Thank you ABC, Marlow and Company for the great stories and people you created and still own. These belong to you.

OK brain. I am tired of these stories messing with my sleep.

So I write it here so it can mess up your sleep.

CHAPTER 1

Detective Beckett is awakened by her cell phone chime. She reaches over thru sleep deprived eyes to read the text message.

"DB 5th at Lex Javi"

Beckett drags herself out from under the warm blanket and puts her feet on the cold floor beneath her bed. This is one morning she whishes she had stayed over at Castle's loft. He has warm floors under his bed. But last night she was late finishing the case she was on and just too tired to have enjoyed what would have probably occurred had she been there with him. Too bad though. She really likes waking up next to him. It is much nicer that what her feet are feeling tight now.

She takes her phone and forwards Esposito's message to Castle and starts getting ready. Her phone chimes with a message from him that he will be there with rings on his fingers and bell on his toes and coffee in his hands. She smiles at his little boy humor.

It's funny how five years ago that she was such a driven person that even the thought of his humor irritated her and made her want him to just go away and leave her alone so she could do her job without all of his built in distractions. Now he brings light to her life. She smiles when he calls. She laughs at his silly stunts. And she really loves him thru and thru. She is a different person today because of Richard Castle.

When Beckett arrives at the crime scene, Kevin Ryan is talking to Dr. Parish

"Hey Lanie, what have you got?"

"White Female around 30 years old. She was strangled. It looks like a robbery gone wrong"

As Beckett starts to ask for more information she sees her man come around the corner with the promised coffee. "Good morning detectives and doctor"

Beckett reaches over and takes the cup from Castle. When she does, she lingers on his fingers just a brief moment "Hey Castle. Thank you"

"You are welcome, detective" he smiles at her with that longing to touch her in his eyes. This woman is driving him crazy just being near him. "What do we have here? "He says while looking down at the victim.

Lanie repeats her observations again while they walk away from the body so the coroner can load the victim into the truck for transport.

"Who found the body?" Beckett asks

Ryan looks at his notes "A Mr. Marcus Simmons. He lives in the building across the street and saw the body after he got out of his cab. He called 9-1-1"

Beckett has a funny look on her face. Her face turns a little red. Everyone notices then Lanie asks "Kate! Are you ok? You look like you've seen a ghost."

"Yeah! I'm ok. Did you say Marcus Simmons?"

Ryan answers "Yeah. That's him over there talking to uniforms"

Beckett looks in the direction of the two patrol officers. They are talking to a tall dark haired man in his mid 30's. He is wearing a tuxedo He looks like he may have just come from some social event.

Beckett leaves the other three and walks briskly toward the officers. "Mark?"

The man in the tuxedo turns and looks toward Beckett with a puzzled look on his face "Beckett? Kate Beckett?" he says with joy in his voice

"Yeah! Hey Mark how are you" Beckett says with a laugh.

The man grabs Beckett and puts her into a bear hug. "Great to see you!" he steps back and gives Beckett the once over "You look fantastic! What has it been? Fifteen years?"

Kate responds "No! Closer to twenty! WOW! You look good too! When did you come back to the city?"

"Last year. I was offered partner with the firm of Jenkins, Wilson and Bronson downtown"

"That's a law firm. Are you a lawyer?"

"Yes, I went to Harvard after I got out of the service and became an attorney. I was down in Texas with a firm in the petroleum industry working on oil leases and such. I kind of got bored and decided to come back to the big apple and see what trouble I might stir up."

Well, so you found a body? I'm a homicide detective now and I am investigating the case on the woman you found."

"Kate, I thought you wanted to become a lawyer like your parents"

Beckett's face goes a little dark "After I lost my mother, I decided to become a cop"

"I'm sorry. I guess I didn't know. What happened to your mother?"

Beckett takes a deep breath. "She was murdered."

Having someone from her past who actually knew her mother and father caused some feelings to rush back into Kate. "So I left Stanford, came back here and joined the police force. Then I later made detective and came into homicide"

"Wow that is some story. Listen, Kate. Give me your number and let's get together over diner or drinks and catch up on old times. What do you say?"

Kate looks like she is in thought for a moment then she says "great! I'll get with you in the next few days"

"Good to see you Kate"

"Same here Mark" Beckett returns to the others

Castle is watching this conversation unfold with a little concern. It looks like Kate is a little too friendly with the witness Lanie and Ryan also see the familiarity between Beckett and this man.

Ryan asks first "Do you know the witness Beckett?"

"Yeah! We sort of grew up together. He lived in the next block over. We went to elementary school through most of high school. He, uh, left in out senior year. There was some…uh…problems..."

Beckett is having a problem explaining the connection between this man and her.

"What type of problems? Castle questions

"Oh, just he got into some trouble. Oh, nothing serious, Just petty theft. Racing. Stuff like that. He ran with a really tough crowd. But he was not a bad guy. He just had a rough childhood. It finally came down to jail or military service"

Lanie has figured out that this guy is the "BAD BOY" that Beckett told her about so many years before. Kate would not talk about him much just to say that this was a part of Beckett's early learning period. The part of her life that, at the time, was exciting because it was so wrong. A period that she was at odds with her mom and dad almost every moment of every day. This was her first love, or crush, or whatever it was. She was young and inexperienced. At the time Beckett could have gone either way. She could stay bad and probably would have ended up pregnant and alone or grow and become the woman the finally became.

Richard Castle is visibility concerned about what he has just witnessed. He has heard about this "BAD BOY" and knows that like Kira was for him at one time, there might be deep unresolved feelings inside Beckett for this guy.

Beckett returns her focus on the case "what else do we know about the victim?"

Ryan checks his notes,"Her purse is missing. If she was wearing any jewelry, it is missing so we assume it was stolen. Appears to be a robbery"

Lanie continues "After I get her to the morgue, I can give you a cause of death. Prelim is strangulation. But I will have more later."

"Great. Keep me informed" Beckett turns o Castle "So want a ride to the station?"

"Actually no! Remember that I am scheduled to fly to LA this morning for a series of signings then to Las Vegas, Denver, Dallas St Louis then back here. I'll be gone a week. That was why I wanted you to stay last night. I won't be seeing you for a week."

"Oh! Castle I forgot. I'm sorry. Tell you what. When you get back, I'll be waiting for you at your place. OK?"

Castle has a touch of fear in his face. Rick is going to be gone for a week. Kate's old flame has shown up here. He is no longer the "BAD BOY" he once was. In fact he is now a partner in a prestigious law firm. And he is planning to re connect with Kate.

What could possibly go wrong for while Castle is away?