'So now what?'

'Now what what?'

'What's the move? How do we go after him?'

Beckett looked at her detectives; Shane and Alexis had gone and they were once again on their own in the bullpen. 'We pursue the avenues the evidence takes us. Just because Shane believes this is what happened to his friend doesn't make it so.'

'But you have to admit, the evidence and his story are starting to line up,' Esposito pointed out. 'There's more than coincidence, he gave us motive and means for this guy.'

'And we could have a man telling us he knew Jack the Ripper because a couple of hookers his buddy used turned up dead.'

'Okay, that's fair, but come on, Beckett. Shane comes on a body that's an old friend with connections to dark parts of his past.

'Or...' Ryan trailed off, hedged his words. 'Are you just concerned that Shane's a target and by proxy so is Alexis.'

'I believe that Shane would do whatever was necessary to keep Alexis from harm, even if it meant his life for hers,' Beckett replied honestly. 'And we, as sworn officers and servants of New York City, will make sure it doesn't come to that.'

'So what's the move?' Esposito repeated.

'Goose CSU, especially the tech guys to see if we can get anything on . And get every last drop out of your wit who's coming down to talk to you.'

'Where are you going?' Ryan asked as she picked up her coat.

'To see a mother-to-be about a corpse.'


Lanie was mos-def a mother to be these days, heavy in the belly and bust at five months pregnant with her third baby. The bulb of her little bundle of joy bumped up under her scrub top and she was back to wearing her surgical masks to ensure she wouldn't inhale any substances that would harm Carey and Violet's sibling-to-be.

'Hey, mama,' Beckett greeted her warmly, and Lanie immediately withdrew her hands from the chest cavity she was deconstructing. The pathologist peeled off her gloves, rounded her autopsy table to give Beckett a hug; the bump reached Beckett before Lanie's arms did and Beckett found herself steadying her friend's balance. 'Easy, tiger.'

'I heard about everything from Dave, how are you? How's Rick and Alexis and Shane?'

'They're all okay, they are trying to get back to normal as best as they can. What can you tell me about Yassir Lewertow?'

'COD is the skull fracture to the head. Sent scrapings over to the lab on a rush, and they came back tinted aluminum, the kind you find on your everyday baseball bat.'

'Son of a bitch, he was right,' she murmured, which had Lanie raising an eyebrow.

'What?'

'Shane came by the station, said he was fairly certain he knew who did this,' Beckett said and related the tale Shane had recounted to them all. Being hormonally charge thanks to her baby, Lanie couldn't control her tears and pressed the back of her hand to her cheeks.

'That p-poor young man,' she sniffled, and reached for a tissue before sitting down on a comfortable chair. 'Oh, did Alexis know already or is she dealing with it on top of what happened to her?'

'No, she already knew. I have no idea when or how it came up, but from what I could tell it wasn't news to her as Shane told myself, Espo and Ryan. What else can you tell me about the body?'

'He hadn't been drugged, and his last meal consisted of spinach and cheese ravioli in a creamy tomato sauce, some kind of fizzy orange beverage and a small glass of white wine. His fingernails were recently manicured and he got a couple of shots in on his attacker.'

'Any chance of finding a match on the owner of that DNA?'

'Running it through every last possible database we can think of as we speak.' Lanie sighed, rubbed her hand in circles over her belly. 'Now listen you, Mama's working and talking to Auntie Katie about grown-up police business. How about we save our exercises until after lunch, okay?'

'Are you reprimanding a foetus?'

'No, just let this little one know that it's my turn to get the attention, his or her turn is later.'

Beckett laughed. 'Okay then. Any other details you can think of?'

'He didn't suffer, he was unconscious from the first blow. Took about six to beat his skull in like that.'

'Six.' One for every one of the men responsible for Rachel's death, she mused. 'Thanks Lanie.'

'Anytime, you know where to find us.'


As Beckett was getting the details from Lanie about Yassir's death, Alexis was downtown in her apartment with Shane, indulging in a bubble-bath while he chatted to her, sitting on the closed lid of the toilet.

'That was very brave what you did at the precinct, Shane,' she told him, combing wet fingers through her hair.

'Doesn't feel like it.'

'I was raised by a man whose job is to tell stories, not all of them neat and pretty and polished, and I learned at his hand what the difference is between bravery and bravado.'

'What's the difference.'

'Dad always said bravado was walking up to the school bully and calling him a sissy, and brave was telling the principal the school's most popular quarterback cheated off your test to make his grade on the football scholarship.'

'Richard Castle is a wiseman, even if he does steal police horses naked.' Shane frowned. 'How'd that even happen?'

'My father plus a lot of tequila multiplied by the square root of an old college friend's dare.'

'I think I get the picture. Wildest thing I ever did off of a college dare was dress up in women's underwear and run through a genetics lecture screaming 'No more test monkeys!' Actually it wasn't so much a dare as it was a rush prank for Kappa Eta Lambda.'

'Did you get in?'

Shane shook his head. 'Sadly, I had to make do with the lowly Beta Upsilon Rho.'

'Ah, yes, the lowly Burps,' Alexis laughed, referred to the pet name of Shane's university fraternity that happened to be one of the most exclusive groups in New York tertiary educational institutions. She stirred the water over her stomach, nibbled her lip. 'Shane?'

'Yes Alexis.'

'I want to have a little party.'

'A party?'

'Nothing big and gut-busting, just like some people over for dinner. Maybe have a few drinks and a board game or two.'

'Sure, sounds great. I'm off now, this week anyways.'

She glared at him. 'Shane, I thought I said no acting like I'm some fragile little flower-'

'Actually, this was Pearlmutter saying that I should take the week since my friend was in the morgue and my mother was in town.'

'Oh.'

'It's okay, Lex, I understand what you mean. And I think having people over is a good step. Who did you have in mind?'

'Sloan, maybe Body and Faisal.'

'Faisal is out of town, but I know Body's excited you're home, he was hoping we'd get together with Jeremy for beer and wings and pool.'

'We can do that too,' Alexis nodded, making the water swish-swish as she shifted her legs. She'd shaved them and they felt smooth and silky now, so that when Shane ran his hands over them, her blood would bubble and simmer. 'But I'd like to have them over for dinner.'

'Cool. Just when you tell Sloan one of my friends will be here, make sure she knows it's not a fix-up, okay?' Shane wrinkled his nose. 'Last time I tried to invited a female friend to dinner, she spent the whole night hitting on poor Body and he didn't have the heart to tell the woman he was queer as a three-dollar bill.'

'Noted. Does Body know you talk about him like that?'

'He's the one who said that, sweetie, I'm just quoting him.' Shane watched her reach forward and flip the lever to drain the tube. When she stood up all dripping and soapy, he had to swallow a little deeper - one of his favourite turn-ons with his girlfriend was watching her dry herself after a bath. The way her eye closed as her hands pressed the cotton to her body so intimately made his blood pressure rise up, not to mention other parts of his anatomy too. She wasn't even meaning to be sensual and that carelessness about it was what drove Shane wild in the first place.

Alexis opened her eyes as she wrung out her hair and she chuckled at Shane's expression. 'Hello, Doctor,' she purred seductively.

'Man, why you gotta say it like that Alexis?' he replied in a voice dangerously close to a whine. 'You know we can't do the deed until next Friday.'

'And I promise, we will screw our brains out.'

'But that's so far away. And you're all pink and perfect and smelling good now.' Shane wiggled his eyebrows, winked at his fiancee. 'You could always applaud me?'

'I could what you?'

'You know...give me a hand.'

Alexis groaned as she stepped out of the tub with her hand in his for steadying weight. 'That is a horrible, horrible pun, Doctor.'

'It's a wonder you ever fell in love with me, huh?'

She smiled at him, then sniffled a little. 'Oh, dammit dammit. Stupid post-partum hormones.'

Shane rose up, hugged her close. He was used to handling Alexis' hormones since she could have some really...interesting, he decided decided, PMS moments. What he wasn't prepared for was what she said next.

'I should be the one taking care of you.'

'What?'

'With your friend dying and all.' Alexis looked at him with large blue eyes. 'I'm just fine, honey, or I will be, but...how are you doing with everything?'

'It's so complicated Alexis, well you know, you've known the story for awhile now.'

'Yeah I do remember.'

It was hard to forget the devastating nightmare he'd woken from in a cold sweat just one night after they'd survived their ordeal of flying home from England together the previous November. He'd been calling out for Rachel in his sleep, and when Alexis had pointed this out to him, he'd broken down and told her everything in a fit of tearful embarrassment that he'd kept something so important from her nearly a year into their relationship. Alexis had simply told him not everything is shared on the first date, and he never told her an outright lie about it, so he had nothing to be stressed about. It had completely humbled Shane and he'd spent a good fifteen minutes with her arms around his as he cried at all of the memories the nightmare had revived.

'So,' she sighed lightly, 'you still want that hand?'

'When it's yours, always.'


They lay together naked in their bed, and Alexis had to admit, this was a little bit of a silver lining - the new bed was nice and firm, and the linens they'd picked out weren't too shabby either; they were still fitting Shane's preferred tropics-in-the-boudoir theme in that they were a nice light blue with sailboats in silhouette against the sun.

Alexis had given him that intimacy he was craving, the kind they'd been looking forward to all throughout the two weeks of her midterms, and while it wasn't nearly as much fun since she didn't get a turn yet Alexis knew that the simple act of touching like that was essential to their keeping their intimacy.

Now they lay facing each other, Shane's steady hand tracing over her soft, bare shoulder. 'I love you so much Alexis,' he murmured, pulling her in for a kiss and holding her close so her head nestled against his shoulder.

'I love you right back, Shane.'

'I want you to know that I am not putting any pressure on you about resuming our intimacy. You need time to heal mentally too.'

'Thank you.'

'I mean it, Alexis,' he said emphatically. 'I don't want you thinking I'm insensitive to what you're going through, that I'm some kind of caveman who just wants his woman's ass, you know?'

'I understand what you're trying to do, but I don't want to put off having sex because of a what-if. Then again, I don't want you to feel like I'm rushing into it so that I can just forget about it.'

'Hard to find that line, huh?'

Alexis nodded. 'Very. Can I be baby spoon?'

'Sure.'

She rolled over so her back pressed into his chest and she picked up his hand, kissed the fingertips before she laid it gently between her breasts so he could feel her heartbeat. 'I'm here, my love,' she said softly. 'Healthy and whole.'