Disclaimer: The only part of Castle that I own is the TV on which I watch the show.

The call comes in so early on Monday morning that Beckett is the only one there, and she's at her desk only because Castle's away and she couldn't sleep. At 4:00 she'd the hell with it and gone to work, determined to get through a backlog of terminally boring paperwork.

She startles when her phone rings. Wrong tone for Castle, so who is it? Dispatch, already? A body. She takes down the address, and with so little traffic is there in less than fifteen minutes. She steps up to the desk in the lobby of the enormous high-rise office building, and identifies herself to the security guard, who directs her to the forty-seventh floor.

She sinks slightly in the plush carpeting of the long hallway and notices a cop standing outside an open doorway about twenty feet ahead.

"Morning," Beckett says, holding up her badge. She's about to cross the threshold when a muscular, blue-uniformed arm stops her.

"You can't go in there, ma'am."

"Excuse me?"

"You can't go in."

"Right, heard you." She shows him her badge again. "I'm the responding officer. Captain Beckett. First on scene. This is my jurisdiction."

"Have my orders, ma'am." He's firm, but nervous.

"I'm the captain, so please step aside and let me do my job." She's about to insist, but turns her head at the sound of a familiar voice.

"Kate?" It's Lanie, and she's surprised by the medical officer's use of her first name. "He won't let me in there, either. I decided to go cool off in the ladies room until you got here. Where are the boys?"

"Hang on a sec." Beckett turns back to glare at the cop, inclining her head slightly to double check the nametag on his chest. In her power heels she's got six inches on the flatfoot. "Officer Butts, is it?"

"Yes, ma'am."

"My detectives are on their way. Am I to assume that you'll deny them entry also?"

"No, ma'am."

"No? So, the M.E. and I are not permitted to check the body, but they are? By whose authority?"

"Just taking orders, Captain. From One PP. They told me not to admit you two."

"Butts? Here's another order. Don't move. Doctor Parrish and I will be right down the hall."

She takes her friend by the elbow and guides them towards the elevator bank, out of Butts's earshot. "Castle's at a conference in L.A., Ryan's on paternity leave this week, but Espo's on his way. What the hell is going on?"

"I have no idea. I got here about three minutes ahead of you."

"Okay, so you and I are being banned by One PP? I know the sun isn't even up yet, but I'm calling Gates."

Her former commander answers on the first ring. "Beckett? Kate?"

"Yes, sir. I'm sorry to call at this hour, but I'm at a murder scene and—"

"And you're not allowed in, right? Is Doctor Parish with you?"

Wow, she already knows? Is she behind this? "Yes, sir. Apparently the ban includes only the two of us."

"Three of us."

"Sir?"

"Three of us are banned. You, Doctor Parish, and I."

"What?"

"Kate, I don't want to do this on the phone. I'm coming to join you, so stay there regardless, all right?"

"Yes, sir."

Beckett fills Lanie in. "Let's go back. At least Butts can't prevent us from looking through the door."

The crime scene is a lavish suite. There's an outer office, presumably for the man's assistant, but the body is in visible through the open door to the enormous inner office. Beckett checks the notes on her phone. "Did you get any info on the vic? What was his position here?" She peeks around the officer's slumping shoulder. "Other than prone, that is."

"Head of programming at the network here. His name is Les Cutter. The cleaning lady found him just after three. That's all I know."

"Well, he's been stabbed, obviously. But why isn't there any blood? There should be tons of it."

"That's exactly what I thought. I'd have to get him back to the lab, but I'm pretty sure he had no heart." Lanie points a well-manicured fingertip at the late Mister Cutter. "You see that the deep depression in his thorax?"

"Yeah."

"That's where the heart would generally be."

"So the guy has no heart? Amazing. Still, head of programming for a TV network, so—. Hey, can you see the shelves behind the vic's desk?"

Lanie cranes her neck. "Yes."

"There's that line of awards, trophies, but a space where one seems to be missing. I know we're not close enough to tell, but the murder weapon? I assume it's the murder weapon, anyway, since it's buried in his chest. I think that's a People's Choice Award."

"You know what? I think you're right."

Beckett swivels at the sound of the soft ping of the elevator arriving.

"Cap'n?"

She puts her hand out. "Wait, Espo." She and Lanie go to meet him. "You won't believe this."

"What's going on? Where is everyone?"

"Shh. No one here but us, and Gates is on her way. For reasons unknown, at least to us, she, Lanie and I are forbidden to be here, but you're not."

"Huh? Says who?"

"Someone higher up the food chain than Gates, apparently. I have no idea. Why don't you go ahead, tell Butts to butt out if he gives you any trouble."

Espo is pulling on his blue gloves. "Butts?"

"Cop on the door."

The detective proceeds, and the two women continue to wait by the elevators, talking softly. Five minutes later Victoria Gates emerges, bristling but greeting them warmly. "Let's step down here," she suggests, gesturing to the opposite end of the hallway.

"Sir, can you tell us anything?"

"I can. On Friday, our victim, Les Cutter, fired two women in the cast of a beloved, long-running cop show. Word got out last night and it's taken over the internet."

"You don't mean Fortress, do you?"

"The very one."

"Based on the Twelfth, sort of. Castle always hated that someone got there ahead of him."

"So who got the axe?" Lanie asks.

"The two actresses who play parts based on you."

"Really? Wait, wait, wait. I think I get it. Those women bear more than a passing resemblance to Lanie and me. He fired them? I can't believe it."

"Mmhmm," Gates says, nodding her head and looking expectantly at Beckett.

"And last year this guy fired the woman who played a character who was based on you."

"You're batting a thousand, Captain."

"I'd never admit this publicly, but I love that show."

"Me, too," Lanie says.

Gates bursts into a smile, and lowers her voice to a whisper. "Same here! Talk about my guilty pleasure. I like it even more than The Wives of Wall Street, and I'm sure you remember my feelings about that."

Beckett chuckles. "I do, sir."

"Captain?" It's Esposito, heading straight for them. "Oh, sorry, and Deputy Chief!"

"Morning, Detective," Gates says, before passing along to him what she has already told the others.

"He fired Stana Katic and Tamala Jones?" Espo is slack-jawed. Are you kidding me?"

"That's right. And the order for the three of us to stand down came directly from the Commissioner."

"They think you're compromised, sir?"

"Something like that."

Beckett rolls her eyes. "I couldn't get much standing out here, Espo, but am I right that the victim was killed by a People's Choice Award?"

"Bingo."

"It's glass, so prints will be easy."

"Nope, wiped clean. But here's the thing. The guy's computer was on and his email account was open."

"And?"

"Looks like there are millions, and I mean millions, of messages from seriously piss—'scuse me—ticked off fans. All looking for blood."

"Did you notice that there isn't any, Javi?" Lanie asks.

"Blood? There's no blood?" Gates is surprised. "The man was stabbed, wasn't he? The body must have been moved."

"I don't think so," the ME replies. "When Perlmutter gets here he can tell us."

"Believe it or not, sir," Beckett says, "the guy appears to have had no heart, literally."

The elevator pings again, and Perlmutter and CSU techs stream out. After a brief conversation with them, the three women decide to leave together. They're not permitted here, so they might as well depart. "You know," Beckett says morosely on the ride down, "I feel as though I can't watch Fortress anymore. I could kill that guy Cutter."

"Except someone already did," Gates says with a wide smile.

When they're walking through the lobby, Beckett puts her arms around the shoulders of the other two women. "No one's home at my place, but our fridge is stocked with everything. How about you come over and we all have breakfast together?"

And they do. By the time they've finished their scrambled eggs, bacon, and toast, and gone through two pots of coffee, they're all laughing and talking on a first-name basis.

"Hey," Beckett says, looking over her shoulder at the wine cabinet. "I've got some Dom Perignon on ice. Shall we?"

Her two friends applaud.

She takes a bowl of perfect, juicy strawberries from the fridge, puts it on a tray with the chilled bottle of bubbly and three Champagne flutes, and carries it to the coffee table in the living room. When the three women have settled on the sofa, Beckett raises her glass. "To Stana!"

"To Penny!" Gates says.

"And Tamala!" Lanie adds.

"Long may they reign," Beckett says, after her first sip. "To bigger and better things for all of them." She puts her glass down. "You know, I've wanted to do this for the longest time, just the three of us, letting our hair down. I can cross it off now. It was the top thing left on my Beckett List."