Author's note: This story takes place 2 years after season 3 ends. Beckett has solved her mother's case, Beckett and Castle are together, Alexis is at Stanford, Ryan and Jenny are married and Esposito and Lanie are engaged. This story is being re-released with the T rating. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Castle or the characters. Just borrowing them for a while.

Chapter 1

Beckett looked up as a drop of water landed on her cheek. Great, it really was going to rain. At least the murder was indoors. Looking back down at the entrance of the building, she saw that her two favorite detectives were waiting under the awning.

"Hey guys," said Beckett as she reached them.

Ryan glanced up from his notebook, "Hey, Beckett."

"Have the uni's finished up out here? It looks like it's going to rain soon." Beckett glanced skyward again, "I don't want to lose any evidence to the weather."

"Yeah, they should be done. Found a footprint under that window that might be from the perp," Esposito pointed to a low window, probably belonging to a basement unit. "The grate and window were jimmied open, and it looks like they might have found a partial."

Beckett glanced to where the CSU's were working, "Anything else?"

"Looks like there was a camera over at that intersection," Ryan said, gesturing to it. "I'm going to check and see if it picked up anything helpful."

"Great. Castle here yet?" Beckett knew that Castle had been writing his latest book when she left the loft that morning.

"Yup, I called him after I got the scoop from Lanie. He arrived a few minutes ago and just went up to see what she found," Esposito glanced at his notes, "basement unit, number 6."

"Thanks guys," Beckett called over her shoulder as she turned to go inside.

Beckett went down the stairs to the basement. The paint on the walls was peeling, but there was a patch that looked like it had been hammered badly, maybe during a struggle. Looking at that section closely, Beckett saw that there was a little blood on the wall about head high. A couple blond hairs were caught in a crack between some of the peeling paint.

She turned to a CSU down the hall, "Hey, have you seen this?"

The woman looked up from examining the door knob, "No, did you find something?"

"It looks like there was a scuffle here; see all the paint on the floor?" Beckett gestured to the paint peels on the ground, then back at the wall and added, "And right here is a little blood and some hair."

"I'll bag it. Thanks." The CSU took a couple evidence bags and tweezers from her kit.

"Get a couple pictures too, before you bag the samples." Beckett wanted to put the pictures on the murder board. Hopefully it would help paint the picture of what happened here.

"Sure, detective." She bent down and grabbed her camera too.

"Thanks." Beckett ducked under the tape into the apartment on the end.

The victim was on the floor in the kitchen. His hair was blond, meaning the hairs and blood in the hall were probably his, unfortunately. He had been stabbed repeatedly and there was blood everywhere. Lanie was bending over him, her back to the door, and examining something low on the back of his torso. Castle was watching her work. Beckett noted that something about his expression reminded her of someone being visited by a ghost.

Beckett strode over to the kitchen and joined them. "Hey Lanie, what have you got?"

The ME consulted her notes. "White male in his 30's, preliminary COD is stabbing with a sharp object." Beckett looked at the set of knives on the counter; Lanie saw the look, "I already looked at the knives here and none of them could have made these wounds. I'm going to guess, based on the shape of the wound and the slight tearing on one side, that it was probably a dual edged blade with a serrated section toward the top, probably a hunting knife."

Beckett bent down to examine the wounds. Something about these wounds seem familiar…"Any ID?"

"Not on him, but it looks like his wallet got thrown under the entertainment center over there." Lanie nodded in the direction of the system.

Beckett turned to Castle. What was he thinking? "You okay Castle?" Castle only nodded.

Lanie stood up and faced her friend. "Kate, honey, I need you to stay calm." That was never accompanied by good news. "There are some stab wounds on his lower back that look similar to the ones Coonan used. Now, I won't be sure until I get him back to autopsy, but it looks like either Coonan trained someone before he died, or this is a very good copycat. I just wanted to let you know now so you don't chew me out later."

Beckett felt like the world had tilted off its axis. No, not again. Castle was watching her with a worried look on his face, and she knew that she must have just gone pale. Quickly, she forced her brain to think about more than just her dread. Lanie was talking, but Beckett couldn't seem to hear her.

Beckett forced her brain to return to the conversation. "I'm sorry, what was that?"

"I was asking if you were okay," Lanie repeated, "you kind of went pale and rigid. I was starting to worry."

"Um, yeah, I'm fine." Beckett cleared her throat and shook her head to clear it. "Do you have a time of death yet?"

"Judging from the state of decomp. I'm guessing between 1 and 4 am yesterday. I'll know more when I get him back to the morgue." Lanie dropped her professionalism "If you need something, call me, even if you just want to talk. Okay?"

Beckett nodded, "Thanks Lanie."

"Sure, honey." Lanie patted her arm and then went back to examining the body.

Castle came over to her and placed a soft hand against her cheek while pulling her close with the other. He tilted her head back so he could look at her eyes.

"Hey, you okay?"

"Yeah, I'll be fine." Beckett knew that this was a lie, but she didn't want to talk, at least not here.

Castle knew she wasn't being completely honest. "You sure?"

"Castle, we're at work. We'll talk about it later." Beckett hoped he would get the message.

He did. "Okay. We'll talk when we get home."

Castle gave her a quick kiss on the lips before letting her go and looking around the kitchen better. Beckett also looked around the apartment to distract herself from the news Lanie dumped on her. It was well furnished, despite being one of the basement units. Pictures along the wall suggested that he lived alone, but one on the coffee table suggested he was dating an attractive, brunette woman. Something about her looked familiar, but Beckett couldn't place what. Turning from the picture, Beckett saw the entertainment system. It wasn't top of the line, but it was good. Beckett crossed the living room and bent down to fetch the wallet from under the unit.

"ID says the vic is Brian Watson, 32. He lives at this address. Cash and credit cards are gone though." Poor cover-up job by the killer.

Castle saw it too. "Robbery wasn't the motive."

"How do you figure?" Lanie had wandered over, probably to keep tabs on her friend.

"If it was a robbery, the thief would have tossed this place or at least taken some of the electronics." Beckett looked around the room. "Did he have a cell phone?"

"CSU already bagged it. It was punctured by the knife. Maybe there'll be some trace on it." Lanie picked up the evidence bag it was in.

"So the perp wouldn't have taken it anyway, it was ruined." Beckett took a quick look. "Okay, thanks Lanie."

Lanie returned the phone to the box of evidence and went back to the kitchen. Beckett and Castle left the apartment and found Ryan and Esposito heading their way.

"You already done?" Esposito said, sounding disappointed.

"Yeah, Lanie and the CSU's are finishing up. You find anything else?"

"Only that the cameras at the intersection were not working. It looks like the box the cameras are hooked to was tampered with. CSU's didn't find any usable prints. So we don't have a visual of what happened." Ryan was also disappointed. No video evidence meant the killer was careful. "We canvassed the neighbors, no one heard a thing. Most weren't home that day."

"Okay, find out what Mr. Watson does for a living." Beckett handed the wallet to Esposito. "I'm going back to the office to find out who the girl in the photo is."

"Sure, boss." Esposito took the wallet and headed into the apartment, and to his fiancé.

Beckett went outside. The rain was falling heavily, and Beckett just wanted to stand under the building's awning and watch it fall. Castle stood next to her and left her to her thoughts for a moment. When the coroner's van arrived, her gently touched the small of her back and guided her out of the way.

Castle pulled her close again. "You ready to go yet?"

Beckett sighed, "Yeah, let's go."

Castle sensed that she was reluctant to go back to work right away. "Want to grab something to eat before we get back to the precinct?"

"Sure." Beckett turned to the car, then back to Castle. "Hey, Rick. Thanks for understanding."

"Always," He whispered the one word that always melted her heart, and then he continued. "I'm going to guess this feels like when Jack Coonan was killed."

"Yeah, like a sucker punch to the stomach. Almost like Rathborne's back from the grave." Beckett shuddered at the thought. "Come on. Let's get out of here."

As Beckett ran through the rain to her car, she couldn't help but hope that this could be just a nightmare she would wake up from at any moment. But even as she thought that, she knew it wasn't true.

A/N: In the intro I mention that Alexis is attending Stanford. When I started writing this, that was where she was planning on going at that point in the show. I know she ended up going to Columbia University, but I'm not going back to rework her school choice for this. Thanks for understanding.

I'll be releasing at least one new chapter every week, maybe even two chapters. Please read and review. I want to know what you guys think.