Author's Note: Can I just say...wow! Thank you all so much for the lovely reviews! I'm glad you're all so enthusiastic about this story. I apologize for not replying individually but I promise to do so when I have some spare time.

Chapter 2

"Oh my God!"

A strained voice at the bottom of the stairwell echoed off the walls, funneling down the narrow hallway. Kate and Castle whirled around to find a slim, dark haired young woman standing on the landing, eyes wide in shock. Her long hair was curled but mussed, short black dress slightly askew, eyes darkly lined but lip gloss long since worn off. As though she was just returning from a late night out on the town.

Esposito stepped forward automatically, one arm extended. "Ma'am, this is a police investigation, I'm going to have to ask you to..."

"Is that Jenna? What happened to her?"

Kate descended a couple of stairs. "You know her?"

"She's my roommate. Is she okay?"

Kate shook her head sadly, braced herself for the release of her next words. "I'm sorry to have to tell you this but she's de..."

"No," the young woman interrupted. "No, no, no, she can't be."

Before anyone could say more, she sank back against the wall, sliding down until she was seated on the floor. Her purse fell heavily into the space between her chest and her bent knees, and she dropped her head into her hands, sobs wracking her body, a steady stream of "no, no, no" falling softly from her lips.

Castle stood frozen in place, unable to react in any way. It wasn't the first time he'd been there when Kate delivered the bad news, but it never got any less painful to watch as someone's world crumbled around them. Especially someone so young, so clearly full of life.

Kate passed her coffee to Castle and made her way down to the landing, crouched next to the distraught girl. She cautiously reached out, rested a hand on the young woman's arm and spoke in a low voice. He watched as the scene unfolded, the girl slowly lifting her head, seeking the reassurance of Kate's presence. He couldn't make out the exact words, just the soothing timbre of her voice as she offered what comfort she could, gently calmed the girl's ragged breathing.

Ryan and Esposito silently crept up the stairs, poised to begin their canvass, leaving Castle leaning back against the wall, coffee cup in each hand and an adoring smile on his face as he watched his wife. Not for the first time did he find himself wishing he possessed even a moderate level of the compassion and empathy she so effortlessly conveyed. But he knew he never would, not in the same way, because hers was borne of loss. A loss he hadn't experienced.

He could only hope that he never would.

"What's your name?" Kate asked quietly, eyes soft.

She slim woman swallowed hard, spoke in a rough voice. "Sara. Sara Martinez."

"And Jenna was your roommate?"

Sara nodded. "For three years."

"You live in this building?"

She weakly gestured up the stairs. "In 8E."

"How did you know her?"

"From school," Sara replied. "We met our senior year at Pace. I was...going through some stuff and she was always willing to listen."

"You're graduated now?" Kate assumed, quickly doing the math in her head.

Sara nodded.

Kate dropped her hand, pulled out her notepad and pen and flipped to a blank page, poised to jot down what information she could gather. "Does she have some sort of job?"

"She's a research assistant at Rockefeller University."

"And was she at work today?"

Sara nodded. "But she got home around eight."

"And then what happened?"

"We made dinner," Sara recalled. "Then went down to the bar. We both have tomorrow off, so..."

Kate nodded in quiet understanding, waiting patiently for the girl to offer more.

Sara shook her head. "I should have gone after her."

"What do you mean?"

"We were at the bar." She gestured downstairs, to the establishment located in the bottom floor of the building. "I ran into a few friends I hadn't seen in a while." She sniffed, swiped at her tear-stained cheeks with the back of her hand. "They were heading to a different place and invited me to come with them. When I asked Jenna if she minded if I left for a while, she said it was fine. Said she was gonna head back up to our place soon. But she didn't look right."

"Didn't look right how?"

"Like she was confused. Or scared." Sara shrugged. "I'm not sure. She seemed really distracted and my friends were tugging me towards the door and..." she trailed off, ran the back of her hand across her face. "I should've stayed."

"Do you remember what time this all happened?" she asked gently.

"About two thirty, maybe?" she recalled, pulling out her phone and checking the time, as though it would help her remember.

"How much had Jenna had to drink?" Kate questioned carefully.

"Just two drinks. Vodka martinis." Sara shook her head, choked out a pained laugh. "They're her favorite. I never used to like them but she changed my mind. And now..."

Kate paused, allowed her a moment to gather herself before speaking again. "Did anything else strange happen? Did you notice anything?"

"What do you mean?"

"Just anything out of the ordinary?" Kate explained.

Sara shook her head. "I don't think so."

Kate nodded in understanding.

"And can you think of anyone who would've wanted to hurt Jenna?"

Sara shook her head again. "I'm sorry," she blurted suddenly. "I know I'm not much help."

"Anything you can think of helps," Kate assured her. "One more thing," she added quickly. "Did she have some sort of purse with her?"

"Of course. She never went anywhere without it," Sara answered, twisting her head around to survey the area. "Her purse is missing?"

"We haven't found one here."

Sara shook her head, dark eyes haunted as she spoke. "None of this makes any sense."

Silence fell as Kate rose, contemplating the information she'd just gathered. So far, she had to agree with Sara. Something wasn't adding up here.

"I just want to know what happened," the young woman whispered almost to herself, so softly that Kate barely caught her words.

She turned her head to examine the scene once more before focusing her attention back to Sara, offering a compassionate smile. "I promise we'll do everything we can to find that out."

A tour of Jenna and Sara's apartment didn't turn up much. It didn't seem as though Jenna had been home, and there were certainly no signs of a struggle. The location of her purse remained elusive as well.

As they walked around, CSU moved about, dusting for prints, fibers, anything that might indicate something out of the ordinary, but so far nothing seemed promising.

"She has a lot of knick knacks here," Castle observed, gesturing to the walls.

"Her parents are doctors," Sara offered morosely. "They moved to South America for work for four years when Jenna was about eleven. She loves to travel." She paused awkwardly before correcting herself, the word catching in her throat. "Loved."

Castle nodded thoughtfully, flicking through a stack of mail while Kate poked around in Jenna's dresser.

They finished their sweep just a few minutes later, but before stepping out, Kate crouched in front of Sara, offered a tentative smile. "I know this is difficult for you, but if you think of anything else," she pulled out a slim container of business cards from her pocket, extracted one and passed it to Sara, "give me a call, okay?"

Sara nodded numbly, fingers curling around the proffered card.

"I promise you," Kate whispered. "We're gonna figure this out."

The owner of the twenty-four hour coffee shop across the street was similarly shocked to hear of Jenna's demise, describing her as a lovely young woman who tipped generously and always had a kind smile for the baristas. After striking out yet again, they left uniforms to finish up the canvass and square things away with CSU, and headed back to her cruiser.

The ride to the precinct was spent in silence, Castle nursing his coffee while Kate navigated the early morning traffic. Sara's cries weighed heavily on her mind, the utter devastation she knew the young woman was going through.

From across the console, she saw Castle shift, reach out to brush his hand over her leg. She smiled meagerly, flicking her eyes briefly to his in conveyance of gratitude. She dropped one hand from the wheel to catch his before he withdrew, curled her fingers over his. He freed his thumb, traced a tender path over the ridges of her knuckles, a soft back and forth. It was instantly soothing and she felt herself relaxing under his touch, tension flowing out of her as things began to fall into focus.

It was just another case, she reminded herself. She could do this. They could. Just like always.

She squeezed his hand gently, eyes fixed straight ahead but a softness lining her features, a sense of confidence and determination. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw Castle smile to himself, unable to tear his eyes away from her even as hers remained focused on the road.

Not a word passed between them the entire ride, but none were needed.

She knew he understood.

When Castle approached her desk with fresh mugs of coffee, Kate was busily setting up the murder board. A blank timeline stretched across the bottom, and the top section was divided into three sections; victim, witnesses, and suspects. So far, all three were empty.

She reached behind her to retrieve the picture of their victim from the crime scene, clipped a magnetic clip to it and placed it front and center. Castle paused as she worked, eyes automatically drawn to the sparkling ring on her left hand. She made it a habit not to wear her engagement ring to work, preferred to keep it out of harm's way. But she hadn't taken the slender diamond-encrusted platinum band off her finger since he slipped it on two weeks ago. This ring was smaller, flatter, and the inlaid stones easily fit beneath the latex gloves they wore at crime scenes. He'd chosen it in part because it was much more precinct appropriate, something she could wear every day.

Because they were married now.

He was never getting over that.

Kate turned, fixing curious eyes on her husband, who was still rooted to the spot, gaze unfocused as if in a trance.

"Castle?"

He jerked, shook his head to clear his mind. "Sorry, just..." he extended his left hand, "coffee?"

She took it from him with a gracious smile, fingers brushing his as they exchanged the vessel. Castle allowed his hand to linger, thumb stroking her wrist, a soft whisper of a touch. Kate dropped her eyes to their hands, flicked them back up to seek Castle's gaze. His eyes were dark, desire and lust and pure love swimming in their depths, and she had to look away.

Kate raised the coffee mug to her lips and took a long drink. It was hot, too hot, and it burned down her throat, but the sensation had the desired effect of intercepting her heady train of thought, returning her focus to the case. They had a murder to solve, justice for a young woman.

She lifted her eyes again to find Castle's fixed firmly on her chest. As though if he stared hard enough he'd be able to see the black lacy bra she'd slipped into this morning even as his fingers worked very hard to remove it again. A shiver of arousal rippled through her and she forced herself to look away, squeezed her eyes shut. Tightly.

He couldn't look at her like that and expect her to get any work done.

Thoughts?