A/N: This is set in series 3 after Castle has broken up with Gina after Knockdown. My first attempt at fan fiction, so any suggestions that people have would be useful. Also how does one even get beta readers?

Disclaimer: I would need a lot more money than I have, if I was to ever have any chance of owning Castle.

Chapter 1

Beckett glanced up from the paperwork on her desk as Castle deposited a cup of coffee and a bear-claw in front of her.

"Thanks Castle," she said, picking up the coffee and bringing it up to her mouth to inhale the heavenly aroma.

"You're welcome Beckett," he replied and then he noticed the odd grimace that came over her face. "Hey, are you ok?" he asked, concern evident in his voice.

There was a pause as she put down the coffee and closed her eyes briefly before replying. "Yeah, I'm fine, just thought that I smelled something off for a second there." She shook her head quickly as if to snap out of the odd sensation.

He thought about questioning her further but it was obvious that she didn't want to talk about it so instead he fell back into their pattern of flirting. "Well I have been known to make women swoon with my manly presence but this is the first time that a woman has tried to pass it off as a bad smell. Are you sure that you aren't feeling faint from my pheromones?"

He paused, anticipating her reaction and true to form she gave him the patented Beckett eye-roll. "It's the overwhelming testosterone isn't it?" he said, as his lips lifted up in that cocky grin that he had perfected over the years.

"Castle, I don't know how you can even claim to have to testosterone given the fact that you are so metrosexual. You have never even played little league," Beckett shot back at him, putting him in his place.

"Well I would be more than happy to demonstrate to you that I am definitely a man, anytime you'd like Detective, anytime at all," he continued grinning at her.

"When hell freezes over," she said as she pushed her chair away from the desk and stood up. "Enough with the banter, we need to go and interview the building super, see if he can shed any light on what our victim was doing in the maintenance room in the basement."

"Hey Beckett, you forgot your coffee," he called out to her as she made her way over to the elevator.

She glanced back briefly at the cup on her desk, "Nah, I just don't feel like it at the moment. Hurry up will you Castle?'

He thought it was odd but with a mental shrug he dismissed it and hustled to catch up with her.

Unfortunately the building super, Harry Denvers, proved to be very vague. A nice man in his late seventies, he was trying to be helpful but this consisted of a lot of vague, contradictory answers.

"So you saw Ms Reynolds arguing with a middle aged white man out the front of the building on Thursday night?" Beckett asked.

"Well he was quite tan so he could have also been Hispanic," he hedged, "it was getting dark and I don't see so well. My grandkids have been on at me to get new glasses recently …"

Before he could continue with another monologue about his family Beckett cut in firmly. "Ok well, thanks for your time Mr Denvers. We need to get back to the station now."

Castle could almost see the frustration coming off her like a shroud of steam rising. She was very driven and she gave 110 percent on every case. It was part of what made her so good at her job but that intensity also meant that she had a tendency to beat herself up mentally when she hit a brick wall. And it was situations like these which made him such a good partner for her. His levity allowed her to take a step back; his pulling on her pig-tails lightened her day.

"I hope that when I am his age I will be tormenting Alexis with my forgetfulness. Oh, that and chasing a harem of old ladies around the retirement village. Do you think that they give like an old-age discount on Viagra?" he asked.

Beckett shook her head at him, trying to hide the little smile that his comments had brought to her face. "Don't you already get a discount on Viagra now?" she quipped.

"You wound me Detective," he said crossing his hands dramatically over his heart. "I will have you know that my body is a temple and I don't like to pollute it with chemicals."

"And I am sure that a lot of women have worshipped at that temple," the words slipped out of her mouth before she had fully processed the thought. Beckett could feel the blush heating her cheeks as she realized what she had said.

"I don't kiss and tell," said Castle. "But I will say that there is always room for one more devoted follower," he teased her. His head whipped around suddenly. "Hey I smell hot dogs, do you feel like a hot dog?" he said as he headed over to the hot-dog vendor that he had spotted.

Those last two sentences characterized him so well she thought, part play-boy, part nine-year old on a sugar rush. She followed him over to the cart thinking that a hot dog didn't sound like a bad idea but then the odor of onions and sausage wafted over her and the nausea she had felt earlier that day returned with a vengeance.

She took a step to the side so that she wasn't standing down wind of the smell and swallowed to force the acid taste in her mouth back down. God, I hope I don't throw up in front of him she thought. Beckett was very independent and being sick was definitely a mortal weakness that she didn't like to show in front of others.

Castle glanced back in time to see a greenish tinge come over her face.

"Beckett, what's wrong?" he asked, his hand coming up to brace her elbow.

"Nothing," she said as she twitched her shoulder to shake his hand off.

He didn't say anything as he stood there contemplating how far he could push her. He was concerned but he knew Beckett well enough to know that she didn't like to be fussed over.

"So you won't pollute the temple with chemicals but you will eat hot dogs?" she said trying to change the subject.

He paused for a second to let her know he wasn't fooled by her not so subtle conversation changer before replying, "I do accept offerings of the good chemicals, you know, junk food, alcohol etc."

"Look we don't really have time for hot dogs, I want to get back to the precinct and see what Ryan and Esposito have managed to get from the phone records," she said as she walked briskly back to the car. She felt like a bitch for not letting him get a hot dog but she really didn't think that she could hold it together if she had to smell it in the confines of the car so she made an excuse to refuse him his treat. Maybe she was coming down with flu she thought, there had been a stomach bug going around recently.

Lost in her own thoughts she had tuned out Castle for a few moments and only caught the last few words that he said as they got into the car.

"…so late," he said.

OMG, she thought, was she late? Frantically she tried to mentally calculate dates. She wasn't very regular but she thought that her last period was about 6 weeks ago. That length of time wasn't completely unheard of for her but it was a bit concerning. With panicked eyes she glanced over at him, did Castle think she was pregnant? "Sorry, what did you say Castle?" she asked.

"I said our vic was meant to be at work at 4 o'clock the next morning so what was she doing out at the supermarket so late," he repeated.

"Hmmm," she mumbled, trying to pretend that she was contemplating what he had said when in reality her mind was in free fall. She wasn't a careless person, far from it and they had used protection every time, but as the saying goes, abstinence is the only 100 percent guaranteed form of contraception.

Yes she did want to be a mother at some stage but an unplanned pregnancy wasn't how she had mapped out her life to be. She knew that she cared for Josh but it would be a major step to start a family together. They just weren't ready for that level of commitment yet.

Beckett came to a decision, there was no point in obsessing about the future until she had at least confirmed whether or not she was pregnant. She'd take the test ASAP and take things from there. She couldn't bear to wait until even after work, she'd just do it in the rest rooms. It made her feel better to at least have a semi-plan in place, first things first.

"I don't want to interrupt any deep thoughts that you were having about the case but didn't you say that you wanted to get back to the station quickly?"

Castle's voice jolted her back to the realization that she had been just sitting there silently for the last couple of minutes without having even started the car.

"Umm, yeah. Look I am feeling a bit off. I think I might be coming down with flu or something," she lied. "Do you mind if we stop at a pharmacy on the way back? I want to pick up some Tylenol."

"Sure," he said. "But if you are sick, don't you think that you'd be better off going home to rest, rather than coming back to work?"

She felt guilty enough lying to him, let alone feeling even worse because of the genuine concern he was displaying.

"No, no, I should be fine if I take some pain-killers," she insisted.

Beckett stood just inside the pharmacy door, glancing nervously out at her car parked across the street where Castle was waiting. Why the hell do they sell pregnancy tests in such big boxes she thought as she contemplated how she was going to sneak the box back un-noticed. But unfortunately there was no way that it looked like a box of Tylenol. Maybe if she took her coat off and draped it over her arm and held the packet under that then Castle might not notice. Yeah that would work she thought.

As casually as she could, she opened the back the back door of the car and carefully placed her coat on the back seat so it covered the white box.

"So have you taken some already?" Castle asked.

"Yeah, it will kick in soon," she replied.

The rest of the trip back was spent in silence. Castle had given her one odd look but then settled back to play with some app on his phone. Neither one of them spoke again until she was pulling up into a space in the underground car parking of the precinct.

As she got out of car, he reached into the back seat to grab her coat for her.

"Don't forget your coat," he said as he passed it across the driver's side seat. The packet fell out of the folds of her coat before her mortified eyes. Maybe he hadn't seen it, she prayed. Maybe the chemist's white paper bag had managed to cover up the incriminating logo. The bright purple First Response pregnancy test signage seemed to be inordinately large and readable to her, but he would have to read it upside down from his point of view so maybe he couldn't see.

One look at his carefully blank face and she knew that all her prayers were for nothing, he definitely knew what was in the bag. Her hand shot out to grab the packet off the seat.

"Thanks," she said, not quite meeting his eyes. And with that she practically ran off to the lift. Not waiting for him to even get out of the car in her haste to get away.