Chapter I

Kate Beckett stirred in her sleep. The deep smell of coffee wafted over her, as her dreams turned back to when she was young, sitting up on the big table with her dad, the weekend sun bursting through the windows, hitting the pile of newspapers he'd spend the day sifting through. She tried to be big and tough when the smell of his thick black coffee would overcome that of her mum's breakfast and race up her nose and into her head, making it swim and her stomach squirm. She saw him roll his eyes when she clasped her nose shut and turned green, but still he got up from the table, poured the dark liquid into the sink and switched to tea. She saw her dad's hand move towards her, grasping a mug, but when she picked it up, it had turned to a large paper cup. Kate carefully plied off the plastic cover and took a long, deep breath of the warm liquid. She looked up, where Castle was gazing back at her, his blue eyes wistful as a small smile crinkled from the side of his mouth. A hand reached out to hers holding it against the radiating warmed of the cup that started to flow all through her body…

Castle.

"Morning Kate."

Kate's eyes shot open. In front of her was Josh, sitting on the edge of her bed fully clothed and laying his hand on hers. She quickly shook away her dreams as the warmth ran out of her and she gave a small smile and squeeze of his hand.

"Josh. What are you doing here?"

"Just scrubbed out of an emergency operation but I've got the day off, so I thought I should spend it with you. Got you breakfast."

He turned around, revealing a tray of toast and coffee on the bedside table, which he picked up and lay before Kate as she slowly propped herself up against the headboard.

"Thanks Josh, but I've got to go in to work soon." She said before she looked at the clock and its glaring reminder that she had a whole hour to get ready. She normally loved all the precious time she could have with Josh, but for some reason this morning it was just a bit irritating. Just a tiny bit.

"That's fine, just having a quiet moment where you eat a proper breakfast is all I ask. But since I've got the day off, I'm going to cook you dinner tonight; candles, wine and everything."

"Quality time." Kate smiled softly and picked up a piece of toast.

"Quality time." Josh leaned over and beat the toast to her mouth, giving her a slow, soft kiss. He moved back only a few inches from her face, his dark eyes filling her view. "Now eat your breakfast."

She munched on her toast but didn't touch her coffee as Josh sipped his as he sat next to her and picked up an envelope from the bedside table. Placing his mug down, he opened the envelope and pulled out the large glossy picture from inside it. His dark eyebrow shot up.

"Temptation Lane? Isn't that one of those soap-operas?"

Kate stopped eating and shot a nervous look at Josh. Should she tell him about it? She has barely told him anything about her mum, but he knows the bare facts of it, so surely it wouldn't be that big a deal to tell him about her TV time with mum when she was nine. This was her boyfriend she was thinking about, her boyfriend who gave up saving kids in Haiti for her. She told Castle. He didn't even have to ask and she told him. But that… that was different. Why was it different?

"Oh yeah." Kate shrugged. "Their head writer was murdered and we closed the case yesterday so you know, they gave me this signed picture to thank me… or something."

Josh looked it over sceptically. "I doubt it would have much worth on e-bay, but I guess it's the thought that counts."

She smiled to herself, as the feeling of warmth slowly began grow in her chest. It certainly was.

Suddenly her phone went off besides her. She quickly picked it up after the ID revealed it was Esposito. Josh watched on as she nodded quickly then hung up and shoved the last piece of toast in her mouth.

" 'anks or reakast." She swallowed and gave him a quick peck on the cheek. "See you tonight."

"What have we got?"

Detective Beckett walked under the police tape as a uniform held it up for her. She walked down the dark alleyway to the end, where Ryan and Esposito were taking notes and Lanie Parish stood on a step ladder, staring into a large dumpster as forensics gathered pictures and samples.

"You're going to want to see this." Lanie looked over to Beckett, her face deadpan, but obviously surprised.

Beckett approached the dumpster as Ryan and Esposito looked on expectantly. The edge of the bin was just low enough for her to look over it and in to the mess below. There, between leaking black rubbish bags and rotting food, was a tall male body, dressed in thin black jeans and a hip plait shirt. But there was something terribly wrong.

"Oh my god. He's got no face!" Beckett looked back to see Castle behind her, staring wide-eyed into the dumpster. "That is so cool!"

The body was indeed missing a face. The back of his head still had remnants of black hair but the front was so boiled and blistered that it looked like all features had been wiped off it.

Castle moved next to Beckett and leaned in for a closer look. "Look, even his nose is missing!" He turned his head on the side, staring at the small black holes where the body's nose used to be. "You know, he kind of looks like Voldemort." His face went serious and he turned to Beckett. "Oh my god, what if it's Voldemort?"

Beckett glared at him and snatched her coffee from his hand. "Fictional character Castle." He shut up but gave a quick smile, and she quickly turned away when she realised just how close they were standing next to each other, their bodies just touching. "So what's the story Lanie?"

Lanie looked down in the dumpster from her stepladder. "Well, guessing from body development I'd say it's a male in his mid-twenties. TOD around 1 am last night. Not sure about cause of death until we get him out of the trash and into the morgue. As for the face, it seems like it was burned off."

"Death by acid!" Castle shot up hopefully.

Lanie rolled her eyes. "Not so fast Dr No, we haven't found any traces of acids or alkaline, seems like it was heat that did it."

Beckett looked back at the missing face. "The back of his head is relatively intact, so it couldn't have been done by an oven…"

"There's also no marking indicating his was burned on a surface, like a hot plate." Lanie finished.

"Volcano." Castle offered.

Beckett looked back at him with raised eyebrow and he shut up quickly. "Anything else while we're here?" She looked back at Lanie.

"Yeah. It's going to be a bitch identifying the guy," She nodded to one of the forensics team who reached into the dumpster and lifted up the bodies arm, revealing its hand from under the garbage. "because not only is his face missing, but someone kindly removed all his fingers."

NB:

Da Da DAAAAA! Well hello there Castle fans! It's been a while since I was last writing for fanfiction, and my first ever time for Castle, but an idea popped into my head and I can't seem to get rid of it. So, rather than drown it out with alcohol and cheese, I have decided to let it out.

That's right – alcohol and cheese. Try a fondue shot. It's disgusting, but awesome! Just like the 70s….

Anywho, back to the point, which is – this fiction! So, what am I doing here? Skipping the existentialism, my reason for being here is to attempt to write a full on interesting crime for Caskett to solve, surrounding a full on interesting hook up between Caskett to have. So, if all goes to plan, this will have a plot and fluff and sexual tension fulfilment. So you better hope it goes to plan – 'cause this part is up to you: you review, you feed my brain, my brain is happy, my brain writes better fanfiction. I've got a flow chart of the process somewhere, but for now you'll just have to trust me on this. So REVIEW!

*poof*