I'm surprised I managed to wait this long to write a L.A. centric fanfic...

I do NOT own Castle.

There shouldn't be any big spoilers in here, if you've seen the promo, then you don't have anything to worry about spoiler wise. Though I'm going to try and keep this as realistic as possible.

It all started with a phone call from Lanie while she was getting ready for work.

"You are going to want to come see this." She had said, and when she started rattling off the address to a prison that wasn't covered in her jurisdiction, Beckett started to get worried.

It didn't help that Lanie wouldn't tell her anything over the phone, other than to hurry get down to the prison.

She had a bad feeling about this, so instead of rushing over to the prison by herself, she hit number two on speed dial and headed out the door.

Finally, after the fifth ring, a sleepy voice answered the phone, saying something she couldn't quite understand.

"Castle?"

"Beckett? Do we have a case?" Instantly he was wide awake at the prospect of a case, even though it was still early for him.

"I'm not really sure. Get dressed and I'll pick you up in ten."

She hung up the phone and ten minutes later, she pulled up to his building to see that he was already waiting for her.

As they drove towards the prison, Beckett filled him in on the phone call and they spent the rest of the trip trying to figure out why Lanie had called them out.

None of their theories came close.

Royce was dead.

Even though she had seen his lifeless body lying on the floor of the prison, she was still having a hard time believing it.

As if arresting him all those months ago wasn't hard enough on her, now he was dead.

Murdered.

And she couldn't do anything about it.

Montgomery had forbade her from working on the case as soon as he had heard that she was snooping around it, he had even gone so far as to kick her out of the precinct for the day.

She understood, she really did. She was too close, not only emotionally, but she knew that if she was working the case, and someone started checking into her, they would find out her past with Royce and since he was a criminal when he died, they would have reason to doubt her credibility to do her job.

So she understood why the Captain did what he did, but that didn't mean she liked it.

So now she was sitting at her dining room table, papers spread out in front of her with notes she had managed to gather on the case before the Captain showed up.

After thirty minutes, she had come to two conclusions.

One, the most likely suspect had escaped to L.A.. Two, that she really didn't want to be alone right now.

Beckett picked up her phone that was sitting right next to her and almost hit number two on speed dial, before deciding on hitting number four instead.

"Kate?" Josh answered after just a few rings, sounding slightly out of breath. He answered too soon, she wasn't exactly sure how she wanted to phrase her request without sounding extremely pathetic and needy.

"Kate? Is something wrong?"

"I...Someone that I... Used to be close to was murdered."

He let out a little gasp, not expecting her to say that, but she almost didn't hear it over all the commotion going on in the background. It was apparently a busy day at the hospital. "Oh god, honey, I'm so sorry-"

He sounded like he was going to say more, but someone called his name and he had to tell them something before he could talk to Beckett again.

"Are you going to be too busy for our date tonight then? Is that why you are calling?"

Date? She had completely forgotten they were planning to go out to dinner and a movie tonight. "No, I'm not allowed to work the case. I was hoping you could at least get off early," The commotion in the background got even louder. "But it doesn't sound like it."

"No, I-" He had to stop and shout out orders to a nurse as she passed by. "I wish I could, Kate. I really do, but there was a bus involved in a car wreck an hour ago and we are up to our knees in patients."

"It's okay, I should let you go. I'll see you tonight?" Within a few seconds, they said their goodbyes and she hung up the phone.

And so she was still alone, she should have just hit number two on speed dial and called Castle instead.

It wasn't really Josh's fault though, he was so busy it's not like he could have just taken off to come over and keep her company.

But, there was a nagging voice in the back of her head pointing out that he wasn't there for her, again.

They both worked such hectic jobs, how would they possibly ever be there for each other?

Before she knew it, she had picked up the phone and hit speed dial number four again.

"Kate? I-" She started talking before he could finish whatever he was going to say.

"This isn't working, Josh, and you know it."

"Kate, what?" Someone was yelling his name in the background again, and she had to strain to hear what he said next. "I'm sorry, but can't this wait until later? Over dinner?"

"No, it can't." Beckett took a deep breath before going on. "I need someone who can be there for me, and I can be there for him. How can we be there for each other if we can barely get time to go out to dinner together? I need you to be with me right now, but they need you there, and I could never ask you to give up your job for me. Just like I couldn't give up my job for you. We can't keep doing this."

"Please, we can work through this. I'll come home as soon as I can so just-"

"No, I don't think we can." She had been looking down at the table while they were talking, not really noticing what she was looking at until now. When she realized she had be staring at the paper where she had written "L.A.?" in large letters, she suddenly knew what she wanted, no needed, to do.

"I'm going to be out of town for a couple days, so come and get your stuff, lock up with your key, and then give the key to my neighbor."

"Kate!"

"Goodbye, Josh."

She hung up on him, and then walked over to her laptop and opened it, she had an airplane ticket to buy.

So I think this first chapter seems a little slow, but if you stick around, I have plans for this story... Oh boy do I have plans for this story XD.