Just like he did every morning, Rick Castle floated into the 12th precinct, two steaming cups of coffee in his hands. One, a tall skinny latte, vanilla, of course, with two pumps and no sugar. The other, black. He didn't care for all the extra pomp and circumstance with his caffeine.

The bullpen was unusually quiet on this particular day. Normally, there were detectives running around, calling for warrants, grilling suspects, and always, the sound he had grown so accustomed to, markers listing information on the murder boards. Who would've ever thought that a little squeaking could be so soothing?

But today, no one was running, there were no interrogations, and no squeaking.

Rick looked around to find Ryan and Esposito tossing a baseball back and forth as they swiveled and rocked in their chairs.

"Yo, Castle!" Esposito called, not disrupting his throwing and catching pattern for a second.

"Hey guys. What's, uh, going on?"

In one motion Ryan threw the ball back at his partner, slammed his feet on the floor and turned to face the writer. "Absolutely nothing my friend. Absolutely nothing."

This was just to weird for him. Rick raised his eyebrows in question.

"Yea man, not a single murder in the past eight hours."

"You know," Ryan started, "not that I'm saying I want people to get murdered, but if this keeps up we'll all be out of jobs."

Rick cocked his head and curled up the edge of his lip. "Well…not all of us." He flashed the boys a smirk before heading over to his favorite detective's desk.

"Don't bother Castle." Ryan called over.

Rick stopped on a dime and pivoted to look at the detectives.

"Since we don't have a case she went down to keep Lanie company while she worked on some labs."

Esposito nodded to Ryan that he wanted to get back to their 'intense' game of catch.

For a moment he was shocked. Rick never knew Beckett to not be working. Eyes scrunched together, he looked down at the drink in his hand.

"You know what guys? I'm, uh. I'm just going to go down to the morgue for a sec." He slowly began to side step his way to the elevator.

"I'll be right back." Bumping the 'down' button with his elbow he lifted the cup in ther direction. "Wouldn't want good coffee to go to waste."

"Yea." Esposito muttered.

"Sure." Ryan concluded.

Rick always hated going to the morgue. That's not to say he didn't enjoy the actual morgue – he loved the forensics – but he loathed going to the morgue. It was such a long and dismal elevator ride. And then once you got there it was all white and sterile. He knew one thing for sure, it was always so quiet down there that if a body miraculously started breathing again, it would definitely be heard.

As he approached the door to Lanie's little corner of the lab he could hear voices. Obviously it was the good doctor and the detective. No one ever talked to Perlmutter if they didn't have to. Although, Rick's writer side had to appreciate the man's attention to detail.

Carefully, he paused in the hall to listen to the ladies' conversation. Sure, he knew it was wrong. But he was Rick Castle. Did he ever really do what he should?

No.

"Lanie! I really don't want to do this!" He could hear Kate's voice whining through the glass. "Can't I just start one of those online pages or something? I don't have time to deal with anything else."

"Girl, come on! We've already established that the internet was out of the question. You never know if guys really are what they say they are, and this way," she pointed the pen in her hand at Kate, "if you don't like the guy he'll be gone in five minutes."

He giggled in his head at the sound of Kate's groan.

"Fine. Alright." Her hands smacked against the metal tabletop. Rick knew she was sitting on one swinging her legs back and forth. She never had the patience to stay still down here. "I'll do it. But you owe me!"

"Uh huh. Trust me, after watching you sit on your behind doin' nothing, tonight is what I owe you. You need a life!"

"Just….tell me where to be" she sighed.

"I'll meet you outside of the People Lounge at 7."

Rick jumped back a few steps at the sound of her feet approaching the door.

"And please look cute. A little sexy?" Lanie begged.

Speed dating. Rick thought to himself. Kate Beckett was going speed dating tonight.

A grin crept its way onto his face.

And he knew where and when.

"Sure, Lanie. We'll see."

Before he even knew it was coming the door was flying open and he was standing face to face with Kate Beckett.

"What's so funny Castle?" She demanded.

"Nothing Detective. Absolutely nothing."

He slowly handed her the cup of coffee he had brought, and the two made their way back up to the light of day.

Yay I'm back to writing! Hope you like this one. I've been wanting to do a speed dating fic for a while. Should be fun! And, by the way, it feels really awkward researching speed dating.

As usual, all characters are the property of ABC...not me.

Please let me know what you think! You know I love you hear from you!

Tappin.

PS - I do have a soft spot for Perlmutter. Don't know why. I just do.