The Castle in the Case
A Bones/ Castle Crossover Case Fic

Chapter One/ The Meaning in the Dream

This dream was simple, he and Beckett were standing on a pier, and the sun was setting, bright upon the water. All of a sudden a wind picked up, tousling her hair around her face, her eyes lighting up with laughter as the sea sprayed a mist over both their heads. Castle couldn't resist, he leaned in, his eyes locked with hers. She leaned in as well, and as they closed the distance between them, he could feel the wind pick up to an almost violent pace. Before he could react, a huge wave swept over them; he managed to drop to the grab a post with one hand as he clung to hers with the other. The wave was too strong, and her hand slipped from his grasp. After the wave had passed, the water calmed, the breeze died and the sun poked out from the clouds. The sea looked dazzling; returned to perfection after the sudden tumult it had gone through. But Kate was gone. He ran to the edge and frantically searched for a head bobbing above the waves, but he couldn't spot her anywhere. She was gone. Suddenly he spotted a something light beneath the surface and he dove in after the sinking figure of his partner. The cold water hit him like a slap; the water stung him like knives all over, his lungs felt like they were going to explode, but he kept swimming. He had to find her. He couldn't let her go…

Castle started awake, he glanced at the clock. It was four in the morning; too late to get back to sleep, too early to get up. That same damned dream again; he was a writer, and he understood only too well the importance of a literary device like a dream. It showed the characters true fears, their true desires; those that they were too afraid to tell themselves during their waking hours.

This dream represented his twin fears and desires perfectly; he just wasn't sure what to do about them. If it were any other woman he would never be having this problem, he could simply sweep her off her feet and that would be that. But she wasn't one of the women whose chest he would sign. She wasn't a one night stand. She wasn't a fling. She was the real thing; the one who made him want to be a better person, to be a better man. And he didn't even want to fight it any more.

But she so clearly was uninterested. Sure she may be a fan of the books, may have even had her fantasies at one time or another, but since they had started working together she had seen enough of him to make certain she would never want anything serious with him. Not that she would even ever believe that that was something she wanted.

He hated this feeling; constantly keeping on guard so that he didn't say something or do something rash that would ruin their partnership or friendship, or whatever the hell it was they had, however tenuous it was; it would have to be enough.

He sighed, knowing that there was no way he was getting back to sleep now. Instead he got up and made his way into his office, stopping only to make a quick cup of coffee before firing up his laptop and opening up his latest Nikki Heat novel. The whole thing was becoming his only relief when it came to Beckett; in fact it was turning into a massive load of mush- a 500 page long love letter to his favourite detective. He should probably scrap the whole thing and start writing something that was actually publishable, but something kept him from hitting that delete button.

Three hours and three cups of coffee later Castle finally rose from his desk; it was finally an acceptable hour to be up and he could get ready to go down to the station. There wasn't anything going on recently; in fact it had been about two weeks since he had heard from Beckett, something that was undoubtedly fuelling some of the writer's anxiety; he didn't like being away from the detective for this long; it was uncomfortable, to say the least.

Walking into the kitchen he saw his daughter and his mother seated side by side at the island. They were both absorbed in whatever it was they were reading; Martha seemed to be absorbed by a glossy Cosmo and Alexis a thick looking text; no doubt something well beyond her years. He smiled at the sight; two out of his three favourite women in one space never failed to bring a smile to his eyes. That and it was too early for Martha to really get started on him; the Castle residence was a peaceful one at such an early hour.

Martha heard him entered and turned around in her seat to address her son.

"Good morning Richard!"

"Morning mother," he smiled and walked over to give her a kiss on the cheek, than he turned to his daughter, wrapping an arm around her.

"So what sort of trouble are you getting up to today?"

She rolled her eyes and gave him a quick peck on the cheek.

"School Dad, just like yesterday and the day before and the day before that too," she said, returning to her novel.

"Exactly, you've put in enough work this week and it's beautiful outside, so why don't you say we head down to the park and have a picnic, we can even feed the ducks," he looked at Alexis hopefully.

"No Dad, I have to go to school."

"Didn't I mention the ducks? You love the ducks!"

"When I was five, yes, but now I like my History grade even more."

"What on earth did I do to get such a responsible daughter?" he laughed, kissing her on top of her head.

"Mother, would you like to accompany me to a picnic?"

"Darling, you must be desperate if you want me for company! Don't you and Beckett have to run around together catching bad guys while pretending not to be completely attracted to each other?"

"No, as a matter of fact murder has been a little bit scarce the past three weeks." He said nothing of the second comment that his mother made.

"Well I'm sorry my dear, but I already have plans this afternoon, it looks like you're on your own today."

"I guess," he grumbled, walking around the island to pour himself a cup of coffee.

As he stirred the milk into his mug he considered the long day ahead. He could keep working on the book, but he'd had enough of it now. He didn't think that he could stay sane if he was locked in his office all day. He had to get out and do something.

He sat down beside his mother and opened up the newspaper, sipping his coffee. Browsing the headlines he started choking, coughing on the coffee.

Woman's body found on Central Park Carousel

He couldn't believe it, a murder? A scandalous murder? And he had to find out about it from the newspaper? He took his cell phone out of his pocket to check that he hadn't missed any calls from Beckett. Nothing. No text, no missed calls; nothing.

He tried dialling Beckett's number, but it went straight to voicemail just like the past three times (alright seventeen times) he had tried to call her in the past four days. The last time they had spoken she had admonished him for being disappointed that no one had been murdered lately. He figured she had just been taken some (well deserved) time off since their case numbers had improved and there was little to do around the station.

There was only one thing he could do; go down to the station and fish for information. He could pretend that he needed to look up some obscure fact or description, but they would see right through him, not that he cared. He would rather just see her for a moment and look like a fool, then be left out of the loop at home.

An hour later Castle was entering the building, smiling and whistling. It felt good to be back here; he belonged here. He pushed open the door to their offices and came to an immediate halt. Instead of being met with the usual sounds of daily life at the NYPD, there was nothing but silence. There were one or two lower level cops working away quietly at computers but Beckett, Esposito, and Ryan were nowhere to be seen.

He walked over to Captain Montgomery's office, determined to find out why he was suddenly being left behind on an apparently very cool investigation. He knocked loudly twice, on the solid wood door.

"Come in" came a voice from within.

Castle walked in to see the captain on the phone looking quite unhappy.

"Yes of course….. yes…. Well don't you think that I already… alright…. Of course… yes, thank you sir." He sounded exasperated as he slammed the phone back into the receiver more firmly then necessary.

"Am I interrupting something?"

"No, no it's alright Castle, why don't you have a seat."

Castle took a seat across from Montgomery.

"What can I do for you today Castle?"

"Well, I was just curious why I wasn't out helping Beckett investigate this Central Park murder. It seems like everyone else is out working on it- is there some memo I missed?"

"No Castle. I am sorry for the silence the past few weeks, but we've been going through a rather a rough period and it was essential to reduce the number of staff in the building as I am sure you can tell," he gestured to the door, "I guess now that it's all over I can disclose everything to you. In fact you may be able to help."

"Any way that I can," Castle said, nodding.

"Well, about three and a half weeks ago, I was approached by internal affairs who wanted to open an internal investigation on an officer that works out of this precinct. Apparently some of the confiscated drugs from evidence have been going missing over the past few months. It was hard to track at first, but once they got Beckett involved, it went rather smoothly."

"They got Beckett involved?"

"Yup, she's got one of the best records, and IA trusts her, she's helped them out before. So all of our murders were taken over by Ryan and Esposito for the few weeks; we were given the orders to make sure that non-essential personnel weren't involved in investigations when they realized things were getting serious."

"Serious how?"

"Once Beckett had figured out who it was, they made the connection between him and a very prominent gang in New York. It had the potential to get very ugly, very fast, so we were being as careful as possible. I am afraid not even the mayor could over ride that."

"As disappointed as I am in being left out, as long as Beckett can fully fill me in on all the juicy details, I won't hold a grudge," he smiled.

"Well, once they realized the gang involvement, Beckett and the IA liaison headed up the surveillance. They just got the last of the evidence they needed the night before last. They were supposed to go and arrest the cop last night and the raid was planned for a few hours afterwards."

"How did it go?"

"Well that's my problem," he said, gesturing to the phone, "they are being very hush on the details, and Beckett isn't answering her phones."

"Do you think something is wrong?"

"I'm sure they're just holed up with interviews and paperwork, I'm not worried, and neither should you," he said seeing the look on Castle's face; "they just like to keep things under wraps till they have all their ducks in a row. Especially with what Beckett has on the line."

"What do you mean?"

"Didn't you know?"

Castle merely shrugged, he had no idea.

"Well she put in an application to the FBI several years ago, but at that time they thought she was too green. They wanted to give her a few more years as detective to see how she got on. Recently they reviewed her application and wanted to revisit the idea of bringing her onboard. This case was her trial run; the IA was to report to the FBI on how she did. If she pulled it off, she could be getting a very nice boost in salary and position."

Castle was surprised. He had had no idea that she had such federal aspirations, but it made sense that such an intelligent and talented woman would reach higher, still he wished she would have told him.

"Well I guess that I'm not much use to you at the moment."

"I guess, not, but don't worry, I'll let you know the second we need you. I have been reviewing yours and Beckett's cases and I would like to ask you to stay on as a consultant even if Beckett decides to transfer to the FBI."

"Yes, that sounds excellent," he said, sounding mechanical. It really wouldn't be the same if Beckett weren't there, but he'd worry about that after he had spoken with her.

Just as Castle was standing up to leave there came another knock at the door.

"Come in," said Montgomery.

The door opened to reveal a tall blonde man with broad shoulders and a square jaw wearing a stiff black suit walked in. His expression was stern and he seemed like the type of person you would not want to meet in a dark alley somewhere.

"John Kinross, Internal Affairs," he stated brusquely, shaking both Castle and Montgomery's hands firmly.

"What can I do for you?" asked a Montgomery.

"I have come to ask if you had heard from Detective Kate Beckett."

"No, in fact I was just on the phone with Madison all morning trying to find out how things went last night, I haven't gotten any information."

"Yes, well last night, shortly after Beckett and Madison arrested Moore last night, they were heading back separately to regroup with the other IA agents before the raid. Apparently Beckett never made it back to head quarters."

It was unclear who exploded louder, the captain or Castle, bombarding agent Kinross with questions. He held up his hand to quiet them.

"It would be easier if I could give you all the details."

Castle felt as if he had been gutted. How could they not know that something was wrong? How could he not know that she was in trouble? He was numb with the shock, but he nodded anyways.

"Agent Madison lost contact with Detective Beckett around nine pm last night, after which he and I decided that it was best to proceed with the raid, as it was assumed that some of Michelo's men had taken her, and that she would be found during the course of the raid. They finished at about four this morning with no sign of Beckett or anyone else. We have been working for the last few hours searching for her, we have our best agents on it, but we thought that it was time to include you."

There was a stunned silence; neither of the men knew what to say. Beckett was such a strong and confidant woman, how could she ever get herself into trouble?

"We think that either Moore was able to somehow tip them off, or they had more than one person on the inside. Either way, our main priority is the recovery of Detective Beckett, we haven't received a ransom threat, so we can only assume that they are keeping her for leverage or information. We are operating under the assumption that she hasn't been-"

He was cut off by an urgent rap at the door, followed by a young cop looking very pale faced and nervous.

"You had better come out here sir."

"What is it Neilson?"

"You'd better just come out here."

The three men followed Neilson out to the main offices, where there was an open cardboard box on one of the desks. Neilson covered his mouth, looking slightly nauseous and pointed to the box with the other hand.

They approached the box with great trepidation; and with good reason, for within the box was a single bloody foot, severed just above the ankle. It was small, but not a child's foot, more probably a woman's foot. Every single person's thought immediately to the missing Detective they had just been discussing.

There was a stunned silence before Castle managed to speak, despite his shock.

"I think we're going to need some help."