Here we go folks, the summer fic that Hug-Me and I promised. This fic came from a suggestion from Soprano2009 who asked about Rome having involvement in a case or the possibility of a kidnapping chapter. It was impossible to put in the original story Like Father Like Son, but Hug-Me and I began PMing each other and came to the conclusion the fic was not only possible, but actually might have potential.

SO here it is. We will be sticking on a once a week update for this and it is slightly AU. It does however take place right before Season 2 starts. If you are coming over from Like Father Like Son this fic which I hope you are this fic takes place after Rome returns from camp after the summer is over and the school year has started. If you are new to this character, please read Like Father Like Son at some point so you have a better understanding of the new characters.

Hug-Me and I are extremely excited about how this fic has turned out, we've been anxious to finally get the first chapter uploaded for you folks and we couldn't wait anymore. So please enjoy and please review, we have been working very hard on this fic for the last few months so we hope you guys enjoy it and please let us know your thoughts!

One by one he ran his finger down the spines of each of the novels produced by Richard Castle, from his very first to the most recent Nikki Heat. What author could hold such a pull over his readers as Richard Castle; the murder, the mystery, the intrigue, the spell woven what a mystery he could have at his feet that he had not seen.

He then turned to the newspaper clippings all the cases Nikki Heat had solved over the last few years, so many cases, such an amazing detective.

Two of the greatest crime solvers ever to grace the page; Detective Nikki Heat and Derrick Storm. What would happen if those two were forced to work together? What story could that create? How had Mr. Castle not seen the potential for that story?

His fingers moved from the books and over to the photographs lining his corkboard and the ones hanging from clips all over the apartment. Detective Heat arriving at a crime scene, Derrick Storm, purchasing coffee, just going about their business, so unaware that they were being followed, being photographed. He was about to give Mr. Castle the most impressive and wonderful storyline of the century.

If only they knew, then maybe they would be able to solve the crime before it could even occur, but where would the fun be in that?

The key would be the timing, the key would also be the one thing that would get Derrick Storm, Nikki Heat, Richard Castle, and Detective Beckett passionately involved in a case; the one thing that connected them. And of course it couldn't be just anything that played this starring part; it had to be a something very specific, or someone very specific. A child.

Now his finger moved to one photograph in particular, one that was slightly different from the rest; that very key. If he could pull this off, the novel would write itself and would launch a new wave in the book world.

The only snag in the plan was how to go about getting the key, it would not be an easy task…but there had to be a way, Roman Castle was a child, and he was a necessity to jump starting this case, the how was going to take some extra time, but he was a patient man.

He took down the photograph of Roman on the playground at school playing with his friends and then another of Roman, his father, sister, and grandmother all at one of Mr. Castle's book releases. Roman was smiling wide at the camera, unaware that this photographer was not interested in snagging a photo for the latest newspaper or blog about his father.

What a magnificent child Mr. Castle had, so proud of his father and yet so humble about his own talents, of course it was also impossible to forget the daughter as well, a girl of many talents and intelligence, Richard Castle no dummy himself, he must be aware of how lucky he was, how unique his children are.

Oh to have the set of Castle children, that would certainly make the story much more interesting, but it was going to be difficult enough getting one of the children, let alone both, best to go with the younger one.

He brushed his hand against one of Roman's sketches, that he had found in the art room of the Castle children's school, piled with the rest of the class, but this was real art, real talent. It was the makings of a graphic novel, his own story coming to life on page in the form of art.

The child could write the story from his point of view, the view of the kidnapped child, while his father would write the case itself. Two wonderful stories converging into one wonderful and delightful novel. No one had ever thought to do that.

It was time to get the story started; the characters were lined up, the plot ready to go. It was now time to put it into action.

"Ready or Not, Detective…Mr. Storm, here we go."

Xxxxx

Rome and Kevin had their books spread through Kevin's bedroom, his little brother was out helping their mother clean up after dinner, giving the older boys a chance to finish their homework. Even though they were only in sixth grade, Rome started a Pre Advanced Placement course, following in his sister's footsteps.

Unlike Alexis though, Rome was avoiding math and science, he was good at both, but really wasn't ready to face them at the AP level, so he started out slow, taking history just to get his feet wet as Gram had called it.

He was really looking forward his high school years because he could branch out and include studio-art drawing into those courses. Castle had no doubt that by the time Rome was ready for high school all of his courses would be AP, just like Alexis.

Being in sixth grade the kids started switching classes instead of staying with the same teacher throughout the day. Rome, Kevin, Gage, a few others from both fifth grade class including Miranda and Emily were all in the honors classes for math, science, history, and English, and they were together.

Emily wasn't so bad, but Rome had been hoping that Miranda wasn't in any of his classes, she annoyed him with her know-it-all-approach to life and the way she tried to make her classmates feel like they should be working harder at school.

They were only two weeks into the school year and already Rome was ready to jump ship just to get away from Miranda. Gage and Kevin were the only reason he hadn't, they were keeping him sane…them and…Emily. She was really starting to come out of her shell in the first few days of school and she actually opened up to sit with the group at lunch, of course Miranda and a few her friends followed which was kind of annoying.

Camp had been a lot of fun and even though Rome had been disappointed it had ended, he was so excited to see his dad standing there arms open waiting for him on the last day of camp. Father and son reunited.

His new friend Chase had stayed at the loft for a few days and Castle took him, Rome, and Rome's friends to Coney Island for the day.

After Chase flew home to Cali, Rome once again bid his friends by as him and his dad joined Alexis and Martha in the Hamptons for rest of summer vacation. Nothing but swimming in the ocean and the pool, watching movies on the huge screen in the home theater room, going deep sea fishing and whale watching, a perfect summer, before heading back to the city just in time to do back-to-school shopping. Something surprisingly all three of them loved to do.

Even though it sounded silly, Rome was most excited for his new backpack from L.L. Bean, because Castle got it monogramed for him with his initials.

But both Kevin and Rome were ready for vacation to start up again, being in sixth grade meant more responsibility and more work. So it helped that the following day was not only Friday, but the start of Labor Day weekend, technically the official end of summer, but still a long weekend nonetheless.

They were spending Friday night at Todd's apartment along with Joey and Gage and Saturday Todd's dad was taking them down to Jones Beach on Long Island for the day, a real last summer hurrah of swimming.

All five boys were looking forward to the day trip, they just had to make it through school and the long weekend was theirs.

"Rome did you get -5.3 for number eight?" Kevin asked from his desk, when Rome didn't answer, Kevin picked up a stress ball from his desk and threw it at Rome, nailing his friend in the head.

Rome looked up, rubbing his head

"Ow!" he grumbled grinning

Over the summer, while Rome had been at camp his hearing had been doing well, even in August when camp was over and the family were in the Hamptons, his hearing was doing better than usual, a few days in a row he didn't even need his hearing aids and it had been great.

That morning however, Rome couldn't hear anything, his hearing aids were useless, but he wore them just in case.

"What did you get for number eight?" Kevin asked, signing as he went.

Rome pulled his math notebook out of his backpack and checked, he had gotten his math over with first since he wasn't a big fan of it, Kevin who also wasn't a big fan of math had just put it off as long as humanly possible. Both boys were good at it, neither enjoyed it, Gage on the other hand would've been all over that, he loved math.

"uh -4.4." Rome replied checking his answer

"Dude are you sure?"

"Yeah, why?"

Kevin's ears went red as he started erasing his answer

"I hate this stuff," he mumbled "honestly when in my life am I ever gonna need to know this crap."

"What?" Rome asked and Kevin shrugged, grinning a little

"Sorry, I said I hate this stuff," he repeated, making sure Rome could see his lips as he signed "and I don't understand when I'm ever gonna need it."

"Me too," Rome looked his notebook over and grinned at his friend, handing the notebook up to him, "here just double check your answers,"

Kevin returned the grin and nodded his thanks, going over all his answers comparing them with Rome.

Rome had finished all his homework and pulled out his sketchbook waiting for Kevin to finish, they only had about fifteen minutes before Rome had to start walking to karate.

He had to be there at seven and needed to get there a few minutes earlier to change into his Gi as well as help Sensei Kai set up, it was his turn in the class and Rome was anxious to step up to the responsibility he had earned two weeks earlier by achieving his purple belt, only purple belt's and higher were given the privilege of helping the sensei around the dojo and Sensei Kai had hinted to Rome last class that they would be working with some of the weapons that night, something Rome was really looking forward too, especially after his dad had found a set of nerf nun-chucks at a toy store in the Hamptons and had accidently hit himself in the nose with it, Rome couldn't wait to try the real thing.

To pass the time, Rome sketched Kevin. He had just finished Kevin's desk, when Mrs. Campbell knocked on the door peeking in on them.

"Hi boys, how's it coming?"

"Good mom," Kevin replied handing Rome his notebook

"Rome, sweetie," Mrs. Campbell started, even though Rome and Kevin had been friends since preschool, only a few of the parents could sign, Mrs. Campbell knew a few signs and tried her best, but she tended to rely on Kevin for the lengthy stuff. This time around she smiled at Rome and simply tapped her wrist, no translation needed, Rome looked at his own watch and nodded.

"Okay," he scrambled to his feet, grabbing his backpack. He pulled on his jean jacket and his Rough Rider's hat and waved bye to Kevin, following Mrs. Campbell towards the front door. She hugged him tight, "Thank you for having me," he said

"You're welcome Rome, tell your dad we said hi, okay?"

"I will, bye!"

Rome took the elevator down to the lobby of Kevin's building and stopped short when he looked outside, it was down pouring, monsoon, Rome groaned. It was a ten minute walk to his karate dojo, he was going to be soaked.

He reached into his pocket and felt his wallet, he had twenty dollars on him, he could take a taxi to his dojo, it wouldn't be that big of a deal. But Rome knew his odds, getting a taxi, at 5:45 in the afternoon, in the rain was not very good.

He knew he'd just have to suck it up and get wet. If he ran, it would be better, but Rome knew the sidewalks were going to be crowded.

Taking a deep breath, Rome sucked it up and stepped outside, two blocks that was it, he just had to make it two blocks.

Quickly he began walking, trying to avoid the other pedestrians who seemed intentionally trying to step on him. It wasn't easy being as small as he was, Rome had learned to deal with it and he knew how genetics worked, his dad had been pretty small when he was a kid so Rome could only hope that he had enough of his dad's genes that when he was older he'd be just like his dad.

Rome followed the rest of the pedestrians across the street, making it just as the traffic began inching forward, nothing brought out bad drivers and nutcase drivers like the rain. He had about a block to go and couldn't wait to get out of the rain. He glanced down for a second, minding the puddles, he looked up just in time to side step a business man trying to balance yapping on his cell phone, holding an umbrella, carrying his briefcase and drinking from his Starbucks cup. His apparent multitasking circus was all well and good, but he wasn't paying attention to where he was going and nearly ran into Rome.

Rome moved to the side and let the guy go past, he didn't even notice where he was standing, and he wasn't entirely sure what happened next. He felt someone wrap their arms around him and something was pressed against his face.

It was sweet smelling and Rome started to feel dizzy, he tried to fight, tried to call for help as the person carried him into the alleyway. He was getting tired, his body just wanted him to sleep.

No one on the sidewalk seemed to notice what was going on, it was New York, of course no one saw anything, as Rome was carried deeper into the alley. He had been taking karate for five years and had learned a lot in those five years, he fought his captor, struggled to get loose, wiggled, kicked everything he could, he even tried to scream for help around the cloth that was pressed so tight against his face it hurt.

As well as the basic Kempo Karate style, Sensei Kai had also taught his class self-defense, he taught them how to protect themselves, what to do if someone grabbed them. He used Rome as a demo many times because he knew Rome wouldn't panic if he got picked up.

Each time Rome had always managed to get away, using his small size to his advantage, but this time was different, not only was the person a lot stronger and using all that strength, but the cloth over Rome's mouth and nose was making him loose consciousness, he couldn't fight it, he was losing.

The last thing Rome remembered, as he gave one last ditch effort to get away, was a flash of lightening, the vibration of the thunder, and the vibration of a door slamming shut, like a side door of a van, then everything went black.