The World Series: Game Four
A series of ficlets [one for each game played] that revolve around Kate Beckett’s love of the Mets, their 2015 World Series against the Royals, and the ongoing separation of Beckett from Castle. Set between 8x05 ‘The Nose’ and 8x06 ‘Cool Boys’. Spoilers for all aired episodes. Read the others in the series here.
It does his heart good to hear the familiar sounds of his wife’s laugh and Alexis’ happy chatter while he stands in their bedroom.
Instinct tells him that he should hurry into the living area to see her, to again thank Kate for the hours that she put in helping him turn the loft into a rather impressive creepy dungeon with bats, spiders, skeletons and other Halloween riffraff.
Instead, he reigns himself in, doing up the buttons on his green paisley print shirt, adding the yellow vest and the purple pinstriped jacket that matches the pants that a seamstress in the Garment District had charged him handsomely for.
But what was Halloween if he didn’t go full out? Grinning at himself in the mirror, Rick sees far less of himself the mystery writer than the Joker; Batman’s nemesis and one of the most intriguing villains in the DCVerse. His mother had helped with the makeup, painting his face white and contouring the valleys so the effect looked realistic. She had even talked him into wearing eyeliner and he had put on the dark brown lipstick of his own volition after Alexis had sprayed his hair bright green and powdered his eyebrows the same shade.
With one last look, he scoops up his green tie and leather gloves, shutting the bedroom door behind him to follow the sounds of Alexis and Kate’s chatter.
She’s arrived nearly 30 minutes before Rick suspects the first guests will step off the elevator, something that he tells himself not to get excited about. Just because they spent hours laughing and teasing one another, just because he’d drawn her in for a long hug before she had left last night, just because Kate had looked for all the world that she wanted to stay, he won’t let himself read into it.
He made his position clear to her. If she wants to come home, she only has to do it. He will not beg or plead. She wanted time, he’ll give it to her.
When he rounds the corner the first thing Rick sees is Alexis’ hair styled into a sleek bob that compliments her deep blue flapper gown and the headband with a large flower blooming from the side. His daughter is doing some sort of shimmy, her dress catching the light so that all the beading sparkles as she laughs.
“You look great, pumpkin,” he supplies with a grin that turns to little more than his jaw hanging open in shock once Alexis moves and gives him a clear shot of Kate.
She’s nearly unrecognizable with her blonde wig and its pigtail style, her face painted the same white as his own and her eyes covered with a black bandit mask, lips painted dark red and outlined in stark black that matches the red and black jumpsuit with its white collar and harlequin pattern.
It stops Rick in his tracks, eyes wide with surprise as he drinks in the sight of her. Even through the white face paint, Kate seems to blush at his gaze, a certain level of pleasure sparking in her eyes.
He had never told her his plan for a costume, but somehow his wife had figured it out and dressed accordingly.
She’s come as the Joker’s girlfriend, and a villain in her own right, Harley Quinn.
