Disclaimer: All these characters belong to ABC and Mr. Marlowe

Kate was standing in the lobby of Castle's building, patiently waiting for the elevator. It had been a few days since she had last seen him, and it was safe to say that their last date didn't exactly go as expected. She didn't even know how to explain what happened at the café, but whatever it was, she knew at the time that she just needed to get out of there.

As the elevator finally arrived and the two large doors gradually opened, Kate was welcomed by a familiar face.

"Paula, hi," Kate greeted, surprised by the encounter.

Looking up from her phone as she hurriedly stepped out, Paula noticed the woman now standing in front of her.

"Detective Beckett, good to see that you are on time and ready for another date," she commented.

Noticing the doors shut behind the publicist, Kate let out a sigh, "Ah, I wouldn't exactly say I'm ready, but I'm here none the less," she awkwardly replied.

"Well, let's hope you two can at least do better than the last time you were here. Maybe next house call you should bring a bottle of wine instead," she suggested, noting to the papers Kate was carrying. Looking up to her once again, Paula continued. "Might, ease the tension a bit," she furthur hinted. "How are you finding Ricky, anyway?

"To say that I'm counting down the days would sum it up pretty well," Kate answered honestly.

Acknowledging her response, Paula placed both hands on her hips. "You know, I don't understand why there's so much dislike between you two," she queried out loud.

Kate slightly nodded her head and gave an uneasy smile. "I guess you can't get along with everyone."

"I would have to agree with you on that," Paula sighed, "I mean, with you two as a prime example, it sure appears that way," she finished, directing her hand toward Kate.

Pausing briefly, both women stood awkwardly, until Paula's eyes suddenly lit up. "However, good work with your last date," she complimented with a grin.

"I'm sorry?" Kate enquired, confusion written on her face.

"Your last date. At the cafe," she clarified. "Didn't you see yesterday's paper?"

"Ah, no," Kate answered frankly. She had absolutely no interest whatsoever, in what was being published about her and Castle's fake relationship.

"Oh, it was brilliant," Paula quickly began to explain, "Not only did you have a whole article dedicated to your blossoming romance, but there was also a photo to accompany it. The way you two were smiling at each other in that cosy booth, it was perfect," she smiled. "I must admit though, hearing Ricky complain about you all the time, I was beginning to worry that a moment like that wouldn't be possible," she informed with a chuckle.

"Oh, it wasn't a moment," Kate quietly dismissed, "And it only lasted for a brief amount of time, so I guess you're lucky they were able to photograph it."

"Well, I've already spoken to Rick, and whether it was brief or not, I hope to be seeing more of that as we progress through this relationship," Paula hinted.

Dropping her head, Kate mumbled a reply. "Hmm, we'll see."

Looking at her watch, Paula let out a large breath. "Anyway, I have a meeting to attend and you have a date to get to, so I will leave you to it," she said, stepping aside. "Goodbye Detective."

"Bye," Kate replied, as she once again pressed the small button on the wall and waited for the elevator.

Knocking at his loft, Kate shifted on her feet, waiting until he finally swung the door open.

"Hey," she apprehensively greeted.

"Hi. Ah, Paula was just here," he informed, moving out of the way for her to enter. "Did you see her on your way up?" he asked as she made her way past him.

"I did actually. She seemed pretty happy," Kate replied, pausing as she waited for Castle to shut the door behind her.

"Yeah, she loved the photo," he commented, coming to stand next to her. "Apparently she also managed to get more press outside my building today as well, so overall, she is extremely pleased with herself."

"Well I guess that's a good thing then. At least we aren't going through any of this in vein."

"Mmm," he mumbled through his sealed lips, walking off and gesturing for her to follow.

As she strode further into his loft, Kate noticed a mass of what seemed to be letters, flooding his kitchen table.

Turning around and spotting her curiosity, Castle explained. "That's all my fan mail."

"Okay," she slowly responded, drawing her eyebrows together in a frown, "And why is it out here. Don't you have an office for that kind of stuff?"

Looking over the small mountains of paper, Castle let out a sigh. "Yeah, but there was too much, so I had to bring it out here. It's okay though, I figured you would bring your work with you again," he commented, looking at the files resting in her arms, "So I left the coffee table free for you."

"Right," she replied, locking her eyes on the small, but paper free table.

As she approached the couch, Kate briefly turned around to notice Castle pulling out a chair and taking a seat, before she sunk down on the furniture and set her paperwork out in front of her.

They both managed to work in silence for over an hour, and Kate was pleased at how much she completed.

Just as she was about to begin filling out another page, she heard Castle chuckle to himself. Figuring ignorance was her best option, she attempted to return to her document, and simply block his laughter out. It however was no use. He was annoying and she couldn't concentrate.

"Castle, are you right over there?" she sarcastically questioned, looking over at him.

Without even lifting his head, he replied, "Mmm, yeah," before once again chuckling to himself.

Closing the file in front of her, Kate crossed her arms. "Castle, I'm trying to do work. I can't concentrate with you making all that noise."

"Well, I'm trying to do work too and I can't concentrate while you keep on talking," he retorted, still keeping his gaze on the page in front of him.

"You cannot seriously tell me that what you are doing is work," she scoffed.

"It is so work!" he defended, now locking his eyes on hers. Observing her unbelieving look, he continued, "Okay, well it is work related. Most of these people write to me because of my novels, which if you haven't realized, is how I claim to be employed."

"Well, do you have to work so loudly?" she argued.

"Yes," he replied confidently, with a nod of his head. "In case you haven't noticed, there is a lot of mail here and I'm just trying to read through it. Finding the humor in the letters passes the time. Besides, some of these are actually hilarious," he finished with another chuckle, holding out a page for Kate to see.

Rolling her eyes, Kate once again looked over the piles in front of him. "Why do you have to look through all of that anyway? I mean, you're the self-proclaimed hotshot author; don't you employ someone to do that for you?"

Glancing over the consumed table, he responded. "Sort of. Black Pawn go through all of my mail and take out all the crazies, but then they give me the genuine ones. Also, it's not something I have to do; it's something I like to do," he clarified.

"Don't you mean something your ego likes to do?"

"No. Maybe. As time consuming as it is, I figure that if people put in the effort to write to me, then the least I could do is read it. Besides, I feel like I should make the most of it while they are still flowing in," he haphazardly replied.

"What's that meant to mean?" she questioned, placing her folders on the table.

"Well, I'm wrapping up my Storm series soon, so I don't think I will be getting as many loving letters once it's finished. Derek Storm is my most popular character, so I can't imagine too many of my fans will be happy once they find out about what I plan to do," he casually informed, continuing to sift through the colourful pile.

Kate's head shot up as the words flew out of his mouth."What?" she questioned a bit too urgently.

"Yeah," he sighed, not noticing her slight distress. "Storm Clearing will be my second last Derek Storm novel. I was actually half way through writing the last one, well, until my wrist, anyway."

She loved all of his novels, even his earliest, but Derek Storm was her favourite character. Ever. How could he possibly stop writing him like it was no big deal?

Swallowing, Kate looked down at her hands, now clasped together. "Oh, okay," she replied, trying not to appear too dejected. However, letting her curiosity get the best of her, she continued. "So, ah, are you going to begin a new series once you're finished with Storm?" she tried to casually question, praying that he didn't find her interest on the topic too unusual.

"Yeah, of course," Castle answered easily, with his attention still on the papers in front of him. Giving a slight chuckle, "Why would you care anyway? It's not like you-" He paused mid sentence, as he looked at her for the first time during the conversation.

"No way," he commented, still gazing at her, eyes now wide and mouth agape.

Oh-no. She could see his mind ticking as he began to sift through all that she said during the exchange. She was way too enthusiastic for someone who wasn't meant to care, but she hoped he wasn't smart enough to figure it out.

Apparently, he was.

Biting the inside of her cheeks, she attempted to remain calm and appear unaware of where this conversation was headed. "What?" she questioned, her heart now pounding.

"If I didn't know any better, I would say you sound disappointed," he cautiously thought out loud.

Kate refused to respond, and apprehensively waited for him to piece it all together.

He took his time, almost as if he was trying to wrap his head around what he was about to ask.

"Do you read my books?" he queried with a high-pitched tone, now turning his whole body in his chair to now face her.

"What? No!" she hurriedly spat out, quickly dropping her head and averting his gaze.

"You do so! You're all flustered and you're blushing!" he noted, now rising to his feet. "You read my novels," he stated, as he slowly began to creep towards her. Pausing, his eyes lit up and a huge grin spread across his face. "Oh my God, you're a fan!"

Clearing her throat, Kate attempted to compose herself. "Please, I couldn't care less about your novels, and I am most definitely not a fan," she nervously mocked. "I-I'm just shocked, that you're so willing to give up all of that fan mail," she attempted to recover.

"I'm not giving it up; I'm just, moving on," he replied, disregarding her attempted excuse. "I cannot believe it," he smiled, pleased with his discovery. "Although, looking back, maybe I can. When we first met, you did already know who I was," he noted, wiggling his eyebrows and now leaning against the large table.

This was a disaster. When she was forced into this situation with him, one thing she was never going to do was let him discover that she was a fan. There was no way that was about to change.

Drawing together any possible acting talent she possessed, Kate fumbled for an excuse. "Please, I knew who you were from the papers. You and your women have made your way on page six from time to time, and I've simply seen your photo. That's all."

"Yeah, sure," he replied, turning around and quickly shuffling through the letters.

"What are you doing?"

"I'm looking to see if any of these letters are from you," he teased.

Oh, come on now. He was correct in presuming she was a fan, but there was no way he could think she would be that obsessed with him.

"I can assure you that I did not write you any letters."

"But you are a fan, right?" he questioned with his back still turned to her.

"No," she sternly responded. "Castle, you can stop looking. You aren't going to find my name signed on any of those."

"How do I know that? You could be writing to me under an alias, or you could even have another identity. You could even have a double life I don't know about-wow!" he briefly paused. Gathering his thoughts, he spun around to face her and continued, "I just realised something. You are my fake girlfriend, and I don't even know anything about you. I mean, we are spending all this time together and we are practically strangers. I've let you in my house!" he said, now appearing alarmed, with numerous letters clasped in his hands.

"Castle, I only have one identity," she responded. What he was saying was ridiculous, but it was far better than his previous assumptions.

"Oh, I'm sure there is some rule in the code of fake relationships that states that we should at least know some things about each other," he defended, crossing his arms.

"Castle, I'm a cop. You can trust me. If anything you are probably safer with me being here," she encouraged.

Yes. This was a much better topic.

"Kate, your profession requires you to carry a gun. You are trained to kill. I don't know why I didn't realize any of this sooner!" he argued, now glancing around the room in disbelief. Returning his gaze to her, "Anyway, being a cop doesn't mean anything! You could easily pass as a cop by day, serial killer by night. Have you not seen Dexter?" he questioned.

Rolling her eyes, "Castle, it's a TV show. It's fake. You can trust me when I say that when I go home, all I do is sleep. No murdering of any kind," she responded dryly.

"Fake or not, I'm just trying to look out for myself. I don't want you taking advantage of my honest soul."

"Somehow I don't think that's going to be an issue," she mumbled, collecting a few more files.

"Hey, I heard that! You know, Paula and I were having a conversation similar to this before you arrived."

"So, now you're saying Paula thinks I'm an unlawful, savage killer?" she scoffed.

"What? No. I will trust that you aren't a threat to my wellbeing, but that's not exactly what we were talking about. We were discussing your safety actually."

"Why wouldn't I be safe? I'm sure that if you turned out to be a moonlighting serial killer that I could defend myself," she confidently responded.

"I'm not talking about being safe from me," he sighed. "I'm talking about all of my obsessed fans," he said, directing his arm to the table behind him.

"Castle, if they are your crazy, obsessed fans, why is my safety in question?"

"Well, now that it's public knowledge that I'm seemingly off the market, there are a lot of jealous women out there that wouldn't be too happy with you," he informed.

"Please, get over yourself," Kate ridiculed.

"It's true! I've been single for a while. I mean, I've seen women, but I wasn't in a relationship, or in this case, fake relationship, with any of them. There may be some women out there who might want to warn you off or something. Paula just thinks you should probably take some security measures, that's all."

"Warn me off? By what, trying to strangle me with their hair extensions?" she sarcastically replied.

"Don't make me sound stupid. You know, Justin Timberlake had a stalker. She even showed up at his house to convince him that they were meant to get married. How creepy is that!"

"Castle, you're not quite of Justin Timberlake's celebrity stature," she teasingly responded.

"It doesn't matter! Considering what happened to him, I just think we should figure out a theoretical plan of attack, or you could at least give me a copy of your apartment key, or something."

"No," she quickly rejected.

"Why don't you ever listen to me? This is about your safety."

"Castle, there is no way I'm giving you my key."

"But this is a serious matter. It's not like I'm going to want to use it when we don't have to see each other. It would strictly be used for emergency purposes only. I don't know why you're so against it," he attempted to persuade.

"Castle, you already pointed out the fact that I'm cop, with a gun. I'm sure I would have no problem with any apparent 'crazy stalkers'," she said, gathering up the last of her files.

"Seriously, these people and their stalking abilities should not be underestimated. That's how they trap you. They act all nice and friendly and then Bam! Next thing you know they are trying to cut off a lock of your hair," he described, playing with the tips of his fringe.

Kate stood and began to make her way to the entry. "Castle, I'm not giving you a key. Now if you don't mind, I've been here a while, and since it doesn't seem like I'm going to get anything more done here, I'm going back to the precinct," she responded.

"Fine, suit yourself," he gave up.

Clasping the handle to the front door, Kate let out a sigh of relief. As absurd as that whole conversation was, at least she had managed to divert his attention away from anything about her reading his novels. And now she was leaving. Yes.

Just as she was about to pull, he spoke.

"Oh, by the way, that whole thing about you being a fan and all, I'm totally not going to forget about it," he reminded with a grin.

Giving him a glare, she hurriedly made her way into the hallway and shut the door behind her. Damn it.

Thank you once again to everyone for your comments. All of them are extremely encouraging; however I must give a special thanks to Salma. For my story to be the first you've ever left a review for is really humbling. I hope you can continue to leave feedback for not only me, but other writers on this site as it truly means a lot.

BareWriter