There may be hope for me yet lol! I wasn't expecting to get an update this quickly, but inspiration struck. Thanks so much for reading, following, and favoriting. Special Thanks to everyone the reviewed! Hope you guys like this chapter. There's a fun little surprise ahead (well I think so anyway).

Disclaimer: I don't own Castle in any way, shape, or form. (Except in my dreams)


"Thank You, Mrs. Emerson. We will be right over to get it." Kate said hanging up the phone.

"Get a lead?" Castle asked as he handed Beckett her coffee.

"Thanks" Kate smiled. "And yeah, Mrs. Emerson found a cell phone in her husband's home office with a ton of threatening text messages on it."

"Burner phone?"

"Probably, but if we're lucky the number he was talking to is traceable. We just have to go pick it up and get tech to run the sim card."


"Beckett, we got a hit." Ryan called out coming off the elevator.

"That was quick. How tough were you on the tech guys?"

"Not at all" Ryan laughed. "I just did it myself."

"What'd you find?"

"All the texts came from William Stone. It looks like Emerson and Rennison money owed him money and when they couldn't pay it things got heated."

"Does it say what the money was for?" She asked.

"Nope, just that if he didn't get paid soon, he was going to kill them."

"Looks like they didn't pay." Castle chimed in.

"Maybe that's why they were taking money from clients and stashing it in other accounts. They were waiting till they had a enough and then were going to pull it all and blame a market crash. They were taking it from accounts where it was relatively safe and putting it in riskier investments so the large losses would be easier to account for." Ryan explained.

"Doesn't sound like a very good plan. They just created two angry clients instead of one." Beckett added.

"I didn't say they were geniuses." Ryan shrugged.

"Let's go pick Stone up"


"William Stone, NYPD. Open Up!" Esposito yelled pounding on the door.

"Take it." Beckett ordered.

Espo busted the door open with one swift kick just in time to see Stone fiddling with the latch on the window across from them. Ryan was on him before he could manage to get out. He cuffed him, ensured he didn't have any weapons on him, began to read him his rights. Esposito and Beckett cleared the rest of the apartment, but Stone had been alone. That's when they saw the gun on the night stand in bedroom. The team had obviously caught Stone of guard if he was planning on fleeing without taking his weapon. They quickly bagged it and marked it as evidence.


"Ugh what does she want?" Rick groaned starring at his ringing phone in the car on the way back to the precinct. Ryan and Esposito had taken Stone with them, so it was just Castle and Beckett in the car.

"Who is it?" Beckett asked.

"Meredith." He took a deep breath and answered "Hello."..."What? No, you cannot stay with us."..."Don't give me that, it's been two weeks."... "That was almost three years ago."

Kate could only hear his end of the conservation, but she was pretty certain what was going on.

"Well, maybe you should come visit your daughter more often."..."She's already back to school, has been."..."No, she will not take a day off. Seriously, do you know her at all? She's not missing more school."

Kate could see the frustration all over his face. She reached over and rubbed his knee in support. He gave her a small smile.

"Whatever"... "No, no I don't know"..."Did you ask her?"..."I don't know, talk to Alexis."

Kate just drove, silently listening and hoping this wouldn't be too much of a disaster. She had only met Meredith once, but that was enough. She didn't know if she should be happy or sad for Alexis. The girl hadn't even seemed to care when her mother called while she was in the hospital. She really only wanted Rick and Martha. But maybe the teen would be happy, Meredith was her mother after all.

"Yes, I'll pay for it."..."Meredith"..."Fine, whatever. How long are you here?"

Kate hoped he didn't see her flinch at the question. It was probably selfish, but Kate wanted Meredith gone, and she wasn't even there yet. Not that she didn't trust Rick, but she was getting the impression it had been quite a long time since he enjoyed a 'deep fried Twinkie' and didn't want to know if he was craving one. He didn't seem mind that Meredith was crazy or annoying. Apparently, that was a good thing in the bed room. No, No! Kate was not letting herself get worried or jealous. She had no reason to be. Rick was hers.

"You really should have told me sooner."..."I'll take care of it." Rick continued to talk sounding angry and uninterested. "Yes, I'll see you later."..."Bye". He hung up and shoved his phone back into his jacket pocket, but he didn't say a word.

"Rick?" Kate questioned after a moment.

"Meredith's in town."

"Yeah, I figured that much."

"She just landed at LaGuardia and called to see if anyone was at the loft to let her in." He huffed.

"She didn't tell you she was coming?" Kate asked, but she was fairly certain of the answer.

"Nope, thought she would surprise everyone."

"You certainly look surprised."

"Surprised, pissed. Same thing."

"I'm sorry." She said gently and put her hand back on his thigh.

"It's not your fault." He gave her hand a small squeeze, but released it so she could put it back on the wheel. "Meredith thinks she's the mother of the year coming to see her sick daughter, two weeks after surgery when she's almost completely better. I don't get it. She hasn't been here in years, always makes Alexis come to her. Now she just shows up and expects to stay with us and have Alexis spend all this time with her. She doesn't even understand that she has 2 months left of high school and is trying to get an internship. That she's busy and doesn't have time to go waltzing around the city with her crazy mother." Rick's frustration was all over his face and evident in his voice.

"Maybe this will help Meredith see that, get to know Alexis better. She surely has to understand that school is important to her. Yes, she should have came sooner and definitely need to call, but it makes sense that she wants to come make sure she's ok."

"I don't have any problem with her coming. I don't even mind paying for her hotel, even if she insists on staying at The Ritz. I wish she came more often. Alexis should have a better relationship with her mother, but every time she shows up it like tornado hits. She disrupts everything, and Alexis is stressed enough as it is."

"You don't think she will be happy to see her?" Kate questioned.

"She'll pretend to be to protect her mother's feeling, but I know she's gonna flip. She has her interview at the law firm tonight, like an hour after school. She's already freaking out about having enough time to get ready not to mention what they are going to ask her."

"Maybe you should wait till after to tell her that Meredith's here."

"Definitely, I'm not giving her anything more to worry about."

"I'm sure the interview will go fine."

"I was meaning to ask you about that. I know it was your mom's firm. Did you make a call or something? Give her application a little nudge?" Rick asked suddenly getting a little nervous half way through.

"No, I didn't do anything. Alexis was completely innocent when she asked for the letter of recommendation, and everything I wrote was 100% truthful. No over exaggerations or hyperbole. Depending on who read the applications, they may have recognized my name, but not necessarily. Berman's the only one there that knew my mom. Walsh's son took his position a few years back, and McCartney never worked with her. I doubt it had anything to do with me or my mother. Alexis earned this all on her own."

"Thank You"

"For not trying to pull any strings to help your daughter?" Kate laughed.

"For having enough confidence in her that you didn't feel you needed to."

" I saw her resume. It was seriously impressive. I originally was going to call Berman, see if I could help her case at all, but when she sent me her application I knew I didn't have to. You should really ask her to read her essay. It was amazing. You're not the only writer in the family, or the only one that cares about justice. I didn't want to tarnish her acceptance. She needs to know she did this all on her own."

"I love you"

"I love you too." Kate smiled as they pulled into the precinct "Do you need to go or are you staying for the interrogation?"

"I'm staying. Meredith's already in New York; there's nothing I can do about it."

"Ok. Let's go close this case."


"Mr. Stone, I'm Detective Beckett. This is Mr. Castle." She announced as they walked in and took a seat across the table from him. The man didn't even look up. "Want to talk about why you ran from us or better yet, about the gun we found in your apartment?" Beckett inquired harshly. The man was frozen and didn't say a word."Did you know either one of these men?" She asked pulling out pictures of Emerson and Rennison.

"No." Stone finally spoke up after barely glancing at the photos.

"So, You haven't been texting Tom Emerson threats about money he owed you?" Castle asked.

"I don't know what you're talking about?" Stone had yet to look up. Apparently, the table top was very interesting.

"Well you might want to figure it out because once we get the ballistics report back from your gun, it's too late. Once we confirm it's a match to the gun that killed Emerson and Rennison, it's all over. You get 2 first degree murder charges plus resisting arrest and whatever else we find concerning the money. You will go to jail for the rest of your life." Beckett said sliding her chair back away from the table. The motion finally startled Stone into lifting his head.

"I want a lawyer." He barked out.

"Not a problem. I heard they're considering doing some renovations at Rikers maybe you'll get a new cell." Beckett said nonchalantly as she stood up and headed for the door. Castle quickly followed.

"Wait!" Stone yelled just as she took a step out of the room.

"Yes?"

"I'll talk." Stone said dejectedly.


"I was really hoping there was a better story to it. I mean gambling debt? Come one. They practically gamble money all day and call it work. They couldn't find something better to do with their free time?"

"Sorry, Castle. Every murder can't be novel worthy." Kate shrugged.

"Yeah, yeah whatever. At least we got him."

"And that's all that matters." She smiled.

"So how much paper work do you have to do?"

"Less since he confessed and ballistics probably won't be done tonight. I'm going to write up as much as I can, and the rest will have to wait till tomorrow."

"Ok, I think I'm gonna head out then if that's ok?" Castle asked. "I want to be there when Alexis gets home."

"Yeah, go head. Good Luck."

"Thanks, I'm gonna need it. I'll call you later."

"Ok" She said and looked around, seeing no one in hall outside the interrogation rooms, she leaned in and gave him a quick kiss.

"If 'call you later' gets me a kiss, maybe I should have said 'see you later'. What would that have gotten me?"

"Precinct, Castle."

"Which is why I'm surprised."

"You needed a good surprise today." She smiled and headed for her desk.


"Hey, how'd it go?" Rick asked coming to meet Alexis right when she walked in the door.

"Really well, I think I actually have shot."

"Of course you do. You wouldn't have gotten an interview if they didn't think you were qualified."

"I know, but still. I was the only high school kid there." She shrugged.

"Kate told me your application was amazing."

"My essay just kind of took off, you know? It ended up not at all what I was going for, but I really liked it." Alexis said with a smile.

"I know exactly what you mean."

"The interview questions actually weren't too bad. Mr. Berman was really nice. He started out with ice breaker question and asked what the strangest thing that ever happened to me was? Said it was a good way to start the ball rolling."

"What'd you say?"

"I told him about last fall when that photographer caught us coming out of The Angelica at night, and we ended up on page six as Jason Bateman and his new girlfriend." She said with laugh.

"It was really dark and that picture was blurry. Plus they only ran it small in the bottom corner." Rick defended. He was still mortified that he was in the paper "dating" his daughter even if it was under the wrong name and very few people had noticed it was them.

"Still hilarious."

"Yeah, it was. How'd Mr. Berman react?" He asked not sure if it was actually appropriate for her to tell him that story. It wasn't exactly very professional.

"He laughed. I think he liked it."

"Good, I'm glad it went well." Castle said pulling her into a big bear hug.

"You're home early." She said when they pulled away.

"Yeah, uh a little bit."

"Dad... What's up?" Alexis could see the uncertainty all over her father's face.

"Your mom's in town."


Thoughts? Comments? I couldn't resist the Jason Bateman reference. I watched Eye of the Beholder earlier. I was literally laughing at myself when I wrote it. I'm lame, I know. I'm also weirdly excited to write Meredith. Expect some Meredith/Kate and Kate/Rick on the subject next chapter. It's gonna be fun one lol. And in case anyone was wondering from last chapter, I got Papa Beckett being a lawyer from a deleted scene from Knockdown. He said him and Johanna worked together. Look it up on Youtube, the scene is so much for reading. I love you guys. I'm going to start responding to reviews and get caught up on some old ones, so let me know what you're thinking.

Thanks for reading,

Meagan