458. Chapter 458

After Wrapped Up in Death

Episode 2.19

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: I'm cursed to not own Castle. Rating: K Time: See above.

Kate Beckett had just had her favorite burger, fries and shake delivered to her table at Remy's when she saw a large man slam into a waitress. Kate tried to get out of the way, but the waitress fell, dropping a loaded tray on Kate and onto her meal.

"Watch where you're going, you dumb bimbo." The man slurred.

A drunk. Kate thought, rising from her chair. "Are you okay, Silvia?" She asked. Silvia nodded and Kate saw the man was walking away. "Hey! You. You knocked the waitress down. You owe me and the other diners for their food."

The man spun around. "Like hell I do. Who the hell do you think you are?"

She pulled her jacket aside, revealing her shield. "Detective Kate Beckett."

The man pulled his jacket aside. He had a shield as well. "Captain Nathan Hood. That bitch ran into me. If you have any problems with that, take it up with One PP." He turned around and stomped out.

"I'm sorry, Detective." Silvia said. "I'll get you another order. No charge."

Kate looked down at herself. She was covered in food. "I can't, Silvia. I have to go change my clothes. I have a meeting with an ADA and I can't show up dressed like this."

Kate sat down in the ADA's office. This'll be a snap. We have all we need to send Barnes away for life. But, when the ADA walked in, Kate could tell that something was wrong. "What is it?" She asked sharply.

The ADA actually blushed. "The recording that Lisa Almagro made secretly of her and Barnes?"

Kate nodded. "It proves he had motive to murder her." She saw the ADA frown. "What?"

"I just don't know what happened, Detective."

"What?" Kate was beginning to feel sick.

"The recording was fine this morning. But we listened to it after lunch and it was nothing but static."

"What?" Kate screamed. "How could you…How could it have…What happened?"

The ADA shrugged. "The techs have torn it apart. They can't recover anything and they can't figure out what went wrong. The good news is we can prove he killed her."

"Yes! And Barnes said it was an accident. Without that tape, he gets manslaughter instead of first degree murder. A couple of years instead of life."

"Sorry."

Kate left the ADA's office in a foul mood. It got worse when her car suddenly stopped halfway back to her apartment. She called the police garage and was told she was seventeenth on their list. They wouldn't get to her until the next morning, if then.

She locked the car and started to walk home, there being no cabs in sight. I actually hope I meet a mugger or something like that in the mood I'm in. Five minutes later she knew that she would not see any muggers that night. They were all inside, sheltering from the pouring rain.

Hours later, drenched to the skin, she got home. She went straight to her bathroom to pour herself a nice hot bath. Nothing but cold water came out. The super apologized and promised to have the hot water heater fixed by the next night.

When she arrived at the precinct, Castle was nowhere to be seem. Naturally, he isn't here when I desperately need a cup of hot coffee. She headed for the break room and their new coffee machine. She quickly made herself a cup and raised it to her lips and drank deeply. And just as quickly spat it all out, getting coffee stains on her light grey slacks. LT stuck his head in the door. "Sorry, Beckett. I didn't see you come in. Some moron on the night shift tried to clean the thing with vinegar. I don't know what happened…"

"But everything tastes like vinegar. I know." Kate grumped.

Looking up she saw Castle coming with two cups of coffee in his hands. Then she saw a meth head break away from the arresting officer and slam into Castle. Both cups of coffee were dumped on her computer.

Tory Ellis looked over the computer. "If you had tried, Castle, you couldn't have done more damage to the computer. I can probably recover most of what's on the hard drive in a couple of days.

"I didn't try to do anything." Castle said. "He did." He pointed to the meth head, who took that as his cue to collapse, knocking Kate over. She felt a stab of pain in her wrist as she grabbed for her chair to break her fall.

The emergency room doctor was a sweet, grey haired lady. "It's just a strain, dear. You'll need to take a pain killer and be off from work for a few days."

"I'm a cop. I can't take a day off." Kate insisted.

The doctor shook her head. "A Captain Montgomery apparently knows you, dear. He called me. You're off for two days, I'm afraid."

Beckett and Castle walked out of the emergency room. "I'll get us a cab." Castle said.

"I can get home by myself, Castle." Beckett said frowning.

"We're both going in the same direction. It doesn't make any sense to pay for two cabs." Before she could reply, Castle saw a cab go by and ran after it, waiving.

As Kate was standing on the sidewalk, a car sped through a large puddle left from last night's rain storm. She was soaked again.

Castle came back to her. "I…got the cab. You ready?"

"Don't I look ready?" Beckett snapped at him sarcastically.

Once at her apartment, Castle insisted on walking her to her door. When they got to her door, she saw the super standing there. She also saw water. "Hi, Detective Beckett. Um, we found the problem with the water heater. But your place is a little wet."

Kate looked inside. Water was running from her kitchen, into the living room and out into the hallway.

"Beckett, go inside and pack a bag. You're staying with me tonight."

"Castle, I can't..."

"Yes, you can, and will." Castle insisted. "You need a hot shower, a good meal, a glass of wine and a good night's sleep."

She went inside and packed.

After a hot bath, and a good meal, Kate sat on Castle's couch drinking wine with him.

"You know, you did look at the Mayan king when we left the museum after we arrested Stanford Raynes."

She rolled her eyes. "Castle, there is no curse. I just had a run of bad luck."

"Isn't that what a curse is? A run of bad luck."

She thought for a moment. "Okay, so how did you get rid of the curse?"

"Basically, I had to moon the king."

"Castle, is this some lame excuse to try to get a look at my ass?" She shook her head. "I need another glass of wine." She saw him start to get up. "I'll get it." She went to the wine cooler by his refrigerator. When she opened the door, a whole row of wine bottles fell out, shattering on the floor.

"Crap, crap and CRAP!" She cried. "How much does that wine cost, Castle?"

"Forget it. It was an accident."

"Castle, I insist. How much?"

"More than you can afford. Way more. And that's the last we're saying about this. You owe me nothing."

Beckett's shoulders slumped. "I have to moon the damned mummy."

"There's a problem."

"Of course there is. There has to be a problem."

Castle looked away from her. "When I mooned the mummy, it was still in the back. No one was around. But now, it's out in the main display area and the crowds are huge."

"I can go at night. I'll just flash my badge."

"They have security cameras. There are a lot of valuables there. Gold, jewelry, and a lot of stuff that collectors would pay a fortune for."

"Great. I can either let the damned public see my ass, or it'll be picked up on the cameras and I'll be an internet sensation. This is part of the curse."

"Don't worry about it. I'll see what I can do."

The next night, Castle took Beckett to the museum where they were met by Rachel Walters.

"Detective Beckett? We'll turn the cameras off for long enough for you to…Um, do your thing. You can tell the cameras are off when the red light goes off. If you stand by the far end of the sarcophagus, there'll be only one camera and you can look right at it to be sure it's off. I'll be here with Mr. Castle."

Kate nodded and hurried off, eager to get this over as fast as possible. In minutes she was back. "Mummy successfully mooned." She turned to Rachel. "And thank you so much for letting me do this. I feel silly, but…"

Rachel smiled. "Oh, how could we resist after the generous donation Mr. Castle made to the museum."

"Oh, he did?" Castle looked away from her, not meeting her eye.

On the way out, she asked him. "How much did reversing my curse cost you?"

"Nothing at all. As you know, I'm a patron of the arts and of museums. The donation was purely coincidental."

"Liar." She said softly.

"Detective Beckett! You doubt me?"

"Yes, but I also think that having good friends is the way to stop curses."