This is a fill for anonymous from castle fanfic prompts who first suggested Rick as the heavyweight champion. It doesn't match the prompt exactly but the idea of Rick as a boxer caught my imagination. While I would love to continue this I don't have the skill to write multi chapter stories.

The Boxer and the Badge

They were quiet driving back from the diner. The three man sat in silence until one spoke.

"I don't think I've ever..." The big man with the brown hair and blue eyes said.

"I know right, it's, it's Ok I can't describe it." Said the shorter man with fair features.

"I had something like that once" said the tall Hispanic, "I stopped one time at a mess hall in Iraq. Didn't know that was where they were teaching the new recruits how to be cooks." He turned to look over to the big man, "Although now that I think about it, this was much worse Rick."

Rick leaned back in the passenger seat and sighed.

"Ok, to recap. We've come out here in the middle of nowhere so I can concentrate on my upcoming fight with Dwayne Foster. No distractions, just train and get ready. And we have no food. Well, we have sandwich meat and frozen food and pizzas but no real food." He turned to look into the back seat where the shorter man was sitting. "You're a great manager Kevin but this stinks."

Kevin leaned forward, "I know, it was all set. I didn't get the message until we got out here that Mrs. Holder was sick. And infectious. And quarantined."

The Hispanic man driving glanced back briefly, "Damn Ryan what'd she have."
"I don't know Javi, just a long medical term for we don't have a cook."

Rick spoke after looking out the window, "Ok, Kevin, you have three days to find me something or we go back to the city."

Javi spoke up then, "Come one champ, you know why we're out here. Foster is younger then you and faster. But he's also cocky and arrogant. You're out here training and concentrating and he's back in New York thinking about women and the sights; not his upcoming fight for the world title. We get through this and Foster will just be the latest loser to try and storm the Castle."

"I hate that line Javier."

Ryan spoke up from the back, "At least it's better than what your publicist ex-wife wanted to use; hard Castle."

Rick nodded at that, "Ok, true. That made me sound like a porn star or an 80's TV show."

They next day Javi had Rick start training and near the end of the day they were out doing road work while Kevin was on the phone trying to find a cook willing to come out to the middle of nowhere. They had circled a small lake and were now facing two roads; neither of which seemed to go in the direction they needed.

Rick looked over and saw a young girl fishing.

He approached close enough to talk but not too close; he didn't want to scare her just like he wouldn't want anyone to scare his daughter.

"Excuse me little girl." The girl turned to look at him. Now he could see that she looked about the same age as Alexis.

"You two aren't weirdos are you?"

"What?"
"My mom's a deputy sheriff and she says stay away from weirdos."
"We're not weirdos." Ignoring the eye roll Javi gave him, "I'm Richard Castle and this is my friend Javier Esposito. We're trying to get back to Camp Schulman; we rented it but we're not sure which road to take."

She pointed to the road on the right, "Follow that until you come to a lightning hit tree; go down the hill and its right there. If you follow the road it'll take miles."
"Thank you chica, are you going to be ok out here? It'll be sundown soon."
"Oh yeah, I just live right there." She turned and pointed almost directly across from where they were to a drive way that vanished into heavy foliage.

Richard spoke up, "Listen is there any place in town to get food; besides Grayson's Diner?"
But the girl was shaking her head, "The other placed burned down last summer. Their food was terrible. And ever since old Mr. Grayson went crazy his is pretty bad too."

Rick looked at Javi, "A crazy man owns a restaurant?"
"Well Mom says not crazy but," She searched for the word, "Zymers, he's got Zymers. So sometimes he forgets what he's cooking. But he's had the place longer then my mom's been alive."
"Ok, thanks." They were interrupted by a woman coming up the drive way. She had dark hair and a lithe figure wearing jeans and a black jacket. She was also walking gingerly like something was hurting. Rick nodded his head; he walked like that for a day or two after his fights.

"Jo, time for supper."

"Ok, Mom" yelled Jo as she started to pick up her fishing gear. That's when the woman noticed them and walked towards them. She was about five or six inches shorter then he was with really stunning hazel eyes.

Richard spoke up, "Hope we weren't bothering your daughter ma'am. We were looking for Camp Schulman and we weren't sure how to get back."

"Yeah, your daughter gave us directions."

She just nodded and looked at both of them with sharp eyes. Castle wasn't easily intimidated but he had no doubt that if he had tried anything with this woman's daughter she would kill him. And probably smile doing it.

The woman nodded and stuck out her hand, "Kate Beckett."

Richard smiled and shook her hand, "Richard Castle and this is my trainer Javier Esposito."

"Trainer, you some kind of athlete?"

That set Richard back a bit, granted his face may not be that recognizable but his name usually was.

"Uh, I'm a boxer, came up here to train for a fight."
The woman kept staring at him, "You any good?"
That silenced Rick and Javi spoke up, "Miss Beckett-"

"Just Beckett is fine."
"Ok, Beckett, this man happens to be the unified heavyweight boxing champion of the world."
"Unified?"

Rick answered with a little bit of pride, "There are a lot of boxing organizations; each with their own belt. And I'm the champion in all of them."

"Ok." Which deflated Rick a bit as she turned to look back at Javi. "What branch were you in?"

"Special forces, how did you know?"

"Deputy Conklin, down at the station, he carries himself the same way but he was a marine."

Jo came over, "alright Mom, I'm ready. Is Anne and her family on the way?"

Kate looked down to her, "Sorry, Jo, Robert was called into Cassville for emergency surgery; It's just going to be us tonight."
"Ok, Mom." Jo hung her head and headed towards the house.

"Well good night gentlemen."

She turned to follow

"It'll be Ok Jo, at least we have lots of food. I'll just take all those ribs and sides left and drop them off at the hospital before my rehab appointment."

Richard looked at Javi who looked back at him before Richard walked over and spoke up

"Miss- uh Beckett." At the look in her eyes. "Beckett. This is going to sound really bizarre but the cook we hired got sick so we've been stuck with frozen food, fast food and Grayson's diner."
"You ate there and didn't have to go to the hospital? You must be in great shape."

"Look, the point is I will happily buy those ribs at any price you choose. Please." She looked at his face. Unlike his smile earlier that had been kind of cheesy which she had enjoyed deflating, because she most definitely knew who he was, this smile was genuine.

She sighed inside. She had made a lot of ribs and sides counting on Dr. Russell and his family to help eat them.

Then afterward she was going to get him to renew her prescriptions without charging for an office visit. Even with the pay she got while on leave her medical bills just kept mounting.

"Fine, but if you try anything I will shoot you; and not in a good place." Javi immediately got on the phone calling Kevin and telling him how to get there with Rick interrupting him to tell Kevin to bring his wallet.

They followed Kate up the short drive way to a wooden house and Kate led them inside to the living room. It was nice and comfortable with wooden floors and a fireplace with filled book shelves on either side. Kate led them thru the room to the kitchen, "The guest bathroom is there and everything else is set up in the sunroom."

They nodded and Javi spoke, "I'll go out to the road and wave down Kevin." He turned and left and Kate looked at Rick.

"My manager, Kevin Ryan, really nice guy." She just nodded, "Ok, I'll wash up."

Rick hurried to do so, the small guest bathroom just a shower, sink, and toilet. Kind of plain except for a small print of what looked like an Italian villa overlooking the sea.

Rick hurried back to the kitchen to see Jo taking silverware thru the family room to what must be the sunroom where he could see a long table that already had plates and cups. He turned back to see Kate start to lift a large bowl of mashed potatoes and he jumped quickly to grab it when he saw the look of pain on her face. She leaned against the counter for a moment before she spoke.

"Thanks, sometimes I'm ok and I forget and then if I move wrong it reminds me."

He followed her as she carried a basket of rolls.

"What happened?" She turned to look but there was no sly grin, just honest curiosity.

"My cruiser was crushed by a drunk driver; messed up my back but I'm getting better."
"The other driver?"
"No seat belt. It wasn't pretty." He just nodded at that.

They had finished setting up the table when Javi came back in with Kevin. Both went to the guest bathroom to wash up and when they came out Kevin gave Rick his wallet and he started to open it up. But Kate just shook her head.

"After you eat; you might not like the food." He put his wallet away and they sat down.

Rick had thought the food smelled incredible; but it tasted even better. The potatoes, coleslaw, beans, rolls and ribs vanished off the table. They had ice cream for dessert and once again the men was speechless.

Rick turned to her, "Kate, I don't want you to think I'm just being nice or trying to flatter you but that really was one of the best meals I've ever eaten." The boys also nodding in agreement.

"Miss Beckett" Javi interrupted, "Call her Beckett."

"Ok, Beckett, Javi says you're a deputy sheriff. How'd you make all this food while working?"

Jo was the one who answered, "She's not working. She's on medical leave until her back heals. But that might be months."

Rick who looked at Javi who was nodding and at Kevin who looked puzzled then he got it.

"Say Beckett, if you're on medical leave it must be really boring. What if we offered you a position?"

Kate just looked at him, "A position?" The coldness in her voice made Rick jump in.

"What he means, is head chef at Camp Schulman until we're gone. We'll buy the groceries; pay you a fair wage." He took a breath, "Ok any wage, just please will you save us."

Kate looked at the three. They reminded her of little boys waiting to see if they could get puppy for Christmas. She looked past them at Jo who was nodding then put her hand up and started rubbing invisible money.

"Ok, what's a fair wage?"

Kevin straightened himself up and spoke, "Normally I would research market costs, labor, inventory, etc. But I don't care." He pulled a pen and a notebook out of his jacket and wrote down a number and then slid it across to her.

Kate looked down at the number on sheet, "And this would be for all the time you're here?"
Kevin looked shocked, "No, that would be per week while we were here." Kate had to swallow. That would definitely help with her medical bills.

"Ok, so how would we do this?"

"You don't have to worry about breakfast, between the three of us we can get breakfast. But lunch and dinner with Sunday dinner being special. Take two days off a week, but on those days just leave us something we can heat up."

Kate sat back, "Ok, My rehab appointments are in the morning. And there's no school right now so Jo can come with me. I'll start tomorrow. Is there any food at all?"
"No, I think there's a bag of carrot sticks left but that's it."
Rick was shaking his head, "I ate those last night."

Kevin pulled out his checkbook quickly writing. "Here's a check for a thousand dollars to get started, we have several freezers and a walk in cooler so go ahead and fill it up. If you need more money just let me know. Tomorrow when you come in I'll set up your paperwork and direct deposit.

They got up and the boys began to carry the dishes to the sink, "You guys don't have to do that, I can do the dishes."

"Kate, you cooked, I think I can scrape a few dishes and do the dishwasher." But Kate was shaking her head, "I'm the dishwasher. Been meaning to get one but it seems like something else always needs to be taken care of first."
"Kevin get the information you need now and Javi and I will clean up."
Kate watched them play rock paper scissor and Javi won so he got to dry while Kevin took down her information in his notebook so he could have the paperwork done before she got to the camp.

When they were finished they thanked her and left. She watched the car drive away as Jo came up to her and handed her $300.00

"Honey where'd this come from?"
Jo just smiled, "I reminded them that Rick said he'd pay for the ribs and since there were three of them he had to pay three times."

Jo saw the look on her mom's face, "We do need the money, right mom?" she said before Kate could speak.

Kate just sighed, "Yes we do. Ok honey go pick out a movie for us to watch." Jo gave out a loud "Yes!" and ran back in the house. Kate turned around one more time to look in the direction they had gone.

Richard Castle seemed a lot different from what she had read about in the gossip magazines. It would be interesting to see what he was really like. Then she gathered herself, went back inside the house and turned off the outside light.