Kate Beckett, finally, sat across from her mother's killer. He had confessed to placing the hit, but there was more she wanted, as the motive still remained fuzzy. "Why did you want her dead? She was a good woman, who didn't deserve this."

"You may be a good detective, but you obviously can't see the truth." He laughed and shook her head. "I never said who I placed the hit on. Those other victims were never meant to die. They had too, to make it seem bigger than it actually was."

"Then why? Who?" Kate leaned over the table, not breaking eye contact with him.

A broad smile covered his face, and his answer was simply, "I want my lawyer now."

Rick Castle knocked on Kate's front door. When she answered, she looked as though she'd been crying. She had changed from her work clothes to her pajamas only for better comfort. Today had been one of the hardest days of her life. Kate had asked Rick not to come by for a few hours, so she could think. Her mind had been filled with all the little things about her mother's case. The stalker's pictures of her, the killer's confession, her mother's crime scene, everything. Kate had been forced to figure it out all on her own and she had done so. Now it all seemed to make sense in a terrifying way, but it did.

Pulling Rick into a tight hug, he knew that even though her mother's killer was now behind bars, and would be for most likely the rest of his life, something still was not right. The second she moved away from him, he stepped inside and shut the door. "Something's wrong." He said, in his weird way of asking questions.

Kate turned around gripping his hand and led him to the couch. "I know everything." She gestured to the coffee table in front of her where the pictures from the case file were spread out in an order only known to Kate.

"What else did you figure out?" He asked quietly scooting up against her and she leaned against him. Kate reached forward to one photo placed over a couple others. Holding it up she stared at her mother's face.

"I don't know what to do to get my mom to forgive me." She sighed trying to keep away the tears again.

"Hey. You've done nothing to make her upset with you." He placed his fingers under her chin and gently pushed it up to look into her emerald eyes.

"That's where you're wrong. This was my apartment twelve years ago." Biting her lower lip she wiped her watering eyes. "She was here to pick up my work stuff, so she could go over it with me. It was supposed to be me."

"What?" Rick shook his head. "No. That's not true, you've seen the evidence. It all-"

"Yeah. Malcolm paid Dick extra to cover up the mistake. That's how Dick Coonan knew she was my mother. I've been running around the past twelve years with a hit on me."

Rick laughed forcibly, "No. Not possible. What could you have done to make someone want to kill you?"

"I was studying to be a lawyer. I don't know. Probably stumbled across something that somebody would kill to keep hidden." Kate had put the pieces together.

"Dick Coonan is dead. Sorry, I, uh," Rick had tried to avoid that topic as Kate hating being reminded. "He can't hurt you anymore. How can you be sure you're wanted dead." waiting a moment, Kate reached to her laptop next to her. She smacked the space bar a few times and waited. A website came up titled 'Cowboys For Hire.' "I've used this website before. Alexis went through a phase of loving cowboys and cowgirls, and she wanted a few for her birthday. Why did he have an account with this website?"

"Because if you have a certain password this is a hit man website. He gave it to us." Kate typed a few words on the keyboard and turned the screen to Rick. A large portrait picture of her took up the first half of the page. Below it listed everything about her that could possibly help in a killing. Her career, first boyfriend, current boyfriend, family, gym membership, recent credit card use and it was all updated frequently. "This website is designed for the killer to find and choose his employer. The beauty of it is, if the employer gets dragged in for questioning, he can't give up who he hired. My hit is specific. They have to follow me around, stalk me, learn my daily routines and come up with a way to kill me and hide my body perfectly. Only just before they try and kill me will they accept the hit."

A beep came from the computer and Rick whispered, "Oh God." A little square had popped up in the corner, saying that the mission had been accepted and the victim would be dead in the next 24 hours. Blood coursed through both of their veins as their heart's raced.

"Castle, there's something that I need you to do."

"Name it." He said quietly, not able to tear his eyes from the box.

"Go home." Kate didn't ask, it was an order, and Rick looked up at her. His eyes narrowed a little like he was trying to figure out what could possibly be going through her head right then.

"Forget it. Fear doesn't exist in this dojo." He joked. That was how he dealt with some things. It made him feel better and sometimes the people around him.

"Look. I signed up for this when I put the badge on, you didn't. It's not your fight." She shook her head. Kate had always made it known that she could protect herself, and she stuck by that even when she couldn't. Kate stood up like it would help prove her point.

"The Hell it isn't. Running around you just to annoy you, I don't write up murder scenes in the middle of the night just to satisfy some morbid curiosity. If that's all this was, I would have quit a long time ago." Now Rick stood up to look her in the eyes.

"Then why do you keep coming back Rick?" He just stared at her, a hurt expression on his face. Kate felt that the sad piano solo floating through the room from the radio fit the mood perfectly.

"I may not have a badge, unless you count the chocolate one Alexis gave me for my birthday. But I'll tell you this. Like it or not, I'm your plucky side kick." With one last second of constant contact of their eyes, Rick moved to the counter placing all the pictures in the file.

"Plucky side kick always gets killed." Kate said with an okay job of hiding her concern, and moving to his side again.

"Partner then." He told her.

"Castle, I'm an elimination murder victim. Do you know what that means?" She asked quietly, her eyebrows almost touching, they were so close together.

"I'm guessing it means someone wants you eliminated."

"This isn't a joking matter. It means that at some point in my life I became a threat to someone or something. It also means that other people can get in their way, too. If you stick around there may be another mistake in the hit. If I have to die to get this to end, then so be it. I don't want other people, especially you, Rick, to get killed because of me."

"No one is going to die. Not you, not me, not anyone. Okay? I'll call Montgomery and have him contact the FBI or something. Make him put a detail on you. There's no way he won't want to. Your his best detective."

"No. Just call Shaw. I helped her on a case a couple months back. She owes me a favor." Kate waved her hand a little and she nodded to her cell phone on the coffee table.

"Alright." He saw her fearful face and leaned near her. "Hey, it'll be alright." Rick kissed her temple, Kate closed her eyes and let the comfort run through her.

When he moved to the other side of the room to make the call, she whispered, "I just hope you're right, Rick."