. I couldn't get this story out of my head so I decided to share it. And I know it's not Christmas yet but hey I wish it was.

And as the rain fell down over New York there were two pairs of footsteps scampering through it.

"Stop running Emily I just want to talk." The voice announced walking with a cool calm demeanor despite of the task that he had to fill.

The woman ran through the rainy streets of New York avoiding puddles as best as she could until she turned right into a dead end. She mentally cursed and hid beside a dumpster, snuggling to it as close as she possibly could.

His shadow was coming nearer and she closed her eyes as it fell over her.

"Please don't do this I have a daughter. I'm the only one she has." She begged.

The shadowy man pointed the gun.

"I'm sorry but you shouldn't have messed with the greater forces."

Then the gun went off twice.

Meanwhile at the Polka dots preschool, a woman waits patiently under a shed with one girl.

"Oh sweetie we're going to have to do something about your mother's constant lateness." She looked down at the girl who had hidden tears in her eyes. It wasn't the girl's fault.

"Come on sweetie let's go inside so you don't have to be out here in the cold. Your mother can find us there." The teacher said while placing a hand on the child's back and leading her inside.

She had a terrible feeling that her mother wasn't coming for her at all this time.

"Ugh there's nothing I hate more than rain during winter, it gets even colder." Castle wined hugging Kate from behind and kissed her neck affectionately as she brewed the hot chocolate.

Her phone rang and Kate looked at the caller ID then at Castle. "Well there are lots of other things that are worst than rainy winter days and its murder on rainy winter days, it hadn't snowed yet but the wind still felt like ice.

She turned around in his arms and allowed their lips to meet for a brief moment. "Looks like that hot chocolate is going to have to be a on the go. There goes my day off." She mumbled.

They arrived to the crime scene 15 minutes later and joined the group standing around Lanie while she examined the body.

"Hey guys what do you have?" Kate asked getting straight to the point. Her nose was starting to run and she knew for sure that her face was red.

Lanie started first. "Well the victim was shot twice in the chest by a nine millimeter and based on her body temperature I'll place the time of death around 1:00 this afternoon. I'll have more for you when I get her back to the lab." Kate nodded her head and turned to Ryan expectantly.

"Well we found the victim's purse and everything else except her cell phone is in here." Ryan said holding up a small black bag and a little black book in a zip lock pouch.

He handed Kate the purse to search for herself.

"It probably had a connection to the killer on it." Castle said.

"According to her ID the victim's name is Emily Small. Twenty four years old, we're running her name through the system right now to see if we can find out anything else about her."

He waited for her to respond but she ignored him and continued to look through the book.

"Says here that today she had Work, grocery shopping, Polka Dots Preschool and then Work again."

She recited looking at Castle who returned the look before saying.

"Polka Dots Preschool so either she knew someone there..."

"Or she has a child." Kate finished. "Ryan you and Esposito find out where she works. Castle and I'll go to the preschool.

They pulled up to a small old building with an almost damaged playground and a woman greeted them in front of the building.

"Hi can I help you?" She asked politely but still curious of there visit.

"I'm detective Beckett and this is Richard Castle. Do you know an Emily Small?"

The woman's face fell. "Yes I do. What happened?" She asked.

Kate bit her lip bracing herself for the hardest part of her job.

"She was murdered this afternoon."

Kate gave her a moment to compose herself before speaking again.

"I'm sorry to do this but how exactly do you know Mrs Small?"

"I'm...I'm Nicole, her daughter's preschool teacher." She paused "Oh no Maddie."

Kate placed a hand on her shoulder.

"Clam down Nicole. Where is she right now?" She asked.

"She's inside. I knew something wasn't right."

"How close were you to Emily?"

Nicole thought for a while before answering. "As close as I am to the rest of the kid's parents, she tends to keep her life close to the vest. All I know is that she's a single mother."

"Did you notice anything strange about her?" Kate questioned.

Nicole narrowed her eyes in thought.

"Actually yes, she is constantly late but I usually give her a break because she's a single mother but lately she started coming even later and then a few days ago she told me to make sure that Maddie never leaves with anyone but her and she looked pretty scared and serious when she said it."

Kate scribbled some notes on her note pad and turned to the door.

"Well that's it I'll have to take her daughter back to the precinct so we can find someone for her." Kate explained.

Nicole walked out a few minutes later with a small girl with one hand holding Nicole's and another clutching a My Little Pony backpack.

"Madison this is detective Beckett your mommy can't come for you so she's going to take you okay." The girl nodded her head obediently and stood next to Kate.

She had never seen a child with less joy in their eyes.

"Thank you Nicole I'll call if I need anything else." Kate said using her free hand to wave at the woman.

They walked back to the car and Kate buckled child into the back seat and Castle slipped the keys from Kate.

"What are you doing?" She asked frowning.

"You should sit in the back seat with her. It'll make her feel better."

"Why can't you do it?"

He shot a look at the girl who was tensely staring at Castle ready run. She hadn't noticed it before she slipped into the seat next to the girl.

"What's your name?" Kate asked she was pretty sure she already knew but she had to get her talking.

"Madison." She whispered.

"That's a very pretty name."

"Thank you."

She saw the lingering look in her eyes so Kate continued.

"How old are you?" Kate asked.

She raised four tiny fingers without looking directly at Kate.

"Why didn't my mommy come?" The two adults froze and looked at each other through the mirror.

"Well sweetheart," she paused to think of what she would say, she couldn't just tell a four year old her mother was murdered.

"Something happened and she just couldn't make it."

Maddie squeezed her backpack tighter.

"Did my mommy die? Because mommy said that sometimes God chooses someone to come to heaven so they could help the angels."

Kate let out a sigh of relief that she already knew.

"Yep that's what happened. Wait how did you know?"

"Mommy told me that God might pick her next."

The rest of the ride was silent while Kate thought about everything the girl had told her. Less than 10 minutes later the girl was fast asleep and Kate took out her phone and told her the situation.

She carried her up to the precinct carefully so she wouldn't wake up and after she tried and failed to place the girl on the break room couch, she just gestured to Ryan to come to her instead.

"What did you find?" She whispered.

"Well according to the computer the Emily has no family her parents died in an accident in 2006 and she was an only child, We're still checking for her place of employment and we have to look for where she was living . She was a victim of domestic abuse by Andrew Mason and was in and out of safe houses."

She smiled, this case would be easy. "Great where is he now."

"Well after she went into her third safe house Andrew was arrested for attempted murder and 2 years later he was beaten to death in prison."

Her smile dropped. "Madison said that her mother told her about her she would die, which means that she knew she was in danger but the question is how and what was she in?"

The door to Gate's office opened and she peeped out. "Beckett the social worker is here."

She wrestled the girl onto the couch until her body relaxed and sunk back into the couch, before going into Gate's office.

"Detective this is Mrs Johnson she's the social worker."

"Hi detective, I'm here for Madison."

Kate looked at her suspiciously.

"She's in the system twice she had an abusive father."

So that's why she tensed up so much around Castle.

"What's going to happen to her?"

"Well honestly detective I don't know all of the children homes are too full. I even have three at my house. She's probably going to have to stay in a shelter. You'd think the holidays would be easy for us but it isn't."

The thought of Maddie having to stay in a shelter full of all different kinds of people by herself scared her and she couldn't think of why she cared so much about her.

"I can take her until there's space in the home for her."

Gate's head flew up and Mrs Johnson's face lit up.

"That would be great detective." The social worker cheered.

Gate's looked at her.

"What?! Detective, how are you supposed to solve a case with a child?"

"The same way anyone else would." And then her voice lowered. "And Castle can help me."

"Thank you detective, but are you sure? It could take weeks even months before there's room for her."

Kate took a deep breath in before responding.

"I'll be fine. I would hate to lose Madison to the system. She can help us with information on the case."

"Great, then it's settled I'll bring the papers for you to sign tomorrow and as soon as there is space I'll let you know." Mrs Johnson explained.

She stepped out of the office and Castle stood up to meet her.

"What the hell did I just get myself into Castle?"

I know this chapter was kind of boring and case related but next one will be more fun. Please leave a review or a suggestion any will do. Please let me know if I should continue.