"Yo. Esposito."
"Hi… This is Alexis Castle."
"Alexis?"
Kevin Ryan leans closer to me with curiousity, quirking an eyebrow. I can tell we are wondering the same thing. Why is Castle's daughter calling?
"Is my dad still at the precinct?"
Clicking her onto speaker so that my partner doesn't have to press up against my ear to hear, I crank my neck around to check out Beckett's desk and the chair next to it. They are both empty.
"He's not here. Sorry."
There is silence on the other line. Ryan and I exchange glances. The last I've seen of Castle today was hours ago.
"He's not home."
I know Castle, and I know Beckett. They're on a case, searching for a bomb. Beckett will go to any length to protect civilians. That's just the way it is. A sniper, a serial killer, a bomb. Those are the cases she'll work till morning for. Of course she isn't going to give up on this bomb, and why would Castle pass up the opportunity for adventure?
"I'm going to go out looking for him. It might be nothing." I stand and throw on my coat, motioning to my partner to do the same. "It might be nothing. Don't worry too much. And call me if he comes home."
"Okay," Alexis said. "Thanks."
"No problem," I say, ending the call and stuffing my cell into my pocket.
"So he's M.I.A.?" Ryan asks as I stare holes into the semi in front of me, willing traffic to go faster.
"Apparently. Who knows."
"Where do you think he would be?"
I rub my temple in thought. "He's gotta be with Beckett, and she would be driving. This is about where she would think someone would hide a bomb in New York City."
We've already dispatched units just about everywhere in NYC, but we are determined to find them. We don't want to go looking blindly. There is a strategy to searches, and I'm doing my best to pinpoint their location logically.
Ryan thinks for a moment. "She'd look somewhere no one would notice when he placed it… But where there's a significant amount of people."
"The outskirts," I say.
He nods, and I make a sharp left turn, smashing him into the window.
"Sorry."
"We've searched everywhere," says Ryan, becoming frustrated. "We'll never find them in time.
I curve around an empty warehouse. Something catches my eye and I screech to a stop, pulling into the lot with friction smoking my tires.
"Beckett's car."
We race into the warehouse together, carrying flashlights to guide us. There's no answer to our calls, and we check around every corner.
"Beckett!"
"Castle!"
"Hello?"
Nothing.
"They've gotta be here. That's Beckett's car parked right out there. There's not a lot of places to hide in a huge empty building."
"Split up?" asks Ryan. I nod, and he takes off around a corner. He disappears quickly in the darkness.
I have my hand on my gun just in case. They might be being held hostage, and I am wary in case their kidnapper is here. Possibilities flood my mind. So much could have happened to the detective and the writer. I sweep my flashlight about to see if I might catch a glimpse of movement.
There is a light to my left.
It is a huge freezer. The light is leaking out from under the door. The bolt is in place but can easily be removed.
"Ryan!" I call. He appears at my side within seconds. I let him undo the bolt, and we hold our breath as we pull open the container. An arctic wind crashes into us, but a hopeful sight melts through the cold.
Two people are leaning against the wall. The smaller one is sheltered and cradled by the larger figure. They were doing their best to keep warm. I shine my flashlight their way.
Under the coating of ice on their shoulders and heads, I can barely recognize Castle and Beckett, out cold (no pun intended). Their lips and fingertips are blue. Judging by the way they are dressed, they didn't plan on being locked up in below-freezing temperatures. It's so cold, snow is condensing on their eyelashes. I can see frozen tears on Castle's cheek. They were scared. Beckett probably went out first. His face is pressed to her head, his arms around her tightly.
"Call an ambulance," I tell Ryan as I check their pulses. Their skin feels fake. They are so motionless that even with the faint heartbeats I detect, I fear they're gone.
While Ryan tells the dispatcher our situation, I try to separate the two and bring them outside to thaw them out and make access easier for the paramedics. Castle's fingers are frozen to Beckett's jacket, and even when I pull them off, it takes all my force to pull the detective away. He had been holding tight. I can't imagine what must have been running through their minds. I separate his other hand from where it clenched to hers and take Beckett into my arms; it will take both Ryan and I to move Castle. Beckett is so frozen stiff that she barely moves as I carry her outside.
Ryan joins me. "They're on their way." He stops to study Beckett's face. She looks dignified, like she's trying to hide her fear. I wonder how long the two were trapped.
"Let's go get Castle out of there," I say, pulling Beckett's hood further onto her head in a useless attempt to warm her. I rise and return to the freezer, where I take Castle by the arms as Ryan grabs his legs.
"Come on, big boy," I mumble sarcastically as we drag him from the harsh, icicle-decorated freezer. We sit him up against the exterior wall, next to his muse.
"Do you think they'll be okay?" asks my partner.
I see a slight rolling of Beckett's eyes underneath her eyelids. "They'll be fine."
The paramedics come and pull them away into separate ambulances on stretchers. We stand by and watch the commotion as slowly, the precinct and family begins to show up. Our two little ice sculptures are still resting, IVs in their arms.
"I wonder how late would have been too late," Ryan says thoughtfully. I don't answer. I don't want to.
Beckett emerges from her ambulance, calm in the commotion of chattering people and flashing lights. She leans against the car just outside of where Castle is still unconscious, wrapped up in an oversized brown blanket. I approach her and she smiles.
"So you got us out of there, huh?"
I smile in mock cockiness. "Well, you know. You kinda owe your life to me."
Ryan shoots me a glare.
"Well, thank you, Javi, And Ryan," she says with a laugh.
Suddenly we hear yelling from the vehicle in front of us. Castle is thrashing around on his stretcher. His words are hard to make out, but I can hear them. He's calling for Beckett, asking where she is, asking if she's okay. I frown. Josh, Beckett's boyfriend, is in there taking care of him. Irony hurts sometimes.
Once he gets calmed down, I drop in to check up on him. He's asking about the bomb now.
"Searched the entire warehouse," I tell him. "It's gone."
"How'd you find us?"
I tell him about how Alexis called, and how we knew he must have gone out with Beckett to find the bomb. I tell him about all of the units we dispatched to find them, and very proudly add how we were the ones who actually found them in the freezer. Ryan joins me for a bro handshake.
"Thanks," Castle says softly. He looks like he is about to say more, but his eyes begin to focus on something behind us; something more interesting. He has spotted Beckett, and is up and gone without another word.
Ryan and I share a knowing smile. Those two are inseparable. It's no doubt she spends more of her time with her partner than her actual boyfriend. We watch them talk as if they didn't almost just freeze to death in each other's arms. People trickle out, and the flashing lights subside as more and more units leave. Still, the writer and his muse smile and chat, not saying a word about what just happened, and something tells me they probably never will.
"Life goes on, huh?" Ryan says thoughtfully next to me.
I chuckle. "Life goes on."