The next morning, after sleeping the night on it, Beckett awoke still uneasy with what she had to present to her captain. The baby could sense her worry too, it seemed, as the little one as content to just gently turn around inside rather than do its usual morning gymnastics to wake her up.

'Thank you for being so nice to Mumum,' she sighed, stroking her fingertips over her belly. 'You know how nice that is?'

Beside her, Castle groaned softly, then sneezed, making her wince as the whole bed shook. 'Damn, damn, damn,' he groaned. 'I'm going to the doctor's today. I've has enough of this.'

'So have I. You know, in a loving, pregnant sort of way.'

'Kate, it's fine,' he said with a snuffly chuckle, but kissed her cheek instead of her lips. 'You and I both know it's just ragweed and hayfever. What the hell is ragweed anyways?'

'Why don't we ask Dell, he's out little nature nut,' was the muffled response through the door before Beckett heard the whine and gush of the shower being turned on.

Settling back against her bank of pillows, she stared at the ceiling and for the first time in her career, found herself dreading talking to the captain. She always had gone to him with cases going good and bad because he'd been the father figure who would lay down the law - no pun intended - when her own spent his nights soul-searching in the bottom of a bottle of Jack Daniels. She'd even gone to him with cases about dirty cops before, but this one for some reason was just striking her as all kinds of wrong.

Still, she was a responsible officer of the law and would do her duty accordingly. Groaning, she levered herself away from the comfy, marshmellowy goose-down pillows she favoured with pregnancy and swung her feet to the floor; at the same time, the bedroom door was shoved open and RJ came in with Omeo in tow, sniffling greatly.

'Mumum?'

'Hey my little prince,' she greeted him warmly, then saw his red eyes. 'RJ, have you been crying?'

'Nuh-uh. Suh-neezin', Mumum. I suh-niffy. Omeo too.'

'Oh, poor guys.' Knowing her role as mother, she kissed Omeo's cotton cheek all better then felt RJ's forehead. He wasn't running a fever, which was good; her firstborn was prone to strep throat and had had it twice already in his short life. 'Is your throat sore?'

'No.' RJ shook his head. 'I can't suh-mell 'ny-thin'.'

'You can't smell anything?'

'Uh-uh.'

'Is your tummy upset?'

'Nuh-uh, I hun-guh-ry. Wan' Fuh-rensh toas' an' sur'p.'

If he had an appetite, Beckett knew he wasn't too far gone as she knew the red-flag sign of her boy being really under the weather was that he didn't want anything to eat. 'I don't know if we can have French toast this morning, RJ. Daddy's sick too and I have to go to work today.'

'Daddy sick too? Tha' no' goo' fo' bumpy. Maybe, maybe you suh-leep at Tah-rini's?'

'Maybe,' Beckett echoed.

'No wan' bumpy geddin' sick.'

'No, we don't.'

'I go wit' Daddy, talk-a dotta,' RJ decided in a tone Beckett recognized that he'd gotten from her. 'I wan' bumpy 'tay safe. No sherms geddin' bumpy.'

Beckett went for a BLT on whole-wheat toast with low-fat cheese for breakfast, and when she dressed for the day, assembled her things, both Castle and RJ blew her kisses from a safe distance to keep her from potentially being infected. The smile she wore from seeing RJ make Omeo blow her kisses too stayed with her all the way to the precinct, and she needed it this morning more than others.

Stepping off the elevator, she nearly walked into Geoffs, then heard his mumbled, 'Yellow-tail's in the shark tank.'

Geoffs, who was prone to making aquatic references, got the nod from Beckett as he went past and she deposited her purse and her file-bag at her desk before booting up her computer and organizing her thoughts. She wouldn't tell the captain she had two cops as suspects, just...tell him that she was becoming rather concerned with Cruz and Brennan's constant appearance at their crime scenes where they had donors to the foundation as their victims.

Before she could even pull the file she'd put together on the uniforms from her bag, Montgomery appeared at the entrance to his office and gave her a look. 'Detective Beckett, my office.'

'Of course sir, just-'

'Now, Beckett, and bring the home-invasion files with you.'

She nodded, brought her whole bag with her as they were the only files she'd looked at the previous evening off the clock. Her curiosity was piqued, but curiosity turned to irritation when she saw Blake Holmes sitting in one of Montgomery's visitor chairs. 'Sherlock, what can we do for you?' she sneered, using the Internal Affairs captain's not-so-nice nickname.

'Easy, Beckett, don't want you to go popping off, now,' he replied in his perpetually-snotty sounding English accent.

'Careful, Blake. You're in our house right now.'

'Kate,' was all Montgomery needed to say and she relented, easing her pregnant self into the chair beside Blake. When she focused on him, he let out a little breath. 'You've had three murders, home-invasions, where donors to the Big Apple Bookworm foundation were killed.'

'Correct sir.'

'All of these crime scenes had the same first-responder uniforms, correct?'

'Yes sir, Officer Magdalena Cruz and Adam Brennan. It has...raised some concerns concerns.'

'What kind of concerns?' Blake asked, clicking a pen open and shut every few seconds.

'That it is decidedly convenient that those two officers were first on scene, especially given the research myself and two of my men have put together on them both.'

'Research? Who said you're authorized to go digging around a cop's background?'

'I do,' Beckett replied in the same haughty tone, 'when said cops are people of interest, especially after the last one.'

'Blake, before you go popping off yourself,' Montgomery said calmly, 'why don't we listen to the detective's report and go from there.'

'Thank you sir.' Beckett relayed what she'd learned from Shane the previous afternoon, the theories she, Esposito and Ryan had worked out, and handed him a copy of her updated reports. 'Shane's official report will go in there once I pick up the paperwork at the morgue this morning.'

'Thank you Detective.' Montgomery cleared his throat, looked at Blake. 'You're up, Captain.'

'We've had Cruz and Brennan under surveillance for several months, as we believe they are indeed, as your evidence suggests, behind the home invasion killings.'

'How long is several months?' Beckett asked, her anger going on simmer.

'I don't think that's-'

'How long?'

'Since April.'

'That's before the first murder though,' she pointed out, feeling slightly stupid for doing so, unless... 'Was there another murder prior to the one Detective Ryan and I took point for?'

'No, that was the first one, however, we know that based on our surveillance of Cruz and Brennan, they are more than likely the perpetrators of these crimes.'

Blake handed Beckett a thick file with Cruz' name on the label. 'Her mother was a librarian at the neighbourhood branch of the NYPL, and about two years ago, she was diagnosed with terminal cancer and applied to the foundation's personnel support program for benefits since she had to cut back her hours because of chemo treatments. The foundation turned her down saying they didn't have the funds to offer her medical coverage and she ended up losing her job before dying in February of this year.'

'That's quite the motive Cruz has.'

'Yeah, so she went after the accountant responsible for the book-keeping the board drew their decision from and another man who was in a similar situation guaranteed the support of the foundation.'

'So that covers Helena Roland and Thomas Nichols, but what about Juliet and Greg Madsen?'

'That is what it appears to be,' Blake replied. 'Juliet was having an affair with Brennan, Greg found out and the dominoes fell as they did.'

'Okay, so what exactly is the purpose of this meeting?'

'To tell you you are no longer in charge of the Cruz investigation.'

Beckett's temper flash like a firework as she glared at Montgomery. 'Sir, what-'

'The order has come down from the Chief of Detectives, Kate,' he replied. 'You can pick up Brennan for questioning in regards to the Madsen case but the other two are now going to be transferred to IA.'

'And what if they're wrong?'

'We're not,' Blake stated bluntly. 'Trust me, we have our girl.'

'The fuck I'm going to trust you when you come in here and hamstring me like this!'

'Beckett it's done. My hands are tied too,' Montgomery told her.

'This isn't done,' she seethed, rubbing her belly where the baby kicked her viciously. 'Not by a long shot.'

Storming out in righteous anger, she went past the Ry-Sposito monster like a blur. 'Boys, let's go,' she barked.

'Where?' Ryan ventured cautiously.

'We're picking up Officer Brennan for questioning. Espo, you're driving.'