The two hour window gave Beckett a window to line up everything she needed to on her side of things before factoring in that particular human element. The first thing she did was give the Ritter family their privacy and headed outside the hospital to clear her head, focus her thoughts. Then she started the phone calls.

The first one was to her captain, to update Karpowski on everything that had transpired that morning. She could tell Karpowski was mega-pissed but kept it together in a truly admirable way; she couldn't blame the woman either. Hadn't Beckett been slightly left of centre after the classroom crime-scene until she'd gotten home to see her son? Nonetheless, Karpowski told Beckett to get back on the horn to Fuqua and get the warrants sorted out since they now had the push of a second person poisoned at the school inside of a week. Beckett had no doubt a woman as sensible as Michelle Fuqua would give them a green light without waiting for the ADA signature.

The second one was to the formidable Judge Fuqua, who to Beckett's great relief had told her the warrant had already been shot digitally to Adam and he could use one of the spiffy new tablets for that specific purpose if he so desired since it had the judge's digital signature.

The third one was to Shane at the morgue, to inform him that she would have a second stomach contents sample coming in and she needed it tested for any similarities, if not total identical match, to the peanut oil found in Wayne Hill's system. Luck was a little bit on her side when he told her Micah would be in, albeit not until later that afternoon at three for the swing shift. Hopefully she would have more to take to him after they paid the Tomasi residence a visit with the warrants she knew Adam had scored.

The fourth and final one was to home - Beckett needed the breather of hearing her daughter's voice and asking her Bib would need a hat or if sunglasses were okay. As Jojo explained that she and Castle had taken a trip to the Build-A-Bear store to get her precious caterpillar and RJ's beloved Omeo their travel wardrobe, Beckett could only smile. She envied Jojo her imagination, knew that came straight from her daddy to think of putting together a little 'suitcase' for her favourite stuffed animal.

When she'd finally managed to unglue the phone from her ear Beckett was torn whether she should head back to the precinct to rendez-vous with Adam or if she would be better served here waiting for the sample. The decision was apparently taken out of her hands when a nurse in a green scrub top decorate with sailboats came out of the ER visitor doors.

'Excuse me, Detective Beckett?'

'Yes?'

'I was told to come and find you by the Ritters. Sarah is awake, and she and Miss Archer would like to see you.'

Beckett nodded, followed her inside where they took the elevator up to the general care wing of the hospital. It was where Adam had recovered after the showdown at the warehouse with the dirty cops behind her mother's killing, and Beckett felt a strange sense of comfort and familiarity being back. She was directed to room three-three-seven; as predicted, Ashley was sitting beside Sarah's bed, perched on edge like a falcon ready to take wing while Sarah herself laid in bed. She wore an oxygen mask and her face was still splotchy and red yet the eyes were tired but clear of drugs. Those would come later, Beckett figured.

'Detective Beckett.' Sarah's gentle voice was echoing behind the plastic mask and when she tried to lit it off her face to speak, Ashley grabbed at her fingers.

'The hell you're trying that shit, Sarah,' she told her with the sternness of a mother bear protecting her cub. 'I sincerely doubt the detective cares where or not you sound like Darth Vader, so long as you tell the truth. Right?'

'She's right.' To put the patient at ease Beckett pulled up her chair beside Ashley and gave her a smile. 'I once had a guy who was completely mute in the hospital after a firefight, his jaw was temporarily wired shut so his broken nose could heal and he had to communicate with me via notepad and a Sharpie marker.'

'Sounds intense.'

'Well, it was Detective Brennan after he helped round up a cadre of dirty cops.' She heard both girls sigh the way teenage girls did over a boy they thought was cute and laughed a little. 'And since you're feeling better enough to notice my partner is a handsome man, you feel up to answering some questions?'

Sarah nodded, shifted a little in the bed. 'I...It was lunch-time, we were in the cafeteria. Nicky Tee came up to me and Ashley, and he'd brought me a Coke.'

'He do that often?'

'Yes.' Sarah nodded again. 'Once a week. It was part of a joke we had going since ninth grade. I...It's not important, the important part he...he always brought me a Coke, once a week. The day varies sometimes.'

'What did you talk about?'

'How weird it was being back at school, how we're so glad we don't have to go to our math class in the room where Professor Hill died. Nicky made a comment about Ashley's mother, then his phone went off and he went to go take the call.'

'You hadn't touched the Coke?'

'I...no, I don't think so?'

'No, you didn't Sarah,' Ashley reminded her. 'It was after he left because I was teasing you how he should have let that joke die a long time ago-'

'And I said I like that it meant a free drink once a week,' Sarah finished. 'Right it's coming back now. I took a drink after that, and you were...doing something on your phone, Ash.'

'I had my phone out to text our friends Gabe and Ariel for after-school plans, and then Sarah started to cough. We've been best friends since kindergarten, I know that noise and I knew she was in trouble so I dialed nine-one-one right away and got her EpiPen from her purse.'

'It hurt like a bitch but I'm glad you did it.'

The girls held hands and Beckett thought of all the women in her life, wondered if these two would create their own family in the future with their other girlfriends the way she had with her friends. 'Ashley, do you remember seeing Nicky Tee after that?'

'Yeah, he came back when there was a huge crowd that had made a circle around her and they were getting out of the way for the paramedics. I saw him and I'd been able to hold it together pretty well until then, and then something in my brain just went-' Ashley made a squelchy cracking noise. 'I started screaming at him, demanding to know what he'd put in that drink and... Jesus, and then he just gave me this cold little look, it was only there for a moment. But Jesus Christ Almighty, it was like looking at a robot for those three seconds.'

'Excuse us, Detective.'

Beckett glanced over, saw Dean and Georgie there, Dean with a couple of grocery bags in his hands, Georgie with other parcels. 'May we come in?'

'Yeah, I'm done here for now.'

'Wait, that's it?' Sarah's round eyes, their size magnified by the oxygen mask on her face.

'You need to rest and you've given me plenty to work with,' Beckett assured her. 'Get some rest, Sarah. I'll need you tomorrow morning.'

'Okay.'

Beckett stood, stepped back so the girl's parents could lavish their love on their child, and for a moment she studied the four of them, with the blood-ties and love-ties between them. She couldn't help thinking of Carolina Witt and Ashley's rotten luck to be born into that family instead of being part of the one that had taken her in now. Family wasn't always just about biology; Beckett knew that first hand.

She slipped out quietly, headed for the regular visitor's lobby of the hospital; once clear of the doors, she dialed Adam.

'Beckett, we're rolling. The lab said the hospital did their own analysis of the stomach contents they pumped out of Sarah, and they've sent the specs to Micah who is running them as we speak to get comparisons on the poison.'

'Fantastic. Now we're going to go roust out Nicky Tee.'

'I've got my snacks all ready,' Adam started but Beckett knew it was just to keep things light. They both knew this one would be worlds different than lacing into Carolina Witt, and far more painful.