A long strip of drops paved the way. A few gathered spots painted the elevator floor red while single drops led the way from the 12th elevator to the break room that now contained one more person.

His very step sent cold chills into the heart of the 12th precinct.

The three women would have lost track of their conversation if they were actually keeping up a conversation. The captain's position lost all formalities at the sight of the unknown member who now stood before them.

Kate's position was greatly disturbed, as if her unsteady support beams had been pulled out from under her expectantly; her head began to fall the slightest bit just before it sprung up in shock. Her dark grey sweater wrapped tightly around her fragile body, sleeves, seemingly too long for her spidery arms, wrapped her fists to come to a warm ball of material in her palms.

The man took one step closer to the table, placing the tips of three of his fingers there as if to steady himself. He was tall, and broad.

Kate couldn't put her finger on it, but something, something that glimmered across the man's eyes sent comfort and ease to her unsettled mind.

The man looked straight ahead to the counter which was the placed for the coffee machine it had adopted four years ago, but this time the coffee machine was replaced with a television set. The black framed captured a terrifying sight.

A man tied down to a chair, duct-tape covered the bottom of his pants, bound his wrists, and restricted his mouth. His dark blue buttoned shirt had spots of liquid red and patches of dark dust, a sight the women had been studying for hours, but all attention was turned to the blood-covered, well-dressed man who stood before them in the break room.

The three women traced his eyes to the screen and all pulled away, all but one set of eyes.

The slow drip of blood above his eye sent pain to Kate's gut.

"Can I help you, sir? The rough sound of her voice finally broke the ice, creating a sense of shattered glass upon ever surface within the room.

The man's fierce eyes made their way to the captain's, "I believe it is my fault Jerry Tyson has made it a deal to torture Mr. Castle."

The room stung with silence as Kate ripped her eyes off the screen.

"What makes you think that?" Captain Gates managed to say.

"Well, I've known Mr. Tyson since his first criminal offence. It involved my daughter. Now, thankfully he was just an amateur back than and didn't succeed, but he went on killing from then on. Things got a little more complicated when he ran into her once more. This time he made it clear, he was going to killed everyone she loved. Her friends. Her family." There was something off about his last few words, something that made her skin crawl.

"I'm sorry, you'll have to understand my confusion at this point. What does any of this have to do with Castle?"

"Let's just say I've known Richard Castle a lot longer than that."

Moments went on unspoken.

Unspoken words had proven to be the loudest today.

"And your name is…?" murmured Kate.

"Alexander."

"Alexander?" Kate's mind wandered to an old case she and Castle worked a few years ago.

"I'm afraid I wasn't completely honest with you the other day," the little red-head said, "the fact is, I have a little of what my mother did. Sometimes I have dreams that are meaningful. Last night I had a dream about you."

"Umm. Okay," Kate's confused expression grew.

"I can't really explain why, but I feel very strongly that I'm supposed to tell you something, something important, are you ready?" the red-head questioned.

"I'm rea-"

"Alexander." She stated.

"Alexan-?" She couldn't finish before she was cut off.

"Alexander. I don't know who he is, or what he means to you."

"I don't know any Alexander." Kate shifted her eyes to the side as she pondered.

"You will. You will meet an Alexander and he will be extremely important to you. At some future date, he may save your life."

She tried to keep a straight face as she pulled herself out of her daydream.

"Do you have a last name, Alexander?"

"Wayne. You can just call me Alexander Wayne."

"Wayne? Are you serious?" She questioned as the other women studied her expression.

"Well, I can't give you my real last name for good reason."

Kate's eyebrow rose a little.

"All right, can I ask you a question that has been on all three of our minds since you walked in?"

"Why am I all bloody?" He suggested.

Kate didn't have to say anything before he explained.

"That's uhh, well, I. The thing is," he stuttered.

"Yes?"

"See… This looks a lot worse than it is, because I can't tell you the truth without blowing my whole operation," said Alexander as he held his right shoulder in pain.

"That's too bad." Kate partially whispered before turning to her friend, "Lanie, take him in for a blood sample."

Lanie looked around in conflict. Not understanding what was going on, she picked up her files and began towards the door, holding it open for the man to follow.

"You will not find my blood anywhere in the system, I'm afraid."

"Maybe not, but if we already have a sample we can match it to that and place you at a crime scene." The fierceness of her tone shook him as he realized that importance of the man she was looking for.

"Oh my," he said, "this is better than I thought."

"What are you mumbling?" Kate asked, clearly annoyed at that time wasted during this interaction which was getting her nowhere.

"Nothing, I just realized something, that's all." He looked to the captain and back to Kate before stepping forward to follow the ME to her lab.

Kate's hands were places upon her desk. Reading files and witness statements of the night Castle went missing. Her eyes shot back and forth. From the files in her hand, to the empty chair he inherited beside her desk, to the whiteboard filled with surveillance pictures, broken timelines, and undiscovered secrets.

The phone rang and within seconds it was in her hand, held up to her ear. "Beckett," she said with authority.

"Kate, you might want to get down here." The ME's voice was fierce and offbeat, and just like that Kate hung up and swung her coat over her shoulder. Off in a dash, her left hand reached out to you the pillar in the precinct to boost her speed while turning the corner toward the elevator.

"Lanie, what is it?" She questioned before she crossed the doorframe.

The ME waited for her to get into the lab, and when she did, she looked as scared as ever.

"Kate-"

"Lanie."

The ME felt the eagerness in her voice and so she pressed on. "The blood on Mr." she looked at her friend, "Wayne," and then back down to her results, "they don't match anything in the system."

"As expected," Kate added.

"Yes. They do, however, match a sample on record from a crime scene."

"Castle's." Her certainty shook the room wildly.

"Yes. His blood matched a sample found in Castle's loft, bu-"

"Yeah but, Lanie, we expected this. Why would you call me down here for something I saw coming?"

"Kate, the blood matched another sample, one found at a crime scene back in 1999." Lanie stood frozen by her own words as her friend stumbled back upon the counter.