Chapter 1.) Ghost of You

Six weeks of leave. That's how long it had been since Detective Beckett had her twins, a boy named Jameson (Jamie) Alexander Castle and a girl named Johanna (Joan) Nichole Castle. Jamie had been born at 5 pounds 8 ounces while Joan had been slightly bigger at 6 pounds 2 ounces.

At the same time it had been close to ten months since her husband's death.

During those six weeks of leave the Thanksgiving holiday had come and gone. It had been difficult on Beckett and her family. Jim had been over for the holiday and even stayed a while. Beckett had been more than grateful to have her father around and have him spend time with his grandkids, Alexis included, but she couldn't help but feel the sadness of Castle not being around.

Now six weeks later on December 12th, Beckett placed her blue gloves as she stood in the home of Elian and Morena Moreno. Morena was dead in the kitchen while Elian lay dead on the couch in the living room.

"No signs of forced entry," said Beckett.

Lanie looked up, "Well look whose back."

"You just saw me two weeks ago."

"Yes at the loft. This is different, this is work."

"So what can you tell me about our vics?"

Lanie showed some bruising on Elian's face. There was also bruising on his fists, particularly his knuckles where some skin was scraped off from punching something.

"He fought back," said Beckett.

"Looks like it," said Lanie. "Until your perp finally shut him up," she said indicating the bullet hole to the gut.

"Any chance of getting DNA off his fingers or knuckles?"

"It's a long shot but I'll see what I can find."

"And what about our female vic?"

The two women stood and made their way to the kitchen where Morena was laying on the floor in front of the stove.

"She's a bit more brutal," said Lanie. "From what we can gather Morena must have heard the commotion in the living room then come back her trying to defend herself."

Beckett took a look at the scene. Utensils were scattered on the counter, plates broken on the floor and a hot pot on the floor next to Morena's leg which showed a bad burn.

"No gunshot wound," Beckett noticed, "Two different suspects?"

"Hard to tell, won't know for sure until I get them both on my table."

"This clearly wasn't a break in," Ryan said coming into the room. "Welcome back Beckett."

"And the girls aren't talking," said Espo.

Beckett turned to him. "There were kids in the house when this happened?"

Esposito looked at his notes. "Yeah, two girls: Ximena age nine and Ariadna age four."

The front door opened quickly. A cop was trying to stop a young woman from entering.

"Mom, dad," she cried out!

Beckett waved off the uniform to let the girl through, recognizing her and the boy from the family photos in the house. Melina and her brother, Thiago, came through but the Beckett placed herself in front of them so they wouldn't see the rest of the carnage.

"I'm Detective Kate Beckett. You guys, let's go talk in the other room okay?"

Melina nodded and the three went into her dad's office.

"Can you tell me your names," Beckett asked.

"Melina," said the girl. "This is my brother Thiago."

"Ty," he corrected.

"He hates his Mexican name. What happened to our parents?"

"That's what we're trying to figure out. Can you tell me where the two of you were tonight?"

Ty got defensive. "I've seen those cop shows, you think we killed them?"

Lina hit her brother's arm. "They have to ask that." She turned to the detective and answered, "My Friday class got cancelled. My mom was so excited. She was waiting for me to help put up the tree."

"And you go to college?"

Lena nodded. "Sophomore year at Walden U."

"What about you Ty?"

"A buddy of mine and I were skateboarding at the park. His brother texted me."

"These friends of yours do they have a name?"

"Ryan and Mitchell Whitmore. They live down at the end of the street from here."

"I'll need an address."

Ty sighed but gave it anyways.

"Detective," said Lena, "the cops outside said our sisters were here. Can we go see them?"

Beckett nodded. She still had a lot more questions but it was getting late and she knew how important it was for the siblings to be together.

"Is there some place you can go, a family member, a friend?"

"Don't worry about it," said Lena. "I'll take care of it."

Lena walked away with her brother behind.

"I can't imagine what that must be like," she heard him say.

Beckett closed her eyes and smiled. She silently replied in thought.

"It's never easy. It still isn't."

"I'm sorry," said Castle.

"Yeah well you can stop apologizing. I've stopped being mad at you."

"Since when?"

"Since our kids were born but I'm still mad at you for dying."

"That I never expect you to forgive me for. Kate, if it had been up to me I would have stayed with you, you know that right?"

"So you keep saying but what if there is no master plan, what if it's just one big cosmic mess?"

"Hey there's a plan, I know it."

Beckett turned to look at him. "But how do you know," she asked, still through her thoughts.

"I can't tell you that but if there wasn't one, I wouldn't be here with you."

Beckett couldn't help but smile and be grateful for that at least.

"Okay so what's our next move? Those kids just lost their parents before Christmas. We have to fix this."

Beckett paused for a moment and thought, "Oh no, there is no 'we'. There is just me and my partners who are still breathing."

"I'm still breathing, technically."

"I mean the partners I can see."

"You can see me," he said with a smile.

"Are you going to turn everything I say into a technicality?"

"If it will get you to partner with me then yes."

"I mean it Castle, stay out of this one."

Castle smiled that smirk of his. "Now you only think you mean it but every time you've wanted me to stay in the car or not get involved I only end up doing what I do anyways and we save the world together."

Beckett shook her head. There was never any winning with him. She couldn't explain it. Castle had been dead for nearly ten months but ever since their twins had been born she had heard him in her mind and seen him in her dreams, on the rare occasions it was like she could see him as clearly as she could see Ryan and Esposito talking in the next room. It was almost as if he had never left.

Beckett told no one of this. She had come to the conclusion that it was part of her grief. She had read the books, she had listened to her friends, had listened to her shrink. It was completely normal to hear a deceased loved one as a way of being reminded of the sound of their voice or what they looked like. Those things tended to fade in time.

What was not normal was that Castle still seemed to be helping. Beckett tried to convince herself that it was just her own mind projecting how he would act and what he would say. Of course this version of Castle knew those thoughts too which would leave her feeling guilty for thinking about that way of logic in the first place.

"Yo Beckett," Esposito said taking her out of her thoughts with Castle. "You coming?"

Beckett nodded to her boys.