Disclaimer: I still don't own any of the Castle stuff. Oh, and the title is a reference to a song by Rob Thomas, which I also do not own. And if you know the song... I can neither confirm nor deny any significance that the title might have. If I've got you curious now, just read the story. I'm sure you'll figure it out eventually.

Author's Note: I wrote this at least a couple of weeks ago, and I finally decided it was time to post it. I'm being totally flooded with ideas lately, and I've decided that writing a few different stories at once isn't a bad thing, since this way I can write whichever story I'm feeling most inspired for at the moment. :) If you're keeping track, I'm up to three in-progress chapter stories right now. *is slighty impressed with self* The challenge will come with keeping updates for all of them coming fairly regularly. As long as I'm still on break from school, I think it's totally doable. But let's keep this about this story, since that's what you're about to read. As a whole, at least the whole of what I've written so far, I'm actually pretty proud of it. So I hope you like it at least as much as I do. :) And I'll try to chill a little on the author's notes because I tend to get excited and blabber. You can start reading now. :)

It was one of those rare days in early spring when the sun was out and the air was warm. Warmer today, in fact, than it had been in months. The change in weather was even more welcome because for the past week it had been raining: a miserable, cold drizzle that never seemed to let up completely.

But now that was over, at least for the moment, and Castle had an extra spring in his step as he made his way from his car to the precinct. It was a beautiful day, he'd slept exceptionally well the night before, and he'd taken Alexis out for breakfast before school, three things that added up to a really good mood.

At the top of the elevator he went directly to the break room and made two lattes, one for himself and one for Beckett, and headed for her desk. It was vacant. He set the coffees down, looking around for her. It was later than it usually was when he arrived. She should be here.

He poked around her desk a little and didn't see any of her things. No unfinished reports or evidence files lay on the surface. If he didn't know better (which, surely, he did), he would've thought she hadn't been here at all yet today.

He didn't see her anywhere, but he did see Ryan and Esposito across the room, so he went to join them.

"Castle?" he was greeted by a confused Esposito. "What are you doing here?"

He frowned, taken aback. Had Esposito really just asked him that? "What do you mean what am I doing here? Where's Beckett?"

"She's not coming in today, bro. Taking a personal day."

"Didn't she tell you that?" Ryan asked, unhelpfully.

Castle glanced from Esposito to Ryan and back, trying and, for once, failing to connect the dots. "A personal day? Beckett?"

Ryan shrugged. "Seemed weird to me too, but she called Montgomery and that's what she told him. He was all for it. Said she works hard and deserves a break."

"And he's right," Esposito put in. "She does."

"I'm just saying, where's my 'personal day'?"

"So she's not going to be here at all?" Castle asked, a little dejected by the fact that not only was Beckett not here, but she hadn't bothered to tell him she wasn't planning on coming in.

"Not today," Ryan replied. "But you can shadow us if you're looking for something to do."

Castle almost laughed. "Thanks for the offer, but I have some work of my own." He remembered the lattes he'd left on Beckett's desk. "You guys want coffee?"

"Sure," Esposito said, and Ryan nodded.

Castle went back to Beckett's desk and grabbed the mugs, and then handed them to the boys before getting back on the elevator.

Montgomery and Esposito were absolutely right. Kate Beckett worked harder than any cop here, and she deserved to take a personal day every once in awhile. The thing that didn't connect in his head was that the Kate Beckett that he'd known for two years now wouldn't. She was fantastic at her job, but she could be a little bit of a workaholic. She had the feeling that if she missed a day of work that she wasn't supposed to, the world was going to end, or at least a murderer would go uncaught. To Beckett the two were similar.

All Castle knew for sure was that something didn't feel right. Maybe it was because she hadn't told him. She knew he was planning to be there, he was there almost every day that she worked, which was almost every day. If she'd known yesterday that she'd be taking the day off, she could have just mentioned it to him then. Even if she hadn't decided until this morning, she should have called him.

He wasn't angry exactly, just confused. Maybe even a little bit worried. He decided to call her, just a quick buzz to make sure everything was okay, and then he would leave her alone to do whatever it was she'd taken off work today to do. It would put his mind at ease, and then maybe he could get some writing done. He wasn't as far on his next Nikki Heat novel as he knew he should've been by now, and it wouldn't hurt to spend his own "personal day" working on it.

He got to his car and called her cell phone. It went straight to voicemail. Her phone wasn't turned on? If he couldn't understand Beckett taking the day off, the fact that she would turn off her cell phone, cutting off her ability to get calls from work if she was needed, floored him.

"Hey, it's me, Rick," he said after the beep. "Uh, the boys said you were taking a personal day, and I just wanted to call and verify that story." He tried to keep his tone light despite the unease that was starting to build up inside of him. "Call me back when you get a chance."

When she didn't answer her phone, his writer's brain kicked into overdrive, imagining scenarios that made the pieces he didn't understand fit together. None of them were good. Maybe a mass gunman was holding her hostage and had turned off, maybe even destroyed her phone so that she would be unable to get in touch with anyone who might help her. He had a little bit of experience being held hostage by a serial killer, and it was not fun. This was the theory that made the most sense. The criminal forced her to call off work to avoid suspicion, and she'd called it a "personal day" knowing that the people she worked with would find it weird, and hoping, praying that they would investigate further.

Other theories had been spinning inside his head as well, but by the time he'd thought this one the whole way through he was so freaked out that he couldn't give any kind of thought to anything else. He got out of his car and went immediately back to the precinct, running up the stairs two at a time instead of taking the elevator.

He passed Ryan and Esposito and nodded to them, but then went straight to Montgomery's office. He was greeted the same way by the captain as he'd been by Esposito. "Castle, what are you doing here?"

"I know, I know," he panted, "Beckett took the day off. The boys told me. But doesn't that seem weird to you? If she really needed a personal day, wouldn't she have told us yesterday? And when has Kate Beckett ever taken a personal day? I tried to call her but her cell phone's off. I'm worried something's wrong."

"Ever think maybe she just doesn't want to talk to anybody?" Captain Montgomery asked, calm as ever.

"I could understand not answering, but turning her phone off? It's not like her."

Ryan and Esposito appeared in the doorway, apparently curious what Castle was doing here again. "What's going on?" Ryan asked. "Castle, why are you back? I thought you had things to do."

"Beckett's cell phone is turned off," he said to Ryan. "Tell me that's not weird."

"I am a trained detective," Montgomery reminded him, looking wearied. "If she was really in trouble, don't you think I would've been able to tell?"

"But Sir—"

The captain interrupted him. "Castle. Beckett will be fine. Come back tomorrow. She'll be here and everything will be right back to normal. I can promise you that. Now if the three of you don't mind, I have work to do."

Defeated, he walked out of the office, flanked by the two detectives. When they were out of earshot, he turned around to face both of them and muttered, "Is it just me, or does he know something I don't?"

"I don't know man, if he does it's lost on us too." Esposito looked to his partner for confirmation.

Ryan nodded. "No idea."

"Am I the only one here who feels like something's not right?

"What do you want us to do, Castle? We're at work, in case you're forgetting, and the boss says leave it alone."

Ryan was not helping, so Castle looked to his partner. "Esposito?"

"Sorry bro. Ryan's right. Besides, I trust the chief, and he says everything's fine. Tomorrow you can bug Beckett to tell you what she was doing if you're really so curious."

"Fine," Castle conceded, turning toward the elevator. Esposito did have a point. If Montgomery really knew more than they did, he should've been reassured.

"The coffee was good," Ryan called as he walked away.

He turned back and smiled, acknowledging his friend before pressing the elevator button.

But as he rode the elevator back down to the first floor, Castle couldn't shake the feeling of unease that seemed to be gnawing at his insides. In truth, what Montgomery had said hadn't reassured him much at all. Something about his tone had seemed off, and Castle hadn't missed the fact that Montgomery had said "Beckett will be fine," not "Beckett is fine." Maybe Ryan and Esposito were right and he was reading too much into this, but he knew he would never get any writing or, God, thinking done until he knew for sure.

Bit of a cliffhanger there, I know. Sorry about that. Sort of. Anyway, reviews make me incredibly happy, so if you leave a few I'll love you forever. :) I'll try to reply to some of them, but I'm not at home right now and when I'll have internet access next is questionable, so I make no promises, except that I'll read and totally appreciate every single one.