One Reason

Summary – Another version of what happened to Castle in Hollander's Woods when he was 11 and how that influenced him to become a mystery writer.

Author's Notes: Hmm, I do have one more Castle story left in me. Hopefully I'll finish this before Monday's new episode. It won't be too long, maybe 2 chapters.

Disclaimer – Don't own Castle – Marlowe, ABC, and Disney do. The OCs came out of my imagination.

Chapter 1 – What People Are Capable Of

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From Vampire Weekend:

Alexis: How could she take care of him the way we did, and then just destroy him?

Castle: I don't know. I think that's...that's one reason why I write about it.

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Mrs. Sterns, housekeeper to the elderly Mr. Dugas, had worked for him for 20 years, ever since his wife passed away, cooking and cleaning, and in the last several years, running errands and taking him places after his driver's license had been revoked because of failing eye sight.

She had been away for a week, having gone to Illinois to take care of her sister who had to have surgery.

Mr. Dugas had told her that he would be fine. His niece Lizzy would stop by every couple of days to bring him meals and check on him, and he had his old beagle Bessie to keep him company, so she didn't need to worry about him – she would have her hands full taking care of her sister.

Mrs. Sterns had stopped by the store that morning to pick up a few supplies and then walked into the darkened house.

She then paused to listen for any sounds in the house, but heard none, so she went about her morning routine.

She didn't expect Bessie to greet her because the dog had gone deaf about a year ago, though she did bay at things that only she saw on occasion.

And it wasn't unusual for Mr. Dugas to sleep late because he hadn't been sleeping well for the last couple of months. 'These old bones just must be weary,' he would quip with a smile as he would slowly settle himself into a chair in front of the fireplace.

She rattled around the kitchen, putting the groceries away and making the requisite morning pot of tea.

Mr. Dugas had never developed a taste for coffee and had shown her the proper way of making tea when she first started working for him.

After fixing breakfast, she put it on the tray and walked to the bedroom at the back of the house.

"Mr. Dugas?" she called, putting the tray on top of the bookcase in the hallway and then knocking on the closed door. "I'm back. They had some lovely blueberries at the store this morning, so I fixed your favorite – blueberry pancakes."

She paused for a moment and then quietly opened the door and picked up the tray again.

"Mr. Dugas?" she called out as she looked around the dim room.

The curtains had been drawn shut, blocking out most of the light, but she could make out the outline of a man lying on the bed with Bessie beside him.

She paused for a moment and frowned. The dog would have jumped up the moment she walked into the room, not because she had heard her, but because she could still smell food and, when she did, she would let everyone in the house know that she was hungry and had not been fed in forever.

"Mr. Dugas?" she called out softly as she approached the bed.

When the man didn't stir, she put the tray down on the nightstand beside the bed and gently shook him, but got no response.

She turned on the light and then turned back to the bed, gasping at the sight.

Mr. Dugas was obviously dead and so was Bessie.

But the frightening thing was the leash tied tightly around the dog's neck and the blood smears on Mr. Dugas' pajamas.

Mrs. Sterns fled the room and called 911 immediately.

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Beckett and Castle sat talking to the woman in the dining room while CSU combed through the house and she recounted the morning.

"Who would do this to him?" Mrs. Sterns finally asked tearfully, dabbing her eyes. "He was such a sweet man."

"When you got here this morning, did you see anything out of the ordinary?" Beckett asked.

"No, no," Mrs. Sterns replied, shaking her head. "The door was locked. The lights were out."

"And you didn't find it strange that the dog didn't bark when you walked in?" asked Castle.

"No," Mrs. Sterns replied again, smiling wistfully. "Bessie just turned 15 – her hearing went a couple of months ago. The poor thing was in a bad way."

"Was there anyone else who had a key to the house?" Beckett asked.

"Yes, his niece Lizzy. She was going to check on him last week while I was out of town."

"We'll need her full name and number," Beckett said, glancing up as Espo walked into the room and nodded at her.

"Excuse us for a minute, Mrs. Sterns," Beckett said as they stood and walked over to Espo. "What have you got?"

"No signs of forced entry, but Perlmutter found something in the bedroom," he replied.

They quickly walked to the room where Perlmutter was examining the bodies on the bed.

"Detective Beckett," Perlmutter nodded and then scowled slightly. "Mr. Castle."

"Perlmutter," nodded Castle.

"Detective Esposito said you found something?" Beckett asked.

Perlmutter nodded thoughtfully as he glanced at the night stand. "Yes. I don't think this was a murder. I think Mr. Dugas committed suicide."

Beckett frowned at him. "Based on what?"

Perlmutter picked up the empty prescription bottle on the nightstand and handed it to Beckett. "This is Doxepin – a very powerful sleeping pill. It was filled three days ago and contained 30 pills, but it's now empty. And then there's this…" he said, carefully picking up a glass with blood streaks running down the side.

"So Mr. Dugas took the pills?" asked Beckett. "But what about the defensive wounds on his hands?"

Perlmutter looked at her. "Well, they are defensive wounds, but not from Mr. Dugas defending himself." He carefully lifted one of sleeves of Mr. Dugas' pajamas so they could see several bloody gashes on his hand.

"Based on the blood on the dog's paws, I think that before he took the pills, Dugas tied the leash around the dog's neck. The poor dog didn't suspect a thing since this was her beloved master," Perlmutter surmised. "But then Dugas pulled the leash tighter and tighter, cutting off the dog's air supply. Instinct kicked in and the dog fought back, clawing him to gain her freedom. But he kept pulling, choking the life out of—"

His face going pale, Castle felt his head spin as Perlmutter continued his diatribe and suddenly bolted out of the room, rushing past the CSU unit to reach the outside of the house, where he found a trash can and quickly emptied his breakfast into it.

A few moments later, he felt a hand on his back and Beckett was there, offering him a glass of water.

"You okay?" she asked worriedly.

Castle took a sip from the glass of water, swished it around his mouth, and spit it out into the trash can. "Yeah – just an overly-vivid imagination," he said.

Castle glanced back at the house and then looked at Beckett as he ran a hand through his hair. "I think I'll get a cab and go home. Don't want give Perlmutter any more reason to trash my manly image," he quipped.

"Are you sure?" asked Beckett, frowning slightly.

"Yeah," nodded Castle. "I'll see you tonight at home." He glanced over her shoulder and gave her a quick kiss on the cheek. "I think Espo is looking for you."

"Okay," Beckett said as she kissed him back. "I'll see you at home tonight."

She frowned slightly as he walked to the end of the driveway and pulled out his phone before focusing her attention on Esposito.

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The niece was waiting for them at the precinct when they arrived.

Yes, she had checked on her uncle several times during the week, even bringing him the refill on his Doxepin prescription on Wednesday. But she had come down with the flu on Friday and had been unable to take him to his doctor's appointment so he had called and rescheduled it to this week when Mrs. Sterns would be back.

A call to the doctor's office had confirmed what Perlmutter suspected was the cause of the suicide – Mr. Dugas' cancer had returned and it was aggressive and inoperable. He only had a couple of weeks to live.

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After the interview, Beckett left Espo and Ryan to finish the paperwork on the case and hurried home, concerned about Castle and the fact that he hadn't called or texted her to find out how the case was going.

Martha was in the kitchen, preparing something green in the blender, a facial or a smoothie or something that could be used as either, and looked up as Beckett walked in. "Katherine, darling – care to join me for a drink of life's elixir?"

"Oh, thank you, Martha, but no," Beckett said as they hugged and kissed. "Is Rick in his office?"

Martha frowned slightly. "No, Richard hasn't been home all day. Why?"

Beckett shook her head slightly. "Oh, it's probably nothing. We had a case and he kinda lost it – you know—"

"Oh, goodness," Martha chuckled. "I'm sure he's someplace nursing his wounded pride. Maybe at the Old Haunt?" she suggested.

"Yeah," said Beckett, pushing a piece of hair behind her ear. "I'll just give him a call."

She walked into his office and pulled out her phone, quickly speed dialing his number. She froze as it went to voice mail, the same ominous knot of dread starting to form in the pit of her stomach when her calls had done the same thing before their missed wedding.

She left a quick message and then called the Old Haunt, knowing that Brian would be there. No, he hadn't seen Castle either and he had just come up from the downstairs office, going through some of the liquor orders.

Before she had a chance to even think about where to begin looking, her phone chirped, letting her know she had a text message.

It was short, but it was from Castle. "At the Central Park zoo – the bear exhibit. Come meet me."

Beckett frowned at that. Whenever they went to the zoo, Castle had never shown any interest in the bears. Why would he go there now?

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It was almost closing time at the zoo when Beckett arrived and she had to flash her badge to gain access to the facility.

She quickly walked to Treena's Overlook and found Castle sitting on a bench, a pensive look on his face, watching the grizzly bears.

"Hey," she said, smiling slightly as she sat down beside him. "Been here long?" She waited for a moment before adding, "Espo and Ryan left some sandwich bags on the desk for you the next time we have a murder."

She frowned when Castle didn't reply with an acerbic quip. "Babe, are you okay?" she asked.

Castle was silent for a moment and then let out a shuddering breath. "They're magnificent – the grizzlies," he said. "We don't have them here in New York, but we do have black bears. Equally as magnificent but smaller and not as aggressive unless they think they are in danger."

Beckett looked at the tears in his eyes as he spoke and took his hand. "Castle – Rick? What's wrong?"

Castle let out another breath and looked at Beckett sadly. "Kate, there's something I haven't told you. The fake Jenkins – he was there when I went back to Canada - he told me that I had told him what had happened in Hollander's Woods when I was 11 so I would know that I could trust him."

Beckett was silent as Castle continued.

"I never told anyone what happened then – not my mother, not Alexis. I was so ashamed of what happened – of what I had done," he said, closing his eyes with a pained expression on his face.

He stilled for a few moments and then straightened. "But I need to tell you…and my mother…and Alexis. You all deserve to know."

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