To be honnest i'm not really happy with this chapter ... think of it as a transition ^^

Kate was still sleeping when her phone rang. She was having a really interesting dream about a famous crime novelist. She groaned and tried to get her phone without opening her eyes. When she finally got it, she had no other choice that put her dream aside.

"Beckett" she groaned in her phone

"Sorry to wake you up so early Beckett but we need everyone for this one" the Captain said. He gave her the address. She hung up and turned around in her bed, looking at her clock. 3:45 am.

"Great, four hours of sleep, I'm gonna be productive today!" she said, getting out of bed and in the bathroom. Once she was ready to go, she left a note for her father and headed out, calling Rick. She knew that, even this early, he would want to come. He always wanted to come. Of course, he picked up at the first ring.

"Missing me already Kate?" he asked, trying to sound awake

"Yes, but that's not why I'm calling at 4 am. We got a body. I'm picking you up in fifteen minutes. Be ready and downstairs"

True to her word, she was in front of his building fifteen minutes later. He was waiting for her by the door, two steaming cups of coffee in his hand.

"When did you have time to get these?" she asked incredulously, trying to get her cup. "hey!" she protested when he took the cups away from her

"You forgot something" Rick simply said

"I'm sorry, 'good morning' can I have my coffee now?"

"You got a kiss good night last night, I need a kiss good morning"

"Rick, we really don't have time to play, we have a crime scene to get to"

"Well, you need to hurry then"

"Rick …"

"Listen Kate, I love you, I really do. And I know you, you will act as if nothing happened when we get to the crime scene. I don't blame you. I understand that work is work. I respect that. But I'm just a man. I need a good morning kiss to start my day and to keep me going until tonight"

"Rick, I know maybe it's weird for you, but I don't want to act as if nothing happened … we just have to remain professional when we are working, that's all. And I don't want to hide it from everyone. I just want to be with you. I just want to be happy" she said before leaning in and kissing him. "maybe if we could just keep that out of the press for a while …"

"If you kiss me like that every morning I'll do whatever you want" Rick grinned

"Can I have my coffee now?"

"Of course"

When they arrived at the crime scene, Esposito was waiting for them outside the building. He did not look happy.

"What's going on?" Kate asked

"We have a triple homicide upstairs. A mother and her three year old twin girls. You should prepare yourself, it's really really not pretty."

When they arrived in the apartment, Kate stopped suddenly. She had worked for the NYPD for a while now but she had never seen something like this. It was simply … disgusting. The worse thing was that the killer seemed to have focused his violence mainly on the little girls. Their faces were cut and bruised to the point of not being identifiable, even with family pictures on the walls. They were tied up on the wall, hanging by their feet. The mother had her stomach slashed open and was lying under her two girls. When Rick arrived, he turned around and left. He just couldn't stand this one. Kate wanted to go and see him but she had to do her job and find the monster who did this. Half an hour after she arrived, she had all the information she needed from Lanie and went back to her car. Sure enough, Rick was there, his back to the car, waiting for her.

"I'm sorry I just … it's so horrible I couldn't …"

"It's ok Rick, you don't have to justify yourself" she said, squeezing his hand "we are going to get this monster and when we do, he will stay in jail forever, ok? Do you think you can help with the investigation or do you prefer going home?"

"I'll help you" he answered, smiling slightly to her and getting in the car. Kate was pleased with his answer, she wasn't sure she would have the strength to do her work properly on this case without his support.

For two days, they had absolutely no leads whatsoever. The whole team was more than frustrated with their lack of result and their lack of sleep. Each of them had apparently decided not to stop working before they found the monster responsible for this atrocity. On the third day, they had the proof that the father of the twins was the monster in question. Having discovered that he was not their biological father he completely lost his mind and killed his family. Now their problem was to find him. He seemed to have vanish from the surface of the earth. Kate and her team had given his signal and pictures to all the stations, airports, harbors and hospitals of the country. Now they just had to wait. Jim Beckett, worried that his daughter hadn't come back home for three days, decided to go to the precinct. When he got there, he couldn't find her so he asked the first person he could find.

"Excuse me sir, I'm Jim Beckett. Can you tell me where I can find my daughter?"

"She is in a meeting with the Captain right now but it shouldn't take much longer. You can wait at her desk if you want, it's this one" the uniform told him, pointing at her desk. He waited there for about half an hour before he saw his daughter get out of an office, followed by Castle and two other policemen he didn't know.

"Dad? What are you doing here?" Kate asked

"Well, I was starting to worry, I haven't heard from you in three days"

"I'm sorry but we got a really bad case, I just couldn't leave. To be honest, I completely forgot that you were here, I was so caught up in the case I …"

"Where did you sleep?" her father asked

"On the couch in the break room" she answered, looking at the floor

"Katie that's not …"

"Hey Beckett, we're going to the Old Haunt for some drinks, you wanna come?" Esposito asked arriving at her desk "Oh sorry I didn't know you had visitors" he added when he saw Jim.

"This is my father, Jim Beckett" she introduced him to Esposito and Ryan

"You can come too sir if you want, the more the merrier" Ryan said

"You don't have to work tonight?" Jim asked his daughter

"Well, we know who did it, now we just have to wait for him to show up somewhere in the country. We gave his picture everywhere, we just have to wait for the call" Kate answered, gathering her things. "You want to come dad?"

"Sure, why not, could be fun" he answered.

On their way to the bar, Esposito called Lanie and Ryan called Jenny. Half an hour later, the group of friends (plus Jim) were laughing at their table, enjoying the company and the free drinks. Kate and Rick were sitting closer than usual and Lanie didn't miss it, of course. Rick had discreetly put his arm on the back of Kate's chair. When he moved it to put it under the table, Lanie's curiosity got the best of her and she 'accidentally' let one of her earrings fell on the floor. Bending down to take it back, she was not that surprised to find Rick's hand now on Kate's thigh, drawing patterns with his fingertips. She smiled, genuinely moved by his action. When she saw Kate's hand appear under the table, she smirked. Someone would have a sore hand! But what she saw was more than unsuspected: Kate actually laced her fingers with his, pulling his hand higher in the inside of her thigh. Lanie was so shocked by her best friend's action that she knocked the back of her head under the table trying to get up.