As Ryan taped a DMV photo next to one of the still pictures taken from the video, he declared for the group, "Our shooter's name is Irving Eugene Mittleman."

Castle winced at the moniker. "Jeez, no wonder his nickname was 'Mad Dog'."

Ryan continued, "He's got a couple of prior warrants for assault, but nothing's stuck so far. He was also a suspect in a rape case about six months ago, but DNA tests cleared him."

"Fits with what Grenholm told us about his temper," Beckett commented. "Any idea where we can find this guy?"

"We called the phone number on his application to Grenholm's school, but it's been disconnected with no forwarding," added Esposito.

Beckett sighed in disappointment. "So he's in the wind?" Ryan and Esposito both nodded.

"What about that ninja school Grenholm told us about last night?" asked Castle.

Ryan shook his head. "Nothing online about it except for rumors. Apparently the group's some sort of fight club. You don't go to them, they come to you."

Beckett stared at the murder board, more questions than answers nagging at the back of her mind. "And all we have on Mittleman right now is that he pointed a gun at someone at the party."

"We can't even really be sure who," complained Castle quietly.

"Yeah, everyone who had binoculars thought Mad Dog was shooting at *them*," Beckett mused. "Did Mittleman have any connection to our four witnesses?" When she received three blank looks in response, Beckett added, "We need to find that out."

The senior detective picked through the box of case-related evidence sitting on her desk. As she found the bag of concrete dust, an odd sensation beneath her fingers inspired her to give the bag a closer look. Beckett extended her sense of touch until she could feel the granules of powder in the bag. When she felt several thin strands of something longer than the dust crystals, Beckett looked at the contents of the bag, and immediately confirmed what she had felt. She asked the group, "Any of you have a friend in forensics who might be willing to do you a favor?"

Ryan opened the group mind-link, knowing immediately what asking for favors meant. What is it? he asked Beckett.

Beckett recalled the memory of what she had seen, passing the There are hairs in this bag. They're short, and covered with dust...

Which would be why forensics didn't catch them at the scene...added Castle. Beckett nodded.

So we need to get the bag to someone who'll go through it again without giving us grief about it? asked Ryan.

Exactly, Beckett replied.

"I think I know somebody," Esposito volunteered.

Beckett handed him the bag. "Have them run the hair against the DNA records for Mittleman. If we can connect him to the murder scene I want to know about it."

"Got it," said Esposito.

As Ryan and Esposito left to go talk to forensics, Beckett started to shut down her computer and pack up her desk. "Where are you off to?" asked Castle, curious.

"Lunch date," replied Beckett. When Castle raised an eyebrow, the detective replied with a smile, "after our little...incident yesterday, I realized how long it really has been since Lanie and I have hung out. So we're going to lunch with Jenny and Alexis."

"I'll meet you at Grenholm's gym later, then?"

Beckett gave Castle a knowing smile. "Lunch meeting with Gina?"

"Yeah." The look on Castle's face spoke volumes about how he thought the meeting was going to go. "She wants me to update her about my progress on the next Nikki Heat novel."

"You mean your lack of progress," Beckett teased. Between working on cases at the precinct, spending time together, and working to develop and control his abilities, they were both well aware of how much time Castle was spending *not* writing. "Well, good luck," she told him, "after all, even you can't make a fully written Nikki Heat book just appear out if thin air."

"I should know," Castle grumbled as he headed toward the elevator, "I tried to do it last night..."

"Lanie, you were so right," exclaimed Jenny, "this place is fantastic."

"Thanks," replied Lanie. "I love coming here whenever I can get enough downtime to take a lunch hour. Of course, it's depressing how rarely that is..."

"Tell me about it," Alexis teased with a smirk.

Lanie countered quickly, "nuh uh, you're an intern, missy. That means you're absolute low man on the totem pole. You're not *supposed* to get a lunch hour unless you're picking up lunches for other people."

Two other adult heads nodded in agreement. Jenny shared sympathetically, "Don't worry Alexis, we've all been there." With a teasing glare she added, "although some of us might have had nicer bosses than you have..."

"Uh huh," Lanie could return teasing like this all day. "Just wait. You better hope I'm not still here when your kid is old enough to intern..."

Jenny's face fell a little at the mention of her unborn child, which everyone noticed immediately. "Jenny?" asked Alexis, concerned, "Is everything okay with the baby?"

"I was kinda hoping you could tell me," replied Jenny, never taking her focus off Lanie. "I mean, the doctor's telling me everything's fine, and my first ultrasound is next week, but..."

"You just want to be *sure*," Lanie added with a knowing smile.

Jenny blushed a little. "I'm probably worrying too much, aren't I?"

"Probably," Lanie replied with a wink. She covered Jenny's hand with her own, jumping immediately into a diagnostic trance. Lanie came out of it a moment later and quietly took a couple of bites of her salad, ignoring the rest of the table.

"Well?" pushed Jenny anxiously.

Lanie looked up from her salad and broke into a wide smile. "And *that* was for calling me a lousy boss. Jenny, everything's fine. Baby's perfectly healthy."

Jenny let out a loud sigh of relief. "Thank you. I was starting to get worried..."

"Because you, annoyingly skinny thing that you are, aren't even showing yet?" asked Lanie. "From what I can tell, the baby might be a little underweight right now. But then again, so are you, missy."

"In that case," Jenny smiled in return. Flagging down the waiter, she told the man, "I'd like a bacon cheeseburger and fries, please."

The four women broke out into relaxed giggles. "I do have a couple other questions..." asked Jenny.

"Do you want to know the sex?" Lanie replied.

"Have you and Kevin talked about it?" asked Alexis.

Jenny nodded. "He left the decision up to me. I...I want to know."

Lanie took another couple of bites of her salad, letting the dramatic tension build. Finally she told the nervous mom-to-be, "If you think you're worried now, just wait until daddy's little girl starts dating. You'll be glad Castle's the wizard and not your husband."

"So it's a girl?" asked Jenny, the excitement starting to creep into her voice.

Lanie nodded. "Congratulations."

Beckett and Alexis echoed their congratulations, and Jenny responded, "Thanks, everyone. Lanie, I just have one more question." Jenny shifted a little in her chair, having trouble finding the words to phrase what she wanted to say. "Does she...I mean, will she...could she..."

"Is Daddy's little girl going to be *just* like him?" asked Lanie, trying to finish the thought for her friend. When Jenny nodded, Lanie then answered, "I can't be a hundred percent certain, but my best guess is no. You were pregnant before all this happened to us, so my money would be on her being completely normal. If you guys decide to have more kids in the future, though, it could be upwards of a fifty-fifty shot."

Beckett's and Jenny's eyes both widened at Lanie's last statement. "Really?" asked Jenny. "Are you sure about that?"

"None of this is sure, honey," replied Lanie. "From what I can tell from the old journals, we're probably the first group of Guardians that weren't straight-up monks. It's hard to tell whether these talents of ours will be naturally passed on because no one's ever been put in that position before."

"So if Castle and I ever had kids..." mused Beckett.

Lanie let out a low whistle. "Those could be some *scary* kids, Kate. They could end up with your powers or Castle's...or both."

Beckett let out her own low whistle at the idea of her children potentially having *both* her abilities *and* Castle's. "Something for you and Esposito to think about too, Lanie."

Lanie stared into her drink, stirring it slowly. "If we ever get that far," she sighed.

"What's going on?" asked Beckett. "I thought things were going well."

"They were, I mean are," replied Lanie. "It's just the past week or so...it feels like Javi's been distant. He goes to hang out with Ryan at the drop of a hat, and when he's with me, it's like he's...distracted. Like he'd rather be somewhere else." Lanie turned to Jenny and asked, "Has Ryan been that way around you?"

"A little, now that you mention it," replied Jenny. "I just figured he needed extra time with the guys. I can be a little hard to be around lately."

Lanie tried to shrug off her own concerns. "I don't know, maybe I'm just being par..."

The violent sound of breaking glass interrupted their conversation. A scream pierced the air from further back in the room, and the four women turned around to see a man staggering around in a daze with a gunshot wound to the shoulder and a woman crawling behind an overturned table with a bullet wound in her thigh.

Beckett ducked behind another overturned table and followed the bullet's trajectory to a spot across the street. There, on the roof of the four story brownstone, a man with a crazed smile on his face and a determined glint in his eye held the same type of sighted pistol that Mittleman used at the Dark Angels party.

And it was aimed directly at her head.

Beckett waited for the start of the shooter's trigger pull to move, ducking out of the way and heading for the door at a dead sprint. She made it to the door frame before the man could have even thought to change the trajectory of his shot. Pulling her service weapon out of its back holster, Beckett called over to Lanie. "Call 911! I've gotta go after him."

"Be careful!" Lanie called out in response.

Beckett made *sure* to make eye contact with Lanie, hoping her best friend would get every meaning of her next phrase. "You too, Lanie. You too." She then took off after the shooter.

Lanie grabbed Alexis by the hand and pulled her toward the back of the restaurant where the injured were hiding. The two women knelt beside the man who was clutching his injured shoulder. Alexis knelt down immediately and started to apply added pressure to both sides of the man's wound.

"Thank you," said Lanie, ending the call on her cell phone. Kneeling down, she placed a hand on the younger woman's shoulder. "Paramedics will be here in two minutes. Let me help."

"Are you *sure*?" asked Alexis, hoping the warning came out in her tone of voice, even if she couldn't say the words in public. Are you sure you'll just apply first aid and not *heal* him completely?

Lanie stopped for the briefest of seconds, finally getting the implied meaning of both Beckett's and Alexis' warnings. Raising her hands up in surrender, Lanie called over to one of the waitresses. "Hey, Michelle, is it? Let me talk you through how to bandage up a bleeding thigh..."