Ok. I'm a little nervous about this chapter. It was more difficult to write so let me know what you think...

"A body dropped last night. It was about 10:30 last night when we showed up to the scene. Castle had beaten us, again, and was standing over the body. He and Lanie were discussing the time of death because the bullet between the vic's head was obviously the cause of death…."

"Hey guys. Thanks for joining us this fine evening" Castle smirked.

"Shut it, bro. I was out with this fine piece of…" Espo stopped and glanced towards Lanie, "furniture. Yeah, I'm looking in to buying new furniture. Couldn't leave the store without…"

"Oh, honey, believe me when I say you can go out with other girls. You won't find any one better than me though. Good luck, maybe get yourself a tetanus shot every once in a while" Lanie said with a sly smile.

"Burn!" replied Ryan and Castle at the same time. They then turned to 'feed the birds' with each other.

Esposito couldn't respond, so instead he crossed his arms and scowled.

After Beckett had left, Castle was uncertain whether or not he would remain at the 12th. He had become part of the team, in search of justice, which was far more important than the "I'm shadowing a detective for my book" thing he had going on in the beginning. He learned it was ok to grow up here, act like the responsible adult his immediate family knew him to be. It was easy to shake the playboy image from the tabloids here. This was partly done to impress Detective Beckett, but mostly because he felt safe enough to show his true colors. Ironic really, because it wasn't a real safe place to work.

A week after she was officially gone, Castle received a short phone call from Gates of all people.

"Mr. Castle? Have you decided that you are too good for us now that Detective Beckett has left?"

"Um, no sir. I just… assumed… that I was done when she resigned" Castle managed to spit out. Still in shock in that he was talking to the Captain.

"Is that what you want?"

"No, sir. I want to be there, with the team."

"I will see you tomorrow then, Mr. Castle. Don't be late."

After an hour at the scene, the boys concluded that the vic had known his assailant. No obvious signs of a struggle were present on the body or around the crime scene. This was the primary crime scene, the body and his affects were left untouched. He was identified as Graham Stevens, 28 years old, from Manhattan by his driver's license. Lanie had finished with her prelim in the field, and would let them know more when she got the body back to the morgue.

Detectives Ryan and Esposito, along with Castle, returned to the 12th to set up the murder board. It was always bittersweet to set the murder board up. Castle struggled between fond memories of sitting in front of it, spinning ridiculous theories to get a smile from Beckett, and the cold, hard reality that things were so vastly different. He wasn't going to think about her…

The timeline was set up, and it was pretty obvious what they were looking at. This wasn't going to be Beckett Flavored… I mean weird… case. The vic left a party with his roommate around 9:30 pm. He was discovered at 10:05. This meant they only had approximately a 30 minute window of time to figure out who was the murderer. It was pretty obvious the roommate was their guy, but they had to back it up with evidence. Ryan ran both the vic's and the suspect's financials and phone records. Esposito was in charge of putting out an APB for the roommate, Seth Thomas. Castle's job was to find out who Thomas and Stevens were.

Around 2:30 am they decided to call it a night. They were still waiting to hear back from CSU for any physical evidence the killer left behind, waiting on the autopsy report Lanie was finishing, and Thomas was still missing.

"Castle. Espo. Let's call it a night. We've done as much we can." Ryan said.

"Hey Espo, did your furniture make it to your place, or do you need to go back to the store to get it?" Castle asked with a smile.

"Shut up, bro. I can make you bleed" Espo responded with a sneer.

"Yeah, I was curious about this furniture. Is it a loveseat? A recliner?" Ryan laughed out.

"Ryan, you are supposed to be on my side. Some partner you are…"

Ryan and Castle laughed as they put their jackets on and gathered their stuff to head out.

"Come on… you have to admit. That was a good one, Espo" Ryan said while laughing.

"Whatever."

Castle had been quiet through the majority of the conversation. He participates once in a while, is always present in the conversations that go on. However, for the past 4 months he rarely starts the conversations, never carries on the conversations, and says the bare minimum. The boys made a point to keep him engaged as much as possible. They missed the pre-Caskett Castle. This shadow of a man was too sad, too much the polar opposite of what he used to be.

Castle was sitting in his office, staring at his SMART board. He was supposed to have the next 10 chapters to Gina by yesterday, and he literally had nothing. Not one freakin' word. His job was suffering from this writer's block. He just… couldn't write about her. It was still too painful. He was at the precinct to keep some sort of memory of his Kate. For how long they were together, the 4 years of partnership and almost a year of dating, he had very little evidence to prove that he once had Kate Beckett. Some days that was good. He didn't need any physical reminders of his loss. He hated her on those days.

Other days, like today, Castle craved the life he had 6 months ago. He missed the cherry smell. He missed her eye rolls, and he missed her laugh. He lost a partner, his lover, but more importantly his best friend. He had grown closer to Lanie, Espo and Ryan lately, but he still craved the relationship he had with Kate.

Man he needed to get a grip! She shot down… Wait… shot! That's it! He knew what happened to Graham Stevens. He needed to get back to the crime scene to confirm his suspicions. Quickly changing his clothes, he ran his hands through his hair and grabbed his phone. He will text Espo to let him know he was headed to back to the crime scene.

He had been trying to figure out how Thomas could've possibly escaped without any witnesses. They gunshot was loud enough that even New Yorkers would notice a man running away. Maybe he had been there all along, waiting until he could escape unnoticed. No one had seen him, and he had very few friends in the city. He had nowhere else to hide, but in plain sight.

10 minutes later, around 4:30 am, Castle found himself at the crime scene. Alone. This probably wasn't his best idea ever. No partner meant no protection. Surely Thomas wouldn't still be hanging around here though. That would be monumentally stupid.

"You are monumentally stupid for going in to this alone. Wait for back up, Castle."

Seriously?! Why did his Jiminy Cricket sound so much like Beckett? Even his own mind is determined to remind him of his loss. Well, she isn't here. He can do what he wants. He will ignore the fact that he sounds like a 2 year old arguing with himself.

He hears a noise about 10 meters away, behind this bushy area. No one had bothered to look over there because it wasn't close to the body. It'd probably make a decent hideout, especially if no one knows to look there. He wanders over to the area, when he hears the bush rustle.

Before he can react, Castle stands face to face with a man holding a gun straight out at him. The look in his eyes let's Castle know this guy is scared. Yup, this was a big mistake…

He turned to run away when he felt a pain in his back. His world went black almost immediately.

His last thought?

"No one will find me." He forgot to text Espo.

To Be Continued