Sorry this is coming so late. I am a freelancer, so I've been busy with a couple of orders. This should be short and hopefully will be finished by Halloween. Enjoy!

Chapter Three

What about my mother?

She's here.

"You're not as eloquent as I thought you were," the elder (deceased) Beckett told him, eyeing her daughter with shining eyes. It was as if she were the one seeing a ghost. "I can't believe how much she's changed. How grown she is."

"Haven't you seen her since your…you know?" Castle asked her in a too-loud whisper.

"We don't typically hang around when we're not seen," Johanna explained. "And I couldn't bring myself to watch her go on with her life without me there, without any way to communicate with her. So I—"

"Who are you talking to?" Both Castle and Johanna Beckett turned to Kate with wide eyes. She was staring at him, white as a sheet, her own green eyes wide and slightly disturbed. She glanced straight at Johanna, her eyes lingering on her for a long moment, before returning to Castle; it was obvious that she couldn't see the ghost of her own mother.

"Your…Johanna Beckett," Castle told her. "She's sitting right next to me."

"That's impossible," Kate said, but her voice was soft as her gaze flitted back to the chair beside him then back. "My mother is dead. She died over a decade ago." She took a deep breath and schooled her features into something that looked akin to stone. "And that chair is completely empty."

"To you," Castle rebutted. "But I…I can see her. Your mother has long dark hair and green eyes and she's wearing a skirt and blouse and a suit jacket. She has a tie—"

"Kerchief," Johanna corrected, her gaze never leaving her daughter.

"Kerchief," Castle echoed. "And her eyes are green, just like yours, but yours are a little lighter than hers are. But your cheekbones are practically identical, I've gotta say."

"Mr. Castle, focus," Johanna hissed, attempting to nudge him, but her elbow just went right through his ribcage, sending a chill up his spine that made him jump in his seat.

"And I assume she had sharp elbows when she was alive," Castle added on a huff, shooting Johanna a glare. She rolled her eyes and then Captain Beckett almost mirrored it a second later.

"Mr. Castle," the younger Beckett said with a sigh, "I don't know who put you up to this, but I think it's time that you left my precinct."

"What?" Castle and Johanna gasped simultaneously.

"Why?" Castle asked, looking up at Kate. When he stood, he found them almost eye-to-eye. "But why? I'm not…I'm not making this up! I can really see her!"

"That's impossible," Kate said, for the second time. "My mother is dead. Deceased. Gone from this world. I watched her get nailed into a casket and lowered into the ground over ten years ago now."

"Her body, but not her spirit," Castle argued.

"Her spirit?" Kate asked with a snort, raising one eyebrow at him. "This isn't one of your books, you know; ghosts don't exist in the real world." She grabbed a bunch of files from the 'in' box at the corner of her desk and made her way to one of the filing cabinets in the corner, opening the top draw and flicking through them, though she made no move to actually place any of the files inside.

"Yes they do," Castle insisted, following her. Johanna floated after him, tutting as she shook her head.

"My little Katie," she sighed. "Always the skeptic; just like her father. You know she stopped believing in Santa Claus when she was three?"

"Seriously?" Castle asked, then turned to Kate, who was staring back at him like he was a lunatic. "Seriously?"

"Seriously what?" Kate snapped.

"You stopped believing in Santa when you were three?" Castle asked her, furrowing his brow in concern. His heart would break if his three-year-old didn't believe in Santa. Hell, his heart would break if his currently nine-year-old didn't believe in Santa.

Kate gaped at him, her eyes wide and her lips parted in confusion. "How…how did you know that?" she asked.

"Your mother told me," Castle said.

"That's…" Kate shook her head. "She didn't know that."

"Oh, yes I did," Johanna chuckled. "Every single year, I had to hype her up to see the Santa at the mall and I know a forced smile when I see one. You weren't foolin' anybody, Katie."

Castle snorted. "She says she knew all along," he informed Kate. "That she knew you were faking it whenever you went to go see Santa at the mall. Your mother is very astute; probably why you're such a good detective."

"I'm a good detective because I work hard," Kate huffed. "I listen to logic and reason and I follow the evidence where it leads."

"And where is the evidence leading you now?" Castle asked.

Kate stared at him for a long moment, her lips pressed together. "I…ghosts don't exist, Mr. Castle," she said, with a sense of finality in her voice. "I know that for a fact."

"Do you though?" Castle challenged. "Then how did I know about the Santa Claus thing? Or about how you refused to use a nightlight when you were little, even though you were terrified of the dark?" He said the words as Johanna whispered them in his ear and watched at Kate stiffened, inhaling sharply as she stared into his eyes.

Then, suddenly, she shook her head and scowled at him. "My father obviously put you up to this," she said. "He's always pulling pranks."

"That's true," Johanna agreed. "They used to have these 'prank wars' that lasted weeks at a time. I couldn't safely walk into any room in the house without looking for tripwires or buckets of water—or worse—that might fall on my head." She frowned. "But Jim wouldn't do something like this; it's too far."

"Your father didn't put me up to this," Castle insisted. "I swear. Okay? I can really see your mother. She's standing right next to me, looking at you like…like you're the most important person in her li—world. She came to me because she has something to tell you, but you can't hear or see her so she has to do it through me. And I know it's hard to believe and I know that you're skeptical about it, but if you just listen—"

"No," Kate said, dropping the files into the drawer and closing it with a sense of finality. "This is crazy and I truly think you need help, Mr. Castle. Now, please, get out of my precinct before I have you arrested for harassment."

"Harassment?" Castle spluttered. "But I just—"

"Leave," Kate ordered, her voice low but the warning in her eyes had Castle's lips clamping shut.

He sighed and nodded. "Fine," he said, looking sideways at Johanna, whose eyes were scanning her daughter's face, as if taking in everything before she said goodbye for god knows how much longer. "Let's go," he whispered, his voice full of condolence.

"Wait," Johanna said, stopping him as he started for the door. Castle turned to her with an expectant look. "The elephants," she said, by way of explanation.

"Elephants?" he echoed.

"Elephants?" Kate asked, after him. "What about elephants?"

Castle turned to her as she returned to her desk and, for the first time, he saw a trail of elephants at the edge of her desk, connected trunk to tail in a tiny parade. They were ceramic and quite beautiful; a good decoration. But other than that, he could see nothing extraordinary about them. Completely unlike the woman herself.

"Tell her to look inside the elephants," Johanna said. Castle furrowed his brow.

"Mr. Castle!" He turned to Kate; she was frowning at him, hands on her hips. "What about elephants?"

"Um…l-look inside," he said.

"What?"

"Look inside the elephants," Castle repeated.

"Why?" Kate asked.

"I have no idea. She just said to look in the elephants." Kate still had a skeptic look on her face, so he sighed and said, "Look, I know you don't believe in this stuff, but this is very important to her, okay? Just…open the elephants."

With that, he left, the ghost of Johanna Beckett trailing after him. Before she disappeared out the door, however, she made her way back to her daughter and gazed at her for a long moment. Kate watched the door for a moment longer before looking down at the work on her desk, but she still didn't notice the spirit in the room.

"I'm so proud of you," Johanna said, leaning down to press a kiss to Kate's forehead. The younger woman shivered and looked up, blinking as she stared all around the empty room. She pulled her suit jacket more tightly around her, frowning as she shook off the strange chill that had just run up her spine.

Johanna sighed, spared her daughter one last, forlorn look, and then turned, following Castle out of the building.

This isn't going to be some long piece about them solving her mother's case, btw. Short(ish) and fluffy. I hope you liked this chapter and I hope it was worth the wait.