"You're not going to believe this," Esposito says, walking over to her with Ryan in tow.

She looks up from her desk, realizing she's completely missed dinner. It's nine o'clock now and she doesn't even remember the last time she moved.

"What'd you find?"

Her voice cracks when she speaks. How long has it been since she actually talked to someone?

"The license plate on the escalade? It matches one of the vehicles the security camera caught outside of Addison's apartment building the night her parents were murdered," Esposito explains.

Kate feels all of color drain from her face. "I…I ran background checks on those plates myself. Nothing came up."

"Because the car wasn't reported stolen until last week," Ryan adds.

"But then what makes this a connection and not just a coincidence?" she asks.

"Because it gets better," Esposito says. "We tracked down the owner of the car and asked him about being outside of the apartment building that night. To which he told us that car has been stolen for four months, but someone paid him two grand to keep quiet until a week ago."

Kate feels the hope starting to flood her chest. This is an actual lead. One that could help her close two very important cases and get her fiancé back.

"Does he know who was paying him?"

"Unfortunately, no," Ryan says. "But since we've been forced to get the Feds involved with Castle's kidnapping, they're running a trace on the money to see if they can find a point of origin."

"It's not much, but it's something," Esposito offers. "And you were right about there being a connection."

She starts to chew on her lower lip as her mind processes the new information, but stops when she realizes she's already chewed it raw. Hopefully she still has some chapstick in her desk…

"All right so say that whoever our mystery man is killed Addison's parents and kidnapped Castle. The question now is why. If they're doing this to get to me, what good is killing my daughter's adoptive parents?"

"Maybe they wanted her to be closer to you?" Ryan asks.

"Why so it would hurt more if something happened to her?" She hates the way that sounds.

"What if she was the intended target?" Esposito asks.

She hates the way that sounds even more.

"No, no. If this was about her, then why did they take Castle?"

"Maybe her parents got into some stuff that we haven't learned about and it's coincidence that Addison was their daughter," Ryan suggests.

"And what, Castle got into the same stuff?" Esposito asks. "No, I think Beckett's right. This is about her."

"Any theories?" Ryan asks.

Kate scrubs a hand through her hair, realizing it's still full of yesterday's hairspray. She really should shower when she gets home.

"I think it's safe to say we can rule out Bracken. Their murder happened before we arrested him, and he owed me one up until he stopped Vulcan's lackey from killing me. But there's that flash drive we found at Kelly Neiman's office. Castle and I were pretty much convinced that she's an apprentice of Jerry Tyson. And when we put the flash drive into his laptop to see what was on it, we found a single song file. A song that my mother used to sing to me. I'm the only member of this team he has yet to target. I think, that is, until now."

"I mean Tyson makes sense as far as taking Castle goes," Esposito says. "The guy did have a vendetta against him. But Addison?"

"I don't know," she says, shaking her head. "I don't know. I mean it was a closed adoption. He would have had to look into my medical records and the sealed file about her adoption."

"Well Neiman was posing as a plastic surgeon, right?" Ryan asks. "Maybe she posed as some other kind of medical professional to look at your records."

"But why would they even be looking at my medical records in the first place?"

Kate rubs at her temples. She's starting to get a headache from over thinking this.

"Maybe he just went digging for dirt on you and that's what he found," Esposito shrugs.

She presses the heels of her hands into her eyes, trying to ease the pounding in her head. The stress plus the extra caffeine and lack of sleep is not helping.

"I hate this," Kate says softly. "I became a cop to save people from danger and all it's done is put the people I care about most at risk."

Esposito pats her on the shoulder. "Maybe you should go home and try to get some rest. You aren't going to help anyone running on zero sleep."

She sighs, knowing that he's right but at the same time hating the thought of going home to their empty bed. Maybe she can convince Addie to join her again.

"And make sure you eat something," Ryan adds, as she starts to gather her things. "I think I've seen you eat maybe a granola bar all day."

She gives him a small smile, rolling her eyes. "Okay, Dad. Are you guys heading out soon too?"

The boys exchange a glance.

"We're gonna wait and see if the Feds can trace the money anywhere," Esposito says.

"You guys don't have to do that," Kate says, standing up and pushing her chair in. "Especially you with the baby at home."

Ryan looks at his watch. "Jenny probably already has Sarah down by now. I'll get her when she wakes up around oh two in the morning."

"Okay, well you'll call me if you hear anything?" she asks.

"Yeah. We will."

Kate tosses them another small smile as she moves to leave. Her fingers dance along the edge of Castle's chair as she passes it. One day without him sitting in it is long enough.


"What are you doing?" Addison asks, walking into the master bedroom to find Kate rummaging through a large box.

She looks over her shoulder. "It's the last box I had left to unpack."

"And you decided to do that now?" she asks walking over to her.

Kate shrugs. "Just trying to keep my mind off of things."

Addison sits down next to her, cross-legged, and pulls a grey crocheted elephant with a yellow bow around its neck out of the box. She holds it up to Kate and raises an eyebrow at her.

Kate smiles and rubs her thumb over one of its ears.

"I bought that after you were born," she confesses. "I was having a hard time with giving you up, wondering if I made the right decision. My mom and I both loved elephants and I saw that and it made me think about how much she would have loved to be a grandmother. So I bought it. It's yours. If you want it."

Addison tucks the elephant into her lap and reaches back into the box. This time she pulls out an old framed picture.

"Is that you and your mom?" she asks.

Kate nods, looking over at it.

"Now I understand why you didn't want to unpack this box," Addison says.

Kate laughs, taking the frame from her and brushing off the dust that has collected on it.

"You're not going to lose him like you lost her."

"I know," Kate sighs, putting the picture aside. "At least I want to believe that."

"Are you actually going to go to bed tonight?"

"I plan to try."

"You know I'm worried about him, but honestly I think I'm more worried about you."

"Come here," Kate says, pulling her into a hug. "I'm gonna be fine."

"Yeah, I'll believe that when we get Castle back."

Kate kisses the top of her head, fingering the yellow bow on the elephant. Addison looks down at it again.

"What made you keep this?" Addison asks, trying to steer the subject away from Castle and hoping to make her less sad.

"You did. I wanted the reminder."

"Did you ever think that we'd meet?"

Kate shakes her head a little, smoothing down a flyaway piece of Addison's hair.

"I'd hoped that when you were old enough you might decide that you wanted to meet me. But at the same time I understood if you didn't. This little guy eventually got shoved into the back of my closet because the reminder almost became too painful."

"I'm going to name him Peanut," Addison says, cradling the elephant into her chest.

"You're not too old for stuffed animals?" Kate asks, smiling.

"Not for ones like this."

Kate draws her back into her arms. "I'm so glad I have you, baby girl. You're the only thing that's keeping me grounded right now."

"Same," Addison says into her shoulder. "I don't know where I'd be right now if it wasn't for you."

Kate sighs, holding her for a moment longer before letting her go and standing up. "It's late. And your last week of middle school starts tomorrow."

"Great," she groans, standing up as well.

"Oh come on, it's almost summer."

"Speaking of summer, this is probably a bad time to ask, but if you don't find Castle by Nationals, are you still going to come with me?"

"And miss the chance to watch you steal another National Title from that brat Jaclyn? I would never."

"Because I'd understand if –"

"Addie, Nationals are still a month away. If I don't have him back by then, I could probably use the vacation."

Addison smiles, nodding, still clutching Peanut to her chest. "Okay well if you need me to come sleep with you again let me know. Even though last night you didn't do much sleeping."

"Okay I will," Kate smiles back. "Thanks."


She's running. She's out in the middle of nowhere and she's running. The grass is tall and brushes just under her knees. Maybe she can hide in it. Hide from him. She looks back over her shoulder to see if he's coming and trips over a tree root in the process, falling flat on her stomach. She stays still, inhaling the earthy scent of the dirt.

And then she feels the barrel of the gun press into her skull and hears him breathing behind her.

"Are you sure you want to keep running, Kate? Everyone else is already dead. What makes you think you can live without them?"

"They're not dead, you son of bitch."

"I beg to differ."

The landscape changes and suddenly she's lying on the floor of a warehouse. There's a black tarp in front of her, hiding something bulky.

"Go ahead and look," Tyson encourages. "See what you've caused."

"No."

He jabs the gun into her head harder. "Look!"

Hesitantly, she pulls back the tarp. She screams at the sight in front of her.


Kate sits bolt upright in bed, tears streaming down her face and the scream from her nightmare trapped in her throat. They were dead. Castle and Addison they were both... This is why she couldn't sleep last night.

Ever since she developed PTSD after her shooting, she started having awful nightmares. And lately, Castle has been there for her when she wakes up shaking. For the past two years he's woken up with her and coaxed her back to sleep. But he's not here now. She needs him and he's not here.

Kate falls back onto her pillow, pulling his against her chest and pretending that it's him. It still smells like him, but if he's gone for too much longer it's just going to smell like her. She starts thinking about how they should be on their honeymoon right now. How they should be tangled in the sheets, lost in each other.

She hugs the pillow tighter as the tears keep coming. She can put on a brave face for Addison all she wants. But at the end of the day she's still going to be terrified about him not being here safe with her.