Author's Note: This started off as a one-shot based on a Tumblr prompt, but now it's a story practically screaming for two or three more chapters. Enjoy, and please leave reviews!
In the chaos of being held at gunpoint - he could still feel the poke of cold metal against his side - Castle thought he had only heard one shot: the blast that put Dick Coonan down and saved his life. Castle still couldn't get over the fact that Detective Beckett killed the man who murdered her mother in order to save his life.
Castle was sure he was a goner. He was seconds away from leaving behind a grieving mother and daughter, all because he got nosey and couldn't mind his own damn business several months back when Kate first showed some inkling of trust in him.
But the fact remained: Kate Beckett had shot Dick Coonan to save Castle. Coonan had information on who hired him to kill Johanna Beckett, but Kate had decided Castle's life mattered more.
As grateful as Castle was, he was racked with guilt.
Once Kate had calmed, the tears from being unable to save Coonan dried against her cheeks, Captain Montgomery led her into a conference room to give a statement. She'd discharged her firearm, which brought with it a mountain of paperwork, and Castle wondered if maybe he was better off just going home - and not coming back.
After all, this was all his fault.
But when Castle approached Kate's desk, he frowned. There was a bullet hole in the surface, a slug buried in the wood. He didn't remember hearing a second discharge when Kate shot Coonan. Maybe Coonan's gun had accidentally gone off when she shot him. Or maybe Montgomery had fired his weapon as well and Castle just hadn't noticed in the scrum. Then again, Castle's ears were ringing after he slammed the back of his head into Coonan's nose, so there was no telling what he had missed while undoubtedly giving himself a concussion.
And there, on the floor, was the family of ceramic elephants. They were in shambles – a broken trunk here, half of one of the baby elephants over there. Castle knelt with a sigh, cringing when both of his knees popped, picking up the pieces. Once he picked up what was left of the largest elephant, something caught Castle's eye.
Grabbing it, Castle frowned and examined the elephants again. What was a mini cassette tape doing in this statue? Castle wracked his brain, trying to remember if Kate had told him the origins of the elephants. They seemed unlike her, yet there they always were, as long as Castle had been -
"What the hell are you doing?"
The crack in Kate's voice startled Castle far more than the anger, which was far less biting than usual. He turned sheepishly to face her, a breath caught in his throat when he saw how red her eyes still were.
"Beckett, I -" He stopped, taking a deep breath. "It was like this when I got here. There's a bullet lodged in your desk; maybe it went off during the -"
"What's that in your hand?" Kate interrupted, taking a step forward.
"I don't know," Castle admitted, glancing over Kate's shoulder at Captain Montgomery, who had himself just emerged from the conference room. Roy's eyes went wide before his shoulders slumped, and Castle fought to keep from arching a brow at his reaction. "It was hidden in the elephants."
Kate's frown deepened as she studied the tape. "My mom gave me those. Said they were a family, just like us." She sniffled and shook her head before turning around to regard her boss with a furrowed brow. "Sir…"
Roy sighed and checked over his shoulder before motioning for both Kate and Castle to follow him into his office. Once they did, he closed and locked the door before pulling down the blinds. He crossed to his desk before sitting in his chair, clasping his hands in front of himself and studying the detective and her shadow.
"Roy," Castle broke the silence, "what's going on?"
"Before you play that tape, I need you to know something," Montgomery said, purposefully keeping his eyes off of Kate. Castle exchanged a glance with her, and he knew she felt the same level of dread he did. "I met Johanna a couple times; she said she had evidence that a client of hers had been wrongly accused of murdering an undercover FBI agent."
Kate held up the tape. "Is this the evidence?"
"Yes." Montgomery sank further into his seat, looking out the window that overlooked the bullpen. "As well as a clue."
"A clue," Castle repeated. "What kind of clue?"
"The man who ordered the hit on your mother is on that tape."
"What?!" Kate approached her boss' desk, shrugging off Castle's hand when it reached out to hold her back. The detective slapped the tape onto the desk, leaning in until her face was inches from Montgomery's. "All this time…all this time, you knew, and you sat on it?!"
"I had to," Montgomery whispered. "I was only trying to protect you."
"By lying to me about the most important thing in my life?!" Tears sprung to Kate's eyes again and her jaw clenched. "At least when Castle went behind my back, he fessed up to it!"
Castle cringed at the memory.
"Play the tape," Kate ordered, standing upright again. When Montgomery sat motionless, she pounded her fist against the desk. "Play the tape, Roy!"
Without another word, Roy grabbed the tape and slipped it into the player that sat off to the side, next to a picture of his wife and two daughters. He paused to glance at the framed photograph, heaving a deep sigh and shaking his head before finally pushing play.
The first voice they all heard was Roy's. Kate and Castle exchanged a look of shock before the detective once again focused her gaze - and her anger - on her boss. "Roy…what did you do?"
Montgomery rose his hand to fend her off as Castle stepped forward.
"That other voice," Castle whispered, shaking his head. "Is that…"
"Senator William H. Bracken," Montgomery said. "Back when he was Assistant DA."
The tape continued, Kate shaking her head and swiping tears from her eyes before they had a chance to fall. "You killed Bob Armen? Roy, what the fuck…?"
But the tape continued.
I know people, Roy. Dangerous people. Anyone who gets too close – like that bitch lawyer Johanna Beckett who's been poking around – I'll have them killed. I've had people killed before.
The tape ended, and all three of them were speechless. Only the squeak of Montgomery's chair filled the room. Castle stared at Kate, too shocked to say anything. A prominent and popular Senator, one who some thought had an inside track to the White House one day, had been involved in extortion and conspiracy to murder.
And he'd hired Dick Coonan to kill Kate's mom.
The tears built in Kate's eyes, but they didn't fall. She shook out of grief and anger and disbelief, the mixture potent enough to churn the acid in her stomach. Without another word, she yanked the door to Montgomery's office open and stormed out, not even bothering to grab her purse on the way out.
Castle had started to follow, but she had made it to the elevator before he even got to her desk. He sighed, his shoulders deflating, before turning back to the man with whom he'd spent many a night playing poker.
"You know she'll never forgive you," Castle said. "Nor should she."
Finally leaving on his own accord, ready to go home and have several stiff drinks, Castle stopped at the elevator when his phone went off. Fishing for the device, he saw a text from Kate.
Tomorrow I take down Bracken. You comin?
A rueful smile crept onto Castle's face.
Wouldn't miss it.
His phone pinged again once the elevator doors opened.
Good - see you tomorrow.