The yellow tape...

As Kate Beckett walked toward the crime scene, that was what she noticed. The yellow tape. Every time she came to a crime scene she always notices the yellow tape.

I have to focus...There's a murder that needs to be solved.

She was entering the apartment of Jacob Smith, lawyer for the law firm Johnson and smith, age 34, Harvard law graduate. And from the looks of his apartment, was very well off. Some of the furnishings in his home were worth more than Kate's yearly salary.

So fast that she barely saw it coming, a hand shot in front of her with a cup of coffee.

Castle.

"Thanks" she said to him, knowing it was early. 3 a.m. was early for anyone.

"So what's up with this guy?" castle asks, clearly excited about the murder.

"From what Esposito told me, man shot three times, once in the head, twice in the chest. More than likely going to be our COD." Kate said, taking a sip of her coffee.

"Kind of boring if you ask me" he says, disappointed.

"Yeah well castle, the murderer didn't ask you now did they?" smirking, she walked toward Lanie, to get the notes.

"Our Vic here was shot" Lanie said before Kate could even ask.

"Boring..." Castle overemphasized.

"Well, I have to run a diagnostic test to see what went wrong." Lanie glared at Castle, making him shut his mouth before the next witty remark.

"Ok well, there isn't much else we can do, considering Ryan and Esposito have already done everything." Kate was lost for once, having nothing to do.

Ryan approached them, having heard what she said. "Well, I wouldn't say that. Neighbor says last person they think saw our Vic was a Gracelynn...Beckett."

Beckett looked at Ryan. He seemed a little shocked at the suspect's name.

"Ryan, I'm almost certain I have no relation with this person. Beckett is a very common last name, just like yours." She didn't see what he was fussing about "Besides, I was an only child."

She turned and was headed to her car when castle met up with her.

"Are you going to go get the girl?" he asked excitedly.

"I have to. She's a suspect in this murder, and so she needs to be questioned."

They arrived at the most recent known address of Gracelynn Beckett. It wasn't in a very nice part of town, but nowadays, only the rich lived in the nice parts.

"What's the apartment number?" Castle was looking at the floor numbers, waiting for her answer.

"Apartment number 312."

"Well that means we better get climbing. That's three flights of stairs."

They walked toward the door that led to the much abused staircase. And as usual, when they walked, Castle had to talk.

"So Alexis wants to spend the day with her new boyfriend on her birthday." He seemed pretty agitated about this specific topic. And Kate could understand completely.

"Are you going to let her? I mean, she's 17. She's old enough for at least that, don't you think?"

Castle look at her, confusion in his eyes.

"I don't know, do you think I should? Did you ever do that when you were younger?"

"Well, when I was 12, my Dad had to go to Europe for a business trip, and I was able to go with him for the year that he would be away. I went to school up there, and that's why I speak French so well. Well, when we left, I had about two weeks to go until my thirteenth birthday, and so my mom took me out, just the two of us, and we spent the day together. Of course, my parent's marriage had been rocky, and they were finalizing their divorce papers, so my mom didn't really want my dad for the day." Kate told the story with a little sadness of her voice, and Castle was certain it was for her mother. "But she told me that no matter where she was, or where I was, she would always love her children."

They had gotten to the third floor finally, and Castle was quiet for the remainder of the walk, thinking about the story and how he didn't think it would be deadly for his health if Alexis spent the day with her boyfriend. Maybe he could do what Johanna did with Kate, and celebrate earlier with her and his mother. That would solve everything, he thought.

"Well, here's room 312." She knocked at the door and waited for a little while.

She heard a small child start to cry and some shuffling of some things around.

Then she heard a little rattle at the door, which she assumed was the chain, and then a heavy click: the deadbolt.

The door opened and a young girl appeared in the doorway, hair a mess, and a small baby in her arms, crying their small lungs out, wanting something but unable to speak for herself. Or at least Kate thought it was, seeing as the baby had a small pink bow on her head and little purple socks.

"Hi, are you Gracelynn Beckett?" Kate asked loud enough for the girl to hear over the baby's wailing. The girl kept rocking the baby and bouncing her, hoping it would quiet the baby. After a little while, the baby quieted from wailing to whimpering.

"Yes I am, and you would be?" The girl had obviously not had much sleep, considering her voice was think with exhaustion. She had dark circles under her eyes, and her hair was a rumpled up mess.

"I'm Detective Kate Beckett. Would you mind answering some questions for me regarding a Jacob Smith? Do you know him?" She was talking quietly as not to wake the neighboring apartments and send them complaining.

"Okay, uh I guess come on in." She moved out of the way and walked toward the kitchen, grabbing something out of the freezer and putting it in a pot of boiling water.

Breast milk, Kate figured. It must be baby's feeding time.

Kate and Castle sat down at the table while Gracelynn quietly rocked the baby to sleep, quietly singing her a lullaby. The baby was still whimpering when she was pouring the milk into a bottle for feeding time.

She finally sat down at the table in front of detective and the writer. Her look was a pure confusion.

"Okay so what about Mr. Smith has you two knocking at my door at four thirty in the morning?"

"Well Mr. Smith was found dead earlier. One of his neighbors said that you were the last one to see him, and they thought maybe the last alive." Castle stated this as if it were just a mere coincidence. Or that maybe it might all be a mistake, and we got the wrong girl.

But the look of agony that crossed the young girls face stated something: this was personal.

"Jacob is...dead?" she asked, not able to get above a whisper, or barely even that.

Tears started to flood down her face, and she started trembling. She managed to quickly burp the little baby and lay her in a miniature bassinet in the adjacent room.

"Did you know him personally?" Kate asked in a sympathetic voice, trying to remain calm for the so as not to spook the girl. She got up and followed the girl into the living room where she saw her lowering onto a beaten up couch. She stared blankly at the wall.

"Gracelynn, did you know him personally?" Kate asked a little more urgently.

"Um, sort of, I guess you could say so." She looked at her baby, who was finally asleep, then to the Detective. "Have you ever heard the saying, 'One moment can change a lifetime'?"

Kate looked at the baby, and then back to the girls' empty eyes. She thinks she knew.

"Gracelynn, is Jacob Smith your baby's father?"

She was quiet for a long moment, it almost felt like hours, and then she finally spoke.

"He didn't know, to be honest. It was one night, at one of the law firms' parties. I worked there doing filing because it was better than the orphanage I had been at for most of my life. He gave me a drink, and I accepted, thinking it was a friendly gesture." She stopped to catch her breath, trying to prevent the sobs that could visibly be seen in her chest. She leaned over in the bassinet and grabbed her little baby girl, wanting her baby to comfort her through this story.

"After the drink, more started coming," she continued, "and after a while, I started getting lightheaded and everything became all fuzzy. When he was pulling me into an office, I couldn't tell up from down truthfully. I finally came to it when I realized he was taking my clothes off a..." she paused to let the sobs out, not being able to contain them anymore. "I think you can make two and two."

Kate waited for Gracelynn to calm down a bit before continuing. Castle had moved next to her and tried to comfort by rubbing her shoulder.

"Gracelynn, why were you at his apartment last night?" She needed this last question.

"I was there...because I told him about Johanna. He at least needed to know about her."

Kate froze. Hearing the familiar name kind of shocked her.

"He told me he didn't want anything to do with her, and that I had not proof that she was his whatsoever. Told me I just wanted his money."

Kate wrote everything down, and closed her notebook. This part was done.

"Thank you so much for your cooperation. I don't know what to say to you, to be truthful," Kate said in a small voice, "except I'm sorry this happened to you. You're a strong girl, doing all this at such a young age.

"Actually, not to sound conceited or anything, you remind me of me" Kate said quietly to the girl, and Castle nodded in agreement. "I was on your side once. My mom was murdered, ten years ago, and I had everything set for college, at 19, and I switched paths. I had my Dad, who took her death hard, and I had myself to look after." She looked at the girl, who had a hint of surprise in her eyes. "And do you want to know something?" she nodded her head.

"Your daughter's name is the name of my mother. Johanna."

The girl was quiet for a small second. When she got up suddenly, Kate was surprised. Gracelynn walked over into another room and came back a minute later with a small picture.

"Detective," she asked quietly...

"Is this your mother?" she continued.

She showed Kate the picture, and it took all she had not to let go.

Looking back at her was a small photo of her mother. She looked up at Gracelynn and held her gaze.

"How did you get this?" Kate asked; voice a monotone, not gaining much volume either.

Gracelynn waited to look for the right words.

Then she spoke.

"The orphanage gave it to me when I left them. They said she was my biological mother. And that she had died."