Frozen Love (A Castle Fanfiction)

Iron Gates

We all must have stayed in that room for about twenty or thirty minutes before eventually one of the boys said, "Oh, Beckett, there really is a case across the street." I can't even remember which one of them said it, I just remember suddenly putting down my glass and telling everyone we had to be getting to work because our boss had arrived at the station just as I left. Martha, Alexis and my father all understood and allowed us to leave, but Esposito and Lanie were stalling. Finally I told Javi, "Your new boss is from I.A and hates cops. I wouldn't waste any more time with your girlfriend if I were you."

"You wasted time with your... fiance," he was simply saying this to get me distracted. The word was so new to me that I was almost slightly distracted, but I was still focused on not drawing any undue attention to myself in the precinct.

I explained, "Yes, but I didn't know we had a case. Seriously, we need to get going." When the two finally separated, we all headed out and up to the next crime scene. It was a pretty typical crime scene aside from where the man was shot. He'd take one bullet to the thigh and one to the head. The murder weapon was found on the floor next to the body, but by the time we got there, Pealmutter was ready to ship the body off to the morgue. We didn't take up much of his time and stayed at the scene for only about ten minutes before allowing him to leave. There was nothing to find in the apartment. No signs of a struggle, no forced entry, no evidence that the guy even knew he was being shot at when he took the first shot to the leg. The second shot was basically a point blank shot and, blamo, now we had a corpse.

When we were finished there, all four of us road back to the precinct. Rick had understood when I told him I couldn't wear the ring on my finger. I simply put it on the chain where I kept my mother's ring and tucked the chain under my shirt again.

At some point I'd taken off my jacket when we were back at the other apartment and Castle though it would be a good idea to inform everyone that I was already showing. Now that I was back in the car, I suddenly realized I never got my coat back. It'd left it in the apartment with Alexis. I was hot and she was so clearly cold so I let her cover her bare arms while we were up there. Castle tried to tell me that the only reason he noticed I was showing was because he'd been watching for it. He said there was no way anyone who wasn't looking at me every day would notice the tiny, itty bitty baby bump that I had. He swore Gates wouldn't call attention to it. He swore no one would. But he didn't know my collegues like I did.

The very first thing I heard when I got in and started putting things on the board was, "Hey, Beckett. How far along are you? Fourteen weeks?"

"Umm," I hesitated to answer. This particular cop hadn't asked very loudly and no one really looked up, but I knew how gossipy she could be. Still I responded, "Yeah, yeah that's right." Then, just to hear from someone who wasn't Rick, I aksed, "Is it that obvious?"

She smiled. "Not at all. Just the way you were standing is all. Plus, you're glowing." I smiled slightly at her answer because we both knew that meant yes, it was very obvious to the trained eye. As she left, I moved my hand down my stomach and played with the fabric over my skin. Sitting back in my chair, I thought about having to explain this to the cop hater who still hadn't called me in to her office. Still holding my hand over the baby, I sat back and studied the murder board, focusing more on the thoughts of what had happened today. Everytime I thought about it, I smiled a bit more and a bit of stress rolled off my body. That is, it did until Gates poked her head out of her door.

"Detective Beckett, a word."

My eyes shot open and I stood, coming straight to her door and stepping into her office. "Yes ma'am?"

"If my mother drops by, you can call her ma'am. Call me Sir or Captain," Gates said sternly, but didn't wait for Kate to fix the error. "Now, explain to me why I simply found your evaluation on my desk and your badge and gun are missing."