Disclaimer: Castle belongs to ABC

Kate felt her body stiffen as she heard the voice behind her. Slowly, not lowering her gun, she turned on her heel to face the person who the voice belonged to.

"WHOO! Wow!" Rick said as Beckett turned around and had the barrel of her gun facing his chest. He knew she would be mad that he hadn't gotten on the plane this morning, but he didn't expect her to turn a gun on him.

"Castle?" she said with a mix of annoyance and relief in her voice as she lowered her gun and returned it to her holster. He was alive, unharmed, and standing before her. Her anger towards him for not calling was forgotten for a second as she took a step towards him. Then, like the raging waves of a hurricane the anger flooded her again and she stopped in her tracks. "Why aren't you in California?"

Rick smirked as he began to lift his arms to catch her in an embrace which he thought was coming, but then she stopped. With a sigh of regret he looked down at the woman who was standing noticeably close to him. Wasn't she happy he was standing a mere eighteen inches in front of her rather than twenty eight hundred miles away? "I missed my flight," he said in a tone claiming that it was not an accident at all.

Kate folded her arms over her chest and looked up at Castle, much like a mother looks down at their misbehaving child. "You missed your flight? Really?" she asked in a tone that suggested that she did not believe a single word of his story, even if it was a short one. "And you didn't think to call and tell me this? Let me know that you were all right, that you were alive?"

Rick shrugged as he looked down at Beckett. "Well, you see, I would have, but- wait, why wouldn't I be al-" Rick felt his jaw drop into a surprised smirk "you were worried about me," he said stating a fact rather than asking a question.

Kate opened her mouth waiting for a comeback to seep through her lips, but one never came. She couldn't deny that she was worried about Castle, it was far too obvious. "That's not that point. Why didn't you call?"

Rick looked down at the ground and was silent for a moment before he looked up at Beckett again. "I was going to but…I didn't want you to make me get on another plane," he admitted bashfully.

He didn't call and tell her he was unharmed simply because he didn't want to be sent away again? Kate glared up at the man standing in front of her. "You are such a child!" she said as she walked over to the couch, with Castle following closely behind, and sat down. When he didn't respond to her accusation she continued. "How was it you were able to get your mother and daughter on a plane without you?"

As Rick took a seat he racked his brains for a story, any story to satisfy Beckett. Certainly he could not tell her the real reason they allowed him to go. As far as he knew the woman in front of him had no idea of the extent of his feelings for her, and Rick Castle was perfectly fine with that. "Bribery and a lot of it; I'll be lucky if I get off just buying Alexis a car as a home coming gift."

Kate looked as Castle aggravated. He bribed his daughter and mother to go off to safety without him. Why did he incessantly have this sick need to be at the center of every one of her cases?

"So, any progression on the case today?" Rick asked trying to deter the conversation from him back to the reason why he stayed behind. Immediately though, he knew he had asked the wrong question as he watched Beckett's eyes slide closed and she regrettably inhaled a breath.

"No," she responded shaking her head as she felt the frustration building behind her calm façade. "I failed Castle," she said as she felt her composure slowly slipping away. "He said I had until the end of the day to figure out who he is and arrest him, or he was going to kill someone else. And I failed."

"Any new suspects?" Kate asked Esposito the next morning as she leaned up against his desk beside him and looked at the white board.

Distracted by the Java Loft coffee cup in the lead detective's hand Javier ignored the question that was just asked to him. "Since when do you buy your own coffee?"

Puzzled by his question Kate looked down at the coffee cup in her hand and then back up at Esposito. "Oh, um, I didn't- guess who never got on his plane yesterday?"

As if on cue Rick Castle walked up around the vacant side of Esposito and pondered the white board. "So what have we got?"

"Not much," Javier said regretfully. "We suspect the guy to be a white male in his middle forties to early sixties recently paroled with a record of sexual assault possibly coupled with man slaughter or even murder."

Rick frowned at Esposito as he considered what he said. "You are aware that you just described over a quarter of the men that have been paroled within the last month."

Javier glared over at Castle. "Yeah, I know, but that's the best we got right now. If you got anything, I'm up for it."

Rick considered the board for a moment as he looked from the empty suspect column the pictures of the victims. A young beautiful brunette, and a handsome, square jawed, FBI agent. Who would want to kill two completely different people? Suddenly, Rick felt his eyes widen as an idea came to him. "Maybe our connection is wrong!" as the words left Rick's mouth Esposito and Beckett both looked up at him frowning. "Maybe they weren't killed because they knew you Beckett, maybe they were killed for what they know?"

Esposito frowned in confusion at Castle as Kate closed her eyes and pinched the bridge of her nose. If any case, this was certainly not the one for Castle's wild theories. "Castle…"

"No, no, no. Hear me out, it has weight, I promise," Rick said waiting for permission to continue. When none was given he continued anyway. "We treat our second victim as our first, Sorenson, he was an FBI agent. Kimberly, she was a waitress, an occupation that is easily a cover. They both could have been agents. Will the obvious one, and Kimberly the undercover one scoping out suspects and arrangements being made in her restaurant."

Kate rolled eyes and turned her attention back on the white board. If it wasn't a CIA conspiracy it was FBI agents undercover. "Castle, Kim is not an FBI agent."

Rick raised his eyebrows at his partner. "Really? How do you know?"

Javier smirked as he looked at Castle; Beckett was going to kill him for admitting she they intercepted one of Castle's crazy theories before it had even taken flight. "Because we already checked it out, bro."

Stunned, Rick looked from Esposito to Beckett waiting for someone to tell him that he was joking, but it never came. "Seriously?" he said as he looked at the detectives.

"Yeah," Javier said as he shrugged his shoulders, "days ago. Ryan and I had to exhaust every option. Ah! Speak of the devil!"

Kevin walked up to the two detectives and Castle and tried to force a smile on his solemn face. As the semi-lighthearted looks on the three faces in front of him dropped to concerned he knew he couldn't prolong the imminent news any longer. With a sigh, he opened his mouth. "Well, it seems that serial killers are good on their promises. We have another body."

Kate felt a frown crease her face as she pulled up along the curb on the corner of Broadway and Broome Street. She heard Castle mutter something, but she wasn't paying attention to him as she stared up at the unfamiliar building. Could it be a coincidence that the only connection that the other two victims had was her? no, that would have far too much of a stretch, but yet, as she looked upon that building that lay out in front of her eyes no recollection of it came to her. "I've never been here, Castle."

Rick frowned as well as he looked from Beckett to the building. "Well, you never were at Kimberly's apartment before Sunday morning either," he said in an obvious tone. When no response from Beckett preceded his comment he continued. "Either that, or he's changing his M.O."

At his words Kate tore her face away from the building and looked at Castle with wide almost frightened eyes. As much as she wanted to hope that all her loved would be safe from then on she prayed that he wasn't changing his M.O. The man, if he was a man, was unpredictable as it was, throwing them a curve ball like changing it up would send their investigation into a downward spiral. "Don't say that Castle."

With a serious expression on his face coupled with a serious tone in his voice Rick Castle looked at his partner. "Maybe I am wrong, we should probably go and see either way though," he said as he pulled the passenger side door open and stepped out.

As much as she hated to admit it, Castle was right. Sitting here in the sanctuary of her car was not going to change the fact that the victim upstairs was either someone she knew or a complete stranger. Kate placed her hand on the handle of the door and felt it being pulled away from her. Alarmed she looked up to see Castle's blue eyes shining down at her. "Thank you, Castle," she said as she placed her feet, clad in gray high heels, on the pavement and walked up to the building with her partner.

It wasn't until they were in the elevator and door was closed did Kate realize Castle had not said a single word since he had gotten out of the car. Puzzled, she looked over at him, but strangely, he did not return the look, instead he continued to stare at the floor buttons. "Everything okay over there?"

At the sound of Beckett's voice Rick looked up to see a concerned look on her face. "Yeah, everything's fine. Why?"

Kate shrugged slightly puzzled by his vague answer. "Well, the only other time I have heard you say this little is while you were sleeping, so…"

Rick frowned at his partner and shook his head. He did not understand her at all. She was constantly going on about how ridiculous his theories were, but she never out ruled them, and how he was incessantly running his mouth, but when he was quiet for a minute, she worried. "And you're complaining?"

Kate bit back a smirk that she felt creeping up to her lips. "No, no. I just found it odd," she said as the elevator dinged at floor ten.

The moment the doors opened Rick knew they were on the right floor. The hallway was crowded with law enforcement officers, CSU, medical personnel, and curious neighbors.

Kate watched as the doors opened and Castle stayed planted in his spot observing their surroundings. Walking past Castle she stepped out of the elevator and began to navigate her way through the sea of people in front of her.

As rick followed Kate through the mass of people up to the apartment number the captain had given them he saw Ryan and Esposito standing on each side of the door like bouncers at a nightclub. The closer they got to the other pair of detectives Rick noticed the solemn expressions across the detectives' faces. "Hey guys, what have we got?" Rick asked receiving a withering glare from Beckett for stealing her line.

As Castle asked the question Ryan and Esposito looked at each other and exchanged solemn expressions before turning back to the two in front of them. Ryan took a deep breath. "Lanie is waiting for you inside," he said as he opened the door to allow them in.

Kate had not gone five steps into the apartment when the site before her made her stop in her tracks, resulting in Castle crashing into the back of her. As he muttered some lame form of apology Kate looked around the room in utter shock and disgust.

This was not your run of the mill crime scene, this was gruesome. Blood was spattered against the white walls as if someone had taken a can of crimson colored paint, held it out, and spun with the lid off. Hand prints of blood were smeared on the porcelain tile leading from the kitchen to where the white carpet started in the living room. As Kate Beckett walked up to it and knelt down to get a better look at the prints she noticed the floor was not the only place that the hand prints were. There on the doorway leading out of the kitchen, near the floor, was a visible handprint on the corner of the wall, as if she was holding onto it as she tried to fight off her attacker.

Rick swallowed again trying to wash the sick feeling he had out of his stomach. How could someone do this? "It looks like she was dragged," he said to Beckett as she examined the wall closer.

As medical examiner Lanie Parish heard the distinct sound of her favorite author's voice she looked up to see her two friends standing in the entryway of the kitchen. "Beckett," she called and the detective looked up.

As Kate looked up and met Lanie's eyes she knew that her hopes had gone unfounded, the victim was somebody she knew. Kate closed her eyes and tried to mentally prepare herself for what she was about to discover. Releasing a breath she did not even realize she was holding Kate stood up and stiffly walked over to her friend. "Who is it?" she asked refusing to look down at the face down lifeless body.

Lanie looked up at her friend. She saw the fear of recognition in her hazel eyes. With regret pounding through her veins Lanie looked into Beckett's eyes. "Madison Queller."

The familiar sick feeling in her stomach that reared its ugly head with every victim of this case so far was back as Kate finally brought herself to look upon the body of her high school friend. Unable to look for even more than a moment she slid her eyes closed as a lone tear escaped.

Rick felt grief fill his body as he looked down at the beautiful woman who not long ago was very much alive as they walked arm in arm into Rocco DiSpirito's restaurant. Now though, the color was drained from her face and her blonde hair was soaked in her own blood. Rick heard a deep breath beside him and he yanked his eyes off the once beautiful woman in front of him and let them travel beside him, to Beckett. Her eyes were closed and a single tear track ran down the right side of her face. Not knowing what else to do Rick took his partner's hand in his own much like he had done the night that Jerry Tyson had escaped.

As she felt Castle's hand grasp her own Kate felt her eyes shoot open and look at Castle's face. He looked back at her and much like a trance their gaze held not allowing either of them to come any closer than where they were now but nor allowing them to look away. It wasn't until the front door opened that their gaze broke and Kate noticed something on the wall. Frowning she stepped away from Castle, Lanie, and Madison's body. As she approached what caught her eye her breath caught in her throat. For there, written inside the dried blood splatter was a message. "3, 2, 1, Detective. Looks like you're facing the ghosts of friendships past."

Captain Roy Montgomery was sitting at his desk on the phone with District Attorney Paul Wright when he heard a knock at his office door. "Yes, Paul, we are doing the best we can, we have her and those close to her under twenty-four hour surveillance. Yes, I will keep you posted. Have a good day," he said as he hung up the phone. "Come in."

Kate Beckett slowly opened the captain's door and stepped inside. She could feel her heart pounding inside her chest. She knew what she was about to ask would more than likely be denied but she had to try anyway.

"Beckett," Roy said surprised, sitting up straighter. He had no idea that his best detective team had arrived back at the prescient, "is everything okay?" he asked seeing the look of distress across Beckett's face.

As Kate parted her lips to ask the question she felt her throat go dry. Swallowing a few times and biting her bottom lip Kate shook her head. "Sir, I need to go home."

Roy looked at Beckett surprised; in the five years she had worked in homicide he could not remember her ever asking to go home early. She lived for her job, it sometimes seemed. Without hesitation he nodded his head. "You've had a long couple of days, go home and get some rest."

Kate looked at her captain joyfully surprised until she realized what he thought she was asking. "No, Captain, I meant my apartment, I just need some time alone."

Roy looked across the desk at his best detective with a solemn expression on his face. He wished he could give her what she was asking for, but he just couldn't allow her. "Beckett, like I told you before, we don't have-"

"Sir, I don't need any security detail, I am perfectly capable of taking care of myself. What happened with Dunn, will not happen again!" Kate pleaded with Montgomery to see reason, she couldn't stand to have to keep just a solemn face for another night, and she refused to allow Castle to see her break again.

Roy took a deep breath in, he could not even begin to imagine the type of turmoil that Beckett was in right now, having each victim closer to her than the next. "Beckett, I just got off the phone with the D.A. he wants you under complete protection. Staying with Castle at his place, believe it or not took a lot of convincing. I'm sorry Kate, but as long as this guy is killing we need you to stay with Castle."

Kate felt the frustration building up in her eyes. She wouldn't lose control, not here, not in the captain's office. Pushing her lips together and breathing out her nose she turned around and exited the office.