Hey so I am back with another amazing tale. Well maybe not amazing, that will really depend on all of you. Hope you like this new short tale I have spun. Enjoy


Set Mid Season 4


Win a Date with Richard Castle

By

Natalie Elizabeth

Detective Kate Beckett knew she was in trouble when the phone records she was going over started to blur. She was tired and she was tired of the case. No leads, no suspects. The only thing they had plenty of, was nothing. Sitting back from the desk in the conference room, Beckett closed her eyes and rolled her head. She let out a moan when she heard the joints in her neck crack. They had all been sitting at the desk for far too long. What she needed was food and sleep, but not necessarily in that order.

When the delicious smell of coffee drifted into her nostrils, she opened her eyes. A fresh steaming cup of coffee was sitting in front of her, as if by magic. A smile broke out on her face as she turned to look at the magician.

"Thanks, Castle."

"No problem," he told her as he took the seat next to her, his own coffee in his hands. "Anything?" he asked, leaning forward, taking a look at the papers she had just been reading.

Beckett shook her head before she picked up her coffee and drank deeply. The hot liquid slid down her throat and immediately filled her body with a sense of warmth. Closing her eyes, she revelled in the feeling. To some, coffee made them jumpy. Not her. It was like a warm, cuddly blanket on a cold day.

"You're a savior, Castle."

She opened her eyes to see him smiling at her.

"Well yeah, but I don't like to brag."

Beckett scoffed as she rolled her eyes.

"Since when?"

Castle chuckled. "So, Beckett, it's late. We've barely eaten all day, I was wondering..."

"Yo, Castle. Didn't realise you were so hard up for a date," Esposito Smirked as he walked into the conference room.

"Yeah, Castle. If you're desperate, Jenny has more than one cousin dying to date you," Ryan raised his brows at the writer.

Beckett faltered. Castle dating! Since when? Had Castle already dated one of Jenny's cousins? How many were there? Surely her team wouldn't do that to her. Would they? Not that they knew of her feelings, well maybe they did. It's not like she had come right out and said anything, but still...They were her team, her back up.

"Do I know what you're talking about?" Castle asked the two male detectives.

Esposito wiggled his eyebrows at him. "Win a date with Richard Castle?"

Beckett sighed with relief. So that was what all this was about? That silly competition. Castle didn't seem as relieved as she was. He placed his hand over his eyes and groaned.

"It was my publicist's idea. It's not a date really, if you read the fine print." Castle removed his hand. "Wait, how do you know about it, Esposito? That offer only went out to New York subscribers of my fan site." Castle's face lit up with excitement. "Are you one of my fans, Espo? Oh, are you Hot4Ricky22 or BadAssBoy?"

"Hell no," Esposito scoffed at the writer. "A new, hot chica in robbery was talking about it."

Castle nodded but raised a brow at him, wanting to stir up the detective. "Sure, Espo. Just letting you know, tonight is the last night to send your entry in. Remember, the entry has to be 100 words or less, why you want to meet me."

Esposito just shook his head and took a seat, grabbing some abandoned papers.

"I spend all day with you. Why would I want to spend my free time with you too?"

Castle bristled proudly. "Just saying, Espo. If you do miss out though, we're offering another competition to residents all across the US. You receive autographed copies of all the Nikki Heat novels, plus a framed picture of me too." Castle then gave the detective a wink.

"Delusional, dude. Delusional," Esposito continued to look at the papers, ignoring the ego-centric writer.

"Seriously, Castle, what's going on? You not making enough money?" Ryan asked with a smirk.

Castle sighed. "Apparently at my book signing for Heat Rises, a lot of fans complained about my lack of enthusiasm."

Beckett watched as Castle slid his eyes towards her then quickly averted his gaze. Biting her lip, Beckett remembered the signing she had turned up to. His fans were right. He seemed sad and despondent. Not his usual 'hi how are you, where would you like me to sign it'. When she got there, she saw he was signing the covers in the black section. There was a good chance most of his readers could barley even see his signature.

"My publicist thought it would be a good idea to give back to the fans. One lucky fan gets to spend a few hours with me. Hang out, ask a few questions, maybe take a few photos. It is most definitely not a date though"

Beckett knew Castles publicist was right. It would be good for his reputation. So why did Beckett not like it so much. She sighed, probably because the lucky fan would be female. They would probably spend the entire time fawning over him. Maybe she could...

"Beckett."

Beckett looked up as Captain Gates walked into the conference room.

"We any closer to identifying a suspect?" Gates asked crossing her arms over her chest.

Beckett picked up the abandoned papers. "No, sir. The victim only called her sister and mother and that's all. Nothing unusual or suspicious."

Gates sighed. "Then what are you still doing here? I said figure it out by 10 pm, or get out of here and return fresh tomorrow. I don't need my detectives making mistakes because they don't know when to quit. "

Beckett opened her mouth to argue, but Gates silenced her with a pointed finger before leaving the room. Looking around at her team, she shrugged before standing up and clearing the papers. There was no point in arguing with the boss, and besides, she was tired.

"You heard the boss. Time to go home, boys." Beckett then quickly covered her mouth when a yawn escaped. "Sorry, guys," she said rather embarrassed. Yawning was a sign of being tired. She didn't want to show a sign of weakness in front of them.

"Head home, Beckett," Ryan told her. "Esposito and I got this."

Beckett looked at her team, both men nodding at her. Shrugging, she grabbed her jacket. Normally she was the last one out. Ryan and Esposito were usually falling over themselves trying to get out the door quicker. It was a rare offer and she was going to take it.

"Thanks. I'll see you tomorrow."


Beckett made it home in record time and quickly set about making herself a quick snack. Castle had been right; they had barely eaten all day. If it hadn't been for Castle acting like her personal barista, making her coffee throughout the day, she doubted she would have made it. Yet now that she was home she didn't feel sleepy. Why was it, when you were at work, trying to work, you were tired. Yet once you got home and were able to sleep you weren't sleepy. What was worse was that she did feel tired, but it seemed she was even too tired to sleep. Was that even possible?

Grabbing a glass of wine and her plate of crackers and cheese, Beckett made her way to her bedroom. Placing her food and drink on the bedside table, Beckett leaned over and turned on her laptop. Maybe reading some lame emails would lull her to sleep.

While the machine booted up, Beckett changed into her pyjamas and then climbed between her cold sheets. Closing her eyes, she snuggled against the pillows for a few seconds, hoping that once she was there, sleep would come.

Nope.

Her eyes flashed open and she reached for her wine, hoping the liquid would give a drowsy effect. Using her right hand, Beckett moved her finger over the touch pad on her laptop to close off all the little, annoying alerts that popped up at startup. She really needed to get that looked at.

"No, Norton, I do not want to renew my subscription," she told her computer, clicking the red x on another window. "I have Kaspersky now. You got a problem with that, talk to Ryan."

Castle had of course offered to come over and look at her computer, but there was no way she was letting him near her machine. Clicking onto the internet icon, Beckett waited for her home page to load. Once there, she typed in the address for her email and proceeded to put in her user name and password. Yes, it was her own computer, and no one else used it, but you just never know.

Beckett was delighted to see 14 emails and none of them junk. Great, 14 emails to keep her occupied for a while, and hopefully they would lull her to sleep. Picking up a cracker and cheese, she bit into it greedily as she watched as pictures from an email Esposito had sent her loaded. It looked like there was a new lot of Wal Martians to look at. Seriously, didn't these people own mirrors? Not only that, but a good portion were looking directly at the camera. Didn't they think it was weird someone was taking their photo?

Taking a gulp of wine as she scrolled down the email, Beckett nearly spewed it out when she spotted the big, burly man wearing a hot pink thong. She would never get enough of seeing photos of what people wore at Wal Mart. After sending it off to her father, who enjoyed a good laugh, Beckett continued to go over the rest of her emails. The mind boggled at Ryan sending her Irish jokes and the sex survey from Lanie was, well, interesting to say the least. There were a few things she would need to speak to Lanie about.

Before long the emails were done and her food had dwindled, yet the Sandman still hadn't arrived. Placing the empty plate on the night stand, Beckett continued to sip the last of her wine. She scanned over the emails that still sat in her inbox despite being read. Her eyes flicked to one email in particular.

Win a date with Richard Castle!

She should have deleted it the moment she got it. Every time she saw the subject line her stomach lurched. Beckett put down the glass of wine even though there was still a sip left.

The email had arrived over two weeks ago, much to her dismay. Her first thought had been 'So what? Castle was dating. What was the big deal?' Except it had been a big deal. It had taken a whole day for her to open the email. She wished she had done it sooner as her fears would have been quelled. It wasn't a date as such, more of a get together. The terms and conditions of entry clearly stated it was open to both men and women and was not technically a date. Not that she had clicked on the entry form, then clicked on the 'Terms and Conditions' link, and then read the entire document or anything.

There was absolutely no reason why her finger had directed the arrow over the email. Nor was there any reason for her to read the email again. It's not like she needed to win a date with him, she saw him daily. Beckett's finger moved back and forth over the touch pad before she finally tapped on the email. The red and black newsletter popped up on the screen in front of her.

Hi, Richard Castle fans.

Ever wanted to meet your favourite writer? Talk to him? Get his autograph?

One lucky reader will have the chance to do just that.

All you have to do is tell us in 100 words or less why you want to meet this award-winning author?

Is it simply because he is your favourite? Has he inspired you to write your own novel? Maybe you just want to get inside his head.

Whatever the reason, write and tell us. You never know, your entry could be picked as our winner.

So come on, all you fans out there, get writing.

Beckett glanced at the corner of her screen and checked the time. 11:20 pm. She still had 40 minutes to enter the competition. Not that she needed to enter the competition. If she picked up her phone right now and asked him to meet her at the 24 hours cafe around the corner, he would be there.

She took a deep breath, but what if she had never met the man. What would she have done if she had received this email before she had met him? Would she have entered? Hell yes. Her mind's quick answer to her question had Beckett hitting the entry button.

Oh why not.

It's not like the account was in her real name anyway. Kathy Kett was her alter ego. Not exactly original, but it went along great with the whole superhero-alliteration thing. Beckett typed in her fake name in the place provided along with her email address. She then looked at the blank box underneath. Her entry had to go there. Her reason. Why did she want to meet this man? Who knew staring at a blank page would be so scary? She would have to ask Castle one day if he felt the same fear. Or she could write that as her entry. As her fingers moved to the keyboard, she stopped. No that was just silly; she was entering this thing for a reason. If this were five years ago why would she want to meet the author?

She closed her eyes and conjured up her life 5 years ago. The images weren't pretty, but they were enlightening. Her mind then went into fast-forward mode from then until now. Beckett opened her eyes and allowed her fingers to approach the keyboard once more. This time they only paused for a few seconds before they went rampant over the keys. When at first she had nothing, now she had too much to write. She saw the characters down at the bottom of the screen get eaten up but she couldn't stop. The 100-word limit was way too short. Beckett looked over her entry and kept the most important lines.

100 words exactly.

She looked over her entry. It was perfect. It expressed exactly the way she felt when she read his books.

Her finger moved over the touch pad and she hit the send button.

Dread suddenly filled her. What have I done?


Richard Castle rolled over in bed and immediately grabbed his phone. He used to hate being controlled by his phone; now he liked it. He looked at the screen and sighed. No missed calls from Beckett, which means he had no reason to go into the precinct. No reason other than he wanted to see one detective in particular. And that one detective wasn't Esposito.

He had been so close to asking her for a date last night. Well not a date exactly, but dinner. Well it was going to be a 'hey lets grab some food' invite. It was a start though. Except he never really got a start. Esposito had interrupted him again. What was with that guy and his timing? He swore he did it on purpose sometimes. Then of course Ryan had come along. Then to top it off, Gates. Yes, he could have gone after Beckett when she left, scurrying after her like he had so many times. But she seemed so intent on going home. That was a rare occurrence so he let it go.

Chicken.

Great, he was arguing with himself.

How hard was it to ask someone out on a date?

'Beckett,'

Castle frowned. Beckett what? It was one thing to go out for drinks with the guys or Remy's after a hard case. A date. A date was different. A date with Beckett would be different. He couldn't just make reservations at some fancy restaurant. Beckett wouldn't be impressed by that. Beckett didn't need to be impressed. She wasn't like any other woman he had dated, which was why he wanted to date her.

Castle ran his hand over his face. He wanted to date her but he was getting nowhere lying in his bed.

He sleepily made his way into his kitchen. He needed coffee. Seeing his daughter already sitting at the counter, he sidled up next to her.

"School work, this early in the morning?" he asked, seeing his daughter pouring over several pages. "I swear the stork dropped off the wrong child."

Alexis shook her head at her father. "No, these are the last of the entries for your date, Dad."

Castle groaned.

"Richard," his mother complained, breezing into the room. "Why are you going through all the entries? Just let them pick someone and be done with it."

Castle stole some papers from the bottom of his daughter's pile and pulled them in front of himself. "I am not going through all of them, Mother. These are ones they have already short-listed for me."

He really needed to go over them. Yesterday was the last day for people to enter the competition. The way he was going he would be spending time with some flake.

Martha poured two cups of coffee and then turned and handed one to her son.

"Still, does it really matter who your date is?"

"It's not a date," he told his mother sternly as he scrunched up the entry he was reading. Yet another writer he had inspired. The trouble was their entry wasn't very inspiring. He gratefully accepted his coffee; he definitely needed it. Were all his fans this prosaic?

Alexis looked up from the latest entry. "We don't want him getting some woman who thinks it's a real date. Like this one" Alexis told her grandmother. "I want to meet the man so he can see how fabulous I am." Alexis scrunched up the entry and threw it in the direction of the one her father had already rejected.

Martha leaned forward and plucked up one of the sheets of paper. I want to meet him because he is the best writer in the whole world. Martha shrugged; maybe her son and granddaughter were right. Did he really need some woman inflating his ego even further? She picked up another entry and read it over. This one wanted to meet him so she could understand what inspired him to write such great novels. It was a reasonable request.

"Well, darling, can't you just pick one like this? It's not too bad."

She held out the entry to her son. When he didn't immediately take if from her, she waved it in his face. He held up his hand, not to take the item, but to wave it off.

"You ok Dad?" Alexis asked, seeing her father's eyes practically glued to the piece of paper in front of him.

"This one," he said still looking down at the paper in his hands.

When he looked up, both Martha and Alexis were surprised by his almost awed expression.

"Are you sure, Dad? So far you have only picked entries for runner-up prizes. All the rest you have rejected."

Castle nodded. "That's because I have been waiting for this entry. Waiting for someone worthwhile to meet. It's not just about a fan meeting me; it's about me meeting them. I want to meet this fan," he said, shaking the paper in his hand.

Maratha frowned at her son as she picked up another entry. "Are you sure?" the older woman asked. "This one lists her attributes as being 38-25-34."

Castle leaned forward and snatched the page from his mother and did his best to scrunch it up with one hand. He threw it in the same direction as the other failed entries.

"This is the one. I have to meet this person," he said sternly.

"What does it say?" Alexis leaned over to glance at the entry that had her father so worked up but he pulled the page closer to himself.

"I'll read it to you," he told his daughter.

Castle looked down at the page before him. At the words that had sent him spiralling. When he agreed to the competition he had made it clear; it was to be more than just a publicity stunt. He didn't want photos of him having a candle-lit dinner with a fan splashed across the pages of some glossy magazine. It was meant to be a one-on-one encounter, a personal meeting. He wanted to get inside the head of one of his readers. To see the type of people who read his work. The winner would then have a chance to tell their story of how the date went and the article would get published in his monthly newsletter. Based on some of the entries, he was surprised some of them could read, let alone string along a decent conversation. Not this entry, this entry was different. This entry was inspiring. Just the thing he needed to hear in order to get him working on his next novel.

"Can the dramatics, kiddo. Will you read it already?" Martha shook her head at her son. He didn't get that from her, that was for sure.

Castle looked up at his mother, surprised. She was telling him to can the dramatics? He cleared his throat and flicked the paper a few times before he was finally ready to read the words out loud.

"I want to meet Richard Castle, so I can tell him to his face, how he saved my life!

He may not wear red shorts and run down the beach in slow motion, but he stopped me from drowning.

He may not wear a big black jacket and yellow hat, but he saved me from a fiery hell.

He may not wear a white coat and stethoscope, but he revived me.

He may not wear a cape and spandex underwear, but when I was falling, he caught me.

He stopped me from simply existing. Because of him, I started living. "

Castle continued to look at the words on the page. Why had they made it 100 words or less. He needed to know more. He wanted to know more. One thing was for sure; he needed to meet this person. Getting up from his chair, he quickly exited the room.

"Dad, where are you going? You haven't finished your coffee."

Castle waved off his daughter. He no longer needed caffeine, he was already jittery enough. He needed to meet this person, and he wanted it to happen as soon as possible. Paula wouldn't be happy that he was calling her so early in the morning, but he didn't care. He needed this person to know that he had picked them as the winner. He looked over the page in front of him and saw the entrant's name at the top. He needed to meet Kathy Kett.


Big Thank you to LewisInNC for being the Beta on this chapter. You did a fantastic job thank you so much.

So what did you think of this chapter? There will only be 3 so review while you can. : )