An Endless Amount of Possibilities
A/N: Hey guys! So this is my first Castle fic, it takes place during season 2 and starts off right at the end of "Sucker Punch" and then we branch off and go off cannon from there. There is dialogue from the end of that episode, but I have tweaked things to fit my needs at the beginning slightly (hey its fiction.) Let me know what you think. I'm trying to get through some writers block on a Doctor Who story I'm working on and this plot bunny cropped in there and it wanted out! Enjoy!
Disclaimer: I do not own Castle in any way shape or form! This is strictly for fun. There is dialogue taken directly out of that episode and that belong to Andrew Marlowe and Will Beall, but the rest is mine!
Chapter 1
Kate leaned against the table next to the coffee machine, arms crossed, staring off into space letting everything crash over her in waves. They were so close, close enough to spook her mother's killer, and now with a nice payday from Castle she was fairly sure that they wouldn't see the assassin for a long time. It was all too good to be true, now they were back at square one, with even more questions to answer.
"I let her down." Her voice came out harsh, and the intensity of it startled her. She wasn't really sure why she spoke out loud, but over the past year her and Castle had come to make a pretty good team. It was easy for them to bounce ideas off of each other, even Castle's crazy theory's turned out to have a grain of truth to them every so often, and that is exactly what she needed right now.
Castle, who had been leaning on the opposite side of the table, placed his cup down and walked to stand in front of her. He took a moment to take her in, trying to figure out how to proceed with Beckett. Stress oozed from her body, and his normal tricks wouldn't work. How was he supposed to help her when the last time he dug up her mother's case he was kicked off the team? Whatever happened from here on out he would be there for her, if she would let him, he just had to figure out a way to get through to her now. Castle placed his hands on her shoulders, giving her a comforting squeeze, trying to get her to focus on him.
"No you didn't." He told her sincerely. There was no way that he was going to let her start building walls back between them.
Kate could see the sorrow in his baby blues, when she looked up from her spot on the floor after his voice pulled her out of her thoughts. She eased her way out of his comforting hold and paced back and forth across the break room, getting more frustrated with every lap.
"Rathborne is in the wind, Dick Coonan is about to walk." She paused and let out an exasperated sigh. "I missed something."
"Could have been me." Castle chimed in, not willing to let her think that this was all her fault. "Rathborne could have checked the routing number and realized the money was coming from my account, not Dick's." He suggested as he sat down in the uncomfortable couch that the break room provided. "I was being arrogant."
Kate fell into the couch next to him and placed a reassuring hand on his leg.
"I didn't think you were arrogant Castle; I thought what you did was sweet, and I will pay you back."
Castle turned his body slightly so that he could face her better, giving the opportunity to place his arm around the back of the couch, mere centimeters away from Beckett. It wasn't enough to actually touch her, or give her any reason to pull her gun on him; it was more to give her a reassuring presence, and a chance to lean on him for support if she needed it.
"Negative Ghost Rider. It was a small price to pay for a shot at your mother's killer."
Kate shook her head and took a look at the man sitting next to her, concern was written clearly all over his features. Castle was an anomaly, one minute he is nine and she could barely keep up with him, the next time she turned around he is the perfect gentleman that anticipates her every needs. Hell, he even just kissed a hundred grand goodbye with out hesitation, and it was all for her. It took her a little while, but she found out that the Castle onion had a few more layers to it than she originally assumed.
Castle watched her try to work things out, and sucked in his breath a little faster, surprised when Kate decided to rest her head on his arm that he had resting behind her. It was hard for him to not do anything more, without knowing exactly what their relationship was to her. To him it was an open book, and he caught himself writing a more romantic ending more often than not. She leaned her head back with her eyes closed, and her hand was still resting on his thigh, just a tad higher than she would have normally placed it, if she had touched him at all.
As if his thoughts startled her back to the present, Beckett's eyes fluttered open and locked on his giving him a glare.
"You're being creepy again Castle." She joked, too comfortable to move from her position next to Castle. When she focused on his eyes again she took in the deeper shade of blue that they had turned; and why was it suddenly so hot in here?
"What is it Castle?" She asked concerned that he seemed to be stuck on something.
"It's nothing." He told her shrugging it off, because all he could thing about was telling Kate how beautiful she looked right now, even after the long shift, the case that hit close to home, he was overcome with the need to scoop her up in his arms and tell her that everything would be okay. "It's really nothing Beckett, I was just thinking how close I thought we were to catching her killer." He told her to get her eyes from reading too far into anything.
Kate nodded her understanding and leaned forward, and Castle was suddenly cold from the loss of contact. She sat there hunched over with her hands resting on her knees with her gaze on the floor, and they had just switched back into reality.
Castle was about to rest his hand on her back, unsure what to do in this situation, when Kate surprised him by jumping off of the couch and turning around to stare at him trying to work something out.
"Her killer." She said slowly giving him a puzzling look.
He sat there a little dumfounded for a moment, letting his arm drop to his side after having decided that it felt empty without her there.
"What?" Castle asked her clearly not following where her thought trail was going.
Everything was beginning to make sense now. Oh he was good, Kate thought to herself, but not quite smart enough.
"Coonan said it was a hundred grand to catch her killer." She explained to her partner, putting an emphasis on the 'her killer' part, and could almost see the wheels turning as he thought back to the interrogation room.
"You never told him it was your mother that was murdered!" He realized out loud as he jumped up from his spot on the couch.
They gave each other one of their looks that did all of the talking, and they tore out of the break room, Beckett leading the two of them determination in every step. They had Rathborne here the whole time, and they had almost let him get away.
Once they got to the holding room, Beckett interrupted Coonan as he was grabbing his jacket from one of the officers.
"There was no Rathborne." Beckett bit out coming to a stop in front of him. "It was you." She got out, hate dripping from her voice with every word.
Coonan turned to give the duo his full attention, and gave them a sly smile as he grabbed his jacket from the officer.
"Clever girl." He congratulated her.
Soon he was a blur of movement and before Kate could process everything that Coonan was doing, he had knocked the officer unconscious, and had Castle in his grip with a gun to his back. Beckett quickly un-holstered her gun and pointed it at Coonan trying to not look at Castle knowing that if they made eye contact things would become more difficult.
"Ah, ah, ah." Coonan mocked her, digging the gun into Castle's back. "Now here is what's going to happen. We are just going to stroll on over to the elevator together, nice and easy."
"That's not going to happen." Kate told him determined not to let her mother's killer escape.
Coonan's expression on his face turned into one to mirror the killer that he was
"You make a sound, you attempt to signal, you so much as clear your throat and I'll put a round in this man's liver and he will die slowly and in considerable pain." To prove his point he pushed the barrel of the gun even harder into Castle's back, which her partner tried his best to conceal the pain it caused.
Beckett was at a loss, and she needed her partner to come in and rescue with some type of unorthodox way. When she finally realized what she was thinking she placed her gun back in its holster at her side. She was the cop, Castle wasn't, and she needed to be thinking about his family that he had waiting for him to come home tonight.
"Let's go." Coonan ordered, hiding his gun under his jacket as he led them out the bullpen, trying to act as casual as possible on their trip to the elevator. "What? No pithy remarks from the peanut gallery?" He whispered sarcastically to his two hostages. "Not so funny facing your own death is it?"
"I don't know, Dick?" Castle started with a heavy emphasis on his first name.
Beckett, who was walking next to them rather uncomfortably, hoping that everyone would be too busy to notice what was going on, but she was glad that even with a gun to his back Castle could be somewhat normal.
Castle continued his rant attempting to walk slower to give them more time to come up with a plan.
"You tell me. Last time I checked this place was a police station." He pointed out to the hit man.
He was trying to put up a brave front because he wasn't going to give this bastard the pleasure of knowing how terrified he was, and he wasn't even terrified for himself, which was the funny thing; he was more scared for Kate, and her finally getting so close to actually getting some answers, only to have them blow away from her, like a plastic bag in the wind. He wasn't going to let this opportunity slip passed them if he could help it.
Beckett continued to look straight ahead at the elevator, not daring to glance at anyone for fear that he would follow through on his threat, which she had no doubt that he would if he thought that she was trying to signal someone. So she continued on with her head held high, and her mouth making a tight straight line, but one question was nagging at the back of her mind that she had to ask.
"You knew before I arrested you, didn't you?" She questioned him curious, and out of her peripheral vision she was keeping an eye on her coworkers to make sure that no one was paying them any attention. "You knew my mom was your victim." It wasn't a question; it was more of a fact.
"It wasn't personal, okay?" She was just another job." He told her as if that was supposed to make her feel better.
"She was my mother." She spat out trying to hold herself together. She needed answers, and she needed them now because time was running out. "Who hired you to kill her?"
"Forget it, you'll never touch him, he'll bury you." He warned her.
"Tell me who." She demanded the answer from him.
They came to a stop when the Captain blocked their exit, with his gun trained on Coonan.
"No, no, no, sir. I need him alive." Beckett tried to explain.
"That's right, you do need me." Coonan all but rubbed that fact in her face. "Now back him off or Castle dies." He threatened.
"Sir, back off. Please." She pleaded to her superior.
He gave his protégé an apologetic look.
"You know I can't do that."
Coonan turned angrily to Beckett.
"Hey, you want to learn who ordered the hit on your mommy, you had better make sure I make it out of here."
Beckett met Castle's eyes, and saw the sorrow in them; she saw the determination as he slightly shook his head not to let him get away. He didn't even look concerned for his own life; he just wanted to take Coonan down. Kate couldn't risk his life like that though. She would never forgive herself if something happened to him and he was taken away from Alexis like that.
She was torn, if they let him go she supposed they could always have a chance at catching him again, until she had a hit ordered out on her. If he died however, she may never get a chance to find out who ordered her mother's hit.
"Roy, please." She pleaded.
Captain Montgomery weighed his options, and even though he knew he had the shot he lowered his weapon.
"That's right, Roy, nice and easy, nice and easy." He instructed him. "Now you guys are going to let me and Mr. Castle continue our little trip to the elevator.
Once they began to walk again Castle gave a sad glance back at Beckett as they passed her, one that she recognized that usually meant he was about to do something very stupid, but before she had a chance to tell him to back off, Castle came to a complete stop, making Coonan halt behind him, and with all of the force he could muster, leaned forward, and then snapped his bad back and connected the back of his skull with Coonan's nose.
Coonan was disoriented for a second as he stumbled back and landed on the ground, on hand covering his bloody nose. The other hand, however, was able to reach out and grab his dropped weapon and took aim at Castle.
Beckett was fast though. Her gun was in her hand and in a flash had fired at Coonan, getting a clean shot to his chest. She was even startled for a second at how loud the gun actually sounded inside of the building.
She glanced over at Castle to make sure that he was okay, and let out a sigh of relief when other than he looked terrified he was fine.
Castle nodded at her, his right hand over his heart felt it beating faster than he had ever thought possible.
"I'm fine." He panted out as he held his left arm up to stop her from coming over.
Kate ran to Coonan and began to try to perform CPR to revive him. She needed to know who ordered the hit, and he was her last hope.
Castle watched on sadly as his friend and partner tried to bring the criminal back to life.
He began to feel something wet on his hand that was still over his heart and lifted it to wipe it off, but was startled to find blood on his palm, and not just a little bit either, his had was drenched in blood.
His blood.
He was bleeding? Coonan got off a round the same time Beckett did, the only thing to explain it.
He took a step forward to call for help when he faltered. He pressed his hand back to his would to try and stop the bleeding. There was a pounding in his head that dulled out the sounds around him, and made it so that he couldn't talk. The room was starting to spin a little and he started to fall backwards when he felt something stop him. Looking around he saw Ryan and Esposito swimming in his vision with very concerned faces.
"Hey bro, you okay? Talk to us what's going on" Esposito asked him, as he and Ryan were able to back him up to a wall so that they could assess the situation
Captain Montgomery came to rest a hand on Kate's shoulder, signaling that it was time to stop her efforts.
She rocked back on her heels and wiped a strand of hair out of her face with the back of her hand. Coonan was gone, and now they may never know what happened to her mother.
"It's okay Beckett. You did the right thing." The Captain told her sensing her distraught thoughts. He helped her to her feet and handed her his handkerchief to wipe the blood off of her hands. "Don't give up. We know more now than we did before. Maybe it is just the little bit we need to crack this thing wide open." He reassured her.
"I hope so." She replied. She turned and expected to see Castle at her side, but when he wasn't she looked around, and was surprised to see Ryan and Esposito almost supporting him against the wall.
"Castle?" She questioned, not sure what was going on, but the concern rang clear in her voice.
"I'm sorry." He whispered as he slid down the wall leaving a large trail of blood on his way down to the floor.
Her mind wasn't registering what was happening as she gaped at the scene unfolding before her.
"Someone call an ambulance!" Esposito yelled while Ryan was applying pressure to Castle's wound. "Two shots were fired Beckett. Coonan was able to get a round out too fast." Esposito explained apologetically.
She ran over to him and grabbed his hand, squeezing when she was able to sit down next to his body on the floor. She looked on helplessly as her friend battled for his life until the paramedics could get there.
"Hey Castle stay with me." She told him gently, trying not to get teary eyed, knowing that she needed to be strong for him.
He gave a pained nod, which caused him to cough up a small amount of blood.
Esposito and Ryan gave a nervous glance to Beckett when she grabbed hold of his arm and got closer to him.
"You are such an idiot Rick." She scolded him and started stroking his hair back. The tears began to roll down her cheek when Castle's grip started to loosen. "Castle stay with me." She pleaded with him as she moved to place his head in her lap.
"Kate." He started trying to control his voice through the pain. "I'm sorry-"
"Rick stop." She cut him off. "It isn't your fault. I appreciate what you tried to do." Kate told him sincerely. "Hey, you have to stay awake until the paramedics get here." She reminded him nudging him back awake. She knew he had lost a lot of blood. Ryan had even used his jacket to apply pressure to the wound, and the blood had almost soaked through that.
The elevator finally dinged and a team of paramedics came rushing out with a stretcher towards them.
Kate watched as the medical experts assessed the situation before removing him from her embrace on the stretcher.
Beckett started to follow the stretcher as they rushed him towards the elevator, and once they got him in there, there was no more room for her, so she watched on as the doors closed the slowest they had ever closed before.
"I love you." He whispered to her before the doors closed and he simultaneously lost consciousness.
She stood there frozen in place, covered in Castle's blood, and she had never felt more helpless before in her life. She also never knew that the man-child known as Richard Castle could be reduced to nothing. It was hard to believe that her partner could die; it was hard to picture her life without him now. What was even harder to comprehend was how her heart felt like it was being ripped out of her chest by those three little words.