308. Chapter 308

AU After Love Me Dead

Episode 2.09

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: I'd love to own Castle, but I don't. Rating T Time: See above.

The interrogation of Scarlet Price the night before had been a bust. She had demanded to see her attorney and hadn't said a word. Kate could see that prosecuting a law student who had worked in the DA's office would be a bitch. Beckett had finally sent her back to holding and called it a night.

The next morning found her at her computer trying to write her report. Montgomery had greeted her when she arrived and advised her that the DA's office wanted as little in the police reports about Jack Buckley as possible. What no one had told her was how to write up the murder of a prosecutor turned pimp without upsetting his friends in the DA's office. Castle, who might have been a help for once was nowhere to be seem. Beckett swore under her breath and tried to write her report without actually saying that Buckley was a criminal.

Castle showed up at half past ten, looking freshly showered and shaved, grinning happily. He put a coffee down in front of Beckett. "And how are you this fine morning, Detective?"

Beckett glared at him. "Tired and pissed off from having to write my report without ever managing to mention that Buckley was a crook so as to not offend his friends in the DA's office. How are you?" She snapped.

"Fine. Couldn't be better." Once the words had left his mouth, Castle realized that perhaps he should have been more comforting to Beckett.

"Castle," She said, lowering her voice," if you want to fuck some murderous whore in your loft, fine. Just don't come in here still beaming with your post coital happiness and expect me to be happy for you. Okay?"

Castle frowned. "And you think that Scarlet and I…"

"Yes." Kate snapped. "Of course I do. She's a whore. Of course, the first thing she'd do to get you on her side would be to spread her legs for you. And you, being you, would oblige, wouldn't you?"

"Beckett, I really do try…"

"Castle!" She cut him off again. "I don't have the time for this. There's nothing to do here today but boring police work. So, go. Get out. I have work to do, even if you don't." Beckett stood and walked quickly away.

"Beckett!" Castle called to her. "Wait just a…"

"Castle! Just get out of here! Now!" She said over her shoulder and kept walking.

Ryan and Espo exchanged glances as Castle watched Beckett's retreating back until she disappeared around a corner. Castle picked up his coffee and headed for the elevator.

"Mom and Dad are on the outs?" Ryan said. "What's that all about?"

Espo shrugged. "I've given up trying to figure those two out. They should have been together months ago, but they aren't. Who knows?"

By the time Beckett got back to her desk, she had been told by Captain Montgomery that the DA's office was still unhappy with her report. They had some "suggestions" that took Beckett the rest of the day to incorporate into her report. By the time she left, she hated the report she had written and wanted to do no more than go home, have a glass of wine and go to bed.

She had just taken off her coat and headed for her kitchen when there was a knock on her door. Wondering who it was, she opened the door. "Castle! What do you want?"

"I have some evidence for you." He said, gesturing to a laptop under his arm.

"I don't need any more evidence. After the day I spent writing my report to correspond to the wishes of the DA's office, more evidence is something I do not need. She thought.

"You didn't bother with any evidence at all, so I had to go collect it all for you. Something that an experienced detective such as yourself should have done instead of leaving it to the amateur." Castle said coldly.

Beckett snapped. She slapped Castle as hard as she could. It staggered him, but he didn't move away.

"Slap me again if you want, but I'm not going away."

"I'm a cop, you know. I can have a uniform here in no time to drag you away."

Castle smiled. "Then everyone will see my evidence and you won't like that."

Beckett glared at Castle who stood there smiling. Beckett finally stomped over to her kitchen table and sat, leaving the door open for Castle.

He sat down and opened the laptop. "I live in a secure building. I got the doorman to make a copy of the security camera footage for the lobby for the other night. Here you can see Scarlet entering the building. Note that the doorman was helping eighty year old Mrs. Schimmerman get a cab when Scarlet entered. Now we'll fast forward, and here's Richard Castle coming home. I'm at the elevator, and…" Castle started the stopwatch function on his watch. He fast forwarded again. "And here we have Castle and Scarlet leaving, taking her to the hospital." He popped the DVD disc out. "Exhibit A. You can keep it."

He showed her his watch. "From the time I went into the elevator until the two of us came back was four minutes and forty seven seconds. Given the time in the elevator, the time it would take for Scarlet to tell me her story, that would leave us only a few minutes to have sex. Hardly worth the effort."

Kate shook her head. "Castle, I'm sorry. I was…"

Castle kept on talking. "This is the name, phone number, license plate number and medallion number of the cabbie that drove us to the hospital. He'll be happy to testify that Scarlet and I did not screw in the back of his cab."

"Lastly, the ER doctor I talked to. He can testify that I didn't ravish Scarlet on a hospital bed and they have security cameras that's show when I arrived and when I left."

"In other words, I did not have sex with Scarlet Price, that night or any other."

Kate felt horrible. "Castle, I am so sorry." She noticed that his cheek was red from where she'd slapped him. "Oh, crap! Your cheek. Everyone will see it tomorrow."

He smiled and shrugged. "I'll tell everyone that I got that fighting for a lady's honor, but that she clocked me."

Kate was horrified. "You'll do no such thing! I'll tell everyone exactly what happened." She reached over and put her hand on his reddening cheek.

"Mostly what I'm interested in is why you chose to decide I must have slept with Scarlet with no evidence to back you up. The first thing I thought of, being me, of course, was that you were jealous of Scarlet."

Kate blushed. He's right.

Castle didn't notice the blush and continued. "Knowing you, that seems unlikely. The second idea I had was that you were burning out. It happens to cops who have seen too much, too many times. They just start withdrawing from police work. Their work starts to deteriorate. Is that what's happening here?"

Kate shook her head. "No." She said quietly.

"That leaves my last alternative. I had thought we were becoming friends, of a sort. An odd couple kind of friends, but friends. Now I think we're not friends. That your feelings towards me are somewhere between disgust and mild hatred. Or perhaps more than mild. Is that it?"

Kate knew it wasn't but couldn't bring herself to tell Castle the truth. She said nothing.

"I think it would be best if I stopped following you around. I'm sure I can write the three Nikki Heat books I'm contractually obligated to do all by myself. And then I can move on." He stood, picked up his laptop, and headed for the door. "Goodbye, Detective Beckett. You are truly an extraordinary person and I am glad to have met you. I'm sorry the feeling wasn't mutual."

Before he got to the door, Kate called to him. "Castle! Don't go, please." She ran to him, grabbed the lapels of his jacket and rested her head on his chest. "Please don't leave me. I was jealous. I was jealous of Scarlet."

Castle stood there, processing the information. "That seems unlikely." He said softly. "Not that I'm not glad to hear it."

"Castle, I'm a mess. I left Stanford to become a cop to solve my mom's murder. I spent three years at it and got nowhere. Nowhere at all. The best I could do was try to get justice and closure for others, but it's not enough. It'll never be enough. I'm a cop. That's all I am. I have virtually no life other than being a cop. That's what I've become. I'm not sure I can be anything else."

She slid her arms around her. Hesitantly, he put one hand on her shoulder. "Then you came along. You are the one person who actually found something new on Mom's murder, even if it went nowhere, and what did I do? I got mad at you. That'll show you how screwed up I am."

"Castle, sometimes you absolutely infuriate me. I feel like I could just hit you so…"Her hand went to his cheek. "I'm so sorry. I'm so stupid. How could I do that to my partner…and friend?"

"It's nothing. Don't worry about it." He put his hand over hers.

"Other times, I see you and I say to myself, I had fun once. I enjoyed life. I was more than just a pre-law student. But I'm not like that. I'm not like Castle, but I once was. Could I be that way again? And then I think of my mom, dead all these years, and some killer running around loose, and I…I'm just a mess."

"You are the strongest, bravest, most dedicated, most intelligent, most caring person I know. And you cannot jump tall buildings in a single bound, or go faster than a speeding bullet, since you're only human. But you are an extraordinary human, Kate. Extraordinary."

"Can you stay with me, please? I know I'll get angry at you, and say things I shouldn't and I may even get jealous because I'm such a mess that I just don't know how to have any kind of an adult relationship with you, but stay with me. Be my partner. Be my friend."

"And maybe more?"

She nodded, not looking up at him.

"Tomorrow?" He smiled at her.

She looked up and smiled back. "Tomorrow."