A/N: I know, I know. Why am I trying to write ANOTHER fic when I can't finish the ones I've already started? Answer: Because I know where this one is going...vaguely. More so than the other ones at least. Crossover with NCIS LA will come up in the next chapter, promise!
It's dark. Too dark. Dark like those school trips to caves on the outskirts of civilization, when they turn off all the lights and you can't see your hand in front of your face. It was scary then because you were young and the dark was full of the unknown, unnamed monsters and apparitions your friends told stories about to scare each other.
Except this girl is old enough that the monsters and apparitions are something she can name. Something experience and an unsheltered life have always warned her about. She feels that maybe, if she had listened closer, she wouldn't be in this all-consuming darkness, scared like a child in that cave again.
Maybe the call went through, she thinks. This might be over soon. She doubts it. The hours of isolation have worn her resolve.
"Please Daddy..."
24 Hours Earlier...
Castle groaned, eyes still closed, as he reached around for his vibrating phone. It was early, and when he finally opened his eyes a crack, he saw just how early. He groaned again.
3AM.
He was used to calls at all hours of the day and night; murder doesn't happen on a 9 to 5 schedule. But the night of drinking at the Old Haunt with Beckett, Lanie and the boys left him groggy and less inclined to move from his current position. Only his now almost constant need to see his partner dragged him upright.
"Hello."
He heard a chuckle over the phone at his raspy greeting.
"Got a body. Corner of 4th and Lex."
He cleared his throat and answered with a bit more clarity, "I'll bring the usual. Be there in 30."
They never had any need for more this early in the morning.
45 minutes later, Castle was hustling under the police tape outside a newsstand. It was still dark out, but he could see Kate roll her eyes as he jogged carefully forward, balancing her daily coffee and bearclaw.
"Fall asleep in the shower, Castle?"
He saw that playful grin play across her features, chasing away the annoyance at the hour.
"Ha ha, very funny. Mother caught me on my way out; wanted me to stop by the studio later and talk to her new play-write, you know, the one wrote her one-woman show."
"Gonna pass on some Castle pearls of wisdom?"
Castle squinted at her. "I sense sarcasm, Detective."
"Only sense? You're losing your touch."
She turned to the M.E., who Castle now saw was bending over a freshly murdered man in his late 40s. Stabbed, if he had to guess by the gashes in his chest and abdomen.
"We got a T.O.D., Lanie?"
"I'd estimate about 1 or 2 in the morning, this was very recent. And messy, guy was whaled upon."
"Overkill," provided Castle.
"Exactly. The killer blow was this one," she pointed with her pen at a gash near the center of his chest, "completely bisected the heart; he was dead within minutes. But nearly half of these," she pointed at a few more wounds on his chest, "were inflicted after death. No blood was lost. Your killer is going to be covered in blood, this stabbing was messy and it would've sprayed all over, as you can see by the spatters."
As Castle glanced at the spatters indicated by Lanie, he felt his phone vibrate in his back pocket. He stepped away towards the yellow tape so as to not interrupt Lanie and Beckett, and brought the phone to his ear.
He knew right away that something was very wrong.
On the other end, and he could see from glancing at the phone's screen that it was his daughter calling, he could hear ragged, uneven breathing.
"Alexis?"
"Da-Dad." The service was cutting in and out. "Dad...Don't...where...aken...dark..."
Static.
"Alexis!"
Beckett had taken notice of his absence and wondered over. At the sight of his alarmed face, she mimed asking what was wrong.
He shook his head, focusing on the sound in his right ear.
"Alexis!" he called again.
"...rine...LA...ble's Bar...something ba...I'm so sorr...
Please Daddy."
And then the line went dead.