Hey all, this is Wheel Then. I know, I know, I should be working on Plain Sight. But I'm stuck a little and this came to mind. This is my new chaptered fic. This story takes place 11 years after Scorpia Rising. Alex was born 1987, making him 26. Takes place around now for Castle. So without further ado, here is In the Mix Chapter 1. Hope you all enjoy it.

Disclaimer: I do not own Alex Rider or Castle.

Posting

It had been 11 years since he had finished his last mission with MI6. He was 26 years old and was no longer known to world as Alex Rider. No, Alex Rider never graduated high school. However, Alex Pleasure, the name he had adopted when he had come to America, Alex Pleasure had graduated from Sea Side High. Then he had pursued a degree, much to his foster parent's displeasure, in Criminal Justice. He had traveled to New York to attend one the best colleges for this, University of Albany-SUNY (1). He had then earned a bachelor's degree and graduated Magna Cum Laude (2) from his class. After which he had gotten a job in the justice system. It lasted 6 months before he got tired of it. The justice system was nothing but dealing paperwork and corporate red tape. So he left. He went back to college, this time earning a Masters in Criminology. Another 3 years passed in this endeavor. All the money came from a private trust fund in Switzerland. As promised, when he turned 18 MI6 had turned over all the Rider fortune to him. To which he immediately had transferred in into this account with the name Alex Pleasure attached to it. Due to Swiss political neutrality, MI6 nor any other intelligence agency could hold it over his head.

Finally, Alex entered Police Academy and in his probationary period he was attached to a fairly famous precinct in New York. The twelfth, it was known for a very good case closure, and for the very renowned and rich Richard Castle accompanying the officers in its cases. His comrades all congratulated him for earning such a great appointment. He wasn't so sure; Alex had met enough rich men to know that not all of them had the best intentions. He would leave his judgment reserved until after he met the man. There was one thing he was happy about, though, the twelfth precinct was a plain clothes division, so he would not have to wear that awful blue costume.

He entered the precinct on the first day a bit wary. He greeted the receptionist, "Hello, I'm looking for a Victoria Gates."

"Oh, you must be Alex!" The women's eyes brightened. "Walk straight down hallway and it's the third office on your left." She directed.

"Thank you." He followed her directions, and knocked on the corresponding door. The door open revealing very serious looking older women, her expression held an annoyed tone.

"So, you're the Newbie, huh. I expected more." She criticized. "Your desk is set up there," she pointed. Then she muttered, "First I have to deal with Castle, now a prissy looking newbie. Why me?"

Alex ignored her, most officers of her rank never held much respect for supposedly fresh recruits. He turned and walked to his new desk. It was on set on the main area on the floor. Apparently they expected a lot from him. His desk would not be in such a prominent position if had not been so. The desk was empty except from the computer and its monitor. He opened his bag and placed his personal effects on it, two pictures. One was of Sabina and the other of their parents, Liz and Edward.

"Newbie, nice girl you got there." Came an amused voice from behind him.

Alex turned and gave a short glare at the Hispanic man, "Sister." He curtly replied.

"Woah there, calm down newbie. Just joking. Anyways, I'm Javier Esposito. You are?"

"Alex Pleasure." he introduced.

"Hazing on him already Esposito?" laughed a woman. She then approached the pair, "You must be Alex. I'm Kate Beckett; I've been entrusted to make your evaluation. Just one warning, don't take anything Castle says seriously and you'll do fine."

"Ok. I look forward to working with Ms. Beckett." He replied respectfully.

To which she laughed once more, "No need to add Miss."

"KATE, KATE, KATE I got my next book idea!" an excited voice yelled.

"Speak of the devil," the detective muttered. "Castle, for the last time, you don't have to tell me everything!"

"Oh, who's the new guy?" the same man questioned. He looked about in his 40's and had a smiling face.

"Alex, this is Richard Castle, idiot writer that somehow became famous. Castle, this is Alex Pleasure, don't bother him too much. I don't want you to corrupt him." Though she said this, her tone remained light.

"Pleasure, it's a pleasure to meet you," Castle quipped, amused from his pun.

Alex stared, he had heard variations of that same line so many times in the last 11 years. "Points for originality," he sarcastically remarked. The man looked sheepish at this comment.

"Anyways, Alex, here is badge and gun you requested." She placed the two corresponding objects upon his desk.

Alex lifted the gun and inspected it. A Beretta M9, 15 round magazine with iron sights. It was cold. He quickly stripped it down to its bones, inspecting each part. Most of the gun was in mint condition. The only part that caught his eyes was a heavy scar on the inside of the slide. "This won't fire. There is too much damage to the slide," he announced.

"Not bad Pleasure. You passed. Ryan's on his way with an unblemished one. When your instructor called in and said you had a request for your sidearm. I had to make sure you weren't just trying to look cool by requesting a gun. Though, that was the fastest I have seen some on take apart a gun." Beckett explained.

Alex glanced as his new coworkers; all had impressed looks on their faces. Castle was a different story, his eyes looked like they were about to pop out. "Was I the only one who just saw that!" he exclaimed. "Hey Kate, how fast can you that? Javi, you?"

A new man walked in to the precinct and walked up to the crowd. "Figured it out already? Man, at least wait for me to arrive. I'm Kevin Ryan. Call me Kevin." The man introduced. He fished out the slide from his bag and placed in on the desk.

"Alex Pleasure, it's nice to meet you." Alex took the slide and reassembled the gun with it.

A phone rang and the crowd dispersed.

"Beckett," Kate answered. "Uh huh. Okay, got it. We're on our way." Then turned to the room, "We've got a double homicide, let's go."

Alex packed his badge and gun and followed the group out.

The team arrived to a buzzing scene. Other officers had arrived before them and roped off the area with the usual yellow tape. It was a grotesque scene. Two bodies, a man the other a woman. The male was hacked to pieces, his arms and legs strewn around the area crudely. The women's body was not as damaged. A knife lay next to her right hand and a slash on her left wrist. Blood was everywhere. The alley the in which gruesome act had occurred was painted red.

The whole team's eyes looked away. It was a hard sight to see. Soon, though, one by one each moved toward the scene. They had a job to do.

Castle was the first to speak. "Looks like a standard murder-suicide. Did we really have to come?"

"Yes Castle, that's our job." Kate answered, though she too looked a little perturbed. "Pleasure, what do you think? It's your first case. I want you to check out the scene before any of us."

She was checking his analytic skills. He advanced towards the scene, taking gloves when a nondescript officer handed them to him. The amount of blood made him a little nauseous. He may have kept up his skill level of fighting and other such areas, but this blood was still not a nice thing to see. Then he noticed something, "At first sight, it does look like a murder-suicide. It's not," he stated confidently.

"Why?" Kate replied, intrigued.

Alex lifted up the arm of the female victim. "These rope burns, they are heavy and quite new. Plus, if you look at the blood, some of it isn't dry."

"Huh?" came Castle's reply.

Alex lifted his boot to show wet blood which was now on his sole of his shoes. "If you look at our first victim, the blood is dry. That makes the body more than 14 hours old.(3) The female, however, has been dead for a much shorter time, her blood is still wet. So, our killer came back and murdered another person here, to pin it on her, and make it look like a murder-suicide."

"That explains the rope burns. She probably watched herself bleed out, unable to do anything about it." Kevin spoke, his face showing quite a bit of disgust.

"Ryan, Esposito, you two question the neighbors. See if they heard or saw anything. Alex, Castle, we're heading back. We're going to do some research on the vic's."

On the way back to the precinct, they had received the names of the victims, Jake Troshin and Kayla Rike. Once they had returned, Beckett had set Alex with the duty of running the names through the database. Kayla Rike's name had come up immediately. She was on the missing person list. She had disappeared from her home roughly three months ago, she had not yet been found. Her roommate was the one who had reported her missing. Jake Troshin was a whole different story. Alex ran the name through many different directories. Absolutely nothing came up. Jake Troshin was the id that had been on the body, but James Troshin was an electronic ghost. Finally after about 30 minutes of scanning lists, his got lucky. He found the name in the Homeowners Database. Jake Troshin apparently had a flat in New York.

He rose and walked over to Kate. At present her and Castle were flirting. If they were trying to hide the fact that they were dating, they weren't doing a good job. He stood next to the pair, "Done flirting, you two?" he quietly spoke.

The pair jumped, Castle answered, "Yes."

Beckett sent Castle an annoyed look. "What have you got Pleasure?"

"This is the file on Kayla Rike. She was a college student who disappeared from her home around 3 months ago." He laid the file on his desk, leaving his hands empty.

"Well?" she questioned, clearly expecting another file on Jake Troshin.

"I don't have much on Jake Troshin. I do have an address, Floor 41 Liberty Plaza Apartments, 10 Liberty St. New York, NY." He finished.

"Liberty Plaza!? That's expensive. Even I can't afford that." Castle replied.

"Castle, you own a beach house in the Hamptons." She replied doubtfully." Anyways, we have to get going. Pleasure, you found the address, you're coming too."

The three made their way to the 41st floor. Getting past security had been ease, one flash of the badge and the manager himself came to let them into the room. All the way to the floor he kept chattering about how great of a place this building was, mostly aimed at Castle, of course. The manager seemed to smell money like a hawk.

"Did you know that man who lived here?" Kate interrupted.

The man looked affronted, "I know all of my tenants, Miss." Then he relented. "Well, Mr. Troshin was a little different. I hardly ever saw him. All rent paid in cash, never had any visitor's. He seemed like a businessman to me. He owned the entire 41st floor, which isn't cheap."

This statement brought a suspicious look on trio's faces. The elevator opened to reveal a nice hallway, complete with plants and a fish tank. The manager spoke again, "He had all the apartments connected, without my permission. That's the main door," he pointed unhappily.

The manger then moved forward to unlock the door. Until Alex stopped him, "Wait, I think I hear something." Alex had heard something, it was a gruff voice. "It might be just a TV, but I'm not willing to make that risk." He finished, pulling out his gun.

Beckett simply nodded, not wanting to alert the possible enemy inside. She pointed for Castle to withdraw a little then took position next to the door frame. Alex followed suit and did the same. Beckett whispered something to the manager, who nodded in return.

The manager proceeded to unlock the door and leap back. Beckett took point and went in gun up, "NYPD HANDS UP!" she shouted.

There was indeed a man inside. He was furiously arguing on his phone. He smiled, and looked her in the eye. He then looked at Alex.

Kate continued, "If you don't put your hands in the air, we will shoot."

The man smiled even further, "I guess the girl didn't fool anyone."

"You just admitted to murder!?" Beckett spoke, confusion evident in her voice. Normally the killers would try to lie, not admit it.

The man continued to smile as he closed his flip phone, "I didn't confess to anything missy. I simply said that a girl did not fool anyone," then turned to Alex, "Well, with a Rider in the mix, what was I supposed to expect." His eyes not leaving Alex's as he spoke. Turned back to Kate he spoke again "Anyways, I can't get caught yet. So, goodbye." The man then proceeded to smash the window by jumping out.

He knew who Alex was, that was not a good sign.

"What was that?" Castle had come sprinting.

Alex moved forward to the smashed window, the air was gushing through fairly violently, but he withstood it. The man had not gone far. In fact, Alex could see him on the next high rise building. If Alex jumped, he could probably make the jump. It would be hard but not impossible. Alex could also see a small sail type cloth lying near the man. Alex raised his gun, the man did as well.

Two shots rung through the air, followed by one yell of agony.

Done. Was it any good? If you guys want me to continue, I will. This was chapter 1, I will be continuing the story. Anyways, if anything is wrong, please tell me. Hope you all enjoyed it.

-Wheel Then

(1)- Ranked 2 in the country by US News.

(2)-Latin honors, Magna Cum Laude means, With Great Honors, requires really good grades.

(3)-I'm not really sure how long a puddle of blood takes to dry. But when looking it up, most said quite a long time, so I made it 14 hours.