Ryan and Esposito left Tenzin's apartment fifteen minutes later with their own counterparts' journals tucked into their respective coat pockets. As Tenzin closed the door to his apartment, the two detectives heard the sound of a door opening at the other end of the hall. They looked up to see a young Tibetan man facing that now half-open door. Ryan decided to try his luck. "Tseten Yonten?"

Tseten apparently saw the two men coming for him and played a hunch of his own. He took off at a sprint through the apartment. Ryan yelled, "NYPD! FREEZE!" as Esposito chased their target. Tseten was two flights down the fire escape when Esposito caught up to the bedroom window...with Ryan right on his partner's heels. Tseten was one more flight down by the time Esposito crawled through the window. The kid was sure the detective couldn't possibly catch up to him before he made it to ground level and got away...

The kid was mistaken. Tseten watched in shock as Esposito cleanly landed a six-story jump to beat him to ground level. He backed up, hoping to be able to turn around and get back into the building the way he left it...only to be disappointed by Ryan's smiling face staring down at him. His shoulders slumped, Tseten took the two flights of steps down to Esposito, hoping to play the last card he thought he had.

As the kid finally made it to ground level, Esposito spoke up. "Tseten Yonten? We need to ask you some questions about the murder of Sonam Kundun."

Tseten looked at him quizzically. "Sorry, I no speak English."

It was then that Tseten discovered that his luck had run out. Not only had Ryan landed a four-story jump from the fire escape to block his only other option to run, but in response to his comment, Esposito replied in flawless Tibetan, "That's not a problem, Tseten. I'm sure that between the two of us, we don't have to use any English at all."

Tseten's eyes widened in shock as the obviously Hispanic cop spoke to him fluently in his native language. That shock knocked Tseten completely out of his lame attempt at deception. Switching back to English, he asked Esposito, "Dude, where the hell did you learn to speak Tibetan like that?"

Esposito simply shrugged as he finished securing the handcuffs behind Tseten's back. "You'd be surprised what you can learn with Rosetta Stone."

Castle and Beckett watched from the observation room as Tseten Yonten sat nervously in the box. As Ryan and Esposito took their seats across from the frightened young man, Ryan recalled what happened with his partner and Tenzin at the apartment building and decided to try an experiment. He reached into all three of his fellow Guardians' minds at the same time and found the connections to be surprisingly easy to make. Guys?

Yeah? Beckett and Castle looked at each other, then through the window to the box with surprise as they all heard each other's mind voices in their heads. Ryan? asked Beckett.

Ryan, for his part, had to resist the urge to smile. New trick Esposito and I learned earlier today. Everyone can now hear each other and talk to each other through the mind-link as long as I leave it open. So Beckett, Castle...if either of you has a question for Mr. Yonten, feel free to speak up.

Got it, Beckett and Castle responded almost in unison, which forced Ryan to fight back another smile as he turned his attention to their suspect. "Do you know why you're here, Mr. Yonten?"

Tseten continued to shift nervously in his chair. "You said you wanted to ask me some questions about Sonam Kundun."

Esposito nodded. "You were friends with Mr. Kundun, correct?" Tseten nodded.

"You brought T in?" Beckett heard Sonam's spirit exclaim behind her. "No way! He didn't have anything to do with this, no way!"

Beckett shushed the frustrated spirit so she could continue to hear Ryan and Esposito keep up the questioning. Ryan asked, "We have found out that you and Mr. Kundun were the leaders of the DPNL; is that correct Mr. Yonten?" Tseten nodded again, so Ryan decided to try to push the kid's buttons. "So is that why you killed him, Mr. Yonten? Did he threaten your position of power within the gang?"

Tseten and Sonam were matching expressions of rage. "Absolutely not," spat out Tseten. "He was my *best* *friend*! We were like brothers! No way I'd ever kill him...I'd rather die first."

Sonam was equally furious. "This is my *brother*, Lièrén. If he had anything to do with my death I'll leave and never come back. If I dissed T so bad that it pushed him to off me, then I deserved to die. No way he did this."

Ryan poured peace into the room until Tseten's anger started to fade. Dude, commented Esposito with a mental chuckle, you've become your own good cop-bad cop...

"Did anyone else hold a grudge against Sonam, then? Someone in the gang who might have wanted to prove they should be number one?"

Tseten shook his head. "No way. We're *all* family."

Beckett watched Tseten and Sonam carefully, impressed with their loyalty to each other. Her senses were telling her that Tseten was being completely honest and earnest in his convictions about his best friend. Esposito, Beckett suggested through the link, ask Tseten if Sonam had a girlfriend.

"Was Mr. Kundun involved In a relationship with anyone, Mr. Yonten?" asked Esposito.

Tseten's suddenly racing heartbeat told Beckett they were on to something. "What do you mean?" asked Tseten, trying futilely to act calm.

"Did he have a girlfriend?" asked Ryan.

Beckett noticed that Sonam's spirit had disappeared and Tseten's face had paled considerably. "There was this girl, I think her name was Nazia...he was nuts about her."

Ryan noticed Tseten's hesitation to bring up this particular piece of information. "I'm guessing there were a few problems with their relationship?"

"There was one big problem with their relationship," replied Tseten. "She had a boyfriend. And Sonam wasn't it."

"Thank you, Choden. I will keep you posted." As Beckett hung up the phone, Castle removed the translation spell. "Apparently, neither she nor Tenzin had ever heard of anyone named Nazia."

"But we have a photo of the girl, right?" asked Castle.

Beckett nodded. "I just got the photo from Tseten."

"Tomorrow Ryan and Esposito will go canvas the neighborhood, looking for the girl?" As Beckett nodded again, Castle continued, "so we're done for the night?"

"Yep," agreed Beckett. She grabbed her coat and started getting ready to leave. "I'll see you later, Castle."

Castle was confused. "Wait-where are you going?"

Beckett tried to be as casual as she could, but she knew that Castle would get the hint immediately. "I'm taking my dad out to dinner tonight. It's been forever since we've talked."

Castle had to resist the painfully strong urge to break their one cardinal rule of not showing their relationship off at work. Instead, he kept things as cool and casual as he could, trying to let his smile speak the volumes he couldn't allow his words to say. "Okay. Then I'll see you *later*."

Jim Beckett studied his daughter carefully from the moment he walked into the diner where they had agreed to have dinner. She looks...at peace. For the first time since Joanna's death, Jim realized, there was an aura of peace around his little girl. Like she was finally where she wanted to be in her life. He had a feeling he knew where that peace was coming from...no, no, better to hear *her* say it.

Kate watched as her father crossed from the front of the diner to where she was seated near the back. Once he got close enough, she got up from the table and embraced him. "It's so good to see you, Katie," Jim said as they hugged, "It's been too long."

"Yeah," Kate agreed. "It has." She sat back down as he took his spot opposite her.

Jim started the conversation as they looked over the menus. "So...how's work?"

"Good," Kate replies casually, trying to distract herself with thoughts of food. "Gates isn't breathing down our necks so much lately, which is always a nice bonus."

Jim let out a small chuckle at that. "Yeah. Bosses are bosses, no matter where you are, I think. And life is always a little easier when your boss trusts you enough to cut you some slack."

"True," Kate agreed.

The waitress came over and took their orders, then they replaced the menus behind the napkin holder. Kate curled her fingers around her coffee cup, surprised at how awkward beginning this conversation was starting to feel. "Dad, I-"

"Yeah, Katie? What is it?" Jim was starting to worry a little about the anxious expression on his daughter's face. Did she find out something else about Joanna's case? Something she's afraid to tell me? Something that will keep me up nights worrying about her...again?

"Dad, I-I'm involved with someone."

Jim smiled, almost in spite of himself. The way Kate worded the announcement only lent more credence to his suspicions. "You're dating someone?"

"Yes," Kate replied.

"And since you didn't say you had *met* someone, then we're talking about someone I've either met, or someone that you've told me about before, am I right?"

The twinkle in her father's eye told Kate that if her father worked at the precinct, he might have tried his hand at running the 'When will they finally hook up' pool. Kate replied, "And I'm guessing by that silly look on your face that it won't surprise you at all to find out it's Castle I was talking about, now, will it?"

"Actually," Jim admitted, "the only thing that surprises me about it is how long it took you two to finally get over yourselves and admit that you're crazy about each other."

"Dad!" Kate was surprised to find herself blushing.

The elder Beckett thought he couldn't wipe the ear-splitting grin off his face even if someone paid him to. "Sweetheart, I know the way you are when you talk about him. And I've seen the look on his face when he talks about you. Now, I don't know much about Rick Castle beyond what you've told me over the years, but I know your face does not light up like that when you talk about anybody else. So, tell me, when did this all finally happen?"

The waitress set their meals in front of them as Kate replied, "A little after the last time we talked, Dad. I...I realized that I couldn't live my life just to solve mom's murder anymore. That I might completely miss out on my own life if I did. And once I figured that out, well...I think by that point I already knew I wanted to share my life with Castle, and it just gave me the push I needed to make sure he knew that, too."

Jim suspected that there was more to that part of the story, but knew better than to push...lest he find out something that would end up keeping him awake nights after all. The rest of dinner was spent mostly eating, with Jim prying small details out of his daughter that he hadn't been able to find out about before: how she told Lanie, how her closest friends at work found out, and what Kate's relationship was now like with Castle's daughter Alexis...the girl, Jim quickly realized, who would probably become his step-granddaughter sooner rather than later.

The two haggled over who would pay the check, as always, and as Jim finally 'relented' and let his daughter pick up the tab, he did a different set of calculations in his head. "Katie, you know, from what you've told me, you and Castle have been dating now for almost six months."

"Yeah, Dad, you're right...I...I didn't even think about it..." Kate's mind went spinning a little as she realized, between the suspension and the reinstatement (not to mention her and her friends becoming Guardians), how fast the time had flown by.

Jim stared down his daughter with an expression of completely mock 'seriousness'. "Do I need to have a talk with your young man about what his intentions are?"

Kate smiled as her father tagged his last comment with a wink and an affectionate grin. "No, Dad, I can handle Castle just fine. Been doing that for four and a half years already, remember? Oh, but that reminds me...Castle wants to do a big family Thanksgiving at the loft, and we want you to be there."

Jim moved to embrace his daughter as he told her, "Wouldn't miss it for the world, honey."

It was as he pulled out of the embrace that he noticed it. Something else about Kate that was...different. It had nothing to do with Castle, but he just...he couldn't quite put his finger on it. Kate noticed her father tense up ever so slightly as he pulled away from her. "Dad? What is it?"

"Katie, honey, is there anything else going on?"

Kate was starting to be glad she was the one with the super-hearing as her heart started to pound in her chest. She tried to remain as cool as possible as she replied, "No, Dad. Why?"

"I just...I mean, there's something different about you. I thought it was Castle when I first saw you, but now..." Jim finally blew it off with a shrug as he continued, "There's a reason why they don't call it father's intuition, I guess. Good night, honey."

"'Night, dad." It was only after Kate Beckett got back in her car (and her dad was out of sight) that she felt like she could breathe again.