F.B.I.

Chapter 1

"What have we got?" Kate asked the lead security agent.

"A stolen painting worth 34 million dollars," he reported.

"Size?"

"24 inches by 26 inches."

"So he – or she – didn't just walk out. Security?" Kate inquired.

"All the doors remained locked, as did every window. The security system for both is still in place and functional."

"What about the painting itself? GPS tracker?" she asked. "I know all paintings here have a GPS tracker built into the frame."

"That's true, but how did you know?" he asked, and she just stared at him. "It has a limited range, and it's not showing up."

"That means the GPS on the frame isn't showing up either. Nor is the paint used on the frame. I know all about the low Isotope used on the frame itself, but we'll find it," Kate told him. "Prints, not that we'll find any, but who knows, we might get lucky."

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Kate walked up to the other agents. "What have we got?"

"We found the frame and the frame for the painting here in this dumpster." He pointed to it.

Kate looked for herself, saw both of them, and sighed. "That means the painting is free, so all we've got is the GPS tracker built into the painting itself. Scan the entire area starting with a grid search of the surrounding area. And get both of these into the lab. Maybe we'll get lucky."

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"Anything?" Kate asked the agent.

"We found the GPS unit built into the painting itself." The woman showed her the device.

Kate took it out of her hand using gloves. "Damn. Well, get it into the lab. Maybe they can tell us something." She gave it back to her. "The frame, along with this thing, were found on opposite sides of the city. That means the painting could be anywhere. Even right next door." Kate looked around but doubted that.

"So we've got nothing. There were no prints at the scene. That leaves us with finding something on the frame of this thing. Maybe we'll get lucky," Kate told her.

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Kate was at the lab. "What have you found?"

"Saliva in the frame itself. It was enough for DNA. It belonged to this guy." He handed Kate a folder.

"Richard Castle. Arrested for stealing a police horse while naked. Charges dropped. But it was enough for them to take a blood test to see if a controlled substance was involved." Kate read the rest of the folder.

"It's also possible we got his DNA off of the trash also found in the trash bin. We found this." He handed her the Chinese meal that also had his DNA on it.

"So it's possible he's not even involved in this. I think I'll go see him," Kate decided. "It's the only lead we got."

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Rick answered his door. "Mister Castle, I'm Special Agent Kate Beckett, FBI. May I come in?"

"FBI? Of course. What can I do for the FBI?" Rick stepped aside and let Kate enter. "So what's so special about being an FBI agent?"

"I'm sorry, what?" She wasn't expecting that.

Rick repeated his question. "You said you're a Special Agent, so what's so special about being an FBI agent?"

"It's…" Kate began to explain but was interrupted when a baby started crying.

"If you'll excuse me, duty calls." Rick took his leave of her.

Kate blinked. "He has a baby?" She watched him leave the room and waited for him to come back.

Eventually, he did. "You have a baby," Kate said and stared at him.

"This is Alexis. She's just three months old. Here, you hold her." Rick handed Alexis to her. "No, not like that. Like this." Rick adjusted her arms. "I have to get a bottle ready for her."

"I don't…" Kate tried to tell him that she didn't do babies. Kate looked down at the crying baby in her arms. She followed Castle so she could give the baby back to him.

"How long have you been with the FBI?" Rick asked her.

"Just over three years," Kate replied while she held the crying baby.

"Interesting. So you're still young at this," Rick remarked.

Instead of contradicting him, she asked, "Where's Mrs. Castle?"

Rick sighed. "Dead." And didn't look at her.

"I'm sorry."

"She died giving birth. She bled out. They said it rarely happened, but it did this time."

Kate suddenly felt sad for him. He had to raise a baby all on his own.

"Meredith was her name. Meredith Lee. We weren't married when she went into labor. Then she started to bleed out. I got lucky and found a minister visiting the hospital. She lived just long enough to know we were married.

"That minister married us. No ring, no dress, no flowers, no music. Just lots of blood. We didn't even get to say I do. Only, I pronounce you husband and wife. She died a minute later."

Kate felt sorry for him. He wasn't divorced; the man was a widower.

Rick was ready to hand her a bottle. "Here, you feed her."

"But, I don't…" Kate tried to tell him no, but he guided her to a sitting position and handed her the bottle. So there she sat, feeding a baby.

Kate looked down at the infant, now sucking on a bottle, then she felt a cloth placed on her shoulder. Looking down, she saw the baby only had eyes for her, like Alexis was looking into her soul.
Kate couldn't look away from those eyes.

"What did you come here for?" Rick asked her.

"A stolen painting," Kate replied.

Rick frowned. "And you think I have it? You can look around for it but won't find it here."

"I…" Kate continued to look down into those eyes. "Your DNA was found."

His eyebrows shot up. "Really? On what, may I ask?"

"The discarded frame. It was also on a Chinese meal in the area."

"Chinese. An order of Kung Poe, I take it. Yes, I ordered a Chinese meal in the area. I tried it but found it wasn't my liking, so I dumped it into a bin, then hailed a taxi and came home."

But Kate just barely heard him. She still focused on Alexis and those eyes that looked at her.

Kate looked over at him. "She stopped."

Rick got up, took the bottle from her, and told her to burp her. So Kate lifted Alexis and gently patted her back until she got a burp. She looked up at him. "Now what?"

"You put her on your lap and play with her. Play with her hands or her toes, maybe even tickle her."

So here Kate was, with a baby on her lap, as she played with her toes and talked to her. She saw Rick looking at her. "What?"

"Nothing. Just watching." Rick smiled at her. That was a first for him. No one but him had done anything for Alexis. Now, he was watching her play with her.

Kate continued to play with Alexis, and she was smiling. She didn't do any babysitting when she was a teenager; Kate did other things. But she was enjoying this.

Kate stopped playing with her and just watched her. Finally, Alexis closed her eyes. "I think she's asleep."

Rick got up and looked for himself. She was indeed asleep. "Here, I'll take her." He picked her up and took her to his bedroom with Kate close behind him. Rick laid her in her crib and looked down at her.

"Come on, and you can see I don't have your painting." Rick gave her the complete tour. Then, he led her back to his bedroom to look in on Alexis.

"Still sleeping. Come with me, and I'll feed you lunch."

Kate shook her head. "You don't have to do that. I really should leave."

"Nonsense. Stay, I don't get many visitors. Come with me, I'll feed you. You're too skinny anyway."

Kate countered his claim. "I am not skinny."

"Whatever you say. But you don't eat breakfast except on rare occasions. You don't ever eat lunch unless forced to. You eat takeout for dinner. You try to vary it, but you usually focus on just one. How am I doing?"

Kate didn't answer him because he was amazingly accurate. "Fine, I'll eat your lunch."

"Excellent." Rick headed for the kitchen with Kate following him. She sat at the breakfast bar and watched as he fixed them both something.

"Why go out for Chinese when you could fix yourself something?" Kate asked him.

"I was supposed to meet with my editor at Black Pawn, and I took Alexis with me. I got the feeling she didn't like that. Maybe she doesn't like babies, or maybe it was something else."

"What's your editor's name?" Kate inquired.

"Gina Cowell." Rick stopped making them lunch. "You want to check on what I say? Help yourself. I can give you the address if you want."

"No, that won't be necessary." Kate thought she could find the offices of Black Pawn without him.

"I can't tell you the name of the Chinese place I stopped at since I don't remember it, unfortunately."

"Why is that?" Kate asked him.

"So I don't go there again, of course. But it was close to their offices, I know that much. Mostly because Alexis started to cry." Rick shrugged. "I was distracted."

That was helpful, actually. She could ask if they remembered him based on Alexis crying. It's not every day you get a baby crying, she thought.

"Where were you between the hours of 12 and 4 in the morning?"

"Here. Alexis keeps me pretty busy, and no, I don't use babysitters," Rick told her. That told her he didn't have an alibi except for Alexis, who was too tiny to talk.

"Lunch is served." Rick put a plate in front of her.

"Grilled cheese?" Kate was surprised. She wasn't sure what to expect, but that wasn't it.

"And a bowl of tomato soup. You dunk your sandwich in the soup," Rick explained and put a plate with another one on it next to her along with a bowl of soup. "And lemonade." He put a glass in front of her. "Eat up." Rick sat down next to her, dunked his sandwich in the soup, and took a bite. That told Kate it should be safe, so she did the same.

Kate's eyes went wide. It was actually pretty good. Simple, but good.

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They had finished eating and Rick was cleaning up when Alexis started to cry. "Duty calls." Rick went to the bedroom to pick up his baby girl.

The next thing Kate knew, she sitting down and feeding Alexis again, who was looking up at her with those little eyes. She still thought they were looking into her very soul.

Kate managed to escape with her dignity intact, eventually. But she had work to do.

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Two days later, Kate was back at Castle's place, knocking on his door. She soon heard Alexis crying. She watched Castle open the door with a wailing Alexis in his arms.

"Here, you take her." Rick put Alexis into Kate's arms. She took her and stood there in shock. That wasn't how Kate imagined her greeting by him. But she was able to come inside and close the door.

Kate watched as Castle headed for the kitchen. She managed to sit down and look at Alexis, who was busy crying.

Minutes later, Castle showed up with a bottle and a cloth to lay over her shoulder. Kate knew what to do with the bottle, and she fed Alexis, who looked up at her with those same eyes.

"So what brings you back? Am I under arrest?" Rick asked tiredly.

Kate shook her head. "No, I talked to your editor, and she confirmed you had a meeting. I even found your Chinese place, and they confirmed you were there. They remember Alexis crying. Still, you have only your baby for an alibi for your time when the painting disappeared."

"I can assure you I was here," Rick said. "Alexis keeps me rather busy, and I get very little sleep."

"Yeah." Kate knew from her last visit that Alexis needed attention roughly every two hours.

"Do you have any other leads?"

"I can't tell you that. It's an ongoing case," Kate told him.

Rick looked at her. "Then why did you come back here?"

"I wanted to ask you more questions. Did you see anything out of the ordinary around the trash bin? Someone putting a frame in it?" Kate asked.

"No, but I was only there long enough to open it and dump my food into it. Then I flagged down a taxi and came home. And before you ask, no, I didn't see a frame in the trash. But then, I wasn't looking for one either. I needed to get home to tend to Alexis, who was busy crying."

"I see," Kate said.

"You didn't happen to learn why she hated Alexis so much, did you?" Rick queried.

"No, I didn't ask her about that, but I got the feeling she has designs on you."

Rick shuddered. "Ooh, that's a horrible thought."

"Why?" Kate asked. "She was pretty enough."

"She's my editor. I don't mix work with pleasure. Ever," Rick said firmly. "You honestly think she has designs for me?"

"It was just a feeling I got." Before she could say anything else, Alexis stopped sucking, so Kate took the bottle away, set it aside, and lifted her to burp her.

Kate got a burp from her, then she laid her on her lap and started playing with her. She didn't need him to tell her; she just did it.

"What?" Kate asked him when she looked up and saw him looking at her.

"Nothing, just watching you. You're a natural. You've done this before."

She rolled her eyes. "Hardly. I didn't do any babysitting when I was a teenager. I don't do babysitting. It isn't my thing."

"It clearly is now, so something has changed," Rick told her. "You seem to be doing well with her."

Kate smiled. "It's Alexis, she makes it easy." Kate glanced down at her. "She's asleep."

Rick got up, carried her to his bedroom, put her in her crib, then came back. "You staying for lunch? And don't tell me no because you don't eat lunch."

"Sure." Kate sat down at the breakfast bar and waited.

"So I'm still a suspect," Rick sighed.

"You don't have an alibi for whenever that painting disappeared. Alexis isn't a good alibi since she can't talk."

"No, she can't, but I'm locked up tight with her. Every two hours, she needs something, be it a diaper change or a feeding. And if you think I'd leave her alone crying while I steal a painting, then you're cracked. Where would I hide a painting anyway? You've seen my home. Do I even have a painting of anything? Leo doesn't count."

Kate was puzzled. "Leo? Who's Leo?"

"I have a picture of a lion in my bedroom. You've seen it. And that's the only picture I have. And before you ask why I have it…"

Kate stopped him right there. "I don't need to know why you have a lion in your bedroom. I really don't."

Rick turned his back to her and worked on making them lunch.

"Lunch is served." Rick put a sub in front of her and a bowl of jus. "French dip." He put another one on the counter. Then he put a cold can of Coke in front of her. "Sorry, I don't have Diet Coke."

"Regular Coke is fine." She picked it up, popped it open, dipped her sandwich in the jus, and took a bite. "Pretty good." She was impressed. "Okay, who taught you to cook?"

"Would you believe me if I told you I was self-taught?" Rick saw the look she gave him. "Fine. I learned from Evelyn Montgomery. She's the wife of Roy Montgomery, the Captain of the 12th Precinct. They have kids older than Alexis."

That gave Kate another lead on Castle.

"And you learned from her why?" Kate asked.

"We play poker together on occasion."

She raised an eyebrow. "Poker?"

"Yes, poker. Do you want to play strip poker? I'm willing if you are."

Kate shook her head. "I think I'll pass."

"Afraid you'd lose, and I would see something. I'll bet your breasts haven't seen the light of day ever," Rick teased her.

"I'll still pass."

"Pity," Rick said and ate his sandwich.

Alexis started to cry. "Duty calls." Rick got up and left her sitting there.

It wasn't long before he was back. "It was just a diaper, a poopy diaper if that means anything."

It didn't to Kate. "Thank you for the lunch."

"Come back anytime," Rick told her. "Maybe dinner next time."

"Maybe," Kate said and left.