a.n. I really shouldn't be doing this, but I want to get back into Castle so badly so I can finish A Second Chance, so I'm starting something fresh. Call it a palate cleanser.

I don't know where this is going, and updates will be sporadic, so who knows where or when we'll end up.

This starts out about a year before Johanna Beckett's murder (9 Jan 1999). Kate and Castle are the same age in this fic (18). They are seniors in High School at the beginning of the story. Also, how much of canon you'll see is TBD. This initial chapter moves very quickly.

On we go!

Disclaimer: Will we see a season 9? I don't know. Either way, I don't own Castle.

xxxx

29 March 1998

Kate Beckett was having a great day. Her boyfriend had just left her house after a great dinner with Kate and her parents. She and Rick Rodgers had been dating now for three months, and she knew it was time to introduce him to her folks. She had worried about the meeting for weeks, but it had turned out great. They loved him! It made her feel great inside to know for once her mom and dad approved of her choice. She knew if it had been a year before she would have broken up with Rick just because her parents liked him as she had been going through what her mother had termed a 'rebellious streak a mile wide.' Now, however, Kate was a little more grown up.

She was also in love.

She and Rick had been going to school together for years, but hadn't really known each other. She was always the popular pretty rich girl who had a lot of friends. Rick was the son of a single mother who worked hard to support him, but wasn't really around all that much. He had spent much of his youth entrenched in the library, burying himself in books. He had always been known as a loner.

They had finally found each other when Kate had needed help with a chemistry project, and Rick had offered to tutor her. It turned out that they got along famously, and they quickly became friends, and a few months later, Rick had asked her out.

She knew she had fallen hard for him, and she hoped that it was forever. She knew they were still young, but it felt real to her, unlike any of her other relationships throughout high school. The two of them even decided to go to college together, both deciding on Stanford. She was going to study pre-law, while Rick was going to study English Literature with a minor in criminology.

Kate had always been a planner, just like her mom. She had her whole life mapped out from the age of 8 years old. She would get top grades, get into a great college, become a lawyer like her parents, fall in love and have two kids. Rick Rodgers changed that a little when he came into her life. She might only be 18 years old, but she knew from that point on, Rick was now part of her plan.

In just two months they would graduate, and then they would start preparing for California, where they would spend the majority of the next four years. She hadn't really been looking forward to college until she and Rick had started to date. Now she knew she wouldn't be alone. It was going to be awesome.

xxxx

29 May 1998

She had her diploma in one hand and her boyfriend's hand in the other. Now five months in, her relationship with Rick was still going strong. He was everything to her now, and she couldn't imagine a life without him. It scared her a bit how quickly she had become dependent on having him in her life. She worried what would happen if for some reason they broke up.

Kate shook her head clearing her thoughts. Today was a day for happy thoughts. She leaned into Rick's side and posed for another picture.

"Hey, you okay?" He asked, kissing her forehead.

"Yeah. Just thinking. Hard to believe it's all over," she replied.

"It's only beginning, at least for us."

She smiled, leaned her head back and kissed him on the lips.

"I love you," Kate said.

"And I love you."

xxxx

25 Dec 1998

They had talked about marriage, but had decided that while they both wanted it, they would wait until they were a couple years older. Kate had surprised herself when she had brought the topic up. Normally a girlfriend would shy away from that less she scare the man away. But like everything else they just talked about it.

She found it so comforting that they could talk through anything. They hardly ever fought, and when they did they talked instead of shouted. They had come back to New York to spend Christmas with her parents, and they were having a good time.

Rick and her mom were currently out in the kitchen preparing dinner, while she and her dad were watching Home Alone on the television.

"So Katie, how are things between you and Rick?" Her dad asked during a commercial.

"Great. I love him a lot, daddy," Kate replied.

"He's a good man, your mom and I are happy for you."

"What about you and mom? Are you still fighting over that big case?"

Jim Beckett was silent for a moment before he said, "Yeah. But we'll be okay. I'm just happy you're here for Christmas."

During their phone calls over the last month, Kate had found out that her mom had been burying herself into some case which her father had disagreed with.

"I'm glad we're here too. Too bad Martha couldn't make it, I know Rick misses her."

"What is she doing now?"

"Something off Broadway," Kate replied. "She changes around so much neither Rick or I can keep up with her."

"Alright, you two, stop gossiping and come get dinner," Johanna Beckett called from the kitchen doorway.

They had a great dinner during which they talked a lot about the last few months. Kate and Rick told the Beckett parents about their classes and how they were enjoying Stanford. Rick talked about the writer's club he had joined, while Kate talked about the study group she had joined.

Kate loved to spend time with her parents, but she could tell that there was tension between her mom and dad. It wasn't the first time they had fought over a case, but this seemed different. When they moved to the living room to open presents, she noticed that her parents sat on opposite ends of the room, well away from each other, when normally they'd sit almost on top of each other. She shared a look with Rick, and she knew he noticed it too.

Something bad was going on, but neither parent was talking. Kate was worried.

xxxx

9 January 1999

Where was she? Kate, Rick and her father were all sitting at a small Italian restaurant waiting for Johanna to meet them after work. The restaurant was garnished in the traditional, yet stereotypical, Italian restaurant garb right down to the red and white checkered tablecloths.

"Do you think we should try to call her?" Rick asked, looking at Jim.

"Let's give her some time, she's been buried in this case for months now, this isn't all that unusual. So you two looking forward to going back to school?"

Kate shrugged. She was looking forward to it, but really it had nothing to do with wanting to go back to her classes. She wanted to be alone with Rick, and away from the tension filled Beckett house. After Christmas dinner, the tension grew even more as Johanna decided to go back to work immediately instead of staying home to celebrate the holidays with her family. Rick and Kate, who were staying in the guestroom, had overheard the fight that had followed that decision. Kate had never heard her parents fight like that. So she was looking forward to getting away from it.

Everything about it bothered her. Not only were her parents having problems, but it made Kate doubt her choice of following them into law. She didn't want to sacrifice her future with Rick for anything, not even her career. It worried her that her parents, who she knew loved each other, could fight so bad. Would that be her and Rick in twenty years? She hoped not. It break her heart to know that something as trivial as work came between them. She vowed to never let that happen. She loved him too much.

The trio waited another 45 minutes before they decided to go back to the Beckett home. It was obvious to everyone that Johanna Beckett had forgot about their family dinner.

When they got home, they found a police cruiser in the driveway. Kate had a really bad feeling about flowing through her. Rick, who sat beside her in the backseat, grabbed her hand, obviously sensing the same thing.

Kate somehow knew that no matter how hard she tried, whatever happened to them in the next few hours would change her carefully scripted plan forever.

xxxx

a.n.2. Reviews please.