Hello everyone, I have wanted to do a Castle fic for a while, but never quite knew how I wanted to go about it. I love how Castle is with Alexis and kids in general, and this idea kind of popped into my head as a catalyst for them getting together. Please let me know what you think and hope you enjoy:)

Disclaimers- nothing is mine, etc. etc.

"I feel like the writer observing the grief, but it is difficult to be detached from it."

- Hugh Leonard

Rick Castle's breath hitched as he caught sight of what lay behind the door. He had not been expecting that. Not at all. "Hey!" He said quickly, holding his hands up in surrender, trying not to look threatening in any way. "Beckett! Its a kid!" He yelled behind him. He could hear the quickening of Kate Beckett's footsteps and dropped down to the child's level. She looked absolutely terrified. "Hi sweetie, my name's Rick." He scooted forward, crawling partly into the closet.

"Castle?" Kate called out as she, Ryan and Esposito entered the bedroom.

"Over here."

Kate walked over and glanced down, seeing the little girl huddled into herself in the corner of the closet. There was blood on her face. "Castle?" She repeated warily.

He glanced up and nodded to her, holding his arms out to the girl. "It's okay sweetie, come here, I got you." The girl hesitated, clearly not trusting either of them, regardless of the fact that they were cops; well, that Kate was a cop. Finally, she moved forward and allowed Castle to lift her up into his arms. She was surprisingly light, dark brown, matted curly hair, dirty clothes, pale skin, much to thin. She clutched his neck with a grip that surprised him considering her tiny frame. Castle carried her out of the cluttered apartment with Kate following him; they descending the stairs and went out to the cars. The little girl never spoke a word as he placed her into the backseat and climbed in next to her. Kate pulled out and drove back to the station after giving a nod to Ryan and Esposito.

Minutes later, the little girl looked very out of place on the interview room couch. She had yet to speak a word or look anyone in the eye. "Do you think she saw?" Castle asked softly to Kate. She turned around and glanced into the room with a deep sigh.

"Most of me hopes not, but yeah, I think she did Castle and we need to know what she saw."

"I know." Castle said solemnly. "We can at least feed her right? She looks like she hasn't eaten for days."

"I already ordered a pizza." Kate said with a small grin. Castle returned it, but neither were sincere. The situation sucked to much to actually be happy. The two of them walked into the room quietly, the little girl looked up at them, then instantly back down to her hands. Kate and Castle sat down, Kate across from her and Castle next to her. "Hi, can you tell us your name sweetie?"

"Emily." She whispered, not looking up at her.

"Emily, that's very pretty, I'm Detective Beckett, but you can call me Kate if you want okay?"

"Okay."

Castle leaned forward with a smile. "I'm Rick." He whispered.

"Hi." She whispered back.

"How old are you?"

"Ten. I mean...no eleven."

"You don't remember?" Castle joked. He couldn't believe this tiny girl was eleven, she looked closer to eight or nine at the most.

"My birthday was three days ago." Emily explained.

Kate watched them, marveling once again at how good Castle was with children. "Emily, we need to ask you a couple of questions if you don't mind." Emily nodded, refusing to look up at either of them. "Can you tell us what happened today?"

Emily fidgeted with her hands, taking a deep breath. "My mom's friends came over, they were really mad at her and they had guns. They shot her leg and I screamed and ran into the closet. They just keep yelling at each other, my mom kept saying she didn't have it. And they shot her again, then they left. I looked out and...she was all bloody, the phone doesn't work, so I couldn't call 911. I just went back in the closet."

"That was really helpful Emily, thank you." Kate said warmly. Emily looked up and gave her a light smile. "Do you know what the men were looking for?"

Emily shrugged. "Probably drugs or money, that's usually what her friends want."

Castle shot a concerned look at Kate while Emily picked at a hole her jeans. Her pants were much to small for her and her shirt was much too big, both were dirty. There was a knock on the door and Ryan opened it, a pizza box held in his hands. "Half cheese, half pepperoni." He announced with a smile. Emily looked up, a feral look of hunger in her eyes that broke Castle's heart. He leapt up and took the box from Ryan, opening it and taking a large piece.

"Want some?" He asked with a childlike grin.

Emily hesitated a moment, and Castle handed Kate a piece as well. Confused she frowned at him. He began making exaggerated noises proclaiming the deliciousness of the pizza. Kate caught on and joined in while Emily licked her lips subconsciously but made no attempts to take a slice. Kate held out a piece to her and she finally took it, shoving such a large bite into her mouth that she choked. Castle acted quickly and with the reflexes of a parent who had pulled food and objects out of children's mouths before, and freed her airway.

"Sorry." She whispered as she caught her breath.

"Not a problem, perhaps smaller bites?" He offered. Emily nodded and picked the pizza up again, clearly having not eaten for days. "Hey Emily, is there a number we can call to reach your dad?" Castle asked casually. At the look on Emily's face, Kate reached out and kicked him in the shins under the table.

"He died when I was two."

"I'm sorry." Castle said softly.

Emily shrugged again, stuffing pizza into her mouth. "S'ok." She mumbled with her mouth full. "I don't remember him."

They ate in silence for a few more minutes. Emily ate four slices of pizza before Castle stopped her. He knew what happened when kids stuffed themselves. He had dealt with the aftermath before and it hadn't been pleasant. He shot glances over at Kate frequently. A little girl witnessing her mother's murder wouldn't sit well with Beckett at all. He could see it on her face.

"Emily? Is there someone else we can call? A grandparent or an aunt, uncle? Someone like that?" Kate asked.

Emily shook her head and dropped her eyes to the floor. "No. My mom didn't have any brothers or sisters. I don't think I have grandparents. I never met anyone. It was just me and my mom...when she was around."

"Okay." Kate said grimly. She nodded to Castle and rose from her seat. "We're going to call..."

Emily interrupted her. "DCFS. I know." She said with a sigh.

Kate looked a little taken aback, but walked out of the room with Castle, asking one of the younger beat cops to sit with Emily.

"She knows what DCFS is? That's never a good sign." Castle said.

"Ryan, what have you got on our vic?" Kate asked.

"Virginia Donnelley, age 26, multiple arrests for solicitation, underage drinking, possession of narcotics, and the building manager said it was pretty well known that she was a prostitute. Pimps and dealers came in and out of that place all the time, not just her apartment either, the whole building is full of women and men just like her. Social services had been called more than once, Emily spent time with foster families twice; once when she was two after the father, Gary Maguire, died in a shooting she stayed with the family for six months. Again when she was six, she stayed with another family just shy of a year before her mother cleaned up her act and got her back." Ryan read of the computer grimly. He looked over his shoulder and caught a glance at the little girl. Shaking his head in frustration, he turned back around to Beckett and Castle.

"She was only 26? That means she only had Emily at 15. Is there any mention of other family? Someone who can actually take care of this kid?" Castle asked angrily.

Ryan shook his head. "No, no one. Gary's mother died when he was a kid and his father died two years ago, from the looks of it, he was never in Emily's life. Virginia's parents disowned her when she got pregnant and both died a few years ago. The father from a heart attack and the mother was in a car accident a couple years back, right around the time Emily went into foster care the second time. There isn't anyone else."

Castle watched the social worker walk through the elevators, barely hearing Kate speak. "Castle?"

"Hum?"

"I said do you want to go with me to talk to her friends? These girls tend to work in groups. Safety in numbers and all, she might have had a pimp, maybe she was holding out cash on him."

"Humm? Oh um...yeah." Castle said, keeping his eyes on Emily.

"Castle?" Kate asked again. "I know this sucks, but we've still got to find out who killed Virginia."

"I know." He said, not looking back at Kate.

She sighed and gave his arm a small tug. He followed her out of the precinct without a word. Kate didn't blame him. She wanted to go home, curl into a ball and throw the covers over her head too. Thankfully, not many of their cases involved children, but any was one too many. And a little girl loosing her mother cut too close to home for Kate to even think about. Especially with everything that had been going on recently, and her mother's birthday coming up. The only way she would make it though was to block it out. Social services would deal with Emily and Kate would do what she could to find justice for her mother. Unfortunately, from the sound of things, she didn't appear to have been much of one, but Kate only knew a few facts and couldn't judge on them alone. Virginia clearly had a rough life. Becoming pregnant as a teenager couldn't be easy at all, especially if your parents disowned you. Right now, Kate couldn't afford to think about it. That would come later, tonight, she was sure. It would hit her late at night and she would deal with it then, right now, she was going to do her job.


Castle swung his apartment door open with vigor and sighed deeply.

"Dad?" Alexis asked, a concerned look on her face. "Are you..." He cut her off, wrapping her up in a very tight hug. "Umm...Dad? Should I be concerned about something?"

"No. I just need to hug you." He admitted, not loosening his grip.

"Richard darling, smothering your children will not bring you good press for your new novel." Martha said as she waltzed into the room.

Castle glared at her, kissed Alexis' forehead and headed into the kitchen, finally realizing how hungry he truly was. This had been a day. He couldn't get the image of Emily's sad little face as the social worker had lead her out of the precinct earlier that afternoon out of his head. There hadn't been any foster families available and she would be spending the night in a group home. As a father, it gutted Rick. He smiled at Alexis as she followed him into the kitchen.

"Leftover chinese." She offered.

"Ah, and this is why I love you." He smirked. Alexis frowned, she could tell he wasn't genuine.

"Dad? What happened today? Bad case?"

Castle popped a container of vegetable lo mein into the microwave and poured himself a glass of wine. He leaned onto the counter and looked at Alexis, Martha entered the room behind her and listened in. Castle sighed. "A little girl witnessed the murder of her mother, who was already neglectful and she has nowhere to go, no family and she...she's just...I don't know, its not fair."

Alexis frown deepened. "That's awful." She said quietly.

"How old was she?" Martha asked.

"Just turned eleven three days ago."

"Oh the poor dear." Martha said, dropping into her seat dramatically.

"I just can't get her face out of my head you know?" Castle said as he pulled his heated up food out of the microwave. "I just wish there was something more I could do."

"Well like what dear?" Martha asked.

"I don't know!" Castle said in frustration. "But...something, its...the world should not be that unfair."

"Well...maybe, I could give her some of my old clothes and toys or something?" Alexis offered. Castle set his container down on the counter and stared at his daughter in awe. Where had this wonderful young woman come from? He smiled lovingly at her.

"That's very sweet of you Alexis." He said proudly.

She shrugged, a little embarrassed at his fawning and slid out of the seat. "Not a big deal. I'll pack some stuff up, you can take it over this weekend?"

"Thank you sweetie." Castle called after her.


Kate twirled a piece of her hair that was falling out of her bun. She had been staring at this case file for at least twenty minutes and hadn't absorbed a bit of it. Castle had been weird all week. Quiet, not joking, the jokes he did make sounded forced or weak and she caught him lost in thought more than once. They had solved Virginia Donnelley's murder yesterday, two men she had stolen drugs from had broken in and shot her. Castle being off his game caused her to be off her game and it annoyed her. She was fully prepared to call him out on it if he ever got his ass into work. Looking up, she saw him plop down in his chair next to her.

"Hey." He said, the smile didn't reach his eyes as he dropped a small coffee onto her desk.

"Castle? What's up with you?" Kate asked, taking a sip of her coffee and getting right to the point.

"Hum?"

"This? What? Are you okay?" Kate asked sincerely.

"Yeah." He said unconvincingly. Kate glared at him. "I..." He started to say something, but clearly decided against it. Changing the subject quickly, Kate resolved to ask him about it later. "Have you heard anything about Emily?"

"Donnelley?"

"Yeah, Alexis put together a bag of some stuff, old clothes, some toys a couple of books. I wanted to take them over to her, is she still at the group home? East side it was called right?"

Kate was taken aback. He gotten together a bunch of stuff for a little girl he met once for approximately an hour. She should stop being surprised at how big of a heart he had. But he never failed to make her look at him differently. So that was it. Emily. Kate had been having a hard time getting the little girl out of her mind as well, but she hadn't thought to give her anything. "Umm...yeah, last I heard."

"Okay, do you need me today?"

Kate felt her eyes widen. He wasn't going to stay? "Um..no, just paperwork, which you never help with anyway." She joked hoping to hide the slight hurt that he was leaving.

"Great! I'm gonna take Alexis' stuff over to her. Call me if we get a case?"

"Of course." Kate said with a small smile. He leapt up and all but ran out of the precinct. Kate glanced at the coffee on her desk and let out a sigh. Turning back to her paperwork, she ignored the looks she could feel coming from Ryan and Esposito across from her. "Its not gonna write itself guys." She called to them without looking up. She could hear them scrambling to get back to work and grinned to a little to herself. At least some things still felt normal.