Genre: Drama, Crime, Romance, Family, Humor

Rating: M for violence, language and sexual situations

Disclaimer: I do not own the characters featured on the show Castle, they belong to the creator of the show, ABC, and the others who do own them.

A/N #1: Since this chapter is so short I'm going to be posting the next one in a few hours. So if you want to read that one lookout for it then!

A/N #2: The title of this story is a lyric from the song Flying Hour by George Harrison and Mich Ralphs, from the original rejected track listing of George's album Somewhere in England. The title of this chapter is a lyric from the song Rocky Raccoon by John Lennon and Paul McCartney, from The Beatles' album The Beatles (aka The White Album).

Broken His Dreams

Waving to the woman in the distance, the man waited for her to join him before he said, "I came like you asked; you said Betsy had her foal?"

"She did, I wanted you to check on it, see if it's alright," the woman replied with a smile. "A colt."

"Congratulations," the man said with a nod to her. "Would you want me to check on the others too?"

"Go ahead, I know that you like to make sure they're okay," the woman replied. "Which is so nice of you to do." As they walked to the first of two stables she asked, "Are you heading home to Argentina for the holidays?"

"No, there is not much reason to go home," the man said, his mouth a thin line for a moment at that. "All my family is here."

"Of course, well, if you'd like, I'm having a little luncheon the day before Christmas Eve, you're welcome to come," the woman told him.

"I will think about it," the man said as they came to the door.

Hearing her named called then, the woman looked over to see another man walking up to her. "Oh, my lawyer," she sighed. "I forgot we were going to go over some things today. "You'll be okay in there. And I named him Star."

"He has one?" the man said, smiling then. He watched the woman go after nodding, waiting until she was inside the house with the lawyer before he disappeared into the stable.

The scent of horses and hay hitting him was strong, and it felt like home. He had practically been raised in stables and had spent most of his life on a horse, so it was in fact where he felt most comfortable. He went down the left side of the aisle first at that point, checking on each horse in the stalls, seeing that they were okay. Finally he came to the second to last one, and saw the new colt nursing at its mother. "Que guapo eres," he murmured, staying still and keeping his voice as low as he could. "Estrella… you will be a wonderful polo horse," he told it.

Staying there for quite a while the man eventually had to shake himself though it was hard; he loved seeing all the new ponies when they were born. He had trained a few of them as well so he was close to the horses in the area and it was evidenced in the way a few of them stuck their heads out of their stalls as he slowly walked down the aisle on the other side.

Murmuring to the ones that allowed him to, the man petted them and rubbed their foreheads before checking their mouths; as he always did; for an abscess or any other signs of trouble. Finding everyone in that building healthy he walked to the next building over, seeing that there were already some horses looking out at him. He murmured in Spanish to them as he proceeded to check on them, telling them about their new family member in the next stable over.

When he came to the last stall though, the horse there seemed a little jumpy and he had to speak to it before it calmed. He went inside and he looked around in the hay to make sure a snake or rat wasn't inside, spooking the thoroughbred stallion. When he found nothing he merely shrugged and said a few words to the horse before going to the last stall to make sure it had been cleaned after the mare that'd been pregnant had been taken to the other building.

As soon as he looked into the stall though, the man's eyes went wide and he said, "What are you… No, no, please, no!"

The shot was muffled but the horses responded immediately, rearing and kicking at their stalls. Where there should have been an echoing sound of a bullet was the much louder noise of neighing from each horse and the banging of hooves on the floors and walls as a figure stepped out of the stall. It went through the back entrance as another figure filled the sunlight shining through the front entry before they discovered the reason for the animals' turmoil.