I was issued a challenge: write a Castle one-shot and keep it rated K.

Mission accomplished. Educate, I believe you owe me a rather large bag of chocolate.

A huge thank you to IMW for her excellent beta skills.

Rick Castle sat at his desk, his laptop open in front of him. His fingers were poised over the keys, but as he stared at the screen, no words appeared. With a sigh, he dropped his head back against the chair, his hands falling to his lap. He'd been in his office for over four hours and had yet to write a single word for the next chapter of Blinding Heat. In fact, he hadn't written a word in over three days. Writer's block was no joke.

A soft knock at the door drew his attention and he looked up to find Alexis leaning against the doorframe.

"Still having trouble?"

Castle nodded.

"That obvious, huh?"

Alexis smiled at that and moved to his side, leaning her weight against his desk.

"I thought the whole point of you staying home was so you could spend the time writing."

"It was."

Alexis studied him for a minute before she spoke.

"She'll be home in a couple of days."

"I know," he agreed, running a hand through his hair in frustration.

"But you miss her?"

"Like crazy," he admitted. "I sit here to write about Nikki Heat but then I start thinking about Kate and I can't get my focus back."

Alexis chuckled a bit at that. There was no denying that her dad was head over heels in love with his muse.

"Come on," she said, reaching for his hand. "I think you need a change of scenery."

Castle allowed her to pull him to his feet.

"Where are we going?"

"People watching," she replied. "Go put on some shoes and grab a jacket. Let's go to the park."

A smile slowly spread across his face. It had been quite a while since he'd been people watching with his daughter in the park. It sounded like a perfect way to spend the afternoon.

"Financial broker," Alexis said as she reached for another handful of popcorn.

Castle watched as the younger man walked further away from them; the set of his shoulders and speed with which he walked gave Castle the same impression.

"You're rather good at this," he said with a pointed look at Alexis.

She shrugged her shoulders.

"Years of practice."

They sat on the bench in Central Park enjoying their popcorn and the sunshine, the temperature perfect for an afternoon outdoors. There was a time when the majority of their Sunday afternoons had been spent in the park together. Sometimes they would walk together; sometimes they would merely sit and watch the myriad of people who crossed their path. Alexis had loved to hear her father weave tales of the stranger's lives, and he had encouraged her to do the same, listening with rapt attention as she told tales of lost love, glory days and fairytale happily-ever-afters.

"Your turn," Alexis said, nudging his side with her elbow as a woman neared their spot.

Castle watched the woman for a long minute, taking in her drawn shoulders and the dark circles under her eyes. The music coming from her headphones was loud enough that he could easily decipher the sounds of a hard rock band and her hair was pulled into a sloppy ponytail on top of her head. His initial guess would have put her in her in her late forties, but upon a second glance, he decided that the fact that she looked so worn down lent itself to the idea that she was probably only in her mid-thirties.

"Single mom," he began, watching the woman hurry across their path before turning his attention to Alexis. "Working two jobs to make ends meet. They married while she was still in college and the arrival of their firstborn forced her to put her education on hold. For a while, things were great. Their family expanded again and she was ecstatic about being a mother. But then one night, tragedy struck. One night, her husband didn't come home."

He paused for a moment, his gaze drifting to the path the woman had taken.

"After a frantic night, she opened the door the following morning to greet the end of life as she knew it. The police officers gave her as much information as was available. It was a horrific car accident. A truck driver had fallen asleep at the wheel and lost control, the rig barreling into oncoming traffic. Her husband and the cabbie never stood a chance. The next few days were blanketed in fog for her, services planned, estates settled, questions of 'why?' going unanswered. Then her new reality settled upon her shoulders. She had two little boys depending on her."

"That is so sad," Alexis said, interrupting his story.

Castle turned to look at his daughter, wrapping his arm around her shoulders and pulling her into his embrace.

"I'm sorry, honey."

"I knew you were missing Kate," she replied, the humor evident in her voice. "But I had no idea it was that bad."

Before he had a chance to answer, a scream pierced the air. They were on their feet in an instant, running down the path in the direction it came from.

Castle pulled up as he saw the woman who had just passed them standing in the middle of the path, screaming at the top of her lungs.

Castle instinctively tucked Alexis behind him as he tried to approach the woman.

"Are you okay?" he asked.

The woman turned wild eyes to him, one hand pointing to the bushes just off the path as her screams slowly subsided. Castle's eyes immediately picked up the shoe sticking out of the bushes. Knowing that the woman's reaction meant there was undoubtedly a body attached to it, he turned back to Alexis, not wanting her to see it.

"Honey…"

Alexis lifted a hand to cut him off.

"I'm not coming any closer," she assured him. "Do you want me to call the police?"

"I'll call Esposito," he told her. "Why don't you see if you can get her to sit down on the bench over there?"

Alexis nodded her agreement and moved to the older lady's side, her soothing tone eventually having a calming effect on the woman.

Castle pulled out his cell phone and dialed Esposito as he stepped closer to the bushes.

"Esposito."

"There's a body in Central Park."

"Castle?"

"Yeah," he replied. "I'm in the park with Alexis and a woman who stumbled across a body."

"Give me the details."

Being careful not to compromise the scene, Castle gave him as much information as he could before getting Esposito's assurance that he would have a uniformed officer there as soon as possible.

Several hours later, Castle once again found himself in his study, his laptop perched on his thighs. It had been an interesting afternoon to say the least. He and Alexis had gone with Ryan and Esposito down to the precinct to give their statements, but Esposito had refused him any more information on the case. Since he was a witness, he wouldn't be allowed to help investigate.

From the little he'd been able to gather from eavesdropping at the scene, the victim had been dead less than an hour when her body had been discovered. As bad as he felt for the woman who had found her, Castle was immensely glad that it hadn't been Alexis who had stumbled across the body.

The ringing of his cell phone jarred his thoughts back to the present.

"Castle."

"Is it really too much to ask for you to stay out of trouble for three days?"

The sounds of Kate's voice brought an immediate smile to his face.

"Hello there, Detective."

"Don't 'Detective' me, Castle," she replied. "You're not getting any more information out of me than you did Ryan or Esposito."

"Come on, Kate," he whined. "Please?"

"Three days, Castle," she continued. "I leave you alone for three days and suddenly I'm getting calls from Ryan and Esposito telling me you're a witness in a murder investigation. I thought the whole reason you didn't want to come to Michigan with me was so you could spend the time working on your book."

"It was," Castle replied, not quite sure if she was really upset with him or just yanking his chain.

"Then explain to me how you ended up stumbling across a body in Central Park."

"Going to the park was Alexis' idea," he told her. "She thought a change of scenery would do me good, so we went to do some people watching."

"Why did Alexis feel you needed a change of scenery?" Kate interrogated.

Castle sighed, not wanting to admit how completely unproductive he'd been while she had been out of town. He should have just gone with her to the seminar in Michigan, especially since his sole argument for not going had been that he could sit at home and write with fewer distractions than if he was sitting in a hotel room waiting for her to finish her sessions.

"She might have been feeling a bit sorry for me," he finally conceded.

"Why?" Kate prodded.

He sighed again.

"Maybe because I've been suffering from a bit of writer's block since you got on the plane," he finally admitted.

"Have you now?"

Castle rubbed his free hand down his face and leaned back in his chair, the amusement in her voice doing nothing to alleviate his frustration.

"Apparently, Nikki and Jameson wanted to go to Michigan," he explained. "They have been silent since you left. Alexis felt sorry for me this afternoon and suggested an afternoon of people watching. That's how we ended up in Central Park when the body was found."

There was a long pause before Kate responded.

"It's a good thing Alexis gave me the same story."

Castle straightened in his chair at that.

"You talked to Alexis first?"

"Yes," she replied, the softening in her tone obvious. "I wanted to make sure she was doing okay."

"She is," he assured her.

"I know. I just wanted to check for myself."

Castle couldn't help the grin that spread across his face. As much as she tried to downplay it, Kate had incredible maternal instincts when it came to Alexis. Deciding now was not the time to press the issue, he turned the conversation back to the case.

"So tell me about our victim."

"She's Ryan and Esposito's victim," she pointed out.

"And yet they called you," he retaliated. "So tell me about her."

Kate sighed softly into the phone.

"Fine," she agreed. "But only because they already have a suspect in custody."

"Already?"

"Uniforms picked him up trying to leave the park. He had blood on his clothes so they brought him down to the station for questioning."

"Is he our guy?"

"Esposito is going to interrogate him later tonight," Kate replied. "They're holding off while they do a background check to see if he knew the victim."

"Tell me about her."

"Her name is Sydney Springs. Thirty-four. She worked as a receptionist for a plastic surgeon."

"Cause of death?"

"Blunt force trauma. Esposito said it looked like there was a struggle and she hit her head on a rock. The fact that their suspect was still in the park makes him think it was an accident and he panicked."

"What about Kristen?" Castle asked.

"The woman who found her?" Kate clarified.

"Yes."

"According to Ryan, she thinks she saw a man running away when she screamed, but she's not sure."

"What's her story?"

Kate chuckled.

"What story did you make up for her?"

Castle quickly recapped the tale he'd crafted earlier that day, leaving out Alexis' comments about how bad he'd been missing Kate.

"Not even close," Kate said once he'd finished. "She's in her early forties, business woman, married to the same man for the last fifteen years. They've been trying to have children but have had no success. She told Ryan that she was running in the park today because they'd just gotten the news that their latest petition for a grant to be able to afford to adopt had been turned down."

Castle pondered that for a minute, his mind reconciling the image he'd had in his mind with the reality.

"What are you thinking?" Kate finally asked.

It was another moment of silence before he finally answered her.

"I'm thinking I should call Teddy in the morning," he told her. "Have him remove the financial barrier for them."

Kate's voice was filled with emotion when she spoke again.

"You're a good man, Rick Castle."

"I love you, too."

The silence stretched between them for a long minute and Castle found his fingers drifting across the keyboard. He imagined Kate there in the room with him, reading on the couch while he worked, and suddenly the words were flowing onto the page.

"Are you humming?" Kate finally asked.

Castle paused for a moment and grinned to himself.

"I am."

"I take it you've solved your writer's block?"

"More like reconnected with my inspiration," he replied.

Kate chuckled into the phone.

"Glad I could be of help. Should I grab a book and settle in for a while?"

"Would you mind?"

"Not at all," she agreed.

The silence once again stretched between them, only broken by the clicking of the keys under Castle's fingers and the occasional turning of the page as they spent the evening together. While it hadn't been the reunion of which he'd dreamt when he'd thought of Kate for the last few days, even Castle had to admit that it was still pretty close to perfect.

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