Hi All! Thank you for reading it's wonderful to hear your thoughts on this. I'm going to share a personal thought on the series that might help you understand my thinking, understanding and direction. Beckett, Ryan, and Esposito are an excellent set of detectives perfectly capable of solving crimes with and without Castle. There's more to this theory of mine but I'll let the story reveal that.

ABC, Andrew Marlowe, the cast and the rest of the Castle family own the show. I'm just messing with it.

Chapter 5 – Stale Coffee

The precinct smelled exactly the same: sweat, polyester, and stale coffee. It looked just as I remembered too. The murder boards were lined up right where they always had been, covered in meticulous handwriting, pictures, and a time line. Ryan was at a computer scrolling through something, and Esposito was standing over his shoulder, flipping through a file. It felt so strange to be back here. It was one of those places that once you leave you never think you'll come back to but when you do, it's exactly as you left it.

There was no time for feelings of déjà vu though as Kate strode out of the elevator in front of me pulling off her gloves making a beeline for the her desk. "So what do we have?" She called to them as I scrambled out of the elevator to keep up with her.

"Well it looks like they were each part of a dating website." Esposito answered before noticing me, "Hey Castle." He extended his hand, "Good to see you bro."

"Good to see you too." I grasped his hand shaking it firmly, "And good to see you as well Ryan. I hear you've got a wedding coming up."

Ryan for his part looked excited reaching out to shake my hand, "Good to see you too. And yes I do it's a little more than a month away."

Kate for her part was trying not to look too annoyed. "Alright, now that were all reacquainted they were all part of a dating website?" She prompted.

Ryan jumped in, "Yeah they were all part of different ones though. Castle was right they had them set up with separate email addresses. It looks like they were all using them actively though. I've got tech going through all their communication on it seeing if any of them had bad interactions or anyone that would raise a flag. They're sending me the results as we get them."

"If this is how this guy works he must be feeling pretty desperate to turn to dating websites, and not just one but at least four. Evidently that's not working out for him." I said.

Kate looked at me, "He must be pretty sick if his idea of revenge is to kill the girls that turn him down."

"But only the ones that are turning thirty." Esposito added.

Ryan cleared his throat, "Well maybe those are the only ones that he's interested in dating."

"Like he's the savior of twenty-nine year old women, being willing to marry them before they reach the dreaded 30." I spun the theory.

"Ok Castle, when I asked for a crazy theory I didn't mean an absurd theory." Kate looked at me her eyes sparkling with amusement.

I just shrugged, "They're not mutually exclusive."

"What's not mutually exclusive?" A voice broke through our small circle. The three detectives turned to face the woman standing just feet from them.

"Nothing Captain we were just discussing some theories that aren't important." Ryan piped up like the youngest brother trying to keep everyone else out of trouble because he knows his punishment will be the least severe. Which could only mean one thing this steely looking women was the new Captain.

Pushing off the desk I stood up and extended my hand, "You must be the new Captain. I'm Richard Castle." I said trying to at least make a decent first impression on the women Beckett had only described as 'by-the-book.'

The older woman paused briefly looking me over before taking my hand and pumping it firmly once, "Captain Gates." She responded before turning to Kate, "This is the person that could help?" The question sounded incredulous, "a crime novelist."

I thought about jumping in and telling her that I offered my assistance, but I didn't have too Kate was going to stand her ground. "Sir, he was very helpful when he followed me around a few years ago. He thinks outside the box which is exactly what I thought we needed on this case."

"Besides he's already given us a better lead than anything the rest of us have come up with all week, Sir." Esposito added.

Silence descends over our little group as the three detectives and I waited for the verdict from the icy captain. She for her part just studied me and then the murder boards on our left. "Detective you're responsible for him." She glared at Kate.

"Nothing new there Captain." She smiled. "We'll keep you updated on the case."

"See that you do." With that, Captain Gate's disappeared into her office.

"That is Captain Victoria 'Iron' Gates." Ryan answered my raised eyebrows. "She came in after the Captain…" He trailed off.

It was awkwardly quiet for a few moments before Ryan's computer dinged signaling an incoming email. "It looks like we got something." He said scrolling through the email. "They've each got at least two questionable interactions on their accounts. Our serial one night stander has at least fifteen they're still combing through her account."

"Ok so now what? They've each got accounts on different services it's not like the crazy people will automatically have the same user name." Esposito groaned.

"Well people all have a certain style of writing. Their ways of phrasing, what abbreviations they use, if they're a comma abuser…" They all just looked at me, with faces varying from amusement to utter confusion, "What words are my thing."

Kate's eyes were sparkling with amusement, "Well you wanted to be helpful Castle. Sounds like we could use a writer's eye."

Ryan had in the mean time hit the print button and came over with a stack of paper. "Here you go."

Taking the stack I looked at the three of them sporting silly grins, "You guys aren't going to help?"

"Yeah once you figure out who they have in common between the two of girls then we'll comb through the other ones." Kate smiled at me.

"What are you guys going to do?" I said looking at the stack of paper.

Ryan and Esposito looked at each other, "Well, we were going to get something to eat." Simultaneously they stood and when pulling on their coats. "Do you want anything?" Ryan asked.

Kate shook her head, "Nope we're good." She said waving them away.

I looked at her incredulously, "What about you? Aren't you going to help?"

She looked at me contemplating for a moment, before shaking her head and grinning. "Go set up in the conference room and figure out who our dating website serial killer is. I'll be there in a few minutes."

"Oh kay…" I tried not to sound like I was whining but it didn't really work out as I stood trying to balance the stack of paper as I made my way into the conference room. It seemed they'd gotten new chairs in my absence.

I had the table covered in papers. Organized by victim then the suspicious correspondence and I was reading through the first victim when Beckett came into the room carrying two cups of coffee. "I figured that we could use more of this." She set a cup down in front of me, picking up the other message thread from the same victim. "Anything so far?"

I shrugged, "No, but I figure that we should read through the two victims with less guys pissed off at them and then try and figure out which one they have in common with the other victims."

"Sounds like a plan." She took a sip of her own coffee and we fell into silence trading message threads when we finished. It was over an hour before we made it into the second victim. Each taking a different conversation thread again. She was on to the second page of her new thread when she paused and pulled the first conversation she'd read out and she started comparing the two. "I've think I've got it." She exclaimed eyes darting back and forth between the two conversations.

Relieved and at having a direction in the meaningless online flirting that was killing me, I got up to read over her shoulder. "Thank god." I groaned.

"On this website it seems that his user name is JEB1534 and on this site it's baller81. Writes in short sentences that get more and more disjointed the angrier he gets."

"Also it seems that his catch phrase is, 'then I'm your savior baby.'" I mimicked vomiting.

She chuckled, "It seems sort of sweet at first but he gets pretty angry using it as a threat towards the end of the threads."

"Here's what I don't get his interaction with the first victim happen over two years ago, the second only a few months ago. So why now? What about this week that changed everything, that he had to start collecting them and killing them." I said plopping down in the seat next to them.

"I don't know Castle. We'll get a tech to track the IP address of these user names and we'll try and figure out which one of the last girls' threads is the same guy." She said with a small smile picking up the phone in the middle of the desk listening to it ring. "Yes, this is Detective Beckett can we get a computer tech up here."

Within minutes, I was watching her describe what we needed to a twenty something computer nerd that was feverishly taking note. I couldn't help but smile as she calmly detailed what we needed; oblivious to the fact that this kid would trip over himself to do anything right for her. The kid left with promises of having something within the hour. "What?" she asked when she caught me smiling.

"Nothing." I shrugged going back to searching for the revolting 'then I'm your savior baby' line. When I peaked over the edge of the papers I was reading though she was smiling as she read.

It was nearly 45 minutes later that I struck gold. "Got it, its 0NEof9," I kept skimming it he was getting progressively more violent, "Yikes, he was really angry." I handed her the stack.

"Well serial killers aren't known for their sanity." She smiled shaking her head as she flipped through the pages, "I'll let IT know." She stood wandering out of the conference room to her desk, completely wrapped up in the case as she dialed the phone. I decided that it was time for more coffee so I made my way into the break room pleased to see that the machine and beans that I'd been supplying we're still in use.

Carrying the cups out to her desk earned me that dazzling smile. I don't remember my heart beating so erratically when she used to smile at me. Then again, maybe it was the lack of exposure to that particular smile that was my downfall. She hung up the phone talking a sip smiling at me. "IT is running up against some blocks but they should have something soon the additional username will be helpful."

She leaned back casually, "So Castle, is being back in the precinct as cool as it was the first time?"

I contemplated the question for a second, "Different." I concluded which only earned me a quirked eyebrow, encouraging me to explain. "It feels like I never left. I still get along with the guys, the coffee machine is the same, and my partner is being nicer than ever. The only thing that's different is the boss; the new boss is… shall we say less than friendly."

Kate set down her cup. "She's a good Captain just wants the precinct to run efficiently and by the book. Sometimes it's cumbersome, but it's in our best interest. She's just not the same as Montgomery, it takes some adjustment."

I shrugged looking at her sensing her sadness, and attempt to cover it up, "While why we're waiting…" but I never finished the sentence before her phone was ringing.

She scooped up the phone cradling it against her ear while she scrawled an address down on the pad in front of her. "Thanks," she hung up, "alright we've got an address uniforms are already on the way, let me just call the boys."

I sighed to myself knowing that this was the end. Standing up, I pulled on my jacket. "Well Detective it has been a pleasure."

She looked up at me puzzled pulling her gun from the top right hand drawer sliding it into her holster. "You're not going to come?"

"I… well I… are you sure?" Was all that I managed to stutter.

I must have looked like a goon though because she just laughed and strode towards the elevator, "Come on Castle." She called over her shoulder and I tripped over myself to catch up with her as the doors slid open. "Besides I think we might even have a vest for you somewhere." She stated with a mischievous glint in her eye.

Now I'm sure you all have even more thoughts and theories about this, which I would love to hear so hit the link at the bottom and let me know.

Babyrose