A/N: Thanks again for the reviews. Hopefully you are enjoying the ride! Once again, I only own that which you do not recognize.

Chapter 2

Later that evening, Rick and Kate exited the elevator heading to the loft. They stepped inside and found Martha standing in the kitchen talking to Alexis. "Katherine! How are you, darling?"

Kate smiled. "Not too bad. We just have a strange case and it's confusing."

Alexis looked at her and grinned. "Wow! If YOU say it's strange I can only imagine how bad it is."

Kate looked behind her as Rick went into the study. She stepped closer to the others and whispered. "Our suspect may have ties to your dad's Alma mater."

Martha looked up quickly. "Sedgewyck? Why do you think that?"

"It seems someone spotted one of their backpacks in a photo taken at the crime scene."

Rick emerged from the study with his phone to his ear. "Exactly. Look, I need some stills of that location from about 7:30 till 8 this morning. Thanks, Marky Mark." He looked up at the women. "What?"

"Dad, are you okay?"

"Yes, Daughter. I'm fine. Who wants Thai tonight?"

Kate raised an eyebrow. "What were you talking to Mark Willoughby about?"

Rick grinned. "I'm just doing some of my liaison type duties, Detective. He'll grab surveillance and send me stills from them."

Kate shook her head. "Okay...Thai sounds fine to me." Getting an agreement from the others on his choice for dinner, he called and placed their order.

TCOP3

As they prepared for bed, Kate leaned into him and gave him a soft kiss. He smiled. "What was that for?"

"For whatever is bothering you."

"I'm fine, love. It's just odd about that woman's backpack."

"Maybe if we can get a photo we'll have a better idea."

He nodded. "I've been thinking about what Klaus said earlier...about Henri being gay."

"What about it?"

"Did it strike you odd? I mean, I know that the Swiss are a bit more progressive about sexuality than we are, but just the way he presented it seemed off to me."

She thought for a minute. "I hadn't thought about it. I was listening but trying to make sure I captured as much as possible in my notes. Did you find something in his desk?"

"Maybe; he had some notes in his planner. I have them typed up at the precinct; we'll review them tomorrow." He grinned mischievously. "But for tonight..." She smiled and turned off the light as he came toward her.

TCOP3

As they drove in to work the next morning, Kate looked over at her partner. She missed the irreverence he displayed the first couple of years he shadowed her, even if she wouldn't admit it out loud. He had pulled her out of the comfort zone she had created for herself after the death of her mother. Before she had met him, she had wondered about him for many years; even with the notoriety he had garnered on page six, she knew he had a daughter and could not imagine a parent being as wild as he was supposed to be.

She had almost changed her mind during their first case, but she noted that while he was egregious on the surface his eyes did not share that. He had intrigued her and that was why she had not had Roy get rid of him. After a few cases she had enough of a read on him to know that there was much more to him than he showed others. The proverb 'don't judge a book by its cover' was apropos in his case. But even then, she had no idea about the things she had learned about him in the past few months.

To find out recently that not only was he a top profiler for the FBI but that he had more connections than he had ever bragged about with his 'I know a guy' routine showed her that she had been right all along. Richard Castle was worth it. She smiled as she thought about what life would be like for the next few decades with him by her side.

"You're thinking about me."

She snorted. "As if! I was thinking about my coffee, which you have yet to give me this morning."

He pouted. "Katherine Beckett! I never!"

She laughed out loud as they pulled into the precinct garage. "Hush, you. Let's solve this murder and find out what happened." He grinned and gave her a quick hug before putting on his FBI persona and following her into the elevator.

TCOP3

Mark Willoughby had gathered all of the images that Rick had asked for and was running them through facial recognition. He had entered the criteria of female, Caucasian and blonde. The program had been running for thirty minutes when it ended unsuccessfully. He shook his head; he was sure that she would be in the system. He took his hard copy of the photo and his magnifying glass, trying to find some small item that would help to identify...hold on a minute! He looked closely at the photo again and reset the parameters and restarted the search. He turned to take a drink of his water when he heard the beep that it had been successful. "Bloody hell...Ricky is never going to believe this!"

TCOP3

"Lisa? Are you home?"

The blonde looked up from the book she was reading. "I'm in the den!" She put a bookmark in the book and sat it down beside her as an older woman entered the room.

"There you are! Why didn't you answer your phone?"

Lisa grinned and picked up the book she had been reading. "His new book came in so I grabbed a copy. I cannot believe that you used to go to school with him."

Lexie Rogers rolled her eyes. "Yeah, well he and your Aunt Lily were close; I just knew him. I'm not sure he would even remember me." She looked at the cover. "He was known as Ricky back then. So, is it any good?"

Lisa smirked. "I love his characters! Nikki Heat is the best! And this one is better than his last!"

Lexie laughed. "You said that about the last book."

"Well, it's true. All my friends think so too." She sat the book back down. "So, what did you need so bad that you came over and didn't leave a message?"

Lexie looked at her daughter. "Lis, I just got a call. Were you in the city yesterday?"

Lisa nodded. "Yes. I had to meet with the DJ the night before, so I grabbed a hotel room and checked out the venue yesterday morning. Why?"

"Did you go anywhere near Grand Central?"

Lisa shook her head. "I was in the Bronx the night I went and near Central Park yesterday."

Lexie nodded. "Okay. Can you write up where you were and give me some people that can confirm you met with them?"

Lisa looked confused. "Sure, I suppose. Mom, what's going on?"

"Honey, I'm not here as your Mom; I'm here as the Chief of Police. Someone who looks a lot like you was involved in a murder yesterday; they had a Sedgewyck backpack. NYPD has issues an APB for this person. If you can get the info for me, we can get you cleared and move on."

"Sure, Mom. Give me a few minutes and grab yourself something to drink." She grabbed her laptop and started to get her statement completed.

TCOP3

The lone figure stood at the foot of a grave in the small cemetery. Placing flowers down by the headstone, the person stood up and walked away while wiping away tears. Getting in the car and adjusting the mirror, they drove away just as another car pulled up.

The unmarked cruiser rocked gently as its lone passenger got out and headed towards a headstone. Noting the fresh flowers on one of its neighbors, Lexie gave a sad smile. "Hey, Lily...It's me again...thought I would drop by on my way back to the station. Seems someone from school is causing headaches for Ricky. We'll most likely get to see him soon. I wish that you were here with us; you wouldn't believe Lisa...she's just graduated this year and she is waiting to go to college. She was accepted at City University of New York. She's going to major in Business. I'm going to miss her but I plan to ask Ricky to look in on her from time to time.

"I have to get back but I couldn't drive by without stopping in. I hope you are keeping out of trouble up there as I have no way of saving your butt. I love you, Sis." She stood up and dusted off the knees of her pants. She turned to head towards the car when she paused and looked at the flowers. She glanced at the headstone even though she knew that it was Derek Hough's grave. She had never known him like her sister, but she had seen him around school. She walked back to her cruiser and got in. She softly smiled as she pulled away to head back to work as she thought about how lively her sister had been when she had been part of Derek's group.

TCOP3

Rick was sitting at his desk when his phone rang. He glanced at his caller ID and smiled. "Hello, Mark."

"Hi Rick. I have some information for you. Can you open your email?"

"Sure." Rick tapped on a few keys as Kate came around to see what Mark had sent. "It's open."

"Would you open the attachment?" Rick did as he was asked and stated so. "Ok, Rick. See how we got a pretty good look at the person standing next to the victim?"

"Yeah. She looks familiar."

Mark snorted. "Yeah, well I want to point out a couple of things. Can you zoom in on the neck?"

Rick did so and gasped. "Is that an Adam's apple?"

"Yeah. She's a he. Now look at the face closely. See anything you recognize?"

Rick focused on the face and was shocked. "Is that Derek's brother dressed as a woman?"

"It looks like it. I did some background checks on Tim Hough and found a few interesting things. Tim graduated three years behind us and joined the Army. He was court-martialed five years later for conduct unbecoming."

"Wow that's not good. Any idea what happened?"

"Yeah...he got drunk and hit on his commanding officer."

"Ouch! What did she do?"

"HE immediately reported it and Tim was let go shortly thereafter. He then moved to the city and worked in a bar in SoHo called Flights of Fancy."

Rick interrupted. "That was a gay bar that was shut down a few years ago for several counts of solicitation."

"Yes and Tim was arrested twice. Then his Dad had enough and told him never to come home; he also said that Derek would have been ashamed of him. That was about six months ago."

Ryan had been listening and started his own search. "It looks like Tim Hough couldn't find another job and then somehow got enough money to get some work done to start the process to change his sex. He had some implants put in and started some Estrogen therapy in advance of more surgery."

Kate looked at Rick. "Did you know Tim?"

Rick shook his head. "Only as Derek's little brother. We did not hang out with him; I do remember how Derek said he acted a little 'off', but he never showed it to us. He did refuse to go to Derek's funeral; we couldn't attend because they said it was for family only. There was one thing, but at the time we put it off as just being so young. He got angry when the others in our group would call me Derek. He said Derek was dead and we should leave him buried." Rick thanked Mark who ended the call.

Kate looked at Rick. "I think we need to talk to Tim's dad."

Rick sighed. "That makes sense. We'll need to get the Captain's okay though. The Houghs were local to Sedgewyck and the school was in New Hampshire."

Kate nodded and went to the Captain's office while Rick typed up a search to verify the Hough's address. He sighed as he thought about visiting his Alma Mater. He had no idea what to expect, but he hoped a warm welcome was in the future.

TCOP3

Rick was deep in thought as he drove North on I-91. Kate was dozing as they passed an exit for Amherst. Montgomery had approved the trip and Rick's SUV was more comfortable than Kate's Crown Vic so he got to drive. It helped that he knew the way since he had driven it before.

He smiled as he watched the miles roll by. Some of the best times in his life had happened at Sedgewyck. He had made some great friends and learned a lot about writing from the instructors there. His love for knowledge had been incubated within the halls of the school. He had been nervous to be at the school when he entered but he remembered fondly how he wished he had more time when he graduated.

He had last visited several years ago for an alumni fundraiser and he and the gang had made a point to visit Derek's grave. He had not taken the trip seriously as he was still high on his fame; he needed to make amends for that, especially to his friends that lived near the school.

He pulled over at a rest area to stretch his legs and grinned as Kate woke up, stretching like a cat. She smiled at him. "Where are we?"

"We are just inside New Hampshire. We should be there in less than an hour." They took their time making use of the facilities and walked for a few minutes hand in hand, enjoying the crispness of the morning and the freshness of the air.

They got underway and drove for about thirty minutes before taking an exit towards Port Hamilton. Kate admired the countryside and saw that there was a sign saying twenty miles to Sedgewyck. "Rick?"

"Yes?"

"How long has it been since you've been back?"

"I came back about seven years ago for an Alumni fundraiser."

Kate looked over at him. "Going to show me around while I am here?"

Rick grinned. "Of course. If you're good, I'll take you where I took Alice Maiseley when I was in eleventh grade."

Kate snorted. "Oh...now I can't wait." She rolled her eyes at him and he laughed. She resumed looking out the window and saw that they were entering Port Hamilton, Population: 4500. The town was small and very Americana. They drove up Main Street and made a left at the only stoplight in town. Rick drove through the open gates of Sedgewyck and pulled into a parking lot at the Welcome Center.

As he and Kate got out, he noticed a police cruiser pull up with its lights flashing. A woman got out with gun drawn. "Richard Castle, put your hands in the air!"

Rick put his hands up but was confused. Kate shook her head. "The prodigal son returns, I take it?"