Cold. No, freezing was more like it.

That's what Kate Beckett immediately thought when she woke up. She looked over at the clock on her nightstand. The bright red numbers read 3:43 am.

Beckett shivered and pulled the covers up around her body. She noticed her throat felt a little sore and her nose was stuffed up. "Ugh, I hope I'm not getting sick…" Beckett thought to herself as she drifted back to sleep.

It seemed as soon as she shut her eyes, her cell phone was ringing. It was Gates, calling to tell her there was a body in Central Park. After she hung up, she glanced at her clock, surprised it was already 6:45 am.

Beckett sniffled and realized nose was still congested. She grabbed a tissue off of her nightstand and blew her nose and then tossed the used tissue in the trash can next to her bed.

Kate got dressed and opted for a warm sweater, since she was still feeling pretty cold. She lazily threw her curly hair into a ponytail, not having the energy to style it. Looking in the mirror, Kate cringed at the appearance of her reddening nose, so she decided to put some foundation on to try and cover it.

She went into her living room and turned the thermostat in her apartment up to 75 degrees. She texted Castle about the body and grabbed a granola bar from her kitchen.

Before she left though, she searched her medicine cabinet for anything that might help the cold she knew she was getting. All she found was some expired aspirin and some Tums, both of which weren't very helpful.

She sighed and decided she would just try not and notice the soreness in her throat and her runny nose. Kate grabbed some extra tissues and stuffed them in her coat pocket and headed out the door.

Castle got the text from Beckett to meet her on the south side of Central Park. It was a dreary, wet October morning and according to the weatherman, it was supposed to rain the rest of the week.

At the crime scene, Castle got out of his car carrying two cups of coffee. He looked around and saw Beckett also getting out of her car.

"Good morning Detective," Castle said brightly as he approached Kate. He handed her one of the coffees he brought.

"Grande skim latté with two pumps of sugar-free vanilla." He knew it was her favorite.

"Thanks, Castle. I could use a pick-me-up this morning."

But as Castle was handing her the drink, Beckett held up a finger and swiftly turned away from him. She sneezed into the crook of her elbow.

"Bless you." Castle said suspiciously.

"Thanks," Beckett said as she reached for her coffee back from Castle. Castle was staring at her, and she suddenly felt a little self-conscious. She pushed a ringlet of hair that had escaped from her ponytail behind her ear.

"What, Castle? You've never seem anyone sneeze before?" She said sarcastically.

"Not you, at least, Beckett. Are you feeling alright?" Castle asked gently.

He eyed the detective more closely. He noticed she looked more tired than usual, and she had dark circles under her eyes. Her eyes lacked their usual sparkle, and she was dressed in a sweater and a thick jacket, despite the temperature being only about fifty degrees.

"Relax, Castle. I just sneezed. I'm not sick." Despite this statement, Beckett let out a rattling cough into the back of her hand.

"Yeah, that sounds real convincing…"

Beckett ignored him and just rolled her eyes. As they approached the body, Esposito and Ryan met up with them.

"Female. Mid 20s. It looked like she was shot multiple times. She didn't have any ID on her at the time of the murder, so we have uniforms canvassing the area for any form of identification." Ryan told Beckett.

"I'm going to check around the area for the murder weapon."

Beckett and Castle walked away from the body and towards the bridge that was close to the sidewalk.

"Hey, I think I found something." Beckett pointed to a crack in the sidewalk where a shell casing was resting.

"This must have been from the perp's gun." Beckett picked up shell with her gloved hand and carefully placed it into an evidence bag.

"Let's collect anything else we can find, and then we should head back to the precinct. It's getting to wet out here," she told the uniforms who were also canvassing the area. Beckett was happy for an excuse to get out of the rain.

"We should get back to the precinct," Kate told Castle.

"Okay, I'll meet you there, Detective," Castle said as he got back into his car. He saw Beckett walking to her car and noticed she was coughing harshly again. She looked like she was furiously trying to rub her hands together to keep warm.

On the drive to the precinct, Castle decided to stop at a drugstore and pick up some cold medicine for Beckett. Castle knew if Beckett really was sick, she probably wasn't taking care of herself properly.

He couldn't explain the protectiveness he felt towards Beckett, but he always felt he needed to care for her and make sure she was okay, even though she was the cop and he was the writer.

Castle knew Kate would need someone to look after her if she was sick.