle, you're supposed to fight me. Do you understand that?"

He nodded and got a flurry of punches to the chest and stomach for his troubles. He fell over again. Beckett dropped on him and got him in a choke hold. "Castle, I could break your neck from this position, crush your larynx and hyoid bone, or choke you to death."

She rolled off of him and got up. "Come on, Castle. I thought you could take care of yourself." She mocked.

He got slowly to his feet. She aimed a kick at his crotch, but her foot never connected. She found herself spun around and was doubled over in pain from a punch to the kidney. She was turned around and took a punch in the solar plexus that knocked her to her knees, than she was slammed to the mat.

"Damn! Beckett, are you okay? I didn't mean to do that." Castle said, kneeling beside her.

Beckett took a couple of deep breaths and then punched Castle in the stomach, then she rolled to her feet.

"Okay, Castle, you're not useless. But let's see…" She didn't finish the sentence, but punched him in the chest, just under the heart.

He dropped to one knee.

"Come on, Castle, get up and defend yourself."

Castle got up but kept his hands at his sides.

Beckett hit him in the gut again. He wobbled but stayed upright.

"Come on, defend yourself."

He shook his head. "No."

"Had enough then? Ready to admit that you're not ready to follow me around."

He shook his head again. "No. I shouldn't have hit you. It's not how I was raised. A gentleman does not hit a lady."

Beckett rolled her eyes. "Castle, the people you're going to run into out there aren't ladies or gentlemen and they don't play by the Marquis of Queensberry rules." She jabbed at his stomach. He grunted and bent over.

"When the time comes, I can hit a woman. But I won't hit you." He gasped.

She jabbed at his ribs.

"No. I get it, you're mad at me. So go ahead and hit me. I'm not going to hit you or defend myself."

Beckett punched him in the mouth, cutting him.

"I won't hit you." He repeated.

She lost her temper and hit him hard in the stomach. He bent over and then dropped to one knee. Then he got up again. "I'm not done." He said.

She threw another punch at him, but at the last second she pulled her punch, causing her to lose her balance and run into Castle. She found herself leaning into his chest with his arms around her.

"Castle, I think you're about as stubborn as I am."

He nodded and smiled, "And I think you're about as stubborn as I am."

She took a step back. "Does the offer of dinner still stand?"