I had so much fun writing this… I hope you all enjoy it.

Disclaimer: I do not own Castle the random friends and Roommate are just names. The song is not even mine. I just used it for inspiration.

It's just another crime scene she thought as she made her way from the parking lot to the front doors. She scoffed at the thought yeah of a college student. As soon as the front doors open she groaned. It was packed with people, college residents and police. Slowly she pushed her way through the crowd. Getting to the front desk she flashed her badge and they let her through with a wave. Glad to be out of the crowd she continued until she came to stairs. Unsure where she should go, she took out her phone and began to dial Esposito's number.

"Hey there you are!" an annoying familiar voice called above her. She looked up to see a man standing above her, his brown hair ruffled in everywhich way and his jacket slung over one of his arm.

"Castle what are you doing up there?" she asked secretly happy that the brown haired blue eyed man had coffee in his hands.

"The Vic is up here, and when you called you sounded urgent," he answered simply. She sighed, hiding a blush that had rose onto her cheaks, and climbed the stairs. Richard Castle met her on the second floor and handed her the coffee. She sipped it feeling the warm liquid going down her throat causing an almost rare moment of pure bliss.

"Beckett," another voice said jerking her back to reality. She saw the two men that she was the boss of coming towards her.

"Hey Esposito, Ryan" she said acknowledging both them.

"You are going to want to take a look at this," Esposito said leading her and Castle down a hallway. They entered the first room on the right. The first thing that she noticed was her friend Lanie Parish was standing next to the body. The second thing that she noticed was that the body throat was wrapped around a noose that hung from the ceiling.

"What do we have?" Beckett asked going over next to Lanie.

"Morning to you too Kate," Lanie said annoyed. But before Kate could say anything back, Lanie said, "120 lb girl who is a freshman here, her name is Jayme Porter. That's her roommate over there and a couple of her friends," Esposito said. She glanced over at them; they all had tears in their eyes except for the men.

"What is the COD?" she asked carefully scanning the body for any clues that Lanie could have missed.

She heard the Medical Examiner sigh before saying, "the noose makes it look like it had killed her but it was actually something else." She looked at Lanie as she removed the girls head from the noose and pointed to a bruising that went around most of her neck.

She was strangled! She realized with horror but before she could say anything Castle's voice confirmed what was on her mind.

"She was strangled?"

As usual, our brains are on the same wavelenght..she thought.

Kate looked behind her and found him inches from her. Her heart shot off at a mile a minute, and she felt a blush creep up onto her cheeks. Luckily it was cold so her cheeks were already red to begin with. To make matters worse he made eye contact with her, his blue eyes staring into her green ones. She was the one who broke eye contact and turned back to Lanie who was smiling.

"Yes she was strangled, by someone," Lanie confirmed smiling at the pair. Kate knew that she was the cause of the bet that the ENTIRE Precinct had going that was about her and Castle. "If I would have to guess she was killed sometime between 12:30 and 2:00 pm"

"Thank you Lanie," Kate said and walked over to Esposito and Ryan. "Who found her?" she asked scanning along the group of friends.

"Her roommate," Ryan said pointing to one of the girls. Kate took a deep breath and walked over to them.

"Hi my name is Kate Beckett and I am the Homicide Detective that is in charge of this case. Which one of you found her?"

"I-I did," One of the girls said, who Kate guessed was her roommate. "I was coming back from class like I usually did and when I walked in there she was in her bed. I thought that she was sleeping so I was quiet. But when one of our friends Davy came in and pointed out the rope that was when I found her…"the roommate could not go on.

"What's your name?" She asked placing a hand upon the girls.

"Hannah Riley," she answered trembling.

"And the rest of you?" she asked

"David Jones"

"Ben David"

"Aryan Felix"

"Ok and when was the last time any of you saw Jayme before this?" Kate asked taking out a small black notebook and writing down their names.

"This morning before I left for classes, around 10:30 am" Hannah said

"Last night, just after she came back from where ever she went it was around 9:05 when she came back," David said.

"Same here," Ben said

"Last night and all the weekend before I was with her at her Aunt's Sisters house, she had invited me to go there because I was having some trouble with my roommates. So she asked me if I wanted to get away from the dorm life for the weekend so I went with her. I saw her just before she went down her hallway."Aryan said.

"Ok, um had she seemed different than she usually did?" Kate asked still taking notes

"How do you mean?" Hannah asked

"Well did she seem scared or stressed?" Castle asked from behind her. Kate looked around and saw him yet again inches from her. Does he always stand this close to me? How come I have never noticed it before?

"No she-"began Hannah but she was interrupted by Aryan again.

"She did seem a little worried this morning when I talked to her, around 7:10."

"Why did she call you? Kate asked surprised by this new information.

"Because I wanted to register for classes the second that they opened so and she has an 8:00 class, I think, so she had to get up anyways. I thought that the worry in her voice was because she didn't know if she was going to get the classes that she wanted." Aryan said tears forming in her eyes.

"Thank you, now forgive me for asking but where were you between 12:30 and 2:00 today?" Kate asked.

"In class," All of them said at the same time. Kate smiled at them and said "Thank you." Together she and Castle walked away. Both of them made their way back into the room.

"So our victem knew something was coming or she knew information that scared her,"Kate said.

"yeah but what? and whatever it was it wa enough for her to get killed," said Castle who was walking along side of her.

Once inside of Jayme's room, Kate grabbed the nearest thing that was within her reach. It was her iPod.

"Hun" she said smiling at the song that was currently playing.

"What?" Castle asked and she heard him come up behind her, his breath tickling her skin, sending shivers down her spine. Trying to ignore it, she took out the head phones and the song Fly Away was playing.

"What is this song from?" Castle asked. Kate turned around and gasped.

"You- Seriously?" she asked

"Seriously," Castle answered with a shrug.

"That means Alexis hasn't watched it either… This song is from a movie called Moulin Rouge. It's one of the classics of its time, or so I think" she said with a smile. Castle looked at her thoughtfully but didn't say anything more on the matter.

"The song is on repeat," Kate murmured and placed the iPod in a plastic bag.

"Hey Ryan, Have CSU run a sweep in here and see if our killer left any fingerprints. And Esposito see if you can find out what Jayme was doing this morning. I want to know the people that she talked to."

"You got it Boss," they both said and quickly go to work.

Together she and Castle left the dorm.

XXXXXXX

It was getting dark outside and both of them had a long ride back so Kate decided to meet everyone back at the Precinct. Together they made their way out of the dorm, into the parking lot and into the Precinct's black car. From the second that she started the car Kate knew that this was not going to be a smooth ride. Boy was she right. They had caught almost every stoplight so far and there was a ton of traffic thanks to the Christmas festivities going on around town. They were sitting at yet another stoplight and she was just about to scream when Castles voice caught her attention.

"I feel sorry for Jayme," he was saying. She looked at him sitting next to her watching his facial expressions become darker and miserable by the second. "She will never get to get married, have kids, Grow old…It will be a shock to her parents when they find out. I can't imagine not having Alexis around anymore…" he trailed off. Before she knew it she had taken her hand off of the wheel and intertwined her hand with his and had given it a squeeze. All of the previous thoughts had been cast aside. He looked at her gratefully and he opened his mouth to speak

"Beckett….. Kate-"

But before he could go any farther, horns blared behind her and she saw that the light had finally turned green. She slammed down on the gas pedal they plunged forward. They made the rest of the lights but it was only after she turned that she realized that Castle hadn't let go of her hand.

XXXXXXXX

Back at the Precinct, Castle murmured something about making a phone call and getting a soda to drink. After letting go of her hand (he had rejoined it after they had gotten out of the car) she watched him go before turning around to make sure that no one had seen them. Once she was certain that no one had seen them, she went over to their murder board and began to set it up.

She placed the victim's picture on one side of the board and wrote Jayme Porter under it. Placing the good picture above the name she put the picture of the body next to it and made notes on what she knew. Even though she didn't think it was important she put the iPod on there and wrote Fly Away- on Repeat.

What could it mean… or does it mean anything at all? She pondered. Suddenly a silver can was being dangled in her vision. She jerked realizing that Castle was standing right behind her. Quickly she held up her hands gratefully.

"One Soda," he said placing it in her hands and sitting next to her. "So Alexis was wondering if you wanted to come over for dinner and then watch the movie that you say we have been deprived of."

She looked at him with a smile, "Why Castle when did you make that phone call?" she sarcastically asked.

"When you were setting up the murder board," He answered quite pleased with himself.

"Ok fine Castle, but we need to stop at my apartment to get the movie," she answered rolling her eyes. She watched as he nearly did a happy dance back to his chair. Wait… what did I just sign myself up for? and did I just inflate his ego? sheShe pondered. She heard the phone ringing and her hand automaticlyautomatically reach out for it. But it stopped ringing before she could grasp.

"Esposito…yeah…really?...ok than you… bye," she heard him say.

"Yo Beckett, everything is backed up, so go ahead, we will call you if we get anything, but I doubt it," Esposito called from his desk

"Yeah go have fun with Castle, he's at the elevator waiting for you," Ryan said coming over to her other side. She smiled at her two detectives as if to say Thanks, grabbed her coat and ran over to the elevator.

Ending remarks: So yeah what do you think about it? I promise that the murder gets solved and it's just not all about Castle and Beckett. It would be very un-Beckett like for her to forget about a case.

Reviews are welcomed and necessary!