A/N: Surprise, surprise, the girl managed to update her story...I'm sorry it took me so long but I really struggled with this one...and it kinda is just a filler in between chapters but I had to write something xD It's pushing the case a little further again. Luckily I already know what I want for chapter 9 and the ones who are not that interested in the case might be happier with the next one xDD

There's something else I have to say and that concernes future episodes. No matter what happens in them, I will stick to my plan of doing things. You might have noticed that i mention their secrets from time to time and yes, I do have plans for them but unlike in my other FF I will do it in my own way here that has been stuck in my head for ages ;D

Thank you guys for reading, reviewing, sticking with me!

Chapter 8

On their way to the morgue to get the blood results they passed a playground and Beckett remembered flashes of her latest dream. This had been going on for a while now and she felt the need to get it off her chest and she knew just the person to talk to. Only they both had quite the tight schedule and it wasn't always easy to get together. She gazed at Castle for a second and thought about just telling him but she wasn't ready for that yet. Like the last time when she'd texted him she still wasn't sure what was real and what wasn't and until she had figured that out she wouldn't speak to him about it again. Also, if she did she would have to confront her own feelings about him. Of course, she was sure that she was utterly in love with the man but she had lied to him, she was still lying to him about that particular day that made him confess his love. She hated to keep it secret that she knew but at the time it had been the right decision. For both of them. She knew how wrong it was and how selfish it seemed but she did it for both of them. She did it for herself because she wasn't sure if she was ready, if she trusted him enough to commit, if she trusted herself enough to commit, if she knew enough about him to know this was going to be real. She did it for him because she was a complete wreck and she didn't want him having to deal with her, broken as she was. She did it for him because she knew that if just a small thing went wrong, she would retreat and that would hurt both their hearts. No, she was sure it had been the right decision back then. The problem was that now that she was getting there, slowly, but getting there, it felt all wrong. It felt like a betrayal to not only him but herself too. Hadn't she been in love with him long enough to try it? Hadn't she gotten to know him well enough to know it would be for real?

She knew that the reason she'd backed off again was that one summer after their second year together. Yes, it had been only a moment but it was enough to crush her again. She had really thought that she was ready, that he was ready. And then, just when she'd summoned all her courage his ex-wife had shown up and taken him away from her, leaving her like a wounded dog.

Today she knew that she hadn't been ready back then either. Even less so than last summer when she got shot. And it hadn't been completely his fault back in 2010 either. After all, she kind of had been dating someone else.

She had to tell him this time. At some point at least. But she really didn't know how. Sometimes she suspected that he already knew and it would be just like him. He knew her so well, read her like a book and still he stayed. Kate had realised in the time since the shooting that Castle in fact was very committed to her. Maybe they weren't in such a kind of relationship yet but he had come back, he had endured all her relapses, all her little quirks and outbursts and just accepted her the way she was. He was for real and he was fighting for her in his very own way. She felt like she didn't deserve him.

Once they were in the morgue Lanie updated them on her latest findings. She had told most of it over the phone already but Beckett had wanted to come down anyways.

"Okay, I have one weird thing about the blood stain," the ME said and waved the detective and the writer over to the computer. She opened the DNA fingerprint pictures and all of them looked at it.
"It's the same one?" Castle asked, "What's so special about it?"

Lanie shook no and pointed to certain strands. "They are very similar, but look here, and here, and here…" She pointed out each difference with the tip of her pen and when she finished Beckett looked at her with a confused look.

"Siblings?" she asked and Lanie confirmed with a nod.

"But from what you have told me, the boy only has a sister. Well this is DNA from a male."

"You are saying that Matthew had another brother?"

"Yes, one with the same parents."

Beckett sighed, "And I thought it couldn't get any more complicated."

Castle all the while just stood there, staring at the screen in disbelief. He knew that – as so often – it was wrong of him to like this case but he did. He enjoyed it immensely because he just really wanted to know the story behind all this. But it didn't reduce his personal feelings toward the case. Yes, it was twisted, yes it was very complicated but yes, it also still managed to get to him because Matty had just been sixteen years old.

Before they left, Beckett asked her BFF if she had time for a talk anytime soon and to her surprise Lanie asked back if she was available later that day. Kate knew she'd be working long again if she didn't have anything else to do but she also knew that she needed a break so she agreed to meet the ME for dinner later on. She wasn't sure yet if she would tell her friend about her dreams, about anything really but she was looking forward to a girl's night anyways. They hadn't had one of those in quite a while, it was long overdue.

She and Castle were now again on their way back to the precinct. Lanie's news were rather huge but Beckett had told herself that she was going to dig into the kidnapping today and she wanted to stick to the plan.

"Do you think the Downing's had another child that they didn't raise themselves?" Castle pulled her out of her thoughts.

She shrugged her shoulders. "I really couldn't say but to be honest, I don't really think so. There must be a different reason for this. Maybe Matthew wasn't their son at all…"

"Oh, what if Matthew has actually been kidnapped twice? What if the Downing's had wanted another child and abducted Matthew as a baby and the real parents have snatched him back later?"

"You know, it actually wouldn't surprise me… Nothing in this case can do that anymore."

He laughed at her but she just sighed. Beckett was glad that they had work waiting for them at the precinct, it kept her distracted from all the other things going on.

When they got there she first updated the murder board adding the unknown brother to it and a huge question mark behind both parents surprising the Ryan and Espo with the additional info. They could hardly believe what Castle told them about the new factor of the case and were almost as frustrated as Beckett by it.

After she updated the board she went back to working on the suspects and witnesses of the kidnapping case.

Castle helped her by going over the files again and pointing out every single thing that seemed odd to him. She was once again glad to have him around because she knew what a good memory he had. When the people would come for a chat he'd have no problem spotting the small differences in witness accounts and how right she was.

Matty's friends had never been suspects so Beckett called them all into the precinct together. When they arrived she immediately saw that they were confused. They had a guess why they were here, of course by now everyone in the city knew that the murdered kid had been Matty Downing, but they didn't really know what they could do to help.

They were led into the interview lounge by an officer and Beckett and Castle joined them a minute later. The four boys and three girls looked up from their seats and waited for the detective to say something.

Beckett checked her file and looked at each teenager. They were all between fourteen and seventeen and had been rather young when Matty disappeared. The youngest of them was Summer Stevens. The girl had only recently turned fourteen, the oldest one was Benjamin Clark.

Castle and Beckett sat down opposite of the seven young adults and started talking about the day that Matty disappeared.

One of the boys, Thomas, who was built like the typical football player with his broad shoulders, spoke up first.

"There really isn't much to say," he began, indicating that there was probably more to tell than any of them let on. He continued in his already very deep voice, "We were playing in the park, it was the spot where our nannies liked to meet up, also most of our parents knew each other and were happy when we played there. It's a save playground, nothing unusual."

Beckett nodded. "But Matthew wasn't snatched from the playground, he separated from the group and never came back."

They all nodded their agreement except for one girl. She sat at one end of the couch and it seemed that she didn't really belong to the group anymore. Beckett checked her file again and then looked at the girl. "Eleanore?" she asked simply and the brown haired girl looked up, startled.

"I…" she said and met the gazes of her six friends. They all stared at her, some with a raised eyebrow, some just questioningly. None of it escaped the Detective's attention.

"Please continue the story, Eleanore," she said, giving the others a look that made them study the floor.

The girl sighed and looked at Beckett. "Detective, we were just kids, playing around back then. We didn't think anything would happen…"

"Shut it, Ella," the boy named Ethan said through clenched teeth.

"No, you shut it!" Summer cut in, throwing an evil eye at Ethan. "Go on, Ella, tell her…"

Ella nodded, glad that she got support from at least one of the others. "We were playing around, first it was just a game of tag, then it changed to hide and seek and well, then to cops and robbers. Matty was one of the robbers…he hated being one of the robbers cause he was always too scared to get out of his hiding place to rescue the others and he was too scared to get caught as well so he hid for like forever. We made fun of him because of it because whenever he was one of the robbers, the cops would always win. They stood no chance because he had to come out sometime and we would always find him. If not, then we had only to wait for his sister and she would call him. He didn't want her to get mad so he came out and the cops won the game…"

"That's not in any of the reports…" Castle stated and looked at the teenagers. They still didn't really dare to look up from the floor.

"We were kids…" Zach then said. "We knew that something was wrong the next day but what we said back then, that we thought Matty had just gone home, that was true. We really believed that."

They all agreed with that and Scarlett added, "He was like that sometimes. And Ella just told you, he hated being one of the robbers so he sometimes escaped. We really thought he'd done it again. And we couldn't be bothered, Nicole had left him with us but we were not responsible for him."

"He was a know-it-all! He deserved to be one of the robbers from time to time to realise that he wasn't better at everything."

"Taylor!" Eleanore exclaimed. "How can you say that? Matty was nice to all of us, he always helped us with everything. It wasn't his fault that you are this stupid!"

Castle watched the fight between the evolved among teenagers and was absolutely fascinated by it. When the seven had come in first he'd thought they were a pretty good group of friends but it didn't seem like that at all, now that they were talking. There was a lot going on behind the scenes and it made him wonder what exactly it was.

The teenagers were close to getting up and get into a physical fight, the tension in the room was extremely high and Beckett was close to separating them all but she needed some more answers first.

"Okay, so what does the game have to do with Matthew's disappearance?" she asked and brought them all back on track.

"We said no one goes any further than the path next to the playground. Of course it's not as much fun to play on a small field but our nannies would have killed us had we gone further. When we couldn't find Matty – and we all looked together – we assumed that he had gone home again because he didn't want to be the reason for the robbers losing the game again. We never thought that he might have gone off to find a better hiding place and then got snatched off or something…" the girl Summer explained. Beckett almost thought she could hear the eight year old in Summer's voice from the day when Matty went missing and felt a bit sorry for her.

She nodded at her and said thank you.

The others sat there, not knowing what to do or what to say. They were scared that what they had hidden back then might have consequences but the truth was that even if they had told the truth before it probably wouldn't have changed anything. The police would probably have gotten involved a bit sooner but from what Beckett had learned about the case in the past days was that the kidnapping had been long planned and that so well that no one would have seen anything different than they did.

After talking to the kids a little while longer Beckett let the seven go home. She had found out everything that she'd wanted to and even some more. With a few questions, the oldest – Benjamin – managed to remember a few things from before the day. He'd said that in the days before the kidnapping there had been a boy hanging around the playground that normally wasn't there. It wasn't unusual for new kids to show up of course but he said that the boy had been at least fifteen or sixteen and that was absolutely not what you would expect from a kid that age, hanging around the playground. Benjamin also mentioned that that boy had attempted to talk to Matty without success, he'd been brought up well enough to not just talk to anyone or go with anyone. Another reason for Beckett to believe that there was something off with the kidnapping.

Ryan and Esposito had talked to the leading detective from back then and filled her and Castle in on their news. Detective Carson told them that the investigation had only started when the letter was delivered to the Downing's but that there was never much to go on. They had the police search the park with dogs in case that something else had happened but they couldn't find anything. Matty hadn't dropped anything that gave them a hint nor had his kidnapper. Some witnesses said that they'd seen a boy that looked like Matty walking alone in the park but no one had seen if he got snatched. Carson had said that he'd been the one to call off the search after a while because there was neither proof of life nor a ransom call and they just couldn't do anything. They had absolutely no hints whatsoever and the question arose if maybe the boy hadn't just run off.

When Beckett asked why Detective Carson had assumed this, the boys shrugged their shoulders. They said he couldn't say, he said it was a gut feeling but this stroke Beckett and also Castle as weird since they both had exactly the opposite feeling. It was obvious for both of them that Matthew had been kidnapped, even if the family seemed like the strangest one in centuries and there might have been reasons to run away.

Beckett frowned. She hated when other Detectives were being sloppy in their work and to her it appeared like this Detective Carson had thought there were more important things to be done than finding the little boy. She really didn't get it but it did seem so.

Her team then started to dig in witness accounts again, look for discrepancies between each, call some witnesses again to see if they still told the same and Castle did spot all the small details just as Beckett had thought. He noticed that some of the witnesses had seen a boy wandering around and other had seen a boy clearly looking for something, the question was what.

"Beckett?"

"Yes?"

"I think I might have found something."

Beckett looked up from the file she was working on and raised an eyebrow at Castle who was making a dramatic pause but gave in when he saw her look. He got up, placed the folder in front of her and leaned closer, making Beckett tense a little but only to hide the shiver that was threatening to go through her body by his close proximity.

"See here?" he asked and pointed at a sentence in an older ladies statement, accidentally brushing her shoulder by doing so. "She said that a boy approached her, asking if she'd seen a German Shepard strolling around alone in the park."

"So?" She looked up at him, questioningly. Of course she could have read it herself but as a start she knew how much he liked to tell her what he found out – yes, he was like a puppy that needed some reassurance sometimes – and also, she enjoyed listening to him being all proud of having found something.

"So…? So she saw him walking to a teenage boy after she'd told him that she hadn't seen a dog. She saw them exchange some words and then take off again into different directions."

"Well, if it in fact was Matty, then it might help, but they went separate ways so probably he was just asking the boy the same question as the woman."

"Beckett, tell me you don't get one of your gut feelings hearing all this. Remember what Benjamin said about the teenage boy hanging around the park trying to talk to Matty? What if it was the same boy and what if that boy was the one kidnapping Matty. What if he managed to lure Matty into talking to him by saying he'd lost his dog and Matty, being kind hearted like everyone said, believed him and offered to help find the dog. It's the perfect plan. Fool proof and so cliché that no one would believe it!"

"And who says it really was Matty? I mean, all those witnesses say they saw a blond boy walking around alone in the park but I bet he wasn't the only blond boy. What if another one was just racing off from his mother or his nanny or running from one parent to the other in a game?

I'm not saying your theory is wrong, it actually does sound rather plausible but we can't know for sure."

She threw a quick glance at the file, checking to see if the police had shown the woman a picture and she saw that they did but it also said that the lady couldn't ID Matty for sure, she said she had a bad memory when it came to faces.

The "ding" of the elevator brought her back from her thoughts of how to prove that this in fact had been Matty and when she looked up a woman came walking up towards her. She seemed to be in her mid-forties but she could have been older as well. She had her blond hair with a lot of grey streaks in them hanging in strands over her shoulders. Her whole appearance didn't look very neat but something about her features seemed familiar to Castle but he couldn't yet say what it was.

"Are you Detective Beckett?" the woman asked in a hoarse voice, clearly damaged from a life of smoking, as she approached Beckett's desk.

The Detective nodded. "And who are you?" she asked back.

The woman threw a glance at the murder board behind Beckett and let her gaze halt for a few seconds longer on some pictures until she found the one she was looking for, right in the middle. That's when Castle realised what looked so familiar but before he could completely form his thought, the woman answered.

"I am his mother" she said and nodded at Matthew Downing's picture.

Wohoo, surprise again xD Well, not all of you I guess but the question still remains who she is ;) And is she even telling the truth? ;D

Again, appologies for not so many Caskett moments but I promised myself to write an FF with a good case as well and I want to keep that promise =)

If you are in need for Caskett goodness, read my other FF's, you might enjoy them xD

Or just hit the review button to leave me a comment =)

xx