Title: Gulliver's Travels

Synopsis: Post S1. As angry as Beckett is at Castle for reopening her mother's murder, when a body shows up outside his door, she's forced to put her resentment aside and help him through being targeted by one of the most prolific serial killers the world has ever seen.

Thank you to my betas: Slynn6776, ScarletAngel, McManda

Chapter One

Her cell phone lit up and buzzed because when Kate was in the squad room she always made sure her phone was on vibrate. But the screen showed Castle's name and picture he had taken of himself so she pressed the ignore key and shifted her eyes back to the paperwork in front of her. She and the boys had finished up a new case and now all that was left was the red tape. But she now was grasping the paper tighter because just seeing Castle's name caused her whole body to tense. After she made it clear to him to leave her alone, he still had the gall to call her.

"Yo," came Esposito's voice, lighter because they had put another bad guy away. When he caught sight of Kate he paused, aware something was wrong. She tried to shake it off but it wasn't hard for Esposito to figure it out. Handing her the information she asked him for earlier he simply asked, "Castle call?"

She nodded, even the mention of his name setting her body on edge. She looked through the papers Esposito gave her trying to find the information she needed. The detective hadn't left though, and her eyes trailed up to his guilt-ridden face. "Are we okay? Still? I never should have let him…"

"It's okay, Javi," Kate said, softer than the first time he apologized. He nodded and walked away, Kate's eyes watching him do so.

When Ryan and Esposito found out Castle had been banished from the 12th and when they found out why, Esposito had looked grief-stricken. He had come to her privately and admitted he had gotten the case for Castle He had told her he was sorry and had no idea Castle was going to take things that far, but Kate had shrugged him off. Any hurt or resentment from a co-worker only mildly stung, really because she had never told Esposito to back off. Not like she had done with Castle, who had ignored the warning. When he had brought up her mother's case a day or two earlier, she had shut him down fast. And the look on his face had told her he GOT what she was saying. She remembered relief filling her as they left the station because she was sure he understood never to go near her mother's case. So much for her people reading skills.

The fact Castle had looked so apologetic when he admitted his actions did nothing to stop the air being knocked out of her with his news. It had taken her a whole minute to recover until she realized he was still speaking about what he had discovered. She just heard he had hired "an expert" and from there she had stopped him. How dare he bring in someone else? She had never regretted her decision more in telling him about her mother's past until that moment. As if following her around on her job with his annoying theories, his arrogant observations, and constant prying into her current life wasn't enough, he had to go and dig up her past and share it with a complete stranger. A 'professional' whom Castle deemed could give more insight into the case than she had.

She had told him to leave and never come back. He had listened to her, perhaps noticing her voice was different. It hadn't been one of irritation or annoyance or even anger. It was a controlled fury. He had had enough sense to not try to argue with her right there in the hospital, down the hall from the hospitalized FBI agent and former boyfriend of hers, the same man from whom she was going to have to excuse herself now, sparking Will to question what was wrong and what did Castle do this time? She couldn't get into it. She left the hospital and went straight home and cried. Damn Castle for making her cry.

After that, Castle continued to call every day, usually multiple times. However, Kate ignored him. She wasn't interested in talking to him ever again and eventually he seemed to get the message. Until now, when he made another attempt, but Kate didn't care. She saw he left a voice mail and decided she would delete that later. Sighing, Kate recovered and got back to work. Sooner or later Castle would have to learn that the world did not revolve around him.

Kate took the last completed form and placed it in a folder and then stretched her tired muscles. She spent the entire day on this paperwork and finally she was done. Now that she wasn't busy anymore she looked down at her phone prepared to find Castle's voicemail and delete it. In the several hours since his last call she was relieved he hadn't called again. She had just finished deleting the voicemail when her desk phone rang.

"Beckett," she said, voice professional.

"This is Detective Kate Beckett?" asked a male voice she didn't recognize.

"Yes, and you are?"

She heard some noise in the background. "This is Sergeant Troy from the 13th. You are the detective who worked with Richard Castle?"

Kate tensed up at the question. Surely Castle wasn't trying to contact her through someone else. Keeping her voice unemotional, she simply replied, "Yes."

She could swear she heard a snicker and she felt herself grasp the phone receiver hard. As if it wasn't hard enough to get respect being a female police officer, the mere presence of her annoying shadow seemed to bring great amusement to her colleagues.

"How well do you know him, Detective?"

"Excuse me?" What in the world was this about? She thought back to his stunts over the years. Had he gotten himself in trouble and thought she'd get him out of it?

"We've been called to his home. It seems a body has been dumped, well, dumped isn't the right word. Hung? Hanged?"

In the background she heard someone say, "I bet the writer would know."

Troy continued, "A body has been left here at Mr. Castle's door. He says he doesn't know who the man is. We are going to investigate this but we wanted to start with you to see if it's likely he did it himself."

Kate was speechless. Trying to recover at what Sergeant Troy just told her, Kate asked, "Is he … is Mr. Castle okay?"

"I wouldn't describe him as okay, but then I don't know him very well. He seems pretty upset." Kate could imagine. "He could just be faking it."

Uh oh. "You think he did this? Sergeant Troy, Mr. Castle is a best-selling, award-winning mystery writer. He wouldn't be dumb enough to kill someone and then leave them right outside his home."

"Yeah, but I've been a homicide detective for over ten years and this crime scene has got a particular flair which I understand Mr. Castle's books are known for. Do you really know him well enough to know that he couldn't have done this?"

Kate believed that most people rarely really got to know anyone that well. Was Castle capable of murder? She didn't think so, but that didn't mean anything when the evidence said otherwise. Still, Kate knew he had one hell of an imagination and it sure had failed him if the best place he could find to dump a body was his own building. "You and I both know, Sergeant, people are wrong about other people all the time. But Mr. Castle would know better than to kill someone and then call the police claiming to have found the body himself."

"He isn't claiming he found the body," Troy corrected. "His daughter, an Alexis Castle, found it when she walked outside this morning to leave for school."

Hearing that, Kate was convinced Castle had nothing to do with it. "Then no way is he responsible for this. He's too good of a father to let his daughter be exposed to something like that."

"I see," Troy said, not sounding as convinced, "but like I said, this isn't exactly a typical crime scene. Can I ask you … do you have time to come over here right now and talk to us? As a favor to another homicide detective?"

Kate cringed at the request. She really didn't want to take the chance of seeing Castle. However, curiosity did get the better of her and she agreed. Hanging up the phone, she looked over at Captain Montgomery's office knowing he was still there. She wanted to talk to him first before heading over to Castle's loft.

Kate got off the elevator and took a left in the direction of Castle's apartment. Immediately she was met by a uniform, so she pulled out her badge and he let her go by. Her jaw dropped at the sight in front of her: a police photographer, two men in suits (one she assumed to be Troy) and the medical examiner (who she didn't recognize) were gathered together in the narrow hallway in front of Castle's door. Normally such a group would be surrounding a body lying on the floor but instead they were all looking up. Hanging from the ceiling was the victim. As Kate stepped closer she could see a red stain in the center of the man's chest. It was now dripping down to the floor and the ME was pointing up towards the body, probably trying to figure out the best way to cut him down.

At Kate's approach one of the suits steps forward, extending his hand gloveless. Extending her own, she introduced herself.

"Thanks for coming," he said. "You spoke to my partner, Sergeant Troy. I'm Detective Jones. Troy's inside talking to Mr. Castle."

Kate nodded and concern suddenly coated Kate's heart as she wondered how he and his family were dealing with this. "No problem, I'm glad to help."

Her counterpart nodded, "Thank you just the same. I don't suppose the guy up there looks familiar. Seen him around here or talking to Mr. Castle before, maybe?"

Now closer to the victim, Kate studied him. He was wearing a type of uniform; blue, and the name on the left side said Rodger. He was an older middle-aged man, probably in his fifties. But he didn't look familiar and Kate said so. What really got her attention was the way he was hung from the ceiling. The rope was strung in a crisscross method, and the rope itself was unusual. Thin and brown. Hooks had been screwed into the ceiling joists and the rope ran through. It would have taken time and planning to leave the vic this way.

The detective was writing in his little notebook and Kate was just about to ask how the family was doing when she heard Castle's exasperated voice inside, "No, I don't know Rodger! I've never seen Rodger before and don't recognize the uniform."

Kate had never heard Castle sound so upset. She didn't hear Sergeant Troy's follow up question, but she heard her former shadow's next response, "Because I looked, Sergeant! Do you think when faced with a dead body on my literal doorstep, I'd make sure I didn't know him?"

Taking a step inside, Kate's eyes found Castle standing in his living room with a man whom she could guess was Sergeant Troy. Troy was facing her and she didn't like the judgmental look he was giving Castle. No matter what kind of an ass Castle could be, he did not deserve what was happening to him now. Glancing to her left she saw Martha and Alexis in the kitchen, the older woman hugging Alexis. Clearly finding the body had upset the young girl.

"Thank God! Beckett is here." Kate's attention snapped back to Castle and Troy, the former seeing Kate now and obviously relieved at her presence. At his reaction to her, Kate pursed her lips. She wasn't exactly sure what she could really do for him.

Troy walked up to her then and they shook hands. "Thanks for coming." At Kate's nod, he went on, "You see why I called you. It's an unusual scene to say the least."

"Yeah, you don't find bodies hung from the ceiling every day."

"Especially with such an elaborate method of display. Have you ever seen anything like that?"

Kate shook her head, "No, I have not."

Lowering his voice, Troy asked, "And that rope? You ever see it before? Maybe here?"

"No," she answered, getting annoyed herself. Troy starting to remind her of Detective Raglan, the investigating detective from her mother's case and the kind of cop who looked for easy answers so he can cross a case off his list and move on to the next one. "I told you, even if Castle was capable of this he wouldn't have let his daughter find the body."

"Hmmmm," the older man said, writing in his notebook, "How long did you two work together?"

"Eight months, give or take." Was it really that long?

"And what ended his following you?"

Oh, she didn't want to get into that, not with him. "It was just … time to end it."

"You ended it, right." It wasn't a question but he seemed fine not following up on the why for now.

Kate nodded. Troy continued writing. Kate asked, "So?"

"It's just convenient, don't you think? He stops getting to head out with the cops and now he suddenly has a great excuse to be a part of an investigation again."

Was this man serious? "So he killed someone and literally hung him outside his door?"

"It's possible."

"No, it's…" Kate stopped, realizing insulting the investigating officer would not help Castle's current predicament. "Sergeant, I'm sure when you view the security video -

"There is no security video."

Kate shook her head. "Yes there is. There are security cameras at all entrances of this building. I've noticed them when I come to visit…"

Troy interrupted her, "When you visit?"

"Related to working together, Sergeant."

"Yeah, but they got turned off. The building maintenance manager doesn't understand how," Troy said smugly. "Conveniently."

This worried Kate, but not for the reason Sergeant Troy thought. Kate had not allowed herself to entertain the possibility that Castle was being targeted on purpose. Until she saw the body, she had hoped that this building was just somehow opportune for the murder. But now hearing that the security cameras didn't capture any footage, as well as the time it took to place the body in that position, Kate was getting a very bad feeling about the situation.

"Well, Detective Beckett, I believe Detective Jones and I can take it from here. We appreciate you coming down." He walked away back out to the hallway leaving Kate to glare at his back.

"Thank you so much for coming!"

Kate turned to see Castle was now standing in front of her. She felt breathless at the sight of him, which confused her; she hadn't expected to have any physical reaction to his presence other than revulsion or disgust. Maybe seeing him obviously upset and worried along with his family was the reason she was reacting in such a way.

Smiling at her, he said, "I didn't think you would even listen to my voicemail."

"I didn't, but Sergeant Troy asked if I wouldn't mind coming down here and answer a few questions about you, which I have done." She wished she could now leave but her eyes looked past Castle over to where his mother and daughter were standing. Their eyes were on Kate's and she could see the relief on their own faces, making Kate's heart ache for them. "How are Martha and Alexis? Was she terribly upset? Alexis, I mean."

At the mention of his daughter, Castle frowned and Kate could see his body stiffen. "She was, but we'll get past it." Kate noted he didn't sound convinced.

"Well, hopefully this will be over soon. It will be once they mark you off the suspect list."

"Yeah, do you think that's gonna be anytime soon? Because I'm getting a little tired of Sergeant Troy's condescending questions."

"It's just standard protocol." She knew it did little to settle his anxiety.

But to her surprise, Castle's smiled, "Well now that you're here, you can take over and figure this out."

"What? No, Castle, I'm not taking over. In fact, I'm leaving." She turned to go.

"Wait, you aren't going to investigate yourself?"

Was he really serious? "No, Castle. First, it's not my jurisdiction. Second, because I have a working relationship with you, or had one, regulations would prevent me from looking into it anyway."

"Oh. Gotcha. Red tape. Don't worry, I'll make a call to the mayor and I'm sure by the morning…"

Oh God. "Castle, do NOT do that. You can't expect your connections to work this time. Plus, do you have any idea how bad this will look if you did such a thing?"

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that you already have made me a mockery by making me the subject of your next book, but to have me taking over cases from other precincts is really overstepping the line Castle, and I won't do it."

"Kate," he reached out his hand and touched her arm. "Please. Someone killed somebody and brought him here and my daughter found him. I can't just leave this up to fate. I need the best investigating this … I need you."

If she didn't know any better she thought she saw tears in his eyes but he blinked so fast that she decided she imagined them. Softening her voice, Kate said, "I'm sorry, Castle. There isn't anything I can do. But I'm sure the thirteenth will get to the bottom of this in no time."

With that she walked out, praying that Troy and Jones would prove her right.