Rick was met at the elevator by the young female detective, who smiled and nodded at his uniformed escort, before turning to him.

"Thank you for coming in, Mr Castle. I know how hard this time must be for you, and I am well aware that this is probably the last thing you want to do right now, so I really do appreciate it." She spoke as she led him towards a conference room before letting them inside and offering him a seat with a motion of her open palm. "Can I get you something to drink? Water, coffee, soda?"

Rick shook his head. "Thanks, but I'd rather just get this over with."

Kate nodded, taking her seat opposite him with a soft smile. "Of course." She smoothed her hands down her thighs before folding them in her lap. It looked almost as if she was nervous and that did nothing to calm Rick. "I'd just like to start by saying that we can take a break at any time, I know how hard this can be and I don't want you to feel like this has to be a professional debrief. If it gets too much and you need a moment, I am more than happy to give you it."

"Thanks." Rick nodded, appreciating her concern but still not sure why she was nervous. "Where do you want me to start?"

Kate smiled softly, leaning forward almost unconsciously. "How about we start when you got the call about the fire?"

Rick took a deep breath before nodding. "I uh, I'm not good with sitting still, you mind if I stand for this bit?"

Kate shook her head.

"Thanks." He nodded, standing and rounding the couch he'd been sat on to lean his hands against the back. "Buzz wanted to get out of the game. He said that with the boys getting older he had realised how much he had missed and wanted to be there for them, so we were going through who would become my new partner. We got the call before we finished, and set out to the house. We arrived and talked strategies, before getting our O2 masks on, and going in. There was a girl trapped on the second floor, so we had to rescue her. As always, Buzz checked the ground floor for anyone else and, if we could find it, point of origin, while I went upstairs. I located the girl's room and kicked in the door, before picking her up off the bed and carrying her back down the stairs and out the door. I tried to give her to the paramedics but she, she just wouldn't let go." Rick took a deep breath. "She was so young. Buzz called her a woman but she was a teenager at eldest."

"She's fifteen." Kate interjected softly. His eyes snapped to hers and she knew she was right in her interruption.

"She okay?"

Kate shrugged. "She's in hospital, her parents are with her. She has mild smoke inhalation and second degree burns on her legs, first on her hands and face. She'll recover quickly and should be fine." Kate watched as his entire body relaxed a few notches. "You saved her life."

"It's my job." He dismissed before shaking his head to get himself back. "Once I handed her over, I realised Buzz wasn't behind me. Chief said he was probably already gone, but I had to go back for him. He's family, my partner. You don't just…" he trailed off but Kate nodded.

She'd been in similar situations, knew the bond between partners intimately.

"I found him, not breathing, and carried him out. Paramedics tried and failed to get his heart started again." Rick shook his head and ran his hands down his face for a moment before sighing deeply. He was trained to give hard information formally and professionally, it was in his blood by now, but he had the feeling Beckett wouldn't judge him if he broke down a little. After all, given her job, she had more than likely seen worse.

"So, the paramedic who took Sarah from you and your chief, they both saw you exit the house and your chief told you that Mr Story was probably already dead, yes?"

Rick's eyes narrowed suspiciously and Kate knew she hadn't been as subtle as she had hoped to be.

"Yeah." He replied at length. "Why?" There was a sharpness to his voice that Kate took as a warning, the last one she thought she'd get before this went somewhere she would rather keep it from going.

"Just because, you were, after all, the last person, in theory, to see Mr Story alive and…"

"Just who in the hell do you think you are!?" Rick raged, his emotions having taken too much of a beating for him to now contain them.

Kate's spine stiffened, desperate to keep control of this conversation. "I am the lead detective investigating this case." She reminded him, calm if not a little sharp.

"And he was my brother." Rick yelled back, pointing away from him as if to lead her sight to the body. "How dare you accuse me of doing this?! You know nothing about me detective, I understand that, but how could you ever even think I was capable of this? Of killing my brother? My daughter's godfather? How in the hell can you jump to that conclusion?"

"I have to cover every angle Mr Castle, it's the only way we will find who killed your friend."

"Don't patronise me Detective." He spat. "Let me tell you something okay? Just over a year ago, I found my wife in bed with her director. Literally, found them in bed together. My daughter had just turned ten and was upstairs at the time. Meredith ranted and raved about how it was actually all my fault because I was never there. I blamed myself for breaking up my marriage, my daughter's family, and got blinding drunk. I woke up three days later, in a hospital bed. I'd wrapped my car around a tree and broken my spine in two places."

Kate gasped softly.

"Buzz had collected Alexis and taken her back to his, held her while she cried about my stupid actions and her mother's infidelity. He then took me in while I healed. When Meredith served me divorce papers, and said that my drunken crash gave her grounds to fight me for custody, it was Buzz that kept me sober and let me cry on his shoulder. It was Buzz who supported me through my custody battle. It was Buzz who held Alexis when she screamed about wanting to stay with me rather than going to Cali with her mom. And it was Buzz who convinced Meredith to let me see my daughter every other weekend; so don't you dare ask me for my alibi. He was dead when I found him. He was the only thing that kept me together when I would have killed myself, and destroyed my daughter, with my self-destructive behaviour and he means the world to the little girl who means the world to me. Think about that Detective, before you go accusing me of murdering him."

Rick stormed out of the room and didn't stop until he reached the middle of the stairwell.

He needed a moment to cool down if he was gonna support Carol and the boys when they got here.

Kate leaned back in her seat and put her head in her hands. That wasn't what she had meant to happen at all.