Calypso Gang Affair

by degunther

Has a gang of vigilantes been operating on the streets of NYC with Police protection for over a year without being detected? Castle thinks so. How do you solve a case when you have no suspects or evidence? Get them to confess of course!

Calypso Gang Affair

Has a gang of vigilantes been operating on the streets of NYC with Police protection for over a year without being detected? Castle thinks so. How do you solve a case when you have no suspects or evidence? Get them to confess of course!

Introduction

Present Day

"Sparrow's in," said a heavily grabbled voice over the radio. The man whose call-sign for today was 'Lou' was sitting in the 'borrowed' crew cab pick-up truck. He nodded his understanding and frowned.

'Why didn't she,' he fumed.

"Copy…Radio check and silence. I'll call the ball."

'Brown', 'Kelly' and 'Mitch' came the immediate responses over the radio. Lou settled back and waited. After checking his watch he looked up and continued his surveillance on the Sea Lions crew that was using the street corner as their store front to sell drugs. 'Shouldn't be long now,' he thought. As if on cue the canary yellow Ford Mustang roared into view. Lou watched the detail leader of the Sea Lions wander over to the Mustang and hand a thick package to the driver. 'Let's hope there are eight other packages just as thick as that one you handed him in that car of yours,' thought Lou.

"Kickoff" Lou broadcast as the Mustang sped off. "We're on the clock," he added. 'Sparrow your weapons are clear,' he thought unnecessarily. As he put the truck in gear and was heading in pursuit of the Mustang his attention was drawn to the street corner. "One One-thousand," he verbalized after seeing the first body drop. By the time he reached Three One-thousand six Sea Lion gang members lay dead on the sidewalk.

Lou shook himself and looked away from the sight and sped after the yellow Mustang. After all he and the rest of the 'secondary' had a 'tackle' to make and a 'fumble' to recover.

Chapter 1 A Very Special Hostage Situation

Four Months Ago

It was just after the end of the day shift and 'Captain Gates' was still at her desk in her old office at the 12th. All of her professional and personal items had been boxed up and sent downtown to her new office in Police Plaza One. Victoria looked at the boxes containing the incoming Captain Beckett's possessions and wished her luck. They had held the 'Change of Command Ceremony' earlier in the day but it, like her promotion to Deputy Inspector; it was not effective until midnight. Until then she still was the commander of the 12th precinct. Newly promoted Deputy Inspector Victoria Gates smiled with pride as she filled out her last Daily Report. The Lieutenant had offered to do the last one, but Victoria thought that filling out the report would allow her to close out this phase of her career on an absolutely great note.

Looking back she had had a great run. "I've had great people work for me," she softly verbalized. 'And they are largely responsible for my success,' she acknowledged. 'And that is the real reason why I'm still here,' she admitted. She had just completed off-cycle evaluations on several of her key performers. The Lieutenant to be sure, Sergeant Stevens and newly promoted Training Officer Hastings, several other uniformed Officers, a couple of Detectives out of Robbery, and her big three out of Homicide, Ryan, Esposito , and Beckett. 'Not that Beckett needs it,' she thought. 'It's just when she makes Chief I want everyone to know that she worked for me.'

Victoria pressed the 'ENTER' key for the final time as the commander of the 12th and leaned back in her chair. Captain Gates closed her eyes and listened to the sounds reaching her office. As usual the bull-pen was quiet at the start of the 'night shift'. Activity wouldn't pick up until the bars stated to close or if there was an incident at a major event. She tried to picture the event list in her mind and the only event that came to mind was the dog show at Madison Square Garden. Usually that was a quiet affair. Although, she had to admit, it has had its moments. She frowned as she heard the elevator door hiss open and the sound of running feet.

"I hope she's still here," said the familiar voice of the LT. "I would hate to call her on her cell and find out she's at home."

'It's always something,' thought the Captain as she opened her eyes and rose out of her chair to meet her Officers.

"Captain," said the Lieutenant in his normal laconic fashion. "We have a situation."

"It's Sergeant Gomez Sir," said Sergeant Rodgers, the off-going Desk Sergeant. "He got a call from a neighbor saying that someone picked up his wife and kids. He's gone a little bit over the edge Sir. He's in the Squad Room and his partner is trying to calm him down. Could you?"

"Certainly. How are we…"

"Units rolling Sir. I know by the book we are supposed to wait but…"

"He's one of ours," finished the Captain with convection.

"Damn straight," finished the Lieutenant.

Captain Gates burst from the elevator and almost ran toward the Squad Room.

"Surprise," yelled the combined voices of the day and night shifts as soon as the Captain opened the door!

The noise and the magnitude of the number of people present stopped the Captain in her tracks.

"You said you wouldn't attend a going away party," said a voice that the Captain had hated the first moment she had heard it, and now not so much. "So we brought the party to you."

"But the kidnapping," muttered the Captain.

"It looks like the kidnapped people have finally arrived," continued Richard Castle as he motioned toward the Squad Room doors behind the Captain.

The Captain turned her head to look and saw her husband and her children hurrying through the doors with huge smiles on their faces.

After the Captain had an opportunity to be reunited with her family, Castle took her by the arm and escorted her to the front of the room and held up his hand and within moments the room was silent.

"Captain we aren't going to ask you for a speech. You gave us one at the Change of Command ceremony. A pretty good one I might add. What this is, is your people saying thank you for your support and leadership over the last couple of years. You've run a good House and the people here respect and appreciate that. They would like to say thank you and good luck as the youngest Deputy Inspector in Department history." Castle had to stop as the cheers and applause was way too loud to talk over. "Food and drinks, nonalcoholic of course, are over there and night shift guys," said Castle in a raised voice. "I asked the Lieutenant how many people worked here and ordered triple the amount of food. I've seen cops eat but there should be enough left for you guys on the night shift to eat lunch."

Castle paused for a moment. "Let be one of the first to say congratulations and thank you. And now I'll get out of the way as your Command says thank you. Lieutenant you're up."

"Sir, we've got you a couple of going away gifts for you. The first one," and as he waved his hand and another officer pulled the beach towel off of a framed picture that had been placed on an easel, "is as you can plainly see is an autographed picture of the front entryway of the 12th. But what makes this picture unique is that we've added a map to show you how to get from Plaza One to here. You know, sometimes people forget where they came from."

"Don't worry LT I think I can always find this place. Even in my sleep and sometimes I have I think" Captain Gates said over the laughter of the assembly.

"Next," said the LT waving to another officer who came forward and gave the Captain Gates a box, "is something I know is near and dear to your heart."

The Captain opened up the box and started laughing. A moment later she extracted an empty ticket book that had been bronzed and mounted on a small wooden pedestal. "The inscription reads," said the Captain trying to control her laughter. "'Write only the tickets that matter and warn the rest.'"

The crowd alternately laughed and cheered. Through thick and thin that had been the Captain's position on tickets no matter how much Downtown complained and the precinct had embraced it completely.

"Our last item is a pair of lapel pins that should last a lifetime. We don't want you to ever forget where you came from."

The Captain took the pair of lapel pins with the numeral 12 in a bright and shiny metal and showed them to the crowd, who cheered. When she looked closely at them, she frowned up at the Lieutenant.

"Platinum," whispered the LT. "When Castle said he would cover the food and drinks, we had the money so why not?"

Captain Gates nodded her acceptance too overcome by emotion to respond.

"Now that the gifts have been given let's…."

"I think we're one gift short," said a voice from the crowd. Inspector Ted (Red) O'Malley stepped out of the crowd and walked toward Captain Gates. "I was going to give these to you tomorrow morning in your new office, sort of a welcoming gift, but when a little bird whispered something about a celebration I thought it would be more appropriate to come here and give to you now in front of your Command."

"It was the free food," heckled Castle good-naturedly.

The Inspector smiled as he reached into his pocket and pulled out a pair of insignia for wear on the shirt collar and another pair for wear on the uniform blouse. "These tabs aren't new," he began addressing Captain Gates privately but including the whole assembly. "They've been worn by over a dozen other officers over the years and they have brought us all good luck. I don't have time to tell their history tonight…"

"I really would like to listen in sir," said Castle in a very respectful voice.

"Perhaps someday I'll tell you Mister Castle, but not now."

"Victoria, everyone who has worn these has gone on an achieved star rank, and I'm confident that you will too. You are charged with several things. The first one is the easiest. Wear them at your earliest opportunity. Next preserve and protect them so that they may be passed down to another worthy Officer. The most important task of all is be true to yourself and to do good work. You're one of the best, in the best Police Force in the world; all you need to do is continue being yourself. And your last task is to find and mentor the next person."

The Squad Room, which had grown deathly quiet as the Inspector was speaking, broke into applause and cheers when the Inspector finished speaking.

"The food lines are open," shouted the LT as the clapping died down.

As soon as the LT spoke, Captain Gates was engulfed in well-wishers. Captain Gates was polite but abrupt with the first couple of people. She visibly relaxed when she saw her husband, with her kids in tow, head toward the food line.

The crowd of well-wishers around the Captain remained constant for a fairly long time. Some were simple 'Congratulations' and 'Good Luck' while others shared stories about events.

"Water, ice tea, or a soda," asked a familiar voice.

"Water please Mister Castle."

"It looks like the LT is taking your guys on a tour," remarked Castle with a nod toward the Squad Room doors.

The Captain took a pull from the water bottle, quickly side-stepped and saw her guys leave with the Lieutenant. Captain Gates mentally sighed. She was glad that they were going on the tour, but she wanted to be the one to show them and now. Well a lesson learned. I will spend more time with my guys, she vowed.

"Thanks," she whispered as she took another drink from the water bottle and returned her attention to the people around her.

After an hour or so the Captain found herself alone and decided it was time for a bio-break. As she was leaving the restroom she spotted Mister Castle heading the other way carrying a couple plates of food in his hands and he had silverware, a bottle of water and a can of soda stuffed in his jacket pockets.

"Hungry Mister Castle," she teased.

"For the Desk Sergeant," he replied with a small grin.

'Thoughtful as always,' thought the Captain. That was one of the things that made it difficult for her to completely dislike him and made him a favorite with the troops.

"Mind if I walk with you?"

"Not at all Sir, after all this is still your House."

'Yes it is,' she thought. "Here let me help you," she said reaching for one of the plates of food.

"Thanks"

On their way back to the Squad Room Captain Gates gently touched Castle on his arm and stopped.

"You know Mister Castle we haven't had a very congenial relationship."

"I just assumed it was because you hated the fact that I was a civilian and that I was outside of your direct span of control. Also you were rightly concerned that my actions could reflect badly upon you, this Precinct, and the NYPD. You were also justifiably afraid that I would do something romantically or heroically stupid and put your people at risk."

"That was part of it, but there was more…"

"Then it must have been that you thought me a privileged, pampered and worthless son of a bitch that used his personal and political connections with the Mayor to secure a position that he had no business being in."

"All of the above, but mostly the later and concern for my people," agreed the Captain with relief. "How…"

"Well I don't think history will repeat itself," laughed Castle. "But I married the woman who first said something like that to my face."

Captain Gates visibly relaxed and looked down at her feet. "Wait," she said as she looked up with an invisible grin gracing her face "Does that remark mean you wouldn't even consider marrying me?"

"Captain I," said a panicked Castle as he temporized. "You know I've already asked you to be me my Valentine."

"Yes you did," the Captain laughed. "I do believe I told you I was taken, and now I believe we both are. Too bad you felt compelled to return the earrings. Kate would have loved them. They were gorgeous."

"Yes we are both married," he affirmed. "Too bad," chuckled Castle "we might have been glorious…Where does that leave us?"

"I don't think we can be friends," admitted Captain Gates, "We definitely aren't enemies and you did use your influence with the Mayor to get a position you don't deserve. The difference is Mister Castle I trust you. You will act like a jerk sometimes, but an honorable jerk none the less. I also trust you to protect your wife at all costs and otherwise act with the interests of the NYPD in mind."

"To trust then," said Castle as if he were making a toast.

"To trust," echoed the Captain as she went on her tip-toes and kissed Castle's check.

"I hope you didn't leave any lipstick on my collar," said a shocked Castle. "My wife is pretty good at finding out things, and she carries a gun."

The Captain tilted her head back and laughed, long, hard and musical. "Our secret then and if discovered I'll confess and tell Kate I took you by surprise."

"You did," admitted Castle. "Ah, Sir may I ask a question," asked Castle as they headed back to the party?

"Go on."

"When did you first know about us?"

"I suspected for a long time. When your daughter got kidnapped I thought there was something between the two of you. I wasn't sure if it was compassion for a teammate or something deeper. I was certain when 3XK tried to frame you. Beckett risked everything when she didn't return you directly into custody. The incident when you stayed with Kate when she stepped on the bomb clinched it."

"Why didn't you…"

"Kick you to the curb? I thought about it, but I also saw you added value and I could control you through Kate, so kicking you to the curb wasn't necessary to maintain discipline."

"Thanks," said an emotional Castle.

When they reentered the Squad Room, their eyes searched the room for the same reason but for different things, and as fate would have it their eyes arrived at the same place.

Captain Gates saw her husband talking to Beckett and her 'guys' were eating seconds like they hadn't eaten in a month and were afraid that this would be their last meal. 'In other words just like the teenagers that they are,' admitted the Captain. As she approached she couldn't help but notice the huge smile that was on her husband's face and the look of pride in his eyes.

"It is a school night," she said as placed her hands on the shoulders of two of her children. "We about ready to head home?"

"Ah Mom," complained her youngest.

"After you finish your ice cream," she replied knowing the real reason for the complaint.

"I'm proud of you Victoria," said her husband softly as he drew her into a gentle hug.

Castle saw Kate look in his direction as they entered the Squad Room, say something to Captain Gate's husband and start to walk in his direction. Castle slowed down and stopped. He never tired of the sight of Kate, with that small smile on her face and that certain gleam in her eyes walk toward him. Castle admitted that the view from behind was just as nice. He shuttered when the unbidden thought came of Kate walking away from him for the last time. 'Never going to happen buster,' a beautiful voice said in his mind. 'I tried that once, and I was miserable. We're together until the end of time.'

Castle watched as the two women nodded to each other as they passed and Kate's eyes flicked back to his face as she continued towards him. He so much wanted to wrap her up in a fierce hug and kiss her properly, but he knew that he would have to settle for just holding her hand and having her on his arm.

'I hope you two buried the hatchet,' thought Kate as she watched the Captain now Deputy Inspector and her husband re-enter the Squad Room. 'She may be leaving the Precinct but I know she is not leaving our lives.' Kate said her goodbyes to the Captain's husband and headed toward the ruggedly handsome man that had the audacity to ask her to marry him. 'Saying yes was the smartest thing I ever did,' she concluded, 'and why did I wait so long?'

After nodding a greeting to her Captain Kate's eyes returned to her husband's face. 'He's picked up more care lines,' concluded Kate. 'Not that many and they seem to add character to his face instead of subtracting from it, and that touch of gray just staring at his temples adds an air of respectability. All in all still a very fine face for an 'Old Man', concluded Kate. And since the hair is the only 'thing' turning gray I'll keep him for a while longer yet she smiled to herself. Kate flowed through Castle's outstretched hand, kissed him on the check and settled in her rightful place, on Castle's arm.

"I don't think the scene of a female Police Officer kissing her husband on the cheek in a police station will destroy station discipline," said Kate to a bemused and shocked Castle, "Especially at a celebration."

"It's not their discipline I'm worried about," husked a surprised Castle.

"Keep that thought," husked Kate in return…. "Promise me that you did not plan a promotion party for me."

"Just a very, very private celebration."

"How private?"

"Just us," Castle whispered.

"Good," Kate whispered in his ear, convinced that he was telling the truth. One of the things Kate loved about her husband was that he was a bad liar and never really tried. Early in their relationship this had puzzled Kate greatly. Castle could bluff at poker with the best of them, and in the box he was convincing as they come, but in their relationship he never once intentional mislead her, even with a so called 'white lie.' This dichotomy puzzled Kate so much that so that she went to the fountain of knowledge for all things Castle, Alexis.

'My Dad taught me to never lie to family or to your friends,' she had said at once. 'Lies have a tendency to be discovered and the bigger the lie the more pain it eventually causes. Even small ones well-meant can grow to huge proportions and cause great pain. No lie, how noble in intent is worth the pain it can cause. '

'But what about poker,' asked a perplexed Kate?

'That's easy,' Alexis had replied at once. 'In poker you are supposed to lie!'

Kate leaned back and looked at her husband's face and concluded this was where she was meant to be.

"Bro," said the familiar voice of Javier Esposito, disrupting Kate's pleasant chain of thought. "You've got to hear about the case these two caught a couple of days ago," he laughed. "Talk about strange and being up-the-creek without a paddle."

"Detectives Reynolds and Davis out of Robbery," supplied Kate identifying a veteran Robbery Detective and his very junior female partner. Ever since Beckett had been notified of her promotion and assignment she had made it a point to meet every Detective in the precinct. She already knew most of the people on the Day shift. It took her a while to meet all of the night shift people, but she had done it.

"I'm always up for a good story," Castle said enthusiastically, his eyes darting from Esposito and Ryan to the two Robbery Detectives and back.

"Nothing much to tell," said Detective Reynolds beginning the tale. He was of medium height and a well-built man in his mid-forties. The slight paunch on a very compact and fit body and the salt and pepper in his close cropped hair told the story of time starting to catch up to him despite his best efforts to stay ahead. "And I don't know if we'll ever close it," he continued.

"Well," began Detective Reynolds running his hand through his close cropped hair. "Around 1830 a Blue and White unit responded to a tip about someone robbing a warehouse on East 90th near 5th. When they arrived they found two of the loading bay doors and open and open crates and boxes. After calling us they tried to get a hold of the owner. When we arrived it took us maybe five minutes to identify a lot of the merchandise in the warehouse as items recently truck-jacked."

"Phones, computers, LCD TV's, cigarettes, and booze," offered Detective Davis. "All moderate to high value items and easy to move. One thing I will say about Johnny Mac is his warehouse was extremely well organized."

"We also noticed that the safe had been cracked and the video surveillance cd for today was missing. I started to work through the CD's while Detective Davis started a preliminary inventory of the stolen material. Can you imagine our surprise when we saw Johnny Mac on the tape receiving the stolen goods? We also saw some of our old and dear friends make the delivers," laughed the Detective. "But can you guess our complete surprise when Johnny Mac walked into the office."

"We arrested him of course and closed like six cases," said Detective Davis. "Needless to say some of Jonny's friends were less than thrilled we told them we had them on tape from Johnny's surveillance system," she chuckled. "I'm sure there will be some kind of payback."

"Johnny Mac is reputed to be a very successful fence that specializes in goods of this type," offered Beckett.

"Great," said Castle. "I don't see a problem. Wait, what about this case? The tip?"

"That's the point," said Reynolds, "we're clueless. No forensics, no witnesses, no suspects and no real idea for a motive."

"What about his rivals," asked Castle? "You always start with who would benefit from the action," said Castle.

"We made inquiries. They were delighted of course, but denied any involvement. What's more, I believe them. "

"Phone call," said Castle. "Let me guess it was made from a burner phone and you found the phone in the warehouse."

"Yeah," chuckled Reynolds. "Care to guess where."

Castle turned to look at Becket. "In the safe," they both said at once. "They wanted to make sure you found it," added Castle.

"Right! How did you…Right now we have nothing."

"No, you have more than you thought," offered Castle. "You have the fact that someone knew that Johnny Mac used this place as a warehouse."

"That same someone," added Beckett. "Also knew the warehouse routine and knew that it would be unguarded when they went in."

"Sure I get that. But why?"

"Good question. Maybe the safe was their target and sticking it to Johnny was merely a perk. Did Johnny divulge the contents?"

"Just cash."

"Was anything else taken," asked Beckett?

"Maybe," said Reynolds. "Two boxes of twenty-four phones each was missing. We just assumed they were sold prior to the robbery. They could have been stolen. So someone knew the routine, hit the safe for the cash and stole a couple of boxes of burner phones," summarized Detective Reynolds.

"Someone's setting up shop," said Beckett. "The safe provided working capital and the phones secure communication."

"And taking down Johnny Mac was a smoke-screen," added Castle.

"Maybe an added bonus," said Beckett thoughtfully, with a calculating look in her eye. "Whatever the reason, its execution required some pretty detailed intelligence and a moderate amount of skill."

"All you said may be true," acknowledged Detective Reynolds. "The intelligence angle made us look at former employees."

"Except they're all dead," added his partner, "or in prison, or will no real beef with Johnny."

"Which still leaves us without a suspect and a clear motive…? Speaking of which, where were you last Wednesday afternoon and early evening Mister Castle," Detective Reynolds asked jokingly?

"Last Wednesday," said Castle glancing at Beckett and deciding to have some fun with the rhetorical question? "Let me see, I was home and I have three alibi witnesses."

"Really," said Beckett? She had caught the gleam in his eye and the playfulness in his voice and decided to play along. "And who might these three sterling witnesses be?"

"The first one may have a problem making himself understood," said Castle with a grin. "I assure you that he will answer each question succinctly. And each answer will demonstrate his intelligence and wisdom far beyond his years. But alas to the unenlightened it will sound like…."

"Baby talk," chirped Esposito and Ryan together.

"And considering James is your son…," added a chuckling Ryan.

"A suspect witness indeed," laughed Detective Reynolds. "But you said you had a total of three. Who's next?"

"That would be my very lovely, intelligent, talented, and charming wife," said Castle as he turned to look at Beckett.

"Flatter," whispered Kate loud enough for all to hear. "That witness is out," she continued in a slightly husky voice. "We all know that wives will say and do virtually anything to protect the men they love." As Kate spoke she had eyes only for Castle and they seemed to glow.

Kate's words silenced the group for a moment. Esposito and Ryan had personally witnessed the depths the two of them would go to protect the other, and for the most part they were proud to be a part of the drama.

"What about the third witness," squeaked Detective Davis? For her this was both a dream and a nightmare rolled into one. Detective Beckett had been her hero and role model when she was at the Academy and as she worked her way into the Detective ranks. When she was posted to the 12th she was delighted and hoped she would have an opportunity to talk her. She had tried to approach her several times only to develop stage fright and leave. The last time had been at the gym. She had made up her mind and was on her way over then Castle showed up and that was that. And now to be here talking and joking about a case was unreal.

"You tell me," said Castle. "My third witness is our nanny, Amy."

"While the employer employee relationship would certainly make her testimony suspect," affirmed Detective Davis.

"Not when the lady in question is a retired Marine full Colonel who has worked triage at Marine field aid stations and was the Head Nurse for a MASH unit," said Esposito with a touch of awe and a whole lot of respect in his voice. "Bro," he said looking at Ryan, "How long do you think it would take for Amy to own the Courtroom?"

"Two to three minutes max," said Ryan. "By the end of that time both attorneys and the Judge will be calling her Sir," Ryan laughed.

"She will have everyone sitting up straight and paying attention," agreed Esposito with a grin.

"When she's done with her testimony the prosecuting attorney will probably apologize for making her testify and immediately move to dismiss the charges against Castle," said Ryan.

"So if Amy says you were with her then you're off the hook," laughed Esposito. "One thing though, six-thirty is way passed Amy's normal duty day."

"She was joining us for dinner Javier," said Kate with a touch of pride. "The Miller case really kicked us in the ass time wise," Kate said, "and Amy took care of James without a word of compliant."

"Cooking dinner for her was just a way to say thanks," added Castle.

"Amy isn't watching James tonight is she," asked Ryan?

"No, he's with his big sister," Castle said with a smile. "And in about five minutes I imagine he'll be sitting on his Grandpa's lap."

"Dad's coming over? Why?"

"Thursday Night Football," Esposito and Castle said together. "The Giants play tonight," Castle added unnecessarily. "Look you're all welcome to join us," said Castle. "All of you," he repeated as he shifted his stance and gaze to include the Robbery Detectives.

"I'm out," said Ryan. "You're right, the Miller case did kick our ass and I need to spend some makeup time with Jenny."

"I'll pass," said Reynolds. "Quality time with the boss is always a good idea."

"I'm in," said Esposito. "I assume the Loft is up to its usual game day food standards?"

"Chicken noodle and Chili are in the crockpots," confirmed Castle. "If you want to do your nacho thing…."

"Outstanding."

"I've been a Giants fan since I was six," said Detective Davis. "I'd like to come, but I don't know where you live."

"If you want you can ride with me," offered Esposito who for the first time tonight noticed that the raven haired and petite Detective Davis was way past cute and just short of drop dead gorgeous.

"That would be nice," she replied with a shy smile.

"One question though," said Castle. "Johnny Mac. I'm sure the Mac is short for something. What is it McGregor, McDavis, McIver? "

Detective Reynolds started to laugh. "Johnny Mac's real name is Jose Cárdenas. He's called Johnny Mac because he eats macaroni and cheese for lunch every day."

"I hope the Department of Corrections has been informed about his unusual dietary requirement," Castle added in a completely dry voice that started all members of the conversation laughing.

Chapter 2 New Beginning

(Several months later)

Deputy Inspector Victoria Gates arrived at her new office in One Police Plaza at her normal time. After checking her watch for the hundredth time she finally settled in her chair and took a sip of her still warm coffee. She hated to admit it, but one of the things she missed from the 12th was the coffee machine that Castle had installed. She leaned back, took a deep breath and swiveled her chair so she could look out her window. For the first time in a long time she was both anxious and more than slightly nervous. After all today was assignment day and she had drawn the last counseling session. As she gazed out on the city she loved the Inspector reflected on the whirlwind that had been the last three months.

Deputy Inspector Gates's promotion and change of assignment was effective at midnight on Thursday the 30th of November. The following Monday Gates started charm school. Charm school lasted until noon on the 22rd of December and was an expansion of the material she was exposed to when she took the week long 'Captain's Course.'

The holiday's caused a two week break in the 'Commanders Assignment Process.' Gates used the down time windfall to reintroduce herself to her family. Her effort to make this the best holiday season ever may have been lost on her children, but when her husband treated her like royalty on New Year's Eve and Day she knew that her efforts had been noticed and appreciated.

Upon their return, the new Deputy Inspectors were once again briefed on the various Divisions, Bureaus, and Departments that comprise the NYPD. During the next seven weeks the candidates spent time with each of the units that had an opening for a Deputy Inspector. This was the Candidate's opportunity to interview and be interviewed by a perspective boss. At the end of the period both the Candidates and the Commanders would make their preferences known and assignments would be made.

"I appreciate the opportunity to test drive, so to speak, but it seems kind of wasteful," confided Gates to Red over lunch midway through the intern period. Gates knew that this accidental luncheon meeting was more planned than accidental.

"Look Victoria," Red had said, "Command Leadership is too precious an ability to let some bureaucrat muck with and assign based upon who knows what. We are way passed the point where everyone of the same rank can be considered interchangeable. You have unique skills; talents and a temperament that allows you to handle some situations that others can't. The City can't afford to waste your talents. This process, where you work almost as an intern for up to a couple of weeks, is critical for you decide the next step in your career and equally as important is the opinion of your prospective boss to accept you and grow his replacement."

"I understand the intent and the practice, "said Victoria, "but it still seems wasteful."

"Forcing a square peg into a round hole would be even more wasteful. It still happens, but not as often," said Red as he reached for the check.

The impact of raindrops on the window snapped Gate's thoughts back to the present. She checked her watch for the millionth time and started to rise out of her chair, thought better of it and settled back down.

"Five minutes early is on time," Gates told the walls of her office. "Ten minutes early is an anxiety attack." Finally it was time. Gates stopped in the bathroom on her way to the elevators. Satisfied with her appearance she got on the elevator, pressed the button for the top floor and got off in the land of the Chiefs.

"They're waiting for you in the small Conference Room Inspector Gates," called out Gwen Davis as soon as Victoria had opened the door to the Chiefs working outer sanctum. The Chief's inner sanctum was controlled by a much sterner watchdog. Gwen, affectionately known as the 'Pocket Dragon' was very good at steering those without an appointment or a bon a fide emergency elsewhere. Gates thought that it was a huge victory that she was recognized and allowed to enter without a challenge.

Gates took a deep breath to steady her nerves before knocking on the closed Conference Room door. She pushed open the door before hearing 'Enter'. As she entered she had to suppress her surprise. She was expecting the Inspector that had ran the Commanders Assignment Process and her new boss. Instead she saw the Chief, the Chief of Detectives, and Inspector Red O'Malley.

"Come in Inspector and have a seat," said the Chief as he rose to pull out a chair for her. Victoria nodded her thanks and quickly settled into place. Victoria liked the Chief. He actually understood the new male-female workplace dynamic. When the situation required it, he treated her like the subordinate she was. Otherwise he treated her like the woman she was. Just like another man I know, thought a surprised Gates, Castle. When they work together he treats Beckett like the senior partner and if page six, the Metro Section of the paper, was any indication, then he treats Kate like the lady she is when she's off the NYPD clock.

"Not what you expected is it," offered Red?

"No it's not," admitted Gates. Some of her stiffness and anxiety vanished. She knew that Red was trying to put her at ease and it had worked.

"It looks like I'm going to have temporarily disappoint four Commanders," announced the Chief as he settled back into his chair.

"We believe that this task is important enough to require your full attention," said the Chief of Detectives. "We had originally given it to Red, but after the events of last Saturday….Don't worry Inspector when this task runs its course we'll find a place for you that suits your abilities and your desires."

Inspector Gates nodded her understanding. Last Saturday morning a Prosecutor out of the State's Attorney General's office and a Special Federal Prosecutor empowered to act in all four of the Judicial Districts that cover the state of New York and the one the covers New Jersey were assassinated on their way from Washington to New York. They were scheduled to meet with the Mayor, the Chief of Police, and the District Attorney.

The pair had taken a helicopter from Washington to the FBI building in New York. The FBI had supplied a car and a pair of agents. All were killed in the attack that occurred less than a mile from One Police Plaza, the site of the meeting. 'There's no kill like overkill,' thought Gates as she remembered the details of the attack that were reported in the news. The assault used RPG's, remotely detonated shape charges, and large caliber automatic weapons. Collateral damage had been extensive. Seventeen other civilians had been wounded and five others killed. What Gates didn't have an answer for was why the attackers concluded the attack by dropping incendiary grenades into the target vehicle. When the Press found out who the people were and the names of the people they were meeting with, the rumors and speculation flew thick and fast.

"As you can imagine the FBI is the lead investigative agency for this event," added the Chief. "I've assigned Red the unenviable task of being the liaison for us. We anticipate that he will be extremely busy for a while."

"Which means his present assignment is uncovered," added the Chief of Detectives. "Which is where you come in …Red?"

Inspector O'Malley reached down to the floor and pulled up a bag normally used to transport Classified Documents. He unlocked and unzipped the outer bag and then the same thing to the bag that was inside the outer bag. Eventually he placed one thick and two thin files on the conference room table.

"Sir," began Gates "I don't have a safe suitable for storing this material."

"By the time you get back to your off you will," affirmed the Chief of Detectives. "Also an IT Tech with a laptop configured to work on the Classified Network should be waiting for you, if not give Gwen a call. She'll track them down."

"Sir, before we begin… the Prosecutors … why?"

"I really don't know what they were going to look into," said the Chief. "They were going to brief us on that when they got here. Their main reason for coming to see us was to recruit staff."

"Who" asked Gates her curiosity getting the best of her?

"Initially, out of the DA's shop, his best Executive ADA, Ron Davis and his current second chair Susan Campbell," said the Chief. "They also wanted someone out of the Mayor's office to act as the office manager. They asked for our help to persuade Beckett to take the assignment," added the Chief.

"Beckett will do her duty Sir," said Gates automatically. "It's no secret that she doesn't trust the Department of Justice, but she will do her duty… They do realize she comes encumbered with some…ah… baggage."

"They are well aware of Mister Castle," laughed the Chief, "and neither one of the Prosecutors wanted a civilian on the Team. They were going to issue a Federal Court order prohibiting Castle from seeing Beckett while she's part pf the task force."

"Like that would work," scoffed Gates. "And the Press, imagine the out roar that would occur when it became public knowledge that the Government prohibited a husband from seeing his wife."

"Exactly," said the Chief. "Anyway rumor has it that the President got wind of it and killed it before Justice could embarrass itself. He told them to re-deputize Castle as a Special United States Marshall and welcome him to the team."
"That works," said Gates. "They get a valuable asset. He is an out of the box thinker who has no political agenda and his only loyalty is to his wife, but the President?"

"I know. The investigation must be important. I thought you didn't like Castle," said Red.

"Personally I don't. That doesn't stop me from respecting him and his abilities. Now then," continued Gates, "what am I looking at," as she reached for the three classified files that were on the table?

"This is a real mystery," started Red. "This is the brainchild of a pair of analysts in the Intelligence Division. One of the thin files contains the case numbers for a number of unsolved cases."

'Lovely,' thought Gates as she glanced at the list of case numbers, titles, and dates. 'They've handed me three pages worth of cold cases. I might as well be on a snipe hunt.'

"In addition to being unsolved these cases have one other attribute. They are crimes against criminals or criminal enterprises."

That pronouncement caused Gates to stare hard at Red. "And?"

"Yeah, the and. Well this is what makes this lot classified. The analysts concluded that they were the work of vigilantes."

Gates checked the case dates again and gasped. "You mean to tell me that a gang of vigilantes has been successfully hitting the bad guys for over a year now and we haven't caught them?"

"Correct," confirmed the Chief. "If word of this leaked to the Press we could have a PR nightmare on our hands."

"Worse, they could spawn copycats. I can see why we have it classified Sir," agreed Gates. "What's also amazing is the bad guys haven't found them either. …But there is another 'and' here, isn't there Red?"

"I told you she was good," Red said with a touch of pride. "The 'and' is simple. The analysts think the vigilantes will graduate to murder soon."

"How soon?"

"Imminent!...The thick folder is the paper I started to pull on the cases. Look the cases themselves aren't classified. They only become classified when tied with the vigilante thing."

"That will make it easier to work. The other thin folder?"

"I thought that this job was too big for one person. I was going to form a small Team to tackle it. The folder is a list of names of people that Personnel thought could help."

"I can understand the analysts," said Gates as see scanned the list. "Am I bound by the people on this list or can I chose other people to help?"
"Who did you have in mind," asked the Chief?
"I'm going to want to work through these first to be sure. But if I'm faced with a mystery, then I might as well have a person who lives and breathes mysteries."

"Castle," exclaimed the Chief of Detectives. "But he's a civilian. I would worry about him leaking the material to the Press," said the Chief of Detectives.

"I'm not," said Gates quickly. "He's a reasonably successful writer. He doesn't need to leak material to get a moment in the sun. He gets one every time he publishes a new book. Look he's been associated with the Department for well over ten years. During that time he has given numerous TV, radio and print interviews. Not once has he revealed anything about a case that hasn't already gone to trial. I'm also confident that he understands the dangers of vigilantism."

"You know he comes with some … ah baggage, right," smiled Red.

"That's the first time I've heard Beckett described as Castle's baggage," laughed Gates. "And yeah I want her too. Look gentlemen you know how I feel. I think that Beckett is the best Detective in the city. But when she works with Castle, they are special, maybe the best in the Nation. Hell even the Feds know this. What I plan to do is use Beckett and Castle as my shadow force. I'll feed them the case files without the vigilante suspicion and see what they come up with. I won't press them on time because I know how they think and work. Besides giving Castle a real mystery will make him dig into it with both hands. Heavens knows what his plan of attack will be, or his conclusions but I'm sure they will be … inventive and supported by the evidence. I'll use some of the names on the list to set up a conventional think tank to try to get a handle on this. This way I approach the problem using two methods. A classic think tank approach and heavens knows what Castle and Beckett come up with. "

The Chief of Detectives looked at the Chief and nodded.

"Deputy Inspector Gates do you accept this assignment," asked the Chief in a formal tone.

"Yes Sir I do."

"Then carry on Inspector, and Victoria try to stop them before they get out of hand."

"Yes Sir."

Chapter 3 The Assault

"Your call Sir," Captain Beckett said clearly when the SWAT Commander, Captain Petersen, looked in her direction.

"Right, on my mark two – one – GO – GO -GO."

Even though they were around the corner and out of sight of the target, Captain Beckett and her Team clearly heard the breaking of glass, felt the explosive pop of the flash-bang grenades, and heard the sound of almost continuous automatic gunfire.

A couple of weeks ago Kate had had a bad dream about an assault gone wrong in a place like this. In the dream she and her Team rushed in and were cut to pieces. The arms dealers had too much firepower and more personnel Kate and he Team entered the building and were cut to pieces. Forewarned she had called everyone back, set a perimeter that was out of sight of the building and called for the experts.

Beckett knew that she had made the right choice when Captain Peterson, the Commander of the best NYPD SWAT Team answered the call. It took them thirty minutes to devise a game plan based upon the floor plans and the situation. Another fifteen to infiltrate the men into place and the assault had begun with the flash-bangs. 'Way too much gunfire,' thought Kate as she craned her neck to look at the front of the building.

After several long minutes the all clear signal finally came through, "Building secure Sir. We are going to need the ME and medical transport for nine, none of them ours."

"Thank God," whispered Captain loud enough for all of the Command Team to hear. She got on the radio and cleared the EMTs that were already on site in and requested the additional support.

"EMT's on their way in," said Captain Peterson. "So guide them where they need to be and the backup units have been requested and are on their way."

"Roger, ah Sir, tell Captain Beckett she was right. Hell Sir she needs to see this. Right rear corner of the warehouse, everything she said and more. I'm glad we got here before they could move this stuff."

"Copy, we're on our way in. Out"

"Captain you mind if I accompany you," asked Captain Petersen?

"Certainly not Sir," Beckett replied quickly. "I'm anxious to see what they found."

"Hey Castle," one of Captain Petersen's Troopers called out as they were entering the building. "Why is it that there aren't any SWAT scenes in your books?"

"Because you're all a batch of prima donna's," Castle replied good-naturedly, "and don't need encouragement."

"Damn straight," agreed another Trooper. "And we earned it by being the best."

"Agreed," Castle said quickly. "Look guys this book is in the bag. I'll put a SWAT scene in the next one."

"Promise?"

"Somehow I don't think you guys will let me forget."

"You know if you need expert technical …"

"Can it guys," gruffed Captain Peterson, the smile on his face easily over riding his harsh tone.

"Hey guys," shouted Beckett. "Please pass my thanks on to the rest of your Team."

"Sure thing Sir. We always aim to please, especially our repeat customers. "

The Team was in good spirits. They had a right to be. They had successfully assaulted a heavily fortified location manned my heavily armed troops and had taken it without a scratch or even minor collateral damage. The party made its way toward the rear of the dimly lit warehouse through the maze created by the stacks upon stacks of shipping crates. Occasionally they had to step aside as one of the EMTs rushed through with a patient on a gurney.

As they were rounding the last corner Castle was startled by movement off to his right. 'That's a, "Gun" he yelled as he hurled himself in front of Beckett.

Kate heard Castle's call, turned her head and saw the flash of the gun. She saw Castle jump in front of her and slowly crash to the ground.

Captain Beckett reached for her weapon to return fire and woke up with a start. "It was a dream," Kate verbalized softly. "Only a dream," she said again as she took a deep breath and tried to slow her racing heart.

'Kate?'

'Beware,' whispered the familiar voice 'Castle is in…'

'Kate,' Beckett cried out mentally. When Kate didn't respond Beckett closed her eyes and tried to commit the details of the dream to memory. One lesson came through loud and clear. Even the best make the occasional mistake.

Kate opened her eyes. The news was on the TV and the Sports Guy was talking about the Yankees at Spring Training, which for some reason didn't interest Beckett right now. Kate used the remote to turn off the TV and bent down to pick up the Journal that Lanie had leant her.

'The Journal of Forensic Science, Winter Edition,' read Kate. 'This is surely the cure for insomnia,' thought Kate. Doctor Parrish had recommended two articles. Kate had understood the first one on secondary transfer of gunshot residue, but the second one on the physics of blood splatters had zonked her out. 'I'll read it again later,' vowed Beckett.

Kate got up out of her favorite chair and stretched leisurely. She started towards Castle's office and stopped when she heard his voice through the door. 'Trying on dialogue again are we,' Kate smiled to herself? We should read dialogue together like we did in the past. You always said that that helped you. Kate stopped dead in her tracks as the smile ran away from her face. 'I haven't been much help around here lately have I babe,' thought Kate sadly. You accepted it when I told you the increased hours would decrease once I got the hang of the new job, but it's been four months and I'm still…This Monday I was furious with you when you demanded that this Friday be a date night. You are right babe I am spending too much time at work. You reminded me I am loved and have a home life. You reminded me that I need to find a balance. Thank you babe.

'My big guy's ok,' Kate decided, 'I check on him later. I need to check on my other big guy.' Kate retraced her path, quickly flowed up the steps and into James' room. She stopped at the edge of the crib and looked down. The peacefulness of James and Ricks sleepy boy faces never ceased to amaze Kate. What completely surprised Kate was how big James was? 'It's like he's grown six inches overnight.'

Kate wasn't surprised when Castle enfolded her in his arms from behind. She had heard come up the stairs and into the room. Kate leaned back against Castle. She silently sighed, closed her eyes, and enjoyed the moment. Her little guy was happy, healthy, growing like a weed and sleeping peacefully. She thoroughly enjoyed being in the arms of her big guy. Kate stiffened when the image from the dream of Castle crashing to the warehouse floor came unbidden into her mind. She gently disengaged from Castle's embrace, leaned forward and kissed her son goodnight, grabbed Castle's hand and led him out of James' bedroom.

"Something wrong Kate," whispered Castle when they reached the top of the stairs?

Kate's automatic response of 'Nothing' died in her throat. She knew that telling Castle 'Nothing' would be like waving a red cape in front of a bull. On the way down the steps she formulated a plan. She didn't want to tell Castle about the dream. She didn't want him to worry, but she wasn't going to lie to him ever again.

"Kate," Castle asked again when they reached the bottom of the steps?

Kate stepped in front of Castle and grabbed both of his hands in hers. "Babe I have a small problem," she said as she transferred his hands to her waist. She was confident that Castle's hands would find their accustomed place on her hips. "I have a secret. There is something I can't tell you. I know you have a great poker face, and you are a great actor but I need you to act ignorant."

"Ignorant huh? Kate, ah Kate should I worry?"

"No new worries. Just your general purpose worry should do," laughed Kate," and you know what I mean by ignorant. The best reaction is no reaction." Kate's right hand went up and she touched Castle's jaw and gently moved his face until she had caught his eye. "Before your super powered imagination kicks into over-drive and has a meltdown I need to tell you a couple of things. First this secret is work related and when and if it's revealed we will be together. If it doesn't need to be revealed then I will tell you what it was, WHEN its time," she added causing a question to die on Castle's lips.

"Next, no one is kicking you to the curb. Last and most important it has nothing to do with our relationship. Tonight I'm in the arms of the man I love. One Richard Alexander Edgar Rodgers Castle," Kate said slowly and with passion as she swayed gently in his arms. "This is where I want to be. Where I need to be," she husked. "This is where I will fight to remain," she continued the fierceness in her voice obvious.

"Bracken tried to drive a wedge between us and failed. And my husband won't let my bad work habits or obsessions sprit me away. I so love him for that," she whispered as she pulled Castle's face down and her lips rose to meet his.

'Why does a great kiss hurt so much when you stop,' Kate asked herself for the millionth time. 'Then don't stop,' a voice in her mind said. 'Right!' Kate agreed as she went back for seconds. Kate sighed with pleasure and rested her head on Castle's chest when they ended their second kiss. She felt Castle start to dip his shoulders so she hopped up, making it easy for Castle to sweep her off feet. 'I will never get tired of being carried to our bed by the man I love,' thought Kate as she reached for the bedroom door handle.

Chapter 4 These are our streets

(Present Day)

"Sparrow's in," said a heavily grabbled voice over the radio. The man whose call-sign for today was 'Lou' was sitting in the 'borrowed' crew cab pick-up truck. He nodded his understanding and frowned.

'Why didn't she,' he fumed. For operational security reasons they changed their call signs every mission. For this mission the call signs were supposed to be pulled from the list of Cleveland Brown Hall of Fame members. Lou thought for a moment. 'We're alright,' he thought 'Sparrow' hasn't been used on any of our previous missions. I'll still talk to her. Radio and operational discipline needs to be maintained.

"Copy…Radio check and silence. I'll call the ball."

'Brown', 'Kelly' and 'Mitch' came the immediate responses over the radio. Lou settled back and waited.

Sparrow settled in and marveled at the radios. They were smaller, lighter, and way more capable then the tactical radios her squad had used overseas. She didn't know all of the technical detail but Mike, the technical guru for the Team, was convinced that even the NSA would have a hard time listening in on their conversations. Combine a great radio with the radio discipline of veterans and the probability of the mission being compromised by idle radio chatter was practically nil.

Sparrow's hands and eyes ran over the weapon she had chosen for this mission, the venerable MID Garand. This version had a flash and sound suppressor and a 4x scope. She chuckled as she remembered the 'shoot-off' they held at the range for this position on the mission. Her competition had used a PSG 1 by Heckler & Koch. Nice weapon but overkill for this range and not really the right tool for this job. Tim was good but she was better. She had placed eight in the black before he got two rounds off. For this mission speed was as critical as accuracy. The specific mission specs called for her to take down six bad guys as quickly as possible. In practice it had taken her less than three seconds to put a shot in the black on six different targets.

Sparrow checked the long tails of the green colored shamrock ribbon she had tied on the lamp post earlier this morning. The tails hardly twitched. The wind was light and in her face, virtually ideal. What sun there was behind her and captured behind the thick low hanging gray clouds. Sparrow ejected the clip, checked the breech and sighted her first target through the scope. At just over eighty yards her targets were literally sitting ducks. She took a deep breath, held it and dry fired on all six targets. Satisfied that she would have fatally hit all six targets, she reinserted the clip and her practiced hands and eyes rechecked her weapon. Sitting back she waited for the golden flash that would signal the arrival of the yellow Mustang. Its arrival would trigger the start of this mission.

'How did it come to this,' she asked herself? 'How did it escalate to killing? I must admit I have no qualms about killing the gang scum that is selling drugs on my street corner, especially after the two kids died from an overdose.'

Sparrow checked her targets and her surroundings. Satisfied she settled back and frowned as the memories flowed in unbidden. She had joined the Marines directly out of high school. In the six years she spent as a Marine she had earned a degree despite two overseas tours in the Middle East. It was during her last assignment in a Military Police Company where she discovered her true passion, law. As an MP she was familiar with investigations and investigative techniques. What she really wanted to do was translate the investigations into meaningful convictions. She was sick of the JAG lawyers throwing away all of her hard work on plea bargains. Her plan was simple. Return home to New York, work some to supplement her benefits, attend law school and get a job in the New York DA's office where she could help her city. From there who knows.

Sparrow's return home sickened her. Her grandparent's old neighbor was in gang territory. Drugs, prostitution, and illegal gambling seemed to be everywhere and they were slowly destroying the life and vitality of her neighborhood. Her complaints to the Police seemed to fall on deaf ears. The conditions were depressing her and were causing a major conflict in her mental outlook. Her desire to do what was right for her neighbors was in conflict with the law and her long term plans. Then she met Dave and her plans changed completely.

Sparrow rechecked the targets and her surroundings, and smiled as she recalled her first meeting with Dave. She had an hour-and-a-half break from her last class until her study group met and was walking into an eatery just off campus when a man's voice called out 'Hey Marine, can an ex-Army type buy you a beer?'

'I don't want to be the first Marine in history to turn down a free beer,' she replied. 'But I do have my standards. You weren't some rear echelon, chair bound screw-up were you?'

'EOD? You?'

'Bait, I was a convoy driver in Iraq and Afghanistan.'

'More like a clay pigeon. I ate a lot of the sand in Iraq too.'

'EOD huh? Let me see your hands?'

'See, I have both my hands and all of my fingers.'

'So you were either pretty good, or an office rat.'

'I was good,' he said with heat that he immediately regretted, because the Marine was smiling at him and she had a killer smile.

'Gotcha Army,' she gloated. 'One other thing, a Marine never ever drinks only one beer.'

Dave was working on a degree in Criminology, and his goal was to make it into the FBI Academy or the NYPD Academy. He too was concerned and upset about the state of his neighborhood. From that meeting began the 'These are our streets' movement at the university. In the beginning they just wrote letters to the editor of the New York papers and thought pieces for the campus newspaper. From there they branched out in to more active preventive measures like setting up Neighborhood watches. They gained a bit of a reputation by raising money and installing security systems in the apartments of senior citizens that lived in an area that had a high incidence of breaking and entering. Their efforts were publicly lauded by the Mayor himself when the alarms were credited with preventing three break-ins in a single week.

Their next target was drugs and prostitution. With the help of some IT savvy fellow students they set up the 'Johns' and 'Drug-Heads' websites. On these sites they posted pictures and license plate numbers of people who bought drugs on the street or visited one of the several brothels in the area. The sites lasted less than a day. Sparrow wasn't surprised when the court order arrived ordering their dismantlement, just disappointed.

Sparrow rechecked the targets and her surroundings and thought about how the direction of the movement changed from passive prevention to an active black ops type of operation. Over the year and a-half they had been working at the grass roots level, they had attracted the attention and support of several like-minded and equally disappointed and patriotic veterans, combat veterans all. At the demise of the website commiseration party they did a self-assessment and concluded they had made almost no positive effect on the situation. True, B&E's were down slightly, if you believed the Police statistics, but by and large the drugs, gambling, and prostitution was as prevalent as ever. When someone suggested that they consider taking a more active approach the party quickly adjourned to a more private location.

Out of habit Sparrow rechecked her weapon, the targets and her surroundings. Eventually her mind drifted back to the first meeting of the black operations type. The skill set around the table was impressive, communications, computers, electronics, explosives, investigative techniques, intelligence, combat engineering, and of course the disciple and comradely that combat veterans have learned the hard way.

'What we lack is a safe cracker and real time intel. If we had access to what the Police had on the bad guys we could use that and develop our own intel and we may have a shot of doing something.'

'I can torch the safes,' said the combat engineer. 'That shouldn't be a problem. I can get the safes open without damaging the contents, fairly quickly too.'

'Don't ask me how, but I may be able to get the Police Intel,' offered the computer whiz. 'What is the first target?'

The debate was short, fences. Despite the alarms and the neighborhood watches, break-ins were still a problem. The thought was if they made it too expensive for the fence to do business he would move, and with no ready fence the break-ins would decline. The first couple of missions were successes, but also learning experiences. By the fifth mission the Team could enter the building, disable the alarm, sabotage the video, crack the safe and remove the stolen property and be out in less than seven minutes. The stolen property was deposited in Salvation Army or Goodwill drop boxes that weren't under camera coverage. Both charities suspected that the jewelry and other high end items were stolen and turned them over to the Police and when the items started to flow back to the victims the Team felt immense satisfaction. Some of the fences did relocate and there had been a measureable drop in break-ins. The cash was split among the group. Some was held in reserve to cover expenses for the group. The rest was distributed to the members. It wasn't much, but Sparrow had to admit it came in handy.

The Team's largest score was a major player in the truck-jacking trade. The Team thought that it was hilarious when the Police used the video from the fences own security system to convict him of receiving stolen property.

Sparrow glanced at her watch and then rechecked her weapon, the targets and her surroundings. 'If the intel is right then we have about a minute to game time,' thought Sparrow. 'Our next move was logical, she thought. They decided to go after the bookies and the illegal gambling. This time they started near the top. Their target had been so successful that he owned a couple of bars, strip clubs, and a couple of check cashing/payday loan places. Of course he used them to launder the proceeds from his illegal gambling activities. The hits must have hurt the bookie, because the cash hauls were very large. The real bonanza came when they hit the second payday loan place and uncovered his scheme of claiming losses on loans he never made. After copying the documents and ledger pages they supplied them to the DA's office as 'a unanimous tip from a concerned citizen.' They didn't have long to wait. Within a week the DA acted. The bookie plea bargained his way out of major time but the result was the city seized the businesses and one major bookmaker was off of the street.

The Team was ecstatic and was congratulating itself on a job well done when the universe gave them a rude slap in the face. Two of their fellow students both from Sparrow's neighborhood, and one from her building, were found dead from a drug overdose. When the investigation concluded that the pair probably bought the drugs from the Sea Lions on this very corner, Sparrow saw red. When deadly force was suggested as a remedy she quickly agreed, volunteered and won the job. Now Sparrow had to admit, maybe it was a step to far, and a bridge once crossed they could never re-cross.' Other countries have a zero tolerance for drugs, why shouldn't the United States,' she thought seeking to justify her action? She stiffened when a canary yellow Mustang came into view. 'Game time,' she thought as a habit born of a lifetime of hunting took over.

Lou checked his watch, looked up and continued his surveillance on the Sea Lions crew that was using the street corner as their store front to sell drugs. 'Shouldn't be long now,' he thought. As if on cue the canary yellow Ford Mustang roared into view. "Coin toss," Lou broadcast as the Mustang rolled to a stop. Lou watched the detail leader of the Sea Lions wander over to the Mustang and hand a thick package to the driver. 'Let's hope there are eight other packages just as thick as this one you handed him in that car of yours,' thought Lou.

"Kickoff" Lou broadcast as the Mustang sped off. "We're on the clock," he added. 'Sparrow your weapons are clear,' he thought unnecessarily.

The sight of the car galvanized Sparrow into action. She checked her surroundings one last time as her hands and eyes made one final check of her weapon. Wind light and steady and in her face, sun not an issue, target acquired. 'Just like ambushing a patrol,' she thought. 'Start at the back and work your way forward.' Her shot was in the air before Lou finished saying 'Kickoff'. Next target…squeeze…Next.

After the sixth Sea Dragon gang member had been shot Sparrow effortlessly ejected the mostly empty clip and inserted a fresh one. After using her scope to verify her targets were dead, Sparrow quickly packed up and left the roost. Less than four minutes later she was taking a shower in her apartment in this very building.

As Lou put the truck in gear and was heading in pursuit of the Mustang his attention was drawn to the street corner. "One One-thousand," he verbalized after seeing the first body drop. By the time he reached Three one-thousand six Sea Lion gang members lay dead on the sidewalk.

Lou shook himself and looked away from the sight and sped after the yellow Mustang. After all he and the rest of the 'secondary' had a 'tackle' to make and a 'fumble' to recover.

"The ball is in the air," called Brown. "Just like we practiced it guys. Kelly you are the anvil, and Mitch you're the hammer if we need it. I'm the left guard. Lou you're the free safety. You tackle him if we miss."

"Kelly cut him off… nice. I'm in position. He isn't going anywhere. … Mitch close it up and be ready to ram, we need his airbag to go off. In a half mile guys, …ready…ready… now."

Lou watched as Kelly slammed on the breaks and he heard the satisfying crunch as the Mustang rear-ended the Cadillac Escalade they had chosen for the Anvil. Time seemed to slow as he watched as Brown swung around in front of Anvil and stop. He would ferry the Team to safety. He saw Mitch exit Hammer and head toward the Mustang. Lou continued on and turned right at the corner that was only twenty yards in front of Brown and stopped in the Loading Zone. His was the secondary escape vehicle. It was a long two minutes before Brown sped by, at a very legal speed, on his way to the vehicle drop-off point, so conveniently near public transportation. Lou chuckled at the irony of the City of New York providing the Team with their ultimate get-away vehicle.

Chapter 5 The Morning Dance

(Earlier that Morning)

Castle's gentle snore punctured Kate's thin veil of sleep and brought her to full awareness. She craned her neck to look at the alarm, shrugged and settled back into the warmth of the bed. Early but not a disaster, she thought as she lay in the bed and listened to the gentle snore of her life-mate. To Kate, Castle's light snore was just as natural and reassuring as the chirps of crickets and the hoots of owls to outdoorsmen who were spending the weekend at their favorite camping spot.

Kate propped her head up with her elbow and looked at her sleeping husband's face. As always she marveled at how peaceful and carefree his sleeping face looked. Kate smiled as she remembered last night when Castle laid her gently down on the bed and the shriek she uttered when he literally dove in after her. Their lovemaking had been at times fierce, passionate, tender and oh so right. Afterwards she lay with Castle in the classic 'spooning' position. Her back to his chest and his arms draped protectively over her. She heard his breathing slow and deepen. She felt his heart slow down and heard the start of his gentle snore. She fell asleep almost immediately afterwards and hadn't bothered to put on a night shirt. I am loved, she admitted to herself as she rolled upright, and well sexed she added. Kate smiled when she spotted her clothes scattered over the floor as she headed towards the shower. Kate shivered as she entered the relative coolness of the bathroom. The shiver reminded Kate of Castle's good night kiss at the base of her neck and his nibble on her ear.

Knowing she had extra time, Kate lingered in the warm spray of the shower. As she did she started to hum and then softly sing one of her favorite sings. As she was drying off she looked fondly toward the bedroom. 'We haven't shared a shower or a song in a long time babe,' she thought. I will definitely add that to my Castle TODO list, she vowed. Kate towel dried her hair as best she could and reached for the blow drier. Her hand stopped before she touched it. On numerous occasions she had heard Castle say that he hadn't set an alarm since they've been married because Kate's blow drier always did the trick. Today she decided to let her partner sleep in a bit. Kate decided to let her hair finish drying naturally this morning and headed into her closet. She chose something from the 'Kate Castle' collection instead of from the 'Kate Beckett' side of the closet. After all she was going on a date with her husband that evening and she most definitely didn't want to look like a frump!

Shoulder harness Kate reminded herself as she extracted her weapon from the gun safe and quietly snapped home the clip. The seats at the theater weren't designed to accommodate Police Officers wearing their tactical belts. The bad thing about no tactical belt was the reloads, thought Kate. They had to be stuffed into the jacket pockets and ruined the lines of the jacket. She gathered her credentials and her phone before taking one last look at Castle and quietly slipping out of the bedroom.

Beckett looked at the coffee maker and sighed and continued on her way to the refrigerator. That's another secret I'll never tell Castle, she vowed as she reached for and poured herself a glass of orange juice. Her last physical exam had her blood pressure borderline high. The Doctor had suggested either switching to decaf or throttling back on the caffeine. Kate had chosen the latter approach and had made the cup of coffee in the precinct her first of the day. She also had substituted water for coffee after four pm and the plan seemed to have worked. The last two times she had an EMT take her blood pressure during Wellness Days at the precinct it was back down in the normal range.

Kate sliced a bagel and popped it into the toaster. She pulled out the cream cheese and sliced up a couple of strawberries to use as a topping. As she was replacing the cream cheese she whooped for joy when she spotted a pair of lonely deviled eggs that had somehow survived through basketball night. Breakfast complete she had one other small enjoyable chore to do before leaving for work. Check in on James.

During the night Snoopy had somehow eluded his master's grasp. Being the ever faithful companion that he was he had assumed a position that allowed him to protect his charge. 'Good boy Snoopy,' grinned Kate. 'If both you and Castle are looking out for him then I know James will be fine.' Out of habit she blew a kiss to James and on impulse she blew a kiss to Snoopy.

'I'm losing it,' she grinned when she reached the top of the stairs. 'I blew a kiss to a stuffed animal.' Just being a Mom, a familiar voice in the back of her mind said, just being a Mom. Kate shrugged on her coat and was almost done with the locks on the door when Caste's sleepy voice stopped her.

"This is early, even for you."

"I need to be sure I get all my work done before the end of shift. Please don't tell my husband but I've got a date tonight."

"Anybody I know," asked Castle as he slowly closed the distance between them?

"Don't think so," said Kate giving Castle the smile she reserved only for him.

"Is he picking you up at the precinct house or meeting you at the theater. "

"At the precinct house I think. I sort of stood him up the last time and he threatened to march me out of the precinct at gun point if I did it to him again so I'm sure that he's meeting me there."

"I think he's already a little jealous," said Castle as the truth slide out of his mouth before he could stop it. "And I'm pretty sure he would be furious if you went on a date without him."

"I…I guess he does have a reason to be jealous," said a surprised Kate. "But he needn't worry any longer. I'm going to get that under control," or die trying she vowed as she reached out and enfolded Castle in a hug. "Come to think about it, you bare a really strong resemblance to my date," she said as she leaned back and looked up at her husband.

"Really," he asked as his lips sought hers. They broke the kiss when James announced he was ready to start the day. "Everyone's up early today," grumbled Castle as he gave his wife another peck on the cheek.

"Coming son," Castle shouted out in response to James's second cry.

Kate knew she was imagining it when she heard an 'okay Dad' in her mind. She finished with the locks opened the door and walked toward the elevator. She was aware that Castle followed her out into the hall to pick-up the morning paper. As she neared the corner she peeked over her shoulder and sure enough Castle was watching her walk. Before she rounded it she stopped and did a few seconds of a bump and grind routine before turning and blowing her husband a kiss, which he promptly returned.

"Love that man," she softly vocalized as she pressed the button to summon the elevator.

"Captain Beckett," she responded as her phone buzzed.

The morning shift noticed Captain Beckett's car already parked in her place when they arrived and her early presence was remarked on by the night shift command contingent.

After securing her first cup of coffee for the day and stowing her coat and purse, Captain Beckett checked the overnight blotter and found four things of interest. 'No homicides, I can live with that,' she thought.

Apparently on their way to back to Penn Station after the hockey game at MSG a group of Philadelphia Flyers fans wandered into a bar populated by the NY Ranger faithful. Hockey fans being hockey fans, words were exchanged and a small ruckus broke out. Luckily a unit was nearby and prevented a major blow-up. No one was hurt and no charges were filed when the combatants agreed to pay for the damages to the bar and came to an agreement on a common toast, "To Hockey." 'Just like Yankees and Red Sox fans I guess,' thought Kate.

The third item was a robbery in Tribeca. Apparently the robbers had entered the apartment while the owners were at the theater and stole a dozen first edition books. Among the items on the inventory was Castle's first Derrick Storm book with an appraisal value of forty-seven thousand dollars. 'He doesn't see this,' Kate vowed. 'At times his ego is monstrous and he doesn't need this to feed it. I'll save this,' she thought 'and show it to him when he's feeling down or has a bad case of writers block.'

Beckett checked her calendar and Detectives Reynolds and Davis had already scheduled a case review. At first her policy of reviewing the cases with the detectives when the case was first assigned met with resistance. When they discovered she was there for the information, not to micromanage and she had some good ideas, the resistance melted. They learned that their Captain was a Commander first, a great Detective second and an Administrator last. By her position she already had their obedience and by her actions she gained their respect and trust. The result was the 12th already impressive case closure rate increased.

The last item was the report of a unit responding to a silent alarm. The alarm emanated from a Pawn Shop on Sycamore. The unit arrived within nine minutes of the notification and secured the building. The owner arrived thirty minutes later. The officers accompanied the owner into the building and noticed no clear indications of a robbery. Some stuff did appear to have been moved and there was a slight smell of hot metal in the air, but when the owner stated that everything appeared to be accounted for and he would conduct a more detailed inventory check in the morning they had to take him at his word.

Beckett leaned back in her chair and thought for a moment. This had all of the earmarks of a case for the Calypso files. The element missing was that it won't be actually recorded as a crime. Beckett knew that the Pawn Shop had a reputation for being a 'retail outlet' for one of the low level fences that operated in that neighborhood. They hadn't been able to nail the owner for receipt of stolen property. His pawn ticket records were complete, bogus of course but complete, and they had surrendered all of the stolen property to the Police when prompted without a fuss.

Beckett extracted the report and emailed it to Gates with the request that the 'real Team' conduct a database search to see if other incidents like this one had been reported. They could shed additional light on the activities of the people responsible for the crimes.

'We need to talk,' she added. 'Castle has a linked theory that I don't like and I know you're going to hate, but it fits what we have dug up so far. Let me know when it will be convenient. - Beckett'

Kate checked her TODO list, nodded and attacked her email, throwing away the obvious trash and harvesting what she needed.

"Visitors or a PR gig," asked Esposito as Kate was filling up her coffee cup after returning from the Robbery Case Review.

"No I mean Yes," stammered Beckett. "Date night," she offered with a shy smile.

"He's meeting you here right," asked Ryan? "Last time you sort of stood him up,"

"Like I had a choice," retorted Beckett.

"And he said some things and made some threats that…"

"Like walking me out of here at gun point," finished Kate. "He's meeting me here," she confirmed "and if he tries something like that… let him! In fact could you run interference for us," she laughed?

"Sure," said Ryan. "I always wanted to add 'Kidnapped a Police Captain' to my resume."

"Thanks guys," Beckett said. "I've let the job take control and been neglectful. …Enough of that get back to work you slackers," she teased.

'The Boys' watched their Captain head back to her office and started toward their own desks. "Kev," asked Esposito, "would you … you know run interference for them?"

"Won't hesitate. You?"

"Just making sure I wouldn't be alone."

"Never," replied Ryan as the two bros shared a fist bump.

Beckett headed back to her office with a smile on her face. The banter with 'The Boys' had cheered her up. 'It's one of the things I really miss,' she admitted to herself. 'That and…' Beckett changed directions and headed toward her old desk.

"Captain," said a surprised Esposito.

"Javier is that… was that Castle's chair?"

"Yeah."

"Could you," she asked nodding toward her office?

"We miss him too," said Esposito as he put down his coffee cup, picked up the chair and headed towards Beckett's office.

Esposito placed Castle's chair right where Kate wanted it without any prompting. "Kate?"

"I'm okay Javier. Really. I was fantastic Monday. Then my husband hit me in the head with a two-by-four. The more I tried to argue the more I realized he was right so I shut up and listened. I want to be the best Captain in history, but I need to be Castle's wife and James's mother too. I was out of balance, too much a Captain. It's funny I can see that now but couldn't then. I will learn to be the best Captain in history and I will make time for my family."

"We don't doubt that," said Ryan who had trailed after his partner.

"Anything we can do to help, just ask," added Esposito.

"I know and thanks," said Beckett. "Until then just be your selves and think about taking the Sergeant's or Lieutenant's exam. I need good people in those slots. Castle and I can help you prepare. He put me through the wringer, but it was worth it. Now scoot."

"Yes Sir," they responded and left for their desks.

Beckett took a swallow of her coffee, sneaked a peek at Castle's chair and turned on her computer to check her email. Satisfied that nothing required an immediate response she leaned back and recalled the case review. 'They're on the right track and have a good plan,' she concluded. 'Considering the books they took and what they left behind it does seem like they were filling a shopping list. Asking the rare book stores, both brick and mortar and e-commerce for their mailing lists to quantify future targets just made sense and Detective's Davis's idea that the e-commerce stores themselves would be a buyer of the stolen books was a stretch, but a worthy stretch. Yeah they're on the right track.'

The flashing of the incoming email icon attracted her attention. 'Just a worthless reminder to get the reports done,' she grossed. Kate grabbed the first folder out of her inbox. The admin had sorted them in priority order and getting through the first six would keep the brass off-of her back. She sneaked a peak at Castle's chair, drew a deep breath and dug in.

Kate looked up in surprise when the alarm went off. For two whole hours and some change there had been no phone calls and only a few non-important emails. Kate turned off the alarm and put the fifth folder in her outbox. 'I only need to do one more,' she thought cheerfully.

Kate stretched as she got out of the chair and reached for her gym bag and the reason for the alarm, gym time. By accident she had learned that even the senior commanders respected and tried to work around someone's scheduled gym or range time. Sometimes it couldn't be helped, but those were the exceptions. Everyone knew that the physical conditioning of an officer and his skill with his weapon could be the difference between life and death for him and his partner, and they tried their best not to get in the way of those essential but often neglected activities.

Kate was a gym regular, but she didn't have gym rat status like some of the others. She and Castle tried to work out twice a week. Mostly they did staff work, which the gym rats enjoyed. Occasionally they did restraints and breaks, which Castle enjoyed. But Friday,…Friday was Kate's special day, her special workout day. She tried to share it with Castle once. It didn't work out. For her it was intense. It helped her keep her edge. It started with stretching and a quick one time trip through the weight circuit, and then she tried to beat the bags into submission. On the speed back she proved that her hands were as quick as anyone's. On the heavy bag her hand strikes were mid-weight at best, but she was quick and relentless and her kicks were devastating. She had sent many a bag holder flying with the power of her kicks. When she finished the workout she was typically a sweat-drenched, out-of-breath, almost completely spent mess, and today was no exception. Kate also knew that with a decent lunch and a lot of water she would recover completely. That's what training was all about.

Kate stood in the shower and let the warm water cascade over her body. Long ago she had figured out why Castle didn't take to the bag work. It had to do with the years he spent in the different boarding schools. Castle didn't like to fight. He wasn't a violent person, but at each of the new schools he had to prove he wasn't prey and that might fighting. He was stronger than he looked and the school of hard knocks taught him how to fight. He didn't like it, but he knew it was necessary so he did. 'Castle is the most dangerous kind of pacifist in the world,' Kate had concluded a long time ago. He will give ground and give ground until you threaten something he cherishes. Then you find yourself facing a trapped, pissed off, highly skilled, motivated and rabid wolverine. Good luck surviving that encounter, just ask the people who kidnapped Alexis or Triple-X. Oh, you can't because their dead. Kate laughed when her stomach grumbled. I guess I'll get out of the shower and find lunch.

Kate was checking her appearance in the mirror when her reflection asked her a question. What's the real reason you didn't tell Castle about the dream? Are you afraid he will jump and catch the bullet or are you afraid he won't?

Kate looked down at her feet then back at her reflection. I'll tell him, she vowed, but after lunch as her stomach growled again.

Captain Beckett walked up the steps and into the atrium of her precinct house. 'The traffic is unusually light today, especially for a Friday,' she thought.

"Afternoon Captain. I wasn't aware that you had left the building," said the Desk Sergeant as the Captain approached his desk.

"I used the gym exit and went to lunch. How's business?"

"Extremely light Sir, but I'm sure it will be gang busters once the sun goes down."

Beckett looked at Sergeant Henry with a puzzled expression on her face, and then she nodded. "Full moon Friday night, let's hope it's still cold enough to keep the craziest of them off of the streets."

"Let's hope," said the LT who had joined them. "But I've got a feeling that Saturday night will be just as made or worse."

"Hope not," said Beckett, "but if it is I'm confident we can handle it. Gentlemen," she concluded as turned around and headed toward the elevators. "Oh there's one more thing," she said as he tuned to face them again. "If you see Castle strong-arming me out of here tonight, don't be alarmed. It's our date night and I stood him up last time so this time tonight he said he's going to fetch me. I'm confident he'll return me unharmed in time to make my next shift."

The small smile on their faces reassured Beckett that they understood the situation. "He thinks I'm spending way too much time here," she blurted out.

"Will you listen to a word from an old Sergeant," asked Sergeant Henry? When Beckett nodded he continued. "It's a medium sized word that good Commanders practice. The other's, not so much. The word is de-le-ga-tion."

"You mean those people who go to the National Convention to determine their Parties Presidential candidates?" Beckett held up her hand to cut-off any remarks. "I know what you mean Sergeant. It's just…" Beckett said as she shrugged her shoulders.

"What's the last line in the Watch Officers checklist," asked Sergeant Henry?

"Upon direction of the Captain, complete the End of Watch Report," Beckett responded immediately.

"So direct them. In the beginning we thought you did the reports to get a feel for the precinct. It's natural. But you made the reports part of your daily habit. Make a new habit Sir."

"On a similar vein," said the LT, "let Ops complete the Morning Report. They have all the information and it's in their job description. You read, understand and approve, and if you have a question you know how to get the answer. You still know everything that goes on. You just didn't have to spend the time to prepare the document that's all. "

"Makes sense, okay guys what else am I missing?"

"First off Sir you're doing fine. The Uniforms know you respect them and appreciate their work," said Sergeant Henry. "You've got nothing but the normal daily problems there."

"And you've made the Detectives better," said the LT. "but you could have your staff help you even more. On your tour of the House today, "the LT said with a slight grin, "Why don't you stop in and ask your Department heads how they can help you make this the best Precinct House in the NYPD. I think you will be pleasantly surprised at their answers. I mean what they did for Captain Gates they will certainty do for you, but you need to find out for yourself and ask because it's not written in any procedure anywhere."

Captain Beckett arrived back in her office a bit later than she wanted, but with a much better appreciation of the capabilities of her Command. 'If things work out just half as well as I think I'll have more on the clock time to work with the Detectives and the Uniforms and more off the clock time too.'

Beckett checked her watch after disposing of a few time critical but easily accomplished email tasks. She had a little over an hour to complete the last necessary report before her husband arrived to collect her; anything else would mean she could spend less time here on Saturday. 'It's been a good day babe,' she thought as she looked at Castle's chair and remembered this morning's dance. 'And something tells me it's going to be a fantastic evening.' She finished the report just as the email icon began flashing. It was from Amy. 'Castle just left. Have FUN you two. DON'T stand him up.'

Kate smiled 'Never again,' she responded to Amy as she reached for the next folder. This time next week she would be reviewing this one instead of creating it from scratch.

Chapter 6 Date Knight

Castle bent down picked up the morning paper, looked up and watched Kate walk toward the elevator. 'She has a very pleasing walk,' he noted for about the millionth time. He saw Kate peek over her shoulder, stop and start a dance routine that would have put Gypsy Rose Lee to shame. 'God, I love that woman,' thought Castle as he returned his wife's blown kiss and headed back into the Loft.

"Coming son," he yelled as he heard a James cry take on a different tone. "Ah I understand," said Castle as soon as he entered James' room. "Stinky are we? Well we can fix that. Then breakfast then a shower so we'll be all clean when Amy comes up. How does that sound?" James nodded his head as if he understood everything his Dad was saying. As his Dad was lifting him out of the crib James made sure he had his faithful Snoopy with him.

Breakfast was easy. Castle took his time and didn't force while keeping up a running commentary about something. This morning it was about the Knicks chances in the playoffs. When James shook his head no, Castle knew that his son had had enough and together father and son plus Snoopy headed to the shower.

"On the counter son," said Castle as they headed toward the shower. "You know Snoopy can't get wet. "

The first time Castle took James into the shower James cried almost the entire time. The second time he was wide eyed with wonder. From then on it was like play time. At first Castle's biggest fear was dropping a slippery James. He solved that problem by sitting down on the floor of the shower. Kate had laughed her ass off when she first saw them, but it didn't bother Castle in the least. It worked.

Clean and dressed in house clothes, Castle opened the bedroom door and was greeted by the smell of fresh coffee.

"There are my guys," said Amy as she spotted Castle and James walking toward her. James was holding onto his Father's hand with one hand and clutched Snoopy with the other.

"Oh come here tiger," said Amy as she dropped to her knees and held out her hands. James let go of his Father's hand and tottered toward Amy, fell, picked himself back up and completed the journey.

"Breakfast Amy?"

"You know I always enjoy eating breakfast at Café Castle. What's on the menu?" Over time their relationship had evolved to the point that Castle would cook breakfast for the both of them while she fed James and Amy would fix lunch for the both of them as he worked or played with James.

"He's already eaten, and I thought I would do a Macro Polo."

"I noticed, I'm still going to fill his juice cup and let him munch on some cheerios if he wants," she said as she installed James in his high chair. "And an omelet with whatever you find in the fridge has always proven to be an interesting eating adventure."

This morning was no exception. Ham and three different types of cheese, no brainer, the left over salsa from last night's Knicks game, inspired, and the bean sprouts, spinach and sautéed eggplant were a first, even for Castle.

Amy did the dishes and read the morning paper as she watched her two adopted boys play blocks, cars, and shapes on the floor in front of the TV. "I got him Castle," said Amy as James started to yawn heavily.

"He can take five with me," Castle replied as he picked up James and snagged Snoopy. When Amy brought Castle a fresh cup of coffee a short time later, James was fast asleep in the play pen that was in Castle's office and Castle was logged into his fan site exchanging quips with his fans. When James woke, Amy was there with a fresh diaper and took him as Castle tried to work through some awkward dialogue in chapter six.

"Hey Castle," said Amy from the doorway with James holding her hand and standing beside her. "The clouds have burned off, the sun is shining and it's in the low sixty's. You guys want to hit the park while I prepare lunch?"

"Sure," Castle said with enthusiasm. "I need to finish this sentence and save. There, come on son let's go play!"

The park was a blast as always, and Amy's comfort food dual of chicken noddle soup and a grilled cheese sandwich hit the spot. James had played hard in the park and fell asleep almost immediately after lunch and Castle, after completing the first draft of the next to last chapter, was busy saving the planet from zombies.

"Castle the time," chided Amy.

"Last scene, and Amy thanks." Amy had been present when Kate and Castle had had their 'fight' about work time and had spirited James out of the room.

"You're welcome; remember kids shouldn't hear their parents fight. Kate will find a balance point both of you can live with. You know she takes her duty to the city seriously and she loves you guys so much. It was eating at her too. She just needed the gentle kick in the ass you gave her. I know you guys will work it out. I'll go over the details with the babysitter. Is it Sue?"

"Yeah," said Castle as he headed into the bed room to change into something appropriate for date night.

Captain Beckett deposited a folder in the 'Out' box and reached for the next one. She opened the folder, glanced at the form and paused. Something had changed. She cocked her head to listen. Something has… Castle she smiled as she spied her husband entering the bull pen and heading toward Esposito and Ryan. She started to replace the folder and stand-up. No, let him fetch me, she thought with a grin.

"Hey guys," Castle called out. "You haven't called me in a while."

"Things have been quiet, and the cases we've caught haven't really been interesting," said Ryan.

"Yeah," confirmed Esposito, "just your average run-in-the mill homicides. We closed all of them within a couple of days. Things are so bad the boss has us looking at cold cases."

"Some of those can be interesting," replied Castle.

"We haven't found one yet," said Ryan.

"Just as well," said Castle. "I've got no place to sit. It looks like my chair got lost. Did you guys have a garage sale or something?"

"No a crazy woman came over and demanded that we put it in her office…"

"and since the crazy woman is now our Captain," added Ryan.

"I see," said a smiling Castle looking towards Beckett's office. "I guess I better head over."

"Castle any chance of getting some Knicks tickets?"

"It's the playoffs you know? … I can't promise anything but I'll make some calls. How many?"

"I'm out said Ryan. I need to send the time with Jenny. "

"One will work," said Esposito. "Two together would be fantastic."

"Right," said Castle as he headed toward his wife. "I can't promise, but I will make some calls."

"That's all I ask," said Esposito.

"Put the pen down and back away from the file folders doll-face," said Castle in his best Edgar G. Robinson voice. "I mean it sweetheart," he continued as Beckett continued to write. "This could go easy or hard," he continued switching to his James Cagney voice and sticking his hand in his jacket pocket and making the finger gun.

Kate dropped her pen and jumped out of her chair with her hands up.

"Put your hands down someone may see you and have an itchy trigger finger," Castle pleaded.

"Your Robinson is horrible, but your Cagney is even worse," she laughed as she lowered her hands. "My jacket?"

Kate deposited the file folder in the out box and retrieved her purse from her desk. "Castle could you, you know walk me out at finger-point," she asked as Castle helped her with her jacket?

"You sure, I mean this is a Police Station and someone might get the wrong idea."

"We'll handle it if it does."

"Not a peep doll-face," said Castle in his Robinson voice. "Things could get messy, and I have plans for you later."

'And I have plans for you,' thought Kate as she looked back and smiled at her husband. "Night Guys," Captain Beckett called to her 'Boys' as she walked by the Bull-pen.

"Can it sweetheart,' whispered Castle as he pulled Kate close, "or I'll plug you."

Training Officer Hastings and her Rookie were exiting the break room as Castle strong-armed his wife toward the elevator. Hastings stopped her partner from reaching for his weapon.

"But Sir, that man and the Captain… we got to…"

"That man is Mister Castle and he is the Captain's husband. I know he would rather die than let the Captain get hurt. You reacted well, but did you observe? Was the Captain still in possession of her weapon," she asked pointing to her shoulder.

"I…" the Rookie closed his eyes and shook his head yes. "It was still in her shoulder rig," he confirmed.

"And no one lets a hostage keep her weapon," said Hastings. "You've seen the Captain in the gym. Do you think she would let someone do that to her or she wouldn't call out for help here, in her own Precinct House?"

"No, I guess not."

"One other thing," said Hastings with a smile starting to appear on her face. "And what exactly was our Captain doing as she was being walked to the elevator."

The rookie thought for a second. "She was smiling and laughing Sir," he said as he shook his head. "I missed that too."

"Hey Detectives," said Hastings as she spotted Esposito and Ryan on their way to the elevator. "What's the story with Castle and Beckett?"

"Date night," replied Esposito. "Beckett sort off stood him up last time."

"And tonight he decided to fetch her," added Ryan with a chuckle.

"Got to love a man who has the guts to kidnap a Police Captain out of her own precinct house," laughed Hastings. "Think anybody will say anything or try to stop them?"

"Not if they value their lives," grinned Esposito.

"The Captain will eat them alive," added Ryan.

The Castle's exited the elevators and headed across the atrium toward the exit. Castle was aware of the strange and searching looks he was getting from the Uniformed Officers. "I can't do this," he whispered as he took his hand out of Kate's back and captured her hand on his arm.

"Me neither," said Kate as they neared the exit. She took her hand off his arm and grabbed his hand. "Run!" she whispered. The pair hurried through the door and ran laughing to the car hand-in-hand.

"You're in a good mood tonight," said Castle over the roof of Kate's cruiser as she was opening her door. "Yeah. I am. I'll tell you later okay?"
Castle nodded and got into the vehicle.

"There they are," said the man in the driver's seat as his passenger raised the camera and starting taking pictures. "Beckett and Castle. They're married you know."

"She's a looker alright. I can see why he married her, but him?"

"He's rich. Not uber rich, but rich enough."

"Well she's about to be a rich widow. If it wasn't for the fact that she's a cop, I'd be paying my respects. Tell me again why we aren't whacking the both of them?"

"It's like a two-fer. She has some issues. They think that the she will be overcome by grief and guilt and by the time she recovers, if she recovers, it will be too late. Besides no one wants to take the heat from hitting an NYPD Precinct Captain but a mystery writer, no one except Beckett will even blink."

"Not that it matters, but why are we whacking him?"

"He's just crazy enough to figure out what we're doing, and no one wants that."

"So the Valencia is doing a Batman double feature," offered Beckett after she had her cruiser established in traffic.

"Yeah, both Batman origin movies."

"I can't believe they want us to vote on which one is the best."

"A no brainer, the second one right? The one with Christian Bale."

"Right," agreed Kate. "Castle who's your favorite Batman?"

"Adam West, only because he had the guts to do it on television."

"I can see that. Okay who's your favorite movie Batman?"

"Val Kilmer."

"Val Kilmer," said Kate with a tone of disbelief? "He only did one. Wait what was it?... Yeah 'Batman Forever'. Wait, is he your favorite because of his female lead? I mean Nicole Kidman and the clingy sheet bedroom scene left very little to the imagination."

"Well I was single at the time," mumbled Castle loud enough for Kate to hear. "I also liked the song."

"Me too," husked Kate as she felt blood rushing to her cheeks. The blush had nothing to do with the lyrics of Seal's "Kiss from a Rose", but had everything to do with the first time Castle had 'kissed' her with a rose. They've had a lot of great sex over the years, but this was her all-time number one. It was only slightly ahead of the second time Castle kissed her with a rose. She snuck a peek at Castle and then reached over and grabbed Castle's hand and gave it a hard squeeze.

Surprised, Castle returned Kate's pressure and looked at his wife. The crimson point on her cheek was obvious. 'Missus Castle I do believe another rose is in your future,' thought Castle correctly interpreting the reason for Kate's blush. 'When? It needs to be a surprise. I don't want it to be tied to a birthday or any other special day like that. No sweat, I'll find a date. What color? The first rose was pink, and the second one was white. This one will be as deep a red as I can find.'

"Kate," warned Castle as a crowd of people at the corner attracted his attention.

"I see," she replied as she slowed down. "Castle be my eyes."

"Right, Kate it looks like there's a body there."

Beckett flicked on the lights and the siren and their combined effect allowed her to move her cruiser into a parking spot near the disturbance.

"NYPD," yelled Beckett as she neared the crowd. "This is a crime scene and I need you back away from the area….You," she shouted as she rounded the corner, "put that stuff back in the cooler and I won't charge you. Don't even think about running. Chasing you down would only piss me off. Put the drugs down now and get out of my crime scene. "

The young man looked at Beckett and then eyed Castle and decided that discretion was the better part of valor. "So much for it being by lucky day," he quipped as he dropped the drugs back into the cooler, closed the top and backed away.

"NYPD," Beckett barked again brandishing her badge, "Back away from my crime scene….Castle…"
"Crime scene tape got it," he said as he headed toward the cruiser. Kate never ceased to amaze him. Hers wasn't the most intimidating of presences, but she sure had the Command Voice thing working.

"NYPD step back," Beckett shouted again. As the people moved to comply Kate looked around and the full impact stuck her. Besides the coolers containing the drugs stacked against the wall and a director's type chair there were six dead bodies lying on the sidewalk. Kate swallowed hard and reached for her phone.

"Dispatch this is Captain Kate Beckett badge number 41319. I'm onsite of a multiple homicide on the corner of Tower and West 130th. Please roll Detectives Ryan and Esposito out of the 12th to this location….Yeah I know this is the 27th Precinct's operational area. As I said I'm on scene and I will work it out with Captain Goodman later. Be advised I'm going to need several units for crowd control and canvas work, and a CSU Team. Oh tell the ME that they will need transport for six. … Yeah I said six. It appears someone hit one of the Sea Lions sidewalk drug bazaars and shot six members of the gang."

Department politics grossed Kate. I guess my conversation with Captain Goodman will start with 'A funny thing happened on my way to the movies.' Seriously how could she allow something like this open drug bazaar to stay in business? Check your own house first, a voice in her mind said. Remember the story about stones and glass houses? Beckett pulled out her pocket recorder, dictated a short message and left it on as she started to examine the crime scene and the bodies.

'There are six victims four male and two female. All of them appear to be wearing Sea Lion gang colors. The male nearest Tower appears to have been killed by a head shoot, thirty-ought-six I think,' she saw as she bent down to examine the body. 'No exit wound so the ME will be able to tell me once she completes the examination.' Kate searched her pockets for evidence gloves and came up empty. 'Hope Castle remembers gloves, she thought as she stood up her hand brushed the bulge in her slacks that was the keys to the cruiser. How's he getting in, she frowned? He's Castle she smiled. He probably copied the VIN and asked one of 'friends' to make him a set. Technically illegal, but I'm not about to complain. I hope he thinks to move my purse to the trunk.

'Another head shot,' Beckett remarked as she moved to the next body. 'There all head shots,' she remarked after she had looked at the last body. 'Some damn fine shooting. The shots had to be done quickly or else they would have ducked for cover around the corner. 'Beckett stood up and walked toward the street trying to get a vantage point where she could see the entire scene. The crowd of onlookers gave way at her approach.

"Please stay back," Kate said absently. Beckett turned and looked at the scene. 'Why six people and the chair,' she asked herself. 'The normal compliment is a three. A money man manages the site and he employees' two runners. One runner takes the order, uses sign language to pass the order to the other runner as he takes the money to the money man. The other runner delivers the merchandise then stays by the curb to take the next order. Okay six means two crews, but the chair? Maybe the shot-caller who 'owns' this operation? Makes sense. We'll find out when we can id him. '

Beckett looked at the twelve Coleman coolers, tried to calculate the volume of the containers and the value of the drugs and concluded that it was at least seven figures maybe eight. 'Another reason for the shot-caller to be here,' she thought. Normally there is the cash car and a resupply van. They call the van when the inventory gets low, but this. This is a full-fledged retail operation. Beckett turned toward the street and looked toward the traffic lights. 'No cameras,' she noted. 'Figures, good road network too. I wonder why a patrol from the 27th doesn't shut them down when they drive by?' It took her only a couple of seconds more to spot the shamrock tied to the lamppost. 'Shot from range, but from where? Espo with have an idea and CSU will figure it out.'

Where is Castle Kate asked herself as she turned and looked toward her cruiser? The crowd was in the way blocking her view. 'He's had plenty of time,' she thought and as she looked in that direction she detected a disturbance in the crowd and a blue-clad Castle emerged, and he was carrying more than just Crime Scene tape.

"What's this?"

"Your vest and spare tactical belt, you can't wear your shoulder harness over your vest."

"Castle they're dead," Beckett pronounced as she put her hands on her hips and glared at her partner.

"And you aren't, and I would like it very much if you stayed that way. Look Kate," Castle said as he endured one of Kate's fiercest stares. "There are six dead Sea Lion gang members here. What do you think going to happen when the rest of the gang sees it on the news? All it takes is one revenge seeking hot-head to grab a couple of guys jump in his coche and do a drive by on the people still here namely us. Or considering the amount of product here, what if they decide to take it back? We need to do a couple of things. One, I need to get you in your vest and two we need to disperse the crowd. If shit happens we don't need them getting hurt."

Kate held out her hands. "And three get back-up here pronto. I always thought you wanted me out of my clothes," she whispered when Castle came close and handed her, her stuff.

"I'm not in the habit of sharing my toys."

"So I'm a toy," Kate whispered hotly.

"Kate, no I, you would think an author would choose better words," said Castle as backed away, picked up a roll of the Crime Scene tape and started to mark off the area.

'That makes two of us,' Kate thought laughing silently. 'There is no way I'm sharing my Old Man with any other woman.' Kate headed toward the director's chair. Once there she started to don the belt and vest. Castle is probably wrong about the Sea Lions, but I can't fault his logic. Besides 'I told you so' will be so much more fun. Beckett picked up the second roll of tape and looked toward Castle. He was doing his best to disperse the crowd by claiming as much real estate as he could with the tape.

'I'll start this end and meet him somewhere in the middle,' she thought. Beckett attacked the tape to a store window several paces past the eastern most victim and worked her way quickly to the street. She turned the corner and was more than half way to her husband when she stopped to check her progress. Kate watched as Castle as Castle stopped, took his pen out of his pocket, hand the tape to a young woman, take a book in return sign it and give it back. He didn't just do that did he? How many times had she told him about autographs at a crime scene? Evidentially they came together.

"Well Romeo did you make plans for later," Kate asked sarcastically?

"Drinks when I'm done here," Castle immediately responded. "I told her I was with my wife. She said she always wanted to try a threesome."

"What did you say?"

"I said I would talk to you about it."

"What," Kate exploded, before catching the laughter in her husband's eyes.

"I already told you I don't share," he said softly.

"Me either," Kate husked.

"What do we have," Castle asked as he looked away before he got hopelessly lost in Kate's eyes.

"You tell me," Kate replied secretly glad that Castle had broken the moment before she did something stupid like kiss him. "And Castle, don't forget your gloves."

"Yes dear."

Beckett tied off the tape, checked in with Dispatch on the ETA of the units and hurried to her husband's side.

"Well," asked Beckett after Castle had made the rounds?

"Great shooting," he said pointing to the bodies, "the speed and accuracy was phenomenal. I'm thinking we have two shooters here."

"Single shooter Castle, all he would need was a semi-automatic with at something like a ten-shot magazine. Two shooters would have co-ordination problems. "

"Perhaps," agreed Castle, "but doing all six before they could duck for cover is remarkable."

"Agreed."

"I'm pretty familiar with how a corner drug operation works, but this is a freaking outdoor drug bazaar. Whose precinct is this anyway?"

"The 27th and yeah some questions need to be asked."
"This wasn't a hit by a rival gang. We're too deep into the Sea Lions turf for that. Hits normally occur on the fringes."

"And the product is still here," added Beckett. "If a gang orchestrated this they would probably have a team to move the drugs. All we saw was one opportunistic person."

"Several of those containers are empty, but the money man has less than 10k on him. Where's the money?"

"They probably used a cash car to move the money back to a safe place."

"Yeah, you're probably right, makes sense. Two other things stand out. This is just like the other cases we looked at for Gates with the exception they've upped the ante and like some of the other cases the intelligence they used to execute this probably wasn't home grown."

"Yeah, I can see that."

"Two things are still bothering me. Who is this guy," Castle said pointing at one of the bodies, "and what is that chair doing here?"

"My guess he's the shot-caller that 'owns' this corner and that's his chair."

"That means that he's…"

"…confident that he won't be disturbed," added Beckett. "As I said there are questions that need answers that are different than this incident. Ah, I see the cavalry has arrived. Do we have any evidence bags?"

"In the cruiser."

"Could you while I talk to the troops…. And my purse."

"Is already in the truck."

"Love you babe," Beckett whispered as she marched toward the troops.

"Gentlemen," said Beckett as she approached the group of Officers.

"Captain... Sir," was the ragged response.

"What we have is six dead Sea Lions and a whole lot of drugs. They were killed at range," she continued pointing up at the shamrock. "Headshots all," she added.

"Esposito you want to look for the roost or wait to CSU gets here?"

"It looks like I've only got four rooftops to inspect, I'll take a look."

"Okay take Williams and Carter with you."

"Ryan, you Gaines and Abbott talk to the crowd and see if anyone actually saw or heard anything. Also try to get a history of their operation here either from the crowd or the shopkeepers. They look entirely too comfortable. Harris and O'Neal you guys got crowd control. The media should be here shortly. Be polite but remember the only correct response is 'No Comment' or 'I'm sure a statement will be made soon.' Be polite but volunteer nothing. Oh, one other thing, vests please. My partner has the crazy idea that the Sea Lions may want revenge and do a drive by. I think there's little chance of that, but I'm not willing to risk it."

"Questions? Good," Beckett said as she watched Castle intercept Lanie.

Castle pulled an assortment of bags and tags out of the evidence and stuffed them in his jacket pocket. On impulse he pulled a bottle of water out of their stake-out stash and stuffed it into his jacket pocket with the evidence bags. He paused on his way back to the crime scene to watch the ME's vehicle park, 'and our guest Doctor is….'

"Hi Mike, Doctor Parish, sorry you guys got the call."

"I can use the overtime," Mike called out. "Six bodies, really?"

"Yeah, six gang members, at least the cause of death should be easy to determine."

"What school did you graduate from and when did you pass the state boards to become an ME, Doctor Castle," snickered Lanie.

"Let me see," said an amused Castle. "I did it on-line and about a month after I got my PI license. It cost me 29.95. I took it through the same firm as the PI license and they gave me a discount. Normally it costs 49.95. You know there were over two hundred books on the reading list, but I don't have the time to read that many books and the titles sounded boring. I mean how exciting can 'Anatomy this', 'Drug interaction that,' and 'Physiology of something' be? So I went straight for the test."

"I take it you passed," chuckled Mike.

"Of course," said Castle, "with flying colors. The test had only one question. A person is dead if a) he has no pulse, b) he's not breathing, or c) the check bounces or his credit card is refused because the account is frozen."

After a few moments, "What's the answer," asked a bemused Lanie?

"Why 'c' of course. You sure you're an ME," said Castle as he lifted the crime scene tape for Mike and Lanie to walk under?

"I'm sure and I'm also I'm sure you're not."

"Seriously," laughed Castle. "I'm devastated. You think I can get my money back?"
"Sweetie," said a laughing Lanie addressing Kate. "You've got to teach Castle not to impersonate an ME."

"Lanie, how long have you known us, ten years at least? You should know by now that 'teach' and 'Castle' doesn't belong in the same sentence," she chided her oldest and dearest friend. "You know the story about Old Men and new tricks."

"That must make certain parts of your life very boring," Lanie said with a straight face.

"Castle is many things, but in that part of my life he's never ever been boring," laughed Kate.

Lanie joined he friend in laughing, shook her head and looked around. "What've we got and how did you beat us to the crime scene?" The banter of friends was replaced by the professionalism they both had in abundance.

"Six dead Sea Lions, head shots all and we called it in. We must have arrived right after it happened."

Lanie bent down and looked at the head of one of the bodies. "They all like this?"

"Except for the entry point, yeah," confirmed Kate.

"Castle I see what you mean."

"Mike could you start with this one," asked Beckett. "I think he's the shot caller. I didn't want to fish for an id until you finished photo documenting the scene."

"Sure thing Captain," said Mike as he dropped a '1' by the head of this victim and began taking pictures.

"Here," said Castle handing Kate the bags, tags and the bottle of water. He watched as Lanie wandered off to examine the other bodies. "Sorry no popcorn and I'm not about to fetch coffee for you, unless it gets a lot colder," said Castle in a knowledgeable tone.
'How did he,' she asked herself as her eyes widened in surprise. 'Of course, he's Castle and my husband.'

"How?"

"I saw you getting your blood pressure checked at a Wellness day. Once is leading my example, twice is…And since you weren't making coffee in the morning at the Loft so I just guessed. How you doing?"

"Back to normal."

"Impossible, I don't have a history of marrying normal women." Kate's laughter was interrupted by the buzzing of her phone.

"Yeah I think there related….I don't have the assets here right now to cover it. Roll Sanchez and Thomas out of the 12th. … If I'm going to steal one I might as well steal both. …Thanks."

"Castle they've found another dead Sea Lion. He was driving a brand new canary yellow mustang."

"The cash car?"

"Probably."

"What's this about another body," asked Lanie.

Kate's response was cut off by the buzzing of her phone. "Hey Espo, what did you find?"

Both Castle and Kate turned toward the buildings trying to spot which rooftop Esposito was on. Castle's attention was drawn to a car as it slowly turned on West 130th from Tower. "Gun!" he yelled as he pushed Kate to the ground toward the relative safety of a concrete planter and grabbed Lanie and dove toward the sidewalk in the opposite direction.

Esposito felt helpless as he watched a car slowly turn on to West 130th. The car slowed, seemed to pause and then erupt as at least two weapons on full automatic came to life. Their fire was augmented by the steady boom of a shotgun. As quickly as the shooting started, it stopped and restarted. 'Changing clips,' Esposito noted out of habit. As the car started to accelerate down the street he reflexively drew his weapon and aimed, "HOLD YOUR FIRE…HOLD YOUR FIRE," he called grateful that he hadn't heard any of the other Officer's fire.

"Good call Detective," said Officer Williams.

"Yeah the range, and there was no way we could shoot and guarantee that our shots would bounce into the civilians." Esposito angrily watched the car speed down the street and out of sight. He turned his attention back to the street corner desperately hoping that the lumps on the sidewalk that were his friends would start to move and stand up. Finally one of the blue lumps started to move. "Captain," he called out over his phone.

"Captain are you okay?"

He watched the person take a couple of steps, bend down and pick up something. "Javier you still there?"

"Yes, you okay?"

"Yeah, Castle literally threw me behind a concrete planter before he grabbed Lanie." She turned and watched Castle slide off Lanie, and Lanie kiss her husband's forehead before calling to Mike to prepare to treat the wounded. Pivoting she looked toward the street and saw the two Uniforms from the 27th starting to stand up and Ryan and his detail running toward her position. "We have some wounded civilians, but Lanie, Mike, the Officers from the 27th and Castle seems to be okay. I got a good look at the sons of bitches as they drove off. I even got their license plate number."

"Do you need me there?"

"What did you find?"

"We found the spot. It's ideal. Eight maybe eight-five yards out, great cover, and easy egress. We have a partial footprint, GSR from the weapon and the weapon itself."

"He left the weapon?"

"Probably stolen and with no links to the shooter why keep something that can tie you to a mass murder? Do you need me there?"

"Good point, no stay on point. We know who did the drive by and I think all of the excitement is done for the day. We don't know who shot these six guys. Secure the scene until CSU arrives to exploit it and start canvassing the building."

"Kate…"

"I'm fine Javier. Sometimes I'm reminded how lucky I am to have a shadow. Let me know if the canvas turns up anything. I'm going to call this in and check on the guys from the 27th."

"Rodger that…." Esposito let out a breath he didn't know he was holding when he saw a white coated figure rise up and start walking. "Guys the Captain said that your guys are standing up and appear to be fine, but she's on her way over to check. She also gave us our orders. We need to secure this area for CSU and canvas the building. Let's split up I'll take the top floor, Williams the next one down, Carter the one below that. Let's use the radios to keep coordinated on coverage and meet in the lobby when we're down. Questions?"

"No Detective."

When Beckett called in the drive by event she had no idea of how the NYPD would react. When the report was relayed to them, the Officers in the 27th went from pissed-off and embarrassed to outright furious. That had been fighting a pseudo-war with the Sea Lions for some time now. It was one thing to spar with the street gang, but quite another to have the Captain of another precinct conduct an investigation concerning the Sea Lions on the 27th's turf and be the object of a drive –by shooting. When Beckett called in the description of the vehicle, the occupants, and the license plate number they knew who was driving and where they would be. They reacted … with a vengeance, more than just the honor of the 27th was at stake.

"How in the hell did Beckett allow herself to be ambushed like that," fumed the NYPD City Watch Commander when the audio from Beckett's phone call to Dispatch was replayed over the Watch Centers speakers? "Ted, unit assignment at the site on the lower left panel please?...Three units and a Detective squad. The 27th Watch Commander only sent three units, for something like this?"

"Beckett commands the 12th Sir," said the senior NCO softly.

"I know and if that's the reason why, then I'm going to kick some serious butt." The City Watch Commander took a deep breath before continuing. "Care to speculate on how she deployed her assets?"

"Esposito is Ex-Mil and has some skill with a range weapon, so she probably sent him and a unit to look for the perch and canvass the area when he found it."

"And she used Ryan and another unit to talk to the on lookers and eventually canvass the store owners."

"Which left one unit, two Officers to manage the crowd," added the NCO. "She obviously thought that information was worth more than security and normally she'd be right. The real question is what next?"

"We send her help. Ted you send her all of the EMT's she needs I'll arrange for suitable backup."

"On it Sir."

The Watch Commander picked up his phone reached to punch a button and hesitated. Satisfied with his decision he punched the button for the watch officer at 27th. He asked a single question, liked the answer, terminated the call and punched the button to speak with the 12th's Watch Commander. He directed him to send units to support their Captain. One of the units had a very special mission.

"Castle you can get off me now," urged Lanie.

"Castle!"

Castle groaned and rolled off Lanie and lay face up on the sidewalk. "You kicked me in the …"

"Kneed actually and I'm sorry." Lanie watched as Castle opened his eyes and then immediately close them hard.

"Could you make the world stop doing backflips?"

The cry of one of the wounded galvanized Lanie into action. "It will stop by itself sweetie. Stay down until it does." She kissed him on the forehead and started to stand. "Mike," she yelled. "Get my bag…"

"And the orange case from the truck," he completed for her. "On it," Mike added as he raced for the ME's vehicle, his job of photo-documenting the bodies at the crime scene was replaced by a more important mission.

Beckett saw Mike start his return trip from the ME's vehicle as she approached Harris and O'Neal, the two Officers from the 27th she had assigned to crowd control.

"You guys okay?"

"Tell your crazy partner that the 'Golden Sombrero' is the watering hole of choice for the 27th. Should he decide to wander in after the end of shift I can almost guarantee that his money will be no good. He's okay isn't he?"

"Yeah he's okay. He was with Doctor Parish a minute ago. I'll tell him about your offer. Officer O'Neal it looks like you ruined a perfectly good pair of pants."

"That's what I get by being too close to a shotgun blast."

"Why don't you head to the emergency room and get that taken care of. Your partner can hitch a ride or we'll drop him off."

"I can wait until you get more people Sir. "

"O'Neal …"

"Don't make it an order Sir; then you would have to write me up for insubordination. I'll either have the EMT's check me out or I'll leave and head to the ER when you have enough staff to cover this."

"You sure?"

"It hurts like the blazes, but I'm not going to bleed out or anything."

"Good, let's wait a second for Ryan, Gaines and Abbott to join us."

"Guy's," said Beckett as she held up her hand to forestall questions. "Officer O'Neal appears to be the most severely officer injured and as you can see he ate one too many shotgun pellets. We DO have some severely injured civilians and Doctor Parish and Mike are starting to treat them."

"I've called for re-enforcements. Before they get here we need to do several things. First, Gaines close Tower at first cross street. Let first responders through, but no civilian traffic. I think we are going to need the space for the EMT vehicles. Ryan you Abbott and Harris close the closest lane on 130th at the light and relocate the news vans to that lane," she said pointing to the closest curbside lane on 130th. That should free-up some additional space for the EMTs and the vans will act like a wall which helps prevent rubber-necking," and another attack, she thought. "Our mission is two-fold now. We need to preserve the crime scene until CSU gets here and we need to evacuate our civilian wounded. Clear? Questions? Good. Carry-on."

Beckett watched her troops disperse, turned back to look at the building Esposito was in. She completed the pivot and watched as Lanie and Mike started to set up shop near the coolers of drugs and the director's chair. Where in the devil did Castle wander off to? Sometimes I think I should put a cowbell around his neck so I know where he's at. She headed toward Lanie and smiled as an image of Castle wearing a cowbell popped into her head. As she neared Lanie she saw Castle lying down behind the concrete planter that he and Lanie dove behind.

"Castle," she squeaked her heart suddenly in her throat. "Castle you can get up now. The bad guys have left," she teased convinced that Castle was breathing and not bleeding. His sincere groan caused her to alter her path and hurry towards him.

"He's indisposed," Lanie called out just as Kate arrived and knelt by her husband.

"He's what?"

"When he tackled me I kind of kneed him in the groin," admitted Lanie. "Hard"

Kate's laughter was stifled by her husband's groan.

"Why is it that all of the women in the world laugh when a man gets hit in the balls," Castle croaked?

"It's in our DNA," confirmed Kate with a smile Castle couldn't see.

"This never happened to Batman," he added.

"He probably had support built into his suit."

"Note to self," Castle croaked. "Design a new line of men's pants with built in balls protection."

"Kate I need you," Lanie half shouted. "Now!"

'He's making a joke. Good that means he's going to be alright' thought Beckett. She resisted the temptation to bend down and kiss her husband. 'Too many news people, I really don't want to see myself kiss Castle on the evening news. "Love you babe," she whispered as she squeezed his hand, straightened up and headed toward Lanie.

"Lanie?"

"Fresh gloves sweetie. I need you to be my second set of hands."

"But Mike…"

"Is doing triage for me and then he will do what first aid he can. Come on now….Right … apply pressure there. Good. …Stay down sweetie you're going to be fine," said Lanie to the young woman who was her patient. "We've got the bleeding stopped for now. You'll be one of the first ones the EMTS will take. Kate fresh gloves," commanded Lanie as they moved on to the next patient.

"Pressure there good," said Lanie. Castle's loud groan caused all of the eyes in the area to look at him, including Lanie and Kate. Castle had sat-up and Lanie's grew wide when she saw the backside of Castle's vest.

"Kate are those?…"

"Yeah."

"Were they?..."

"There before, no."

"That means."

"Me too," replied Kate.

The rear of Castle's vest clearly showed the impact of three rounds. The scar on the outside showed the path of another bullet that just grazed him. If it wasn't for Castle's warning, action, and insistence upon wearing the vest they would have died today.

"Be sure to thank him properly," Lanie whispered.

"I will, but given the circumstance I won't object too much if my best friend gives him a hug and a kiss on the check. Anything more and I might get jealous."

"Let's play it forward then," Lanie said as she turned her attention back to the patient.

They had just started on the third patient when the sound of Castle retching tore at Kate's heart. "Lanie," she pleaded.

"There's nothing we can really do for him Kate. When you get him home you can give him all the TLC he deserves. The only thing that I have that can help is some ibuprofen. We just have to trust that his body knows how to recover."

Minutes later Castle shambled over to Lanie and Kate, stopping a step away he announced in a reedy voice. "Kate Nightingale Beckett you are here-by relieved."

"What?"

"Kate I can do this. What I can't do is that," he said waving toward the street where additional Officers had gathered. "Your reinforcements have arrived and they need their Captain." Kate looked and wondered where all the Officers had come from.

"Mister Castle," asked Doctor Parish?

"Doctor I will freely admit that I am in pain. The pain is manageable. I know who, what and where I am. I still haven't figured out the why yet," he joked. "Lanie my mind is clear and my hands are steady. I can follow your instructions. I can be your second set of hands."

"Okay, fresh gloves."

"Already done your Highness."
"Your Highness?"

"Your Eminence? Look I just don't want to be kicked there again, ever."

"Kneed, for the record Mister Castle I kneed you. I didn't kick you, and it was an accident. "

"Whatever."
"Okay, see where Kate is applying pressure? Take her place."
Even through the gloves Kate felt the familiar spark of Castle's touch. His hands flowed down hers and assumed their place on the patient's body. She let her hands linger on his for a second before withdrawing.

"I stand relived Sir….Knight," Kate added with a small smile. "Doctor," she said formally as she wadded up her gloves and threw them the biohazard waste box they had established. Her shoulders sagged after she had taken a couple of steps. 'How is it can find the time to be Nightingale Beckett and Captain Beckett, but I can't find the time to be Kate Castle?'

'Now wait a freaking minute,' said a masculine voce most forcibly in her mind. 'If I'm dissatisfied with your performance I will tell you. Until then chill. And another thing, beating you up, figuratively speaking, is my prerogative so cut it out!' Kate looked back and all she could see was Castle's face. It showed his pain and his love for her. A love that had been tested by the universe and they had passed. A love she cherished and tried to return every day. Today his eyes showed something else, something different, pride. Buoyed by her life-mates absolute faith in her, Kate lifted her head and her stride and posture was once again that of a Police Captain in charge of the situation.

As Captain Beckett approached the knot of Officers she was surprised by their numbers and their identity. With one exception they were all her people. "Don't get me wrong. I'm happy to see you guys, but aren't you a tad off of the reservation, and who's manning the home front?"
"NYPD Watch Commander's orders Sir," replied Sergeant Stevens an Officer Beckett knew and respected ever since she joined the 12th as a Detective Third Grade.

"I also have it on good authority," said Officer O'Neal the only Officer from the 27th present, "that the 27th is pulling out all of the stops to locate a certain blue vehicle with a certain license plate number. We know who was driving and where he'll likely hide." Officer O'Neal took a deep breath before proceeding. "This…this drug bazaar is embarrassing. I'm sure the Captain will get to the bottom of it fast. I'm also sure the Captain will offer his help and support in solving the murders."

"Appreciate it," Beckett replied. The entire party was distracted by the arrival of the first two ambulances. Captain Beckett was proud when two of the Officers broke off from the group and hurried to meet the EMT's

"Sergeant we need to discuss deployment."

"Yes Sir. I've taken the liberty of placing a unit at Tower and the first cross street, Emerson I believe. I've also placed prior to the light on 130th, blocking off that lane and another unit at the far end of the news trucks. Sir placing the news van like you did was a stroke of genius."

"I wish I had thought of it sooner," mumbled Beckett. "Ryan?"

"He and the two Officers resumed canvassing."

"I see the CSU vehicle but I don't see them."

"They're with Detective Esposito. They didn't want to start here until all of the wounded have been transported."

"Understood. Did the Watch Commander provide coverage for the other crime scene?"

"No Sir, just this one. What other crime scene?"

"About two miles up 130th there is another dead Sea Lion, we think. We also think that the cases are related but we want to be sure. We've got Sanchez and Thomas up there, but I want another set of eyes. I was hoping to send Ryan, but the canvassing job here needs to be done soon.

"I'll go," said Castle. "When the EMT's arrived Lanie released me from my, ah, orderly duties. That is if I can find a ride."

"Castle you up to this?"

"Yeah, we need a pair of eyes from here, there. Ryan and Esposito are gainfully employed and you shouldn't leave until this collapses to a one ring circus. So that leaves me. Sanchez and Thomas know me and my relationship to the 12th. They know I'm not in their chain of command. On the other hand I don't think they would be averse to implementing some suggestions."

"I'll take him Sir," said Hastings. "My partner can stay here while I babysit Castle at the other site."

"Approved."

"You mind walking with me while I get a bottle of water from the Cruiser," Castle asked Hastings's partner?

Beckett waited to Castle was out earshot before speaking. "Hastings there's a couple of things you have to know."

"With respect Sir, I think you are about to tell me the same things about Castle that Castle is telling my partner about you."

"Probably," agreed Beckett as a smile touched her face. "But today Castle is fragile."

"Fragile, Sir I don't understand."
"When the shooting started Castle shoved me out of the way and then tackled Lanie. When he did she accidentally kneed him in the groin. She hit him so hard that he actually lost consciousness for a brief moment. Later we found out that his vest had stopped three bullets."

"Fragile? In a pigs eye. Sir anyone who…"

Beckett held up her hand to silence Hastings. "I respect your opinion," she said kindly. "But I think Castle is fragile and I want him returned to me unbroken and in one piece," she said softly.

Hastings nodded her understanding.

Chapter 7 Other Crime Scene.

"So this is what the front of a squad car is like," said Castle once they were underway. "Comfy. Normally I get to ride in back and I get to wear some shiny bracelets."

"Keep your hand off of my radio," half shouted Hastings as see saw Castle's hand drift in that direction. "Look I have a set of bracelets on my belt. If it makes you more comfortable you can wear them and sit in the back. If not then keep your hands off the radio and the tactical computer," she added as Castle's hand drifted in that location.
"Tough crowd," Castle whispered as he placed his hands in lap and tried to look innocent by looking out the window.

A minute or so later Hastings pulled in behind the other Unit. Compared to the other crime scene this place was a ghost town. There were the three vehicles involved in the accident, the team of Detectives from the 12th , a single unit and Officer from the 27th, and a city tow truck was just starting to hook up to the first vehicle. Castle was relieved to see that all of the Officers were in their vests.

"Hey Hastings, Castle," called Detective Sanchez. "Is the Captain coming? We're finishing up here. As soon as our partners get back and the other two tow trucks move these vehicles into processing we'll be done. "
"The Captain is still caught up at the other crime scene. She sent me to take a look. Check in with the Captain before you head back to the house. She'll want to hear your preliminaries now and she may have another task for you. I'm going to start at the place I don't like, the end. Was the driver of the mustang a member of the Sea Lion gang?"
"Yes, Sir," said the Officer from the 12th. "We pulled his ID from his driver's license and verified that he's a dues paying member of the Sea Lion's. He works in the crew for one of the mid-level shot callers."

"I'm not a Sir, I'm Castle. I'm just a Police Consultant that has a very good working relationship with the 12th. I'm going to text the Captain that the cases are probably related. Why don't you walk me through what we think we know?"
"Certainly, it will be good practice for the Captain's interrogation session."

"Her what?"

"She gets intense when she's conducting case reviews."

"Don't doubt it. A piece of advice, think of her as a very senior consultant detective who thinks that open cases are a personal insult. Take my word for it. She really is there to help you solve the crime. Just tell her what you know, what you suspect and your plans to convert what you suspect to what you know, and most importantly of all what help you need from her to be successful. Make a good case for the help and you will get it. About the integration thing, if you get the opportunity to watch her take apart suspects in the box then do it. It's awesome."

"What we've been able to piece together," began Sanchez. "Is that this was a near perfect three car capture. They used that black Cadillac Esplanade as the anvil. That Tarsus would be the Hammer if they needed it. Some of the reports we got said that a white Chevy Malibu was the left guard. The reports said that it pulled in front of the caddy after the accident and then turned left on Spring a couple of minutes later."

"CSU been here?"
"Yeah they measured the skid marks and did a road slipperiness measurement. Their real work begins when they process the vehicles."

"Vehicles stolen I take it?" When the Detective nodded Castle continued. "We need to know from where."

"We have that."

"Good. Anything else?"

"They chose to do the crash here for a very good reason. See how the Tarsus is mostly in the bike lane? That allowed the driver to get out of the vehicle and walk toward the other car. Since he didn't have to ram the other vehicle he got out, walked between the vehicles, used his gun to break the passenger's side vehicle and shoot the driver."

"With the driver stunned by the crash and restrained by his seat belt and trapped by the airbag it must have been like shooting fish in the barrel," added the Officer from the 27th.

"Witnesses have him picking up a bag out of the passenger seat and walking up and getting in the Malibu along with the driver of the Caddy."

"Description?"

"Hoodies. What's strange is that we found the murder weapon in the car. It was a Berta."

"Oh that's brilliant," remarked Castle.

"Brilliant? Enlighten us professor," teased Hastings.

"I'll lay long odds that there is nothing to tie the shooter to the weapon. I mean it's stolen or something like that. If there's not a tie, then why keep something that can tie you to a murder? Unfortunately guns are like candy bars, you can get another one without having to shop too hard."

"I never thought about it like that," admitted Sanchez. "It's like they just made sure one avenue of the investigation will end in a dead end."

"You said the Malibu turned down Spring," Castle asked the Officer from the 27th?

"Yeah, why?"
"I'm thinking they're going to dump the car in a public place as soon as they could and the Tri-borough Mall would be a could spot. They could move over to a vehicle they prepositioned there, catch the subway, or even a bus."

"Let's hope," said the Officer from the 27th. When he saw the blank expression on Castle's face he continued. "The Mall just completed a major security upgrade. They now have cameras covering the entrances and exits to parking lots as well as a camera covering each parking lot section. If you're right about them dumping the vehicle, then they probably would use the parking lot of the strip mall across the street. It's not covered by cameras."

"I know most malls report the cars that overnight to the local precinct. Do we know if Tri-borough does that?"

"I sure they do. Robbery looks at the list in the 27th."

"Same in the 12th," confirmed Hastings. "So do you think a patrol could drive through the strip mall's lot and note the overnighters?"

"Probably, that's a normal enough task. I know we drive through the lots checking for other things. This should not be a big deal. I'll ask the watch sergeant to set that up. For how long?"

"Just three nights I think," added Castle. "Just tonight, Saturday, and Sunday. Less if we get lucky."

"Could you also let Robbery know that we'll be calling," suggested Sanchez. "I don't want to be caught in one of those interdepartmental information transfer things. I could retire before the information gurus' sign-off on my request."

"Consider it done."

"One other thing," said Castle. "When you do the video thing, look out for the fourth car."

"What fourth car?"

"This hit and the execution of the gang members at the other crime scene are related. I'm guessing that there was a vehicle at the other site that cued these guys in. That vehicle was probably the insurance vehicle in case the capture didn't happen like it did."

"How can we tell?"

"I'm guessing that it turned left on Spring right after the accident, stopped, and waited until the crew cleared before following. This has the earmark of a well-planned and professionally executed operation. I don't think they left anything to chance."

The arrival of the second tow truck broke the silence caused by Castle's last remark.

"Hastings, shall we? Guys I suggest you check in with the Captain before heading to the house."

Hastings got very considered when Castle fell asleep on their way back to the first crime scene. He was paler than she had ever seen him. On purpose she parked between the Corners van and the EMT's ambulance. "Castle we're here," she prompted.

"Thanks. Hastings could you do me a favor," asked Castle once they had got out of the car? "Could you tell Beckett what we discovered and talked about? I'm beat. I think that I'm going to crawl into her cruiser and take a nap."

"Sure."

Castle made the turn in back of the Corner's van and almost ran over Lanie.

"Castle, in there," commanded Lanie pointing to the back of the van.

"But I'm not dead," quipped Castle after he spotted the bodies of the dead Sea Lions stacked in the back.

"Sit down and take off your vest. Hastings please stay here. I need a witness. It's the difference sex patient thing."

"Why my vest," asked Castle as he sat down heavily. Lanie's stare was answer enough as Castle started to undo the lacings. "Here," he said handing her his vest.

Lanie accepted it and turned it around so that could Castle could see the back. "How's your back feel," she asked in a gentle voice. So saw his eyes widen when he saw the impact points on the vest.

"It hurts like the blazes. I thought it was because you know, and how I landed. I had no idea I'd been hit." Castle reached out and touched each of the impact points. "I mean four times plus the near miss."

Lanie looked down and blinked. From a distance she and Kate had only seen three points. The fourth point was almost on top of one of the other impacts. Lanie laid the vest down and took Castle's hand to take his pulse. "Pulse elevated but okay," she verbalized. "You look very pale and are cool and clammy to the touch. Pupil's even and reactive," she added after checking with her penlight. Castle please take off your shirt and jacket. I need to see the impact points….Please turn around," she asked when Castle had complied. Lanie winced when Castle literally jumped when she lightly touched one of the impact points.

"Don't you dare ask me if that hurt," he growled.

"Big baby," she responded, "You want a sucker?"

"No, but a shot or two of a good scotch would taste good right now and take the edge off."

As Lanie gently continued her examination her frown deepened. Finally she shook her head. "Castle I'm sending you home right now. You're going to be fine, but you need to be off your feet. I'm going to call Amy. She should be able to explain everything and take care of you until Beckett can come home. Hastings can you take him home?"

"I..."

"She can't but I can," said Sergeant Stevens. He whistled and two Officers came trotting over. "Shaw you and Jones take Castle home. After you drop him off take your lunch break and then call in and inform Dispatch that you're been released and are resuming your normal patrol pattern. "
"Sure Sarge, but the brass?"

"They'll be fine."

"I guess that I'll tell Beckett I'm leaving. I don't want her to worry."

"You don't want to go up there Castle. Not until the scalp hunters leave," said the Sergeant.

"Why, what, scalp hunters?"

" Yeah, well we've got an open drug bazaar and a drive-by shooting that injured more than twenty civilians. The civilians were injured in a situation that was controlled by the NYPD. This isn't good for the image of the Department and those guys are trying to figure out whose head will role. Their questions and attitude may piss you off enough that you may have an accident and accidently punch the lights out on one of those fine backstabbing ladies and gentlemen."

"Kate? Are they gunning for Kate?"

"They're trying and failing," the Sergeant said with a snicker. "The one Captain started dressing Beckett down for allowing an open drug bazaar to happen on her precinct. Inspector Gates quashed that immediately by reminding everyone that Beckett commands the 12th not the 27th and this was the 27th's operational area."

"Good," said Castle. "But I'm thinking that had quite a few more stones to throw."

"Right, next they asked how it was that Beckett took charge of an operation outside of her operational area. They didn't like it when she started with 'A funny thing happened on my way to the movies.'"

"No sense of humor," said Castle with a pained laced laugh.

"They did accept the fact that she is a Captain of the NYPD, arrived on-scene by happenstance and it was her duty to take control of the situation. When she mentioned it was up to the Chief of Detectives to determine if the investigation which stated with the 12th stays or is moved to the 27th or the gang task force or perhaps narcotics, they backed off."

"Nice of them."

"The next point was and is the stickiest, security. They were furious when she told them that the 27th's watch commander had only sent three units. That same idiotic Captain questioned the Captain's deployment strategy. He was silenced by Gates and Deputy Chief Williams, but there's still a point that may come back to haunt Beckett."

"What?"

"The vests"

"The vests? Why?"

"Well the one Captain made a good point about if Beckett didn't think there was a good possibility of attack why did she order the contingent of Officers to wear vests. Her answer of 'To keep peace in the family,' didn't go over well."

"Peace in the family," muttered Castle.

"She said that when she sent you for crime scene tape you came with her vest and a story that was just barely plausible. She didn't want to fight about it so she put her vest on and to save her partner's face she told the troops to put theirs on."

As the Sergeant was describing the conversation, everyone could see that Castle was becoming annoyed with Kate's explanation. Finally he exhaled. "Well at least she ordered ever one into the vests," he said softly.

"You know everyone thinks you're a little on the paranoid side Castle," Lanie said with a rue smile.

"And Beckett's danger sense is still not well developed," added Castle with a touch of heat, "and it's going to wind up getting her killed."

"That's why you're her shadow," Hastings said softly.

"We do make a good team," agreed Castle. "What else did those fine gentlemen have to say" Castle asked the sarcasm overwhelmingly present in his voice.

"Well they asked to speak to you and when Kate told them that she had sent you to the other crime scene the one Captain and one of the Inspectors went ballistic. They went on and on about Procedures and that Civilians had no place in police investigations. Finally Kate had enough. She told them that former United Stated Special Marshal Richard Castle has helped the NYPD close over 150 homicide cases. She said that he's probably the best investigator in the city, and that he's been honored by the Queen of England for Gallantry and the Congress twice.

She continued the conversation by saying that the Rules and Regulations are written for the guidance of the Commander, and ended it by saying that she dispatched you there because she had no other assets available and your job was to observe and make a recommendation. Which you did and it was her call whether or not to act on your recommendation."

Sergeant Stevens shook his head and started to laugh. "When the fine gentlemen started to protest the Deputy Chief cut them off by saying that the Chief would whole-heartily approve of Beckett sending Castle to observe the situation. Nothing more needs to be said."

"What are they still doing here?"

"They're waiting for the Chief. He's on his way. He's going to make a statement to the press."

"I still need to tell Kate I'm going home. I don't want her to worry."

"I'll tell her Rick," said Lanie. "She'll worry of course that's her right, but at least she'll have the straight scoop."

"Thanks Lanie. I appreciate it."

"Hastings, unless I heard wrong you need to tell the Captain what you guys learned at the other site? Give me a minute to call and talk to Amy and I'll go with you."

Lanie watched her friend's eyes widen in surprise as she and Officer Hastings approached. She saw her eyes flick down to Castle's vest and back up to hers. "I sent Castle home Kate," Lanie said when she got close enough to speak normally.

"You did what," shirked one of the scalp hunters. "We had questions for him."

"You can talk to him tomorrow. He should be recovered enough by then."

"You can't send him home. You're only a ME."

"Lanie," Kate cautioned softly, "your temper."

Lanie nodded and took a deep breath before continuing. "I am also a medical doctor. I am board certified and fully licensed member of the medical community. If I chose to I can practice medicine on living human being. I chose to do so earlier today on the shooting victims and I chose to examination Castle just a couple of minutes ago."

"What is the extent of his injuries," asked the Deputy Chief calmly.

"I can only discuss the details with his wife. Right now I don't think his injuries are life-threatening and he will recover fully. He is experiencing extreme fatigue no doubt caused by the injuries he sustained in the shooting event, and considering the environment, I don't want to expose to a chance of further, perhaps permanent injury. "

"Why wasn't he sent to the hospital?"

"His injuries weren't apparent. Look when Castle tacked me I kneed him in the groin hard enough for him to lose consciousness for a couple of seconds. As we fell he took four bullets in the back for me." Lanie spun the vest around to show the crowd the impact points on the vest. "He kept it together long enough to assist me with several patients. He also held it together long enough to look at the other crime scene for Beckett. With the last task complete his will probably waivered a little and he started to collapse. That's why I sent him home. I've also arranged for a Registered Nurse to meet him at his home tonight and start his treatment. Gentlemen you will excuse us." Lanie grabbed Kate by the arm and lead her away from the knot of Officers.

"Captain Beckett is also Missus Castle," offered Gates when the Officers started to object.

"Lanie," asked Kate when they were out of hearing range? Her concern for her husband was obvious in her voice and her posture.

"Kate right now Castle's like that inexperienced marathon runner running his first race. The runner went out to fast and hit the proverbial wall, hard. He's functional but nowhere near the top of his game. Food and rest will cure that."

"Injuries," breathed Kate?

"On the front side," Lanie said with a small smile. "He will be swollen and sore for a couple of days, but no permanent damage. The back side is complicated. He's got a couple of bruised or cracked ribs, I'm sure they're not broken."

Kate winced and then nodded. "Nothing we can really do except let them heal."

"Right. I also think he has a bruised kidney. I've told him to look for pain while urinating and to look for blood in the urine. The first couple days are critical after that he should be home free. The problem that will affect him the most is the fact that his back muscles got pounded. Pounded so hard that they are going to tighten up and he's not going to want to move. I've asked Amy to get a certain type of ointment. It's smelly and a little bit greasy, but it does the best job of relaxing the muscles. He's going to need someone to apply it at least twice a day. Amy can handle the morning…."

"Let me get this straight you're ordering me to give Castle a back rub," Kate said with a grin sneaking onto her face.

"Yeah, you got a problem with that?"

"Not at all," Kate replied her grin blossoming into a smile.

"One other thing, Castle will want to be a couch potato. Don't let him. I know you work half days on Saturday and Sunday. When you get back home make him take you to the park or someplace else where he has to walk a museum, the zoo I don't care. Just make him get out and about. Walking will most definitely help him and shorten the healing process."

"I can do that," Kate affirmed. The ladies attention was drawn to two cars arriving. "It's the Chief. I guess I need to listen to Hastings and play nice with the guys."

"Give your husband an extra special kiss for me," Lanie said as she departed for her vehicle.

From the Chiefs press conference Beckett learned that the 27th had raided several of the Sea Lion's lairs. They had the three in custody who did the drive by shooting and they managed to confiscate a large quantity of drugs, guns, and cash. I hope the DA can translate the arrests into convictions, thought Kate. Inwardly she grimaced as the NYPD executed its standard practice to events of this type, massive retaliation against the suspects instead of proactive Police Work. One thing for sure, she would be holding serious discussions with her people.

Luckily the Chief didn't stick around after his statement and with his departure the remaining VIPs followed suit. When the last command car departed Captain Beckett summoned all of the Officers present, thanked them for the efforts and tasked Sergeant Stevens to release them back to their normal assigned duties. "Sir," asked Officer Harris, one of the Officers from the 27th. "Is Mister Castle okay? I haven't seen him in a while."

Kate spun Castle's vest around to show the four hits. "He's home recovering. Getting hit like this, he felt like he lost the fight with the proverbial five-hundred pound gorilla."

The Officer winced and touched his chest where his vest had stopped a bullet. "I think I know how he feels."

Beckett was deep in thought as she trudged back to her cruiser. The text from Gates 'Findings Yes, Marks No' eased her mind considerably.

'The universe is against me,' Beckett thought as she stopped at the fourth consecutive light. 'At this rate I'll never make it back to precinct or to the Loft.' Also, for the fourth consecutive time she reached for her phone started to dial Amy and then stopped. Castle is okay. I can wait until I get home and give him by full and undivided attention. The light was still red, but there was no cross traffic. "Screw-it," she verbalized as she turned on her lights, eased through the intersection and sped the rest of the way to 'Her House.'

Beckett parked her car, grabbed both hers' and Castles' vests and headed to the service corridor instead of the steps. 'Findings,' she fumed as she headed to the Armory. 'I can just bet that twerp will insist that this one will be in the report. 'Officers of Supervisory and Command rank will insure that their rank is properly displayed at all times, especially in tactical situations where the force consists of members or mixtures of multiple Precincts, Departments or Divisions. This applies to uniforms, combat vests…' Anyway I can cross it off the list.

Admit it Kate she chided herself. You should have taken care of it months ago. You just never thought it important until this evening. Kate pushed open the door and got in line behind two of her Officers who were changing out the tactical shotguns and ammunition load-outs for their units. The problem with the shotguns was, unlike the Officer's service revolver, the shotgun was assigned to a Unit not a person. Which meant it didn't receive as much tender loving care. To prevent accidents, the Armory recalled the weapon and the ammunition load out regularly, and tonight was these guys turn. The Armorers serviced and test fired the weapons and checked the ammunition's expiration date. The ammo near the end of its shelf life was used in weapons training, exercises and the like.

"Be right with you Sir," the Armorer said. "Max, upfront," he yelled over his shoulder. Max was the senior Armorer and had worked the night shift as long as Beckett could remember. He stepped out from behind the door of the workroom. He wore a very non-regulation apron over his uniform and was wiping his hands on a red rag. As usual he smelled of cordite and machine oil.

"Ah, Captain, come to exchange your vest I see. I'll get this one done tonight and put it in your office so you can have it first thing tomorrow morning. I can give you a spare for tonight just in case. How's that sound?"

"Perfect actually," said Beckett as she handed Max her vest.

"Now the other one," said Max.

"I can't let you have it. It's not City Property."

"So? Hand me the vest Sir," Max said as he slowly reached out and gently grabbed Castle's vest. "Rumor has it that the person wearing this saved the city a ton of money by preventing a couple of funerals."

'Four actually,' thought Kate as she nodded her head in agreement and let go off Castle's vest.

Max turned the vest over, and his head snapped up when he saw the four hits on the two rear plates. 'You,' his eyes asked.

"Doctor Parish," replied Kate to the unspoken question. "He pushed me out of the way and covered Lanie. Which begs the question why aren't the ME's allocated vests?"

"Couldn't tell you. Here you go Sir," said Max as he laid the loaner vest on the counter top. "It's probably an accountant thing."

"Thanks," said Beckett as she scooped up the vest headed back out onto the corridor and up the steps that lead to the atrium. Not quite full, thought Beckett as she pushed open the door and headed toward the elevators that were just beyond the Desk Sergeant's station. Beckett recognized many of the regulars. Her eyes widened when she saw a group of sheet clad individuals. 'A toga party? Really? And I wasn't invited.'

"On 9th again Trixie?"

"Yeah, keeping us off of 9th is an unfair restraint on trade," she laughed.

"Take it up with the Judge," Beckett called back.

"I will. Captain you need to improve your customer service. I've got bills to pay."

Kate laughed and waved to the 'working girls' slid past the Desk Sergeant with a nod and summoned the elevator. She almost ran over Esposito as she tried to exit the elevator.

"Good Captain, you're here. We're ready for you. We took the liberty of ordering pizza, and it's downstairs."

"I'll cover. How much?"

"Forty."

Kate handed over two twenties, extracted a bottle of water from the vending machine in the break room and worked off some emails until Javier returned with the pizza. For the next hour the Captain and her two Detective teams talked through what they knew and their plans for tomorrow.

At the Loft

Kate unlocked the door and slipped inside her home. There was music coming from the TV area and there was light streaming from kitchen area. Kate walked toward the light and spotted Amy waiting for her. Amy waved and silently pointed toward the TV area. Kate nodded peeked in and saw Castle sleeping in his favorite chair. Satisfied, Kate turned around, hung her jacket in the closet and returned to her husband. They had tuned to the classical music station and turned-off the TV screen. 'Braham's Lullaby,' was playing, seems appropriate thought Kate. She looked down and Castle's normal sleepy boy face was gone. In its place was the face of a man under duress and fighting for control. She gently brushed a strand of hair off-of his forehead. 'You're warm,' she thought. Kate wrinkled her nose at the smell of the muscle relaxing ointment. 'Not unpleasant,' she thought, 'just heavy.'

"Rest babe," she whispered as she gently kissed him on the cheek.

"Castle," Kate asked when she returned to the countertop?

Amy held up her hand. "He's fine and will recover. Priorities. Have you eaten?"

"We had pizza at the precinct."

"Pizza is a snack you consume while you are watching sporting events," Amy said disapprovingly. "Not supper. How about I fix you some nice tomato soup and a grilled cheese sandwich?"

"Amy you don't have to …"
Amy cocked her head and raised her eyebrow, "Captain that question required a 'Yes' or 'No' answer."

"Yes please," said Kate in a small voice but wearing a big grin.

"I know I don't have to but… next disarm yourself and check in on that two legged tiger of yours. His Dad being hurt unsettled him some. Next come back down, put away your toys and come back here. By then the soup and sandwich should be about done. While you're eating I'll tell you what we need to do to get your husband back on his feet. Deal?"

"Deal," agreed Kate as she laid her weapon on the counter and flowed up the stairs to check in on her son.

Kate showed up at the counter dressed in sweat clothes just as Amy was pouring the tomato soup into a bowl for her and a cup for herself. Amy had also made two grilled cheese sandwiches. One and half of them was on a saucer next to Kate's soup bowl the other half near Amy's cup. 'Good,' thought Kate I hate to eat alone.

"Great timing," said Amy as she finished pouring the soup and placed the pan in the sink. "You sit and eat and I'll talk." Kate sat down, took a big bite out of her sandwich and then attacked the soup. Amy took a sip of her soup before stating.

"Castle's initial condition is a result of the knee to the groin and taking the four bullets. It's like he got the stuffing kicked out of him. Food and a night's rest will take care of most of the initial conditions."

"Good," said Kate between spoonfuls of soup.

"His internal injuries should heal in about a week. Oh, just be on the safe side I conducted Castle's doctor and we scheduled a couple of appointments for Castle late Monday morning. Don't worry I may sure he's out of here in time to make them. What that means is we need to keep him in bubble wrap for that period and he's not going to like it. The other thing you can do for him is make sure he drinks a lot of water and absolutely no alcohol, with one exception."

"I'll handle him," confirmed Kate, 'like the most precious thing on the planet.'

"Good, his ribs won't be fully healed for a month or so, but they aren't giving him any trouble. For the next couple of days the real problem will be to stop Castle from becoming a couch potato. The muscles in his back took a beating, literally, and it's only going to be natural for him to want to sit down and not want to move. I trust James will put him through his paces in the morning, but getting him walking, Kate that has to be your job. I know you try to do be home by noon on the weekends. When you get here take him someplace. The exercise will be good for him for a number of reasons."

"That's what Lanie said. Look when I walked by Castle his face seemed… He seemed like he was in distress."

"Probably. It's his muscles telling him they've had enough. Tonight will be the worst. Tomorrow the standard over the counter stuff should be sufficient to take the edge off. I agree with Doctor Parish prescribing something could be a slippery slope."

"You know Castle's fear about narcotic based pain-killers right?"

"Yeah, and that's another reason to avoid them. Besides we already have the best natural pain-killer and sedative in the house," said Amy waving toward the other end of the counter.

"Brandy," exclaimed Kate! "You fed him brandy and the good stuff too."

"Considering the circumstances I think he earned it. Don't you?"

"Well Yeah," agreed Kate as polished off the last of the grilled cheese sandwich wondering where all the food went.

Amy took the last sip of her soup, stood up and put the cup in the sink. "That's all I got. I guess I'll head back home. Castle will recover. Protect him but don't baby him."

"I will and I won't," said Kate as she stood up. "Amy thanks for taking care of my guys. This goes way beyond nanny duties."

"You're welcome, and don't worry about it," said Amy as she walked to the door with Kate close behind. "You know," she continued as she opened the door. "I'm glad to help. Two of my guys live in Camps, the price of being Marines, one on the east coast and one the west. My rebel, my youngest took an Army commission and lives in a Fort in western Kentucky, and the daughter I never had lives three flights up and serves her country in a way I never envisioned, but just as importantly. Your mother would be very proud of you."

Stunned by the revelation Kate was speechless. She watched Amy walk away and turn the corner. Amy was out-of-sight before Kate started closing and locking the door. 'What prompted Amy to say that,' Kate asked herself as she took care of the dishes and doused the lights in the kitchen. Wandering back in to the TV room she considered her dilemma. "Mom said never let my man sleep alone," she said softly. 'But there is no way we can both fit in that chair.' Kate looked at couch, sighed and left.

We she returned she had changed into a teddy and was carrying a couple of pillows and a quilt. After setting the alarm on her phone and preparing the couch Kate gently kissed her husband's cheek, "Good night babe," she whispered before lying down on the couch.

A small groan woke Castle up. It took a couple of moments to realize it was his. He carefully opened his right eye and when the world remained stable he peeked at the time display on the cable box, just past 12:30. Castle laid his head back down and contemplated his situation. He hurt allover, but he was comfortable. All that didn't matter because he really had to go to the bathroom. 'Amy you devil,' he grossed. 'Why did you make me drink all that water? You know,' he thought, 'in situations like this James has it made. He doesn't have to worry about getting up and using the bathroom, he just goes. Is that what you want? You want Kate to pick up diapers for you tomorrow,' he laughed.' I'm not that old. I just feel like it,' Castle admitted. As he started to leverage himself out of the chair he heard the sound of a familiar snort. Turning his head he saw his wife sleeping on the couch. 'Kate, what's she doing here?' Sleeping you dork replied his subconscious. 'Why?' 'Dah' 'Yeah right, me.'

From his vantage point all he could see of Kate's face was the tip of her nose. It's such a beautiful nose, he thought. He sat for a moment just drinking in the sight of his wife. Eventually he leveraged himself up and headed toward the bathroom. Business complete, he lumbered out of the bathroom and into the bedroom. He stopped as he spied the bed. He looked out the door toward Kate then back at the oh-so inviting bed.

"Peace in the family," he mumbled as he walked out of the door and toward his chair. As he approached he saw that Kate's eyes were open and she was looking at him. When he neared she held out her hand.

"Scoot forward," Castle whispered. With difficultly he flowed behind Kate. When settled, he gently pulled Kate closer. Kate let Castle 'capture her' with his arms and legs. Castle's good night kiss on the base her neck sent a shiver down her spine as always and his breathy "I Love You Katherine Houghton Beckett-Castle warmed her all over. Kate waited. It didn't take long. Castle's breath slowed and he started his gentle snore. Kate settled down a little farther so that Castle's breath wouldn't tickle her ear. She closed her eyes and sighed. Her son was safe and asleep in his crib, and she was in the arms of the man she loved. The universe loves me, she declared. On the radio Host's– Jupiter from 'The Planets' was just starting. 'Appropriate,' thought Kate right before she fell asleep.

Chapter 8 On the Hunt

Castle's movement woke Kate. She peeked at the time. It was just a couple minutes until the alarm went off.

"Kate," whispered Castle.

Kate threw off the quilt got off of the couch, turned around and offered her husband a hand up. She wasn't surprised when Castle turned it into a hug and the kiss he thought he was stealing was freely given. They stood together in a gently hug until the alarm on Kate's phone went off. Without letting go of Castle's hand, Kate bent down and picked up her phone and silenced the alarm.

"Come on Babe, you can shower with me," she said as she led him toward the bedroom door. "Anybody tell you that you stink," she asked smiling up at him?

The shower was a little cuddly but most business. Kate suppressed a gasp when Castle turned around to allow Kate to wash his back. Three of the impact points where closely grouped and ugly. The other one was lower and just missed the spine. She heard him gasp as her sponge touched the area.

"Sorry"

"It's okay. Kate why don't ME's wear vests?"

"I asked our armorer. He didn't know."

"I think Lanie is about to receive a present."

"I …I can live with that." 'And I'm sure Esposito will appreciate it.'

"Castle, finish drying off, grab another towel and lie face down on the bed and I'll put some more of this smelly stuff on your back. Oh and when we're done put a sweat shirt on over your tee-shirt. I don't want your chair smelling like this for weeks. "

Castle softly wolf whistled when Kate walked into the room. She had her hair wrapped up in a towel and another towel wrapped her body. The body towel barely covered all of her vital spots. Kate hopped on the bed and straddled his legs. She tried to ignore Castle's initial groans, and was heartened when they changed in tone as she was finishing up.

"Castle," Kate said softly as see was finishing up. "The secret I told you about?"

"Yeah."

"It was a dream and in it you jumped up and caught a bullet for me."

"That's what shadows do. They protect their partner."

"So you're protecting me now?"

"Always have and always will," Castle said solemnly.

"I know me too."

"Together then?"
"Always babe." When she finished she bent forward and kissed her husband's check. As she jumped off the bed she gave Castle a whack on his exposed rump.

"Lady you cheat and…," Castle complained and stopped talking as Kate removed and dropped the towel that had been covering her body. Castle watched as she walked towards the bathroom to finish drying her hair.

"….pay backs are expected and encouraged," she teased.

Kate dressed quickly and casually. She knew that Captain's had an image to maintain, but it was the weekend and old habits were hard to break. She tucked her blouse into her faded jeans and on impulse drew on a NYPD sweatshirt over her blouse. Castle's back was turned when she approached the countertop. She sat down and stole a piece of bacon from the impressive pile Castle had prepared. The smell and taste of the freshly cooked bacon caused her stomach to grumble loudly.

"You're welcome," Castle threw over his shoulder as he flipped the eggs in one skillet and stirred the hash browns in another.

Kate took another piece of bacon, reached for a piece of toast and looked longingly at the coffee pot. 'Why didn't he…Oh …me, and he didn't want to drink a cup in front of me but Castle loves his coffee, especially at breakfast.' Kate looked around the kitchen at the available counter space. 'Well Mister Castle on my way home this afternoon I'm picking up a present for you, a single cup coffee maker. There is no reason why you should give up your morning coffee for me, even if I have to make it and put it in front of you, of course I may take a sip to be sure it tastes okay.'

"Normal time for the case review," Kate said over her should as Castle helped her on with her jacket.

"His majesty permitting of course," quipped Castle.

"Sorry about date night, rain check for the next special movie night at the Valencia?"

"But we were together and that's all that matters to me and the movies aren't the thing I want a rain check for."

"Oh what then," said Kate with a good idea of what her husband wanted?

"A dance, Kate will you dance for me?"

"I'll consider it," she said as she exited the Loft.

"Kate could you," said Castle pointing at the morning paper.

Kate bent over to retrieve the paper fully expecting Castle to try something. When nothing happen she stood up and handed the paper to Castle and understood the expression on her husband's face. "Payback's are best accomplished …"

"… As a surprise," added Castle. As usual he watched Kate head toward the elevators convinced that he had married the most extraordinary woman on the planet.

Kate parked in her assigned spot, returned the loaner vest to the Armorer and headed up the steps to the atrium. This morning this place was practically deserted. No civilians or people waiting to be processed were present and the only people were the uniformed Officers who were making their way into the Squad Room for the morning roll-call. The Captain acknowledged the nods and greetings of her people as she headed toward the knot of people near the Desk Sargent's desk.

The knot of people consisted of the on-coming and off-going Desk Sergeants and watch Sergeants. Policy required a command presence in the Operations Center at all times and that's where the Watch Officers were.

"Anything special I need to know about," asked Beckett.

"Nothing out of the ordinary Sir. If you overlook the fact that our Captain stole business from the 27th and then hung around to get shot at," quipped the off-going Watch Sergeant.

"The other thing of interest is that women carrying clutch purses were targeted as they left the theater last night. The thieves would do a quick snatch and run."

"Dummies, there's no profit in stealing a woman's clutch purse; we don't carry anything valuable in it. When I'm out with Castle, and not on call, all I have in mine is my phone, a lipstick and some tissues."

"Maybe they ran out of lipstick," quipped Sergeant Hill.

"Maybe," laughed the Captain.

"Sir I don't mean to pry…Castle?"

"Recovering, nothing permanent. No symptoms related to internal injuries thank God, but he's going to the Doctor to be checked out anyway. The problem is his back. The four that the vest stopped beat his back to a pulp. He's mobile, but just barely. For the next week or so I'm benching him and wrapping him in bubble wrap."

"Good luck with that Sir."

"Why Sergeant you don't think I know how to properly incentivize my husband to keep him on his best behavior?...Good day gentlemen," Beckett said as she turned and headed toward the elevator.

"You know," said Sergeant Hill, "Sometimes I forget that our Captain is one fine looking woman."

"You can bet your ass that Castle doesn't forget."

Beckett strolled off the evaluator to the muted sound of the Bull Pen getting ready to earn its pay. It was a weekend so weekend staffing was in place. The only exception was that the Detective Teams with new active cases were expected to work them before the trail grew too cold to follow. That included the two homicide teams from last night. A quick glance showed Beckett that both Teams were already in and working.

"Coffee Captain," Ryan called out as Beckett flashed in front of the Break Room door?

"Yes please, thanks Ryan," said Beckett as she continued on to her office.

Beckett hung up her coat, stowed her purse, sat down at her desk, and took a sip of the coffee that Ryan delivered, turned on her computer and as always was surprised at how many emails that were in her inbox. 'First things first,' she thought as she opened up the report from the Night Watch Commander. 'The LT was right, reading and approving is a lot more time efficient, but the Watch Sergeant never told me about this,' she chuckled. Beckett copied a segment of the report and sent it to Castle and her Dad. The segment detailed how a would-be thief snatched the purse from the wife of a certain New York Giants outside linebacker. Needless to say the husband ran the thief down and tackled him to the cheers of the crowd. What made the piece even more humorous was when the Police was putting the thief in the cruiser for transport the thief had the guts to ask the linebacker for an autograph. The linebacker did not oblige.

Beckett wasn't surprised that the Deputy Chief's report about last night's incident was completed and in her inbox. The memo was well written and very accurate. In the 'Findings/Action Items/Recommendations Section' Beckett was surprised that she had only two items. It appeared that the Commander of the 27th had some serious questions to answer about the drug bazaar and the 27th Watch Commander had some questions to answer about resource allocation.

Beckett's first item was expected, "The tactical mix included units from more than one precinct and the vest that Captain Beckett was wearing did not clearly identify her as being of Command Rank. Recommend….'Already accomplished,' Beckett verbalized.

The second item was a little tougher. "Being that the NYPD does not have clear guidance on how an on-scene commander should utilize the resources available to balance between public safety and starting the investigation, and in an effort to develop said guidance recommend Captain Beckett perform the following actions: 1) Detail the thought process she went through when she made her initial assignments. 2) Recommend a practice for resource assignment, and 3) Devise a scenario suitable for presentation and execution as part of the recurring advanced tactics courses. "

'Not bad,' thought Kate. The Deputy Chief is trying to turn this into a 'lesson learned' and make it part of our culture by getting it into our training syllabus, but he didn't assign me a due date for any of this stuff. 'The first part is easy. I can knock that out today. The second one will get extensively revised by the higher ups, but the initial offering has to be first rate. For the last element I'll enlist the aid of a master storyteller. Beckett thought for a moment then responded to the email detailing her plan and timeframe for accomplishment. She wasn't surprised when the Deputy Chief responded with and "approved" almost immediately.

Beckett had just finished cleaning out her inbox when the five-minute warning for the case review flashed on her screen. Smiling she locked her terminal and scurried to use the bathroom and fill her coffee cup.

"Ahoy the 12th," Castle called out. "Is anybody home or all of you out protecting the golf courses of the greater New York area?"

"We the dedicated, overworked and underpaid protectors of this great city haven't the slightest idea what you mean by that remark," said Esposito with a straight face as he moved into the field of view of the camera.

"…And besides," said Ryan. "I have it on good authority that the people from Homeland Security diligently inspect them every day."

"Of course," laughed Castle. "They don't want the working off-site locations of the rich and powerful disrupted."

"That would stop progress in its tracks," laughed Esposito. "How you doing," asked Esposito his face and tone serious.

"Upright and vertical, everything else is relative. If the expression on Kate's face is any indication then my back is probably a mess, which means it looks like I feel. As soon as that runs its course I'll be back in the game."

"Just so you stay on the bench long enough to heal, Babe. We can handle the heavy lifting," said Kate as she joined the conversation. "We ready to go," asked Beckett as she looked at her people who had gathered near the two murder boards?

"I am on this end. I've got my co-investigator and he's got his sidekick in his hand."

"Castle I don't care how many co-investigators you add," she teased. "The fee the NYPD is paying you is unchanged. Hey Tiger, you ready to help Mommy and Daddy solve this case?" James' answering babble brought a smile to Kate's face and a touch of laughter to the room.

"Noting plus nothing equals…."

"My good will," laughed Beckett.

"Why don't we start with the cash car killing? Updates? Sanchez? Thomas?"

"Castle you were right about them abandoning the vehicles in a public place," started Officer Sanchez", "and the Officer from the 27th was right about where they dumped them. This morning we called the Robbery Detail and got the list of license plates of the vehicles that spent the night in the shopping center across from the mall. A stolen vehicle matching the description of the 'left guard' was found parked next to a stolen crew cab pick-up truck, your hypothetical fourth car. The owners have been notified and the city garage is on their way to retrieve them."

"The video review guys spotted your vehicle on the traffic cams and it does look like it was actively following the capture," added Officer Thomas. "They are busy creating a composite video using the footage from all of the traffic cams. They hope it will give us an appreciation of the drivers' skill levels. No joy on any faces."

"The cameras very rarely give us any good faces," added Beckett. "Forensics?"

"We had a bit of a priority screw-up," offered Officer Sanchez. "They tossed the Sea Lions car first instead of the stolen vehicles. "

"Recoverable," noted Beckett. "Anything?"

"The gun is not registered in the State of New York. We have inquiries into the FBI and the gun manufacturer. It will probably be Monday before we hear anything. No fingerprints on the weapon or the casings. They said they were going to test fire the weapon and see if they are any matches. Haven't heard back yet."

"They probably won't find one," said Beckett. "It looks like they give us the gun knowing it was a dead end and to eliminate a piece of incriminating evidence."

"That's what Castle said last night" offered Thomas.

"Did he now? Anything else?"

"Nothing important to this case, in the trunk they found drugs, money and guns."

"How much?"

"I don't remember off-hand Sir. The details are in the case file."

"That's where they should be. Anything else?"

"Our plans are the same. We are going to head out to where the vehicles were stolen and see if we can find some video, a witness or something. Right now we have nothing else Sir."

"Understood. Ryan? Esposito?"

"I've been through the canvas reports Sir," started Ryan. "There is nothing useful that pertains to this case. A lot of the shop owners are extremely unhappy about the cops allowing the Sea Lions to set up shop like that. They've said that they've complained but…"

"But that's the 27th," interjected Sanchez" not the 12th."

"From the shop owners perspective they don't know the difference," added Ryan. "Another thing Captain, I was left with the impression that if any of the shop owners I talked to were on the Jury, then the DA would have a tough time getting a conviction."

"Noted, I'll pass that along," said the Captain as her eyes shifted to Esposito.

"Nothing usable from the roost, or the shooters choice of ammo, weapon, or tactics, said Esposito. "All of which suggest someone skilled with rifles and urban tactics. One of the remarkable things about this case is the marksmanship. I've got a list of several gun ranges that go out to at least three hundred yards. All of them are on Long Island. Our objective is to see if anyone noticed someone practicing shooting at multiple simultaneous targets."

"Good luck with that," offered Castle.

"Yeah, cops at gun ranges asking questions about shooters," Said Esposito. "I think we'd have a better chance bagging snipe."

"Co-ordination?"

"Already accomplished. The Sheriff's Office said they would accompany us to all of the sites even though one of the ranges is in incorporated area. They said they would handle the co-ordination with the local jurisdiction. We've dealt with this Sheriff before. He's a straight-shooting type of guy. Another thing, the building next door had a number of roof-top gardens. We'll be going back out there and canvassing the owners. Perhaps they were on the roof and saw something."

"Good, slim chance though. Castle you've been quiet. Anything?"

"I think this is just an extension of the other cases and they've finally graduated to murder."

"What other cases Bro?"

"I think I'll let the Captain answer that."

"We all wondered what Deputy Inspector Gate's special assignment was. Well she inherited a batch of cold cases. She asked us to look into them for her on a non-priority basis. The unique thing about the cases was the fact that all of the victims were Criminals or Criminal enterprises." Beckett let that sink in for a moment. "This is just another example of this…. Castle thinks and I agree that we have a very successful and skilled vigilante crew operating in New York City."

"How long?"

"Almost two years," responded the Captain. She purposely kept the most frightening of Castle's conclusions to herself. "This is all speculation and I need you not to repeat a word of this to anybody. Clear?"

"Yes Sir," they chirped.

"Why haven't we heard about this," asked Ryan?
"We're Homicide and this is the first. Prior to this the crimes have been mostly B&E's and they're spread out over the entire City. I know of only five that occurred in our operational area."

"Again, not a word of this, Clear?" Kate looked in the faces of each of the four Detectives. It was clear that they were uncomfortable with the concept of vigilantes operating in their City, and if they had embraced killing as a policy, could the death of innocent civilians be far behind? Beckett nodded when all of the Detectives nodded their understanding.

"Good, anything else Castle?"

"Yeah, I don't think robbery was the principal motive. If it was then why kill the six at the street corner? Also they didn't need to kill the driver in order to steal the money. They could have tasered him. I mean he was a sitting duck dazed, confined by his seat belt and that big airbag in his face."

"Suggestions?"

"Revenge, its personal . I think we should check to see if the Sea Lions hurt some people recently."

"Okay, I can see that," said Beckett. "What about a drug connection. After all they hit a drug bazaar."

"That's good too," agreed Castle. "You take the Police side and I'll take the newspapers?"

"We'll handle both," she said as Esposito went up to annotate the murder board.

"Kate I …"

"…Want to help I know Babe. I also know that if you search the newspaper archives there's nothing I can do about it."

"Anything else?"

"No. Forensically we have nothing, and I think robbery is a dead end as far as a motive is concerned."

"I agree. Anything else? Anybody? Then were done here. Castle stay on for a moment."

"Good snipe hunting guys," Castle called out.

"Hey hon," Castle said when Kate came into view. James' welcoming babble and wave of snoopy caused a huge smile to appear on Kate's face.

"I'm flying through this stuff and should be home at a reasonable time. You want to hold off on lunch and when I get home we'll head to the park and on the way back we'll stop at Mario's for a slice or two?"

"Sure. Sounds great. Even though I know it's a thinly disguised ploy designed by you and Lanie to get me out of the house and walking."

"Nonsense," said Kate with a straight face. "You know I always like to watch my boys play in the park. You also know how much I enjoy sitting with the wives and nannies and sharing gossip."

Castle snickered. Kate was neither a watcher nor a gossip. When they were in the park with James they were the biggest little kids there. It was one of the many things he loved about his wife. "If Mario's didn't work, what was plan B?"

"Ice cream"

"Lady, you cheat."

"I know. It's the only way I can keep up with my husband. Love you Babe."

"Love you too," and James goodbye babble left a huge smile on her face.

"We'll start looking at the alternative motive angle when we get back," said Ryan. "It's going to a long day as it is."

"Okay. I contact the Gang Task Force and see if we can't get someone down here who is an expert on the Sea Lions….Good Luck guys," she called out as her Teams left in search of the ever elusive snipe.

Beckett grabbed her coffee cup and headed toward the break room. She started to pour herself a cup, hesitated, washed her cup and grabbed a bottle of water instead. With her email under control she settled down to attack the item that really brought her in today, budgets. Her mid-period review with her Department Heads was scheduled for Wednesday and she believed that doing her homework before the meeting was worth the pain.

Beckett knew the nuts and bolts of the budgeting process and the importance of an accurate budget, but she just hated the decisions they sometimes made her make. Sometimes she had to decide on what she could afford instead of what made the most sense in the long run.

A quick look at her 'Stoplight' chart showed that she was most green and a few yellows. 'No reds,' observed Kate. 'Good' I don't need or want the Plaza's oversight. The green's indicated that spending was less than or equal to the plan. Yellow over budget, but by less than five percent and red over budget by more than five percent.

The first yellow was basic labor. 'Yeah I know,' Beckett groused. 'We added another unit in February but we didn't add the budget. I'm going to have to squeeze some of the other accounts or release some of the reserve. It's just at two percent; I'm going to have to take a reprogramming action at the end of the period.'

The next yellow was the building refurbishment budget. She had signed off on upgrading the chillers and increased air flow for the expanded server room. 'I'm still pissed that IT didn't include the infrastructure upgrade needs into their funds request,' she grossed. Still the budget should be back in the green by the end of the next period. 'Unless something else comes up,' she reminded herself.

'Maintenance? Oh the bulk purchase of supplies. That should end up saving us money, nickels and dimes, but they all help. The rest of the yellows were inconsequential.

'Do I believe my greens,' she asked herself. 'Vehicle maintenance?' Good surplus. The number of fender benders is way down. Candidate to reprioritize? Nope all it takes is one high speed chase to go south and this goes from a credit to a major debt.'

'IT?' Nope the cost for the laptops to tech refresh the cruisers hasn't hit the books yet. 'I wonder what they do with the machines they take out of the cruisers. Can I use them as terminals for guest Officers? Are they better than the dinosaurs that are in some of the conference rooms? I'll ask.

'Overtime?' This is always an illusion. We haven't had a high priority case in a while to justify a lot of overtime, but that could change. Besides this is an election year and pretty soon the candidates will be holding events and rallies. They will require both security and crowd control. That always comes out of hide. No this budget item I won't touch.'

Beckett methodically worked through the remaining budget items. When she was done she was satisfied that she understood the precinct's financial situation and how she was going to fund the shortfalls. Looking at her watch, she decided that she had time enough to start on her action items for the Deputy Chief.

'How do you quantify experience and judgment,' Beckett asked herself as she finished the third revision to the first draft of the second action item? Well it reads like English this time, she concluded. Now does it say anything? Her reading of it was cut off by a knock on her door.

"I'm going to have to talk to my Desk Sargent," Beckett said with a smile.

"Don't be too hard on Sergeant Hill," said Deputy Inspector Gates. "When he reached for the phone I asked him not to. I told him it wasn't a One Police Plaza visit. It was just a Deputy Inspector coming to the 12th to consult with a collage that happens to me the best Detective in the city."

"So it's the Calypso files then, flattery Sir," asked Beckett?

"Only when it's not true, in your email you said you and Castle had some theories?"

"Yeah, he thinks that last night is part of the mess and they finally graduated to murder."

"I'm afraid I agree. Castle okay? Can he join us?"

"As good as can be expected. He called in for the case review. Come on in and I'll give him a call."

"I, ah, brought most of my Team. They're in the large conference room. This is the first time I've told them about you and Castle."
"Oh, Okay. Look get coffee, whatever and get settled. I'll call home and let him know the topic of conversation and the object of the exercise. I'll connect him in from there."

Kate looked at her Dad's wrist watch and shook her head. It's always something. "Hey Babe," she purred when Castle answered. "Something's come up . … Yeah I know. Listen Gates is here and she wants to go over the Calypso files and she brought her whole Team… I'll call you from the Conference Room…Love you Babe."

After introductions Beckett sat down and started to call up the two files that held their speculations and conclusions. "You password protected and encrypted," nice said Specialist Troy. At six-two maybe a hundred and sixty pounds, pale complexion, unruly hair, glasses and a definite lack of fashion sense, he was the posture child for geek. Specialist Troy was one of the two analysts in the INTEL Division that originally spotted the situation and called it to Division Chief's attention.

"Is Mister Castle joining us," asked Lieutenant Davis a longtime friend of Esposito's and a devote Castle fan. As Captain Peterson's number two in the best SWAT Unit in the City he brought tons of operational experience and expertise to the table.

"He'll be joining us electronically," said Gates. "Beckett will call him when we're set to go."

"I heard he was hurt and…"

"He is," said Kate. "Not too bad, but I'm not letting off the bench until he's ready."

"I totally understand."

"As you can see," said Kate, "we have two files here. One is a single page and it contains our conclusions. The other is our speculations. I'll let you read the conclusions while I'll bring Castle online. The speculations are our working papers to support our conclusions."

Hearing her guest nervously squirm in their seats told Beckett everything she needed to know about what they thought about their conclusions.

"Hey Castle," said Kate when she Skype Castle on her phone. "We're in the large Conference Room. Inspector Gates brought most of her Team with her. I know you can't see them so I'll ask them to introduce themselves when they talk. Right now they are looking at the conclusions."

"How they taking them?"

Kate took the time to read the body language of her guests "Uncomfortable," she supplied.

"Mister Castle," began Gates "I have with me Specialist Adam Troy, he's out of the INTEL Division and one of the two analysts that brought this to the attention of the Chief, Captain Cook, and he's on staff to the Chief of Detectives and on the short list to head Major Crimes. I think you know Lieutenant Davis."

"Hey Tim, I'm surprised the boss let you play in this pool."

"Well the Inspector can be very demanding, ah persuasive when she wants."

"I also have Sergeant Jenkins here. He's worked Robbery almost his entire life….I think I'll start this discussion off by saying that everyone agrees that we have vigilantes active in New York City. The Chief recognized this and that's why I got the assignment, but I don't think we all agree that there is only one vigilante team at work here. … Oh one other thing. Beckett and Castle think that last night's killing of the six Sea Lions was executed by this vigilante Team. Let's discuss that assumption later."

"Specialist Troy here Mister Castle, these guys pulled jobs all over the city. That to me suggests more than one outfit."

"At first it did to us too," said Beckett. "None of the conventional filters seemed to make sense, temporal, spatial or a combination of the two. Then Castle suggested we group the jobs by the skills required to do the job and the result just sort of fell out. No job requiring the same resource set overlapped with another job requiring the same resource set. Then we sorted them temporally and spatially."

"Let me guess," said Specialist Troy. "For any period the activity stated in one sector and then moved on to the other sector. The activity remained concentrated in the new sector for a while and then moved on?"

"Essentially correct," said Castle. "We observed some time delays which to us indicated that not all of the activity associated with the Team was caught by the Police Blotter."

"Kate sent me an example of that Friday Morning," said Gates.

"She did?"

"I was going to tell you, but we got a little busy last night."

"But all of the different districts," said Sergeant Jenkins.

"Suggests to me that the vigilante Team is composed of people that live in different parts of the city," said Castle.

"But how did they get together to start? How do they remain coordinated?"

"That is the hundred-thousand dollar question," agreed Beckett.

"And the one for which we have a number of theories, but nothing solid."

"Like," prompted Kate?

"We asked ourselves where people from different parts of the city gather."

"We came up with," continued Beckett, "Work, social or sporting events, a social organization, a single focus activity, like martial arts, and school, namely college."
"You can't tell me that a bunch of college kids are doing this," objected Sergeant Jenkins?

"Don't equate college kids with kids fresh out of high school," said Castle. "In the class rooms today we will find all kinds of people."

"The twenty-something's that finally realized that education is important, and they come from all walks of life, "said Beckett. "Also in the classroom I'm sure we can find Cops either working to improve on their profession or picking up some retirement insurance, and returning veterans taking advantage of their hard earned education benefits."

"I'm sure I could recruit a pretty good crew from that mix," said Castle. "I'm not even considering the power of the Social Media for people to express their outrage, make contact with like-minded individuals, come together and finally act."

"All very good," said Captain Cook, "But not immediately helpful."

"Maybe not," agreed Castle. "But I'm betting they didn't become vigilantes overnight. I'm thinking that they formed some kind of organization to help and that organization morphed into something more pro-active."

"And finally graduated to murder," said Gates.

"And finally graduated to murder," agreed Beckett.

"I'm suggesting we go back and look at the membership of some of the short lived community out-reach programs and follow them forward." Castle's words were accompanied by a rather loud and wet sounding noise. "Kate, I'm going to have to call you back, okay?"

"Sure Babe," Kate replied an elfin smile gracing her face. "Call back in when you can."

"What was that all about," asked Specialist Troy?

"It sounds like Mister Castle needs to change his son's diaper," laughed Lieutenant Davis. "Kids, they have no respect," he continued looking at Beckett with a smile on his face.

"Where's his wife," ranted the Specialist. "Why isn't she around to take her of her kid? What type of woman…"

"I'm sure she's off doing something she thinks is very important," Inspector Gates added in a soothing voice. "Let's stay on point shall we. I'm sure Castle knows his way around a diaper and will rejoin us shortly."

"Our theory is," said Kate, throttling an urge to reach across the table and strangle Adam, and on the look on the Lieutenant's face she'd have some help. "Is that a group was formed to help the people in an area and when they weren't as successful as they wanted to be. So they decided to become more proactive. We suggest that we actively start looking at these organizations."

Beckett paused to let her words sink in. "Which leads us to the next two part conclusion, the organization was formed to help the people, and it has."

"How can you… what do you mean helped … ridiculous…" As the people in the room reacted to Beckett's statement she went in the other file found the viewgraph she wanted and displayed it. It should the B&E crime statistics for four distracts. The decrease was profound and permanent, although there had been an uptick in the last month. The graph silenced the room.

"It looks like," began Beckett," that the vigilantes killed or scared off the predators for a while and in this district," she said using a laser pointer to highlight the chart, "a new predator is moving in. We believe that this success emboldened the group to do more."

"Captain that is a very dangerous chart," exclaimed Gates.

"Agreed. It's dangerous for a number of reasons." Beckett let the chart linger on the screen for a couple of more seconds before switching back to the file showing their conclusions.

"Which leads us to our last conclusion; the vigilantes are operating with Police support, either implicitly or explicitly."

"I'm back," said Castle over the phone and effectively cutting off the expected outburst from the people present, "and my co-investigator apologizes for the interruption." James' happy babble brought a smile to even Inspector Gates face.

"Apology accepted Mister Castle," said the Inspector. "Could you enlighten us on the thought process behind your last conclusion? The crime statistics graph drove home the point for your previous conclusion."

"Sure, simple Sir, in a word Intelligence. Someone had to tell the vigilantes who the targets were. I'm pretty good, but I'm sure that if I started poking around trying to find the fences, their warehouses, and retail outlets I would attract probably fatal attention. No someone already had that information and fed it to them."

"That also goes for the drop bars, bookmaking and loan sharking," added Kate. "The question is where is the information kept? Electronically? Then maybe someone has a backdoor into our system. By an individual? Then we have a compromise situation. By a rival? Not very likely because they attacked all of the people. Either way this is another angle that needs to be attacked."

To Kate's surprise the room was silent. "You make a point I don't think we thought about Mister Castle," said the Inspector. "And one I hope is wrong, but unfortunately it passes the common sense test."

"Let me get this straight," said Captain Cook. "You are proposing a two pronged investigation. One aspect looks at the public organizations that were formed in the last couple of years to battle crime at the local neighborhood level .The second prong is to look at certain information holders in the Police Department."

"Essentially correct," said Castle. "I could help with the first one. I could say was doing research on the effectiveness of these organizations for one of my editorials. The other one …"

"That's not a bad idea," said Gates. "Your reputation will put them at ease, even if we provide you with adult supervision," she smiled.

"Not until the Doctor clears you," added Beckett forcefully.

"Of course, it will take us a couple of days I think to provide you with a target set then a couple of more days to set interviews… Even if you're out of it I think that a couple of our PR people with one of us could do the job. That handles the first one," said Gates. "The second?"

"I've got an idea," said Sergeant Jenkins, with a scowl passing across his face. "Mister Castle I don't like your conclusion. Unless the vigilantes are a lot better than we both think then something like you suggest must be happening."

"I've got an idea to see if we have an access problem Sir," said the Specialist, "and I whole –heartedly agree with the Sergeant's sentiment."

"I think we're done here," said the Inspector. "Beckett, Castle thank you for your time. Kate please send me a copy of the two files?"

"The decryption word will be in a separate email Sir,"

"Of course."

"One other thing Sir," said Castle. "The present case."

"Castle thinks that the death of the six Sea Lions is the work of this vigilante Team."

"And for the first time the motive is something besides the desire to help the people," Castle added. "I think it's personal. It's a matter of revenge."

"The Homicide investigation will be looking for the trigger event. This could give us the starting point we need to identify the people."

"I agree. Keep me informed."

Kate nodded her agreement and looked down at her phone and laughed. All she could see was Snoopy's face.

Beckett and Gates exchanged shop talk as Beckett walked the party to the elevator and waited for it to arrive. Beckett was surprised when Officer Williams from the 27th exited the elevator.

"Officer Williams," said Beckett. "It looks like you're out of your normal patrol area. You went with Esposito to find the perch and canvas the building, right?"

"Yes Sir," said the Officer. He was somewhat impressed that the Captain would remember someone from outside her own precinct and the circumstances. "I was hoping to speak with Detective Esposito. It concerns the canvass. I didn't think it was important last night, but now…?"

"He and Detective Ryan are out looking at gun ranges. Come on I'll take your information and add it to the electronic case file and they can review it when they get back. Let's use Esposito's terminal. Mine isn't setup to allow someone to read over my shoulder. Follow me. "

"Certainly, perfectly understandable Sir."

Beckett was surprised when Inspector Gates and Specialist Troy followed them toward the Bull Pen. "Officer Williams the one on the left is Deputy Inspector Gates and the one on the right is Specialist Troy. They have expressed an interest in the case."

"I recognize the Inspector from the crime scene. Are you taking over the case Sir?"

"I'm considering it," Gates said frankly, "To prevent it from becoming a political football. If I do then Captain Beckett will run it for me."

"Me," added the Specialist, "I'm interested in seeing this thing called an electronic case file. I've heard of this mythical beastie, but I've never seen one that really worked."

"Come on then," laughed Beckett. "Sit," she told Officer Williams pointing to the chair beside Esposito's desk. Beckett wasn't surprised when Gates took her normal 'case review' position and the Specialist positioned himself over her right shoulder.

As the computer was coming on-line and Kate navigated to the proper case Officer Williams scanned the two murder boards and nodded his head in appreciation. "Nice," he said gesturing toward the boards. "I got a feel for where you are and where you're going."

"It's a tool nothing more," said Beckett. "It does serve to keep the Team focused on filling the holes in the case."

"I can see that. What's amazing is that they are both laid out the same, even though they were done by different people."

"RHIP Officer Williams, RHIP," added Beckett.

'Rank does have its privileges,' thought Officer Williams and readily accepted when 'suggested' by someone as sharp as Captain Beckett.'

"What happens, you know, when the Team runs out of plans and ideas?"

"The normal, we park it as a cold case file," said Beckett with disgust creeping into her voice, "and move on to the next. Unfortunately there is always the next. Not long ago," she laughed, "I went down to Vice for a case review and in the plans section they had drawn an ellipse, and the words in the ellipse were 'A miracle occurs here.'"

"Which case," asked a chuckling Gates.

"The annuity fraud case Sir. We've effectively got nothing."

"You mean you use the same tools for all cases," asked Troy?

"Structure yes absolutely. Tools, Yes and No. Not all cases need the same size hammer or style of screwdriver, but they need hammers and screwdrivers. The structure is important so I can review where they are and what they need without getting in their way. This only works if they keep the files up to date. Otherwise we waste time synchronizing schedules for progress updates. "

"Now then, I need some basic information before you start and I gist your narrative. What and what Williams? … Badge Number… Address… "

"Apartment number 714," supplied the Officer, "and her name is Patty (Patricia) A. O'Donovan."

"I got that. …Time and date…. Yesterday you stupid machine," cursed Beckett.

"Now then relax and start your narrative, I'll try to gist it and together we can make sure the emphasis points and essential information is correct."

Officer Williams took a deep breath as he took out his notebook and looked around the room. A precinct Captain had her hands over the keyboard and was calmly waiting for him to begin, and a relaxed Deputy Inspector was intently watching. Well I always wanted to be part of a big case. Let's hope this isn't a bust he thought as he began.

"I was getting off of the elevator as she was getting on. I stopped her and asked the normal questions. You know where did she live here? What apartment? Did she see or hear anything? It was clear that she heard the drive-by but nothing else. She told me that she worked the morning shift at the Starbucks down the block. She normally leaves Starbucks and goes straight to class at NYU. She's in her last semester in the Law school and hopes to work for the DA."

"It sounds like you two hit it off," remarked Beckett.

"Yeah we did," the Officer affirmed with a touch of color touching his cheeks. "On Friday's she comes home because her class isn't until late and she has group after that. Anyway she said she came home around eleven, ate an early lunch and fell asleep preparing her brief for tonight. She woke up, showered and dressed and was leaving for class when I stopped her."

"This is important why," asked Troy?

"Two things, she gave me her number and when I stopped her from leaving by blocking the elevator door I asked her why she didn't ask what this was all about? Everybody asks," the Officer said with a shrug of his shoulders.

"She said that she was ex-military and her last assignment was in a Marine Corps Military Police Company. She told me she didn't ask because a true investigator never really answers that question. She also made it clearly that I should call her on Monday."

"She cute," asked Beckett?

"Yes"

"And you checked her out?" When the Officer nodded Beckett continued. "What did you learn?"

"She's clean, no record. The DMV has her living on Long Island."

"But an apartment in the city while she's going to school makes sense," said Beckett." And?"

"She's a member of the organization she helped form at school that provided security alarm systems to senior citizens a couple of years ago. I got that from Goggle."

Beckett let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. "So we have a Veteran who was trained as an investigator, currently is in Law School and part of an organization that provided security systems to seniors"

"I just thought that,…"

"If she got frustrated with the results she would do something more active," suggested Gates.

"Exactly Sir. Exactly."

"That is exactly Castle's theory of the case," said Beckett. "Say Officer has there been an event in the area near yesterday's crime scene involving the Sea Lions that would have triggered Patty?"

"I don't think so. There were the two NYU students that died from a drug overdose a couple of weeks ago. My partner and I where the first one's on the scene."

"Sea Lion drugs?"

"Probably," he said with a knowing glance at Beckett. "They probably bought them from that very corner.

Chapter 9 A Walk in the Park

"I told you they would come," said the older man to his younger companion.

"They're late," his companion replied as he flipped the hood of his sweatshirt over his head and slouched to soften his posture. He glanced over at his older companion, his mentor in the arts and shook his head slightly. His companion sat ramrod straight, not that you could tell under the oversized raincoat and the old school fedora that definitely concealed more than it exposed.

"Why are we still shadowing them," asked the younger man? "We were told to maintain a low profile after the hit on the special prosecutors we pulled a couple of months ago. It's been dark since then. Our guys have heard nothing."

"Exactly! And that should scare you. You don't think our adversaries gave up do you? No they are regrouping behind firewalls and in the shadows. They'll be back."

"Tell me again why will they recruit these two?"

"Talent, skill, and as a civilian he is practically invisible. He is rich, incorruptible and his only real vise is his family. She is formidable in her own right. She's relentless and intellectively his equal, but not quite his peer as far as imagination goes and together they could spell disaster for us."

"I still don't see it," he objected, his voice a whisper as they approached.

"Then learn," his mentor said quietly, "Learn."

They went quite as a man and a woman pushing a baby stroller approached. They watched as the man appeared to stumble and the woman caught him. Then they proceeded on their way to the playground section of the park. "Come on," the older man said as the Castle's turned the corner. "Too bad the Sea Lions didn't kill them both. We can eat lunch and catch them on their way back to their apartment."

"Did you get it," asked Castle after they had turned and direct line-of-sight to the men sitting on the park bench was cut off by the trees?

"Yeah, but the hat and the hood covered their faces pretty good. Me," Kate teased," I think you're just jealous that the one guy made the fedora and raincoat thing work."

"Kate," Castle half-screamed in exasperation.

"How long have they been following you?"

"I first noticed them a couple of weeks ago. They'd show up in places they didn't belong like on park benches, in cars outside of the market. They were even across the street when we left the precinct house last night."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't see them following us and I had my lady on my mind."

Kate looked up at her husband and smiled. "They did appear to be carrying, but that's not enough. I'll see what the picture shows and if it's good enough I'll send it in to some our mutual friends," Beckett said softly as they entered the playground area and they started greeting the other 'regulars'.

For the next hour or so the two big kids and the one small one enjoyed the swings, seesaw, slides and the spinning platform. Gone were budget concerns, and writing deadlines. The only that mattered was the moment.

"Home babe," Kate offered when she saw Castle grimace as he caught James sliding down the slide and swung him around.

"It's time I guess," he agreed. Looking around they both noticed that the playground was practically empty and low dark clouds had eaten the sun.

"Do you have your heart set on Mario's," Castle asked as they were bundling James into the stroller.

"Yeah and no, what are you thinking Castle?"

"I'm thinking its way past his nap time and he could turn into a whiny monster. Oh we can gentle him to sleep but still…"

"And," Kate asked nothing her husband oh so well.

"It will be raining by the time we leave Mario's. No matter what If we walk or take a cab I'll end up cold and wet and I hate being cold and wet."

"We wouldn't want that would we," she mock teased? "Lunch?"

"I was thinking of a double dose of comfort food, tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches."

"Sounds nice," said Kate. She didn't have the heart to tell him that Amy fixed the exact same thing for her last night. Besides it wasn't just the food it was the company. "You take care of lunch and I'll handle supper," she announced. The freshening wind was all of the persuasion they needed to pick up their pace.

"Son of a bitch," Kate muttered as they turned the corner after leaving the park. "Three o'clock Castle."

"I know," he said. "What are they thinking? Do they think I'm street blind?"

"Maybe they aren't marking you Castle. Maybe they're your guardian angel?"

"Right now the only angel I know of is on my right arm." Kate's answering smile was in a word awesome.

Unfortunately, both of Castle's predictions started to come true. The wind had picked up and grown colder. Even the city-born and raised knew that rain wasn't far behind and the closer they got to the loft the more James started to fuss. So much so that Castle lifted his son out of the stroller and was carrying him. "Look James," he said gently. "I know you and Snoopy are both tired and need a nap to recharge. Hang in there. We're only four blocks away and we'll be there soon."

As always Kate was amazed at how Castle treated and talked to James. No baby talk and Castle talked to him like a grown-up. The results were amazing as always. James settled down, laid his head down on his father's chest and closed his eyes.

Four things happened as the Castle's turned the corner and headed toward the atrium of their building, a short thirty steps away. Both Missus Adams and Missus Newberg pulled up in front of the building at the same time and started to unload groceries. Both of them completely overwhelmed the Doorman's ability to help either of them adequately. Next a strong gust of wind blew through. The gust was the herald for the storm that was about to hit and James woke up with a soft squeal of recognition. He recognized that he was almost home.

"Castle," Kate inquired?

"I'll help Missus Newberg you take care of James? Look I'm bent not broken," he said in response to Kate's upraised eyebrow. "I'll watch myself, but if I don't help and Martha finds out she will kill us both."

Kate reached out for James, who easily flowed into his Mother's arms. "Daddy needs to help Missus Newberg. When you're older you can help us help people." As soon as she said the words Kate felt like she had spoken a prophecy.

Once in James' room Kate quickly and efficiently stripped James out of his play clothes, changed his diaper and had him a pair of his warm jammies in no time. "Naptime son," Kate said softly as she kissed James and gently laid him in his crib. She watched him 'burrow' in like normal, grab Snoopy and yawn as he closed his eyes. "Pleasant dreams guys," she whispered as she backed away from the bed. 'And you Master Hound chase the bad dreams away from my son,' she thought.

'I'm losing it,' she laughed to herself when she thought she heard a gentle 'arf' in her mind.

As Kate was walking down the steps she morphed into Captain Beckett. She knew she had the time. She knew her husband. She knew that he would help Missus Newburgh unload her groceries, take them to her apartment and put them away before returning the cart to the utility room. She made a beeline to her laptop and logged on. Several minutes later she was convinced that her Command was functioning properly and nothing needed the personal attention of their Captain. With a sigh she signed off and once again became Kate Castle, the mother of James and wife to a very special-special man.

In the kitchen she took lunch prep as far as she could. She wouldn't actually start cooking until Castle came home. Next she took inventory for supper. Satisfied, she put the pork chops in the microwave for a quick defrost and started on the pineapple and ginger marinade she would use on them. She had just finished bagging the pork chops in the marinade when she heard Castle come in.

Kate started lunch cooking and had finished setting the counter top when Castle showed up." I take it things are shipshape at your other House."

"Yeah," said Kate as she turned around to stir the soup and flip the sandwiches. She wasn't the least bit surprised that he had noticed her open laptop. She turned around and literally ran into Castle. He quickly enfolded her in his arms with a gentle hug and softly kissed her.
"Is that all I get? I am fixing lunch you know," she teased.

"I am hoping for dessert."

"Something special?"

"She's always special," he whispered as he looked into her eyes. "What do you want to drink," he asked before he completely lost himself.

"Juice, the cranberry juice hon," Kate whispered secretly glad that Castle had broken the moment and knowing that she was going to do everything she could to make dessert special for both of them.

Kate woke when she heard the cry over the baby monitor. James was okay. He was just announcing that he was ready to play. Kate looked at Castle. He was still out of it and his little boy face still showed some underlying discomfort. She turned off the alarm, dressed quickly and moved to rescue her son.

James' wasn't entirely happy when his Mom deposited him in his high chair. It was play time not food time, but his juice cup was full and he had cheerios to munch on. He understood 'Supper', but he didn't understand much else his Mom said about pork chops, baked sweet potatoes, green vegetables, honey-butter, rolls or salads, but this thing called cinnamon she had him taste, he liked that and he wanted more. Eventually she was done and lifted him out of his chair and set him down.

Kate watched her little guy make a bee-line for his toy box and return with the shape matching toy. Kate sat on the floor in front of the couch, open the toy and watched the shapes spill out. She watched as James grabbed a shape and searched for the correct slot to push it through. Eventually he abandoned the ball, ran to the toy box and returned with his tub of blocks. Once the tub was opened and the contents dumped on the floor Kate had the distinct feeling that James could entertain himself for a while so she hopped up into her chair and turned on the TV while watching James build a wall then knock it down and start over.
A particularly loud crash caused Kate to glance over at her little guy. She watched him clap, reach for a block stop, smile, get up and totter off. A few moments later he returned with his Dad in tow.

"Look at what I found," said a sleepy Castle.

"It looks to me like he found you," rejoined a laughing Kate. She watched as James led Castle to the pile of blocks and he sat down.

"Okay but only for five minutes. Since your Mom cooked lunch I owe her supper."

At 'supper' Kate watched James face track from Castle to her. "We've already done the prep. Just tell me when you want to eat so I can start it on time."

"Well the Knicks are in Chicago to play the Bulls. The tipoff is around eight, so seven-thirty?"

Kate looked at the clock, calculated the cooking time of the pork chops and shook her head yes. Castle nodded and returned his attention to James. 'That cad. He didn't even ask what we're having.' Her reach for one of trade journals was stopped when she felt a hand on her knee. She turned to see Castle's boyish grin that she loved so much.

"Thank you," he said.

Kate didn't ask for what. She knew it was for everything. She covered his hand with hers before he could remove it from her knee. 'There is a certain rush you get when you solve a case,' she thought. 'And another different kind of rush when your guys do something special, but nothing, nothing beats family. "Okay guys what we are building," she said as she plopped down next to Castle and heard the delighted screech of James.

Chapter 10 A sparrow flies into the radar

Patty O'Donovan aka 'Sparrow' woke up at her normal time. She packed her overnight bag and her backpack with her school work like she had done countless times before. At this time in the morning the subway was relatively empty and the train that took her to her aunt and uncle's place on Long Island and her other part-time job was barely a quarter full. This gave her the space and quiet she needed to do some of the supplemental reading required, or to create a writing outline. For some reason she found the 'click-clack' of the rails to be soothing instead of annoying.

Today was different. Her reading material consisted of the newspapers which contained various accounts of 'the Sea Lions affair.' She was surprised to see how little space her hit and the hit on the cash car got. Indeed most of the ink was spent on the raids the Police of the 27th precinct pulled off and the Sea Lions' drive by shooting.

According to the claims reported by the Police, the Sea Lions would effectively disappear as a gang. That was great news and the Team would interpret it that way. What scared and concerned Patty was the felling that the Team would not feel any responsibility for those people that were shot by the Sea Lions! The drive-by shooting was in direct response to her shooting of the six drug dealing Sea Lions and she felt responsible for all of the people that were injured in the attack. Luckily no one was killed but one was listed as extremely critical and three others as critical. She secretly hoped that someone started a fund to take care of the medical expenses of the victims. She would contribute of course, but didn't think she could stand up to the scrutiny of starting the effort.

Eventually she exhausted the material in the papers and looked at the window at the passing scenery. As always she felt the peace and comfort of returning home and at the same time she felt a loss. She had been raised in the country and absolutely loved the blue sky, green grass, and trees. But the city had a magic all its own. An energy that was hard to define. Patty was determined to have a life where she could have both. These weekend trips home were a balm for her soul as well as boon to her pocketbook.

She couldn't ask for a better Aunt and Uncle. They had taken her in after her parents had died in the car crash celebrating their anniversary. They didn't have the space, but they put her up they best they could. Her parents had made the classic mistake of most couples, they were severally under-insured. By the time all of the bills had been paid Patty had some money but not enough for college, at least not without some major help. When her Uncle proposed using some of the money to add a room to the house, Patty's room, she readily agreed. The other thing she did was buy a good used car. This allowed her some independence and enabled her to finish high school at her old school with her friends.

During her time there her Aunt and Uncle treated her like an adult and in return she seldom strayed from the rules of the house. When she announced that she was going to join the Marines after graduation her Aunt was heartbroken and tried to talk her out of it. Her Uncle, a former Marine himself, was secretly proud. Before she signed the commitment papers he had a very frank talk about her motivation, the treatment she could expect, and more importantly some of the personal and professional pitfalls she needed to be aware of and avoid, especially as a woman. His characterization of what she could expect wasn't entirely correct, but not entirely wrong either.

When she separated from the service and returned to civilian life she had found her life's passion, law, and had the resources necessary to pursue it. Equally important, she returned with no scars, physical or mental. Now she was heading to the place where she worked even before she was old enough to be paid, her Uncle's gun club.

At first her employment was family charity. He paid her minimum wage for twenty-one hours of work. The pay wasn't as important as the hours. At twenty-one hours she was considered a full time employee and entitled to medical and dental benefits, something Starbucks didn't offer.

It took her less than two weeks to start really earning her keep. On average her Uncle sold a handgun a week to husbands concerned about the safety for their family. Patty offered to teach a woman's handgun safety course at no charge. The only charge would be for the ammo expended. 'After all,' she told the husbands, 'when you're out of the house you do want your wife to be able to use the gun to defend herself and your children don't you?'

Patty had been around guns all of her life. She was an excellent shot. She was so good that she qualified for the Marine Corps Sniper and Scout program. Unfortunately the Marine Corps was not ready for a woman to fill this combat role. Patty also had another attribute, she could teach shooting. She could explain ballistics, and the intricacies and independencies of grip, stance, breathing and aim points in terms that everyone understood. She was so good that even the old-timers in the Club asked her for advice and to watch them as they shot.

Of those woman who came for the free safety lesson almost three-quarters signed on for additional lessons. Of those almost half caught the completive shooting bug and became club regulars. As a result 'Patty's crowd' booked roughly two-thirds of the stalls on Saturday's and Sunday's. The increase in the Club's bottom line was noted and appreciated by her Uncle. He made sure that Patty received a fat bonus check every quarter.

As usual Patty arrived just as her Uncle was opening the Club. He handed her the bag containing the breakfast his wife had made for her. He watched in amusement as Patty wolfed down the two, egg, cheese, and bacon sandwiches just like she did when she was teenager. After re-brushing her teeth she was back in front of the store in plenty of time to greet her first students of the day.

It was just past twelve-thirty and Patty had just finished her lunch and was sitting outside at the picnic table and enjoying the surprising and welcome sun and warmth of an early spring day. She shook her head when she spotted the Sheriff's car turn into driveway that lead to the Club's parking area. 'I wonder what's up. Who complained this time? Maybe they want my Uncle to rework their combat range. It's been two years. Helping him put it together and checking it out was a blast.' Her euphoria vanished when she the plates of the car following the Sheriff. The car borne NYC Police Plates and in the car were obviously two Detectives.

'How did they? Who? Calm down and wait for it. Remember your training. You can tell what they know and don't know by the questions they ask. '

"Hey Patty," called out the Deputy Sheriff, "I guess your Uncle's minding the store," he said with a smile. "Why don't you come on in, I think you're going to want to hear what these fellers have to say."

"Sure," her eyes shifted to the Detectives. They weren't looking at her. It seemed like they weren't even interested in her at all and they walked like they had been in the car a long-long time.

"Hey Tom," said Patty's uncle. "What brings out here on this beautiful Saturday morning?"

"Business of course," he chuckled. "They won't let me come out and play on company time. You know they make use the range in the Glen."

"I know, we're closer and I've told the Sheriff we wouldn't charge you guys for the stall time."

"Someday," said the Deputy. "Well I'm really here just to make an introduction and to urge your co-operation. The guy on my left is Detective Esposito and the guy on my right is Detective Ryan. They're out of New York City. I'll let them explain."
"Thanks," said Esposito." As you may have heard or read in the paper someone shot six Sea Lions late yesterday afternoon. The person who killed them was a pretty good shot. All six were killed with headshots."

"At what range," asked Patty's Uncle Mike?

"Right around eighty-five yards," supplied Ryan.

"Nice," said Mike. "You know some folks around here wouldn't consider it a crime."

"I'm not losing any sleep over the deaths of the Sea Lions," admitted Esposito. "But the Sea Lions retaliated and killed one and wounded twenty more."

"The papers didn't say anything about fatalities," said Patty.

"We got the word on our way out her," said Ryan noting the look on pain on her face. "The person who killed the Sea Lions was also responsible for the death of at least one civilian. We caught the guys who did the drive-by. They confessed and admitted that the only reason that they did it was because someone killed their friends."

"Okay, what can I do for you?"

"It took more than just talent to drop the six," said Esposito. "It took practice. We were wondering if you noticed someone practicing shooting at multiple targets at range of at least one-hundred yards within the last month?"
"No," said Mike with a shake of his head. "Patty?"

"No, but I normally work the pistol range not the long shooters."

"One other thing," said Esposito. "Do you know if anyone of your patrons owns or shoots an old M1D Garand?"

Patty and her Uncle exchanged glances. "Yeah," said Patty. "Uncle Ray owns a M1D, and we shot last Sunday."

"I thought you worked the pistol side."

"I do, but Uncle Ray is Uncle Ray," said Patty with a shrug and a grin.

"Is there any way we can verify that Uncle Ray is still in possession of the rifle," asked Ryan.

"Why," asked Mike?
"One of the things not in the paper was that the shooter left the Garand at the crime scene," said Esposito.

"They've asked that question every place they've been," said the Deputy. "At Ed's place in the Glen Ted was on the range practicing with his and that's all the Detectives needed."

"Does he live close," asked Ryan? "Perhaps we can drop by his place on our way back."

"He keeps the rifle in his locker here, and I'm not going to open the locker without his permission or a warrant," said Mike.

"Understood," said Esposito. "Can we call him and get permission?"

"I'll call," said the Deputy.

"How in the hell did they find out," asked Uncle Ray when he was on the speaker phone and introductions had been made and the situation explained.

"I told them Uncle Ray," said Patty. "It seemed like the right thing to do."

"Of course it was sweetie. I was a just curious that's all. Mike, Patty open my locker and show the Detectives all of my weapons. Including the one I'm going to kick your ass with tomorrow Hon."

"In your dreams Uncle Ray."

"One other thing," said the Sherriff. "I'm pretty sure the Detectives want to know where you were yesterday afternoon."

"I'm busted then," he laughed. "I was in the field with my girls. I've sure Dixie and Megan will vouch for me, but the other four half-wits we were with couldn't even vouch for their own noses."

"My Uncle trains bird dogs," explained Patty with a smile. "Megan and Dixie are the best pair of working bird dogs on the entire east coast."

"What breed," asked Esposito?

"Brittany Spaniels, and they're gorgeous," added Patty.

"If there's nothing else," asked Uncle Ray, "I've got a pack of dogs that I need to exercise."

"Thanks for your co-operation Sir," said Esposito.

The Detectives watched as the owner unlocked the locker and Patty laid out three long-gun carrying cases and four pistol boxes.

"Does he have any more weapons at home," joked Ryan. "He's got enough her to start his own armory."

"Yeah he does. He's got three more of the P226's," said the Sheriff pointing to one of the pistol boxes. "One of them is in Sarah's nightstand, one in his and the last one in his office."

"Don't forget his shotgun," added Patty.

"I can't forget that," admitted the Sheriff. "Occasionally we get reports of gunfire from Ray's place. It's just him training his dogs. Sarah," laughed the Sheriff, "is no push-over with a pistol either. She's almost as good a shot as Patty here."

"How good are you," asked Esposito?

"She was good enough to qualify for the Marine Corps Sniper and Scout program but they didn't take her because she's a woman," said her Uncle with more than a touch of pride in his voice.

"Great another Annie Oakley," quipped Ryan.

"Detective?"

"Our Captain," began Esposito. "Captain Beckett is a woman and at the range she kicks our asses, and I shoot mid-level Expert."

"I usually make it into the Expert range," said Ryan with a wry smile "and I am the runt of the litter."

"Wow," said Mike. "Even so I won't bet against Patty."

"Noted," said Esposito with a nod.

"This," said Patty as she unzipped the bag and displayed an older but spotless Remington, "is his favorite deer hunting rifle. He hasn't hunted with it in a while because he doesn't like the hassle of hunting upstate or out of state."

It was obvious to the Detectives that the weapon was in excellent condition and treated with TLC.

"Now," she continued unzipping another bag revealing another Remington, this time and over and under and like the other weapon it was immaculate. "This is the one he uses when he's in one of the stands on the farm. He said he got tired of watching the birds prance around while he was waiting for a suitable deer to show up." The laughter around the table was genuine.

"And this, is his pride and joy," she continued as she unzipped the case to reveal the Garand and it was beautiful.

"May I," asked Esposito pointing at the rifle. "Don't worry I won't leave any fingerprints," he continued as he reached into his jacket for a pair of evidence gloves. "Before I joined Special Forces I was a member of the Color Guard at my old unit, and we used these instead of …"

"The black plastic monstrosities'," added Patty. "At my last assignment the Color Guard was the responsibility of the MP Company, and I was one of the rifle bearers and we used the Garand's too."

"Which side?"

"Left."

"Me too," Esposito said. As he examined the rifle he hoped his poker face was working. The barrel faintly showed the same markings as the one left by the killer. Like someone attached and removed a suppressor.

"What's in the pistol cases," asked Ryan. "The Sheriff said one of them was a P226. Which model?"

"They're all MK25's," said Patty. "Uncle Ray likes the DAK, but Aunt Sarah likes the feel of the MK25 better so…."

"Your Uncle bought the MK25's," laughed Ryan.

"Uncle Ray really likes this 1911, but Aunt Sarah said it was too much for her wrist to handle so that's why they went with the Sig Sauer's."

"The 1911 is the weapon of choice for one of our friends," said Ryan. "He also shoots at the high expert level."

"With both hands," added Esposito.

"Wow that's impressive," said the Deputy.

"Yeah it is. He asked one question and virtually changed how a lot of us spend time on the range," continued Esposito. "He asked what we were going to do if we took a hit on primary gun arm and we couldn't handle a weapon."

"I've never thought about that," said the Deputy.

"Me either," confessed Ryan, "Until he asked the question."

"Has it ever happened?"

"To him when he was in the hospital recovering and he got attacked."

"This one," Patty said breaking the silence as she opened the box, "Is a Type 54. Uncle Ray is Vietnam Vet," she added as an explanation.

"Let me guess," said Esposito with a small smile, "another Marine?"

"It is a family tradition," said Patty's Uncle with a nod and a smile. "And one I'm proud to say Patty upheld it and my son is upholding it as we speak."

Esposito had wondered about the American and Marine Corps flags flying on the flag poles out front. Now he knew they were flown with pride and would also be flown as long as Mike was alive.

"And this," said Patty as she opened the box to reveal a Smith & Wesson match grade 22 caliber pistol. "Is what my Uncle and I will be shooting tomorrow. When we shoot it's always close. He's pissed that I've won the last two in a row."

"They always draw a crowd," said her Uncle.

"Well good luck," said Esposito. "Deputy I think we're done for the day. We appreciate your help and support. Please thank the Sheriff for us."

"Sure thing Detectives. Sure thing."

Chapter 11 The Heat is On – I'm becoming a fan

Monday in the Bull Pen –

The alarm on Captain Beckett's computer went off. She noted the time and nodded. It was time for the Homicide case reviews. Beckett got up, stretched and reached for her empty coffee cup and decided to leave it that way. She wandered out of her office and into the exact same position Captain Gates occupied when she oversaw the reviews.

"You're early," quipped Esposito.

"With such a crowd I thought I'd get my seat before it was taken."

"Somehow Sir," said Detective Sanchez "I doubt anyone here would purposefully take your seat."

"One might," said Beckett with a small smile. "And the problem is I can't fire him."

It took less than a minute for Thomas and Ryan to join the party.

"Before we start," said the Captain. "Sanchez and Thomas, the case you caught yesterday is your number one priority. Be sure this case file is up to date and pass it off to these two."

"Thanks Boss. I think we stand a real good shot at solving the murder in the hotel. This one not so much and I am fast becoming a fan of these guys."

"Oh," said Beckett with a raised eyebrow.

"We have plenty of stuff, but none of it leads anywhere. In fact the only mistake they seemed to have made is tying it to the killing of the six. Why don't you start us off," said Thomas with a look at his partner.

"Let's start with the gun. Castle suggested, ah is Castle joining us?"

"He's at the Doctor this morning. Amy said she kicked him out of the Loft in plenty of time to make his appointment. If there is one thing Castle does NOT like to do is visit the Doctor."

"He's getting his equipment checked out, among other things," chuckled Esposito. "Lanie said she really nailed him."

"I can testify his equipment works just fine," replied Beckett with a smile gracing her face. "We're making sure there's no hidden damage." As she spoke the Detectives saw the smile on their Captain's face fade and turn into a look of worry bordering on despair.

"He's fine Kate," Esposito said softly into the silence. "The Doctor will give him a clean bill of health."

"This time Javier, this time…. Ah sorry guys. Detective you were talking about the gun."

Detective Sanchez cleared his throat before continuing. He snuck a peek at his Captain, seeing that she had recovered and he had her full attention he restarted.

"Well first of all CSU says the weapon and the brass that was recovered at the site are squeaky clean. Castle guessed that the reason the killer left the gun was to avoid carrying a piece of evidence that cold tie him to a murder and there was no way we could connect the shooter with the weapon. Well so far he's right. As we said Saturday, the gun is not in the NY system. We contacted the manufacture for their help. They responded. The gun was sold to a gun dealer in Tennessee in the mid seventy's."

"So when all of our attempts to contact him came up empty we called the ATF. A friendly agent there gave us the social security number associated with the federal license. He stopped paying income taxes in 1982 for himself and his company."

"Yeah," added Sanchez, "We used his last filing information to check with the locals on his last known address. He's dead. The death certificate was issued in 1982. Since he was a one person company heavens know where any records he may have kept are."

"In parallel we tried to track the silencer. But they're like commodities. It was like trying to track the purchase of a hammer. Our only open enquiry on this subject is with the FBI. "

"And they will only respond if the weapon was registered by a state or the weapon was used in a previous crime," said Beckett dishearteningly. "So I guess the weapon is a dead end. That leaves either witnesses unearthed by the canvas or exploitation of the cars."

"Canvas then," said Sanchez. "Everybody here knows that when it comes to witness to a crime all New Yorkers need glasses."

"And they need to wear them," Ryan piped in.

"Exactly. Well I'm pleased to say that we exceeded all expectations and we have three canvas reports."

"I thought you said you didn't have anything."

The Detective held up his hand to stop the comments. "We have three reports, none of them real helpful. As we noted our original canvass yielded nothing. So we studied the traffic cam videos and started pulling the license plates of the vehicles that were around at the time of the capture or could have passed by when the Team shot the Sea Lion and started calling them."

"Nice!" whispered Esposito.

"Both reports," continued the Detective with a nod toward Esposito "say that a man got out of the chase vehicle and moved toward the passenger side of the yellow mustang. Both reports have the man wearing jeans and a dark colored hoody with a ball cap. They couldn't tell if he was black, white, brown or purple."

"How did they know it was a he?"

"Exactly!"

"And your third report," asked the Captain.

"This one comes from a parking lot attendant. Saturday we got the video type from the parking lot exits of the places they stole the vehicles from. We got real lucky. It only took us a couple of hours to sort through and find the vehicle entrances and exits. Yesterday we went back out and talked to the attendants to see if they remembered anything. One guy thought the guy that was driving the crew cab pickup wore a suit."

"A suit?"

"Yeah he just thought it was strange."

"Description?"

"A blue suit, maybe a gray suit that's it. The cameras have absolutely no chance of imaging a face. They're mounted low and designed to capture the plates. One other thing each of the vehicles was lifted within fifteen minutes of its arrival."

"They scouted," said Beckett.

"Absolutely Sir. They knew when the vehicle would arrive and that it wouldn't be missed during the time of their robbery."

"Good planning and execution," whispered Esposito. "So we have three absolute worthless statements."

"Not entirely worthless," said Detective Thomas with a grin, "Just very sparse."

"Cars," asked Beckett after a moment of silence?

"CSU found some interesting things," started Sanchez. "Unfortunately all of the findings are probably related to the owners of the vehicles, not to the people who 'borrowed' them."

"Like what," asked Ryan."

"Pot residue in the ashtray and semen and blood stains in the back seat of another. Things like that. The age of the stuff makes it unlikely that the thieves did it. The owner of the vehicle with the pot residue will face one of the drug guys when they come to claim their vehicle. I'd like to hear how that conversation goes."

"Back on point," Beckett gently chided.

"The video review guys are wizards," said Detective Thomas. "They used the traffic camera footage and pasted together the movements of the cars from the first time we see them until the capture. It's jumpy of course, but it shows the skills the drivers have and their coordinated actions. They are pretty good."

"It also confirms Mister Castle's assertion that there was a fourth vehicle involved," said Sanchez.

"Yeah the crew cab pickup," said Beckett.

"What impressed us was the coordination between the vehicles. So we tried to figure out how they did it."

"It first we thought cell phones, but …"

"Too many point to point connections," said Ryan.

"Exactly," said Thomas. "Unless they used a bridge. So we called the phone guys with a description of our problem and got told to pound sand."

"No more than five minutes after we hung up," continued Sanchez. "We got a call back from one of the phone company's tech wizards explaining that was just his boss being a jerk because he doesn't know how to do it. Two hours later he called back and said he couldn't find evidence of four phones using a bridge on that cell tower. So we figure they went old school."

"Radio," whispered Esposito.

"Yeah," continued Sanchez. "We got enquiries into the major Domestic Law Enforcement Agencies, FBI, Homeland, and DOJ to see if they have operations that might have heard anything. I don't expect them to say anything."

"In summary Sir we know a lot of stuff, but nothing that gets us an id. Our only open line of investigation is to return to the parking lots and see if anybody remembers someone hanging around. But considering the nature of the place I'm not exactly filled with optimism that we'll uncover something useful."

"Concur," said Beckett after a moment's hesitation and an extremely sour expression taking control of your. "Clean up this case fall and make the hotel murder your number one. Ryan, Esposito I hope you've got some good news."

"We are so good," said Esposito with a smirk, "that we came back with not one but two possible snipe."

"The first one is Thomas J. Sutherland," said Ryan pointing to a picture on the board. "He goes by Tim. He's a regular at one of the ranges and over the last month or so he was seen shooting at multiple targets on the one-hundred yard range. The problem is that his weapon of choice is a Heckler & Koch PS1."

"You don't leave something like that at the crime scene," said Esposito, "And you don't practice with a weapon you don't plan to use."

"Any chance he left the Garand at the site to throw us off?"

"None, CSU confirms the Garand was the murder weapon."

"A couple of things about Tim are extremely interesting," continued Ryan. "He graduated from NYU last fall with a degree in Civil Engineering and he's currently employed by Reynolds Engineering and is working on the Dew Point neighborhood renewal project. He's a veteran and worked as a combat engineer, and as Javier will talk about in a moment, he was a member of the 'These are our Streets' organization at the University."

"And the next snipe or snipet," said Esposito with a smile and a shrug of his shoulders, "Is named Patricia aka Patty O'Donovan. Imagine our surprise," continued Esposito as he pointed to a picture pf Patty on the wall, "When we came back from our snipe hunt to find a Canvass Report about her in our folder. The detail in the folder and what we discovered at the gun range add up to one heck of coincidence. Before I link them, what triggered Officer Williams to write the report?"

"Apparently during the canvas Officer Williams thought Patty was kind of cute and flirting with him. When she gave him her number and suggested he call on Monday he decided to check her out."

"So that's how he pieced together her military background, University connection, and 'These are our streets membership," said Ryan.

"I guess so," said Beckett.

"Patty is very interesting for several reasons. The obvious one being she lives in the building and no one would even think of seeing her in the hallway as something out of the ordinary. The second reason is that she is one hell of a shot."

"She teaches shooting at the gun club and some of her targets on the wall show someone with impressive skill," said Ryan. "Her uncle said that she shot well enough to qualify for the Marine Corps sniper and scout program but she was denied the assignment because she was a woman."

"And perhaps the most significant thing is she has access to her Uncle's Garand and could practice on the gun range without suspicion or witnesses," said Esposito. "The last thing is the Garand showed signs of being fired with a suppressor attached."

"Another thing we need to thank Officer William for is that he places her in the building. The apartment number she give him as her residence is registered to a Mister and Missus Shan McCoy. They are her maternal grandparents and they are living in Tampa, Florida. When we called them to check on the apparent disconnect they confirmed that Patty was their Granddaughter and had their permission to live there. They are also very proud of her. They plan on gifting her the apartment as a graduation present."

"Nice," said Sanchez.

"So we have a highly skilled Expert who has access to and has shot a M1D Garand living in the building, What's her motive and how did she get the rifle into her apartment," asked Ryan.

"I think I can answer some part of the motive question," said Esposito softly. "She thought it was here duty to do so. Vets take the oath they swore seriously, very seriously. If she considered the criminals to be domestic enemies of the United States then she might feel duty bound to oppose them."

"But killing the Sea Lions," asked Beckett?

"It became personal. One of the drug overdose victims' lives in the same apartment building and they've been known to eat together on campus and share cab rides home, maybe not friends, but certainly friendly. The other victim is a student also and is the cousin of one of the members of the 'Streets' organization."

"So a sense of duty and the need to 'make right' a wrong comprise the motive," said Beckett. "Believable, but it still sounds like something my husband would write."

"Okay we got opportunity covered, and motive is shaky but plausible, but we still don't have means. How did she get the weapon into her apartment," asked Ryan?

"Easy Detective," said the Captain. "In a word roses, Esposito?"

"Certainly Sir. The rifle could be slightly disassembled and fitted in a box of along with a dozen long stemmed roses."

"And a gentlemen delivering roses to his lady will receive a smile from everyone who notices but never the slightest bit of mistrust," said Beckett with a small smile gracing her face.

"We've been looking at the organization most of the morning. It's very interesting but we're limited to just the information that's in the newspapers. This is where we need your help Sir."

"Go on."

"The ADA thinks we might have enough to get a warrant and force the University to give us a membership list. She's concerned that the University will give us what we asked for, but not what we need. She suggested that if you and …"

"Castle could approach the appropriate Vice Dean or perhaps the Chancellor himself. If we did then we could probably get more co-operation. I can see that. Castle is always doing research and asking about all kinds of things and generally has good relations with the academic and print communities. I guess my approach could be on discovering ways to develop sustaining ties between the NYPD and organizations that benefit our citizens, or I could simply be Missus Castle."

"One other thing that is extremely interesting Sir is the fact that the last mention of the organization was sixteen months ago."
"And the first recorded Calypso file case occurred two months later," finished Beckett. "Another coincidence," said Beckett. "Okay we'll talk to whomever."

"Good," said Esposito with a smug grin. "You have an appointment for thirteen-thirty with Vice Dean Steve Elliot. He was the university advisor for the group."

Beckett laughed, nodded her acceptance and listened as Ryan and Esposito detailed their investigation plans. Before starting the last homicide case review Beckett speed dialed Castle. "Hey Babe," she purred once the phone had entered voice mail. "If you're up to it you can buy be a late lunch and help conduct a couple on interviews at the University. Call me when you can."

Chapter 12 – A Quiet Table for Two

Kate wholeheartedly agreed to meet Castle for lunch at the 'Triple-S'. She had eaten there several times. Twice with Castle after he had finished 'an event' at one of his favorite bookstores that was just around the corner. Other times with 'the Boys' when the case location and time permitted it. The name of the restaurant was derived from the initials of the primary items on their menu, soups, salads, and sandwiches. The food was good, service great, and the price was such that both students and cops could afford to eat there.

'The problem with this part of the city,' mused Beckett 'is the lack of parking. But being a Police Captain and driving a 'Company' car has its privileges' she thought as she pulled into a loading zone and put the 'Official Business' placard in the front window. 'Not that I need to,' she thought. This was 12th precinct territory and only a blundering idiot would give his Captain a parking ticket.

At first Kate felt guilty about parking like this but that went away when she and Castle were out for dinner and she had to respond to an 'Officer involved shooting', an event that Castle had no reason to be at. The only guilt that came that night occurred later when Beckett returned home, found Castle asleep in his chair, obviously waiting up for her, her dinner from the restaurant laid out for her and ready to be reheated, and she had to tell Castle she wasn't hungry because she had eaten a couple of hot dogs. Luckily most of Castle's sour mods could be cured with a kiss. Something she minded not at all.

Beckett exited her cruiser, hurried across the street and moved with the other pedestrians. As she rounded the corner she spotted the restaurant and thought of Castle. Kate started to check her surroundings like he was always harping for her to do. 'He says I have no danger sense,' she scoffed. 'Who does he thing he is, Spiderman?' 'Awareness can save your life,' Castle had preached time and time again. 'As if someone is gunning for me,' she thought. 'And he's just a novelist.'

As Beckett was cycling through her checks she spotted two men in a car and it looked like they were doing surveillance, and the object of their attention appeared to be the 'Triple-S!' Kate adjusted her pace and direction so that she could spend more time observing the pair. She stopped outside a pagoda, pretended to look at the fresh vegetables and studied the car. When one of the men turned and looked in her direction, Kate felt a bolt of cold fear flow through her. I was one of the men from the park. She saw him say something to his partner who then eased the car into traffic and started to leave. Kate cursed herself and had to hurry to put herself in a position to read the license plate number. I'll solve this mystery later she vowed.

When Kate opened the inner set of double doors she was engulfed in the comforting sound of at least a hundred conversations going on at once. A quick glance glanced showed that the TOGO line was as long as she remembered it and the 'Triple-S' had not changed its seating policy. As far as Kate knew this restaurant was the only one that only had tables for two. If you had a party of four, well that meant that you tried to get two tables close together. Somehow they made it work.

Kate made it five steps into the crowded Triple-S before she spotted Castle standing up and waving to her. She sighed softly when Castle's attempt to kiss her cheek found her waiting lips instead. She stood patiently and watched the expressions on the faces of the 'kids' sitting at the other tables as her husband helped her with her coat and seated her before returning to his seat. Most were oblivious, some of the males were uncomfortable and a few of the girls smiled at Kate and looked harshly at their male companions. All of their mouths dropped when Beckett's badge came clearly into view.

'Manners maketh the Man,' thought Kate as she remembered the old quote. 'And I certainly have a man with manners,' she thought with a smile gracing her face. 'A most remarkable man.'

"What did the Doctor have to say?"
"I can tell you later. What about the case? And who are we interviewing?"

'A don't care about the case,' Kate wanted to shout. 'I want to hear that the Doctor gave you a clean bill of health!'

"You folks ready to order," asked the waiter before Kate could respond.

"The gentlemen will have," said Kate starting she liked to play and Castle not so much, "The double cheeseburger platter," Kate said deciding to reward her husband. "Oh and make the fries a large order and ice tea to drink."

"And the Lady will have," said Castle and he paused and thought for a second, "The club sandwich with potato chips. As she will undoubtedly eat most of my French fries and I shall retaliate by munching on a few of her chips and ice tea as well."

"Is the Tuscany style tomato soup available," asked Kate.

"Yes," smiled the waiter, "always."

"Good then we'll each start with a cup of the tomato soup."

"Excellent choice. I'll be back with your drinks in a second. "

"You hesitated," said Kate. "You know the Club is one of my favorites. What were you thinking?"

"I also know that the Chef Salad is one of your…."

"All have you know I'm at the," Kate started defensively and slowed as her husband put up his hands in surrender. "same weight I was when I got pregnant."

"…Favorites," Castle continued with a smile. "But I was afraid of getting shot, figuratively of course. You're too smart to shoot me in public with your own gun. And I'll have you know I weigh less than I did when a certain brash young Detective crashed by book launch party so many years ago. I swear some people will do anything for autographs. "

"You conceited old man," Kate countered her voice musical and her eyes filled with laughter. "I have you know I was there on official business."

"Official Business," said Castle as he waved his hand in dismissal. "Husband shopping were we?"

"No but a puppy dog followed me home."

"I'll follow you anywhere," Castle said softly. Kate's answering smile lite up the room. "Now tell me about the case and who are we interviewing?"

The food arrived as Kate was explaining where they were on the case and what she and Castle needed to do. Midway through lunch Kate was finally able to ask, "What did the Doctor say?"

"He sent me to a clinic first where they did an ultrasound of my kidneys and Blatter, no apparent damage by the way."

"That's good."

"Then they drew enough blood to feed a vampire for a month."

Kate smiled at Castle's tone of voice. Another quirk of Castle's make-up was that he heated needles. Not feared, hated them with a passion.

"And then they made fill a cup."

Kate couldn't believe her ears or eyes. Castle's voice sounded funny, hurt in fact and the expression on his face was one of shame and anger.

"Come on Castle," Kate whispered as she leaned across the table. "Don't tell me you've never peed in a cup before," she laughed.

"Many times, but this time it was the other fluid," he said locking eyes with Kate for a moment before looking away. "You know the type they make you contribute at a fertility clinic."

Kate slumped back in her chair. Her mind numb at the implication. Not once had she considered Castle sustaining this type of injury. 'The universe is not that cruel,' she decided, and she had to do something to get that expression off of her husband's face.

"They said they would expedite the test and I'll know this afternoon. Right about now in fact."

Kate knew that there were two issues in play. One was the test result and the other the act itself. She didn't understand why males reacted the way they did when discussing this, but they did. Kate leaned back and thought for a moment. She had to do something to make Castle smile, but what. After a moment a wicked pan took shape. Kate smiled to herself, grabbed Castle's free hand and leaned across the table. "Tell me Castle," she said in a conspirator's voice, "what type of arousal material did you use? DVD's? Books? Magazine?"

"None of the above," Castle said as looked at his wife's face. "I just thought of you and remembered the nap we enjoyed on Saturday." He smiled as he watched Kate's lip form the perfect "O" and blood rush to her cheeks.

'I'm going to kill him. Should I shoot him? No too easy. Slap? To public. Hug and kiss him to death. Again too public. I…'

"My wife's beauty and sensuality are obvious to even a blind man. But they are two of the least important reasons why I asked her to marry me," Castle said softly. "I still haven't figured out why she said yes," he added in an undertone.

'That settles it, death by hugs and kisses. It may take me a couple hundred years to pull it off, but I'm up for it.' "Has it ever occurred to you that I married you because I love you?"
"Every day," he said as he raised Kate's hand to his lips. "Every day."

The sat holding hands for what seemed like an eternity, but why too short.

"Are we going to need to stop at the pharmacy on our way home," Kate asked as Castle paid the check?

"No, but I do have a Doctors order for some physical therapy."

"Is it something that you need help with? I'm sure Amy would be willing to help."

"Maybe? But I don't think I should ask her for her help. What do you think," Castle asked as he passed Kate the order?

Kate read the order, looked at Castle's face leaned back in her chair and reread it. A stunned Kate looked at Castle's face. It was expressionless. … Just like he was playing poker. …He's bluffing!

Kate leaned in across the table and pitched her voice low. "According to this order, in order to improve the flexibility and strength in your back I'm to have sex with you every night for the next two weeks."

"I thought four weeks, but the Doctor wants to see me in a couple of weeks to check on my progress before re-issuing it," Castle said with a straight face.

"Tom does, does he," Kate said in a steely tone of voice. "What did you promise Tom so that he would write this?"

"Kate I," stammered Castle. "I promised to add him in the Acknowledgements," admitted Castle finally surrendering to Kate's glare.

Kate leaned back in her chair, folded the order and deposited it in her jacket pocket. 'Just like Castle,' she laughingly thought. 'He says something sweet and then blows it up with this. It still was kind of cute, and I do love him so. "Come on babe, we got an interview to do." The memory of the smile Kate gave her husband as they walked out of the restaurant arm-in-arm would keep Castle warm on even the coldest winter day.

Castle's answering smile confirmed what she already knew. She was loved by a very remarkable man. As her eyes came back to the street and she started her awareness checks she remembered the car and the two men watching the door to the restaurant. As her eyes continued to check their surroundings for threats she silently wondered why anyone would put a surveillance detail on her husband. Beckett knew she would find out who they were, for both of their stakes.

The Administration Building housing the Vice Dean's office was just over a mile away as the crow flies, a tad over two miles via the one-way streets and twenty minutes due to the traffic. Beckett and Castle easily made it through the outer layer of receptionists and were met at door way to the Vice Dean's outer office by his personal assistant.

"You're expected," she announced as she held the door for them. "Unfortunately he's on a scheduled conference call, and Monday's calls always seem to run over. I'll get you in as soon as he's free. You don't have to rush. His next appointment isn't till four. Please be seated. Oh there's coffee on the sideboard."

"Thanks," said Beckett as Castle helped her with her coat. "We're coffee'd out at the moment. We'll just wait," she said as they took seats on a comfortable looking leather couch. When Castle sat down beside her she started a silent count. Before she could reach fifteen her man-child was out of his seat and 'exploring' the room. If there was one trait of Castle's Kate hoped James got was Castle's insatiable curiosity and love for discovering new things. She watched him examine a painting of one of the founders, and a mural showing the time-lapsed growth of the university.

She could almost hear his mind scream when he stopped to read the obligatory 'Mission Statement.' For some reason Castle thought mission statements humorous at best and generally a waste of time. He always thought institutions should spend the effort 'to do' instead of wishing about what they could be. If something needs changing do it! In some ways Beckett knew that her husband had a flawed view of the world and the power of a single person to effect change in an organization. The ringing of Castle's phone commanded Kate's full attention.

"Castle… Yeah… Thanks." Kate watched a pale Castle look at her then the receptionist and finally back to her. "I got an A+ on my test," he said with a small smile and the color returning to his face.

"Good," replied Kate with relief gifting her husband her private smile and capturing his hand as he returned to sit beside her.

"You can go in now," announced the receptionist a couple of minutes later.

The door to the Dean's office opened as the approached. "Richard Castle," exclaimed the Dean holding out his hand. "What a pleasant surprise! I thought my appointment was with the NYPD. I open my door and find one of my favorite authors and an outspoken supporter of the NY Library."

"It is," said Kate with a bit of a smirk, instantly liking the Vice Dean. "I'm Captain Kate Beckett. I'm the Commanding Officer of the 12th Precinct. Richard Castle is my husband and he's always been a good ice-breaker when dealing with academia."

"In this case he is," said the Dean with a ready smile that morphed into a chuckle. "Come on in you two and tell me what brings you to my door."

Vice Dean Steve Elliot could be the poster child for able administrators everywhere. His perfect haircut, fit and trim physique, warm eyes, that seemed to miss nothing, and ready smile would be the envy of politicians worldwide. Today his blue club tie was slightly askew and he had the sleeves of his long sleeve pale yellow shirt rolled up on his forearms. This gave the impression of an administrator hard at work. Together they created the perfect image of a Vice Dean on the fast track to becoming the President of the University.

"Kate's people made the interview request," began Castle once they had seated themselves in comfortable office chairs around the circular meeting table. "Our interests are two parts of the same problem. Mine is why do public organizations dwindle and die."

"And mine is how can I help those organizations that help the people in my precinct remain viable and active. Numerous studies show that communities that look out for and help each other are happier and safer, happy, healthy, and safe neighborhoods make my job a lot easier."

"I see. Mister Castle is the material for your books or for a new editorial," asked the Dean?

"Right now, for an editorial. But if it makes a good story then it might find its way into one of the books."

"I see. I like your editorials by the way. Subjects, not mainstream but still significant and your writing style, your still a storyteller at heart but you do it more crisply in the editorials. The story is what makes the editorial compelling."

"Crispness, hard word counts will do that," said Castle dryly.

"Okay, what is it you wish from me?"

"We understand," began Beckett, "That you were the faculty advisor for a group called 'These are our Streets.' What we would like is the membership list."

"They seemed to start out as letter writers. Then they moved to more active activities like organizing neighborhood watches and supplying senior citizens with alarms for their apartments then nothing," added Castle. "What happened to them? Is it as simple as the leader graduated and there wasn't sufficient rank and file interest to continue or did something else happen?"

"My congratulations on completing your homework assignment," said the Dean dryly. "But there's more behind this request isn't there? Mister Castle what's the real story behind this request? If you came by yourself I probably would have given you the information. But you brought a Police Officer with you. I don't care if she is your wife and her story is plausible. It still feels like this official Police business. So what is this request really about?"

"You're right," said Beckett. "The ADA thinks we have enough to get a warrant for this information, but I didn't want to work that way. We need the information sure, but we need more. We need your insights on the members of the organization."
Castle sat back and watched as Beckett filled the Vice Dean in on the situation. Not all of the details, but enough to get the point across that this was a scary situation. If the last incident was any indication, then the group had just turned a significant corner and had to be stopped.

"I don't believe the people I knew are capable of the things you say Captain," the Vice Dean said defensively. "But that's also what makes it a good story and possible, right Castle? Okay I'll give you your Members list, but I'm not going to provide commentary on the members. You will have to interview them yourself and make a judgment," said the Vice Dean as he got up from the table and headed toward the laptop on his desk. "There is one condition. Mister Castle if you ever finish an editorial on this subject, the University Newspaper would love the opportunity to print it. I imagine it would spark discussion in several areas."
"Certainly Sir certainly. Healthy discussion is essential to education. I'll send you the same electronic copy that I would send to the paper. Cut and paste as you wish."

"There is one other thing," said the Vice Dean. "When they were active the group met on the first and third Thursday's of the month at a place called the 'Green Lamp.' I'm lead to believe that they still do. Oh and if you go there I'm sure you'll find the 'Green Lamps' décor to be unique."

Chapter 13 Have you seen my husband?

Thursday Afternoon

Kate took another carrot stick out of the baggie munched on it and snuck a glance at her husband sitting beside her in the precinct's break room. Castle's call earlier that morning asking if Kate wanted her normal partner in the gym had been the highlight of her week so far. After the visit to the Vice Dean the week had ran away from Captain Beckett like a world class sprinter. The week had been so bad from a free time perspective that Kate thought she hadn't said ten words to her husband since they visited the Vice Dean Monday afternoon. Castle's gym visit, sore back and all, was just his way of trying to stay a part of his partner's life and Kate absolutely loved him for it.

The week started running away from Beckett before they made it back to her cruiser. Captain Beckett needed to respond to an Officer involved shooting involving a couple of her uniformed people. Kate dropped Castle off near a cab stand, blew her husband a kiss and sped off to do her duty. The situation had started with a Unit responded to a silent alarm originating at one of the bodegas. The Officers arrived just as the robber was leaving. In the pursuit the robber wounded two civilians and was eventually shot and killed. The commander's incident response team had deemed the shooting 'Good but dangerous.' According to the Officers' statements, the Officer that fired the killing shot had fired into a crowd of civilians. The finding meant that although no charges would be filed against the Officer, the Officer should be counseled and retrained on the proper use of her firearm before being returned to duty. To make matters worse, the Officer was a four year veteran of the force and she had never drawn her weapon in a tactical situation. Now she was having a crisis over the life she had taken. After listening to her and her partner, Captain Beckett did what she had to do. She gave the Officer a couple of days to get her head straight, assigned her to a desk, and made it clear that the force had counselors for just this sort of thing. She also made it clear the Officer wouldn't be assigned field work until she completed a firearm recertification course and passed a psych evaluation. When Beckett finally made it home, it was after midnight. She found Castle had waited up for her, but had fallen asleep in his chair.

Tuesday's and Thursday's were always long because they started with Prayers, the nickname for the twice-a-week meeting the Chief held with all of his Commanders and principle staff. The meeting started at seven AM and was scheduled to last only an hour. Captain Beckett was not a morning person and hated the early start, but she readily admitted the meetings were time well spent. Occasionally they ran long, but this Tuesday the overrun was the all-time record. A new Lieutenant in the Logistics Division had been tasked with briefing the plan to convert the Department to a new and more secure radio that guaranteed interoperability with the EMT's, the Fire Department and several of the Federal agencies. Kate guessed that he wanted to maximize his 'face' time. He took what should have been a three minute high level brief into twenty minutes of pure torture. He was still going when the Chief mercifully cut him off. Didn't the briefer realize that he was briefing a room of intelligent and busy people and all of them had guns! Seriously!

The real crisis for Tuesday occurred just after the end of shift at the all hours 'Woman's/Pediatric' Clinic on Sparrow. Apparently a few of the new mothers objected when a 'Lady of the Evening' entered and signed in prior to her appointment. First words, then taunts, the all chaos broke loose and the result was a hostage situation. Nothing brings out the Press quicker than a hostage situation, and one involving hookers and small babies brought the Press out in droves. The hostage negotiator took his time and finally resolved the situation without further violence and the only collateral damage was a table and a couple of interior windows. Like the previous night Beckett returned home after midnight and found Castle asleep in his chair. While she enjoyed kissing Castle awake, she chided her husband for not sleeping in their bed and secretly she worried about what it was doing to his back.

Wednesday had started fine. The new case reviews went well and Beckett was finally catching up on her paper work from yesterday when the hammer dropped, a call to be part of a Commander's Incident Response Team. A Team composed of Command Level personally is always called to investigate all Officer involved shootings and other major events involving the NYPD. Normally the investigation is straight forward with the sequence of events pretty clear, but this investigation was a mess. The tactical situation was extremely fluid and the Team had conflicting stories from the Officers themselves and civilian witnesses. Finally a frustrated Beckett had had enough. "Listen guys," she said as she addressed the two Officers. "The story I'm hearing from you and the witnesses don't make any sense. Convince me that it does or I'm going to have to do something I don't want to do. I WILL ask for your badges and guns."

"The story," chuckled Inspector Talbot, the Team Lead, with a respectful nod in Kate's direction. "It sounds like someone has been spending way too much time with a well-known New York author. What's more I entirely agree with her. You guys need to come clean or I WILL ORDER a full investigation. Clear?"

'Not nearly enough,' thought Kate as she returned the Inspector's nod. 'I'm not spending nearly enough time with Castle.'

It took a while but under the constant hammering of Kate and the Inspector the true story finally emerged. One Officer had fired his weapon without justification as the suspects started to walk away and missed. But when the suspects drew their weapons and returned fire the situation changed drastically, for the worst. Likely no civilians were injured, there was minimal collateral damage, and the bad guys were either wounded, killed or had surrendered. What complicated the final finding was that no one knew for sure how the suspects would have reacted if the Officers had been more forceful in their demands for them to stop. The shooting was deemed 'Good', but the Officers' actions warranted remarks being placed in their jackets. It was Beckett's responsibility, as the junior member of the Team to do the first cut at the report and the jacket entries, push it out to Team members, incorporate their recommendations and submit the final to the Team Lead for approval and sign –off.

By regulation Beckett knew she had twenty-four hours to complete the task, but she wanted to complete it while the events were still fresh in her mind. It didn't surprise her that despite the lateness of the hour all of the Team members responded immediately with their comments. The rewrite wasn't that extensive and Kate had her 'Final' published and submitted to the Team leader right around ten o'clock. By the time she took care of the precinct's business and returned home it was after mid-night and Castle had once again fallen asleep in his chair waiting up for her.

'But today is a new day,' thought Kate as she took a bite of the sandwich Castle had brought and reached out to take ahold of his free hand, 'and so far it's going great.' Prayers had ended early. Beckett had finally caught up with the precinct's paper work. Castle's call for gym time was an unexpected surprise and exactly what she needed. When Castle called, Kate said she didn't have time for an outside lunch, which was normal for them. Castle responded by saying he would bring lunch with him. So here they were sitting in the Precinct's break room, munching on carrot sticks, eating a tuna on toast sandwich and drinking hot tea with honey that Amy probably made for them. They had eaten fancier lunches, but right Kate couldn't think of a better or more satisfying one.

Kate frowned briefly as she remembered Castle's performance in their sparing session. It was clear that he still wasn't himself. He was slower, not as flexible and not as strong as usual. Kate had won the match, she had to work hard, but normally Castle won and Kate always felt like a limp ragdoll when they finished. 'Enjoy it,' Castle had said in response to Kate's worried smile. 'I have it from a good source that paybacks are hell.' 'He can laugh at himself," thought Kate as they held hands as they headed toward their respective dressing rooms. 'We'll be fine.'

The only downside was the fact that the license plate inquiry had come back negative. Whoever was doing the surveillance on Castle was doing it with fake plates.

"Yo Bro," called Esposito as he and Ryan entered the break room for a cup of after lunch coffee. "What brings you down here, besides the obvious? You slumming or something?"
"Mind your manners Detective," laughed Beckett. "This is my precinct house. Another word from you and I'll have you both out supervising graffiti removing details."

"Might as well," said an exasperated Ryan. "At the rate of progressing we're making on the Sea Lion case we might as well be out doing something productive."

"Where are you guys," asked Castle.

"Nowhere, with a capital NO," replied a dejected Esposito.

"The membership list," asked Beckett?
"Filled in some holes and allowed us to construct a rather scary organization," said Ryan.

"Culling out the non-mil students, we have at least fifteen and maybe as many as twenty-five recently returned veterans with an impressive military and civilian skill sets," said Esposito.

"We have a former COMSEC technician; you know guys who worked on encryption devices. He got his degree in computer science and is now working for a security company downtown. Another one was a combat engineer; he got his degree in Civil Engineering and is working on the Dew Point Project," said Ryan.

"He also was the guy who has the Heckler & Koch PSG-1. You know we got a warrant to search his home and his locker at the gun club. We came up empty. We also searched Patty O'Donovan's home and locker and came up empty there too," added Esposito.

"Computers, communications, transport, security systems you name it someone in this group has the skill. Combine it with the fact that they were all of junior NCO's when left the service to further their education you have the makings of a skilled, intelligent, disciplined and dedicated crew," said Ryan. "You asked where we are. We have suspicions, but no physical real evidence, and nothing for a motive."

"The guns are untraceable, and the partial footprint is so generic that it's worthless," said Esposito.

"Our witness description is some white guy in a suit, and someone wearing a dark color hoodie. That's it," said Ryan. "And the motive for the killing of the six is anybody's guess."

"You've run backgrounds, financials, phones, right" asked Beckett?

"Yeah, nothing relevant for this case. They have exchanged calls, so what their friends. What is interesting is that about fifteen to sixteen months ago they started to come into some money. Not much, but these guys are on a tight budget so even an extra night out is noticeable."

"That's when the Calypso activity began," confirmed Beckett.

"Yeah I know," said Esposito. "That's what makes it so frustrating. We have all these indicators that add up to something, but we can't see it. If these guys are doing what we think, then they are the best ever."

Castle finished his sandwich, took a sip of his tea and reached out and gently grabbed Kate's hand. "Well Missus Castle you have two questions to answer. Do I need to get a babysitter for tonight, and whose ears are we using yours or mine?"

"Castle? What are you babbling about," asked Ryan. They watched their Captain's eyebrows arch in surprise and a look they'd seen many times in the past appear on her face, the look of the Huntress.

"Do you think they're that stupid?"

"Where else do they all come together? It's a habit they established a while ago. It's a private room. They'll feel safe and comfortable. They probably just talk in generalities and the real conversation occurs in the smaller groups that execute the job. Besides how else are they going to distribute the money they earned doing the jobs, by check? "

"Castle," demanded Esposito?
"Javier," said Beckett "When we talked with the Vice Dean he said that he thought the group still met on the first and third Thursday's of the month at a place call the 'Green Lamp', and today is a third Thursday. Castle," Kate asked nodding towards Castle's phone?

The group watched as Castle obtained the phone number and listened as he talked to the people at the 'Green Lamp.' "So you have a room big enough to meet my needs but its booked tonight. Would it be possible to tell me the name of the person who booked it? Maybe I could make it worth his while to meet in one of your smaller rooms?... Brain James? Phone number? Thank you very much Lynda."

"He's Logistics," said Esposito "and he manages a city wide package delivery service."

"So transparent transport," said Castle with a touch of respect.

Beckett reached for her phone, consulted her contact list and dialed ADA Susan Campbell.
"Hey Sue got a couple of minutes? I want to run something by you before I called the writing ADA."

The group waited patiently as Kate told the story. "Kate," said Susan "I hate to do this to you, but let me call you back in a minute or so. Your cell I see." A minute later she called. "Captain Becket, I'm calling from Mister Doyle's office, my boss is also here. Could you tell us your story again?"

When Beckett finished there was a pause and then the unmistakable voice of the District Attorney for the County of New York was heard. "Young Lady, please proceed with your planning. I will get you your warrant. I assume Miss Campbell knows how to pass the warrant to you?"

"Yes Sir, thank you Sir," said Beckett as she hung up.

"Detectives," said the huntress with a smile. "Please set the trap. Oh and be sure the ADA's are invited."

"Mister Castle the answer is yes, you will need to engage a baby-sitter," Kate said with a huge smile. "We'll use my ears. I'm leaving here at five-thirty so if you want a ride, don't be late!"

Chapter 14 The Great Brothel Raid, Well Almost

When Kate walked through the second set of double doors and into the 'Green Lamp' proper she knew she would have trouble controlling her man-child. 'The Vice Dean was right,' she thought. 'The décor is definitely unique.'

Everywhere she looked she saw 'Green Lanterns', on the walls, on the tables, everywhere. Every member of the wait staff was dressed like the 'Green Lantern.' Each one wore a tunic whose green body with black sleeves was worn over black pants. Everyone wore a simple black mask and had a green glowing ring on one of their fingers. White gloves completed the outfit.

"How is it I never heard about this place," Castle whispered into Kate's ear as they waited near the receptionist's podium. "You know I'm a super fan right?"

"Castle, party of two," he said when the young woman returned. "I reserved a table for sixty-thirty earlier in the day. We'll wait in the bar until it's ready.

"Castle…Castle… yes Sir we have you. Richard Castle right? The author? You didn't get your meeting room for tonight?"

"Yes, yes, and yes," Castle replied as he helped Kate of with her coat. "I couldn't get a place tonight so I had to reschedule. Hopefully they'll give me enough time to plan it properly next time. Say Lynda is it possible for you to show us the meeting room? I want to be sure it's large enough for my needs the next time I have a situation like this."

"Certainly Sir follow me…" Kate saw Lynda's eyes grow wide when she saw Kate's shoulder harness and weapon.

"It's okay Lynda," said Kate as she brought her badge into view. "I'm NYPD and I'm required by law to carry my weapon at all times, except when I'm specifically relieved of the responsibility. Which makes date night, or a night out with my husband interesting sometimes," said Kate as she tossed her head back ,reached out grabbed Castle's arm and gave him a huge smile that made him both the envy of all the males in the place and Public Enemy Number One.

"Especially when it's a Black-tie affair," offered Castle with an answering smile of his own.

"I must confess my ah… accessories give me a unique look. Most women use jewelry, me I have my weapon and my badge," she said her eyes twinkling.

"No matter what, no matter where we are, you are always the most beautiful woman in the room," Castle whispered.

"Ah, yes of course Captain Beckett, I mean Missus Castle I mean," stammered Lynda. "Do you ever get to go out without your gun?"

"Tonight I'm mostly Missus Castle and yes. Theoretically I get a not on-call day once every two weeks. Theoretically."

"This way please. Missus Castle how do you…"

"Kate. Call me Kate."

"Okay Kate then. How do you…"

A bemused and forgotten Castle followed in the wake of the two women as they talked about Kate's unique accessory problem. "Here we go," said Lynda as she opened the door to the 'Guardians' room. "Go on in and have a peek. Just close the door when you leave. I'll have someone find you in the bar and I guarantee you I'll have the best table in the house ready for you at six-thirty." With a huge smile, Lynda turned and rushed out.

"You made her day," said Castle when Lynda had left. Like the restaurant, the Green Lantern motif was present here. The one expansion was that there was a mural of the Guardians on the wall behind the head table.

"If there is anyone in the van this is an impromptu radio check," said Beckett. "The tables in the room are configured like a 'U'. A buffet island is located in the rear of the room and there appears to be only one entrance and exit. I count place settings for twenty-three. Castle?"

"I count twenty-three also."

A moment later Kate's phone buzzed with a text, 'Loud and clear on both channels.' Esposito had taken Castle's advice and installed two bugs. One on the left and one on the right, each one used a different frequency to ex-fill the conversation and each one was tied to its own different recorder. This set-up made sure that no matter what, the conversation could be recorded.

"How do you know so much about recording devices," Esposito asked Castle back in the 12th.

"I'm got them," Castle answered immediately.

"Tell me Captain, does your husband use his PI business as an excuse to buy toys?"

"Of course," Kate replied at once. "He gets to pretend he's Q, you know the Quartermaster for James Bond. I don't ask how he spends his allowance and he doesn't ask how I spend mine."

"And how do you spend your allowance," teased Castle.

"You know the usual, clothes, shoes and skilled male companionship. "

"Kate," growled Castle into the room's laughter.

Before Kate and Castle sat down for dinner he had bought a pair of the Green Lantern salt and pepper shakers, a replica Lantern Battery, mask, white gloves, power ring and a poster showing the earth's Green Lanterns.

As they waited in the bar, the Castles counted fifteen people going into the Guardian's room. The remaining eight arrived before their salads. Those people watching the Castle's at dinner felt sorry for them. From their actions it was clear that each one was self-absorbed and had little time for their companion. Tonight the observers were correct. The Castles were self-absorbed. Not with themselves, but with the conversations that were taking place in the Guardian's room. Each one of them had an ear bug that allowed them to listen to the conversations occurring in the Guardian's Room that were also being recorded in the Command vehicle.

The Command Vehicle was so crowded that Esposito and Ryan waited for the 'Go' command in their own vehicle. They didn't have ear-bugs like their Captain and Castle and they resented not knowing what was going on. Besides the absolutely essential technician, the Command Vehicle contained both ADA's. One was enough, both were over-kill thought Ryan. The person sitting in the operational commander's seat was Inspector Gates. It made sense, Ryan admitted. If Beckett and Castle were right then the killing of the Sea Lions was just another Calypso files case, but still being out in the cold so to speak, rankled the Detectives.

The mood in the Command vehicle started extremely high with Beckett's and Castle's impromptu radio check and declined steadily as the evening progressed. The only things they were hearing was the idle chatter of friends and the sound of people eating and that was discouraging. 'It sounds like they're through with dinner. Maybe now we'll hear something worthwhile,' thought Gates as she heard a spoon being tapped on a glass.

David Williams looked out at the people in the Guardian's room and felt privileged to be here. Last week his people, with some help from the NYPD he grudgingly admitted, had taken out a street gang. Completely out. Add that to the impact they were making on the crime statistics, especially the break-ins, and he felt justifiably proud. Now it's time to spread the good news and talk about future assignments he thought as he banged his spoon on his glass to call the meeting to order.

"Okay folks it's time for this meeting of the 'These are our streets' discussion group to come to order."

"More like action group," said a voice from the crowd.

"Action group," amended Dave good-naturedly. "You will notice that the envelope is quite a bit thicker this week. One of our …ah… focus groups was extremely successful in their fund raising activity. It's because of the permanent way the focus group handled the situation that we've been pointed to another opportunity. Patty that was fine shooting. I didn't think you could drop all six of the Sea Lions before one of them ducked around the corner."

"Thanks Dave," stammered a thunderstruck Patty. "Remember this IS a public place."

"Who can hear us," he countered? "New business," he continued. "Jim in your envelope you will find the address of a new retail location opening in your neighborhood. Please convey our congratulations."

"Right," laughed a man in the crowd. "We'll take a look and then pay our unique respects."

"The next bit of new business is tricky. It was suggested that we find a PERMANET solution to this problem, just like we did for the Sea Lions. Luckily we have a man already on site. Tim?"

"We got them," whooped Gates at the same time the Castle's reached for each other. "All units standby," she broadcast over the tactical radio. "We got them. Prepare to move in on my mark. They're starting to discuss future business and I want to hear what they plan to do."

"Counselors could you text Kate to standby. I want to hear about their new business."

"I'm sure you're all aware," said a new voice over the bug, "of the Mayor's urban renew initiative where the City buys up whole city blocks of mostly vacant buildings and sells them to a developer with very strict guidelines on the types of buildings, parking and green space. Mostly I'd say they've been very successful. The project I'm working on, the Dew Point Project is the seventh in the series. It's in an area just north of Brighton Beach which means that all of the apartments can be sold or rented at the market instead of some of them being capped. This caused a bidding frenzy among the developers and the city has already recouped the cost of according the property and the future income and property taxes are icing for the cake"

"All that's interesting but," said another voice.

"Right. Well one of the buildings torn down was the Cragmoor Arms Hotel. Let's say the hotel had a practice of renting rooms by the hour. With the hotel torn down, the local businesswomen had no place to practice their trade. Only in America," joked the voice known Tim. "As I said the work is being done just north of Brighton Beach and it wasn't surprising that a construction firm reputed to have ties with the Russian Mafia won the job. Well they saw the opportunity and they dropped three extra construction trailers on the site. Let's say that the trailers are not configured as tool cribs or construction offices. They're configured as cubicles with beds. One trailer they lease to the local talent and the other two are for the girls they bring in."

"Capitalism at its best," scoffed another voice.

"Intel has," said the voice the listeners knew as Dave, "told us they empty the safe once a week, around two AM Sunday morning. It was suggested that a proper message could only be sent if we permanently neutralized the four man team that is on-site, liberate the funds and blow up the trailers. Tim says that there is sufficient material on site to destroy the trailers, and with care it can be made to look like an accident."

"Because of the timing constraint," Dave continued. "We need to destroy the trailers immediately after we neutralize the on-site management team."

"Will the trailers you know, still be in use," asked a voice that had identified as Patty?

"Well yes."

"Count me out. I'm done with things that get innocent civilians killed."

"All units this is Deputy Inspector Gates. You are good to go. Repeat you are good to go," Gates barked over the tactical radio.

"Counselors please text Beckett to proceed," Gates continued.

Less than a minute later the people in the Command Vehicle heard a knock on the door, the door open and the unmistakable voice of Captain Kate Beckett.

"Ladies and Gentlemen please remain seated. I'm Captain Kate Beckett. I'm the Command Officer of the 12th Precinct. All of you are under arrest for the murder of the six Sea Lions that were killed last Friday or conspiracy to commit their murder," said Beckett using the language the ADA's had provided. "You have the right to…."

"You, by yourself are going to arrest all of us."

"She's not alone," said the gruff voice of Castle. "While we were eating we ordered transport for twenty-three, but you know how parking is around this place. I'm sure they'll be along shortly. In the meantime I brought a friend." The sound of Castle deploying his combat baton silenced the room.

"He's going to get them killed," said Ron Davis the senior ADA.

"There's only twenty or so in a confined space," said Gates with a toothy smile. "Castle will be okay. He's giving them something to think about. He's just buying time."

"Say," said Castle, as if on cue. "How were the teriyaki chicken wings? I almost ordered them."

"Chicken wings," bellowed the voice that had challenged Kate "How can you ask..." What followed was drowned out in the verbal bedlam.

"Everyone sit down and be quite!" shouted the voice known as Patty. "They have nothing. NOTHING. If they did then they would have come after us individually and not as a group. Suspect groups are dangerous and unpredictable. Anything can happen and they want to avoid that. No they have nothing so let's not give them anything like resisting arrest or assault on a police officer. We need to play along. You all know the drill. We give them Name, rank and service number only, and we refuse to answer questions until our lawyers are present. We can tell by their questions what they know. We're in a good position. We don't need heroes. Everyone just remain calm."

"She's good," said Susan Campbell, the junior ADA.

"She's ex-Military, a Marine whose last assignment was in an MP Battalion. She's also in her last semester at law school at NYU. I believe she has applied to join your office once she graduates and passes the bar," supplied Inspector Gates.

"It appears that she is also the one who killed the six Sea Lions," offered ADA Davis dryly.

"I woman of many talents," rejoined the Inspector.

Their attention was drawn back to the room when a new voice was heard. "Your orders Sir?"

"Sargent Stevens these twenty-three individuals are under arrest for the murder of the six Sea Lions that were killed last Friday or conspiracy to commit their murder. Please have each Officer read them their rights I tried but got interrupted."

"Very good Sir. All right guys we'll start with the people on the left side and remember what the Captain said about reading them their rights."

"Castle I suggest we get out of the way, and besides you need to pay the check for dinner."

"That's the last one Sir," Esposito told the Command Group that had grown to include Inspector "Red" O'Malley and the Chief of Detectives. Castle, knowing the sensitivity of his presence to the brass, especially with the news crews about, had retreated out of earshot and was standing with Sergeant Stevens.

"Good. I'll be along shortly. Please excuse me for a moment," Kate told the Command Group as she turned and headed toward her husband. As she approached she felt sorry for her husband. She knew he would want to hear first-hand the stories the twenty-three had to tell, but with the brass sure to be around…As she neared, she saw him tap his watch. She nodded her understanding.

Sargent Stevens faded away and positioned himself so that he would be able to intercept anyone who sought to disturb his Captain. He watched as they glanced around to check their surroundings and briefly touched hands before Castle turned toward the street and hailed a taxi. 'If the news people showed more husbands and wives holding hands instead of murder victims I believe the world would be a better place.'

The Command Group disbursed soon after Becket rejoined them. "Castle," asked Gates when the unfriendly ears had disappeared?

"He's going to miss not hearing their stories," Kate admitted. "But it's a school night and we need to get our baby-sitter home at a reasonable hour. I told him not to wait up," she added absently mindedly.

When Beckett walked into the atrium at the 12th almost all of the twenty-three had been processed and were in holding. She checked her watch. She had plenty of time to make it to the small conference room near the bull pen before the strategy session with the ADA's was scheduled to start.

"Well the recording is clear enough and sufficient enough to convict, but it's slim. What else do we have," asked ADA Davis.

"Nothing," said Beckett flatly.

"Nothing," echoed ADA Campbell. "Surely you have something."

"We can prove that she's excellent shot with the M1D. Unfortunately we can't connect her to the M1D which is the murder weapon," said Esposito.

"Witness description – zip, someone seeing her in the building – zilch. Evidence either in her apartment or her locker at the gun club –null. The only thing we have is a partial boot footprint. Even though she has a pair of boats with that pattern, it's useless because so does every member of our SWAT units."

"If that's so, how on earth did you tumble to her and the organization," ADA Davis asked in disbelieve?

"Officer Williams of the 27th was one of the Officers canvassing the apartment building where the perch was located. He interviewed Patty O'Donovan. He thought she was flirting with him so he checked her out before asking her out," said Beckett.

"Somehow he tumbled to a newspaper article about the organization, with Patty as a member, giving security systems to senior citizens," added Inspector Gates.

"Because it was a college based organization we might never have discovered it," said Esposito. "We also was a shooting instructor at one of the gun ranges we visited. This gave us enough to do an in-depth look at her and the organization."

The silence was broken by a knock on the door. "Sir," said a Uniformed Officer, "One of the prisoners wants to talk to you and the ADA's….Patty O'Donovan," he supplied to Beckett's unasked question.

"Bring her up to room one please."

"Sir"
"I wonder what she wants," asked ADA Davis?

"We'll find out soon enough," said Beckett. "Just remember she's the Law Student."

"Patty O'Donovan this is …"began Beckett once everyone was settled in the box and behind the glass.

"I don't mean to be rude Captain. I know both ADA Davis and Campbell. I did an interest interview with them last October."

"You did," said a surprised ADA Davis. "What prompted you to become a murderer?"

"Nice try Counselor. We'll get back to that. What I want is to talk off the record in hypotheticals. What I want is assurance that anything we agree to while we are off the record will be honored once we go back on the record."

"Why would you think otherwise?"

"You didn't get to be the Homicide first chair for the county of New York my being a Boy Scout," said Patty with a smile. "Captain is your shadow behind the glass?"

"No, he's home with our son. Why?"
"I only know him from his books and his editorials. He just seems like someone who demands someone keep their word."

"He is," Beckett agreed. "I've known these two for several years now, if they make a deal they will honor it. Besides this is MY House if they break their word I will string them up alive."

"Good to know. Councilors are we off the record."

"Miss O'Donovan we are off the record."

"Good. One I freely admit to killing the six Sea Lions that had set-up their drug bazaar on the street corner. My motive? Simple I considered them to be enemies of the United States and it is my duty to defend this Nation."

"But you're not longer in uniform," said Campbell.

"Who said your oath stops when you leave the service? No one. Once a Marine always a Marine. I have only one regret."

"The death of the civilians when the Sea Lion's reacted," supplied Beckett.

"Correct, yes. I feel guilty about their deaths yes. That is the only reason I'm sitting in this chair. If it wasn't for them I'd be taking my chances at trial and Councilors you do Not want to go to trial."

"Oh, why is that," asked Davis?

"You do not want a trial," repeated Patty. "The publicity would be intense. Despite my screw-up, you have no physical evidence. You have no witnesses and you can't connect me to the murder weapon. ALL you have is Dave's stupid statement. Believe me we do our best to make sure it gets muddied up and open to countless other interpretations," Patty paused before continuing. "Before the trail we will have convinced the American people that NYC actively targets and prosecutes Veterans. Not true of course, but the media blitz and accusations will be based on some fact will keep your PR staff in permanent damage control mode. Then there's the crime scene. Do you want to explain to the public why the Sea Lions were ALLOWED to operate their drug bazaar in such an open fashion? Hell they even brought chairs and a picnic cooler. I suggest you re-read the laws covering the public rights and responsibilities to imminent danger situations. If I'm lucky one or two of the merchants in the neighborhood will be on the jury. If they are then I know I'm walking. If not I know they will testify in my defense. If they're too busy I'll just have their newspaper quotes read into the record. You have read their quotes haven't you? "

"Yeah I have. I see some of your points," said Davis. "What is it you want?"

"Get rid of the conspiracy charges against everyone else. We both know the recording is one-of and you can't prove when we talked about this assignment or who was present. Next, this was one event with six killings not six separate events so my time to serve is concurrent not consecutive, and I serve my time in a minimum security institution. True my crime was a violent act, but I'm not a violent person."

"Is that it?"

"Yes"

"I'm one murderer short," said Beckett.

"I really don't know who pulled the trigger," said Patty. "With the information you gathered tonight you should know who the four drivers were."

"Yeah, the pay envelopes. The people who got paid the same amount as you were the drivers."

Patty touched her nose with the index finger of her right hand.

"We know you've been operating as a vigilante organization for over a year now."

"Prove it Captain. If you could you would, but you can't so that is that."

"Vigilantes?" exclaimed Susan.

"Later," said Beckett.

"What say you Councilors," asked Patty?

"We agree. You write up your confession. We write up the plea bargain. We swap before signatures."

"You said you screwed-up. Out of curiosity what was it," asked Beckett.

"Out of habit I took the suppressor and scope off-of the rifle and stuffed them in my backpack. While my job gives me a reason for having them, why give you a bone to gnaw on? I bought two of the post offices' prepaid boxes at the train station and mailed one of the items to the Police Department in Seattle and the other to the Police Department in Los Angeles. The return address was Fenway Park."

"Nice. Excuse me I need to arrange for the release of the prisoners," said Beckett as she moved toward the door. Kate looked pensive as an idea was taking shape in her mind.

Chapter 15 Kate

The man that was known as 'Lou' last Friday and Kyle Jacobs today entered the room through a set of double door accompanied by a black Police Officer that was big enough to play inside linebacker for the New York Giants.

"Last one Sir," the Officer called out coming to some semblance of attention. "Twenty-two all present and accounted for."

"Thanks LT," said a tallish, light brown haired woman.

'She's kind of hot for a cop," thought Kyle as he watched the woman detach herself from a small group and walk toward the front of the room. 'Oh-no. I've seen that look and walk before. It's the Commander coming down to chew some ass, but she's not my Commander. Still this could be interesting.' Kyle watched as the woman placed a bottle of water on the podium that was in the front of the room and then flow around in front of it and turned to face the crowd. 'No doubt about it,' thought Kyle. 'The ease, the strength, the presence, she owns this place.'

"I'm Captain Beckett. I command the 12th Precinct. You are currently sitting in my house. We use this room to brief the on-coming shifts about what's happening in the 12th's operational area." Kate paused before continuing.

"As you are all aware the Conspiracy charges against you have been dropped. … For now. I want to emphasize that this is a voluntary meeting. You can leave at any time. If you decide to go you can pick up a cab voucher at the Desk Sargent's desk."

"They got them when we out-processed them Sir," said the LT.

Kate nodded her thanks and began again. "As I said this is a voluntary meeting. I urge you stay because I have something to say. I have some things to tell you about yourselves, important things. Things you aren't going to read about in the newspaper or watch them on the TV news."

When no one got up Beckett continued. "IF you listened to the LT or counted noses you will realize that you are one person short. We have arrested twenty-three and are releasing twenty-two. The person missing is Patty A. O'Donovan. She confessed to the killing of the six Sea Lions last Friday, but most of you already knew that. Isn't that right Dave?" Kate paused for effect. "The murder of the seven Sea Lions is a crime I hold all of you responsible for." Kate paused again. "Right now Patty's upstairs working out the details of her plea bargain."

Lou couldn't help but hear the disgust the Captain put into 'plea bargain.' Fascinated he watched as the Captain returned to the podium took a large drink of water and then returned to address the group.

"Why do I hold all of you responsible? Easy. I've recently learned that the lot of you has operated as a vigilante GANG for the last eighteen months or so. You accept assignments and receive payments for services rendered at your bi-weekly meetings in the 'Guardians Room' at the 'Green Lamp.' In the past you have limited your activities to B&E's and thefts. Now you have graduated to the big time, MURDER. If today's meeting is any indication you plan on making murder for hire a permanent part of your business model. Not even the Sea Lions are that despicable and blood thirsty. Murder for hire rates the DEATH penalty for ALL involved."

Beckett surveyed the crowd. Some returned her gaze but most were looking down with bowed heads. 'Good, maybe I'm getting through to them.' "I saw some of you react when I called you a gang. Get used to it because you are a stupid gang, but a gang nonetheless. Why stupid? You're stupid if you think your crimes against criminals or criminal enterprises don't count. They do. They count just as much as if you robbed the people yourselves. You probably have no idea of the pain you have caused the neighborhoods you're operating in."

"But the crime statistics," said some from the crowd.

"Are misleading," finished Beckett. "Did you look at the spike in the crimes that your activities caused? Of course not. What do you think happens when the fence only pays three cents on the dollar instead of ten to cover his losses that you guys caused? It means that the crooks that sell to him must steal three times the stuff in order to cover their 'expenses'. The statistics clearly shows this, but you with your massive and self-blinding egos conveniently ignored this fact."

Beckett paused again to gage her audience. "There are two things you need to know. The first is Patty's confession leaves me one murderer short. I have an EXCELLENT idea as to who was driving the four cars. Now that I have current photographs my Detectives will be canvasing the parking lot attendants where you liberated your rides with pictures. Since we know the arrival and departure time of the vehicles we will also be talking with the lot regulars. Perhaps they saw you 'shopping.' We also will be talking again with the people who drove by the accident scene. Maybe your picture will give us more than just a vague description. When I find you I will demand that the ADA not accept a plea bargain. If he does I will appeal to his boss. If that doesn't work I will show up at your hearing and appeal to the Judge directly. I will lobby for the maximum, and if I think I can prove that this was a murder for hire which means…."

Beckett paused again and looked at her audience. Following Patty's statement in the box, Beckett tasked Esposito and Ryan to find the four pay envelopes that matched Patty's. Of the six sets of eyes returning her gaze, Beckett knew that four sets of them belonged to the vehicle drivers. "Another thing," Beckett continued. "I'm going to share all the information and knowledge I gathered today with my fellow precinct Captains. I don't know how they are going to use it. Me. Anytime a bar is hit, a check-cashing place robbed, or a pawn-shop broken into and the MO resembles yours. You people will be first on the list of the people my people will come to visit. By your previous actions, YOU compromise my suspect pool. YOU are my list of the usual suspects. We may talk to YOU at work, in which case you will have to explain our presence to your boss. Or we may talk to you at home, and believe me significant other discussions are far worse."

Beckett looked around. The amount of shock and concern on their faces was encouraging. 'Now for the last part,' she thought. "Do you know why Patty confessed? … Do you? … She had absolutely no remorse for the people, the Sea Lions she killed, absolutely none. She confessed only because she was broken up over the civilians that were wounded and killed. She felt that she was responsible. She was…. And so are YOU. I know what you're thinking. The Sea Lions killed them. You're right. They did, and the reason they did is because YOU shot their 'family members down in cold blood like dogs.' Their words not mine. With that in mind revenge became their order of the day. When the Sea Lions attacked they did so because they were pissed. They were pissed at you. They didn't care who they hurt as long as some of them were you. You're actions goaded them into action. The lives they took and the people they injured happened because YOU decided to kill their friends, their family. For that you must bear the responsibility and the consequences."

The silence was so great and complete that everyone heard the 'click-snap' of the relay and the ventilation fan spin up to speed. "Let me tell you who you killed. The first one I knew. I can't claim to be his friend, but my husband can. Despite my husband's injuries he made it to his friend's funeral yesterday morning in DC. They had the same passion, libraries and knowledge."

"Willy Mays Harris was like you, a veteran," Beckett began again after she had taken another sip of water. "He was also a self-made multi-millionaire. He retired after twenty-five years of service and returned to the city he loves. I know he was a Marine I should but I don't remember his last duty assignment…"

"He retired as the Battalion Sargent Major for the 3rd Reconnaissance Battalion of the 3rd Marine Division Captain… Ooh Ray," said a voice from the crowd.

Beckett took a deep breath and continued. "What was he doing there you ask. Easy. Even though he lives in Tribeca, every other Friday afternoon he returns to his old high school and hosts two not-for-credit discussion periods on money and financial planning. The Sargent Major never graduated from college but he believed that anyone could become a millionaire if they read, understood, and practiced good money management. He was committed to telling all of the kids that it could be done and they could do it. He did it, why couldn't they? After his lectures he always came down to this corner, to Gino's. He'd play some dominos and have a slice or two of what he swore was the best pizza in the city."

"He died a hero," said Beckett, emotion creeping into her voice. "He took two in the back as he tried to escort a pregnant lady to cover. Her water broke and two hours later Wilhelmina (Willy) Mays Jones entered the world. I understand from my husband that the Sergeant Major's wife has started a College Fund for the child. Excuse me."

No eye in the crowd was dry as they watched Captain Beckett turn her back, pull a tissue out of her jacket pocket, dab at her eyes, sneeze and finally turn around to face them. "The second victim, the second victim," she said again, "Was Maya Lynn Rodrigues. Every Friday afternoon she feeds her family early so that her husband can have a good meal before he goes to his weekend job. Mr. Rodrigues graduated from the same High School as Willy Mays and attended his lectures on finance. The money from the second job went exclusively to the college fund for the kids, his IRA and to build a nest egg for their own place. After dinner Maya leaves their eleven year old at home and in charge and shops for the weekend at the store. In her bag last Friday were a pint of ice cream and a small can of Hersey's chocolate syrup. You see last Friday was report card day and her boys had maintained their perfect attendance, despite the flu going around and more importantly they stayed on the honor roll. She was going to make ice cream sundaes for them as a treat. Now….Their deaths and the consequences are something each and every ONE of you is going to have to come to grips with."

"I will NOT take questions," exclaimed Captain Beckett into the lengthening silence. "LT get these people, these gang members out of my house before I do something stupid like ignoring the ADA's orders and extending them an overnight invitation."

"On your feet," bellowed the LT. "You heard the Captain. You're free to go. I suggest you take her up on her offer."

Kyle was frozen in his seat. Never had he heard someone put so much hate and contempt in the word people, and the way she said gang members was like she was kicking them in the abdomen.

"Today people" urged the LT. "I'm sure some of you have people to go home to."

Kyle got up and made eye-contact with the other three drivers. They needed to have a long talk.

"Captain Beckett," began Deputy Inspector Gates once they had reconvened in Kate's crowded office. "If I had known you were going to speak to them like that I would have counseled against it. Nicely done, I think you made them completely rethink their vigilante activities."

"I was hoping for a confession on the seventh murder."

"Fat chance," said Esposito.

"Speaking of their vigilante activities," said ADA Davis. "You singlehandedly destroyed any case we might have made against them."

"Counselor," said Gates. "We lost nothing. We had no case. No physical evidence. No witnesses, nothing. The only thing we had was the crimes themselves."

"Surely they left clues, made some mistake," said ADA Campbell.

"None that I could see," said Beckett. "Each hit was well researched and expertly executed."

"With luck they will heed your threat and think twice about resuming their activities," said Gates. "I noticed you didn't mention any Police connection."

"Well we do have the one mission they mentioned tonight to monitor and the Police connection thing. I couldn't see how to work that in. Also it's something I think that we should investigate privately."

"What do you have in mind," Gates inquired? "I know we discussed it briefly with my Calypso Team."

"I really want to hear what they plan to do. I've got some ideas but I don't want to step on their toes, unintentionally. I've got a feeling that we are going to have to intentionally smash some toes if we are going to get to the bottom of this. Sorry guys," Beckett said looking at the ADA's and the Detectives who were also her closest friends. "I don't want to say anything about my plan of attack until I've had a chance to talk it over with the Deputy Inspector in private. Monday morning okay Sir."

"I think so. I'll send you a meeting request. Something about the performance review schedule."

"Great, guys if someone gets pissed I want you out of the line of fire," Beckett empathized looking at Ryan and Esposito. "You've heard Castle say many times that the best reaction is no reaction."

"Intel this good and complete must be coming from a major source," verbalized Esposito softly.

"Exactly, that's why I need to be identified as being on point with the Inspector in deep cover. If I get slapped down for grandstanding then nothing splashes on you and the Inspector is still in place to continue the hunt. For the most part, the people I trust to cover my back are in this room," said Kate as she looked into the eyes of those present.

"And the one absent," said Ryan with a nod toward Castle's empty chair.

"Has never faltered," said Kate as her right hand came up near her heart. "Look guys, it's not quite midnight yet, let's wrap-up and get home early for a change."

Kate walked in to the Loft and headed toward the closet to hang up her coat. On her way she couldn't help but notice the sound coming from the TV area. Kate shook her head when she walked into the area and saw what she expected, Castle fast asleep in his chair. History Channel tonight Kate noted as she used the clicker to turn off the TV.

"I told you, you didn't have to wait up," she said her words barely audible. 'But I think it's sweet that you do,' she continued her thought unspoken. "I'll deal with you later," she softly verbalized as she turned and headed toward the stairs to check on James.

As usual it looked like James had buried into his mattress, and like every other night he had his faithful Snoopy tucked under his arm. Kate bent down and gently kissed her son. As she stood up she frowned. "It's seems like the only thing I'm doing is watching you sleep," she whispered. "That changes on Saturday. I promise you plenty of park time on Saturday and Sunday and plenty of us time during the rest of the day." Kate reached and touched the hand that was holding Snoopy and then scratched Snoopy behind his ear. 'Keep him safe for us boy,' she thought as she took one last look at her sleeping son and turned away and start to think of an inventive way to wake his sleeping Dad.

Her plans were scuttled when she spotted Castle waiting for her at the bottom of the steps. I'll save that for next time she thought as she hurried down the steps. "I'll told you, you didn't have to wait up for me."

"Habit," Castle replied with a shrug of his shoulders.

"I'm a big girl and can take of myself."

"I noticed," Castle replied holding his arms out wide.

"I do run with a pretty tough crowd," Kate teased as she stopped on the bottom step and let Castle's arms enfold her in a hug. "All of us wear guns, and I don't mean as decorations."

"I know," said Castle as he gently kissed his wife.

"This is nice," Kate sighed. "Perhaps I should have married a shorter guy."

"Grow taller," Castle replied.

"Seriously you don't have to wait up for."

"I know it's just…"

Kate looked into his eyes and understood. His waiting up for her wasn't just about his normal worrying about her. It was something deeper. He was afraid that if he went to bed alone in the Loft it might become permanent. Almost too late Kate had discovered one of Castle's primordial fears, namely that he thought that the women he loved will desert him.

From Castle's point of view there was ample evidence to feed his fear. First Martha, oh she had done a good job raising Rick. But a single Mom with a very demanding acting career had down what she thought best, but the boarding schools… Then there was the fact that his first deep love left without a word and went to London. Then his muse, twice. Once when she left him without a word to go on a mission and the second time when he found out she was a traitor. That had devastated him. Then his first wife then his second wife, well that fear stops with me she vowed.

"Say Castle who do you identify stronger with Butch Cassidy or the Sundance Kid?"

"What? Why?"

"Just answer the question. Who do you identify stronger with Butch Cassidy or the Sundance Kid," Kate repeated?

"Butch I guess. Look didn't they die in South America somewhere?"

"That's the theory, but not the point. The point is they died together, doing the thing they loved…. Just like we're going to do."

"You aren't suggesting we start robbing banks are you? That would be quite a career change for you. You know I'm sure we could pull it off. With your…."

"We're going to be together until we die, and we are going to continue to do the things we love long after our great grandchildren have learned to walk and talk. Castle sometimes…"

"I'm right her Hon," he said giving Kate a gentle hug. "It's just sometimes my dark side takes over and I worry too much."

"Well we can't have that now can we," said Kate as she leaned in and shared a kiss with Castle? Kate was surprised when Castle swept her off of her feet and started carrying her toward the bedroom.

"Back feeling better Babe?"

"Yeah, much, but you know I still could use some, ah physical therapy."

"Let me check my schedule," Kate teased. "It just happens that I've had a cancellation and I can fit you in," Kate said throatily as she freed a hand to open the bedroom door.

Postscript

Once again Castle's gentle snore brought Kate out of sleep and into consciousness. To her Castle's snore was just as natural and welcome as a gentle spring rain to farmers. 'Only five minutes early,' thought Kate after she had craned her neck to look at the alarm clock. 'I can live with that.' Kate leaned back, enjoyed the warmth of the bend and Castle's almost silent snore. Finally Kate rose silently and smiled as she tip-toed around the clothes they had left on the floor on their way to Castle's therapy session.

Once out of the shower Kate towel dried her hair, satisfied she reached for the hair drier to finish the job and paused. 'I'll let him sleep some more,' she thought as put the hair drier down and reached for her hair brush instead. Her hair in place, Kate went to the closet, figuring that the case would draw press today; she slipped into something from the Kate Castle side of her closet. Dressing complete, she grabbed her weapon, badge, and phone and silently flowed out of the bedroom and into the rest of the Loft as quietly as a mouse.

Instead of heading to the kitchen Kate headed up the stairs to check on James. As she bent in to give her son gentle kiss he started to move his arms, yawn and blink. Finally he settled down and Kate completed the kiss. 'Sleep well son. Tomorrow you will be the center of my universe.'

'Snoopy how did you make it all the way up there? When I left you were tucked under James' arm. Never mind, just protect him,' thought Kate as she reached out and touched her son's favorite stuffed animal. The imaginary 'arf' brought a gentle smile to her face. Kate turned and headed toward the door with more than her normal bounce in her stop.

'Why shouldn't I be pleased with myself,' she mused as she walked down the stairs? Both of my guys are happy and healthy and we solved most of a major crime. I think Esposito and Ryan will be able to run the second shooter to ground. If I read body language correctly, then my lecture, sermon or whatever may have ended the vigilante's crime spree. The gang needs a name. I wonder what they called themselves. No matter. They came from Gates Calypso files so I'll call them the Calypso gang in my final report.

Kate reached the bottom of the steps turned toward the kitchen, stopped, looked at the bedroom door then turned and headed for the front door. After retrieving the morning paper from the hallway floor she headed back inside. 'I'll read that on-line at work,' she thought after noticing that her case had made the front page. 'Now where is that? Got it.' Kate opened the section she selected and searched. 'This will do nicely,'

After reassembling the paper Kate walked over and opened the refrigerator door, paused, look at her Dad's watch and over her shoulder at the bedroom door. "It looks like the Captain of the 12th will be arriving a little later than usual," she announced to the kitchen. After placing the package of bacon and four eggs carefully on the table she searched the freezer for shredded potatoes. "No hash browns today," she verbalized as she grabbed the large skillet and started the bacon cooking. Next she started toast and the coffee. After attending to the bacon she cracked the eggs into a mixing bowl. 'Castle tries to turn scrambled eggs into a pseudo-omelet by adding diced veggies. I'm more or a traditionalist, so… '

After attending to the bacon, she placed the dishes and silverware on the table. It took her a minute to find the tray she would use to take Castle his breakfast. After pouring juice for both of them Kate started to remove the bacon from skillet and place it on a paper towel covered plate. Next she carefully poured the eggs into the skillet. Given the heat of the skillet and the bacon leavings, it took the eggs only a couple of seconds to firm up.

Kate had just started to plate eggs when she heard the sound of the bedroom door opening and the sound of bare feet approaching. "Aw shoot Babe. I was hoping to surprise you."

"You did," Castle said as he slid in too the seat.

Kate put the skillet in the sink and turned back to look at her husband. He appeared to be half asleep. His eyes were mere slits. He wore a lopsided grin, and his hair was a mess. 'Not much to look at in the morning,' thought an amused Kate, 'but he's all mine.'

"Here Babe," she said as she poured a cup of coffee for him. After placing it in front of him she wrapped his hands around the cup.

"You're an angle," he croaked as he raised the cup to his lips. Kate split the bacon evenly between the two plates and placed one in front of Castle. "Here, drink your juice. Oh I couldn't find any of the shredded potatoes, so no hash browns."

"I add them to the grocery list. I used the last package Wednesday night in a casserole. I don't know what I did to deserve this," said Castle after a few bites. "But could you give me a hint so I can do it again?"

"Ah you," Kate said as she leaned across the counter and grabbed the lapels of the ancient, well-worn, stained, bathroom that Castle would never abandon no matter how many new ones Kate bought for him and pulled him into a kiss.

"I take it," Castle said after they broke, "that I'm supposed to kiss you meaningfully and often? I think I can remember that."

"That and other things," Kate replied with a touch of color gracing her cheeks. A few moments later Kate asked. "Castle, do you know what day it is?" She watched his fork pause on its way to his month, and his gaze turn inward as he thought. She saw a look of panic touch his face and finally he shrugged his shoulders in defeat.

"No, and whatever I missed I'm sorry."

"You haven't missed it yet. Its date night and the Valencia is having another double feature."

"Who," asked an obviously relieved Castle?

"It's a DC versus Marvel showdown. Dare Devil versus the Green Lantern."

"Green Lantern," said Castle with some enthusiasm. "You know we could go in disguise. I could go by the 'Green Lamp' on my way to the precinct and pick-up a mask and ring for you. I got mine last night."

"No," Kate laughed. "I… No" Kate saw the twinkle in her husband's eyes and knew that he would ignore her and buy them. She also knew she would be attending the move wearing a mask, white gloves and a glowing green ring.

"No finger-gun this time," she laughed. "Hastings' rookie almost drew his weapon."

"What stopped him?"

"Hastings did because I was laughing so much. Oh Castle one other thing. On the way to the movies tonight, if you see a dead body, don't tell me."