A/N: Let the games begin… :)

"I'm going to kill him!" she muttered to herself as she cleaned up the puppy spill on the carpet. She was referring to Castle, who had been insane enough to present her with a present that meant a hoard of work on top of her already heavy schedule. She was stuck. All morning Beckett had been completing her decision, and the fact was that she couldn't make it. She liked Malcolm, he was cute and despite her long days, she was happy to have someone to come home to. It had been a month since he'd given her the animal, and she had thoroughly grown attached. She had found herself calling him other names, when the K-9 was drawing on her last nerve and was being more than a B*&$!, a name that she thought she'd never want to hear again.

Now it was a private joke, between herself and the dog.

All Beckett could come up with to solve her pickle, was payback. Instead of leaving the dog at the shelter and having the pay for it, she was going to pawn him off with Castle. Let him deal with the "dog mess" for a change. See if he liked it.

At the bullpen, she found him chatting animatedly with Ryan and Esposito.

"CASTLE!" she called. "A word please?"

He looked up and smiled when he saw it was her, and left the conversation without so much as an "excuse me" and made his way to her. "Yes, ma'am," he grinned.

"Lose the sap," she demanded.

He straightened up. "What's up?"

"I have to take Malcolm!"

He frowned. "Why?"

"Because I have a conference to go to, in New York and I can't take a dog with me."

Castle smiled cheekily. "You could be like Paris Hilton, and put him in your handbag!"

"Castle!" she warned with that disapproving tone of voice, that one that made him both shutter with fear and rise to the occasion.

He shrugged his shoulders. "Only if I can name him SHERLOCK," he offered.

Beckett shook her head in frustrated. "You can call him pinhead, and it makes no difference, he's a dog Castle… and if you even THINK about bringing him to the precinct while I'm away, you are in SO much trouble."

He looked disappointed.

"How long you going away for?" he asked nosily.

She contemplated lying, but she saw no positive affect in that. "Two weeks."

"Oh," he said. "Okay… have fun."

"Thanks," she replied skeptically. He was being serious. "I will drop the dog off in the morning."

"Okay," he nodded. "What time- just so I know what time I am supposed to be up and out of bed?"

The image of him rising from bed, caused her to blush slightly, but she turned her face so that he wouldn't see. "Early. 6am."

He frowned. "People get out of bed that early?" he asked.

She suppressed a smile. "Yes, Castle. People have jobs and lives to attend to, we don't all have the luxury of staying in bed until we could be bothered writing a stupid book…"

He didn't seem fazed by her insult. "You like reading the STUPID book."

"More fool me," she sighed.

"You love it…"

"Do some work, make yourself useful!" she demanded.

Next chapter… how will Castle handle the dog, and will he disobey Beckett and bring him to work?

Review and let me know you want it. :)