Author's Note: I own nothing, except some of the characters. I'm hungarian, so maybe you'll find mistakes in my grammar or else. However, I tried my best. Hope you'll like it!

'Kate! Kate... It's okay...' he tried to comfort her, but she was just sitting there, gasping. Trying to scream, but no sound left her mouth. Her face was covered with blood drops and her hands, her clothes were bloody too. Her eyes reflected that she was petrified with fear, like never before.

Castle embraced her, held her thight, but there was no use. Detective Kate Beckett was just sitting there like a statue, and she couldn't move or percieve the world surrounding her... Though the bystanders and police officers shortly deluged the crime scene.

She splashed some more water onto her face, then looked into the mirror. Her eyes were a dark shade of red, and gloomy circles surrounded them. The freezing drops made her skin hurt, but she just washed her face again and again.

It didn't change. The same haggard woman looked back at her from the mirror. Haggardness? It didn't really matter... But the fear... The fear holding her heart like an iron grip, in the way she couldn't fight it.

Her hands were shaking. She looked down at them and tried to concentrate.

'Come on, Kate... Buck up...'

Another useless try to convince herself that she's strong and she can get over it... She couldn't. Her eyes had filled with tears and she flopped down on the floor. She pulled up her legs, clasped them with her arms and cried - in the women's room at the 12's.

**Two days earlier**

'Who's the victim?'

'Charlene Trouché, 27.' Esposito informed his entering colleauges. A beautiful young blondie was lying on the ground, covered with a bedsheet. Her lips were bloody and surrounded with glass splinters. She was staring at the ceiling with her blue, once in the past charmingly deep eyes - they were empty now, only had the last sparkle of mortal fear reflecting in them.

'Cause of death?' asked Beckett quietly. The sight was quite shocking.

'Suffocation?' Castle asked as he noticed the victim's skin color.

'Not simply suffocation. Someone pushed a glass down her throat.' Lanie explained. Beckett knitted her eyebrows. Castle was horrified.

'Such a beautiful girl, dying like this...' he mumbled.

'I thought you like interesting cases. Cases with some plus...' Ryan mentioned, but there was some kind of shudder hiding in his voice.

'Well, it's too much plus here. Poor girl...' for about a second all of them lost in the sight of such a rare kind of cruelty. Something special about the victim made everyone staring at her, even after her death...

'Closest relative?' Beckett's voice made her colleagues come back to earth.

'Adam Deston. Her husband.' Lanie informed her.

'What? Her husband?'

'You know him?' the writer concluded it from the woman's reaction.

'Oh, well, pretty much... He was my groom.' as soon as it slipped out her mouth she already regretted it.

'What?' the three men in the room stared at her with open mouths.

'Your groom? You had a groom? How didn't I know that?' Castle freaked out.

'W... Why? There are so many things you don't know about me yet.' Beckett told him.

'Well, Daring... You won't get away with this one!' Lanie stood up from the body. Four pair of curious eyes were studying her face so she finally gave in. She took a deep breath and started.

'I got to know him at the Academy. He asked me to marry him, and I said yes. Then three days later he disappeared and I never saw him again. Big story... Can we focus on the case?' she gabbled then left to ask one of the unis if they found something useful - or pretty much to get away from questions.

'I think she's hiding something.' Castle turned to his colleauges.

' Of couse she is! She won't confess about her former love life in front of three fellas.' Lanie told.

'Eh, you're right...' Ryan agreed.

'Hey, let's make a pact... Anyone finds anything, tells the others. Okay?' the writer looked around, rising an eyebrow. 'What, you don't wanna know...?'

'I'm in.' Esposito was the first to join the 'pact.' The others shortly agreed as well, then Beckett appeared behind Castle.

'We still have a case to solve.' she said. Deep silence. She looked around, it was obvious that her colleauges were hiding something, but she decided not to ask.

'Are you sure that your... Pretty close relationship with the victim's husband won't bother Motgomery?' Rick asked Kate as they left the crime scene.

'First, we're not in a close relatinship. Second, what Montgomery won't know it won't hurt him.' she answered and tried not to look in the writers sparkly blue eyes.

'You mean...?'

'I do. You won't...?'

'No.'

'Right.' Beckett shut it off and put on her black sunglasses to avoid looking into Castle's eyes.

The writer raised his eyebrows and tried to put the pieces together. There was something brewing about this ex-groom guy... And it was enough to make Kate hiding the truth from Montgomery... This case was getting more and more complicated...

But Richard Castle decided to dig and find out what's going on with this gloomy groom - whether Beckett likes it or not.

Well, he was pretty sure that she won't...

oOo

'Beckett?'

'What?' she looked up from the paperwork flooding her desk. She was drinking coffee, and acted like nothing special was going on...

'Nothing... Just...' Castle tried to formulate his question sensibly. Meaning how the hell could it be that the detective is not showing even the smallest sign of anxiousness? Her ex, who had left three days after their engagement is about to appear as a husband of an extremely beautiful young victim, and Beckett is not even upset.

Ryan entered the room.

'Deston is waiting in the interrogation room.' he reported. Kate stood up smiling, taking the cup of coffee with her then left - like nothing special was going on...

'Mr. Deton?' she sat down.

'Kate.'

'Adam.' he was a tall, handsome man with dark hair and flashing green eyes. His voice was calm. For a few seconds they were just staring into each others eyes, while Castle and Ryan were observing the interrogation breathlessly from the other side of the mirror.

'Why am I here? It's about Charlene, right?' Deston asked.

'Exactly. So you know, that she's dead. From who?'

'They warned me.'

'Who?'

'The killer.' a sparkle appeared in Beckett's eyes - like when the foxhound finds a lead. Adam put an evidence bag onto the table, containing a cell phone.

'The number is in the recieved calls list. It was a man. Not blackmailing, not asking. Just told that "your wife has to die". That's all.' he explained in a freezing calm tone.

'Where were you...'

'When the crime was committed?' Deston finished her sentence. 'I don't have an alibi if that's your point. Half an hour before it happened I was with Charlene. We were making love.' Kate kept a stiff upper lip. 'Then I went home and got some sleep.'

Both kept quiet. The silent duel of eyes... There's no specialist on earth who could tell what was going on between them.

'How have you met?' Beckett asked, then quickly cleared her throat and added: 'The victim?'

'We met in Marseille, on an exhibition. We fell in love, I asked her to marry me and she said yes. Two days ago we came back to New York. I rented a hotel room for her.'

'From what? How did you have the money?'

'I'm out of a work right now. But I have some savings.'

'From what?'

'Obviously the police has nothing to do with that. But I can present you a detailed biography by tomorrow, if you want, Kate.' Beckett stayed calm.

'There's no need.' she said then after a few silent moments she stood up and walked to the door. 'Thank you. We finished here.'

As she closed the door behind she met Castle.

'What was that?' he asked studying Kate's still vacant face.

'Nothing.' she said. Then her eyes met with the charming blue ones staring at her. 'I mean nothing you have something to do with.' she tried to leave but Castle stopped her.

'Beckett. Kate...' as the woman turned around with eyes burning of anger, he quickly let her hand go. 'What's going on?'

'Look, Castle! This time, you don't try to explain me or get anything out of me, because it won't work. Did I make myself clear?' the writer slowly nodded.

'And Montgomery?'

'He has nothing to do with this. He won't stop me. He can't stop me.' Rick looked deeply in her eyes, hoping he can find something that will answer at least some of his questions. He was worried. But he found nothing, except maybe one little flash... A sparkle... A glint that said 'I'm sorry' in the brown eyes of the detective, but it has come and gone as Kate turned around and walked away on the corridor.