The sound of birds woke Beckett up. Birds that sounded closer than she could ever remember hearing some. She opened her eyes and sat up stiffly, curiously looking around for the source of the noise. Two little brown birds were squabbling over one of the crackers that had been left over from Castle's dinner the night before, wings flapping and voices rising louder and louder in annoyance. Until they caught the motion from her sitting up. One bird looked over at her, the other snatched the prize and flew off with the other close behind.

Bemused, she looked for Castle but didn't see him anywhere. A glance down at her watch told her that it was after 9AM, and her stomach growled, reminding her that dinner was a long time ago.

The dirt between her and the fire had been cleared away and she noticed that there was something scratched into it. She had to stand up to be able to read it, though. Feeling three times as old as she actually was, she got to her feet, allowing the blankets that had been covering her to fall to the ground.

Breakfast in the box. Be back soon. - R.C.

She wondered why he had bothered to sign his name. Talk about redundant! Who else would have written it? She turned and started for the box, grumbling just a little to herself that he was going to leave her to make her own breakfast when he'd promised to make it for her. Then she opened the box and couldn't help but be surprised. Two of the metal drinking cups held blackberries and one had raspberries. Fresh berries that had to have been picked that morning, since she knew they hadn't had them the night before – and where had he found them?

Besides the berries there was also a package of crackers and applesauce. Which was fine with her because she was pretty sure she wasn't going to be able to down spaghetti for breakfast and he'd obviously decided the same thing. She picked up breakfast and went over and sat on the log to eat it. And then spotted the cup that was by the fire. Beckett shook her head at the thoughtfulness of leaving water to warm for coffee, but certainly had no intention of letting it go to waste.

By the time she had made her way through the berries – which had been perfect – and the rest of her breakfast, she was getting a little worried that Castle hadn't returned by then. Not that she was afraid he was going to run into a bear and get eaten, but all sorts of accidents could happen that had nothing to do with wild animals and she was beginning to think of all of them.

Broken bones from a stumble, maybe he'd found a beehive and had been stung? She didn't know if he was allergic to bees or not, but the thought of surviving a plane crash only to be killed by a simple sting just was awful. Especially after the nightmare from the evening before. Just as she had decided to go looking for him, however, he came stumbling out of the woods and into their camp, startling her.

He smiled when he saw she was awake and up, but since he was carrying a huge armload of wood he didn't wave at her.

"Good morning."

She returned his smile as he walked over and dumped the load onto the remainder of their pile from the day before.

"You think we'll need all that?"

He shrugged, wiping his forehead.

"Better to have it, just in case."

She couldn't argue with that logic.

"Where did you find the berries?"

"There's a bunch of them back that way," he told her, gesturing back the way he'd come. "I was looking for the road and fell into them – literally."

"Any luck?"

"No."

He came over and sat down on the log with her and she frowned at how flushed and sweaty his face was.

"Are you okay?"

Castle nodded, wiping his face with his sleeve again.

"Spent all morning stumbling through the woods. It's not something I'm used to."

Good point.

They sat on the log, looking around and trying to figure out what they should do next. They could talk about the plane crash, but she didn't want to discuss it and he was prudently avoiding the cause of her nightmare. And avoiding discussing the nightmare at all – which she appreciated. But there really wasn't a lot to do. They didn't even have a deck of cards.

"Want to go fishing?" Castle asked, abruptly.

"What?"

"There's fishing lines and hooks in the survival kit," he told her. "I could dig up some worms and we could go fishing."

"We have food."

He rolled his eyes.

"Not for food," he said. "I wouldn't have a clue how to cook one on a campfire with no pan – and even then, really."

She smiled.

"You never wrote a book with your characters getting stranded in the wilderness?"

That would have been convenient because they'd at least have whatever research he'd done for that to fall back on.

He shook his head.

"Are you kidding? Do you have any idea how boring that would be? No one in their right mind would try something like that."

"Why not?"

"There's nothing to write about," he told her. "After the inevitable sex scene they wouldn't have anything to do." He pretended to be typing on a computer in front of him "The two sat in front of the fire staring at it and talking about what they would eat when they got home, or just how much they wanted to be able to take a bath…"

"I want a bath."

"Me, too."

"And a cheeseburger."

"You're killing me, Detective."

"Sorry."

OOOOOOOOOOOO

"Esposito! Ryan! Get in here."

Ryan looked over at his partner.

"What did you do?"

"Nothing. You?"

"Nothing."

The two of them headed into Montgomery's office and found their boss sitting at his desk, looking torn between annoyed and concerned. But mostly annoyed. He looked up as they walked in.

"Close the door, please."

Esposito did so, wondering what in the world they'd done wrong.

Montgomery didn't make them wait long.

"I just got off the phone with the mayor."

"I didn't do it," Ryan said, immediately.

Which caused the captain to scowl. But he ignored that particular comment.

"Know what he wanted? He wanted to know why he didn't have TV coverage of Beckett and Castle making some kind of grand entrance into the convention last night. Or this morning, for that morning."

The two detectives exchanged a look.

"What do you mean, sir?"

"I mean they haven't been seen yet," Montgomery explained. "The mayor has been bragging all day yesterday that he was going to have Castle at that convention with his 'muse' and apparently neither has shown up. He's not happy."

"That's weird."

"Wow, you must be a detective or something," the captain snapped. "Get a hold of Castle's mom and find out where they are – or at least where they flew out of so I can confirm with the mayor that they're at least in Buffalo."

"Yes, sir."

"And keep me updated."

The two knew a dismissal when they heard one – they'd heard plenty of them before, after all.

"Yes, sir."

They headed out the door and Ryan smiled as he looked over at his partner.

"You know what this means, right?"

"What?"

"You guys are going to owe me two hundred bucks."