After lunch, Alexis excused herself and went upstairs to rest.

"I don't think she suspected a thing," Kate said.

"No, we got away with it this time, probably just because she's so tired. I'll talk to her tomorrow about us. I don't like keeping things from her. The sooner she knows the better."

"Kate, I'm really impressed with how open you've been with me, but we have more things we need to discuss." Castle was more than impressed. For four years, they rarely talked directly about anything except cases. Anything more personal was not talked about at all or else their words would skirt the issue leaving the other to read between the lines. This new dynamic was much healthier and should lead to fewer misunderstandings.

Kate raised her eyebrows at him, "What else do you want to know?"

Castle rubbed his forehead not wanting to broach this subject. "Maddox tried to kill you yesterday. He has to know by now that he wasn't successful. The deal to keep you safe was only good if you stayed away from your mother's case. He may even know who Mr. Smith is by now. I think you are still in danger."

Kate's eyes betrayed her fear, "I hadn't really thought about it like that. I was thinking if I gave up the case that everything would be OK. Really, all I could think about last night was you – was getting to you." She stood up running her hand through her hair, her eyes darting around the room like a caged animal. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't have come here. I could be putting you and your family in danger. I need to leave right away." She turned toward the door.

Castle grabbed her arm, "No!" he said sharply. His tone startled her. "We are done running. We are two intelligent people who are used to figuring out difficult problems. We will figure this out. Your leaving isn't going to keep me safe. They already know I'm as involved as you. I might even be perceived as more of a threat since I've had contact with Mr. Smith. We'll figure something out together." His words were fierce, his blue eyes were piercing. He was ready to fight her objections and he wasn't going to let her win this argument.

Kate stared at him, her eyes flashed defiantly but then they softened. She realized he was right. He probably was in as much danger as she and they would be much stronger as a team. She nodded slowly, "OK, you're right. We can come up with a plan together."

"Kate, you need to promise me that you won't run away from me again." His eyes were still intense, but there was an almost desperate tone to his voice. "When something comes up your first response can't be to run away. We were always more than partners but now we've admitted it to each other. We will always be stronger together. I…I couldn't bear it if you left me now – not after…," he trailed off. His eyes were pleading now, his voice soft. He had a glimpse of the life they could have together and it seemed like a real possibility now. He knew he would be destroyed if she were to leave him.

Kate gazed into his eyes. They were so expressive showing his love, his anxiety, and his need for reassurance. She felt like she was holding his heart in her hand. "Castle, I won't leave. We're in this together."

A look of relief flooded Castle's face. He relaxed his hold on her arm not realizing how tightly he was gripping it. He was surprised and relieved that she agreed so readily. He hugged her needing the contact as additional assurance. He let out a long breath, composed himself, and broke away from her arms. When he spoke he sounded almost businesslike. "OK, let's go into my office and do some brainstorming."

Castle led Beckett into the office. "After you were shot last summer, I worked with Ryan and Esposito on your case. We tracked down every lead we had but we really didn't get anywhere. The leads dried up and soon Gates decided your case was cold. She kicked me out of the precinct and had the boys move on to other cases. I didn't want to let it rest and I didn't want us to lose what little we had so I created my own murder board based on the info we had at the precinct. I added in the information about Mr. Smith and the file he had that was keeping you safe. I tried to find out information about Smith but I was never able to come up with anything. Anyway, here's my murder board." He picked up the remote and turned on the huge monitor. Then he retrieved a file out of the trash can. A picture of Kate appeared. He touched her picture and a detailed murder board appeared. "You can touch items to drill down and get more detail, but I don't think there's really anything in here you don't know about. I thought maybe we could take a fresh look through all this information and then decide where to go from there. Maybe something will finally jump out at us"

Kate's eyes narrowed, "I'm still having a hard time with you keeping this all from me, telling me to stop working on my mother's case and then you were still digging into it."

Castle met her eyes, "I'm sorry Kate. I had to make you stop to keep you safe, both from Maddox and from yourself. You know you would have become obsessed with the case and you probably would have gotten yourself killed by now. No one knew I was even looking into the case. I didn't do anything through police channels and frankly I didn't really make any progress so except for my communication with Smith I should have been invisible as far as the investigation goes."

Kate let out a long slow breath. She knew Castle had been trying to keep her safe. It still made her mad, but she knew she would have done the same. She had to let it go and move forward.

Kate finally nodded, "Let's review everything you have and see if we can figure out anything new."

For the next hour they reviewed everything on Castle's murder board. Kate was impressed with how thorough Castle had been. They theorized a little but most of Castle's theories revolved around Mr. Smith. He decided that he was probably someone that Montgomery trusted from years ago. Maybe he was someone from high school or the academy, maybe even a former neighbor. He probably wasn't someone that Montgomery had a current connection with. That would have been too easy to track down. Castle was a little concerned that if he did figure out Mr. Smith's identity that they might even lead Maddox to Mr. Smith and that was the last thing they wanted.

Kate shook her head, "I don't see where to go from here. I'm not on the force any more. I don't have a team any more. I don't have any investigative tools at my disposal. I just don't see how we can really move forward."

Castle nodded in agreement. "If we can't move forward in the investigation then the only thing we can do is to make them believe that you have really given up the investigation."

"But how do we do that? By now they surely know that I have been suspended. How can we convince them that I'm not going rogue?"

Castle gave her a devilish smile, "I have an idea, but you may not like it."

Next chapter we will definitely move into new territory like I promised you at the outset. It should be up in a couple of days. Thanks for reading and let me know how I can improve the story!