Inside interrogation room 1 Beckett tries to crack the suspected bomber, Robert Lopez, aka Bobby. She's alone as Castle is stuck reading all the witness statements. However she's in her element. People died for no reason, and she's out get justice for the victims. She's working Bobby over, has been for over 30 minutes now.

"Witnesses saw you drop the backpack."

"It wasn't mine." She got him, he admitted to having it.

"Oh so you admit to having it." She trapped him and now he'd have to start making new lies to cover the ones he already said. Bobby wasn't a planner, he was a pawn. And he'd break and give up who was really behind this mess. She just had to twist him enough to break.

"No, that's-that's not what I meant." Just a little more time and he'd break, like so many before him.'

"You just said it wasn't yours." He's about to break, he'll give it up; who behind all this, Bobby?

"Yeah, because you got me all confused with"

"Did you or didn't you have it?" She cut him off, trying to get him deeper into his lies, trapping him weaving his own web.

"I don't know." He's trying not to weave the web; she has to make him start up again.

"Who put you up to this Bobby? Who gave you that backpack?" Direct, he may not say it now, but he'll wear down, she can see it. He'll eventually say what he knows.

"I don't… I don't know. I don't remember!" He's trying to back away, not say anything that paints him into a corner. She can't let him. Too many families are relying on her to come through now.

"You don't remember." He's lying, she knows he is. He's scared, about to break, on the edge. A little more and she'll get what she needs. "How do you not remember?" She's got to push him further.

"I was in shock." Perhaps Bobby didn't know what he was doing when he was paid to place that backpack. He might be afraid, but she needs to make him more afraid of her. "The bomb went off." He's about to start another lie, "Everyone was running and screaming and" He's rambling and she needs to get him back on point.

"Okay, okay, so you remember what happened after the bomb went off but not before?" Back on point Bobby. She's thinking about what her next move is.

"It must have been one of those traumatic amnesia things." He's lying. So lying, she knows he's lying. And she's going to catch him in this lie. Going to use it break him. She knows about trauma.

"Bobby, don't lie to me." It's getting more intense in the room.

"I'm telling you, it was all a big blank. It was the trauma." His voice is rising. He's scared, that's why he's lying. She can sense it. She pushes him a little more and he'll give it up, they always done that before.

"It was not the trauma, you don't get to use that excuse."

"I swear I don't remember." He's bluffing, she knows different and is going to call him on it.

"The Hell you don't remember." It's almost a yelling match at this point. Kate is about to go on when…

"Stop," he cut her off. "I WANT A Lawyer NOW." He's turned face her. She stares blankly at him. Shit, he wised up "I know my rights, I want a lawyer." He tells her, not as angry as before. It's like a light bulb went off in his head. He was about there, about to break, I almost had him. But he lawyered up; nothing she could do about it.

She asks the standard proceeding line of questions. Does he have a lawyer, he doesn't; asks him if he has some one in mind and again no. It ends up that he just is getting a public defender. That's a good sign, his lawyer will likely try to get him a deal and give up the people behind this. Bobby for all appearances doesn't appear to be the one behind this.

Beckett leaves the box, and proceeds to call the Public Defender's office to arrange for something. She walks into Capt Gates office, she knocks first. Gates signals her in. "Sir, the suspect has lawyered up, we need to get a Public Defender down here now. I think he'll cut a deal and get who hired him, he's definitely scared and looking for a way out."

"I'll get on it right away detective." She pauses, "do you think we should contact the FBI?"

Beckett collects herself, "Sir, he's hiding something. But, let's wait till we have something more solid to give the FBI."

"Ok, I'll get Mr. Lopez a lawyer and see what he'll ask for before we contact the FBI."

"Yes sir." And with that Gates sends out.

As she turns out to go towards her desk she sees Castle sitting in his chair with a Coffee in his hand for her. She smiles and says "Hey there Castle nice to see you."

Castle stands up and turns around, "Hello. Got done with the witness statements, nothing we can use on Bobby." He says as he hands her the cup of coffee with one hand while pointing to the murder board with the other. He must have been reading up while I was talking to Gates.

"So how long you been in?" as she accepts his daily coffee gift with her usual smile.

"Oh, I got in just after you and Bobby got in the box," he points towards the interrogation room, "was watching you work him over. You about had him when he lawyered up."

Beckett's mouth drops and her eyes widen. He was watching me!? I was about to say that 'I remember everything when I was shot!' She almost drops her coffee. Castle catches her. "Kate" he says as he's holding her up. She collects herself. He looks at her concerned. What if he had heard me say I remembered?

"Sorry, it's just this case kind of gets to you." She deflects as she lowers her head to collect herself to go to her chair. Using the words he said earlier. She needs to sit down right now.

"You ok?" He asks concern all over his face.

"Yeah good, thank you for the catch by the way." She's playful with him in that moment but still shaken from the realization of what she almost said.

"No problem, that's what partners are for." He replies. There is a pause as they both give slight smiles to one another. "You have the perfect one after all." He says as he leans back in his chair gloating. Reminding her of his comments from the bank robbery a couple of months ago now. He saying this to try and cheer her up, obviously. And it works.

"No, the perfect partner does all the paperwork." She gives him a glare, something they've shared before. And they exchange lite laughs.

But deep down she's scared. How close she came to ruining what they have going. Does he know that I remember? Well she thinks it through, he may suspect that she remembers, but every time he's brought it up she denied remembering anything about that day. So he doesn't know that I remember. At least she's pretty sure of that. She has no way of knowing but isn't going to ask him anytime soon.

What would he do if he found out I remembered like that? That was scary to Kate. Would he ever be able to forgive me? Would he just walk away and never come back?

"Earth to Kate, you there?" Castle said as she was wondering off about the disaster that could have happened.

"Yeah, just trying to think of my next move." She stated, which was only half false. She was thinking of what they could leverage Bobby with now, but there wasn't anything yet.

"Don't you just wait for the attorney to come and see what deal he tries to make?"

"Yeah I was just trying to figure it all out." And they talked about the case a little more. All the time Beckett was continuously breathing a sigh of relief.

Sometime later Javi got off the phone with what appeared to be someone important. "FBI called with an update. The device used in Boylan Plaza was a pipe bomb. But here's the weird part. It wasn't packed with nails, ball bearings, or anything else."

"That is weird. Bombers usually add projectiles to maximize damage." She was shocked by this.

"Why would they not? This is strange." Castle responded looking utterly confused by the news.

Kate collected her thoughts, "Uh, so what was it triggered by? Cell phone?" What kind of devise was used could help them connect it to Bobby. And then they'd have something to go after him even with his lawyer.

Javi responded. "A remote, probably rigged from a garage door opener. But the range on those is only about 100 feet."

"So whoever detonated it was in Boylan Plaza." Castle quickly announced.

"And I bet you we'll find that remote in Bobby's apartment." Beckett said, they were going to get to the person behind all this.

"Ah … no such luck. But we did find credit cards with lots of different names on them and we found some wallets and some cell phones, too. In fact, one of those cell phones belonged to Andrew Haynes." Ryan had just gotten in from searching Bobby's apartment. He came in without Beckett, Castle or Javi realizing it and had probably heard the conversation.

Castle and Beckett stare at the bags. She looks up, "Bobby's a pickpocket." She realizes.

"Of course that's why he's so scared; he stole the backpack with the bomb and dropped it off without realizing it had a bomb." Castle said adding to Beckett's realization.

"Bro, why would he drop the backpack he just stole?" Esposito asked aloud.

Castle collects himself and looks around. Beckett and Ryan are equally confused. The Castle snaps his fingers. "He looked inside the backpack after he stole it and saw the bomb, dropped it and ran off." Castle goes to crime scene murder board. "That explains why he would stop and start running away quickly." He uses his finger to outline Bobby's path from the cell phone tracking.

It all started to fit together. They needed to talk to Bobby.

Castle and Beckett entered the box where Bobby and his Public Defender were talking. "I'm not done consulting my client."

"We don't believe that your client was a part of the Bomb plot." Kate said as they seated down.

"That is because my client had nothing to do with the bombing." The lawyer responded, he looked like he'd been out of law school recently. Not so well dressed and young looking. He was a public defender after all.

"We think he stole the backpack, realized that it had the bomb and dropped it before he ran away, just before the bomb went off." Kate sounded off.

Bobby made a motion to talk and said "I" but his lawyer quickly put his put his hand over Bobby's month and gave him a look of 'Keep quiet.'

"My client is prepared to give a statement about the backpack as long as he gets immunity from all the potential criminal acts he may have committed in the process."

"As long as it's just theft AND he had nothing to do with the bombing. That's a deal I can recommend to the DA." And it was. The bombing was a big deal. The Governor and the US Attorney General, not just the Mayor, wanted this closed quickly. The national media was wondering if this was a terrorist attack after all. The President had only commented that it was being investigated by the best.

"My Client will NOT say another word until the DA agrees to this in writing." For being young the lawyer knew when there was valuable info to be traded for.

Over the next hour or so of phone tag with Gates and the FBI and the DA and the US attorney's office they all agreed to terms. Then Bobby gave his statement which was taped. "All those people were hanging out full of peace and brotherhood. Lots of easy marks. I lifted a couple of wallets and phones. Then I saw this newer blue Backpack right near the dumpsters. It was just lying there between two dumpsters and I figured someone was just throwing it away or was hiding it. So I lifted it. As soon as I grabbed it a white dude with curly dark blonde hair said, 'Hey! Hey! That's mine.' And that dude started coming after me, 'Hey, that's mine! Give that back!'. I didn't want to make a big scene so started to walk away. The same white guy followed me and I figured I'd just drop it and he wouldn't care, so I dumped it next to the pole and hurried away. I swear, I didn't know a bomb was in it. I would never hurt anyone. Look, you gotta believe me." His lawyer stops him and walks outside.

"Hope this is acceptable." He says knowing he just cut a pretty good deal for this client.

"One thing first." Beckett says, thinking about the curly hair, and she gives him a picture of Jesse Friedman. "Ask him if this was the person whose backpack it was."

The lawyer goes in and Bobby nods. "Yeah that's him."

Beckett takes the picture from the Public Defender. She and Castle go back to the boys. The team gathers at the murder board. Then Beckett hangs up the picture of Jessie Friedman under the suspects tab.

"That's Jesse Friedman. That's one of the victims." Castle states confused

"And he's a member of the movement." Beckett responds adding to their confusion.

"That doesn't make any sense. Why would he attack his own people?" They both stare blankly at each other.

Over the next few hours the FBI searches Jesse's apartment and find evidence the bomb was made there. Everyone talks it over and Castle starts walking through things aloud asking more questions, answering others and walking through the events of that day. Beckett is amazed and awed by his work. He seems to be putting all the pieces of this complicated puzzle together.

"Leann West was on the other end of that phone." Castle says finally.

"Leann West the TV reporter covering the protest? Why not the camera man or a Producer?" Ryan asks.

"If you watch the whole feed it makes sense. Right before they went on hear Leann says 'Roger that' while touching her ear, a headphone for that burner cell. I bet that is from the call Jesse made. I'm betting Jesse and Leann are old friends and if we search Leann's we'll find that burner cell."

Kate just stares at him. He is extraordinary. And then remembers what almost happened today. She looks down not wanting anyone to see her face. I almost screwed everything up. How she almost let on her deep secret. The truth that she can't face just yet. And is relieved that it's still hers to keep. She had tried two days ago to muster up the courage to tell him how she felt but couldn't and then Javi had interrupted them. She was relieved by that.

Sometime later CSU finds Leann's burner cell and the remote used on the bomb using the Homeland Security phone GPS. Beckett and Castle conduct the interrogation after Gates has a talk with them. Leann quickly confesses and the case is closed and handed off to the FBI and US attorney's office. Soon after Captain Gates gathers up the precinct and exclaims "The FBI has taken Leann West into custody. This woman, whose blind ambition lead to the death of 5 people, will get what she deserves. I um, I want to thank each of you for what you did to make this happen. You all put into 110% and made me proud. So let's get out of here, head on home, and catch up on some much needed rest." The officers' hands clap and everyone is excited to take some time off. Castle is going around telling everyone that The Old Haunt is giving out free drinks to anyone from the 12th tonight. He's glad this is over. She is too.

Soon enough it's just Castle, Ryan, Esposito and her around her desk. The case has ramped up her adrenaline and she's ready to go out and celebrate, relieve the stress. "You know what. I'm still kind of wired. Do you guys want to go to The Old Haunt with me?" This was a good way to celebrate another case with her boys.

Ryan gives an ashamed look. "Ah sorry. It feels like a month since I've seen Jenny. I should really get home." No reason to be embarrassed to say you want to see your wife Kevin. So Ryan wasn't joining them. It'd still be the three of them and most of the rest of the precinct. That's fine. She could drink with Esposito and Castle and any other cop celebrating the end to this case.

"Me too. I'm tanked. I'll holler at you." And Espo wasn't going to join them either. This was weird, he was the ex-marine, the one who almost never tired out. It's like he senses that Castle and Beckett need to be alone. To which Kate is fine with, in fact she's sort of happy it is just her and Castle.

Espo and Ryan say their good byes for the night. It's just her and Castle now. "So I guess it's just us." Just her and Castle and nothing else to distract them, No Case, No people, just the two of them. They can have some time just to themselves, which have been very rare. Too Rare

"Yeah," Castle replies, "just the two of us." And he looks up at her. "But we'll have a bar full of cops to keep us company." The both laugh a little at that. Castle not so much though.

Beckett pauses and then remembers what happened yesterday at her desk. Castle wanted to say something, it seemed important. He said he'd talk about it after the case, so she asks him, "You know, now that the case is done, what did you want to talk about?" Bringing up conversation before Ryan had interrupted them.

Castle looks down; she can sense that he's scared and nervous. Uneasy, not his normal post case self. Especially a case where he was a vital part in finding the solution. He's not shaking so it's not that bad, but something is off. He's giving out free drinks at his bar what could be wrong? He doesn't say anything, but he's trying to gather up something to say. That air of silence between them is heavy. He's sort of looking around to see whose around them, and there really isn't anybody near them or paying them any attention. Everyone's left it's just us Castle. She growing impatient but then it's starting to realize what he's about to say. She remembers what he said yesterday: 'I've been thinking about the victims and all the opportunities they're never going to have and I don't want that to happen.' It hits her like a freight train.

He's going to say what he told me when I was shot.

It's what makes sense, it's why he's acting the way he does. Give him time he'll eventually say it. Her smile is growing. She wasn't ready to hear those words 9 months ago, but now she is. That is her secret from him. After what nearly happened with Bobby, she needs this secret be over with. She'll never have to tell him and there won't be that awkward moment between them. A moment she dreads. A moment she doesn't want to happen and if he says it again then it won't have to happen.

He finally opens his mouth, "Yeah Kate there is something very important I want to tell you." He pauses. More and more people are filing out. In the bullpen it's just them now, even the people on shift are taking a quick break. The cleaning crew hasn't even showed up yet. LT is even gone and it seems that he is always there. And then right before he's going to say something more,

"Mr Castle, Detective Beckett why are you two still here?" Captain Gates said from her office door staring at them. It's unclear if she's on her way out or has just stepped out to see what's going on between the two of them. Gates is clearly curious what is being said between them. Castle gives a small shake of his head in disgust. He's startled and upset by Gate's addition to the conversation. It was their conversation. The one where she finally get to hear those words from him without… without the pain, the burning in her chest, the fear of death.

The moment between them is broken, again. It's like that some greater power is trying everything it can to keep them apart. "No Captain just congratulating each other before we head out, to The Old Haunt" Kate says to keep the Captain and one of Castle's only detractor out of it. Out of their private talk. The talk she wants to have.

"Yes I heard Mr. Castle is giving free drinks to my people there tonight." Gates replied looking at both of them. "For which I am thankful. I just hope it doesn't get out of hand." Gates says in a kind of condescending way. They wave Gates goodnight and she goes back into her office.

"Seems like you're warming up to her Castle." Kate says with a smile on her face. Trying to lighten the mood back to what it was. There wasn't any point to try though. Another moment between them had been utterly crushed again. Just like the other day with Ryan.

"Yeah, guess so." His says that while his shoulders are slouched. Castle still has that weight on him that he wants to tell her, but can't seem to get out. And that is starting to eat at him. Hell it's eating at me too. She needs that secret out. She almost blew it, and she's afraid she can't keep it secret that much longer.

Then Beckett gets her coat. She and Castle start to walk towards the elevator. If he's going to spill his guts to her they need some privacy she realizes. As they start to walk way to the elevators "Castle, I don't know if I want to go to The Old Haunt, we could go somewhere else." She tries not to make it obvious she knows what he's trying to say. She wants to go somewhere more 'private'.

"Um, I should be there. Being the owner and all." He doesn't know what she was implying. He's thinking I meant another bar. It's clear that he wants to go with Beckett but feels obligated to the precinct and his tavern to make an appearance. She just has to give him an excuse. Neither of them can hold it in for much longer. Rick's feelings need to come out. So she makes it very plain what she was meaning, no beating around the bush; just strait talk of what they both needed.

"I kind of want some space and quite after all this. Everyone around, all the witnesses and FBI all over the place, I've had enough crowds." She turns to look at him. "Well you just go and make your appearance." She pauses to let it soak in. And she lets go and says what she really wants, "And then you can just come to my place. We can talk there and relax." God I hope I wasn't coming on too strong there. Does he realize I know what he's about to say? Castle stares at her a little confused. He's unsure of what this all means. She smiling but trying not to give it away. How do I not give it away? "Make sure to bring a nice bottle of wine with you. We deserve one after this case."

"Um sure I'll go make my appearance there and swing by home to get some this nice bottle of 2001 Chateauneuf-du-Pape," he continued "I'll be at your place in like one to two hours then. Is that fine?" He's hesitant to ask.

"Yeah that's fine Castle, I'll be waiting for you." Her heart is fluttering; she has butterflies in her stomach. Tonight will be magical. They get off the elevator and go their separate ways. After a few steps she looks back him. I can't wait to see you tonight Castle.