Chapter 12

"How's Alexis doing?"

He shrugged. "She's fine. Doesn't seem at all worried about anything I said last night."

"Castle, she's a smart girl," Kate soothed. "You know that."

"But Paris..."

"Was about something entirely out of her control," she interrupted. "Nothing she could've done would've prevented that. But she was smart, Castle. Resourceful."

He ran a hand over his face, sighed heavily. "I know."

"I talked to her," Kate reminded him.

"I know," he breathed. "And I really appreciate that. But..."

She held up a hand. "No buts. You can't protect her from everything. No one can. The best you can do is to teach her to be alert and aware of her surroundings. To stay calm in the face of a crisis." She extended an arm across the console, rested her hand on his leg. "And you've done that."

"How'd you get to be so smart?"

"You forget that I used to be a teenage girl," she offered wryly.

He threw her a lopsided smile, covered her hand with his own on his leg. "You're gonna be one hell of a good mom one day, you know that?"

She trapped her lower lip between her teeth, glanced over at him shyly, silently hoping that when the day came, she'd live up to all of his expectations.

Kate's phone rang just as they were leaving the restaurant and she paused on the sidewalk to take the call and pass along what they'd found. Which wasn't much. They'd spoken with the manager and some of the staff but most of them hadn't been working that night and none of them claimed to recognize either Annalise or Jenna. They'd do some more digging but in the meantime, they didn't have much to show for their trip.

"CSU report just came back on Jenna's purse," she relayed to Castle as she ended the call from Ryan, pocketed her phone.

"Anything?" he asked as they headed off down the street.

"Nope. Killer must've worn gloves."

He sighed. "Still no leads."

"Well, we'll run background checks on everyone from the restaurant, go through traffic cam footage from outside. And CSU is searching for any traces of the poison. With any luck, we'll come up with something."

"So what do we do in the meantime?" Castle asked, leaning back against her desk as Kate came to rest next to him. They'd grabbed take-out on the way back to the precinct, taking a much-deserved lunch break in the break room. Even so, CSU reports wouldn't be back for at least a couple of hours, and unis were running background checks, but that too would take some time.

Kate shrugged one shoulder. "Keep digging, see what we can find."

She crossed one arm across her chest, other arm bent at the elbow but remaining vertical, chin coming to rest on her fisted hand. Her brow was furrowed in concentration, lips moving ever so slightly as she silently talked through the facts of the case.

"What are you thinking?" Castle probed after a while.

"Just going over the timeline of Jenna's final minutes."

"Something doesn't add up?" he presumed.

"Just – her reaction to it all. I mean, why not have the bartender call 911?"

"Maybe she didn't think they'd get there soon enough." Castle explained.

"So she decides to go upstairs?"

"She probably had another Epipen in her apartment."

"But her keys were in her missing purse," Kate pointed out.

Castle paused, considered. "Maybe they'd left the door unlocked?"

"Mmm, it was locked when CSU got there."

"Then why not try to find Sara?"

"It sounded like she did. When she ran out of the bar."

"By which point she was already gone," Castle pieced together.

"Don't you find that strange, though?" Kate queried.

"What?"

"How long does it take to ask the bartender 'have you seen a purse?'"

Castle shrugged. "Not very, assuming she didn't have to wait to get his attention."

"Exactly. How far could Sara possibly have gone in that time? Especially in a crowded bar?"

"You think she intentionally hurried away?"

"I think she was hurried away," Kate clarified. "But not necessarily of her own volition."

"You mean by her friends?"

"When I talked to her, she made it sound like she was wanting to stay but her friends were tugging her towards the door," she recounted.

"Like they wanted to get her out of there as fast as possible?"

"Exactly. I mean, think about it. Jenna buys the drink, her purse goes missing, she starts having an allergic reaction, and her roommate just happens to run into some friends who promptly whisk her away. All in under fifteen minutes."

"So one of these 'friends,'" he curled his fingers in air quotes, "steals Jenna's purse and slips peanut oil into her drink, then promptly 'runs into' Sara."

"And immediately invites her to a different bar, because if she's around, she might recognize what's happening."

"And help Jenna."

"Exactly."

"That's our killer."

Castle's wide, darkened eyes sought Kate's as they spoke, so drawn in by the story they'd spun. It'd been more than six years now and they'd only grown more in sync as time passed.

She gazed back at him with that familiar spark of attraction and lust and something much deeper. He was helpless against it, captivated by the look in her eyes and more than a little turned on by their fiery back-and-forth, the thing that had served as their foreplay for nearly four years.

In some ways, it still did.

Their gazes locked. The air in the room stilled, the space between them so fraught with tension as they unsuccessfully fought the magnetic pull luring them together. Kate tilted closer, eyes dropping to his mouth as hers fell open just slightly, her tongue peeking out to wet her lips. Castle leaned in, eyes so dark with passion and desire and...

Across the bullpen a phone rang, and they jerked apart, embarrassed.

"Right, uh..."

Castle pushed his hands into his pockets, took two large steps away from his wife and turned back to the murder board. Kate did the same, eyes flitting back and forth over the information as she grasped for something, anything to say.

Thankfully Castle came to her rescue, spoke the words she'd been trying so desperately to find. "We need to track down Sara's friends."

Castle headed home a few minutes later when Kate received a text from Lanie, summoning her to the morgue. At first, she assumed the ME had found something to indicate a connection between the two victims. Perhaps something on the bodies left behind by the killer. Until the second part of the message came in.

Just you. No Castle.

Kate shook her head. Her friend must've been taking subtlety lessons from Castle.

"What?"

"Lanie wants to see me," she answered.

He glanced at the phone then over to her, taking in the shyness of her features, the way she didn't quite meet his eyes. "I take it this isn't about the case."

Her silence spoke to the correctness of his assumption.

Castle stood, helped her into her jacket, fingers trailing gently over her wrist as he dropped his hands. Kate smiled up at him as he stepped back, so genuine and lovely, lowered her voice so only he could hear.

"See you at home."

Castle smiled back, eyes twinkling. "Don't forget to tell her about the time we..."

Kate clapped her hand over his mouth, eyes narrowed dangerously. "Shut up."

His only response was a sexy, suggestive grin.

"So," Lanie drawled as soon as Kate stepped through the doors of the morgue. She was perched on one of the steel tables, legs swinging back and forth, eyes regarding her friend eagerly.

Kate raised an eyebrow.

"Details, girlfriend. And don't you dare leave out the juicy parts."

"It was a honeymoon, Lanie," she answered, hopping up onto the table next to the ME. "It went pretty much like you'd expect."

"Which is why you don't want to give it up?"

Kate narrowed her eyes.

"Please," Lanie scoffed. "Like the whole world can't tell exactly what's been happening every morning before you show up for work."

Her glare intensified.

"I think we all know that if I hadn't called you the other day..."

"Awful timing, by the way. We still haven't...you know..."

Lanie folded her arms sassily. Kate shook her head. Sometimes her friend was too perceptive for her own good.

"This is exhausting," she admitted.

"The case?"

"Being married."

"Too much sex, not enough sleep?" Lanie teased.

She laughed, couldn't help herself. What she wouldn't give to have the energy to have too much sex with Castle right now.

"Too much case and not enough sleep," Kate corrected. "Or sex."

"I'm having trouble believing you two sleep at all when you're in bed together."

"Lanie."

"I'm just saying..."

"It's just – with this case and the two girls being close to Alexis' age..."

"He's taking it hard."

She nodded. "Yeah, though he's starting to calm down a bit now that he's talked to Alexis. But none of the evidence is adding up, which is just making it more and more frustrating. And we were both jet-lagged, and tired. And we keep getting interrupted." She shot her friend a pointed look.

"You said you wanted to know if I found anything," Lanie defended.

"Yes, well, preferably after eight in the morning."

She raised an eyebrow. "Duly noted." When silence fell, she continued. "Alright, well, I better let you get home. I'm sure you have – other plans – for your evening."

"Lanie."

She held up her hands in surrender. "I'm just saying. You look good, Kate. You both do. And I'm happy for you two."

She couldn't stop the broad smile that split her face, affirming her friend's sentiment. She was happy for them too.

Thoughts?