Thanks to the lovely Andy for getting the creative juices flowing on this one (even though it turned out differently than either of us were probably expecting)!

Murder Most Fowl

"Hey."

Castle looked up from his desk to find Kate leaning against the doorframe, arms crossed loosely across her chest, eyes fixed on him.

"Hey. Got everything wrapped up?"

She shrugged, padded across the room to him. "Yeah, not too much paperwork this time."

He nodded, pushed back from the desk and twirled the chair ninety degrees, extended his arms for her. She stepped into his embrace, his head coming to rest against her stomach.

"That's good."

She hummed in response. "How are the edits going?"

Raging Heat had been sent back to him today for the final time, and he'd headed home after they'd closed the case to start working, leaving Kate to finish the paperwork.

"Okay," he answered with a non-committal shrug. "Taking a break right now, though."

Kate's eyes dropped to the surface of the desk where they landed on a familiar small-ish notebook that lay open on the tabletop in front of his laptop. The page on the left was about half full of his familiar scrawl, the one on the right still blank. Which meant...

"You're writing?"

He nodded, reached out with one hand to mark his page with his pen and close the book. "No reading ahead."

She laughed, patted his head, and he lifted his chin to look up at her as she spoke. "I'm not going to."

"Just making sure."

She smiled, dropped her eyes back to the journal, tracing its outline, the familiar places where the stitching was coming loose or the corner was bent in. It'd quickly become one of her most prized possessions, so much so that her fingertips had memorized all of the contours, the contrast of the slightly rough stitching and the smooth cover.

"What?" Castle asked curiously, confused by her silence.

She shrugged as though it was no big deal, but when she spoke he could tell that it was, that it meant something to her. "I didn't realize you were still writing these."

Oh. Not what he was expecting.

"Why would I stop?"

"Because I found it and you see me every day and you could just say these things to me now."

"Do you want me to stop?" he asked, because he loved writing to her but if she no longer enjoyed it he'd let it go.

"No, no," she shook her head definitively, "I love reading them. I just didn't realize you'd kept going."

"I'll keep going as long as we're partners, Kate."

She smiled, bent her head to drop a kiss on the top of his skull. "Can we read some of them now?"

"Sure."

He dumped out the pen that was marking his place, flipped back to the bookmark that held the place of their next letter. Kate turned and dropped onto his lap in the desk chair, body relaxing into the cradle of his arms and the warmth and strong lines of his body.

Castle pressed his lips to her neck, leaned forward so they were cheek to cheek, and began to read.

Dear Kate,

Sometimes, life is just so unfair. Lightbulb Len was killed because he was in the wrong place at the wrong time, trying to do the right thing. Poor little Tyler was abducted because of his father's job. It's just so terrible. I mean, what did either of those people do to deserve what happened to them?

Like I said, I knew what they were going through from the time Alexis wandered off. It's fear unlike any other. I was so scared in that moment and I hated myself because I felt like I'd failed as a father. I mean, I couldn't even keep track of my own daughter. How awful is that? I never would have forgiven myself if something had happened to her.

I'm grateful we found Tyler still alive and brought him back to his dad. And I'm glad we caught the kidnappers, because what they did was inexcusable. Sometimes this job it makes me really hate people. It makes it very difficult to trust them.

Sometimes, I can understand why you're so practical and matter-of-fact; because you have to be, or your job would make everything seem so desolate and hopeless. I can tell, because I felt some of that today when we were down in the subway looking for Tyler.

I hope my presence could help with those feelings at least a little bit today. I hope that some of my ideas were worthwhile and helpful, and that I was able to keep you smiling and caffeinated.

(By the way, seeing you first thing in the morning pre-coffee was pretty sexy.)

Anyway, I suppose I should get some sleep. It's four in the morning and I'm pretty sure I haven't slept in over 24 hours, but I wanted to write this now because everything from the case was weighing on my mind.

I hope you're at home in bed right now, catching up on some much-deserved rest. If you find that you can't sleep, or that you need to talk about the case, or anything, really, I hope you know I'm always here for you. No matter the time of day (or night), I'm always just a phone call away.

-Castle

"That case kind of reminded me of my mom's," Kate murmured, barely audible, eyes still fixed on the page.

"How so?"

Her eyes remained downcast as she spoke, and she blinked hard to hold back tears because it may have been fifteen years, but it still hurt. It always would.

"The unfairness of it all. Dying because you were trying to do the right thing. It wasn't overwhelming, but it was there in the back of my mind the whole time."

"I never considered that," Castle said softly, holding her just a little bit tighter, because he knew when something reminded her of her mother's case, there was little he could do aside from lend an ear and hold her close.

He'd always hated that the pain was so engrained and he couldn't take it away from her, because he'd do anything in his power to do so. But he'd long since learned that the best he could do was offer comfort, shoulder part of the burden.

"It's okay," she murmured, lacing one hand with his on her stomach, her touch calming him as well, coaxing him into relaxing his grip on her. "It's okay."

She felt him nod against her, turned to bury her nose in his neck. He could feel the moisture that lingered on her cheeks, heard her unsteady exhale as she fought for control.

"It's okay," she repeated, as much for herself as for him.

Castle just sat there in silence, unmoving save for his left hand, which was gently rubbing up and down her back, over her neck, caressing the back of her head in the gentle way he knew was comforting to her.

"I'm just glad it's over," she said after a few minutes, lifting her head from his shoulder. Her eyes were still shiny, cheeks stained with drying tears, but he could see that the pain had hit her a little less intensely this time.

It was by no means the first time something like this had reminded her of her mother's murder, and it certainly wouldn't be the last. But with each passing incident, Castle could see and feel that the pain was continuing to fade; there would always be a hole in her life, in her heart, from losing her mother in such a tragic manner and at such a young age, but the sharpness of the loss was no longer as prominent.

Castle dipped his chin to claim her lips, soft and loving, a relatively brief kiss, but from the way a smile was tickling the corners of her mouth when they separated, he knew he'd accomplished exactly what he'd been hoping.

Kate felt it too, raised a hand to card through his hair, cradle the back of his head. Her smile didn't quite reach her eyes but even so, he knew she'd be okay.

"Thanks, Castle."

Thoughts?