What a night.

Richard Castle sat down at his desk at something past one A.M. with a contented sigh. He'd had an eventful, but ultimately enjoyable, evening. First the book launch party, which was the usual tedium, but then it'd been turned on its head by one Detective Kate Beckett. God, she's incredible.

A scroll of ancient paper materialised on the table in front of him, amid golden twinkles. Huh, just like in the movies. He undid the silk ribbon and opened the scroll, his eyebrows rising as he read the excruciatingly perfect writing.

"I know it's been quite some time since we were last in contact, but the time has come. She's the one, Richard.

And you're right, she is extraordinary."

Quite some time?! He shook his head. Quite some time was something of an understatement. The last 'contact' was when he was in college, when he'd started writing his first novel. He'd met a guy in a bar who spent an entire evening trying to convince him that he was the Angel Gabriel, that he should expect a mission from God sooner or maybe later, that he was going to be a great writer, that his books would help people. He hadn't taken it at all seriously, he was writing a murder mystery novel for crying out loud. The guy seemed delusional and was probably drunk. If angels could even get drunk, that is. But then he'd spoken to his mother about it, confided in her in a moment of uncertainty. And as it turned out, this kind of thing ran in the family.

Oh, I need to tell Mother. He stood and went to find Martha.

"Oh Richard, that's wonderful!" She waved her arms and looked genuinely happy for the first time in... well, as long as he could remember.

"Thank you, Mother." He tried to smile, but it didn't really reach his eyes. Martha fixed him with a steely glare that had him looking at his feet. "What if I mess it up?" He looked back up at her. "What if everything goes wrong, and my reason for being here pushes me away?"

Martha regarded her son, watched as years seemed to fade away and he was that scared 18 year old boy again. "Richard, darling, don't be silly."

There was a pause. She didn't know what else to say, and he was struggling to form coherent thoughts, to find words to convey how he remembers every face, every name, every detail of his life without any effort. But then, Martha knew all that anyway. Like mother, like son.

Finally, he whispered, "I've met her before." Martha blinked in surprise. "She came to a book signing, years ago. Only once though, not like the ones who only came to show some cleavage and slip me their numbers. She was shy, haunted... Breathtaking. I wanted to ask her to wait, to get a chance to actually talk to her afterwards, but I couldn't get the words out."

Martha looked at him with pity and compassion, shaking her head slightly. "And you want to know why you didn't receive the scroll back then, am I right?" He just looked at her. "I have no idea, kiddo. Maybe she didn't need you then." She gently placed her hand on his arm before he could reply. "I know, I know. Maybe she did need you. But maybe she wasn't ready yet." Martha paused dramatically. "Maybe you weren't ready yet." She smiled, "Do you really think I was ready when my scroll arrived?"

Castle frowned. It wasn't like they had never talked about this. "But Mother, whether you were ready or not, you never had to convince one-day-old-me that I needed you to stick around."

Sitting opposite her in the conference room at the precinct, it all seemed a bit too easy. He'd sweet-talked his way in and now he had to convince her he wasn't going anywhere without sounding like a complete jerk, which wasn't going as well as planned. I'm here for the story...?! Seriously, Rick, is that the best you can do? He repressed the urge to groan outwardly at himself.

"Sometimes there is no story. Sometimes the guy is just a psychopath."

And she's clearly not buying it. A floating lightbulb flashed over his head and he began to profile her. He threw out the vague outline of her life's story and reeled her in like the biggest prize fish he'd ever caught. And then he saw the way her face fell and wished he'd just kept his mouth shut.

"Cute trick. But don't think you know me."

That was close. "The point is, there's always a story. You just have to find it."

Shit shit shit, no, Beckett get out here!

"Hey... Hey!" One shoe off and one shoe on, he got the cuffs off and ran after the suspect, spare shoe in one hand and phone in the other. "He's coming down the fire escape!"

Beckett turned to the other cops in the room, "He's out back, cover the front." Then she headed out of the window, shouting at the guy, "Stop! Police! Don't move!" But he just kept running, and Castle kept chasing him. "Castle, no!"

"I got him! I got him!"

"Castle!"

She saw the rest of it happen in a slow-motion whirl, almost like she was anticipating it. The gun, the way he got himself taken hostage, the fact the safety had been on and he hadn't told her. Still, he knew the anger she showed towards him when it was over was just to hide the relief that he hadn't gotten himself killed. Hah, like that could have happened. More important things ahead for you and me yet, Beckett.

Later, he asked her out to dinner. She didn't say no, exactly, but it certainly wasn't a yes.

"It's too bad. It would've been great." He gave her a wry smile. She leaned towards him and whispered in his ear.

"You have no idea."

She turned and walked away from him, and it was all he could do to not openly gawp.

I think there might be more to this whole guardian angel thing than I originally thought.

A/N: So, hi. As you can tell, this is an AU! I'm not really sure how this is going to pan out, but I expect there to be a good mileage in it. I will try to update it regularly, at least once a week, I guess. Hope you enjoy it!