God, I really am slow with updating, am I not? Sorry!

Some things I put in this story are completely made up, like some of Angela's programs. I highly doubt they really exist, but I just made them so the case won't be impossible to solve. I hope it's okay…

By the way, this chapter sucks a little…

Chapter 3

Lanie, Esposito and Ryan stood in front of the hotel, waiting for Kate and Rick to show up. When they finally arrived, Lanie smirked.

"Took you 2 lovebirds long enough. Late night, maybe?" Esposito and Ryan laughed; Castle stuck his tongue out and Kate rolled her eyes.

"Very funny. Can we go now, or do you feel the need to continue talking about our sex lives, Samantha, Charlotte and Miranda?" Then Kate smiled and started to walk towards the Jeffersonian with Castle. Ryan and Esposito immediately stopped laughing and Lanie ran up to Kate, obviously asking where that came from.

"But who is who then?" Ryan asked. Esposito glared at him and swatted him on the chest. He then continued to walk and muttered something Ryan couldn't hear.

"What?" Ryan seemed genuinely confused. He then shrugged and hurried to catch up with the rest.

Xxx

Lanie and Cam went over all the autopsy reports to see if they could find something that could help them, Brennan and Wendell continued with the latest victim, Hodgins showed Ryan and Esposito his own lab while also investigating some things, Beckett and Booth improvised a murder board and Castle went with Angela.

"Beckett told me you liked 'cool gadgets', but I bet you've never seen anything like this, Castle," Angela said.

"Oh, I've seen a lot of cool stuff. I don't think there's much that could surprise me."

"Watch this." Then she opened the program which could reconstruct a murder in 3D and played the one from their previous case. When Castle saw this, his jaw dropped.

"Oh my god, this is so cool! This hurts to say, but… I was wrong. You were right, this is amazing!"

Angela smiled, but dropped it after a second or two. "Let's get started with reconstructing Tyson's face." She was silent for a moment. "God that sounded weird." She shook her head. "Anyways, this is how it works; I put in the photo, then I have to remove his skin and everything until only his bones are left. Then the computer lists all the things that he can change and I can add those changes to his face and then we've got a new face. I can do it again and again and change different things. Do you understand it?" She turned to face him.

"Yes, but won't there be an enormous amount of possibilities?" Castle asked.

"No, not really. You see, some things can't be changed and some combinations are just not possible. I think we will be left with 4 or 5 new faces, give or take. And of course, he could change his haircut and color, put in colored lenses, but it won't change him drastically." She started up the program and began.

Xxx

"How long have Brennan and Booth been together?" Lanie asked Cam, while they were going over the autopsy reports.

"Almost 9 months now," Cam replied.

"Wait, that's only since she got pregnant. To me it seemed like they were together for a few years at least. How come?"

"Ignorance and denial. They've had this thing going on nearly since they started working together. It was quite frustrating, you know? All those glances and moments… He saved her life several times, too. You would say that if there's something that would bring two people together, it's after they nearly lost each other. But no, they kept ignoring it. And then he got a girlfriend. And it became serious." Cam shook her head. "Dr. Brennan isn't one to show how she truly feels, but I think he broke her heart. And he either didn't notice, or he pretended not to notice. And then, last year…" She fell silent.

Lanie took her friend's hand and squeezed it. "What happened last year?"

"One of our interns got shot by a man who was after Booth. Brennan kept applying pressure on his wound but he'd lost too much blood already. He died in her arms so to speak. Booth told Brennan to stay with him that night because he was afraid Broadsky was going to hurt her too. They eh… got together that night. Finally."

"This sounds way too familiar." Lanie sighed.

"No way, it took Castle and Beckett that long too? You've got to be kidding me!"

"I wish I was, but no. At first, Castle was a real pain in the ass and Beckett hated him. Then she finally warmed up to him, but he betrayed her trust. They spent the first summer apart. Somehow, he managed to weasel his way back into her life and regain her trust. And it became more than trust, believe me. But Kate, being stubborn as she is, denied it." She sighed. "At one point, a guy was after Beckett. He blew up her apartment. She wouldn't have survived if Castle hadn't called her to warn her. He then ran into the burning building and got her out. I thought: Finally, know she knows how he feels and they can get together. But no. Shortly after this she got a boyfriend. Castle still asked her to go to the Hamptons with him, but she refused. After he went home, I think she made up her mind, because she broke up with detective Schlemming."

"Schlemming?" Cam asked, barely containing her laughter.

"Demming, actually. Schlemming is our nickname for him. But, don't tell Kate, she doesn't know." She paused. "Anyway, she went to tell him she changed her mind and that she'd love to with him. But then his publisher/ex-wife showed up and she clung to his side. Poor Kate, I think her heart broke into a thousand pieces. She dismissed what she was going to say and he left. Another summer apart. After the summer, they found him standing over a dead body. He turned out not to be the killer, and he got back on the team. Quite a lot of things happened that year; the case from Beckett's mom returned, they got trapped in a freezer together, they saved the city from a nuclear bomb, Kate's former mentor wound up dead, they went to LA to solve that murder and I hoped they'd solve that tension too. But the end of the year was the worst. The Johanna Beckett case returned, but like 10 times as bad. Our former captain turned out to be involved and got killed. At his funeral, Kate got shot." Lanie was silent, reliving that horrible moment.

Now it was Cam's turn to squeeze Lanie's hand.

"After she neglected to call any of us, they spent another summer apart. After like, three months, she came back. I think this year was the worst of all. Somewhere nearing the end, Kate told me that Castle had said he loved her right after she was shot. She hadn't told him yet she remembered, though. And she was thinking about making a move, but Castle started to pull away and he hooked up with some blonde bimbo." She scoffed. "Castle then suddenly decided to tag along with some stupid detective. And then in the very end, the Johanna Beckett case returned. Again. And it had gotten worse. Again. Kate and Javi went after the guy who shot Kate, but they hadn't told anyone, except for Ryan. Maddox knocked Javi out and fought with Kate on the rooftop. Then he threw her off the building. Luckily, Ryan had called the captain and they saved Kate while she was hanging from the ledge. A few weeks later she told me that she'd resigned. After her resignation she went over to Castle's place and kissed him senseless. Well, she didn't say it exactly like that, but I knew she meant it. And she meant more, but she wouldn't tell me. They've been together ever since."

"Why do people always have to act so difficult?" Cam asked.

"I have no idea, honey. No idea at all." What Lanie didn't tell, was that she and Esposito had acted difficult as well. No need to tell her that, she thought.

Xxx

Booth excused himself from Beckett to check on Brennan, being the overprotective dad/boyfriend he was. He laid a hand on her shoulder.

"Come on; let's go for a walk and something to eat."

Brennan shrugged his hand off. "I'm not hungry, Booth."

But he wouldn't take 'no' for an answer. Instead, he took her by the wrist and tugged her away from the body. "We won't be long, I promise."

She sighed. "Fine."

After buying something to eat, they walked towards a bench and they sat down. Brennan ate a salad, while Booth had a hotdog. It was silent for about 10 minutes. Then, Booth sighed. He knew he had to say this to her, but she wasn't going to like it.

"Bones, you can't go out in the field anymore." He knew what she was going to say.

"That's ridiculous. Why can't I?"

"Because, Bones…" He took her hands in his. "Babe, you're pregnant with my child. Our child. And you're due in two weeks. Besides, 3XK is dangerous. He was smart enough to escape 2 homicide squads and I do NOT want him to get you. Do you even realize what it would do to me if I lost you and our child?" By now, he had tears in his eyes. Well, almost.

Brennan sighed. "Fine. But don't call me 'babe', okay?"

Booth nodded, happy that she consented. "Let's go back, honey." She glared at him for this, but she knew she couldn't argue with him on this because she indeed hadn't said anything about other pet names.

Xxx

The next morning

Booth hung up the phone and sighed. Then he walked to the lab were 'his' team and the team from New York had gathered to exchange possible new leads. They all turned to Booth when he reached the middle of the lab.

"They found another body: Emma Kingston, 22 years old, blonde. She was strangled with a 3-strand, twisted quarter-inch rope made from green and white nylon. It was 3XK."

Xxx

Cam, Booth, Hodgins, Lanie, Castle, Beckett, Ryan and Esposito arrived at the crime scene. Beckett told Ryan and Esposito to canvass the neighborhood and show the pictures of Jerry Tyson around, while Cam told Hodgins to look for the usual; bugs, fibers, etc. Castle roamed around the apartment with no particular goal, but maybe he'd find an odd sock or something. He stopped when Lanie called him.

"Castle, could you get in here?"

He walked back to where the victim was lying, and noticed that all 3 women and 1 man gathered around the body did not look very happy.

"Did I do something wrong?" He immediately wondered what it could have been, since they just arrived.

Lanie shook her head, and then she gave him an envelope with his name written on it. He took it and swallowed before opening it and taking out several pieces of paper. They all looked expectantly at him, waiting for him to say something. He didn't. Kate noticed something was really wrong and stood up.

"Castle, what's on the notes?"

No answer.

"Rick?"

Still no answer.

She put a hand on his shoulder. "Rick, what do they say?" He looked up from the letters and looked directly into her eyes. She immediately recognized the look. Guilt. Then he handed the stash of papers to her with slightly shaking hands. She read the note on top.

Dear Mr. Castle,

I really hope you realize this is all your fault. All those pretty, blonde women. Dead. Your fault. If only you had figured it out earlier…

You couldn't catch me last time, and you won't catch me this time. But I do love seeing y'all try.

I noticed a change in your relationship, too. Congratulations, you're very cute together.

- Jerry

p.s. Before I forget: It's very easy for me to pick other victims. So, how close to death do you want your friends to get?

Beckett flipped to the other papers, or more accurately, photos. She was shocked by what she saw. Pictures of the two teams at the Royal Diner, pictures from yesterday morning when they left the hotel, and pictures from outside the houses of the people from the Jeffersonian.

There will be more Caskett in the next chapters! I know this wasn't my best chapter, but I still like to know what you think of it.

I'm going away on holiday soon (okay, it's 2 hours away from my village and it's in Holland, but still) and I don't have internet over there. I don't know if I can finish another chapter before that, but I'll try. Otherwise it might be like 2 weeks before I update again.

Just so you know!

-xxx-