A/N: You were all pretty keen for me to continue this fic, and the ideas I had running through my head with how to proceed with this were just dying to get out. So I hope you enjoy!
He hasn't seen her in over a week, and he's definitely disappointed. He'd meant to send her flowers to say thank you or even hoped to see her in passing and tell her thank you again, but unfortunately the pair hadn't run into each other in the halls or on the elevator. He guesses it's due to the busy life of a cop, and that their schedules have never really matched up.
He'd felt lighter after she'd come to him, like some of the heavy weight he'd been carrying around had started to unload from his shoulders. Of course the pain and heartache from catching his wife in bed with another man wasn't going to just disappear over-night, but he was slowly starting to emerge from his office where he'd been hiding for the past few weeks. He began to clean up his loft; drained the rest of the wine bottle he'd been drinking from and decided to turn to water and caffeine instead. He tells himself it has nothing to do with the fact that Kate had looked so uncomfortable with him drinking from the bottle, and instead tells himself that drowning his sorrows wasn't going to get him anywhere – which was true.
He was curious why she'd felt that way. The time of the day hadn't been weird, and living in Manhattan, it wasn't uncommon to see people drinking straight from bottles – especially wine bottles. Everything about her seemed to make him curious, he was fascinated and he'd only had such a brief conversation with her. He wanted to get to know her better. Wanted to know why she'd become a cop. Because bright, beautiful and caring young woman like her didn't settle for jobs with low salary's like that. No, they became hot shot lawyers or top-notch doctors.
The apartment complex was a pretty high up one, and he doesn't think a cop's salary would be able to afford a place like this. So she must be from money, which only peeks his curiosity even more.
After he'd cleaned up his apartment, he did some online shopping and filled the almost empty loft with more furniture and necessities that would make his daughter feel more at ease and at home. It was hard enough having to explain to a four-year-old that her parents weren't going to be together anymore and that her mother was no longer going to be living with them, so Rick had to make their home spectacular to make up for the missing presence.
Alexis had been back in his care permanently for the past few days, and it wasn't as hard as he'd thought it would be. They'd always had such a strong and close bond that it being just the two of them was never a problem, and creating a new routine – in Alexis' eyes, had been exciting.
After he'd dropped her off at pre-school he decided to head to his favourite coffee shop, and once he'd had a steaming to-go cup in his hand, he was off and heading back home. He felt good today, and he knows it has a lot to do with the fact that his daughter was back with him. He even felt like he could give writing a go – considering it'd been a few weeks and black pawn was now starting to get onto his case about delivering a few chapters for his new novel.
The streets were crowded, and it only caused frustration to wash over him. He loves the city he lives in, but at times it can be overwhelming and downright annoying. He decides to take a short cut and heads down an alley way, but he barely makes it to the end before he sees the lifeless body curled up atop of the trash bags beside the dumpster and his coffee cup falls to the ground, lid popping open and the contents inside spluttering out all over the concrete.
He fumbles to get out his phone, eyes wide and lips gaping as his pulse thumps faster than he thinks possible as he quickly dials 911.
She gets the call about a body drop while sitting at her desk finishing up a file for the previous case she's just closed, and calls her partners – Esposito and Ryan, telling them where to meet her.
When she arrives at the scene, they're there before her – both hovering near the entrance to the alleyway, and the looks of concern that's washed over them only has her brow raising, but as she passes by the boys and glances over to where her friend – and m.e; Lanie is knelt down beside, Kate stops in her tracks.
The scene before her, it's too familiar. It makes her blood run cold, causes the hairs on the back of her neck to rise and a lump to form in the middle of her stomach. A young woman; who looks no more than fourty, is sprawled out atop of trash bags, blood smeared across her chest and markings covering the bare bits of her body.
"Kate." Lanie's head lifts as her gaze lands on her, and she's slowly rising to her feet, moving towards her friend. "Hey, you okay?" Lanie's head tilts, arm reaching out and as Kate feels the grip against her arm, it pulls her back to reality and she quickly blinks a few times, swallows the lump in her throat and lets her lids fall closed before she nods her head a little too fast.
"Ye – yeah, fine. Fine. I'm fine." Her chest rises as her eyes open and she tears her gaze away from Lanie to land on the body. "So, what do we got?" Her brows pull together, the professional woman inside of her starting to pull together.
"Fourty two-year-old Caucasian female with multiple stab wounds. Cash and ID weren't intact, so this may indicate a robbery gone wrong." Esposito responds, glancing down to his notes before back over at the body.
"And from what I can tell you, time of death indicates between three and seven this morning." Lanie taps her pen against the clipboard, eyes wandering over the notes she herself had written down.
"Any witnesses?" Kate asks, brows raising.
"Uh, not that we know of. We're getting street cams pulled, but the guy over there is the one who called it in." Ryan lifts his arm, pointing past Kate and Kate's head turns, gaze following and soon landing on a familiar man.
Her eyes widen once more, and her pulse speeds up for the second time within the last five minutes. What the hell was he doing here? She thinks to herself. She hadn't seen him in over a week, and part of her had been glad that she hadn't ran into him in the halls or on the elevator. She still felt weird for intruding, and she was trying to tell herself that checking up on a neighbour to make sure that they were okay wasn't a bad thing. She was a detective after all. It was her job to notice things. For all she knew he could've been harvesting a body inside of his apartment and the glumness had just been guilt from taking somebody's life – of course that was just the very deranged part of her imagination.
"Has anyone taken his statement?" She tears her gaze away from Rick standing in front of two officers – glad that he hasn't noticed her.
"Yeah, his names Richard Castle. Want us to go grab it from him, ask a few more questions?" Esposito asks, and Kate shakes her head. She knows it's probably best that she goes and talks to him, gets yet another awkward encounter out of the way so that she can get back to solving this case.
"No, I've got it. Why don't you and Ryan look around, see what you can find and then head back to the precinct and see what the street cams have pulled up." With that, she turns on her heels and heads in direction of the man who's standing behind two officers.
"Mr. Castle." She breathes out, the men separating as they glance down at the detective and they're soon moving away from the two. Kate glances up, sees the smile twitch on Rick's lips and that gleam in his eye.
"Kate! What are you doing here?" He tilts his head, quickly shakes it as his face scrunches up. "Right, you're a detective." He laughs slightly and Kate only stretches the edges of her lips up slightly. "What are the chances, huh?"
"Yeah, what are the chances." She almost groans, really hating the universe at this moment in time. Their first encounter had been awkward, and that had been on her. But now this had nothing to do with her, and was in fact the universes fault for putting her in this predicament. "So, you were the one who called in the body?"
"Mhm-hmm. I'd just dropped Alexis off at pre-school, grabbed a coffee and decided to take a short cut home. But, well… as you can see." He gestures to the body, a nervous chuckle escaping through his lips and Kate only nods.
She doesn't know him well enough, but she can already tell that he's just an innocent bystander, and has nothing to do with the woman who lays lifeless just a few meters away from them.
"Right. Did you see anybody around? Anyone come out of the alley when you came in?" Her brows raise but Rick only shakes his head, his own brows creasing.
"No, I didn't see anything. Not till I almost made it out of here and then I saw her hunched up in the corner."
She chews on her bottom lip, pondering a few thoughts before she's glancing at Rick. "Okay, thank you. That'll be all we need from you. We've got your statement and information, if we need anything else from you, we'll call. You're free to leave." She nods at him, gives him a brief smile before turning.
"Leave?" Rick tilts his head, shuffles forwards, almost bumping into Kate as she stops in her tracks and turns to look at him.
"Uh, yeah. This is a crime scene after all, we don't need civilians hanging round. We've got everything we need from you."
He almost pouts, his brows pulling together and furrowing. "But, I mean… I can help more, right? After all I was the one who found the body and called it in. Surely you'd need my help?"
Kate's brow pull together, slight confusion washing across her face. Because was he serious? She almost squints at him, lips gaping slightly. "No, you can't help. You're a civilian. Just because you called it in doesn't mean you get to hang around and intrude on official police business. So, if you will, Mr. Castle." Her brows raise, arm lifting and gesturing to the exit of the alley way.
She spins round, heading back over to where her partners and Lanie reside.
"Find anything?" She asks and Esposito hands over a wallet to her.
"Yeah, found that just under the dumpster. Her names Leslie Reynolds, she's fourty two year old florist. Married and seems to have two young kids from the pictures she's got."
Kate opens the wallet, pulling out the photographs of the twin girls and her chest hitches, heart beginning to thump. From the picture, it looked like the young girls were no more than five years old, and Kate had to pull herself together from letting tears emerge around the rims of her lids.
She feels Lanie's hand on her back and Kate snaps her head in direction of the woman who's giving her a comforting smile.
"Call her husband and have him come in." She slips the photos back in before closing the wallet and handing it back to Esposito.
"You sure you want in on this case, Beckett?" Esposito's head cocks to the side, concern washing across his face, and Kate hates this. Hates that one case that's at all too similar to her mother's has her co-workers treating her like she's some invalid.
"Of course, I do. Why wouldn't I?" Her brow arches as she stares over at Esposito. Her look says it all try me, and he definitely doesn't want to, so instead he raises his hands in defence and nods at her.
"'kay, only if you're sure, chica. We'll head back to the precinct now." He reaches out to grip her shoulder and squeeze it as Ryan and him pass by her before heading towards their cruisers.
"Espo's right, Kate. Are you sure you want to be in on this case? I'm sure your Captain would be understanding if you told him to pull you off."
Kate sighs at Lanie's words, her head lifting as she glances up at the clear blue sky. "I'm fine, Lanie. Really." And a part of her was fine. She'd gone to therapy, dealt with millions of cases that had victims who were in alleyways or young woman who looked like her mother, and she got through those cases. So, she'd get through this one as well. And if she struggled, she'd take a sip of liquid courage and remember why she became a cop, why she was doing this.
Kate grunts, fingertips curling into the palm of her hand before the fist she's made collides with the top of her desk. So far, they'd gotten nowhere in their case. The young woman was a florist, and her marriage with her husband seemed solid. The wallet they'd found still had all her money and cards intact, and the street cams were no help. There weren't any that were close enough to their crime scene. There was nothing to indicate why anyone would want her killed, and why she was out in the early hours of the morning instead of at home with her family.
Out of all the cases she could've hit a dead end in, it had to be this one. She couldn't deal with another case too similar to her mothers going unsolved. She just couldn't.
The boys had left about an hour ago, and Kate really should head off. After the day she'd had, she needed a long both and an extra-large glass of wine. She presses her index and middle fingers against her temples, groaning as she rubs them.
A sigh falls from her lips as she carefully pushes herself away from her desk and rises to her feet.
"You heading off, detective?"
As she reaches for her jacket, her head lifts, gaze landing on her Captain, and her head nods.
"Good. After today I think a nice long rest will do you good." He smiles lightly at her, and she reciprocates.
Her Captain had always been good to her – too good at times. He knew all about her mother and the case, was very understanding about it all, and just like the boys and Lanie, he too had asked her if she wanted to be taken off this case or not.
"Yeah, think a good night's rest will give me a clearer head." She reaches for her keys and phone before glancing back at Montgomery one last time. "Night." She nods at him before spinning around.
"Hey, Kate?" He calls out to her and Kate stops at the pillars, glances over her shoulders to look at him as her brows raise. "Take it easy, okay?"
She appreciates his concern, appreciates the concern her partners had given her as well. Is glad the people she works with are so understanding and caring. She smiles lightly at him and nods, head dipping. "Will do, sir." And with that, she heads towards the elevator before riding it down.
On her way home, she stops at the liquor store. She knows she finished her last bottle of wine a few nights ago, and there's no way she could get through the night without something in her system.
When she arrives at her apartment complex she reaches over to the passenger side where the brown paper bag with the two bottles reside. She grips it with one arm and heads inside, only to have to rush forwards as she sees the elevator doors beginning to close.
"Hold!" She calls out as she sprints across the lobby, an arm outstretching and stopping the doors from closing as she quickly slips in. "Thank you." She lets out a breath, the doors closing as the outstretched hand retreats.
She glances up, and her pulse begins to rise as she's met with the familiar blue eyes she'd seen this morning.
"Level eight, right?" He smiles at her, reaching past her to press her floor number, and it's only then does Kate notice the young girl with flaming red hair residing on his hip.
"We've really got to stop running into each other like this." He laughs lightly and Kate tears her gaze away from the young girl whose eyes are just as piercing as her fathers, to land on the man himself.
"Uh, yeah." She blinks, swallowing the small lump in her throat.
He notices her gaze travel from his daughter to her and he adjusts Alexis on his hip, his grin widening. "Oh! Kate, this is Alexis. Alexis, this is Kate. She lives below us, pumpkin." He grins down at his daughter who smiles over at Kate, her hand immediately stretching out and he watches Kate's brows furrow, a small smirk creasing her lips as she shifts the brown bag to takes a hold of Alexis' hand.
His brow raises as he hears the clatter of bottles in her bag and he's soon pulling them together. Curiosity beginning to wash over him.
"It's nice to meet you, Alexis." She laughs lightly, amused by the greeting from the young girl.
"It nice to meet you too!" Alexis' squeaky pitched voice fills the box, her grin stretched wide across her face as her head leans against her father's chest, hand retracting from shaking Kate's.
The young girl was adorable, and Kate couldn't help but feel like the troubles of today weren't that important when the young girl was smiling at her like that.
"You're very pretty." Alexis giggles, and Kate can't help but match it, her teeth sinking into her bottom lip as her heart bursts from the joyful young girl.
"Well, I happen to think you're very pretty too, Alexis." Kate smiles at her, creases emerging around the edges of her eyes. "So, how old are you?"
"Four!" Her hand rises, as she folds up four fingers, a giggle eliciting from her lips. "But I'll be five in a few months, won't I daddy?" Alexis turns her attention to glance up at her father and Rick nods down at her, smoothing a hand over the back of her hair.
"Indeed, you will be, pumpkin."
Kate watches the pair, the smile still playing on her face as the elevator soon comes to a stop, a ding ringing through the small box to indicate the floor.
Kate tears her gaze away from the young girl to glance out and see the floor its stopped on and her smile falters slightly. "Well, this is my stop… it was nice meeting you, Alexis. Night, Rick." She tears her gaze away from Alexis to glance at Rick, giving him a brief smile before she's heading out of the elevator.
"Bye Kate!" Alexis waves while Rick lightly bounces the young girl on his hip.
"Until tomorrow, Kate." He nods and she pulls her brows together, glancing over her shoulder at him as her head cocks and her brows raises.
"Until tomorrow?"
"It's more hopeful than night." He shrugs, and before she can respond, the doors are closing on the pair.
She shakes her head, a slight laugh slipping through her lips before she turns and head towards her apartment.
When she gets in, she holds off for as long as possible before doing the unthinkable and pulling out her mothers case files.
She distracts herself with a nice long and hot bubble bath. Has two glasses of wine while eating last night's Chinese food. She even clears away the stack of cardboard boxes in her fridge and folds the clean laundry that's been sitting in her laundry basket for the past two days.
But as she sits on the couch, flicking through channels aimlessly, an itch that can't physically be itched nags away at her, and before she knows it. She's retreating into her bedroom and pulling out the large, heavy box she'd tucked away into the corner of her closet.
She pulls out all the files she'd copied and lays them out across her coffee table. She switches her glass of wine for a glass of whiskey and ties her hair up into a bun before she's sitting herself in front of her coffee table.
After Kate had told Rick he could leave the crime scene, he'd hung around; lurking behind the corner and watching the exchanges between the detectives. He was curious about the murder, and really, it was unfair they were keeping him out of the loop when he'd been the one to find the body.
But what peeked his curiosity even more was the way the detectives and the medical examiner seemed to comfort and be concerned for Kate. He wonders if she knew the woman, and that's why they looked so concerned, he also thought that maybe it didn't have anything to do with the case, that maybe she had things going on in her personal life.
His curiosity, and the concern for her wellbeing only increased when he'd heard the liquor bottles rattling in the brown paper bag when she'd shaken his daughters hand. He also couldn't help but notice the haunting look that filled her eyes, the same one he'd seen at the crime scene earlier. There was a story behind those eyes, and intriguing but also painful one.
After he'd given Alexis dinner and put her to sleep, he tried his best to distract himself from thinking about the woman below and tried writing a few chapters. He didn't get more than halfway through a chapter before he was closing his laptop and rising to his feet.
He had to check on her – make sure that she was okay. After all, she'd been concerned about his wellbeing and had gone out of her way to ask and see if he was okay, so the least he could do is ask if she was okay.
He checks on Alexis, and when he sees that she's fast asleep he carefully slips out of his apartment. He'll only be gone for a few minutes, and the building they lived in was safe, the neighbours next door had even babysat Alexis a couple of times when Rick and Meredith had gone out. So leaving her alone upstairs while she was asleep for a few minutes wasn't too concerning.
He rides the elevator down, his nerves beginning to rise and his pulse quickening as the elevator dings onto Kate's floor. He's not sure why he's so nervous. Maybe afraid to find out what lays hidden behind those horror filled eyes, maybe afraid she'll bark at him for prying and send him on his way.
He moves down the hall, stops just outside her number – he'd seen her go in a few times, so thankfully he didn't have to go door knocking. He wipes his sweaty palm across his trousers before he's curling his fingertips into a fist and letting it collide with the door a few times.
