Author's note: Well, here's the second chapter. I'll have the next one up by next Monday and I'll try to keep up with that schedule. Each chapter will be posted before Castle comes on. Yes, there's an homage to Heath Ledger's Joker; he left the world at too young of an age, and he is still missed.

Anyway, on to the story!

- Unexpected Knowledge –

Kate hung up the phone and motioned to Javier and Kevin. "Homicide at 83rd and 7th. Ambulance just left with a young woman," she said, watching as the two slowly nodded. They exchanged a glance that was not lost on their boss, but she chose to let it slide. Kate looked at Rick, her partner and husband, and saw a slightly shocked expression on his face before he quickly tried to hide it. She grabbed her coat and waited for him to do the same before they walked to the elevator.

"What's wrong, Rick?" she asked as the doors of the elevator closed.

He shook his head, not trusting himself to speak at the moment. It was bad enough that they had lost their mother, but now one of his cousins was killed. Five days before Christmas, but death never did discriminate.

The technicians worked to get Anne's face cleaned up as the ambulance raced to Bellevue Hospital. They did their best to stabilize her leg, but there was a bone protruding and it made any hope of fixing it dim. The EMS personnel started to hook her up to IVs, but she still had a death grip on her book. Her phone was in her pocket, though she was sure of the fact that she had been the one to call 911. The ambulance hit a snowy bump and Anne whimpered, shutting her eyes against a torrent of pain.

The three detectives let Lanie do her work as they looked around the apartment and picked up whatever pieces of evidence they found. Javier and Kevin had exchanged uncertain and slightly haunting glances once they entered the building. However, frowns had found their way to each of their faces as they continued to do their job. Castle, on the other hand, was uncharacteristically quiet as he looked around. His sight fell on a picture frame and he walked over to the table, a smile pulling at his lips as he saw his cousins with their mom and his mom. The Christmas tree was also a welcome sight, though the body on the floor was not.

"Lanie, do you have an ID on the vic?" Kate asked. The question got Rick to turn around, and it was the first time he was actually paying attention to the crime scene.

He cleared his throat and offered, "Vanessa Rodgers, aged twenty-five. She lives, or lived, here with her sister Anne Rodgers who is twenty-two."

Kevin and Javier looked at one another and their expressions fell at the names. They didn't say anything, but they knew that the Rodgers could not handle one more tragedy. "COD is three GSWs to the chest, but each could have killed her. The cuts, which make her seem like she is smiling, were before death," Lanie explained as she rose from beside Vanessa's body.

"Who called it in?" Kevin asked, trying to keep himself as detached as possible.

Javier pulled out a notepad and replied, "Anne Rodgers, but she's at Bellevue right now."

Rick returned to Kate's side, but Heat Rises was no longer on the coffee table. With gloved hands Javier picked up the remote and turned off the television, gently placing it down afterward. "Okay, Rick and I are going to go to Mercy. Keep on this, and get the evidence back to the Precinct as soon as possible. Well, as soon as the weather will allow," Kate ordered, getting several nods.

The sooner they got to Bellevue the better, as Rick wanted to see if his cousin was okay. She needed to be better. She needed to be okay. Rodgers women could handle anything, even more than one tragedy in the span of five years.

"Dr Flynn, how did the surgery go?" a resident asked as the stretcher that Anne was on was wheeled into a recovery room.

Taking off his gloves, Dr Aaron Flynn smiled slightly and replied, "It went very well for the extent of her leg injuries. She'll need crutches for several weeks before she is placed in a walking boot and then physical therapy after that for renewing the strength in her leg. She will be able to talk while the stitches dissolve, but it'll hurt like a mother until they are gone. She's been holding Deadly Storm like her life depended on it, so leave it with her."

Nodding, the resident replied, "Consider it done."

Dr Flynn walked away as the resident made his way to Anne's room. A sad smile found its way to his features as he entered, his gaze drawn to her form. He saw the book on the table that was closest to her bed, but his eyes went to the stitches. She would smile for the rest of her life no matter how she felt.

Kate Beckett glanced at her husband and she knew that he was hiding something from her. While it was fair, the circumstances were very different. Rick pulled out his phone and found a picture of him and his two cousins, a sad smile soon touching his lips. "Perfect timing," he muttered, his voice breaking. Kate would have reached over to hold his left hand with his right one, but she didn't want to chance a trip to the hospital in the snow. She deftly turned the wheel, pulling into the Bellevue parking lot. She could hear Rick's intake of breath beside her as she found a clear parking space.

She stopped the car in the parking space and turned it off after she put the parking brake on. Kate turned to Rick and watched him unbuckle his seatbelt, searching his blue eyes for some answers. "I'll tell you everything when we see her," he replied as he opened the door and got out.

He waited for Kate to exit the car before he closed the door on his side. His gaze was focused on the emergency entrance and an apprehension that he didn't know since Kate was shot returned to him. Kate slipped her arm around his waist as they walked toward the hospital entrance and nervousness overtook her. She hadn't been entirely fond of hospitals before she was shot, and now she was even less fond of them.

The first thing Anne saw when she opened her eyes was a slight abundance of light, but she knew that she was alive. Everything hurt like hell, but she was alive. Her left leg was propped up and a cast ended just above her knee. Her knee was bent slightly, but she liked the fact that her cast was red. She had an IV in her right arm and was fairly certain that she was getting painkillers. Just as she tried to reach for Deadly Storm Dr Flynn came in, causing Anne to settle back down.

"It's nice to see you awake, Miss Rodgers," he said, smiling.

Blinking, she asked, "Doc, is it still the twentieth?"

Dr Flynn chuckled and replied, "For about two hours, but yes. Try not to talk too much with the stitches. You may get uncomfortable."

"Is Ricky coming? Is my cousin going to be here?" she asked as her heartbeat quickened.

He came over to her and gently laid his hand over her left one as she explained, "I'm sure he's on his way."

A smile crossed her face as he handed her Deadly Storm before he left the room. He glanced back over his shoulder as she opened the book with her left hand.

Rick found a doctor in the hall and asked, "Could you direct us to Anne Rodgers' room?"

The doctor motioned to a colleague who had stopped, and this was colleague one who had a chart in his hand. Rick and Kate walked toward him and they were greeted with a smile as he explained, "I was just heading to check on Miss Rodgers. I'm assuming that you're family, because Richard Castle was listed as her only contact."

It was a good thing that people knew Rick better than they did Kate, as her line of work called for a great deal of transparency. Kate took over and said, "I'm Detective Kate Beckett, and yes, he's Richard Castle. Could you tell us how Anne is doing?" The doctor stopped outside the door of Anne's room and flipped through the chart. His eyes scanned the pages before he looked up again. "She's doing as well as could be expected. Dr Flynn just checked on her, so she may be due for some pain meds soon. Her surgery was uneventful and there was no nerve damage," he explained, knowing very well that there could have been many complications with the surgery.

Rick, happy that his cousin was being cared for, asked, "Will she be okay?"

"Considering the fact that her tibia almost broke the sink of her left leg, physical therapy once she gets out of the walking boot is the best option. She can talk to you, but don't make any comments about the injuries. I'm sure Dr Flynn knows of a good plastic surgeon that would be glad to help," the doctor offered.

Kate nodded and Rick entered the room, the steady beating of a heart monitor greeting his ears. Anne, like always, was reading one of his books. Her auburn hair gently fell across her shoulders and down her back while her bangs just brushed her right eyebrow. Rick soon found himself standing beside his cousin's bed and he gently placed a hand on her left shoulder. She looked up at him and tears formed in her eyes.

"Richard, we really need to stop seeing each other after tragedies. This isn't as bad as five years ago, but Vanessa's the one who's dead," she said, trying to joke a little as tears ran down her cheeks.

Kate looked between them and demanded in an even tone, "How do you know her, Rick?"

He smiled softly and turned his gaze toward Kate as he explained, "This is my cousin Anne, my only cousin now. Anne, this is my wife Katherine Beckett."

"It's Kate," she offered as she walked toward the bed.

Rick tapped his cousin on the shoulder and revealed Heat Rises. "Thanks for getting this for me, Ricky. Though, why aren't Jamie and Nikki married yet?" Anne replied with a smile, or as much as she could manage.

Knowing that she shouldn't, Kate knew it would be best to ask one question. "Why did he cut your mouth like that?"

"I needed to smile, I suppose."

P.S.: Virtual cookie to whoever guesses where I got Flynn from

P.P.S.: Reviews make me update faster