Richard Castle did not fall back asleep. His urge to write was stronger than ever. Being here with Kate was simply too good to be true, Paula must have had a hand in picking her for the show, knowing how she would inspire him. He made a mental note to give Paula an extra generous Christmas bonus this year. The last Derek Storm book did not do nearly as well as its predecessors and Black Pawn was not happy about that. Gina, his second ex-wife and publisher, was also very much not happy with that. Perhaps marooning Storm on a deserted island wasn't the answer after all. The idea of writing a new novel with a strong female lead was becoming more and more appealing. Rick had the feeling that what he knew about Kate was only scratching the surface. Women like her didn't become police detectives, they became lawyers, judges, college professors. Kate had a story, a reason behind her career choice, and he was determined to find that story. At the same time, he sensed that she was a very guarded woman, walled up with more protection than Fort Knox. It would take time to earn her trust, but that's one thing that he had. Time. Twenty-one days to be exact. More if he played his cards right.

DAY 2

There was only one way to figure out what time it was. They had both set the time and date on their handheld diary cameras before leaving New York. Without setting up a primitive sundial (and really they didn't need to) it was the best way to stay oriented throughout the day. The camera crew made sure that the batteries on their cameras were always charged.

Rick had finally fallen asleep close to dawn so it was Kate who woke up first on day two. She was relieved to see that her partner's more intimate parts were not on display. He had strategically placed his bag there to protect himself from bugs and thankfully it hadn't shifted off its mark. She was definitely feeling the effects of not having anything to drink in twenty-four hours. Her first attempt to stand up was met by dizziness that forced her back down to a seated position. Using the evidence before her – Castle drank the water yesterday several times and did not get sick (surely he would have woken up if he was experiencing any intense stomach cramping) – Kate reasoned that it was safe to drink the water. Or at least it was a risk she was more willing to take.

He was right, it tasted like fish, but it wasn't awful and she really needed to hydrate herself. Still, she forced herself to only drink a small amount. Better not to drink too much just in case. Kate recalled an episode where both of the survivalists drank from the same water source and only one of them got sick. Leave it to me to be stranded with Richard Castle on an island and end up with explosive diarrhea. On television.

Kate didn't want to disturb her partner by working on the shelter, but she wanted to do something useful with her time so she considered the possible food sources. There should be fish, of course, in the blue hole. There was also that wild boar that might still be nearby. She decided to use her machete to sharpen a few sticks to make spears for fishing. Kate was on her third stick when she felt the presence of someone else creeping up behind her.

"Good morning, Rick." Kate said without even turning to make eye contact.

"I guess there's no sneaking up on you."

"Were you trying to sneak up on me?" Kate turned and shot Rick some eye daggers that sent a clear message: Don't sneak up on me. Ever.

"And good morning to you too, Detective." More eye daggers. Kate was definitely not noticing how cute he looked with sleep-mussed hair and she was most definitely not overcompensating for her feelings of attraction by acting extra annoyed with her partner who, in his defense, had not done a single annoying thing. Yet.

"Nice of you to join me today. I was starting to think you were going to sleep all day."

"Someone woke up on the wrong side of the hut this morning." Kate didn't mean to come across as a bitch and she cringed inwardly when she realized how she must have sounded.

"Sorry, didn't mean to snap at you. I'm really hungry and I think it's put me in quite a bad mood. I'll try not to take it out on you." As if on cue, Kate's stomach started to rumble. She really hoped that the rumble was from her hunger and not her body rejecting the water she had consumed about an hour earlier.

"Well then, let's feed you. Did you have anything to drink yet?"

"Yeah, I had some of the surface water this morning."

"Oh no, Kate! You shouldn't have done that!" Kate's eyes went as wide as saucers when Rick started clutching at his stomach.

"But you weren't sick! Were you?!" Had he hidden it from her? Rick's eyes crinkled as his whole face broke in a wide smile and he started laughing.

"You're so easy, Kate. Don't worry, I'm fine, the water's fine. I'm glad you hydrated yourself." Kate's heartbeat slowed. So, he's a joker, is he? Well, two can play at that. She walked over to the writer, got right in his face and whispered right into his left ear.

"You think I'm easy, Rick?" He stopped laughing immediately and started sputtering an apology. Kate reached up and grabbed his left ear with her right hand and gave it a sharp twist.

"Ouch, ouch, ouch! Apples! My safe word is apples!"

"Payback's a bitch, and this isn't your payback. I'd sleep with one eye open, partner." Kate released Rick's ear and slapped him on the chest. "Safe word noted." And with that she spun around, went right back to her spot sitting on a nearby rock and resumed making her fishing spears. Rick watched her for a few minutes while he tried to calm his racing heartbeat. This woman, wow, she was extraordinary.

"So, um, what's that you're working on over there?" For a best-selling author, Rick was sure having trouble stringing together a simple sentence. In response Kate held out one of the freshly sharpened spears.

"How are your fishing skills?"

Turned out they both sucked at fishing. Neither could find a single fish worth catching. The blue hole seemed to be overrun with minnows, but nothing big enough for even a tiny snack. Two hours into their fish hunt and they both came up empty handed.

"This thing must be full of ninja fish. It's impossible for there to be no fish here. We're on the third largest barrier reef in the world."

"Ninja fish? Really, Rick? I'm not surprised. The poor water circulation in the blue holes makes it a difficult environment to sustain life. We'd have more luck finding fish close to the beach." Kate pulled the map out of her bag and pointed to the nearest shore. It was at least five miles away. They had made the decision to camp inland and now she was having second thoughts.

"How about land crabs? I'm pretty sure I saw some promising looking holes. Maybe we can just take your pointy sticks and try to stab something in those holes." He sort of pantomimed this motion in a way that made Kate laugh.

"Sure, just take your pointy stick and shove it down the hole, Rick."

"Well when you say it, it just sounds so dirty." Kate tried, unsuccessfully, to stop laughing and shoved him in the shoulder, hard.

"Get your mind out of the gutter and go get me some crabs. With your pointy stick."

"Oooo, bossy, I like it!" Kate just rolled her eyes and started scanning the ground for holes. Land crabs live in a network of holes near bodies of water. The hole leading down from the surface usually angled down into a larger den.

"Rick, over here, I think I found something." Kate was kneeling next to what she hoped was a land crab hole. She leaned over and peered into it. "I think I see something." Kate held a finger up to her mouth signaling that Rick should approach quietly. When he came over she motioned for him to look in the hole. He nodded and leaned down to have a look. After seeing what he agreed was most likely a crab, he took one of Kate's spears and jammed it down there as hard as he could.

"I think I hit it, or I've got it lodged under him."

"Try to leverage the stick upwards and force him out of the hole backwards." Rick did just as Kate suggested and slowly lifted the crab out of the hole. When it was close to the surface Kate reached in and grabbed the crab by it's thick midsection and pulled him straight out. "Got him!"

Rick just sort of stood there not knowing what to do, but wanting to help so he reached out to take the crab from Kate. Instead of passing the crab over she smashed it down onto a nearby rock, cracked it clear in half and started cleaning out the crab guts with almost surgical precision. When it was clean enough to her liking, she rinsed the crab in the fresh water layer of the blue hole, stuck a spear through the middle and walked it over to the fire.

"Have you done this before?" Rick sat down next to her as they waited for their first meal to cook.

"I've gone crabbing before, with my parents. I was a teenager though, and my dad did all the cleaning. I watched him enough times to remember how to do it though."

"Thank you, Kate. This is going to be great, especially if we can catch some more crabs as easily as we caught this one."

"It was a team effort, you helped me catch it." Kate was being nice, but Rick had a feeling that she could catch crabs all day long by herself without any need for him. Or anyone else for that matter.

"It's a good thing that there aren't any Manchineel trees nearby, otherwise it wouldn't be safe to eat this crab." Castle had done extensive research about plant and animal life in the Bahamas when he found out the location of the island that he would be stranded on. The Manchineel tree is considered the world's most dangerous tree because every part of it – bark, sap, leaves, green apple-like fruit that it bears – is poisonous.

"They tend to be close the shore, I haven't seen any either. What does that have to do with the crabs?"

"Land crabs are scavengers and they only eat what's near their burrows, which would include Manchineel leaves if there were any trees nearby. The trees aren't poisonous to the crabs, but they are to us. If this crab had eaten any of those leaves recently then we are at risk of being poisoned by anything that wasn't fully digested. You did a fantastically thorough job of cleaning it, but it's still a big risk. But since there aren't any Manchineel trees near us, we should be fine."

"Huh. I never thought of that. Thanks, Rick, glad you did your research."

"It's kind of what I do."

"Research? Are you a college professor? Scientist?" Kate knew very well that he was neither of those things, but wasn't ready to tell him she knew who he was. She wondered if he would just come out and tell her.

"No and no. Any other guesses, Detective?"

"I have some ideas, but I'm working on gathering more evidence. I'll let you know how the clues line up once I've been able to piece them together."

"Or you could, you know, just ask me. I'm a pretty open book." He put a little more emphasis on the word "book".

"Crab should be done now, would you like the first bite?" Kate ripped off one of the crab's legs and held it out to the writer.

"Oh no, ladies first, I insist." Kate ripped off a second leg and placed it in Rick's hand.

"We can both have the first bite." Kate held out her leg as if to toast the meal. "To our first meal together." Rick held his leg up and they clinked them together ceremoniously before they both dug in, ripping the shells off to get to the hard-earned meat inside.

"The first of many!" Rick responded as they sunk their teeth into their first bite of food in over 24 hours. They continued to devour the crab until every ounce of meat had been stripped from the shell. Kate imagined that someone like Richard Castle was used to fine dining and gourmet meals. She wondered how he made this one bland, unseasoned crab sound like the best meal he'd ever tasted. Kate, on the other hand, was used to skipping meals and eating take-out pretty much every night. Food just wasn't a priority for her and she didn't put much thought into what she ate. This crab tasted just as good as anything else she might have had if she were at home instead of on the island. All the same, she got as much enjoyment out of the meal as she did watching her partner enjoy his meal.

"That was the best crab I ever tasted!" Rick exclaimed when they were done, patting his belly as if it were full (which it most definitely wasn't).

"Really? Best crab ever? Surely you've had better in a restaurant."

"It has something to do with the ambiance, my hunger, and my current company, of course." Kate ducked her head to hide the traitorous blush that was surely creeping up her neck to her face.

"Think we can catch some more?" It wasn't like they had anything else to do.

Rick and Kate were able to catch two more crabs on the second day. They also spent a few hours improving their shelter, adding more protection to the roof and trying to cushion the ground a little bit more. Day 2 had been a success. The wild boar did not make an appearance that second night and both writer and detective slept soundly with no interruptions. She might have shifted towards him in the night and he might have unintentionally spooned her, but only the camera footage would tell that story.

AN: To answer the question in one of the reviews from the last chapter, yes sometimes the contestants do make clothes out of leaves or whatever else is around of them. A few of them possess some pretty impressive weaving skills and make all kinds of things (hats, clothes, a ladder!). One dude brought duct tape as his survival item and he made a bikini for the girl. It wasn't a very good one because she still needed stuff blurred out for the camera and it looked rather sloppy. So far, in my AU, Rick and Kate are still naked. They both try to keep their bags covering their lower frontal bits. Also - forgot to mention last time, but I was super excited to receive my first French review! Merci!