536. Chapter 536

After The Squab and the Quail

Episode 5.21

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: Not owning Castle is for the birds. Rating: K Time: See above.

Author's note: Once again, I've felt it necessary to make an ever so slight change in the canon episode. I'm sure you'll hardly notice the difference.

The three detectives and Castle stood in the restaurant, waiting for Lanie to finish her preliminary examination.

"A billionaire." Ryan said. "Actually, a multi-billionaire. In Forbes magazine's top ten billionaires in the whole world. The whole world!"

"And a genius." Castle added. "Not many billionaires get the Nobel Prize in chemistry. Actually no other billionaire has ever won any Nobel."

"A humanitarian." Kate said. "Billionaire? Genius? But something as simple as distributing millions of free mosquito nets in malaria ridden parts of the world has saved tens of thousands, hundreds of thousands of lives. Now, that's something."

"And she has the body of a porn star." Espo added, his voice tinged with lust.

"Okay, Espo. Try not to drool all over the crime scene." Kate teased.

"True though." Castle said. "The ordinary women of the world aspire to be Kate Beckett. But I'll bet the Kate Becketts of the world aspire to be Erika Vaughn."

Kate snorted in derision. "Not this Kate Beckett. I'm happy with what I am." She looked as Castle through her eyelashes. "And who I have."

Lanie finished her preliminary exam and called the detectives over. She confirmed that Arthur Felder had been poisoned. Beckett quickly gave instruction to her team and then turned to Erika Vaughn who was busy on her phone. "Ms. Vaughn? This is a murder investigation. I'd like your complete attention, please."

Erika Vaughn smiled. "Of course. I was just instructing my pilot to go to the Caribbean and fly Arthur's wife and children back." The woman's eyes lit up and she smiled at Castle. "Aren't you Richard Castle, the famous writer?"

Castle grinned. "I'm certainly not as famous as you are."

"You're too modest. I've been a huge fan of yours ever since Flowers for Your Grave. And I love all of your subsequent books." She took Castle's hand in hers.

"Then you'd want to meet Detective Kate Beckett. She's the inspiration for Nikki Heat."

Vaughn barely glanced at Kate. "But you're the inspiration for Jameson Rook, right? A fascinating character."

Kate noticed that Vaughn hadn't released Castle's hand. "If you'll excuse me, Ms. Vaughn, I need to ask you a few questions about Mr. Felder."

Erika released Castle's hand and turned to Kate, giving as short and concise answers as she could and continually looking over at Rick.

Once back at the precinct, Rick couldn't help but notice a change in Kate's mood. "Kate, um, are you, er, jealous? Of the fact that Vaughn paid a little attention to me?"

"Who? Me? Jealous? Just because some genius billionaire with the body of a porn star was flirting with you? Of course I'm jealous."

"You have absolutely nothing to worry about. She's a fan. Fans flirt all the time. It doesn't mean anything. To me, anyway."

"I'm surprised she didn't ask you to sign her boobs. Although given their size, you could have written a chapter of Nikki Heat on them."

Castle nodded. "Well, they are 40DD's."

"You know her bra size?" Kate said coldly, her eyes narrowing.

"I…It was...I found that on line. I was just surfing…No real interest….I should really stop now."

"They're probably fake anyway." Kate grumped.

"No, one of her old boyfriends put a bunch of old photos of her online. Did you know she wore a B cup when she was eleven? They've grown…" Castle realized he'd made a huge mistake. "You know that you're the only one for me, right?"

Kate stared at the floor, her frown fading. She looked up at Castle and smiled. "I know. And you're the only one for me."

"Besides, I've heard she flirts with a lot of guys. She probably forgot all about me five minutes after I left."

That, as it turned out, was completely wrong.

"Vaughn wants what?" Kate said.

"Now that we know that Ms. Vaughn was the intended victim, we're putting her under police protection. And she specifically asked for Mr. Castle to protect her." Gates said.

"He's not a cop. He's not even armed." Kate protested.

"Mr. Castle is now a temporary reserve police officer and he is authorized to carry a sidearm. One PP made that decision and it's final." Gates said, none too happy about that.

"I should go too. Castle doesn't have the experience that I…"

"Not a chance." Gates cut her off. "I am not going to waste my best homicide detective babysitting some billionaire. You work on solving the murder and find who's targeting Ms. Vaughn."

Just then Erika Vaughn walked into the bullpen. "Are you ready to go, Rick? I booked the Presidential suite at the Fairwick for us."

Castle would have loved to have kissed Kate good bye. But he could hardly do anything like that in front of Captain Gates and the whole bullpen. He settled for, "See you later, Detective Beckett."

Kate nodded and watched Castle leave with a flame haired, six foot tall beauty with a reputation for having a ravenous sexual appetite. She whirled around and faced her team. "I want this case solved. I want it solved right now. Or sooner."

Ryan smiled at her. "You don't think that Castle would…" Ryan decided he'd already said too much.

"Solve the case." Kate snarled.

Once in the Presidential suite, Erika Vaughn poured them some champagne and sat with Rick on the sofa. "So, you and Beckett are…together?"

He nodded. "Yes. Together."

"Is it serious?"

Castle thought for a second. "Yes. It's serious."

Erika smiled at him. "But you had to think about it. So it's not that serious." She leaned in to kiss him. As their lips touched, Castle shoved her away and a bullet zipped between them, missing by inches.

Kate was terrified when she got to the suite. She was relieved to see Castle was fine and less relieved to see two glasses of champagne. She took a peek into one bedroom and saw Castle's overnight bag.

"I'm okay." He said and she turned around. She checked that no one could see them and quickly kissed him.

"You're sure?"

"I'd know if I was shot." He replied with a grin.

"I hope you're not enjoying yourself too much, shacked up with her like this."

"I am not shacked up." Castle said softly. "You know I'd rather be with you."

"Castle?" Ryan called. "Can you come in here to recreate the scene?"

Castle sat on the sofa and Kate took the place of Erika. She noticed the discrepancy at once. "Castle, if you were where you said you two were, she'd be dead."

Castle looked around for help, but Ryan was making himself scarce. "Um, she, er, that is, what happened was, to tell the truth…."

"Castle?" She said sharply.

"She kissed me."

"What?" She grabbed Castle and dragged him into his bedroom. "She kissed you! She kissed you?"

"It took me by surprise. I pushed her away as soon as our lips touched."

"Your lips touched?" Kate said in an angry whisper.

"Castle! Beckett!" Ryan called. "Since the safe house is blown, we're taking Vaughn back to the precinct. You coming?"

Kate glared at Rick. "We'll talk about this later."

But before they could talk about it, Kate had a confrontation in the interrogation room with Erika Vaughn.'

"Ms. Vaughn, the financial records of Mexisolar make for interesting reading, especially when compared to the empty building actually in Mexico. You signed all of the financial documents. I wonder how many of your companies are frauds?"

Erika smiled. "My staff gives me many things to sign. I don't do the day to day."

"Give it up, Vaughn. You've been having an affair with a chemist, a Cindy Paralti. She's confessed that she gave you a vial of the poison in exchange for seventy five thousand dollars."

"Her word against mine, Detective. And I'm known to be quite generous with my employees. I helped her out in a difficult spot for her family."

"Barber, the hit man, was caught. He said your attorney, Neal Morris, paid him to kill Arthur Felder and fake an attempt on you."

"That sounds like he implicated Morris in a crime, not me."

Kate smiled. "Neal Morris doesn't trust you. He's been wearing a wire and recording your conversations for years."

"Illegal recordings? Not admissible."

"Oh, we'll see how the trial goes. For now, you're under arrest for murder. I'm sure other Federal charges will be filed once your real finances are checked." Kate smiled, knowing Castle was watching. "And I suspect you only went after Castle to distract me."

Erika smiled back. "He was delicious."

That night at the loft, Kate stood by Castle's bed completely naked. "I may not have the body of a porn star, Castle…"

He grabbed her hand and pulled her into bed with him. "And you don't commit murder and defraud your investors and do the other horrible things that Vaughn did. Don't ever sell yourself short, Kate. And knowing what we now know about Vaughn, I want to wash my lips with bleach or something from where she kissed me."

"Bleach? Never. I think I can find a way to make your lips feel better."