Title: Temp(t M)e
Author: youngerdrgrey
Pairing: Castle/Brennan, Brennan/Booth, Castle/Beckett
Summary: At a weekend seminar for crime novelists, Richard Castle meets - and entices - the infamous Temperance Brennan. Unbeknown to her, she is not the only source of temptation in his life, nor he for her. -Crossover with BONES-
Rating: T
Warnings: None
Disclaimer: I own nothing. All rights for the characters and the world go to their owners (like ABC or FOX). I, in no way, believe – or would lead others to believe – that I own Castle or Bones. I am merely a fan who stumbled across a picture of Emily and Nathan on Tumblr and concocted a story from it.

Author's Note: Hello! I'm saying right now that I might switch how the main four (Castle, Beckett, Brennan, and Booth) are referred to in this story. Sometimes they will be by last name and others by first. I apologize if it annoys you that it might not be consistent chapter to chapter. This chapter is more dialogue heavy than the last. Also, thanks for clicking on this and giving it a chance.

TEMP(T M)E - CH.2

Years in the foster care system and more recently working on homicide cases trained Temperance into being a relatively light sleeper. On mornings like that one, she typically awoke to the soft padding of a man's footsteps as he rounded up his discarded clothing and tried to silence his vibrating cell phone at the same time. She would abstain from moving simply because dealing with human interaction in the form of the awkward morning after speech left her feeling more and more like the ostracized, morbid teenager she had once been. She had expected as much for the morning after the seminar.

To her surprise, the cacophony of beeps and crashes coming from her own cell phone alerted Temperance of the new day. She groaned and stretched her spine until each vertebra had the chance to react. The spot beside her showed no signs of the night she vividly remembered enjoying. While reaching for her phone, she scanned the room for Castle, a bit unsettled by his magical disappearance.

"Brennan," she greeted. A hearty chuckle reached her ears, accompanied by a lighter, younger one as well. She found herself smiling, whether it was from the contagious nature of the laughter or the revealed identity of the caller was none of her concern.

Seeley Booth spoke up, the humor still in his tone. She could imagine he and Parker in the diner, possibly with a plate of French Toast for the latter and a coffee and small stack for the former.

"Heya Bones!" Booth said. Parker similarly greeted her through a mouthful of his food. The sound would have been indiscernible if not for the many times this had happened. Booth reprimanded him, "Don't speak with your mouth full, bud. How's the seminar?"

Temperance sat up in bed. Again, her attention drifted to the empty mattress. The soreness in her body told her the night had been real yet….

"Unsurprisingly, today has been more of a mystery than the lecture," she shared.

Booth took on an apologetic tone. If she had been there, he would no doubt try to throw his arm around her shoulders as he spoke. "Sorry to hear that. Hey, you should have called me last night. We could have talked all about the cool case I've got waiting for when you get back."

He was baiting her. Temperance wondered if she was always that easy to rope back to the lab, or if the twenty-four hour break had just convinced him she would be. She wasn't waiting bored for the next two days of lectures and parties to be over. Perhaps she should allow him to know that.

"I was not alone last night, Booth. Calling you would have been rude to Rick," she stated.

"Rick? Who's Rick?" Booth asked. She ignored the voice in her head that told her he spoke out of jealousy and simply answered the question.

"Rick Castle, author of Derrick Storm and-"

"Nikki Heat. I love those books. Think you can get some secrets about the next one out of him?"

Temperance glanced at the phone in her hand in confusion for a moment. Booth sure switched gears quickly. Should she be aggravated that his jealousy disappeared just as easily as Rick had?

"I'm not going to do that, Booth. It's rude. Besides, he's not here anymore," she said.

"He left? That a-asymmetrical scumbag," Booth said. Again, his tone shifted. She noted the way he stopped himself from swearing, a sure sign that Parker was paying close attention. It wouldn't hurt for Parker to be a little less attentive and a bit more like his peers at times. It also wouldn't hurt for Castle to do the opposite.

Temperance rose from the bed then. She moved to her suitcase and began flipping through its contents for an outfit for the day. As she did so, she said,

"While I admit that leaving before I awoke was an ungentlemanly thing to do, the alternative would not have been very pleasant. It's extremely hypocritical of me to feel anything other than relief that he extricated himself so expertly."

"You can feel bad about it, Bones. It's okay." She opened her mouth to contradict his statement, but Booth continued. "Listen, I'm going to call you back later. Parker's decided we're more interesting than his French Toast and I'm not really ready to have certain talks with him yet."

Temperance grinned at the thought of Booth having to give the sex talk to Parker.

"Alright, Booth. I'll talk to you when I get back to the lab. Two days and then we can work on that 'cool case.'"

"Great. Later, Bones."

She set the phone down in exchange for her clothes. No more than three steps towards the bathroom, Temperance stopped at a knock on the door. Had she ordered room service or a wake up call? She crossed to it and looked through the peephole.

Castle stood on the other side of the door. He grinned up towards the peephole and shook the small bucket of ice in his hands. He looked far too well kept for having just left. Obviously, he had taken the trip back to his hotel and gotten ready, a luxury Booth had robbed Temperance of. She opened the door nonetheless.

Castle grinned wider at her and extended the bucket to her. She accepted it, unsure where he was going with it. He had to be going somewhere. Castle didn't have the reputation he did for just doing things on a whim.

Castle said, "I just wanted to make sure you cooled down and relaxed after all of that work last night."

"Remind me if I'm wrong, but I think you did most of the work," she returned.

"You can repay me with breakfast," he offered.

"Isn't that supposed to be in bed?"

He grinned. "Well, since we are literary equals in the twenty-first century-"

Temperance chuckled. She backed away from the door and went to place the ice down on the table. Castle took it as his invitation back into the hotel room.

Honestly, Castle felt rather proud of himself. His Houdini act that morning had nearly been enough to throw Alexis off of his scent. She must have stayed up until at least two in the morning to be as certain as she was that he had not come home until right before breakfast. Being the avid HIMYM watcher that he was, Castle was a firm believer in nothing good happening after two AM and typically stayed wherever he was by that point. Hmm, what day was it? Had he missed a new episode?

"I'll only be a few minutes," Temperance interjected.

He looked up to find her at the entrance to the in-suite bathroom, clothes in hand. He offered her a short nod before reaching for his phone. He needed to have Alexis check the DVR settings. He refused to fall behind again.

Just then, his phone sprang to action. He glanced at it and felt the mother of all grins consume him. Beckett. He flipped open his cell.

"Miss me already?" he asked into the device. He swore he could see her roll her eyes from there.

"We have a case, Castle," Beckett announced.

Even though he knew that was always her reason for calling, Castle still felt that twinge of disappointment that it wasn't just a call for a chat. He thought himself to be witty. As did many others, his wit was the reason he was even in the hotel room of Temperance Brennan. That and he was curious to try page one-hundred-and-eighty-seven with the author herself.

"You'll have to start without me. I'm still at that writers' seminar," he said. Wouldn't that be a fun night? Maybe he could invite Beckett. Ooh!

"You normally hightail it out of there as soon as you-" Beckett cut herself off and he could just see the way her eyebrows rose as she must have realized why he would postpone going to a crime scene. "You met someone there. Castle, why do you-oh gosh, you're talking to me on the walk of shame, aren't you?"

Why did he have to be on the walk of shame? Was he the lady of the relationship and didn't know it? Certainly, Rick Castle was not the walk type. He slept with the walk type. All the time! Well, not all the time, but still.

"I'll have you know that I am not doing the walk of shame. Why do you assume that we went to her place?" he asked.

She answered as if it were as obvious as the butler being the murderer.

"The last thing you would want would be for Martha to start chatting up one of your escorts."

He quickly interjected, "The only escort I have ever been with was purely on accident and she was quite pretty."

Someone spoke in the background, probably Esposito. Beckett sighed.

"You coming?"

Castle grinned. "I know it's been a long time for you, but that happens before the walk of shame," he joked.

"Castle!"

He laughed. "I'm getting breakfast and will meet up with you and the Scooby Gang in an hour or so."

"Fine," grumbled Beckett. She obviously did not enjoy his joke as she hung up quite harshly.

Castle turned on his heel to watch the bathroom door. Temperance strode out, dressed for the day ahead. She snatched up her purse and phone and met him at the door.

Temperance quoted, "'Your hotel or mine?'"

"That was purely for effect last night. I live a few blocks away," he said. She nodded at the information.

"Mine again then," she assumed. He nodded and stepped out. As she swung the door shut, she added, "You know, I'm usually a very light sleeper."

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