A/N: I borrowed dialogue, character, etc. quite liberally from 1.04 (or 1.03 depending on where you look) Hedge Fund Homeboys in this chapter.

Abruptly yanked from her first restful sleep in weeks by the incessant ringing of her cell, Kate groaned before rolling over and blindly reaching for the phone. Opening her eyes are her hand settled on the small piece of plastic, Kate let out a small sigh at the glaring red numbers that glared at her from the alarm clock: 4:59am. Grabbing the pen and notebook off the bedside table, Kate answered the phone and jotted down the address relayed. Still unwilling to leave the warmth of her bed, Kate allowed herself a minute to prepare for the day before throwing the comforter back and climbing quickly from the bed. Once up, Kate made quick work of getting ready and was out the door within ten minutes.

Walking up to the crime scene, Kate was met by Ryan and Esposito. Without preamble, Kate quickly learned that the victim was 18 year old Donny Kendall, a senior as Redding Prep—a private school on Park Avenue.

Rubbing her hands together to try and ward off some of the early morning chill that seemed to become even more pervasive as they drew nearer to the lake, Kate found herself eternally grateful that she wouldn't have to join the ME in the water to examine the body.

"So, what've you got for me?" Kate asked, leaning slightly forward to get a better glimpse of the body.

"Single GSW to the chest, fairly large caliber and from the lack of blood inside the boat I'd say he wasn't killed at sea."

"Somebody moved him."

"He's got grass and dirt all up on his Chuckie T's, other than the post-mortem voyage, looks like a pop and drop. I'm guessing sometime late last night."

"Thanks Lanie." Turning to face the boys she quickly assigned them the task of coordinating the uniforms in checking the park for the actual murder sight before heading out to converse with the boy's parents and friends.

-o-O-o-

Four hours later, completely exhausted having learned nothing of value from either Donny's parents or his friends, Kate plopped down in the chair at her desk and pulled out her cell, hoping the boys had had better luck than she. Opening the text message that was waiting for her, a smile overtook her face as she realized that it was from Castle.

Sorry it took so long to get back to you. Yes, Alexis accidentally grabbed your book. Is there somewhere we can meet so I can get it back to you?

Chewing lightly on her lower lip, Kate quickly sent back a reply before she could overthink it.

I can't get away right now. But if it isn't too much of an inconvenience for you, you could stop by my work and drop it off.

With rapid succession, plans were quickly made for Castle to stop by later that day.

Feeling reenergized after her conversation with Rick, Kate walked over to the blank whiteboard that stood nearby and starting filling it out with all the details she knew up to that point. Just as she capped the marker and placed it in the tray, Ryan walked in and added another picture to the board.

"Kill site?"

"Yep. Unis found it while canvasing. Looks like a drug deal gone wrong. We talked to someone who remembers seeing Donny in the park quite a lot late at night, seemingly dealing, but he wasn't the most reliable of sources so we are still looking into it."

"Then why the burial at sea?"

"Drug dealer trying to cover their tracks? Not really sure yet but Esposito is tracking down a 911 caller who called from about 50 feet from the crime scene last night. Maybe they can give us something more."

"Okay. Why don't you run down out vic's phone records. Maybe he was meeting up with someone last night that he didn't want his friends or parents to know about."

Leaning against the edge of her desk, Kate took in the board in front of her, trying to figure out what was missing.

The next thing Kate knew, a red poppy seemed to magically pop up before her eyes. Reaching out, Kate grabbed the stem of the flower before turning to face the man holding it. Kate couldn't keep the smile off her face as she turned as saw Rick standing beside her, bag in hand.

"What's this for?"

"I don't know. I saw it and thought of you. That's all. Are you busy right now?"

"Well, it's beautiful, Rick. And, a little, but I can take a small break."

With a quick stop to tell Ryan to inform her if anything new came up, Kate lead Rick into the break room. As they walked towards the break room, Kate tried to hide her smile as she heard Castle muttering under his breath, "She's a homicide detective? That is so cool!" Closing the door behind them, Kate pointed out the table before grabbing two cups of coffee for them. Turning back towards the table, Kate was a little surprised to see a covered bowl and a wrapped present sitting on the table.

"You wrapped my book, Rick? Why?"

"Well, you see, I haven't quite finished your prize yet so I thought that a wrapped 'present' would tide you over until I could get around to it." Picking up a spoon off the table, Castle handed it to her before pulling the lid off the bowl. "And, I thought that maybe you could use a little pick me up. So, ice cream first, than you can unwrap your book."

"And what if I don't want any ice cream?" Kate asked, belying her words as she grabbed the spoon that Castle held out to her and dug into the bowl sitting in front of her.

As Kate savored her bite of ice cream, she couldn't help but laugh at the look of pure disgust that overtook Castle's face as he took a sip of coffee and nearly spit it out.

"That is disgusting! How can you drink that stuff?"

"You get used to it."

The next few minutes were spent in comfortable silence as the two of them steadily ate through the ice cream. When both their spoons scraped bowl and came back empty, Kate dropped her spoon, reached forward and grabbed the wrapped box before Castle could say anything. With quick, sure movements, she quickly removed the bow and unwrapped the box, releasing her book from their confines. Without thinking about what she was doing, Kate opened the book to the dedication page and was shocked to find that Castle had signed the book.

To Kate—a beautiful, smart, extraordinary woman who treated me and my daughter's like family even though she didn't know us.

Richard Castle

"Thank you." Lightly tracing her fingers over the words written on the page, Kate looked up at Castle. "Although, I think you have it backwards. It was you guys who treated me like family, not the other way around."

"Kate. Do you know how many people I have met over the years? And do you know how many of them would have done what you did last night? None. While they may have considered coming to be with me, they never would have included my daughters or partaken in the contest like that. You treated us like family, and not like some celebrity and his tagalongs."

"I don't know about that, but, how about we just agree that we all treated each other like family?"

"Sounds like a plan. Now, before you walk away, or get pulled away, I have a question for you."

"And what is the question?" Kate finally asked after several seconds had passed and it appeared that he wasn't going to continue.

"Chloe was wondering if you would like to go to the zoo with us on Saturday. I was going to tell her no, that we couldn't impose on you like that, but then she pulled out that puppy dog face. You know how hard it is to resist that puppy dog face and so I agreed to ask—"

"Rick."

"—but don't feel like you have to say yes if you don't want to. We won't be disappointed if you do. Well, maybe a little, but it won't be a big deal."

"Castle! Shut up!"

Startled by the outburst, Castle's mouth snapped shut as he quickly looked up to find Kate glaring at him. Once he was suitably silent, the glare turned to a smile.

"Rick, I would love to go with you guys to the zoo on Saturday as long as I don't have a case. "

"Perfect! Chloe is going to just about blow a gasket when she hears. Thank you."

"It's no problem." Laughing slightly, Kate picked up the bowl and spoons and carried them to the sink. "Now, you should probably leave so I can get back to work, but thank you for the ice cream and for bringing my book."

Walking out into the bullpen, Castle walked Kate to her desk before turning and seeing the murder board. "Are these actual crime scene photos? Oh! He doesn't look much older than Alexis. What happened?"

"We're not sure yet, but it looks like a drug deal gone wrong."

Turning away from the board, Castle gave Kate a weak smile before heading for the elevator. After having taken only a few step, he suddenly stopped and turned back towards Kate.

"You should talk to his friends again. No way was he using, or dealing, without them knowing. Maybe they know more than they are letting on."

With that, Castle turned once again and boarded the elevator, looking a little haunted by the sight that he had just seen.