Story Notes:
This story is actually very old. It's one of the first three plot bunnies I tried to get to grow. I have no idea why it never got here to so I reformatted it a smidgen. Fixed a couple of misspellings that got through, consolidated it to one chapter and posted it here.

"Beckett's Book Collection"

Chapter/Author's/Story Notes:
It takes place somewhere in the fourth or fifth season time frame.
No particular reference points needed. No spoilers.
This story is a re-posting of one I did on another Castle FanFic site.

Walking down the street one day heading to a crime scene, a cup of coffee in each hand, Castle bumps into Beckett's old FBI flame Will Sorenson.

Trying to be the bigger man, Castle is willing to greet him pleasantly "Ah er… Hiya Will."

"Hey, it's the writer monkey! They let you off your leash?" Will exclaims obviously aware of how much it irks Castle.

"Yeah, time off for good behavior." Castle replies showing distaste with this situation.

"Sure. That's likely." Will says.

"And what about you Will? I thought you were overseas." Castle asks.

"Gotta return to the home office occasionally." he says with a smug grin.

"Yeah, I suppose."

Trying to move the conversation along Sorenson asks "You still working with Beckett?"

"Yes. I'm learning quite a bit from her." Says Castle.

Laughing Sorenson says "No doubt. She's quite a lady with a lot of interesting things under the hood."

"Yes, that she is." Castle agrees.

With a slightly mischievous grin on his face Sorenson asks "Did Kate ever tell you about her book collection?"

Intrigued by this revelation Castle jumps "No! What book collection?"

With an evil S-E-G on his face Sorenson explains "Well, she swore me to secrecy but I think this qualifies as a good secret and I doubt you'll tell her it was me who told you."

"Agreed. Do tell." Castle encourages him to continue.

Will starts "I knew Kate a long time ago as you already know, one of her prized possessions was the set of books that she'd read over and over and over again which helped her deal with the loss of her mother. Some of them had belonged to her mother too. No doubt they were destroyed in that apartment fire she had."

Looking a bit confused Castle states "I'm surprised she never mentioned this before."

Laughing Sorenson points out "No, she wouldn't. It's not like her. You should know that." he continues on "She even got a couple of them signed by the author. She was quite an aficionado of his work. She once told me that she stood in line for a few hours to meet him and get one of those books autographed."

Cursing under his breath Castle mumbles "Probably that damn Patterson" perking up a good bit he continues "I'd love to know what they are, maybe I can replace them for her and give her a smidgen of her old life back."

"I don't know Castle, they might be hard to come by."

"I don't care! I like a challenge. Who was it?" Castle insists excitedly.

"Well, if you insist. It was that cheap pulp author Richard Castle." Sorenson smiles and turns to continue on his way enjoying seeing how Castle never saw this coming.

Castle stands there, reeling, almost off balance, then slowly, almost under his breath he says "Oh … my … god!" as he looks at Sorenson's back as he walks away. Castle drifts off into slow motion as the world around him zips by and the reality of Sorenson's words sink in.

Returning to reality Castle starts to walk quickly. He passes a trash can and starts to throw one of the coffee cups away. "No, wait, that's hers." He tosses his coffee into the trash and pulls out his phone and starts punching in a call. "Paula? Rick Castle. I need a favor. No, can't wait, I need to you to get this done today. Since when am I a demanding type Paula? This isn't one of those favors you can sidestep, I'm calling you instead of Gina for a reason."

Castle continues talking while walking at a furious pace "I want a complete set of all my first editions at my door tonight when I get home. No, not tomorrow, not the paperbacks. Dig into that warehouse of goodies you have and I want a pristine set of books by tonight. This is really important."

He stops short in his tracks and continues his conversation "Yes, it's for her but more importantly, it's for me."

Then continuing on "Another thing, I have an idea for something, I want someone from your art department who does product sketches for marketing to meet me at my house tomorrow morning. Yeah, early. No, not your early, my early, nine am sharp. Right, thank you." he hangs up the phone smiling wide and almost skipping along now. Moments later, he arrives at the crime scene with a goofy smile on his face.

"Hey where's my coffee?" Beckett asks indignantly.

Handing the coffee he's carrying to Beckett "This is yours."

"Where's yours?" she asks looking puzzled.

"I Um.. Dropped it. Y'know me, clumsy." Castle offers smiling.

"Hey, everything okay?" Beckett asks staring at him.

Perking up "Yes. Very much so." Putting on his gloves and turning to the crime scene "So, what's the story here?"

Later that day, now the early evening, after excusing himself from the precinct, Castle is sitting at his desk with a stack of his first editions, signing each one, "To Katherine Beckett, A most extraordinary woman and friend. Always, Richard Castle." He looks at his last one, holding it like he'd be reading it, admiring "his work" and he smiles a wry smile.

"Great, that's done. Now to the next step." He says getting up and clearing his desk. Pulling out a large piece of paper, he puts it on his desk, grabs a pencil and starts drawing furiously through the night.

The next morning, Castle's up early, dressed and ready for work, pouring a cup of coffee for himself when the door buzzer goes off. He hurries over to the door, opening it he sees a neatly dressed young man with a briefcase standing there.

The young man says "Hello Mr Castle, I'm Stephen King." Noticing the "Look" on Castle's face. "No, not him, I'm the artist you asked for. Paula Hass sent me over."

Opening the door wider Castle greets him "Great, come on in." Closing the door and leading the guy into the office and to his desk Castle explains "I have the seeds for an idea and I want you to flesh it out for me."

"Okay, let me get out a notepad."

Bubbling with enthusiasm Castle continues "Here's a crude drawing I did." pointing to the drawing on desk. "I need you to refine it and make it 'Real' as an idea for Paula to take and run with."

"Great, this is what I do." King says. Looking at the drawing on Castle's desk he asks "Is that a breadbox?"

Castle laughs "Sort of. It's a book shelf. This is a glass front here. Like what lawyers have, it lifts up and opens."

"Oh! I get it Mr Castle. Let me redraw this, give me a few minutes and I'll show you a couple of examples." King says.

"Hey," Castle asks, "do you want some coffee?"

"Sure, thanks Mr Castle."

"I meant to point out to you, the glass front of that thing is the logo that Paula got made up for banners. It's the one with the bridge and the New York background, you'll need to speak to her about getting it."

"Understood Mr Castle." King offers.

Weeks later. It's early evening and Kate Beckett is sitting on her couch watching reruns of Temptation Lane in loose lounging clothes just relaxing with a glass of wine when there's a knock on her door. A little confused by the surprise visitor, she peeks through the peep hole asking "Who is it?"

A voice from the other side of the door answers "ACME Messenger service. Package for a 'KB' from a 'Richard Castle'."

Beckett looks puzzled at first then gives a warm smile. "Okay." She unlocks the door and opens it up to find an ordinary messenger standing there with two boxes, about waist high and about a foot square, on a delivery "two wheeler".

"Hi," Handing her the paperwork "These are for you." He grabs the wheeler and starts to walk in.

Beckett instructs him "Please put them over there on the coffee table in front of the couch."

"If you'll sign at the bottom of the paperwork, this is all yours." the messenger says. Lifting the boxes onto the table, it is obvious that they aren't unbearably heavy but they aren't light. "I was instructed to tell you to open this one first." He says pointing to the box closest to the couch.

Handing the paperwork to the messenger Beckett thanks the messenger and stares at the boxes.

"You're welcome Ma'am, have a nice evening." He says then leaves closing the door.

Beckett goes to first box, looks at it and smiles a little at the anticipation of what could be in it especially knowing what Castle's capable of. She thinks about calling him but decides against it and begins to open the cardboard box when the front side flops open to reveal a black lacquer box, like a single 'Barrister bookcase', with an etched glass front with the "Castle" logo and bridge across it. Inside the box are all of Castle's books. On the outside are two small brass plates. One says "The Richard Castle limited edition collection." the other says "Number 1 of 2000".

She flops back against the back of her couch smiling and amazed at what he's done, yet again. Then she notices a small envelope taped to the glass. Opening the envelope she finds a note card with a familiar cursive flourish "Kate, thought you might need new copies after that fire you had. The other box is a copy of each of my first editions for you. With love from your favorite ruggedly handsome author to his favorite (and only) muse."

Beckett smiles warmly and lifts the front flap of the case and pulls out one of the early books, an old favorite. She opens the front of the book to find the inscription and she smiles wider and gets a tear in her eye. She pulls her feet up on the couch and settles in to read her book, an old comfortable friend.

The next day, at a crime scene, Beckett arrives uncharacteristically after everyone else.

"Hey Beckett, you're late!" Castle says laughing.

"Yeah, I know, was up late, reminiscing with an old friend." she says smiling at Castle.

"Hmmmm… I hope you got my present." Castle says.

Beckett says "Oh that. Yea. I didn't get the time to open it." trying to not let him see her grinning mischievously.

"Oh." Says Castle a little disappointed.

She turns around to Castle smiling "Don't look so 'lost-puppy' on me. Yes I opened it. We'll talk about that later. Right now, we've got a crime scene to investigate. Do you mind if we take care of that first?"

Castle smiles and they turn to the crime scene.

In the car ride back to the station the curiosity gets to Beckett "What.. Why did you send that to me? And what's it mean '1 of 2000'?"

With that impish grin and sparkle in his eyes Castle explains "I ran into a little birdie who told me that you lost some books in that fire. So, I thought I'd replace them for you."

Beckett smiles at his thoughtful gift. "Well, it's beautiful, thank you very much. So what's with the numbers?"

Excitedly, almost giddy, he explains "Well, I got inspired after hearing about this loss of yours and I had the book company work on it. I created a limited edition set of books to be sold in that case. I kept #2 for myself of course."

Continuing, he says "I gave ten of them to the law school to auction off to add to the Johanna Beckett scholarship. I've got four more, 11-14 to give to Ryan, Espo, Lanie, and Gates but you shouldn't tell them about it yet. I need to have them pull numbers from a hat so that it doesn't look like I'm playing favorites."

"Can't have that." Beckett agrees.

"No. Can't have that. After that, Black Pawn will be selling them off at an embarrassing profit." He says.

"Well, thank you again." Beckett says smiling her face glowing. "You said a little birdie, does that little birdie have a name?"

Smirking, looking out the window Castle says "Of course."

Really curious now, Beckett asks "Going to tell me what it is?"

Laughing Castle looks at her "No."

"Well, it's still a beautiful gift, thank you very much." She says.

"You're very welcome." Castle finally says grinning like the Cheshire cat "So… Stood in line to meet your favorite author eh?"

Looking incredibly shocked and embarrassed Beckett snaps "Oh crap, who told you?"

Grinning again and looking out the window all he says is "Chirp Chirp"

"OOooofh!" Beckett exclaims stealing glances at Castle while driving.