A Matrimonial Accord

A long lost relative, a curiously worded will, and an expansion of their partnership agreement lead Castle and Beckett down a path neither of them could have ever imagined. Caskett. Set mid-Season 3.

20 Chapters + Epilogue

Thanks to Travis for the cover art!

One

Richard Castle stepped off the elevator on the homicide floor of the Twelfth Precinct with a spring in his step and a whistle on his lips. For some reason that morning he had awoken in a particularly positive mood. He had no concrete reason for feeling the way he did, but his gut told him that something good was about to happen—perhaps even something extraordinary.

As Castle rounded the corner of the wall partitioning the hall from the seating area he was able to spot his partner seated at her desk. Though her back was to him and thus he was unable to see her gorgeous eyes or knee-weakening smile, Castle immediately knew his day was about to get even better. It was all-but impossible for him to have a bad day around Beckett and seeing as his mood was already above-average, he didn't see that changing.

"Morning Beckett." He greeted her pleasantly when he was about a foot away from her desk. He didn't bother to wait for her to turn around and look at him; he simply slid into "his" seat beside her desk and folded his hands in his lap. "Sorry I wasn't here earlier, but Gina insisted that I…what's wrong?" Castle's story about his publisher's impromptu meeting that was, in his opinion, a waste of his time, died on his lips when he saw his partner looking far more befuddled than usual.

As though she hadn't even heard his inquiry, she gave him the smallest of smiles and said, "Hey Castle," before turning back to her computer screen.

Castle opened his mouth to respond, but perhaps atypically, took a moment to consider her before speaking. As they had been partners for nearly three full years, he believed himself to be well-versed in Beckett-ology. He knew her moods, her tones, and certainly her looks. The way she had said hello to him was pleasant, though distracted, almost as though she was deep in research for a case and wished not to have her train of thought interrupted. Yet, as the murder board beside them was pristinely white at that moment, he knew she was not preoccupied with a case, but something else. From the way he could tell her shoulders were a bit hunched and her left arm was resting on the desk yet also tight against her body, he knew something was going on and naturally his curiosity was piqued.

"Anything I can help you with?"

"Wha—I. No. No, I'm fine." She responded, only glancing at him for a brief moment.

He hummed and responded with, "Are you sure about that? You seem…stressed."

She huffed out a breath and turned to him. Her expression had softened slightly, though it was still clear she was not in a place to be one hundred percent truthful with him (though, to be fair, when was she?). "It's…I don't know." She dusted her fingers over her brow and then propped her elbow against the desk so she could cradle her chin with the heel of her hand. "It's a long story."

He grinned effortlessly and his heart jumped with anticipation. "Those are my favorite kind."

The corner of her lips curled briefly, and then she explained in a soft tone, "I got a really weird phone call from a lawyer yesterday and I'm trying to sort it out."

Immediately, Castle's brow wrinkled. His brain began to sift through all the possible scenarios that involved conversations with lawyers that could be both strange and slightly upsetting. Several dozen possibilities popped into his mind, and he took a few seconds to mentally scan through the most likely results, but almost all involved activities of a suspicious nature. Considering that upholding the law was literally her job, Castle very much doubted Beckett would have dabbled in any of those, which made her predicament all the more confusing—and worrisome. "Are you in trouble or something? Because my lawyer is great and he can-"

"No, no. It's nothing like that. Just forget I mentioned it."

"Well you know I can't do that," Castle responded pointedly. Honestly—how long had she known him? When had he ever let anything go (without the threat of force)? He crossed his right leg over his left and leaned his left elbow heavily against the desk while skimming his index finger over his top lip. "You know, I bet if I sat here long enough I could figure it out."

"Oh, please don't."

He grinned as he'd finally heard the hint of levity in her tone. "Where's the fun in that, Beckett? Now perhaps if you could just give me one clue—a place to start. Then I could start narrowing down the—oh." Castle cut off his own musings when an unfamiliar man approached Beckett's desk from the opposite side. The man, who appeared to be in his mid-sixties, was dressed in a long-sleeved polo shirt with khaki pants and a black jacket. Given these visual clues—and the fact that Kate did not have an active case—Castle guessed this man was not an employee of the NYPD, but a guest like himself. Perhaps he was just the clue Castle had been asking for.

The writer found the answer a moment later when Kate glanced up and gasped, "Dad!" She quickly pushed herself up from her desk and stammered out, "I—I thought I told you to call me when you got to the lobby!"

The elder Beckett gave a casual shoulder shrug. "They let me up. What's the matter Katie? Don't want me to meet your work-friends?"

Castle beamed as he watched their exchange. He pushed himself up out of his seat and smoothed down his blazer. So maybe this man would not help him discover Beckett's latest mystery, but the opportunity to meet Kate's father, a man whose story he also longed to know, would be a very worth consolation prize.

"No, obviously it's not that. Um, Dad." Kate paused to glance back to her partner, who was grinning like an over-excited child about to receive a present. Her lips curled softly in his reflection as she did the introductions. "This is Rick Castle; Castle, this is my father Jim Beckett."

Castle leaned in and extended his hand to shake the elder man's. "Pleasure to finally meet you, sir."

Jim smiled at him, pleasant with perhaps a hint of amusement. "You as well. I've heard so much about you from Katie."

"Good things, I hope."

"Some days," Kate interjected with a smirk in her partner's direction. Then, she quickly locked her computer and pulled the blazer off the back of her desk chair. "Anyway, my father and I are going to an early lunch so-"

"Why doesn't Rick come along?" Jim suggested.

"NO!" Kate barked practically before Jim had finished his question. Then she hastily looked at her partner and attempted to soften her answer. "I mean, I'm sure he has writing to do."

Castle fought to hold in his smirk. He would have loved to go to lunch with Kate and her father but did not even have to see how Kate got whiplash at the suggestion to know it was something she would not agree too—especially not two seconds after their first meeting. He wasn't even offended by her reaction as much as he was thoroughly amused by it. He considered making a joke about his favorite hobby being procrastination just to see if he could ruffle her feathers even more, but considering she already seemed on the edge, he didn't want to push her over it. "No worries; I wouldn't want to intrude on a family lunch."

"I was just thinking he might have some insight into your dilemma."

"The legal dilemma?"

"No. Well, yes—but I'm not in any sort of trouble." Kate explained. She clearly struggled for a moment internally as she opened and closed her mouth several times, but no sound came out. Ultimately, she rounded her shoulders and dropped her chin, clearly giving in to sharing the story with her partner—much to his extreme delight.

"It's just, um, well the thing is… Evidently my mother had a very, very distant cousin who she didn't even know about or, at least, she never told either of us about. He lived in some far-off corner of France and he died a few weeks ago and…well, it's complicated."

"Complicated how?" Castle asked, not sure how that scenario related at all to her.

Kate spoke the next sentence as though it involved dental work without the use of any numbing medications. "He left his fortune to my mother or her, ah, heir…"

His brow raised quickly. "You?"

"Not exactly…"

"I don't understand," he said in response to her evasiveness. Thankfully, her father stepped in.

"The man's will stated that the heir needed to be married in order to receive the funds."

Castle opened his mouth, but immediately found himself at a loss for words with regards to such a strange circumstance. "That's…odd."

"Ridiculous," Kate snipped.

Castle took a half step back and considered. If he had been presented the scenario and asked how his partner would respond, he would have guessed "poorly" without second though. Considering that he would have described her at present as "conflicted" he believed he had not yet received the full story. "Not to overstep, but I'm guessing the value of the inheritance is rather significant."

While her father merely described it as, "Very," it was Kate who confessed, "About twenty million dollars."

"WHAT!?" Castle yelped so loudly that half the homicide floor looked in his direction. He hastily apologized in a lowered tone, but Kate appeared too overwhelmed to really react. Instead she said, "Now you see the issue."

"Hang on a second," Castle began as the information processed inside his mind. "You…you're not disappointed you can't get the inheritance—you're confused. So…so, does that mean you could still get married and accept the money? Or does the will not allow that? And what happens to the money if you don't marry?"

She nodded tersely. "We're currently trying to answer those questions. Dad's got a buddy of his looking into it."

"But you know, Katie, it's interesting that Rick mentioned that, because—"

"Well," Kate began loudly, clearly cutting off whatever her father was about to say, "we're going to be late for lunch. I'll text you later if there's a new case, okay Castle?"

She didn't even wait for his response before practically shooing her father towards the elevator. Castle watched them as they walked away, curious as to how the bizarre inheritance situation would play out. One thing was for certain: his gut had been right; that day had led to something extraordinary, he just wasn't yet sure how extraordinary it would be.

As the elevator doors closed in front of her, Kate Beckett shut her eyes and brought the fingers of her left hand up to pinch the bridge of her nose. God, hadn't the last twenty hours been stressful enough? She didn't even know what her feelings were for this whole situation, and now she had to deal with Castle's input, which, given the subject matter, would undoubtedly be exhausting and over the top. She knew she wasn't ready to deal with that yet, but now she didn't have a choice.

Still annoyed, she opened her eyes and turned to her father, snipping. "Thank you for that."

The elder man looked momentarily taken aback. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"I hadn't planned on telling him, and now you did, so he's going to be all…Castle-y about it."

Jim arched a skeptical eyebrow. "You weren't sure if you were going to tell him about this? Really? Have I…misinterpreted your relationship all these years? I thought he was one of your closest friends."

Kate grumbled, unable to argue with that technically true statement. Still, this scenario came with many complications. "Okay, fine—I was going to tell him…maybe. I mean, if we find out that since I'm not currently married I cannot get the money, what's the point in telling anyone? It just becomes a sad story. If I can still get the money, I would tell him. I mean, he's the richest person I know—he'd give me a place to start with the financial aspect of things. But now…there are too many unknowns."

Jim bobbed his head. "True, very true, but I notice that there is one scenario that you didn't mention."

The elevator car doors opened on the ground floor of the precinct. Kate and her father stepped out and made their way towards the street through the crowded entryway. Once they were out on the sidewalk heading towards the subway, Kate asked, "Okay—what's the scenario that I didn't mention?"

Her father gazed at her a bit incredulously. "The one that you're most afraid of; the one where you can still accept the inheritance if you get married in the next ten days."

Kate felt her heart clutch with anxiety inside her chest. Her father was dead-on in saying it was the scariest possible scenario. The one she had thought about obsessively as she paced her apartment between one and two o'clock that morning. In ninety-nine-point-nine percent of situations, getting married for the sake of inheriting money or winning a contest (or whatever the insane scenario) would never have been something she considered. But twenty million dollars? That was a sum worth considering.

"Dad, how long have you known me?"

He smiled at her. "Over thirty years."

"Right. So given that knowledge, what do you think the odds are of me getting married in the next ten days if the situation you just proposed is correct?"

"Were you required to marry a stranger or someone chosen by the will or executor, I would say the odds were zero; however, assuming you could marry anyone—including a long time male friend or acquaintance—I'd say they were worth considering." Without missing a beat her father continued with, "Rick Castle is unmarried, isn't he?"

Again, Kate's heart clutched in her chest. She felt perspiration form along her hairline as she insisted, "I'm not marrying Rick Castle."

"It wouldn't be forever," her father gently reminded, "Just until-"

"Dad c'mon!" Kate huffed and swiped her Metro card so aggressively that it did not register, and she had to swipe it another time. Once her father was also through the turnstile, she continued. "Whether it be for a day, a year, or five years I'm not marrying Castle just to get some inheritance."

"Twenty million dollars is more than just 'some inheritance'. Think of all you could do!"

"I don't need money," she pointed out. Would she turn away a windfall of several thousand dollars to cushion her retirement account? Of course not—assuming there were no other strings attached—but she did not need millions and millions of dollars to live her life. She didn't need designer clothing or vacation homes or even extravagant vacations. She was perfectly fine with how things were.

"I'm not saying that you should buy a penthouse or a yacht. What about charities? Cancer research? Homeless people—homeless animals?"

Kate pressed her lips together slightly as she considered his statement. Her brain had been so busy panicking that the word "married" was even remotely connected to the inheritance that she had failed to think much beyond the fact that she did not need or want twenty million dollars. As her father was implying, she could give every penny of it away if she so chose and that certainly put a different spin on her consideration. With that amount of money, she could do a great deal of good—so much good that she did not want to completely shut down and make a selfish choice, even if the sacrifice could be a significant one.

Shaking her head, Kate pushed those notions from her mind and said, "Let's just see what the lawyers come back with, okay? Once I actually know what my options are, I can make an informed decision."

Jim nodded, reached out and gave his daughter's hand a little squeeze. "You would have made an excellent lawyer, you know."

A soft smile crossed her face and she said, "I know."

"I'm always so proud of you, Katie. And I'm not just saying that to get money from you, either."

Kate laughed, and led the way towards the arriving subway car. "Good to know, Dad; good to know."

A/N Hello and welcome to my CastleFicathon2019 entry. I am VERY excited about this one. I really think you guys will love it.

As per usual, bi-weekly updates. 20 Chapters + Epilogue

Thank you for reading!