A/N: Hello readers! I've been lurking around this site for quite sometime and decided I should write a story of my own. This is my first fanfic, so be patient with me. Constructive criticism is always appreciated. Just give this one a chance, and keep in mind when it comes to technical cop terms I have no clue.

Disclaimer: I should put one of these in here, right? Castle isn't mine, neither are it's characters.

"Kate, I love you. I love you, Kate"

She woke with a start when her cell phone went off. She all but sighed when she reached over to pick it up. The memory of those words used to haunt her more than the bullet she took did, but the thought was becoming less like a nightmare and more like a dream. She acknowledged this, that wasn't the issue. The issue was letting him in on this little secret.

The third ring of her phone pulled her back down to earth.

"Beckett"

She reached over to the pen and paper she kept on her nightstand. Most people would consider it odd, but she had been woken in the middle of the night enough times to know to keep something around to write down the address where the next body was awaiting her and her team. She jotted down the address before hanging up.

He was enjoying a particular PG rated dream that involved his favorite detective and some very hyper toddlers when his cell phone woke him from his slumber. He groaned while blindly reaching over to grab his phone, successfully knocking over a lamp in the process.

"Castle" he grumbled.

"Well aren't you cheery this morning?" Beckett said from the other end of the call.

"It's…3 a.m." he said pausing to check the clock on his phone.

"We got a body, you in?"

"Give me 20 minutes."

"You got 10."

He looked at his phone. Sure enough, she hung up. "The things I do for this woman" he mumbled as he forced himself up out of his bed.

They arrived at the crime scene 45 minutes later, Castle still complaining about the early wake up, Beckett still telling him that he didn't have to be there (Which they both knew was pointless, there was no doubt he wanted to be there).

As they ducked under the yellow crime scene tape into the alley, Lanie called out to Beckett.

"Girl, what took you and writer-boy so long?"

"Castle had to do his hair."

"Very manly bro" Esposito said as he walked over, leaving Ryan to talk to the man who found the body.

"I did not 'do my hair'" Castle replied, "I combed my hair. Combed. Big difference."

"It does not take 10 minutes to 'comb your hair'" Beckett teased with a smile playing at her lips. Sensing a comeback, she walked over to Lanie, who was kneeling next to an unusually small body. "What do we got?"

"Well, by the looks of it we have a 13-16 year old Asian female. Multiple stab wounds to the back. So far I count 7." The M.E. said with a grimace as her friend examined the body.

"Someone was not a happy camper." Castle joked, but his face was serious. The younger ones, especially the teenage girls, were harder to see sprawled out on the ground, lifeless. Even he agreed with that.

After a quick glare pointed in Castle's direction, Lanie continued, "The only signs of struggle are bruise marks by her hairline." She pulled the girl's hair back to show the purple marks along her forehead. "The killer must have pulled her hair from behind before he stabbed her."

"Do we have an ID?" Beckett said, turning to Esposito.

"There wasn't anything besides a cell phone. Ryan's working to get it back right now." Said Esposito.

"Get it back?" Castle echoed.

"Harry the hobo over there found her next to the garbage bins" Ryan said, joining the rest of his team standing around the body. "He then took her cell phone out of her pocket, and called 911. I just convinced him to give it back" he said, holding up the pre-paid phone up in triumph. The look on his face quickly turned to disgust as he wiped something green and fuzzy from the screen of the phone.

"Harry needs to wash up" Castle observed.

Ignoring Ryan and Castle, Beckett turned back to Lanie, "Time of death?"

"Somewhere between 3-5 hours ago" she replied.

"Any idea what caused the stab wounds?"

"Definitely some sort of short, dull blade, I'll know more once I get her back to the morgue."

Beckett turned to the boys. "Esposito, Ryan, you two canvas the area for the murder weapon. See if you can find anything that can ID her and ask Harry and his friends if they saw anything" she said, pointing to the drunken homeless men that have gathered around the other side of the crime scene tape, fighting over what looked like a shoe.

"And what exactly are you going to do, boss?" Esposito said, annoyance clear in his voice.

"Castle and I are going to take the vic's cell down to the precinct" she said as she snatched the phone that had just been put in an evidence bag by Ryan.

"So not fair" Ryan said under his breath. Esposito hummed his agreement as Castle and Beckett walked towards the car.