Castle admired his own image in the mirror. Courtesy of a fat suit which added thirty pounds, a dark wig and beard, and the expertise of a professional makeup artist, he looked so different that he was sure that his own mother wouldn't recognize him.

"Thanks Phoebe, you are truly an artist. I don't think that Beckett will be able to spot me, as long as I keep quiet," he said as he got up out of the makeup chair.

"My pleasure Rick, just make sure that you don't keep touching the wig. That kind of nervous gesture will give you away," said the makeup artist as she packed up the last of her tools.

The disguise was necessary because he wanted to be in the room when the joke went down. But if Beckett caught wind of him at all then the game would be up, hence the need for all the cloak and dagger theatrics. He settled in nervously to await the phone call from Esposito which would signal his cue to act.

"Where's Castle gone?" Beckett asked as she looked around the private room where the other guests were congregated. At least they weren't in the main part of the strip club, thank goodness for small reprieves she thought.

"I think that he's gone to talk to Amber and Candi, he's got something specific that he wants them to do in the show," Esposito replied as he took another sip on his beer.

"Castle is coaching the strippers in how to do their act? God only knows what embarrassment he is cooking up," Beckett said as she rolled her eyes. She excused herself for a moment as she wandered off to find the bathroom. It was easy to spot the male toilets but there didn't seem to be any sign of a female equivalent. Not too surprising she guessed, when after all it was a strip club catering to male patrons.

In the end she had to ask one of the bar staff for directions.

"Sorry, we don't have a separate toilet for female guests. But maybe you could use the one for the female staff. You have to go through the dancers' changing room to get to it though," he pointed to an area around the back of the stage.

As soon as Beckett was out of the room Esposito was on the phone to Castle. "She's gone to the bathroom, we're good to go."

In a well orchestrated move they rearranged all the furniture in the room so it would look completely different and then all the men left, including the bar staff. A new group of men slipped into the room, including Castle in his disguise.

"You've got about five minutes before she gets back. One of the dancers in the change room will try to delay her if she comes back too soon. And the music is meant to start as soon as she walks back in. You should try to stay in the background and keep your cap pulled down low, your disguise is good but she could still make you," Esposito gave last minute instructions to Castle before he left. "Make it good, just remember we'll be watching it on the video camera."

Beckett did a double take as she walked back into the room. She could have sworn that this the room where Ryan's stag night was being hosted but she didn't recognize any of the men in it. She turned her head to look back down the corridor from which she had just come. Mentally she retraced her steps; down the hallway, past the change rooms and then turn left, first door on the left. There was no way she could have gotten lost, so where was the rest of her party?

Just as she was about to back out of the room, a strange man grabbed her arm and pulled her over to the stage as Sisqo's Thong song started blasting out of the speakers.

"Show us what you've got baby," he shouted over the music as he started to dance around her. She was quickly surrounded by five of his friends who also started dancing around her, the rest of the room joining in a litany of wolf whistles and raucous shouts.

"Oh no, I'm not a stripper," she tried to explain but it was dubious that anyone could even hear her over the loud music, plus they all looked very intoxicated. "I'm a cop," she shouted in a louder voice, as she fished her badge out of her hand bag.

"Ooooh, very sexy. I love the whole stripper cop routine. Want to show me your handcuffs as well?" said the nearest guy.

Castle was almost pissing himself with laughter as he watched Beckett's frustrated efforts to extract herself from the room. He had warned all the actors not to get too close to her, he didn't want to frighten her by barricading her in behind a wall of strange men. But equally knowing Beckett, if some guy got a little too frisky he could well end up face down on the floor with her knee in his back.

She looked so cute when she got irritated, he recognized the slight frown that she made when things weren't going her way. He could imaging her looking just as adorable at five, hair in pig tails and stamping her foot because the world wasn't co-operating with her plans.

Beckett could see that these guys clearly only had one thing on their minds. They had come here to see strippers and nothing she said was going to shift them. She wasn't physically intimidated by the situation, she knew she could get out if she really wanted to, but that would probably involve resorting to violence and she didn't think that the situation was quite that bad yet. Maybe if she pretended to give them what they wanted then she could make it over to the door.

She made a teasing show of taking the scarf from around her neck and roping the nearest man with it. There's enough of a suggestive bump and grind in her dancing to really get the crowd going and it's certainly enough to make Castle's jaw drop.

He hadn't been exactly sure what she would do in the situation; maybe yell a bit, threaten to arrest someone possibly but never did he dream that she would put on a strip tease. And though he still can't quite believe it, that is exactly what she's doing.

She's pulled her shirt tails out of her pants, briefly baring a sliver of toned midriff and then her hands have gone up to suggestively play with the top buttons of her shirt. All the while, she's turning and shifting through the crowd of men, pausing briefly to lay a flirty hand on one guy's chest before moving on to smile at the guy next to him.

Holy hell, Castle thought, if she ever gave up her day job as a cop she could make a fortune as a stripper. Maybe it was a matter of life imitating art, he remembered the phrase he'd used when he had first outlined his Nikki Heat character to Beckett, 'cop by day, stripper by night.' He was so dumbfounded by the display that she was putting on that he doesn't even notice that she's come right over to him and suddenly it's his turn to be on the receiving end of her performance.

There's no sign of recognition in her eyes, maybe he's managed to fool her, but by now the joke was the last thing on his mind. And that's because she's slipped the top two buttons undone to reveal more skin. It's not exactly R-rated, she showed more flesh when she wore that blue Herve Leger dress to the first Nikki Heat book party. The difference this time is that she's doing it with seduction in mind.

The hand that she has on his chest slides up his neck and he's mesmerized by it's slow progress. She leans in further to him and he's practically drooling by now.

"Apples, apples, apples," he yelped as her fingers suddenly twist his ear while her other hand painfully pulls off his fake beard.

"Gotcha Castle," she gloats as he squirms and the whole room is laughing at him.

She finally lets go of his ear but that's only because she needs both of her hands back so that she, Esposito and Ryan could feed the birds.

"How did you know?" he asked.

"Come on, did you really think that you could pull one over me. I'm a trained detective."

"Esposito and Ryan told you, didn't they?" he looked at the other two men accusingly.

"Of course I told her bro," Esposito admitted easily. "After that prank that you pulled on me last month, I've been itching to get one back on you."

"Thanks for setting up the video cameras for this by the way," Beckett said with smug glee. "I'm sure that they managed to capture that look on your face just before I pulled your beard off. Your jaw was practically on the floor, you were so gullible. The particular shot is definitely a keeper. I'm thinking of calling this the Great Beckett Prank, what do you think? It has a certain ring to it."

"Ok, you got me good," he conceded but he's already thinking about a scheme to get her back. Hmm, maybe next time he could set up a fake haunted house using that magician's box and the secret trap door …