Aftermath
They sneak from the surveillance van, shutting the door as quietly as possible. The sound echoes in the empty alley anyway making Beckett wince. The last thing she needs is to get the entire FBI team angry at her when she's already on thin ice with Shaw in the first place. She swallows hard, glancing over at the rusted door where Avery and his team disappeared.
Wrong building. Castle's crazy CIA and alien and mob theories are so off-base, so not grounded in fact. Normally she brushes them aside with a roll of her eyes, ignoring his overactive imagination. But back in the van, it made sense. Even if the reasoning was that he would write it differently.
When she looks back at him, he's waiting in the same spot, hands itching against his dress pants. She nods toward the fire escape silently. Her heels snap on the metal, making her wish she had gone with flats or sneakers that morning. Too late to regret the decision, the one she made to try and prove that she was on the same footing as the FBI. Wouldn't matter anyway since the fire escape creaks under their feet as they climb up.
"Beck – "
She shushes him with a finger to his lips. Then she holds onto the sides of the window and swings over the ledge. He follows, landing lighter than she thought he could.
"You good?" she whispers, drawing her weapon and checking that the safety is off.
He nods, tugging on his jacket.
"Alright." Beckett turns, eyes adjusting to the dim light. "Let's go."
And she's glad that, for once, he's just following her. No comments. Not trying to save the day. Just crouching behind her as she clears the rooms. Boxes are stacked haphazardly, both a curse and a blessing. Each one gives Dunn a chance to hide, to jump out of the shadows at them. But she touches her shoulderblades to one of the piles as she glances around the corner and catches a glimpse of Shaw. She's bound to a chair, duct tape over her mouth.
"I'm almost sad to see it come to an end, Agent Shaw." Dunn's voice trails over to where Beckett and Castle hide.
Beckett catches Shaw's eyes and the woman barely turns her head, eyes flicking behind her. To Dunn. Beckett nods, shifting forward while Dunn is facing the boarded-over windows.
"You know," Dunn says. "I'd expected more from you."
"Castle," Beckett whispers, back against the solid cement wall. "He's there. I'm gonna draw him away. You free Agent Shaw and get some help." She sees his hesitation, his gaze moving toward Dunn and Shaw and she can tell he wants to stay by her side. So she speaks again, barely audible. "Castle." Waits until he looks back at her, eyes dark in the warehouse. "Stay here until I get him out of range. No thrilling heroics."
Taking a deep breath, she steps out into the open, swinging her gun up, training it on Dunn's back. "I thought it was me you were after," she says. Her heart is racing, adrenaline creating a quick rush that pushes fear to the back of her mind.
Shaw narrows her eyes and Beckett tries not to show her hand, not even to the ally.
And Dunn turns, smiling in the light from the streetlamps. "Nikki. You came." He sounds so pleased, as if she won at some little game.
"Put your hands up, Dunn, or I will take you down," Beckett demands, not playing into his trick. It's not a game.
He places a set of binoculars on a table. "I've got a better idea, Nikki. Why don't you put your gun down," he says, pointing at the weapon she still has trained on him, "or I'll detonate the nineteen pounds of cyclonite that I have in the building across the street, turning Agent Avery and his entry team into mist." He has a button in his hand, thumb hovering over the surface. When she only steps forward, raising her gun, Dunn hedges. "If you shoot me, Nikki, it might cause my thumb to tense up and push the button," he growls, moving across the room toward Shaw. "Do you really want to take that chance?"
He's serious. She can read that even in the darkness. So she takes one calculated chance. "They're not in the building anymore." Shaw blinks through the curtain of hair, just as confused as the man at her side. "I only sent them in there to throw you off."
For a moment, the words hang in the air. Then Dunn grins, slow and feral. "You're lying," he laughs, shaking his head.
"Why would they be in there if I knew you were in here?" she asks in return. "Face it, Dunn. I beat you." His eyes flick down to a gun resting next to Shaw's hip, back up to Beckett. "Nikki Heat won."
"No," he says slowly before lunging for the gun.
Shaw swivels in the chair, knocking the weapon from the box and onto the ground. It does nothing. Dunn's hand wraps around the grip moments before he runs into the maze of storage containers, Beckett's shots ringing out harmlessly.
And then she chases, using a pillar to propel herself around and onto Dunn's trail. She can hear, far in the back of her mind, Castle and Shaw speaking but her focus is on the area around her. Listening for the scuff of feet or the sliding of a gun among the cardboard and empty trash barrels. Even with the rush of adrenaline, her breathing steadies as she moves around corners, looking down each row of items.
No one.
Where'd the bastard go? she thinks, stepping forward to the start of another aisle.
"Dunn," she calls out, risking giving away her position to try and lure a response from the man. "Give it up. Nobody has to die."
A rattle, metal on plastic, answers and she turns back, returning to one of the rows and inching down it. More boxes, PVC piping sticking out from a plastic bucket. What looks like shoe boxes stacked on one another.
And then he hits her. Landing on her back and making her knees buckle. Completely, totally unprepared, she catches herself on the cement, the grip of her gun scraping against her palm even as Dunn's arms band around her upper arms. An attempt to limit her movement.
It works. She tries to break free and fails as his muscles flex tighter. So she shifts backwards until their bodies collide with a metal storage container. In the moment of surprise, Beckett gets an arm free and elbows Dunn sharply in the side. He grabs her wrist as she swings up for a punch, spinning her around to slam her against the door. Pinning her until his hand can creep up hers to grab her gun.
The back of her head connects with the floor when he throws her and stars burst behind her eyes even as her shoulders and tailbone sing with pain. She wants to move, screams at her body to get up and away. But a gun – her own gun – is aimed right at her and Dunn's foot connects with her shin as he steps forward and she just can't.
"That's how all my stories end," he says, voice triumphant, the hint of a smile pulling at his lips. "With someone else dead."
There's a blur of movement in the corner of her eye, barely visible because Dunn pulls the trigger and the flash of fire in her shoulder suddenly makes the edges of her vision fuzzy grey. She clenches her teeth, trying to push past the burn of the pain to force herself to move because Dunn's still there, still got rounds left, and he's standing right over her.
Except then he's not. Someone – she can't figure out who it is exactly – tackles the man, leaping straight over her and slamming Dunn to the ground. Through the haze, Beckett hears the click of Shaw's heels on the floor, the woman's voice saying something to someone.
Castle. She's talking to Castle.
"Beckett!"
She feels his hands pressing down hard on her right shoulder. The pain zips through her body, down to her fingertips and across her chest and she can't hold back the moan as he pushes down harder. "Cas –"
"Shh," he murmurs, voice strained. "You're gonna be okay."
Her mouth opens, trying to work around words. Shaw is calling for a bus. "Castle, I…" Her eyes flutter closed, holding the pain in because damn, it hurts. What she can feel hurts because everything below her elbow is a faint tingle. "I can't…"
"Hey, Beckett," comes Shaw's calm voice. She's got a phone in one hand, her gun in the other. "We've got a team on the way." Then she ducks down, whispers into Castle's ear.
He shakes his head, the weight on her shoulder lifting for a moment. "No. Shaw, no."
The woman pushes him aside, kneels next to Beckett's hip. "Kate? You hear me?" Beckett nods, barely. "This is gonna hurt but it needs pressure. Ready?"
She doesn't get a second before Shaw is putting all of her strength into pressing Beckett's shoulder into the concrete floor. Her left hand curls against the cold ground, looking for something to grasp. Something to transfer the pain to.
Castle's hand slips into hers and she can feel his free hand traveling over her cheek. It comes away wet, tears having spilt over as a strangled sob escapes her lips, the salt water mixing with the blood on his hands. His voice is soft, cutting through the burn as he dips his head down to her ear. "Just hold on, okay?"
"Hurts," she manages, crushing his fingers in hers.
"I bet."
His half-hearted smile, the attempt to bring her out of the realm where both he and Jordan Shaw have his partner's blood staining their hands, is the last thing she sees before she closes her eyes.