Dinner at Remy's

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: Really? Does anyone think I own this? Um, I don't. Time: After the end of The Third Man and on into AU land. (Odd thought. Au is the symbol for gold. ) Rating: M

"Some people just don't know how to behave on a date." Castle grumped.

"Especially a first date." Beckett added.

"Exactly."

Castle and Beckett rode the elevator down in companionable silence. Exiting the precinct, Beckett allowed Castle to hold her arm as they crossed the street. She even allowed him to open the door to Remy's for her.

Once inside Remy's, they found that a dozen or more cops were loudly letting off steam after the end of their shift. Castle motioned to the waitress approaching them. "Nancy, could we get as far from them as possible? I really don't feel like yelling to make myself heard tonight."

Nancy smiled. Castle was known as a good tipper. "Sure, Mr. Castle. Tell you what. I'll put you back in the alcove. That should be quiet enough."

Nancy led them into the alcove and seated them at a booth. The noise from the front was noticeable, but not overwhelming.

"Do you need a minute?" Nancy asked.

Beckett shook her head. "I know exactly what I want. A cheeseburger, French fries and a strawberry shake."

Nancy turned to Castle. "Ah! I see Detective Beckett is a traditionalist. Tonight, I'll have the double chili cheeseburger, French fries and a chocolate shake."

Beckett smiled at Rick as Nancy hurried away with their order. "A double chili cheeseburger? I'll need to take you to the gym tomorrow and work some of that off."

"The thought of us getting all sweaty together…"

"Forget it, in that case, Castle."

He shrugged. "I told you I was starved. I got up late today. All I had for breakfast was some toast. I skipped lunch so I'd be nice and hungry for Drago's. Hoist by my own petard."

"I'm sorry I ruined your evening. I know you'd rather have been with bachelorette number three. She seemed like your type, too."

"Amanda Livingston? My type? Why would you say that?"

Kate was momentarily flustered. "Well…She's beautiful, sophisticated, she moves in the same circles as you do…"

"And she's boring, like I told you."

"I thought when you said that you were just trying to make me feel better about ruining your date."

"To tell you the truth, our date in the pet shop, gunfire, hairy spiders and all, was the high point of my night, Beckett." Castle looked for a long moment over Beckett's shoulder at nothing at all. "Actually, my type is what you're looking for, a one and done."

Kate laughed. "In case you missed it, I'm a girl and you're a boy. We're not looking for quite the same thing. And how can you get a one and done? You're already a two and undone."

"A minor detail. I'm looking for forever and I always have been." Castle stopped and stared at Beckett for a second. "Do you really think that I'd go into a marriage expecting it to fail? That's a little odd even for me."

Kate shook her head. "No, no. Not at all. I just thought…Well, I guess I didn't think."

"I expected when I married Meredith that we'd grow old together. She was so like me I was sure it would work. She was fun, free spirited, unconventional, and open to anything." Rick stopped for a moment. "It turned out that one of the things she was open to was a movie producer. The first I knew about it was when I got the letter from her divorce lawyer."

Kate blushed slightly. "I'm sorry, Castle. I didn't know."

Castle smiled at her. "I'm sure you thought I was entirely to blame."

"No." Kate looked away and then added, "Yes. I was wrong. I'm sorry."

"No problem. The divorce was by no means amicable, but our relationship since then has been friendly. The divorce cost me some money, so I wrote some more books. And, I got custody of Alexis who has been the light of my life. I shudder to think what I'd have been like without her." Rick chuckled. "You should shudder to think what I'd have been like without Alexis to civilize me."

Beckett managed a theatrical shudder. "The mind boggles, Castle."

Castle shrugged. "I thought Gina was forever, too. She was nothing like me. She was organized, disciplined, methodical and completely free of whimsy. I saw her as sort of the tough Marine sergeant who'd whip this green kid into shape. You know, John Wayne in "Sands of Iwo Jima", James Whitmore in "Battle Cry…"

"R. Lee Ermey in "Full Metal Jacket." Kate added.

"He was killed by one of his recruits." Castle said. "Not quite the metaphor I'd pick. But, it turned out I was more like Bill Murray in" Stripes". I was incapable of being whipped into shape."

"More like Jan Michael Vincent in "Tribes", I'd say, Castle."

"The Marines lost a great DI when she became a publisher." Castle said quietly.

Nancy arrived with their food, which she placed before them with a flourish. "Let me know if there's anything else you need. No one can really see you back here and I'll be busy in the main room."

"Enjoy, Beckett." Castle said with a smile.

"At least here Page Six won't find out that you're with bachelorette one million and not number three." Kate grinned.

Castle smiled. "Do you know what the difference between you and the women on that list is?"

"How much time do you have to listen to my reply?"

"I'm serious, Beckett. The only thing they have that you don't is money. Look at the women on the list. Look at the men, too. Every one of them, or us, I should say, is rich. Really rich. Most of the men earned theirs somehow, but a few inherited their money. Most of the women either married money or were born into it. That's why they're eligible bachelorettes. That is all that these women have that you don't."

Kate shook her head. "Castle, that's kind of you to say…"

"Beckett, you have to know that you're a beautiful woman. You're gorgeous from top to bottom. In fact, most of the bachelorettes would kill to look like you. And you are so much more. There's one woman on the list who's an attorney. She might be as smart as you are, but I doubt it. None of the rest come close to your intelligence. Or your dedication, the depth of you commitment to what you believe, your passion, your willingness to give everything for what you do. If I'm lucky, and I do find my one and done, I hope she's a lot like you."

"Rick, that is so sweet. Now that I know you better…" A suspicious look formed on Beckett's face. "Are you wearing a wire?" She snapped.

"What?" Castle looked like he couldn't believe what he'd heard.

"You are!" Beckett accused.

"Why would I…"

"You'd say something sweet, so I'll say something stupid and dopey and then play it for everyone in the bullpen."

Beckett scooted around to Castle's side of the booth. She grabbed the front of his shirt and began to roughly pat Castle down. "I should have known better. I should have known better." She kept repeating.

But after a very rough minute for Castle, Beckett had found nothing. "Castle…Rick…I'm so sorry. I just…"

Castle took out is wallet and threw down a hundred dollar bill. "I think our dinner is over, Detective Beckett. Please feel free to continue your dinner, but I'll be leaving."

As Castle began to slide out of the booth, Beckett grabbed his arm. "Castle, I'm so sorry. Please, stay. Please, I apologize. I was so wrong. Let me make it up to you. I don't want to be responsible for you missing two dinners on the same night."

Castle tried to pull away, but couldn't manage to break Beckett's hold on his arm without hurting her.

"Castle! You stay right here. If you don't, I'll cuff your hands behind your back and sit on your lap and feed you every bite of your food."

"Detective Beckett, I have been manhandled enough for one night, thank you."

Kate nodded. "You're right. I embarrassed you, now it's my turn. I'll get down on my knees and beg for your forgiveness." Kate began to slide under the table to fulfill her promise.

Castle grabbed her around the waist. Even while still angry at her, he noticed how toned her body was. "Detective Beckett, that's not necessary."

"We'll go out front then. Those other cops are still here. I'll beg for your forgiveness out there where everyone can see me."

"Beckett that's not necessary. You don't need to do anything."

"Well go back to the precinct. Even at this time of night, there'll be people there. Anyone who doesn't see it will hear about it." Beckett was still struggling to kneel under the table, but Castle was holding her too tightly.

"Kate, please!" Castle said as he hauled Beckett up onto the seat beside him. "Please! I do not want you to humiliate yourself. That wouldn't help. It would just make things worse. Yes, wearing a wire to a social function is just the sort of stupid thing I'd do, but never to you. Never. I have too much respect for you and I value our relationship, our work relationship, too highly to jeopardize it. Please, your apology is accepted. After all, I embarrass myself every day, and I do it so much better than you do. I have more fun than anyone else doing it, too."

Kate relaxed then looked Castle in the eye. "Mr. Castle, I am sincerely sorry for accusing you of something that you didn't do, and for manhandling you. Will you please forgive me?"

"Yes, of course. Kate, will you please go back and finish your meal? I promise I'll stay here and eat all of my food. Even the vegetables, and I won't ask for dessert. Please."

"Thank you." Kate slid back to her place across from Castle.

"Does this mean that the offer to sit on my lap and feed me has lapsed?"

Kate smiled. "I'm afraid that was a limited time offer."

As Kate began to eat, Castle smiled at her. "You know, you've ruined a lot of women for me, Beckett."

Kate said nothing, but blushed deeply.

Kate cautiously looked at Castle as he ate, glad that he was so hungry that his total concentration was on his food. Castle was still a huge puzzle to her. At first she couldn't stand him. When he solved their first case together, she'd been embarrassed but secretly rather pleased that her favorite author was more than she had initially thought. Since then, she had seen that he could be an egocentric child at times, but there was more to him than that. He had risked his life while shadowing her, and she felt that he got the same sense of accomplishment from catching a murderer that she did. There was more to Richard Castle than met the eye, but she hadn't figured out exactly what he was. She often wondered if she ever would.

Castle looked up from his meal. "I was starved. I had twice as much food as you do, but I'm almost done. Better hurry up, Beckett."

Kate smiled. "I'm about done. I have to watch my figure, you know." She knew she had said the wrong thing as soon as the words were out of her mouth.

Castle shook his head. "Really! Do you really feel you have to feed me straight lines, Beckett? I could do so much with that line." Kate waited for the sexist comment. Castle surprised her. "Luckily for you, this is my night to not embarrass Detective Kate Beckett. Would you like some dessert?"

"No, thanks. This is enough for me."

They finished dinner and left Remy's.

"Thank you so much, Castle. I can walk home from here. Thanks again." Kate held her hand out to be shaken.

"Nonsense, Beckett. My car is just across the street. I can have you home in minutes then you'll have more time for your hot bath and a good night's sleep." He took her hand. "Come on."

With Beckett in his car, Castle silently cursed the so-called automotive genius who got rid of bench seats in favor of bucket seats with a huge, stupid console between them.

"The parking gods favor us tonight, Beckett. There's a parking place right in front of your building."

Castle parked and insisted on walking Beckett to her door. Once there, Beckett fumbled with her keys then hung the garment bag holding her dress on the door knob. She turned to face Castle. "Castle, you have to understand this. We are not going to date. We're not going to date each other. Do you understand that?"

Castle, surprised by the vehemence in her voice, did his best to reply. "Sure…I mean, I never…We couldn't…The two of us wouldn't…"

"In addition to the very obvious reasons we shouldn't date, the department has a very strict policy about colleagues dating. At the worst, I could lose my badge. Do you want that?"

"Of course not. I'd never do anything to jeopardize your job. You know that."

"And don't think that what happened tonight was a date. It wasn't. Something like going to Drago's would be a date. What happened tonight was just two colleagues sharing a meal after a long night. Police officers, like me, and people like you, who…Whatever. We work long, odd hours and it's natural that we'd need to eat when our work is done and that we might eat together. And just because you paid for dinner doesn't mean this was a date either."

"Absolutely!" Castle said quickly. "If anyone suggested that it was, I'd correct them at once."

"Right!" Beckett nodded vigorously." Colleagues do that sort of thing all the time. They eat at ordinary restaurants where they can get good food at odd hours. Like the Mexican restaurant just down the street. Do you like Mexican, Castle? They have the biggest plates I've ever seen in a restaurant and they fill them up. No matter how hungry I've been, I've never managed to eat everything on my plate. We'll be able to order just one thing for the two of us."

Castle gulped at the last sentence, but was quick to respond. "I know lots of places like that, good food at odd hours, I mean. Chinese, Indian, Thai, seafood…Oh, there's this seafood place near me with the best Maryland crab cakes for appetizers. When you taste them, you'd think you want to eat nothing else, but they have the best crab stuffed tiger prawns I've ever tasted."

"Sounds great. I can't wait." Kate said with a smile. "And colleagues do other things together, you know."

"They do? Um, like what?"

Beckett gave Castle a look. "Like movies. Colleagues see movies together."

"So what kind of movies do you like?"

Kate shrugged. "I like good movies. Movies with good scripts, good acting, good directing, good production values generally. I'm not too concerned with the genres, but I do have trouble with cop movies. They get so many little things wrong, it distracts me. But I did love "The French Connection"."

"You know, the old Fox shows classic movies. They have a different theme each week. One week it'll be musicals then they'll feature a particular director, then an actor. When she was in the sixth grade, I took Alexis to see "The Wizard of Oz" there. She'd never seen it on the big screen. You can't call one colleague taking another colleague to a theater where he took his daughter a date by any means."

Beckett shook her head. "No way."

"I'll check on line for what's playing."

Beckett nodded. "Good."

"How about plays? Shakespeare in the Park?" Castle asked.

"My parents took me to see Hamlet there when I was in high school."

"There you go. Shakespeare in the Park is for hard core Shakespeare junkies. It is definitely not a date night. Or sporting events. A baseball game, football, tennis…" Castle stopped when he noticed Beckett's frown.

"I'm not sure about sporting events. I mean, lots of colleagues go to them, but if one group of colleagues saw another group of colleagues…"

"They might get the wrong idea." Castle finished. "It still wouldn't be a date, but no point in taking chances someone would misunderstand."

"I bet there are a lot of things colleagues do, Beckett." Castle held out his hand. "But it's late, and this colleague is tired. My colleague needs a hot bath and a good night's sleep."

Kate took his hand, but did not release it.

Castle knew he might be making a huge mistake, but he couldn't resist. "I'll bet that occasionally one colleague will give another colleague a peck on the cheek, like when we first met."

"I'm sure they do."

Castle leaned in to kiss Beckett's cheek as close to her ear as he could manage. He was surprised when Beckett twisted around so that his lips brushed against hers. Castle stood there frozen, unsure what to do. Then he felt Beckett's arms around his neck and her lips pressing firmly against his. Her tongue pushed past his lips and moved across his teeth. He opened his mouth and Beckett's tongue immediately entered his mouth. He put his arms around her and pulled her close. As the kiss went on, Castle's hands drifted downwards until his hands rested lightly on Kate Beckett's perfect bottom. Not feeling the muzzle of her gun in his ribs, or getting a kick in the groin, he squeezed lightly. He felt, rather than heard, Beckett's moan. He squeezed harder and Beckett began grinding her breasts against his chest. Castle could feel his erection growing and starting to push against Beckett's stomach.

Castle broke the kiss. His right hand slid up to Beckett's back while the other hand gently stroked her hair.

"I need to go home and you need to go inside." He murmured.

"No." Kate murmured back.

"Yes. There's one thing about colleagues. They're very careful with their colleague's feelings. They never want to hurt their colleagues by doing something stupid." Rick gently kissed Kate's forehead. "I'll see you tomorrow, if you're not furious with me, and then we'll see about some more non-dates."

Kate held Rick tighter. "No."

"Yes."

Rick disengaged himself from Kate, opened her door and gently pushed her inside, then closed the door. He walked away as fast as he could, fearing he'd change his mind if he didn't. When he reached his car outside, he leaned against it and stared up at the night sky. "Thank you, God. I'm dating Kate Beckett."

Kate leaned against her door and listened to Rick's footsteps as he left. When she heard the elevator, she knew he was gone. She quickly undressed and walked into the bathroom. She filled the tub with hot water and bubble bath. She turned to look at herself in the mirror. She was attractive. She didn't feel she was vain, since she'd never considered it important before. She had a good face. Her breasts were on the small side, only B cups and they weren't as perky as they had been in her twenties, but they were still acceptable. She looked at her flat stomach and slim hips. She decided her best feature was her legs, then turned around and thought it might be her butt. No, Castle had found her physically attractive which meant he actually didn't want to take a chance that he'd hurt her. She smiled.

Castle was still a mystery to her, but one she'd be exploring soon.