Disclaimer: Still hoping, but no.

Stand With Me:

Chapter Five: Scherzo for Whiskey and Author

Warm sun. Perfect white sand and sparkling blue waters in every direction. A bottle of St. Miriam's. What else could a man ask for?

Uhh … no brainer.

Kate Beckett in a red string bikini.

Kate Beckett in no bikini?

No, Kate Beckett in a red string bikini. Might as well ask for something that stood a snowball's chance of actually happening.

Rick stretched languorously and reached up to adjust the angle of the umbrella that kept him partially in the shade. Nestling back into the insanely comfortable beach lounger, he couldn't remember the last time he was this relaxed. He'd probably never been this relaxed. A warm lassitude had settled into his bones to the point that he never wanted to move again.

He took a sip of the St. Miriam's from the cut crystal glass and groaned in pleasure as the smooth smokiness slid down his throat. Heaven! The only thing that could make this better would be …

"Your coffee, caramel, cookie crunch ice cream, Mr. Castle." The server poked her head around the side of the umbrella and set the dish of creamy goodness on the table beside him.

"Damn, you're good!" he laughed, watching the caramel ribbons ooze down the side of the frosted bowl. He set the whiskey down and grabbed the bowl and the spoon the server provided from her apron pocket.

"We aim to please, sir," she said with a smile that was strangely familiar to him.

He mumbled something that sounded like "Succeeded!" around a mouthful of the ice cream. Gotta love a resort with five-star service on the beach, he thought.

She watched him with her tranquil grass-green eyes while he tore into the dessert.

"Whiskey and coffee ice cream is a bit of an atypical combination," he conceded after the first few bites.

"Unlike the whiskey and smorelette combination earlier?"

"Okay, okay … I admit it. Not the flavor sensation I thought it would be."

The woman's face remained impassive save for a slight twitch of her full lips. "It's your escape, Mr. Castle. It's not my place to judge."

He flashed her that famous Castle grin. "Call me Rick."

"If you wish."

"What's yours?"

"Does it matter?" It was an odd question. He looked up at her over the top of his dark sunglasses. She was tall and slender with shoulder-length chestnut hair and those impossibly green eyes. The rich timbre of her voice, too, was intriguing. Like a timeless echo of something he had heard before but could not place.

"It matters," he insisted. "And not just because you've been bringing me my taste buds' desires for the last …" Rick struggled to remember how long he had been on the beach. It seemed like forever and yet like only a few minutes.

"I've been known by many names," she admitted, slipping her hands into the pockets of the blue pinstriped apron she wore.

A sudden, happy laugh far down the beach caught Rick's attention. He squinted, and slowly the figure in the distance, initially lost in the heat waves radiating off the beach, became clearer. Long, dark hair, an impossibly sexy body barely concealed behind the strategically placed scraps of red fabric. If it was a mirage, it was the best damn one Rick had ever seen.

"Kate!" he breathed.

"You know her?" the server asked, turning her head to assess not the woman in red, but the reaction of the man before her.

"Yes. No."

"That sounds like a definite maybe to me."

Rich shook his head to clear his thoughts. "Sometimes I feel like I've known her my entire life," he continued to stare at Kate as he answered.

"Only sometimes?"

"Other times … like I don't know her at all," Rick admitted with a touch of sadness. Something or someone in the far distance called to Kate who smiled once at him before turning and heading back the way she had come, disappearing back into the haze of sun and sand.

While Rick stared down the beach at the retreating figure, the woman picked up the red glass bottle nestled in the sand next to the lounger and poured another measure of the St. Miriam's into Castle's glass. The remains of the forgotten ice cream lay puddled in the bottom of the bowl, and Rick did not resist when she took it from his hand.

"You know her better than you think you do," the woman insisted with that puzzling smile that confused Rick a little more each time he saw it. "I'll be back in a bit with a fresh bowl," she said as she walked off down the beach in the opposite direction Kate had taken.

"Hey! You never told me your name!" Rick called after her.

She waved at him without turning but shouted back her response. "Call me Jo!"

Author's Note: A "scherzo" is a piece of music that is typically a part of a much longer work such as a symphony or a sonata. I thought that this brief Castle coma interlude fit that definition rather well. I know I promised nothing else before the weekend, but this was short and sweet enough for me to compose without sacrificing too much grading or planning time.

I want to thank the two additional people who reviewed the last chapter, but I must say that I agree 100 percent with Ladybugbear2 who wrote, "I have but one question … why doesn't this fic have more reviews?" With nearly 5,000 hits to the story, 50 story alerts, and 22 favorite story tags, I can't help but ask the same question.

Trust me, my dearest readers, you have no idea how much a quick review can brighten my day. I can't help but check my phone at lunch, wondering if there's a new little tidbit awaiting me. If nothing else, it causes the students who eat their lunch in my room no end of entertainment when they hear their teacher giggling with glee over an unexpected review. But then, they think I'm nuts anyway.

I hope you enjoyed this little scherzo. Please let me know what you think.

Thank you for reading!

~ Sarah