Hi all, here's a little AU story that I came up with. This first chapter is Lanie & Castle however, Beckett will join and it will be mostly Beckett & Castle.

Disclaimer: I don't own Castle.

It was a cool Monday morning when Lanie had received a phone call that shocked and surprised her. Her boss had given her instructions to wait outside the building at 8am for a gentleman named Richard Castle who was coming to study her job as a medical examiner.

Lanie knew exactly who Richard Castle was. He was that murder mystery novelist that so often appeared on page 6 of the paper. Each time with a different woman on his arm. She had to admit he wasn't all that bad to look at, but she had heard a number of stories about him and was worried about having him in her office.

She worked with the NYPD and their homicide department. The last thing she needed was some cocky author getting in the way, preventing her from doing her job and thinking that they knew more than they really did. And that's exactly how she expected Mr Castle was going to be.

A black car pulled up just outside the building, and Lanie guessed it must be the mystery novelist turning up for… work? She wasn't really sure what he would call it, it's not like he was actually getting paid to help her or anything so it couldn't be called work, but then again, he wrote books for a living and he was doing research for these books, so maybe work was the right word.

Richard Castle stepped out of the car, and started making his way to the entrance of the building. Lanie stopped him just before he reached the door. She watched him briefly, taking everything in. He really was quite "yummy" to look at.

"Richard Castle, I'm Lanie Parish. I think you're looking for me?" she said putting her right hand out towards him.

And then he spoke, and "yummy" was no longer the word she would use to describe him.

"Parish, yes they said that someone named Parish would meet me. I just never expected that someone to look like you," he said looking Lanie up and down, wiggling his eyebrows and taking her hand to shake it. "Please, call me Rick," he said with a huge grin.

After a very brief moment shaking hands, Lanie shook her hand free. "I'd rather call you Castle."

"That's also fine by me," he said still grinning.

Right then, Lanie knew this was going to be one of the longest weeks of her life. He hadn't even been there for five minutes and was already using cheesy lines on her. It seemed like all the stories she heard were true.

"C'mon, the dead bodies are this way," Lanie said opening the door and leading the way through the building.

As they made their way through the halls of the building Castle started talking again. "So, what is it that makes a woman such as yourself want to work with dead bodies?"

"A woman like me?" Lanie asked tentatively.

"Yeah, I mean, look at you. I could understand if you weren't so easy on the eyes. I'd want to hide myself away and work on my own too if that were me. But you, you don't look like you need to do that at all."

"Ok, let's get one thing straight right here," Lanie said turning around and putting her hand up in front of Castle's chest stopping him in his tracks. "You are here for research, you are not here to pick up your next page 6 woman. So you will keep your remarks to yourself, and the only time you speak is if you have a question in regards to my job or the case we are working on. Got it?"

Castle swallowed, this was not how he had expected the morning to start. He had just hoped to have a little bit of fun. Most women liked being told they were good looking, it wasn't often his comments backfired. "Got it," he said.

Lanie grinned to herself, turned her back to Castle and continued to lead them through the hall to where she worked. She currently didn't have a body on the table, so she thought she would get any initial questions Castle had out of the way.

"So, Castle, what research are you expecting to do here? What is it that you want to learn exactly? And how can I help you quickly, so I can get back to my job alone?"

"Look I'm sorry Lanie, can I call you Lanie?" Castle asked a little taken aback by how blunt she was being.

"Yes, I'll allow it"

"I'm sorry, I can be a bit of a jackass sometimes, but I usually get away with it." At this point, he chose to try his big cheesy grin, but by the look on Lanie's face, it wasn't helping him at all. If anything, he was digging himself into a deeper hole. "Can we start again? I promise I wont make any more comments on your looks. Work only from now on."

Lanie glared at him, but upon seeing the sincerity he had on his face, she softened her gaze and held out her hand once more.

"Lanie Parish, Medical Examiner"

Castle smiled and shook her hand. "Richard Castle, novelist"

"I know who you are Castle" Lanie said seriously. "Now can we get to work?"

"Yes. I'd love to."

Lanie made her way over to a desk that sat in the corner of the room and sat down in the chair.

"So, Castle, do you really think I'm good looking?" Lanie asked. She was not self-conscious or unsure of her looks, she was just testing Castle to see if he had learnt his lesson yet.

"Um…" Castle had no idea how to respond. He was confused. One minute he was told not to talk about anything that was not related to the job, and now here Lanie was asking him to comment on her looks. He didn't know if he should stand back where he was or go take a seat with her at the desk, he was completely perplexed.

"Well…" Lanie said, waiting for a response and really enjoying the look that Castle had on his face. He really had no idea how to respond. Her plan had worked. He knew she was in charge.

"I…" Castle still struggled to get a sentence out. "I… yes… no… am I… trouble?"

"Well well, Writer-boy doesn't seem to be able to construct a sentence right now."

"It's just, you said I could only speak when it had to do with a case, and I didn't want to blow it again. So, how am I supposed to respond?"

"Like that. Thank you Castle. That's lesson one. Here, I am in charge and you will do as I say."

"Right."

"Let's get started then. I guess you are doing research for a new book. So, tell me, have you written the death yet, or are you doing research and then writing it?" Lanie asked, making herself more comfortable in her seat.

"Well, at this stage…"

Castle was interrupted before he could finish his answer by the phone on Lanie's desk ringing.

"Sorry, must get this," Lanie said picking up the phone.

Lanie took the phone call and while she was talking took some notes on a pad of paper. After about thirty seconds, she hung up and looked up at Castle.

"Well, we have a body to get to. We will be going to a crime scene, you are not to touch a single thing, the last thing we need is for you to put fingerprints all over the evidence. When we get there, you remain silent and stay out of the way of the NYPD."

"No problem. Stay silent and out of the way. Got it." Castle repeated with a nod of his head, and picking up a tool that had caught his eye on the desk.

"And don't touch anything," Lanie said again eyeing what Castle had just picked up in his hands and then she picked up her keys and grabbed a bag which Castle guessed was filled with evidence bags, gloves and all the instruments required at the crime scene.

Castle dropped what he had found back on the desk. "Right, yep. Don't touch I can do."

Lanie looked at him and raised her eyebrows.

"I promise. I will behave."

With everything gathered and instructions given to Castle, it was time to get going.

"C'mon then Castle, let's go."

"Oooooh goody, we're going to a real live crime scene," Castle said clapping his hands.

"Dead body Castle. This isn't exciting."

Castle stopped clapping and shoved his hands in his pockets feeling slightly ashamed of the excitement he had shown. He was excited to be going to his first crime scene but Lanie was right, a dead body meant somebody had just lost a friend, a family member, a lover, this was not a time to be excited.

Making their way out to the van, Castle stayed silent repeating his instructions to himself. "Be silent, stay out of the way, don't touch anything, be silent, stay out of the way, don't touch anything, be silent, stay out of the way, don't touch anything," he repeated over and over in his head.

As they stepped into the van Castle turned to Lanie, "so is there anything I need to know about working the crime scene or working with the cops."

"Yes… the cops have a job to do and if you get in their way, they wont be as quick to give you a second chance as I was. When we get there, I need to find out all I can before we move the body and give that information Detective Beckett and the team. Once we've got all we can from the scene, we bring the body back here."

"Right, and Detective Beckett… he's a good cop is he? He knows what he's doing?" Castle asked curiously.

Lanie smiled at the question, she wasn't going to tell Castle Detective Beckett was a she. This was going to be fun. Detective Beckett was another woman in the team he was going to have to take orders from. She looked over at him as he waited for the answer. "Sure… yes… he knows what he's doing."

Well that's it for chapter one. Tell me what you think... :) I'll try and update daily.