In A Heart Beat (a Castle Fan Fiction)

Epilogue

"Luke, sweetheart, mommy will be right back, okay? But I need you to let go of mommy so she can go talk to some nice people," Kate told the child who was currently clutching her close to himself as he hung onto her neck. He was so much like his father when it came to saying goodbye. He never gave in, he never let go.

The distressed four year old moaned, "Mommy, no."

In the middle of the courthouse, she didn't want him to make a scene, but she couldn't bring him inside with her. This case wasn't one she felt that he needed to see. She'd brought him in on cases before when they weren't anything he hadn't heard in the precinct, but this one was especially heinous. "Lucas, baby, I need you to go with Alexis for just a little while, okay? I promise, I will be right back out and you and I will go get some ice cream, okay?"

"No!" He shouted, his curly brown hair flopping as he shook his head once. Looking into his sky blue eyes that were so clearly given to him by Rick, she struggled with getting angry at him. But she had to go. She waved to Alexis who came over and helped pry the toddler off of his mother. Apologizing a million times over to the red head and swearing she'd be right back, she disappeared as quickly as she could. There, Javier sat bouncing his daughter on his knee while Lanie dug through the diaper bag to find something. Ryan, sitting one row in front of them, was comforting the youngest victim as she went through one of the worst experiences she'd faced since her abduction.

When she got to the front of the courtroom, the warden forced her to place her hand on the bible and asked, "Do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth so help you God." This was the only time she ever used the phrase "I do". Taking the stand and waiting for the prosecuting attorney to begin speaking with her, Kate spun the ring on her finger around in distress.

When the man stood and approached her, he made a point he hadn't planned on making in quite this manner with this woman. "Detective Beckett, you seem nervous. Are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm just- My twenty-three year old step daughter is outside watching my son and given the guy we're dealing with, I'm just slightly nervous," Kate said simply.

He then filled in the blanks, "That's because all of his victims were seniors in college, correct?"

"Well, four of them were. His final victim and the only survivor, Penny Greyson was a senior in High School," Kate informed him, knowing this dance like the back of her hand. Kate then added, "Alexis also has strawberry blonde hair, fare skin and is studying medicine, so forgive me if I seem a bit distracted."

Mr. Deseck said, "It's no a problem, Kate. So, can I ask you to describe the first crime scene for me? Walk me through it?"

Kate's nervousness then fully surfaced as she painted a picture the way Castle had always done; the way he'd taught her. "That morning was especially early. It was around four A.M when I got the call that a body had been found outside of an apartment building. When I got there, I figured there'd been a suspicious suicide or a late night shooting since those were the only things that seemed to wake people up. What I saw was worse than anything else I'd ever seen. The victim, Daniela Joiner, was hanging from the ceiling by her arms and legs. She'd been gutted, split down the middle from her larynx to just about where a pair of underwear would have cut off. There was bruising along nearly every inch of her body and it was impossible to tell what had been caused by a beating and what was simply postmortem bruising. Every one of her ribs had been fractured or broken due to a beating. There were burn marks running along her arms and leg, given to her by what we later discovered to be a cigarette. Finally, when I took in the sight and was barely able to contain myself, I came around and looked into her face. The unsub had removed the skin and muscle, leaving only bone across her left side. The original M.E, Lanie Parish had to leave and call in the Senior Medical Examiner."