A/N: Sorry for the slow update. This chapter's a bit longer. Don't think it's too much case work. Has a pretty nice balance in it, I think. Let me know. :)

"Hey, Espo, what'd you get from the neighbors?"

Espo turns with his notepad in one hand, briefly looking over his shoulder to Castle, who's on his phone. "Not much. They said they thought they heard something that sounded like some yelling around ten or eleven, but it's a noisy building so they didn't think anything of it."

"What about the roommate?" Beckett nods over her shoulder to the girl still giving Ryan her statement.

"Said she came back from her boyfriend's place this morning to pick the victim up for work around nine. Discovered the body and called it in." Esposito explains. Beckett nods and looks down to the floor, committing the detail to memory for later. "What's up with Castle?"

She feels her heart go into her throat as she looks up, seeing his sad expression, leaned against the wall with his eyes down to the floor. "The uh... the victim was his housekeeper... fourteen years." She sees Espo's eyes quickly turn to the end of the hall. "I guess she was like family to them."

Espo pushes out a deep sigh. "Guy's been through enough, you think he could catch a break."

She feels her heart break at the thought, her arms tingling at the desperate want to just go hold him, soothe away his pain as best she can. She feels it her responsibility now. But she's angry at only herself because she can't. "He's calling Alexis's school now and is having her taken out of class. I'm gonna have a uniform pick her up. He wants to tell her himself."

"I'll let Ryan know, he should be finished taking down the roommates statement by now."

Beckett nods and waits until Esposito walks back into the crime scene. She pushes out a short breath, watching as he presses his thumb to his phone sullenly and lets his arm fall heavily. It's never hit this close to home for him before. She gives into the pull and slowly makes her way down the hall toward him. His eyes catch her briefly before falling back down to the floor. A blank, thousand yard stare, shutting out the world. "Hey." She says softly, clenching her fists at the desire to reach out and soothe him by the arm.

He just nods and swallows thickly, pushing his phone into his back pocket. "I uh... I called Alexis's school, they're... they're letting her out now."

"I'll have a patrolman pick her up and take her to the precinct. She can meet us there."

He pushes a sad smile in gratitude. "Thanks."

Beckett shuffles her feet for a moment before taking a step in front of him, crossing her arms. "You know, Castle, you don't have to stay here if you don't want to. We'd all understand if you wanted to go."

He knits his brow and shakes his head. "No, I'll um... I'll be fine. I need to be on this, just..." He lifts his hand and pushes it to the ground.

And she knows what he's silently telling her what he needs. "Lanie should be finished with her examination by now, she should have her body covered." Castle nods and keeps his gaze down to the floor. "You'll be fine." She tells him sweetly, lifting her hand and placing it on his arm, caressing him slowly with her thumb, inwardly hoping no one notices the gesture.

He sucks in a long, deep breath through his nose and pushes off the wall, not wasting any time and stepping toward the crime scene. She lets her hand linger on him until he steps out of her reach, only then deciding to follow close behind him. She follows him until he freezes by the blue tarp laid out in the center of the crime scene, then stepping up to his side. "What've you got, Lanie?" She asks her as she stands on the other side of the body.

Lanie looks up to Castle, seeing his eyes down to the covered body, then over to Beckett, who gives her a quick nod of permission. "She was stabbed five times in the chest. Judging by the size of the wounds, my guess is with a large kitchen knife. From the direction of the wounds and the force applied, my initial guess is the killer leaned over her and stabbed downward. But..." She continues, kneeling down and pulling back the tarp to lift of the victim's hand, "she has defensive wounds on her hands. She put up one hell of a fight. I'd have to wait till I get back to the morgue to be sure, but it looks like she might have scratched her killer. With any luck, I can pull DNA and we can find a match."

She can hear Castle push out a long breath through his nose, his eyes turning away from the victim's hand until Lanie sets it back down to the floor and stands back up. "Neighbors said they heard an argument around ten last night." Beckett explains.

"That would match what I got for the time of death." The two fall silent with Lanie having explained all she can at this point. She wishes she could tell him that she died quickly, or that at least she didn't feel anything, but... she would be lying. She just shakes her head and looks back down to her clipboard. "I'll get her back to the morgue and start on a full autopsy as soon as I can."

Beckett gives her a nod and a quick smile before Lanie steps out of the crime scene to ready the body for transport. "So," She begins, turning toward Castle, who's eyes are still boring blankly at the tarp where the victim lay, "can you think of anyone who might want to kill Claudia? Did...did you ever hear her get into an argument on the phone while she was cleaning the loft, or... did anything ever turn up missing?"

He quickly shakes his head, his expression not shifting from a sunken depression. "No, she was... she was completely trustworthy. That's why she was around for so long." She can see him swallow thickly again, his eyes falling down to his feet. "She even babysat Alexis a couple times when she was little." She can see him try to fend off a wave of emotions. "I don't know how I'm gonna tell her."

"Were her and Claudia close?"

Castle just shakes his head slowly, his eyes drifting around the apartment. "Claudia was the only one who's been around for as long as she can remember. Alexis thought of her like an aunt."

She gives him a moment to reflect before getting him back on track. "Can you think of anyone that might have had a problem with her? Did she ever mention anything going on in her life? An ex maybe?"

"I'll have to ask my mother and Alexis, but she was aware of the boundaries. I mean, we treated her like family, but she was very conscious not to pry if she felt it wasn't her place."

She nods, looking softly up to him, her mind briefly shooting images of their night together last night into her mind, the feel of his touch on her skin, the sensation of his lips on her body, the love she has for him that's making her want to make all this better for him. She gives him another moment before nodding, "Well, Esposito should be contacting her employer now to get a list of her clients sent to us. We'll start making calls to see if any of them can tell us anything."

Castle gives her a slow nod of his head, his eyes still looking down to the floor under his feet.

"Hey," She calls to him in a soft voice, a tone that says what she has to say is just between them. He looks over at her with sad eyes. "We're gonna find whoever did this, Castle. I promise."

He gives her a struggling smile and nods his head. "So," Ryan starts behind them, being followed in closely by Esposito, "no sign of forced entry. Chances are she knew her killer."

"Yeah, well, these apartments aren't exactly secure. She could have walked in on a robbery." Beckett spit-balls.

"Doesn't look like a robbery, nothing looks out of place."

Beckett nods, accepting Ryan's explanation. "What'd you get from the roommate?"

"Name's Esperanza, just started working with Claudia a few months ago to help with college, moved in with her as a roommate right as she got the job. She said she doesn't know why anyone would do this. Said that Claudia didn't have an enemy in the world."

Beckett nods slowly and meanders her way to stand in front of Castle with her arms crossed. She looks up through her lashes to him, both offering him comfort and searching for answers or clues. "Castle." Esposito says next to him. Beckett looks over to him, seeing his notepad in his hands, looking up at Castle was a slight arch in his brow. "Look, bro, I'm sorry I have to ask this, but... I need to know where you were last night."

"Javi!" Beckett scolds in a harsh whisper.

Esposito comes back with a calm but sad expression. "Gates is gonna be the first one to get that client list, Beckett, and everyone on it's gonna be a suspect. She sees Castle's name on that list and we don't have it out of the way..."

"No... Beckett, it's fine." He says, catching her eyes and lifting his hand. She looks over at him, seeing a tense fear cloud come into his expression as he silently searches her for answers. "Um... last night, I was uh..."

She lets her eyes drift shut, having to come to grips that it's out of the bag now. She wanted to keep it between them, give them time to explore their relationship alone just a bit longer before letting them in on it. "Jav..." She starts in a hushes voice, looking over to him. Esposito looks over to her, "Castle was with me last night."

Esposito responds with a silent raise of his brow.

"All night... I swear." Esposito clearly gets the thought in his head by the way his head just tilted off to the side, and she rolls her eyes. "Yes... okay?"

Esposito just nods and looks down at his notepad. "Is... that what you want me to write down? 'Cause Gates isn't our boys biggest fan here and something tells me she's just looking for an excuse."

She knows that. She feels trapped and by the look in his eye, the scared, fearful panic flooding his eyes as he looks over at her, so does he.

She sees Esposito nod before, motioning toward Ryan on the other side of the couple. And it's Ryan who's chiming in first, "Thanks for the drink last night, Castle. Sorry we kept you out so late."

Castle holds his daughter to him, slowly twirling her comfortingly side to side as she silently cries into his sport-coat with her arms around his waist, standing silently in the empty conference room of the precinct. He doesn't remember feeling this sad. It's been a long time since he's had to comfort his daughter like this. After a long while, catching Beckett's eye from her behind her desk while on the phone a few times, Alexis sniffles and pulls back.

"I'm having my lawyer anonymously take care of the funeral arrangements." Alexis nods, a brief smile appearing on her face. "Once we get the case solved, we can all go, okay?" He says, rubbing her arms.

Alexis nods, looking down to the floor. "So... you're back here then?" She asks, the tears disappearing from her eyes.

He lets out a heavy sigh. "Yeah."

Alexis nods again, accepting her father's decision. "And you and Beckett?"

He looks out the window again and over to her desk, seeing her eyes down to her paperwork on her desk. "After everything I've put myself through for it, I need to at least give it a shot."

Alexis gives him another nod and looks down to the floor again. "I know how important she is to you."

He lets out a small sigh despite himself and gives her arms another comforting squeeze. "Your school gave you a couple days off if you want to take them." She just responds by swiping at the tear streak staining her cheek. "LT will take you home then, okay?" She slowly steps into him again, wrapping her arms around his waist for his fatherly shelter again. He hugs her tightly and soothes over her back, "Tell your grandmother not to wait up for me tonight. I'll probably be home late."

She nods her head against his chest and keeps her arms around his torso. It's a moment before he catches Kate's eyes through the window again, smiling at him tenderly with a warmness in her eyes, looking at him and his daughter.

Kate steps into the morgue alone, Lanie on the opposite of the table with the victim covered. "Hey, Lanie."

"Hey." She says back, picking up her clipboard. "I got DNA from under her fingernails, along with traces of blood. I won't get results back on the DNA until tomorrow, but I picked up some other substance when I swabbed. I couldn't identify it, but you'll have results from the lab tomorrow."

"Is that all?"

"Well..." Lanie starts, picking up the victim's arm, "she has some pretty bad defensive wounds. She didn't go down without a fight. Bruising on her arm indicates she tried to block her attacker several times from above."

"So, we could be looking for someone smaller maybe..." She thinks out loud. Someone with that many defensive wounds weren't up against someone much larger than them. "Anything else?" She asks, looking over the victim.

"You tell me."

Kate quickly finds Lanie's wide eyes and pursed lips. "What?" She asks unaware.

"Don't 'what' me. You and Castle."

Her heart gives her a quick slap in the chest before she's just annoyed. Can't they just keep this to themselves for more than one day? She scoffs and rolls her eyes deeply. "Did Espo tell you?"

"He didn't have to tell me. I could smell it on you two over the dead body."

"Lanie, it's still new, alright?"

"What happened?" She asks, not caring.

Kate just deflates, grabbing the clipboard from her to mindlessly skim the details on her own. "What? Nothing." She shrugs her shoulders. She can feel Lanie's eyes bore into her. After a moment she looks over and sees her raise her brow. Kate deadpans, "We slept together, alright?" She says while looking back down to the paperwork, her mind flipping back again to their night together. "Twice."

"... And?" Lanie prods.

"And what?" Kate pushes back.

"Girl, I'm about to smack you."

"It was like nothing I've ever experienced before." Her dam breaks, waving the clipboard about in the air in front of her. "Is that what you want to hear?" She puts it back up.

Lanie's head cocks off to the side, "Like... in a good way or bad way?"

She pushes out a small sigh, letting the clipboard fall beside her, looking up to the ceiling in sweet reverence. "It was magical, Lanie." She says with a lift of her arms and a soft smile. Across the table, Lanie folds her hands over her mouth and nose, hiding her smile. "He was amazing." Her heart says, then her eyes find the pale face of the victim. "And now, we can't even be together for a single day before something like this happens."

It's late in the night when Castle, Beckett, Ryan, and Esposito are sitting around the conference table in front of mounds and heaps of files, wading through the long list of Claudia's clients, their known associates, possible motives, everything that might have given anyone a reason to kill her. She had a lot of high society clients and they tend to have a lot of secrets. Housekeepers are like flies on the wall to those kinds of people, seen but unseen. They need a way to narrow it down.

But there's an elephant in the room and everyone keeps looking up to the other three, just waiting for someone to say it. And after finishing the last file, not finding anything, Ryan picks up the next one in his pile and looks over to Beckett, then Castle. "So, I'm just gonna go ahead and say what everyone else is thinking."

"And what is everyone else thinking, Ryan?" Esposito asks angrily. It's been a tense day.

"Come on." Ryan says, putting his file back down. "Castle's back here for one day and his own housekeeper is killed?"

"It's not his MO, Ryan." Esposito answers.

"Single woman in her own apartment, no signs of forced entry? It can't be a coincidence that she knew Castle."

"It would make sense for it to be him, Beckett." Castle says, looking across the table to her.

"She had defensive wounds on her arms and the killer left their DNA behind. He wouldn't be that sloppy." Esposito argues.

"And he couldn't fake that to throw us off? Beckett..."

She catches Castle eye and sees a fearful twinge. But she just lets out a small breath, not wanting to deal with it the way it needs to be dealt with in front of Ryan and Esposito. "We have no evidence that points to this being the work of Jerry Tyson and until we do," She says and tosses her file back down onto the table, standing up, "my gut says that our killer is in this pile somewhere. We'll pick it up again in the morning, go home and get some rest." She waves the two of them off, coming around the table to stand in front of Castle.

Castle lets out a deep sigh and turns around, sitting against the table with his arms crossed. She doesn't want to leave him, and by the looks of it, this will be her best chance. The precinct is dark and everybody else is gone. She waits until Ryan and Esposito are grabbing their coats from their chairs and heading out, waving at her on the way. She paces her way between his legs, outstretched in front of him.

"You know..." He starts thickly. "Yesterday morning, I was at the loft when she came by. And we got to talking and she asked about you." She feels a smile appear on her face, her heart warmed. "She asked me if we were together after what happened. And I told her... that it seemed that dying for someone wasn't the proper way to win someone's heart."

"Well, it sure helped." She says kiddingly, knocking her leg against his.

He breathlessly chuckles and shakes his head. "She said... dying is easy... living is the hard part."

She feels a warm smile, a heartwarming sense, followed by a foreign pang of grief hit her system at his words. She watches him closely as the smile fades from his face, his eyes turning frantic. "Castle-"

"It's him, Kate." He says, looking up to her with a gloss in his eyes. "I know it. It's Tyson, it has to be." He says in a panic.

"It's not Tyson, Castle. If it was Tyson, he'd let us know it by now." She says in a hushed, calm voice, trying to bring him back down.

"That's part of his game, Kate. I know him, it's because of me we know his face. He's doing this to taunt me, I know it." His voice is shaking.

And at the sound of it, she gives in and quickly reaches up, softly framing his face with her hands. "Hey." She whispers. "Your imagination is one of the things I love about you... but you can't let it run wild right now." She tells him, looking him in the eye, trying to calm him down. "Lanie said that Claudia put up one hell of a fight and you know as well as I do that Tyson seduced and subdued his victims. Just because Claudia was your housekeeper doesn't mean that someone is out to get you, Castle. She had a lot of other clients, and my gut says that she might have over heard something that got her killed."

Castle swallows thickly and nods his head under her hands and she gives him a warm smile.

"Now, we need a way to narrow it down, so... is there... anything you can remember about her that might help us out? Anything at all?"

Castle lets out a long, shaking breath as she moves her hands down his jaw and onto his neck. She caresses his ear with her thumb a few times before moving her hands down to grab onto his lapels. "I don't know, she... I know she read the gossip columns." His eyes widen suddenly and turn up to her. "She-"

"Okay." She smiles. "So tomorrow," She says, tugging on his coat, "we'll have Tori cross check her client list with recent articles in all of the gossip columns and that will help us narrow it down a bit. Because tonight," She says, moving her head down to catch his eyes again, "we need some rest."

He gives her a smile and then nods. "You're right. I should probably leave you alone."

But she feels a pull in her heart. "What if I don't want to be left alone?" She says cheekily, swaying her shoulders in front of him.

He looks up to her with a raised brow. "Really?" He asks, sounding a little vulnerable to her ears.

She smiles with a small shrug of her shoulders, "I have two months to make up for, don't I?"