OOM: Beckett's Room

[trigger_man]

 [After this.]

Jack makes a quick pit stop in his room to change into dry clothes, already feeling the burn on his skin as it warms up again.

Heading back out into the hall, he hesitates for a second outside Beckett's door.  After the awkwardness of him falling on top of her--and neither of them moving for a moment--this might not be the best idea.  But then he'd told her he'd be there in a moment, as as much as part of him has misgivings about it, there's part of him that wants to show that whatever that moment outside had been, it was just an aberration; nothing to see here, move along.

Taking a breath, he raps decisively on her door.

Comments

[fanofthegenre]

"Which will have to be filled in, of course. But, knowing Castle, he'll probably put that off for about a week or so until he has a chance to explore them all for himself. Now that we're not actively chasing a suspect down there anymore."

She tries to hide a smile, but the look on his face is too priceless.

"You look almost as excited as he was."

[trigger_man]

Jack looks a little sheepish. "Secret tunnels are the kind of thing you read about in Hardy Boys novels as a kid. Kind of hard not to be a little excited."

He takes a sip of his hot chocolate, now that it won't sear his tongue.

"I take it the tunnels were from Prohibition and used for smuggling?"

[fanofthegenre]

She just grins at him, shifting on the couch.

"I didn't say you weren't allowed to be. And, yeah, good guess. Though they were only being used for hiding some pretty valuable bottles of liquor when we discovered them."

[trigger_man]

"Castle inherit those too, when he bought the place?"

[fanofthegenre]

"Are you kidding me? They were evidence," Beckett says.

"He may have gotten to keep one," she adds, before quickly taking a sip of cocoa.

[trigger_man]

"Providing he shared it?" he asks with a slight quirk of the lips.

[fanofthegenre]

"Obviously," she says, winking.

After a moment, she leans back, relaxing further, staring into the flickering flames.

"What about you? Anything new and exciting to share?"

[trigger_man]

Jack shrugs, but the air of indifference doesn't quite come off as natural. Perhaps it's the fact that he doesn't quite meet her eyes as he speaks.

"Not really. Couple days before Christmas outside, and the resort I'm working at is getting pretty busy."

[fanofthegenre]

"Yeah?" She misses the non-look, glancing over toward him after he speaks.

"I get the feeling you're not exactly big on the holidays."

[trigger_man]

"Don't really have much reason to be. A lot of people don't really get into the whole Christmas spirit thing; I'm one of them."

At one time he had, at least somewhat; when he had Kim to celebrate with. But then Christmas is a time for family, and it's been years since he had one.

[fanofthegenre]

"It's okay. I'm not too big on it myself."

She takes another sip of cocoa.

"Probably because I can't remember the last time I didn't work through Christmas."

[trigger_man]

"You don't spend it with your Dad?" Jack asks, looking up at her.

[fanofthegenre]

"We try to make time. There's always a Christmas dinner every year. But the rest of it, it's pretty much work."

She draws a face, shrugging.

"Life of a cop."

[trigger_man]

Jack snorts. "Yeah, I know that."

Some years Christmas felt more like a gauntlet for CTU to run through, to make sure nothing happened.

"Even I got a couple Christmases off, though. Or nearly off."

[fanofthegenre]

She finishes off her cocoa and sets it aside before turning to face him.

"Okay. I've decided. If I don't get Christmas off back home, I'm just going to have to spend it here. Then at least I'll get some semblance of a break."

[trigger_man]

"Sounds like a good idea. As long as you don't miss dinner with your Dad, that is," Jack says with a small attempt at a smile.

Maybe it's because he's been thinking about Kim so much, but the thought of Beckett not seeing her father much on Christmas isn't a comfortable one. Though he knows too, that there's a number of good reasons she could have for it; he can't blame Kim when it comes to her reasons for not wanting to see him.

"I'll probably be in here for a while anyway; at least much as I can without stopping time from passing out there or getting fired for not doing my job."

[fanofthegenre]

"With any luck, the crazy time difference means I'll get two Christmases," she replies.

"And you better. I don't like to think about the possibility of you being - "

Beckett nearly stops herself from finishing the sentence, but the sentiment is already there; there's nothing she can do about that now.

" - well, alone," she murmurs.

[trigger_man]

"Don't worry about me, Beckett," Jack says, his tone a little gruff. "Alone isn't necessarily a bad thing."

Especially when trouble seems to follow you around.

[fanofthegenre]

The helpless feeling Beckett's getting is revealing itself in her expression.

"Too late," she replies, with a small sigh.

[trigger_man]

Jack's mouth thins for a moment. "Yeah, now you know how I feel when you tell me you're dealing with a dangerous case."

[fanofthegenre]

"It's not exactly the same thing," she says, giving him a pointed look.

Not that she even needs to mention the difference.

[trigger_man]

"No, but it's not exactly easy for me to listen when you tell me not to worry. Especially after you ended up running in here with an explosion chasing you."

He puts his hot chocolate down on the coffee table.

"Besides, I don't need you making me into some kind of obligation. Like I said, you don't need to worry about me."

[fanofthegenre]

"When did I ever say you were an obligation?" Beckett asks, genuinely taken aback.

"I know you don't want me to worry. Just like I don't want you to." She sits forward, clasping her hands in front of her.

"But I can't exactly help it."

[trigger_man]

"At least I worry about you when there's some kind of clear and present danger. If you worry about me because I'm alone, it'll be a full-time job."

He cuts his eyes at her for a moment. "Besides, in case you hadn't noticed, I'm not the best with people. Being alone is kind of a natural extension of that."

[fanofthegenre]

"A certain level of alone time is natural. It's normal. I'm not about to begrudge you that," she tells him.

"But when you're alone more often than not, when that starts to become the norm - you'd better just get used to the fact that I'm going to want to make sure it doesn't happen with you. Because you're my friend, Jack."

She almost moves to reach out, and then stops, fingers curling in against her thigh.

"And because I care about you."