A/N: This is my first fanfiction, so please be kinda, reviews are always appreciated. This is set a few years into the future, Kate and Castle are engaged to be married in two weeks time

Something Red

"So Castle?" Esposito started, spinning round in his chair to face Castle. "Two weeks to W-Day. You worried."

"Me? Nah" Castle said waving Javier off. "Beckett, However.. AH! Apples, apples, apples!" He yelled, as Beckett dragged him out of her chair by his ear.

"Castle, I've told you before, about the chair, and about the sharing of details." Beckett said cheerfully, giving Castle a quick kiss on the cheek. Then spotting the coffee on her desk she smiled, picked it up and took a sip.

Castle sat down in his usual chair, before flipping a coin into the air and catching it

"So what's up for today then? No bodies?" He said, flipping the coin again, studying it as it span in the air. "Y'know, I bet I could get Ryan from here" he said, squinting with one eye, mentally gauging the distance.

Kate laughed gently and snatched the coin out of the air on the next toss.

"Castle, please remember that we're all wearing guns. Boys, remember that if you shoot my fiancé, then I'll shoot you."

She grinned and sat down, pulled out a pen, flipped open the first file on her desk and began to study it before replying. "Any-ways, Castle's the one that's been nervous. I swear that there isn't an hour going by that he isn't phoning someone and checking a detail or six." She gave him a quick smile as she made a note in the file, her engagement ring gleaming softly on her finger

"Love you too" Castle said, smiling at Beckett, just as her phone started ringing. "Your phone is ringing" he commented idly, fishing in his pocket for another coin.

"Beckett" she said, into her phone, shooting castle a glare. She listened a moment, a frown on her face. Putting her hand over the microphone for a moment, she said to Castle. "It's Christie, from the dress shop"

Removing her hand, she continued "Christie, slow down. What's wrong? Wait, What did you say? My dress? What's wrong with my dress? Blood? Okay, I'll be there right now, don't touch anything, okay?"

Pocketing her phone, and going for her jacket, she started talking. "That was Christie, she's doing my wedding dress, and"

"We get it" Esposito interrupted. "We were listening. Where am I telling Lanie to meet us?"

Beckett turned to look at them, and saw that her team were already standing, jackets on. In Ryan's case, he was checking his gun, Esposito was on the phone. She quickly reeled off the dress, headed for the elevator.

Castle jumped and ran to catch up with her. "You okay Kate?" he asked carefully

"Whoever screwed with my wedding dress is going to pay, big time" She said as she reached the elevator, and pressed the button for the lobby, Ryan and Esposito just ducking inside as the doors closed behind them.

A short time later, after a moderately harrowing drive for the other people in her car, they pulled up at the little shop, a quiet place, off the beaten track. Before the car's engine had fully stopped Kate was out the door and into the shop.

Castle, Esposito and Ryan were in a second later, to watch Beckett being dragged through the back of the shop by a plump woman wearing pink.

Esposito paused a second to look at one of the dresses. More specifically the price tag. "Ouch, I really hope Lanie doesn't like this dress."

"Boys!" Kate's voice came from the back of the shop. "Find the apartment upstairs. Castle, back here now!"

Castle stepped to the back of the shop to see a near-hysterical Christie, and an upset looking Kate fussing over what Castle guessed to be Kate's dress. It was on a mannequin, simple, yet elegant. Ruffles: Some, not too many. Lacy bits: A few, on the edges. Train: Nope. Colour: Previously, white. Now: Blood Red.

The blood itself had apparently soaked through from the apartment above, and had evidently been dripping down, precisely onto Kate's dress.

"It's ruined" Kate said softly, to herself, reaching out to touch the dress.

Castle stepped up and hugged her gently from behind

"Don't worry Kate. I'll fix it, somehow" he said softly, as she leaned back into the hug.

Just then her phone rang. She picked it up, answering with her traditional "Beckett." She listened for a few moments, before nodding, and hanging up. She collected herself, then turned in Castle's arms and kissed him.

"Boys found the body. Upstairs." She said, before shaking her head slightly, and put on what Castle recognised as her 'game face'.

"All right Castle. Let's go catch this guy" She said. As they walked outside, Lanie in the Morgue-mobile rolled up.

Climbing out, Lanie took a peer in the window of the dress shop, "Damn girl, how did you find this place, I gotta get Javier to bring me here when we go shopping for my dress" she said grinning, placing her hand on Kate's arm, her own engagement ring on her finger. "So girl, What's the damage?" She said

"Soaked in blood. Absolutely ruined" Kate replied as she led Castle and Lanie up to the apartment. Esposito was holding the door. "Door was unlocked when when we got here" he commented and gave Lanie a kiss on her way in. "We opened it, and spotted the victim"

The body of a young blonde woman was lying posed on the carpet. Her bright blue eyes were open, and she was dressed in a pair of ratty old blue jeans and a paint-covered green hooded jumper. She was lying on her back, legs together, head resting on a cushion that matched those on the couch. Her arms were folded across her stomach. She looked peaceful, apart from the fact that one of her hands had been brutally hacked from her arm.

Lanie knelt down next to the body, and began to carefully examine it, and began to talk, partly talking to herself, partly talking to Kate.

"Poor girl. Would have been gorgeous." She commented as she examined the girl's stump "Bled out from that." She took a couple of quick pictures of the body, and patted the body down. "No wallet or purse" she said, and began a more detailed examination of the woman's body.

As Lanie examined the body, Kate motioned to Ryan and Esposito. "Okay boys, me and castle will search the flat, you two canvass the neighbours and see if you can't stir up any trouble.

Lanie began to talk again "Based on body temperature and lividity, I'd guess that this poor woman died maybe between 4 and 6 this morning. Ligature marks indicating that she was tied down while she had surgery preformed upon her by someone. It appears there was a head wound as well, hit with something to knock her out" she said

As Lanie continued her examination of the body, Castle began to search the room they were in. It wasn't long before he found, under a couch, a breadknife, that was covered in blood. "Ah-ha! Beckett! I've got the murder weapon!" he said grinning with accomplishment, when Lanie gave a soft moan of sadness

"Oh you poor dear!" She commented, as she examined the stump of the arm closer "Kate, I can't be sure until I get her back to the lab, but I think that her hand was cut off before she died. "

"Ouch" Castle commented softly as he continued to search the room for anything.

Kate, who had been searching the kitchen, shook her head softly. "Okay. Definitely going to make this perp pay" she commented as she spotted a jacket hanging on the back of the apartment's door. Going over to it, she searched through the pockets and turned up a purse.

"Alright, Victim is one Julia Clarkson, aged 27." Continuing to search the purse, she pulled out a photo, looked at it, and stuffed purse and photo back into the jacket pocket, before opening the previously closed door to Julia's bedroom. "Oh fuck" she said softly, "Lanie" She said, indicating the room. Lanie got up and joined her, "Oh you poor thing" Lanie said, looking at something in the room, that Castle couldn't see.

He went over to the door, in time to see Kate and Lanie standing at a cradle, looking down into it, and a wailing noise start up from it.