Disclaimer: The wording is mine but the characters aren't

Thanks for the reviews. Here's another chapter to keep my English from deserting me completely here, in the land of the rising sun.

Are you following?

"Okay," she breathed, happy for the direction. "If we get a match?"

"We talk to her about the appropriate boundaries and thank her for being such a dedicated fan," he shifted his weight and frowned, obviously trying to place the blurry woman in question. "But Kate, I don't think we'll get anything: most of the fan mail is anonymous, a fact I'm sure you remember from the Tisdale case. What do we do then?"

"Then it becomes police business and I'll give her fair warning," she resolved.

"Okay," his face showing the same blind faith the other members of her team had displayed earlier.

"Okay," she breathed, willing herself to shake off the anxiety.

"You know," he started lightly. "Even if she does turn out to be a stalker, we have to keep in mind not all stalkers are psychopaths."

"Are you drawing from experience again?"

"Yes," he said earnestly. "I stalk you for a living."

…..

2.

Castle and Beckett spent the morning down in storage; both huddled together at the two small reading tables they had pushed together. The school-sized desks with single reading lamps were hardly rivals to the conference room on the fourth floor. Ryan and Esposito had already checked the photos of the crime scenes from the last month, but without a new body on the ground, Beckett had enough free time to indulge her unease and troll the older files.

The pair was more than half obscured by the large case boxes.

"Anything?" he asked, rubbing at his eyes two hours later.

"No," she groaned.

"Well, we knew it was a long shot for her to actually get caught by the photographer. It doesn't mean she wasn't there."

"Yes, but until the boys can get us a name, this is all we have."
"I checked through some of the other 12th cases, and she hasn't come up," he frowned. "It just doesn't make sense. Why would she just appear a month ago? I haven't had any signings or appearances for months."

"It might not have been something like that," she leaned her weight on the back of the chair and let out a frustrated sigh. "For all we know right now, she could have just picked up one of your novels a month ago. Hell, she might work at the corner store and you just smiled at her when she was having a bad day."
Her eyes opened and cut to him, taking in his stiff expression. "I'm not blaming you," she reassured him. "There are just too many questions and we don't have enough information."

"Yes well, I can be very charming," he said wryly, relaxing.

She snorted, retraining her attention on the ceiling, trying to coerce answers from the weathered tiles. After a minute of silence her eyebrows drew together.

"She only comes to our crime scenes," Beckett stated. "So how does she know when and where they are?"

"Well she can't be the murderer; we already caught them. Maybe she's watching the precinct?"

"That can't be it," she shook her head, her mouth pursed in speculation. "Two of the body drops were early calls. We came straight from my place."

"Police scanner?"

"Maybe."

Two sets of eyes surveyed the mess of paperwork, both thinking of the only other obvious reason. However after it was still notably unvoiced a minute later, Castle scooted his chair back loudly and started packing the files up again.

"I vote we find food before Tech gets the boys a name and we lose our chance."

"Food sounds good," she agreed readily, stretching her spine and reaching for the closest files.

"So," Castle queried. "Are we feeling All-American today, or are we going to spice things up a little?"
"I could be swayed to either side," she replied a little half-heartedly.

"Really? Well, I was thinking…doner kebabs."

"That sounds just right actually," she granted with a smile. "Not to sound unpatriotic, but I was thinking of something…"

"Less likely to contribute to heart failure?"

"I was just going to say 'lighter'."

"Well that's all on you. I have no control over your substandard diction," his attempt to lighten the atmosphere back-firing spectacularly.

"Substandard?" She narrowed her eyes to hide his success.

"Did I say sub-standard?" he back pedaled. "What I meant was…"

"Yes?" she rolled her weight on to one hip and looked at him expectantly. "I'm waiting. Impress me with your superior choice of words when you convey my flaws."

He swallowed but then he brought his chin up a little. "You have to admit that 'lighter' is hardly eloquent."

"But that is where you are wrong, Castle," she purred, moving deliberately into his space and watching him try not to flinch back. "It was the perfect word to describe what I wanted to say."

"Which was what exactly?"

She took his lapel in one hand and stared him down, amused when she saw his eyes widen slightly. Together or not, some things never changed.

"Exactly what I said," she breathed at him. " 'Lighter'."

He had clearly already forgotten his argument and tried to lean in and close the small distance between them, but she caught his chin and pushed him lightly away.

"Kate," he made her name in to a complaint.

"Oh no, Castle. I've learnt my lesson: not when we're working. Now don't distract me! The sooner we get this all stored, the sooner we can have lunch."

"Just to clarify," Castle looked very serious. "Is lunch still considered working?"

She rolled her eyes for him and turned away for the nearest box. "Do you have to ask this every time?"

"I like hearing the answer," unable to restrain the goofy smile. It trumped the appreciation which would have been decorating his face otherwise as she stooped in front of him to pick up the box.

"Here I was thinking you were invoking a disclaimer," she huffed. "And don't think I don't know where you're looking, Castle."

"You said I couldn't distract you," he smirked but squatting to retrieve one of the boxes regardless. "You never said I couldn't… distract myself." His sentence trailed off and he stood up sharply, looking around as if he had lost something.

"Rick?"

He ignored her and reopened one of the boxes, tossing the lid on the desk and quickly pulling out the case file. Unable to follow his intentions, Beckett stooped to store another box. Once he had it straight in his head, he would share. Her mind worked too logically to do any more than distract him when he was ferreting out these connections.

She hadn't even managed to straighten fully with the relatively light container before he caught her wrist abruptly, causing her to drop it dangerously close to his foot; a fact he didn't acknowledge.

"Kate," his eyes snapping with an intent energy, "She was only seen at three of our cases. But not at the Hackett crime scene."

Beckett picked up on his meaning as far as it went; they had four new cases this month. "We'd have to check with the officers; she might have just avoided the CSI techs that time."

"Or she arrived too late, after the photos were taken," he dismissed her argument. "But Kate, listen," his eyes demanded all her attention. "The Hackett case was an early morning caller."

"Just like the other two," Beckett raised her eyebrows, not following him.

"We spent the night at my place," he explained. "Beckett, all my windows are double-glazed. You can't see inside."

Her stomach dropped as she caught his meaning, her face turning as grim as his. "She was there for the other two when we were coming from my place." Kate finished the reasoning. This woman had known about the crime scenes, because she had been watching Beckett's apartment and had followed them.

It was like dejavu.

"She's been watching us."
…

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