Sixth Wheel

Overruled

"Would you stop it?"

"What?"

"Wiggling your leg like that, it's shaking the whole damn table."

"Sorry." Esposito shifted in his conference room chair, crossed his ankle over his knee. He hadn't realized how much he was going to miss Meredeth until he'd dropped her off at the airport the day before. He'd borrowed Ryan's ride to take her, bore up under Jenny's bombardment of questions about her with what he considered admirable patience, and had been miserably cranky ever since he'd seen her go through the gate. Even the intrigue of the Bodega Stalker case couldn't keep his mind off the fact if he went home and his TiVo had fucked him over by not recording Meredeth's interview, he would have to take it into the 12th's firing range for target practice.

Ryan noticed it too; it was impossible not to. "What's the matter with you? You and Mystery Meredeth have a fight?"

"No, no, nothing like that, and stop calling her Mystery Meredeth."

"Oh come on, man!" Now Ryan wasn't just annoyed, he was veering into seriously-pissed-off territory. "It's alright for my escapades to be an open book but yours are matters of national security?"

"Maybe if you learned they call it a private life for a reason, Ry, you wouldn't get teased so much."

"Besides the point." Ryan nudged away the files, glad he had the opportunity to speak his mind. "We're partners man, and dammit, I thought we were friends. It's not like I'm going to run my mouth off, I just figured I was privy to details besides Lanie's tidbits."

Esposito leaned back from the table, uncomfortable with the hurt in Ryan's voice. He'd never done it intentionally, he'd simply wanted to keep something for himself; was that a crime? "We are friends, Kev," he said, using Ryan's first name so as to get his point across, "but this is different. She's different."

Before Ryan could respond Esposito's cell blip-blipped a monophonic version of the Beach Boys' Good Vibrations, the ringtone he'd assigned for Meredeth's cell number. Looking at the screen, he pressed his lips together to keep the smile to himself and to help keep the nerves to himself as well.

Just about to go on Kimmel. Wearing a hot dress, you'll really miss me when you see it. xx M.

He forgot about the file in front of him momentarily as he texted her back: At work, praying my TiVo works, still missin' you in or out of a dress. xx J. Clearing his throat, he set his cell back down, turned his attention back to cop work. It was only when he saw Ryan staring in blank anticipation that he said anything.

"What?"

"That her?"

"Yeah, she's in L.A. for work."

Ryan only shook his head in disbelief. The man really had no clue, did he, just how obvious it was when he got a text or a call from Meredeth; the cop disintegrated however momentarily and he was simply Javi. When he hung up, Detective Esposito was back in full force, and it made Ryan ready to grab him by his striped tie and feed it into the nearest paper shredder . Instead he stood up, stretched stiff arms and back, then twisted back when Esposito added, almost like an after thought, "She's doing a couple of late-night shows to promote her book."

"No shit? Like on Letterman and that?"

"Jimmy Kimmel, Jimmy Fallon and Craig Ferguson."

Ryan's eyes nearly popped out of his head as Castle and Beckett strolled in, each with two cups of coffee in hand. "You're serious?"

"Serious about what?" Castle passed Ryan one of the coffees.

"Mere's doing Kimmel and Fallon and Ferguson this week!"

Kate shook her head, sipped her coffee. Her boys were dedicated to their jobs but when it came to TV, they were worse than teenage Trekkies. "Yeah, I know, I read it on her Twitter. I keep up with authors," she added off of Castle's amused look.

"Well you are one of the Richard Castle Official Website Subscribers, aren't you CastleGirl412?"

"That's not my screen-name."

"Dammit." Castle sulked; she'd yet to give up that little secret and insisted on teasing him with it any chance she got.

Ryan waved his hands back and forth in front of his face to get their attention. "Way off topic. Point is, Mys...Meredeth," he corrected himself off of Esposito's warning glare, "is going on national television three times this week and we have to be able to tell her we watched."

"Truth be told, she only cares about the Ferguson interview." Esposito looked up, surprised he'd spoken at all. "She's been a fan of his for awhile and promised me she'd get a pic with Brian the Shark. And when do you think you're going to see her and tell her this?"

"Saturday night, after she gets back from L.A.," Castle said without a nanosecond of hesitation. He held up his index finger to silence a protest from Esposito. "Ryan's right man. We know you like your space and all, but we're your friends and we do want to meet her."

"So does Jenny, mind if she tags in?" Ryan added, turning to Castle who nodded in agreement.

"I'll let Lanie and Montgomery know poker night's been moved this week."

"If we're done adjusting our social calendars, perhaps we could get back to working murder, if that's all right with you guys." Beckett looked around at her detectives and her shadow-boyfriend, lips pursed in irritation. "We got a possible outside connection on the vics. We pulled electronics and we found all three subscribed to the same online chat-room Book-Bites. Ryan, Esposito, head over to IT and get the hard copies, go through all their back log of conversations and emails from the site, see if we get anything."

On their way down in the elevator, Esposito discreetly pulled out his phone, texted Meredeth a second time. Castle's invited you to poker night Saturday. Brace yourself. xx J. He'd barely pushed 'send' when Ryan leaned over.

"Checking in already? That's twice in one hour, bro."

"Shut it," Esposito mumbled good-naturedly, feeling a burning sensation on the back of his neck as Ryan leaned against the elevator wall, hands in his pockets and snickered.

"This is going to be so much fun."