Shout out time! Eye color: MysteryGirl72, BeckettByNight, CastleFan1012. Congrats guys! The correct color was green! Yay! And for the Harry Potter reference goes to baughgirl! The answer was Quentin Jordan and his stutter, which was a reference to Professor Quirrell and the DADA book. Congratulations to everyone!

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Those Meddling Newbies

Chapter 11

"Ugggghhhh. How can there be so many missing persons matching our Vic's description?" Annie ran her hands through her hair.

Ryan, Esposito and Annie were reading through every missing persons file that was similar to the body in the morgue. Black hair, blue eyes, mid 20s to early 30s, average height, weight. Needless to say, there were some pretty big files.

"Would you rather help Castle and Beckett?" Ryan jerked his head towards Castle and Beckett, who were similarly drowning in paper.

"That's a tough one. Sitting with you two and looking at pictures or sitting with those two and looking at numbers." Annie leaned across the table and in a low whisper, "My highest math grade was like an B+."

"B+?" Esposito looked at her incredulously. "Dude my highest was like a B-." They looked at Ryan who was staring into space with a guilty look. "Bro, tell me you weren't…"

"Oh, he was." Annie grinned wickedly.

"Fine, I was in honors math. Happy?"

"Very." Esposito nodded happily. With a sigh, Ryan rolled his eyes.

They went back to sifting through the files. "Oh maybe… no." This was one of the random outbursts that would come every few minutes.

"This is so sad. This woman has been missing for 4 years." Annie showed them a file containing a picture of a young woman.

"Well, Lanie put time of death around 3 yesterday night." Esposito glanced over Annie shoulder.

"We're gonna grab lunch, what do you guys want?" Beckett and Castle were standing behind Annie, shoulders touching gently.

"What are you getting?" Ryan leaned back in his chair and laced his hands behind his head.

"Chinese." Castle put a hand on the back of Annie's chair, the back leaned back and back. "Castle." Beckett warned sharply, but it was too late. Annie literary flipped over the back of the chair and into Castle.

"Castle!" Annie whined. "That could've really hurt!" Beckett had a hand over her mouth, but her eyes were twinkling and the corners of her mouth were twitching.

"But I saved you." Castle protested. Annie gave him a Beckett worthy eye roll.

Esposito pulled Annie up and set her on the ground. Castle held up his hand for someone to grab. They all stared down at him. "Guys, a little help."

"Bro, you did that to yourself." Esposito shook his head with laughter.

"Beckett?" Castle pleaded.

"You can stand up can't you?" Beckett looked at him pointedly.

There was a mumble from Castle, and then he grabbed the edges of the desks and hoisted himself up.

"Castle say you're sorry." Beckett ordered.

"No, she fell on me."

"Castle…." Castle glared at Annie who was standing behind Beckett. He stuck his tongue out at her and she returned the favor. "This is ridiculous." Beckett raked her hands through her hair. "How old are you two?"

"They do say that you're half your age." Ryan said.

"So I'm like 12 and Castle's what 40?" Annie giggled.

"Oh aren't you clever." Castle narrowed his eyes.

"You wouldn't have this issue if you just apologized Castle." Becket laid her hands on her hip.

"Fine. Sorry. I'll just go get the food then." Castle turned on his heel and stalked off in a true Martha Rodgers fashion, only to turn back. "What do you guys want to eat?"

Castle jotted down their orders, then grabbed Beckett's elbow and drag her out with him.

"There's a new one. Beckett never goes with Castle." Ryan mused as they watched the pair disappear into the elevator.

"Oh, AnnaBanana, what's this genius plan of yours and Lanie's?" Esposito smirked at the nickname.

"You'll love it, Popo." Annie returned the smirk. Then her face turned serious. "Okay, so first we're going to break the elevator with them in it. But you guys already knew that. Then we're gonna start a prank war against them. But a lot of the pranks will put them in awkward positions."

Esposito nodded, "Do either of you two know how to disable an elevator?"

"Sadly, yes."

"And we get to help you with the pranks?" Ryan asked eagerly.

"Why not? I'm guessing Lanie won't want to get her hands to dirty. And she's kinda far."

Ryan and Esposito hi-fived excitedly. Both looked like kids who had just been given their favorite toy back.

"So is there a pot?" Annie asked.

"Hell yeah, there's been one since day one. You want in?" Ryan pushed his chair back forward.

"Maybe later." Annie tried to go back to sifting through the files, but Ryan and Esposito had other ideas. They were spouting off all sorts of prank ideas. She had been through 3 files in 30 minutes.

Annie glanced up and saw Beckett and Castle come in the elevator. "Guys." Annie hissed.

"What?"

"Hey guys, whatcha talking 'bout?" Beckett asked as she set her fresh coffee on her desk.

"What my title is." Annie said quickly, kicking Ryan under the table as he opened his mouth.

"And what did you guys come up with?" Beckett raised her eyebrow at Ryan, who was leaning over, rubbing furiously, face twisted in a scowl.

"Uh, err…" Esposito spluttered. "HD." He spat out.

"HD?" Castle asked.

"Yeah, Half-Detective." Esposito explained.

"Dude, that's brilliant." Castle reached over for a fist bump.

"You have no idea." Annie muttered, almost silently.

"What do you have to eat?" Ryan sat up, his nose in the air as the smell of Chinese food wafted towards him. "Oh is that Beef and Broccoli?" He moaned.

"Yes, Beef and Broccoli for… what did you call him before?" Castle dug his hand in the bag.

"Lucky." Annie grinned at Ryan whose face was turning red.

"Ah yes. Beef and Broccoli for Lucky." Castle handed Ryan his container and a fork. "MuShuGaiPan for Esposito, MuShu Pork for the lovely detective. My sesame chicken and finally Kung Pao Chicken for Banana." Castle distributed the cartons.

"Do you have chopsticks?" Annie asked.

"Yeah, you like eating with chopsticks?" Castle asked in disbelief.

"Yeah." Annie nodded. "Wo juede ni yinggai yong quaizi zhongcai, mei you cha shi."

"What did you just say?" Castle asked.

"I said, I think you should use chopsticks when eating Chinese food, not forks." Annie shrugged.

"That… was… so awesome! You speak Chinese!" Castle was almost screaming.

"I speak the basics."

"Why do you know Chinese?" Beckett asked.

"My mom was a linguistics professor so she was always teaching us things. And we moved everywhere with my dad so I picked up those too."

"You speak more then Chinese?" Ryan asked.

"A little bit of a lot." Annie said. "That's what my mom always said. But yeah, French, Spanish, German, some Russian, um…"

"Oh you and Beckett could talk together." Castle said excitedly.

"You speak Russian?" Annie tilted her head at Beckett.

"Semester in Kiev."

"Ah. Sweet. So can I have my chopsticks now?"

"Only if you say something in Chinese." Castle held the chopstick tauntingly in front of her.

"Uh… wo zhen xihuan nide yang." Annie said with a roll of her eyes.

"Here you go. What did you say?"

"I said, I really like your goat." Castle's eyes widened in amazement.

"I told you. Like a shiny new toy." Beckett leaned over to Annie. Castle followed her and stared at the file Annie had been looking at.

"I think I just found our Vic." Castle said, setting down his food and grabbing the file. "Jessica Shuster." He held up her picture to show them. It was a definite match to the body down in the morgue. "Reported missing this morning by her roommate."

"Let's get the roommate in here to identify her and answer some questions."

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"Roommate's name's Tasha Inz." Esposito led them to the room where Tasha was sitting.

Beckett walked in with Annie and Castle shadowing her. "Hi Tasha. I'm Detective Kate Beckett. We need your help id' ing a body."

"Is it Jess?" She asked.

"We think it might be." Beckett said solemnly. She pulled out a picture of the body in the morgue.

Tasha covered her mouth with her hands. "Oh my god. That's Jess. What happened to her? Is that a bullet wound? I watch a lot of CSI." She sent a flirty grin Castle's way. Beckett and Annie raised their eyebrows in unison.

"You're positive it's her?" Beckett looked at Tasha, not a tear shed or anything was rare and Tasha was showing very little emotion, even when shown the picture.

"Yes."

"Did she have a boyfriend?" Castle leaned in.

"Sure. Harry Turner."

"Thank you Tasha. We'll call you if we need anything else. Call me if you remember anything." Beckett handed Tasha her card as they stood up. An officer escorted Tasha out.

"She's lying." Annie said in a singsong voice.

"I know." Beckett, frustrated, walked back to the murder board. "Ryan, Esposito run down an Harry Turner. He's our Vic's boyfriend."

"On it boss." They said in unison.

"What did Jessica do for a living?" Castle mused as he settled down in his chair. "Maybe rival accountants. Oh I can just imagine it the blurb. 1 gun + 2 suspects= 3 dead."

"Jessica was a school teacher, second grade." Annie read from her file.

"Spies?" Castle offered, throwing his hands up in the air.

"Really Castle?" Beckett glanced at him.

"Hey! I don't see either of you two coming up with any ideas."

"Whoa, wait up there. Are you saying that we can just make up crazy theories without any evidence?" Beckett asked.

"Yeah, 'cause that would be brilliant. Can we do that Beckett?" Annie tilted her head.

"Oh you two are so funny. I'm laughing on the inside." Castle narrowed his eyes and nodded.

"So what about the roommate?" Beckett grabbed Tasha's picture and pinned it up on the murder board.

"Maybe she wanted the apartment all to herself." Castle stood up and leaned against Beckett desk.

"My roommate is such a pain in the ass. She's loud, wakes up at 4:30 like clockwork, only eats organic stuff, and in a nutshell she's an eco freak. But the weirdest thing is she looks totally normal." Annie copied Castle's motions.

"All of my roommate's were normal. What about you Castle?"

"I've had 2. They're called wives." Castle said huffily.

"Nice." Annie nodded.

"Boss, Turner's here." Ryan yelled.

"Okay. Castle, you stay here. I want Annie to watch me with out you." Castle pouted like a child who was denied sugar.

"Fine."

Annie tentatively followed Beckett in to the room. Harry Turner was sitting on the couch ringing his hands furiously.

"Hello Mr. Turner. I'm Detective Beckett, this is Annie Wellington. We have a few questions about your girlfriend, Jessica." Beckett reached over and shook his hand gently.

"Is it true? Is she really dead?" His voice was shaky and low.

"Yes. I'm very sorry for your loss, Mr. Turner. Did she have any enemies?"

"No, no. Everyone loved her."

"Was she having any money problems?" Beckett pressed.

"No. Her job was fine."

"What about her family?"

"As, far as I know. She had a younger brother who lived with her parents in Oregon. I've never met them." He shrugged.

"Thank you for you time." Beckett stood up and reached for his hand again.

Annie stood up with Beckett and smiled at Turner. "Wait, Mr. Turner. Do you know a Quentin Jordan?"

"Yeah, what does that have to do with anything?"

"How do you know him?" Beckett asked.

"His office is a few doors down from me and my partner."

"Partner and I." Annie coughed-said.

"What?" Turner asked in confusion.

"Nothing. Did Jessica ever visit you at your office?" Beckett rolled her eyes at Annie.

"No… wait. Yeah she did once." Turner nodded. "Yeah, she visited once and she didn't get along with Julian O'Leary, my partner. They had a fight about something. I don't what about though."

"Thank you." Beckett shook his hand again.

Beckett led Annie out. "Good job on the office thing." Annie's face split into a wide grin.

"Thanks."

"Hey Ryan, get me all you can about Julian O'Leary." Beckett ordered as they entered the bullpen.

"Okay."

"Yo, Beckett, Shrimp. Jordan was having some financial troubles at home. It seems like his wife had some spending issues." Esposito walked over and handed a few sheets of paper with numbers and yellow highlights.

"So what if Quentin decided that he needed a new wife and had an affair with Jessica, who was around the building a lot. Then he gets cold feet and she doesn't like that, so he freaks and shoots her in the head." Castle presented with all the hand motions.

"You paint a pretty picture there, Castle, but I just don't see Quentin Stutter shooting someone in the head." Esposito pointed out.

"What about the boyfriends partner?" Annie added.

"Partner, like business partner or partner/partner?" Castle asked.

"Business." Beckett gave him a narrowed eyed glance. "Ryan's him down right now."

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An hour later, Julian O'Leary was twiddling his thumbs absent-mindedly and staring at his reflection in the mirror of the interrogation room.

All five stood behind the glass, watching the guy. "O'Leary has a 22 which matches the bullet found." Ryan handed Beckett his file.

"Okay. Annie with me." Beckett and Annie left the room. Castle frowned a bit.

"Ooooo, getting passed over for Shrimp." Ryan joked. Esposito elbowed him in the ribs.

"Don't worry about it bro. Beckett just wants to make sure that Annie's getting the full experience. Because unlike you, she actually needs it."

"Hey, I need it too. That's how I make my money!" Castle's protests were cut off by Beckett's voice.

"Mr. O'Leary, do you know why you're here?" Beckett settled down in the chair directly across. Annie grabbed the chair in the corner and moved it closer.

"To see two pretty girls?" He replied with a large grin.

Behind the glass, there were three glares.

"No. Do you know someone by the name of Jessica Shuster?" Beckett slid Jessica's picture across the table.

"Oh yeah. Harry's girl." He leaned back in his chair and crossed her arms.

"Harry said that you had an argument with her."

"Yeah, she came in and was accusing me of stealing from Harry."

"That must of really pissed you off." Beckett urged.

"Yeah." He nodded.

"Why did she accuse you of stealing from Harry Turner?" Beckett asked.

"Well, you see Harry does the more social part of the operations. But I'm the business, smarts part of the it." He turned and leered at Annie. "You like smart fellows, hon'?"

"Smart, yes. Idiots, like you, no." She raised an eyebrow.

"Atta girl." Esposito cheered softly behind the glass.

"So what kind of business did you two run?" Beckett pressed.

"Photo business."

"Did not know you needed brains for a photo business." Annie leaned over to Beckett and whispered to her.

"What does that exactly mean?" She questioned.

"Harry takes the pictures and I deal with the money and clients. So yeah, I should get more money." Julian said angrily.

"So did you take money from your business?"

"Yeah, but I was basically running it. And I needed to pay off some debts." Julian shrugged non-chalantly.

"Whom were you paying your debts off to?"

"MY brother. He helped us start out; he said he needed the money right away so I started taking bits and pieces. But Jessica got so freaked out about it…"

"Was she looking into it?"

"I don't know."

"Where were you this morning from 12-2?"

"Um, what everyone else is doing sleeping."

"Can anyone verify that?"

"My wife." He said flatly.

"Do you know a Quentin Jordan?" Beckett asked with a sense of finality.

"I think his office is down the hall from ours. He seemed sort of weird."

"Thank you for your time." Beckett stood up abruptly, Annie quickly followed.

"The pleasure was all mine." He leered once more at both of them before cruising out the door.

Beckett and Annie left the bright white room and entered the darker bullpen. "I think he did it." Castle declared.

"And why's that?" Beckett demanded.

"10 bucks she rolls her eyes." Esposito muttered to Annie and Ryan.

"Fine, you're on." Ryan said.

"20 he says it's because he was looking at her funny." Annie said.

"Okay. But Castle would never say anything like that." Esposito nodded and Ryan grinned.

"So you're saying that you think he did it just because?" Beckett raised an eyebrow.

"Uh, yeah."

"I can't charge him just cause you got a funny feeling, Castle."

"You could." Castle gestured wildly.

"Is that the only reason he bugged you Castle?" Annie leaned in.

"Hey!" Ryan muttered, glaring at her.

"It's 40 bucks, my friend." Annie replied cheekily.

"Yes, maybe." Beckett glared at him. "No. He was leering at you two weird." Castle swung his arms at Annie and Beckett.

"Boys?" Annie whispered.

"He was looking at you funny. Castle's right." Esposito quickly avoided her stare. Annie held out her hand. Esposito and Ryan sheepishly handed over their money.

Meanwhile, Beckett and Castle were quietly arguing in a tone that Ryan, Esposito and Annie couldn't hear. They all stared unbashfully.

"Detectives." The Captain was standing behind them. Everyone turned around; with hand in the cookie jar looks. "How is it going?"

"Um, not much right now. But we have a couple of suspects." Beckett said automatically.

"Good. Detective Beckett, a word in my office." The Captain led Beckett into his office.

"Captain?"

"I just wanted to check up on Annie. Do you like her?"

"Yes. She's been quite helpful." Beckett nodded.

"She did have some of the highest scores at the academy."

"When will she become a full detective?"

"It's unclear. She's highly qualified, but there aren't any openings. So unless someone retires, she'll be with you for a while. Is that a problem?"

"No, I was just curious. She's quite young."

"Think your records being threatened?" He joked. Beckett had a tight-lipped smile that barely reached her eyes.

"No."

"You may go now." The Captain waved a hand towards the door. Beckett quickly stood up and walked out stiffly.

"Did someone get into trouble?" Castle teased.

"No."

"What'd you talk about?" Castle asked quietly.

"Not telling you." Beckett grinned slightly.

"Please." Castle whined.

"Hey Castle, do we need some water?" Ryan asked. Beckett and Castle blushed as they realized how close they were.

"No, what is it Ryan?" Beckett asked exasperatedly.

"Um, Julian's brother, Jake O'Leary has some connections to the drug trade." Ryan reported.

"Great, have uniforms bring them in." Beckett nodded.

Ryan strolled back to Annie and Esposito were smirking.

Annie glanced at Beckett and Castle who were continuing their previous argument. "Oh, they're so cute at that age." Esposito and Ryan struggled to hold back their laughter.

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I would just like to say how amazed I am how far this story is. Over 50 reviews and 11 chapters, blowing my mind.

I'm sorry this is late, but it was Good Friday, I had stuff to do. No not really, I just couldn't find a good stopping point. So this is longer than most will be. I'm starting to get really excited about this story, so the plot will start to thicken more. Speaking of plot thickening, has anyone seen the promo for the new Psych? I may have just found my new favorite line: "The plot, unlike your hair, continues to thicken." I'm sure none of you care but oh well.

About the Chinese, I'm sorry if anyone thinks that's odd, but I was doing Chinese homework and we've just learned food. And I really like your goat is my go to sentence for when people demand that I say something in Chinese.

Also I apologize profusely for my pathetic attempt on a case. If anyone wants to help, I would love it!

And for the shout out questions: approximately how old is Annie? And an easy throw away question, favorite Castle episode?

As always, review.

E