Author's note: sorry, holiday weekend stuff keeping me from posting!

OOOOOOOOO

They arrived at the precinct only half an hour later or so, and Beckett seated Castle at her desk instead of the chair he normally sat in beside it. Mainly because he was going to need her computer. Despite the term 'mugbook', they had a large database of their bad guys on file now. They still had the books, but the computer made everything a lot faster, since they could manually put in all the attributes of the person that they were looking for and the computer would sort for them until all Castle would be looking at were men of that age group (which they weren't completely sure of so it was a bit larger than they might normally need), height, weight, coloring and other descriptions.

Montgomery hung out by the desk while they got him set up, and then with a jerk of his chin motioned for Beckett to join him in his office. She nodded, put a hand of Castle's hand to get his attention and told him she'd be right back.

He nodded and turned back to the computer, while Beckett went to Montgomery's office and closed the door quietly behind her.

"How's he doing?"

"His memory is full of holes," she replied. "But he's remembering a few things."

"Anything that will help?"

She shrugged.

"He seems to think that we have the wrong name for the person of interest in the shooting."

"Oh?"

"We're looking for an Andrew, he's sure the guy's name is Jeremy."

Montgomery turned and looked out the window at where Castle was sitting.

"We're sure he was in that little room?"

"The forensics people are going to confirm it, but he found it, so I have to assume he knew it was there because he'd been there."

"Then it's possible that he heard someone – the dead woman, perhaps – call the suspect by a different name?"

"Yeah. Which is why we have him looking for the guy by his physical appearances and not by his name."

"And it'll give him something to keep him occupied…" Montgomery added.

Beckett nodded with a slight smile.

"Yeah, that's the plan."

"And it will give you a break from him?"

She shrugged, turning back to her Captain.

"No, not really. But this is the safest place I could put him while I go back and look at that room."

"I can keep him occupied," Montgomery promised.

"Thank you, Sir."

"Keep me appraised, Beckett."

"I will."

She left the office and headed for the break room and prepared coffee for both of them before returning to her desk.

"How's it going?" she asked, setting his coffee down beside his left hand.

"He isn't on the first page."

She smiled.

"We have probably a million more."

"Yay…"

Her smile widened at the sarcasm in his voice – she was glad to hear it, really – and put her hand on his shoulder again.

"The guys and I are going to go check some things back at that room. I need you to stay here and see if you can find-"

"I could go."

"Not a chance."

They'd already discussed it, so she didn't have to really worry about any kind of argument, really.

"But what if he comes back?"

"He won't have you to shoot at," she told him. "The rest of us have guns and we're ready for him this time."

Castle knew she was right, but he was still worried. He was her partner, after all. It was his job to keep her safe out in the city, and he was being left behind. It must have showed on his expression, because she smiled reassuringly and tightened her hold on his shoulder.

"It'll be fine. I'll call you if we find anything. You try to remember anything that you can about the place so we can compare notes later."

Which didn't appeal to him at all. But he nodded, because he'd already decided he was going to do just that. After he found Jeremy.

"How long will you be gone?"

"Probably quite a while. Captain Montgomery is going to keep you company."

He arched an eyebrow at that.

"You mean he's going to babysit me…"

Beckett grinned.

"Call it whatever you want."

Castle scowled, but it wasn't really serious and she knew it. He figured she probably needed a break from him anyway after spending so much time exclusively with him. Especially considering he was being such a nutcase just then.

"Be careful, okay?"

Her expression softened and she nodded.

"I will."

He watched her leave with Esposito and Ryan, and turned to the computer once more, with his coffee in his hand. Montgomery joined him only a few minutes later and sat on the edge of Beckett's desk.

"How's it going?"

"The case? Or me personally?"

"You."

"I'm handling things badly, I think."

"From the sounds of things, you've had a rough few days."

"Seems like it, yeah."

The Captain smiled.

"Gerald said you really got clobbered."

Castle looked surprised at that.

"He called you?"

"I called him once Beckett told me he was the one who checked you out," Montgomery corrected. "I wanted to check on you, and didn't want to go rushing down to Beckett's and get in the way."

The writer rolled his eyes.

"So much for patient/doctor confidentiality."

"That doesn't count with golfing partners, Rick. You know that."

"Yeah, I know."

They talked for a little longer, but Montgomery had things to do and Castle was supposed to be looking through the mugshots. Eventually the captain left him alone and wandered back to his office, and Castle went back to the computer screen. But he kept his phone close, knowing that if they found anything, Beckett would let him know.