The idea came to me when I was listening some old interviews of BTS Castle. The image stuck with me until I wrote it down. I hope you like it!

Disclaimer: Don't own a Castle nor The Castle

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January 2010... some cold day in the midst of winter.

When Castle arrives on the homicide floor of the 12th precinct, it's empty. As far as his eyes can see there is nobody in the room, not even in the glass-paneled offices. He steps into the abandoned room and checks the time on his iPhone. Wow, it's still early - only 7 am. He can't remember right away why he came to the precinct so early. He hums softly, thinking out loud. 'Oh yeah,' he wanted to share some new ideas about the case with her.

Slowly, he makes his way in front of the murder board. Sitting down at Beckett's desk, he starts thinking about the case. He is tracing the connections with his fingers and muttering under his breath, going slowly over every little detail he can find on the board. Since the day before, he has been thinking about this case almost nonstop. Now he just needs to see if his, yet again crazy, theory would make sense in light of new details. It takes him almost ten minutes to recap all the info and he starts to notice his surroundings again.

The precinct still seems empty. There are usually more people in the room when he comes in. But then again, he hasn't really been in the precinct that early in the morning. He cranes his neck, looking over the entire room - it's deserted. And it feels really weird to be alone in here. He stands up from the desk in order to walk and sneak around. He stops abruptly, when he realises that some of the papers from her desk decided to attach themselves to his bottom. He catches them with his hand and puts them on Beckett's desk again. Her desktop is messy, he notices. As if time had stopped from yesterday and she had left without cleaning up a bit. There are files everywhere, pictures of crime scene with every gory detail spread across the top. Some of the ME reports seem to be there too, as well as the older case files, connected to the new murder.

'Hmmm.' he wonders out loud. It is un-Beckett-like to leave her things like this. He looks over in every direction to ask somebody about the files, but no souls are in sight, still. Shaking his head he straightens himself and makes his way to the break room in order to make himself a cup of coffee and sit down for a little while until Beckett or other detectives show up.

He arrives in the break room and heads to the espresso machine that he managed to deliver there the year before. He smiles when he sees the shiny machine. It makes damn good coffee. He walks to the cupboard at the opposite wall and opens the doors. He takes a clean cup inside and it emanates a soft clinking sound when it collides with other cups. At that moment he hears a sudden in-take of breath, just like somebody is in the room. His heart picks up speed and he turns around fast.

He opens his mouth to make a comment, but he sees something that changes his mind. The inhale came from the woman who is currently sleeping on the couch. She has propped up her legs and surrounded them with a little blanket. Her head rests on the back of the couch, her whole body tilted to the right. Her eyes are closed and her hands are loosely holding a case folder which starts slipping away from her grasp. Her mouth is open a little bit, her chest rising and falling with the sleepy rhythm of her breathing. There is a slight blush on her cheeks, coming from the sleep and warmth from the blanket - that threatens to fall down from her shoulders.

He freezes for a moment. Not knowing what to do. He has never seen her spend the night in the precinct, let alone seeing her sleep. Making up his mind, he takes a few steps to the coffee maker and places his cup there, his eyes never leaving the sleeping form. Quietly, he makes his way in the direction of the couch, not wanting to wake her. He stops and stands there, just looking at her. She looks so adorable when she is sleeping. So peaceful, so relaxed. 'Does she sleep here a lot?' he wonders in his mind.

The blanket, or scarf to be exact, falls off her shoulder with a soft whisper. He steps closer and rearranges the soft fabric, tucking her in. The case folder falls onto the couch with a small thump and he freezes again, fearing the noise would wake her. But instead of waking, she moves herself in her sleep and mumbles sweetly, a smile on her face "...Cas... mmm... Castle..." and she falls silent again, her breathing evening out.

He just stands there, mouth open in surprise. He doesn't know what to do. That is the last thing he hoped to hear from her. The woman seems to dislike him mostly. And now... she... is dreaming about him? The glow of a smile appears on his face and he straightens himself. He observes her for a little while with a smug grin on his face, standing next to the couch. He is openly admiring his partner sleeping, taking in the soft glow of her dreams and her relaxed state.

"Admiring the view?" suddenly a soft whisper from behind him jerks him from his dreamy state. He jumps a little and propels himself around to see where the voice came from. Kevin Ryan is standing at the doorway, looking at both of them. Castle breathes in a few times, forcing his heart into a slower pace.

"You scared the crap out of me!" he whispers back with force. Ryan just smirks at him, coming in to the break room.

"What are you doing here so early?" he asks, low voiced.

Castle shuffles closer to the detective and answers "I couldn't sleep. I thought it was a good idea to come in early." He throws a glance to the empty homicide floor. "But apparently not." he adds.

Ryan nods and smirks. "Yeah, it's not usually very busy here in the early hours." he agrees.

There is a silence between them for a moment. Castle steps closer to the table that Ryan is standing next to. He points to the sleeping Beckett and asks the detective. "Does this happen a lot?"

Ryan nods and shares "Well, from time to time. She makes a habit of using the break room couch as a bed when she is working on difficult cases... But she hasn't done it in a long time."

"Hmm..." Castle makes an agreeing sound. "Should we wake her?"

"Naah, let her sleep," he explains quietly. "She probably hasn't slept much, so let her be until she wakes up herself."

Castle nods. Ryan turns himself around and heads out from the break room. Castle stands there, torn between following the male detective and staying in the breakroom. Finally he decides to follow Ryan and he makes his way out of the room as silently as he can.

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He sneaks back into the room quarter of an hour later. He remembered that he forgot to make coffee like he had planned to do before. He tiptoes inside the room heading for the coffee machine, glancing at the sleeping woman a few times. She is still soundly sleeping. He smiles while he pushes the buttons of the espresso maker and places the coffee cup in its place. The machine starts to make horribly loud noises, piercing the silence of the break room. He is horrified and starts immediately pushing random buttons on the machine to stop the loud noises. "Damn, damn, damn..." he hisses out loud. When the machine finally stops, having filled the cup with coffee, he turns himself around slowly, checking if she has woken up.

Beckett has her eyes open and she is blinking them hard as if trying to understand where she is. She slowly becomes more awake and her eyes travel around the room. Finally she notices him standing by the coffee machine, apologetic look on his face.

"Castle?" she asks her voice hoarse from sleep, blush starting to rise on her cheeks. "What are you doing here?"

He takes the coffee cup from the tray and raises it up, breathing in a quick gasp and asks "Coffee?"

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A/N: Thank you my dear friends lv2bnsb1 and tshlw from twitter for editing this fic. You rock! And fooxoo for being an awesome support as always! *hugs*

Tell me please what you think of this wee story?