This is my first attempt at a Castle fanfic, so please be gentle, and the excellent writers of this forum with their wonderful writings, have set the bar so high, that I doubt if I will be able to make it anywhere even close to those standards, but still, I am finally summing up the courage and posting it, and I would definitely love to hear what you guys think...

For the record, I do not, by any means, own Castle...

p.s - This story is somewhat inspired by a fic I had read on the forum some time earlier.

Little Blocks...

Castle sat in his chair impatiently, eyeing the empty chair adjacent to his own, waiting for its occupant to return so that he could resume his supposedly "creepy" staring...

He smiled at the thought...he could never get tired of that...even on the most mundane, boring, ordinary day, she could not look anything but extraordinary...

As he tapped away furiously on the table, a certain light from the desk caught his attention...Beckett's phone!...she seemed to have forgotten it when she went down to the morgue half an hour ago during the lunch break to have a "private" word with Lanie, which Castle guessed had something do with an inappropriate comment Esposito had made in the morning.

So the phone was now lay hidden under her stack of paperwork, unattended to and seeking attention...AND... very well within the reach of a certain writer. His curiosity could not let him not glance at the caller id...

It was Josh...Ah...there he was again...reminding Castle of his presence even when Beckett was not around..

The light died down after a second missed call. Castle glanced sideways to check if the phone's owner was anywhere nearby, but she was nowhere to be seen.

Seeking the seemingly golden opportunity, he gently took hold of the phone and started casually perusing it.

He respected her privacy enough not to lurk anywhere near her inbox, but he could definitely get a quick look at the other things, couldn't he now? There was nothing wrong with that, right? So, keeping a constant watch for any sign of Beckett, he continued playing with it...

Suddenly a random thought struck him, and he quickly browsed through the phone to get to his desired location and... BINGO!...

What he found definitely left him feeling all elated...

But now, now, now, could he just stop there? That was so not Richard Castle's style...he had to mess with things, he had to go and get on the nerves of his favourite detective.

So, smiling wickedly, he pressed a few buttons here and there...and Boom! He was done.

Placing the phone back on the desk just the way it was before, he sat back in his chair, trying his best to suppress a smirk, silently applauding his writer brains for coming up with this flawless plan.

Finishing her chat with Lanie, Beckett was back to her desk. Throwing a casual glance at Castle, who was apparently very busy playing away on his I-phone, she got back to her paperwork.

After a while, the precinct was almost empty except for Beckett...Castle had left early saying he needed to take Alexis for the dentist's appointment.

She sighed at the seemingly never ending paperwork still scattered in front of her.

Stifling a yawn, she absentmindedly checked her cell...two missed calls from Josh... Shit! Had she missed a date or something?

Deciding to call him, she hit speed dial #4.

She waited for Josh to answer...all the while racking her brains hard to remember if she had forgotten any plans they might've made for tonight...

"Hello Detective, miss me already?" she was suddenly brought out of her reverie by the highly familiar but unexpected response...

"Castle ..?.." she asked confusion evident in her voice and Castle had to stop himself from laughing out loud.

"Yes milady, you've got it right...Its Castle...Richard Castle" he said with his characteristic smirk.

"But..I...uh..did I call you?"

"My, my, detective, you seriously are stressed out..you call me on my number and then ask me if you did actually call me...? Or is it that you just couldn't resist hearing my sweet, sexy voice and now wish to pretend otherwise?...If that is the case...all you had to do was - "

"Shut up Castle, I did NOT call you..I..I just don't get it.." Castle could practically see her brow knitted together in confusion and the cute flustered look she got on her face when she could not figure something out. He suddenly was thankful that she was not in front of him right now or he would be having a really hard time refraining himself from kissing those adorable frown lines off her forehead.

"Well, let me help you with this, okay? Now what number did you dial?" he asked, modulating his tone as if explaining something to a 5-year old.

"Uhh...I hit speed dial #4..."

"So? Am I not on #4?" he asked feigning absolute innocence.

"Er..no..?.."

"Then who is on #4?"

"Well..its..its Josh..."

"Josh? Ohh..and then what number am I on?" he gently prodded knowing that she would answer without thinking twice given her confused state of mind.

"You're...you're on #2"

"TWO? I am on two?" he asked faking shock and utter disbelief, his voice clearly giving away his excitement...

"So are you trying to tell me that I am on a number ABOVE Josh?"

"Holy crap!" she thought as she realized what she had revealed. She knew far too well that Castle would never let her off this without incessant grilling...

"It is NOT what you think, Castle...so please don't go ahead and boost that already inflated ego of yours..."

"Okay...then do you, my dear Detective, care to explain how come I.." he asked emphasizing a little too much on "I"... " am on #2, while Dr. Motorcycle boy happens to be on #4?"

"Well I did not bother to change it, you know... I knew you before him...and so i just assigned him #4, since it was available then, and .." she knew she was definitely rambling.. "and now I have no idea how they got jumbled up this way..but anyway...leave it..it's not a big deal.." she stuttered, fumbling for a good enough reason.

"Does Josh know about it?"

"What's there to know? Have you lost it, Castle? It's just a speed dial number, alright? Stop making such a fuss about it...its not like I am assigning priority numbers to the people in my life..." It came out more harshly than she'd intended to and she didn't know why it sounded so unconvincing even to her own ears.

"Oh yes, you're right ...it's just speed dial after all...but I must tell you, I cannot help but be both flattered and touched..." he said chirpily, dropping the subject, knowing that he had effectively made his point.

"Oh...don't be...and Castle? You mention it once more...and I wouldn't bother about the paperwork involved, I'd shoot you right away...got it?"

"I'll try not to, Detective..." he replied still smirking...

"K then, see you tomorrow..."

"Most certainly...Until tomorrow, Beckett..." he smiled as he hung up.

"Whoopppeee! Mission accomplished!" he thought as he cheerfully settled back on his couch.

He had successfully passed on the message to her...

Insignificant or not...he stood on a speed dial number higher than Josh, and although she would never admit it...changing a speed dial number wasn't exactly as time-consuming as she made it out to be...after all he himself had done it in less than a minute today...

This had to mean something...well, now he just had to sit back and wait patiently till she could figure out for herself the real reason behind it...

He knew it...he could see it coming...it would take time, no doubt, but he was sure they would get there someday...slowly, block by block...and he had no complaints...Katherine Beckett was EVERY bit worth the wait...

And she proved it to him the very next morning when he went to the precinct and grabbed her phone at the first chance he could get...and discovered with no small amount of surprise and joy that he had been restored to #2 on her phone...

And Beckett wasn't surprised to find him grinning like an idiot when she returned to her desk after sometime, retrieving her supposedly "forgotten" phone from the desk...

If Richard Castle was a player, Kate Beckett was the Master of the game...

Thoughts? Please...?

Nothing great, just an idea I got while reading a fic which had a mention about Josh being on speed dial #4, and Castle being on #2...so I owe it to the fic's writer.