70. Chapter 70

After Sucker Punch

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: I disclaim, we disclaim, he/ she/ it disclaims. Rating: K Time: See above.

Author's note: Yes. I did write another After Sucker Punch. It's Chapter 13 in this series.

Kate ate her Thai food and looked across at Rick. She had told Castle that she enjoyed his company and that she wanted him around. But she had something else to tell him. She put down her fork. I need to do this now or I'll never work up the courage to say it again. She thought.

"Castle, I need to apologize to you." She said quickly, getting it out before she could decide to back out.

Castle stopped with a hot dog half way to his mouth. He put the hot dog down slowly. "Whoa! What? You need to apologize to me? Did I somehow cross over into one of those alternate universes just now? Should I be worried about the man behind the screen? Beckett, what are you talking about?"

"I'm a homicide detective. You brought me evidence about an open homicide investigation. I did nothing about that evidence. Oh, I looked at the other three murder victim's files, but I made no effort to really do anything. That was horribly unprofessional of me."

"Beckett, it was your mother's murder. I know what that did to you. I know what not finding anything about it for three years almost did to you. There's no way you owe anyone an apology."

Kate slowly shook her head. "That's where you're wrong. Castle, I'm either a cop one hundred per cent of the time or I'm just someone like Raglan or Sloan, just marking time."

"No!" Castle said forcefully. "You are not one damned thing like those cops. You're a hundred times better than they ever were. A thousand times. I don't buy that for a second, Beckett. And if you think about it, I don't think you do."

Kate smiled a bit. "Okay, maybe I was exaggerating. But I did the wrong thing when you first told me about Dr. Murray's report. I was afraid I'd screw it up. I was afraid if it was handed to some other detective in some other precinct, it would end up put in a little box and nothing would ever come of it. So I did nothing. I did the wrong thing. If I'd done the right thing, perhaps we'd have found Coonan before this. Jack Coonan might still be alive. Who knows, maybe someone else died while I was sitting on Dr. Murray's files. Worse, I risked your life by doing nothing. You almost got killed tonight. Do you have any idea at all how I'd feel if I were responsible for your death?"

"If I'd gotten killed tonight it would have been Dick Coonan's fault and no one else's. Well, maybe my own fault for deciding to shadow a tall homicide detective around." Rick noticed Kate's quick smile. "And you want to talk about "ifs"? I am a writer, Detective Beckett. I am a master of "ifs". You think you did the wrong thing? Give me three hundred pages, and I'll show you that you made the best possible choice. A brilliant choice. A game changing choice. A choice that would be taught in every police academy in the world. I'll call it, "The Beckett Choice."

Kate looked away so that Castle wouldn't see her smile. When she managed to get her smile off her face, she turned back to him. "Castle, I made a mistake and that mistake could have gotten you killed. Therefore I am going to apologize to you and you are going to accept my apology. If you don't," Kate speared something out of the cardboard container of Thai food, "I will force feed you every one of these very spicy hot prawns without any water until you do. Do I make myself clear Mr. Castle?"

Castle adopted an exaggerated look of horror on his face. "You are evil personified, Detective Beckett."

She shrugged. "True, but I am tall."

"Okay, apology accepted. But we will never talk of this again."

Kate agreed and they went back to their meal.

After a bit…"Castle, Coonan implied that the person or people behind my mom's death were powerful. That I couldn't touch them."

"Coonan didn't know you at all if he thought that."

"Well, I know you're not a cop and all, and it may be years before I find anything, so I was wondering if after you leave, if you'd mind…"Kate stopped talking and just looked at Rick.

"Beckett! I'm not going anyplace that quick. I'll be here for a long time."

Kate frowned. "It only took you six months to write Heat Wave. I thought that now that you have the characters down, the knowledge of how the homicide team works, and all, that it would take…"

"Beckett, please. Who's the writer here? I have a three book deal. And it's a not just three times harder to write three books that it is to write one. You have to have the plots of all three in your head at the same time if you're going to write an ongoing series. I mean I can't have Nikki Heat threatening some miscreant with spicy hot Thai prawns in the first book and then find I need to have her violently allergic to Thai food for an important plot point is book three. See?"

"I see, I suppose."

"Besides, who says there will be just the three more Nikki Heat books? The first one was a huge best seller. I could still be writing Nikki Heat books when I'm old and gray." He paused for a second. "But still ruggedly handsome."

Kate nodded. "Okay. Good. I'd hate to lose your talents. For the team, that is."

"One more thing, Beckett. If for some reason I'm not around. If I'm off on a book signing tour, or I have to take Alexis on college tours, or bail Martha out of jail in Mexico, and you need me for something, call me. Anything you need, whether it's about your mom or not, call me, no matter what it is. If you just want to talk to me about a case, if you need one of the guys I have, if you need money for a case…"

"No! I will not depend on your charity again." Kate said firmly.

"Yes, you will, if you have to. I am not going through my life knowing that I could have helped you catch your mom's killer, or someone else's killer, and didn't."

"Castle, that's very generous…"

"And you will accept my offer." He smiled ingratiatingly at her. "Look, let's not get all worked up about this. All that will probably happen is that I'll be off in Mexico getting Martha back from the Federales, and you'll want to talk about some random case. It'll be no big deal." He quickly changed the subject. "Are you going to eat any of those prawns, or just threaten me with them?"

"Here." She said, handing the carton to him. "Enjoy."

This is working out differently than I thought. They both thought.