"Oh, look who it is," Javier Esposito grinned as a woman made her way towards him. "What're you doing in this part of town, girl? Take a wrong turning?" Espo knew she lived in a quirky apartment in Lower Manhattan, she didn't often venture over to their neck of the woods.

"Beckett!" Ryan greeted brightly. He was always friendlier on approach than his partner, but Kate knew Espo was only joking with her, they had that kind of sibling relationship. Ryan was like their puppy.

"Morning, guys," she smiled. "I was hoping to run into you here." She was glad they hadn't been out on a case when she had decided to drop by. "Listen, I need a favour. Is there somewhere we can all talk?"

"Oh, so you're coming down here in person to ask for favours now are you?" Espo teased and Kate rolled her eyes. "C'mon," he said, "we can head in here." He led Kate and Ryan into a small room off of the main office. It was cosy and had a couple of couches on either side of a coffee table.

"Is everything okay, Beckett?" Ryan asked. He knew Espo had made a joke about Beckett coming in to ask for something but this never happened - whatever she needed to talk about must be pretty serious.

"I'm taking on a new..case," Beckett announced, taking a seat. "And it's not a normal case, in fact it's anything but, and the thing is I'm going to need your help." The boys remained silent so she continued. "The case I'm taking on..it's kinda the opposite of what I normally do, in fact."

"Beckett," Espo sighed. "In case you weren't aware, we do actually have work to do. Spit it out, would you?"

"Sorry." She had been working up the courage to tell them what she was going to be doing, but she decided now she was just going to have to spit it out and get it over with. "I'm going to try and prove Richard Castle innocent." She didn't need to tell them anymore than that, every cop in the country knew the Castle case.

"You're what?" Espo half growled. "The man killed his wife! And you're going to get him off?" Kate blanched at Esposito's anger; she hadn't been expecting that. "I met him that night, did you know that?" Espo continued and Kate shook her head - that was news to her. "Yeah, I was a uniform back then, on night duty and we were assigned to head over to his apartment and pick him up for murder." Espo took a deep breath. "I arrested him. I put the cuffs on him and led him away from his apartment block, to rot in jail where he belonged."

Kate took in the new information she had been told. Esposito had never told her that story and from the look on his partner's face, Ryan didn't know either. "I met him that night too," she admitted. "I was in a bar and he was there too. I know I'm not a cop but we do the same thing, day after day I work on cases with real criminals and I know what one looks like. Richard Castle is not guilty, and I think if you met him again now, you'd think the same."

Before Esposito could argue back, Montgomery entered the room to see where his detectives had got to. "Ah, Miss Beckett," he smiiled warmly. "Lovely to see you again. What brings you over this way?"

"Just looking for some help on my new case, Captain," Kate replied. "I was explaining it to Ryan and Esposito here just before you came in. I apologise for taking them away from their work."

The Captain chuckled. "Anything for you, Beckett. As long as it doesn't interfere with ongoing cases then you know I'm cool with it. What is your new case, may I ask? Anything interesting?"

"She's going to get Richard freaking Castle out of jail," Espo spat, storming out of the room and back to the bullpen.

Montgomery raised an eyebrow at Kate. "I uh.." she sighed. "That's the plan, anyway," she huffed. "I met with him recently and agreed to take on the case." Ryan muttered something about going to check on his partner, leaving Kate and Montgomery to talk. "I came in today to talk with the boys, I'm gonna need a lot of help on this one and I was hoping to convince them to get on board.." She was realising now that it was going to be easier said than done, especially after Javi's reaction.

"Richard Castle, eh?" Montgomery mused. "I remember that case. Guy killed his cheating wife and her new lover, if I remember correctly?"

"Allegedly," Beckett muttered.

The Captain studied her for a moment. He remembered the case well, it was open and shut as far as he - and the prosecutors - knew. Something pretty major must have happened for Beckett to believe the man. "Not your normal style, Beckett," he said eventually. "Don't you normally put people behind bars?"

"Call it gut instinct."

"Well, I never thought I'd see the day Katherine Beckett was using her gut to decide on a case," Montgomery laughed. "If you believe him then so do I. And don't worry about Esposito, he can be a little hot headed but he'll come around." Montgomery smiled at Kate once more before leaving the room and heading back to his office.

Kate was almost at the elevator when she heard her name being called. She turned around to see Espo jogging up to her, Ryan hot on his heels. "Look, Beckett," Esposito said. "Do you really think this guy is innocent?"

"Yeah, Javi," she answered quickly. "I do." Espo looked torn. "Look," she continued. "I'm not asking you to believe in him, I'm asking you to believe in me. You know me, you know I wouldn't be doing this if I wasn't as sure as I could be." Kate didn't cut corners to get a conviction, she didn't spend her career putting innocent people in prison simply because it paid better or it looked better for her prosecution rate. She was one of the best attorneys in the city and she had got there by doing a good job - she believed in Rick Castle and she was going to prove that he was innocent.

"Alright," Espo nodded. "We'll help." He looked at Ryan who nodded too. "Call us with anything you need, okay?"

"Thank you so much!" Kate half-squealed. She needed them and she knew it, having them on board was a massive relief. "I've gotta go, but I'll call soon. Thank you." If she thought convincing the boys to help her was tough, she knew her next challenge would be even worse - her best friend.

"Hey Lanie," Kate announced brightly as she arrived in the morgue.

Lanie jumped almost a foot in the air, dropping the scalpel she had in her hand. "Jesus Christ, girl," she said, placing a hand over her chest. "You almost gave me a heart attack!"

"Sorry," Kate shrugged, not sounding apologetic in the slightest.

Lanie eyed her friend suspiciously. "Why are you in such a good mood, anyway?"

"No reason," Kate smiled. Truth be told, the fact that Ryan and Espo - along with Montgomery - had agreed to help in the case had improved her day considerably. "Just thought I'd pop by and see how my favourite M.E is going."

"I'm the only M.E you're friends with," Lanie retorted, eyes narrowing. "I know that look. You want something."

"I..what? No!" Kate denied, not meeting Lanie's eyes.

"Nah uh, I don't believe you. So come on, spit it out. What do you need me to do now?"

"Look over the files from the Meredith Castle case?" She asked sheepishly, deciding honesty was the best policy. Lanie did have training in how to use a varying array of sharp objects after all.

"Meredith Castle?" Lanie replied, frowning slightly. "As in the wife of Richard Castle? Or, as he's also known, your favourite author?"

"Uh yeah, that's the one.."

"Katherine Beckett I swear to God you'd better tell me what you're up to right this second or I am going to-"

"Okay, okay!" Kate interrupted before she could find out what body part Lanie would threaten this time. "Let's sit." The pair moved to the small table in the corner of the room, each taking a seat. "I got a letter a couple of weeks back," she explained. "It was from Rick Castle, asking me to go and visit him because he needed my help." Lanie already knew about Kate meeting him in the bar ten years back, she didn't need to go over that again. "He saw my name and recognised it and realised I was a lawyer now. So I flew up to Attica to see him."

"You did what?!"

Kate was realising now that perhaps she should have told Lanie of her trip before she actually went. "Uh yeah, " she continued. "I visited him and he asked me to help. He got the date for his execution and it's in a little over ten weeks."

"And you're going to help him?" Lanie asked incredulously. She had no idea what was going on right now.

"I am," Kate confirmed. "Don't ask me why because to be honest I don't really know. But I met with his family, his mother and daughter, and after all this time they still believe he's innocent. And so do I."

Lanie digested the new information for a moment. Secretly, she was kind of glad that Kate was getting involved in this. Despite the fact that everyone thought the guy was a crazy murderer, she knew it would be good for Kate to have a bigger challenge to focus on. She was so damn good at her job that prosecuting criminals was almost easy for her now, this would be a challenge and, if it paid off, an extremely rewarding one.

"Okay," Lanie said eventually, nodding her head. "So that's why you want me to look over the files?"

"Well, I can't get a court order to exhume the bodies without the press finding out and I don't really want them knowing until we have something concrete. I can get Ryan and Esposito to copy the files and have them sent over to you..I just want to see if there's anything that could point to Rick being innocent, something that was missed the first time around." That was partly why Kate had been to visit the boys first, she knew she'd need them to get most of the files she needed without everyone in her office knowing what she was up to.

"Alright," Lanie agreed. "The files won't be as good as the bodies but I understand why I can't have those, I'll see what I can do." Kate beamed at her. "Look, sweetie..are you sure you know what you're doing?"

"Not in the slightest," Kate admitted. "But I believe him, and so does his family. I'm not going to stand back and watch whilst an innocent man gets his life cut short."

"Okay well I'm here if you need me," Lanie reassured. "Get those boys of yours to send over the files and Kate? You better keep me updated."

"Of course," Kate smiled. "Thanks, Lanie."

She had her passport and her plane ticket tucked safely into her handbag, her flight was in three hours so she had plenty of time and the hotel was booked. She took a deep breath, calming herself..she really had no idea what she was getting into but she wasn't going to back down now.

Kate had been to see her boss after leaving the M.E's office, asking to speak with her in private. Kate got on well with Maria, the woman she had worked for since starting at the firm. She had explained everything, from the letter to flying up to visit Rick and the meeting with his family. Kate had then gone on to bring up the fact that she was way overdue some leave, and she was taking it now, effective immediately. Her boss had been a little surprised but had recovered quickly - after working with Kate for so many years, Maria knew Kate wouldn't be doing this if she didn't truly believe she could.

Maria had surprised her even further by agreeing for Kate to charge the hotel she was going to need to the company account, stating that Kate had made them enough money over the years to warrant taking some back for herself. Not to mention the good publicity they were going to get if Kate managed to pull this off.

Kate had taken a month of leave, knowing she could extend it if she needed to do so, but her plan was to have enough evidence to present to a judge by the end of that month. So, she glanced around her apartment once more before locking up and wheeling her suitcase down the hallway.

She had a plane to catch. And more importantly, an innocent life to save.

A/N: sorry again for the slow update, I have no idea where the days are going at the moment! My shifts at work are better next week so fingers crossed I can update sooner! Thank you for the reviews on the last chapter, thoughts welcome on this one too!