A/N: This one literally came to me in a dream. It's kind of AU but not majorly.

Disclaimer: Not mine. If it was, Castle would never have taken the slutty ex-wife to the Hamptons!

Xxx

Prologue

When Kate Beckett was eighteen years old, she wanted to be a surgeon. She wanted to save lives one slice, on incision at a time. So when she entered Columbia University—her dream school—she immediately signed up for every pre-med course she could. She was bright and intelligent and inquisitive and painfully innocent.

She truly believed she could change the world.

Kate was a serious student but she liked to have a good time, too. So when the handsome, smart Owen Hammond sat down beside her in freshman Biology on the fourth day of class, she did what most girls did—she flirted.

Owen Hammond was unlike any guy eighteen year-old Kate had ever met. He was charming and self assured and at least as smart as she was. And he shared her goals—to become a doctor. To change the world. When he asked her on a date, it didn't occur to her to do anything but say yes.

And one date turned into two. And two turned into three. The morning after the fourth date, she called her mother gushing about her new boyfriend.

Kate didn't really like parties but Owen did so they went to several over the first weeks they were dating. If they got too wild, Owen would usually take her home. Even when things were fairly tame, she mostly sat by quietly and watched. Overindulging in alcohol had never been her thing and she was by nature shy and reserved.

It was sitting and watching one of these parties that she met Olivia Kent.

"You're Owen's girlfriend, right?" the smiling redhead said, dropping down to sit beside her.

Kate nodded politely. "Kate Beckett," she introduced herself.

"Olivia Kent." She pointed to a tall, good-looking guy standing by the keg with Owen. "My boyfriend, Peter, is a friend of Owen's. Apparently Owen thought we'd hit it off."

"Did he?" Kate asked, arching an eyebrow.

"Mmhmm." Olivia leaned forward in her chair, grinning. "So, Kate Beckett. Tell me about yourself."

Owen had been right, in the end. They did hit it off. They had a lot in common and began spending much of their free time together. Olivia wanted to be a teacher and together they dreamed of traveling to impoverished countries, offering education and medical care.

In January of their freshman year, rumors began to circulate of rapes occurring on campus a couple weekends a month. None of the girls were willing to press charges or even tell anyone who their assailants were. No one paid the rumors much mind at first. But as the stories intensified, it got harder to ignore.

By mid-march, Owen was suggesting that Kate not accompany him to parties. Peter was suggesting the same for Olivia.

"Stay home and watch a movie with Liv," Owen would say. "Pete and I will go. You guys never liked partying anyway."

It was true so the girls readily agreed. In all honesty, it was a relief to spend her evenings at home holed up watching movies or talking with Olivia instead of watching Owen party. It started as usually only one night of each weekend but soon escalated to both.

Kate felt a little neglected but figured Owen was protecting her. Besides, she didn't like to go to parties and he did. It was strange, though. He kept her at home when he went out to party but if she wanted to walk across campus with Olivia after dark, he'd send her on her way. He didn't bother to walk them. But when they did go places together, he gripped her arm tightly, as though to keep her close to him.

She thought it was all a little weird but she brushed it off, only mention it once—to Olivia. Her friend merely shrugged.

"Peter's acting weird, too," she said. "But this whole sexual assault thing has everyone on edge. It'll blow over."

Kate wasn't entirely sure but she agreed.

The first week in May was a busy one. She had several papers due and when the weekend hit she was ready to relax. Knowing Owen was at a party, she grabbed some microwave popcorn and a couple of movies and headed to Olivia's.

Walking across campus, she spotted Owen's pickup truck parked outside the science building. At first, she thought she was mistaken—that it wasn't Owen's. He rarely drove it and it made no sense for it to be there. When she looked closer, though, she spotted the dent on the side from the time she opened the door into a lamppost—it was definitely Owen's.

Perplexed, she went into the building. It was Friday and the place was deserted. She had no idea why Owen would be parked outside. She was just about to give up and leave when she saw a strip of light peeking out from under the door of one of the lecture halls.

She stepped inside, expecting to find Owen and Peter drawing inappropriate pictures on the board or something stupid and juvenile like that. They'd probably be drunk, she reasoned.

Instead, she found them kneeling over a girl. Peter was straddling her, pants around his ankles and Owen was poking him, wanting to know when it'd be "his turn."

It was Olivia. She had a gag shoved in her mouth to silence her and tears ran down her face. She looked desperate and terrified, panicked.

Kate screamed.

"Oh my God," she gasped as Owen whirled to face her. "It's you. It's been you the whole time…"

She was sure of it, more sure than she'd ever been of anything. The campus rapists were Owen and Peter and Kate, the naïve girlfriend, had been utterly clueless until now.

"Shut up, Katie," Owen snarled.

"It was you," she repeated, her voice trembling. "It was you…"

His hand shot out and he slapped her.

"Shut up," he said, shoving her to the ground. She struggled to get up but he pinned her. "It's funny, isn't it?" he said, his breath hot on her face. "I've had dozens of girls on this campus, but I've never had you. My fucking girlfriend."

Deftly, he yanked down his pants and hers, all while keeping her pinned to the floor. He was inside of her faster than she thought was possible. He laughed which each thrust, sneering at her tears. When he was finished, he climbed off of her, zipping his pants.

"Fun, huh, Katie?" he said. "Maybe we can go again later."

She let out a soft sob as her stomach heaved. She swallowed hard, not wanting to throw up.

"Owen!" Peter was saying. "Owen, we've gotta go."

"Coming!" Owen called. "Just let me shut her up." He grasped her by the shoulders, grip tightening as she tried to wrench away. "It's my word against yours, Katie. And I always get what I want."

She tried desperately to pull from his grasp, to kick him, knee him, anything. But he was too quick, too strong—she'd always admired how strong he was—and he slammed her hard against the floor. An explosion of pain radiated from the back of her head and she saw brightly colored lights before everything went black.

When she woke up in the hospital the next morning, her mother beside her, her head was bandaged and an IV dripped into her arm.

Her mother sobbed, stroking her hair.

"You're safe, darling," she said again and again. "You're safe now."

Then she said Owen was outside, waiting.

"He's been here all night," she said. "Wouldn't go anywhere."

An image of Owen kneeling over her, pants down, violating her, sprang to her mind and she cried out.

"No!" she gasped. "No…no!"

"Darling, he wants to see you," her mother begged. "He's been so worried…"

"No! It was him. It was Owen!"

No, her mother tried to reason. It had been Peter who'd done it. Owen had turned him in. She was confused. It had been Peter—not Owen.

"No," she said again and again. "It was Owen! It was Owen!"

She was still crying when a police officer poked her head in. She had a folder in her hand and looked grim.

"Mrs. Beckett," she said gravely. "A word?"

So her mother stepped out to talk to the cop and Kate sobbed all the while.

"It was Owen. It was Owen…"

It wasn't until hours later, until after the rape kit confirmed that Owen was, indeed, her assailant, that they told her about Olivia.

Olivia was dead. She'd asphyxiated on the gag they'd used to keep her quiet. While Kate lay unconscious, Olivia had struggled to breathe until she couldn't anymore. She'd been more or less alone. A janitor had found them, had called 911.

Kate was rushed to the hospital with bruises and a minor head wound.

And Olivia was dead.

Johanna Beckett was a teacher, she no longer worked for the DA. But it didn't stop her from making sure her daughter's case was prosecuted by the best lawyers she could find. Kate spent that summer watching her mother work like a wild-woman, pursuing justice.

The only forensic evidence they had was on Kate and Olivia. None of the other girls had come forward soon enough and their cases were purely anecdotal.

Peter and Owen were charged with just two counts of rape and manslaughter—killing Olivia wasn't even murder because they hadn't meant for her to die.

Their combined sentences added up to just ten years in prison.

Kate Beckett no longer wanted to be a doctor—she couldn't even walk past the science building without vomiting, couldn't pass through the doors without a full-blown panic attack. A month into her sophomore year she changed her major and started studying pre-law.

The legal system had failed her and Olivia and the other victims. And she was determined to make the system better. She couldn't change the world as a doctor so she'd do it as lawyer.

She studied harder than ever and was accepted into Harvard Law her senior year. She took flowers to Olivia's grave and promised her friend she'd become the best prosecutor there was—no one would get away with doing what had been done to her.

Then her mother was killed—two weeks before graduation.

This time, the legal system didn't even get a chance to fail. The police failed them long before the case got that far. They never went to court. No one was even charged.

Kate made it through a semester of law school before dropping out, returning to New York, and applying to the Police Academy.

The legal system was useless, she reasoned, if there were no cops. It was the cops, she'd decided, that could try to make things better, save at least a piece of the world. They were the ones who caught the criminals, maybe even prevented some of the crimes.

Most people thought she became a cop because of what happened to her mom and they were mostly right. But Kate Beckett also became a cop to catch the Owens of the world. To find every scrap of evidence against them and stop them from hurting more people. She did it to stop the Owens and the Peters.

And she did it to find justice for, and maybe even save, some of the Olivias.

At eighteen, Kate Beckett had wanted to be a doctor. At twenty, she'd wanted to be a lawyer. By twenty-two, she'd decided to be a cop.

She wasn't idealistic or naïve or innocent. She wasn't inquisitive or eager to learn. She was resigned. She'd wanted to save the world once. Now she knew she couldn't. But she could do her best to make things at least a tiny bit better.

Even if the world was long past saving.

Xxx

A/N2: Yeah, I know, we probably already know most of Kate's twisted past. But like I said, it came to me in a dream. This will continue into a story so stay tuned!