102. Chapter 102

Chapter 102

Alexis and JD had arrived back at home from their honeymoon on Wednesday night and stopped by the loft just long enough to say hello, drop off a few gifts, and shower some love on Jamie before Kate tucked him in. They were there no more than half an hour before saying they needed to get home and get ready for registration the next morning. After being away for close to two weeks, they also needed to get settled in JD's apartment, go grocery shopping, and generally start making his place their home. Castle invited them for dinner on Saturday night, and the couple agreed it would be nice to get out of organizing mode for an evening before their classes started the following week. And they promised to bring pictures from their trip.

Castle held Alexis a little closer than usual, and she reminded him softly, "You're not losing anybody, remember? Just sharing."

"Deep down inside I know that, but sometimes it hides from me."

"We'll visit often, Mr. Castle," JD promised. "We like it here."

Reluctantly releasing his daughter, he answered, "JD, I think it's about time for you to call Mrs. Castle Kate and call me Rick."

"Would 'Dad' be okay instead? The younger man asked hesitantly.

"Dad would be fine," Castle answered, giving his son-in-law a fatherly hug before the newlyweds left.

"Bye, Kate. Bye, Dad," they heard from both younger voices as they left the loft.

"I think he's wanted to call you that for a good while now," Kate said after the door closed.

"I know what it's like not to have a father. But I can't imagine how it must feel to have had a father…even an inattentive one…and have him suddenly walk away and want nothing to do with you." After a short moment, he admitted, "I may have wanted to hear him say it for a while, too. I do love him like the rest of my family…even if he did steal my little girl." After a deep, sad sigh, he lightened up, gave Kate a teasing smile, and added, "And it wouldn't surprise me if he wants to call you Mom and just hasn't worked up to it yet."

Kate laughed and slipped her arms around his waist, resting her head on his shoulder. "Worse things could happen. I love him, too."

xxxxx

After a weekend spent alternately enjoying her family and dreading work on Monday, Beckett met the entire contingent of temporary transfers from the twelfth for an early breakfast.

During their commiserations after the orientation on Friday afternoon, they had decided they would all go in together on Monday morning. If the new captain was going to treat them like the enemy, they would approach him with enough people to resemble an invading army…and provide backup for one another when they reported in. Beyond that, the plan was to counter whatever he threw at them with appropriate professionalism, respect, and cooperation…as long as he didn't interfere with getting their jobs done. If he was still behaving the way he was on Friday, that would infuriate him; and there would be absolutely nothing he could do about it. During breakfast, they had all enjoyed imagining his frustration. They fully intended to be as genuinely friendly as possible to the other officers and detectives at the precinct as well. Making that effort would be necessary, even though they knew they shouldn't expect to be immediately welcomed with open arms.

Their four cars pulled up outside the fifty-first, half an hour earlier than necessary. The eight of them followed the protocol for entering the precinct and then stopped to speak to the desk sergeant.

"I'm Lieutenant Kate Beckett," she said with a smile and shook his hand. "We're the new personnel from the twelfth, and we need to check in with Captain Bronson," she explained.

"I'll let him know you're here," he answered, looking more uncertain than unfriendly. All the men from the twelfth looked pleasant, and some lifted a hand in greeting. After he announced their presence, he said, "You can go on up now, Ma'am. Fourth floor. His office is on the left."

Checking the ID badge and the nameplate on the desk, Beckett answered, "Thanks. Good to meet you Sergeant Cortez."

Each of the men with Beckett quickly introduced himself to the sergeant and shook his hand. Esposito was last and said, "Guess we'll be seeing a lot of you, Cortez."

"Guess so," Cortez answered; and he watched, a bit dazed, as the elevator door closed.

"One down," Demming commented. "That wasn't too bad."

"The day is young," Beckett replied dryly.

"Debbie downer over there…Ma'am," Ryan noted in amusement from where he was squished into a corner."

The rest of the group chuckled, and Esposito asked, "So when you make captain, will you be "Ma'am or Sir?"

"Do I look like a 'Sir' to you?" she shot back with a smirk.

Behind Beckett's back, Esposito mouthed instructions to the others and led them in a unison, "No, Ma'am."

Beckett laughed and said, "Oh, shut up." That left all of them laughing and schooling their faces back to business quickly when the elevator came to a stop.

They definitely attracted attention in the bullpen when a tall, attractive, and confident woman in the company of a group of seven equally confident looking men came striding out of the elevator and toward the captain's office.

When they reached his office, Bronson was leaning back in his chair as he had on Friday. No one offered a handshake because it was obvious he still didn't intend to reciprocate.

"Your transfers from the twelfth, reporting for duty, Sir," Beckett said.

"You always let the woman do the talking for you?" he asked unpleasantly, looking around at the men.

"We do when she's the ranking officer among us, Sir," Demming answered.

"So… All of you at once? You need backup or something? Scared to see me on your own?"

"No, Sir," Beckett answered, appearing completely unaffected. "You seem like someone who says what he needs to say and is done with it, and you didn't seem to want to talk to any of us on Friday. We thought it would save you some time if we all checked in at once. You can tell us what you need us to know, and then we can set up our desks and get to work. But, if you'd rather see us individually, that's fine."

He looked like he wanted to bellow at someone. "How thoughtful of you," he replied sarcastically. He followed that with a speech that, for all intents and purposes, told them he didn't need them and that they were unwanted. He reminded them he was their captain, they should remember that his word is law, and any deviation from that would mean trouble. "Does everybody understand that?"

"Yes, Sir" promptly issued forth in a chorus of staggered responses from the group.

"Robbery is on the second floor. Report to Lieutenant Turek. The rest of you find your desks in homicide. You're detectives. I assume you can find the empty ones." Then they were dismissed with no other instructions and told to get to work…except for Beckett.

"Lieutenant Beckett." He said it as if it were a dirty word. "Do not challenge my authority while you're here."

"I don't intend to, Sir."

"Don't think I don't know what you're doing."

"Sir, I can't think of anything I've done wrong. My only intention is to do my job the way I always have. All of us work hard."

"And how do you see your job as lieutenant?"

"My duties as a detective, some training, evaluations, assisting the detectives when I can…"

"You think they need your help?" He looked angry again. "You don't try to help here if you aren't wanted."

"Yes, Sir."

"And final evaluations are my job, whether you agree with my decisions or not."

"I know that, Sir."

"Dismissed."

Beckett nodded, turned, and left. Sully waved from the unoccupied desks across the room, and she joined the rest of her team there.

"I hope they see how we left our desks for them and are ashamed of what they left us," Ryan muttered under his breath.

"Sully and I will go get our things from the car first. I have some wipes we can use to clean up. It could be worse. Be right back," she said as they left. They were back in minutes and Ryan and Esposito made their own quick run to their car.

One of the detectives on another team had been watching them, and about the time Esposito and Ryan returned, he called from his desk, sounding almost as insulting as Captain Bronson, "You must be the great Detective Beckett."

"I haven't used those words and I don't intend to, Detective?" Her raised eyebrow made it obvious that she was asking for a name,

"Egan. Detective Egan. And you don't have to say anything. You get the media to say it for you."

"Hey, you're speaking to your lieutenant," Esposito pointed out. "And she…"

"You don't need to defend me, Esposito. Let it go." She had already placed the box on her desk and spoke to her team quietly as they did the same. "Go ahead and get your desks set up. I'm going to do a little reconnaissance work. Anybody see a hint of friendly anywhere in this room? We're gonna want somebody to give us at least the five cent tour so we know where to find what we need. It could also break the ice with somebody if we can find anybody willing. Gotta start somewhere."

"The team over in the back corner on the right isn't looking at us like we're something they'd find on the bottoms of their shoes," Sully said, barely audibly. "Maybe that's a place to start."

"The one other woman on the floor is in the group next to that one. She's been watching you non-stop since we came in from Bronson's office," Ryan added. "And she doesn't look like she wants to shoot you."

"Thanks. Wish me luck." She moved away from her desk in the opposite direction from Egan and his team, stopped at the first group of desks on that side of the room, and smiled at the least unfriendly face there. "Hi. I'm Kate Beckett. Might as well get some introductions out of the way. We'll be working together for a while."

"David Tran," the man answered, non-committally. Pointing out the rest of the group of four, he said, Brock, Farmer, and Nilsson."

"Are you working on anything right now, or are you between cases?"

"Just finished one up," he said. "Cleared the board last night and turned in the file just before you got here."

"Well, I'll let you enjoy the down time. We all know it won't last long."

She moved to the group with the other woman in it and introduced herself again. All the detectives in this group were approximately the ages of her team, and they seemed a bit more accepting. The woman introduced herself right away.

"Tamara Griffith, Lieutenant Beckett. These guys are Washington, Stevens, and Malone."

Beckett acknowledged all of them as she had done with the other group. "Looks like you've got an active one," she noted, nodding toward the files and records on their desks. "Any good leads?"

"A couple," Washington answered, "But it's slow going."

"Well, I'll let you get back to it." Standing between the two teams, she asked, "Does anybody have time to give us a quick tour of where to find things? Office supplies, restrooms, printers…coffee? We could wander around and find it ourselves, but it would probably be more efficient and less of a distraction if someone showed us around."

"We got nothing else to do right now. I can do that, one of the men from the first group said. "The rest of them coming, too?"

"Yeah. Let me get them. Be right back."

She walked about halfway back and said, "Hey, guys, Farmer over there is going to show us around."

They all joined Farmer, and Kate's team identified themselves.

"Ellis Farmer," the detective answered, introducing himself to the new co-workers.

Beckett handled the introductions for the rest of the two teams and, impressively, got all the names correct without a single hesitation.

"You ready to go?" Farmer asked. "It's a short tour. Not much to see."

"Usually isn't," Esposito answered agreeably.

"Printer's in the converted closet over there in the corner. Copier's in there, too." As they walked, they joked a little. When they were finished with the general tour, Kate asked about the gym and locker rooms. "The locker rooms are okay, just old. The gym isn't great. It's got the basics, though. You think you'll use it much?" he asked as he led them in that direction.

"With the extra drive time, we may have to," Kate answered. "Not much time to go anywhere else."

When they got back to the bullpen, all of them had relaxed a little. It seemed there was hope for eventually getting along with Farmer.

"Thanks, man," Esposito said as Farmer walked back to his desk, and the others echoed small sounds of appreciation as well.

They set up their desks, adding the supplies they had picked up on their tour, then Becket visited the less friendly looking teams. Those were made up largely of the older detectives who had probably been with Bronson and the precinct for a good while and were likely feeling as insulted as Bronson. A couple of them scowled at them like Egan. The three or four younger members of those teams seemed somewhat intimidated by the others and weren't much friendlier.

A call came in as Beckett's team was about to leave for lunch, and Captain Bronson made sure he stopped them himself, letting them know that a crime scene was waiting and that he expected them to eat later.

There were a few odd looks when they walked into the crime scene with their own camera, but there were no complaints. There were more introductions to be made with the ME and his staff and the CSU team they hadn't worked with before, but that went much more smoothly than the situation at the precinct. Following the use of the good manners required of meeting new people they would have to depend on, Beckett turned on the camera. After a thorough look at the crime scene and a couple of requests for CSU, they took a good look around the general area outside the building and did a quick evaluation of the neighborhood.

Identifying the officers at the scene and speaking with them, Beckett said, "You've been here a lot longer than we have. What can you tell us about the neighborhood and what to look out for? Your insights could be a valuable asset." They were given a quick rundown and then they asked a few questions.

"Good neighborhood information, Hogan. The rest of you, too." Ryan said. "That's gonna be a big help." Hogan had delivered a good report, with others filling in a few extra details."

"You got a military background?" Esposito asked. "Sounded like what I used to hear in the field."

"Marines," Hogan answered. "I liked it but I have a little boy now. Wanted to be home with my family."

"Army. Special Forces," Esposito answered. They bumped fists before getting back to business.

"So, Hogan and Zimmerman," Beckett started. Then she instructed them where to canvass and gave them a couple of questions to be sure to ask and a couple of things to be aware of when talking to possible witnesses in this instance. "If your experience in the neighborhood leads you to ask around in a few other places, feel free. You know the people and places around here and we don't, so use you best judgment." Beckett and the rest of the team thanked the officers, and told them to report to them at the precinct later.

They returned to their desks with food for a working lunch, and Beckett looked for a white board to start laying out their information. Egan was the closest person available when she looked up, so she asked, "Hey, Egan, can you tell me where I can find a white board?"

"You'll need to ask the Captain about that." He had a smirk on his face that looked a little too pleased.

When she knocked on the captain's door, he looked up but said nothing.

"Sir, I was told I needed to ask you about a white board."

"The team you replaced broke theirs right before they left. I've ordered another one, but you'll have to wait until it's delivered. Sometimes they're a little slow about that." He was quietly gloating.

"Then we'll find a way to work without it until we can get one," she answered without argument. And she left.

"No white board for now," she announced when she got back to her desk, loud enough to be heard. "We'll work around it until we have one." Then she told them quietly, "Don't act like it bothers you. It's a set-up. I guess we're going through initiation. This is like junior high."

"Drinks before we head home? Please?" Sully begged just as quietly.

"Yeah, preferably before we even get in the car," Ryan agreed.

"That means we have to find a bar. I hate to ask anybody here," Esposito added.

"Yeah. No telling where we'd end up," Beckett grumbled. Loud enough to be heard again, she said, "Let's see what we've got," and took out a legal pad to start a murder board there. When they had finished their lunch around working and had done all they could do without having more information, she texted Castle with a request, followed by another text saying she couldn't wait to get home.

"Comfort food for dinner?" he texted back.

"Please, please, please," she answered.

"As you wish," he answered.

Beckett was sitting with her back to the rest of the bullpen, and Sully pointed at her unexpected, relaxed smile.

"Castle," Ryan stated. The others nodded and couldn't help small smiles of their own after all the frustration.

"He's making us comfort food for dinner," she said, "And by the time I stop ranting, he's probably going to need it, too." They all chuckled softly, and Egan looked disappointed.

A couple of hours later, Officers Hogan and Zimmerman came in with their reports. After discovering a discarded purse with a picture ID that matched their victim, who appeared to be Darlene Oswald, they had found a few people who knew the victim and seemed to be worth the detectives' attention. They also found that the owner of a small restaurant near the victim's address had seen her there that morning with a man about her age. Esposito took the notes, distributed them among his team, and they looked them over, comparing.

"Good information and good observations…concise and well organized, and the victim is identified. Outstanding work, Gentlemen," Beckett commented. "Even business cards for a couple of them. We'll add some of this to the murder board now, such as it is," she said, indicating the legal pad. When Zimmerman opened his mouth as if he were about to speak, she held up a hand and said, "Don't ask."

"Yes, Ma'am," he answered.

"Thanks, guys. We may need to send you to pick up some of these people tomorrow."

"Just let Sergeant Cortez know," Hogan answered.

"I think they left standing a little taller. You get the feeling good work doesn't get much notice around here?" Ryan asked.

"Pretty sure you're right," Esposito agreed.

"Sully, see if you can get a sketch artist in tomorrow morning. When that's scheduled, we can call the restaurant owner…a Mr. Willis French, and get him in to work on a description. He had no cameras and apparently he hadn't seen the man before."

When they had gone through everything, organized it for the next day, and made the right contacts for phone, financial, and business records for their murder victim, a budding young entrepreneur, they organized things to go home. They'd have more to work with the next day when the lab reports and records started coming in.

Bronson had left about twenty minutes earlier, with Egan leaving close behind; and the feeling of relief didn't seem to be only among the team from the twelfth. "Anybody else ready for a beer?" Esposito asked his friends.

There was a chorus of agreement, and Ryan called out, "Hey, Farmer. Can you point us to a bar?"

"Tran and I were going to the one down the block. We'll show you."

Kate looked thoughtfully at their notes and makeshift murder board and put them in a folder to take them with her.

In the lobby as they were leaving, the detectives noticed another team they'd spoken to that morning.

"Griffith, we're going for a beer," Beckett told her. Looking at the rest of the team, she asked, "Anybody want to come along? The new guys are buying the first round."

Three of them said they would. Malone's daughter had a ballgame that night, so he was rushing home. He did say he hated to miss free beer, though.

Without Bronson and Egan around, the group from the fifty-first seemed friendlier. Beckett's team spent about half an hour in the bar talking with them and left feeling like they had made at least a few contacts they could talk to. Their new acquaintances' opinions of Bronson didn't sound much better than those of Beckett's team, but they were all stuck with him.

Kate made one stop on the way home, dropped Sully off, and got to the loft as fast as she could from there.

She was greeted by her husband's kisses, a smiling baby Castle calling, "Mommy" and toddling across the floor as fast as his little legs would carry him to meet her, and the heavenly smell of comfort food filling the loft. Exactly what she needed.