Disclaimer: Castle is not mine. The Quote isn't mine. Leah is mine.

Feedback: Yes please...but no flames. I tend to react badly to those.

Timeline: Around early December in season 3.

Author's Note: Hey, so I promised that I would go through, chapter by chapter, and revise this thing so that I could get working on finishing it. Here's the revised chapter 1. If you've already read it I would advise you to read it again just because I've changed a few things from what originally happened. I hope to get working on the next chapter soon. But, I'm doing NaNoWriMo this year and I don't know how quick it will be up. Thank you to those of you who were patient with me and who kept encouraging me to finish this. I hope I can do it to your satisfaction.

"To her the name of father was another name for love."

Chapter 1: Behind Door #1

Kate sat silently unmoving in her car. Her hands were still on the steering wheel. Her eyes fixed firmly on the car parked illegally across the street. Her car had been off for a few seconds and without the warming effects of her heater it was already cold enough for her breath to come out in white puffs in front of her. Finally she took a deep breath and moved to unbuckle.

Outside the scene was the usual chaos. Uniforms running errands; interview people who may have witnessed anything, digging through dumpsters for evidence, and the million other things that needed to be done to solve the case. She stopped one to find out if Ryan and Esposito had arrived and where they were. He told her they had gone up with Lanie to view the scene and she thanked him before heading into the building.

The foyer was tiny, with dark walls and a worn carpet. The mailboxes ran along the right hand wall and the stairs were on the left. Directly in front of her was an elevator with a sign that said 'closed for repair'. Some wise guy had crossed out the word repair and written 'forever' in big bold letters.

Stairs it is, she thought with a sigh. She pulled out her cell phone as she stepped on the first one. Castle hadn't answered her first call, which was unusual unless he was writing. She hit speed dial number 1 and it started ringing. After two rings he picked up.

"Castle," he answered and Kate couldn't help but smile. His tone of voice already told her what was going on, it was his spaced out I'm-in-another-universe-don't-bother-looking-for-me tone. He always had that tone when he was writing.

"Well, I was going to ask why you didn't answer my first call, but I can guess. I don't suppose you want to join me at the crime scene, oh brilliant wordsmith?" She heard something crash on his end and then a yelp. "Castle?"

"Sorry," he replied. "I knocked over my coffee and sorry for not answering. I got caught up with the latest chapter of Heat Rises," he said quickly, as if he felt guilty for not answering on her first ring. Beckett rolled her eyes. Sometimes she wonders if he even realizes that it's not his job too. He doesn't have to be at every crime scene.

"It's fine, Castle," she reassures him as she starts the forth flight of stairs.

"And I would come now, but….well…Gina wants the next two chapters, like, last week. She got mad at me for blowing it off for the Anderson Case, but I'm almost done. I can meet you at the station though; you can fill me in on anything I missed."

"Alright, but you better come groveling with coffee AND a bear claw."

"Done!" He replied. "See ya there." They hung up and Beckett hurried up the last of the stairs to get to the crime scene. Ryan spotted her as she exited the stairwell and hurried over to meet her.

"Hey, what do we have?" she asked, it was almost reflex now. He looked down at his notepad and began to rattle off facts as they wound their way through the different crime scene personnel in the hallway.

"Caucasian female, 35, gunshot to the head. Lanie's with the body right now. She was last seen by her neighbor. Esposito is talking to her now." She spotted Esposito talking to a hysterical woman just outside the roped off apartment. She made her way over to them.

"Ma'am I need you to calm down and tell me what's wrong," he said soothingly as she approached. The woman was clutching a young boy of about two in her arms and a young girl who looked about six was holding on tightly to her leg.

"Michelle's daughter!" she repeated slower. "Where's Leah? Has anyone seen her?" Kate felt fear begin to take ahold of her. She stepped forward and drew the woman's attention to herself.

"Excuse me, I'm Detective Beckett. What do you mean?" The woman's frantic gaze met Beckett's.

"Michelle had a daughter around Sydney's age," her free hand stroked the hair of the girl clutching her leg. "Leah, she's five. I watch her for Michelle until she can get home from work. She's an actress so she works weird hours."

"When was the last time you saw Leah?" Kate asked, real fear for the girl beginning to take hold.

"I watched her yesterday till Michelle got home, around seven," the woman told her. Kate took a quick breath before turning to Esposito.

"Alright, I want you to call her school. See if her mom dropped her off this morning," she turned to Ryan, "Ryan I need you to get together a search team and we're going to search this building high and low. I'll start searching the apartment again in case the responding officers missed anything that could help us find her."

"On it," Ryan replied heading off to round up the officers. Esposito continued talking to the woman as Kate made her way inside.

The first thing she noticed was that the stench of death had now spread to the outer room. Furniture had been knocked over and a lamp lay broken on the floor. Children's toys were scattered throughout the mess; a little doll peaked out from under the broken coffee table, a set of blocks were strewn across the room. She picked her way through the destruction until she got to the hallway.

There were two bed rooms. One was obviously a little girl's room; decorated in pinks and purples with dolls and princess items all over. There was a little table in one corner that had several dolls and stuffed animals positioned around it and with little Styrofoam cups were placed neatly in front of each toy. There was a TV in opposite corner that was playing a muted DVD of "Anastasia". A little plastic crown lay crushed just inside the doorway.

Just across the hall from the little girl's room was a small bathroom that looked untouched and then just beyond the bathroom was the master bedroom. When she stepped inside she had to stop and get her bearings again. The destruction in the outer room was nothing compared to what was done to this room. Clothes had been thrown from drawers, bottles of cosmetics knocked off the dresser and spilt across the floor, the sheets had been pulled off the bed and the mattress was sliding half way off the box spring. Someone had broken the vanity mirror and the closet had a pile of clothes in front of it, some on hangers still and some not.

The worst part of the room though was the body of the woman in the middle of the floor. She'd been beaten so that you really had to look to be able to see the once beautiful features. Her clothes had been ripped and hung loosely on her thin frame. A string of bruises went along her exposed abdomen and blood was spattered all over the floors and walls. The cause of death was obvious; a single gunshot to the head, but the rest of the atrocities that went along with it made it a gruesome scene to behold.

Lanie, who was leaning over the body, glanced up and gave her a weary look.

"Hey, where's your writer boy?" she questioned, not seeing Castle in his usual spot as Kate's shadow. Beckett rolled her eyes.

"He's in trouble for not having his chapters done on time again. He's going to meet me at the precinct," she told her, pretending to be annoyed. Lanie raised an eyebrow, but evidently decided to drop the subject.

"Alright, there are extensive injuries to Miss Townsend here, but for now I'm going to give you a preliminary cause of death as the gunshot wound to the head. She's got a lot of old bruising under all the new injuries," she pointed to some old wounds that were yellow peeking out from behind some fresher bruises that were black and blue. "Also there are signs of sexual assault. I'll be able to tell you more once she's back at the morgue."

"Alright Lanie, thanks." Lanie nodded and Kate waved as she made her way back out into the hallway. She wanted to do a quick sweep through the little girl's room to see if there was any evidence that might lead them to her.

Kate stepped inside and examined the scene. The blankets on the bed were messed up, but it didn't look like there had been a struggle, more like she had woken in the night and gotten out of bed herself. She ducked to look under the bed real fast but the only thing under there was a couple of toys and a shoe box. She sighed and turned to leave but a slight rustling noise stopped her. She paused, almost holding her breath in an effort to keep quiet. She heard the noise again. Quickly she crossed to the only other hiding spot in the room, the closet, and opened the door.

The little girl shied away from the light with a small whimper. Her curly auburn locks hung about her shoulders in sleepy disarray and one small hand clutched a worn stuffed teddy bear while the other held on tightly to a little, purple blanket. She tried to push further back into the corner when Beckett slowly knelt in front of her. Her beautiful blue eyes were wide with fear.

"Leah?" Kate began quietly. "It's alright sweetie. I'm a police officer. You're safe now." The little girl sat extremely still in her little corner. Her eyes locked on Kate and she watched her for a moment.

"Badge," she finally whispered. "Police have badges." Kate nodded and took hers off her belt to hand to the girl. She shifted her blanket to the hand with the bear and then timidly reached out to take the badge. Her hand shook but she ran her thumb over it like she was testing to make sure it was real, then she handed it back and looked up at Kate again.

"I promise, I'm not going to hurt her," Kate assured her. She bit her lip for a minute, looking from Kate's eyes to the badge Kate had clipped back onto her belt. She finally held out her arms for Kate to pick her up. Kate picked her up easily, the little girl was extremely underweight, and took her over to her bed. She sat her on the side that faced away from her doorway and knelt in front of her. She gently brushed back a lock of hair that had fallen in her eyes.

"You're name is Leah right?" she asked, still gentle so she didn't frighten her. It was several seconds before Leah answered. Her voice so soft Kate had to strain a little to hear her.

"Yes." Kate smiled at her.

"Well Leah, my name is Kate. I'm a detective. Do you know what that is?" Leah nodded slowly, her eyes narrowing just slightly as she thought.

"You catch the bad guys." Kate nodded encouragingly.

"That's right. I'm going to find the man who did this to you and your mom," she made sure to look the little girl straight in the eye. "Okay, Leah?"

"Mommy's dead," she replied in a terrified whisper. Her eyes filled with tears. "The bad man killed her." Kate took ahold of the little hand not holding onto the bear and blanket.

"I know, sweetie," she was silent for a moment, giving Leah a little time to catch her breath before asking. "Leah, where's your daddy?"

"He doesn't live with us," the little girl told her shaking her head. "Mommy said that daddy doesn't know."

"Doesn't know about what?" Kate asked.

"About me." Kate sat there for a moment shocked.

"You're daddy doesn't know about you? Are you sure?"

"Yes, mommy told me that she never told daddy about me. She wanted to keep me to herself," Leah said. She pulled her teddy bear closer. "Are you gonna take me to my daddy?"

"Maybe," Kate replied. "Do you know his name?" The little girl shook her head. Kate let out a frustrated breath. It wasn't Leah's fault she didn't know her father's name, but it would have made locating him a lot easier. Leah tugged on her sleeve to get her attention again.

"I have a picture," she said. "Do you wanna see it?" Kate nodded and Leah hopped down from the bed and began to search beneath it. She pulled out a little shoe box and carefully opened it up to reveal an assortment of little objects that only a child would want to keep. A fairy princess doll from a happy meal, a plastic wand, a couple of stickers, and other odds and ends. She dug toward the very bottom and pulled out a book. Kate instantly recognized the flashy red cover. She watched in shock as Leah turned the book over and pointed toward the picture on the back.

"That's daddy," she said, pointing toward the smiling face of Richard Castle.

Alright so, I struggled a little bit on whether or not to keep the funny little ending I had before and ultimately decided against it. I think now that I know where I'm going with this it's gonna be just a little bit darker. Not terribly dark but Leah seemed to well adjusted to me in my first draft so in this second she's not going to be as calm. Fear not though, there will still be adorable moments with her and Castle and Beckett.

JJ