Summary: Castle faces his worst fears when genetics come back from an elusive serial killer. Post-Always.
Author's Note: This takes place approximately six months after Always, assuming that Kate goes back to the 12th, Esposito and Ryan make amends, and Esposito and Lanie get back together (the details of these will be explored as the story goes on). Just so you know, this has NOTHING to do with Johanna Beckett. Like, diddly squat.
Disclaimer: My birthday is at the end of the month. I expect to own them by then. Muahahaha. Yeah. NO.
Detective Kate Beckett paced back and forth across the morgue, huffing her breath in loud sighs every time she looked up and the M.E. was still working.
"Will you stop that?" Dr. Lanie Parish snapped. She loved her best friend, she really did, but an impatient Kate was one of the most intolerable things she'd ever seen.
"Will you hurry up?" Beckett countered. She needed these results. They'd been chasing the sterile serial killer for nearly two months now without a solid lead. The guy was good. Six crime scenes and they hadn't found a single fingerprint or stray hair. This last one was different though, she could feel it. The minute Beckett walked into the seventh crime scene, she knew this victim was special. He hadn't been as careful with this one, he'd been…loving? The expected staleness of the previous scenes was still there, but the victim, Sally Dryker, was laid out on her couch with a pillow under her head; a far cry from the stiff corpses they'd learned to expect on sterilized dining tables. Most importantly, he'd left something behind. Lanie was currently analyzing the tiny sample of DNA they'd found between her breasts from a stray drop of sweat.
He messed up. He got sentimental. Beckett was beaming. That is, she was beaming until she'd found out that a DNA sample that small took ages to analyze without being compromised. Lanie said it would take about a week. It had been a week. Exactly one week, and Beckett wanted her killer.
"Girl, will you calm down, you know I can't rush this!" Lanie said in response to Kate's snippy attitude.
"I'm sorry, Lanie." Kate apologized. She really was sorry. "It's just, you know how badly I want this guy."
"Of course I do, Kate, we all want this guy." Lanie said, "But leering over me isn't going to make this process any faster and I'd really like it if you went back upstairs and waited for me to call you." Lanie didn't want to be mean, but she knew in the long run that Kate would be much happier if she could get her mind off the damn DNA sample. "It's almost 1:00. Why don't you let writer-boy go buy you lunch…?" She suggested with a grin.
"He's out with Alexis today." Kate said. "She needed a father-daughter lunch." She smiled in spite of herself. They'd been together for six months, but she still couldn't quell her undeniable glee at the thought of Richard Castle. Damn him.
"You two are still gross, you know that?" Lanie teased at Kate's glow.
"Shuuut uuuup." Kate blushed.
"Okay, fine, how 'bout this," Lanie asked. "I'll stop teasing you and I'll have your DNA results by the end of the day if you get out of my lab." She emphasized with a slight grin.
Kate sighed. She knew when she was beaten, and she really was hungry come to think of it.
"Fine." She huffed. "I'll guess I'll just have to take Javi out for lunch since you're not going anywhere…OW!" Kate ran out the door before Lanie could find something else to throw.
"Alright, food's here." Ryan announced as he walked back into the bullpen. "Anything new?"
"Nada, bro." Esposito replied as he grabbed the French fry bag from his partner. Kate glared and stole the ketchup in retaliation.
"Seriously?" Ryan asked. "We've been stuck for three days."
"I know, but there's nothing we can do right now." Kate said. "All the evidence from the last crime scene is either useless or still being processed, and Lanie said we couldn't have DNA until the end of the day." Kate felt the frustration creeping back into her voice and took a giant gulp of her chocolate shake.
"We must've missed something." Ryan continued. "He finally gives us a new layout to work with and there's really nothing to go on?" Kate and Esposito looked to him with exhausted eyes. "What about Sally Dryker's background?" He asked. "Did anything pop?" Ryan took his burger back from Esposito, but not before the sneaky detective carved a rather sizable bite into the side.
"Nfofsthing ssdo fashr." Esposito mumbled around his food.
"Esposito…" Kate warned. She was really not in the mood right now.
"Sorry." He said. "Nothing so far." He repeated more clearly. "She's not in the system for anything and as far as I can tell, she has no direct link to any of the other victims. No familial, friendly, or financial connections."
Kate opened her mouth to respond, but was cut off by the soothingly smug voice of her boyfriend.
"Ooh…" Castle smiled as he entered with Alexis. "Do I smell a stalemate?"
"You know, it's been four years," Kate said, "you'd think murder would stop making you so giddy."
"Nope!" Castle responded cheerfully. "Gives me an excuse to steal your French fries." Kate lunged for the bag, but Castle was quicker and made his way to the murder board, munching on her coveted snack. Alexis sent a sympathetic, knowing smile her way and moved in to give the Detective a hug. Kate smiled. Things had been rocky between her and Castle's daughter six months ago, but over time, she'd developed a wonderful older-sister bond with the girl that she cherished.
Kate broke the embrace, turned back towards her team, and sighed. Esposito was now heartily taking advantage of Ryan's burger while the other Detective was playing roe sham boe her boyfriend for her fries.
"How do you have the highest closing rate in the city again?" Alexis asked with a smirk.
"No thanks to them." Kate replied, "That's for sure." She straightened up and walked towards the murder board.
"Guys." She tried to grab their attention. "Guys?" The ignored her. "GUYS!" She shouted.
Castle dropped the fry he was holding over Ryan's head and Esposito stopped mid-chew, his chipmunk expression making it hard for Kate to stay serious. Murder was murder though, and just because post-Castle Kate was far more open to fun didn't mean she was okay with it while they were trying to catch a serial killer.
"Sorry." Ryan murmured. "We're working."
"Thank you." Kate said. She did understand. They were drowning in this one. Seven people were dead and they were no closer to finding their killer than when they got the first call. None of them had gotten much time with their significant others since it started, and with two relatively new relationships and one pair of newly weds, they were all going a bit insane. Luckily for Kate, Castle was still his diligent self and she could always count on him for morning coffee and lunchtime foolery.
Alexis cleared her throat softly before hugging her dad goodbye and heading down to the morgue. She knew the case was getting to him too, and now that they were back at the precinct, she knew it was time to get back to work.
"Bye, sweetie." Castle called out. He waited a few moments for the elevator doors to close, then turned back to Kate with a somber expression. "How's it going?"
"Awful." She answered honestly. "We're still at square one."
Castle reached over to give her hand a reassuring squeeze.
"I'm sorry about before." He said. "I just feel bad that I can't think of anything, and well, you know my coping mechanisms…"
Kate smiled and squeezed his hand back.
"It's okay." She replied. "You've been great about giving me space, the least I can do is not begrudge you a couple morbid jokes."
Ryan and Esposito grinned at their colleagues' PDA, but kept their mouths shut. They were secretly thrilled that their boss was finally opening up and they weren't about to do anything to jeopardize that.
The group sat for a minute, staring at the evidence, convinced that if they sat there long enough, something was bound to make sense. After a while, Kate's phone buzzed and all four of them jumped up, hoping against hope that they had a lead. Kate opened her phone to a text from Lanie.
Have results. 911. Leave Castle there.
Kate's brow furrowed from confusion and concern.
"Um, I'm gonna run down to the morgue real quick." Kate said. "I'll be back in a few."
"We got a lead?" Esposito asked.
Kate paused before deciding to lie. Lanie wouldn't text her that unless it was absolutely necessary.
"Uh, no, just a girl problem." Kate rattled off. "Don't worry, Castle, you can stay here with the boys." Somehow she managed to smile reassuringly at him before speed walking to the elevator and texting Lanie back.
On my way. - Beckett
Kate tapped her foot impatiently as the elevator descended to the morgue. They had someone. Lanie wouldn't text her a '911' unless she found a match, but why leave Castle out of it?
The elevator dinged and Kate practically ran down the hall. When she turned the corner, though, the sight of a crying Alexis made her screech to a stop.
"Alexis?" Kate asked concerned. What the hell is going on? "What's wrong?"
Alexis stayed silent, her eyes wide, her hands shaking.
"What happened?" Kate asked more forcefully.
Alexis' response was so quiet that Kate had to strain to hear it, but she heard "talk to Lanie" garbled into more tear-covered speech.
Kate didn't even bother trying to reassure Alexis before barging through the doors. Alexis was crying and Castle was being kept in the dark, what on earth was going on?
"Lanie, what the hell?" Kate more demanded than asked.
"Kate, you better sit down." Lanie deadpanned.
Kate choked on her impending tirade. Lanie never told anyone to sit down. Even when they were dealing with Royce, Lanie never told her to step back, or wait a minute, or take a breath. This was serious. Slowly, Kate listened and sat down to brace herself for the identity of their killer.
"You know who he is?" She asked.
"We got a match." Lanie replied. "But you're not gonna like it."
The M.E. walked over to her computer.
"You know that everyone who works for the NYPD is printed and has their DNA placed in the system…" Lanie explained, even though Kate obviously knew this. "I ran the sample from the scene and got two matches." Kate raised her eyebrows.
"Two?"
Lanie took a deep breath.
"One at 50% accuracy for Richard Castle and one at 25% accuracy for Alexis Castle."
Lanie felt tears brimming at the heart broken look on her best friend's face.
"Kate, it's his dad. It's Castle's dad."
I'm so excited for this story! I've read a lot of fics where Castle's dad is the Dragon, and I love them to pieces, but I wanted to explore what would happen if that wasn't the case and Castle had to deal with his demons outside of Kate's problems, but with her there to help him. Let me know if you're interested in seeing what happens! 3