TWO

"Hey, where's Castle?" Ryan asked as they stepped off the elevator in the homicide division of the twelfth precinct, "Thought he'd be here by now."

"It's Saturday, Ryan. He's with Luke," Kate said, bringing back the sinking feeling in her stomach. She hated having to leave Castle with Luke yet again. She'd promised him time and time again that she wasn't going to let him raise their child on his own like he'd had to do with Alexis, but after her six weeks of maternity leave was up, it was back to work at the precinct and her free time to be with her husband and son had diminished to almost none.

"Can't he take care of him here?" Ryan mumbled quietly as they set their things down on their respective desks and set to work on their case. Kate rolled her eyes. She knew that Ryan was missing Castle's company on the cases. When Luke was born he'd stopped consulting, preferring to take care of Luke himself rather than hire a babysitter. As Kate had hoped, once Luke was old enough for pre-school, Castle had been able to consult during the day but otherwise his absence stuck out like a bullet hole in someone's head.

"I wish," Kate responded as she and Ryan exchanged a look. They both knew what it was like to have to leave their families on short notice to pick up a case. Kate switched her monitor on and opened up her emails where tech had sent over files on the victim as well as the list of tenants and the CCTV footage from the previous night.

"So, what's our first move?" Ryan asked, moving from his computer to the printer to pick up the pictures.

"Well, we've got CCTV footage and a list of tenants from Simon's building so we'll start by establishing whether Simon went out last night at all. The parents should be here soon too, the drive from the Hamptons is only a couple hours."

Ryan nodded as he placed the pictures of their vic on the murder board. She looked up at the picture they had of Simon before he'd been pumped full of bullets. He was quite handsome, broad shouldered and kind eyed. He didn't look like he deserved to die the way that he did. She pushed herself to her feet and made her way over to the whiteboard, uncapping a marker as she did so. With a steady hand she drew a long thick line across the board – their timeline.

"So we know the struggle started at 2:30am according to neighbours," Kate said, marking it on the timeline.

"Shots fired between 3:15 and 3:17am," said Ryan, "Or at least that's what we suspect." Kate nodded, writing it down in block letters and putting a dot on the bottom of her question mark with a flourish. She drew a line on the board in red marker showing them where their kill zone was. Kate put the end of the pen within her teeth, her brow furrowing as she thought of possible things that a seemingly normal sixteen year old boy could've done to have died in such a way.

"Found anything on CCTV?" she asked Ryan a few minutes later after coming up with a whole heap of nothing. Castle was the writer, not her.

"Not yet," Ryan said, "But going through this kid's file, it seems he has a lot of responsibilities for a sixteen year old."

"What do you mean?" Kate asked, turning away from the board.

"I mean," Ryan said, turning his screen around so that it was facing her, "He's a father."

"What?" Kate asked incredulously.

"File says that Simon Gilbert and girlfriend Tamara Rollins have an unnamed daughter, given up for adoption last year," Ryan said, "Adoption papers are here and everything."

"I thought we didn't have access to adoption records unless it was pertinent to the case," Kate said, moving curiously from her spot in front of the board over to Ryan's computer.

"We don't," Ryan said, turning his computer screen back around to face him as Kate leaned over his shoulder, "Tech only sent these over because three weeks ago Simon and his girlfriend made a plea to the court to be involved in their daughters life."

"Alright, call the girlfriend, I want to speak to her, and find out who the adoptive parents were." Kate said, moving back over to her own desk and pulling up files on Tamara Rollins.

"On it," Ryan said, typing something into his computer and clicking the mouse a few times before he picked up his phone.

The computer dinged, telling Kate that the search was complete. Tamara Rollins wasn't in the system. She sighed as she composed an email to tech, asking them to pull up whatever they could on the sixteen-year-old.

"Detective Beckett?" Kate looked up to see a uniformed cop with two stricken civilians standing behind him, "a Robert and Sandra Gilbert for you."

"Of course," Kate said, rising to her feet and grabbing her folder off the desk, "Right this way," she indicated the interview room as she nodded a thank you to the uniformed cop.

"I'm very sorry for your loss, Mr and Mrs Gilbert," Kate said as she opened the door for her victim's parents.

"Yeah, well, sorry isn't going to bring him back, is it?" Mrs Gilbert spat bitterly. Her husband put his hand on her arm comfortingly.

"Look, I understand that this is hard for you, but you need to tell me, did Simon have anyone that may have wanted to hurt him?"

Mr Gilbert shook his head sadly, "He was a quiet boy. He didn't socialise much with anyone. He just wanted to get into a good college."

"What about his girlfriend, Tamara Rollins?" Kate asked, pulling Tamara's picture out of her folder and sliding it across the table at them.

"Simon and Tamara broke up a year ago. He was heartbroken," Mr Gilbert said, "They made a mistake and Tamara got pregnant. They both wanted to keep the baby but Tamara's parents made her give it up for adoption and break up with Simon."

"Our records indicate that three weeks ago Simon and Tamara entered a plea to know who their daughter's adoptive parents were. Do you know anything about this?" Kate asked gently.

Mr Gilbert shook his head, confusion evident across his face. Kate made a note of it and looked across at Mrs Gilbert who seemed to be overcome with rage.

"What about you, Mrs Gilbert, did you know anything about this."

She shook her head, her eyes still blazing. Kate knew that people had different reactions to their loved ones dying but she had never seen a parent as angry as Mrs Gilbert before.

"Do you have any idea what Simon was doing last night after he let his sister sleep over at her friends place?"

Mr Gilbert shook his head but Mrs Gilbert let her rage fly, "Why do you keep asking us questions?" she yelled hysterically, "Why ask us the questions when you could be out there questioning suspects!"

"Mrs Gilbert we don't have any suspects at the moment, that's why we're talking to you. We need to establish a timeline and find somewhere to start. Evidence left at the scene of the crime only gets us so far," Kate explained patiently. It wasn't the first time she'd had to deal with a family member who thought they were wasting their time by interviewing them when they could be out catching the killer.

"So you mean to tell me that you're nowhere?" Mrs Gilbert seethed.

"Look, Mrs Gilbert, I know that this is hard –" Kate started.

"No you don't know!" the older woman screamed, "My son is dead! Shot in his own bedroom, and of course Danielle had to find him. She's only fourteen, detective! Simon was only sixteen for god's sake! And we're sat here being asked about his ex-girlfriend and where he was last night."

"We need to find who killed your son," Kate said softly as Mrs Gilbert buried her face in her hands, "We need to bring his killer to justice and we need your help to make sure it happens."

Mrs Gilbert lifted her face from her hands and attempted to wipe her eyes dry, but to no avail, more tears kept flowing down her cheeks, "Do you have children, detective?"

Kate nodded, "A little boy."

"Tell me about him," Mrs Gilbert said, reaching across the table and picking up the picture of Simon that Kate had placed there.

"His name is Luke," Kate said softly, "He's four years old and…" Kate paused wondering if she would overstep the boundaries by saying what she was about to. She decided to take her chances, "… and I love him more than anything."

"I loved him more than anything," Mrs Gilbert said, stroking Simon's face.

"I know," Kate said sympathetically, thinking about how she would feel if anything ever happened to Luke, "I know, Mrs Gilbert and that's why I need you to think. Was Simon acting oddly lately? Your daughter told us he seemed distracted when she spoke to him last."

Mrs Gilbert shook her head, "No he was acting perfectly normal… Simon has always been extra studious and careful. He just wants the best for himself."

Kate nodded, writing it down, "I'm sorry to have to ask you this but your daughter mentioned that you travel a lot for work, leaving Simon in charge so is it possible that there might've been something going on in his life that you missed?"

"It is possible, yes," Mr Gilbert said, "My wife and I have very demanding jobs. Simon saved us a lot of money by looking after his sister."

"Did Simon have any friends that we can talk to, maybe establish what his routine was?" Kate asked.

Mr Gilbert nodded, "His friends are Timothy Westburn and Harrison Raegan. They live in the apartment two blocks down from ours. They've been friends since they were toddlers… In fact it was Timothy's house that Danielle slept over at last night, she and his younger sister Isabella have been friends as long as Timothy and Simon were.

Kate jotted down the names that Mr Gilbert had given her and the connection to the place Danielle had been at last night.

"Simon was sixteen, did he have a part time job of any sort?" Kate asked, "Are there any co-workers that we can talk to?"

"He worked at his Uncle's garage in Brooklyn," Mr Gilbert said, "He took the job when Tamara got pregnant and they thought that they were keeping it. When they gave her up for adoption he didn't have the heart to quit it's a bit out of the way, but it's the only place that would hire him."

Kate scribbled down the newfound information before rising to her feet.

"Thank you for your time, Mr and Mrs Gilbert," she said, "We'll talk to Simon's friends and co-workers to see if we can find a concrete place to begin our investigation. We'll be in touch if we need any more information or if we find anything."

Mr Gilbert nodded and helped his wife to her feet, she was still trying to stem the flow of tears from her eyes. Kate gave her a sympathetic look as she passed by on her way out of the interview room. All she could think about was how much she never wanted to sit on the other couch in that room. She'd already been there once, when she was nineteen, answering questions about her mother to the detective. The raw pain she felt back then was still just as prominent now, eating into her whenever she had to ask the same insensitive questions that would help them to find the killer. Watching the families and friends of the victims hurt and cry for the loss of their loved one and every time, without fail it took Kate back to January 1999, no matter how much time had passed since then. Nearly twenty years had gone by and there wasn't a day that she lived through that she didn't miss her mom.

"Tough one?" Ryan asked, watching the two grief stricken parents walking towards the elevator

"They're all tough," Kate said, her voice strained as she tried to pull herself back to the present, "I don't even want to think about what they're feeling right now."

"Yeah, tell me about it," Ryan said, glancing down at his shoes before glancing back at her. Kate knew that look. At first it was only Castle with that look in his eyes whenever they had a minor murdered. Next it was Ryan and then the look had infected Esposito and herself. As they had all brought children of their own into this world it got harder and harder to watch the parents of their victims grieve for their children and they all knew that no matter what, this was not something that would pass with time.

"Anyway," Ryan said, his voice perking up, "Do you want to see what I've found?

"Hit me," Kate said, happy that they finally had something to go on. Ryan gestured for her to follow him back to his computer.

"I tried to get in contact with the girlfriend but she wasn't answering her cell and nobody's picking up the house phone…. So I scrubbed that CCTV that Simon's building sent over and look who comes into the building with him at 11:34pm," Ryan said as he hit play on the tape. Kate squinted to make a clearer picture of the grainy black and white footage.

"Is that… Tamara Rollins?" she asked as she watched Simon walk through the doors arm in arm with a girl who was unmistakably the girl she had a picture of in her file.

"The very same," said Ryan, "Now, Danielle said that she left for her friend's place at around 6pm, she checks out – CCTV has her leaving at 6:03. What's interesting here is, we don't ever see Simon leaving the building, yet here he is walking back in with his girlfriend at 11:34."

"Are you sure?" Kate asked, puzzled.

"Positive," Ryan said, "I scrubbed it twice just to make sure. Simon Gilbert didn't leave that building after his sister did."

"So how did he get outside?" Kate asked, "Can you zoom in on them and print that?"

Ryan nodded and keyed in the commands on his computer, "He could've climbed out the window."

"From the fifth floor?" Kate asked, unconvinced.

"Good point," Ryan said.

"Is there another entrance or exit in the building?" Kate asked.

"Only the fire escape but there are cameras covering that too… I got tech to check them over, nobody's touched the fire escape in the last two days."

"Okay so Simon mysteriously gets out of the building at an unknown time and walks back through the front door at 11:34pm… does that sound weird to you?" she asked.

"No…" Ryan said, moving from his desk to the printer and sticking up the CCTV footage of Simon and Tamara on the murder board, "Why?"

"Because he went to such great lengths not to be seen by the camera in the lobby, but then walks right back in with his supposed ex-girlfriend in full view of the camera," Kate said, examining the picture closely on the board.

"Seems like the fact that he's in a forbidden relationship isn't the secret here," Ryan said as he read over Kate's notes from the interview.

"What was this kid up to?" Kate said curiously, picking up the file on their vic that had been left on the desk and flipping through it, looking for anything that might jump out at her. She found nothing.

"Ryan can you try and get a hold of Tamara again? She might be able to shed some light on what Simon was doing before she came back with him. Then go through the list of tenants, see if anyone pops."

Ryan nodded, "On it."

"I'll be back in a bit," Kate said, pulling her coat on, "The parents gave me the names of some friends of Simon's, hopefully they can tell us more about him since he distanced himself from his family… also can you text me when CSU sends over their report?"

"You got it," Ryan said, dialling a number into his phone and putting it to his ear, "Hey and could you maybe get Castle down here? I could use a bit of entertainment."

"Dream on, Ryan," Kate said as she walked out of the bullpen and towards the elevator, gearing herself up to face another one of her least favourite parts of the investigation.

She pressed the button on the elevator impatiently, annoyed that the doors just didn't slide open as they normally did. Some Uniform must've gone downstairs and not come back up again. Kate rummaged in her pocket, hoping that Castle had sent her a text, maybe some pictures of Luke playing in the snow at Central Park. She was disappointed when she switched it on and no messages came in.

The elevator dinged and Kate looked up, about to rouse at the uniform who had taken it downstairs but instead, as the doors slid open she found herself face to face with none other than her husband.

"Castle?" she asked in surprise as his face broke into a smile.

"Mommy!" Kate felt the wind get knocked out of her as a three foot tall whirlwind barrelled into her midriff, his small arms wrapping around her waist.

"Hey Luke," she said happily, bending down and lifting her son up into her arms. She kissed his cheek and he pulled away, wiping it off.

"Gross, mommy," he said, putting his arms around her neck and resting his head on her shoulder, causing Kate to laugh at him as he tried to rub the lipstick that he had just wiped off his cheek off of his hands. She turned her attention from Luke back to Castle.

"What're you doing here?" she asked, half surprised, half annoyed.

"Luke missed you," Castle said, shrugging, "He was upset that you had to cancel our trip to the park so I promised that we'd head down here to see you at lunch."

Kate shot him a look that clearly told him that they needed to talk in private. She pried Luke's arms from around her neck and put him on the ground, "Hey," she said, bending down and taking her son's hands in her own, "Why don't you go and see if Uncle Ryan needs some help?" she said, pointing over to where Ryan was scribbling down case notes. She ought not to distract him but the poor guy had needed a distraction all morning and without Castle there to provide one, she was feeling a tiny bit sorry for him.

Luke nodded eagerly and with his mother's smile as a blessing, he ran off through the bullpen calling out Ryan's name.

With their son safely out of earshot, Kate grabbed Castle's arm and pulled him towards the break room.

"Kate are you-?" Castle managed to get out before Kate cut him off.

"Castle I thought I told you to not bring him down here when we have a case on. There's pictures of dead bodies everywhere," Kate said.

Castle chuckled, "Relax, he loves that kind of stuff."

"Oh? And what makes you think that?" Kate asked, quirking an eyebrow at him as she put her hands on her hips.

"He's a boy and he's my son," Castle said innocently, "Plus he walked in on me watching Zombie movies the other night and thought all the blood and guts were pretty cool."

"You let him watch a zombie movie?! Castle, he's four years old!"

"He liked it!" Castle said defensively, "No nightmares, nothing. He kept saying it was cool when the guy's brains got eaten."

Kate rolled her eyes, "Okay well at least I know he's definitely your son."

"Hey!" Castle said indignantly, "Wait was that a compliment?"

Kate laughed as Castle put his arms around her waist and pulled her in close to him, "I dunno Castle, you tell me."

Castle didn't respond, instead placing a soft kiss on her lips, "I've missed you today. So has Luke."

"I know," Kate said quietly, "Trust me I'm just as upset as you are. I would much rather be in the park with you and Luke than sitting in the interview room consoling the parents of a sixteen year old."

"A sixteen year old?" Castle asked, surprised.

"Yeah," Kate said, "It's nearly been a year without a minor homicide, too."

"I'm sorry," Castle said, wrapping his arms around her and resting his chin on the top of her head, "But seeing as I'm here don't you think you should tell me what the case is about?" Castle said eagerly. Kate rolled his eyes. It had been four years since he had stopped consulting full time and yet he still couldn't keep his head out of the precinct.

"Alright," Kate relented and turned towards the break room door, "But no consulting until Monday, alright?"

"Yes, okay, I agree," Castle said eagerly, wanting to see the murder board as quickly as possible.

No sooner had the two of them exited the break room, they heard Gates' voice ring out across the bullpen, "Mister Castle."

"Fuck," Castle whispered, jumping behind Kate who's slender frame did nothing to hide his bulk. Kate rolled her eyes and stepped aside, revealing Castle to whatever wrath Gates was about to unleash.

"Uh, Hi, Captain Gates," Castle said, rubbing the back of his neck, "How are you?"

"I'm just fine, thank you," she said, "now my I ask what you are doing here? As I recall you only consult while your son is at school."

"We uh, just came down to see Kate- crap, - Detective Beckett… She was supposed to have today off and Luke missed her," Castle said quickly, running most of his words together. Gates' eyes fell on Ryan and Luke and she rolled them as she watched Ryan entertaining the four year old with his computer.

"I expect you to be out within the hour, Mister Castle, a police precinct is no place for a four year old. Understand?"

Castle nodded rapidly, not wanting to piss her off at all and with a nod she disappeared back into her office. Castle let out a long stream of breath.

"I can't believe she still doesn't like me."

Kate rolled her eyes, "Come on, do you want to see this murder board or not?"

Author's Notes:I'm so sorry this took so long to update, I've just started year 11 and got slammed with homework on the first day. Anyway this chapter is a little longer than the last so hopefully that makes up for the wait. Let me know if you want to see anything in particular and I will do my best to include it. Thank you so much to all of you who favourited/reviewed/alerted this, It means a lot.

If you could leave a short note with your feedback in the box below I would be very grateful.

Best Wishes,
Nayla xx