Castle waited for the elevator doors to open. He was balancing two take-out cups of coffee, his raincoat, a box of doughnuts and an advance copy of Naked Heat. The doughnuts, coffee, and book were peace offerings. He had been shirking his ride-along duties lately. If you could even call them duties. He was debating with himself on the proper nomenclature when the elevator doors opened.

He walked into the bullpen of the homicide squad of the twelfth precinct with a spring in his step and a smile on his face. Beckett looked up as he came to settle on his chair. "Hey," she said absently then did a double take as she noticed his demeanor. "It must have been a great meeting."

"Hey," he said handing her one of the coffees. "Why do you say that?"

"I don't know. You're kind of…glowing. Thanks for the coffee."

He raised his eyebrows, "Glowing?"

"Yeah." She eyed him suspiciously, as he schooled his face. "What's all this?"

"Well, I know I've been missing a lot lately with the launch meetings and other stuff. So," he presented the book, "this is for you."

Ryan and Esposito came out of the break room. Espo eyed the doughnuts. "Castle, what's going on?"

"Hey guys, It's just, look I know I haven't been around much lately and it's just a little way of apologizing for my absences."

"Where have you been?" Ryan asked, reaching for a doughnut.

Rick shrugged, "Boring publishing and other book stuff. Nothing exciting, no girlfriends, or anything." He chuckled apprehensively.

Esposito cocked his eyebrow. "Uh huh. I don't know, bro, I don't think a couple of sweet pastries are going to be enough for the, um, bribe." He picked out a Boston Cream doughnut from the box. "I mean really, aren't doughnuts a bit cliché?"

Rick looked at him under hooded eyes. "What would be a sufficient penance, Espo?"

Ryan piped in, "Floor seats at the Knicks."

"Guys. Would you really play on my guilt at having to be gone?" Beckett rolled her eyes. He continued, his words dripping with sincerity, the color of his eyes intense, "would you take advantage of that?"

Espo said, "Yup." Ryan finished with, "no problem." They did a complicated fist bump, clapping their right hands twice while wiggling their left hand fingertips together and smiled and took their doughnuts back to the break room.

"Fine." Castle agreed. He turned to Beckett, "What's going on here?" He asked, changing the subject.

"Absolutely nothing. The boys were even cleaning out the break room fridge." They nodded as they headed for coffee for their doughnuts. "I'm consolidating computer files."

"Wow, exciting," the sarcasm oozed off his tongue. A little hesitantly, he asked, "do you need me here?"

It was her turn to raise an eyebrow, "I always need you," she looked at him through her lashes. "But, if you have somewhere else to be, I'll understand." She pouted slightly, but if he noticed, he didn't let on.

"Okay, I could do with getting some writing done," he said completely oblivious. He was up and heading toward the elevator so quickly it made Kate's head spin.

Esposito and Ryan, who sometimes seemed like they were joined at the hip, came back out of the break room in time to see the cloud of dust settle in Castle's wake.

"Hey, was that Castle leaving?" Ryan asked.

"Yup. New movie title: here and gone in sixty seconds." She shook her head.

"Had somewhere better to be?"

She tilted her head, "Espo, are you complaining because our unpaid, volunteer consultant may have something more productive to do than shoot paper ball hoops with you?"

"Well, no, I, no I mean, not if you put it that way. It's just weird, ya' know, used to be we couldn't get rid of him."

"I wouldn't worry too much about it," she said to reassure them, but she began to wonder. He had really been gone a lot lately. Had the shine finally worn off following the squad around? He seemed enthusiastic when he was here, but at the same time, anxious to leave. She glanced at his chair and frowned. It was empty.

He stepped into the hallway from the warm mid-April sunshine. He always felt renewed when he came back to Susannah's class. He would not stay away so long between visits.

"Mister Rodgers." She came up from behind him.

"Susannah, it's Rick, remember?"

"Rick. It is so wonderful to see you again so soon. We thought you might have forgotten about us."

"Never," he smiled, "just my day job, keeping me busy. How have things been here?"

"Same old story," she looked at him for acknowledgement of the pun. He crinkled his eyes for her. "Ya' know budget cuts, kids getting in trouble, parents who don't care…"

He held up a hand, "Really, Susannah, don't sugar-coat it for me." She rewarded his humor with a full-on genuine smile. He returned the favor. They arrived at the library. It really was not a library; it was more of a coat closet that had been converted with, ahem, acquired shelving courtesy of abandoned milk crates. It shouted poverty, but Susannah had put her own resources into making it into as much of an escape as possible. Rick smiled, broadly.

"I got the donation from that organization you recommended."

"Kids need to read?"

"Yes, great people."

He looked at the newly acquired books. Books of all different genres and reading levels. She had done a great job getting these for the kids. "Anyone taking advantage of this great selection?"

"You know my policy, a book a month."

"As long as they're sticking to it." Rick perused the newer titles. "Oh, I love this series. I used to read it to Alexis." Turning serious he asked, "Susannah, what do you need?"

She smiled and answered, "Just for you to keep coming and reading…"

"You know I could donate…" he began, but she cut him off.

"Rick, as I've said before, the kids just need positive role models, people who really care about them and accept them as they are."

Rick nodded. She had said it before, many times. "Well, what are we reading today?"

They made their way to a brightly lit room at the end of the hall. There was a rolling desk chair in front of a worn shag carpet. A dozen or so kids sat on or around the carpet. The kids came from all walks of life. There were two things that drew them together: their love of books and their labels. This group of kids had fallen through the cracks in public education. There were kids with special needs, but public education offered no special solutions. The 'one-size fits all' solution just didn't work. It never had. Rick smiled as he saw recognition and delight break across their faces. After getting reacquainted hugs, he settled down onto the carpet with the kids, foregoing the chair and opened the pages to an adventure.

He walked out of PS 86 into the bright sunshine, but it was dull to Rick. He had just left shining eyes and brightly lit imaginations. He loved those kids. They appreciated his time, were polite and considerate. He thought about the amount of unfiltered love he felt and wondered, not for the first time, how society could label them so off-handedly. He shook his head and then grinned sheepishly, realizing he had been walking in the wrong direction, and turned to go home.

For the second time this week, he had excused himself from coming into the precinct by phone. If Kate didn't know better, she would swear he had a girlfriend. The thought caught her off guard. There was a sickening tightness in her chest and a lump in her throat. What was that? The thought of Richard Castle with a girlfriend never bothered her before. Had her feelings toward the writer change? She assessed herself. No, she had tried to convince herself that there were no extraordinary feelings. She sighed; no, it just was not true. She cared about him, more. He had wormed his way into her space and her heart and damn it, she liked having him there. Now he was gone all the time and she did not like it. Kate stared into space as she thought about her missing partner.

"Beckett…Yo, Beckett!"

She focused her eyes on Javi. "Yeah."

"Where were you?"

"Oh, just thinking." Her eyes inadvertently landed on Castle's vacant chair.

Esposito didn't miss it. "Uh huh. Any idea where he's been going?"

Kate frowned, "no, uh, no and I, uh…who?"

Esposito made a face that was somewhere between disbelief and confusion. "Castle," he shook his head.

"Castle? Why…why would I be thinking about him? Moreover, why would I worry about where he has been going? It's none of my business. After all,"

"He's a volunteer consultant." Ryan had walked over to her desk at the right time and he and Espo finished her sentence together. They had heard it before. They slapped each other's palms and their own chests at the same time. Kate rolled her eyes. She looked at his chair again, grinning, thinking he would have thought that was funny.

"Criminy, Beckett, call him."

"Don't you two have anything better to do?"

She might have been conducting a symphonic orchestra, as they answered in unison, "no." Another eye roll. She picked up her phone and pressed the icon for his number.

Every eye was riveted on his face. Eyes that normally would be darting to and from various stimuli, little things like the click of a second hand on the clock or the reflection of light from a passing automobile, but he kept them focused: their imaginations stretching and growing with each turn of the page. His deep baritone resonated with the words of Chris Van Allsburg's Jumangi

"The lion roared so loud it knocked Peter right off his chair. The big cat jumped to the floor. Peter was up on his feet, running through the house with the lion a whisker's length behind. He ran upstairs and dove under a bed. The lion tried to squeeze under, but got his head stuck. Peter scrambled out, ran from the bedroom, and slammed the door behind him."

Castle's phone rang. He made a face, mouthed "sorry" to Susannah, and moved to silence it. It was Beckett. He sighed, "I'm sorry, kids, I have to take this. It's my other job." He forlornly watched their faces morph back to the here and now. "Damn it," he thought as he walked to the hallway.

"Castle."

"Hey Castle."

"Beckett?"

Silence. He checked the phone to make sure he hadn't dropped the call.

"Is there something going on?"

"Well," a sigh, "not a body or anything like that."

"Okay, um, I'm kind of in the middle of something. What do you need, Beckett?"

"Oh, God, of course you are. It's stupid really. Um, never mind. I'm sorry to have bothered..."

"It's not a bother," he ran a frustrated hand through his hair. "Look, if you need me, you know I'm there, but if it's between watching Ryan and Esposito in a beard growing contest..."

"We heard that, bro." Espo cut in.

Rick shook his head. "Anyway, if it's between hanging out waiting for something to happen and being here, I'll have to choose here, right now."

"No, you're right. Just, um, where are you?"

Rick drew in a breath and held it as he thought about it. This was his very own private volunteer work. He had not shared his involvement with anyone. Not even his mother. He could tell they missed him and that brought warmth to his heart, but did he want everyone knowing?

"Look, I'll see you tomorrow and if we don't catch a body, maybe I'll introduce you to the people I've been with."

"Okay, just, you're okay, right? I mean, you don't need…"

"Beckett, I'm fine. I'll see you tomorrow."