A/N: So, sequel! I'm just going to shut up and let you read. Though one quick thing…

DISCLAIMER: In no way do I claim ownership of recognisable characters. They all belong in the (somewhat) safe hands of Andrew Marlowe and Co. and ABC.

Previously…

"What have we got?"

"Two victims in the penthouse apartment, one James Cleaver and his wife, Monica. One of the neighbours from the floor below called 911 after hearing shots fired. When uniforms got here, they found the two bodies but the perp had gone. While they were searching the apartment, they heard crying coming from one of the cupboards and found the Cleavers' four year old daughter hiding in there, the room locked from the outside."

"Their kid was there the whole time?" Kate asked, astonished and almost sick to her stomach at the thought of an innocent, defenceless four year old girl hearing her parents being murdered.

"Yeah," Esposito answered. "And there's something else…"

Ryan and Esposito shared a grim look before the latino detective said, "While looking into the girl's family to find someone to take her, we found out she was adopted."

Kate nodded, silently wondering why the boys were looking steadily at her with worry in their eyes.

"Her biological mother is, well, it's Rachel Winters, Beckett."

She'd been dealt a physical blow, one that had her mind reeling. "What?"

"She's Rachel's daughter, that's why Gates wants you in on this. We're thinking that this is too coincidental to be, well a coincidence," Ryan explained softly, scrutinising Kate's face. They didn't want this to be another case that dragged her down the rabbit hole. Before they could stop her, she was rushing up the stairs, not bothering to hang around for the elevator.

Out of breath, she burst into the room, forgetting all about her normal survey of the crime scene, and gasped, "Lanie, tell me."

"This is just preliminary of course, but the size of the wounds on both bodies suggest maybe a .45. The wound here," Lanie indicated a bloody circle on the front of Monica Cleaver's shirt, to the left of her heart, with the end of her pen before continuing, "probably would have been fatal. She'd have bled out in minutes. Unfortunately, Mr Cleaver here on the other hand, suffered multiple shots before this one here probably punctured his lungs and caused him to drown in his own blood."

Kate was drawn out of her gloomy thoughts by a quiet whimper and a snivel coming from another room in the penthouse apartment. Leaving Lanie with the bodies, she headed into the other room, filled with growing unease as the sobs got louder.

"What's going on? Why's she still here?" Kate demanded of the uniform sitting with the Cleaver's little girl the second she caught sight of her.

The young uniform looked up as Kate crossed the room and crouched in front of the little girl. "Detective, my sergeant tasked me with keeping her here-"

"-This is a crime scene and you know as well as I do what's on the other side of that door and how upsetting this must be for her." Even if the girl hadn't been crying it was obvious she had experienced something traumatic. She frowned at the man, wondering how callous he could be. The first thing the officers should have done when they found the girl was have her checked over by paramedics before whisking her out of there. Ignoring the young uniform, she tilted her head until she was looking straight into the girl's tearful eyes. "Hi, I'm Kate, can you tell me your name?"

It took a few snuffles and attempts before Kate finally caught her whisper.

"Madeline, I'm a detective with the city police force. I'm really sorry but you can't stay here. Do you understand?" After a single nod from her, Kate yelled out for the Medical Examiner, requesting as soon as Lanie poked her head around the doorframe that she cover the bodies to avoid any further upset for Madeline when Kate was escorting her out. Whilst Lanie roped in some of CSU to help her drape sheets over the bodies of Madeline's parents, Kate tried to made idle talk with the girl. "How old are you, Madeline?"

"Four," she mumbled, not quite meeting Kate's eyes, instead looking past her at the stars and moon pattern on the carpet of her bedroom.

He strode out of the elevator, his eyes immediately looking for Kate's sun-bleached hair and the blue coat she'd had in her hand luggage in amongst the many desks of the bullpen. Without really thinking, Castle headed towards Esposito and Ryan when he saw them standing outside the breakroom.

"Hey guys."

"Castle," they said together, both nodding in perfect synchronicity. Sometimes Rick marvelled at how coordinated their movements were and chuckled at the mental picture he had of them competing in the Olympics in the synchronised diving events. Those tiny speedos just weren't Javi's thing.

"What are you doing here?" Ryan asked, his eyes flicking to look through the breakroom window before returning to Castle as he finally stopped in front of them.

"Kate texted," he answered with a shrug. "Where is she by the way?" He glanced around the bullpen again, wondering if he'd somehow missed her, before craning his neck to see between the two detectives. His heart stopped when he caught sight of her, sitting on the floor with one of the cutest children he'd seen since Alexis was first in his arms. Giving the boys a curious looks before his wife and the young girl claimed his gaze again, he murmured, "What's going on?"

"Beckett-sorry Castle's, keeping our little friend there entertained until a social worker comes to collect her since she's got no other family members to take her

He was mesmerised watching her interact with Madeline, so consumed by the image that he barely heard Esposito giving him the facts of the case. They were colouring, he noticed, though what Kate had drawn he couldn't tell from the angle he was stood at, since she was sat sideways. The four year old girl though had obviously drawn a picture of her family.

He couldn't help imagining a little girl just like her with a headful of brown curls and hazel eyes coming into his office in her mother's arms to present him with a drawing just like it, showing him, Kate, Alexis, her Gram and Pop and a big dog, something that could join all the other pictures he would have pinned up to decorate his office. No more spiralling staircases or lions would be needed.

With the blinds of the room pulled up, his view of Kate chatting away to the silent girl was uninterrupted, but he could only see her mouth moving; he couldn't hear the words she's saying. Without really knowing what he was doing, his hand reached out for the door handle, twisting it open.

Kate looked up at the noise, smiling gently at the sight of him hovering in the doorway. "Hey, Castle. Maddie, this is my husband, Rick."

"Maddie? That's funny, Kate has a friend called Maddie and she's got blonde hair just like you. Did she tell you?" Rick asked, coming into the room and closing the door behind him as Maddie nodded shyly. He perched on the edge of a chair where he could see Kate's sketch of an elephant and Maddie's picture of her family.

He was mostly silent, content to watch and listen to Kate interacting with Madeline. He was amazed by how good she was with her. Although Maddie was obviously retreating into herself, hardly talking, somehow Kate was able to continue to draw answers out of her. She was going to be a wonderful mother one day. Rick had known that for a long time, now he just wished it would be one day soon.

"Beckett," Espo said, popping his head through around the break room door. "The social worker's here."

"Thanks," Kate replied as she got to her feet before looking back down at Madeline. "Maddie, I'm just going to be out there for a few minutes," she told her, pointing out the break room window, "but Rick's gonna sit with you. Is that okay?"

Maddie looked at Rick without saying anything.

"He's really nice, I promise. He can help you draw – he's really good at dog ears."

Finally Maddie nodded and Kate left her alone with Castle.

"So, you need help with those dog ears then, huh?" he asked, doing his best to keep things light and as un-awkward as possible. He slid off the couch and peered critically at the drawing Maddie was in the process of finishing. "Is this a German Shepherd?"

Maddie nodded, and he breathed a silent sigh of relief at guessing right.

"That's good. German Shepherds are police dogs, you know. I see a lot of German Shepherds some days, so I'm extra good at drawing them." He picked up the brown crayon that Maddie had left on the floor. "May I?"

She nodded and watched noiselessly as he lightly drew the general shape of the ears before colouring them in with the brown and black crayons.

"Does this dog have a name?"

"Gizmo," Maddie answered quietly. She wasn't yet comfortable around him, but that was okay; he'd keep persevering.

"Gizmo, that's a good name. Reminds me of my favourite name – Cosmo."

Maddie giggled.

"What? You don't like the name?"

Again, she laughed. "It's funny."

Castle grinned, glad that he was finally connecting with the girl as Kate seemed to already have done. He was still smiling when the door to the break room opened again and Beckett leaned in to summon him out.

He watched from outside as Beckett introduced Madeline to the social worker and went on to explain that she was going to take her to some people who would look after her. He could see that in such a short time, Maddie had already formed a bond with Kate and didn't want to leave the precinct. It was understandable – after all, it had only taken one day of working with Kate (albeit unwillingly on her part) for him to find himself repeatedly drawn back to her.

Inside the breakroom, Kate could feel Castle watching her as Maddie tugged on her heartstrings with that crumpled expression. She knew she shouldn't but it was just one small hug before the girl left. She didn't think she'd be seeing the sweet girl again; she'd already managed to sneakily interview Maddie when they were just chatting and it was obvious that her parents had known of the threat hanging over them and had hurried to protect her, locking her in her own bedroom before she could be killed meaning she therefore hadn't seen their murderer.

Once the social worker and Madeline were gone, they sat side by side on Kate's desk and stared at the murder board that Esposito and Ryan had created whilst they were entertaining Maddie. Beside it stood a second white board containing all the details of Rachel Winters' murder since there was a strong possibility the two cases were linked.

"So, what leads do we have so far?" Kate asked, looking to Ryan and Esposito to fill her in on their work.

"Lanie should be finished with the autopsy in a couple of hours so we'll know for sure what size the slugs were and we'll be able to check ballistics for links to previous cases." Kate nodded as she digested the information.

"Have we got any more witness statements to chase up?"

Ryan shook his head. "Uniforms have already collected all the statements from the apartment staff and residents, but so far the only solid evidence we have is corroboration of the shots fired at 3:05. Other than that nobody saw or heard anything. We've requisitioned the buildings security tapes to check the entrances and elevator; they should be here any minute."

"And what about Rachel's case?" Castle asked. "Are we reopening it?"

"That would be my decision, Mr Castle," Gates announced, surprising both Kate and Rick since they had been sitting with their backs to her office and were unaware that she'd been listening to her detectives' report.

"So? Are we reopening it?" he asked again, desperate for the second opportunity to bring Rachel's killer to justice. Kate squeezed his wrist but kept her eyes locked on Captain Gates.

"Although we have two different murder weapons here, the presence of an undeniable link between the Cleavers and Miss Winters means we have to consider the possibility that the Cleavers adoption of Madeline led to their deaths and that we are dealing with the same killer. In light of this new information, I believe we have new avenues of investigation in the Winters case so, yes Mr Castle, the NYPD is officially reopening our investigation of Rachel Winters' murder."

"And – just to clarify – we're allowed to investigate it this time?"

Kate thought she caught a hint of amusement in Gate's eyes as Castle indicated her and himself with a hand flying between them. She very much hoped that that meant their captain would say yes.

"Two cases, four detectives. I'd say this case could do with a new set of eyes looking over the information, wouldn't you?"

Kate slid off the desk. "Thank you, Sir, you won't regret it."

He was still marvelling that they were getting the chance to investigate as he sat beside her in his chair once more.

"I just genuinely can't believe she said yes."

"Castle, you've said that five times in the last three minutes," Kate muttered without looking up from the file Esposito had handed her. It contained everything they had on Rachel's murder – statements from her assistant Henry, friend Violet and the cleaner who found her body, grainy CCTV freezeframes from street cameras outside taken around the time of her murder, the ME report. It was all there.

"Sorry. I'm just glad we get to finally solve this case, you know."

She nodded. She did know. Not being able to solve Rachel's murder, to even investigate, felt like an insult to Rachel's memory. It undermined her reasoning for even becoming a cop: to bring justice and closure to the families left behind. Briefly, she wondered what had happened when Ryan and Esposito had had to inform Rachel's father of her death – whether he'd been having a brief moment of clarity or if he'd been stuck without knowing he even had a daughter.

Both she and Castle were beginning to feel the effects of jet lag, yawning widely into their hands or shoulders, but she soldiered on, doing her best to get through the report while Ryan and Esposito sifted through hours of surveillance footage from the Cleavers' place.

When her eyes began to blur and stop recognising the words on the pages before her though, she gave in, placing all the documents back into the manila folder and sealing it shut before turning to Castle to find him snoring gently in the chair, his head propped up on his closed fist as he leaned against the table. She smirked at his open mouth and the way his hand moved the skin over his cheekbones. Really, he was quite adorable while he slept. It was when he was awake that he drove her slowly insane. Though she'd become so used to that that it was actually one of the things that she had grown to love – his ability to make every moment of her life fun.

Sighing, she tucked the manila folder under one of her arms and used her free hand to smooth Rick's tousled hair away from his forehead.

"Come on, Rick, it's time to go home."

A/N: I just want to take a quick minute to explain that I had the idea for this story before I even knew that there was going to be an episode called 'The Good, the Bad and the Baby' and although the idea may seem like it's going to be very similar to the episode, it will be quite different so please don't be put off by that. Aside from that, I would love to hear any thoughts you may have so be sure to leave a review. Anyways, thanks for reading!