Hello folks... Long time.
This was my interpretation of what was to be 'Knockdown' based on the pictures that were released before christmas. To my surprise, it was somewhat similar to what the episode preview had shown. Believe it or not...whatever. Anyways. I will try to complete it before the episode is shown. Though this by itself kinda tells it's own story.
Let me know what you think.
KNOCKDOWN
He sat in the car with his nerves frayed beyond recognition. The file that will unburden him lay in the empty seat next to him. It was dangerous, but the truth needed to be told. If it was to be told, it had to be from them. He needed closure, their families needed closure. 15 years of secrets, dangerous secrets that will undo the people that orchestrated the silence and elevated the fear.
He feared for his life, but he knew that it has simply gone on for too long. These people have power far beyond what anybody could comprehend the high levels that these people have reached the power. He wondered how he ever got involved in the first place.
His shaking hands nervously wiped the sweat off his brow, as two shadows appear from the darkness of the alley. Decades of training that became procedural memory, his right hand automatically reached for his SIG.
Slowly exiting the vehicle, he aimed his weapon at the two figures approaching him. He was greeted likewise.
Soon as shadows turned to light, he lowered his weapon the moment he recognized one of the figures.
"Kate Beckett. I almost didn't recognize you, long time."
"I didn't expect to be greeted by the barrel of a gun, Detective Raglan"
"I'm not in the service anymore, call me Max."
Gesturing to the figure next to her, "Pleasantries aside – This is Rick Castle, my partner"
Left speechless, Max took a good long look at her. Johanna's daughter stood before her, stronger, but still a piece of her remained that was the wounded young woman that he met all those years ago.
11 YEARS EARLIER
He sat on the stairs of the brownstone, heavy-hearted. He had done this countless times; the hardest thing of a Homicide Detective was to give the news that will ultimately change family's lives forever. This time it was different. He fiddled with his leather and tin, flipping it like it was a silver coin. Taking a good long look, he knew what it stood for, what it meant.
From the corner of his view, a car pulled up and parked, and a Father and his Daughter exited the car in jubilant laughter, obviously in the midst of sharing stories from the day. The older man noticed him the moment he pressed the button to the car alarm on his set of keys.
He stood up from his perch, extending his hand out to greet the pair.
"My name is Detective Raglan, NYPD. Are you James Beckett?"
He shakes the father's hand likewise.
"Yes I am, the name's Jim. What can I do for you?"
The Detective's face softened when he turned his gaze upon the daughter, and back again to James' face.
"It's about your Wife sir"
The walls the built Katherine Beckett fell. The pieces falling away like the little dandelion seeds that sailed off, when the wind blew gently across the fields.
The comprehension didn't make sense at first, but hit her hard and fast when it did.
Her mother wasn't coming home.
She wanted to see, she needed it. Her father objected, in an effort to protect the last thing that mattered to him. The Detective was silent, whilst driving to the crime scene. He didn't do this for every family; in fact it was a rarity. Only in certain circumstances would protocol enable him to bring the family into an active crime scene, while it was still being processed.
Colors of red and blue danced off the rain soaked streets of New York, and this night it was in a dark alleyway in the Bowery. She saw officers cordoning off a section to an alleyway, curious folk lingered nearby. 'That must be it, that's where she is' Katherine thought.
Parking the car, he turned back to look at the daughter that was left behind. He could see it in her eyes. A fire that began as a spark from her mother, seemed to have grown into a large flame of anger and retribution.
"Are you sure you want to do this? We can go straight to the station right now."
A resounding 'NO' came from her mouth, and while Jim Beckett tried to reason with her, he knew that it was a lost cause. They both exited the car, and led by Detective Raglin they were both let into the alleyway.
The yellow 'CRIME SCENE' tape lifted up, and she lowered her head underneath it. Everything slowed down to a pause around her, like the world had stopped. She tried to prepare herself along the way, but she knew the fight would be lost as tears began to blur her vision. Bags of garbage were strewn about, a clear sign that her mother fought her attacker. Officers surrounded a figure on the ground, so much that she couldn't see between the feet that covered the body like a screen. Like a silent alarm, one Officer turned around, then the rest of them. They all looked at Katherine Beckett standing there with her father, and despite the years of training between them all, they couldn't bear to make eye contact with her.
Like the wind parting the tall grasses of a meadow, they made way for the family to come forward.
Slowly she moved forward to her mother's body on the ground, covered by a sheet. The silhouette underneath showed the last moments of her life, before she fell to the ground. Spots of blood soaked through the sheet on certain parts of her body that revealed the areas in which she was stabbed or shot.
Kate Beckett fell to her knees onto the wet concrete, reality setting in and her body grew limp. The Medical Examiner eyeballed Detective Raglan, giving the ok to lift the sheet. It wasn't easy for the M.E., doing this in front of a teenager, let alone an adult.
The sheet slowly lifted, her mother's lifeless face aimed upwards to the sky. Streaks of blood from where she was attacked painted her face like a warrior in his last stand.
"Was it quick?" Kate Beckett asked the M.E. Not daring to make eye contact with the child, she bluntly said "Yes"
Kate took her mother's hand into her own, whispering to herself all the things that she wished she could've said. You don't say things you should when it is unexpected, and it was painfully obvious in that instant.
She looked upwards to her father, and it was written all over his face. He had just lost a part of himself, his love, his life. Jim Beckett didn't know what to do or say, or whether he could console his daughter. He didn't even know how to react in that moment his daughter looked up at him. Their world crumbled around them both, and driving them towards near oblivion.
She stood up on her feet, eyes glazed over and dazed. Beckett walked off away from her mother and father, wanting to simply go away.
"Katie!" The elder Beckett tried to console his daughter, but he knew it was a futile attempt.
Forcing herself to retreat, she ducked underneath the yellow tape and quickly disappeared into the crowd.
PRESENT DAY
"Here. This is what I have, I know it's not much but I know you'll run with it. I've been keeping track of you ever since, I heard you're one of the best at the 12th"
The pleasantries didn't register with her at all.
Max handed her a folder.
"I didn't want this at all, I never wanted to be involved"
"With what?"
"It's all here. This will help you answer all the questions you've wanted to ask all these years"
In that instant, Max Raglin's demeanor changed from a fearful man to one without expression. The last look one has in the few seconds of life that he had left, and Kate knew that look all too well.
"GET DOWN!"
The familiar sound of bullets ricocheting off the parked cars sent them looking for cover. Castle and Beckett retreated behind their sedan, her gun drawn.
"Is Raglin still alive?"
She ducked her head below the car to get a clear view of Raglin, who lay motionless on the ground. The unmistakeable pool of blood growing from his head told her enough.
"He's dead" The adrenalin flooding both their systems.
"We need to get out of here. Get in the car, keep your head down Castle"
"You don't need to tell me that"
Even in that moment of flight, he still managed to let loose one of his stupid remarks. That was one of the things that she loved about him, and grew to appreciate.
"This is big, really big."
Castle and Beckett both sat in the precinct conference room, going through the file that Max Raglin died for. Though much information was missing, it didn't take long for them to realize what this was all about.
"My mother, the files clerk, the partner in the firm. They were going to blow the whistle on this, but didn't know who to approach. Castle, it makes all sense now. Why the original Medical Examiner died, he was killed. This evidence, it's enough for us to begin to fill in the holes, and begin to build a case….Castle. You know what this means?"
"This could bring down half the supreme court, and half the 3 letter agencies."
"People have died trying to expose this, and the persons responsible are still free"
They both looked at each other, wondering who to share this with.
"We need to tell somebody"
"Captain Montgomery, He has to know"
"We are putting ourselves in danger, Castle. We also risk putting others in danger if we involve everybody else"
"What do you expect to do? Rip through New York like Max Fury? We can't do this alone!"
The reality of the situation set in, with the weight put squarely on their shoulders. Kate felt it more, culminated with the responsibility of and the realization that she could finally catch her mother's killer. With that, the fire re-ignited within her.
"We're going do this. We need to. I need to"