The rest of the car ride was silent for Kate and Castle. He could tell she needed her space and he himself needed to figure out what they would tell their red heads when they got back to the loft. Unfortunately he didn't figure it out even as they walked through the lobby, waved politely at Eduardo, and got in the elevator.

"We have to tell them. They deserve to know, they shouldn't be left in the dark. The danger is gone, from what we can tell, so they should know… Plus they'll be able to tell something is off from the moment they see us… and I want them to know," Kate murmured, finally looking at Castle from her place leaning against the opposite side of the elevator. He smiled lightly in response, reaching out for the first time to grab her hand, squeezing her fingers reassuringly.

"Whatever you need, Kate. You know that."

Kate squeezed back. "I know."

They both braced themselves as Castle opened the door to the loft, Alexis and Martha both looking up from their place on the couch with a movie on the TV screen that they obviously just put on for white noise, having changed out of their fundraiser attire into pajamas but failing to fall asleep.

"Kate…"

"Oh, thank god, Katherine."

Alexis and Martha both rushed forward, talking at the same time. Alexis went straight in for the hug while Martha squeezed her shoulder in relief. Kate hugged back, but said nothing. As Alexis pulled back Kate could see the hesitance spark in her eyes.

"How are you? What happened?" Alexis asked, expecting reassurances, but was greeted by a heavy sigh and a wavering smile.

"I'm… it's hard to explain." While Kate had made the decision to tell her family what was happening, she hadn't quite had the chance to figure out the words with which to explain it without sounding insane. "I—Agent Shaw was contacted by her superiors at the FBI to pick up someone from WITSEC. That person's previous identity is supposedly… well, it's supposedly my mother."

"What? Are… you're saying…" Alexis stammers, not quite sure how to put her thoughts into words herself.

"My mother might be alive."

"Holy shit," Alexis breathes out, to which Kate scoffs and Rick raises his eyebrows pointedly.

"Come, sit Katherine, my poor girl, let's sit and you can explain," Martha said as she assured them all out of the doorway and onto the couch.

"Jordan took me to a safe house where she explained to me how they say it happened, that the FBI got her out and made us believe she was dead to keep us all safe….And then they brought me to see her….And my dad was already there."

"Oh Jim, too. I just cannot believe this," Martha interjected, taking a big swig of her wine, something she'd probably had enough of that night, but she wasn't going to stop right when it was deserved.

"So you saw her," Alexis said, not phrasing it like a question, but asking many other questions with those words regardless.

Kate sighed and slumped her shoulders. "On looks alone, I… just… we're going to get Lanie to do a bunch of tests tomorrow, DNA, blood, fingerprints, dental records, the works and my father is coming to sign paperwork so if the tests… if the results are unexpected then we'll exhume my mother's body, or whoever has been down there for 15 years. Speaking of which, I probably should call Lanie tonight, let her know what's going on. And if I call her, Esposito will know. And if Esposito knows than I should tell Ryan too. And Gates has to authorize us to work this anyway. I—."

"Hey, hey. We'll get it all done. It'll all be settled. Just each step at a time, yeah?" Castle implored, rubbing his thumb over the back of her palm where their hands were clasped.

Kate nodded in response and took a deep breath to calm her heart. "Anyway, we—I—didn't want to keep this from you guys. You're my family…and I figured you'd see it on my face as soon I walked through the door and you'd definitely see it on Castle's since he obviously has no poker face."

Her joke served to lighten the mood, despite Castle's protests of the contrary.

Alexis pulled Kate from Castle's side and hugged her tight. "I'm sorry, Kate. I'm sorry you're having to go through this after everything else you've been through."

"Thanks, Lex," Kate responded, squeezing her back and running her fingers over the ends of her hair.

"Listen, you guys should head to bed," Kate said as she stood, "Just because I probably won't get sleep tonight doesn't mean you should suffer the same fate."

Martha stood with her and laid her hand gently on Kate's cheek.

"You'll get through this," Martha said, rubbing her hand over Kate's hair, "I know you will."

Kate took a deep breath, trying to keep her emotions in check and gave Martha a grateful smile and said, "Thank you, Martha. So much."

Martha nodded, smiled, kissed Kate on the cheek and squeezed her shoulder. She nodded heavily to her son to signal her expectance that he take care of Kate tonight, wished everyone a good night, and headed up the stairs.

"I'm not going bed," Alexis said, remaining seated.

"Alexis—." Castle started.

"I can be useful," Alexis said as she stood.

"Of course you can, Alexis, but there's really not much that can be done toni—."

"You're going to go over the case again, right? There's no way you're sleeping," Alexis paused as Kate and Castle shared a look, "Exactly. So, what good does it do for you two to go over the case for the millionth time, you both know it by memory. But I don't. So explain it to me, I'm fresh eyes, and we can come up with questions that still need answering… and questions that arise should your mother hypothetically be alive. Please, let me help."

Kate looked to Castle for a decision while Castle looked to Kate for a decision.

Castle tilted his head and with a slight smile replied, "It's up to you."

Kate sighed and smirked, "Alright, you've convinced me."

Alexis breathed deeply, replying with her own smirk. "Okay."

"But first," Castle interrupted getting up from his seat, "we should get changed. If we're going to be up all night, we should at least be comfortable."

"I'll make coffee," Alexis said, going off towards the kitchen.

Kate only then realized how tired she was as her shoulder slumped visibly. Castle grabbed her hand and nodded towards their room as he pulled her along with him without asking, trying to take the lead for her.

Just as they had made it into the office, on the way into their bedroom, her phone rang from back on the couch where her clutch was discarded. She sighs and squeezes his hand before jogging back out to the living room to get her phone out of her clutch.

"Beckett."

"Detective…I hope I'm not calling too late. Although, something tells me you're just as awake as I am."

"Captain," Kate sighed turning back to see Castle had followed her and they gave each other a look of both trepidation and acceptance. "You would be correct."

"FBI Special Agent Jordan Shaw called me and debriefed me. She wanted to ask permission to pursue the case with us."

"Uh, I—Sir."

"I said that we would be happy to have her and her team assist us in getting the bottom of this case." Gates cut Kate off before she could try and plead her case.

"I—thank you, sir." Castle raised his eyebrows appreciatively upon hearing Kate's response.

"Trust me, Detective, we will get to the bottom of this. Agent Shaw informed me of the plan.—I will have your back, Kate. We're gonna do whatever we need to do to figure this out."

"Thanks, sir. That… that's good to hear, especially right now."

"I'm of the same hope as you, I assume, that this'll be quickly resolved tomorrow. Speaking of which, has the rest of the team been informed?"

"Um…" Kate ran a hand down the side of her face trying to parse out her plans. "I need to call Dr. Parish and inform her so that she can have the paperwork and tests ready when we get in tomorrow morning and… well, if Dr. Parish knows—."

"Esposito will know and if Esposito knows then Ryan will know."

Kate scoffed in surprise. "Uh… yes, exactly, sir," she stuttered out, chuckling. "So that is why I figured I would call them all anyway."

"Alright, I'll let you get to it then. And Kate?"

"Yes, sir?"

"I'm sorry…no matter what the outcome tomorrow, I'm sorry this is happening to you."

Kate paused for a second in response, her throat suddenly dry, she cleared it before she continued. "Thank you, sir. Th—that means a lot."

They both bid adieu as Kate met Castle's enquiring glace, pulling her phone down from her ear and ending the call.

"She was…nice. And reassuring. She's backing our play, whatever that may be." Kate stepped into his chest, her forehead pressed into his sternum.

"That's… good. Really good. One less thing you have on your plate, getting Gates on board." She nodded her head against his chest.

"After that, I should probably just get the rest over with."

Castle pulled Kate back by her shoulders so that he could look her in the eye and nodded in agreement. "Why don't you take Lanie and Esposito and I'll handle Ryan."

Kate gave him a tired smile in response. "Tag team, I like it."

Castle squeezed her shoulders before she pulled away and sat back on the couch, while he took the chair beside it. Kate took out her phone again and held it in her palm for a second in an attempt to collect her words. However, as she realized that wasn't quite possible, she hit the call button and put the phone up to her ear as she could see Castle doing the same.

"Girl, it is both way too early and way too late o'clock. We both know we have tomorrow off so it's not a body, but you better have a life or death related explanation for as to why you're calling."

Kate sighs out something resembling a chuckle had she not felt the way she did. "Nice to talk to you too, Lanie."

"Girl…"

"It is life or death… well, life or death adjacent at least. If Esposito isn't already listening in, you should put him on too."

"Okay, if this is enough for you to incur his wrath as well as mine, it must be serious."

"Mmm.. baby, give me five more minutes and I will rock your world again, I'll even do that thing you like—."

"Javier!"

"Oh god."

"Beckett?" Esposito asked, still half asleep, but much more aware than before.

"Yeah, sorry to… interrupt." Kate gave an exaggerated shudder but continued as she could hear Esposito sputtering for a response in the background. "Listen, just, I don't need to know any more about what you were doing, I called because… well, I was kind of commandeered by the FBI tonight. Agent Shaw paid me a visit, but it wasn't exactly a good one.—She was given a WITSEC reintegration case by her supervisor at the FBI, mostly I think because it hit close to home. The woman in WITSEC claims to be my mother."

Kate waited while they seemingly processed the information, even if the silence went on for a second too long for her liking.

"Beckett… this has to be—." Espo started, being the first to find his voice apparently.

"Untrue? Yeah, I know. Jordan brought me and my father to see her. She… it doesn't matter about her, we still have to investigate it, because even the infinitesimal possibility that this woman… if there is someone in that grave that still deserves justice, we need to seek it. That's what we do."

"Kate, honey, I looked at all of those records, autopsy photos, the whole autopsy report, crime scene photos, and so did Castle's expert friend—."

"I know, Lanie, trust me, I know. But she… I just need conclusive proof. Gates has already signed off on an investigation and I'm calling you because, well you guys should know, but I was hoping you could have tests ready when we get in? You know, DNA, blood test, fingerprints…"

"Everything but the kitchen sink, I got it sweetie. I'll get it set up as soon as I get in."

"And, if the results are positive… I want to exhume the body. My father is coming in to sign paperwork, if you could have that ready too…"

Lanie took a breath and eyed Espo, "Of course."

"I'll, uh—look, I'll let you guys get back to your night."

"Okay, but hey, Beckett? We'll figure this out."

Kate smiled slightly, "Thanks Espo. Good night."

As Kate hung up, her breath left her in both relief at being one step further to answers and disappointment at the sheer amount of steps still needed to get those answers. At this, she finally tuned into Castle's similar conversation on the phone next to her. She got Castle's attention and held her hand out.

"Hold on, Ryan—Are you sure?" Castle asks in response, moving the phone away from his ear and covering the speaker with his palm. Kate merely holds her hand out further towards him and he gives her the phone.

"Hey Ryan—"

"Beckett, hey… Castle told me about…"

"Yeah, yeah… it's uh—been a night."

"I can only imagine—."

"Listen, Ryan, if you could get everything you can on Sophia Randall when you get in tomorrow, that would be a big help."

"For sure, Beckett. Whatever I can do, and hey… we got your back. We'll figure this out. And Kate, I'm—"

"You don't have to, Ryan… I know."

"Well, I'm sorry anyway."

Kate smiled a little as she could practically hear his smirk through the phone. "Anyway, sorry for calling so late. Hope we didn't wake up Sarah Grace."

"Nah, I was already up feeding her actually. I'm glad you called."

"Well then I'll leave you to it. Thanks, Ryan. Good night." Kate brought the phone away from her ear again, but feeling even lighter this time compared to the last. Now the explaining is over and she can focus on figuring out this case… or at the very least figuring out if there is a case at all.


Having changed into their pajamas, Kate pulled the file boxes that held the contents of her mother's case out of closet from their spot on the top shelf. Or at least she was trying. In her fuzzy socks, she wasn't quite tall enough to get a good grip on the boxes but, at the same time, was too stubborn to stop trying.

"Here." Castle pulled up behind her and reached over her to grab one, putting his chest to her back. She huffed and turned around to grab it from him with a scowl. He just chuckled in response and grabbed the second one for himself. "I had been watching for at least 10 minutes, love—being a bystander any longer would be cruel."

Kate rolls her eyes as he steps back with the other box is cradled between his side and his elbow, but when he looks at her, its clear her mind is onto other things.

They bring the boxes out into the office and set them on Castle's desk, Kate leaning heavily on the top of hers. Before Castle can comment, Alexis comes down the stairs and into the office in her pajamas with a notepad and a pen. She sits down on the other side of Castle's desk and clicks the end of her pen.

"Give me all the gory details, don't leave anything out."

Kate reached for the remote and turned on the TV—the virtual murder board, her picture still staring at her from the middle of the screen. She zooms out to show the other pictures, a mix of victims and perpetrators, all linking to her. Bracken pulls her eye, his political headshot staring at her from the corner of the screen. She keeps her eyes on the picture of her mother right next to hers, only slightly smaller, and ignores the voice in the back of her head whispering how similar Sophia looks to the picture of her mother.

"This all started because my mother got a letter from Joe Pulgotti asking her to take on his appeal on his conviction of murdering an undercover agent, Bob Armen. When she looked into it, she found discrepancies—just like we did. It wasn't Joe Pulgotti who killed Bob Armen, it was Captain Montgomery, who was then only Officer Montgomery, and the two detectives he ran with at the time, John Raglan and Gary McCallister."

"Roy?" Alexis stuttered.

Kate sighed and looked over at Castle, who had parked himself on the couch, gaze on the floor, nodding along. He took over briefly. "Yeah, Pumpkin. Roy didn't just die in the line of duty, he died, in his words, for his sins. He knew about all of this the whole time—he was the one that fired the shot that day that hit Bob Armen. And he kept it a secret, he kept every piece of evidence he had as insurance, to keep him, his family, and Kate safe. But it only worked for so long."

Alexis breathed deeply and looked out the window briefly before focusing on her notes again. "Okay."

"They were kidnapping members of the mafia to collect the ransom money—."

"Almost like Robin Hood."

Kate smiled, slightly watery. "If only they just gave it to the poor. They took it for themselves—until Bracken found out about it. He was the District Attorney at the time and instead of prosecuting the three cops, he wanted a part of the action. He basically took over the operation, but each of them got a cut. Montgomery was able to buy a house in full in a little over a year on an officer's salary. Nothing would have gotten in their way if they hadn't killed Bob Armen. They blamed Joe Pulgotti because he was in the alley that night and they thought, like a lot of people, who wouldn't convict the known mob member with the already long criminal record? Because Bracken was in on it, he took those measures to cover it up and Montgomery, Raglan, and McCallister were paid well for their silence. It was kept well under wraps until my mother received that letter."

Kate paused to breathe through the heavy feeling in her chest, the one that always came when she spoke about the case—no matter how much time passed.

"So your Mom was contacted by Pulgotti and started investigating the case, how long between then and between her—between when she—."

Kate breathed out slightly, "Months, maybe a full year. I was away at college for some of it, so I don't remember the exact day or timeframe. I remember just before I left for college, late July, early August in 1998, that's when my parents started arguing about death threats. I didn't know that's what they were arguing about at the time, I was too—too focused on going off to California and finally getting away."

Her finger clench around the remote as she holds it to her chest, letting her eyes wander back to her mother's picture.

"So those months between when you left for school and when you came back for break are pretty unaccounted for?"

Kate looks back at Alexis in response to her question and bites her bottom lip. "I only know what I could decipher of her notes—they're written in a shorthand she made up that only she could truly understand. She didn't want the opposing party on any of her cases to ever know her exact thoughts just in case they ever got a hold of them."

"But Jim would know," Castle said, pulling Kate's attention back to him, "at least more."

She breathes in deeply and nods slightly, swallowing thickly. "If we really need to ask at all."

Silence hangs over them until Alexis picks up the conversation again.

"So you came back from school for break right?"

"I came back and she took some time off, for me being home and Christmas and New Years… it was nice and rare, she practically stopped working. Which she never did, she was always thinking about her cases, taking calls when she really shouldn't have been, checking emails—she wasn't good at completely shutting it off. Guess I got that from her. But she did then. So it was suspicious that she didn't make it to dinner the day before I was supposed to leave. Dad and I waited in that restaurant for an hour before we even ate and she still didn't show up by the time we finished so we went home. I was so angry, I remember, I didn't understand why she would have practically done no work while I was home and wait until the night before I was supposed to leave to get hung up on one of her cases. But when we got home, we realized she had been checking on something with Pulgotti's case on her way to the restaurant—but she never left that alley."

Kate gazes through the bookshelves, through a window, her mind traveling back to Raglan, to walking through the door to their house with him in tow, to waiting while he sat them down to tell them that her mother had been murdered, to more waiting while they reacted to that until he finally confessed he believed it was random gang violence—nothing that would turn up in an investigation.

"How did you identify her body?"

Kate rib cage caves in even as she tries to let Alexis' words brush over her. Castle goes to admonish and Alexis goes to apologize at the same time, so Kate stops them before they can try.

"I didn't—identify her body. My father did. He went with Raglan and I stayed at the house and just—sat. I was numb."

"So, assuming because of the way she died, you guys had a closed casket funeral, Jim is the only one who saw her body?" Alexis glanced up over her notepad, her brows furrowed—just like how her father does when he is trying to put together the puzzle pieces.

"In person, that we know of, yes. But there would have been CSI and other people on the scene. The dog walker that found her. And we have crime scene photos that we've looked at for years."

"We also have Dick Coonan—the person who admitted to her murder, who killed other people who worked with your mother." Castle got up to pace the length of his office.

"Why would Dick Coonan ever lie about killing her? He definitely killed someone and he wouldn't have been warned off a job, not by the FBI or anyone other than the person who hired him."

Kate follows Castle with her eyes squinting as she thinks.

Castle slows to a stop and fills the silence. "He definitely wouldn't have taken the fall for it if he hadn't killed someone that night either—and he admitted as much when we caught him."

"Did he?" Alexis interjects, still taking notes, writing down their questions. "Or did you just interpret it that way because all the evidence pointed both to him and to your mother…being…"

Kate furrows her brow, letting Alexis' sentence hang in the air.

"No, no he—god, now it's been so long, I can't really remember—" Castle says, leaning against the bookshelf on the other side of the room.

"He said we could find 'her killer' with the money Castle gave," Kate interjects, staring behind Alexis's shoulders, "He played his hand—we didn't mention that we were trying to find my mother's killer, he shouldn't have known that it was her—that it was a she at all. And then he called me clever when I suggested it was him, and then he…" She slows, exchanging a glance with Castle on the other side of the room.

Alexis shifted her eyes between them and huffs with an eye roll. "The good, the bad, and the ugly, guys."

Castle shrugs his hands into the pockets of his flannel pajama pants. "He held me at gunpoint."

Alexis clenches her pen and run her tongue along the inside of her cheek. Silence lingers and Kate and Castle exchange looks as they wait for her to speak.

"I'm sure that was not the first time or the last time that you guys shielded, really lied, to me about the things that happened during your partnership—but I can take it. And I think you'll both agree that you'd rather know when the people you care about are in danger than be oblivious and have something happen and—"

"Alexis nothing is going to happen now—."

"You were shot, Kate. I'm sorry, but you can't really say that nothing is going to happen after that."

Kate and Castle share a long look.

"Right—Coonan stole a rookie's gun when we confronted him and he held Castle at gun point as a threat to let him leave," Kate says softly, as an olive branch, and continues when she sees both of their shoulders relax, "he said I was clever, when I accused him of being the killer. He said it wasn't personal, that it was just another job. And then he said I could never find the person who hired him, he would bury me."

Castle pushed slightly off the bookshelf to take two slow steps towards Kate. "You remember so much about what he said."

"If I wasn't already listening before, the minute his gun stuck into your side, my attention was focused solely on him and his words." Kate turned back towards the TV turned murder board leaning against the desk on her hands.

Alexis shifted in her chair. "What happened? How did the standoff end?"

"Your father made a move—"

"And Kate backed my play."

Kate and Castle eyed each other, their lips turning up slightly despite the circumstances.

"So where is Coonan now? Could we go and get a straight answer from him?"

"He's not—uh," Castle flounders.

"He's dead—I shot him. I had to shoot him."

Alexis swallows, catches Kate's eye and holds her gaze, nodding slowly. "And he was your only lead?"

"At the time, but going from no leads to knowing who was hired to kill my mother was—a lot. A lot more than I had in those 12 years leading up to it. It didn't feel like it right in that moment, it felt like I was losing so much more than I was gaining when I shot our biggest lead in over a decade, but it was the biggest break we had and I finally knew for sure that she wasn't just killed by gang violence."

"It must've been hard—to shoot him," Alexis murmurs, wincing slightly.

Kate looks to Alexis with a serious face. "It wasn't hard—it was actually incredibly easy, a lot easier than it should have been. I had no other choice."

Kate looks over at Castle and he steps closer and grips her hand against the desk, having come around to stand at her side behind it.

Alexis looks between them and relaxes back into her seat. "So, after the funeral, you transferred to NYU, changed your degree, and went through the academy."

"Not right after, I went back to Stanford for almost the rest of the semester, but I applied to transfer within a few weeks of getting back. I knew I had to be back in New York. And that's when Dad was starting to get bad with drinking. Sometimes I think if I had come right back home I might have been able to do something sooner and it wouldn't have been so hard for him to get sober. I think us being apart right after was the worst thing for us, really."

Alexis paused briefly and looked at her dad, who looked over at Kate tracing his gaze over the back of her head before nodding at Alexis to continue.

"So did anything happen involving the case or your mom before you graduated from the academy?"

Kate sighed, stood up straight, and crossed her arms over her chest. "They closed the case in days, weeks at most, random gang violence. I never heard from Raglan again until he found me 3 years ago. But when I graduated, I dove straight into the investigation. I went down into the records, that I as just a beat cop wasn't supposed to have access to, and went over and over what little they had. Montgomery caught me, when he was still just a detective. He could have written me up, had me suspended, but he encouraged me to keep going. I know now that he knew I wouldn't find anything in the file, he was trying to point me to the tape my mother had from him that recorded a conversation between Bracken and everyone where Bracken admits his plan to hire someone to kill my mother. But I didn't make that connection until just a few months ago, cause she hid it in the elephants. But back then, I just memorized the file 10 times over until I didn't do anything but go over and over it in my head."

"Falling down the rabbit hole." Alexis looked at Kate with sympathy in her eyes and Kate smiled slightly.

"Yeah, until, with some help, I pulled myself out of it."

"Do you think Royce ever knew anything?" Castle stopped his slow pacing of the room to look at her, his eyes squinting slightly.

"Royce?" Alexis looked up from her notes.

"Mike Royce, my partner while I was on the beat straight out of the academy. He helped me try to get answers, he didn't try and stop me, he didn't say I would just get over it—but he still showed me that how I was doing it was going to get me kicked off the force or worse. I just trusted him implicitly, at the time, I didn't even think it just might have been a tactic to get me to stop—and it worked." Kate paused, staring at Castle but unable to focus on him, her mind following Castle's lead. "He honestly could have known something—knowing what we know now, he wasn't afraid to get on the wrong side of the law. I just fell for his act."

"No, it wasn't ever your fault, Kate. He's the one that broke your trust. The one that didn't deserve it in the first place." Castle eyes implored Kate's as she looked at him through her lashes with slightly wet eyes, and she slowly nodded, not quite convincing him or herself.

Alexis took the opportunity to change the subject. "So the case stayed dormant…until?"

Castle put his hands in his pockets and his shoulders falling. "Until I reopened it."

Alexis coughed slightly. "Right—you got ahold of the file and you looked into it, you gave it to your doctor friend—."

"Dr. Clark Murray." Castle swallowed, looking down and not seeing Kate's stare, watching him with sympathy.

"Right. And he found the connections with the other 3 victims who were working with Kate's mother and he made the other connections that told you it was a professional hit—that we now know was done by Dick Coonan."

"Yes, and it would have stayed dormant otherwise, Castle—we've been over this. You shouldn't feel bad just because we have to go through all of this again." Kate stopped where she stood, leaning back against the desk and moving her head to look into Castle's eye across the room from his position leaning heavily against the bookcase.

Castle tried to smile but it turned into more of a grimace. "I'll try."

Alexis paused, waiting for one of them to pick up where they left off, but continued when neither of them did, Kate too busy pursing her lips at Castle, who was too busy in his own head to look up from his feet. "So there was a murder with Dick Coonan's signature and that how you figured out who the hired gun was, but not who hired him. What happened next? No more leads until?"

"Until it seemed like we had too many almost. Until Raglan reached out to me. He was dying, cancer, and wanted to atone. We went to meet him and before he could say anything of value, he was shot by a sniper. It ended up being Hal Lockwood, another hired gun of Bracken's. As a result we brought in McCallister, he tried to implicate Vulcan Simons, the head of a drug ring in Washington Heights that my mother went after. But that's when we figured out the Joe Pulgotti connection, which ruled out Vulcan Simons, though he was involved later to a degree. We arrested McCallister but he wouldn't give up anyone, called Bracken the Dragon, that's where we got the nickname. At that time, we didn't know yet about Montgomery or anything else. But Espo and Ryan did identify Lockwood as the sniper and went after him, but he held them hostage, wanted to know what we had figured out. That's when we officially knew that the "Dragon" knew we were investigating. We got Lockwood and McCallister but neither of them were talking. So we were waiting for one of them to break. They sat in prison for a couple months before Bracken used his connections to move Lockwood into gen pop and killed McCallister. Then Lockwood escaped at his arraignment, on Bracken's dime. Lockwood had been speaking to Bracken's men through coded messages in prison. We found out who at the prison was facilitating it, but we found him dead," Kate pauses to catch her breath. "It was clear Bracken was scrambling to cover his tracks—everyone involved with the case, who knew about the case, was ending up dead."

"This was around the time of your—and Montgomery's—?"

Kate looked Alexis in the eyes. "Yes."

"So all of this happened—how did you figure out Montgomery was in on it? When the other two people who did this were dead, Lockwood wasn't talking and on the run, and Bracken still wasn't known and desperately didn't want to be found out? Did Montgomery confess?"

Kate sighed, her heart squeezing. "Kind of. Ryan and Esposito had been looking into who the third cop could be. Your dad figured out that someone altered the case reports to hide who the third cop was. So we used more unconventional methods, Ryan and Espo were going around their possible old stomping grounds, and found a picture of all of them together, rookie Montgomery. At the same time, Montgomery called me and told me to meet him this private airplane hangar outside the city. I was about to walk in when the boys text me and told me it was Montgomery. Montgomery told me when I got in there, that was always his plan, it just so happened I already knew," She paused, breathing deeply through the tug at her heart. "What I didn't know is that he had baited Lockwood there. And he called Castle to make sure I wouldn't stay and fight with him. Roy saved us, in that moment, and we decided that no one else needed to know that he was involved."

Kate looked at Castle over her shoulder and their eyes locked.

"So then who—?" Alexis stopped, coughing slightly and looking away, swallowing thickly.

Kate walks over to Alexis puts her hand on her shoulder lightly. "It's ok, Lex, you can say it."

Alexis opens her mouth to speak, but instead shifts further down into her seat. "No, I don't think I can."

Kate squeezes her shoulder and looks down at her. "Bracken hired someone else after what happened to Lockwood. Cole Maddox, or at least that was the name he went by when we found him. He was the one who shot me at Roy's funeral. After that, the only reason I was able to live was because of a new arrangement. A friend of Montgomery's who owed him, went by Smith, which actually did end up being his last name, he received all of Montgomery's evidence against Bracken and made a deal that if we stopped investigating he would stop."

"So Smith came to you and told you about the deal?"

"No, he came to me," Castle stepped in, leaning against the desk in Alexis' eye line while she turned her furrowed brows on him, "He called me when Beckett came back to work and told me about the deal and asked me to help—we were hitting dead ends anyway within a week but I—encouraged her to take a break while we had no leads, so that she—you wouldn't go too far down the rabbit hole. Meanwhile, I did my own investigation on the side."

"Dad—."

"Nothing in the deal said I couldn't investigate myself—."

"You were putting a target on your back when it was clear everyone who looked into that case was ending up dead, when you helped some stranger cut a deal to keep Kate from dying. Jeez, Dad."

Kate moved over to Alexis, who sat rigidly on the edge of her seat, and Rick, who sat in front of her cringing slightly at the tone of the conversation.

"It's alright, Alexis, I have given him enough lectures on this to last a lifetime."

Alexis turned to look at Kate over her shoulder. "When did he tell you about this?"

"About a year after it started."

Alexis whipped around to look back at Castle. "A year you did this Dad, with no one knowing?"

"Actually, Grams knew—and Sophia Turner figured it out—both of them found my board."

"What?" Alexis and Kate both asked at the same time, both leaning toward him causing him to lean away slightly, back further onto his desk.

"How did Sophia Turner find out—and why did you never tell me?" Kate steps and puts her hands on hips, then thinks better of it and lets her hand go limp by her side.

"And how did Grams know and I not know?" Alexis uncrossed her legs and sat further forward in her chair.

Castle puts his hands up, his eyes widening. "Sophia found my board when she was over that night—when you thought we were," he clears his throat and looks down briefly, "which we weren't, by the way, that I did tell you, multiple times. And, Alexis, you know that Grams barges into where she shouldn't, asks questions later, she found out herself—I didn't tell her and I definitely wasn't going to tell you, keeping it quiet was the only thing keeping both of you safe."

Alexis stands and steps towards Castle, gesturing with her notes. "What about keeping you safe? You didn't even have Kate to protect you keeping everyone in the dark—."

"Ok Ok you two, we're getting off track," Kate wedges just slightly between Castle and Alexis and when they both stand down a little, she continues, "we're supposed to be finding weak points in the investigation, questions that will help us should—things change. So Smith contacted Castle, we were off the investigation, until Bracken started ramping up to run for President, he needed to get Smith—and anyone connected with his shady dealings, out of the way for good if he had a shot of keeping this from the public."

"Actually Smith called one other time before then—that case that involved Mayor Weldon. I never knew why or how it involved Bracken. At the time I didn't even know it was Bracken. But that could be something—a weak point."

Kate bites her lip and nods slowly. "Maybe Bracken had it out for Mayor Weldon—maybe he knew something? Or he just wasn't comfortable with him making a run for Governor? Either way that's interesting."

Castle nodded along and Alexis sat back in her seat and wrote that down.

"That and if the Mayor wasn't there, Gates would have kicked me out and there would have been nothing stopping you from investigating, voiding the deal and allowing him to take you out."

Kate considered Castle's words. "But at that point Bracken just didn't want me investigating, he had no more reason to want to kill me, committing further crimes, when the deal was in place and he was only eyeing higher office. It wasn't until he really started planning his run for President that he really just needed me gone—come hell or high water. I think there was something with Weldon that he didn't want to happen or to get out more than he wanted him to stay and keep the deal in place. Which is saying something—seeing as the deal, this case, seemed to be the worst—and therefore most important—thing on Bracken's radar."

"You both didn't question this at the time?" Alexis looked between the two of them.

"We didn't know who the Dragon was to even find out a connection between him and Weldon. And I couldn't exactly tell Kate that I thought Weldon was possibly connected to something to do with her mother's—not only because of the obvious but also because I had no clue how. Afterwards, I went with the theory that Bracken didn't want Weldon to leave his post and quite possibly ruin the deal."

"Right—so then a little while later, in May, then Senator Bracken was planning to run for President and wanted loose ends tied. He sent this Maddox person after Smith's records—then?"

Kate started pacing again, answering Alexis. "Smith's records and Montgomery's. He sent someone to steal anything related to Smith and the case possibly at Montgomery's house—but Roy's wife was there and shot the intruder—not Maddox, not the person who shot me, but we still knew it had something to do with this case. We followed our leads straight to Maddox—and I couldn't stop until I found him. I took it too far, your dad and I were on the rocks because of it and because of lies and miscommunications—I had nothing to lose. And everything to gain by finding Maddox before he found Smith.—But I was too late and not strong enough, running myself ragged."

"Down the rabbit hole," Alexis repeated.

"After that I was done—I resigned and, well, your father and I resolved our miscommunications."

Kate smirked at Castle when he wiggled his eyebrows at her.

Alexis chuckled, cringing slightly. "But you went back—the case pulled you back."

"Yeah, we managed to use Maddox—and Montgomery's old records—to find Smith, but we were too late. Maddox tortured him to find out where his leverage was and by the time we got there he was barely conscious. He went to the hospital…where we thought he died."

"He faked his death," Kate continues slowly, following Castle's train of thought.

"Definitely write this down," Castle gestured toward Alexis' notes.

"Already on it, how did he fake his death?"

"He never said, just that he had friends in high places—as loyal to him as he was to Montgomery I guess."

Kate stutters. "We'll need to find him, if—."

Castle nods. "If."

"So Maddox knew where the evidence was, and I'm assuming Smith told you the same before he 'died', or at least somehow you found out. So you go to try and find this evidence before Maddox does."

"He only sort of admitted where they were, even then, but anyway we get there at the same time, Maddox gets the better of us, Ryan and Esposito have to help us out, Esposito having found out that Cole Maddox is actually Cedric Marcs, and he gets to the files before we do—but it's good he did because they were rigged to blow. The files were shredded, Maddox, Marcs, with it. We saved the scraps but it didn't look good at that point, our only connection to the Dragon was gone, however much it didn't pain me that he died after what he did, but more importantly the documents were shredded—completely." Kate shakes her head. "I wasn't feeling very optimistic—and didn't feel much better when our best lead was when Ryan brought over all the tiny scraps of paper they could salvage from evidence to go through them. But we managed to piece together bank statements, specifically money orders of the ransom payments that went to Bracken for his blackmail. We tracked the account—and that's when we finally found out that Senator William Bracken was the Dragon."

"What did you do with that information now that you knew? Since he couldn't be arrested until two years later?"

"We had nowhere near enough to go to anyone with this information, but I wanted him to think we did. The morning after, I cornered him. I told him about the bank statements, made him think I had the whole bundle of evidence. Told him that I—we would remain quiet as long as no one that I cared about was hurt. We came to an understanding."

"And that's it? You confront the person who called for your mother's murder and you just…talked?"

Kate tilted her head. "His face might have run into the butt of my side arm, he gave himself a nice scar."

Alexis smiled a little bit. "Good," she paused, her brow furrowing, "Is it possible that those scraps of file are still in one of those boxes or in the precinct or at the DA's office for Bracken's prosecution? Could there be something in there that not knowing, you missed—you know, 'if'?"

Castle opened one of the boxes and pulled a gallon zip lock bag with the shredded file in it. "This all goes to the DA and the Federal prosecutors if or when they need it for discovery. Until then, it's here. But, we went through this pretty extensively at the time. Under new eyes, there might be something, but more than likely those bank records were about all we can get out of it."

"We're under the assumption that Bracken somehow had knowledge that my mother was alive or could have been alive—when in reality, if he knew, he would have been too busy hunting her and who helped her than to hunt any of us."

"That doesn't mean that if that were the case he didn't inadvertently have evidence of it that he couldn't recognize, maybe even refused to recognize as that would not mesh with how he viewed the situation already—I took a psych class last year and we, as humans, are way too good at convincing ourselves of things we think to be true."

"Like thinking you mother was dead for 15 years?" Kate's voice was gruff and she leaned heavily onto the desk.

"Kate," Alexis said, looking ready to apologize.

Kate shook her head, looking down and letting her hair shield her face.

"Ok, let's get to the end of this quickly, it's already too late o'clock for all of us and we need at least a little rest to be ready for tomorrow." Castle rubbed his hand over Kate's back and squeezed her shoulder, nodding at Alexis to continue.

"So, when did Bracken pop up again? What broke the deal?"

Castle waited for Kate to speak, but took over when she didn't, as she tried to calm her frustration and get her breathing under control.

"It was actually something unrelated to the case—Bracken's life was threatened by another enemy he made, not unusual given his general villainous vibe, but still somewhat surprising to us. Someone was trying to kill him, they tried to blow up his car, Kate saved his ass, and he told her that he owed her one. We didn't hear from him until a year after, when Kate was pulled into an undercover op that just so happened to be deep into a drug cartel run by Vulcan Simmons who was working for Bracken, raising money for a PAC for his presidential campaign. Bracken used his new hired gun, Elena, or whatever her name actually is, to save Beckett—effectively taking Bracken out of her debt. That day, he announced he was forming an exploratory committee to run for President. It was only a matter of time before things came to a head. And we felt more vulnerable than ever—so we didn't let up. We followed a trail from Vulcan Simmons. We thought he was the best way to get enough evidence on Bracken. If we get evidence tying Bracken to the drug cartel for his political capital, then it would at least be enough to incapacitate him, stop his run, and hopefully put him away until we had enough evidence of the murders to add to it. Before we even got that far, Bracken blinked, Simmons killed one of the guys we had been following, then had Simmons killed, made it look like Beckett did it—she had to go on the run, I went with her," Castle paused, "What? No yelling at this secret investigation?"

Alexis sighs at her father. "I came to terms with the fact a long time ago that the two of you together were bound to get up to trouble—but when you're together, you always come out on top. It would be better, and maybe now it can be better, if I were to know it was happening when it was happening. But at least you're together. Going it alone is never the answer."

Kate chuckles breathily and locks eyes with Alexis. "You're wiser than both of us, you know that?"

Alexis shrugs impishly. "Yeah, I do."

Kate stood and sat on the edge of the desk, facing Alexis. "So we went into hiding, I was pretty banged up, as you know, and I was in and out of consciousness, and I remembered something—I remembered what Montgomery had told me when he caught me when I was just on the beat, looking into records where I didn't belong. I remembered he had asked if I have looked through my mother's belongings—he had mentioned a tape, but of course I didn't know what he meant at the time. But Smith had also mentioned a tape—a tape where Bracken admitted to my mother's murder. Montgomery was the one who recorded that tape and when he asked me those questions that day, he was trying to find that tape—that he had given to my mother before she died. So, instead of going to Canada, we went and snuck back into my apartment to look again at my mother's things. Castle looked at her notes from the day she died and her last note was 'DM e w/Family'. I always thought it meant 'dinner me with family', but Castle thought it meant something different. 'Detective Montgomery, evidence with family.' It wasn't until IA found us at the apartment, arrested us, and took us back to the precinct that I knew what she meant. She hid the tape on her desk in her office in the elephants, the elephants she always said represented us—that she always said were a family. The same elephants I put on my own desk. I took a risk and opened the elephants and found the tape. It was exactly what we were looking for—and more than enough to arrest Bracken. So I did."

Alexis smirked. "On national television—like a boss ass—."

"Ah, language Pumpkin—but yeah, just like that," Castle simpered, but his face dropped when he saw the troubled expression on Kate's.

"That's our biggest question—that's what makes no possible sense if this is true. If my mother had the tape, knew Bracken was the dragon, and did—didn't die that night, she would have had enough evidence to at least alert authorities and start an investigation, but honestly, she would have had enough to take him down. She wouldn't have had any reason to go into hiding—all she would have had to do was tell the FBI about Bracken and the tape and she wouldn't have had to go anywhere. And I don't think anyone but her would have put them in those elephants.—God, there's just no way this can be true." Kate pushed off the desk and ran her fingers through her hair roughly. "My mother never would have—she'd find another way, there's always another way. It just doesn't make any—," Kate bit her lip and wrapped her arms around herself, trying to keep her emotions in.

Castle moved around the desk and stepped up to Kate. He rubbed his hand along the small of her back, not having to nudge her any more for her to turn into him and rest her forehead against his sternum—but her arms stay securely around her. Castle brushes his fingers through her hair, massaging the bottom of her scalp down to her neck—not trying to work out the tension, because there's no way he can fully—just trying to offer some comfort.

"Kate, we're gonna figure this out, one way or the other—and you have all of us behind you," Alexis said, standing from her seat and stepping closer to them.

Kate smiles despite herself, steps back from Castle, looking him in the eye, his soft expression softening the tension in her shoulder, just as his hands and Alexis' words did. "Thank you, Alexis. You didn't have to stay up this late and you didn't have to go through all of this—but I appreciate it."

"I am my father's daughter, Kate. I've just been waiting for an opportunity—the right time—to ask. For the story. From you, because if Dad had told it, you would have come off looking like a superhero and he would have come off looking like some knight in shining armor."

"Hey—not true," Castle balked, "Ok, kind of true. You both know me too well."

Alexis smirked at her father and turned to Kate and gave her a hug which she returned.

"Good night, Alexis. Get some sleep."

"You too—or at least try."

Alexis pulled back from the hug but gripped Kate's arms tighter raising her eyebrows and waiting.

"I will try."

Alexis smiled and started to walk towards the steps. "Good because we'll need to be up bright and early to meet Jim and get to the precinct. Don't keep her up late, Dad."

"We?" Rick called after her.

"When we agreed to let her help, you didn't think that was going to end tonight, did you?"

He sighed. "I guess not—she gets that from you, you know."

"She also took the notes upstairs with her."

"What?"

Kate hummed. "Now who does she get that from?"

"Well from a workaholic who even takes her work up to bed with her, of course—so I'm still gonna say you. Definitely not Meredith."

Kate chuckles slightly, blushing slightly at the notion, then trying to stay jovial and failing, her face falling as she looks at the boxes sitting on his desk behind Castle's shoulder.

"Hey," Castle waits until her gaze meets his again, "let's go to bed."

"I don't know how much I'll be able to—."

"Then let's go lay down at least."

"I don't want to keep you up with what little time we have left before tomorrow morning."

Castle gripped her shoulders. "That's what fiancé's are for, Kate."

She looked down and closed her eyes, but her lips turned up slightly.

"We'll watch the sun rise."

She gripped his wrists and brushed her fingers over his pulse point. He pulled his hands down and threaded his fingers through hers. She looked up at him and nodded.

He pulls her by their joined hands, walking backward into his bedroom.

She tugs on their hands, toeing the door as they pass. "We didn't get to pick up where we left off."

He eyes her sternly—but with heat behind his gaze. "Don't tempt me."

He pulls her to her side of the bed and waits for a minute for her to move, but when she doesn't of her own accord, he gently sits her down on the side of the bed and moves over to his side. He turns off all the lights in the room except his bedside lamp, which he dims to a soft glow, just enough to keep the room from pitch black. He also opens the curtains to let a little moonlight in—as well as a little artificial city light that can't be helped. He kicks off his slippers and lays down on top of the covers towards the middle of the bed, his torso propped up slightly on two pillows, just enough for him to not be lying flat.

He looks over at her and sees she hasn't moved to follow him.

"Love."

He holds his arms open to her and she only looked back at him for a moment before she toed off her own slippers and cuddled into him, pressing her body firmly into his side and sliding her leg in between his. Castle rubs his fingers lightly up and down her back like she likes and feels her muscles relax slightly into the embrace. One hand moves to grip hers on this chest, tracing back and forth along the engagement ring on her finger. He feels his exhaustion—knowing Kate's has to be double his—but makes a vow to wait to succumb to sleep until he feels her breathing even out. If she's forced to stay awake, unable to turn her brain off, then he will stay awake too. They lay there silently, their synced breathing the only sound in the room until he feels her lift her head from his shoulder, propping her chin on her hands against his chest. He looked into her eyes and they were wet with tears for the first time that night.

"What if the results come back positive?"

He licks his lips and moves his hand to caress hair, put up into a loose bun to sleep in. He moves some of the strands that fell out of the bun back behind her ear.

"Then we follow Alexis' sage advice—we tackle it together. We do whatever you need, Kate. We take it one step at a time. Whatever you want to do, we'll do. We can go away or we can stay right here. We can investigate—or not." Castle twisted a strand of her hair around his finger, caressing her cheek bone with his thumb.

Kate traced patterns on his chest, her eyes following her movements, only looking up at him just before she spoke.

"What does your gut tell you?"

He tilts his head, not answering immediately, going over his thoughts in his head.

"Jordan gives it legitimacy. She wouldn't have done it if she felt there was something off about her orders. And Kate?" He waited until she met his eyes again. "I looked at her. She has the same look you get when you put the weight of the world on your shoulders—but I will defer to Occam for now—making someone go into hiding for 15 years is anything but simple."

Kate bit her lip. "I think I'm ready to cry now."

"Then my shoulder is available."

He wiped the lone tear that ran down her cheek before she laid her head back on his shoulder. He kisses the top of her head as he feels a sob hiccup through her frame and he holds her a little tighter, whispering consolations into her hair. She can't hear him but just the subtle vibrations of his voice are comforting. She presses her face into his neck and lets her emotions finally get the better of her.

He brushes his fingers through her hair and looks out at the window to see the sun cresting over the horizon.


A/N: I don't give up easily, just like the Beckett women, so the long gaps between chapters are inexcusable, I know, but I'm not giving up on this story if you aren't. Honestly, I probably wouldn't give up even if you did, so I'll just be here writing as fast as I can in between my other WIPs. Next chapter we get to the precinct and get Johanna's side of the story. Review, if you're up for it.