The Oxford Dilemma

Rick sat in his over-stuffed armchair. It was almost midnight and Alexis was fast asleep in her bed. He surveyed his office in silent contemplation. He had worked hard all his life, doing what he loved and being loved for it. That was the life he had grown accustomed to. One where he was appreciated for what he could give, not condemned for what he couldn't. That was the life he missed.

Since his return from the Hamptons nothing had gone the way he planned. Beckett was no longer with Demming, but had found someone new, someone he could never compare to. Her new boyfriend was mature, got along well with all her friends, wasn't a cop, was fun, traveled a lot, though he hated to admit it, he was a nice guy and was far cooler than most people they encountered. He rode a motorcycle for crying out loud. But most of all, Beckett seemed even happier with him than he had ever seen her. Rick had prepared himself for her being in a relationship before he had returned, he hadn't come back willingly, that's for certain, but he prepared himself none the less, so that wasn't the issue, not the big one at least.

There were a few things corroding his happiness and resolve. While things had improved a bit since his initial reappearance at the station no one seemed to want him around anymore, they tried to hide it out of polite deference to their previous friendships, but he could see the tension increase every time he walked into a room. He wasn't blind after all.

Just as he and Gina really found their rhythm that had been snatched away from him. Now whenever he looked at the Captains office he was reminded of the moment his main comfort had become perhaps his most prominent regret. Gina had been killed. Not just killed... murdered. With all the time he had spent with the Homicide devision he hadn't been able to do anything to protect his own family. The officers and Detectives of the twelfth seemed to be constantly trying to console him. It had been a month an what he needed most was a taste of normality. Every sympathetic glance, every comforting touch made him want to scream, throw things, yell, fight and run away all at the same time. When he approached a crime scene he would always think back to the cold of the morgue as Lanie lifted the sheet from Gina's face so that he could say good bye. All he had been able to do was drop his head into his hands, holding her lifeless hand to his cheek and weep.

Alexis didn't spend much time with him anymore, opting instead to hang out with her friends and this guy she had been seeing since Princeton. Rick didn't like the kid, he knew it was because he represented his losing his little girl, but he couldn't talk himself into giving the boy a fair chance. Whenever they were together she was either talking about the perfection that was Oxford University or reminding him that he never acted the part of the parent and he was more immature than half her friends. At one point she had even gone so far as to say that had he acted like an adult instead of the over grown man-child he was he would have been at the meeting meeting with Gina rather than off playing cops and robbers with the NYPD and maybe Gina would still have been alive. He knew that odds were he would only have turned into another victim along with her, but it still struck a chord with him... He was lonely. No one spent time with him just because they wanted to anymore, except his fellow writers and poker buddies. The only people who sought him out were either motivated by work or the need to mother him in his 'time of need'. He scoffed to himself at that thought.

He briefly considered not going to the precinct that day, they didn't really need his help anyway, it was what they were trained to do and he didn't really need the research so it wasn't as if anything bad would come of not showing up. Then he remembered his conversation with the guys shortly after he returned. They had made him promise to never walk out on them again because of Beckett's boyfriend, and if he did he had to at least talk to them about it first and then keep in touch. Well he wasn't thinking of leaving because of her boyfriend, just not showing up so often because he couldn't take the looks and the baby handling. He wondered if they'd count that as an acceptable reason, or if they even remembered that conversation at all. It wasn't like they even hung around him anymore.

He backed up what he had written of 'Deadly Heat' on a disk as he did after every whole chapter he completed. He was making good progress considering how distracted he was. He pressed forward through the night, not willing to lose the flare of inspiration that had hit him late that afternoon. Rook had been consulting but spent more time with Roach than with Nikki. The case they were working lead them to an old subway station where they found Rook's girlfriend's body. Rook would help find the killer, who would be killed in the firefight that had erupted in his struggle to escape. Rick was enjoying writing the final appearance of the murderer. It gave him a hint of the closure that he doubted he would every find for Gina. Her killer was still walking free somewhere. The killings had stopped long enough for them to assume that he had left to city and his case had been handed over to the FBI, he was known as 3xK because he always killed in threes..

The incessant ringing of his phone woke Rick from a sleep he had drifted into without intending to. He almost fell out of his chair as he was startled awake. The caller ID came up as unknown but he answered it anyway, not many people had his home number. "Hello."

"Mr. Castle?" An unfamiliar female voice inquired.

"Speaking."

"Mr. Castle, my name is Patricia Mosse. I'm the Headmistress at Oxford University."

"Oh, hello, Dr. Mosse. I've heard a lot about your University over the past year." Alexis spent almost every moment she had with him trying to convince him that Oxford was the best place in the world with all the best programs. "What can I do for you?"

"It has come to my attention that we might be able to help each other, Mr. Castle." He was silent a moment as he considered what she could possibly mean by that. "I would prefer to discuss this face to face. Something along the lines of lunch at Le Cirque, today at twelve-thirty."

He winced, it was going to cost him big to pull that off as it was usually booked solid. "I'll see what I can do."

"That won't be necessary, Mr. Castle. I have a reservation already. I haven't come to the city on a whim, I've been planning this trip for a long time and I find that things run smoother if one has a solid schedule and follows it through."

"Very true, Dr. Mosse." He released a grateful breath of air at the relief. He preferred to save the pulling of those kinds of strings for things he knew would prove beneficial to him.

"I'll meet you there then." It was a statement, he suddenly didn't like the confidence this woman had in her level of control over him, but he was too curious to see what gave her said confidence to say decline the meeting out of spite.

His cell rang in the other room. "I'll see you there. Now, I'm sorry, Dr. Mosse, but I have to go."

"That's quite alright, so do I. Thank you for your time, Mr. Castle." With that they each hung up the phone and Rick went to find his cell. When he did find it he saw that the caller was Esposito. It wasn't strange for Espo to be the one calling him to cases of late. He wasn't sure why that had become the norm but accepted it as further evidence of the sift in his relationship with the team.

"Detective, to what do I owe the pleasure."

"Hey, Castle. You know it's Esposito, right?"

Rick laughed at the other man's confusion."Yeah, I know it's you."

"Oh, good... We've got a case. You want in?" He sounded like he expected the answer to be yes and was asking more from habit than anything else.

He took a quick look at the clock before almost jumping at the time. "Wow! Sorry, Espo, I've got to go. I'm going to be so late! I might be in later this afternoon, you can fill me in then." He heard Esposito start to answer him but he'd already pressed the end call button. 'Ah well, if it's important he'll tell me later.' Rick thought to himself. Another look at the clock had him running up the stairs to his bathroom for a quick shower and a shave. 'Damn woman didn't even give me two hours notice!' He cursed as he went about morning routine. He had slept really late as a result of his all night writing session and didn't want to look it when he showed up at Le Cirque.

"He just hung up on me?" Esposito half asked, half told Ryan. "He's never hung up on me before. Not even when we..." He stopped mid-sentence as Ryan signaled for him to stop. He turned to see Beckett standing behind him, one eyebrow raised in question. He smiled and tried to cover his almost slip. "He's not coming... Let's go Ryan."

"Not so fast." Beckett crossed her arms over her chest. He wasn't fooled by the misleading smile on her face. "I'm curious. Not even when you what?"

"Um..." He looked at Ryan who shrugged his shoulders as if saying, 'you're the idiot who got himself into this mess, dig yourself out.' "We may have had a not so friendly chat with him when he got back from the Hamptons."

"And by we he means he." Ryan threw in, providing less help than he may have imagined at the time.

"Both of you are going to tell me exactly what you did and said that may or may not have been 'not so friendly'. And you're going to do so before anyone goes anywhere." Her foot started tapping the floor. There was one particular topic she wanted Castle to know nothing about and it was beginning to look like they had hinted at it.

She could see on Esposito's face that he had an idea. As soon as that spark flared in his eyes he spoke. "It was nothing, we just wanted to know why he didn't call us or anything while he was away or when he got back and we wanted to make sure it didn't happen again."

"What, you afraid your man-crush couldn't survive another summer apart?" They laughed, the boys because they thought they had gotten away clean, Kate because she knew she could always get it out of Castle and it wasn't too likely that they mentioned how his absence had affected her. Castle would have said something if they had. She was curious though, she had been behind Esposito long enough and close enough to hear the last part of Castle's side of the conversation. She really needed to talk to Esposito about the volume he had his phone set to, he was going to send himself deaf. "Did he give a reason?" The guys looked confused and she rolled her eyes. "A reason to not come along. He usually jumps at the idea of a dead body." Determination seemed to over ride his enthusiasm when around the scenes since his ex-wife's murder, but she was pretty sure that his initial giddiness was still there when the calls came in, his arrival time hadn't slowed.

Esposito and Ryan shared a look that Kate wasn't sure she wanted to translate. "Nah, he just said he was going to be late for something... Didn't say what though."

Kate nodded a sad little nod, she had been hoping to get the chance to talk to Castle about how he was coping with everything. They hadn't had much time alone since he got back from the Hamptons. He even rode to scenes with them, opting to sit in the back seat of their cruiser than in the passenger seat of hers. She thought that he might have been avoiding her. That was the main reason she let Esposito be the one to call him in most of the time, when she did it she almost always got his voice mail or he'd have some excuse to not come. Those thoughts hurt more than it did watching him leave for the summer with Gina in his arms. "Okay, guess we should hit the road then." She tried to sound cheery but didn't quite pull it off.

"He said he might be in later this afternoon though." She remembered hearing that and it would have brightened her spirits if she didn't get the feeling that he would spend the entire time he was there talking with the guys and pretending nothing was wrong between them when by doing that he was just continuing what issues were between them.

Rick followed the waiter to the table. Dr. Mosse was already seated and waiting for him. When he arrived she smiled at him the way a fox might smile at a chicken trapped in the coop. His own smile brightened at the appropriate nature of his analogy. The woman in front of him was, for all intents and purposes, a fox. The locks of her chocolate brown hair were left to float around her shoulders, ending just above her breasts. She dressed fashionably but just conservatively enough that no one would mistake her for a celebutante or a bimbette, as Beckett liked to call them. Her skirt suit was tailored to fit her body shape and accentuate her curves, she was just a little more curvy than Beckett. Her heels were high enough to tell him that she didn't have to do a lot of running in her line of work. Her make up was done in a way that told him that she was aware of how attractive she was and wasn't afraid to use it against the men around her. The glasses she wore were sleek, black frames that in no way took away from her high cheek bones and deep, knowing, green eyes. There was definitely a spark in those eyes that suggested she was a lively one behind the mask of a serious academic. From what he had experience and suspected of her he had no doubt that she would prove to be cunning and sly, much like the fox.

"Mr. Castle, it was good of you to meet with me on such short notice." She offered her hand to him. He was standing beside the table so it wasn't too far to reach for him to shack it. Her grip was firm but not bone crushing, he noted, that told him that she had character and wasn't easily swayed.

"It's Rick, or Richard, please..."

"Won't you take a seat, Mr. Castle?" She indicated for him to do just that as she put a firm emphasis on her chosen form of address. He smiled. 'Not easily swayed at all.'

He did as she asked. The waiter handed him a menu and then left. "I have to say that I was surprised to get your call this morning, and the invitation to dine with you."

"Yes, I imagine you were." She didn't make eye contact as she scanned the menu. One side of her lips lifted as she took a sip from her water glass. He had to suppress a smile of his own. She looked even better with a smile on her face, especially one as obviously saucy as the one she had just tried to hide.

"I see I'll have to come right out and ask, won't I?" She met his eyes and raised an eyebrow in mock curiosity. "Why did you ask me to lunch today?"

"Like I told you on the phone, I think we can help each other and I wanted to talk face to face... You get a better feel for people that way." She said the last part as though it were a dirty secret. He took a sip of his own water to allow his mind to refocus.

"Okay, I'll be more direct. What is it you think we can do for each other, Dr. Mosse?" He could tell she was enjoying this and it made him curious to know how she worked, what made her tick and what her game was.

"Ah, now we get to the point." The waiter chose that moment to ask if they were ready to order and she gave him hers while Rick quickly decided on his own. Once they were done she continued. "I want to offer you a job Mr. Castle."

He had been taking another sip of water and almost spat it out at the shock but gained control of himself in time to avoid that scene. "You what? Why? Doing what?" His mind was racing.

She laughed. It wasn't a bad sound but he was a little distracted. "The Crime Fiction consultant for our main campus came down with a rather tragic case of death last month." He barely stopped himself from snorting in laughter at her word choice. She smiled again. "I thought you might like that phraseology... He went peacefully if that helps alleviate the guilt in the humour, it was his time to go... We were good friends."

"I'm sorry for your loss."

"Don't be, we all had plenty of time to come to terms with it before the end and he lived a good life. I only mentioned it so that you don't feel honor bound to take umbrage at any future humour on his behalf." She smiled weakly. "Back to the point. I want to hire you as his replacement, at least for the next twelve months so that another consultant can be found. It's short notice and the final term starts in two months, I can't expect my students to suddenly adapt to being less advantaged in their examination months than they were in the mid-period. I have allowed them to grow used to having someone available to answer their questions and to suddenly deny that would be negligent of me... You would be there to meet with students and answer their questions on the subject and mentor them where you can. We would gladly provide on campus accommodation for you and your daughter."

"Why me?"

"I did some research on you and I found that you trained as a Crime Fiction tutor while writing your first few bestsellers..." He knew that wasn't all so he just raised an eyebrow and looked at her until she elaborated. "Also I know of something that could work as an incentive for you to make it worth your while, most of our other options wanted to play hard ball due to the short notice and we at Oxford do not pander to the needs of those who view knowledge as something to be kept to themselves and expect to be paid more than they're worth... For you I believe there is another solution."

"What's that, Dr. Mosse?"

"Your daughter, Mr. Castle." He put the glass back on the table without taking another sip and looked at the woman coldly. "I have it on good authority that she has inquired about a position at our fine establishment. She's doing very well at school isn't she? You must be very proud. The board and I have discussed the possibility of offering her a full scholarship should she choose us... I think you'll find that we can be very persuasive when we want something, and don't get me wrong, Mr. Castle, we want you. You are qualified, proven successful in the industry you would be mentoring our students towards and with the publicity of your Nikki Heat novels and the production of the movie rumor is they plan to release next month we stand to gain more interest by association." He considered the offer silently for a moment. He couldn't ask Alexis to move schools, but he had a funny feeling the implied offer of a place for her could just as easily go the other way were he to decline. He couldn't do that to Alexis, it was clear that she had her heart set on Oxford. "Think about it Mr. Castle." She went on to describe the pay he would receive, the programs available for students and generally covered every selling point for prospective students, doing an even better job than Alexis of convincing him that Oxford was the right fit for his daughter.

Their food arrived half way through her sales pitch and they ate while they talked. "I need to think about your offer, Dr. Mosse, and you'll get not solid answer from me until I have spoken to my daughter, because this will affect her a much as it will me, maybe even more."

"I completely understand and that was as much of a commitment as I was hoping to get from this meeting. I can give you until the end of next week, but I have to be on a plane back to England on the Saturday and if you want the job you will need to be with me." He nodded his agreement. "Good, now that we have the business side of things taken care of I can tell you that I am a fan of your work, I have read all of your published works at least twice. Your Nikki Heat series particularly interests me. You say she is based on a real person?" They began talking about his books and characters. He was amazed at how different it was to talk to someone about his books that was familiar with the industry and had similar and varying opinions of the importance of literature as well as his specific genre. It was something he had only experienced with Gina before, and only when things were going well between them.

"You certainly have some interesting opinions on the crime fiction genre, Dr. Mosse, I'll be sure to share them with Michael Connelly, Stephen Cannell and James Patterson when I see them tomorrow night."

"First, we're not talking business so Patricia's fine."

"Does this mean you'll call me Rick now?"

She giggled, he liked making a woman giggle, it showed that she still knew how to make the fun kind of mistakes. "Yes, it does, Rick."

"Second, you are meeting with James Patterson tomorrow night?" He nodded. "He's one of my favorite authors in your genre. What's he like?"

Rick laughed. "Why don't you pop by my place around nine-thirty and you can find out for yourself? We have a weekly poker game you might enjoy. As long as it's not business, no offense but I prefer to be on a first name basis with everyone in my own home."

"Absolutely. I'd love to and it just so happens that I don't have anything on tomorrow after eight." She suddenly looked slightly more like the fan girl he now knew was in there. "I'm sorry about all the Dr. Mosse stuff, it's just that being a woman in the academic world still has it's disadvantages, even if they are less obvious than the used to be... I can't afford to be seen as a woman when I'm working, just as someone with a doctorate, that has to be my only identity around the people I work with."

"Well, since we don't work together, and you are far more academic than me, I'm not a part of that world and I will never be an academic, not of that kind, what do you say we stay first on first names? It's not like I'll need reminding that you're the boss if I do take the job."

"I'll think about it..." She then whispered to herself as if weighing the names up by the feel of them on her tongue. "Mr. Castle...Rick... You know what, I like your idea. Rick it is all the time, the same goes for you calling me Patricia, except when I call you Mr. Castle, that's probably a good hint that we need to be formal."

"Deal." He smiled his signature grin.

This case was definitely a strange one. The victim was dressed in what Kate could only assume was her work uniform, that of a waiter, the shirt was embroidered with the emblem of Le Cirque. The strange part was that the murder weapon appeared to be an ice cream scoop. The scene was in the middle of central park, so it wasn't as if someone dug his temple out with said scoop in self defense or a moment of passion like most of the crimes involving such usually non-lethal kitchen items. "Any luck on the ID yet?" Kate wanted to know who the woman was so that she could notify the family soon and then refocus on the crime itself.

"None, no wallet, no nothing."

"Okay, Boys, it looks like we're going to Le Cirque, right in the middle of their lunch rush." She was not looking forward to the inevitable reluctance of the staff.

The conversation had turned back to books, this time not his and he was pleased to finally be able to discuss other people's work, Gina had previously been the only one interested in his opinion on the subject. He found himself intrigued by her theories on why certain authors worded things in particular ways and what inspired certain books, scenes or characters. They quickly moved on from serious interpretations and began competing to see who could come up with the best, or most outrageous background for the things fictional characters did in the many novels they had both read and the same for common fairy tales. They were laughing joyfully, trying to keep their voices down so as to not disturb the people around them, they had received multiple glares from the waiting staff already. They leaned in to reduce the noise they made.

It was during one especially merry moment that Rick caught sight of three familiar figures entering the restaurant. They approached the matradee at the door and he saw them flash their badges. There was little on his mind just then other than how bad the situation could become if the Detectives found out about the job offer before he had even spoken to Alexis. Rick thought that as long as he didn't draw any more attention to himself he wouldn't have to explain anything, which meant not changing his behavior at all because the sudden dying down of laughter when the police arrived was a sure way to get noticed.

Leaning in again, he had pulled away momentarily. It was his turn to come up with a story so he paused for a moment to think of one that hadn't already been told and began. Rick lost himself in the story, like he always did. He had just told the punch line of the joke behind the story, making Patricia clasp her hand to her mouth in an attempt to minimize the noise, when a voice from a few feet to his right dragged them from their little bubble. "Yo, Castle, you ditched murder for a date?" It was unmistakably Esposito.

"Actually, we're..." Patricia stopped mid-sentence as she saw Rick signaling for her to not tell them.

"We're just having lunch." Rick supplied. "What are you guys doing here? I thought you had a case."

"We're working it, turns out our vic. was a waiter here." Ryan clarified. "Aren't you going to introduce us, Castle?"

"Leave the man alone, can't you see he's busy..." Rick turned to Beckett, unsure of what to expect but glad that she was not pushing it too. "But you know, Castle, it is kind of rude to not introduce your friends." 'It was too good to last'' he mused to himself.

"Of course, Detectives. Patricia this is Detective Kate Beckett NYPD and her partners Detectives Javier Esposito and Kevin Ryan." He indicated each individually as he got to them. "Detectives this is Dr. Patricia Mosse."

The widening of Beckett's eyes didn't go unnoticed by Rick when he identified his lunch partner. "A Doctor, huh? Anything you want to tell us, Castle?" Beckett asked not only humour in her voice. Esposito and Ryan gave Rick looks that suggested he would have explaining to do later, whether he wanted to or not.

Patricia laughed lightly. "I'm not that kind of Doctor, Detective. I'm the Headmistress of Oxford University."

"Yo, what are you doing with the Headmistress of a university, Castle?" Esposito wondered out loud.

"Socializing, what else?" Patricia answered for him. "I'm sorry, Rick but I have a speech to give t a seminar across town in less than an hour and there are some las minute preparations I need to make..."She stood and leaned in, whispering in his ear. "But before I go consider m offer, not only are our programs the best for your daughter but I think you'd find we appreciate greatness more than say the NYPD, and someone like you could have a very exciting career..." She kissed his cheek and began to walk away. "Oh, and prepare to lose big tomorrow night."

He laughed and called back. "I look forward to seeing you try."