Disclaimer: Castle and all of its characters belong to Andrew W. Marlowe, Terri Edda Miller and ABC Studio Productions. "The Farmers Daughter" belongs to Rodney Atkins.

So, I received a PM today, requesting that I write another long Ryan/Alexis fic. That message mixed with a well placed country song spawned the idea for this fic. This is going to be a three shot.

This fic is dedicated to TheShadowsSilhouette for giving me the kick in the rump that I needed to get out of the writer's block slumo that I've been in recently.

That all being said, there are several multichapters that I had been working on that you will notice have now been deleted from my profile. I deleted them myself after receiving a PM from someone stating that I should either update the multichapters or delete them. I am going to tell everyone, like I told that person, things do happen and fanfiction updates are not going to take precedent in my life. I have 3 jobs, am writing a book of my own, and watch my brother 5 days a week. It's simply not possible to update everyday, and on occasion, the muse simply is not there. I'm sorry if all of you feel the same way, I've kept the multichapters that I feel warrant continuation, but this has actually caused me to consider giving up writing fanfiction at all any more.

Wow...that turned into a rant...I'm sorry...on to the fic...

Well, I heard he needed some help on the farm,

Somebody with a truck and two strong arms,

Not scared of dirt,

Willing to work 'til the sun goes down.

So, I pulled up and said

"I'm your man, I could start right now"

And we shook hands.

He said "the fence needs fixin', the peaches need pickin'

And the cows need bringin' 'round."

I was haulin' hay, I was feedin' the hogs,

And that Summer sun had me sweatin' like a dog,

So I cooled off in the creek,

Then it was back to work in that daggum heat.

I was cussin' out loud, thinkin' 'bout quittin',

Lookin' back now I'm sure glad I didn't.

Cuz just when I thought it couldn't get no hotter,

I caught a glimpse of the farmer's daughter.

"'Get a job working on a farm', they said. 'It'll be fun', they said. 'It builds character', they said." Kevin Ryan grumbled as he grabbed another bale of hay and tossed it onto the flatbed truck in front of him. His back creaked as he straightened up, looking across the open plains of the field. It still shocked him how far he could see across the Montana plains. The baked mud of the fields was cracked and dry under the blistering August sun.

The work was backbreaking, and it sure as hell wasn't nearly as cushy as his job as manager of a department store back in New York City had been, but it was a change. Sure, there had been a few times when he had gotten there that he had thought about giving up and quitting. Sure, he'd had experience with the work, but it was a totally different ballgame that he was playing now.

His jeans were covered in dust, much like his sweat coated torso. He pulled a bandana from his back pocket and wiped the sweat from his face roughly, wincing when it stung his eyes. He grew up on a farm in Indiana, but it was nothing like the tight ship that Rick Castle was running. The man was funny as hell, and he was one of the most sporadic people that Ryan had ever met. But that was only when there was no more work to be done.

Castle expected you to be fifteen minutes early to work, and he expected you to do your job without whining. If you had to go above and beyond the call of duty, that was just an occupational hazard and he didn't want to hear any bitching about it. On Ryan's second day, he had ended up chasing Brumbies across a corral for four hours. All of the ranch hands lived in the ranch house, free of rent, and they lived like one big family. Rick always told them that a crew that lives together will get to know each other well enough that they can run like a well oiled machine.

The gravel of the driveway crackled under Rick's truck tires as he pulled up to the farm house. Ryan squinted across the hazy field and adjusted the brim of his cowboy hat. Castle jumped out of the driver's seat and jogged over to where Ryan was.

"How you doin', Ryan?" He drawled, hooking his thumbs in his belt loops.

"Not bad, boss. Sweating like a pig, but that's to be expected." He chuckled, pulling a shrug. "How was the ride to the airport?"

"It was good, but it was the ride home that was a pain in the ass." Rick laughed, gesturing to the truck. "Alexis doesn't do well with long rides. She gets antsy."

"Really? I would take you as the kind to get cooped up." Ryan replied, a smartass grin on his face. Rick playfully shoved him before heading back to the truck and removing a suitcase from the bed. Ryan watched carefully as Alexis got out of the passenger's seat.

He had heard lots of stories about Rick's daughter from Rick and the other ranch hands, but he had yet to meet the woman in person. She had been away at college since he'd come to apply for the job but it was summer time and she was finally getting a chance to come home and relax.

Time seemed to slow to almost a stop as her long, thin legs swung out of the truck and her red, leather cowboy boots hit the gravel. Her jean clad legs led into a streamline torso and a teal tank top. Her hair was impossibly red and fell over her pale, freckled shoulders like a waterfall.

It took him a moment to realize that he was staring, slack jawed and in awe, before he quickly went back to throwing hay onto the truck, trying his damndest to not allow Rick to see his reaction.

He could feel the blush creeping up his neck, the heat apparent even in the blistering sun. He was startled by a hand on his back, and almost lost his balance when he spun around, but he steadied himself on the flatbed and saved his dignity.

The first thing he noticed when he looked at her face were the intense blue eyes. They seemed to burn through him like a flame thrower. Then there was her kind, innocent smile.

"Hi, I'm Alexis. My dad says that you're the new guy?" Good God, even her voice was angelic. He stared at her a moment, unable to find words to reply. It was only when she laughed and waved her hand in front of his face that he snapped out of it. "Hello? You are the new guy, right?"

"I...uh...yeah, I'm Kevin. Ryan." He extended his hand awkwardly in front of himself for her to shake. Her hand was warm as it slipped into his grasp, her skin silky smooth and ivory in color. "It's good to finally meet the woman behind all of the stories." She laughed again and ran her fingers through her hair after releasing his hand.

"You should probably only believe half of the stories that you hear. It's like the internet around here. Lots of attention grabbing headlines, most of which are completely untrue." Ryan barked a laugh and pulled his hat off his head, scratching his fingers through his sweat darkened locks as well before replacing the cowboy hat.

"Yeah, but at least you know that your reputation precedes you." He offered, giving her a joking smile.

"This is very true. I guess it's better to be overhyped then underhyped." Rick's voice echoed across the field as he called to Alexis. She turned to him and gestured for him to wait a minute before turning back to Ryan. "Well, I guess I'll see you at dinner, Kevin Ryan." She smiled and was off in flash of a thousand-watt smile and fiery red locks. He stared after her until she disappeared into the house before going back to the hay bales.

This was definitely going to be a problem.

The sun had begun to sink down over the horizon when he finally drug himself into the farm house. He jumped in the shower immediately to scrub the grime of the day from his sun-browned skin. He dropped his head into the pulsating spray of the shower head, the hot water pounding into his tired muscles.

His ran his hands over his face, spitting the water from his mouth, and then began to work shampoo through his hair. His thoughts wandered back to the afternoon and meeting Alexis. He was treading in dangerous water with the infatuation that he found was starting. She was his boss' daughter. That never ended well in any case that he had ever witnessed and Richard Castle was already a rather intimidating man.

Rick had a gun collection bigger than most SWAT teams, and his wife Kate was a homicide detective. He was pretty sure that they could kill him and make it look like an accident.

He shut the water off and stepped out into the steamy bathroom, wrapping a towel around his waist and moving towards his room quickly. He had almost made it to his door when Alexis came around the corner and ran directly into his chest.

They both stared at each other for what seemed like an eternity, their mouths hanging open in shock. Ryan felt a blush creeping up his neck once again and he finally let his eyes drift to the ground, a mumbled apology falling from his lips.

Alexis nodded her agreement and replied with her own apology. They shifted around each other awkwardly before they finally got around each other and Ryan escaped into his bedroom. He basically slammed the door behind him and laid his bare back against the cold wood. His chest heaved erratically as he tried to calm himself.

After a few moments of imagining anything but Alexis being pressed against his chest he had calmed his hormones enough to slip into a clean pair of jeans and an onyx black button down shirt. He combed his hand through his hair quickly, just making sure that it wasn't standing up in a hundred different directions.

He stared at himself in the mirror, surveying the dark circles under his eyes and the ragged, wind-swept appearance of his skin. He looked like hell. But then there was the grin that had been settled onto his features for the better part of the afternoon. That made him look like a teenager, a kind of playful innocence on his features that he hadn't seen since Jenny had left him standing at the alter two years before.

He splashed some cologne onto his neck and took a deep breath before heading out into the kitchen for dinner. The rest of the ranch hands were already chatting amongst themselves as they sat at the long, wooden table. Rick was sitting at the head of the table, a newspaper spread out in front of him, and Kate was pouring over a casefile beside him, her brow furrowed. Their fingers were laced together between them, a gesture of affection that all of the ranch hands had come to know.

The two of them were the epitomy of true love, and it gave Ryan hope. Somewhere out there he was sure there was someone like Kate for him. As if on cue, Alexis strode in, carrying plates of food and setting them onto the table, that same smile on her face that had been there when he met her. Her shoulder brushed across his back as she passed him. The touch sent shivers through his body, but he shook it off and smiled weakly at her.

He settled into the chair next to Javier Esposito, a man that had signed onto the team on the same day that Ryan had. The two had struck up a companionable relationship from the moment they had met. Rick had paired them up as training partners and the rest had been a blur of Madden after the horses had been fed and stories about past flings in high school. The two were best friends.

"What's up with you, bro?" Javier's voice drug his gaze back into focus and he turned his head a bit too quickly, his neck tweeking. He yelped and his hand flew to the back of his neck, kneeding the muscles quickly. "You seem edgy tonight. Everything okay?"

"Yeah, I'm just...distracted, I guess. It's been a long day." He sighed, pointedly not allowing his eyes to wander back to the beauty who had happened to settle into the chair directly across from him.

"You sure it's nothing else? 'Cause if it is, you know that you can tell me, right?"

"Yeah, man. It's nothing, I'm good." Ryan nodded, plastering a fake smile to his face and trying to divert the conversation. "How was that branding today? Go well?"

The two dove into a conversation about how their respective jobs had gone through out the day. Around them, the other ranch hands had started digging into the food. They followed suit and soon the meal had been demolished. The men moved around each other with practiced precision and cleaned their dishes before clearing the rest of the food off of the table and heading to the living room.

Ryan bipassed the living room, moving down the hallway towards his bedroom. His barefeet were nearly silent on the hardwood floor as he stared straight ahead of him. He sighed and slipped into his bedroom, dropping his forehead to the door and trying to regain some semblence of sanity.

"You know, I don't think that banging your head on wooden doors is good for your mental health." He spun around to find Alexis sitting on the edge of his mouth. Suddenly his tongue was far too dry for his taste and his heart was pounding in his ears.

"A...Alexis, what are you doing in here?" He stammered, his palms sweating. He wiped them on his jeans nervously. "Your dad is probably looking for you." She stood slowly, a shark smile on her face as she came closer to him. He watched her warily, his body tensed.

He opened his mother to say something, but her finger landed on his lips and silenced him. The next thing he knew, her velvety soft lips were pressed against his and her fingers were threaded through the hair at the base of his skull.

He groaned softly into her mouth when his brain finally caught up with what was happening, and his arms tightened around her waist, pulling her closer until her breast were pressed against his chest. She gasped and he took the opportunity to nip her lower lip and slip his tongue against hers. She tightened her grip in his hair and leaned further into him.

When the need for air became unbearable, they reluctantly pulled apart. Ryan rested his forehead against hers, his hands still wrapped around her waist.

"You know, I could get in a lot of trouble for this." He whispered, nuzzling her nose with his softly. She hummed softly and ran her fingers over his chest before lacing behind his neck.

"Hmm, that's a good point. I'll protect you." She smiled and leaned in to kiss him again. Kevin smirked into the kiss and pulled her even closer. When they pulled away again, he sighed and stepped back.

"You should go back out there before your dad gets suspicious." She nodded her agreement and headed towards the door.

"You know, from what I understand, the Northern Lights are going to be amazing tomorrow night. They say that if you take a truck out to the back field you can see them perfectly. You know where I can find a wayward cowboy to wisk me away to the back field?" She smirked. Ryan chuckled and ran his fingers through his hair again.

"I've got a couple ideas. Meet me out in the barn after your dad and Kate go to sleep tomorrow night and I believe I can navigate the way to the back field for you." She giggled and pulled a dramatic curtsy.

"Sweet dreams, Mister Ryan." Ryan pulled a similar bow, a smile plastered to his face.

"Sweet dreams, Miss Castle." And with that, she disappeared out into the hallway and left Ryan to settle into his bed, visions of starlit skies and beautiful redheads dancing in his head.

Thoughts? Drop me a review and let me know.

Much love,

J. Rook