Disclaimers: I do not own any part of Castle.
Kate Beckett hated moving these boxes. Not because it was particularly strenuous, they were light, and few in number, no, it was the contents of the boxes that she really hated. Because those contents were memories. Photo albums, old scrapbooks, some of her mother's journals that Kate had spent hours poring over, desperate to feel close to her mother in some way, memories were her own worst enemy right now. But since her father had been evicted from the apartment she had grown up in, it was off with her to NYU these boxes went. She had just transferred from Stanford back home, needing to be here, needing home. She was going to change her major to Criminal Justice as soon as she got these boxes to her new dorm. If she couldn't have justice, she could get it for others.
Traffic was surprisingly light for 9:00 in the morning on a Monday, and she made it to the university's housing complex in record time. Unpacking the two boxes from the trunk of her car, she walked into the building's elevator, pressing the button for the fifth floor. There was no one else in the elevator, allowing her to set her boxes down for a second. She saw it every time she looked at those boxes, pulling the crime scene tape over her head, seeing her mother's broken, lifeless body lying on a pool of blood, stabbed three times.
The elevator chimed, pulling Kate back to reality as the doors opened onto the fifth floor, where a young woman with curly brown hair was standing impatiently, tapping her foot against the floor. Kate stepped out of the elevator as the woman stepped in, ignoring the man evidently calling her name.
"Kyra, wait! We can fix this, we-" The well dressed, clean shaven man was saying, but he stopped short as he saw the elevator doors close behind Kyra.
It was then he seemed to notice Kate for the first time.
"Oh, I'm sorry" he said as he nearly ran into her. He had sparkling blue eyes, and a light scruff which accentuated-what was she thinking? She didn't need to be thinking about cute guys, she needed to get through college, graduate from the Police Academy, and find her mother's killer. Not be attracted to men she hadn't even met yet.
"I'm Rick. Rick Rodgers," he said, offering his hand, then noticed the boxes she was carrying. "Here, let me get that for you."
"It's okay," she replied, "they're not heavy."
"No really, it would be ungentlemanly for me to let you carry them by yourself." He said, reaching down to take one from her.
With a sigh, she handed a box to him.
"Which room?" He asked
"13A." Kate replied.
Rick chuckled a little, "that's my dorm. I guess you're my new roommate then. Oh, and, I never got your name, by the way."
"It's Kate. Kate Beckett." She replied. "I never got the reason you were shouting at that girl."
"Oh, yeah," he said, sadness overtaking his eyes for a moment. "That was Kyra, my, well, I guess ex-girlfriend now. She said she needed space, but I didn't want her to go."
So they both could use a friend, then. Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all.
AN: Just a quick little drabble i wrote at 4:30 AM, please dont come down too hard on it, it is my first ever Castle fanfic. And i changed their ages a little to make this work, so Kate is 19 in this and Castle is 21.