A/N: Until I manage to find a list of Castle's bestsellers somewhere, I'm just going to wing it in terms of where they fall in the Derrick Storm series.

Scholastic

Ryan/Jenny, post-A Deadly Affair.

Jenny smiled at the note and the half finished dinner it was keeping company. The meetings with her principal and department head had run late, and all Jenny wanted to do now was change into something comfortable. Jenny hadn't been sure what to expect when they'd asked to meet with her, so she had gone digging through her closet and ended up wearing one of her suits to school. Now she was feeling the urge to veg out, so she fished out a pair of yoga pants and then went digging through Kevin's drawers until she found his old academy t-shirt. That was better. Jenny twisted her hair up into a loose bun as she walked back into the living room and made a beeline for the bookcase.

Kevin had, rather unwittingly, created a monster the day he gave her Heat Wave. The moment she'd finished it Jenny had gone to Barnes and Noble and bought Castle's other twenty seven books, and she had just finished number twenty-two. Which meant that the next book on her list was… Gathering Storm. Jenny plucked it off the bookshelf. Jenny was curled up on the red couch and halfway through the second chapter when Kevin came back, laundry basket in hand.

"Hey, you're back. I was starting to think they were holding you hostage at the school."

"I was just thinking the same thing about you. Get lost in the laundry room?"

"One of the dryers is busted. Again." Kevin dropped the laundry basket on the armchair.

"So you didn't meet an attractive girl down there and get distracted?" Jenny teased.

"Well…" Kevin drew the word out slowly as he pulled her up off the couch. "There is this blonde who likes to steal my clothes."

"Really? Do I know her?" Jenny arched an eyebrow at him.

"Isn't that my academy t-shirt?" Kevin asked, leaning down to kiss her.

"Considering it shrunk in the wash I think that means it's mine now," Jenny grinned, interlacing her fingers behind his neck and stepping closer.

"I still think you did that on purpose."

"Without proof you'll never know."

"I could always get a confession out of you," Kevin mused, his thumb rubbing circles on her right hipbone.

"You could try," Jenny agreed.

"Derrick Storm again?" Kevin asked, catching sight of her book. "You know that's just Castle's alter ego, right?"

"Go ahead and ruin it for me, why don't you?" Jenny pouted. "I'm always going to think of Rick now."

"Who were you thinking about before?" Kevin wondered.

"Just this brown haired, blue eyed Irish detective I know." Jenny winked at him.

"Oh. Well then," Kevin grinned. "Hey, in this one-"

"No spoilers!" Jenny warned.

"Hmm. Come keep me company while I finish making the spaghetti. You can tell me about your day."

"So what were those meetings about?" Kevin asked, turning the burners on.

Jenny grabbed a bottle of white wine out of the fridge and poured herself a glass. "I told you Bianca's pregnant, right? Her doctor wants to put her on bed rest at the start of her sixth month. The school has a student teacher coming in a few weeks who's majoring in art, so they were wondering if I would be okay with teaching three arts and two English when Bianca put on bed rest next month instead of five arts."

"What did you say?"

"I have two weeks to decide, so I said I'd think about it."

"And? What do you think about it?" Kevin put the lid over the saucepan and turned to look at her.

"Well, I'll finally be able to put that English minor to good use." Jenny worried at her lip. It could be fun. It would be a good experience. She just didn't want to get pushed out of teaching art.

"Do you get to pick your own books?"

"Yeah, next semester. One twentieth century novel and one Shakespeare. Bianca's already chosen the ones for this semester."

"See? That could be fun. And if you need any help with the second, I'm your guy."

"Thanks, Kevin," Jenny grinned.

"So does that mean you're going to take it?"

Jenny shrugged. "I probably won't decide for sure until they ask me again. How was your day?"

"Castle came back."

"It's about time. He's late. Did he just drop by the precinct? How did Kate take it?" Jenny leaned over and balanced her elbows on the counter.

"No, we found him standing over a dead body."

"You what?"

"He was friends with our victim and got worried when she didn't answer his calls. We found him standing over her with a gun."

"What did you do?"

Kevin went pink and busied himself with chopping a tomato for the salad. "Well, afterIalmostshothim, Beckett arrested him."

"You shot Richard Castle!" Jenny exclaimed. "And Kate arrested him?"

"No …just near him. To the left of him, actually. He had a gun, it's a reflex." Kevin rubbed the back of his neck, embarrassed. "And Beckett had to do it; he was a suspect in a murder."

"Well, I guess that answers the question of how Kate took it. But Rick didn't kill her, right? What happened after that?"

"No, Ballistics cleared him almost immediately." Kevin nodded. "He and Beckett made an asinine bet about the case – if Castle won, he got to stay, and if Beckett won he had to go for good." Kevin sighed and drained the noodles. Jenny raised an eyebrow. That was a little more juvenile than she was used to, even dealing with high school students every day.

"Rick won, didn't he?" Jenny asked.

"Yeah, because Beckett let him," Kevin groused, frowning.

"Maybe she didn't know?" Jenny offered helpfully.

"That they were making fake bills? Oh, she knew. Esposito and I figured it out when we were going through her personal effects."

"So he's back?" Jenny finished off the last of her wine.

"Looks like."

"You don't sound all that thrilled about it." Jenny reached up and grabbed two plates out of the cupboard, handing them to Kevin.

"Look, I get him leaving so he can finish his book without seeing Beckett and Demming together all the time. Whatever. But he didn't even call me or Espo. Three months, Jenny, and not a thing. We're partners, and he doesn't even call to say 'hey, how's it going?' Bullshit." Kevin took the plates and ladled out spaghetti onto both of them.

Jenny laughed. "Kevin. I love you, but sometimes I just don't get you."

"Huh?" Kevin frowned at her.

"You're mad because he didn't call!" Jenny giggled.

"Yeah, so…?"

"You do realize you sound like a sixteen year old girl," Jenny pointed out, grabbing the salad bowl.

"Just for that, no sauce for you." Kevin passed Jenny one of the plates and she took it with her other hand.

"I think it's adorable," Jenny said, watching Kevin sulk. "And on the plus side, in a few days it'll be like he never left."