The thing about the NYPD Twelfth Precinct elevator is that it's really the most tempting place to put your hands on someone. It's secluded (as long as there aren't any other cops on it with you), there are bars on the sides to hold onto when things get overwhelming, there's plenty of space, and just the right amount of illicitness to make things exciting.

Also there's Beckett in that elevator every single day of his life, and he really should be given some kind of medal for how many times he's kept his hands to himself in there. Especially now, now that they're together and there is a small chance she'll go with it rather than break his fingers off for trying.

The other thing about elevators though, is that sometimes they break.

Sometimes they break when you're on them, sticking abruptly between floors while the lights flicker off and you're left screeching like a little girl and grabbing onto those oh so convenient little bars to keep yourself from falling flat out on the floor.

That's what's happening right now as Castle's eyes go wide in the semi-darkness, mouth hanging open in a comical O.

"What just happened?" he asks, voice hinging on a gasp.

Beckett's quickly surveying their surroundings in that way she does at crime scenes, cool and collected and looking for anything out of the ordinary. The elevator has stopped and the only light coming in is from the emergency glow from behind the buttons, but otherwise everything looks just about normal. His knuckles go white against the railing though, mind flashing back to that time he almost plunged to his death in this very elevator because of a mummy curse.

Those curse cures don't expire, do they? he wonders to himself as he tightens his sweaty grip on the railing and watches her trail her fingertips down the softly illuminated buttons, feeling for anything out of place.

"Beckett?"

"Relax Castle, I'm sure the power just went out or something." She finishes her sweep, finally bringing her eyes to his face. He can see the sides of her mouth purse to try to keep from laughing. "You alright there?" she asks, taunting him in that way she does. Oh she is never going to let him forget this.

"Fine. I'm great," he croaks out, deliberately letting his grip on the bars go, flexing his fingers as he tries (and fails) to let them rest casually down at his sides. He decides to do his own sweep then, to keep moving, to do something so he doesn't vomit in front of her.

The ceiling looks dark and kind of far away as he tilts his head back, looking for an emergency escape hatch like in the movies. "Should we try to pry the ceiling tiles off and escape before we plunge to our deaths?" he asks, completely seriously as he tries to see if he can get a foothold on the handrails.

"Castle, it's not – "

"Or wait, do you think you could like, do something to the wires behind the buttons to make the doors open? I mean, not if we're in between floors because I've seen how that ends, and I do not want to be cut in half while trying to wiggle out of here, no thank you."

"Castle – "

"Or maybe we should just try and climb up onto the bars and brace ourselves in case we fall? Because then – "

She cuts him off with a hard shove to the shoulder then, making him wince as he connects with the wall. "Ow, what was that for?"

She's rounding on him, looking dangerously irritated. "Can you stop? You're stressing me out. We're not going to die, you just need to relax."

Blue eyes meet warm brown as he squints at her, trying to relay the seriousness of this situation even as she stalks a little bit closer. He puts his hands on top of her shoulders. "Beckett we could starve in here," he whispers earnestly, leveling her with a stare he hopes conveys his true concern.

"Oh my god Castle, we literally just came from lunch."

"But I only had time to finish half of my cheeseburger and what if – " the end of his sentence is muffled by the sudden press of her mouth, hot and insistent as he finds his shoulders pressed against the wall, the hand rail digging into the small of his back. Well ow, maybe that's not so –

She growls into his mouth, like she knows his mind is still working a hundred miles a minute, slides her tongue along the ridge on the top in that way she knows makes him crazy. He gasps loudly at the feel of it, hands instinctively tightening around her shoulders, pulling her closer as she releases him to suck a hot path along his jaw.

"What. Is. Happening," he breathes, lets one of his hands shove into the back of her hair. He's trapped in an elevator and Kate Beckett is trying to devour him and god he doesn't know what he's supposed to even do.

"I'm distracting you," she says directly into his ear, tugs on his earlobe sharply and then sucks it into her mouth. He groans darkly at the feel of it.

"I thought you said we couldn't."

"What?" she slides her mouth along his jaw again, comes back to his mouth, kisses him while she watches his eyes widen.

"You said no sex in the elevator."

She pulls back a little bit and he watches the gears ticking in her head. "Are we having sex in the elevator right now?"

He gulps. "Well, no."

She gets predatory then, pushing into him with her chest as he flattens against the wall, sure she can feel his heart beating hard through the barriers of their shirts.

"Do you want to have sex in the elevator, Castle?" The tone of her voice gets all low and seductive as she switches gears on him, and suddenly he can think of nothing else.

"I – "

"If you have to think about it, maybe we shouldn't," she whispers, starts to rock back onto her heels but he stops her with a hot palm spread out behind her back. His fingers practically span her entire waist, and he's suddenly very grateful it was warm enough outside that neither of them is wearing jackets. She's smirking dangerously when he finally looks back up to her face.

The kiss he presses on her then is fast and claiming, tearing a surprised gasp from her chest as she pushes back into him again, his back connecting with the hand rail for the second or third time. He holds her off for a second, twisting his lower body away from the wall and into her, which feels amazing but he needs to flip them around needs –

"What are you doing?" she pants into his mouth, trying to push him back to a solid surface.

"That railing really hurts my back."

Her eyes are practically rolling out of her head as he rubs a hand along the tender ridge of his spine. "Seriously?"

"I'm just, it hurts." He uses his grip on her to flip their positions, backs her up like he's going to press her to the spot that he was just occupying but she stops him with a hand on his chest.

"So it's okay if my back – " she starts to say, but then he's palming her thighs and scooping her up so she clears the railing and thumps solidly against the elevator wall. He swallows the oh that comes spilling out of her, uses his leverage to twist his hips between her legs to shut her up and then neither of them can remember who was supposed to be distracting who because his zipper is coming down and her pants button is being roughly undone and the only noises in the small space are the pants and gasps and groans that come out of the both of them all at once because oh they're kind of having sex in the elevator.

She's so hot and perfect around him when the lights decide to flicker on for just a second and then back off again. The surprise makes them both startle, and he bites her lip a little bit as they both pull back and just freeze, staring at each other. Her tongue flicks out to worry the spot he's left, a red mark that probably won't fade before they get out of here, and he really can't stop staring at it.

"Is it fixing?" he asks, groans when he feels her squeeze herself around him in an effort to keep upright against the wall now that they're not moving.

"I don't know, I don't know." She's sweaty and panting and then pushing her hips into his. "Don't stop Castle, just keep your eyes open in case the lights come back on."

He's too far gone to argue with her logic, to truly realize how completely fucked they would be if the elevator started working again and the doors opened on them, so he just catches her hot gaze and starts moving again. Her eyes roll back for another reason altogether as her shoulders start connecting solidly with the wall behind her again, a steady thump thump as he drives her higher and higher.

Their foreheads press together lightly as they both fight to keep their eyes open, watching as they both come more and more undone at the other's hand. "What if the elevator falls while we're doing this?" Castle suddenly breathes into her mouth, watches as her eyes go wide and her hips arch at the tone of his voice. She loves it when he talks to her like this, when they're doing this, and he knows it.

"You'd like that – " she pauses, pants, "Richard Castle: found amongst a pile of rubble, having sex with his muse, even in death."

He laughs into the hollow of her throat, pressing his tongue to the perspiration gathering there. "What a way to go."

The rumble of her laugh seeps through his lips as he swallows it, kisses back up to her mouth again. He strokes at her tongue the way he's stroking at her between her legs, sloppy and hot and dirty.

"Open your eyes," she whispers to him, gasps as he does, hips losing all sense of rhythm as she tightens around him. "Castle, I'm – "

He watches her as she loses hold of herself, as her body presses into his, taut muscles freezing and then contracting, the hard shudder ripping through her and then through him as he tries to hold on, hold her gaze as she breaks over him, but then he's gone too, sucking the breath from her lips as he spills into her, rocking back and forth until the both of them are spent and collapsing.

The heels of her boots connect softly with the floor as he detangles them, lets her drop because he can't keep holding her up. She's half sitting on the railing, half draped over his chest as he tries to re-button the top of her pants without looking and then –

And then the lights come back on.

"Shit Castle," she swears, shoving at him, re-zipping her pants as he does the same, watching her as she shakes a hand through her hair to try and shake him out of it as the elevator jolts and starts moving upward. Bile rises in his throat as he feels the floor move under his feet, thinks for a second that this is it, they're going to die, but then the little bell dings and the doors open up to the homicide floor and about every single officer is standing there, staring right at them.

He chances a glance at Beckett, who does look surprisingly well put together except for the angry red bite mark underneath her bottom lip. He is going to die, it's just going to be by her hand, he thinks.

He see's Ryan and Esposito push their way through the small crowd, faces looking relieved but then amused. Oh no.

"You guys okay?" Esposito asks, eyeing them both with a gaze that is entirely too knowing.

Ryan looks like he's holding in the greatest zinger he's ever thought of. "What happened to your lip, Beckett?" he says, barely holding back a smug grin as Esposito nudges him. Ryan was never one for subtlety.

Castle feels Beckett shrug beside him. "Bit it," she says nonchalantly, like this kind of thing happens to her every day.

"Yes, but did you bite it, or did he bite it."

Castle watches her stalk up to them, watches the other detectives and officers walk off slowly, trying to keep one ear to their conversation even though they're both safely off the stuck elevator now and on their way to Beckett's desk.

"I can't remember," she breathes, turns her eyes into daggers as Esposito swears an oh gross under his breath, grabbing for Ryan's arm.

She's smirking after them as he bumps her from behind, trying as hard as he can not to fling himself to the floor and kiss it. Her head shakes lightly as she finally plops down into her chair, and then she's looking up at him, tongue worrying the mark he's left on her. She shrugs. "They shouldn't ask questions they don't want the answers to." Her eyes are sparkling mischievously as he sinks gingerly into his own chair, elbows resting interestedly on her desk.

"So does this mean we're allowed to have sex in the elevator now?"

"Once not enough for you, Castle?"

"Next time let's do it without the threat of imminent death."

She laughs at him.

(But doesn't say no.)