Author's note: Thanks to all of you who are following this story, favorited and or reviewed it. Special thanks go to my most regular reviewers APseudonimo, wolfergirl and fbobs.

If you haven't seen it yet you'll maybe like to check out as well "Not Enough" the story from my lovely beta annem57.

Disclaimer: I do not own the show or any of the characters. They only thing I own rights to would be my plot idea, which I turned into this little story for you guys.

Chapter 10 – All-Nighter

Kate's POV

Thursday, May 27th 2021

It was way past 10PM when Kate turned the key to unlock her apartment door. She was all knocked out. Her purse fell with a plopping sound onto the counter as she removed the hair pins which had been holding her bun in place, trying to ease the pressure which wasn't really caused by a tight hairdo. It's been nearly two days and their high priority case hadn't made any progress worth mentioning yet. The Commissioner had called twice this day to ask about it and the Chief of Detectives had even paid them a 'spontaneous visit' to remind her that he couldn't fight off the press much longer. They also had been talking about how much of nothing they really had on the case by then. He had made her aware of the fact that if there were no any strong leads soon, he'd suggest asking the Feds for support. Clearly, that was something she'd rather avoid if possible. Harris and Rodriguez were probably her best homicide detectives. She was confident they'll find something. Anything. Soon. At least she hoped so.

Three children's bodies. By now they only knew they must have been poisoned with something but the tox-screen had come back clean. Dr. Perlmutter's report pointed it out: they had died of cardiac arrest, but they hadn't found any source that could have caused it. Everything pointed to natural causes, except for how they had been found and having about the same time of death. Someone placed them in the alley. Why? Unfortunately, the nearest traffic surveillance cam had been around the corner so they couldn't be sure which of the passing cars may have stopped to get the bodies out. Rodriguez had been going over the recordings from several cameras, even private surveillance and at the three closest ATMs to the scene for hours in order to find something suspicious, but it hadn't brought up any promising leads yet.

The bodies and their clothes were clean and no finger prints could be found anywhere at the crime scene. Whoever was responsible must have worn gloves. Even finding out about the IDs of the children appeared to be difficult. They were still working on DNA which was their best shot. They hadn't found any matching missing children's reports for those three going back even a couple of weeks. Kate was only glad that there weren't any signs of sexual abuse on the victims, which luckily ruled out some possible motives. But besides that they really had nothing. Kate pulled herself a drink from the already open bottle of red wine she'd taken from the kitchen shelf. She desperately needed some distraction.

No IDs, no families, no suspects, no witnesses, no motives, and worst of all not even a cause of death yet. Only one huge pile of nothing. It wasn't even enough for some crazy theory Castle would come up with. She rolled her eyes at herself for even thinking about him and his weird theories. Seeing him again lately must have triggered some memories about their working the strangest cases together. Besides him being an annoying pain in the ass most of the time, he had proven to be a little useful sometimes too.

Kate took a sip of the crimson red liquid. She wondered what Castle would have said about this case. Something about hostile aliens maybe? Probably he would have been quite shocked. She could remember when they had worked on the case of a wealthy teenage boy who had been found shot in Central Park. Reminding him of his daughter Alexis, the sight of the boy had been hard on him. That clearly wouldn't be much better on this case since the kids were only little older than Nate. Hell, they reminded even her in the most unpleasant way of Nate causing an uneasy, worried feeling.

Nate. Thinking about the boy was still a raw topic to her although she knew they were making some progress. Kate had realized how badly she'd failed him that morning at the hospital. She had been rather distracted at work all day, Nate's sadness and Alexis' shocked look appearing in her thoughts every time possible. It hadn't primarily taken Martha to trigger those thoughts, but she had forced Kate to face her own actions instead of waiting and hiding. Although she had to admit that she had been quite surprised that the woman had approached her at all.

Kate would have never expected to see Martha Rodgers. When she had been called by the officer at the front desk, Kate at first had only been worried if something bad had happened to Alexis or her kids. After that had been cleared up, she wasn't sure what to think about Martha showing up at the precinct but convinced herself pretty quickly that the woman would confront her, and had only come around to tell her that she'd better stay away from Alexis' family. And somehow that thought had pulled at her.

It clearly hadn't been the best decision to act on her first impulse when Castle had joined them at the hospital. She had even mused afterwards that staying away maybe would have been for the better for all of them, to not cause any more trouble to them, than she already had. Her psychiatrist, Dr. Burke, would most likely have pointed out that she had not just been leaving them or staying away as she had been rationalizing, but being fallen back into old patterns by literally running. Instead of him it was Martha who had done that for her, she'd been digging and pushing and therefore made her realize that she didn't want to run at all. The older woman had shown her that either way people had been hurt, especially Nate. When she had told her to make it up to him, Kate had promised herself to just do that. She cared for the boy way too much to no try and prove she was worthy to be a friend to him.

It had taken another day though for Kate to work up the courage to take the present for Baby Joanne, which she had already prepared in advance before, and go back to the hospital. She had braced herself to be sent away immediately. Given the angry look on Castle's face last time, that would have been the likely outcome if he'd been there. For some reason though, she had been lucky, Castle wasn't there and Alexis had been willing to hear her out.

At first they had tried with the usual small talk. It had been awkward. After some minutes of even more awkward silence Kate had told the younger woman how sorry she was and that she had not meant to hurt anybody, least of all Nate. Sitting across each other Alexis had looked her in the eye, obviously questioning Kate's sincerity. But she must have been satisfied with what she saw, since she had only nodded for response. Kate was aware of the fact, that Alexis probably wasn't ready to trust her again that quickly but she was glad to get a second chance.

After her second visit to the hospital Alexis had even invited her for coffee the other day, when she would have been back home again and all settled with the baby. When she had met Nate again it was just the way it had been before. It seemed their special bond hadn't suffered as much as she had feared. She was still as amazed about the boy. A small smile crept across her face at thinking about him.

And just like that Kate's thoughts were swirling back to the case, her tiredness already fading away. Those children were so damn young. Who could possibly kill three kids? And why the hell should one do that? Whoever had done it had been very careful to not leave any traces. Kate's gaze was traveling through the room, looking for something that could catch it and steady her mind or at least give her a clue what to do with this case. She knew she should probably go to bed, get some rest and go in early the next day, but Kate was pretty sure the thoughts about this case wouldn't be leaving her alone anytime soon. She sighed. Yeah, maybe some good distraction would be everything she could hope for at the moment.

Kate went over to her bookshelf. When she was about to grab a random book she was drawn to a specific shelf. There they were, her collection of Castle novels including the three Nikki Heat books. She hadn't touched them in years but she also couldn't face getting rid of them. So there they were still there and she reached straight for 'Burning Heat'. The memory of the evening, when she had gotten that book, flashed through her mind.

"I just couldn't wait until tomorrow," Josh smiled while handing her a rectangular gift box. This was clearly too large for some piece of jewelry. "Maybe it will help you get through the lonely night," he added still smiling at her confused look. "Go on, open it!" He seemed very excited.

When she had lifted the lid Kate froze. It was a book. Josh gave her a book the night before their wedding. And it wasn't any book.

"Since you have most of his books and you only had the first two of the Nikki Heat series, I thought it would be nice to complete your collection." He obviously was thrilled at having found the perfect gift for her.

Kate hid her shock by putting on a grateful smile and kissed him softly. "Thanks Josh. That's sweet," she said before pulling him in for one last passionate kiss before she would meet him in church only a few hours later.

After she closed the door behind him, Kate took the book out of the box. Without even opening it, she put it onto the bookshelf right next to the others. She didn't want to upset or hurt Josh, but she really did not intend to read this book. Ever.

He had given it to her all those years back. And she really had never opened it, let alone read it. She weighed it in her hands and turned it around, not sure if she should open it, if she wanted to open it in the first place. But as some sort of distraction it surely would work. Castle smiled at her from his picture at the back as though he wanted to mock her on being a childish coward. She wasn't afraid of a book. But maybe she was a little uneasy about what it could tell her. Maybe she didn't want to find out how Nikki Heat would have had to leave the stage, how he killed the character off who had been inspired by her. But maybe it was time to find out. Better to know how Heat was killed than agonizing about three dead children. She frowned at thinking about the case.

Kate filled the nearly empty glass with wine again and propped herself onto the couch. Taking a deep breath, she flipped the book open, only to spot the familiar handwriting. Obviously Josh had the book signed. She couldn't quite imagine her ex-husband spending his time to go to a book signing, but as it seemed he had done it for her.

'Dear Katie, because your fiancé stood in line just to tell you this way that you're his Nikki Heat. All the best, Richard Castle.'

She wondered if Castle had known who he had actually been making the book out to. Judging on the neutral and not that 'castle-esque' phrasing she'd guess not. Otherwise he would never have let go of the opportunity to annoy her through this in some way. Or maybe he just didn't care.

It was odd though that Josh hadn't said something as he must have been aware of the fact she and Castle had known each other. Or hadn't he known it? Kate wasn't very open at the beginning of their relationship, so she may never have mentioned about Castle following her. For a moment she mused if her relationship to Josh ever had a chance and how it would have turned out if she had been totally committed to it right from the start. Well, at least she didn't or shouldn't care now. Neither was it important that Josh had gotten the book signed nor what Castle wrote or thought about it. She had given the whole thing too much thought already. She was just procrastinating, postponing the actual reading. Funny though, because she could recall when she had been eager to get a hold of the latest Castle novel. She had practically begged Castle to arrange an advance copy of Heat Wave for her, so that she could read it before it went on sale.

Kate took a sip of her wine, savoring the silky sensation and the sweet taste. Finally she started reading, setting aside all events of the day as well as her thoughts about Josh or Castle, only to be dragged into the world of Jameson Rook and Nikki Heat once again.

Soft pink and peach sunbeams were already peeking through the blinds, when Kate reached the final chapters. She was getting more anxious with every page she read. The story was tense and dark like there was some dangerous creature lurking in the shadows but up to now there was no hint on Nikki or her writer boy being in grave danger, at least not more than in the other books. In this respect it was very different from Storm Fall, where death had been foreshadowed chapters before it actually stroke. The main characters of Burning Heat seemed to drift more and more apart towards the end of the book. They lost their touch in working together on solving the freaky murders that had taken place in an abandoned municipal waste combustor. They were talking at cross-purposes. It was driving Kate crazy. It wasn't them. They weren't the way she knew them from the other books. She wanted to yell at them to make it better which had never happened before. She wanted to yell at Castle for writing that in the first place. It seemed Castle wasn't about to kill Nikki or her other half but worse he was killing the romance instead.

Kate grimaced at the thought, that romance was dead. Not that she hadn't known before, but it had to be better in the books, hadn't it? In the books eventually the bad guys get caught, justice gets served and true love conquers. Besides the adventurous stories packed with surprising twists, that's what Kate liked about the books the most. In the end everything falls in place, everything's set aright. But Burning Heat didn't feel right at all. Kate started stretching her bones which were aching from spending the night slumped onto the sofa. Maybe she should take a short break. She decided to make some coffee before she would be able to face the end of the story whatever it may be.

Coffee mug in hand, Kate walked through her flat. This man had once again turned her life upside down as he had so often knowingly or not. The first time it had only been his words, his writing. His books had been a real comfort, even a kind of anchor at the times when she was grasping for solid ground. Then it had been the man himself when he'd insisted on following her against her will of course. That had been nearly two years of being flipped around every now and then, some sort of roller coaster ride in putting up with him. The moment she had slowly gotten used to his presence and she may have been ready to give him some credit in being if only a little useful to her work, he had decided to go behind her back, despite her explicitly stated wishes, by poking around in her mother's murder case.

It had been hard on her especially because he had really managed to find something. And that very something had threatened to drag her down once again. The consequences of his actions had been huge. From her present perspective even a lot more extensive than she would ever have imagined back then. But she had forgiven him. Somehow she even had been grateful because he had forced her to face her very own fight again. Especially since he readily spent one hundred grand only to get her the chance to find the assassin hired to kill her mother. Even though she had to kill Coonan, her only lead to the person who was behind all of this at the time, in the end in favor of Castle's life, she acknowledged that the writer's interference had gotten her nearer to closure than anything before.

Besides that it had sometimes been quite entertaining to have him around. She had enjoyed teasing him although or even because he kept acting like that immature teenager most of the time. It was just too tempting playing him and yeah, she liked to play from time to time. She had somehow gotten used to it, even though he had always been walking on and from time to time overstepping the thin line to annoyance.

Unbelievable as it was, the next time Castle messing with her life was actually him not following her anymore. It took her some time to cope with that fact. More than she had been willing to admit at the time. Then there was the night she was marked for death, well when she nearly died. She didn't want to give that another thought instead quickly moved on. Even on the evening before her wedding he or better his book had meddled with her. The book, which was more like disturbing as she was able to see now that she had almost finished reading it. She was pretty glad not to have read it back then when Josh had given it to her. And now it was Castle's grandson Nate who had charmed his way into her life and heart. She couldn't help but smile as always at the thought of the little blue eyed boy. But as though inevitable suddenly his face was replaced by three other children's pale features. The case was still there, waiting to be solved.

It was just then when Kate realized that she had spent the night reading instead of getting some rest before heading back to the precinct in the morning. As she could see now she would have had a restless night anyway tossing and turning in bed due to the recent events and everything else going on. Maybe her decision had been for the better, giving her a distraction and some kind of rest by that. At least she felt better somehow. Her gaze fell onto the book lying on the coffee table. It was late or actually early so maybe the end of Nikki Heat had to wait again.

She was about to head for the bathroom when her phone buzzed. Seeing the NYPD logo flashing on the screen she knew it wasn't only metaphorically the job which was calling. Maybe something new on the kids? Hopefully. She picked up.

"Davidson."

"Sorry to call that early, Sir." It was Harris.

"We've got something on the doll case," he continued. The guys had started to call it doll case because of the way the children had been arranged and to avoid referring to them as children at the same time. Somebody who didn't know them would have found that term at least odd if not highly offensive and disrespectful to the human beings those kids once had been, but Kate was able to understand their need to depersonalize those victims.

"What do we have, Harris?" Kate asked as usual.

"Perlmutter found something on the DNA of one of the girls, something about partially matching a former Naval petty officer or something. So we may be able to identify her. They're already checking it. And there is a request from Chicago Police."

'Chicago?' Kate wondered what they could have to do with the case.

"It's about some resemblance they found because of the pics we put out."

Oh no, please don't let it be a serial killer. A serial killer selecting children in different cities and even states? It seemed that case was getting worse each day instead of close to solving. But maybe these new bits of information would finally crack the case open.

"We thought, maybe you'd like to come in." He sounded a bit insecure as though he regretted even calling her.

"Yeah, thanks Harris. I'm on my way."

Author's note: I'll keep it short: please review!