Title: Inviolate.
Author: eyrianone
Rating: T
Spoilers: Post-Ep 'Probable Cause'
Summary: She rips the paper from his hands with desperate strength, and tears it to shreds before he can read any more of it.
Disclaimer: (From ViaLethe) – 'Words are mine. World ain't.'
in·vi·o·late
Adjective: Free or safe from injury or violation
unharmed, intact.
On the ride from the bridge to the precinct he's too quiet, expression shuttered and hands twisting in his lap. He stares at her, at the ceiling, the city – can't seem to stop the constant movement of his eyes, his focus always drifting.
"You okay?" she whispers, scooting closer to him in the confined back seat of Ryan and Esposito's crown vic.
Castle nods, flashes her a brief smile that doesn't light his eyes in any way and he shivers slightly, she scoots closer still – crams herself up against him, snagging one of his hands in hers. He focuses on that then, stares at the contrast between her fingers and his.
"Did he hurt you – back there?" He asks her softly, hesitantly, his thumb lightly caressing the delicate bones of her wrist as he traces the shape of them over and over again. Beckett shakes her head.
"No, not really. He just surprised me, caught me unawares," she replies bitterly, the fact that Tyson got the drop on her is rankling.
Castle nods.
"Yeah," he says heavily, turning from her to look out at the city as it passes, "he likes to do that. He gets off on it."
His voice is heavy and laden with burdens, and inside Kate seethes with fury for what the last few days have put him through. If Castle is correct and Jerry Tyson isn't dead . . . well if she ever has that son of a bitch on the other end of a gun barrel again she's gonna shoot him in the head.
Their partners' unmarked squad car pulls up at the precinct and Kate flashes an encouraging smile at him, "Come on – let's get this paperwork on your escape done so that we can get out of here."
He follows her silently.
The meeting with the assistant DA doesn't go well. The woman clearly expects some sort of groveling apology from Castle, but the writer is blatantly unrepentant.
"He was going to have me killed – what did you expect me to do? I wasn't about to let him get away with it." He hisses at the attorney, his jaw so tight it must be hurting him and his blue eyes ice-cold.
"We would expect you to let the authorities handle it, Mr. Castle. Follow the system you deem yourself a part of, after all your innocence was proven in the end."
Castle pushes away from the table in the conference room so hastily that his chair topples over. He paces in front of the windows with his back to them and Kate's about to speak on his behalf when he spins violently back around.
"I proved my innocence," he fairly spits at the DA, before he points at Kate, "with my partner's help. If I'd played by your rules I'd be dead by now and Kate eventually finding the trail that exonerated me would've done a fat lot of good then."
"Mr. Castle-"
"Save it," he interrupts. "Either you're going to let me go home with the time I've served or you're not. If you aren't then just stick me back in there and let's get this over with."
Kate turns horrified, pleading eyes on the female DA, her heart in pieces once more at the mere thought of him having to spend another second behind bars. The woman looks from Kate back to Castle, and then relents.
"The paperwork for your official freedom is already done," she says a little grudgingly. "Just, sign here."
Her partner scrawls his signature messily on the document and then leaves the room without a backward glance, Kate rushes to catch up with him.
"Castle-"
He stops her with a look.
"I just want to get out of here," he says, and the look on his face is heartbreaking, like he really cannot stand another moment of being here. Like the precinct is no longer a second home but more some kind of hell for him.
"I'll take you home," she offers with a gentle smile.
"No," he says quickly. "I can't face it right now. He was there Kate, he touched things - he contaminated it; and then the arrest - in my own home. . . "
She nods her understanding.
"So, we'll go to my place then?"
He breathes through a slight nod of his head as he moves to take her hand, until he remembers they're in the precinct and hesitates, Kate doesn't, she laces their fingers together defiantly - tugs him to the elevators with her, hand never leaving his.
He stares mutely out the window the entire way there.
She locks and double checks the door to her apartment behind them, pushes him towards the shower with a too knowing look etched into the tired lines gathering on her face.
"Go wash it away," she tells him gently, stretching up to brush a kiss briefly across his lips. "I'll pull out some of the things you left here, leave them on the bed."
Castle smiles gratefully at her, absorbing the care and the understanding, the lack of demands on him right now.
"Coffee?" she asks.
He shakes his head.
"Better make it whiskey instead."
She doesn't judge, she just meets his eyes silently asking if he's sure and the steady pain radiating in their depths answers eloquently for him.
"Ok."
When he spends an absolute age in her bathroom, Kate tries not to be overly concerned, even as the constant hum of the shower grates on her last nerve and she fights back the urge to check on him. Under any other circumstances she'd have jumped in there with him, but the forfeit of his freedom – no matter how brief, has left her determined to afford him privacy, space, reprieve. When he emerges unscathed and looking more relaxed she's finally thankful she did.
Bee-lining for the whiskey sitting waiting on her coffee table, he grabs it up and then drops himself heavily down on to the couch beside her. There's the sound of paper crinkling and Castle frowns, reaches beneath him. He pulls out the copy of the emails he supposedly sent to Tessa that she'd brought home with her. His face just crumbles completely when he sees them and he puts the drink down quickly, like he's pushing solace away.
"Oh God, I'm so sorry," she gushes, reaching to remove them from his hand, "give them here - you don't need to relive this right now."
His eyes close, his face tenses, but his grip on the evil lying pieces of paper is rigid and strong, she tugs but he refuses to give them up.
"Castle-"
Nothing, she tugs hard and the papers crease, his hold on them so tight his knuckles have blanched. She tugs again.
"Castle, please-"
Ignoring her, he seems to force his eyes open and he scans the paper although she'd give anything to prevent it. She read him just two of these messages when she questioned him about them, had blandly managed to simply sum up the story within the rest. She can tell by the wild and tortured expression on Castle's face that he's been imagining the actual contents of the remainder, wondering what words Tyson ascribed to him as he tried to break Kate apart in such a vicious way.
Tessa,
Can't stop thinking about you. Let me buy you coffee again?
Rick.
Tessa,
I want to take you to dinner – say you'll let me?
Rick
Tessa,
Best x First x Kiss x Ever x
Rick
"Castle stop, forget them, they don't matter." Kate pleads, but his speed-reading eyes keep moving rapidly, absorbing the lies that were forced on her mind – the lies she knows it'll take a while to forget.
Tessa,
I had no idea, no idea. I'm still blown away.
Rick
Tessa,
Free tonight? Come to the loft – the bed here is bigger;)
Rick
Tessa,
Miss me? I miss you.
Rick
Tessa,
Sorry, I want to see you too – but this weekend I'm committed to going out of town. Look, I'll email you, or I'll call - please don't be mad at me.
Rick.
Tessa,
I'll bring you here, I swear it; just give me time to figure this out. Falling in love with you,
Rick
A small cry of pain slips through his parted lips, and he bites down on them to keep the overflow of emotion in – it pushes Kate over the edge.
She rips the paper from his hands with desperate strength, and tears it to shreds before he can read any more of it. Tears are burning in her eyes and when she looks at him as the fragments of paper fall from her fingers, he's already reaching for her.
She flies to him across the couch, buries herself in his arms and clings.
"I'm so sorry," he whispers into her hair.
"None of this is your fault, they're lies Castle. I always knew they were lies."
"Lies wound," he growls. "Lies cut. They hurt. Even believing I never wrote them, as you read them that first time you still lived the story they paint Kate – he made you feel it."
She nods against his chest, tears slipping down her cheeks because he's right about that at least. She didn't believe them, in her heart she always knew they were all a lie – but she pictured it, felt the wound inflicted – died just a little anyway.
"You would never," she says vehemently. "I know you, I know who you are."
He tips her face up to his and his eyes blaze with it, with the full force of every emotion he feels towards her.
"You do," he swears, "better than anyone else. I've never been so grateful Kate – so thankful for you."
He kisses her desperately then, hungry and possessive, because it's all he wants to do, all he feared he might never have again. When they pull apart for air he holds onto her tightly, crushes her to his chest.
"You're everything," he whispers into her hair, "this is everything I ever wanted – I won't lose this – I won't let him take this away."
"He didn't," she says hotly against the wall of his body. His heart rate has grown elevated and she senses panic suddenly settling over him. He's been so strong these last few days, even in those moments when she could clearly see how scared he was – he held on, when Tyson had her by the throat he didn't blink, pause or hesitate. He orchestrated his own jail break and kept her innocently out of it. He solved the puzzle and pointed them in the right direction and she wonders if he has any idea how proud she is. How amazed by him.
"You'll get him," she says, pushing her body back up and palming the side of his face with her hand. Wetness clings to his dark lashes and his incredible eyes are wide and uncertain.
"I thought you were convinced I killed him?"
Beckett shakes her head. "I want that to be true, I do. But I believe in you," she replies. "If you believe he's out there, then I concede it could be the truth. But if Tyson is thinking he beat you again Castle – he's sorely mistaken."
Castle studies her beautiful face, marvels again at this new level of faith she's reached and continues to demonstrate - faith in him.
"He came close so easily. I'll never let him get that close again," he swears.
She smiles. "You'll be looking for him."
"Kate-"
Her fingertips fly to his face, and she presses them to his lips.
"You'll be looking," she reiterates. "And in the end Castle - that means we'll win."