"C'mon Gus, we're gonna be late!" Shawn shouted back at his friend as he bounded up the steps to the station. It was three months after Castle had left Santa Barbara and the pre-release copy of the writer's new book had been mailed overnight to the station for the duo to read. "We have to see what rugged description Ricky gave Alex Syte, Psychic Detective Extraordinaire."

"You've never even read one of Rick's books." Gus complained as they walked through the doors.

"No need, Gus! I can sense that Ricky is an amazing writer." Shawn brushed off the complaints.

Before Gus could point out that Shawn wasn't actually psychic, they had reached Lassiter's desk. The head detective was leaned back in his chair and had his feet propped up on the desk. He was completely absorbed in the book in his hands, which bore the name Richard Castle across the top.

"Dude, Lassie, why are you reading that book? Where's the new Alex Syte novel?" Shawn looked around the desk as if the book was hiding under one of the stacks of files.

Lassiter ignored the psychic, until he had come to a stopping point and slipped his finger between the pages to mark his place. "This came with the book; it was addressed to you." He handed Shawn an envelope and resumed reading.

Shawn gave Lassiter a confused look and then ripped open the letter. He scanned the words before looking back up at the head detective with a raised eyebrow. "Lassifrass, you really are going to have to work on forging signatures more. It's all about the letter A."

Gus snatched the letter out of Shawn's hands and scanned it as well. "This is no forgery, Shawn, look." He pulled the book Castle had signed out of his bag and compared the signatures.

"But," Shawn looked a little hurt and offended, "why would Ricky change his character, after all we went through, and all I taught him?"

Gus read through the letter more thoroughly. "He says his new character is named Ben McNeally."

"This McNeally character is actually a pretty good detective." Lassiter butted into the conversation. "Castle followed my list to the letter, well almost. The stakeout in chapter five is ridiculous."

"Let me see that!" Shawn grabbed for the book.

Lassiter let him have it, after putting a proper bookmark in place.

"Dude, he based his character on Buzz McNab!" Shawn burst out after flipping through a few pages and reading the inside cover.

"That's what the letter says." Gus told him.

"That's impossible," Lassiter looked upset as well. "This character has to be based on me, with a few of the rough edges sanded down."

"It would have to be a power sander," Gus muttered, upset over being interrupted.

"Buzz!" Shawn called the rookie over.

Buzz came over to them from his post at the front desk. "Hey guys! Did you get a chance to look at the new book? The cover looks pretty cool, kind of a baseball and cop theme."

Shawn turned the book around to look at the cover. "Rookie Year. Dude, it has to be on McNab."

Now it was Buzz's turn to look puzzled. "You mean, Mr. Castle actually wrote the book about me? He made a joke about it on the way to the airport, but I thought he was going to base it on you."

"Oh, you're in there, Spencer." Lassiter actually laughed at that point. "There's a psychic who has a best friend, and he helps solve parts of the case." Lassiter emphasized the word parts.

"Just parts?" Shawn turned to Gus. "Didn't Ricky follow us around for the whole case?" Gus nodded.

"Oh!" Buzz had taken the book from Shawn and was now reading the dedication. "'To Shawn, Gus, Lassie, Jules and Buzz. Santa Barbara will always be my station away from home.' Well isn't that nice." He looked up to the others.

Before any of the other three could say anything, Juliet joined them. "Is that the new book? Did Rick change the character like he was thinking about?"

Shawn swiveled in place. "You knew he was changing the character, and you didn't tell me?"

"He made me promise not to tell." Juliet defended herself.

"Why would he change the character?" Gus asked, looking a little like a lost puppy. "No one has explained that yet."

The four of them turned to Buzz, who shrugged. "We were just talking in the car on the way to the airport."

"Talking about what, Buzz?"

Again Buzz shrugged. "We talked about LBC, Francie's dream of getting a bigger house, which I said was only going to happen if I got made detective. Then he asked what my goals in life were."

"And?" Juliet prompted.

"And I said how I wanted to be a detective but," Buzz paused and looked at Lassiter briefly, "but I felt like I wasn't given a chance to put in my ideas aside from a few cases here and there."

"You work plenty of cases," Lassiter said gruffly. "You got to work the case with the diamond smugglers."

Juliet gave her partner a glare before turning to Buzz. "Well, next time you want to work a case you just let me know. I'm sure Lassiter can handle one by himself."

"Officer McNab, aren't you supposed to be watching the front desk?" The chief snapped out as she came up to the group.

Buzz ducked his head and hurried back to his post.

"Aw, give him a break, chief. He just got to be the main character in a best-selling author's book." Shawn gave a grin. "Not that he knew that was going to happen and that the real main character of the book is still Alexander Syte, Psychic Detective." He muttered the last part so only Gus could hear.

"I received my own copy of Mr. Castle's newest book, and I've already read through it, Mr. Spencer." The chief gave a small smile. "It certainly puts the department in a good light, and Mr. Castle was very complimentary about us to the mayor."

"Well, at least something good came out of the whole experience," Shawn mumbled.

The chief laughed. "He also wanted me to give you this." She handed Shawn another letter.

"What is it with this guy and letters?" Shawn shook his head and ripped open the envelope. "GUS!" Shawn shouted excitedly as he reached the end of the letter. "How would you like to go on a trip to New York? Ricky wants us to go visit him."

Gus' mouth went into a perfect O.

"Chief, this is ridiculous," Lassiter objected. "I will not miss work here, so that I can run around New York with a novelist."

Shawn stuck his tongue out at Lassiter. "He didn't invite you, in fact," Shawn found his place in the letter and read out loud. "'I'm sure Detective Lassiter is objecting to the very idea and wants to stay in Santa Barbara to fight crime. He can stay, along with Juliet if she's needed. Just bring Gus and his perfect cocoa roundness of a head.' Okay I added that last part," Shawn admitted before continuing to read. "'And come join the gang in New York for another case full of research for a novel benefiting the Children's Hospital here in New York.'"

"New York?" Gus finally gasped out.

"Yes, buddy, New York." Shawn threw an arm around Gus' shoulder. "I can just imagine how excited Ricky's police buddies are going to be to meet us."

O-O-O-O

"You want to bring the psychic here?" Kate Beckett's face was unreadable as she stared at Castle.

"He'd be here so I could do some extra research." Castle pointed out.

"You can always shoot him if he gets out of hand," Esposito pointed out as he sipped his coffee.

"Yeah, or lock him in the car with Castle." Ryan shot the writer a grin and ducked the wad of paper tossed at his head.

"I'm not locking anyone in the car." Beckett rolled her eyes. "I just don't like the idea of a psychic helping us solve cases, even if I did believe in that stuff."

"Now, I know it's unorthodox, but Beckett," Castle continued, putting on his best puppy dog eyes. "It's for the kids."