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Missed Chances

"Yeah, ok. Listen, I have to go. A body just dropped. Is Castle going to be there?" She glanced as she spoke and found Castle watching her from the corner of his eyes. She turned to look back out at the bullpen. "Yeah, I guess, as he does shadow me and I did accept him back as my partner. No, nothing is going on between us." She sighed. "We've gone over this before and I am not going to go over it again. Either trust me or don't, it's your decision." Kate said and hung up the phone. She could feel his eyes watching her every movement and she narrowed her eyes, waiting for him to speak up.

"Everything okay with Josh? Not that I was listening but you tensed up toward the end of there."

"What? Yeah, everything is fine. Let's go." Kate said while standing and strolled toward the elevator ending any further conversation. A second later she heard the familiar sound of Castle's chair squeaking on the floor and the sound of his footsteps rushing to catch up to her.

XOXOXOXO

The ride to the crime scene was quiet, something that Beckett would normally welcome but not today. Today was one of the rare days that she needed Castle to run his mouth, make her laugh and most importantly get her mind focused on the task ahead. Taking a glance in his direction she caught him studying her and couldn't stop the shiver that ran down her spine.

"Care to share with the class, Castle? You look like you have something on your mind." Kate inquired.

"No or no more than usual. Just thought I would see what you would do if I stayed quiet for once and let you work out what ever was bothering you. I have to keep you on your toes somehow." He smiled. "Unless of course you want to share?"

"No."

"Ok, keep holding that stuff in and you are going to get an ulcer." Castle quipped.

Kate rolled her eyes. While he was being annoying this was at least better than the silence from before.

She turned to make a remark back when the lights from the crime scene caught her attention she decided to just let it go. She parked in the first parking spot she could find which was, to her annoyance, a block away, and got out. She took three steps forward and then turned and motioned for Castle to follow her. She couldn't say why she felt the need to, considering that he was usually at her heel every step of the way.

Together they walked up the sidewalk and she could feel Castle brush against her every once in awhile and she took a step over to the edge of the sidewalk to give him some needed space. She still felt his touch with either his jacket or hand as he tried to keep up and wasn't exactly sure she minded it. She found Lanie standing on the sidewalk with her clipboard out ready to report on the victim giving her a much needed distraction from the days events.

"Hey Lanie. What you got for me?" Kate said as she came up beside Lanie.

"I'll show you." Lanie motioned for Kate to follow her and the three of them walked a little ways off the sidewalk and into the alley were a few standing lights were. A woman laid sprawled out on the pavement, her head turned to face deeper into the alley. Kate pulled her eyes from the figure and turned back to Lanie as she began to run down the information.

"I'm guessing she around thirty years old. I'm estimating her time of death between 10pm and midnight, best I can do." Lanie took another few steps forward so that she stood by the body. With a pen she began to point as she talked. "Besides the visible bruising on her arms and face, I couldn't find any other signs of trauma. I'll have to get her back to the lab before I can get you a cause of death. She put up quite a fight, whatever caused it."

"Ok, thanks Lanie." Beckett said and Lanie gave a small nod. She took a look around the alley way and took note of the small Mom and Pop store on the corner. It's possible they would have cameras pointed this direction. The alleyway had dumpsters lined up against one wall and the pathway seemed to a dead end so not a route someone would take back to their apartment. The victim was either assaulted in this location or dragged here from somewhere else. She hoped the camera would be able to give her a better picture of what happened that night.

She felt Castle come to stand beside her as he had held back some to let her survey the scene. She raised her eyebrow at him expecting him to offer his own impressions. Something she had come to welcome over the time they've worked together.

"Any insights, Castle?" She asked and he smiled, taking a step toward the body.

"I noticed the victim was wearing a wedding ring so she was married. She's in plain clothes but judging by the bruising, she worked in some kind of profession that required her to know some kind of self defense but she wasn't carrying a weapon at the time." Castle turned his head toward Lanie and asked, "were we able to get an ID on her?"

Not giving Lanie a chance to respond Kate said, "You got all that just by looking at her body?"

"What can I say, I'm good or at least that is what I am told. Want to test that theory out?"

Lanie broke in. "No, there wasn't any ID on the body. No purse either. When I get her back I can try to run fingerprints."

"Okay, thanks Lanie." Kate said.

"No problem, let me know when you're done."

"Back to your question about testing your theory out for a moment, what would you say if I said yes?" Kate teased. She knew that she was breaking some from her normal demeanor at a crime scene but just couldn't resist. It was so easy to get him going. Unfortunately, the thought also got her going some as well which was a problem.

She let a brief smile cross her face when she saw Castle stammer some but then smile as he looked her straight in the eye with his eyebrow raised. She shook her head and turned, looking for her two detectives. She found them standing at the mouth of the alleyway.

"Ryan, Esposito," she waved them to her and they jogged over. "Start talking to the locals and see if anyone saw or heard anything. Castle and I are going to check this store on the corner to see if they had their cameras turned on last night."

"Right," they both said as they walked off.

Kate turned to Castle and just watched as he was taking another survey of the scene himself. It seemed like more and more he was becoming less of a writer at these scenes and more like a detective in his own right, yet never quite losing his flare for coming up with- shall we say imaginative scenarios.

"What do you think happened here Castle?" He turned away from the body and gave a small shrug as he walked back towards her.

"Well, she is a married women walking by herself late at night so it seems likely she was running to the store to pick up something that couldn't wait until tomorrow. Not many things fit that description so I am inclined to say it was something for a child at home. She got caught up in what she still needed to accomplish that night momentarily so she never noticed the person following her out of the store till it was too late. She turned just as the attacker put a hand on her shoulder. Her training kicked in at this point but the attacker was too strong and overpowered her. The question is Why..."

"Not bad for a rookie. As far as why, that is what we are going to figure out starting with that video camera. If we are lucky, it was caught on tape."

They walked across the street, again he brushed against her and part of her didn't mind. Another part of her was ready to push him away, but she kept that impulse in check and the reached the front of the store. The signs in the windows were in Spanish, Italian and something else that Kate didn't recognize. There were bars and metal gates on the windows, and on the corner of an over hang was the camera she was hoping to see.

They went into the store and quickly found one of the clerks behind the counter. She flashed her badge as she stated "Detective Kate Beckett, NYPD. I need to speak to the store owner or manager."

"The owner is out of town right now but is their something I can do?" The clerk asked.

"We are investigating a crime scene in the alley way by your store and I noticed your store's camera pointed in that direction. Do you know if they were turned on last night? If they were, I am going to need a copy of the footage."

"I turned them on right before I closed up the store last night so around... 9:55. Just as soon as my last customer left. I turned it on and then realized I left something in the office so went back to get it before leaving myself."

"Could you tell us who your last customer was last night?"

"Sure, She was tall, fairly thin, late twenties, early thirties, long brown hair pulled back into a messy bun. She seemed to be in a rush to get back home, I assumed because she complained about some supplies her kid needed for school the next day. Let me go get that copy of the video for you and I will bring out a copy of the receipt as well." said the clerk and she walked quickly back toward the office.

Beckett sized up the clerk as she walked back to the office and started thinking about what could have happened to the victim. Once she was identified, she would have to make the unfortunate call to next of kin and that was never an easy thing to do.

A few minutes late the clerk came back with a DVD in a case and the receipt on top of it."Here you go. If I can be of any further assistance, please let me know. "

Kate thanked her and pulled Castle out of the candy isle and toward the door. Once outside she looked down at the slip of paper.

"The name on the receipt was from a Katarina Footelli." Beckett said as they walked out of store and headed for her vehicle. It's not much but is is something she thought. If their victim was this person, it had the makings of a very long day. She just hoped that Josh wouldn't try and continue their conversation from earlier as she didn't need any more stress. Being watched by Castle was bad enough and she knew if she showed any more tension he would prod her for more information.

XOXOXOXOXO

Kate was just pulling up the footage from the store when she saw a cup of coffee in front of her. She didn't even realize she needed a cup but welcomed the sight of it.

"Thanks, Lanie called and said it would be another few hours before she had anything for us."

Beckett turned back to her computer and slid the DVD in to pull up the camera footage from the Mom and Pop store. She felt Castle lean his head just over her shoulder and point to her screen.

"Right there. She looked right at the camera as she left the store but there is also someone else right behind her as well that the clerk never mentioned seeing. " Castle stated as he reached around her to print out a picture of both figures. While surprised, this wasn't something he hadn't done before she just accepted the action as normal.

"The video gets a little fuzzy from this point and we can't really see much beyond that corner so whatever happened to the victim wasn't caught on tape. At least we might be able to id the vic off what we were able to get though." Kate said as she typed in Katarina's name into the police database. Fortunately for her, she was able to pull up her DMV file and it matched what was seen on the video. Unfortunately, it also matched the victim.

Just than she realized that Castle was no longer looking over her shoulder but was on the phone. She didn't even hear his phone ring but couldn't help but listen in to what he was saying.

"No, I am not trying to avoid you. We caught a body so we have been at the scene all morning. Yes, I do understand that I am on a deadline and you will get what you requested. Beckett? Yes, we'll probably be working this case till late this evening and- what? No nothing is going on between us. We have gone through this before so you are just going to have to trust me. Yes, ok, I need to go as Beckett is giving me the eye. You know the look, well maybe you don't know, but trust me it is a very glaring kind of look so I really have to go. We'll talk later."

"Need a moment Castle?"

"No, I'm good so who do we have here on the tape?"

"Well, it appears that our victim is one Katarina Footelli based on the crime scene pics and her own DMV photo. We'll need positive identification from either Lanie or her family though." Beckett said while she posted the picture up on the murder board.

"Do you want me here when you call the family or should I see if the guys are back from their canvasing yet?"

"Actually I want to get more information from Lanie first before I contact her next of kin. I know they will have questions and while I may not be able to provide them with much, I want to at least be able to tell them more than what we have right now." Beckett said.

"I can see the logic in that but I do have one question. If she was leaving the store at the time of her murder, what happened to her purse or the goods she bought? It wasn't with the body and at least from what I could tell, wasn't anywhere around the scene."

"I thought the very same thing just a few minutes ago and still have not been able to answer that in a way that would make sense. If it was a robbery, they would have taken the cash found in her pocket and the jewelry she was wearing. No this was something of a more personal nature and there is definitely a story involved."

"Why Detective, I think I am starting to rub off on you. Should I be flattered or scared that you've picked up on my usual line of thinking?"

"Both. Don't get me wrong, the evidence will speak for itself in this case but knowing the full story will allow us to give the victim's family some needed closure." Kate said as she looked Castle in the eye and held his gaze a split second longer than necessary.

She felt him brushed his hand lightly against hers just as her phone started to ring. She reached out picked it up "Beckett. Yeah Lanie, we will be right down. "

Kate looked over at Castle and noticed his hand was barely touching hers still but in such a casual way that a passerby would never notice. She did though and now it was all she could focus on. She gave Castle an inquisitive look before she stood to head down to the morgue.

She couldn't help but feel something was brewing between her and Castle that really should not be allowed to develop. They were both in relationships, however complicated, and had missed their chance for anything to happen, hadn't they?

A/N - I need to thank Xonze for being my beta for this story. Through his input and editing, it is a much stronger chapter. Please enjoy the story.