He couldn't believe he had gotten away with it. Seriously, Kate Beckett was letting down her guard in a major way. He felt a little guilty about it, this taking advantage of her. Then again, he believed in what Gandhi said, "What is religion without sacrifice?"

His religion was Kate Beckett.

He believed in driving her crazy.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

"We've got a problem Detective." Victoria Gates was closing the door to her office, "Brian Walker confessed to the killing of John Ackerman?"

"Yes, last night, after he told us he needed the money Brian had promised to leave him to pay his step-daughter's medical bills."

"Pearlmutter just called. COD was not a gun shot. It seems he was poisoned. Walker's lawyer wants him released."

"Sir, his gun was a match to the ballistics, he confessed." Beckett rubbed at her forehead, "are you saying we are looking for another killer?"

"The ME says the cause of death was poisoning, we need to pursue whoever poisoned Ackerman. Let the DA work out what he wants to do with Walker. For now Detective, go back and find out who is responsible for the first murder. . . The real murder. . . You know what I mean."

Beckett was unpacking the box in which she had just filed John Ackerman's murder board. This was a first. Espo and Ryan moved to check it out.

"Beckett?" Ryan questioned.

"Ackerman was poisoned, we're back to square one. You guys go back and look for any woman in his life that might have wanted him dead. We ruled out the current girlfriend, but maybe there's one in the romance writer's past."

"Woman? How do you know it's a woman?"

"Castle once told me that statistically more poisonings are committed by women, so it might narrow the field. I'm going to go talk with the ME about the kind of poison, I'll text you anything relevant."

"Gooooood morning Detective," Castle cruised in, nodded to the boys as he handed over her usual cup.

"Okay, lose the 'just got laid' voice." She said once the boys were safely out of ear-shot.

He waggled his eyebrows, "jealous?"

"Nope, Gates told me to stop using mine this morning."

"Shut the front door."

She waggled her eyebrows at him as she grabbed her coat. "Got to go to the morgue."

"Who's dead?"

"John Ackerman."

"Isn't that your case from yesterday?"

"Right body, wrong killer."

"I knew you couldn't solve one without me."

"Ha." She said humorlessly, "See if you use that voice tomorrow."

xoxoxoxoxoxxoxox

As it turned out, alkaloid pseudaconitine was the poison, absorbed through the skin Pearlmutter had said. Two to four hours after contact with a plant product of Aconitum.

"So let me get this straight," Castle started, "this guy was poisoned, and while waiting to die, Walker, the guy who needed his inheritance, shot him? I love the smell of irony first thing in the morning."

"Want to talk ironic? Guess who Ackerman's Publicist is?"

He gleefully bit, "Who?"

"Paula." She watched his face drop," Let's go find out what kind of crazed fans he had."

On the way over she had Castle text Ryan and Espo to be on the lookout for the poison.

xoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxoxo

"Ricky and Nikki," she greeted kissing Castle cheek. Kate rolled her eyes. "Heard you've been talking with the lawyers."

"Paula, please, do you have to know everything?"

"I'm your publicist, it's my job to know everything, you still get to decide what goes public, including this little affair." She gave Beckett the once-over.

Rick could see Kate's discomfort. She hadn't realized anyone outside their circle knew, hell half their family didn't know really, and now Paula knew?

"Not what we're here to talk about," Beckett said coldly, "Ackerman . . . did he have any fans that seemed inappropriately interested?"

"Sure. Most of my clients do, including Rick here, but dangerous? I don't know that any of them would want to kill him."

"Paula," Rick tried to break the tension a bit, "did the fan-mail department flag anything?"

Rick described the poison, tried to jar Paula into any new information.

"Nothing I'm aware of, but I'll have them pull the security reports for you."

"Did you know Ackerman's schedule for last Thursday? Who would know about his appointments?"

Paula checked her computer. "I think he kept his own appointments, but I did have him for a book signing at Barrett Book Traders in Staten Island. They are known for historical romance. Jack did signings there pretty regularly. He was there from ten until noon."

"Thank you Paula." Castle stood and kissed her cheek. Paula smiled wide. Definitely an attention seeker. Great quality in a publicist, but not at all Kate's style.

"Yes, thank you." Kate added.

"Detective, you take good care of our boy, okay?" And then she added, "let me know if there is anything you'd like to announce publicly."

Kate turned an awkward glance to Castle, who in turn glared at Paula while ushering Kate out the door. He'd positively need to shut her up before Kate found out what he was up to.

Xoxoxoxoxoxox

Castle was prepping coffee for Kate and himself while she reported to Gates on their team's latest findings.

"Ryan." He stage-whispered as Ryan passed the doorway to the break room.

Kevin's head appeared before his body in the doorway. "Yeah?"

Castle pointed his chin, "When you and Jenny got married did you both have to show up at the City Clerk's office to get the license?"

"Yeah, kind of a bureaucratic hoop, you know, like a two hour wait just to show our driver's license and sign a form." Kevin's eye's drifted to the ceiling, "most romantic government office wait I've ever had."

"Hmm. Mine was the DMV. Fell in love with my test drive instructor. Ended when I hit a curb. Good times." Castle's eyes now drifted to the ceiling.

"Why are you asking Castle?" He narrowed his eyes suspiciously, "got a plan?"

"Got a little something there Ryan," Castle brushed at the shoulder of Ryan's suit, causing him to examine the area himself. While his eyes were averted, Castle turned and exited the room. Kevin was dumbfounded to find himself alone.

Xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

"I just want you to know you just kissed me," Kate had just taken a sip of her coffee while standing in front of their murder board. "I took a sip from that cup," he said proudly, the corners of his mouth turned up.

"Yeah well, you know what I said, you try anything while I'm at work, you get nothing at home." She quipped at him, "and what was all that business with Paula? Why does she know anything about us?"

"Okay, first, Paula has to know, she is in charge of my branding. I've learned it can be very helpful to include her in the loop before you find yourself naked and locked out on a rooftop." She narrowed her eyes, alarmed. "And second, I have always taken a sip from your coffee before I gave it to you, I like to think my devotion to unrequited kisses is romantic." Her mouth was now gaping.

"Is that how I caught your cold last winter?"

Esposito effectively ended their discussion with his entrance, something about an unrequited romance reader stalking John Ackerman.

Xoxoxoxoxoxoxo

Barrett Book Traders in Staten Island was an ode to all things girly and romantic and Castle's attention was riveted. Lace and roses dripped off the Pepto-Bismol pink background like frosting off a cupcake. Women in their forties, fifties, sixties and seventies stopped their reading in the various intimate seating arrangements to eye Richard Castle. None of them were remotely attractive.

Kate took a quick look around before threading her arm through Castle's and staring down all the women including a stubborn one in her sixties that needed an extra measure of Kate's evil eye.

"Remember Beckett," he hissed, looking down at her, "if you try anything at work, you get nothing at home."

Now she was giving him the same look she'd just given the sixty year old.

They questioned the middle-aged manager of the bookstore who was wearing horn-rimmed glasses on a chain around her neck.

"Kimmy Davies, she was the one Ackerman had the argument with, something about chastity belts not being in Europe during the time of the Jutes."

Castle was watching Kate, amused by her discomfort with the subject.

"I wholeheartedly agree," he said once they were in the car.

"With what?" Kate asked, putting a hand on the back of his seat to back out of the parking space.

"About the chastity belts."

She made a point of turning up the volume on the radio before exiting the parking lot.

Xoxoxoxoxoxox

Castle was none to subtly pointing out the blue flowers growing against the small hothouse Kimmy had taking up an entire table sandwiched in front of the small apartment window. "Aconite," he hissed.

Kate was trying her best to get through a conversation with a woman obsessed with the discrepancies in Ackerman's latest romance novel.

"I mean seriously, authors should really research a subject before they write about it, do they really expect readers to be that dumb?"

"I completely agree. Research is essential to the art form," Castle was in his element.

He didn't even notice Kate's warning look.

"Ms. Davies, did you see John Ackerman after the signing?"

"You mean William Holden?"

"Holden was his nom de plume."

"No, why? Did something happen?"

The way Kimmy Davies was weeping uncontrollably over her favorite author told Beckett she was probably not their killer. A little unstable, but not angry enough to deny her utter attraction to a man whose stories she didn't always agree with, but whom she adored.

Xoxoxoxoxoxox

She was filling-out the time-line in front of the three men in her life, reviewing the data and suspects they had collected and dismissed.

"Okay, so we still don't know where he was from 2 until 4, Pearlmutter put the time of death at 5:30, with a poison that can act in as little as two hours and as much as four. We really need to find out where he was."

Esposito interjected, "Also, according to Pearlmutter and Lanie, the guy had to have a significant amount of this poison applied to a large area of skin in order for it to have killed him."

"How does that happen? How do you expose yourself to that much? How do you let someone do that to you?" Ryan wondered aloud.

"Unless you think it's for another reason?" Rick asked.

"What do you mean?" Kate asked.

"Writers sit around a lot," he continued despite their scoffing, emphasizing his next words, "a good massage usually undoes a lot of bad posture at these long book signings."

"So this guy could have thought he was getting a massage, when in reality someone was giving him a rub down with a poison?" Ryan questioned.

"Explains how he would allow that much to get on him."

"Hey, one of his ex-girlfriends is a massage therapist." Esposito pointed out.

A few hours later they had a confession.

Xoxoxoxoxoxox

The fire cast a warm glow about the room. Castle was on his couch typing on his computer when Kate stole up behind him and massaged his shoulders.

He closed his eyes a moment before leaning back, looking up at her.

"Hey."

She kissed him awkwardly, laughing into his mouth.

"Heard that authors spend a lot of time sitting around, "she said seductively, "they sometimes need a massage, from your extensive research, you find that to be true?"

"You want to give me a rub down Kate?"

"Without my chastity belt Rick? Sounds dangerous."

"Oh it will be Detective. But you can handle danger, can't you?"

She let him see her ponder that a moment, "I'm not sure I'm the one in danger."

And then he was off the couch and chasing her into the bedroom.

xoxoxxoxxoxoxxoxoxxox

A/N: This is dedicated to TheCastleWatcher, my very first stalker. I'm totally honored, but please, don't kill anyone and try to have me decipher your twisted clues. I'm a writer not a cop.

I had no intention of continuing this story past the first chapter, but since people asked so sweetly in their reviews and because everyone just needs to tame their anxiety until 'Always,' I gave you this nugget, which, by the way, totally screwed up my mystery story line in chapter one. This whole plot thing . . . not as easy as it seems.

Turn-about is fair play. If your anxiety was lesson a bit by this piece, send me a review (it relieves my anxiety). If you hated it then send it anonymously (except you LDJ, I'd expect no less).