Roger enters Jan's Java Joynt to find the hard working detective is already sitting at the table with her back against the wall. She has a long face and obviously there something troubling her. And from the seriousness of the expression on her face he determines that it must be bad. Very Bad

Roger places his cup of straight up black coffee on the table and without asking her to relocate to the outside chair he sits himself down with his back to the door

"Hey Kate" he speaks softly

"Hi" is her equally quiet answer

"OK Kate! What's wrong?"

"What makes you think anything is wrong?"

"Nothing much, other than the long face and sad eyes that I see form my perspective. Did you loose someone? Or did a much more serious case cross your desk?"

"Neither or rather both"

"OK what happened? Someone close to you have something bad occur?"

"No. Nothing like that"

"Some kind of a bad case then?"

"Yeah"

Roger has now put his morning paper down on the table top and is giving Kate 100% attention

"Tell me what happened"

"We had a man. A chef actually from a new fancy restaurant. He was the chef and partner for this new place. He was found murdered. His kitchen staff discovered him on the floor frozen to death using liquid nitrogen"

"That's what I call a cold blooded murder" Roger comments in a feeble attempt to lighten the atmosphere in the room

"Not so funny" Kate responds

"OK. Sorry"

"We determined he stayed late at the restaurant making a special dessert that required the use of liquid nitrogen in the prep. The killer just used the freezing liquid to kill the chef"

"Why was HE making dessert himself? Didn't' the restaurant have a pastry chef to do that?"

"Oh yeah Q3 had a full complete kitchen staff and…"

"Q3? Are you talking about Wolf?" Roger asks with real concern in his voice.

"Yeah" Kate answers almost like a question herself "you know about Q3 and Wolfe?"

"Oh yes. One of the best dining experiences in town. Right up there with Drago. Anyway what happened?"

"We determined that he had sold his part in a smaller café he owned jointly with this foster brother and also cleaned out his savings"

"That's odd" Roger says

"Ironically Q3's senior partner was a former high school classmate of mine"

"Convenient. You had someone to question that you did not consider a suspect"

"Oh I had to bring her in for questioning. We found out that Wolfe wanted out and she would have to pay Wolfe a lot to get him out. But if he died she gained a cool half million in partner insurance. So I thought there was a possibility she was involved in his death"

"Was that Madison Quillar by chance?"

"Yes how did you know?"

"The night that Castle and her were out on a tasting experience I saw you come in and the three of you left together. She and Mr. Castle seemed a little upset with you. Kate you were upset with them for being out on a date?"

Kate stops for a moment "No! Anyway that's not the point. The point was we thought that Maddie was involved and she might have killed Wolfe but she didn't"

"So who did it and why?" Roger wonders

Kate laughs a moment "Someone close and naturally it involved a woman"

"What?"

"Castle came up with the idea that he was working late on a special dessert. A sugar heart to top a cake. A cake he made to use to propose to a woman"

"Sound like a romantic proposal"

"Might have been had he been able to do it. But he died just after finishing the cake"

Roger looks across to Kate to judge any reaction she is having

Kate continues telling her story "Castle smashed open the heart and found the ring…"

Beckett stops in her description thinking about the ring and how when Rick pulled it out of the decoration he was holding it up to her face like a man proposing to a woman. Kate had briefly been taken back by the closeness of this act. As if inside he was actually presenting a ring to her. She had to pull herself back down to the fact she has a boyfriend when Castle did this

"So you found a ring but no one knew that he had a girlfriend?"

"UH…no. Everyone thought he was totally involved in the business. Even his partner my old high school friend of mine"

"Wait a minute. Old friend. Chef, engagement ring. Who was the fiancé?"

"Not a fiancé. But a woman he was in love with but she was already involved with another man"

"Oh good. Lovers triangle" He speaks quietly under his breath. Beckett does not notice that Roger has turned as has a wish full look on his face as if he is thinking about something important

"Not to good actually. We finally figured out who Wolfe was planning on proposing to"

Roger looks back to Beckett. Not so much at her but past her like he is thinking about something else

"It seems he fell in love with a woman who was already the girlfriend of someone very close to him"

Kate pause again noticing Roger seems distracted

"Two men were both in love with the same woman" Beckett states firmly. She does notice that Roger's face just fell from her statement

"Wolfe had gotten the woman pregnant and he was wanting to change his life and marry her. Do the right thing but his brother found out and the murder happened"

Kate pauses a minute before continuing

"Yeah the victim wanted to do the right thing with the girl. It seems he got her pregnant and he was willing to give up everything in his life to be with her and raise his child"

"The poor guy sold all of his possessions including his part in a restaurant so he could buy her a ring…but…" She stops in her story

Kate is sure that something very serious is happening with Roger since he has changed to a sullen expression and seems to be focused on the outside window of the shop

"OK" Roger stops the conversation without further comment

Beckett looks up at Roger and she is positive she sees a tear in his eye. She has been meeting this man a couple of times a week foe almost two years ant this is the first time she sees any sign of emotion.

"Roger! What's wrong?"

"Nothing" He quietly responds

"Roger! This is something. Did I say something wrong? Do I do something wrong?"

"No" he responds with his voice even

Kate reaches out and for the first time since they met touches the older man. When she does this she realizes something very strange happens. She feels something. Something very odd. The contact with this man seems somehow familiar. It feels to her like they are connected much deeper somehow. This had the feel a person gets when they are in contact with an immediate family member or whit that someone special in that comes into their lives from outside.

From the change in his expression Kate believes that Roger must also realize the same experience

"Roger. What happened? What did I say? Please tell me. You have become like my special grandfather and I am feeling your pain and if I did something or said something, I want to fix this"

Roger finally looks up toward the lovely young lady that has been a major part of his early morning routine for so long now "Kate when you came in here a year ago, I noticed you immediately. Your hair. Your frame. Your skin Your face. All these things brought back a memory from my past"

Kate truly is concerned by his confession

"When I was younger my brother and I both had a crush on a girl from the town were we lived"

"You never mentioned a brother. Ion face we have never discussed wither of our families"

Right. Well he and I were both chasing Marsha Ivy. She was tall like you. Brunette like you. Olive skin like you. Kate I'm sorry but you looked just like her so I was taken back. My defense mechanism. I am sorry for that"

"Not a problem Roger, but there must be more if this story is bothering you so much"

Roger takes a deep breath My brother Randy was the more mature of the two of us. I was the bad boy. I was always getting in trouble. Drag racing. Hanging out with the bad crowd. Getting drunk with all my buddies. We were quite a crowd. But Randy was the solid rock in the family"

"Was he older than you?"

Roger chuckles "Yeah by 6 minutes"

"You are a twin?"

"Yes. The bad twin I always told everyone"

"You don't seem so bad anymore. I mean since I met you, you seem to be very straight and narrow"

"I am now. It just took a long bumpy road to bring me here"

"You did say you liked to drag race"

Roger stops again and takes a deep breath "It was a drag race that brought my life down. And at the same time made me change"

To all my readers. It is time for this story to go off the rails.
WAY off the rails

For everyone who thought Roger was Castle daddy ? ? ?
IS HE?