Chapter 3: Found
9am Sunday Morning: 12th Precinct
The computer beeps, informing a vacant precinct that it's work is done: Match Found.
Kate Beckett opens her eyes, with a content sigh, to an empty bed. Stretching, she sits up and looks about the empty bedroom. "Castle?"
The delicious smell of breakfast and coffee reaches her nose as the door to the bedroom opens and in comes Castle, his arms loaded down with a tray laden with breakfast for two.
"Good morning, Beautiful," greets Castle, clad in his dark grey robe, placing the tray on the foot of the bed.
"Mornin', that smells wonderful Rick," she replies, taking a piece of bacon off her plate. Castle slides the tray towards her and settles himself at the foot of the bed previously occupied by the warm tray.
Kate picks up her mug of coffee, unable to stop the grin that appears on her face upon seeing Rick's trademark 'Castle Heart'. Sipping the perfectly made beverage she asks, "Did my phone go off at all since you've been up?"
"It may have a few minutes ago, but I can't be sure. Why?"
Kate picks up her phone, off the nightstand, and turns the device on. "Yep, message from the precinct, the computer found a match to our Jane Doe. Time to go."
"How do you know? Who sent the text? I can't imagine anyone connected to this case being in this early, considering their grumbling yesterday," says Castle, gathering up the remnants of their breakfast.
"The computer," replies Beckett, entering the closet. "I had it notify our phones."
Castle and Beckett step out of the 12th Precinct elevator almost an hour later, coffee, transferred to travel mugs, in hand. Awaiting them is an all but empty bullpen, the only occupants, residing at their desks being Ryan and Esposito.
"Good, you got the notification, too. Have you checked the computer?" Beckett asks, striding across the bullpen to join them.
"Good morning to you, too," grumbles Ryan, nursing a cup of coffee, his eyes dull.
"Sorry," apologizes Beckett, "that was quite rude of me."
"Hey, you okay, buddy? No offense, but you look like you haven't slept a wink," asks Castle, studying Ryan with concern.
He's right. Kevin Ryan looks half asleep in his chair, his eyes heavy and bloodshot, his normally impeccable clothes are wrinkled and his hair still damp from the shower instead of gelled up. In short the Irishman looks like hell.
"He fell asleep on the way over," supplies Espo.
"Shut up Javi," mutters Ryan, almost inaudibly. He looks at them, his eyes unfocused. "What? Oh… sorry guys. I was up all last night with Jenny, she had morning sickness real bad all night. Speaking of which, why is it called morning sickness if it lasts all day?"
"A question that has baffled both men and women alike for years," sympathizes Castle.
"Are you okay to work today?"
"Yeah, I'll be fine as soon as I get the rest of this coffee in me. Shall we go see what the computer came up with?"
All four friends, coffee cups clutched in hands, make their way over to the computer.
Beckett logs into the interface and clicks on the waiting software page. A green box with the words: MATCH FOUND pops up on the large screen so Beckett clicks on the box. It vanishes and a missing person report pops up in its place, complete with known information on their vic.
"Shauna Devlin. Age, 16. Reported missing by her teacher, Professor Leonardo Wyatt yesterday. Says here she hasn't been in class for 5 days and students live on campus, her only contacts listed are her teachers," reads Esposito off the screen.
Beckett pulls down a drop down menu and tells the device to print the missing person report, school file and photo ID. All four exit the office and go to the Murder Board with the exception of Ryan who retrieves the papers off the printer before joining them.
Ryan puts the photo up under the Victim category and Beckett replaces Jane Doe with Shauna Devlin, she also adds the other known information: age, cause of death and last known location.
"Ryan, where was she last seen?" Beckett asks, pausing in her writing.
Ryan scans the pages. "Umm, school, on Monday."
"And where is the school?"
Ryan consults the papers again. "Umm...what the, that can't be right."
"What? Where's the school, Ryan?" Beckett asks as Ryan blinks and rubs his eyes.
"Give me that," Esposito says, yanking the papers out of Ryan's hands. He too scans the papers."What the hell?"
"What?" Castle and Beckett exclaim in frustrated unison, they glance at each other.
"The school is in... San Francisco," says Ryan in disbelief.
"As in California? That San Francisco?" Castle inquires, holding back his excitement, for the moment.
"The very same."
"I'm sorry, what?"
"This case is officially amazing. So? Who's up for an adventure?" Castle says excited, or maybe it's the coffee.
Happy holidays readers! I hope you're enjoying reading this crossover, I know I've been enjoying writing it (wow that sentence is awkward)! If you have any questions, comments or suggestions on how to make this the best it can be drop me a line. Again happy holidays and expect an update sometime soon in the new year. And don't you worry Charmed fans, we'll check back in with San Fran soon! ChrisPerryRyan11