Disclaimer: Marlowe created these characters, not mine. Not today, not ever.

AN: Sorry it has taken so long to update! I got a little stuck so of course once i start writting i have to head off to church! I will add more later and no they won't break up and YES kate will have to work to get Castle back.

Castle sat alone in the interrogation room with his hands clasped on the table in front of him. He knew they must all be behind the glass watching him, planning their strategy but right now the thoughts in his head were racing a mile a minute.

How could they think he was guilty? How could they arrest him like a no good criminal? Did they actually think he was capable of something like this?

He couldn't focus on one thought long enough to find an answer, thankfully he was saved by the door swinging open and Esposito, Ryan, and Beckett all walking in. He searched their faces for some sort of clue to what was happening but they had on their "bad cop" face.

Ryan approached the table while the other two leaned against the walls in opposite corners of the room, "Castle, do you know why you are here?"

"In theory yes, I understand you guys have arrested me for Carly's murder. The question is why?"

"This wasn't just a run of the mill murder Castle. This woman was raped, beaten, brutalized. She was punished for something. So is there something you need to tell us?"

Castle stared back in disbelief. He wasn't just being accused of killing someone but instead being labeled a monster. "As redundant and cliché as it sounds my only reply is, I didn't do it."

"Castle we have evidence linking you to Carly. Witnesses saw you together, a video of you purchasing jewelry that we found on her when she died, and worst of all your fingerprints at the crime scene. So you tell me, how does any of this show you might be innocent?"

It was at the moment that Beckett finally met his eyes and the emotions displayed there showed her hurt and disbelief but the emotion that was missing, the one that he craved, was her trust in his innocence.

Castle took one more look around the room, at his partners for the last four years, and gave the only reply that might save him at this point, "I think I'd like to speak with my lawyer."

Alone in his holding cell, Castle tried to replay the last week in his mind. He thought back to the last time he saw Carly alive, he had lied to Beckett when he said it had been years since the two had spoken, they had been in contact for a couple months now.

Castle hadn't mean to keep it from Beckett but the relationship between the two was new and they weren't at the point where sharing every detail of their lives was necessary or even expected. He never could have imagined that the two worlds would collide in this way.

Carly had been a past love, but they had ended their relationship on good terms. They had both agreed they worked better as friends then lovers. So when she called him out of the blue and asked that they meet up for dinner he accepted. Who was he to decline an invitation to meet up with an old friend?

His thoughts were interrupted when Beckett walked alone in the holding cell area. She stayed behind the bars, leaning against an old table in the corner. She took a deep breath and looked up to meet his eyes and said, "Just tell me what happened, help me understand how this happened."

"I didn't kill Carly. The way she was murdered, you can't possibly think I'm capable of doing something like that. If nothing else you have to believe, to know, that I'm not a total monster." He was desperate to make her believe his innocence.

Right now the pain of being labeled a murderer by his friends, the humiliation of having them drag him in as a felon, the ache in his heart at seeing the woman he loved so easily believe the worst of him, none of that mattered. The only thing that mattered was clearing his name so they could begin the search for the true killer.

"Castle you lied to us, lied to me. You said you hadn't spoken to her in years and we come to find out that you were seen dining with her, buying jewelry for her, and you fit the description her roommate gave us of her secret boyfriend. So you tell me, Castle, as a detective what else can I think?"

"You trust in me, in us. You take into account the fact that for four years I stood by your side and helped you solve murders just like this. Yes I lied about my contact with Carly, but we were friends who had recently reconnected. Nothing more, and for you to doubt that after these last few months after everything we went through to get where we now are?"

She took it all in and asked one final question, "Where were you last Friday night?"

"If you even have to ask that question then this conversation is over," said Castle as he turned towards the wall.