I didn't think I could get this chapter up so quick! I'm in the middle of my exams so I should really be pouring over maths questions but I need a break from pretending to study. Thanks to everyone who favourited (that's so not a word, right?) me, or my story or alerted! I don't think I've ever woken up to 34 emails before! And thank you Rosie 85 and lv2bnsb for the reviews! It means a lot! I hate big long Author Notes so I'm just gonna go stop typing now!
Enjoy chapter 2!

Kate has never been so happy to hear her phone ring. Hungover still but she now had a distraction. If it was a case she could escape from her own mind for a few hours, or maybe a few days. She had roamed around her apartment for a while, not realising it was quite so early when she woke up to find Castle beside her. After she showered she, dressed and took a couple of aspirin for her pounding head aches. She took a few minutes on the couch, trying to remember everything about last night. She remembered their kiss, though it seemed more mutual then her first memory of it.

She almost dived for her phone when she heard it buzz on the arm of the couch.

"Beckett," she answered, getting up from the sofa.

"Beckett, we've got a case. I need you down at the Fashion Institute of Technology. Esposito and Ryan are on their way."

"I'll be there as soon as."

"Don't take too long, detective."

"Yes, sir,"

Kate hung up and pulled on her boots. She had a pull towards boots. It raised her height so she could talk eye to eye with the men in the precinct and they did what all high-heels should do; accentuate the best of a woman.

The Fashion Institute of Technology wasn't far from her flat and she didn't trust herself to drive with her head pounding and her car was left at the precinct from the night before. She picked up a coffee on the way and made it to the Institute to find the place swarmed in squad cars. She made her way to Esposito who was standing outside the front, trying to keep the photographers back.

"Hey Esposito," Beckett called as she made her way into the building. She winced against the bright and white hallways. The brightness strained her eyes and she could hardly remove her sunglasses without her eyes burning under the light.

"Well well, someone is hungover!" Esposito laughed.

"You have no idea!" Beckett rolled her eyes before taking a sip of coffee.

"So what did you and Castle do when me and Lanie left?" Esposito asked, quite innocently though it caused Beckett to choke on her coffee slightly.

"What made you think we did anything?" she tried to sound normal but her voice caught in her throat.

"I only asked."

"Who's the vic today, Esposito?"

"Amanda Shorthall. Former model, Lecturer here at the school. She was found... well come on in." Esposito led Beckett up the stairs and into a room on the first floor. They entered the room which took Beckett to surprise. She was half expecting another bright, white room but found, to her relief, that it was quite dark. A long one wall, there were pictures pinned up, photographs and magazine clippings. Then on the adjacent wall, there were sketches and material pinned to the wall. The curtains, which were almost fully closed, waved slightly with the draft.

"Well hello, you!" A voice came from the other side of the room. Lanie emerged from behind the desk where she was kneeling down.

"Lanie, what can you tell me about the victim?"

"She's dead. You however, are not so you can tell me what happened to you last night."

"Nothing happened. Please, the victim."

"Ryan told me you left with Castle. It couldn't have been nothing!"

"Lanie!" Beckett snapped. "Not now! I'm hungover and hungry and the are CSU guys everywhere!"

Beckett went to where Lanie was standing and looked at the woman. She looked tall, blond and well dressed with dark bruises around her neck.

"Jeeze sorry. Out victim was strangled, most likely. There are ligature marks around her neck but no prints. The guy wore woollen gloves, I think. There are fibres all over her."

"Could they have been her gloves or coat?"

"I doubt it, the fibres are mainly on her collar, arm and buttocks."

"Was she raped?"

"Doesn't look like it. Her clothes are in tact but I'll let you know more when I'm at the lab."

"Esposito implied this was more than just a strangling."

"Yeah, look at this." Lanie pulled up the victims shirt to reveal intricate swirls and lines, making up a large pattern Beckett did not recognise as anything she had ever seen before.

"What is that?"

"I have no idea, but I think it was painted on with fabric ink. I don't think she did it herself. The ink is on the inside of her jumper so the killer may have painted it post-mortem."

"Thanks," Beckett walked away from Lanie and towards the window. She opened the curtains a bit more and pressed on the window. It easily swung open, the latch wasn't closed. Beckett leaned further to the window, looking out to the street, squinting against the sun.

"Esposito!" she called. Esposito joined her, notepad in hand. "I want that camera across the street. This window was open, may have been an entry or exit route."

"On it," Esposito said, leaving the room.

Beckett took five minutes to just stare out of the window. She couldn't stop thinking about that morning. Mostly because she felt she screwed everything up. She had accepted she felt very strongly for Rick Castle but she also know she couldn't fit a relationship with him into her life when she was still very wary that there was someone out there who killer her mother and tried to kill her. Over the past few years she hasn't been able to hold a relationship with anyone together. Demming was to close. He was always around and as much as she liked it, it unnerved her too. It was like he always had his eyes on her and was pressuring her. Josh was amazing. He was a surgeon, saving people's lives, saving her life at one point but he was overbearing when she was healing. He kept her under his watch if he wasn't working and kept calling if he was.

Castle was different. He was always there but he made things fun. He lit up a bad scenario and managed to unravel the most bizarre of cases. She appreciated having him around and she also knew that if he wasn't around, neither would she. She would have been shot, frozen or eaten by a tiger. But Castle never let that happen. He always had her back like a good partner should.

Yet waking up beside him didn't give her the satisfaction she thought it would. She didn't want to to happen that way, in a drunken mess that she would forget. She wanted it to be right, though nothing went her way whenever Castle was involved.

Beckett was snapped out of her day dreams by Lanie sneaking up beside her, pulling her gloves off.

"Sorry for biting your head off. I'm just trying to figure a few things out."

"Is a certain writer included in these few things?"

"Yeah..."

"Do you want to share?"

"Not yet. I need to understand everything first." Beckett turned and strode out of the room and hailed the first cab she could. She didn't know how she was going to approach this, she just knew she had to.

I'm really not sure how I am going to do this... Hmmm... Let's just see how it goes!

LilyPetal.