New York, June 2009
"So, how goes the hunt for the elusive smart, sexy and sassy NYPD Homicide Detective?"
Richard Castle looked up from his work on the report about the vampire nest in Harlem they had cleaned out two days ago and stared at his daughter. "Do we need to talk about your daytime TV privileges again?"
"Dad!" Alexis Castle frowned. "Don't change the topic!"
Rick pouted. "She's warming up to me. Slowly but surely."
"That well, huh?" Alexis walked around his desk and hugged him. "Don't worry, Dad, there are lots of smart and pretty women around who don't want to shoot you for hunting demons and saving their lives."
"I see you've been talking extensively with Vi," Castle said drily. "I'll have you know that Detective Beckett didn't try to shoot me yet, and that she doesn't know I hunt demons. Vi's a bit biased when it comes to strong women."
"She doesn't have a problem with Buffy or Faith or Willow," Alexis named the three strongest women she and Rick knew.
"That's because she knows her position in the hierarchy with regards to them. With Beckett, there's still a struggle for dominance." And that sounded far kinkier than Rick had intended. Far more interesting too.
"Kiddo, I keep telling you: Women are not a pack of wolves. Your experiences with your ex-wives notwithstanding," Martha Rodgers cut in.
Rick looked at his mother, standing in the door to his office and wearing an elegant gown. "Says the woman who is about to hunt down older gentlemen."
Martha brushed the comment aside with a casual wave of her hand. "On the contrary. I am allowing them to hunt me."
"I rest my case." Rick shook his head.
"Anyway," Alexis said, ignoring as usual the antics of her grandmother when it suited her, "you still haven't invited my possible new stepmom so we can vet her."
"We are not even dating!" Rick retorted. To think his daughter was still holding him to an agreement he never made in the first place!
"Exactly. If she doesn't measure up you don't need to struggle anymore, and can focus on someone else." Alexis explained her reasoning.
"You couldn't think of a way to visit the precinct without getting picked up for truancy, could you?" Rick narrowed his eyes at his daughter, who had the grace to blush a bit.
"It's just unfair that only Vi gets to see her, but not us." Alexis sounded her age, for a change.
"You saw her when she crashed my book launch party," Rick reminded her.
"That doesn't count. We could hardly see her in the lighting, much less talk to her before she had you taken away for questioning." Alexis's tone copied her grandmother's, but she hadn't the casual waving down pat. Yet.
"Well, Honey, I'd love to invite the dear Detective, but I fear that she wouldn't accept an invitation from me," Rick said with false sincerity. He wasn't exactly counting the number of times his casual invites for a drink, coffee or doughnut had been rejected, but he was sure it had surpassed the numbers of rejection letters he had received at the start of his career as an author.
"Oh, that's no problem, Dad. We'll invite her!" Alexis beamed at him.
"What?" Rick blinked, then gaped.
This couldn't end well.
*****
"You know, Castle, most men try to hide their kids when hitting on women. You're one of a few who try to use them to hit on women."
Rick stared at Detective Kate Beckett, lowering the hand he had raised in greeting. The author had just arrived at the crime scene, and this wasn't the greeting he'd expected. "Did my daughter invite you to dinner?" he asked.
"Yes. She sounded very earnest, wanting to thank me for keeping her foolish father safe," Beckett sounded vaguely amused, or so Rick hoped.
He caught a glare from Violet "Vi" O'Malley, who had parked the Shelby, and must have overheard the detective. It didn't look like Vi had been informed about the invitation. Joy. "She's very protective of me."
"One would almost think she was your mother, not your daughter," Beckett said.
"Oh, you'd never think that after meeting my mother!" Castle assured her. The look she sent him was priceless. "Ow."
"Don't talk bad about your family, Rick!" Vi admonished him while he rubbed the arm she had just lightly - for a Slayer - slapped.
He sent a glare at her - she knew Martha and should know better! - before asking: "So… did you accept?"
"I want to know first whose idea this was." Becket narrowed her eyes at both him and his Slayer.
"Not mine!" he declared quickly. "Not that I wouldn't invite you."
"You have. Multiple times." Beckett commented drily, and Vi smirked, then glared at the detective.
"Yes. But I generally try not to inflict my family on my dates until a few months into the relationship." Rick said, taking a step away from Vi.
"We tend to scare them away," Vi explained, showing a toothy smile to the detective.
"Really?" Beckett lifted an eyebrow and met the Slayer's stare. Castle wasn't sure if the doubt dripping from her voice was about the scaring part, or Vi's implied claim that she was part of his family. Or both.
"Yes. He's got a terrible taste in women, so we often have to protect him for his own good. Too many gold diggers and bimbos around." Vi's smile grew wider. "Present company excluded of course." She was acting like she usually did before breaking some hulking demon's face.
"Of course." Beckett's lips formed a very thin line now. She turned to Castle. "I think I'll accept your family's invitation. I am sure it will be a remarkable experience."
That was exactly what Castle was fearing.
*****
"So, what's the case?" Castle said, after a few very uncomfortable moments had passed.
"Stabbing victim. Possibly a robbery gone wrong." Beckett walked towards the side alley partially hidden by an ambulance.
The victim was a woman, middle-aged. Slumped over, sitting in a pool of blood. Not a Vampire, Rick thought at once. They would never waste so much blood.
Lanie was there, already at work.
"Stabbed in the heart with a blade. Judging by the liver temperature, death occurred around midnight. Entry angle means the blow came from below," the medical examiner explained.
"Strong too," Beckett said in a slightly strained voice, pointing at a hole in the brick wall.
Vi made sniffing noise and when Castle looked at her, she nodded. That meant it smelled like a demon. Literally.
"Well, it's not a Polgara Demon. The entry wound is not big enough," Castle stated, crouching down to peer at it.
"Straight double-bladed short sword," Vi added. "Underhanded stab. Probably lifted her up a bit, and pinned her against the wall while she bled." The Slayer demonstrated the move.
"I don't see any metal traces in the hole," Beckett, looking far tenser than Castle would have expected, retorted.
"It's a magical sword then. Mere bricks cannot damage an enchanted blade," Rick speculated. Vi's eyes lit up. He hoped it was not a cursed blade. Not again.
"Can you be serious for once?" Beckett rolled her eyes at him.
"We can also exclude vampires. Too much blood wasted." Castle added. He probably shouldn't push the good detective, but he couldn't help it. She was so much fun to tease.
"It's not a robbery. The victim still has her purse." Lanie pointed out.
"The killer might have been spooked into fleeing by something or someone," Castle cocked his head, trying to picture the angles to the entrance of the alley.
"It's too far from the entrance, and anyone in the alley would have found the body then," Beckett countered. "A more important question is: Why was a well-dressed woman" - she glanced at the driving license in the purse - "like Marcella Garcia in such an alley to begin with?" She pointed at the shoes. "And in those heels?"
"Maybe she took a short cut that got cut short?" Castle ventured a guess.
It hadn't been one of his best lines, judging by the looks everyone present sent at him.
*****
"So… did you recognize the smell?" Castle asked when they were back in the Shelby, driving towards the 12th Precinct.
"No. It smelled like a demon though, but… just demon-y. Not vampire-y or polgara-y," the redhead answered while taking a tight, too tight turn.
"You know, the English language is not an acceptable target for slaying," Castle commented.
"We're not slaying it, we're improving it, old man. Evolving," Vi snarked back.
"More like devolving. Soon you'll speak in grunts," Castle retorted.
"And club men over the head and drag them back to our caves?" Vi asked, sweetly. "You wish!"
"I have to point out that I did get away from you in exactly such a situation," Castle grinned.
Vi frowned, and slightly blushed, but didn't comment further. Victory!
"We'll have to ask Ray if he sold another cursed blade." Castle didn't think it would be that easy.
Vi nodded eagerly. The redhead would never oppose visiting Ray's shop. "So… what do you think turned the stick up Beckett's butt into a pole?"
"Your choice of words needs work. A lot of work. And a lot less Faith."
"Of course an old man would say that." Vi was smirking.
"40 is not old." It really wasn't.
"Your new car says otherwise." Grinning now.
"We needed a new, fast one."
"Suuuure." Vi drawled.
"You know, we can get a more sensible car for you to drive. Maybe a station wagon…" Castle speculated, and noted with satisfaction that Vi lost her grin at once.
He still had it.