Kate Beckett had a problem. She baked. Not desserts. Too complicated, too many ingredients, too much time. She baked bread. All kinds of bread. Sourdough, rye, French, bagels, muffins, all of it. It was perfect because all she needed was flour, water, and a few other basics. Easy to keep hidden. And apart from a little kneading and shaping, she didn't really have to do anything. She could get the dough ready in the morning and when she got home, she'd shape it and then let it rise and bake while she took a bath and relaxed. And then she had delicious fresh baked bread.

The only problem was that she baked more when she was stressed and she'd been stressed a lot lately and now there was bread everywhere. She didn't want to give it to her neighbors, because then they'd want to make small talk. She hated small talk. Normally she didn't bake very often, so it wasn't a problem. But lately... She sighed and stared at the giant braided loaves of brioche and challah breads (she knew they were different, but they still tasted pretty much the same to her, so she'd made both to compare), and the sourdough boules she had sitting on the counter. She sighed again as she fed Larry, her sourdough starter.

She couldn't take them to work. She didn't want anyone knowing she baked. There'd be all sorts of comments. Castle would be delighted and she didn't want to give him anymore ammunition.

She didn't let anyone know that she baked. She'd never told anyone she dated, either, because she thought, maybe irrationally, that if they knew she baked bread, they'd start wanting her to do other domestic tasks, like laundry or dishes or something else terrible. No thank you. Plus, she liked having secrets. Secrets were fun.

She nibbled her lip, then nibbled some bread. Yum. It was really too bad, because she didn't want to waste the bread and the boys would love it. Hmm... Actually, maybe she could take it to work. She smiled.

"Whoa! Where'd the bread come from?" Esposito asked, stepping into the break room.

Beckett shrugged. "No idea. It was here when I got in. But I'm not complaining."

Esposito cut a piece of brioche and buttered it. He took a bite and his eyes lit up. "Man! This is delicious! What kind of bread is this?"

Beckett rolled her eyes. "How am I supposed to know, Espo? It's bread." Inside, she felt smugly delighted. She thought her bread was delicious, but she hadn't really shared it with anyone else. It was nice to know that other people thought it was good, too.

They walked out of the break room just as Ryan came in. "Hey! What's that? And why didn't you bring me any?"

"There's more in there," mumbled Esposito through a mouthful of bread. "I's delicious."

Ryan's eyes lit up and he practically ran to the break room. A few seconds later there was a screech. "Oo, is this sourdough? I love sourdough bread!"

Kate smirked into her coffee. This was going even better than she imagined. Ryan came back in, his cheeks stuffed like a chipmunk, clutching a hunk of bread. There were a few minutes of silence while Ryan and Esposito devoured their spoils.

"But who do you think brought it?" Ryan asked, licking his fingers.

"Dude, why does it matter?" mumbled Esposito, his mouth still full.

"Bro, because it was delicious. And if we know who it was, maybe we can get them to bring more."

"Oohh." Esposito looked happy, then sad as he realized his bread was gone.

"Bring more what?" Castle asked as he came in and flopped down into his chair.

"Bread."

"Bread?"

"Yeah, man. Bread."

Castle was puzzled. "Bread, like...?"

"Like bread, dude. Bread? Do I need to explain what bread is?"

"I know what bread is! I'm just confused about why you guys are talking about it like it's the holy grail or something."

"All I know is I can't remember the last time I got homemade bread. And now I want more."

Castle's eyes lit up. "Homemade bread? Where?

"Break room."

Castle started to jump up from his chair but collapsed back as Ryan said, "Sorry man. It was in the break room. It's all gone now."

"All gone? You didn't save me any?" He whined.

"That's what happens when you don't show up until 11."

Castle muttered under his breath and glared at everyone.

"Besides, why do you care? Can't you just make your own bread whenever you want? You're always bragging about your cooking skills," Ryan said.

"Yeah, man. Hey, why haven't you made us bread before?" Esposito looked offended. "Have you been making bread and not giving us any? That's cold."

Castle looked even grumpier. "I can't make bread."

"What do you mean? You cook stuff all the time." Ryan looked puzzled.

"That's different."

"How?"

"I don't know! I just know I tried making bread when Alexis was little, and it was all either burnt or doughy and I gave up."

"Oh."

"I can't remember when I last had homemade bread." Castle looked wistful. "Was it good?"

"So good, man."

"And you don't know who brought it?"

"No."

They all sighed.

Beckett had a dilemma. She'd meant bringing the bread to work to be a one time thing. But she hadn't anticipated the reaction of a bunch of overgrown boys to homemade food. Especially since most of them, like her, lived off of takeout.

Though that wasn't strictly true. Beckett lived off of takeout at work. At home, she tended to eat bread. Sandwiches, bread, cheese, and wine, French toast, etc. But she never brought anything to work because she didn't want to give her secret away. Hmmm. But if she brought in more bread, secretly, she could eat it at work and no one would know.

Normally she baked one loaf a week, unless she was stressed, just so she wouldn't waste anything. But most of the recipes she had made at least 2 loaves, and it was actually kind of a pain to alter recipes for smaller amounts. Making multiple loaves instead of one wouldn't be hard at all. And then she'd get to eat bread all the time. Hmmm. When Beckett went home, she stopped at the store and bought a big bag of flour.

The boys were all hopeful, and then sad the next couple of days, as there was no more bread.

"Guess it was a one time thing."

"I never even got to try any!" Castle whined.

But then on Thursday there were two loaves of sourdough, still warm. And Friday, there were a couple loaves of French bread.

The boys were in heaven.

"But where did it come from?" said Castle, munching his way through his 4th piece of bread.

"Does it matter?" asked Beckett.

Castle looked at her. "Yes. How else can we make sure that there's more?"

"It's just bread," Beckett pointed out.

"Just bread?" Castle sputtered, his mouth full.

Espo glared at her. "You're just saying that because you're annoyed that Castle got the last piece of bread."

Beckett glared at him, and at Castle. "It's not my fault Writer Boy inhales everything in sight. I only got 2 pieces!"

Castle mumbled through a mouthful of bread, "I can't help it if you're slow, Beckett. It's survival of the fittest. Besides, you should really be blaming Montgomery. I'm pretty sure he took half a loaf yesterday."

Beckett threw a pen at him. This was not going according to plan.

I have no idea where I'm going with this, but it will probably just be 2-3 chapters total. Any suggestions or critiques are welcome.