AN: I cannot sufficiently express how sorry I am for making you guys wait a whole month for an update. I've had things going on, but that's no excuse. Please accept this nice, longer update as my apology.

I was very tempted to just write this entire episode from Kate's perspective, because it is a veritable font of unexpressed emotions. But sadly, I decided on just this scene in the war room (I really wanted to continue on to the next scene too, but I thought I'd gone far enough). I didn't do the scene in her apartment because it's been done by so many people, and I wanted to find something different.

I hope you like it! Please review!

There were many reasons why Kate was annoyed with Agent Shaw. Castle would probably assume it was about him, but it really wasn't. She was annoyed because Shaw had driven up to her crime scene, taken over her case, which was apparently all about her, or at least Nikki, in the first place, and then talked to her as if she had no idea what she was doing. And now she was taking over her precinct with her fancy high-tech equipment.

There was also the fact that Castle seemed to know quite a lot about her, but Kate was trying not to dwell on why that was annoying her.

"What's going on?" Castle asked from behind her has she failed in her attempt not to dawdle in front of the conference room door.

"They're setting up the War Room." What was wrong with her murder board? Nothing. But she knew Castle was going to love all of Shaw's gadgets. Why did that bother her?

"War Room?" Castle looked like a kid in a candy store, on Christmas. Again, why did this bother her so much?

Kate stepped around him, pointedly placing herself between him and the conference room.

"Tell me everything you know about Jordan Shaw." Kate knew she shouldn't ask, knew she probably wouldn't like what she heard. But Shaw already knew about her, turnabout is fair play right?

"She's like the federal you." What exactly did that mean? He was looking at her like it was supposed to be a compliment, but it didn't really feel like one.

"She's good," he continued. "She's real good. She cracked open that Hudson Valley Strangler case when she was just twenty-five." Great, she had to compete with that. No, she wasn't competing.

"I thought they caught him off of a speeding ticket."

"Well, don't ask me how, but she profiled that he drove a Yugo." Well, Kate couldn't deny that was impressive.

"They found a girl tied up in the back." She as starting to remember the details of the case, damn, she was good.

"Uh huh. Jordan Shaw saved that girl's life." He was fidgeting, trying to look past her. She was losing him. No, she wasn't losing him, she was losing his focus. There was a difference.

"I've never seen you so excited to meet anyone before." Why was he going all fanboy now? He played poker with James Patterson and he was tripping over himself to meet and FBI agent?

"Well I just, I want… whoa, impress…I uh… Can we go see the War Room now?"

He walked past her before she could answer. This was going to be a long case.

She tried to listen while Shaw was describing the leads they were following, but it was all she could do not to just watch Castle playing with the smart board. He was especially impressed with the data matrix. She wasn't. Well, maybe a little.

"Wow, sounds like it does your job for you." Kate hadn't meant it to sound that way. She wasn't saying Shaw didn't work hard, just that the matrix made her job a lot easier.

"A machine can collate, it can't think." Shaw answered as she smacked the file she was holding down on the table. Wow, that was abrasive.

"It takes a mind to hunt a mind." Well, at least they could agree on that.

Shaw described their suspect and something about her phrasing picked at Kate.

"You almost sound like you admire him." It wasn't and accusation really, but an observation, though Kate didn't really understand feeling much of anything that resembled admiration for this guy, or any other suspect for that matter.

I admire him the way Robert Shaw admired the shark in Jaws. The better I know him, the easier it'll be to catch him." Kate understood that knowing a suspects habits and likely actions was important, but admiration? That she just couldn't understand.

"It's like when I'm writing." So Castle could understand, but she couldn't? Why did it bother her so much that he was connecting with Shaw? That the two of them could see something that she couldn't? She stared at Castle as he explained.

"The killer's voice doesn't sound authentic unless I understand his motivation."

Kate liked hearing more about his writing process, even though she would never admit that to him, but she didn't like that he was tell Shaw. He'd just met Shaw, but he'd known her for over a year. Granted, Kate would never have allowed him to talk about his writing with her, feigning disinterest and boredom out of principle. She still wished he might have tried though.

When Shaw started talking about possible arson, Kate forced herself to look at her, and away from Castle. When Shaw said she thought Nikki's name might be why their guy picked her though, she couldn't help but watch his reaction. She wondered if she saw a glimmer of the guilt she was starting to feel reflected on his face as well.

"Speaking of Detective Heat." Oh no. But yes, Kate could only watch as Avery carried in a large box of Heat Wave copies.

"Listen, not that I don't appreciate the royalties." Really, Castle? Really? "But uh, why do you need a hundred copies of Heat Wave?" This would not be helping his ego. And as much as she had accepted that millions of people had read about her alter-ego (When had she started calling Nikki that?), she really wasn't sure she wanted to be surrounded by people who were wondering how much of it was true.

"If our killer is obsessed with Nikki Heat, then so are we. Avery, cliff's notes please."

Kate stood there as Avery started, a little miffed at how predicable and clichéd he made it sound. Heat Wave was good, but not the way he made it sound. Castle, of course, couldn't keep his mouth shut, and she smiled in spite of herself. Avery, however, did not seem fazed.

Avery continued and Kate nodded slightly as she listened. Truth be told, she was proud of Heat Wave, and Nikki, though Castle would never know that. Her smile broadened when Avery mentioned Nikki and Rook's verbal sparring; Castle had most definitely written that well.

Then it hit her, what was likely to be said next. No, no, definitely not. They did not need to hear that. Kate stared at Avery as he mentioned chapter eleven, mentally pleading with him to just skip over that part; it wasn't vital to the plot, not really. Okay, maybe it kind of was, but that still didn't mean he had to bring it up. But of course he did, despite the hole she was trying to bore into the side of his face with her glare.

Now every eye in the room was on her. They all knew she was the inspiration, but could they really believe that part was truth? Hadn't they seen her interact with Castle at the crime scene? It was obvious they weren't together, no matter what Kyra Blaine had insinuated.

She had to say something, right now; something that would convince them Castle had made up that part of Nikki's relationship with Rook. She wasn't sure she had ever hated him as much as she did in that moment.

"It's fiction." She couldn't see Castle, but she knew he was probably smiling that smug smile of his. Yes that was convincing, no one would ever think she ways lying with that one.

Her suspicion was proved correct when Avery gave her a sure-honey-whatever-you-say look before turning back to his notes.

Yeah, working with the famous Jordan Shaw was going to be just spectacular.

AN2: I'm going to try to get Boom up tonight as well, but no guarantees. And thank you guys so much for all the support you've given me. I never imagined it would take me this long just to get to the middle of season two, but I promise I won't be stopping anytime soon.