322. Chapter 322

After Overkill

Episode 2.23

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: There are two possibilities here. One I do own Castle, the other is I don't. Guess. Rating: K Time: See above.

Richard Castle looked at himself in his bathroom mirror. He adopted a serious expression and waggled a finger at himself. "You're stupid. Did you do any thinking at all? No, none. I admit it. You're right. Stupid is as Castle does, to misquote the movie. What were you thinking? Don't answer that. We both know you weren't."

Castle stepped away from the mirror. Having a serious discussion with himself in the mirror was a bit confusing. He left the bathroom and went into his bedroom, sprawling on the bed. The loft was silent as he was the only one there.

"Now, where was I?" He asked himself. "Oh, yes. Discussing stupidity. Why did you feel you had to compete with Demming to solve Damian Wilder's murder? Your ability to solve murders has never particularly impressed her. Jesus Christ, you found the guy who murdered her mother. Did she hold your hand then? Or kiss you? Of course not. All she said was that she wanted you there when she found the guy who ordered her mom's death and that she had gotten used to me pulling on her pigtails. Oh, yeah. She also said I made her job a little more fun. So, that's what I am to Kate Beckett. I'm her court jester. My job is to make her job fun, but I don't even get to make her laugh. That, apparently, is Demming's job. And who ever heard of the court jester getting the girl, let alone the queen of all homicide detectives? No one would buy that story."

Castle decided he needed a drink and headed for the liquor cabinet. He poured himself a nice Scotch on the rocks and swirled it around, admiring the color and aroma. Then he drank, moving to his couch. "I've been lucky, I have to admit that. Not to be too vain about it, but I am handsome, I have a good body, I'm charming, witty, smart, knowledgeable, rich and generous. I can't even begin to count the number of women that those qualities have impressed. But, I can count on the fingers of one thumb the woman who has not been one bit impressed with me. I admit, I screwed up with her. I was my usual, charming, witty, bad boy self and she couldn't have cared less. But, I had one quality I never knew I had. I can actually solve real world murders. Who knew? And that impressed her. It impressed her enough, that she over looked my obvious disadvantages of good looks, charm, wit, intelligence and wealth and allowed me to be her partner. But, at no point did she ever look like she wanted me for anything else."

Castle discovered that his glass was empty. He walked back for more Scotch, then back to the couch, talking to himself the whole way. "A lot of people would be flattered to have a Richard Castle novel based on them. She was barely interested. On second thought, she probably wasn't interested at all. She probably only wanted the advanced copy of Heat Wave to see how much she had to hate it. She certainly never said much good about it. She did casually mention a few hundred times that she hated the main character's name, and she didn't much care for the cover art work. On the bright side, I can't recall her ever critiquing the font or the quality of the paper. A small thing, but mine own, as Touchstone said, more or less."

"Mother was right. Sometimes you just have to accept that things aren't going to work out the way you wanted. The question is, what do I do now?"

Castle isn't stupid, but is he a liar? Tom Demming thought to himself. There's no question that he was competing with me to solve Kate's case. But why? He told me that there was nothing between him and Kate. Okay, they've been together in homicide for what? Almost two years or so? As far as I can tell from Espo, they're more or less like any other partners on the force. Okay, given that he's not really a cop, and given who he is, maybe not really like any other partners on the force. They aren't now and never have been a couple. So what gives with Castle? If he was interested, he'd have made a move on Kate by now, or she'd have made a move on him. Is that it? Is Kate using me to get Castle jealous? Demming stopped and thought for a moment. No, that's not Kate's style, I'm sure. So what's up with Castle?

It hit him suddenly and he wondered how he had missed it. Of course! He's been Kate's partner and he's written a best seller from that and has three more books contracted for. He doesn't want some cop from Robbery keeping him away from the action. How can he write about Kate' cases if he's on the outside looking in? I should tell Kate to let him be more of a partner. Shouldn't be that hard. After all, how many times do we get cases where Robbery and Homicide intersect?

Problem solved.

Is Castle stupid? Kate thought to herself. Why in the world was he so competitive with Tom on this case? He's never been that way with Espo and Ryan. He gets along with them just fine. Kate smiled to herself. Except when he gives them shaving cream made with napalm, or whatever that stuff was.

She shook her head to clear it. Castle is competitive and he's used to being my sole partner. I suppose he'd be a little jealous of any man who's sleeping with me. I'm sure he wants to sleep with me, but that's about it. He certainly has no interest in me beyond that. He's certainly made that clear enough. Well, that and being my partner so he can write more Nikki Heat.

So that must be it. He just resents Tom taking up so much of my time on these cases. That should be no problem in the future. I'll have to talk to Castle about that. I don't want anything to interfere with our relationship.