A/N: I apologize for the delay in posting. Life has been busy.

"The Burrito Bandito has struck again, Rick." Lanie called out from the hallway outside Rick and Kate's offices before she arrived at Rick's open door. "Oh, I'm sorry for interrupting."

Kate, who was sitting across from Rick at a small table against the wall, quickly said, "You're not interrupting, Lanie, we were just discussing a few things."

"What is that in your hands?" Rick's face contorted in disgust.

"I just told you, the Burrito Bandito struck again. I was looking for a book in the parenting section and I discovered this." Lanie held out an opened book that had been destroyed by a burrito smashed between the pages. The remnants of beans and cheese already starting to darken with mold.

Kate scrunched up her face as she got a whiff of the massacre. Rick sat across from her glaring at the item in Lanie's hands. Kate could feel the radiating hate that Rick was shooting at the book like it was the culprit. Kate suspected Rick wanted to murder the person who had desecrated not only public property, but a book, something that, to him, represented more than just typed and bound paper.

Kate hesitated before speaking up. "I take it this has happened before?"

"Not to this extreme, no. Usually the guy just abandons a half-eaten burrito on a shelf, but it has never escalated to…to…murder." Rick's voice caught in his throat as he struggled to finish his sentence.

If Kate hadn't had such respect for books she might find Rick's dramatics a little funny, even though she did think he was being a little more melodramatic than necessary. To the vandalizer, whom the Hawthorne librarians had dubbed the Burrito Bandito, squishing a burrito into a book was a prank, but to the staff at the Hawthorne Library, it represented disrespect for knowledge and intolerance of opinions. The punk with the sick sense of humor probably didn't see his actions as anything more than a way to impress his immature friends and made no connection to the irony of destroying a nonfiction book about teaching children about morals.

"What have you been doing to try and catch this person?"

"Nothing because the person has only been leaving burritos on shelves and nothing was ever destroyed. We figured it was either a very forgetful burrito-eater or a teenager pulling a harmless prank. Maybe we'll have to bring someone in to catch the culprit." Rick said.

"Well, let's not call the police force before we try being more watchful of that area of the library and note who normally is over there," Kate placated, turning her attention back to the librarian still standing nearby with the odorous book. "Lanie, thank you for bringing this to our attention. Rick and I will figure something out."

Lanie nodded in acknowledgement and left the room.

"We could be our own detectives!" Rick's solemnity turned to excitement faster than Kate could return her attention back to her colleague. Rick covered his mouth when he saw Kate's widened eyes. "Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you."

"It's fine, did you want to finish talking about the upcoming changes to children's programming?" Kate asked and when she received a hummed response, continued her discussion from before she learned of the Burrito Bandito.

"Do you think we could subpoena the security cam footage from the taco restaurant from a few days ago so we can narrow down our suspects?" Rick blurted.

"Castle! Are you even paying attention to what I am saying?"

"You called me Castle again, Beckett." Rick smirked.

"Don't call me that and I only call you 'Castle' when you are frustrating the hell out of me."

"Were you frustrated when I stopped by the other day?"

Kate blushed. She knew Rick wouldn't be so obvious with his innuendos while at work, considering the strict sexual harassment rules the city has, but she couldn't stop her mind from going into the gutter with his question.

"Oh, no. Not…that's not…that's not what I meant." Rick stuttered when he saw Kate's reaction which resulted in him blushing too.

"Can we get back to this meeting?" Kate asked before the interaction could fall into an awkward silence, for which Rick gratefully nodded.

A few hours later, Rick popped his head into Kate's office to ask if she was free for dinner at his place that coming Saturday. Kate wasn't expecting him to get the ball rolling for his get together so quickly and was surprised that it was so soon. She was still new in town though and didn't know many people yet, so it wasn't like she had plans anyway.

After a weird week that included her introduction to the Burrito Bandito and a request that a local farmer not bring his manure bucket into the library to Google what was wrong with his heifer, Saturday arrived. Rick asked for the guests to arrive at his place by six and Kate, being the punctual person she was, arrived a few minutes early carrying a bottle of wine for the host.

After ringing the doorbell, the front door swung open to reveal a smiling redheaded girl with the same blue eyes as Rick.

Kate smiled and said, "you must be Alexis. Your father speaks very highly of you."

"You must be Kate," the girl stated, "my dad speaks highly of you as well."

"He does?" Kate's astonished response takes Rick's attention away from the roast he was watching in the kitchen and brings him rushing to the front door.

"Oh Alexis, I hope you aren't revealing all of Hawthorne's secrets to our newest townie."

"No Dad, I was just telling her about your little crush on the newest townie," Alexis's teasing lilt, one that was meant to be playful but also revealed more than Rick wanted, catches both Rick and Kate off guard, their faces red with embarrassment and flattery respectively.

"Please ignore my daughter, I think she's gotten into her grandmother's wine again," Rick chuckled and attempted to downplay the revelation as he nudged his smirking daughter away from the entry way. "You are the first to arrive, so feel free to take a seat in the living room with Alexis, I just need to keep an eye on the roast. It's nearly to the point of perfection."

Kate followed Alexis and sat in an arm chair and Alexis plopped herself onto the couch across from her.

"Who else is coming tonight?" Kate asked.

"Ummm, I know Dad invited the mayor and his wife, everyone at the library, but several of them weren't able to accept because of it being last minute, but I think Kevin and Jenny are coming. Did you know they are dating?"

Kate laughed, "Yeah, I figured they were dating when I caught them holding hands as they left work one night."

The ring from a phone echoed from the kitchen and the low murmur of Rick's voice could be heard from where the two women were sitting. Rick's approaching footfalls had Kate and Alexis turning in his direction.

"Bad news it seems. Kevin and Jenny got a flat tire on their way back from visiting Jenny's mother. They were hoping to make it, but they've been having spotty phone service where they got stranded and the tow truck only just arrived. So, I guess it's just us three."

"What about the mayor?" Kate asked.

"He called me a couple of hours ago and said he had something come up last minute. The roast is done though, so we can eat whenever you guys are ready."

"Good because I'm starving!" Alexis declared, jumping from the couch and rushing by her father toward the dining room.

Kate stood from the chair feeling her fingers tingle with anxiety. She's had dinner with people she worked with before, so this shouldn't be a big deal, but she's never had dinner with only one colleague at his house with his daughter who had only just confirmed her suspicions that Rick felt something for her. She could get through the meal. At least she hoped she would.

A/N: Also the Burrito Bandito is totally something that happened at the library I work at. One of my coworkers found a burrito smashed between a book just a few weeks ago and about a year ago we found an abandoned burrito on one of the shelves. You seriously can't make this stuff up.

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