Castle immediately dropped Alexis at home and headed straight for the crime scene. He was still fascinated by Dr. Brennan and was hoping to get in touch with her soon. Sure, she had given her e-mail address to Alexis, but she wouldn't mind if he had arranged a meeting, author to author, one broken hearted to another.

Castle saw the look in Dr. Brennan's eyes when he had mentioned her partner. He even swore that she looked emptier while he was talking on the phone to Beckett.

He would definitely get more information on this manner.

Pulling up to the yellow taped area, Castle sighed. Although solving murders was satisfying, there was certain sadness to beginning a new case.

Walking underneath the yellow tape, he smiled when he saw her.

Detective Kate Beckett stood with her black pea coat buttoned all the way up. Her chin was tucked into her collar and her hands were in her pockets as far as they would go. Castle could tell she was freezing and not dressed for a New York December crime scene.

"You should know by now that this cold winter is here to stay." Castle walked up next to his partner.

Beckett smiled, "Just call me an optimist." She turned to see Castle all bundled up in a full coat, hat, scarf, and gloves. "At least I don't look like an Eskimo."

"Ah, she who is without the warmth of proper attire, cast the last stones." Castle walked towards her. "And to think I was going to lend you my scarf."

Beckett rolled her eyes and continued talking. "Anyway, here is our victim. Female, late teens, no signs of trauma or sexual assault..." Beckett noticed Castle looked extremely worried. "Castle, you with me?"

Castle shook his head and refocused his attention. "Yeah, sorry. It's just," he paused for a moment, "she kind of looks like Alexis."

Beckett saw the sadness in her partner's eyes and looked down at the victim once more. The young female did almost look like his daughter and she knew that this case would be difficult on him from the start.

Beckett placed her hand on Castles arm and gave him a reassuring pat. "I know, but it's not."

Castle simply nodded and began to examine the body in front of him. The girl was dressed in just jeans and a t-shirt, no socks or shoes. A purse was in her left hand and she wore a gold chain with a simple cross on it.

Beckett watched him look intently at the girl as she continued talking. "The restaurant employee found her next to the dumpster. He checked her for vitals before calling the police."

"She has no ID on her? Nothing in her purse?" Castle went to grab her purse and Beckett stopped him.

"I'm wearing gloves." Castle smiled as he pulled off his leather gloves revealing the latex gloves underneath.

"Since when have I allowed you to touch evidence before it has been processed?" Beckett grabbed Castles wrist.

"Early Christmas present?" He smiled which completely caught Beckett off guard.

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

Beckett carefully pulled the purse out of the young girl's hand. Slowly opening it she and Castle looked inside. Moments later, Beckett screamed.

Castle jumped back and squealed like a little girl. A mouse crawled out of the purse and scurried down the street. Both of them looked around and saw everyone processing the crime scene, looking at them.

"Just a mouse." Castle said as he waved his hand to everyone staring.

"Uh, Castle, "Beckett looked up from the purse. "Not just a mouse."

Castle turned to see his partner pull something out of the purse.

"Is that, what I think it is?" Castle looked disgusted.

"I would say it's a human hand." Beckett held it up gently for her partner to see.

"Is it real?" Castle looked at it in amazement.

"I'm not sure." Beckett placed the hand into an evidence bag.

Castle smiled and picked up his phone. "I know one way of finding out."

Standing up, he took off his scarf and placed it around his partner's neck. Beckett frowned, but was really grateful at the warmth his scarf provided. She stood up to see what her partner was up to.

"Hello, this is Rick Castle." He charmed into the phone. "I was wondering if Dr. Brennan was still there." He paused to listen. "She is, great! I need to speak to her. Just tell her it's about a case."

Beckett looked confused for a moment as she listened to her partner. She took a moment to wrap her partners scarf move tightly around her neck and smiled. The scarf was a comfort to her and she smelled it trying to get the stench of decomposition out of her sinuses.

She opened her eyes to see her partner looking at her, amused.

"Were you, just smelling my scarf?" Castle's eyes lit up.

"No." She lied. "I was wrapping it around my neck and-" she cleared her throat. "Who are you talking to?"

"Let's just say, I know someone who can tell us everything about that hand." Castle pulled the phone to his ear. "Hello?"

Brennan was packing up her things, when Samuel came over to her. "Dr. Brennan, you have a phone call, something about a case?"

Brennan frowned and looked at her cell phone. No missed calls. Why on earth would they call the bookstore number?

Brennan followed Samuel to the phone and picked it up.

"Brennan."

"Hello?"

"Booth?"

"No, this is Richard."

"Richard…?"

"Castle, we meet earlier."

Brennan paused and scrunched her nose. "Oh, hello." Brennan sighed. "What can I do for you Mr. Castle?"

"How would you like to assist a real NYC murder case?"

Brennan frowned. "I don't see how a New York murder case would be any different from any other murder. And, Mr. Castle, I have worked murders involving people from New York City, as well as many other places in the United States and-"

"Can you please help us?" Castle cut her off. "We found a human hand. Well, we think it is a human hand, but we are unsure. Since you are in town and you are the best…"

Brennan sighed. It had been almost two weeks since she had worked a murder case and it did intrigue her a bit.

"I will have to postpone my book signing, but I will assist you." Brennan looked down at her cell phone.

After exchanging numbers and giving her the address Brennan hung up the phone with a sense of excitement. She looked at her phone, instinctively picking it up to call her partner. The sad reality sank in that Booth had nothing to do with this case and Brennan would be going to the crime scene without her partner in tow.

Picking up her things she walked to her car and drove towards the crime scene, alone.