Hey, everyone. Here's another chapter. The several people who wanted to know how Kate would handle the confrontation with Esposito...well, now you can find out.

Thanks to those who took the time to leave me a note about the last chapter. You really make my day when you leave me a note with some feedback. I'm glad some people seemed to like it; overall response has really been down lately. I hope it's just because people are on vacation with no internet connections or something like that.

Disclaimer: Standard...I don't own anything to do with Castle.

Previously:

"What?" she asked him. "Got any better ideas?" she asked, referring to her musings about the case.

"Oh, no, not about that." He pushed off the wall and took a few steps toward her, but the smirk never left his face. "I was just thinking that it should take CSU at least a half hour to get here, even with the rush that Ryan is putting on the request. So..." he said, nodding a bit, "I think it's the perfect time for you to tell me what you were doing in Castle's building at 7:30 in the morning, how you happen to know Castle's doormen by name, and how they know you as well as they seem to."

Oh, great. He wasn't giving up on this, was he? She'd put them off back at Castle's building, but it appeared that the topic wasn't far from Esposito's mind, for him to ask about it again at the first possible opportunity.

Now that she could think about the circumstances, she had to admit that she should never have had the guys meet her at Castle's. But she was so caught up in the potential breakthrough that was gelling in her mind that she didn't think past that. She didn't want them all to go back to the precinct to start digging into the whys and wherefores of elevator operations, not when Rafi was right there to answer their questions. And Castle's loft was closer for them all anyway.

"It's really not that big of a deal, Esposito." She rolled her eyes and tried to sound bored with the question and as nonchalant as the building manager had sounded when he told them about the basement control room.

"Really." It was a statement, not a question, and one that said that he didn't believe a word she was saying.

"Yes, really." She didn't say any more; thinking that letting him wonder or try to drag it out of her might be best.

"So, if it's not such a big deal, then why were you there? I mean, seeing that...you there, so early in the morning...you know, people would think that you were getting a little cozy with Castle. Like maybe you moved into his loft or something." He narrrowed his eyes and gave a little nod of his head.

She shook her head in an exasperated response to his nod. "If 'people' are wasting their brain space contemplating my whereabouts, Esposito, then I'd say that maybe those 'people' need to get a life."

"So why were you there?" This time he was a little more blunt.

"In Castle's lobby? Duh, Esposito. I was breaking this case wide open." And then, with a smirk, she added, "while you were apparently getting donuts."

He ignored her jibe about the donuts, except for a little glare in her direction. "So you just happened to wake up this morning and think 'oh, I bet the key to this case can be found in Castle's building'?"

She made a show of thinking about what he'd said. "Yup, that about sums it up," she told him with a cheery nod.

He glared at her again. "Beckett, by my calculations, we have at least another twenty minutes until CSU gets here. So we can do it the easy way, and you can just level with me, or we can do it the hard way."

She stared back at him, finally rolling her eyes again and letting out a little huff. "God, Esposito, you're such a girl sometimes...wanting the dish on whatever you think is going on with me in that not-so-pure brain of yours." She took a step toward him. "Martha had to go out of town, and she asked me if I'd stay at the loft for a few days, just so Alexis had an adult there at night."

He stared at her, and when she didn't say anything else, he prompted impatiently, "And?"

"And what?"

"Come on Beckett. There has to be more to the story. You expect me to believe that Mama Castle just asked you to stay there—"

"Well, no," she interrupted.

"No what?"

"No, she didn't ask me to stay there. The words that come to mind are 'assumed', 'railroaded', 'steamrolled' or 'coerced'."

"So she just called you up and...told you that you'd be staying with Little Castle? In Castle's loft?"

"Where else should I stay with her? It is her home, after all."

"Beckett..."

"Esposito..." she matched.

He decided to change tactics then, going for the I'm-your-buddy/good cop routine. He gave her a little smile. "Come on, Beckett, we're all family. Even Castle is pretty much one of us now. We got your back, Beckett...you know that. You can tell me what's going on. So," he paused and continued to try to look like the friendliest, most trustworthy guy in the world. "You living with Castle now?"

She so wanted to shake her head. Or maybe she just wanted to shake some sense into him. Did he really think she wouldn't see through his abrupt change in attitude, or realize that he was just using the same interrogation tactics that she, herself, used? But she refrained from letting him know any of that; she realized she was having just a little bit of fun watching him get frustrated with her answers, especially when they were all true. That was the best part of the whole thing

"Nope," she told him, shaking hre head. "Can't be living with Castle, because Castle isn't even around now. You know that."

She saw his eyes flash with something when she evaded what he was asking, yet again, even though it was the truth. But then he recovered and put the 'good cop' face back on again. She realized she was almost having a bit of fun, watching him trying to get her to confirm his suspicions about her and Castle.

"But you are staying at the loft?"

"Espo, do you need a hearing check? Because I already said yes, I'm staying at the loft for a few days. For Alexis."

"And Mrs. R got you to do that?"

She noddd. "Somehow, although I'm still not quite sure how it all happened. A word of advice, Esposito? If Martha ever wants you to do something, just agree. Don't even try to question it, because it most likely wouldn't work anyway."

"What? Oh, never mind. What about Castle?"

"Well, he's on his book tour. You know that."

"Yeah, but...look, Beckett. You're staying in the guy's house—"

"After being asked to stay with Alexis. Asked by her grandmother, I'll remind you. And Castle didn't even know about it. Martha called me and I'm the one who had to tell him, and he was pretty surprised, let me tell you."

"So you talked to him then, huh?" He got a gleam in his eye.

"Yes, Esposito, I talked to him. He's my partner, and I do talk to him, you know." And at mentioning him directly, suddenly she was swamped with another feeling she was definitely not going to voice to Esposito. 'And I miss him too', she thought.

He gave her a steely gaze again. "I really don't know why you're holding out on me, Beckett."

She smiled at him, hoping that the smile would take the edge off. She didn't want to seem like she was hiding something, and if she got angry, it would seem like that. "Esposito, I'm staying at the loft for a few days, to be with Alexis at night while Martha is away. Castle is...somewhere, on his book tour. That's it. Any other questions?"

He thought about it for a few seconds, and then said, "Yeah. The doorman...Rafi? He knew you, and you knew him, by name. Now I don't usually know other people's doormen by name. And he said it's been a while since that other doorman saw you. So what's up with that? Were you staying with Little Castle some other time too?"

"I...met...his doormen before, yes." He would have to remember Rafi's comment about Junior, now wouldn't he?

"When?" he asked simply.

"I don't know...a couple of months ago?"

"You had conversations with Castle's doormen a couple of months ago?"

"Well...yeah." She frantically thought about how she could spin it. "Uh...I went to the loft...for dinner—"

"Oh, really?" Esposito said, with a different kind of gleam in his eye, like he was onto something. "Were there candles? Soft music playing?"

Now it was her turn to glare, as she remembered their previous method of dealing with the guys...just use honesty, with a few creative omissions. "Oh, can it, Esposito. Castle was carting me around when my ankle was out of commission, remember? He fed me dinner at his loft a few times, so I wouldn't have to worry about hobbling around the kitchen on my bum ankle." She saw his eyebrows raise as she said that, knowing where his mind was going. And then, just to annoy him, she said, "It was really fun watching Martha and Alexis gang up on Castle."

He didn't say anything, but she knew from the look on his face that she'd burst his romance bubble by mentioning that Martha and Alexis were part of what he'd already deemed in his own mind was a romantic dinner for Castle and her at his loft.

"So you know his doormen because you visited Castle's loft for dinner once or twice?" He sounded disbelieving.

"That's what I said, isn't it?"

He shook his head in frustration at what he perceived as her evasions, and, after shooting one more glare in her direction, he went over to look at the controls that Mr. Dougherty, the building manager, had pointed out to them.

Nothing more was said about Castle or her personal life until Ryan and the CSU team found them twenty minutes later. While the room was dusted for prints and other potential evidence, Beckett called the Captain, who in turn briefed the Mayor, who then used his clout to put the highest priority on processing the evidence that was being gathered in the basement control room.

By early afternoon, they were running prints in the computer. There were quite a few different prints that they were able to get, and after getting a briefing on how the controls worked, flagged prints from several different areas, such as certain switches and buttons, as high priority for processing.

Kate had tried to call Rick a few times to give him an update on the case, but she had to settle for leaving a message when he didn't answer. She didn't say too much, but just that they may have found a good lead for the case. And then, just to mess with him for a little bit, she told him that she was so grateful to his captivating doormen, and went on for a bit about how they just so helpful with her case! Remembering his reaction when she'd talked to Rafi and Junior that one afternoon, she thought that if that comment didn't make him call her back right away, nothing would.

At five in the afternoon, the print matches started coming back. A few weren't in the system, and there were quite a few from personnel who worked for the systems company. Because the company had contracts with government buildings, all of their employees had to be fingerprinted and have background checks run.

As the first print matches came in, they started combing through the records and information of all of the people. The vast majority of th people didn't have records, so it was harder to find more in-depth information on them. Beckett was grabbing something from the records room in the basement around eight o'clock that evening when she apparently missed a call from Rick; her cell phone didn't have a signal down there. Castle's message was just as she predicted, happy that she'd caught some sort of break in the case but almost frantic with curiousity over how one of his doormen could have helped her. And then, before asking him to call her back, he muttered a pouty-sounding statement about not knowing what was so damn captivating about his doormen anyway. She listened to the message as she got off the elevator, back on the homicide floor, smiling as she thought of Castle and how she was still able to mess with him even though he was a few thousand miles away. It felt good, but damn, she wished he was here right now.

She walked back into the bullpen with the file that she'd gone to retrieve, and met the excited gazes of Ryan and Esposito as they looked at something on Ryan's computer. "God, Beckett! Took you long enough!" Ryan said as he motioned her over. "Get over here...you have to see this."

"Did you find something?" she asked.

"Just look at this," Esposito told her, pointing at the screen.

When she registered what she was looking at, her mouth dropped open. "That's him. That just has to be him."

There you go, Castle fans. Another chapter down.

Hope you enjoyed it. And as always, please let me know what you think of the story, how it's going, if you liked or hated anything in particular, etc. And especially if you just decided to suscribe to the story, let me know what you think.

Thanks for reading.