So, this is my first attempt at Castle fanfic. I've only recently become a fan of the show and thought I'd try my hand at writing these fascinating characters. If anyone is interested in this story, please let me know and I'll be happy to keep going. I'm a poor updater though and I can't promise that new chapters will be up quickly, but I'll do my best.

Disclaimer: No ownership, no profit, just for fun.

Kate Beckett glanced up from her computer after what felt like hours. After a quick look at her cell phone she realized that it really had been hours and it was definitely time to head home. She looked at Castle's empty chair and the worn copy of 'Taken by the Fourth Kind' sitting on the edge of her desk. She smiled to herself, remembering Castle's enthusiastic assertions that there was no doubt that aliens played a part in their victim's demise. He could be such a child...and she wouldn't change him for the world.

She quickly glanced around for her coat before remembering that it was still thrown across the couch in the break room. Heading that way she reflected on the nature of their case, the grisly condition of the remains and the stress that naturally accompanied dealing with mysterious, ambiguous agents that seemed hell-bent on making her job ten times harder than it had to be.

Once again she thanked whoever it was out there that was looking out for her that Castle had come back when he did.

It was hard to imagine doing her job without him anymore. Yes, they would still close cases and put murderers behind bars, but the pessimism and the weight of the world attitude that she had a reputation for before he had appeared, would certainly return if she didn't have him making her less than rosy job a little more bearable.

She stopped short as she entered the break room.

"Castle?"

He continued to snore away on the couch and she took a quick moment to simply look at his peaceful face.

"Castle!" She said, a bit more forcefully.

"Hmm…what?" He mumbled, rolling over and burrowing into the corner of the couch.

She almost laughed out loud.

"Castle, what are you doing here?"

He finally rolled over and opened bleary eyes. " Beckett?...What are you doing here?"

She rolled her eyes. "That's what I just asked you."

He pulled himself up into a sitting position and looked around, realization dawning on him. "Oh yeah."

"Yeah. Now that you're all caught up, I'll ask you again. What are you doing here?"

He looked confused for a minute. "Just give me a second. I had a question to ask you."

"Why didn't you ask me earlier? I can't believe you waited around all night just to ask me a question. "

"I didn't want to bother you and I figured I'd just lay down for a second while you finished up, but I guess that second turned into…" he glanced at the clock, "…wow, into three hours."

"Yeah, you've been there for awhile and that couch isn't very comfortable."

"My back definitely agrees with you." He turned hopeful eyes on her.

"Don't even bother Castle. I'm not giving you a massage."

"Damn you and your mind reading. It was worth a shot."

"You know, it really wasn't. Anyway, now that you have my undivided attention, what was it you wanted to ask me?"

"Well…" he began, looking more than a tad apprehensive.

She felt her stomach plummet. She wasn't going to like this, she just knew it, but he was going to turn on the charm and those puppy dog eyes and she was going to cave. As sure as she knew the sun would rise tomorrow she knew that she wouldn't be able to say no to him.

This was only one of the many terrifying realizations she had come to recently. When she had made the decision at the beginning of the summer that she could and would get over Richard Castle she never thought, not in a million years, that her feelings would be anything less than a breeze to overcome…had she ever been wrong. It seems she had underestimated what she had assumed had been, while an undoubtedly healthy attraction, one that determination and some concerted effort could conquer.

She had Josh now, but it wasn't Josh who bought her a hamburger almost every evening and made her smile when her cares and worries threatened to pull her into their undertow. It wasn't Josh that looked at her with eyes brimming with affection and pride when she cracked a case and slapped the cuffs on another one of New York's scumbags. It was Richard Castle, it was always him.

She sighed, resigned. "What do you want Castle?"

"Well, you see. My dinner with Ashley's parents was, by some weird twist of fate, a success."

Oh. That was unexpected.

"Really? I though you said you bombed. Didn't you get my call half way through dinner and then leave them sitting there with your mother? Wouldn't that alone have sealed the deal?"

He smiled at that.

"You'd think so. Apparently they overhead our conversation and I am now one of the most fascinating people they've ever met."

"Well, good for you. What does this have to do with me?"

He looked down at his hands before looking up at her.

"They want to come on our camping trip next weekend, and I can't be alone with those people..."

Oh no.

"No Castle." She cut him off. Maybe if he never got to finish the question they could pretend that he never had the thought in the first place.

She started to back away and he stood up to follow her. She couldn't do this.

"Please Kate. I can't spend the whole weekend with them. Alexis will be off with Ashley and I can't talk about economics for seventy two hours. Please, I need backup! Don't send me in there alone and unarmed. You wouldn't be so heartless."

"They can't be that bad," she said, scrambling.

"You haven't met them yet."

Yet! What did that mean? Too many thoughts whorling around in her head.

"Castle," she groaned. "Please don't ask me to do this."

He looked her in the eye and said three words that would break her.

"I need you."

As he pled with her to go she knew one thing for certain. Accepting his offer would mean a lot more, at least to her, than agreeing to a weekend of sparing him from the company of Ashley's parents. One didn't just tell one's boyfriend that one was going away with another man for a weekend. If she said yes the implications would be monumental. To accept would be tantamount to admitting to herself what it was that she really wanted, and was she ready for that?

Could she do that?

She had seen it lately. The signs, the little things he did for her, the markers that had popped up everywhere last year, were reappearing at an alarming rate as they spent more and more time together. They both might have had significant others, but they weren't fooling anyone.

What was he really asking from her?

"Are you serious?"

"As a heart attack."

"That serious."

"I really want you to go with me. It could be fun. We'll swim, hike, make s'mores…make more s'mores. Please, if the offer of chocolate and my company don't work, then I've got nothing left."

"Why not take Gina?" She nearly choked on the words.

That gave him pause.

"She's not really the camping type. I took her back when we were married, just me, her and Alexis. It was like watching the 'The Parent Trap'. It wasn't pretty."

"You've seen 'The Parent Trap'?"

"Seriously Beckett?"

"Dumb question. I thought Alexis and Gina got along."

"Alexis makes it work…for me, but she's never made a secret of how good she feels Gina is for me…not at all. The Taylor Swift tickets softened her a little, but her loyalties haven't changed. Anyway, Gina and I have kinda been on the outs lately. You know."

She did, probably more than he realized. Her relationship with Josh was already on shaky ground and the warmth that spread through her at the thought that Alexis didn't approve of Gina simply reaffirmed that that unstable ground was about to give way completely.

She felt she had to put a bit more of a fight, for posterity's sake.

"I don't know. I have to look at my calendar and see if I'm even available."

"I'd be forever in your debt."

"I like the sound of that."

He grinned devilishly at her. "Not as much as I do."

She hit him lightly on the arm.

"Go home, go to bed."

"But you haven't answered my question," he whined.

"I'll let you know tomorrow."

"I guess that's only…" he looked at the clock again, "six hours away. Boy, it really is late, isn't it?"

"Yes, and I'm tired."

"Okay, but promise you'll tell me tomorrow? There are some logistics to figure out so I need to know a.s.a.p."

"Yes, you'll have your answer, but not if you keep pestering me," she jabbed playfully.

He nodded and smiled. "Fine, I can be a good boy and wait patiently."

"Picture that."

"Ouch."

He picked up her coat and helped her on with it, softly pulling her hair from the collar, letting his hands linger on her shoulders for a moment. She had to bite back a sigh and again reflected on just how much trouble she was in.

"C'mon Castle. Let's go"

As he followed her out she knew that her mind was already made up and she knew what she had to do.

Could it be that after weeks of struggling with the feelings elicited by Castle's return that things were actually looking up? For all intents and purpose they were two, single people, with an undeniable attraction, spending three days together in the woods.

With two hormonal teenagers and a stuffy economist.

If nothing else it would at least be entertaining.

TBC