Close Encounters 21: Casino Royale

For Jessie, who puts up with the little parasite
and for those of you who loved the spies' respite but knew the other shoe had to drop sometime

Kate slowly pushed her thumb into the burgeoning drop of blood at the crook of her elbow, then glanced up to see the look on Castle's face.

"Stop, Kate." He shook his head, looked away from her.

Logan was already there, knocking her hand away with a tsk on his lips, pressing the band-aid over the place where he'd drawn blood. "Leave it alone."

"I am," she protested, wrinkling her nose at him. She hopped up from the chair and rolled her neck on her shoulders, but she felt pretty good. Castle had his hand at the small of her back as if he needed to touch her to reassure himself.

"You next," Logan said, pointing to him. "Get in my chair."

"Me?"

"She comes up perfect, every time. You're the one messing around with the serum."

"She's messing around-"

"Yeah, but you're dropping stuff out of it," Logan insisted. "In the chair."

Castle was already rolling up the sleeves of his wrinkled white dress shirt, giving in to the inevitable. Kate pulled her own sleeves down, hiding the band-aid at her elbow, and she stood back to allow Castle into the chair.

They'd come over to the RMT Lab on their lunch break, though everyone in the Office assumed they'd gone to her father's to see their son. Sometimes that was true, but mostly they came here, consulted their Regimen Medical Team. Kate had a blood test every other week, but Castle had one every five days. In between those times, it was usually Kate here, working with Boyd on the notes from the Congo station.

There was just so much of it. So many interactions, a complicated tangle of indications and contra-indications and results. She was fascinated by it - because it kept her family alive - but also because it really was amazing. The science John Black had accomplished even as far back as the sixties was just so advanced.

Castle was super. Though he hated it.

He was glowering as he finished rolling up his sleeve, offering his arm to Logan. "I hate this."

"I come up perfect," she reminded him with a smirk. Castle kicked out at her even as Logan wrapped the tube around his upper bicep; Kate danced away with a chuckle, avoiding his foot.

"Has Threkeld come in today?" Castle asked, glancing up at Logan as the man tapped a vein.

"He's here," Logan confirmed. "He's been pretty steady since he got a look at Echo's bloodwork. Damn it, sorry. James. He has a name; I know that. I do."

Kate only smiled. "It's fine. Actually-" She glanced at Castle for permission and he nodded. "We talked about it. We'd rather you guys called him Echo. If you're in the habit of talking about him by that name, and not his real name, it's a measure of protection."

"It's not like we're talking about him outside this building - outside this floor," Logan insisted.

"We know that; we trust you completely." Castle flexed his arm as he spoke, but he was looking straight at Logan. "We're here, aren't we? But this is a lifetime project. It's not like something we're working on for a few years, even a decade. This is our son's life. My life. Kate's. However long we're alive, the number of years James has on this planet - that's how long this secret stays a secret."

Logan - working at the needle all the while - gave them both a serious look and then went back to filling the vial with Castle's blood. "I think that's why it got started in the first place, calling him Echo. It seemed... wrong to use his name. Like we were jinxing him. We do a lot of - uh - hypotheticals here, you know?"

"Hypotheticals?" Kate asked, stepping up to lean against the back of the chair. "What do you mean by that?"

"What if Echo contracts malaria? How does his current blood chemistry react to a parasitic protozoan as opposed to say, Lyme disease, which is bacterial?"

"Oh," Kate whispered, swallowing hard. "That kind of hypothetical."

"The worst kind," Logan grimaced. He tapped the vial as the blood filled and glanced up at her. "So using our designation for him feels like protecting him. Not calling down bad juju on the kid."

"Well, thanks for that," Castle said wryly. "We have enough bad juju in our blood."

Kate flicked the back of his ear for that. "It's not bad. It's different. And we're learning, aren't we? James is growing and healthy; you're even experimenting with weaning yourself off the serum. It's working, Castle."

She didn't exactly love that he was being weaned off the regimen, though a part of her wanted her whole family free and clear of it. She just got nervous when they started in on this whole I could stop taking it thing.

"I guess it's working for now," Castle finally said. He wasn't looking at her. Logan did though, and she met his grimace with one of her own.

Logan removed the vial and capped it quickly, labeled it in his neat, precise handwriting. Castle was taking the tubing off from around his arm, and then Logan came back and cleaned him up.

Castle didn't even need the band-aid. The bleeding had already stopped.

"See?" he murmured to Kate. "Still super."

She'd been wondering. She could admit that much. Hearing him say he was experimenting around with dosages, that Boyd was working with his father's notes on teasing out those essential elements from the non-essential had made Kate worry for her husband.

"Still super," she sighed. Castle reached up and hooked his fingers in her belt loop, stood from the chair.

"I'm going to take these out to Boyd. You guys each have a stress test though. Don't forget."

"We won't," Castle called back, not even looking at him as Logan left. He was looking at her.

Kate leaned in and kissed her husband, her heels putting her at just his height today. His lips were soft; he tasted like mint.

Castle cupped the back of her neck, fingers moving softly, pulling slowly away from her. "You come up perfect every time," he murmured.

She blinked, swamped with love for him, and he put her back, his hand caressing her arm and down to her wrist.

"Stress test and then let's get out of here."

She nodded; they had work to do.

Reynolds caught him shooting up in the bathroom.

The man stumbled, but Castle waved him inside. He should've done this at home this morning - or yesterday morning, or the handful of mornings he'd had available to him and hadn't done it. It'd been a mistake to think he could go this long without. Boyd had been the one to call him, insist he take the shot.

Fuck, he hated the shot. He'd been trying to subsist on the pills, but apparently the pills weren't cutting it.

"Uh. Castle?"

He'd have to explain to Reynolds. "Tunisia," he said.

Reynolds flushed scarlet, and Castle realized that the man thought he was trying to hold something over his head, blackmail him into silence.

"The stuff we found in Tunisia," he said, gesturing to the empty needle he'd dropped to the sink. "That you protected with your life."

Reynolds glanced down to the needle, and then his eyes slowly tracked up to Castle's face. "What's this about, Castle?"

"It's part of why he beat the shit out of you, Ren. It's a secret government project." He laid it out there, just like that, and he didn't blink. "Sounds like shit you'd read in a book, right? But it's my life."

"You - need this stuff?"

Castle laughed, though it sounded hollow. "Yeah, but not like you're thinking. Not like an addiction, but like a medical condition. You heard of sickle-cell?"

"Yeah. Funky red blood cells."

"That's me," he said, pressing the crook of his arm. The blood had dotted up and smeared at his elbow but it was slowing now. "But a little different. Harder to control. Alters me in some ways."

"That's why Black wanted it? For you. Then why did you-"

"He wanted it for him," Castle said firmly. He wrapped the needle in a paper towel and pulled a plastic bag out of his back pocket, pushed it down inside. He'd dispose of it in the lab two floors down, the bio-hazard container. It would go out to be burned tonight.

"He wanted it for him," Reynolds repeated. But the man had been on the other end of Black's manipulations as well, so he was quick to get it. "To control you. To make you do as he wanted."

Castle nodded briskly. Already he felt better, though he hadn't realized he'd been feeling rundown. The serum he'd injected today wasn't the pure stuff, of course; Boyd had been tinkering with it for the last few months but this was enough to set him straight.

He'd have to tell Kate that Reynolds knew - and how he knew. "Kate and I have a couple of guys working on this-"

"Ah, shit, that mission at the Austrian embassy. Dr Threkeld? That had to do with you."

Fuck, Reynolds was a damn good agent, and had Castle really thought Ren wouldn't start putting the pieces together?

"That's right. That's it. But look, to protect you, Ren, to keep you out of this-"

"I'm already in this," Reynolds interrupted sharply. "So you need to explain it to me - the details, the truth. Because I've already been dragged down into it."

Castle rubbed at his jaw, glanced at his elbow to make sure it was healed up. "You're right. You deserve that much."

But he couldn't tell all. He could tell some, but there were still treasonous elements to this whole thing. Reynolds didn't deserve that.

And some things were just between him and Kate.

"To keep my blood right, I've got a whole team of doctors working on this shit. It was supposed to be an enhancement, back in the beginning. We were volunteers, but I'm the only one who survived."

Reynolds crossed his arms over his chest; he didn't look like the young kid who'd been beat senseless at a listening station in Tunisia. He looked like a covert agent. And a brother.

"You're the only one who survived."

"Yeah, and trying to keep it that way."

Reynolds glanced down at the plastic bag with the disposable needle in it and then he uncrossed his arms. "All right. I got it." He made a move towards the bathroom door, then turned back to Castle with an honest seriousness in his voice. "You need help trying to keep it that way, you don't hesitate."

Castle closed his hand around the bag, picked his jacket up from the side of the sink. "I won't hesitate."

Reynolds paused as Castle came close, suddenly held up his closed fist. Castle grinned, couldn't help it, and bumped fists with the man.

"You took care of me after Tunisia; you had my back," Reynolds said, slipping in a sly smile. "I got yours, whether you want me or not."

Kate had been aware that Reynolds was giving her looks, but she didn't quite understand them. And then he had made eye contact with Castle and disappeared back to his own work station in a rather business-like manner.

"What's that about?" she laughed, tilting her cheek for her husband's good-bye kiss. He was gathering his stuff to leave.

"Tell you later. Is that the chatter on PKK out of Turkey?" he murmured. He was leaning in over her computer, squinting at the report she'd gotten from the analysts.

"Yes, but you're supposed to be leaving," she said, pushing on his shoulder. "Get out of here."

"Yeah, but this is that separatist group that held the rally-"

"I know," she said, lifting an eyebrow.

He paused, glanced down at her, and she could have sworn he flushed a little. Castle stood up, pushing his hands in his pockets as if to say he wasn't going to touch it. "Ah, yes. You've got it."

"I do," she said, pressing her lips together to keep from laughing. "Go pick up our kid before my dad has to make him dinner."

"Dinner," he murmured, smiling now. He wriggled an eyebrow at her. "You got any ideas for that?"

"We have those basil leaves we dried from the garden. You could do something with those?" She shrugged when Castle winced at her, and she threw up her hands. "Castle, I'm the last person you should ask. Oh, hey, I know - let's go out to eat; he's five months old today. That's old enough, right? We can celebrate."

"Oh, yeah," he said, straightening up again. "That's - you're right. Five months old. Wow. Doesn't feel like five months at all, does it?"

Kate reached out and hooked two fingers in his. "No, doesn't at all. It's gone so fast."

"Yeah, okay," he said, rousing again and shaking her off. "I gotta go. I promised your dad five o'clock. Did you hear he's going on a date?"

"What?" Kate jerked her gaze back to her husband. "A date?"

"Yeah. I think it's a group thing though. He met the couple that has the penthouse and they've got - I don't know, I think it's their mother?"

"Their mother?"

"Mother-in-law, whatever."

Kate blinked and Castle's face went from nonchalant to horrified. "Oh shit. This is a big deal. Is this a big deal?"

Kate sucked in a breath and rubbed her thumb at her temple, trying to stave off the eyestrain headache that had been germinating since she started the PKK report. "Castle. I can't-"

"Never mind. Ignore it. He's going to dinner with his upstairs neighbors, and I gotta get the kid so that he'll make it on time. So, uh, adios, sweetheart. Love you. Don't panic."

And then Castle left her.

Someone's mother?

Kate found her boys waiting at home, Castle encouraging James as he scooted on the floor, looking a little precarious as he lurched forward. But he was looking at her, alerted to her presence by the door, and his hands came together in a clap.

"Hey, baby. I'm so glad to see you, too," she said, dropping her stuff at the base of the stairs.

James bounced in place, looking happy. But on the floor beside his son, Castle hooked his arms around his bent up knees, hands clasped, and pouted at her. "What about me?"

"You're the one I was talking to," she snarked back, winking at him.

Castle laughed and leaned forward, caught James by his foot and pulled him slowly back towards him. "Come here, runt. Where do you think you're going?"

"Where's Sash?"

"Upstairs. She's hiding out, I think. James has been tugging on her tail. Haven't you, kiddo? I tried to tell you."

Kate laughed, but her lips turned down and she glanced towards the top of the stairs, waiting to see if the dog would appear. But apparently not even for Kate would Sasha show her face, too wary of James's method of showing love.

"Well, did you decide on a restaurant? You think he's going to make it all night?"

"I say if we're fast, it might work. And I was thinking someplace small, not crowded, somewhere they'll give us a booth that's secluded."

"Um, in New York?" she said, stepping out of her shoes and coming forward. Her toes popped on the hardwood floor and James stared at her feet as she approached, his own toes still held by his father.

"Yeah, but hey. What about Haun's? They have booths in the back and it has that soft Chinese music. I think that could work."

Kate lifted an eyebrow, glanced down at her son who was trying to crawl away from Castle's grip on his little leg, grunting as he rocked forward. "Okay, well. Let's try it. Practice run for your birthday meal."

Castle laughed, shaking his head. "No, I don't want to go out for my birthday." His look turned dark and he stood now, heading for her. "You know what I want."

Kate pressed her lips together, had to avoid his eyes to keep from going for it right there in the living room. They had kinda - uh, well - made each other promises on her birthday when James was only four weeks old. It had stormed and the power had gone out and it had been kind of romantic, but of course, no power meant Kate hadn't been able to warm up a bottle. Put a crimp in their celebration.

"Kate," he murmured, low, intoxicating. "You know what I want for my birthday-"

"I know," she husked, finally meeting his eyes. Castle's were so blue, violently, sharply blue, and she sucked in a breath just before his mouth sealed over hers.

Kate wrapped an arm around his neck and lifted up on her toes to press her body into his. The noise he made when they touched made her skin electric, her stomach flutter, and then he was palming her ass and hiking her into-

"Fuck," he gasped, breaking apart, startling.

She clung to him for a second, and then glanced down, saw James had wormed his way between them, sitting on Castle's feet.

"Hey, baby," she sighed, sinking down to meet him. James gave her that surprised face, which only made her chuckle - like he had no idea what he'd just done - and then she scooped him up.

Castle rubbed a hand through his hair and tugged, sighing at her. She smirked and shook her head, mouthed later at him as she cradled James against her.

"Oh, hey, wait a second," she said, snagging his sleeve before he could turn away. "What was that about Reynolds today? You said you had to-"

"He caught me shooting up in the bathroom," Castle winced.

Her heart tripped and she clutched James a little too hard. "What do you mean. Castle. What do you mean shooting up."

"I had to - uh - Boyd checked my blood levels and - you know - he said I should go ahead and take an injection."

The blood drained from her face and she had to grip the baby to keep from dropping him. "Wait. An injection? Of the serum?"

"Not pure. Not like what it was, Kate. Shit, don't look at me like that. It's not the end of the world."

"I don't - don't like you messing around with this stuff, Castle."

He turned away from her, heading for James's corduroy elephant on the floor and scooping it up. Kate followed, her throat tight, and not even James's happy babble at the sight of his elephant could lift her heart.

"I ate like four scrambled eggs when I got home," Castle said quietly.

She swallowed and nodded.

"Boyd is going to check my levels at the end of the week." Castle handed James his elephant and then his eyes lifted to meet hers. She saw the faint shame in his gaze and she knew she had to get it together.

He didn't want this, and no, she didn't want it for him. She couldn't collapse every time Castle's blood chemistry got a little out of whack. He was trying to wean himself from the serum, and if it was possible, then she definitely wanted that. For him, for them, for James as well.

"Be brave, Kate," he whispered. "I'm really fine."

She could do this. "I am. I will be. I can - I'm sorry. It just hit me for some reason."

He nodded, but she knew he hated making her upset over this and he felt guilty for it and it just - shit. It was a vicious cycle for their issues and she shouldn't do this to him.

Kate untangled an arm from James and reached out to slide it around her husband, pressing her nose into his shoulder. He sighed and embrace them both, his palm coming up to cradle the back of her head.

He kissed the corner of her eye and she took a breath.

"So, is it Huan's?"

"Yeah, love. Let's try it."

Kate was glaring at him, and he could feel it even if he couldn't see it.

"No," she hissed. "After Huan's, we said no more dinners out."

"It wasn't that bad." Castle glanced up from where he was feeding James, curled his wrist so that he could do it one-handed and also hold the baby. "Come on. One little dinner."

"Where were you? It was a train wreck, Castle." She was poring through his recipes, most of them printed from the internet, though a few of them were from Jim. She shifted away from the countertop and pressed the heel of her hand into her forehead. "We are not going out. I can find something."

"Yeah, right."

Kate glared at him, stalking forward with her hands on her hips. "You cannot be serious right now."

He narrowed his eyes at her, and then he glanced down at the baby. "You'd be good, wouldn't you? Already you're so much older."

"He's two weeks older."

"See?"

"I know you're going stir-crazy," she said, reaching out to knock her knuckle into his forehead. "So am I. But the poor kid. He can't handle that many people, that kind of crowd."

"Whatever. The kid gets his way like 24/7, Kate Beckett."

"Rodgers."

"Huh?"

"Kate Rodgers," she muttered. She nudged him again, a fist against his temple this time, and he ducked away from her.

"What? So Huan's wasn't quite-"

"It's not the place, Castle. It's the baby. He doesn't like-"

"But I've fed him. We hadn't fed him when we went. And-"

"You're an ass," she huffed. But she leaned in over him and took James out of his arms, the bottle with him, turned her back on him.

"Are you mad at me?"

"You have to ask?" she bit back, glaring at him over her shoulder.

"You're hot when you're angry."

Her glare turned downright nasty and he shivered.

"Ooh, but not when you're angry with me."

She sauntered away from him, taking his son with her, and Castle tried to smother the smirk into his hand. But he hopped up from the kitchen table and followed, watching Kate as she finished giving James the bottle.

"Hey, Kate? I was being annoying, I know, but I really think this will work." He reached out and touched her elbow, and she turned, that withering stare still planted on her face. And if Castle wasn't just imagining it, James looked highly amused.

He leaned in and carefully took the empty bottle, the baby as well, putting James against his shoulder to pat his back. He wasn't as skinny as he'd been, plump legs kicked Castle's chest, but he was still pretty long. He'd be tall, Castle thought.

Dinner out. "Kate?"

"Fine." She waved her hand and took the diaper cloth from her own shoulder, leaned over to tuck it between him and James.

Castle waited, trying to be patient with her, and she let out a sigh, stroking her fingers along James's ear as the boy squirmed.

"I guess I feel guilty," she muttered. She wasn't looking at him. "He definitely doesn't like the noise. And yet we're taking him right into the maelstrom."

"You feel guilty for that?"

"I basically starved him for six weeks-"

"And now he's nearly six months," Castle said quickly, reaching out to wrap his fingers around her wrist. "Six months, Kate. Love. It's just - life. We're new parents and we're learning."

"Learning? He was starv-"

"Kate." He shook his head and drew her into him, pressing her against his side and cupping her head to lay on his other shoulder. She sighed, but she was still rigid against him, watching the baby. He stroked his fingers at her neck. "Kate, we make mistakes. New parents. You remember what Ryan said - we're gonna make a hundred bad choices, but we're trying our best. James will forgive us. And he'll never remember that Mommy and Daddy needed a couple nights out and made him uncomfortable for a little while."

She sighed. "And if not, Dr King is an excellent therapist."

Castle smirked. "He might be retired by then."

Kate laughed - finally, a laugh from her - and she rolled to put her face against his neck, still chuckling. "Fine, Castle. Even though I already know this is a mistake. Let's do it. Dinner out."

Castle grinned, brushed his lips against the top of James's head. "Hear that, wolf? Mommy's taking us out."