He felt the warm metal in his jacket as he walked trough the streets of Manhattan. The sun was shining since a long time. And he walked. He fast walked as he felt eyes on him. They, were following him. A group of black suited bald men were following him.
Out of a sudden he heard something he had heard so many times. A gunshot. They, were armed.
His steady hand went easily and slowly for the warm metal in his jacket, just as a tactic he knew from his younger days formed in his mind, making him so focused. So concentrated.
Another gunshot rang as he swiftly walked around the corner meeting a surprise. A bald man also wearing a black suit tried to surprise him. He was too late. With a swift yet powerful punch on the nose he succumbed to the ground.
The man gripped the first object he saw and he nodded as he knew it would be enough. The object was a big wooden stick made out of an old oak. A strange object to be found in this city, but he knew that it was perfect.
He heard them, they were less than 4 feet away by the sound of their stylish men shoes.
He smiled to himself. They were in for a shock.
All the bald black suited men ran forward, their eyes only on the ground for checking were to stand in this messy alley, full of garbage.
One of them suddenly let out a cry of pain. His bald head had a big wound that was hit by a hard object. The other men turned around when they heard his cry and they saw the man who had delivered the hit.
He was a tall, broad shouldered, strong man who's attire would not suit them. Unlike them, he looked as serious as hell, with a hint of frustration in his eyes.
They smirked devilish knowing that they had the upper hand, 10 trained men against 1 man. They knew it wasn't fair but they wouldn't had it have it any other way. Little did they know about this tall, broad shouldered, man.
They were in for a surprise.
One for one they attacked him. And every man fell like a bag of potatoes to the ground, grunting at their pain.
The tall man broke the oak pole with his knee and he threw it away. He jogged out of the alley feeling so much better.
Detective Javier Esposito was looking at camera footage for a case. At 12:13 AM today had been a murder somewhere in Washington Heights. He was looking at multiple camera's at once when he saw something happening just when Beckett entered the room.
"Hey, Espo, you busy with the camera footage", she queried as she watched something happening on of the camera's.
"What's this", she asked and he answered.
"Some tall guy fighting off ten black suited men, that's so not fair", he said a bit pissed off.
"Who is this guy", she asked just when the fight stopped, the tall guy breaking his weapon and tossing it away. He turned around with his front to the camera.
Esposito stopped the camera and he zoomed in to see the face of the tall man, but he already knew who it was. The screen zoomed in and Beckett's eyes widened as her jaw dropped. It was …. Castle!
"Hi, guys I've got something for you two" Ryan said, stopping his sentence abruptly when he saw Castle, looking like he had beating the crap out of somebody.
There he sat in the stool at the other side of table. Why, was only he could think. Just like why, Ryan and Esposito had literally dragged him into one of the interrogation rooms when he had just arrived.
The door opened and Kate entered the room sitting on her side of the table. Just in time.
"Kate, what am I doing on this side of the table", he asked, dying to know why.
She simply placed several pictures on the table. He stopped smiling when he looked at the pictures….of him hitting black suited men with a oak pole.
He closed his eyes, thinking about how stupid he had been. But he didn't felt bad for hitting those guys. They deserved what they got.
He sighed and reached for something inside his jacket, with that Beckett stood up, hand to her gun in its holster. But he didn't care. He got a hold of what he was reaching for and he put it on the table.
Ryan and Esposito stormed in, their hands on their guns, just like Beckett had done.
"Guys, wait a moment before you decide to arrest me", he said while he opened a small black box he kept in his blazer.
He took glasses out of the box, so it was a glasses case. He put the glasses on, and all three of them were looking at him as they have seen him before with glasses.
Ryan was the first to say something.
"For some reason, I have the feeling like I have seen you before with your glasses on", he said looking trough almost closed eyes.
Castle nodded, answering Ryan's statement.
"You have Ryan, it's time I told you guys about something", he said mysteriously, looking up from the table, and you could see how serious he was by just looking in his eyes.
"What are you talking about Castle", Kate asked, concern swimming in her eyes.
"When I was 17, I had a friend and his name was Frederick Holst, we sat in high school, here in New York", Castle started and almost immediately, Ryan and Esposito were drawn to his voice as a moth to light, and Kate hung on every word.
"One time, he and I were walking after school to home, cause I was going to play video games with him there, and while we walked we saw something happening."
"A filthy looking man, who was 20 feet from us, started shooting at a car with a woman and children in it", Castle said disgusted by the memory.
"Frederick and I raced there to stop him, if there was one thing we really couldn't take was the murder of innocent people, we jumped him and struggled with him, Frederick tried to let him loose the gun while I tried my very best to hold the man, Frederick almost got the gun loose when I heard a shot nearby me", Castle said, trying desperately not to break in tears.
"I looked at Frederick and I saw blood flowing out of him, I didn't had a hold on the filthy man anymore cause an officer dragged him away from me, I crawled to my friend with tears in my eyes", as Castle said with tears in his eyes.
"His last words were 'Alex, you're my best friend'", and with that Castle broke down in tears.
Kate lost all self control and she got hold of her stool, she sat beside him and she held him, Ryan and Esposito had tears in their eyes. They had deep sympathy for the man who wrote about murder.
Kate loosened her hold of Castle as he stopped crying, he raised his head and she looked him in the eye.
"Hey, everything's alright Rick, I'm right here, I'm not going anywhere, okay", she said concerned, still holding him.
"Okay, Kate, I just want to answer Ryan's question because I want you to hear it too", Castle said, rubbing his eyes.
"Is it okay, if I still hold you", she asked him, worried.
"It's okay, Kate, now I should continue", he said, loud enough so Ryan and Esposito heard him too.
"I never got over the fact that I lost my best friend, I still grieve about him, but after a week I got into the same old routine, going to school", Castle said.
"At the end of the year, when the exams were over, I got a call from the police officer, who dragged the scumbag away from me, he said he wanted to talk with me", Castle said , almost his own self.
"That same day I took up his offer, and after school I met him in a little café, he told me that he was a detective at the 12th precinct, detective Roy Montgomery", Castle said, leaving Kate and the boys a bit shocked.
"He told me that what Frederick and I did was at the same time so stupid but to him it was all because of how brave we had been, who would stop a mad man from gunning an innocent family? He told me that they could use brave men in the force."
"I still was thinking about Frederick's undeserved death, and thinking about how many deserved years that scumbag was going to rot away in prison, I told him I wanted in", Castle said determined, replaying that memory in his mind.
"When all the other kids were going to college, I went to the police academy, driven to do something good in my life, and it was effective, my grades got better and better and so did the physical me, at the same time I started writing."
"My mother was concerned about me, about how much of an impact it was going to be in my life, but when she saw my grades got better my mother got proud of me", Castle said smiling, while he remembered it.
"After the academy, one of the precincts asked me."
"Which precinct asked you", Ryan asked, eagerness and curiosity shining in his eyes and so were Esposito's.
Castle looked from Ryan to Esposito, and from Esposito to Beckett.
"The 12th precinct", he said, smiling.
Their eyes widened at his response while the eagerness and curiosity now also lightened Beckett's eyes. Waiting for him to continue.
"Their new captain, Montgomery, called me himself, I served the force as an officer for two years, and when I was almost 21, I made it to detective Rodgers", he said, and their jaws dropped.
Not only had Castle police training, he had also become detective at some point, it sounded so surreal, but he seemed so calm, serious and honest. He was telling the truth.