AN: A two shot with an epilogue. Castle and it's characters belong to ABC and Marlowe. I own nothing. This entire season has been a disaster with both of the lead characters behaving like idiots. This is one possible way to resolve the present mess the writers have created...

One:

Deputy director Margaret Swanson closed the email and smiled. Her plan had worked to near perfection. Bracken had been one hundred percent correct with his assessment of Kate Beckett. She had been so easy to manipulate.

Project LocSat was nearly back to full strength again, no thanks to Rachael McCord and her team. Swanson never was able to determine why the AG agent and her team decided to look into the program. The disgraced former senator denied contacting McCord or anyone else about LocSat until he took his last breath. Regardless, McCord's actions required a swift and permanent response.

The team of mercenaries that was used for the cleanup had been used many times in the past by the agency for 'off the books' projects. They provided the plausible deniability that kept the agency out of the limelight if something went wrong. LocSat was too big and too far reaching to let anyone or anything stop it. Bracken and Vulcan Simmons had their roles to play and both were sacrificed to keep the secret intact.

The pipeline of heroin from Afghanistan was vital to funding several agency 'special' projects and more than a few politicians that helped make sure those in power remained that way. Bracken had benefitted from this arrangement, but his dirty past came back to bite him, making him expendable. Detective Beckett's not so secret investigation of Vulcan Simmons' ties to Bracken made the drug dealer expendable also. To keep LocSat intact, everyone was expendable. Swanson knew that even she would be sacrificed if needed.

The only thing that had kept Katherine Beckett alive was her relationship with Richard Castle. No one wanted to tempt fate by bringing on the wraith of Jackson Hunt. He was a legend, a myth, the boogyman. He worked for no one yet was always there when needed. It was common knowledge amongst those in power that Richard Castle was protected by Hunt. Many had guessed that he was Jackson's illegitimate son. It only seemed to add to the mythos. Rick had worked for the agency on more than one occasion himself. The last time was not by choice.

The key to buying the time needed for those involved with LocSat to return back to the shadows again was to keep Beckett away from her husband. Richard Castle had the resources and the connections to possibly cause undue attention. That coupled with his ties to Jackson Hunt could cause serious complications.

Sanjay Kumar was an agent working for Swanson that had a strong technical background. It was her idea for Sanjay to become the mysterious AG analyst Vikram Singh. Swanson arranged for both Vikram and the mercenaries to be in New York to find out just how much Beckett knew about LocSat. A single phone call from Vikram proved that everything Bracken had said about Beckett's hubris was correct. Rather than contact the NYPD for support as was standard procedure in such a situation, she went after Singh alone.

Things were going exactly to plan until Castle decided to find his wayward wife. Her mercenaries nearly 'screwed the pooch' by taking him captive. After an angry call, they 'allowed' Rick to escape just in time to catch his wife on the run. Swanson wasn't sure if Beckett knew Hunt well enough to know that he wasn't married. She allowed the mercenaries to pursue Beckett and Singh, but were given orders not to harm either. She then appears at the exact moment when all appears lost to rescue the two as the mysterious Rita. Using the information Bracken provided about Beckett, Swanson was able to create the story about Hunt's estranged wife. She was amazed that Beckett accepted her story without question.

Convincing Beckett to leave her husband was far too easy. All Rita had to do was tell her to leave the case alone and go back to her husband. If Kate would have listened to her advice, her plan would have been ruined, but Swanson was sure that Beckett would do the opposite. She'd already ignored NYPD protocols and lied to her husband. Rita's warning about anyone that dies after this was on her sealed the deal.

Vikram's job was simple. Find out if Kate knew anything about LocSat, keep her occupied chasing leads that went nowhere and keep her away from her husband. Swanson counted on Beckett keeping everything that happened to her a secret from her husband. If she would have enlisted his help, then all of her plans would have changed.

For the last two months, Beckett has behaved exactly as they planned. She avoided her husband and wasted her spare time following leads that Vikram found. Even Swanson didn't plan on Beckett hiring Vikram as a precinct tech analyst. He could make sure that she had no contact with Castle while at work and also allowed him to use NYPD resources to setup the captain when the time was right.

Satisfied that LocSat was secure again and that Beckett knew nothing, Swanson sent a text message to Vikram to initiate phase 2. A 'concerned citizen' sent an anonymous email message to the head of Internal Affairs. The email included photographs of Beckett and Singh leaving a SRO in one of the seedier areas of the city. Other photographs showed the two of them together sharing a meal at a street vendor. The email suggested that the NYPD captain had pulled some strings to get her boyfriend a job working near her. A similar message was sent to the editors of the Daily News, the Times, the Ledger and the offices of Richard Castle Investigations.

Alexis Castle was in the office while her father was still sleeping in the hidden room behind his office. She screened all of the emails and only those that actually pertained to the business were kept. Alexis nearly threw the message away before looking at it as there was no source email address on the note. She opens it and starts to read the message. Opening the photos attached causes the young woman to gasp, 'oh shit'. She saves the message and debates if she should forward it to her father.

Hayley strolls into the office carrying a copy of the Daily News and tosses the newspaper on Alexis' desk. "Have you seen this?"

Alexis picks up the paper and sees the damning picture of Kate with Vikram leaving the seedy SRO. The headline all but convicted her in the eye of the public – NYPD captain abuses her position to secure job for her boyfriend?

"Has your father seen this?" Hayley inquires as she points to the paper. "Do you think that it's true?"

Reflexively, Alexis nearly shouts "No!", but then wonders if her blind faith in Kate was misplaced. "This will kill dad. I've been so hard on him for not giving her space. And now this?"

"This is a bloody mess if I ever saw one... You know, your father asked me to keep an eye on her and I refused, telling him that he had nothing to worry about..." Hayley comments, feeling guilty for her trust in Kate. "You need to tell him before he sees it on the news or is approached by the press..."

"How? How do I tell my dad that we were wrong? That he was right to be suspicious?"

"Tell me what?" Castle asks as he appears from his office, looking like he never slept.

Alexis hands him the paper and the two women wait as he reads the article. "I'm so sorry dad." She offers as his daughter tries to move closer to him. She starts to wrap her arms around him and she can feel him pull away causing her to burst into tears.

Rick lays the paper back on the desk and walks back to his office without a word. He was numb at the moment, unable to process anything other than the shock and betrayal he felt. Alexis' guilt was her own creation. She chastised him for not giving Kate the space she asked for. She defended Kate without knowing the facts.

Castle fired up his laptop and started checking the other New York online newspapers. All of them carrying similar stories. The article in the Ledger was particularly cruel, insinuating that Beckett had been cheating on him for years with Vikram since she worked in Washington DC. Every fiber of his being wanted to believe that this was some cruel hoax. That Kate would never cheat on him in spite of the evidence before him. He was keenly aware of how the press could be manipulated to report whatever someone wanted them to. He wanted to trust her.

A call to Kate's cell phone went straight to voicemail. Either she had her phone turned off, or she refused to answer. A subsequent call to her office yielded similar results.

Little did he know that Kate was busy at the moment. A text message was waiting for her from deputy commissioner Gates requesting her presence at 1PP when she woke in her bed alone. Having no idea what was going on, she drove directly to headquarters and made her way to Gates office. Gates opened the door and gestured for Kate to enter. Her demeanor left no doubt regarding the seriousness of the situation.

Stepping inside the door, Kate can see commissioner Williams and Mark Blum, the director of Internal Affairs. They were seated in the guest chairs as Gates tells her to close the door and gestures for her to take a seat there also. She could tell by the grim expressions on their faces that she was in trouble.

Gates begins to speak as soon as Kate is seated. "Captain Beckett, I'm sure that you know the others in this room so we can dispense with the formal introductions..." Gates slides a copy of the Ledger in front of Kate. "Sometime last night IA received an anonymous email from a concerned citizen. We were unable to identify where the email came from, but were able to trace it back to a NYPD server..." Gates places a printed copy of the message in front of Kate. She reads the message and gasps, knowing that she has been setup by someone. Her first thought was that Castle via Hayley was responsible for this. She quickly discounted the thought believing that even Castle wasn't capable of being this vindictive.

Williams spoke next. "Copies of this email were sent to all of the major newspapers in New York and each one has issued a story similar to the one in the Ledger. I've got a public relations nightmare on my hands and your husband's best friend will not help you this time..."

"I don't understand." Kate replies.

"You failed to show up for work your first day on the job. You broke a dozen NYPD regs. You abandoned your duties as a NYPD captain to assist on a case that you had no business being part of... Need I go on?" Gates replies.

"I was ready to fire you for dereliction of duty, but then I got a call from your husband and the mayor asking me to give you another chance. That you wouldn't let me down." Williams adds.

"Ms Beckett, why did you hire Vikram Singh as your tech analyst?" Blum asks.

"Our analyst was promoted and we had an opening." Kate answers.

"Normally the IT department handles placement of all technology personnel. Did you contact them first?"

"No sir. I thought that I was responsible for that."

Blum offers her a grim look. "How did you know that Mr Singh was capable of doing the job?"

"We'd worked together trying to track down the people that had killed my former team with the AG."

"Did you work with Mr Singh when you worked with the AG's office?"

"No sir."

"Why did the AG's office let him quit his job? I mean he had to be making more money there. Didn't he live in Washington DC?"

"I don't know sir."

"So why was Mr Singh in New York?"

"He told me that he was on the run from the people that had killed the other members of his team."

"Didn't you find it odd that of all the places he could run to that he came to New York?"

"No sir. He said he found a document that I had searched for when I was working at the AG's office. It was tied to Senator Bracken. He assumed that I was a target also."

"Yet he called you asking for your help." Gates adds.

"Yes sir."

Williams speaks now. "So let me get this straight. Mr Singh comes to New York to warn you about a potential threat to you and becomes a victim himself?" Kate can only nod in response. "So a man that you've never met before in your life calls you with an outrageous story and you drop everything, ignoring about a dozen NYPD regs to go to assist him?"

"Yes sir." Kate replies feeling foolish that she let her ego overrule her common sense.

"Did your husband know about this?"

"No sir."

"Before you hired Mr Singh, did you verify his identity?" Blum asks.

"No sir."

"Well I did." Blum slides a document to Kate. "Vikram Singh was a tech analyst for the AG's office for the last thirty years. His body was found in his Arlington condo the same time as McCord and the other members of her team... The man you hired is not him. We tried to reach him at the number that was on his personnel file and found that the number was no longer in service..."

"For the last two months a man that no one can verify the identity of has had free reign to all of the NYPD's computers... If he was as tech savvy as you claim, there's no end to the damage he could have done, or the information that he could have compromised."

Blum slides a copy of the picture of her and Singh walking out of her SRO. "So how long were you and Mr Singh 'involved' with each other?"

The way he said the word 'involved' implied that they were having an affair. "Sir, Mr Singh, or whatever his real name is and I were not having any type of sexual relationship, if that was what you are insinuating." Kate answers, indignant that she had to even answer such a question.

"So you normally find yourself hanging around SRO's in a seedy neighborhood at one o'clock in the morning with your tech analyst? Don't you share a loft with your husband on the upper west side?"

"My husband and I have separated." Beckett replies, embarrassed to speak the words.

"Come now Ms Beckett. Your husband is a multi-millionaire. You're a NYPD captain. Are you trying to tell us that you're living in a seedy SRO?"

"Yes."

"Why?" Gates asks. "Does Mr Castle know about this?"

"Rick doesn't know." Kate answers hoping that they don't press the issue as to why she chose to live in a dump like she was.

"You never told us why you're living in a place like that." Williams asks as he points to the picture.

"I'd rather not say sir."

"Ms Beckett. Do I need to remind you that you are facing serious legal issues if any of what is in this article is true?"

"No sir, but I don't know what you want me to say. I hired Mr Singh. I didn't perform a background check before I hired him. I trusted him at his word. My husband and I have been separated for the last two months and I live in the SRO in the picture." Kate replies sensing defeat.

"You say that you and Mr Singh were not involved in a relationship, yet you and him are seen coming from your apartment at one in the morning... Why would the two of you be together at this time otherwise?" Blum asks, clearly frustrated by Beckett's evasiveness.

For the briefest of moments, she contemplates telling them what they want to hear, that she and Vikram were having an affair. It would be far easier than admitting the truth – that she was using NYPD resources to conduct her own secret investigation after hours. Hell, the media had already branded her an adulterer. One way she gets fired and her reputation is ruined. The other way she is fired and possibly in jail for her actions. Either way, her marriage would be collateral damage because of her hubris.

Castle. For the first time since she entered the room did her thoughts go to her estranged husband. How nothing she could say to him would ever make this right. How she'd thrown away everything to feed her addiction. "What I do after working hours is really none of your business... I'll save you the trouble of continuing with this kangaroo court. I quit." Kate rises to her feet and lays her shield and her service weapon on Gates' desk.

"IA will still conduct an investigation of your actions and if we find criminal charges are warranted, you will be arrested." Blum adds angrily. "You've brought shame on the NYPD."

"I've brought shame on myself and the only man that ever loved me..." Kate replies as she walks out the door.