Chapter 9 - Work

"Hey Espo! How's the case going?" I shouted out to my partner as I got into the open bullpen.

He looked up at me with food in his mouth and I raised my eyebrow.

"I didn't think you would go in today" he said with full mouth.

I saw Ryan get out of the break room and look at me with wonder in his eyes.

"Beckett, what are you doing here?" he questioned and I felt stunned.

"I work here. Why the hell wouldn't I come in today?" I asked my two partners.

They gave each other one look that didn't tell me anything more than that they knew something I didn't.

"Speak" I demanded cold and harsh.

They shrugged their shoulders and Esposito decided to speak up.

"We just thought you would stay home with Alexis, where is she by the way?" he said.

"She's at my dad's house, I told you on the phone yesterday I would come in as soon as I had dropped her off so where did you get the idea of me not coming into work today?" I demanded to know what was going on.

Both my partners shrugged their shoulders and I sighed, rolling my eyes as I went to the murder board to check out what they had written down. "Marah Adams, 25, died 9:35pm, found by best friend Teresa, has a 3 y/o child, unidentified father, where's the child?" I continued to check the facts they had scribbled down, looked like they hadn't gotten any further than last time we talked.

"Have you found the one signing the adoption papers yet?" I asked and saw Ryan come up to me.

Esposito was gone and I wondered what the hell those two where up to, but I was too tired to try and find out. Whatever it was, it hopefully could wait.

"Actually, he died about one month after the adoption. Guess whoever took the kid didn't want him to help cops ID them. We have a lead on the father though, not as in we know who he is but now we know Marah didn't. She had no idea who the father was and that's why she and her old boyfriend just figured they would tell everyone it was his" Ryan informed me and I nodded.

"The kid's been gone for too long, we don't even know if he or she is still alive. Do we even know the gender by the way? Is it a boy or a girl that we're searching for?" I asked and looked at Ryan who looked down in his papers.

"It's a baby girl, we found that out from the old boyfriend, they had found out together at one of the ultra sound appointments since they wanted to get ready to become parents, not that they wanted to know how to raise it, that he was very specific about. They just wanted to get closer to the birth and their future, feeling like 'knowing the gender of their baby was the next step' " he said making quotations in the air.

I nodded, thinking. Where the hell did that kid go? And why didn't Marah tell anyone she found her baby?

"Girl, we need to talk!" I heard my best friend's voice filling the bullpen and I quickly spun around to see Esposito walk behind Lanie with a frightened look on his face.

I looked around to see how many people had heard her outburst but found no one looking at us. To my relief I let go of a breath before I turned my attention back to my best friend.

"What's wrong?" I asked and she gave me one of her looks.

"What's wrong? You're really gonna go with that? Come here" she said, taking a grip on my wrist pulling me with her into the break room.

The two men inside there saw the look on Lanie's face and immediately walked out of the room. Lanie closed the doors and pulled down the curtains before she turned to me.

"You met with ! Are you ? Do you Alexis to get ripped away from you?!" she screamed in a hushed matter.

I just stared at her with wide eyes.

"How the..?" but I didn't get to finish my question before she cut me off with her answer.

"Me and Javi was out for a quick dinner at a restaurant when we walked past that stupid park and saw you two! Javi didn't recognize him, still don't know who that 'guy Beckett was talking to' was but I sure as hell remember him from all the pictures I printed out for you!" she was mad.

She was hella mad. I couldn't remember the last time she had been this mad, especially not at .

"Don't even try to deny it, what the hell were you thinking Kate?" she said, her anger turning into worry.

I bit my inside cheek. I didn't know what I had been thinking. To be honest I didn't think I had been thinking. I had just acted the way my heart had told me to. Lanie gave me an encouraging look to start talking so I took one deep breath before I opened my mouth to answer my best friend.

"I don't know, he called me the day before and since I froze I started listening to what he was saying and when I finally hang up on him, deciding I didn't need the trouble, she came into my room having had a bad dream and I couldn't help her. She was just crying more and more for each minute that went by and I could only think of one thing to do. I called him back and I let the two of them talk" I babbled on and I saw the shocked face on Lanie but before she could say anything I added, "don't worry, I was there throughout the whole conversation. I got to talk to Castle alone when Alexis went to make breakfast yesterday and I told him to meet me at the park, I don't think he has done something wrong. So I left Alexis at my dad's, of course I didn't tell Castle that, and then I met with him. I know I'm in trouble if someone else saw us but I just couldn't stop the feeling of being guilty for not letting the kid ever be able to see her father. I lost my mom and I still live every day not wishing anything more than to be able to see her again. I couldn't let that happen to her, I just couldn't" I stopped, my voice fading away.

I knew it was stupid of me to do what I did. But I truly didn't think Castle had done anything wrong at all. And as I looked into Lanie's eyes I could see she understood, even if she didn't like it, she understood. That's why I knew it had better to tell her the truth. Well, that and the fact that she would be able to tell if I was lying about this.

"Yo Beckett, Lanie" Ryan greeted when he opened the door. "I'm sorry for interrupting but I think we've found a lead to the girl" he said before Lanie managed to yell at him.

I shook my head to get my mind together.

"You and Espo go, text me the address and I'll get to you asap" I told him and he nodded before he closed the door and I heard him call out to Esposito to gear up.

"Look, Lanie, I'm sorry I did this without telling you but I need to help him. You should've seen him, I could literally see all the pain he was in. Besides, I have a theory on why Alexis was ripped away from him" I told her and she gave me a questioning look.

"Are you sure?" she asked and I could see she was giving up.

All I could do was nod and she sighed.

"Okay, just be careful. I don't like the thought of you loosing her, or her loosing you. Don't make the mistake of meeting him where others can see you" she warned and I smiled.

"Thank you" I whispered and she held out her arms.

I went into her hug and we just stood there embracing each other for a moment.

"You still into him?" she said in a teasing tone and I pulled away looking at her with shock written all over my face.

"What? ! I was never into him!" I defended and she just hummed giving me that look of hers.

That same look she had given me after the book signing. I quickly went away from her saying I had to go meet the boys at whatever address they had found something, mostly because I couldn't let her see the blush forming on my face.

"I know when you lie, remember that!" she called after me and I gently shout back at her to shut up.

I could hear her laugh at me as I got into the elevator. I was surprised by my best friend's behavior. First she was really pissed and now she accepted it? Was she really accepting it? As the elevator went down I got a text from Esposito saying they were entering the building, he wrote that they would wait for me unless something happened inside the apartment they were heading up to. I quickly sent them a message saying I was on my way. I got into my car and drove over as fast as I could without breaking any laws. At the same time I couldn't stop thinking about what Lanie had said about her and Esposito seeing me with Castle. I should be more careful next time. Next time. Great, I was actually thinking about taking that risk again. But then again, of course I was, he was falsely accused and I needed to help him get his girl back. I stopped the engine and jumped out of my car to get up into the building where my partners where waiting for me.

"Hey Beckett! Wasn't sure Lanie would let you leave" Ryan said with a questioning look and I shook my head.

"Don't snoop around, that starts fights between siblings" I said and he nodded.

"Alrighty then, let's get to business and try find that little girl" he said and we all agreed.

We stood by the door and took positions. I pointed to Esposito to take the lead, since I hadn't had much to do with the case I figured it would be better to let them handle it and to just be there in case something went south. Esposito knocked three times on the door while we all three stood at the sides of the door, in case there were armed people inside we needed to make sure we wouldn't get hit by any bullets.

"NYPD open up!" Esposito called out.

We all counted to three and since there was no movement inside we got eyes contact and counted to three once again, this time Ryan kicked in the door on three. We had our weapons drawn and we moved inside the apartment. Esposito went right, Ryan left and I stayed back at the door in case someone would try to get passed my partners and run for the door.

"Clear!" I heard Ryan shout out and come back to me right before we heard Esposito shout out to us to come.

Together we went to the room Esposito had gone into and saw him stand by a crib.

"I think we found where they held the kid, but they're not here right now" he said in a disappointed tone.

"They just left though, the coffee can is still hot in the kitchen" Ryan told us and we all immediately went towards the kitchen where the fire escape would be according to what we'd seen before we went into the building.

The window was part opened and I pushed it open before the others could react. I jumped out and climbed down the ladders towards the ground.

"They can't have gotten far! We gotta move!" I yelled up as I heard someone follow me down.

"Ryan will take the car and call for the cam footage around the streets to see if he can find something" Esposito panted behind me when we got to the ground.

I looked around us and decided to walk further into the alley we got to. I heard Esposito following my footsteps and signaled him to keep quiet while I kept walking forward. All I could really think about was that girl we were looking for. The girl was probably traumatized for life after everything that's happened to her. I almost drew my gun on my partner when he tapped my shoulder. He pointed to one container before he pointed to his ear, signaling he heard something coming from it. I nodded and we moved towards it, not knowing what to expect.