A/N: This chapter follows immediately on from where the previous chapter left off.

Disclaimer: I am in no way involved with the production of Castle or Mass Effect and have no ownership of either as well.

Port Crew Lounge aka 'McSoreley's' – SSV New York – Terminus Systems

With thoughts still churning in her head of a certain writer, Beckett steps, with Lanie, through the opening double doors of the crew lounge, known to the crew as 'McSoreley's after the famous bar in the city of the ship's name. This space with the largest observation port in the side of the ship, that is currently giving those inside a spectacular view of the rock filled space in the Packmitt System, has become the favourite place for members of the crew to spend their down time.

There are several plush couches dotted around the room not to mention many tables and chairs where people can sit, relax and enjoy a drink. Along one wall are a row of VR chairs, a couple of which she can see are currently occupied, where a person lies back and lowers the helmet over their head so that they can enjoy a fully immersive movie or game.

At one end of the room is a green baize topped card table surrounded by some high backed chairs that is already familiar to Beckett. Another one of the things she did to bond with her squad mates was to challenge them to a few friendly games of Texas Hold'em poker. Fortunately for her and the squad the prideful Esposito took his repeated losses at her hands with good grace.

At the other end of the room is what can only be described as a bar despite the practice that says that Alliance ships are 'dry'. Officially while alcohol consumption is discouraged aboard Alliance ships it is not prohibited but Beckett is yet to serve aboard one where there isn't a place like this aboard. Like with the rule about fraternisation, ships Captains tend to allow alcohol aboard as long as it isn't consumed in excess and doesn't affect the crew's performance. Penalties are harsh if you abuse the system. Turn up for duty with alcohol in your system and it is immediate grounds for court martial. However most acknowledge that without such an opportunity to let off some steam appropriately then crew moral and performance would suffer.

It also doesn't hurt that another benefit of the bio-medical miracle that is Medi-Gel is that, besides being able to cure minor wounds and purge harmful poisons and toxins from a person's system it has a similar effect on alcohol in a person's blood stream once administered. Many a crew member, after a heavy night, can be seen visiting the sickbay for a quick jolt of Medi-Gel and clearing of their system and senses. Because they have to go to the ships' doctor of corpsman for the Medi-Gel the reason for its application is recorded and so monitored by their superior officer. That way crew members can be detected if they are continually overindulging and receive proper counselling before it gets out of hand.

Beckett stops in her tracks in the entrance of the lounge at the sight of the very man she was just thinking about, sitting at a table near the bar and sharing a laugh about something with Esposito and Ryan. She then feels a nudge in her back that has her taking a slightly stumbling step forward as Lanie puts her shoulder into her back and says cheerfully, "Oh look, Kate, there's writer-boy now. Let's go join them."

Before Beckett can formulate any sort of protest the dark skinned doctor is sauntering over to the table to join the three seated men. With a resigned sigh Beckett follows and as she catches up with her friend she sees Castle look up and a genuine smile of pleasure appear on his lips at the sight of her.

"Ladies! Join us," says a happy Castle. He then turns to Ryan next to him and says good-naturedly, "Ryan, my man don't be rude, get some more chairs for the good doctor and our illustrious squad leader."

Surprisingly to her Ryan doesn't protest but actually quickly rises from his seat to acquire spare chairs from the surrounding tables for them to sit at. As they take their seats with words of thanks to the Engineer, Esposito has also risen to snag two more glasses from the bar and upon returning proceeds to fill them with an amber liquid from the bottle on the table.

As he does so Esposito says to them, "Drink up. This here is single malt scotch all the way from Scotland on Earth, courtesy of Castle."

With raised eyebrows in surprise Kate raises the now three fingers full glass to her lips and takes an appreciative sip of the rich, smoky liquid. As she feels the fine taste and not unpleasant heat of the liquor going down her throat she raises her eyebrows in surprise at the quality of the drink and lets those seated know, "Wow, nice stuff, Castle."

Castle, almost beaming at her in pleasure at her appreciation of his contribution to the evening, shrugs his shoulders in mock self-deprecation as he responds, "What can I say. I like the finer things in life and if you can't share those with your friends then what's the point of having them in the first place."

Again Beckett, as XO, knows there is more to his words than that. She gave approval herself to allow aboard the cases of fine and expensive alcohol that arrived at Sentinel base and are currently behind the bar at the end of the room for the whole crew to enjoy. All of them ordered and paid for by the man seated across the table from her and smiling contentedly at her. This generosity is yet another example to her how Castle is different to the man she first thought he was.

The next half an hour or so passes surprisingly easily for Beckett as she just enjoys spending time with people without the weight of her duty or responsibilities weighing her down. She also finds that connection she perceived with Castle is definitely there and seems to be growing. She finds herself catching his eye more and more as the discussion flows around the table and the playful twinkle she sees there does something pleasant to the pit of her stomach. She is finding that the man she sees now seated across from her, the funny, smart, perceptive and caring man is the real person and not the egotistical jackass that she thought he was.

They've just started on the second bottle of Castle's special stash and she, and she suspects the rest of the people around the table, are feeling the buzz. Esposito is telling a funny story about his first experience of zero-g combat training when they notice someone has stepped up to their table. They all look up and Beckett's spine immediately stiffens and her buzz disappears at the sight of one of the Asari Engineers, Lattia. The Asari is smiling widely at the group around the table but her gaze is focused at the brown haired writer seated across from Beckett.

"I hope you are enjoying your shower, Mister Castle?" says the blue skinned alien.

Becket shifts uncomfortably in her seat as that look of charm that Beckett sees as false comes across Castle's face as he replies pleasantly, "I love it, Lattia, and please call me Rick. You are the person that saves me from having to shower with the likes of these two after all." Caste cocks a thumb at Ryan and Esposito.

"Oh, I agree sharing a shower can be disconcerting, unless it is with the right person," Lattia responds and Beckett can hear the innuendo dripping from her voice. She refuses to acknowledge the flash of jealousy that rears its green eyed head in her mind at Castle being flirted with by the Asari. Then there is her already established discomfort with being around a biotic like Lattia and this fun and pleasant evening had suddenly gone to shit.

Then another surprise happens as she sees a look of wariness cross Castle's face and hope springs to life over her discomfort as she thinks that perhaps Castle isn't attracted to the obviously beautiful Engineer. He still maintains his charming front as he smiles back at the woman and says, "Yes, it definitely has to be the right person."

There is a brief silence and Beckett can see Lattia giving Castle an appraising look before she glances over at another table at the far end of the room where the other Asari, Mazia, is obviously waiting for her. The Asari smiles sweetly at those around the table before saying, "Well I'll leave you all to enjoy your evening. See you around, Commander, Major, Doctor, Lieutenant…Rick."

With the slight emphasis she gives to Castle's name at the end she again fixes him with her gaze before turning around and walking gracefully and with a definitive sway of her hips through the long, close fitting, purple dress she is wearing. As those around the table, men and women alike, watch the woman glide away Ryan chirps up with an explosive whisper directed at Castle, "Dude! She totally wants to wash your back, if you know what I mean."

Beckett turns from her critical appraisal of the Asari's very attractive figure to see Castle shrug his shoulders non-committedly as he attempts to play down what the interaction with the woman, "Oh, I don't know. She's just a fan of my books and she helped me out by installing that shower in my quarters. She's just being nice."

"Bro, there's being nice and then there's the look that woman was giving you. A look that said she wants to further Asari-Human relations with you in a very private session," adds Esposito, playfully giving him a nudge with his elbow.

"Yeah, well while she is beautiful I'm not interested in furthering inter-species relations with her in that way so she's going to have to be disappointed," responds Castle surprising frankly and Beckett sees him glance in her direction for a brief second as he says it. That little look has her thinking that he is worried that she might be upset with his flirting with Lattia and he would be right but not for the reason he is thinking…mostly.

"Well, I got to say, she's one fine woman. In fact I don't think I've seen an ugly Asari….Oww!" exclaims Esposito at the sharp nudge in the ribs he just received Lanie sitting next to him as he'd started wistfully talking on the attractive physical attributes of the Asari species.

As Esposito glares in affront at Laine who is now sipping with faux innocence on her drink Beckett thinks that in actual fact Espo isn't wrong. Like the Major she doesn't think she's seen an Asari that doesn't possess an ethereal beauty that immediately draws you to them.

They are one of the oldest spacefaring species, the first ones to find the massive Prothean station that is the Citadel, the seat of the galactic council, and they were, with the Salarians, the ones to create the Citadel Council. The Asari are a mono gendered, humanoid species where each member resembles a human female in basic body shape with a couple obvious exceptions.

Firstly their skin is generally blue with the occasional purple. The second thing is that on the top of their heads, instead of hair, there are flaps of skin that look like short tentacles but aren't and they sweep back from their faces in an approximation of hair. All of them seem to be intelligent, beautiful, slim, and all are biotics. Then there are the rumours about their mating practices.

From what Beckett's heard, because the Asari reproduce through some form of energy exchange between partners using the natural biotic ability they possess, they are able to mate with any other species or gender. That gives rises to countless unfounded stories of Asari promiscuity. However, again from what she's heard, it is rare for Asari to mate with other Asari these days. They prefer to add to their genetic diversity by bonding with non-Asari. The fact that any resulting offspring only has traces of the non-Asari mate's DNA and psychological make up means that any children from such unions are still Asari and look Asari with just bits added that you would only find if you looked on a cellular level.

Beckett is still pondering the Asari when two more people pass by their table and break her from her thoughts by calling a greeting out to her. Just as when Lattia approached them her spine stiffens and she feels immediate discomfort at being addressed by Gunnery Sergeant Hastings and Ensign Sullivan as they wave a friendly greeting to her and the others seated around the table as they pass.

The man and the woman continue on their way, carrying drinks and heading to one of the empty lounge chairs nearby. As they obviously don't intend to join them Beckett feels relief at not having to play nice and be falsely polite to the pair. She'd feel obligate to do so because they are under her command and despite her personal negative personal feelings towards the two biotic members of Bravo squad.

She looks around the table quickly to make sure that none of the others have noticed her relief and so start wondering why she might react so but no one seems to have noticed. The night then proceeds and she attempts to put the unpleasant feelings she had from the two brief encounters with the biotics behind her and enjoy herself.

As Castle's bottle of scotch is close to being empty the little group starts to break up. Ryan is first saying that he's got a vid chat with his girlfriend, a teacher at a school on one of the wards of the Citadel, and he departs to a whipping sound coming from Espo. Then, with some amusement, Beckett observes a series of furtive glances between Lanie and Espo and before long the marine is making some excuse about having to go and clean his gear. Coincidentally Laine says at the same time that she's got some paperwork to finish and together the pair wish her and Castle goodnight and leave.

"How long has that been going on?" asks Castle as her friend and the normally grisly Major leave trying to look like they are not leaving together and failing miserably?

She looks back at him and he is looking at her playfully as she answers, "I'm not sure. Could be they started before I joined the ship. It's odd though. Lanie is normally the queen of oversharing but until today I didn't know about the two of them. "

"That could mean it's serious," suggests Castle as he pours what is left at the bottom of the bottle equally between his and her glasses.

She dips her head in slight acceptance of his idea, "Maybe, I've never seen her be really serious about a relationship before so I've got nothing to compare it with."

They each take swigs of the scotch in their tumblers and they share a companionable silence for a moment. It is then that Beckett is struck by the fact that she is sitting here, quite happily sharing a drink with Castle, alone, and none of her previous feelings of annoyance or frustration with the man are present and causing her to rush for the exit. In fact she's thinking that if the bottle wasn't empty she'd happily share more drinks with the writer for as long as there is liquid in the bottle.

As Beckett puts her drink back down she looks up at Castle and, since she's feeling so well disposed towards him right now, decides to ask him something that has been plaguing her for a little while now, "So Castle, this…uh….character your basing on me. What's she like?"

A teasing look appears in his eye as he responds, "Oh, you've got nothing to worry about, Beckett…..mostly. She's tough, intelligent, strong, sexy…..and just little bit slutty."

Great he just had to ruin the night, she thinks as Beckett fixes him with a glare at that last bit and she challenges with a low growl, "You think I'm slutty?"

Castle holds up his hands in mock surrender as he backtracks, "No, no, no. Not you, the character in my book is and that piece of her personality is just my fevered imagination and has nothing to do with any persons living or dead." He finishes in a rush at the end like a legal disclaimer at the end of a drug advertisement.

Seeing that he is actually worried that he's caused offence and recognising that he was only joking earlier she decides to relent a little, "Ok, Castle I'll believe you but I still can't see how you think someone like me would make an interesting character for a book anyway."

Castle gives her an incredulous look as he responds, "Have you met you? Kate, you are one of the most extraordinary and badass people I have ever met and that's not even mentioning how beautiful you are. All this despite the struggles you've had to get where you are and what drives you to be the best there is."

Just like when Lattia and the biotics of Bravo squad were near she feels her spine stiffen at Castle's words as she blurts out, "What do you mean, driven?"

This time Castle looks away from her with an embarrassed look on his face and not looking at her he says, "Umm, nothing. It's nothing. Don't worry about it."

"Castle!" she presses. "What do you mean my struggles and being driven? What do you know about me? Been doing some research about me on the side?"

This time Castle looks back at her in the eye and sheepishly says, "I promise I haven't researched you but I notice things, it's what I do. As a writer I observe things, people and in the time I've known you I've observed a few things about you. That's all."

"What things, Castle?" she presses again not wanting to let him off the hook.

Castle gives a resigned sigh as he realises that she isn't going to let this go and looking her in the eye he responds sincerely indicating towards her left arm, "I noticed that antique watch you wear. It's a man's watch and while you are as macho as any woman I've ever met something about it, particularly its age, tells me it has sentimental value to you."

Unconsciously Beckett covers the said watch with her hand as Castle continues, "That got me thinking because I've also seen that you look uncomfortable sometimes when others talk about their families or mainly their parents and to me that seems to be linked to this sadness that you carry deep within you. On top of that there's you. A beautiful, intelligent woman like you doesn't usually become an Alliance soldier. No, someone like you becomes a lawyer, a model, an actress or CEO of a company but not a soldier. I'd say growing up you had options, more socially acceptable options for a career than this. That and the sadness I've seen tells me that something happened that drove you to this life, something traumatic."

Beckett feels like her whole being is being laid bare as Castle continues with an apologetic tone, "Whatever it was didn't happen to you, you're hurt but not that damaged. The man's watch you wear makes me think that something happened to your father. Something so terrible that it drove you to becoming a soldier to fight those that did the horrible thing to him and to stop it happening to others." There is another pause as he continues to look her in the eye and with a tinge of sorrow and with total sincerity he says, "It's who you are. It's your backstory and I while I can't imagine how traumatic it was for you at the time I can only marvel at the strong and brilliant woman that sits before me today as a result."

There is a long pause as Kate's emotions war with themselves at being so easily and precisely read by the man opposite her. She's angry, upset, embarrassed and disappointed all at once that he's seen these things in her. However, as she looks at him and the sorrowful and embarrassed look he is giving her she knows that he has taken no pleasure in telling her these things. As he said, it is who he is. He sees things and she shouldn't be surprised that he's seen quite a lot of things about her given how closely he's been hanging around her lately.

Part of her wants to storm out, straight to the Captain and request a transfer so that she can get away from Castle and his oh so perceptive mind. Another part of her is strangely grateful that someone, even someone who has known her for such a short time, knows her and the pain she has felt since that terrible January day and understands it. Because the look on Castle's face that she is seeing now tells her that he understands. Before she would have interpreted such a look as pity and been insulted but she doesn't get pity from him. No, what she gets is concern and a willingness to help.

Normally she'd shun any such offers of help but again there is something about Castle that has her second guessing her instinct to just blow up at him and run away. It has been years and she has, somewhat, come to terms with her past and what made her become an Alliance officer. Her discomfort with biotics aside that is. Maybe it wouldn't hurt to talk to him about it, as long as she makes it clear that it doesn't turn up in his book. Perhaps the best way to do that is to give him the information herself so that he doesn't find out for himself and use it without giving her an opportunity to control it.

Then there is the wounded puppy look he is giving her right now as he waits for the explosion from her or for her run away. Making a decision that is out of character for her and may be helped by the eighteen year old scotch she just consumed, she decides to relent and open up.

She holds Castle's gaze as she tentatively admits, "It wasn't my dad. It was my mom."

Castle shakes his head as if he can't believe he's hearing what he is hearing and he stammers back, "Uh, what?"

With slowly increasing confidence as the weight of what he is telling her is lifted from her shoulders she continues, "It was years ago, I was in college at the time. Both my parents are lawyers who worked on the Citadel and I was studying to be one too back on Earth. I was there to see them for Christmas break, it was early January and we arranged to meet at this restaurant on my last night before going back. My dad and I waited for ages for my mom to turn up but she was late. Eventually we decided that my mom must have got tied up with a case she was working on and forgot about our dinner. She would get obsessed with her cases like that sometimes so we didn't think anything was wrong despite our calls to her going unanswered. It wasn't until we got to the apartment building on the Presidium where my parents were living and saw the cars from Citadel Security out front and the Detective inside waiting for us that we learned how wrong we were."

"Kate, you don't have to tell me," pleads Castle and from the look on his face she can tell he knows how painful this memory is for her.

She shakes her head to ward off his plea. Now that she's started she's not going to stop until she's told her whole story, "It's Ok, Castle. Anyway this Detective Raglan of Citadel Security tells us that my mom had been found murdered in some alley in Bachjret Ward. Her money and jewellery weren't taken and there was no sign of sexual assault. According to the Detective various gangs of mercenaries were fighting over territory in the area of the ward where her body was found and that, along with how she died, pointed to her getting caught up in the cross fire of their fight for dominance."

"What do you mean how she died?" asks Castle carefully but also with what she thinks now is a tinge of morbid curiosity.

With a hitch in her voice she tells him, "She'd been ripped apart, Castle. The Medical Examiner determined that a very powerful biotic had used a warp field to rip her body almost in half from the inside out. At that time, besides the Asari, most biotics regardless of the species could only be found in the military or in mercenary bands. Apparently the mercs fighting in the Ward had plenty of biotics working for them. But a biotic doesn't leave any physical evidence behind so there was no way to pin it on an individual. C-Sec mounted a campaign with the help of a Council Spectre and cleaned the mercs out but they never found out who it was that killed my mom. It's why to this day that I don't trust a biotics. Trust a person that with a single thought can rip a whole family's world apart."

Beckett picks up her glass and downs the rest of her drink in one gulp. She then puts the glass down but immediately looks up as a sorrowful Castle and says, "I'm so sorry, Kate."

"My dad took her death hard, just like I did but for him he'd lost the love of his life. He decided to try a loose his grief at the bottom of a bottle. While he tried to forget by drowning in booze I decided to quit school, join the Alliance and go to the Academy so I could fight against mercenary scum like the ones that killed my mom. My dad got worse and worse, lost his job and almost his life before I was able to convince him to check into rehab. He's been sober for five years now." She pulls out the chain with the ring on it that is hidden underneath her day working uniform and holds it up of him to see followed by the wrist with the watch, "This ring is my mom's, it's for the life I lost. The watch is my dad's and it's for the life I saved. So there you have it, Castle, your character has a dark brooding backstory now."

The sorrow in his eyes and the dark memories she's just dredged up have her own eyes glistening with unshed tears as he responds, "Oh, I don't know I kinda prefer the whole soldier by day hooker by night backstory for her myself." And she is grateful for the playfulness in his tone as he attempts to diffuse the morbid atmosphere with humour.

It actually gets a snort of amusement from her which is something that has never happened so soon after telling it to one of the few people she's told this story too. She gives Castle a grateful look at his attempt but then asks earnestly, "Seriously though. Please don't use this in your book."

He shakes his head emphatically, "Of course not, Kate. You can trust me. I'd never use something so personal for Nikki."

She nods in acceptance and gratitude at that but then her mind stops and fixates on the name he just said and she calls him out on it, "Wait? What? Nikki? The character's name is Nikki?"

Castle's cheeks actually go red as he blushes and almost cringes as he tells her, "Uh, yes, Nikki Heat, badass Alliance commando, scourge of wrongdoers across the galaxy. And think of the titles… Dead Heat….Rising Heat….In Heat." He says the last one with a tone laced with innuendo.

Again she can see what he is doing. Trying to divert them from the upsetting discussion they just had by getting her distracted about this ridiculous name for the character. She's actually grateful to him for that and so she is going to play along.

With a semi-serious glare and a raised eyebrow she folds her arms across her chest and asks pointedly, "Castle, what kind of name is Nikki Heat?"

A/N: It took longer to get this chapter out than I thought but here it is finally. Some of you will again recognise some of the lines from Castle, rearranged slightly though they are. Again this chapter is to try and get them closer sooner. More action to come. Thanks for reading.