A/N: I'm so sorry for the delay in posting. Life's been crazy; today is my niece's first birthday so I've been working on finishing Noelle's gifts the last two weeks because I decided last minute to crochet her another stuffed animal. Then every time I tried to write the last two weeks I was just so exhausted from work it never happened. But enough with the excuses, on to the fic.

On Kate's second day of work, Willie asked to speak with her. Kate welcomed her into her office, where Willie shut the door behind her and took a seat across from Kate.

"I just wanted let you know about something that me and the other staff have done."

The space between Kate's eyebrows creased. Willie either didn't notice or didn't acknowledge the worry that was written on her new boss's face and instead continued with her confession.

"I've heard you trying to persuade Rick into getting rid of some of our books here." Kate eyes widened, hoping Willie wasn't going to give her a similar lecture on book preservation that Rick had. "I'll have you know that most of the staff here come from past jobs at bigger libraries that viewed weeding as a necessary evil in our profession. We have brought that same philosophy with us to Hawthorne and all of us have subtly tried to get Rick to come to our side." Willie paused, her shoulders slumping slightly, "I guess we've been too subtle though because over the years that Rick has been head librarian, Javi, Kevin, and I have been secretly weeding the books whenever Rick is not working or on vacation."

Kate covered her mouth with the tips of her fingers, like she was trying to hold back the words she wanted to say.

Willie lowered her voice like she was about to give a detailed plan for a bank heist before Kate could let any words escape, "Every six to eight weeks, the Hawthorne schools have a teacher development day. Rick takes those days off as often as he can so he and Alexis can spend more time together. Sometimes they visit his mother in New York, sometimes they just stay in town, but those days are also when the recyclers come to collect what we've been able to hoard since their last visit. Lanie says we are "Shawshanking" the library because we remove books when we can and hide them until the "big day," kind of like in The Shawshank Redemption when Andy drops pocketsful of dirt from the hole he is digging every time he goes outside."

Kate isn't sure whether to be impressed or flabbergasted by the ingenuity and odd dedication from her staff. "Where do you guys keep the books until you are able to recycle them?"

"Here and there," Willie said cryptically.

"And that means..."

"There are extra lockers in the staff area that we keep all of the books we collect through the weeks. Since Rick has his own office, he has no need for a locker and therefore rarely needs access to the area. When the recyclers come, we are usually able to clear out at least four lockers-worth of books."

Kate knows she shouldn't find the whole situation funny considering its absurdity, but that doesn't stop her from smirking. "I appreciate your honesty, Willie. Hopefully in the coming months though, we will no longer need to do any covert ops to keep the library looking nice. I'll keep persuading Mr. Castle, and you guys keep doing what you've always done until it isn't necessary."

The first weekend Kate spent in Hawthorne was spent continuing to unpack and organize her home, but by late Sunday afternoon Kate had no more boxes to sort through and was exhausted. She fell asleep by seven that night and only had the few hours before that to relax.

On her second weekend in Hawthorne, Kate was determined to be as lazy as she could get away with and by two o'clock on Saturday she was still in her pajamas and had finished the two books she was reading. She wasn't used to her life being so slow. In New York, everyone was on hyper-speed but in Hawthorne there wasn't a plethora of entertainment options. The one-screen movie theater off the main street only showed two movies a week, only at night, and the movies playing that week didn't interest her.

As she sprawled out on her couch, which she had finally placed in front of the bay window facing her driveway that also allowed her to see the street from where she would sit, she found her mind wandering. She thought about her first two weeks in her new town, all the Hawthorne residents who welcomed her so warmly, the neighbors who brought her casseroles that she'd only seen people do in 1950s sitcoms, and then she thought about her coworker, Rick Castle.

Despite their contemptuous first encounter, Kate and Rick's working relationship was running smoother than either of them had expected. Kate was still pressuring Rick into being pro-weeding, but other than that difference of opinion, the pair's work ethics meshed well and they both had made significant progress in the moving plans. The new library wasn't set to open for another six months, but in the opinions of both head librarians, it was never too early to start putting a plan in place.

Resting her had against the back of her couch, Kate spotted a person walking up her driveway. Her heart picked up speed when she realized, like she had conjured his presence, that the person now climbing her front steps was the man her mind drifted to in thought.

Kate whipped her head back and forth, checking to see if her house looked reasonably presentable before jumped from the couch to put her dirty dishes from lunch in the kitchen sink. The doorbell chimed throughout the house and Kate tried to make herself look like she hadn't just rushed around the house like a maniac by running her fingers through her hair and fixing the top she was wearing. Kate did a double take when she remembered she had decided to not get dressed that morning and was going to have to answer her front door sans a bra, wearing a holey t-shirt from college and pajama pants that had been run through the washing machine so many times that they were now threadbare. The only reason she still had the pants was because they were so soft and worn-in that they were too comfortable to throw out.

Kate threw up her hands and wiggled her fingers like she was summoning for solutions and surveyed her home in hopes that one had magically appeared. One of her favorite red wool pea coats hung by the front door and Kate threw it around her and tied up the belt. She flung open her front door to the surprise of her coworker who was about to leave having assumed she wasn't home.

Rick took in Kate's disheveled wardrobe choices, reddening face and her heavy breathing and said, "I'm sorry, I can come back if you were in the middle of something."

"No, Castle. I was just…" Kate scrambled for an excuse, "…I was just doing yoga."

Rick threw a teasing smirk her way and commented, "is wearing a coat while doing yoga a new exercise fad that I'm not aware of? And you just called me 'Castle.' Should I now refer to you as 'Beckett'?"

"No." Kate's first response was clipped before she followed with a slower, "to both questions."

Rick shifted from foot to foot as he jumped to his reason for showing up at her door. "I was walking around the neighborhood and I was thinking about you…"

"You were thinking about me?" Kate interrupted.

"Uh, no, wait, I was thinking about asking you over for dinner some night and you can meet my daughter and some of the neighbors and connect with some people outside of the library and maybe get to know the mayor, since he and I are friends, and maybe learn a bit more about the town and…"
"Rick, you're rambling."

"Oh yeah, sorry. I was just wondering if that would be something you were interested in doing some time."

Kate's cheeks warmed and if her face wasn't already red from her frantic run around earlier it was after his invitation. "Actually, I'd love to."

"Good." Rick said on an exhale and started to back away from Kate's front door. "I should get going now, I don't want to intrude on your weekend, I just wanted to see if you were interested."

"Okay, I'll see you at work on Monday then."

"Yeah I'll see you then." Rick raised his hand in an awkward wave before shuffling down the side steps leaving Kate standing in her doorway with a flutter in her stomach.

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