Hello everyone!

This is a story that I started writing a long time ago, and had forgotten all about.
But I came across it when I was sorting through my computer, and decided that it might be worth posting - once I had rearranged it a little.

It is set about a year and a half after Always.
Castle and Beckett are still together, and are back to working at the 12th with Ryan and Esposito.

I don't want to give too much of the story away, just reassure you that that everything ends happily for out favourite detective and her plucky sidekick :')

Disclaimer: Roses are red, violets are blue. I don't own Castle, and neither do you.

Mouthing the Words
Part One

The precinct had been slow all week, the case load at first a welcomed break after weeks of relentless working, but the need to be doing something had soon slipped in around them. The 12th had only been put on one case, a burglary that had quickly turned catastrophic at the hands of once good men, desperation changing them into creatures unrecognisable from their true selves; a tragedy for the victims, and for those responsible.
But what had at first appeared an easy mystery for the detectives to unravel, had soon hit a wall that they were yet to manoeuvre around. Their suspects were two brothers, Jack and Henry Finch, who had turned their hands to burglary in an attempt to save their families from financial ruin, one such feat turning into disaster when their victims had returned early from dinner, inexperience and panic seemingly behind the shots that were fired as a result. It should have been a simple case, closed within a couple of days at the most, but the Finch brothers had somehow found themselves a place to hide, so far evading all attempts that had been made to arrest them.

Now into their fifth day of searching through evidence that they had been through a hundred times and responding to tips that were each as phoney as the last, the longing to close the case was almost unbearable. Tension rattled its way around the precinct, building a little more with each hour that past, stifling the late August air that already hung close and sticky.
Ryan and Esposito had been scouring through the interview tapes of their suspects' families for the entire morning, hoping to spot any tiny details that had originally been missed; anything at all that might bring them closer to finding the two men.
Castle had soon lost interest in yet another day of waiting for a promising lead and had headed instead to the morgue, intent on pestering Lanie for details that would make the obscure murder at the forefront of his next Nikki Heat novel as keenly detailed as possible.
Beckett was trying to concentrate on the murder board, hankering to decipher the truth that she knew it held somewhere within its metal frame, but her mind was elsewhere, her thoughts unable to stay still long enough to be of any help whatsoever. Her mind constantly fluttering to the secret that she had been keeping from Castle for the past week; something she was so desperate to share with him that she could hardly stand it, but something that deserved more than a passing conversation in the break room. She couldn't tell him yet, not now, not until the case was closed.

The break in the case came in the form of three anonymous tips, each one telling them that two men matching the description of Jack and Henry Finch had been seen entering an abandoned restaurant, its owners of four generations unable to keep the business alive had left the city some three months ago, the location too close to where the brothers had grown up to be a coincidence.
Ryan and Esposito had gone to tell Gates where the investigation had lead, assuring her that it would simple from then on; a patrol car was already in place at both exits in case the Finch brothers left before they got there, and if not, their team would have the men in custody before they even realised that they had been discovered.
Whilst the boys were with Gates, Beckett headed in search of Castle, her mind already flooded with the hope of heading home early, every second that she had to wait weighing heavy on her aching shoulders, her entire body tingling with anticipation.

The heat had been creeping up throughout the past few weeks, the humidity crying out to be broken by the thunderstorms that they had been expecting last weekend, the sickly air only adding to the tempered atmosphere of the precinct. As Beckett pushed open the heavy doors that lead to the morgue the rush of cold air that encompassed her had been so very wonderful that she had been filled with the sudden desire to find herself a little corner somewhere in the room to curl up in for the remainder of the case. But, alas, that was not an option that she currently had the choice of, no matter how enticing it sounded.
So, after taking a moment to breathe in the freshly pumped through air, she allowed the stark relief of the refrigerated room to spur her on, its contradiction to precinct above a promise that there was a world away from the case that had dragged on beyond any of their imaginings, propelling her towards an eagerly awaited weekend dedicated entirely to the love of Richard Castle.

Rounding the corner, she had found the room empty except for Castle; with a day so quiet Lanie was out enjoying the sun before the inevitable call to examine a new body came. He was sat atop the farthest autopsy slab, nose buried in a pile of old medical files, pen spiralling across his beloved book of ideas at a speed faster than most people are capable of thinking, let alone writing.
Walking over to the table, Beckett's heart fluttered a little at the sight of him, totally enthralled in the mysterious world that raged within his mind, completely unaware that she was within breathing distance of him. Sneaking her hand up to his work mussed hair, she ran her fingers softly through the front, bringing him gently back to the real world. And after almost an entire day of being separated from her beloved writer, Beckett couldn't resist the lure of his smiling lips, capturing them with her own and leaning languidly into his body. A kiss greatly needed by the both of them, an unspoken assurance that they would soon be wrapped in each other's arms with the entire weekend blissfully spread out ahead of them. A kiss begging to be deepened, pulling them dangerously close to the edge of the affection that they permitted themselves to give into whilst at work.

They had confessed their relationship to Gates a couple of months after Beckett's return to the precinct last September, promising her that they would remain utterly professional, vowing to do anything that it took to prove that they could still work effectively together. In the nine months that had passed since then, they had shown Gates time and time again that they could do this; that their relationship had only served to strengthen their partnership.
Upstairs they were the epitome of professionalism, neither quite daring to push the boundaries of Gates' acceptance; but down here, amidst the cool air and far away from prying eyes, they were allowed to drop their guard a little, to simply enjoy the fleeting moments of tenderness that they afforded themselves.

Beckett felt Castle pull away, felt the struggle that raged within him, the struggle that mirrored her own; neither wanting to stop, both knowing that they had to. They had work to do, a lead to follow, an arrest to make; and the sooner they did so, the sooner they could go home. The sooner her secret could finally be revealed. A thought that pushed Beckett to take control; to drag herself from his reach and back to her reason for being there in the first place.

"We have a lead, the Finch brothers are hiding out in a restaurant not far from where they grew up, the boys are telling Gates and then we're heading out. It won't be a very exciting arrest, so stay here and keep working if you'd like?"

She knew that he would never accept her offer, the option to come with her, out in the real world of crime fighting and bursting through locked doors, was an offer too bright and shiny to resist. He really was a little kid on a sugar high, and Beckett was secretly glad for that fact; for his eternal enthusiasm that often kept them all going.

"Not a chance! You never know when you might need my expert skills of detection."

Ridiculous man! Leaning up to quickly kiss the smirk off of his grinning face, Beckett was sauntering out of the room before he had a chance to distract her any further, turning back as she reached the door to cheekily hurry him along a little.

"Come on, writer boy, we haven't got all day. Some of us have ruggedly handsome men waiting to spend the weekend with them."

They arrived at the restaurant within fifteen minutes, the surrounding streets were quiet, everyone busy with work, locked away from the sun bathed world outside their windows. The officers who had been watching the doors reported back to the team that neither man had left; both of the brothers were still inside the restaurant and had made no signs of leaving any time soon. They were, as far as any of them were able to surmise, hiding there until they believed it was safe to leave, completely unaware of the police who were mere seconds away from intruding.

The plan was simple, one which they had executed time and time again, as fool proof as possible when it came to making an arrest. Ryan and Esposito were to take the back exit, Beckett and Castle the front, both pairs would enter at the same time, leaving their suspects with nowhere to run, the patrol cars still in place as a last resort.
All they had to do now was to strap of their vests, unholster their guns, and wait for their plan to play out as they intended.

Beckett could feel Castle's breath on the back of her neck, ragged and hot, clinging to the opening of her Kevlar vest, tingling the skin that lay protected beneath it. He was standing close, perhaps a little too close for work, but neither of them was willing to expand the distance.
They were waiting for Ryan and Esposito to get into position, for the crackled words that would send all four of them into the unknown. However simple, however seemingly easy, there job was never to be considered safe, or the outcome predictable. They knew what they were doing, but that didn't make the task any less scary, any less dangerous.
Beckett needed the closeness of Castle just as much as he did; the reassurance that they were still there, by each other's side, together in whatever met them on the other side of that restaurant door. A brief moment of comfort and support to make the task at hand bearable, a little love to see them through the day.

But it was a moment cut all too short by Espo's call to let them know that he and Ryan were in place, counting down the seconds before they were to burst in on the Finch brothers, his voice sounding strong and sure, pulling Beckett from the soft and gentle reverie of Castle's warmth, her mind quickly set to where it needed to be, adrenaline coursing through her body more and more with each number that filled the space between their bodies.
Three.
Two.
One.
Go!

The shouts of the three detectives reverberated around the desolate restaurant, bouncing between the walls, merging the rooms as one, echoing a little as they faded into the darkness. The power had been cut off, the windows boarded shut, the only source of light a messy array of candles that lined the walls of the dining room, casting golden shadows across the deserted room.
The eerie light that surrounded them was the only sign that Beckett could find to suggest that the Finch brothers had even been there at all, the room in which she and Castle stood a blank box that offered nowhere to hide, and no clue as to where their suspects had fled. The problem with restaurants, even the ones emptied of everyone and everything that they once contained, are the sheer number of places that can be used to hide, the endless nooks just big enough to squeeze yourself into, safely out of sight as long as you stay quiet. And if there was one thing that Beckett had learnt about Jack and Henry over the past week, it was that they were adapt at hiding; but they couldn't hide forever, and they had nowhere left to run. It was only a matter of time before they were securely clamped in the handcuffs that had been assigned to them from the moment they had pulled that trigger.

They had systematically searched their way through almost the entire restaurant, all four staying close together, Ryan and Esposito covering Beckett as she took the lead, Castle for once doing as he was told and keeping behind them until they knew that it was safe to do otherwise.
The air was weighted with uncertainty, its very atoms straining under the pressure. Every empty room adding to their desperate need to uncover the two men, to end the awful little game of cat-and-mouse that they had been forced into playing.
Beckett hated the not knowing, the waiting for whatever lay at the heart of their search, the fear that it caused to creep along her bones, burying itself deep within, playing tricks on her mind. She had been on the job long enough to know that arrests like this didn't end well; the entire setting was too peaceful, too quiet, as if it too were waiting, waiting for something monumental to occur.

But Beckett couldn't afford to think like that, she couldn't allow the fear to take over. They still had one place left to search; a storage room at the very back of the kitchen, and she needed to keep calm, to lead her team properly, to focus on the job at hand.

All four of them had been so focussed on the storage room, so sure that it would reveal to them the Finch brothers that they hadn't even heard the footsteps behind them, the footsteps of two men who had nothing left to lose, who had reached a point beyond human desperation.

Jack and Henry had heard the whispered voices of the detectives outside the window and had hidden in the basement, the door to which was built into the floor of the dining room, unrecognisable unless you knew of its existence. They had thought that they were alone again, that the detectives had given up, that it was safe to come out. They didn't expect to walk in on them still searching the restaurant; pointing their guns and calling out at them, angry and determined and a force that the brothers had never intended to come up against. But they couldn't give up now, they had come so far, they were so close to freedom; they couldn't just give in and hand themselves to the police.
Henry wanted to run, to hide back in the basement until they were truly gone, to stay unseen. The police couldn't watch the restaurant forever, they just had to wait a little while longer, wait until they were able to escape. They could do it; they could set up a life for themselves somewhere else and contact their families when everything had settled down. It wouldn't be easy, but it was possible. They still had a chance at life.
But Jack had other ideas; he was tired of waiting, tired of always acting the coward. It was time to take action; they had to take responsibility for their own lives. The gun felt heavy in his hands, so small and yet so strong, stronger than the detectives who were so wrapped up in their search that they hadn't even noticed that he and Henry were stood behind them. They were an easy target, unsuspecting and unprepared. He could do this, he could fight, and he could win. Henry was right; they did still have a chance at life, and he was going to prove it.

To be continued..

Please let me know what you thought ..is it a story worth continuing?
Good or bad, any feedback at all is greatly appreciated.

Thank you ever so much for reading,
Katie