AN: Sweet little one-shot inspired by the Prompt Overlord.

This one's for you Lou!


Kate Beckett is leaning back on her desk, staring the murder board trying to find something, anything that will let them move forward in their investigation… But nothing's jumping at her, and she's starting to become annoyed.

She huffs in frustration and gets up to walk up to her desk so that she can go over phone and financial records for the umpteenth time to make sure that she didn't miss anything.

"You didn't miss anything" Castle walks over to her desk and hands her a cup of coffee. He was watching her from the break room and recognized what she was doing. This is how she always gets when they hit a wall during an investigation. "Wait for the boys, maybe they'll turn something up" he shrugs in a vain attempt at making her stop stressing out.

He might know what she's doing, but he's not the only one who has a thing for noticing human behavior. He's trying to cheer her up, and while she usually finds it endearing, now it's just annoying her.

This investigation has been eating at her for the past two days. Hitting dead end after dead end has not been pleasant. She just wants to get this over with.

"Castle, you know as well as I do that they won't find anything new" it's been already twice that they've canvassed the building and the tenants haven't been helpful once.

He did know that, as a matter-of-fact, he's pretty sure that the boys went there again just to not face Beckett's wrath. Let's just say she's a little irritated.

But he was also trying to cheer her up, to be hopeful. That's his job. But he can see that's she's not taking anything of it, so he does the only thing he knows how to do.

He sits in his chair and thinks about the case. Maybe he can come up with something.

After a few minutes of silence, Castle gets a triumphant look on his face. "I've got it!"

Beckett looks at him and actually lets herself believe he might be up to something, her better judgment completely thrown out the window.

"I've got it" he repeats with a smile.

"What?" she lets her hope light her face.

He pursues his lips and suddenly looks thoughtful. "I'll tell you if… We go for a drink" he smirks.

She does not look amused. "Castle. Do I need to remind you that I'm armed?"

"Well, I am a genius novelist who has the information that will break your case wide open"

She's about to roll his eyes at him but she realizes that she's hungry, and changing her thoughts from the investigation for a while might actually be helpful. "Burgers at Remy's" she gets up and grabs her coat. "You're buying"

He smiles brightly and follows her.

"So," Beckett starts after she's taken the last bite of her burger. "Did you actually have something important to say, or did you just drag me here so that I didn't bite anybody's head off?" she throws him a knowing look.

He just smiles. "Guilty as charged"

She narrows her eyes at him in mock indignation and takes a few sips of her milkshake.

"You know," he says when he starts making sinful noises over her drink. "You could just tell me to leave"

The detective's head suddenly jerks up to look at him. "That's it!"

"What's it?" the novelist asks confused.

"The killer didn't leave"

"That's why we didn't see anything on the security cameras" he continues, immediately picking up on her thoughts. He then furrows his brows. Something doesn't work. "But we swept the apartment. There was no evidence"

"But we didn't sweep the rest of the building! Come on" she gets up. She's on a roll.

Castle drops some cash on the table and is once again, hot on her heels. "See? Told you I was a genius"

"Right…" she looks back at him and smiles. "But I cracked the case"

"Yeah, but who helped you figure it out?"

"Whatever would I do without you, Castle?" she says before making her way towards the precinct.

"Starve" he says before rushing after her.


AN: Hope y'all liked it!