a.n. Thanks to everyone who reviewed, faved, and followed so far. I didn't get a chance to respond to reviews yet, so here's one big happy THANKS for the COOKIES!

Again, a reminder that you should pay attention to the dates. This chapter will give you an idea of what the main plot of this story is about.

Disclaimer: I don't own Castle.

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Chapter Two

January 9, 1999

The restaurant wasn't busy, for which Kate was thankful. She and her father were having yet another of their 'discussions.' Really, they were not so much discussions as her dad preaching to her about how important it was for her to take her schooling seriously.

As if she weren't already pulling a 4.0 GPA. Kate had always worked her ass off when it came to school. She had goals and dreams and that meant doing her best.

So what if she also liked to party a bit? What was life without a little fun?

Both of her parents were always worried about the number of parties she went to. How they found out that she was at a party all the way across the country, Kate didn't know, but they did.

"I'm doing fine, Dad," Kate snapped. "My grades are great. I do my work on time, and I've applied for an internship for the summer. A few parties don't make me a bum."

Kate watched as her dad sighed and took a drink of his coffee. "I know, Katie. But we're worried about you."

"I'm not the same wild-child I was a few years ago," Kate said, her cheeks pinking. She had been a horrible teenager. She hated to take direction from her parents – who really liked to dish it out – so every time they got a little preachy, she'd act out. She snuck out to parties. Got drunk more than one time. Dated boys that she knew would never be accepted by her parents.

At least now, she had dialed that down a bit. Kate would go with her friends to clubs and dance. She liked to dance. So what if there was a bit of alcohol involved? She never overindulged. Well, almost never.

"I know, Katie. I know. Just be careful, bug. One infraction for underage drinking, especially if you get caught on campus, and you'll be expelled. Your mom and I just don't want to see you throw all of your hard work away."

"I'll be careful, I promise," Kate said with a roll of her eyes.

They were silent for a few minutes. Kate looked around the restaurant. It was the stereotypical little Italian joint. Small tables scattered around the main dining space, each covered with a checkered tablecloth.

Kate assumed that they were even red and white checkers. Maybe someday she'd get to see them in color to find out, not that she was really interested in finding her soulmate or anything, though she would be lying if she wasn't at least a bit curious about who her person might be.

Mostly she just wanted to see colors for the first time in her life. Her mom and dad had done their best to explain how the world really looked. Kate knew that most parents tried hard. But no one saw any color until they met their soulmate's eyes for the first time. It was just the way it always has been. Humans knew no other way.

Some people went their whole lives without seeing color. Some met their soulmates at a young age and got to see everything right from the start.

Kate was mostly ambivalent towards the idea of soulmates themselves. She liked to date, and she didn't particularly care if the person she was with was her soulmate or not. She'd meet that person eventually, there was no reason not to have some fun until that point. Or at least that was the way she thought about it. Her parents, of course, thought she should have saved herself for her one true love as they had.

Kate always just rolled her eyes when they brought up the subject. It wasn't as if she'd had sex yet. She'd decided that she would save that for her soulmate. But she didn't see the problem with making out with a nice guy. If nothing else, it would mean that when she did finally meet the person she was meant for, she'd have some experience. Nobody wanted their first kiss with their soulmate to suck.

"I wonder what's keeping your mother?" Her father asked, breaking the silence. "She hasn't called."

"I don't know. She probably got caught up at work. Or she's chatting with someone again. You know how she does that sometimes."

Jim smiled. "Yes, she can talk a person's ear off."

Kate laughed. Her mother was well known for getting in heated discussions over the littlest of things, and it often caused her to be late, though she usually remembered to call.

She and her dad spent the next half hour talking. Kate would be leaving to go back to Stanford in the morning, having taken a few extra days off due to an illness that she was now thankfully over. As the time continued to flow by, both father and daughter grew more and more worried about the third member of their family.

"Do you think we should check back at home? Maybe she forgot she was supposed to meet us and went home instead?" Kate asked.

"Maybe. I think I'll try her cell. She doesn't always carry it, so we'll see if she answers."

Kate watched as her father tried to call her mom on his new cell phone. The thing looked ridiculous against his ear, but her father had been so proud at getting one of the first little cell phones available. Given that they used to be the size of bricks, Kate could see why he liked it, but she thought he liked the thing a little too much. She'd even found him playing a game on it one day during her break, almost like it was some Nintendo system.

Jim frowned at the device as he hit the end button. "Went straight to voicemail."

"We should go home. Something doesn't feel right."

Her dad nodded and the two left the restaurant after paying the bill. The car ride home was silent as they both brooded on the situation. Kate's gut was twisting in knots. She could just feel that something had gone wrong.

When they got home, there was nobody there. Kate breathed a sigh of relief, having almost thought they would come home and find the police waiting for them. Instead, there was a message on the answering machine.

"Yes, hello. My name is Margarie Hernandez, I'm a nurse at Cedar Sinai Hospital. Johanna Beckett was brought in this evening and I'm trying to contact her next of kin. If Jim Beckett could call me back at this number as soon as he gets this message, that'd be great. Thank you."

"The hospital?" Kate asked, panicked. Her mother had an aversion to doctors in general and she absolutely hated the emergency room. She'd once broken her wrist and had waited two weeks to even tell anyone just to avoid a trip to the ER. They'd ended up having to rebreak the thing to set it right.

Jim shook his head and picked up the receiver to return the call. Kate listened to his side of the conversation.

"Yes, this is James Beckett, my wife was brought in earlier this evening and I just received the message."

"Yes."

"Yes, ma'am."

"What happened?"

Kate saw as her dad's eyes widened and his brow furrowed.

"Stabbed? Is she okay, is she going to be okay?"

He listened for a long moment. Kate could feel the blood draining from her face. Her mom had been stabbed? Was she even alive? Had her mom died while she and her dad were joking over coffee?

"We'll be there in a half hour. Thank you." Jim hung the phone up.

"Dad?"

"She was on her way to the restaurant, apparently she decided to walk. Along the way, she was pulled into an alleyway and stabbed. The nurse didn't know much other than that. Come on, lets get to the hospital."

"Is she going to be okay?"

"She's in surgery. They wouldn't tell me any more."

Kate clenched her fist and followed her dad back out of the house. Just what the hell was going on? The worry she felt for her mom caused tears to roll down her cheeks. Kate didn't know what she would do if Johanna Beckett wasn't still alive.

She had to be alive. She just had to be.

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Kate had inherited her mother's hated of hospitals. They had arrived and had been left to bake in the ER waiting room with the only information being that her mom was still alive and was still in surgery and that said surgery was expected to last a couple more hours.

"Are you Jim Beckett?" a voice asked. Kate looked up to see a pair of police detectives standing near the Nurse's desk. She could see the gleaming gold badges hanging from their belts. Both had serious expressions on their faces.

"Yes."

"If I could talk to you in private for a moment sir," the taller of the two detectives said. "We have some information for you and some questions we need to ask."

Jim nodded and followed the two cops to a conference room. Kate wanted to follow, but she didn't want to be in the way and she had no clue if the cops would even let her in the room.

About a half-hour went by before her father came back. His face was set in a neutral expression, but Kate knew that he was furious.

"Dad?"

"It was that damn case that she's been working on," Jim growled. "I told her that she shouldn't do it, not on her own. I told her a dozen times that there was something going on there that she shouldn't stick her nose into. But did she listen? No, of course not. Damn it."

Kate grabbed his hand and squeezed. "She's still alive, daddy. You can yell at her soon."

"She damn well better stay alive too, or I'll resurrect her just so I can give her a piece of my mind."

Kate gave him a watery laugh. When she went silent for a moment, then asked, "So do they know what happened?"

"They got the guy who stabbed her, but apparently he's not talking. No surprise there. But they're pretty sure that it's related to a couple other murders that were carried out a few hours ago. Members of Johanna's office working group." Jim clenched his fist. "Apparently whoever was behind sending that man to prison decided it was easier just to get rid of all the lawyers."

"Who saved her?"

"I don't know. The cops wouldn't tell me. I don't even know if they had a name. They said that he interrupted the man with the knife before he could deliver a fatal blow, manged to disarm him and knock him out. Then called the cops and an ambulance."

"Sounds like Superman," Kate said.

"Nah, Batman is more likely." Jim grinned at her. Kate rolled her eyes. They'd been having the Batman vs Superman debate since she was a little girl and he had bought her her first comic book. "I hope whoever it was comes back here so that I can thank him. She wouldn't even have made it to the hospital if that man hadn't intervened."

When the doctor finally came out to tell them that Johanna Beckett was going to be fine, three hours had passed since they had arrived at the hospital. Kate was so relieved that the three hours seemed entirely worth the wait.

A half-hour later they were allowed to go back and see her for 15 minutes. Johanna looked so small lying there in her hospital bed, wires and tubes all over the place. Kate always thought that those fiction stories that always described a patient as looking small were cliché, but it was true. Johanna Beckett, who was always larger than life itself, looked diminished.

But she was alive. And truly, that was all that mattered.

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a.n.2. I know this one was short, but it does set the scene a bit. Yes, this is a soulmate story. No, it's not original. But I don't think I've ever seen a Castle version of this so I thought I'd write one. I also love stories with a different back story for Castle, so that's going to happen here as well.

You'll notice that there was an explanation above for why Kate was still in NYC on January 9th. That has always bothered me. Stanford would have resumed classes well before that, so why was she still in NY? It has never made any sense. So I gave her the flu.

The next update is probably at least a week away. I'd like to add more to this story before I publish another chapter so that I have a bit of a cache built up. Reviews are awesome, so leave me one so I get my ass motivated to write more!