Genre: Crime, Drama, Romance, Family, Humor

Rating: M for violence, language and sexual situations

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters featured on the show Castle, they belong to the creator of the show, ABC, and the others who do own them.

A/N #1: Was great getting the responses that I did for the last chapter, and really want to get to it and say thank you to all of them! vetgirlmx (I liked seeing your reaction to the vic being Julia's teacher, was hoping some people would have that reaction, lol. And you'll get answers to your questions too, don't worry. I was wondering what people would think about Beckett asking Castle to talk to Julia, I was glad that you found it interesting. Lol, had to laugh at what you said after calling Castle and Beckett Julia's parents, not surprised that you did of course, with everything that happened with the last story. And you bring up some interesting points with Julia and this case; you'll see how that all goes as I continue to post! Another thing you'll see is how this case goes of course, and you'll see if it's a weird one or not. But I don't blame you for liking the weird ones, I do too! And I am so pleased to see you want to read the next chapter too!), Noelia (So glad to hear from another reader of my stories, and also to hear that you like them so much. And don't worry, I'll be writing more, a lot more, so hope you'll stick around for this story and future ones!), pcol22 (Glad to see you liked the last chapter of course. And you'll see what'll happen with Castle telling Julia about her dance teacher being killed. And as always, am very happy to see you want to read more!), sammysgirl78 (Lol, not too surprised that you were able to figure out who the vic was going to be, thought some people would. Was glad to see that you liked the time they spent before taking Julia to school, thought you might. And thanks for mentioning the pancakes that Castle made, though since it was kinda last minute; I figured eggs would be easier to shape than bunnies, though that shape would have been cute too. Not surprised that you liked Castle and Beckett taking Julia to school, as normal parents would as you said, was wondering if I'd get a mention of that. And I'm not surprised either that you too want to see how it goes when Castle tells Julia what happened. And what you said about Beckett asking him to do that is actually what I was thinking when I wrote that, because you're right he did tell her he told Alexis the truth. And not surprised you too called Castle and Beckett Julia's parents outright, as I said before; I figured this might happen after the last story, lol. And of course, very happy to hear you want you read more, always am!) and TORONTOSUN (You have a point, Beckett was broken up in a way with finding out who the vic is, to me I see it as her being broken up because she'll have to explain to Julia. But yeah, good thing she has Castle around for some help on that. And you'll find out how exactly Beckett's going to tell Julia. But am happy to see you enjoyed the last chapter!). So thanks to all of you for reviewing, it was a joy to read each one and get the feedback I did. And I of course appreciate them and the time taken to send them out to me, I say that all the time, but it is definitely true!

A/N #2: The title of this chapter is a lyric from the song That Day Is Done by Paul McCartney, from his album Flowers in the Dirt.

Promise That I Made

"Mr. Martine," Beckett said as she and Castle walked into the interrogation room where the man was sitting at the table.

"Why am I here?" Martine asked as Castle and Beckett sat across from him. "Am I a suspect?"

"We'd like to ask you about your relationship with Claude Démodé," Beckett said, not answering the question.

"She and I were dating, actually, we became engaged a few days ago if you have to know," Martine said.

"Engaged? She didn't have a ring on," Castle said.

"We wanted to buy it together, because I proposed to her a little… suddenly, after the news she gave me, I don't see how I couldn't," Martine said, smiling a little wistfully for a moment. Looking across the table at Beckett and Castle he frowned and said, "She was two months pregnant."

"Pregnant," Beckett said simply, a little startled at that news.

"Yes, and it was a shock since we aren't exactly young, but she was and… we were going to get married and she was going to leave that school so we could open up our own dance studio," Martine said. "But I guess that's just a bunch of empty promises to each other."

"You were with her last night," Castle said simply.

"What? No, I was at a dinner with the NYC Ballet Troupe after the last show of Sleeping Beauty the cast had done," Martine said. "Oh, you found that e-mail," he said, a look of realization on his face. "She was going to announce her departure this morning, and wanted to celebrate that first step towards our dreams. But I couldn't get out of going to the show or the dinner, since I was the choreographer for the performances. So I texted her and let her know I couldn't join her, and she said she would just relax." A brief smile appeared on his face and he looked up at them saying, "She sent me this picture," showing them his phone. "Our baby," he explained as Castle and Beckett looked at the grainy black and white picture.

Beckett exchanged a glance with her fiancé, and then turned back to Martine asking, "Do you still have the text conversation?"

"Here," Martine said, handing her his phone.

Reading the conversation, Beckett nodded when she saw the final message from the vic was at eight and only read call me tomorrow. "I'm afraid we'll need to keep you until we can check your alibi," she told him as she handed him his phone.

"Go ahead, I know I didn't do this to her, and definitely not our unborn child," Martine said, shoulders slumping at the end as he looked at the ultrasound again.

"I was really hoping that he would be our guy," Castle commented as they watched Martine being lead to holding.

"To finish this case?" Beckett asked, looking at him.

"Yeah, did you find out what that big announcement was?" Castle asked, sitting in his chair.

"I did," Beckett said. "Turns out that she was going to give her very last class, and her daughter; Amber; was going to take over as instructor."

"So she doesn't really have a motive to kill her mother," Castle said. "I mean, I know she didn't kill her herself of course, but even if she hired someone else, what would be the point if she was taking over?"

"I know. And it's great news, for Julia since she loves Amber," Beckett said. "But I just hope they'll keep her on now that all this has happened." Looking at her computer screen she saw a message in her inbox from the restaurant where Martine had been at the time of the vic's death. Opening it, she played the security footage; knowing Castle was watching over her shoulder. With eleven forty five on the time stamp, she saw the man sitting at a large table with a number of other people. She picked up her phone and dialed one of the numbers their suspect had given; one of the people at the dinner with him.

Listening in as Beckett confirmed that Martine had never left the restaurant on his own, and the dinner party hadn't finished until two thirty, Castle nodded, having expected that already. "So now what? Financials?" he asked her when she turned to him.

"And her basic information, although I'm not really sure we'll find much in the financials," Beckett said. "With a baby on the way and what she and her fiancé wanted to do, I doubt we'll find anything there to explain her murder; like drugs if you're thinking that. But we need to see once Lanie does her autopsy."

Inside the conference room Castle helped Beckett spread out the files and as they were beginning to look through them he said, "What about the class after school?"

Looking up, Beckett took out her phone and called the school. "Yes, this is Kate Beckett, mother of Julia Beckett. I'm aware of the death of Madame Claude the ballet- oh, yes, I am. No I'm afraid I can't divulge anything about a homicide investigation. No Miss Amber is not a suspect she's been cleared. So the class today… it's cancelled, okay, thank you. Bye," she said, hanging up. She didn't say anything to Castle, instead dialed another number and said, "Martha, it's Kate, yeah, no, we don't have anything yet." She looked at her fiancé, not really surprised he'd spoken to his mother about their case already.

Castle said; once Beckett had hung up with his mother; "Will she be able to pick her up?"

"She will, she's taking her to your place," she said quietly, looking towards the door. "I asked her not to mention anything yet."

"I think," Castle said, finishing reading through the information on the vic. "Wait," he said suddenly, going back to one of the papers in the file. "She's half Russian."

"And?" Beckett asked, watching him read something.

"Her grandfather was a member of the KGB who was shot mysteriously. What if she was looking into his murder, now or in the past, and they-" Castle started to say.

"I doubt it," Beckett said with a sigh. "Has she ever been to Russia?"

"No," Castle said slowly. "At least I don't think so."

"I just have tickets bought to go to France," Beckett replied, waving the page of the vic's bank statement in her hand. "Nothing about Russia."

"But it would fit… oh wait, maybe it's a Russian mafia hit," Castle said, warming up to the idea quickly. "She wouldn't even need to go to Russia, here-" he started to say before she held up her hand to stop him from speaking. Looking on as she made a phone call, he soon realized she was talking to the vic's youngest daughter. "Well?" he asked as his fiancée had asked if her mother was in contact with any Russians in the city or had even been to Russia.

"I think your theory is just that," Beckett said simply. "Her mother was more French than Russian, especially since she was born in Marseilles. And she's not aware of her mother having any unsavory contacts as she put it."

"Alright, well, it was worth a shot," Castle said. "And I assume I have a quota with crazy theories to keep up and I just fulfilled mine. What did she say to your last question?"

"Nothing, I think she was a little in shock hearing her mother was pregnant actually," Beckett said; having told the vic's daughter to see if Amber had known.

"And what about her taking her mother's position at the school?" Castle asked next.

"Still in shock, I'm guessing it's going to take a while to set in," Beckett replied. "But she doesn't know anyone who could really be a threat to her mother. I'm going to call a contact of hers, who's actually a friend of Martine's."

"Did we let him go or is he still there?" Castle asked, having forgotten about the vic's ex.

"I called in his release… and here are his papers, thank you Thomas," Beckett said as she took them and quickly signed. "Tell him," she said, handing the officer her card. "To call me if anything comes to mind or if he knows anyone who might have any reason to harm the victim."

After the officer had left, Castle took the next file and scanned the bank statements of the victim for the past month when Beckett's phone rang. "Is it just me or did she take longer this time?" he asked his fiancée when he saw that it was Lanie.

"Beckett?" she said, answering the phone instead of answering his question. "Yeah, is everything… sure, we'll be right there." Hanging up she closed the file she'd been looking through telling Castle, "She sounded a little disturbed, I should have called her to warn her about the pregnancy."

"Anything else?" he asked as he followed her outside.

"We'll find out," Beckett said simply as they went to the elevators together.

"You knew about the pregnancy and you didn't bother to warn me?" Lanie asked as soon as Beckett walked inside.

"How did you know I knew?" Beckett asked.

"Because Vince that was walking by you had the fetuses," Lanie said simply.

"She was pregnant with twins?" Castle asked, startled as he looked at Beckett.

"Oh, you didn't know that, well, yes, they were two months along, and were identical twins," Lanie said. "Shook me up, but I had a feeling she was either pregnant or had been recently when I started the procedure."

"What about the murder?" Beckett said, a little uneasy at the thought the two small shapes under the sheet the doctor had carried past them were the vic's children.

"That took me a little longer to determine," Lanie replied, turning to the table behind her and handing Beckett a file. "I had to perform two toxicology reports, and finally got a definitive answer to the results of the first one. Your vic was injected with succinylcholine."

"And without any struggle?" Castle asked.

"I found the main injection site behind her neck, and that would explain this," Lanie said as she pulled up the vic's hair, revealing the chunk of locks that had been torn off her scalp.

"So it was a woman," Castle said. "I've said it before; poison is usually a woman's weapon, and the hair points to an obvious cat fight."

"That's unlikely," Lanie said as Beckett gave him a look. "I didn't find any signs of a struggle except for that. But what I also found was chloroform in her lungs."

"So he-" Beckett started to say.

"Or she," Castle interjected.

"Knocked her out but they didn't give her enough?" Beckett said, trailing off before a look of realization appeared on her face and she looked at her fiancée.

"He wanted to hurt her," they both said at the same time.

"So this is very likely about revenge," Castle said. "You know, one person I've been thinking about as a possible suspect is the father of her two daughters."

"We'll have to look into that when we go back," Beckett said. "Something else?"

"Yes, and thank you for asking instead of just leaving me to have to call you again," Lanie said. "That wasn't the only injection mark."

"Where else?" Beckett asked.

"All around in this area, about twenty of them," Lanie said as she gestured to the vic's abdomen with her hand.

"He stabbed her?" Castle said.

"No, they were just injections, my guess is; after finding the fetuses; that your killer found out she was pregnant and was trying to kill them before he killed your vic," Lanie said. "But the thing is, they used a very, very long needle to try and get to them, the puncture wound indicates a needle about six inches long."

"The needle used on the neck was smaller?" Beckett asked. When Lanie nodded, she looked at Castle and then asked, "Would they have been able to kill the fetuses with that long of a needle?"

"No, if we had tested what was left of the fluid in her womb; if the needle had gotten that deep in the first place; it's likely the succinylcholine was in that, not the babies. But once the vic was injected…" Lanie answered grimly.

"So they wanted the babies dead as well, or baby since they couldn't have known she was having twins," Beckett said.

"Is there…" Castle started to say before he stopped, frowning slightly.

"What is it?" Beckett asked, wondering at his hesitation.

"I'm wondering if maybe this is revenge from a past lover; or what's more likely now; the father of her two daughters," Castle said. "And I'm thinking, what if she had two lovers and the babies were not Martine's but her killer's-"

"And her killer thought they were Martine's," Beckett finished for him. When Castle nodded she said, "That's a very twisted plot Castle, but, Lanie?"

"It can be done, but I'll need DNA from this Martine guy and whoever the other possible father is," the doctor said.

"For now just start the test, we'll get you the other DNA sample when we can," Beckett said as she pulled her phone from her pocket. "Call me if you find anything else."

As they were walking down the hall outside, Castle waited for Beckett to finish her phone call to Esposito, to try and get a hold of Lorenzo Martine to get a DNA sample. Once she had hung up he said, "He's going to be even more devastated if those weren't his children."

"I know," Beckett said. "But it does need to be checked out. So this killer was planning this, because that drug is not easy to get. Esposito's going to check pharmacies after getting a hold of Martine."

"Ryan's still looking at the footage?" Castle asked.

"Yeah, I don't know why though, he should just be looking at yesterday," Beckett said with a slight frown before looking up at him. "I'm going to look into the father of her daughters though."

"And me?" Castle said.

"The financial records," Beckett said simply. She very briefly smiled at his sigh and then said, "Were you… bothered at all?" as they left.

"Yeah, I feel like calling Alexis," Castle said before he looked at his watch. "But she's got a class right now. Julia?"

"I wish I could," Beckett said with a sigh. "Didn't realize being a parent would affect me this way."

Castle nodded in understanding as they went out to her car and he said, "You can call her sooner. I would ask though that you let me join you."

"That might be difficult," Beckett said since they had only done that a few times while still at the Precinct and it had been risky.

"Then take a walk for some fresh air, I'll run after you with some information," Castle said as they got in her car.

Beckett didn't say anything to his slightly desperate tone; instead she reached over and squeezed his arm before turning the key in the ignition. She understood how he felt, thinking of Julia even more than she usually did with that case herself.

"This is getting tedious. Tedious, dull and a waste of my time," Castle groaned in frustration as he rubbed his face with his hands. "She had a clean record, the only bigger purchases in the last six months were a trip to France and a kitchen renovation, everything's checking out. At least tell me you're having more luck."

"Not really," Beckett said with a groan, leaning back in her chair and crossing her arms. She spoke again, taking her aquamarine pendant in her fingers as she did so, saying, "The daughters' father is Philippe Costa, and after the economy tanked he lost everything and from what I understand with what I've learned from his friends, he became homeless. So tracking him down will be really hard."

"Well, if he has no money, he could have stolen the drug," Castle commented. "Might be a report."

"I know, I'll search that next, but I don't get the feeling he's the possible father of the babies," Beckett said, rubbing her jaw for a moment.

"Hey, Beckett," Ryan said, appearing in the doorway to the room.

"What is it?" she asked, seeing the slightly serious look on his face as she turned.

"You're going to want to see this," Ryan simply said, starting to turn. He paused and then turned back to Castle saying, "You too."

Sharing a look with her fiancé, Beckett got up and walked after Ryan to the TV where he had security footage from her daughter's ballet classroom on pause. "That's the school, the room where they hold the classes," she commented once she and Castle were standing in front of the screen. "I thought you were looking at the Met footage."

"I finished that already, and this is from three days ago," Ryan said.

"Why did you go so far back?" Castle asked.

"Because I noticed something about the same time every day around six thirty when the vic was getting ready to leave," Ryan said. "And I went back after it happened the second day in a row to see when it began and got to this." He played the footage, watching Beckett and Castle as they turned their attention to the TV.

Beckett looked at the two figures that appeared in view with the vic by what she knew was the door, talking with the teacher before they left and then two tall, burly men came inside. "They came in every day since that one?" she asked, turning to Ryan.

"Yeah, but keep watching," he replied.

Castle said; when the vic and one of the men started to obviously argue; "Looks like we have a suspect, but go back to the beginning, where you started."

"That's…" Beckett started to say, trying to see the two people who were turning and walking from the vic. "Can you enlarge them?" She watched as Ryan quickly did so, fixing the quality, and she took a deep breath of air. "That's Julia."

"And my mother," Castle said, looking at her in slight shock.

Without a word, Beckett turned and headed out to her desk with her phone. She dialed Martha quickly, speaking with Castle's mother before she called her daughter's school. "Hello, this is Kate Beckett again, a Martha Rodgers is coming to check my daughter out in about ten minutes," she said as she looked at her watch. "No, she won't be returning today. Thank you," she said before she hung up. "So they're coming here."

"She should be okay," Castle said quickly in a low voice as he knew why she was concerned.

Nodding, Beckett sat down at her desk, looking at Julia's school picture. She stared at it for a moment, hoping as she clasped her hands together that her daughter wouldn't have a sudden regression of her memory when she came to the fourth floor. But she knew she could do nothing about it happening or not, and decided to face her fear head on. "Ryan," she called; standing up as Castle quickly joined her in walking to the detective's desk.