Disclaimer not mine. I own nothing related to Castle. Apart from a DVD boxset. No copyright infringement is intended nor should be inferred.
Face Value.
"This is just too strange." Ryan sighed as he looked over the bullpen. Two murder victims. Two innocent people hung and left to die. It made him feel sick. Seeing the man that had been Esposito's doppelgänger had almost stopped his heart in his chest. His best friend and partner had been stood next to him but this second victim could have been a long lost twin.
"If it's strange for us, what do you think it's like for Laine and Esposito?"
"Seeing that man. Knowing it wasn't Javi." Kate shook her head. "It was weird seeing the first vic."
"Who's next." Gates asked as the three friends looked up. "That's what I want to know. You tell me these people are totally unrelated to two of our team, yet Mr Castle here thinks this is all related to a dead criminal."
"His body was never found." Castle stated as Kate looked at the floor. The man had almost destroyed them once, she wasn't about to let it happen again.
"He couldn't have survived that fall. No normal person could."
"Exactly." Castle looked at his partner. "No normal person. 3Sk isn't normal."
Gates took a deep breath as the detectives and the writer fell silent.
"Our priority here is to look after our colleagues and find the person responsible for these murders. Let's not lose sight of that." Gates stated before turning back to her office. Kate sighed as Ryan nodded.
"She's right. If we think this is bad. If we're worried what must Laine and Esposito be thinking?"
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Laine pulled off the latex gloves she had been wearing in the lab and threw them in the clinical waste bin. She was a medical examiner. A doctor. This was not what she went to med school for. This was not what she had signed up for when she had wanted to be a doctor. Finding the evidence the police needed to find and stop a killer was brilliant and she was proud of her work and her team. Now, now it was getting too close. Too personal.
"The woman even had the same freaking tatoo, in the same freaking place." She closed her eyes and tried to steady her breathing, knowing that in the lab she was safe. Probably safer than anywhere else.
"And we will find out what happened." She opened her eyes to see Detective Javi Esposito staring at her.
"I couldn't do the autopsy on the second vic." She stated. "I just kept seeing." She blinked back tears as Javi stepped nearer.
"Hey." He pulled her into his arms. "Hey, I'm fine. You are fine and we will stop this. You know we will."
"It's the thought that I was stupid enough to go on that leaving party. That I let my guard down."
"Laine." He hugged her. "You are not stupid. Never stupid. And why shouldn't you celebrate a colleague getting a better job? It's what normal people do."
"I." She closed her eyes as he tightened his hold on her. "I just keep seeing his face and part of me thinks it's you and I." She stopped talking as Esposito kissed her hair.
"Sorry." She pulled back.
"I haven't slept since we found the first vic. I know she wasn't you. I logically know you are fine and that this is some sickos idea of a joke. Castle thinks the quack is involved."
"He said."
"But I still can't sleep without seeing her face. Only it isn't her face." He shook his head.
"It's mine." Laine swallowed hard. "It's insane."
"Yeah." He pulled her into his arms once more, loving how it just felt right to hold her. "We have to find out who is doing this. Who's next? Ryan? Jenny? Beckett?"
"Don't." Laine sighed. "Don't even think about it. We will stop them, we will."
"I know." He kissed her gently as the phone began to ring in the background. Neither wanted to answer the call, both afraid of what the caller would say.
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"This is going from insane to." Ryan ran a hand over his face as Castle fought the urge to vomit. "Insane on a whole new level."
"He's alive." Gates stated as she approached both men.
"I can't believe this." Castle closed his eyes. "If I didn't know. If she wasn't just stood a hundred yards from me right now." He looked over to see Kate staring at the dead woman. "I'd think she was gone. I'd think."
"Don't do this." Gates spoke firmly. "You know Beckett is alive, you know Alexis and your mother are fine."
"Yeah." He nodded.
"So, out there someone who loved that woman doesn't have the luxury of knowing their wife, daughter, sister or mother is alive or dead. We find out her real identity and we find out what all this is about and so help me, the person responsible is going to be found." She turned and walked across to her younger colleague as Kate frowned.
"Detective."
"Sir."
"You alright?"
"Yes Sir."
"Because neither Mr Castle or Detective Ryan are doing very well." She paused. "Now this. I've instructed Ryan to check on Detective Esposito and Laine."
"Ok." Kate got to her feet. "This is evil. Pure evil."
"It is." Gates agreed. "Now, we have to find out who would do this. Dr Neiman isn't working alone. We have one man who we know logically has to be dead but either he has a copycat or he is alive."
"He's alive. As much as I don't want to believe it."
Gates nodded in agreement. They both still had nightmares caused by the man who plagued them not so long ago. "As to why he would do this."
"It's a warning." Castle walked over to the two women, still staring at Kate's dead doppelgänger. "He can still get to us. He is still in control. These people are just pawns in the game."
Gates folded her arms before glancing to where Laine and Esposito were now stood talking to Ryan. She shook her head before walking away. Kate frowned, looking at the dead body at her feet.
"He's not going to win." Kate looked towards her fiance. "Is he?"
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A/N Please review. I haven't seen the whole season yet, we just got up to the episode this fan fic is based on so it's totally AU. Hope you liked this. Should I go on? If I do it wont be in the same vein as the real Castle, more the way the case affects the team. Let me know what you think.