"Have anyone seen Beckett?" Castle asked as he glanced around the bullpen, not seeing the detective anywhere. "Hey, Ryan? Where's Beckett?"

"Oh, I don't know," the detective frowned as he glanced at his watch, "she texted me to say she would only come in the afternoon, why? She didn't call you?"

"No." Castle had found a still steaming cup of coffee waiting for him on is front step when he had come up earlier, but there was only a note on it from Beckett telling that she'd see him later. "I texted and called her but there was no response."

"I'm sure it's nothing since she obviously gave you your coffee and texted me to inform me she'd be late."

"Who's going to be late?" Esposito asked as he came out of the break room with a cup of coffee in his hand. "Hey, Castle."

Ryan shot Esposito a look before sitting at his desk with a pile of files. "Beckett."

"Oh. She said she'd be late. She didn't say why, bro. Hey, what are you even doing here?" The Latino detective suddenly stared at the writer curiously. "Don't you have a bunch of interviews and a photo shoot to go through today?"

Castle cringed and nodded tersely. "Yeah, they want to promote the release of Heat Wave and get the inside scoop on the next Heat book. I was on my way but I wanted to see Kate before I went."

"Sorry, bro, she'll be in later. If you want I'll tell her to call you." Esposito offered his friend and sending a friendly smile as he left. "Dude, do you think he knows?"

Esposito smirked at his partner as he took place at his desk as well. "Not a chance, otherwise he wouldn't be dragging his feet so much to get there."

"Okay, just one more...great, perfect. Thank you, detective, if you want to take a break Stephanie will show you to the break room."

Kate nodded and quietly followed the young intern, ignoring the stares and leers she got as she walked through the hallways of the building. It took them a few minutes to get to the lounge, the short, blonde intern keeping asking random questions that were answered politely but shortly. "There you go, Miss Beckett. I will come and get you for your last changing before Mister Castle gets here."

"Thanks." Beckett counted to five after the door closed before she slumped in one of the red, overstuffed chair of the room and kicked out her five inch golden pumps off her feet.

She released a relived moan as she flexed her feet and curled up her toes repeatedly to bring back the blood circulation in them faster. As gorgeous as the shoes may be, they had been designed to kill women's feet.

Kate looked down at herself and, curious, jumped back on her feet to take a look at herself in the mirror. They had only let her glance briefly at her makeup before taking her for one last photo shoot so she didn't have a chance to take a look at the full effect. "Huh."

The white, skinny slacks they had asked her to wear made her legs seem even longer than ever and hugged every...part of her, making her chuckle; she had gotten dozens of stares because of those pants, but she knew that one man in particular wouldn't stare as much as gawk when he'd see them.

She had refused to wear the first two tops they had presented her because the first one was too slutty for her own taste, and the second one was plunging so low she was worried it may show her scar. Not that they wouldn't have loved that; Gina had said that it would have made her look even more human, closer to the average person if they got to see it a bit, that people loved to hear stories of survivors.

One death glare and a veiled 'no' later, the publicist had backed down in a hurry and let her decide what she wanted to wear. Kate and Ben, the stylist, had agreed that an outfit that didn't scream police would be enough to get the readers that feeling, hence the soft lavender shirt. It was short sleeved, hung on her left shoulder and the loose collar was still high enough to prevent any accidental showing of anything she didn't want people to see.

Topped with perfectly curled golden hair and a smokey makeup that made her eyes even brighter than usual, Kate looked more like a movie star than a homicide detective, but it was surprisingly fine by her. They already had taken quite several pictures of her in outfits that would send any criminal run for cover.

Kate couldn't repress a sigh as she stared at herself. For the first time in months, she really felt like herself; the talent of one nameless makeup artist had magically made disappeared her ever present dark circles under her eyes, and her cheeks didn't seem as hollow anymore.

The random thought that she could be like that again eventually if she could just let people in to help her take some of the constant weight off her shoulders, especially if she could finally bring herself to let one specific man in. The thought alone sent her shaking in the knees.

If their coffee deal had helped the detective loosen up into accepting her feelings for Castle, she still couldn't take the one step that would really show him as much she cared and loved him.

Kate rolled her eyes at herself as she sighed. She couldn't loosen up enough to give in the temptation of kissing the writer, but she had willingly agree to an interview and a photo shoot with Gina, Black Pawn and a highly praised magazine to surprise Castle.

The man's ex-wife had proposed a follow-up interview from the last one she did three years ago to commemorate the big coming out of Heat Wave on the big screen and, if she had first refused, the thought of a shell-shocked Richard Castle when he'd see her at the magazine studios had been enough to change her mind. That and the fact that she was tired of people telling her she looked better in person than in that dreadful Cosmo picture. It probably would be the other way around now, but she didn't care.

The other silver lining was, with the money that gig would give her, she could redo her whole wardrobe if she wanted to. Or remodel her apartment. Or make a down payment on a new one, bigger and closer to work. Closer to Castle's.

The interview had gone smoothly because Beckett had the sense to instate boundaries before agreeing to the deal. She had a right to deny answering any questions that she found too personal and her mother's case was off the table, as well as her shooting. Or most of it at least.

Looking back at the time on her phone Kate grinned somewhat nervously. Castle would be there soon. In the meantime, she settled back comfortably in the chair and read the man's numerous texts he had sent her, and began to respond to them one by one.

'We'll see each other soon, Castle.'

Castle grunted at the woman's text. He wondered what she could have been doing in the past three hours for just answering him now. 'How soon?'

'Soon.'

"Damn."

"Is everything okay, Mister Castle?" Stephanie asked him with a professional smile as she arrived behind him, having heard his frustrated sigh.

Castle turned and grinned politely and nodded. "Yes, of course. How are you?"

"She's fine, we're all fine." Gina's voice came from his left. "Hey, Rick."

"Gina." Castle greeted kindly. "So, let's get started? What do you want to do first, interviews or photos?" His cell phone kept vibrating in his pocket and the man got the impression Beckett was currently responding to every single one of his text messages, and his fingers were itching to answer them back again.

"Hello Gina, how are you, Gina? Me, I'm good, thanks for asking, by the way."

"You know how much I love doing this, Gina, so let's just get this over with, okay?"

"You mean you used to love doing this, until a certain someone came into the picture." Gina smirked knowingly, pleased by the scowl the writer shot her. "Leave her out of this."

"Why, she's your inspiration behind Nikki Heat. And I think we both know she's more than your inspiration now, Richard."

Castle looked around and put his hand to the publicist's shoulder, pushing her away from curious ears. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"You know what it means," Gina sighed, "and it may come as a shock to you, but I'm glad for you. She's a good person."

"How do you know that?" Castle asked her suspiciously, not knowing where she was going with this.

"A little bird told me. Come on, Richard, would you relax? I am genuinely happy for you, for whatever you two are. How would you say we'd start with the photos? We have a surprise for you." Gina smiled and took the writer's arm and led him to the studio on the top floor of the building.

Gina refused to give away what the surprise was, deflecting every question coming her way until they reached the photography studio, where the photographer was putting the last touches to the lighting while technicians were checking the stage's last details.

The room looked suspiciously like a fake crime scene, only smaller and without an actual body. "A crime scene? What is your angle here exactly?"

"Well, we thought it'd be interesting to see more "on the field" and we obviously couldn't use a real crime scene, so..."

"So what, I'm supposed to stand there and do what? Have you hired fake cops again?" Castle dreaded the response, hoping it wasn't the case. He didn't think he could stand being surrounded by bimbos when all he wanted to do was to read the messages his detective had sent him and go see her.

"Not exactly." Gina smiled brightly, as she pointed behind the man.

There wasn't a word to explain what Castle felt as he cautiously spun around to find Kate Beckett staring back at him, her eyes nervous but bright and a soft smirk on her lips. "Kate?"

Shock, excitement and anger were battling for dominance over the writer's features, anger quickly winning until the detective's voice was in his ear. He had been so surprised he didn't even notice her walking closer until they were almost touching. "I don't mind doing this so don't yell, okay?"

"You...you- you!"

"She accepted when I offered, I didn't twist her arm I promise, Richard. There were conditions to her participation, to which we happily obliged." Gina promptly told him when he looked like he was about to unload on her. "She made a pretty good deal, no wonders she's one of the best New York detective there is. She knows how to get what she wants."

Castle frowned but the woman's comment, oddly enough, seemed sincere. Now that the first shock had faded, he focused her gaze back on Kate, put his hands on her shoulders and gently pushed her one step back so he could take a good look at her. "Huh."

The detective was wearing tight, black jeans that left not much to the man's imagination, a high collared, deep purple satin shirt that hugged the woman's every curve like a second skin while black four inch stilettos completed the outfit, bringing her to his height. "That's all you have to say? Huh? I guess it's a good thing you haven't seen the other outfits then."

Castle gulped. "O-others?"

Kate smirked and glanced at the "scene". "They're really aren't trying to go for a real crime scene." She chuckled lightly.

Castle shot the photographer a look, who nodded so the writer guided his partner at the side of the scene and watched her curiously as she unconsciously analyzed every fake detail. "You know what's funny?" She asked after a few seconds, looking up at the man.

"No, what?"

"I've actually never seen any taped body silhouette on a crime scene before. That part only comes once my job is done there." Kate commented softly, her eyes suddenly serious. "What?"

Castle cast a look around, a frown in his face. "You really want to do this? Gina or Gates haven't forced you or anything because if they did I will talk to them."

"It may come as a bit of a shock, Castle, but it's actually been kind of fun. And have you ever seen me doing something I didn't want to?"

"They forced you to do the Cosmo interview back then." Castle reminded her before his eyes took an odd glint and he smirked. "You really wanted to get rid of that picture, don't you?"

"Billy is about to snap his arm off with the constant waving he's doing to get our attention." Kate replied with a smirk of her own as she grabbed Castle's bright red tie to drag him to the center of the scene.

It was late when Castle got home, his feet dragging and his coat slung over his shoulder. He had taken Beckett out to a late lunch at Remy's when they were finally done with the photo shoot and his interview before parting ways, the detective needing to fill up some paperwork before the day ended.

For once he hadn't insisted to stay so he could watch her from the corner of his eye while he played the newest game on his phone, instead going grocery shopping and running some errands.

Castle quickly put away the perishable items and left the rest on the counter. He could put the rest away later when he was done with something much more interesting.

The man had his hand in his pants pocket as soon as he entered his study, and pulled out a memory card out of his case the moment he was sitting in front of his laptop. After leaving Kate the man had went back to Black Pawn and after an animated discussion with Gina and the head publicist, the writer was back home with a copy of the day's photographs.

He stared at the card a moment, as if bracing himself for whatever was on it. He didn't doubt the artistic quality of what he would be seeing on it because Beckett never would have agreed to anything remotely shady or tacky, but he was still nervous.

With a sharp intake of breath he stuck the memory card in the slot and clicked on the first file.

He was still staring at the pictures of a Katherine Beckett he had never seen before when a soft voice tore his eyes away from the screen. "Alexis, hi. What did you say?"

"I asked what you were doing." Alexis repeated with a frown, stepping closer to her father cautiously. "You're staring, is everything okay?"

"Yes, I'm fine sweetie. Perfectly fine. I was just looking at some pictures Gina gave me."

Alexis grinned and her eyes lit up. "Oh, from today? Did they take good pictures? Let me see!"

Castle twisted his laptop sideways so his daughter could look as well. When the surprised gasp he expected didn't come, the writer forced his gaze away from the close-up shot of the detective he had been staring at for the past minutes to look at the teenager. "You don't seem surprised."

"It's because I am not." Alexis admitted with a sheepish grin as she sat on her father's knees to have a better look at the photos. "Kate called to ask me my opinion about whether she should do it or not. I guess she decided to. She's really beautiful on that one, she doesn't look like a cop at all."

"Yeah, she is." Castle agreed as he looked at the picture Alexis had clicked on. It was a shot of Beckett, sitting casually in an overstuffed black chair, her hair falling gracefully on her right shoulder, her eyes locked in a book in her hands and a small grin on her face. The man's heart twisted in his chest, wishing he would get to know more of that Beckett soon. "She's holding Heat Wave."

Alexis chuckled as she recognized the book as well. "Yeah. It's a good idea, don't you think? Really gives the whole Heat Wave frenzy a nice touch. Hey, don't you guys took pictures together?"

Castle's eyes widened; he had forgotten about them. "Yes, they must be in the other folder." He watched eagerly as the teenager went back to the card menu display and clicked on the other file. "They put you guys on a crime scene? Really?"

"I know, Kate said the same thing," Castle laughed as the photo shoot came back to him. "She kept pointing out every detail they had wrong and when someone mentioned to her that they had put clues together that we had to solve in order to figure out who was murdered and by whom, she had the fake killer down in about a minute."

"Cool. Oh, wow."

"What?" Castle turned to look at the picture and smiled broadly. Alexis had stumbled upon a photograph that must have been taken somewhere around the end of the shooting, because at that point neither him nor Kate were paying any attention to the photographer anymore.

Castle remembered the moment clearly; Kate was getting tired but was refusing to admit it, so the writer had texted Gina while the detective had her back turned. Kate's surprise when an intern appeared less than two minutes later holding two tall cups of coffee had been priceless, but the grateful grin she had graced Castle with had somehow been caught by the photographer.

On the picture Kate was leaning into him because Castle had teased her about having gulped down half the cup in a matter of seconds. The detective was clutching her coffee in one hand while the other was pressed against Castle's chest, and her fingers were tightened around his tie. He could still feel her breath against his ear when she had whispered words he couldn't even remember now. The glint in her eyes and her lips so close to his skin had rendered him so speechless that it was only when he studied the picture more closely that he saw his hand on her waist. Huh.

"I still can't believe she willingly jumped into the hyena's den for me." He murmured stunningly as he watched the slideshow Alexis had put on of all the images.

"Does that really surprise you, dad?" Alexis swivelled to face her dad, her eyes soft but chiding. "It kind of took me some time to realize it, but she really cares about you, you know."

"She knows how important all of this is, your whole career is based on the books' success and she knows she is part of them, so she wanted to do her share too." Alexis said kindly before pausing the slideshow. "I'm going out with Julie, I'll be back around ten."

Castle glanced once more at the picture on the screen and wondered if his daughter was right. On a whim, he grabbed his cell phone and texted the woman. "Thank you for today, Kate, I really appreciated it."

The response came back really quickly. "My pleasure, Castle. It was actually kind of fun, especially the part where I got to boss Gina around."

Castle laughed at loud, knowing his ex-wife and publicist didn't have as much fun as being the detective's occasional lackey for the day. "By the way, the coffee I got you? It resets your countdown from 49 to 50."

*glares.* The phone pinged and the writer shook his head in amusement, his fingers already typing back a response when it vibrated again. "Don't shake your head! Fine, as you wish. Ricky. See you tomorrow."

"Oh, and by the way, enjoy those pictures you begged Gina about :P"

Castle's eyes widened and he dropped his phone on his desk. He quickly scanned the room and jumped when his phone pinged again. "Ha! Made you look!"

As usual, a big thank you to everyone who's reviewed, favorited...it really makes my day! It may seem like I'm going off track from the coffee deal, but no worries, I just needed Kate to realize a few things before they can move even further. If you guys have any requests or suggestions, I'm open to ideas! :)