A/N: Maaan, I just had the best weekend in a loooong time! Frankfurt was amazing and meeting up with other Castlefans that have become such good friends first online and now for real as well...that is quite something =) Maybe it's given me enough inspiration to write chapter8 in a few... I was kind of stuck before I left on Friday, wasn't satisfied at all...but enough with the ranting...Chapter8 isn't here ye, but chapter7 is and if I may say so myself, I adore this chapter! I had so much fun writing it and I think it's kinda perfect xDD

I do hope you'll love it as much as I do, so all that is left to say is: ENJOY! =)

Chapter 7

She was sitting on a bench, watching over the playground and keeping an eye out for the little boy. She had agreed to babysit her mother's friend's son and she was actually quite enjoying herself. The kid was cute and she was on half term holidays so there was nothing much to do for her since she had just broken up with her latest boyfriend.

There really wasn't any use of dating a French guy that was going back home in a few days. Madison had said she was crazy for breaking up with him but she just couldn't handle it. It was bad enough that everybody thought she was dating some royal guy but the evening before she'd broken up with him he said with his cute French accent "I need to tell you something, Katherine" and she had jumped up and said she needed to go home or her father would kill her. Sure, her father had long ago accepted that he couldn't control her and had thus given up on telling her to be home at certain times but the way François had talked to her, she feared there was something big coming and she really didn't need that.

She was eighteen, for crying out loud and not yet ready for anything serious. Poor François had his heart broken and she did feel a little bit bad about that but really, what could she have done? Once he would have said "Je t'aime" she would have had an even harder time breaking up with him. It was all for the best, she was sure of that.

"Timmy, be careful!" she called out when the five year old boy rudely pushed a little girl aside that was trying to climb the ladder for the chute. But the girl was feisty, got up from the sand and stood her ground.

"Don't. Push. Me!" she said angry but with such a sweet voice that it almost made Kate laugh. She had gotten up and was now walking towards the two children to see if they needed help.

"You were in my way!" Timothy hit back, arms folded in front of him. The girl was giving him an evil stare and now Kate really had to try hard not to laugh. The bright blue eyes just couldn't really look angry, even Timmy noticed.

"You're not scaring me…" he said and the redhead stomped her foot.

"I was here first!"

"No, you weren't! You just think because you're a girl, you can go first!"

The fight had attracted another adult who was slowly walking towards them.

"Lexi, everything okay there?" he asked and reached the children at the same time as Kate did.

"Daddy, he pushed me and now he says I was in his way but I was here first!"

The man looked at Kate, assuming she was the one responsible for the boy but she just shrugged her shoulders.
"I'm sorry, I have no idea who got here first. Timmy, why don't you two play together, that's way more fun than fighting."

"But Katie…"

"No but's, you know what your mother told you."

The boy nodded, eyes fixed on the ground.

"You go first then…" he said to the redhead, not at all happy with the new arrangement but the girl smiled and with her head held a little higher than necessary she walked past him and climbed the ladder.

Kate grinned as she watched Timmy climb after her and saw the man next to her smiling too. He took out a camera and shot a picture of the girl and Kate noticed that the girl had inherited her father's blue eyes.

Something about the two of them seemed oddly familiar to her anyway but she couldn't place it. She smiled at the man, crossed her arms in front of her chest and watched the children play.

They stood there for a while, both just watching, the man sometimes taking pictures. The two children had completely forgotten about their row and were playing peacefully together. Or at least only teased each other without being serious.

Since Kate had almost spent the whole afternoon in the park with the boy she was slowly getting tired and it was still rather cold. Dusk was already settling in and she'd promised the boy's mother not to bring him home too late. And it really was getting cooler by the minute and she would have loved to swap her coat with the girl's sweet red and white jumper for warmth.

"When I watch them I sometimes wish I could be a child again, playing around like them with no worries at all that come with being an adult."

She was a little startled by the man's statement, she had not expected him to talk so she looked over and quickly eyed him up. He looked younger than she thought he would be but also in a way older. Like he had seen and experienced a lot. He was also quite handsome.

She slowly nodded. "I guess so…

"Timmy, sweetheart, your mom will be waiting soon, I think we should go."

The boy looked up from where he and the redhead were sitting and talking, got up and ran over. "But Katie, we're having so much fun! Lexi can tell some really good stories!" the five-year old said and made Kate laugh.

"I'm sure she can but you're mom really won't be too happy with me if I don't bring you home on time. Come on now, say goodbye."

Timothy did as he was told, ran over to the girl and said his goodbyes. Kate turned around to face the man.

"Thanks for letting them play together. Timothy can be a real handful on the playground, he doesn't really like to share…" she said and watched as a big smile spread across the man's face.

"No problem at all, it's nice for Lexi too, to have some company from time to time when normally there's only her old man around," he answered jokingly but Kate could hear sadness behind his voice that made her pity him a little.

"Hey, could you maybe do me a favour?" he now asked.

"Sure, what is it?"

"Could you take a picture of my daughter and me? My desk looks a little empty at the moment and I'd love one of the two of us together."

"I think I can do that," she said with a kind smile.

He handed her the camera and went over to his daughter while Kate tried to take a few pictures and waited till both of them were back with her, Timothy running around all three of them and then off onto the pathway next to the playground.

"Timmy, not so fast!" she called out and followed him. When she had caught up with him she realised she still had the man's camera in her hand and turned around to see him and his daughter walking towards them hand in hand.

"Stop!" she said, "turn around and walk towards the playground, I'll take another picture!"

The man, a little surprised at first, beamed at her and turned around, taking his daughter by his right hand. Kate smiled, brought the camera up to her eyes and took the shot. She sincerely hoped the picture would look as great as the real thing did, father and daughter walking hand in hand, looking at each other. The girl must love her father a lot.

She took Timothy by the hand and dragged him to his new friend and her father, handed the latter one his camera back and said her goodbyes.

He smiled at her. "Thank you so much. I won't keep you from bringing the boy back to his mother."

A slight laughter escaped her mouth and she said: "Don't worry, I'm still on time. Goodbye Lexi." She kneeled down to be on eyelevel with the girl that smiled broadly at her. "Bye," she answered, waving with her free hand and then nudged her new friend Timothy in the side and giggled. Kate grinned and got up again.

"Who knows, Timmy might have been right…maybe he wasn't the one who started it." Both adults laughed at that.

"I'll see you around," Kate said and with those words she gave a curt nod and left into the direction of the subway to bring Timmy home and then go home as well.

She could feel the eyes of the man and his daughter on her back but didn't turn around.

It was almost 5am and Castle was sitting at his desk. He had been trying to write since 3am because he hadn't been able to sleep any longer. But writing didn't always come that easy so instead he now had a picture of himself and his daughter of when she was four in his hand. It was a long time ago that he had looked at this picture, probably when he and Beckett had had that case with the killer nanny.

He adored the photo and lately he hadn't been able to spend all that much time with his little girl. She was always out and about on some new or old internship and although he was happy for her he missed her. And this wasn't even college time yet.

He let out a sigh and threw a look at the clock. He couldn't go into the precinct yet although he was fairly certain that Beckett had once again crashed on the break room couch.

He'd stayed till 10pm last night and then Beckett had insisted he go home and get some rest. There was nothing left for him to do at the moment so he had agreed, reluctantly though but agreed nonetheless.

His throat was getting a little dry so he got up from his chair and walked to the kitchen to get himself a glass of water. When he came back into the study he turned the TV on, his own murder board with Beckett's face on it. He sometimes felt haunted by this murder board. He really didn't know what to make of the case, the mysterious Mr. Smith, the game of chess he liked to mention. It was confusing, frustrating and he just wanted it to be over.

He didn't even know how he could have kept it secret for so long, how he had managed to keep Beckett from digging deeper. He felt so guilty for doing it and he knew that even though he initially wanted to solve the case and then tell her he wouldn't be able to do that. It could take years to solve it and he couldn't hide it for years. It weighed on him so badly already he didn't even want to know what it would do to him in a few years.

As always he tried to find anything new on the people still alive, a connection to other people that were not yet on the board and as always he came up with nothing new. He sat at his computer for another hour and when he next looked at his watch it was 6.38am.

He sighed and went to his bedroom, grabbed new clothes and then took a shower. It only took him a few minutes and he was soon on his way to the precinct, getting coffee on the way.

At half past seven the elevator to the 4th floor dinged and he stepped out of it. He was early and there weren't many people around yet. He could see light in Captain Gate's office but there was no sign of either Beckett or the boys so he went to the interview room where he was sure to find Beckett asleep. And there she was, curled up on the couch, a smile on her face as if she had had a beautiful dream.

Castle watched her for a minute or two, saw the steady lift and fall of her chest and it hit him again how very glad he was for this. Since she had come to get him back on her team after the three months radio silence he had sometimes come in earlier than normal to find her sleeping on the same couch as now. The first time it was coincidence, then he tried to find her there more often, just happy to watch her, something she hadn't allowed him after her shooting.

He had felt so lost during that time and watching her now was like a drug to him that kept him alive. Every moment she was alive, he felt more alive too.

A smile spread on his face and he stepped closer to her, lifting the top of the coffee cup and waving the scent in her direction. She stirred and murmured his name. He looked at her a little surprised but then just smiled broader.

Her hand went up to her eyes, rubbing the sleep out of them and when she opened them he could see the surprise in them at seeing him in such close proximity but she smiled.

"Castle?" she breathed still a little sleepy.

"Morning sunshine." He couldn't resist and earned himself the first eye roll of the day.

"You should have gone home," he added and handed her the coffee that she gladly took. She sat up, made room for him to sit down next to her and sipped her coffee. She had again had one of those weird dreams but this time she knew better than to say anything to Castle. No need to make him curious when she wasn't yet sure herself where all those dreams were coming from and what they meant. She had never been one to believe in the power of dreams at least not in the way that others did. Sure, dreams were there to cope with stuff that the mind could not deal with otherwise and that it was to relieve the pressure of life but those dreams she had lately seemed to have much more significance than just relieving certain burdens.

She sighed and leaned back on the couch, her shoulder brushing Castles. Neither of them moved, they were far too comfortable in the others personal space.

"Was the late night at least worth something?" Castle asked but Kate just shook her head.

"Not really. I haven't found anything new but I managed to get a list of all the suspects and witnesses from the kidnapping case. We can start questioning them today."

They sat next to each other for a couple more minutes until Kate felt awake enough to get to work. She got up and waited for Castle to follow her. Together they stepped into the bull pen where both Ryan and Esposito had arrived in the short time that the other two had spent in the interview room.

"Morning boys," both Castle and Beckett greeted and sat down at Beckett's desk.

Espo came walking towards them. "I got hold of the leading Detective in the kidnapping case. He's coming by in about an hour."

"Oh, that's what you've been doing all evening and this morning?" Castle asked. "I thought you were just being lazy…"

This earned him an evil stare from Espo and an air-high-five from Ryan who was normally the one to be afflicted with those kinds of jokes.

Beckett hid a smile behind her hand and turned the monitor of her computer on, took the pile of files and divided them into two.

"Here you go." She handed on half to Esposito. "That's for you two, we'll check the rest."

He took the pile, raising an eyebrow all the while and then walked off to his desk again. The list wasn't really that long but the whole team knew it would become a very long day, finding the truth and the lies in all the people's statements. Also, considering that the kidnapping was six years ago, the possibility was big that most of what would be told, would probably be rather wrong and altered through time anyways. But they at least had to try, who knew what might come up.

At that moment Beckett's phone started ringing and she picked up. It was her friend from the morgue calling with news and she listened intently. She didn't say much so the boys didn't know what was going on. They waited patiently, all three of them looking at her from wherever they just sat in the bull pen.

Once she ended the phone call, Castle asked: "So? What does she have?"

"She consulted someone with better bone knowledge than her to confirm how old Matty's injuries were and confirmed that they fit into the time frame of his kidnapping. We need to find those bastards that kidnapped the boy."

Soooo, what did you think? Liked it as much as I liked writing it? I'll try to write chapter 8 in a few...I think I do have some ideas again xD

Hit the review button in the meantime and THANK YOU ALL for still reading! LOVE YOU!