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telarynTitle: Unexpected Discoveries
'Verse: Leverage/Castle
Characters: Leverage Team, Castle Team
Rating: PG
Word Count: 2008
Warnings: None
Summary: While working a job in New York City, the Leverage team finds nothing working out the way they expected.
Author's Notes: I recently put up an offer for a fic a day for the first twenty days of December. This is prompt #4, provided by![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
ella_bee, who wanted a Leverage/Castle crossover. And once again, I'm looking at a prompt with a five or ten thousand word potential plot and no time to give it that level of attention, so I apologize in advance for the ending. *g*
“Heather Teasdale, Parker. Your name is Heather Teasdale, and you want your lawyer. That’s all you need to tell them.” Hardison was as focused as they’d ever seen him, fingers flying across his keyboard as he tried to stay ahead of what was happening and anticipate what they were going to need in order to get through it.
Nate flinched, realizing that he was gripping the back of the hacker’s chair so tightly his wrist was starting to spasm. Of all the nightmares he had over leading his team into situations like this, probably a third of them involved scenarios exactly like the one unfolding over the comms. (Half of them were Eliot related, and probably only an eighth involved bad things happening to Hardison and/or Sophie.)
“That arrogant little toe rag set us up!” Sophie was furious. Nate’s gut reaction said she was right, but he had too many other things demanding his attention – keeping Parker out of jail and keeping Eliot from doing something irretrievably stupid being one and two on his ever growing list. Their client was dead, probably at the hands of their mark, who had timed things so well Parker had discovered the body two steps ahead of the police showing up on the scene.
“They’re taking her to the Twelfth Precinct,” Hardison announced. Both Sophie and Eliot automatically started getting to their feet. Nate raised his hand, freezing both his grifter and his hitter in their tracks.
“One attorney, one crime scene tech. We’re not doing a straight-up jailbreak unless we have to, which means we need to know what the police know.” Parker’s comm was still active; Nate prayed it hadn’t been discovered yet, and the thief was listening to his instructions as well. “Call it,” he said, focusing his attention back on Eliot and Sophie. “I don’t care which of you takes what.”
In the end Sophie caught a cab to the Twelfth Precinct, and Eliot left the van to try and infiltrate the squad of analysts that were even now descending on the crime scene.
*******************
“Grace McAllister,” Esposito told them. “Twenty-six years old, executive assistant to the branch manager.”
Beckett’s brow creased in confusion, but as with most things these days Castle voiced exactly what she was thinking. “That’s a little young for an executive assistant, isn’t it?”
“She probably had connections to someone in the bank’s power structure,” Beckett said, using Castle’s statement to carry her own reasoning to the next step. She glanced at Lanie, who was crouched over the dead woman’s body. “We have time of death yet?”
The medical examiner pushed to her feet, taking a clipboard from one of the techs currently swarming the scene. “Shortly after midnight, but I’ll know more once I get her on the table. Cause of death looks like blunt force trauma.” She glanced over to where one of the techs was bagging a solid looking statue of a winged figure. Kate blinked, her gaze lingering unexpectedly long on the man. He wasn’t somebody she recognized – which wasn’t disturbing in and of itself – but his emotional state was off somehow.
“Kate?” She flinched, registering Castle’s light touch on her arm. “What’s wrong?”
Beckett stared at the tech for another long moment, before tearing her gaze away. He probably just didn’t feel like coming to work at two in the morning, she thought, turning back to her people with a dismissive wave. “Nothing. Just trying to guess how strong our suspect would have to be to swing the statue hard enough to kill somebody.”
“It wouldn’t have to be hard,” Esposito offered. “Something like that, if you get a wide enough arc momentum ends up doing the work for you.”
Beckett looked at Ryan, who had already done his preliminary questioning of the security guards who had been on duty that night while the murder was taking place. “The suspect was breaking into the bank you said?”
Kevin nodded. “They found her rig. She came in through the boiler room, and seemed to be heading for the main vault.”
“So she’s breaking in to try and rob the bank.” Her thoughts were on a roll, taking the disparate pieces and shifting them into some sort of order. “Grace is working late, surprises her…”
“Did the guards know Grace was working late?” Castle interjected, looking to Ryan for the answer. The slender detective nodded.
“She was here with the branch manager Jackson Kingsley until eleven. The guards say Kingsley left then and told them Grace would be in the building for probably another hour.”
“Depending on when Lanie ends up fixing time of death, that could give us another suspect,” Castle said, looking expectantly at Beckett.
Kate sighed. As usual, she couldn’t say he was wrong.
*******************
Attorney wasn’t her favorite role, but this was a situation that required a calm and level approach, and Sophie knew that right now the only person less capable of calm and level than Eliot was likely Hardison.
”They found her comm,” Nate said, as she stepped onto the elevator at the Twelfth Precinct. The officer at the desk had directed her to the third floor, and a “Captain Gates”.
Sophie felt her stomach clench at the words. Nate could keep Parker in hand, but only as long as he was able to talk to her. “Are we sure she’s going to be there when I get upstairs?”
He was silent long enough for her to silently curse him. ”She knows what’s at stake. The detectives are finishing up here. Eliot says that they’ve twigged to the possibility of Kingsley as a suspect, so if you get the chance help them continue in that direction.”
Sophie smiled at the thought of being able to send the corrupt banker to prison by totally legitimate means. There was no doubt in her mind that he’d killed Grace and staged the scene so that Parker, or whichever one of them ended up breaking into the bank to get his files, would be caught with the body. Any and all punishments they could rain on his head at this point were fair game in her book.
Captain Gates was a hard-edged, no-nonsense type, who nevertheless reacted well when Sophie gave her efficiency for efficiency. Can’t flatter somebody like that, she thought, as Gates directed her to the “interview” room where they’d placed Parker. Luckily she didn’t have to.
“Can we get those cuffs off?” she asked, looking over her shoulder at the Captain. Parker’s wrists were chained to the table in the middle of the room. “I give you my word my client isn’t going anywhere.
Gates looked for a moment like she was going to refuse – and if she’d had a chance, Sophie would have alerted Parker that her attempt at looking pathetic and helpless was not helping her case any. Finally though, she beckoned a uniformed officer into the room who released Parker’s cuffs. “My people are on their way back from the scene,” she said as she and the officer were leaving the room. “They’re going to have a lot of questions for your client.”
I’ve got no doubt about that, Sophie thought, saying something non-committal in response.
“Nate has a plan to get me out of here, right?” Parker asked in a harsh whisper, as soon as the door was securely closed. “Sophie..!”
Blowing out a quiet breath, Sophie turned to face the thief. “You can speak in normal tones, Parker,” she said. “The room is sound proofed and they can’t legally listen in on what we’re saying.”
The thief’s eyes widened. “You didn’t answer my question.”
**********************
Castle already had the facts of the case well chewed over by the time they returned to the precinct, and the longer he worked it over in his mind, the more he liked the idea that the branch manager was somehow involved.
“What is it with you and fragile looking women of questionable character?” Beckett asked as they parked and headed inside. She was smiling however, so he took her expression as an invitation to reply.
“That girl only looks fragile,” he pointed out. “You saw the climb she would have had to make just to get into position, and that grappling rig requires a decent amount of strength to use properly.” He’d only really gotten a good look at the intruder on the mostly corrupted security footage that had been turned over to them, but what he saw was less “fragile creature” and more someone who had done this kind of infiltration work before and was very, very good at it.
“That still doesn’t tell me why you like Jackson Kingsley for this.” Which was frustrating, because he didn’t have anything beyond a gut reaction to the scene and Kate knew it.
He shrugged finally. “I just think it’s strange that the two of them were there that late in the first place. Not to mention, the blonde was surprised to find the body there.”
“Or she knew she was being filmed and staged the scene in advance during the time where the footage was corrupted.”
That was a point he had to concede. This was the stage in the investigation where they had too many holes in the plot to really make sense of anything, and developing filler to connect the action scenes together had always been his least favorite part of the writing process.
“I don’t like how fast she lawyered up,” Kate muttered as they ducked into look through the two way mirror into the interrogation room. “That’s definitely going to complicate matters.”
The girl’s attorney was in the middle of saying something, and at just that moment turned so they could see her face.
Castle stopped breathing for a moment, as recognition hit him like a freight train. “Not possible,” he muttered, reaching up to touch the glass that separated them.
“What’s wrong?” Kate asked, all trace of banter suddenly gone from her voice.
Still stunned, Castle turned to look at her. “We’ve got a bigger problem.” He gestured at the two way mirror. “That woman is not an attorney.”
*****************
Sophie was starting to feel better about things. Eliot had managed to smuggle the murder weapon away from the crime scene, and he and Hardison were looking for anything that could prove Parker hadn’t used it to kill their client. Nate was already arranging another attempt to get at Kingsley’s files, and between them they’d manage to convince Parker to stay put, stay quiet and let the system play out the way it was supposed to.
“Remember,” she warned as they heard the door open. Sophie moved automatically across the room, taking up a protective stance behind Parker as a woman only slightly younger than her entered the room with a stack of files in hand.
“I’m Detective Kate Beckett,” she announced setting the files down and indicating Sophie should take a seat at the table. Sophie waited a beat instead, trying to see if there was anything more lurking behind the invitation.
“Sandra Deering,” she said. “I’m Ms. Teasdale’s attorney.” Nerves abruptly tightened her stomach as she realized her introduction had prompted a smile from the detective.
“Are you?” Detective Beckett asked. “You see, Ms. Deering, that’s very interesting that you make that claim.”
A man’s voice came in through the open doorway at that point, smoothly picking up the conversational thread. “…considering you’re not an attorney, and your name is not Sandra Deering.” The speaker appeared in the door a moment later, and Sophie felt the bottom drop out of her world. “Hello, Katherine.”
Richard Castle. They’d dated extensively during the year she was trying to establish herself as a Broadway actress, before moving on to Chicago. He knew her as Katherine Clives, knew her well enough, and had caught her so completely off guard that there was no way to believably sell him on the current lie. Not in the time she had.
“Nate,” she muttered, trying to breathe calmly through the suddenly choking panic, “I’m blown.”
'Verse: Leverage/Castle
Characters: Leverage Team, Castle Team
Rating: PG
Word Count: 2008
Warnings: None
Summary: While working a job in New York City, the Leverage team finds nothing working out the way they expected.
Author's Notes: I recently put up an offer for a fic a day for the first twenty days of December. This is prompt #4, provided by
ella_bee, who wanted a Leverage/Castle crossover. And once again, I'm looking at a prompt with a five or ten thousand word potential plot and no time to give it that level of attention, so I apologize in advance for the ending. *g*“Heather Teasdale, Parker. Your name is Heather Teasdale, and you want your lawyer. That’s all you need to tell them.” Hardison was as focused as they’d ever seen him, fingers flying across his keyboard as he tried to stay ahead of what was happening and anticipate what they were going to need in order to get through it.
Nate flinched, realizing that he was gripping the back of the hacker’s chair so tightly his wrist was starting to spasm. Of all the nightmares he had over leading his team into situations like this, probably a third of them involved scenarios exactly like the one unfolding over the comms. (Half of them were Eliot related, and probably only an eighth involved bad things happening to Hardison and/or Sophie.)
“That arrogant little toe rag set us up!” Sophie was furious. Nate’s gut reaction said she was right, but he had too many other things demanding his attention – keeping Parker out of jail and keeping Eliot from doing something irretrievably stupid being one and two on his ever growing list. Their client was dead, probably at the hands of their mark, who had timed things so well Parker had discovered the body two steps ahead of the police showing up on the scene.
“They’re taking her to the Twelfth Precinct,” Hardison announced. Both Sophie and Eliot automatically started getting to their feet. Nate raised his hand, freezing both his grifter and his hitter in their tracks.
“One attorney, one crime scene tech. We’re not doing a straight-up jailbreak unless we have to, which means we need to know what the police know.” Parker’s comm was still active; Nate prayed it hadn’t been discovered yet, and the thief was listening to his instructions as well. “Call it,” he said, focusing his attention back on Eliot and Sophie. “I don’t care which of you takes what.”
In the end Sophie caught a cab to the Twelfth Precinct, and Eliot left the van to try and infiltrate the squad of analysts that were even now descending on the crime scene.
*******************
“Grace McAllister,” Esposito told them. “Twenty-six years old, executive assistant to the branch manager.”
Beckett’s brow creased in confusion, but as with most things these days Castle voiced exactly what she was thinking. “That’s a little young for an executive assistant, isn’t it?”
“She probably had connections to someone in the bank’s power structure,” Beckett said, using Castle’s statement to carry her own reasoning to the next step. She glanced at Lanie, who was crouched over the dead woman’s body. “We have time of death yet?”
The medical examiner pushed to her feet, taking a clipboard from one of the techs currently swarming the scene. “Shortly after midnight, but I’ll know more once I get her on the table. Cause of death looks like blunt force trauma.” She glanced over to where one of the techs was bagging a solid looking statue of a winged figure. Kate blinked, her gaze lingering unexpectedly long on the man. He wasn’t somebody she recognized – which wasn’t disturbing in and of itself – but his emotional state was off somehow.
“Kate?” She flinched, registering Castle’s light touch on her arm. “What’s wrong?”
Beckett stared at the tech for another long moment, before tearing her gaze away. He probably just didn’t feel like coming to work at two in the morning, she thought, turning back to her people with a dismissive wave. “Nothing. Just trying to guess how strong our suspect would have to be to swing the statue hard enough to kill somebody.”
“It wouldn’t have to be hard,” Esposito offered. “Something like that, if you get a wide enough arc momentum ends up doing the work for you.”
Beckett looked at Ryan, who had already done his preliminary questioning of the security guards who had been on duty that night while the murder was taking place. “The suspect was breaking into the bank you said?”
Kevin nodded. “They found her rig. She came in through the boiler room, and seemed to be heading for the main vault.”
“So she’s breaking in to try and rob the bank.” Her thoughts were on a roll, taking the disparate pieces and shifting them into some sort of order. “Grace is working late, surprises her…”
“Did the guards know Grace was working late?” Castle interjected, looking to Ryan for the answer. The slender detective nodded.
“She was here with the branch manager Jackson Kingsley until eleven. The guards say Kingsley left then and told them Grace would be in the building for probably another hour.”
“Depending on when Lanie ends up fixing time of death, that could give us another suspect,” Castle said, looking expectantly at Beckett.
Kate sighed. As usual, she couldn’t say he was wrong.
*******************
Attorney wasn’t her favorite role, but this was a situation that required a calm and level approach, and Sophie knew that right now the only person less capable of calm and level than Eliot was likely Hardison.
”They found her comm,” Nate said, as she stepped onto the elevator at the Twelfth Precinct. The officer at the desk had directed her to the third floor, and a “Captain Gates”.
Sophie felt her stomach clench at the words. Nate could keep Parker in hand, but only as long as he was able to talk to her. “Are we sure she’s going to be there when I get upstairs?”
He was silent long enough for her to silently curse him. ”She knows what’s at stake. The detectives are finishing up here. Eliot says that they’ve twigged to the possibility of Kingsley as a suspect, so if you get the chance help them continue in that direction.”
Sophie smiled at the thought of being able to send the corrupt banker to prison by totally legitimate means. There was no doubt in her mind that he’d killed Grace and staged the scene so that Parker, or whichever one of them ended up breaking into the bank to get his files, would be caught with the body. Any and all punishments they could rain on his head at this point were fair game in her book.
Captain Gates was a hard-edged, no-nonsense type, who nevertheless reacted well when Sophie gave her efficiency for efficiency. Can’t flatter somebody like that, she thought, as Gates directed her to the “interview” room where they’d placed Parker. Luckily she didn’t have to.
“Can we get those cuffs off?” she asked, looking over her shoulder at the Captain. Parker’s wrists were chained to the table in the middle of the room. “I give you my word my client isn’t going anywhere.
Gates looked for a moment like she was going to refuse – and if she’d had a chance, Sophie would have alerted Parker that her attempt at looking pathetic and helpless was not helping her case any. Finally though, she beckoned a uniformed officer into the room who released Parker’s cuffs. “My people are on their way back from the scene,” she said as she and the officer were leaving the room. “They’re going to have a lot of questions for your client.”
I’ve got no doubt about that, Sophie thought, saying something non-committal in response.
“Nate has a plan to get me out of here, right?” Parker asked in a harsh whisper, as soon as the door was securely closed. “Sophie..!”
Blowing out a quiet breath, Sophie turned to face the thief. “You can speak in normal tones, Parker,” she said. “The room is sound proofed and they can’t legally listen in on what we’re saying.”
The thief’s eyes widened. “You didn’t answer my question.”
**********************
Castle already had the facts of the case well chewed over by the time they returned to the precinct, and the longer he worked it over in his mind, the more he liked the idea that the branch manager was somehow involved.
“What is it with you and fragile looking women of questionable character?” Beckett asked as they parked and headed inside. She was smiling however, so he took her expression as an invitation to reply.
“That girl only looks fragile,” he pointed out. “You saw the climb she would have had to make just to get into position, and that grappling rig requires a decent amount of strength to use properly.” He’d only really gotten a good look at the intruder on the mostly corrupted security footage that had been turned over to them, but what he saw was less “fragile creature” and more someone who had done this kind of infiltration work before and was very, very good at it.
“That still doesn’t tell me why you like Jackson Kingsley for this.” Which was frustrating, because he didn’t have anything beyond a gut reaction to the scene and Kate knew it.
He shrugged finally. “I just think it’s strange that the two of them were there that late in the first place. Not to mention, the blonde was surprised to find the body there.”
“Or she knew she was being filmed and staged the scene in advance during the time where the footage was corrupted.”
That was a point he had to concede. This was the stage in the investigation where they had too many holes in the plot to really make sense of anything, and developing filler to connect the action scenes together had always been his least favorite part of the writing process.
“I don’t like how fast she lawyered up,” Kate muttered as they ducked into look through the two way mirror into the interrogation room. “That’s definitely going to complicate matters.”
The girl’s attorney was in the middle of saying something, and at just that moment turned so they could see her face.
Castle stopped breathing for a moment, as recognition hit him like a freight train. “Not possible,” he muttered, reaching up to touch the glass that separated them.
“What’s wrong?” Kate asked, all trace of banter suddenly gone from her voice.
Still stunned, Castle turned to look at her. “We’ve got a bigger problem.” He gestured at the two way mirror. “That woman is not an attorney.”
*****************
Sophie was starting to feel better about things. Eliot had managed to smuggle the murder weapon away from the crime scene, and he and Hardison were looking for anything that could prove Parker hadn’t used it to kill their client. Nate was already arranging another attempt to get at Kingsley’s files, and between them they’d manage to convince Parker to stay put, stay quiet and let the system play out the way it was supposed to.
“Remember,” she warned as they heard the door open. Sophie moved automatically across the room, taking up a protective stance behind Parker as a woman only slightly younger than her entered the room with a stack of files in hand.
“I’m Detective Kate Beckett,” she announced setting the files down and indicating Sophie should take a seat at the table. Sophie waited a beat instead, trying to see if there was anything more lurking behind the invitation.
“Sandra Deering,” she said. “I’m Ms. Teasdale’s attorney.” Nerves abruptly tightened her stomach as she realized her introduction had prompted a smile from the detective.
“Are you?” Detective Beckett asked. “You see, Ms. Deering, that’s very interesting that you make that claim.”
A man’s voice came in through the open doorway at that point, smoothly picking up the conversational thread. “…considering you’re not an attorney, and your name is not Sandra Deering.” The speaker appeared in the door a moment later, and Sophie felt the bottom drop out of her world. “Hello, Katherine.”
Richard Castle. They’d dated extensively during the year she was trying to establish herself as a Broadway actress, before moving on to Chicago. He knew her as Katherine Clives, knew her well enough, and had caught her so completely off guard that there was no way to believably sell him on the current lie. Not in the time she had.
“Nate,” she muttered, trying to breathe calmly through the suddenly choking panic, “I’m blown.”
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(no subject)
4/12/12 16:30 (UTC)There are so many things that I love here that I can't possibly say them all.
But when I get to a real keyboard later, I probably will. Because seriously, SO AMAZING!
BUT WHAT HAPPENS NEXT?!?
YEP. You are the best person ever. :)
(no subject)
4/12/12 23:47 (UTC)CASTLE! Oh, he thinks that she died! And he knew from before she was with the Leverage team! And Parker is being told that she has to STAY in jail, which is going against EVERYTHING that she knows!
And they took Parker's earbud! And ELIOT is working the crime scene!
But CASTLE! Castle stopped breathing for a moment, as recognition hit him like a freight train. “Not possible,” he muttered, reaching up to touch the glass that separated them.
Oh man, never mind it having a five to ten thousand word plot -- I could read their interactions and back story for double or triple that, EASY.
Seriously, though. I really do love this. Like, a lot. So, thank you! :D
(no subject)
25/12/12 12:56 (UTC)And of *course* Castle and Sophie dated - one of the most eligible bachelors in New York? If she hadn't targeted him at some point I would have been horribly disappointed.