The evening was going flawlessly, the writers, publishers, and high-ups that had been put on the guest list were mingling, drinking and in general seemed to be having a good time. Deciding he could take a quick break, he stepped outside the room Gina had booked into the cold New York air and pulled out his phone. He hit speed dial one and waited.

"Hello?"

"Hey, pumpkin, how's it going at home?" Rick asked Alexis. While he'd been disappointed she'd opted against coming with him tonight, he respected that Alexis disliked these sorts of events. Though she supported her father, she'd stopped coming to most.

"Hey dad. Everything's fine. How's your party?"

"The usual. Just wanted to make sure everything was alright with you." He stuck his free hand into the pocket of his suit, cursing himself for not having the brains to put on his jacket before stepping outside.

"Of course everything's fine. After I cleaned up and hid all evidence of that party I had while you were away, I just relaxed." Alexis joked, a smirk in her voice. "No, seriously, I've been reading."

"Why am I not surprised?" Rick smiled. "I'll let you go then. You call me if you need me."

"I know, dad." Alexis replied. "Have fun."

"Bye, pumpkin." And the two of them hung up. Although he was cold, he felt no desire to go back in quite yet. He walked around to the front of the building, having gone out the side. He was glad his shoes appeared to be waterproof as he walked through the inch of snow that had not been there when he'd arrived. It fell steadily now, making New York look picturesque and beautiful.

Rick's thoughts were interrupted by two Crown Victorias speeding towards him. They screeched to a stop.

Rick watched as a woman stepped out of the driver's side of the first car and two guys got out of the second. He noticed that they walked behind the woman at all times, forming a sort of triangle of power. They walked to the door.

"Names?" Rick heard a bored voice ask at the door. He saw the woman speak quietly and pull back one side of her coat. They were immediately let in.

When they were gone, Rick hurried over to where the young girl was standing at the door, clutching her clip board and talking into a walkie talkie urgently.

"Miss?" Rick asked, catching her attention.

"Mr. Castle!" She gasped. "There you are! They're waiting for you inside. They've been radio-ing me for ages, asking where you'd gone to."

"Those people, were they on the guest list?" He asked hurriedly. The girl gave him a blank stare and he resisted the urge to sigh. "Those people, the woman and the two guys, were they on the guest list?"

"Oh!" Understanding dawned on her face. "No, sir. They were cops. They were looking for Mr. Beelt. The lady said it was a murder case."

Rick raised his eyebrows. "You're sure?" A murder case? This wasn't some kind of sick jokes that Patterson, Cannell or Connelly was playing, was it? Would they go so far as to involve cops?

"Yessir. That's what the lady said." She cleared her throat. "Um, Mr Castle, if you don't mind my saying, I think you should go inside."

Rick did, relishing the heat of being indoors for only a moment before looking around. He indeed saw an angry looking man he'd met for only a brief moment being handcuffed and told his rights by the lady-cop. He was led away by the pair of guys, who looked surprisingly intimidating.

"Excuse me!" Gina rushed towards the lady cop to the best of her ability. Running in heels was difficult for her.

The cop turned, her long, waving hair twirling around her. "Yes?"

"You can't just go picking people up at parties and taking them to the police station!" Gina told her, trying to intimidate.

As intimidating as Rick found Gina, she was nothing compared to the lady-cop. "Actually, I can." The lady-cop said, raising one eyebrow. "When it's literally a matter of life and death, I'll come to your parties and pick up whoever the hell I want if I think they have motive." And with that, the lady-cop turned on the ball of her foot and followed after the two other cops, stopping at the door to get a list of everyone who had attended the event.

Rick couldn't help feeling that he'd seen her before. She certainly was beautiful, with flowing brown hair that framed her face and a slim figure accented by the belt that secured her coat around her waist.

Rick couldn't help but spend the rest of the night wondering where he'd seen her before, why should looked so familiar.

He got home around one in the morning to a dark home. A soft light shone in the kitchen, where a glass of water had been left for him by Alexis. He sat on one of the bar stools and drank it slowly, sipping the room-temperature water. Alexis was no doubt in bed, mature as she was, and it felt as though the rest of New York was as well.

But Rick was restless. The lady-cop hadn't even passed him a glance that he'd noticed, and her hair had covered her face most of the time he had seen her, no allowing him to get a good look at her face. Nonetheless, Rick knew he'd seen her before.

Frustrated, he put the empty glass in the dishwasher and turned the light off, leaving him blind in the kitchen. He slowly made his way out, picturing the room in his mind and desperately avoiding a stubbed toe.

Success! He'd made it out of the kitchen. Slowly, with his hands out in front of him, he made his way up the stairs and into his bedroom, sighing in relief when he turned the light on. He blinked furiously for a moment while his eyes adjusted to the light. When he could see well enough, he removed his suit jacket and hung it up carefully.

He continued his pre-sleep rituals, fatigue suddenly hitting him like a wrecking ball. He was sleeping when his head hit the pillow.