Author's note: We're learning things!

OOOOOOOOO

Beckett was used to her phone ringing in the middle of the night. She was a cop, after all, and crime didn't always happen in the daytime. Even more, she was a homicide detective and far more people were killed in the middle of the night in New York than were during the day. At least the ones who died at the hands of someone else. So when her phone rang, she groaned, but peeked over at her clock to see what time it was.

"Three-thirty?"

She sighed and reached for the phone, wondering what new case was going to be thrown her way now.

"Beckett."

"His name's Joel Canton."

She frowned, still about half asleep.

"Castle?"

"Yeah. Did I wake you?"

He sounded wide-awake, which was a little annoying. Until she realized what he said.

"Joel?" She sat up in her bed. "You found out his name?"

"Yeah."

She reached for a pen and a piece of paper.

"Canton?"

"Right."

"What else did you learn?"

"He likes my mother."

She smiled, rolling her eyes.

"Anything useful?"

"No. He fell asleep the minute he got out of the tub. I thought-"

"You gave him a bath at 3:30 in the morning?"

"He was dirty."

Castle sounded defensive, which made her smile again as she looked down at the name on the paper.

"I'll call it in and have our guys run a check on the name to match it against missing persons. We should have more information by morning."

"That's why I called you instead of waiting until morning," he told her.

"I'm glad you did," she assured him. "Anything else?"

"You want to come over?" he asked her. "The bath water is still warm."

She rolled her eyes, again, amused despite herself and glad he couldn't see her.

"Good night, Castle."

"Night, detective."

The line went dead as he hung up and Beckett dialed the precinct, still smiling.

OOOOOOOOOO

"Get him settled?" Castle asked his mother as she joined him in the living room. He handed her a glass of wine, knowing that she'd need it. He certainly did.

It had been a little more difficult with Joel than he'd made it sound to Beckett. True, getting his first name had been easy – and his last name wasn't too hard, either. But when Martha had asked him what his mother's name was – hoping they'd get some idea of who he belonged to – the little boy had burst into tears.

Not hysterical tears like before, but heart-rending sorrowful sobs that had him clinging to Martha the way he'd been clinging to Castle earlier that day. He'd cried himself to sleep almost immediately, and Castle had helped get him dressed into his pajamas before his mother had claimed him again and told him she was going to put him in his bed for the night.

"Poor baby…" she said, coming over and sitting down beside him on the couch with a tired sigh and taking a sip of the wine. "They haven't any idea who he belongs to?"

He shook his head.

"They've checked. Hopefully with his name they'll have a better chance of figuring out who is missing him."

"How can someone not be missing him?" she asked, echoing his own words from earlier.

He told her everything that Beckett and the others had told him about the various things that could have happened to the boy's parents, and she shook her head sadly.

"Maybe I should cancel my trip tomorrow?" she asked. "In case you need help with him?"

He smiled at the offer. She had been invited to go with one of her friends to DC and had been excited about the trip since the invitation and hadn't spoken of much else the past week.

"I think you should go and have a good time," he told her, reaching out and taking her hand, briefly. "We have his name – thanks to you – the rest will come eventually."

She nodded.

"You'll call me when you find out who he is?"

"You'll be the first to know," he promised.

With that promise, she finished her wine and stood up.

"I'm going to bed. Don't stay up too late."

Once her baby, always her baby, after all.

"Yes, Mother."

OOOOOOOOOO

The call came in around 5AM.

"Yeah."

"Keller is dead."

"What? When?"

"We're not sure, yet."

"Who did it?"

"We're still trying to find that out."

"And Joel?"

"There's no sign of him."

"Was he with Keller?"

"We're not sure."

"We need him."

"I know. We're looking into it."

"What's Martin doing?"

"Same thing we are. Looking for the kid."

"Keep an eye on him."

"Right."

The line went dead.

The woman looked at her watch, decided that she was awake and up now and she might as well get her day started. She wasn't going to sleep any longer, anyway. Slipping out from under her blankets she got out of bed and went to the window, looking out over the city that was just starting to wake up.

"Damn it." She picked up her cell phone and hit the speed dial. "This is Williams. See if NYPD has put out any feelers for lost agents and get back to me immediately."

She hung up and went to take a shower. The phone rang again before was done drying off. She wasn't surprised.

Her day was going to be a long one. And not at all enjoyable. No one liked admitting they lost an agent, after all, and she hated it more than most.