Chapter One

She's fidgeting. She knows she's fidgeting, but she can't help it. He probably doesn't remember her.

"What's with you?"

She turns her head, finds Espo's gaze on her fingers tapping against the wheel, she grips it instead and shrugs.

"Ryan says he should be at the party. A book party."

"Storm Fall."

"What?"

God, she needs to get it together, "The book party, it's for his new book. Storm Fall."

She glances sideways at him, finds him with a stupid smirk on his face.

"What?" she asks sharply.

"You're a fan."

"No, I just...he writes good books," She shrugs, hopes she's not blushing. It feels like she might be blushing.

"Right," He nods along.

"Just tell Ryan we are almost there, he should pull his file, see if he can manage his whereabouts for the TODs."

"Right," he repeats nodding again.

He needs to find his mother and install in her the importance boundaries, of not ratting him out to his publisher for the hundredth time. It's bad enough that Gina is breathing down his neck, he should at least be able to ignore her calls without worrying that his mother would tell on him.

He finally spots his mother chatting up his daughter at the bar, and he can't believe that his daughter, someone related to him, brought homework to a party.

"Mother. What did you tell Gina?"

"Well hello son."

"Mother."

"I didn't tell her anything."

"Oh so you didn't tell her that I haven't written anything yet?"

"Okay I might have mentioned you were hanging around the loft in your underwear," she waves her hand dismissively, "What? It's true but its expected you're an artist darling I don-"

"Mother we talked about this, just because yo-"

"Hold on kido, my gray-dar is pinging. No ring, no ring…aha Bingo!" she grabs her clutch off the bar, "Adios," giving them a salute.

He shakes his head in frustration and turns to the bar to signal the bartender, and then his daughter pats his arm softly, always advocating for his mother.

"You know she means well Dad."

He sighs and takes one of the champagne glasses off the bar and offers it to his daughter.

"I'm seventeen."

"You're an old soul."

"Me and my soul can wait."

Yeah, he seriously doesn't know how he got a kid like her, must have done something right in a past life, "Don't you want to break rules, have some fun?"

"I do have fun just not the type you do. God knows someone in this family should have some sense."

"Touché."

"Come on dad, it's a good party. Storm will do good, you know that, even if it's the last one."

"It's not that. Every time it's the same, over and over," he takes a sip of his champagne turning around to look out at the room, "You know what I'd really like?" his eyes lands on the two persons flashing badges to the body guard at the roof top entrance.

"Dad?"

"Kate."

"Kate?" the redhead asks confused.

His eyes fly to his daughter just for a second, before they go back to look for her, his breath catches when he finds her coming his way, it's really her. Kate.

He remembers, she can see it in his eyes. She swallows.

"Kate."

She has to repeatedly remind herself that she is working, that she is supposed to be questioning him, because the way he smiles at her, so happy to see her, makes her want to smile back.

She stands in front of him, completely frozen suddenly like a damn rookie, just staring until she hears Espo clears his throat from behind her. Right.

"Mr. Castle, I'm Detective Kate Beckett and this is Detective Javier Esposito, we wo-"

"You're a detective!"

"Umm, yeah?"

"You're a detective," he repeats his tone filled in amazement she's not sure she understands.

"Dad?"

"Oh. Alexis honey, this is my friend Kate."

"Friend?" she says same time as she hears Espo from behind her whispering, "You know this guy Beckett?"

"This is my daughter Alexis." He smiles completely unaffected by the tension flying from all directions around him.

Alexis smiles shyly at her, "Hi."

She nods at the girl. Then shakes her head at herself, how did thing get away from her so quickly, "Mr. Castle, we're sorry to interrupt your evening but we were wondering if we can take a bit of your time. We are here on official police business," she lifts her badge to stress that this is not some weird social call.

"Oh."

"Yeah," She nods.

"Wait, you don't remember me? w-"

"I do," she cuts in sharply, "This is just not the time."

"Of course. What can I do for you?"

"Not here, we are going to need you to come with us to the precinct, we have a few questions to ask."

"What is this about?" Alexis asks from behind him, worry seeping into her voice, "Dad are you being arrested?"

Kate's eyes study her, can't help the wave of respect that she feels for the girl's protectiveness of her father.

"No we just have a few questions that's all, we can explain on the way," Espo interjects addressing Castle.

Castle has just been watching her with a studious gaze, "Do you have someone to stay with your daughter?" she does manage a smile at the girl, doesn't want to sound patronizing.

"Ah yeah my mother," he turns to Alexis, "Honey can you go find gram, I'm sure she's around here somewhere. The car is around the corner, you can call Dave?"

"Yeah okay, but dad call me if…you need a lawyer or something. You didn't do anything, right?" she whispers the last part panicky, it's not her dad's first brush with law enforcement unfortunately.

"No, no pumpkin I promise. Text me when you're home?" he suddenly turns to Kate, "I get to keep my phone on me?"

"Yeah this is just an informal interview," she chews on her lip at the look on his face, "But just in case," she grabs a card from her card holder and hands it to Alexis, she gives him a look as if to ask if it's okay.

"Thank you."

She holds his gaze, "Not a problem, we should go."

She walks into interrogation room one, watches him sit-up in his chair looking up at her with an unnerving gaze. She clears her throat and looks down at the file in her hands which is a little bit thicker than that of the usual stand-up citizen.

"You cut your hair."

She lifts surprised eyes at him, "Its been ten years, I've got few actually," she won't let him throw her off her game this time. She is prepared.

She drops the files on the table with more force than necessary, "Mr. Castle, for the record," as she nods to the mic on the table, "We have met before almost ten years ago for a few hours and that was that, but let's be very clear, that doesn't get you any preferential treatment in this investigation." She already knows it's not true. She did already offer his daughter her number to settle his mind. Not exactly heart of steel behavior there.

She already discussed it with Montgomery, cleared her…familiarity with Castle, so everything is in the clear and it went rather smoothly too.

"Sir, I wanted to let you know that I've had a passing meeting with our suspect before. Years ago."

He lifts an eyebrow, "Is it a problem?"

"No sir."

"Well then off you go Beckett."

And that was the end of that.

"Well Detective, for the record," he leans into the mic irritatingly, "I like the short hair." He adds completely unfazed by her little speech and she just wants to slap the grin of his face.

She pulls the chair and settles in her seat in front of him "As we told you, there has been two murders committed exactly like the victims in two of your books, Flowers for Your Grave and Hell Hath no Fury."

She opens the file and takes a couple of photos in front of him, observing his reaction to the pictures.

He's silently glances down at the photos and then he drags one photo closer to inspect it better. Then pushes them away from him, "I'm flattered?"

She notes the flicker in his eyes when he was looking at the photos, "Mr. Castle."

"Kate, I already told you in the car, I was at a meeting for the first one and the second one I was home with my family and publicist preparing things for the party."

She already knows this, Ryan verified it already. "We are verifying that. However, there is also the possibility that this could be a fan, did you receive any disturbing fan mail or anything that was…strange?"

"I'm a mystery writer, all my fan mail is disturbing. Occupational hazard."

She pulls the photos towards her, "Because in cases like this we find that the-"

"Subject tends to contact the object of his obsession."

She looks up at him, frowning in confusion.

"I'm quite familiar with psychological methodologies, also an occupational hazard." He says eyes trained on hers, "Your eyes are as incredible as I remember."

Shit. She doesn't remember him being like this before. This Intense. She swallows and stands from her chair to tower over him.

"This is not a joke. People were murdered Castle."

He stays silent at that. Gaze still intense on hers.

"Would you mind if we looked at your fan mail?"

"Have at it," he shrugs.

She shuffles the photos back into the file and closes it, hands him Espo's card, "Okay, thank you. Please let us know if you come across anything that might be helpful."

He looks down at the card, lifts an eyebrow at her, "Wait, that's it?"

"Umm you know most people would be glad that they get to leave an interrogation room," she muses.

He stands, "No I mean…Kate after ten years, I just can't believe I ran into you again."

She loves how he says her name, and yes, she can't believe it either, but this is her job and he is a person of interest, "Castle I didn't run into you, I'm investigating a murder."

"Can I just say that I love it when you call me that," he points out with a leer.

She steps closer in a vain attempt at privacy, "Look, yes we met years ago and I'm really glad we did, you made a tough day easier for me, but we don't know each other."

"I'd like to though."

"I'm sorry I can't do that," she glances at the door, "Can you please arrange for the fan mail, we can send an officer to pick it up or-"

"You'll have it by morning," he interrupts with a nod, already trying to think of a way to be around her again.

She nods, "Thank you," and then she turns around and walks out.

It feels surreal. She can't believe she just interrogated Richard Castle. And that connection between them is still there, ten years later, it's still there.

She startles out of her day dream when Ryan rolls in his chair towards her desk, "So Beckett I hear you are BFFs with our lovely author," he grins at her.

She narrows her eyes at him, "You and Espo gossiping again?"

"Come on Becks tell us," he whines.

"There is nothing to tell, Espo is just a drama queen, w-"

"I'm not a drama queen, the way that dude was looking at you, definitely some story," he gives her a knowing look.

She blushes, "You are insane, we just met once in an airport. That's all, I don't know him."

Ryan turns to Espo, "I'm sure Lanie will get it out of her."

"Do not tell Lanie a word," she stands as pointing her empty coffee mug at them threateningly.

"I thought there was nothing to tell," Espo grins.

"Go find me a suspect," she calls out as she heads to the break room.

"Can't. Waiting for the fan mail from your boyfriend."

"Bite me."

She can still hear them talking and she's pretty sure it's still about her and Castle. She sighs, she can't get involved with him, she has a job to do and he would only complicate things, besides he...scares her, she can already tell he would be dangerous.

Alexis is on him the moment he steps into the loft, "Dad! You okay? What happened?"

He chuckles, "Whoa whoa just one interrogation after another."

"They interrogated you?" she asks over the piano and his mother's off key singing, she must've had a few.

"Well they asked a lot of questions," he knows it wasn't an interrogation although that would have been cool.

"Dad," she says disapprovingly, "What happened?"

He loops his arm around her shoulder and drags her with him to his office, "Someone unfortunately is murdering people exactly like the victims in some of my books, and they had questions about that."

"Oh my god Dad that is awful. Did you help?"

"Well I'm not sure, I hope so, I'll have to send them the fan mail tomorrow for them to look through."

"You okay?"

"Yeah pumpkin, sorry that I scared you."

"Wasn't your fault, however, Gina and Paula are very angry with you,"

He winces, "They will kill me."

"Yup," she grins, "So who is Kate? You seemed pretty happy to see her."

"Yeah well, I'm not so sure she's happy to see me," he mutters, "She's someone I met once in an airport like ten years ago, I can't believe she's a detective now."

"So you don't really know each other that much?"

"No, but we will daughter, we will," he grins, "now what do you say to a midnight snack with your old man?"

"Already brushed my teeth."

He huffs at her as he drags her towards the kitchen and unfortunately the increasing screeching of his mother, "Brush them again."

"Fine but no smorletts."

He shakes his head at her, "You know sometimes I wonder about you."

Thoughts?