A/N - Sorry it's been a while. I promise I have the story mapped out, it's just getting the time to actually write it.

I know this isn't how it's going to pan out on the show, but it's fun to write regardless. Hope you like!

My eyes widened as I felt a hand on top of mine, and I came crashing back into reality.

I pulled my hand away. "I'm, sorry. What?" I had been going through all the different scenarios that allowed this to be right. My mother had a brother? Or did I? If I did, does dad know about it? He'd have to, right? So why didn't I know about it? And if mom did had a brother, why didn't we know about that? She'd always said she was an only child.

"I was saying that more so this guy was related to your Mother, but you too. Are you okay? This is a lot to take in." Concern toned his voice.

I ran a hand through my hair. "Yeah I'm, uh I don't know. I'm a little confused, I guess. At the moment, I'm really wondering if my father knows. Or did she keep this from both of us?" I was frustrated at myself for not finding this information out earlier.

Why hadn't mom trusted me enough to let me in on this? A pang of hurt sat hard on my chest when that thought entered my mind.

More importantly, you should be asking yourself what had actually happened to make her keep this from everyone?

I picked up the pictures of all the women connected to this case. Why kill these four? "If this guy had a connection to my mom, then he had an apparent motive for killing her." Saying those words out loud had hurt. Someone had a motive for killing my mother. I took a breath in and kept going, "But the others, what's the connection? Other than the obvious similarities with the way they looked."

Castle shrugged, and his mouth twisted as he thought. "It could be as I said before, maybe he didn't know who he was looking for exactly? That could explain the others. Especially since there have been no other murders since your mom's."

"So why did he start to begin with? What triggered it?" Castle added, voicing my thoughts.

"Exactly what I was thinking... What triggered him..." I sat with my elbows on my thighs, chin resting on my palms.

Where do we go from here? The M.E?

A laugh bubbled up into my throat. I'm sure Dr McCauley will be thrilled to see me again. I thought, sarcastically.

"Well I was thinking we could start by going to see the M.E or the person who ran the labs. Then go from there?" Castle looked hopeful. Kind of like a child who was waiting to see if this was the right answer.

I couldn't help the small grin that came from his suggestion.

"What? It's a good start. Unless, you know, you're just happy sitting here throwing around theories."

"No that does sound like a good start. I was just thinking how happy Dr McCauley will be to see me again, after so long. Our last meeting was just before... Everything happened last time. Let's just say I wasn't that pleasant." My cheeks heated with embarrassment.

"Really? You not being pleasant, Beckett? I can't imagine that." He cocked an eyebrow and smirked.

"Yeah it's a shocker. Have we got the name of the guy who ran the labs? Since the place is closed down now." I asked, going back into detective mode again.

"That we do," Castle flipped some more pages in the file. "His name is or was Ben Carper."

Ben Carper. What could you have wanted with my mother?

"Has anyone looked him up?"

"Not yet. I thought I'd wait to see what you wanted to do before looking this guy up."

"Okay, well Dr McCauley could be a good start. Maybe he can help clear up the results screw up. We should find out whether it was their problem or the M.E's."

"Ten bucks says the M.E says it was the lab's fault." Castle said taking his wallet out.

I shook my head with a smile and stood up, walking over the bench where my cell phone was. Even in this mess, Castle was trying to take my mind off it, if only for a second. You don't realize that a small moment of laughter made a heavy situation all the more lighter. "I'm going to call the office and tell them I won't be in for a few days."

"Oh yeah, can you tell them I won't be in either." He said like they wouldn't know what they would do without him there.

I shot him an 'are you serious' look, and scoffed. "Yeah, I'm sure they'll be crushed. I don't know how they'll go on without you."

"I know, right. I don't know how they've handled everything without us there."

**

The car trip over to the morgue had been quiet. Actually going to see the M.E again after so many years made this so much more real. Just talking about it was one thing, but actually following up on a lead? Apprehension was still weighing heavily on my chest. I felt like I was going to have more information than when I started and would end up still not being able to do anything with it.

Castle had told me about Alexis' prom. The Dr Jekyll outfit he had planned and was wearing until Alexis had stopped him from answering the door.

I don't think I had heard him sound so disappointed before, that he couldn't go through with his plan. I had to laugh at the image that brought to mind. Castle was still trying to take my mind off everything.

It made me think of what my father did to my date. Which made think of my father in general, and whether he knew about this relative. Did he know that mom had a brother? Or, that I had a brother? Was it his son too?

I heard, "Earth to Beckett. Beckett, are you in there?" I blinked and looked around. We were already at the Morgue. I had driven here on auto pilot. Not thinking or realizing where I was.

My knuckles were aching. I looked down to see that my knuckles were white against the steering wheel. I peeled my death grip from it.

"Sorry, was lost in my thoughts." I murmured, tugging at the bottom of my jacket, straightening it.

"Ready to go in?" We asked each other at the same time.

"I'm ready when you are, Beckett." He said, watching me intently.

He seemed to be looking at me like I was a piece of glass that he couldn't push too hard on. Because everyone knows, if you push hard enough glass eventually breaks.

Maybe, I was reading too much into a look.

I glanced at myself in the rear view mirror.

No wonder he's looking at you like that. Get that pathetically unsure look off your face. You're a lot more than that sort of woman. You don't need to be saved. You saved yourself, remember?

I took the keys out of the ignition. Today, the grating of the keys sliding out of the ignition was harsh on my ears.

I looked up at the building I had walked into so many times before. Today it seemed to be looming over me. It's just like walking into the Morgue every other day for work... Except it won't be like every other day.

Time to put your brave face on, Beckett.

I could hear the distant wailing of a siren. The traffic rushing by us. Pedestrians hurrying past to get to their destinations, talking on cell phones.

Life goes on, Beckett.

I jutted my chin, "Ready as I'll ever be."

**

We strode into the morgue and asked for McCauley. Castle had called the morgue while I had been on the phone to the office, to make sure he was in.

The receptionist lifted her head and looked at us with a practiced sympathy, "Are you here to view a family member?"

I flashed my badge at her, "No, I'm here to speak to McCauley. Where is he at the moment?" I sounded more impatient than I meant.

"Oh, I'm sorry Detective. Umm, he's up in his office. Third floor, office at the ..."

I turned and headed towards the elevator. I knew where his office was. I've been here enough to remember, I thought sarcastically.

I heard Castle thank the girl and apologize for my "surliness".

I heard his footsteps behind me, as I waited for the elevator.

"Surliness, seriously?" I asked, hands on hips.

"The girl was just doing her job and you sounded snippy." He said, brushing something off his shirt.

The elevator doors dinged open. "I was impatient, not 'snippy'. Who uses the word snippy these days anyway?" I hit the third floor button.

"Are you able to flash your badge when we're not here 'officially'?" He questioned a glimmer of mischief in his smirk.

"Who says we're not here 'officially'. Who's going to know?" I challenged, one eyebrow arched.

"Woah, Detective Kate Beckett does break the rules every now again. You keep surprising me." He sounded impressed.

I rolled my eyes at him.

"So how do you want this to go? Do we start off easy and get on his good side and then WHAM! We go in asking him how he missed the results. Or do you want to just go for it straight off the bat?" He was like a teenager about to take his parents car out for a spin by himself, without their knowledge of course.

I had been thinking about this, and I still had no idea. I would love to just go for the jugular and make him bleed if he was screwed this up, but that may get us nowhere.

But would going slowly get us anywhere?

"Let's go in and just take it as it comes." I said knocking on the office door.

I walked in before he responded.

He looked up from the paperwork on his desk, as we walked in. "Sergeant Beckett.. Always a pleasure to see you. What brings you back to this part of the city?" He greeted us, not sounding the least bit interested in knowing the answer.

Castle laughed, "Wow, now didn't that sound like he meant it!" He leaned towards me and whispered, "Does he know you're a Detective, or is he trying to belittle you?"

I cleared my throat and shot Castle a frown. "Dr McCauley, it's actually Detective Beckett now. This is Richard Castle. I'm here for the same reason as always, Joanna Beckett's case."

He sighed loudly and shook his head slowly. "We've gone over this numerous times before, Detective Beckett. I thought, since you hadn't been in here in so many years, that you had finally let go of this. Now you come back, and with a writer?" His tone was one of disapproval.

"Well it turns out when Richard Castle is at your dispense, so are numerous professionals within the forensic field. So I guess that means we're looking into this again."

"Apparently I have some valuable connections, even if I am just 'a writer'." Castle smiled easily at him.

Eyebrows drew together behind the silver rimmed glasses, McCauley always wore. "So what have these so called "professionals" found?" He sounded sceptical.

Castle but in before I could answer. "Not too much, I guess..." McCauley scoffed gave him a look that screamed his boredom with this conversation, and started shuffling through his paperwork. He seemed to have believed he had dismissed us.

"Oh!" Castle said an octave higher than normal, like he had just recalled something to mind. He slapped both palms flat against McCauley's desk, causing the older man to look up sharply. "Unless you think a link to three other murders from around the same time is something. And DNA from the guy that was in the house with Joanna." He stated casually, like he was talking about the weather.

The previous boredom had evaporated. It had replaced with a look of uncertainty.

He glanced back and forth between Castle and I. Like he was waiting for us to tell him we were joking. When we said nothing to confirm or deny, his eyes narrowed in indecision.

It was like he was weighing up the improbability of someone finding something he missed.

"You found a link to three other murders?" His eyes focused in on me, his voice still laced with doubt.

"Well no, I didn't find it." I confessed, taking a seat in front of his desk. "Have you heard of Dr Davis McKinnley? One of the most acclaimed forensic pathologists in New York?" I let that sink in for a second. "He found the link and the DNA. It seems like you happened to miss some pretty critical details from your own case."

I sat back and crossed my arms across my chest. I had the satisfaction of watching the cynical expression change quickly to indignation with the slightest tinge of fear and self doubt.

"You harassed me for months, we went over and over every single little detail." He spluttered.

"Exactly, we had gone over everything. Which is why I'm not understanding why you didn't pick this up before. Unless you had something to hide..." My voice trailed off.

He stood up, red faced. "I do not appreciate you bursting in here and accusing me of this... this... in my own office!"

Castle and I looked at each other. "Does that sound like a guilty conscience talking, to you, Detective Beckett?" He asked lips pursed in mocked thought.

My eyebrows drew together as I pretended to think about this. "Well, I mean, it could be. Most people would at least ask how we figured they'd missed these details first. Or at least ask for some sort of information to back up what we're accusing him of...." I turned to face McCauley again, eyebrows raised in question.

My whole body was humming with anticipation. This was where I was most comfortable, interrogating someone.

McCauley looked flustered, like he was at war with himself.

He sat back down heavily and looked over at us. "Okay, so what information do you have to back up your accusations?"

Castle grabbed his bag, pulled out the manilla folder and threw it on his desk. "Check it out for yourself."

The M.E fumbled with the folder. He cleared his throat and tried again.

I waited with practiced patience while he flipped through the pages. I wondered what was going through his mind. After all these years, and all the times I had been here going over everything with him, someone else had been able to see something that we had both missed. I wondered if that was hurting him as much as it was for me.

Castle was bouncing the heel of his shoe against the steel of the chair leg, smiling as the M.E read. I cleared my throat and shot him a look, and the foot stilled. A silent sorry was mouthed in my direction.

With each flip of the page, McCauley seemed to look more and more hopeless. Then he stopped, and looked over at me in confusion. Got up and marched over to his filing cabinet, pulled a file and sat back down at the desk.

"What is it?" I frowned, leaning forward to see what he pulled from the cabinet. It was Mom's case in duplicate.

Except this copy had notes scribbled all over them. I saw him take out what looked like the lab results report.

"This isn't right. The original results report is different from the one you have. How is that possible?" He looked at the DNA analysis again, then at the report. "Either the original was doctored to state it was your DNA, or someone didn't look at the analysis correctly."

"Isn't someone employed to check these sort of mistakes?" Castle shot at him.

"Yeah, well I don't know if you've heard, but that lab turned out to be pretty dodgy. But Carper, the guy that did the analysis and the report, he was always really thorough. He never made any mistakes."

"Looks like there's a first time for everything." I said in a clipped tone. Mistakes happen, I know this. But this wasn't any other case.

**

"Is the excuse "I was overworked and under staffed at the time," good enough to have missed a link between four cases?" Castle asked when we got back to the car. Scepticism laced his tone.

I had thought You were overworked, seriously? That's all you have to say? That's my Mother you're talking about! I had almost jumped across the desk and rung his neck. My fists and jaw clenched, I closed my eyes and counted to ten.

Castle had continued to question him about Carper and the case.

I had focused on his responses and the reactions he'd had to the information. Distance yourself. I had told myself sternly. I missed all these details before, I couldn't do that again.

So McCauley hadn't connected the stab wounds. But the fact that his report was different from the one we now had, was his lucky card. The fact that we now know that someone had switched them.

"The only thing that saved him was his reaction to the report. He seemed genuinely surprised and confused by the results we had, compared to what he had originally."

"So what now? Some lunch and coffee? Find Mr Carper and see what his excuse is?" He looked at me expectantly, like a puppy ready for a walk.

"I vote for finding where this Ben Carper is now. Finding out what his side to this is."

"By the way, you owe me ten dollars." I turned to face him, confused. "M.E blamed the lab, our bet." He waggled his eyebrows at me.

"I never put any money down on the table." I responded with a grim smile and turned the key in the ignition.

**

Carper turned out to be a pretty hard guy to find.

After the lab shut down, it seemed to be pretty hard for anyone who worked there to get another job in a lab.

He turned out to be just outside the City, working as a pharmacist's assistant.

He was single, both parents were dead and no other family to speak of that we could find.

His father had been a doctor. His mother had been a housewife.

Nothing stood out, except that he seemed like a loner. But then again, so was I, so couldn't really just hold that against him.

"You're 'taking a few days off', but you're in the office?" Ryan said leaning on my desk to see what we were doing.

"Yep, we won't be here long." I said dismissing him.

Castle placed a cup of coffee in front of me. I looked down at it like I'd never seen a cup of coffee before. "It's good, I promise." He said dropping into his normal seat.

"Thanks." I murmured, focusing back on the information front of me.

"It's laced with cyanide and a bit of anti-freeze, but still tastes good." His words slowly filtered through my thoughts and I looked over at him confused.

"Just wanted to get your attention. What have you found?" He sipped at his coffee.

What had I found? He seemed like any other guy.

"He's got no family, single, and works pretty much all the time. He doesn't have anything jumping out at me. Except for the analysis reports, he seems like a regular guy."

I never spoke to Carper when I was checking the case. I had spoken to his boss, but had no reason to speak to him directly.

"So who is this guy and why are we looking into him." Ryan asked from behind me.

I saw hand signals from Castle motioning Ryan to stop questioning about this.

"We are not looking into him. Castle and I are. He may have tampered with DNA analysis and we're planning on speaking with him about it." I snapped and glared in Castle's direction.

"Who put grumpy in her coffee this morning?" Esposito joked, as he joined our group looking at the screen over my shoulder.

"Run man, run." Castle warned.

I felt my annoyance level reach its limit. Is it too much to ask to keep something from them?

I stood up and looked at them all. "Okay, this guy we're looking into? He's tampered with DNA analysis from an old case. Well we think he's tampered with it. If not, he will hopefully know who has."

"So...why are we looking into a cold case? Are there new leads?" Ryan asked carefully.

My throat chose that moment to close up. I coughed to try and clear it.

"Yeah, there are new leads. It could help us get this guy." Castle jumped in for me.

"Okay, so who's the vic?" Esposito questioned, looking back at the screen.

"She's not a 'vic'. She's my mother." I said firmly. These two will not see me break down. I need their respect after this ends. If it ends.

Esposito shot a look at Castle. Castle shook his head at him. So you're the one that gave him the case.

I didn't know whether to yell at him, or feel grateful to him for allowing Castle to see this.

"So what's next on the agenda, Beckett?" Esposito asked. All three of them were looking at me for direction. All three of them were willing to give me their all to get to the bottom of this.

My heart tightened and I felt a pride in my team. We would all give anything to help the other.

I looked over at Castle, "We question Carper and take it from there." Then shifted my gaze towards the other two, "Can you two, ask Bill over at the lab how this could happen? How someone could doctor results and then change them back without anyone noticing."

Ryan and Esposito nodded and grabbed their jackets to go. "Guys," I called out after them, "Thanks for doing this." They both raised their eyebrows in mock surprise, and walked out.

"You got some good people there, Beckett." Castle commented.

"Don't I know it."