Okay I'm back! Here's the second half as promised.


Last Chapter: Kate hauled Doug Lawrence down to holding because his incessant creepiness was pissing her off. She went to check in of Esposito and Ryan who hadn't found anything yet. So she decided to go and keep herself busy by helping Castle with the coffee. When they sat down to talk Castle voiced that he wished that there was something he could do to keep her safe. He has apparently admitted that his vast arsenal of rapier wit may not take down a serial killer. And it hits Beckett for the first time really what is going to happen to her if they don't catch this guy. Castle and Beckett made out in the break room (Castle can now check that off of his list of fantasies) ; ) Ryan and Esposito just walked into the break room.


The Handy Dandy Connection Chart

Victim - Romantic Interest - Friend/ family that was interviewed

Victim #1 Bridget - Daniel Ethens Melanie (girl from when Espo was 'missing')

Victim #2 Caroline - Alex Kirsty Randy (The one Espo thought was hot)

Victim #3 Heather - Sean Leary - Todd (He totally hit Espo with a table)

Guy they arrested at the Bar: Doug Lawrence - Woman that he raped: Stephanie Miller


Chapter 51: The Connection

"Oh hey guys." Esposito said, looking down at their joined hands and smirking.

Kate quickly pulled her hand away from Castle's and glared at Esposito.

"Tell me you have good news." She said, standing up.

"Besides the bar I didn't find any real connections between our two cases." Esposito said shaking his head.

"I found a few similar supermarkets, but nothing that ties all of our victims to Doug Lawrence." Ryan said, apologetically, wishing there was somewhere else he could think to look.

Castle watched Kate as she nodded her head, as if accepting what they had found, or hadn't found as the case may be.

"Okay, I have a quick call that I have to make. Just keep digging, wherever you think you might find something." She said as she walked between the boys and turned the corner.

Castle quickly followed after her and the boys exchanged a curious look, but went back to work.

Rick was worried. This wasn't the Kate he knew. Where was her fire, her fight? She couldn't just give up. He thought.

"Wait." Castle said as he chased after her, "Where are you going? We still have so much work to do." He said pointing in the general direction of Ryan and Esposito.

"I'm going to call my Dad. Just in case something doesn't turn up. Go help Ryan and Esposito. I'll be back soon." She said solemnly, and giving him a less than convincing smile.

"Okay." He said, letting her go, but he wasn't going to drop this. She wasn't allowed to surrender, not on his watch. But it would have to wait until after she talked to her dad.

Thinking about it he really wanted to call Alexis. He hadn't heard from her since their talk, except for the occasional obligatory 'checking in' text message.

He missed the sound of her voice, but it was late.

He decided to just call her in the morning, waiting a few more hours wouldn't kill him.


Meanwhile, Kate walked into one of the empty conference rooms. After closing the door most of the way she dialed her father's number.

A slightly groggy voice answered the phone.

"Hi Dad." She said as cheerfully as she could.

"Hey sweetheart. Is everything okay?" he asked.

"Not exactly Dad, that's why I'm calling." She said, wishing she never had to have this conversation with him.

She explained everything that had happened in the past week. Toning down as much as of it as she could, but he really did need to understand what was happening.

She told him about her apartment being trashed, staying with Castle, and everything about the case, that he needed to know.

"Katie why didn't you tell me sooner?" he asked.

"I didn't want you to worry." She said, biting her lip because she knew this was exactly what he had worried about when she first got out of the academy.

She assured him that they still had some time, but that she had to get back to work. She said that she loved him and said good bye.

When she hung up the phone she had to swallow back the tears.

Rick, who had gone and helped the boys, could practically feel her distress. Maybe she was becoming part of his peapod bond?

He excused himself from the boys, who were still digging through the case file, to go to her.

Rick lightly tapped on the door.

"Hey." He said, wishing that he had a cup of coffee to give her.

"Hey." She replied, looking up from her phone towards him., "Have you been there the whole time?" she asked.

"No, I felt a disturbance in the force, decided to come check it out. How'd it go with your dad?" He said.

"Obviously he's worried, but other than that it's hard to tell. He keeps it to himself." She said, glancing back down at her phone.

"Now you know how we feel all the time." He said with a smile.

Kate rolled her eyes at him, and pursed her lips. She hated when he was right.

"So I take the fact that you didn't come running in here screaming like a little girl to mean that you guys haven't cracked his case wide open in the few minutes I've been gone." She said.

"No. Not yet." He replied, "But you're not giving up yet." He said half as a question half as an order. He had to. For once it was his turn to whip her into shape.

Ohh, whips…. He thought, NO Castle! Focus.

"Castle." She said seriously, "When have you even known me to give up?"

Rick just shrugged because he honestly couldn't recall a time.

"I'm not giving up. I'm just trying to figure out where to look next. I would say that I'm open to dumb ideas here, but past experience tells me you'd try and make out with me." She said starting out serious, but ending on a lighter note.

He gave her a smile, but he was still concerned until she added,

"When I was talking to my father I was thinking.."

"Always a good sign." Castle joked.

She gave him 'the look' before continuing,

"You know how I'm an expert on my mother's case. I know every detail?"

"Yeah ..." He said, curious where she was going with this.

"I was thinking that it might be worth our time to see what the brother knows that maybe he found out on his own, or never made it into the official file. " She suggested, for the first time, in what felt like forever, getting back into her groove, and Castle could tell.

It was like a whole different woman sat in front of him, even something about her posture was different.

"Yeah," he said, smiling down at her, "Sound like a good plan."

He kept smiling at her long after he finished talking …..

"What?" she asked, toughing her face to see if she had gotten something on herself.

"Nothing." He said, "It's a really good plan. We should probably go tell the boys."

"Right." She said in agreement, as she stood up. They walked side by side down the hall. She gave his shoulder a gentle bum with hers.

"Thanks." She said, looking over at him.

"Always." He answered with the hint of a smile on his lips.

"Hey where have you two been?" Esposito called to them when they were in sight.

"Wouldn't you like to know." Castle said, wiggling his eyebrows. Which earned him a backhanded slap on the arm from Kate.

"On second thought …." Ryan said, cringing, and shaking the mental image out of his head.

Beckett filled them in on her plan to bring Stephanie Miller's brother in to see what he could add to their investigation.

"Sounds good to me." Esposito said in agreement as he flipped through the Miller case, "From the stuff in here it looks like her brother came with her to every meeting, held her hand through every statement she had to give. It might be worth it to wake him up now and have him come in."

"Check this out," Ryan said," He even came back after his sister's death to see if they would reopen the case."

"Wow, sounds like a real crusader." Castle said.

"Well I think it's kind of sweet. How many brothers and sisters do you know that would go to such extreme for each other." Kate said.

"Not many, that's for sure." Ryan answered.

"Do you guys have his name and phone number there?" Beckett asked.

"Yeah sure." Ryan said, handing her the folder.

"Zachary Miller." She read off the page, picking up the phone she started to dial, but Castle interrupted her.

"Zachary Miller" he muttered to himself, "I know that name. I've read it somewhere before."

"Yeah Castle, it's in this case file a couple of times." Ryan said, gesturing to the folder.

"Yeah you guys have, but I haven't read that file yet. Zachary Miller. His name has to come up somewhere else in this case.. He's out connection. I guarantee it" Castle said with such certainty that Beckett didn't doubt him for a second.


YAY CASTLE!

So I hope you guys felt like getting the second chapter to keep the story moving.

Well that's all for me (for now). Thank you guys for leaving me such awesome feedback!

Elizabeth