Inspire

Help me find a way to move on

Standing in the way of the sun

Now who inspires you?

Inspire – Cave In.

Summary: Kate/Rick. It has been three years since Beckett last saw Castle, but a murder at a bookshop where he is signing his newest novel brings them back together. Can they rebuild their old partnership and who is the mysterious Amber Starr? Future fic.

Firstly, thanks for the reviews on my story 'The Start of Us', I hope you like this one as much. My Castle plot bunny is back with a vengeance this week and keeps demanding me to write! This would be great if I wasn't supposed to be revising for exams! As always, reviews are loved. Enjoy. Vikki xx.

PS. Castle doesn't not belong to me. If it was Castle and Beckett would have been together months and months ago! All typos are my own, it's late here, okay! (That's my excuse and I'm sticking to it!)

Chapter One:

Winter was beginning to take her hold over New York with the first snow of the season coating the city like a layer of icing sugar. Running late, Detective Katherine Beckett was rummaging through her closet looking for her winter boots that she had stowed away in their back in April. It was a closet that she rarely used and was full of all sorts of junk she had accumulated. She found one of the boots and blew dust from it and went back to rooting through the junk for the other. She spied the boot's missing pair and reaching for it, knocking over a pile of odds and ends in the process. She groaned, grabbing hold of the boot tightly to free it from its prison of books, notepads and photograph albums. She finally pulled it out, bringing with it a ratty looking copy of Storm Fall, which she had purchased from a thrift store not long after her apartment had been ruined.

Seeing the book, emblazoned with 'Richard Castle' on the front brought up many feelings in Kate; many feelings that she thought she had long moved on from. It had been three years since they had gone their separate ways, but sometimes she did still miss him. Occasionally, she would expect him to make some ridiculous and inappropriate comment at a crime scene, but when she looked around he was no longer there. She still received birthday and Christmas cards from him, but they were impersonal, probably sent out by some lackey at the publishing company.

She threw the book back into the closet, where it the back panel with a resounding and somewhat satisfying thud. She wished throwing her feelings for him away could be so easy. Trying to forget about Rick Castle, she struggled into her boots and left the apartment with no idea what today would hold for her and how it would change her life.

In the back room of a Manhattan book store, Richard Castle was flexing his hand, preparing to sign hundreds of books in the next few hours. His newest book, 'Starr Crossed', had gone on sale just the week before so he was hoping for a good turnout this week. People still brought along copies of Derrick Storm books, even though he had killed that character off years earlier, and his short lived series of Nikki Heat novels. He wished people wouldn't bring along those though. Opening the cover and seeing the dedications to Kate Beckett and his old friends at the precinct made the rush of the book signing itself seem bitter. After three years, he still wasn't sure quite what had happened to sour his relationship with Beckett so permanently. He missed her, and he missed writing about Nikki Heat too. At least he had Amber Starr to focus his attention on now.

Castle, lost in thoughts about the past and the present, sat bolt upright when he heard a scream coming from nearby. He jumped out of his seat, nearly knocking over his glass of water in the process. He stepped out into the corridor looking for a member of staff or someone from his publishing team, but the area was completely vacated. The scream was followed by a sobbing noise and the moaning of "Oh no, Andy, no, no..."

Castle followed the sound, not thinking about the danger that might befall him. All of those years working side by side with Beckett and he would still walk blindly into a dangerous situation.

He knocked cautiously on the door. "Hello? Is everything alright in there?" He asked, beginning wish he was armed with more than just a Sharpie pen in his shirt pocket.

He pushed the door open to find a petite blonde woman, who couldn't have been more than twenty two, kneeling on the floor beside a man. Castle couldn't make out his features but the pool of red blood slowly seeping into the thin carpet was far too much for a person to live without.

"Is he...dead?" Castle asked the girl, knowing it was foolish.

She turned around to face him, tears shining in her bright blue eyes and running down her cheeks, leaving tracks of mascara in their wake. She nodded weakly.

Castle was already pulling his cell phone from his pocket and dialling the police, but someone had beaten him to it. The previously empty corridor was now flooded with book store staff, members of Castle's publishing team and cops both in uniform and plain clothes.

"Move out of the way, please!" He heard a familiar male voice call, and gradually the sea of gawkers began to part.

"Detectives Beckett and Ryan." A woman said making Castle's heart feel like it had shocked by a defibrillator. "Turn around please, sir."

Slowly, Castle turned in a circle, moving away from the doorway of the room where Andrew Carson had breathed his last breath.

"Castle!" Kate exclaimed, turning quickly away from him before he could read the expression in her eyes and on her face. She moved away to look into the room at the body and the grieving form of Ellie Dales.

Kevin Ryan stood in front of Castle, his blue eyes shooting icy daggers at the taller man.

"You'd better have a good explanation for all this, Castle." He said, his tone clipped. Castle wasn't convinced that Ryan was referring to the situation they were now in, he and Esposito had always been very protective of Kate. Castle had to stop himself asking how Esposito was doing and if he and Lanie had finally married, but he knew this wasn't the right time, nor the right place.

Kate stepped back out of the room and Ryan seemed to relax his stance. The two detectives stepped to one side to confer, letting the crime scene technicians and medical examiner into the room. Castle noticed that the ME assigned to the case was in fact Lanie Parrish, and he smiled in her direction but all she did was glare pointedly in response. He did notice, however, that a shiny silver band glistened from the fourth finger of her left hand.

Beckett and Ryan came back to him again.

"We'll need you to come to the precinct to answer some questions." Beckett said, her eyes focusing on a point somewhere over his right shoulder.

"But I've got a book signing to do in twenty minutes."

"We're not asking you to come with us, we're telling you." Beckett reiterated, finally meeting his eyes. Castle was saddened to see her brown eyes narrowed with something that looked a little like hatred. How had he let things get so bad between them?

Ryan, looking uncomfortable, went to talk to Ellie. Something in the way he talked to the young woman and reassured made him wonder if perhaps Kevin Ryan was now a father.

"Okay, fine." Castle shrugged. "I don't have anything to hide."

He followed Beckett, Ryan and Ellie out of the book store and into their unmarked cars. It had been a long time since he had ridden in a cop car with Beckett, but this was not the way he had imagined it. Then again, nothing that he had happened between them had gone the way he had hoped it would. Maybe this was fate or destiny, or whatever, giving them a second chance. But the way that Kate was looking at him in the rear-view mirror wasn't giving him an awful lot of hope.

Hope you enjoyed. :)