A/N: A big thanks to my friend Sam (samvalasam) for picking a number between 1 and 17 :P
Title: The Gift
Summary: Beckett gets a special delivery. Set right after "Boom". One Shot. Caskett.
Spoilers: "A Rose For Everafter", "Tick, Tick, Tick" and "Boom".
Castle scurried down the corridor towards the autopsy room. He was very late and he knew that Beckett would have a disapproving glare for him when he finally arrived. As he approached the open door, Castle slowed his pace, planning to casually enter the room as if he wasn't concerned at all about his tardiness. But before Castle finally went to walk into the room, he stopped when he heard the two woman inside talking.
"Did you manage to save anything?" Lanie asked.
"Most of my clothes, my parents jewellery…" Beckett began.
"What about that inordinately large book collection you're so attached to?"
"No, it was all destroyed." Beckett revealed in disappointment.
"Well there's one good thing about that. You never have to worry about Writer Boy finding out about that signed book of yours that you waited in line for two hours to get." Lanie teased her friend. Outside the door, Castle's jaw dropped in surprise, before a self-satisfied smirk crawled across his face.
"Yeah well Writer Boy better get here soon otherwise I'm gonna start breaking fingers." Beckett complained.
"I am so sorry I'm late," Castle said, making his entrance, "traffic was murder." He joked cheekily. Beckett rolled her eyes in irritation, turning back to the body as Lanie began to outline her preliminary findings on the murdered man in front of them.
It was almost midnight and Beckett was sitting at her desk in an empty bullpen looking over the latest case file. A father of three had been garroted and his body left in Central Park. With the wife having a solid alibi and no other people with an obvious motive for murder, Beckett knew they'd have to look deeper into the man's life to find the killer. Suddenly her instincts alerted her to the presence of someone nearby. Looking up she saw a male messenger standing a few feet from her carrying a large, white rectangular box wrapped in a red ribbon with an oversized bow on the top.
"Can I help you?" She asked, suspecting that he was at the wrong place.
"Are you Kate Beckett?" The man asked.
"Yes." She answered suspiciously. The man then walked over and placed the box on Castle's chair next to Beckett's desk and handed her his clipboard.
"Sign at the bottom please." He instructed her, his tone indicating that her delivery was the last at the end of a very long day. Beckett furrowed her eyebrows in confusion, scrawling her name at the bottom of the page before handing the clipboard back to the messenger before he quickly disappeared. For a few moments Beckett just stared at the package, her mind racing with the possibility that perhaps it was a bomb or some other incendiary device. Glancing around to see if there was anyone else close by, Beckett sighed at her misfortune at being alone. Approaching the package, she tentatively reached out and took the lid in her hands. Taking a deep, calming breath, Beckett gently began lifting it upwards, once it was free from the top of the box, she quickly stepped backwards, instinctively turning her face away and closing her eyes to protect them from an explosion. But nothing happened. After a few moments, Beckett opened her eyes and turned her face back only to see the package still sitting there in one piece. Tossing the lid onto her desk in frustration at her ridiculously paranoid behavior, Beckett peered inside the box and almost fell over in surprise when she saw its contents. All lined up perfectly in order, one next to the other, the spine's facing upwards, was every one of Castle's books. On top of them was a note. Becket reached in and picked up the note, noticing the familiar elongated style of writing,
Not that you're a fan…
Beckett shook her head in disbelief but couldn't stop herself from smiling. Reaching in once more, she grabbed one of the books at random, but when she pulled it out her smile faltered slightly. It was "A Rose For Everafter". Reluctantly opening the cover, Beckett saw the dedication he wrote to Kyra Blaine. But what caught her eye was what was written underneath it in his own handwriting,
To the enigmatic Detective Kate Beckett,
Richard Castle
Beckett unconsciously bit down on the corner of her lip as the giddy smile returned to her face…
From his position hidden around the corner from the elevator, Castle could see the beautiful smile that lit up her face as she read his words to her. Smiling to himself contently, Castle turned and silently made his way to the stairs...
Fin.
Please review. Let me know if you like these little one-shots.
Foghornclj87