PRESENT – DANNING CANNING – PACKING CRATE – DARKNESS

A lot of people are afraid of the dark, but actually being in the dark, as Castle and Beckett were now, can be quite a blessing. While it is true that you can truly never be sure exactly what lurks out in the dark, when you're stuck in a packing crate scarcely bigger than a coffin, you can pretty well be sure that the only thing lurking out there is the person piled on top of you, or under you, as the case may be. As an added bonus, in the darkness, no one can see what you are up to. In this instance, what Castle was up to was pouting like a four year old, and what Beckett was doing was laughing.

"It's not funny." Castle pouted, rubbing his shoulder.

"I'm not laughing." Beckett lied, using all of her available might to clamp her mouth shut.

"You are too!"

"Am not!"

"I can feel your chest moving!"

"Well, maybe you shouldn't be feeling my chest in the first place."

"Well, that's pretty unavoidable now that you've dislocated my shoulder."

"Did not!"

"Did too!"

"Let me see it..." Beckett groped around for his shoulder.

"No! You'll hurt me again, you scary, freakishly strong woman."

"I won't hurt you again. You made a horrible battering ram anyway. Too soft and squishy."

"I am NOT soft and squishy! I will have you know that – ahh...uhhhh...oooh...how did you – ohhhh..." Castle trailed off into a litany of various cooing and purring noises as Beckett rubbed his sore shoulder muscle.

"Good?"

"So...good...don't...ever...stop...seriously..."

"You know, this would all be so much easier if we could actually see the inside of this crate, but I think I must have dropped my flashlight when I was hit over the head." Beckett thought out loud as she continued to massage Castle's shoulder.

"Ooh! Flashlight! I have a flashlight – a little LED one on the keychain in my back pocket."

"You have a flashlight? You've had a flashlight all this time, and you've waited until now to reveal that very important piece of information to me?" Beckett was making her very best exasperated face right now, but it was useless in the dark where Castle couldn't see it.

"Well, you know, some of us were busy being concussed and used as human battering rams..."

"Alright, alright...I'm sorry I used you as a human battering ram. Aren't you tired being trapped like this?" Beckett sighed.

"So wait...are you asking me if I'm tired of laying on top of you in the dark while you massage my shoulders?" Castle quipped. "Because..."

"Just get me the flashlight Castle."

"Right." Castle squirmed and wiggled one way, trying to slide one of his arms underneath him so that he could access his back pocket. He grunted and shifted his weight forward, twisting and turning this way and that. His face hovered right above Beckett's, and she could feel the warm air from his panting and straining on her cheek. Although Castle had already drooled on her shoulder, she wasn't hit with what an intimate situation they were in until she felt his breath on her cheek. She swallowed hard. Castle shifted again, and his cheek pressed into hers. She could hear the scraping of his elbow against the side of the crate. Suddenly, he stopped.

"Cathew?" Beckett asked (it is very hard to say the name Castle with someone's cheek pressed tightly against yours.)

"Uhoh." Castle panicked and wriggled again. Beckett turned her head away so that she could speak more clearly.

"You're stuck aren't you Castle?"

"Maybe."

"Great."

"Actually, I think it might be easier now for you to reach around and grab the keychain out of my pocket," Castle suggested. "Try it." Kate groped blindly around Castle's backside. "Lower," Castle called out helpfully, "...lower..."

"I can't feel anything." Beckett said, puzzled.

"Are you sure?" Castle asked. Beckett squeezed.

"No keychain."

"Try the other pocket." Beckett groaned, but reached around and found the keychain. After five minutes of twisting and grappling Kate had the keychain, Castle's elbow came loose, and the pair were back where they started.

"Well, that could not have possibly been more awkward." Kate said, remembering the strange pretzel-like position she had been in moments before. Kate had been using that expression a lot lately, and it seemed like every time she said it, something immediately happened to prove her wrong. This was no exception to that rule, because immediately after said this, she turned on the flashlight, and while it is awkward to have someone lying on top of you while trapped in a packing crate in the complete darkness, it's much, much more awkward when you can see them three inches from your face.

"Wrong again, Kate. Wrong again."