The only thing I have to say about this chapter is SORRY it's so late! I know I normally update very couple of days, but things have been crazy lately!

Anyways, I hope you guys enjoy this, and it was worth the wait. It's a little longer (for me) than usual, so hope that makes up for the fact it was late :s

WAIT….

I Don't Own Castle. Dammit.

X X X X X

Beckett sent Johanna off to get a soda from the break room, giving her a chance to share what Esposito had called her about.

"So, Esposito needs us over at a storage place on the West Side," she said, quickly scrawling down an address. Castle nodded and stood up, before he began laughing gently. The sound caused Beckett's head to snap up.

"What?" she demanded, looking at him, irritated. Instead of speaking, he just pointed in the direction of the break room door.

Johanna was standing in the doorway, soda in hand, smiling up at a speaking Captain Montgomery. The little girl laughed loudly along with him as they began to head back toward Beckett's desk, still conversing.

Rolling her eyes, Beckett stood up, hands on her hips and sighed, looking to her daughter, who stopped beside Castle. She was mid-sip of her drink, and froze at her mother's look. It wasn't one of anger, more so one of playful sarcasm.

"I thought I told you not to bother anyone?" Beckett asked, raising an eyebrow, a grin still playing on her lips.

"Mom, please…Roy was bothering me," Johanna said dramatically with a grin before she took herself over and plonked on Beckett's chair amongst gaping mouths and smirks.

"I'll remember that the next time you need help with the vending machine, Little Beckett," Montgomery added with a point and a nod.

"Aye aye, Captain!" Johanna giggled, offering a playful salute which left Montgomery laughing on his way back to his office.

"Well, that's one way to get brownie points with the boss," Castle joked, receiving a glare from Beckett as she pulled on her coat.

"Come on, Jo," she said, holding up her daughter's parka, helping her into it while she still clung to her can.

"Where are we going?" she asked eagerly, following Beckett and Castle as they headed toward the elevator, "Somewhere cool?"

"If you think a storage place on the West Side is cool, then yeah, sure," Beckett said, her words dripping with sarcasm. She glanced down at Johanna, who was now glaring at her over her soda, her mother's grin not disappearing.

"I know, she's mean, right?" Castle whined, looking at the young girl for confirmation.

"Castle, you're such a baby!" Beckett exclaimed, shaking her head, baiting an immediate reply.

"At least I'm not a party pooper!"

"Sorry, Ricky, but the naughty kids don't get any cake."

"I never said anything about cake at this party –"

"Who even said it was a party?"

"Isn't every day down here a party?"

"No!"

"Only when I'm around?"

"Castle!"

"You guys are worse than the kids in my class…"

Johanna's comment caused both the adults in the elevator to look at her, Castle grinning at his achievement, Beckett gaping at the admission.

There was a ding, that signaled the elevator had reached the parking garage, but the two continued to stare at the little girl.

"What?" Johanna cried, as she began to walk out of the elevator, leaving the stunned adults behind, "You are!"

X X X X X

"Kevin! Javi!"

At the sound of their first names, the two male detectives turned, confused, then grinned at the little girl running toward them.

"Hey, Lil B!" Esposito called, stepping forward to pick Johanna up in a tight bear hug, "How's it hangin'?"

Johanna simply giggled, as she was put back on her feet, then gave a wordless yet warm embrace to Ryan.

Stepping back to stand beside Castle, Johanna watched as her mother and fellow cops turned serious to discuss the latest happenings in the case.

From what Johanna could tell, they were about to talk to the guy who had dumped the body at the construction site. She had watched her mother's eyes flick to her worriedly at every mention of the body, but if she were being honest, she was fascinated.

"Okay, Castle and I will go and talk to the guy and Jo," she said, turning to her daughter, who had since rested her head on Castle's hip, "you can hang with the boys."

Johanna stepped forward, her mouth ajar in disbelief, letting Castle's hand fall from her shoulder.

"Aww, what!" she cried, "Mom!"

"Johanna, you know my rules –"

"But Mom, I already know what's going on, please?"

She dragged on the last word, her mouth closing to a pout. However, the expression on her mother's face told her she was not going to budge.

"No. And that is that."

Grumbling in defeat, the young girl wandered over to join Ryan and Esposito. Beckett didn't hear what was said next, but whatever it was caused her daughter's face to light up immediately; she figured they'd mentioned ice cream. Again!

All thoughts of her daughter's late night sugar rush were quickly removed from her mind as she headed in to meet Albert Bolland, the owner of the truck that had been used to move Melanie Cavanagh's frozen body. However, when confronted, he wasn't extremely willing to share.

"What body?" he asked irritably, "I don't know what you're talking about."

"A witness saw someone driving one of your yellow trucks and dumping the body!" Beckett explained, just as annoyed as Bolland was, though her infliction was through his untruthfulness.

"You're lying!" he cried, turning to face the Detective and Castle, "No one saw!"

"Ouch! Wow…" Castle exclaimed, "Maybe you should have tried denying it first."

Bolland's face creased at being caught out, as he looked between both Castle and Beckett.

"Let me help you," Beckett began, her tone infuriated, "Melanie Cavanagh, mother of two. Wife of Sam Cavanagh."

"Okay," Bolland started, flustered, "look, I dumped her, but I swear, I –"

"You didn't kill her, right?" Beckett interjected.

"That's right! I found her!"

"Ah-huh…"

"I never even knew she was here!"

"What do you mean 'here'?" Castle asked, watching the man sigh.

"Sixth floor," he replied, "Renters were in arrears; we usually give them three months, then we cut the locks and sell the belongings."

Beckett and Castle looked between each other, both confused and both spinning theories in their heads in regard to the information they were receiving.

"Only this time, all I find is a freezer, plugged into a light outlet," he continued, before adding, "which, by the way, is totally illegal!"

"You didn't think it was illegal to store a dead body in a freezer?" Beckett bit back incredulously.

Bolland looked taken aback, almost angered at the allegation, but persisted nonetheless.

"You think I knew?" he cried, "When I opened it up, I nearly had a heart attack!"

"You could have called the cops," Beckett added slowly and firmly, her eyes set intensely narrowed on her converser.

"So I could make the front page of the Ledger?" Bolland mocked, "Yeah, that's good for business! What if it's a mob hit? I mean, I got a family!"

"So did she!"

Beckett's outburst broke the man's rambles, and caused Castle's hand to reach her arm and stop her. This was the turmoil that was going to come out of the emotional woodworks for her, he knew it. The pent up anger at a case gone long cold because of people who hadn't come forward; it just didn't seem right in her mind.

"So, you find her," Castle began, "next logical step…dump her at a construction site?"

Sighing again, Bolland rolled his neck and his eyes minutely before he continued.

"I know a guy who works over there," he said, "so when I find the body, I figure that's the place, right?"

After taking a moment to collect herself, Beckett spoke, "Show us where you found her."

Leading them up on the elevator, Bolland took them right to the door of the storage unit and let them in. Inside, the room was dark and dingy, with the only light coming from Beckett's flashlight and a murky window. Sitting in the back corner, was a freezer, its lead running out of the light overhead. Walking over, Beckett pulled a pen from her pocket and used it to lift the lid open, revealing the icy interior. There were patches of hair left frozen in place on the walls, but other than that, there was no evidence a body had been stored in the small freezer.

"Five years in there," Beckett mused, "nobody deserves that."

She and Castle gave the small white good another once over, while more questions were asked.

"How'd they make payments for the unit?" she queried, "Check? Credit card?"

"Cash," Bolland said, "every six months. But like I said, they were three months overdue."

"Puts the last payment at two months after her husband was killed," Beckett told Castle, both sets of eyes not parting from the freezer.

"Hard to make payments when you're dead," Castle stated, beckoning a knowing murmur of agreement from his partner.

"That camera in your office, you got footage of the guy who made payments?" Beckett asked. It was a long shot, given the time frame, but, she had been known to be lucky before.

"That was nine months ago;" he scoffed, "we keep maybe two weeks at a time."

This was not one of those lucky situations. But, despite the disappointment from the unknown renter, Beckett was able to conclude one thing.

"Sloan was right," she said, "Sam Cavanagh didn't have anything to do with it."

"Well, if not Sam," Castle mused dramatically, "then who?"

X X X X X

After last night's interview at the storage company, Beckett had let her team depart, practically demanding they start fresh in the morning. Castle stood at the door of his freezer, his eyes flitting between the various leftovers and desserts frozen within.

He was so focused, he almost didn't notice the adjoining fridge door opening and his daughter's form appear beside his.

"You know we have air conditioning," Alexis Castle said, grinning inwardly at her father's antics. He would often sit staring for hours at a time doing 'research' for his books or just being his usual child-like self.

"I'm just trying to figure out why someone would put a dead body in freezer…" he mused, both as a statement, but also a question. He'd learned through long years as a best-selling novelist and a father that his daughter could often surprise him with the right story to fit.

"Is this a Nikki Heat or Detective Beckett question?" Alexis asked, closing the fridge and turning to her dad.

"Beckett."

Nodding, she began to recollect out loud, "That's right; the Nikki Heat thing was about incinerating a body in a self-cleaning oven."

"Mm-hmm," Castle murmured, "I mean, you keep things in a freezer to keep them for later, but once they're there, you rarely ever go back."

Holding a tub of spaghetti, he turned it over in his hands; when did I put that here? he thought to himself, re-iterating his own point then and there.

"If I was putting a body in a freezer," Alexis offered, "it'd be because I was trying to hide it."

"Until you stop paying for the storage space," Castle said, this aspect of the case being the difficulty at this point.

"Did I stop or did something stop me?" Alexis asked, delving into the roleplaying game Castle often began to understand his characters actions or motives. It had helped him out of writer's block on many an occasion, and was now proving to be helpful in reality too. Closing the door, he turned to Alexis, astounded.

"It's family moments like these I'll never forget," he said, grinning, his daughter scoffing and rolling her eyes.

"With a good therapist, hopefully I will!" she exclaimed, moving off to leave her father grinning after her.

X X X X X

Across town, Kate Beckett was standing at the kitchen bench opposite her daughter, who was seated on a bar stool on the other side. Together, they were preparing Johanna's lunch for school.

"Mom, where did you put the cucumber?" Johanna asked, looking quizzically around the bench to find it. She was lifting up almost every obstruction on the counter to find it, but it wasn't there.

"Uh, I think we ran out…" Kate said, walking to the fridge. Pursing her lips, she scanned the shelves and checked the drawers, but closed the door unsuccessful.

"Sorry kiddo, you'll have to go without," she said, shrugging and then returning to the green lunchbox she'd been packing.

"Hey, Mom?"

"Hmm?"

"The lady who was in the freezer, what happened to her daughters?" Johanna asked quietly, "Because they don't have a Dad anymore either…so where'd they go?"

Kate sighed. This was one of the reasons she hadn't wanted Johanna to go to work with her; there were too many appalling parts of the world presented there, things she didn't want filling her daughter's mind.

"They're fine," Kate replied, "they live with their grandparents, in White Plains."

Johanna watched her mother fuss about with her lunch, her eyes pained and her lips taut.

"Is that what would happen to me?" the young girl almost whispered, "Would I go to Grandpa's?"

Kate's head snapped up, her mouth slightly ajar and her eyes glistening.

"Johanna –"

"Were they happy?"

"Wha- huh?"

"The little girls," Johanna urged, "the ones living in White Plains…are they happy, even though they have no parents?"

Watching her little girl plough on without stumbling over her words caught Kate by surprise. It took her a moment before she was able to make so much as a noise.

"Uh, yeah, Jo, they seemed pretty happy," she replied, nodding, "why?"

"Just wondering."

Johanna's eyes were downcast, and she was fiddling gently with the edge of her shirt. Her bottom lip was being ravaged by her teeth, as she let a million wild thought run through her head. She didn't even notice her mother move around the bench until her hands were clasped around her own.

"Johanna Beckett, you listen to me," Kate whispered, her words choked as she fought off tears, "there is not a thing in this world that can stop me coming home to you."

"But Momma, you know that's not true," Johanna sobbed, "what if something happens – something real bad – something you can't stop?"

"Sweetie, I –"

"I know I tell my friends you're like Superwoman," she blabbered on, "how you're out catching bad guys and saving people, but you're not a superhero, Mom, you don't have magic powers or super strength."

Johanna stopped, panting from her one breath spiel, both girls silent and staring at one another.

"You're just a regular Mom," Johanna whispered, "who kicks butt like a superhero."

Kate's mouth was still quivering from tears, but she managed to pull a small smile for her distraught daughter. Leaning forward, she pulled Johanna into a deep hug, clutching every part of her child into her body, noting every experience with all of her senses. She felt the small hands of her nine-year-old cling around her neck and grasp her shoulders, her gentle shaking sobs in the crook of her neck. Pulling her tighter still, she laid a kiss in her daughter's hair, before leaning gently on the top of her head.

"You know what, JoJo?" Kate began quietly, breaking away gently, but not going far. Her daughter's bright, blue eyes were staring straight into her own green ones. Both hands were on the young girl's shoulders as she uttered her last words, ones which spread the smile from ear to ear.

"You're my superhero."

X X X X X

A/N: So, that last part was basically done because;

I love the home lives of our dynamic duo, particularly Beckett, so I showed both the well-known Castle version plus my own Beckett version :p

I wanted to show the differences in the two parent-child relationships; the different issues and attitudes toward the make-believe and reality of murder and death etc.

So yeah, hope this tickles your fancy (:

Kayla x