[ where it begins ]

[fanofthegenre]

She needs to change. She keeps a spare set of clothes at the 12th - but they're meant for the shifts where she pulls an all-nighter and doesn't have time to go home.

They're not for this, for the red that stains the white of her sweater - someone else's (I'm fine, Castle, it's not my blood). She was just supposed to have a conversation. She'd hoped it was one that would bring her a little closer to the truth.

Instead, she's got one more murder on her hands, and more questions than answers.

She's not expecting the door to the Bar when she walks in, but a part of her is almost relieved. She needs a place to decompress, to think about her options and to consider her next move before she heads back out into her world, into the place where all of it becomes real again and everyone's counting on her to step up, relying on her to tell them where to go from here.

Because, right now, Beckett's not even sure she knows what to do.

Comments

[trigger_man]

Jack had been out of the bar for most of the day; hadn't really been planning to return that night. But after washing grease off his hands--his truck was acting up, not something he needed at the moment--he'd opened the fridge for a beer and found it empty.

He's only just taken a seat at the bar when the door opens and he glances over to see who's coming in. He gets about as far as opening his mouth to say Beckett's name when just what that is staining her sweater sinks in.

The blood drains out of his head, a chill washing over him, and it feels as though his heart stops. In that second, it's not just Beckett that he sees; his mind's eyes is filled with an image he still remembers with crystal clarity after almost ten years.

(ten years in three months from now, actually)

His feet start moving him toward her without consciously thinking, instinct taking over. He pushes his way past patrons, not really paying any attention to who he's passing.

As he approaches, somehow his lips form her name, though it comes out sounding more like a croak.