-Denial
It was the beginning of summer, as the warmth of the wind blew across the city, which was still quiet at this time, for it was barely half past five.
The sun shown throw Beckett's window as she was still fast asleep. She had gone to bed late last night having decided to finish all her paperwork from a previous case. She wanted to start her day with a fresh start.
The sun shined more and more on Kate's bed eventually, waking her. She started stretching as she woke up, looking at her alarm clock she saw that it was due to ring in 15 minutes, she then turned around and fell back asleep.
As her alarm clock rang, she stretched, listening to the days' news as she woke up slowly. She turned towards the sun which gave her the energy she needed to get up. Although she was tired out of her mind from all the work she had done the previous night she was glad it was completed.
Kate sighed and got up, looking out her window, watching a few joggers passing by. The trees were getting very leafy, summer was here and she was glad for it. Kate was standing at her window smiling back to the world when she was brought back to reality, her cell phone was ringing.
As Beckett looked at the caller ID she saw that it was Gates,
"Beckett," as she yawned gently.
"Hello Detective Beckett, we have a new case. You need to meet the rest of the team at the corner of Lexington Ave and E 21st street at Gramercy Park. Dr. Parish is already at the scene, you can get the information from her once you arrive."
"Ok I'll be there as soon as I can" and she hung up.
Now revived; she headed to the kitchen to start some coffee. She wanted to get it done while she got dressed that way she'd save a few minutes.
As she finished her coffee she headed back to her room. She put a pair of jeans on, with a nice tee. Getting dressed must have taken Kate, 2 minutes. She took her phone and dialled Castle.
"Good morning sunshine. Hope you weren't sleeping." A chuckle of laugher escaped her, she knew damn well that he was sleeping, if Castle could stay up past 7 he did.
All she could hear were groans,
"Beckett? Yeah, Yeah I'm up…where?"
"Corner of Lex and E 21st Gramercy Park."
"Ok, give me 20 minutes and I'll be there." Castle was still in bed his hair falling onto his forehead. He stretched out, and yawned.
"Castle, if it's too early you can always come and join me at the precinct, it's no big deal" Although she knew too well that one of his favourite part of the case was seeing the crime scene.
"I'm up! I'm Up! I'll be there,"
"Okay as you wish." She smiled and hung up.
Kate knew that Castle was hard to get out of bed but knew he'd give in.
Kate's coffee was now ready. She took a transport mug and headed out the door.
As Kate stepped out of her car she saw Castle get out of a cab. He seemed awkward...as though he was hung over, he put the sunglasses onto his face and got out.
"Hey Castle," she smiled and then stared a little. "Uh-Castle, are you ok?" she analyzed him more closely as she squinted her eyes.
"Yeah, I'm fine. Ok... Maybe I went to bed late, I was at The Old Haunt and things might have gotten out of hand." As he said coolly, although he obviously had a huge head ache his grimace giving it away.
"Right..." she turned and headed in Lanie's direction.
"Hey Lanie, what do we have?"
Lanie was kneeling near the body of a young woman.
"Young woman between the ages of 20-25, time of death estimated between 1:00 and 3:00 am. The cause of death is GSW to the head." As lanie pointed to the entry wound.
Kate looked at the body and analyzed it, she looked around to see if the crime scene talked to her. She was looking at anything in the surrounding area that could catch her eye.
"Espo! Any information on the vic?" as she looked up at her detective.
"Yeah, her name is Sharon Gallent, 22 years old, she worked at Sunny's Club. The person who found her was a colleague. Molly Samson." As he nodded towards the blond woman, who was talking to Ryan. "Miss. Samson said that Sharon finished work around 1:30am, she lived 3 blocks away and always walked home. Apparently she'd been working there for a year and always did so." Esposito said quickly.
He closed his notepad indicating that he was done, for now.
"Ok, thanks.-Castle?" Kate said as she looked at him. He was almost staring at the corpse, which she found weird, almost disturbing
"Yeah?...it's just that...she reminds me of someone." Castle said faintly.
"Seriously? Castle, how young do you take them?" saying so in an annoyed voice. Sleeping with a 22 yr old seriously She didn't say it out loud but her face said it.
"What? NO! Come on! I don't sleep with 22 yr olds." As he looked back at Beckett, grabbing his head in the process. His reaction made his head pound in his skull.
"Ok? Then where did you see her?"
"I don't know... I-just know that she looks familiar" Castle was just standing there, trying to figure out who this woman was.
"Ok...well maybe you'll find out later." Kate started walking back to her car. "Castle? You coming?" she stopped in her tracks when she saw that he was still standing there.
After a few seconds he turned around and walked towards Beckett.
"Beckett, our vic's mother's here." Ryan announced.
Beckett was still sitting at her desk. She was looking over a few things, as Castle was writing a few notes on the Murder Board.
She got up and said: "Coming Castle?"
He turned towards her, put the cap on the marker and followed her.
Beckett opened the door and entered the room.
"Aimee?" Castle exclaimed
"Richard?" as the woman got up from her seat with a smile. "How long has it been?"
Beckett was taken off guard, she eyed the woman and then looked back at Rick.
Castle was all smiles as he met with an old acquaintance. He walked toward her and they hugged each other.
All Kate could do was wonder who this woman was to him. She stood there for a few seconds before realizing that she was the mother of their victim.
Richard was still all smiles and so was Aimee.
"Oh I don't know, twenty some years for sure..yeah definitely the 90's. I remember your hair...oh yeah that hair was...BIG" as they both burst out laughing. Both knowing too well what they were talking about
"Yeah well you loved it at the time." As the woman looked into his eyes, looking into someone with whom she had once had intimate moments with.
All Kate could think about was Another one? Seriously? She didn't rush the reunion knowing that this woman's life was going to be devastating for the next few months.
Rick looked back at Kate. Her eyes said it all, she's the mother of the victim, where reality hit him and he sat Aimee down.
Richard leaned into Kate's ear, to which she reacted and pulled away. As she saw his look of oh come on I just want to tell you something she leaned back in.
"This is why I thought I knew the girl, she looks just like her mother." As he leaned back into his seat.
Kate observed the woman, it was true that the her daughter had a lot of her features. The long blond hair, the green eyes, her lips the more she looked at the mother the more she saw the resemblance which caused her stomach to twitch. Kate knew too well that this woman's world was about to crumble.
Kate then took control of the situation and started:
"Miss. Gallant, what can you tell us about Sharon? Was she acting weird lately? Did she mention anything about her surroundings that caught her attention? Anything that could explain her death?"
The woman nodded, tears came to her eyes.
"Sharon called me last night before going to work. Everything seemed fine, she talked about an essay she was working on for her Psych class but that's it. She had no troubles that I was aware of." As she looked down at her figures, at loss for words.
Kate looked back at Castle, who was obviously touched by this.
"Did she have trouble with people at work? Some weird client maybe?" Castle asked, looking at her, helplessly.
"No. All she told me was that there was one of her colleagues that had a tendency to attract the wrong peoples' attention, but they stuck with her. Sharon was glad that the girls' trouble didn't affect the rest of the bartenders, the drunk clients were enough to handle." A faint smile appeared on Aimee's face.
Aimee then looked up at Castle, as though to find comfort.
All he could do was smile back.
"Would you happen to know the name of this colleague?" Beckett asked while leaning in,
"Uh- I think...I think her name was Molly."
"Molly Samson?" Kate asked as she and Castle exchanged looks
"Yeah, Samson yeah that's right." As the woman agreed
"Ok, Thank you Miss. Gallant we'll give you a call as soon as we find something." Kate got up, making Aimee and Castle get to their feet.
"Good-bye Richard. I was nice seeing you again." As Aimee leaned in for another hug.
He hugged back with no hesitation, this was the least he could do for she had just lost her child.
They all exited the room and Castle walked her to the elevator, while Kate headed to her desk.
"Wow!" Espo said as he looked toward the elevator.
"What?" Kate turned to see what he was looking at, "Oh...yeah I know she's hot! Plus, turns out she's one of his old conquests." As she said with an annoyed tone and her classic eye rolling
Esposito looked at her and laughed, knowing too well that this was getting to her.
"Oh yeah she's not bad, but I was just going to say that her daughter looked just like her." As he raised an eyebrow, telling her that he got her.
She gave him a killer look and sat back down at her desk.
