X~~~~X

His mother had just left and the girls where both in bed when he heard the knock on the door and he considered ignoring it. His mother had a key and he was not in the mood for company. He was really angry with Kate, couldn't understand why she didn't see that she was needed here as well. There was still a tiny part of him that hoped she would show up. He knew how she ticked by now. He had cornered her and that usually didn't lead to her giving in. At least not immediately, but she would think about it and she had come around in the past, he had hoped it would be the same right now.

With an annoyed sigh he crossed his living room, whoever was at his front door was persistent and pulling it open, he found a nervous and guilty-looking Kate standing in front of him.

"Kate," he gasped, surprised and somehow it wounded her that he had obviously given up on her showing up, though she knew it was her own fault. With every foot she had put between herself and the precinct it became clearer to her how poorly she had treated the whole situation over the past days. She felt like she was coming out of a foggy forest and suddenly her actions didn't seem so reasonable anymore. She had truly believed that her actions had been in the best interest of everyone, keeping the case away from home, trying to work her way through all of this on her own, her reasons seemed ridiculous all of a sudden and she knew she owed Castle and the girls more than a heartfelt apology.

"Can I come in?" She asked when Castle made no move to invite her in.

"Yes, yes," he nodded, stepping aside to allow her to pass him, "of course, sorry."

She stopped in the middle of his living room, turning toward him, "Castle I'm -," he cut her off, not ready to hear her apology right now.

"I just tucked the girls in, if you go upstairs right now they'll probably still be awake," he told her and she gave him a nod, understanding that he needed to calm himself down before they could even think of talking about what happened.

"Okay," she said and moved toward the stairs.

"Kate," he called after her making her stop in her tracks, "have you eaten?"

She thought about lying, but she figured he was already upset enough with her, so she simply shook her head, even though she wasn't hungry.

"I'll have something ready when you come back down," he told her and moved into the kitchen, while Kate continued up the stairs.

She quietly opened Jamie's bedroom door to sneak inside, but the minute she stood at her daughter's bedside the girl opened her eyes.

"Daddy?" She asked sleepily, blinking her eyes open as Kate sat down next to her.

"No," she shook her head, "Mommy is here."

"Mommy?" Jamie frowned and then struggled up and into her mother's arms to snuggle into her chest, "Missed you," she told her mother, apparently not as angry as her father about her mother's absence. Just happy she was back.

"I missed you too, Baby Bird," Kate mumbled into her daughter's hair, breathing in her familiar scent and she felt something ease in her chest. Lanie had been right, being home was good and she wondered how she could have been so stupid. Thankfully Castle was just as thick-headed as she was, because even though she needed Lanie to give her the final push, she knew she would have come home anyway tonight, she just might have needed an hour longer to figure it out herself.

"Kate?" A small voice reached her from the doorstep and she looked up to find Alexis watching them.

"Hey Pumpkin," Kate smiled, holding out her hand, "come here."

Alexis rushed into her side, Kate's free arm pulling her close as Alexis' arms sneaked around Kate's waist while she sat down next to her.

"I'm glad you're home," Alexis whispered and held on a little tighter.

"Me too, Pumpkin, me too and I'm sorry I didn't come home sooner," Kate apologized, because no matter if the girls could understand what was going on or not, they deserved an apology just as much as Castle. She kissed both girls on the top of their heads, cuddling with them for a while, beyond happy to know they were both safe.

"Story Mommy?" Jamie asked after a few minutes, playing with her mother's hair and Kate couldn't have possibly said no. She settled them both down into Jamie's bed, took the book she found on Jamie's nightstand and started to read.


She came back down twenty minutes later, both girls tucked in and fast asleep and she found Castle in the kitchen, a sandwich on the kitchen counter which she assumed was for her.

"Hey," she caught his attention and watched him turn his grim face toward her, obviously he was still angry.

"I made you a sandwich," he said, his voice cold and she couldn't take it, not tonight even though she knew she deserved it. She needed him and she knew she had done a poor job of showing that over the past couple of days, but now, being home, she couldn't deny it. She had made a mistake and she felt miserable about it.

"I'm sorry," she whispered, tears springing to her eyes and even though Castle had been determined not to make it easy for her, that a simple apology wouldn't be enough, when he saw her crumble in front of him there was only one thing he could do.

Rushing toward her, he wrapped his large frame around her and let her sob into his shirt, while his hands ran soothing circles on her back.

"Hey, hey," he tried to calm her down, felt her fist clenching his shirt.

"I'm sorry," she said again, pulling herself together and stepping out of his embrace, because she thought it wasn't fair to him to be such a needing mess after all she had done.

"Tell you what," Castle said, his voice softer, "you sit down and eat the sandwich I prepared for you and I'll run you a bath in the meantime and then you tell me about the case."

She nodded weakly, holding on to his hand until she had to let go so he could go and prepare her bath. She knew there needed to be a discussion about the past days, but she was grateful he'd let her off the hook for a moment longer to get herself together again.

She met him in the bathroom ten minutes later, where she found him running bath oils into the tub and she couldn't believe how sweet he was after all.

"Will you come in with me?" She asked hopeful, knowing it might be too much to ask of him right now, "Please."

He seemed hesitant and she was about to tell him it was okay, when he started to unbutton his shirt, watching her. He knew he shouldn't but no matter how angry he was with her, he had also missed her and being close to her again was just too tempting.

She followed his example shrugging off her shirt and stepping out of her jeans. She let the rest of her clothes follow and then waited for him to enter the tub before she climbed in to settle in the V of his legs.

She leant against his broad chest, his arms sneaking around her waist and it felt so right that she had no idea why she had denied herself any of this for the past days.

"I should have come home," she admitted, letting her fingers dance over his forearms and it didn't went unnoticed how often over the past few days both of them had referred to the loft as being their home. But now was not the time to talk about it.

"Why didn't you?" He asked.

She closed her eyes, knowing that the only thing that could bring her some kind of redemption was honesty. So with a deep breath she told him everything, about the case, the little girl, her promise and why she had feared coming home would break her. In the end she was a sobbing mess in his arms and he had to more or less drag her out of the water, helping her to dry off before she grabbed one of his shirts to slip it on.

He followed her into the bedroom, slipping into a pair of boxers before joining her in bed and the second he settled in, she migrated toward him, her back to his front as he pulled her into his chest, spooning her.

She was asleep within seconds and Castle was glad because she looked like she needed it. He knew he needed to talk to her again, make sure she really had learned that staying away wasn't an option neither for her nor for the rest of the family. But it could wait until the case was over, she had been honest with him tonight and he had a better understanding why she had acted the way she did. She had lost herself in the case and he remembered when she had told him what kind of person she would be if it hadn't been for Jamie. They had caught a glimpse of that person now and they needed to make sure it wouldn't happen again, but what mattered most was that she was here now, so with a content sigh he closed his eyes and followed her into dreamland.


Kate was still fast asleep in his arms when Castle woke up the next morning. He figured letting her sleep half an hour longer wouldn't hurt anyone and so he carefully untangled himself from her body and pulled the covers up over her slim body so she wouldn't get cold.

Autumn was slowly turning into winter and the mornings were already quite chilly and he realized as he stepped into the living room that he should turn the heating up.

He patted slowly into the kitchen yawning and stretching as he made his way over to get breakfast started, all the while something nagging at the back of his mind. Something about what Kate had told him about the case.

So the girl's uncle had picked Ella up at the daycare center without informing her mother, but since he had been on her list of emergency contacts the staff at the center had let him take the girl. He had then brought her home, but the question was why? Had it been an act to ensure the girl's trust? Her mother had stated that Ella and her uncle weren't very close, maybe the girl would have been suspicious if he had taken her anywhere else?

Another thing they had established throughout the investigation was that the uncle had been deep into gambling debts, which eventually explained the presence of the second dead man in the attic. Chris Everton, a small fish in the pond of drug dealers that operated in New York, who also played the role of a debt collector for some of the illegal gambling clubs in Chinatown.

Castle doubted the man had pulled any strings in the scheme, there had to be a bigger fish out there who had called the shots. So while most of the scenario made sense, the uncle being unable to pay his debts and having to pay for it with his life, what didn't make sense was why his six-year-old niece had to die as well, or why he had taken her to the meeting in the first place.

And that's when it hit him, dropping the box of cereals he had been pulling out of one of the cabinets he rushed into his office, searching frantically through a stack of old magazines until he found what he was looking for.

He let out a triumphant, "Ha!" that rang louder through the room than he had intended to and flipped open the page with the article he had been looking for.

"What's going on?" Kate asked, standing in the doorway, looking more tired than ever.

"Read this," he told her eagerly.

"Castle," she sighed, she wasn't in the mood to read anything. Not even one of his books, not even a preview of his new Derrick Storm novel.

"No, read this," he insisted, shoving the magazine into her chest as she reluctantly moved over to his desk and started to scan the article. When she realized what she was looking at, she lifted wide eyes at him.

"Castle, this could be -," she looked back down, leaving the sentence unfinished.

"Mitch Turner couldn't pay his debts," he started to fill her in on his theory, "and he knew that whomever he owed the money would kill him for it."

"But then he heard that some of the Mexican drug lords were expanding their businesses and getting into child smuggling," Kate went on, summing up what she had read in the article.

"Yeah, they kidnap Mexican kids, bring them over the border and sell them to rich American couples," Castle continued, moving closer to her.

"And Mitch figured, how much more worth would be an American kid, right? So he offered Everton a deal," Kate looked at Castle her eyes sparkling as a picture formed in her mind as to what had happened. It was just an idea, but it was the best one ever since they had started investigating the case.

"But whomever he offered the deal didn't like it," Castle finished.

"So Everton must have been the middleman who sat up the meeting between Mitch Turner and whomever he wanted to make the deal with," Kate mused.

"Didn't you check phone records?" Castle asked with a frown, thinking that something should have popped on those.

"We did, but we weren't looking for a child smuggling ring," she smiled up at him and Castle grinned right back, "I have to go."

His smile faltered, "Okay."

"I'll be home tonight," she assured him, reaching for his hand. "I learned my lesson, I promise."

"Okay," he said again, this time accompanied with a smile. "Go and catch the bad guy."


They caught the bastard in the early afternoon, fished him right out of an illegal gambling club in Chinatown.

After Kate had arrived at the precinct and they'd started to look at Chris Everton's phone records and background check again they soon found the trail that led them to one of his employers.

Rodriguez Suarez, who had only been another middleman for one of the bigger syndicates in Mexico.

When Mitch Turner had presented him with the girl instead of the 40.000 dollars he owed him, things had gotten out of control. It was one thing to kidnap Mexican children and smuggle them into the US, but an American child was too high a risk for anyone to take. Especially a kid Ella's age who knew exactly who her mother was. There was no market for kids like her.

And since Mitch had been so stupid to bring the child to the meeting, Suarez' only option had been to kill all witnesses.

Kate had watched through the double mirror from the tech room, tears in her eyes as she listened to the cold delivery of Suarez' statement. They had found the murder weapon in his apartment and she was sure they would find more evidence that would prove his connection to Everton.

But while Suarez was cooperative, knowing there was no way out for him, the way he delivered his confession shocked Kate.

He wasn't even feeling sorry for the girl, no sign of regret, no word of apology. It disgusted her and she hoped he would rot in hell for what he had done. Child murderers did have a hard time in prison and she found herself hoping he would get what he deserved.

"Beckett?" she turned to find LT standing in the doorway, one of her fellow officers in Homicide, a nice but very quiet guy who kept mainly to himself. "The girl's mother is here."

"I'm coming, thank you," she nodded at the tall man and with a deep breath and one last look at the man sitting in the box opposite Cramer and Clasterfield she left the room.

Mrs. Turner looked horrible and Kate knew that even though she had been able to keep her promise, the truth would hurt. It would not make anything easier for the woman sitting in front of her, on the contrary it would make things worse, knowing that her own brother was responsible for her daughter's death.

With a heavy sigh, Kate sat down next to the woman, reaching for her hand before she told her why her daughter had died.


Kate stood in the middle of the bullpen, watching Mrs. Turner leave accompanied by LT who had offered to drive her to her friend's place where she was staying at the moment

"Was that the mother?" Her Captain's voice startled her and she turned to find him standing in the doorway of his office.

"Yes," she nodded, her eyes watching the elevator doors shut.

They were both silent for a while, nothing left to say, no words to explain why an innocent child had to die like this.

"Cramer was very impressed with you," Montgomery eventually broke the silence and Kate turned her head again to look at him. "He said you did a great job with the mother and breaking the case wide open with your child smuggling theory."

"Thank you, Sir." She nodded, a small proud smile playing around her lips. "but actually it was Castle."

"Castle?" Montgomery frowned.

She nodded, "Yeah, he was the one who pointed me toward the child smuggle."

"Mmh," Montgomery's eyes sparkled with some secret amusement.

"What?" She asked, curious.

He shrugged, "You guys remind me of that TV show from the late 70's with Stefanie Powers and Robert Wagner."

"Hart to Hart?" She frowned.

"That's the one. You know with them sitting in the bathtub and solving murders – my wife loves that show," he shrugged, not knowing how close he had come to the truth with his statement as he turned to go back into his office and leaving Kate with a puzzled expression on her face. "Oh and Beckett?"

"Yes, Sir?"

"Go home. I don't want to see you here until Monday," he told her with a smile and closed the door to his office behind him.

"Yes, Sir," she said into the empty air, a little stunned, before glancing at the clock on the wall. There was still enough time to stop on her way to the loft and still be home before Castle started dinner if she hurried. So she grabbed her coat, nodded at her colleagues and did what she had been told to do, go home.


She came rushing through the front door thirty minutes later, grinning broadly at Castle who was standing at the door, bags of take-out containers dangling from her arm.

"Hey," he greeted her, leaning in to steal a kiss from her lips.

"Hey," she replied breathless. "I brought dinner."

"Chinese?" He asked sniffing at one of the bags.

"Yeah for us, and pasta for the girls," she told him, handing him over the bags so she could get out of her shoes, while Castle placed the content of the bags on the dinner table.

"Alexis! Jamie! Dinner is here," he called upstairs and soon enough heard little feet running over the hardwood floor on the second floor.

"So you caught him?" He asked while the kids were still out of earshot.

Kate nodded, placing another kiss on his jaw, "I'll tell you about it later."

"Mommy," Jamie shrieked happily, struggling out of the arms of her sister who had helped her down the stairs, wrapping her arms around her mother's leg instead.

"Hey there," Kate laughed, picking her up and pulling Alexis close as well. "How have you two been?"

They all sat around the table, Jamie and Alexis digging into their pasta while Kate and Castle shared the Chinese food she had brought from his favorite place and for the first time in days everything felt right again. He knew they still needed to talk, but he couldn't bring himself to address it tonight, not when everything felt so good and right at the moment.


"So actually it was me who solved the case," he concluded as they lay in bed together, after Kate had told him what had happened today.

She rolled her eyes, "You helped," she gave in and turned around, so that she was lying on top of him.

"I can live with that," he grinned, his arms circling her waist to hold her in place, "do I get a reward?"

She bit her bottom lip, letting her fingers play with the small amount of hair on his chest, "Maybe," she said coyly. "What do you have in mind?"

"I think you know exactly what I have in mind," he wriggled his eyebrows at her, making her chuckle.

"I think," she started and then pressed her hips against his, "I think I can feel it too."

"Uh-huh," he rocked up into her and was delighted to see her close her eyes in pleasure, groaning as he did it again "Question is, are you planning to do something about it?"


"God Castle," she gulped for air, still clinging to him, because the world around her was still spinning like a Ferris wheel, "that was -."

"Amazing, I know," he finished for her and turned on his side, causing Kate to slip down from him. "Wow."

"Yeah," she chuckled and then leant into him, capturing his lips once more, gentle and tender this time in stark contrast to the heated battle their mouths had fought just minutes ago.

"So you have to go back to work tomorrow?" he asked as they parted and finally caught their breaths, but was surprised to see her shake her head.

"I'm off duty until Monday. Captain's order," she told him, settling down into the pillows, her hand splayed over his stomach.

"Great," he beamed at her, "Because I have something special planed for the weekend."

She looked at him, eyes sparkling with curiosity, "What?"

"Oh no, Kate Beckett," he shook his head. "I'm not going to give away your birthday surprise."

X~~~~X