Thanks for the reviews they are really appreciated. Hopefully this chapter will make everything a little bit clearer, and the story will get more interesting soon I promise. I hope you like it, and any comments and criticism is welcome.

Part 2

Stumbling through the door she flung her bag on her bed and headed straight to the bathroom for a shower. She needed to wash them off, all of them and forget what she had just done, what she had become. The first thing she did was turn the shower on as hot and fast as it would go, then she turned to the sink. She brushed her teeth numerous amounts of times yet her mouth still didn't feel clean, all she could taste was them. Stepping out of her shoes and dress she stepped into the shower letting the water scold her skin as it ran down her body. She didn't care that it was hot, she didn't care that it burned she needed them gone, she needed to feel something other than them and the burn drew her attention away from that, even if it was just for a matter of minutes. She squeezed a generous amount of her cherry scented shampoo and massaged it into her scalp, thankful for the feeling of her own hands running through her hair rather than there's. After rinsing the shampoo off her head she scrubbed her body top to bottom with a fruity favoured shower gel, but like always once wasn't enough so she did it over and over still not feeling any cleaner than she had before stepping into the shower. Finally giving up she flicked the shower off and wrapped herself in a towel that was on the radiator. After quickly combing through her hair she flung on the first pair of pyjama's she could find and climbed into bed, leaving her wet hair clinging to her back. After tossing and turning a little she settled in a comfy position and that's when the thoughts hit her just like they did every night and she couldn't get them out of her head. And just like every other night the tears soon started making their way down her face and she cried herself to sleep once more.

Nightmares haunted her that night just like they always did. Even though they'd differ slightly in the beginning they always finished out in the same way. Tonight she was with one of her regular clients. He was a funny little man at 50 years old, and just over 5ft tall with a bald head, he was odd. Very odd. He came to see her on a weekly basis but he wasn't like the others, he just wanted her to be there for him, help him feel wanted and loved. They'd just talk. He'd pay for the full hour to talk about everything going on in his life from what he'd had for breakfast to how much he hated his wife and she'd listen. It made her feel good about herself, if she couldn't make herself happy at least she could make someone else feel better. In her nightmare tonight he tried to take her away, away from the awful life she was living but they got caught. And that's where it cut off and headed in the direction it always did. This one was her worst. Before he'd arrived she'd been prepped, this guy was paying double to do whatever he wanted with her, and after she'd been hand picked there was no way she was able to get out of it. Waiting in the room she was only too familiar with she fiddled with the bangle that hung off her wrist, something she did when she was anxious. The door bounced off the wall he had opened it that hard and he had slammed it shut again by the time she had risen off the bed to greet him. Saying nothing he pushed her backwards on the bed and put all of his weight onto her. She couldn't breathe. The harshness in his eyes scared her. He slid a finger down her cheek admiring her beautiful face.

"Your mine now" he whispered in her earn, with an evil grin on his face. A lump rose in her throat as she swallowed. This was going to be a long hour.

...

The case was getting to her and everyone could see it, yet nobody new why. They still didn't have any important information and any leads they did have all ended up hitting a dead end. Each sat at separate desks they were trying to piece together the victims movements in the hours before she was killed. They had figured out that after school she had gone straight to work, but after that they were still non the wiser as to where she had gone before going back to her apartment. They had a gap of almost an hour as she had finished work at 11 and not returned home until just before midnight, and the restaurant where she worked was only a couple of blocks away. This meant it should have taken her less than ten minutes to get home, not almost an hour. Kate had a bad feeling that she new who the girl had been with in the missing our, but without anything to show for it there was no way she could bring it up, not without arousing suspicion and that wasn't an option.

"Yo, guys I think I got something" Esposito shouted across the precinct, and they all rushed to huddle around his computer. "We were looking at the CCTV around her work and apartment and I realised she'd have time to go a little further afield if she got a cab, so I spread the search to a 10 mile radius and I found this." He clicked play on his computer screen showing the rest of his team footage of her entering an alley alone with no evidence anyone had followed her.

"So where did she do when she as down there?" Kate asked, wondering where he was going with this.

"That's the thing, nobody followed her in, and its just walls and a dead end down there, so then I started looking at the footage from before she went down there, and this guy walked down there 10 minutes before she did, and left 5 minutes after her." He clicked onto a different screen on his computer and showed them all a picture of a tall, stocky Caucasian male entering and then leaving the ally.

Kate instantly recognised they person in to footage, a lump immediately entering her throat. "You guys run his through facial recognition, and try trace the cab she took, me and castle will go show his picture to the parents and work colleges see if they recognise him." She then stood up, and headed towards the lift avoiding making eye contact with anyone and hoping castle was behind her, not daring to look back.

"Hey Beckett, you ok?" Esposito shouted after her, noticing her quick exit, but she was too far away to hear him, though he wasn't sur she'd have replied even if she did. Once they were definitely out of earshot he turned round to his partner. "Ryan, you think something's up with Beckett? she's been acting strange for the past couple of days."

"Yeah, she probably had another row with Castle." Both him and Esposito new about Kate and Castles relationship even though they thought everyone was totally oblivious to the fact that they were sleeping together. They had agreed not to say anything until the happy couple decided to tell them themselves, though with all the eye sex, sly glances and cheeky touches it had been easy for everyone to see what was going on.

"Nah, I don't think that's it, she's being too nice to him" Esposito laughed, they both new what Beckett was like when she was pissed off and this wasn't it, this was something much deeper, much more personal.

"Hey Kate, you ok?" Castle asked grabbing her arm, making her turn around to face him. He new she wasn't ok, he could see it in her eyes, she was scared. He had seen her in bad situations before, in life or death situations but her eyes had never told him what they were telling him now. Something wasn't right, this was deeper, older that anything they had been through together so far, even trying to catch her mothers killer.

"I'm fine" she snapped pulling her arm out of his grip, looking down. "The case is just getting to me that's all."

"Don't lie to ..."He started before she interrupted him

"I'm okay, lets just get this case solved." She told him before turning towards her car, not giving him a chance to say anything else.
He looked after her for a couple of seconds before admitting defeat and following her.

The car ride was long and tense, Kate sat behind the steering wheel as usual, and Castle gazing out of the window knowing it best not to pressure her anymore. He new she wasn't good at talking about things and the more you pushed the higher and thicker her walls became. He was worried about her, he didn't know what would make her be like this, he new he wasn't the only one who had noticed either. He had heard Esposito calling after her in the precinct even if she hadn't.

She focused on driving, not saying a word as they sped through the streets of Manhattan. She new he was upset and worried but she couldn't talk to him about what was upsetting her, she had never talked about it before and she wanted it to stay that way. Yes, she new this case was affecting her but she had still remained objective so it wasn't affecting her judgement in any way at all. She new that tattoo linked her to the victim, even though she didn't know her so she had kept it off the murder board, nobody needed to see it, least of all castle. She new it was there way of branding her, but it wasn't in the system, and there was no other unsolved murders with that tattoo so it wasn't any help, she had checked before destroying the photo Lanie had given her.