ATTN: Sorry for the preface here. I don't tend to like then at the start of a new story myself. This is a Post-S4 fic. But is is a cross-over with Blue Bloods (CBS) Post-S2.

Enjoy.

The Next Morning

The ringing of a telephone is what woke him from his light sleep. Glancing at the clock he saw that it was a little after 9:30 am. When he moved to reach for the phone he noticed the slender arm wrapped around his shoulder, and then he felt the soft nuzzling of a face against his back and into his neck.

"Mmm, don't answer it, Richard," Kate murmured.

Richard Castle had to smile at that; Hearing her say his name like that. Gina and Meredith never had.

"It's my private line, Katherine. I kind of have to," he replied.

Kate loosened her grip on his shoulder, allowing Rick to reach for the phone. With a slow yawn, she started to wake more fully. Stretching her arms above her head, she arched her back causing the light sheet covering her to slip down to her waist revealing her bare skin. Looking down she noticed and felt some new bruises starting along her ribcage.

Rick paused after picking up the receiver, taking in the sight of her. Her hair loose and wavy from drying overnight after the rain soaked state it was in the night before.

"He—Hello," he said.

"Ricky?" asked the voice on the other end.

"Yes. Who is this?" Castle asked into the phone.

"It's Erin Reagan. Do you have a few minutes to talk?"

Rick sat up straighter in the bed, after a moment he swung his legs over the edge looking for his slippers. "Yeah," he said. "It's been a long time, how are you doing? Last I heard, your grandfather said that you turned down a position in the Mayors office."

"Who is it?" Kate asked. Her interest piqued that Castle would know anyone who would turn down a position in the Mayors office, and not be giving them crap for it.

"One sec,`D," Castle said. Placing his hand over the receiver he turned and looked at Kate giving her a smile. "A friend in the DA's office."

Kate quirked an eyebrow at that, pulling the sheet up to cover herself as she rolled over to her side leaning on her elbow, watching Castle.

"Rick," Erin said from the other end of the phone. "Are you still there?"

"Yeah, yeah," he said after a moment. "Sorry, I got distracted for a minute"

With a laugh Kate could hear from the other side of the bed Erin asked, "What? Am I interrupting something?" After a moments pause she said. "You know what? I'm going to call you back in about a half hour."

"Was there something in particular?" Rick asked, trailing off.

"Jamie said he talked to you about the careers day thing at Nicki's school"

"Yeah. Wait, that's today?" Rick asked.

"He said that he would be able to make it. That you were going to see if one of the detectives you're shadowing can come with. Jamie didn't feel comfortable asking them himself," Erin said.

"Sure, I'll see what I can do. When is this thing? Are you going to be there?" Rick asked.

"I'm sure Nicki would love that. It's around 11:00." Erin replied.

"Great, I'll see if Kevin can make it. We'll pick up Jamie at the precinct, and I'll see you there."

The 12th

Jamie tugged at his collar for the fourth time on the short ride up in the elevator to the Homicide floor of the 12th precinct. He'd been given a note when he arrived for his shift to report to Captain Gates. Stepping off the elevator he went towards the first occupied desk he saw. As he approached he saw a brown haired man in an open waistcoat with a hand on his hip leaning up against the back of his chair, with a phone in his ear. When he got closer he saw the detectives shield on his hip under his fingers.

Kevin Ryan looked up from his scuffed leather shoes when he heard the approaching footsteps come to a stop. Seeing a young officer he put the phone to his shoulder and held up 2 fingers asking for a few moments.

"Yeah Castle, eleven should be fine," Ryan said. "Gates sent me an email this morning. She wants me mentoring some new kid off probation looking to get out of the bag; fast track to detective or something. Might have to bring them along when we pick up this Jamie kid down in uniforms. One sec. Can I help you?" Kevin asked, looking finally at the officer's nametag. "Officer Reagan?"

"Captain Gates?" Jamie asked.

Kevin nodded his head towards Gates' office.

"Look Castle," Kevin continued. "I've got to go. We'll talk later." Kevin hung up the phone.

"Slow day?" Jamie asked.

"Supposed to be my day off," Ryan said while reaching behind himself to yank his jacket off the back of his chair. After shrugging on the blazer Ryan clapped Jamie on the shoulder and extended his hand introducing himself. "Kevin Ryan," he said.

"Jamie Reagan," the young cop responded in kind.

They walked to Gates' office where they could see her sorting papers through the glass.

"Are you any relation to a Joey Reagan?" Kevin asked before knocking on the door.

"He was my brother."

"I'm sorry," Kevin said. "I knew him a little bit at the Academy"

"Come in," the authoritative voice of Captain Victoria Gates reached through the door.

Kevin and Jamie entered the office and stood at attention before her desk.

"You wanted to see us sir?" Ryan asked.

"Sit down please, both of you," Gates said with a soft tone to her voice. Taking a few moments she observed the two officers in front of her. "Detective Ryan, with Esposito out on suspension for the near future, and with Beckett—"

"Yeah," Ryan said interrupting her.

Gates sat back in her chair, raising an eyebrow at her detective.

"Sorry," Ryan said.

"With them out," Gates continued. "That makes you senior on shift for now. I'm assigning Officer Reagan to you. You'll be mentoring him. He's looking to move up the ranks. The Lieutenant down in uniforms set up a program with the departments in the precinct: Narcotics, Anti-Crime, Robbery, Vice, Homicide, for the go getters to shadow."

Pausing to flip through a folder on her desk, she looked over to Jamie.

"There are some conspicuously blank sections of your file here Officer Reagan. Care to explain these?"

Jamie stared ahead at the wall behind Gates.

"Officer Reagan?" Gates asked.

"I'm sorry what was the question?" Jamie asked.

At this Ryan leaned over to Jamie's side, saying quietly, "You might not want to start off by pissing off a Captain, James."

Meanwhile back at the loft…

Rick was in the kitchen finishing making eggs and bacon when Kate came in from the bedroom drying her hair with a towel.

"Smells good," she said.

Rick looked up at the sound of her voice, and smiled.

Taking a seat at the counter Kate reached out and stole a piece of bacon off the plate, and began to nibble.

"Who's D?" she asked.

"Old friend from high school," Rick answered.

"From one of the many?"

"Yeah," Rick said. "The last one, after the boarding school with Damien. I met her and her brother, and another guy Reggie, the first couple of days. We were pretty much inseparable. 'D and I had a thing. Reggie and Erin had Drama together, Reggie and I had Philosophy; Danny and I had History, Shop, and Art. After Reggie, D and I were on the fencing team, they started calling us 'The Three Musketeers and Lady D'"

Rick went quiet, moving food around on his plate with a fork.

Wanting to lighten the mood of the now sad looking Castle, Kate asked. "Let me guess, you were Porthos?"

Rick smiled at that.

"No," he said. "That was Reggie. Erin was 'D, and Danny was Aramis."

"Athos!" Kate said with a smirk on her face. Picking up a table knife she poked Rick in the side. "En guarde!"

Castle chuckled at this while he swallowed a fork full of eggs.

"Trust me, if I dig up the fencing gear, I'll take you to school Katherine!"

At this Kate stood up, leaning over the counter she kissed him softly on the side of the mouth.

"So, what's this thing at 11?" she asked.

"I promised Erin a few weeks ago that I would go to her daughter's school career day thing. The city puts it on, has different groups talk about their job. Get the kids exposed to the jobs out there, set up shadowing, internships."

"Sounds like fun," Kate said. "Mind if I tag along?"

"I don't see why not. I told Ryan that I'd be there a little after 10:30. So, while I adore your choice in wardrobe my dear Katherine," Rick said as he tugged at the belt along her waist. "I don't think that Kevin or the kid need to see you in my robe."

Kate dipped her head and chuckled. Slipping her hand into Rick's, she undid the knot along her waist, and swung the loose end in her hand.

"I don't know," Kate said huskily. "I think this is a good look for me."

Rick leaned forward and rested his head against hers. Reaching up from her waist, he lifted her chin so that he was looking in her eyes. He kissed her.

"I love this look on you," Rick said. "Call me selfish, but I don't want to share it just yet." Tilting her head, he placed another kiss on her forehead. "I need to get dressed and find the car keys. And you need to change, I'm pretty sure that some of your things are in the guestroom dresser still."

"Mmm," Kate hummed. "Going to let me drive the Ferrari again Richard?"

Rick only grinned as he made his way to the bedroom.

Back at the 12th

"Well Officer Regan?" Captain Gates asked again, with a now stern look on her face. "I'm waiting."

Jamie looked to his right, where Kevin had a glint in his eye and a frown on his face.

Kevin motioned his head toward the captain. "Answer the question, kid."

"I can't say, sir," Jamie said as he turned to face Gates.

Gates held his gaze for a long few minutes.

"Okay," Gates said. She looked over to Ryan. "What's on your desk right now?"

"Paperwork," he said. "Trial prep from the Mulligan case that Karpowski and I worked."

"Good."

"Captain?" Jamie asked raising his hand.

Victoria Gates made a 'go ahead' motion with her hand.

"Thanks," Jamie said. "I have an appointment at 11:00; is at my niece's high school. Sort of a career day thing that the city puts on. I wasn't expecting this posting so soon. I had already booked the time off from my Lt"

Kevin placed a calming hand on the young officer's forearm against the arm of the chair.

"Its really a community outreach thing, Cap," Ryan started. "Be seen in the community and all that."

"Alright," Gates relented. "But you're still the on call. If a body drops, you two get on it. Now get out of my office."

"Aye sir." The two said as they stood and left the office.

Ryan headed to the break-room around the corner. Taking his mug from the side of the sink he rinsed the mug under the tap. Looking up, he saw Jamie hanging by the doorway.

"So you know Castle?" Ryan asked.

"What?"

"You're the Jamie that Castle was telling me we would need to pick up before going to his friend's daughter's school right? I mean you mentioned your niece."

Jamie stepped in to the break-oom, running his hand along the counter.

"No,"he said. "Y'know, some of the guys downstairs were telling stories about this Castle guy. Some mystery writer that follows you all around. The captain is okay with that?"

Kevin finished preparing his coffee and went over to the couch in the corner. After a sip from his mug, he looked up at Jamie.

"Did. For a little over 4 years now. Well mostly he was following Beckett. You'll get to meet her when Castle meets us. If he weren't a novelist, he would make a damned good cop. Thinks outside the box. Granted sometimes he's a bit ridiculous with his theories." Ryan said. Taking another gulp of this coffee he looked the young officer hard in the eye. "But push comes to shove, there's next to no one else that I'd want to have my back. You hearing me?"

"Okay," Jamie said.

"You got a change of clothes, kid?"

"Why?"

"If you're gonna shadow in Homicide, get out of your unis. This isn't a babysitting service, look the part. This will be a lot of 'do what you're told', keep your eyes and ears open. If you have an intelligent question, ask. You have a theory, I want to hear it. We clear?" Ryan asked.

"Yes, sir." Jamie said.

"You don't have to call me sir, Reagan." Kevin said. "Ryan will be just fine. I'll call you Reagan or James until a nickname crops up."

Kevin put his mug down on the end table, and stood.

"Now," he continued. "Back to paperwork. You better get comfortable. The lawyers, especially 'Legs' likes all the paper in order."

Together they walked back to the bullpen. Glancing around Jamie saw a chair sitting by a nearby desk. He walked over and dragged the chair to the side of Ryan's desk.

"You better live up to the history of that chair, kid." Kevin said.

"It's a chair," Jamie said as he sat down, giving Ryan a strange look. Reaching over, he picked up a stack of files. After glancing through the top one, he raised his eyebrows.

"Zombies?" Jamie asked.

Ryan continued leafing through the papers in front of him. After a moment he stuck his hand out gesturing for the file folder.

"Better give me that," he said. "Castle, Espo and Beckett worked that. 'Legs' won't like that they may not be available. And that's Castle's chair."

"So, who is Legs? I know some people in the DA's office." Jamie said.

"Turn to page 3," Ryan answered in an offhand manner. "Trust me, Boyle has a set of legs on her."

Jamie turned back to page 3.

"Are you sure your files are up to date?" he asked.

"They are," Kevin replied. "Oh, yeah. She got divorced and went back to her maiden name.

Jamie started to chuckle.

"What?" Kevin asked.

"Nothing," said Jamie. "It's just that I though I knew most of my sister's nicknames."

"She's your sister?"

"Yeah."

"Then you're definitely giving me the file. There's enough fallout going around, and I don't want some over eager defense attorney to start claiming undue process or some other crap."

"Why?" Jamie asked as he handed over the file.

"The arresting officers. One is on suspension, the other resigned last night."

"So long as the suspension has nothing to do with that case, they should be fine. From what I saw, it looked like a clean confession. And who knows, maybe after catching the case the defense attorney will do your job for you."

"Hey Arthur Kirkland!" Ryan spat out. "When I said give me your theories I meant ones that!– sorry James."

Ryan leaned back in his chair, and ran his hands through his hair and down his face.

"I'm just a bit on edge."

Kevin looked over across the bullpen. "Hey," he yelled. "Jane! I've got the Mulligan file for you."

Detective Jane Karpowski walked over to Ryan's desk. Taking a seat along the edge of the desk, she looked over to Beckett's now empty chair. Noticing the ever present chair was missing from its side, she looked over to the young Reagan.

"Big shoes to fill in that chair, kid," Karpowski said. Looking back to Kevin, she continued. "I'm sorry to hear about Javi and Kate. Must've been hard. Don't worry. You guys are tight, you'll get past it."

"Kate sure," Kevin said. "I talked to her a bit this morning when Castle called. I think she's wanted an out for a while now. But Javi, I don't know. He holds a grudge."

"You talked to Beckett, when Castle called?" Jane asked.

Ryan leaned back in his chair and folded his arms behind his head, a smirk on his face. "Oh yeah. I'm pretty sure that the two of them don't want to go anywhere today. But Castle has a commitment at – Kirkland here's nieces school."

"I'm sorry," Karpowski said turning back to Jamie. "You're Officer Kirkland?"

"No," Ryan said. "This is Officer James Reagan. He's 'Leg's brother. Kirkland is just the first nickname that came up."

"That was fast," Jane remarked.

"It's okay," Jamie said. "It kind of fits. I did go to law school, passed the bar in New York."

"Then what the hell are you doing here?" the two detectives asked simultaneously.

Downing the last of his coffee, Jamie paused. "It's a family thing," he said. "As to why I'm here. I wanted a good precinct, not a cake walk or a desk at 1PP. And this Homicide department has one of the best closure rates in the city. I want to learn. I figured I can do that here."

"Well, other than Beckett, Ryan here is the best to learn from," Karpowski said standing up. "Thanks for the file, Kev. I gotta go. I have a meeting with Cutter at 10:30.

"We'll see you," Kevin said.

Kevin set his chair back down and leaned over, opening a drawer in his desk.

"If you have a change of clothes, good clothes, go put them on. Detectives don't wear the blues in the day to day. We're going to a school, you're representing the department. Dress nice."

Kevin reached in to the drawer and pulled out a chain, he handed it to Jamie. "Hang your badge on this."

"Thanks," Jamie said. "I've got some stuff in my locker. I'll be back in a few."

"Meet me in front of the motor pool in 20 minutes".

After the young officer left, Kevin pulled out his pistol and checked the chamber, released the clip and reloaded. After checking the saftety, he stood and holstered the weapon.

'Of all the damned days,' Kevin thought.

Taking a few minutes to square away the loose paperwork on his desk, Kevin looked to the clock. 'It's going to be a long day.' he thought.

Kevin did up the buttons on his vest, shrugged his shoulders in his jacket, and walked towards the elevator.