A/N: Depending on how much writing I get done in the next week, I may end up skipping an update next week, but in penance I bring you an extra long chapter (at least long by my standards).
The closer her house got, the angrier Kate became. She hadn't even started working yet and she was feeling stressed out and overwhelmed by everything that would need to get done. Storming up her driveway and stomping up the side steps, she fumbled with her keys to the front door in turn making her more frustrated. Finally unlocking the bolt and walking through, Kate slammed the door behind her and flung herself across the couch that she was still deciding upon where it would go. A loud and frustrated groan escaped from her mouth while her brain went into overdrive trying to figure out all the changes that needed to happen at her new library. When the physical exhaustion from her day of unpacking and her mental exhaustion from stressing about her job finally hit her, Kate passed out on her couch.
An explosion ripped Kate from her dead-like sleep. Sitting straight up with her eyes wide, she scanned her darkened living room. Her heart was beating wildly and her foggy state of mind left her confused. Kate brought her hand to her chest. An explosion. She woke up because of an explosion. The library exploded? She fell asleep on her couch and woke up because…Richard Castle made her head explode. In her dreams. Little snippets of her nightmare came back to her. She was following Rick around the library as he instructed her to keep every book no matter how poorly they looked. Her frustration was making her head hurt to the point where it exploded and despite the library being on fire, there was Mr. Castle running around with a fire extinguisher attempting to save every book. It didn't matter that that overused copy of Game of Thrones looked like it had been torched by a dragon with only fragments remaining, to Richard Castle it was still a book that deserved a place on his library's shelves.
Kate checked the time on her father's watch. It was just after one in the morning. She was to report to her first day of work in less than seven hours. She only hoped she could fall asleep again.
The piercing shrill of her alarm clock woke Kate from her restless sleep. She did not feel well rested which could only mean unpleasantness for her new coworkers. She already knew she'd have a difficult relationship with her co-head librarian, she only hoped her inevitable bad mood wouldn't leave too bad of an impression on her employees. Dressing in a powder blue skirt suit and a pair of power heels, Kate threw her shoulder bag across her body and with a travel cup of coffee in hand she headed for her new job.
The walk to the library was more difficult in heels than it had been in her sneakers, but she didn't want to walk in wearing them on her first day. Kate was instructed to ring the bell to the back door of the library since, when she was scheduled to arrive, the library would still be closed. Walking around to the back of the building, Kate found what she assumed was the staff parking lot and the presumed back door. She pushed the door bell and waited. A full thirty seconds passed with no response, so Kate tried again. Just when Kate was about to start knocking on the door, the clunk of the crash bar being pushed stopped her as a woman with dark brown eyes that match her skin appeared. The woman's vibrant outfit of mismatched patterns, that somehow works well together, caught Kate off guard before the woman offered her a warm smile.
"You must be Katherine Beckett!" the woman greeted, a hint of a Louisiana accent evident. "I'm Willie Bates, we've been expecting you."
Kate grinned, feeling more at home than she had in the last few days. She held out her hand which Willie accepted. "Please call me Kate."
"Well come on in, Kate. Mr. Castle has been anticipating your arrival. He's the head librarian and he may seem a little rough around the edges at first, but trust me, he's a sweetheart."
Kate nodded, not wanting to reveal her encounter with Richard Castle the previous day, and followed Willie through the stacks of the library toward the front of the building.
"Rick will give you a more thorough tour later, but I wanted to make sure you at least met everyone first before I hand you off to him," Willie explained, as the pair approached a small group of library staff looking over that day's schedule that was posted on the wall of the workroom. "Hey everyone, this is Katherine Beckett, our new boss."
The four staff members turned at the sound of Willie's voice. Three of the people grinned at Kate, while the fourth, recognizing Kate as the woman his boss was still ranting about, gave her an uncomfortable smile.
"This is Jenny O'Malley, she's our children's librarian, Lanie Parish is our adult librarian, and Javier Esposito and Kevin Ryan are two of our circulation assistants," Willie introduced.
Kate shook the hands of each of them and when she got to Kevin said, "nice to see you again, hopefully my second impression is better than my first."
Allowing the staff to get their day started, Willie led Kate to the far wall of the workroom where a few office spaces were, including her own, which currently sat devoid of personality. While Willie gave Kate a quick rundown of what to expect at the Hawthorne Library, a knock against the door frame halted further discussion.
The man Kate knew as Richard Castle swaggered into her office in the same arrogant manner he had the day before, but when he recognized Kate, his stance wobbled, like he couldn't decide whether to be enraged, startled or confused. His face reddened.
"Ah…ahh… hello, Ms. Beckett," Rick stuttered out, holding out his hand reluctantly.
Kate bit her lip and grasped his hand in response. When Rick's face reddened, Kate was certain she was going to see the same angry and defensive man from their first meeting, but was surprised to realize his first reaction was embarrassment.
"Willie, I can take over from here."
Willie hesitated at the doorway, feeling the tension between the two librarians. She opened her mouth to say something about it but stopped herself and instead replied, "okay, Rick. Let me know if you need me for anything though."
After Willie left, Rick turned his attention back to Kate. "Did you want to follow me to my office and we can get through the necessary paperwork, Ms. Beckett?"
"Please call me Kate."
"Kate. Yes, you told me that yesterday." Rick retorted, before turning and walking out the door.
Kate followed him to his office, which was the next door over, and took a seat across from Rick at the small table he had on the opposite wall from his desk.
Rick gave Kate his usual HR spiel that he did with each new employee before finally getting to the discussion part of their first meeting. Even though he feared what suggestions Kate would bring to the library expansion, he knew if their working relationship was to run smoothly, he'd need to get over his apprehension of giving up free rein.
Two hours into her first day of working for the Hawthorne Library, Kate found herself standing beside her reluctant partner in the stacks. She didn't want to bring up, what she deemed, Rick's phobia of weeding on her first day, but after touring the remainder of the library, she realized the task of downsizing and perfecting the Hawthorne collection was too big and too important to ignore.
"Mr. Castle, I know you probably don't want me to bring this up again," Kate hesitated, seeing Rick's face cringe since he knew what was coming. "I need to discuss how vital it is that we and the staff start weeding everything in this library so when we do move to the bigger library it isn't as daunting a task."
Rick sighed deeply and paused to get his thoughts in order and prevent himself from raising his voice, "Miss Beckett, I find it appalling that as a librarian you are so willing to toss books that simply have a bit of wear and tear."
Even though Kate hoped Rick would be a little more receptive to her opinion, it was obvious that he wasn't going to agree with her, at least without a good fight. Crossing her arms over her chest, Kate glared at Rick, causing him to stop before he said anything more. "I believe you called me a heathen yesterday because I, like a good majority of librarians, believe that discarding old, outdated, irrelevant, and damaged material is necessary in maintaining a well-run library."
Rick opened his mouth to defend his statements, but Kate held out her pointer finger and continued to present her argument.
"When I step into a library, I don't expect the books to be in excellent condition, but I also don't expect to contract a life-threatening illness because the person who had the book before me bled all over it or used it as a vomit shield when their child got sick, which trust me, I have encountered at previous jobs. I would hope there are books that you have withdrawn from the collection because the condition is so disgustingly poor, but it makes me wonder where they are because I'm well aware of your aversion to book disposal."
Rick shifted his weight from one foot to the other, then took a book from the shelf beside him like he was examining it. When a couple of pages fluttered to the ground from where Rick had opened it, Kate ignored the solidifying evidence, instead wanting to know what had Rick feeling uncomfortable.
"What do you do with materials that are far beyond damaged, Castle?" Kate's hardened scowl had Rick's heart stuttering. The guttural moan that escaped his vocal cords clued Kate into his embarrassment and guilt.
"You know you would make a great interrogator with that stare," Rick attempted to divert the topic, which only honed Kate's glower. Rick's rushed response of "I suppose I didn't show you the storage space on our tour, did I?" was met with an exasperated groan from Kate who covered her face with her hands.
"This is an absolute nightmare. I can only imagine how many times the recycling trucks will need to stop by in the next few weeks, or maybe I'll just need to call a biohazard team instead."
"Whoa, whoa, whoa…" Rick said. "We are not getting rid of those books, Beckett."
"Are you serious right now?" Kate nearly shouted before continuing with a harsh whisper. "There is absolutely no reason to keep any book that no longer resembles a book. The library is not an orphanage for damaged materials!"
"Okay, Kate, let me explain…" Rick attempted to say.
"No. You need to show me this storage space so I can get a rough estimate of what to tell the recycling crew when they come."
Rick knew barely anything about Kate, but he did know that he wasn't going to win this argument easily or at all for that matter. Motioning for her to follow him, Rick trudged to the back of the library like he was being led to the gallows. Pulling out his master key, he unlocked a door that was near the staff break room and held it open for Kate while simultaneously waving his free arm in the air to trip the motion sensors on the lights. A few lights flickered on revealing small patches of books against the walls of the otherwise open space. Kate felt an odd sense of relief that Rick's forbidden stash of undesired books wasn't as big as she had anticipated. It made sense though, considering the James Patterson book she pulled the day before barely resembled a book. For Rick to have actually removed a book from the stacks, it must have been in a horrifying condition.
"So this is Richard Castle's literary graveyard. Not as big as I was expecting, for which I am grateful. I was not looking forward to arriving to work every day with the massive hangover that would have been the result of my coping mechanism of choice."
"I'll have you know that I am capable of throwing a book or two out that have had the unfortunate run-in with copious amounts of bodily fluids. And since I know you think I am averse to throwing out books, in those instances I was more grossed out than physically pained in their disposal."
Kate's lips twitched as she attempted to fight back her amusement, but Rick saw her response and pretended he wasn't feeling smug that she found his comment funny.
"The books I've put back here are items that I've set aside in hopes that someday soon I can convince the mayor to allot me the funds to have them repaired."
"I think you are way too optimistic. While it is an honorable, albeit foolish, desire to have these books repaired, in the long run, it is financially more responsible to have them recycled." Kate picked up a book from one of the piles and fanned the book open with her thumb like a flipbook. "Considering, from what I can see, all of the items are mass print books and have little to no historical value, it won't be a huge loss if this copy of Fifty Shades of Grey," Kate raised the book for emphasis, "becomes a newspaper someday."
"Don't let Clara Youngstead hear you bad mouth Fifty Shades of Grey. She's probably checked out that copy dozens of times over the last few years. I've seen Mr. Youngstead's downcast face come through this library enough times to draw my own conclusions."
Kate grimaced and held the copy between her thumb and pointer finger like it had suddenly become diseased with smallpox before tossing it back into the pile. "That's probably way too much information about a patron than I need to know."
A softened ding rang through the back room followed by the voice of Javier Esposito on the loud speaker, "Rick to the service desk please."
"A librarian's duty is never done. We have been summoned."
Kate followed Rick out of the storage space and up to the front desk where Javier was waiting for his boss.
"What did you need, Javi?"
"Ted's in the parking lot again." Javi said, like it was secret code for something.
Rick rubbed his hands together, "Oh great, this will be a perfect introduction for Kate. She can see how things are run in small towns."
Kate quirked her eyebrow and again followed Rick, this time to the patron parking lot. Exiting the front doors, Kate instantly knew what was the issue. The parking lot was fairly large for a small town, being able to accommodate at least twenty cars, but when there was a giant tractor taking up at least four spaces in the middle of the lot, Kate had a feeling there would be outrage among the patrons who only had a car.
Rick approached the large green tractor, his hand shielding his eyes from the sun as he stared up at the driver.
"Hey Ted, I've told you before that you can't park your tractor in the lot. There isn't enough room and I don't particularly want to deal with angry people today."
"Come on Rick, I'm just here to pick up my wife's books. I'll only be a second." Ted called down to the two librarians.
"I'll let you go grab her books, but if you aren't back out here and moving this thing in five minutes I'm going to have to tell your wife I'm holding her items hostage until she convinces you to stop driving the tractor into town."
Ted's expression changed from jovial to fearful, like Rick had forced him into a locked room with a tiger. Jumping down from the tractor, Ted hustled into the library to grab the books, leaving Rick and Kate to wait for his return.
"I take it this is a regular occurrence?"
"At least once a month. His wife runs the Scarlet Latte down the street and she's the sweetest woman in the world and despite my empty threats of tattling on him, Ted still gets that fear-of-God expression every time I mention it."
"Maybe Mrs. Youngstead isn't the only one regularly checking out Fifty Shades of Grey," Kate suggested.
The undignified snort that Rick emitted, in turn caused Kate to release an unexpected guffaw. The pair, although seemingly mortal enemies hours before, were grinning at each other when Ted returned with a pile of paperback romances in his arms.
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