Beckett dropped to her knees in front of the burning car, the heat from the fire practically burning her skin. The words "No" and "Why" escaped her lips in-between the powerful sobs that racked her body. Shortly there after Martha and Alexis arrived, Alexis's screams piercing the air as she clung to Martha who was definitely in shock. As tears ran down her cheeks, she could be heard muttering over and over again,

"Not my Richard, please not my Richard."

Ryan, Esposito, Lanie and Jim Beckett also arrived, all visibly upset, but trying to provide whatever comfort they could. It was a long time before Beckett's dad was finally able to convince Beckett that it was time to leave the side of the road. He pulled her to her feet, guided her to a car and drove her back to the beach house.

After, crying, hugging, mourning with Martha and Alexis for hours, Beckett finally excused herself, saying she needed to lie down and spend a little time by herself. She went upstairs to their bedroom. As she closed the door behind her, she glanced around the room. Castle's closet door happened to be open and hanging on a hook on the inside of the door was Castle's robe. She walked over to the closet and took the robe off the hook, then carried it over to the bed. She crawled up on to the bed, still wearing her mother's wedding dress and buried her face in his robe, inhaling his scent. She wrapped the arms of the robe around her. The tears began again.

The night passed with Beckett nodding in and out of fitful, restless sleep. Each time she woke, the realization that this was not a nightmare, but in fact reality, hit her like a ton of bricks. Castle was gone. At some point she became aware of the light that streamed into the bedroom, signaling that the night was over. Just as she started to cry again at the thought of spending the day, week, month, forever without him, there was a knock at the door.

"Kate, can I come in?" she heard Lanie ask.

"Lanie," she replied between sobs, "I don't really feel like company at the moment."

"I know you don't Sweetie," Lanie respond, "But listen, I just talked to Javi and you really need to hear what he has to say."

Beckett sat up a little, despite her grief, she couldn't help but be curious,

"Alright…..come in." she replied.

Lanie entered the room and walked over to the bed, giving Beckett a hug. Beckett hugged her back, grabbed a tissue and asked with a sniffle,

"So… what's going on?"

"Javi and Ryan have been going over the accident scene and have found out something that you need to know." Lanie replied. "Here…let me get him on my phone for you." she handed the phone to Beckett.

"Espo it's Beckett," she said when he answered, "Lanie said you….found something?"

"Kate hi, how are you doing?" Esposito asked with concern in his voice.

"Terrible." said Beckett, then added "So… what is it you need to tell me?"

"Well Ryan and I decided to look into the accident a little. We wanted to see if we could find anyone who witnessed the crash. We walked up the road in the direction Castle was driving from looking for houses that were close to the road where someone might have seen something. There aren't many houses close to the crash scene and we weren't having any luck with the few houses that were just up the road, but about a quarter of a mile up the road we came across an older woman sitting on her front porch. We told her we were investigating the crash of a silver Mercedes yesterday and asked her, if by any chance, she had seen anything involving a car of that description. She actually said that yes, in fact she had noticed something yesterday involving a silver Mercedes. She told us that she was at her kitchen sink when she heard the sound of cars approaching, driving much faster then the local speed limit. She looked out her kitchen window and saw a black SUV with tinted windows tailgating a Mercedes and it seemed to her like the Mercedes was trying to get away from the SUV. Then, just before the cars rounded the bend and were out of her sight, the SUV pulled parallel with the Mercedes driving on the wrong side of the road."

Beckett listened to everything Esposito had to say, shock and anger replacing grief for the moment.

"Are you saying someone purposely ran Castle off the road, that… that it wasn't simply an accident?" Beckett half screamed into the phone.

"I don't know anything for sure," Esposito responded, "But something certainly doesn't smell right!"

"I'm coming down there right now" Beckett quickly replied, as she got off the bed.

"Wait... are you sure you feel up that?" Esposito questioned, "Ryan and I will fill in the local authorities and of course continue to investigate ourselves. You really should take a little more time Kate."

"How long have you known me Espo?" Kate asked, "Do you honestly think I will be able to just sit here when it seems….." her voice trailed off for a second and tears welled up in her eyes. She took a deep breath and continued, "….when it seems Castle….. could have been murdered."

"Okay then.… if you're sure." said Esposito then added "We will meet you at the crash scene."

Beckett arrived at the scene about forty-five minutes later. What was left of Castle's car had been removed the day before and taken in as part of the crash investigation. Standing there looking down at the tire tracks and charred shrubbery from the fire, Beckett felt a wave of nausea pass through her. How was it even possible that this was happening, she thought. It was so incredibly unfair. This was not how the fairytale was supposed to end. She choked back a few tears as Ryan and Esposito approached her. They each gave her a hug and then Ryan asked,

"Are you alright?"

"No." said Beckett, "But I want some answers."

"Well in that case, we actually just heard something else you should know." Ryan replied.

"What is it?" Beckett asked.

"We just finished talking to the fire department investigator and it seems that the fire was so intense that there wasn't any trace of human remains found left in the car."

Kate's heart started beating faster.

"So there is no evidence that Castle was in the car!?" She blurted out.

"No evidence," Ryan replied, "But…. before you jump to any conclusions, he also told us that he has seen situations like this before, where a car fire, fueled by gasoline, was so intense that it literally incinerated every part of the human body that was in the car."

Beckett brought her hands up to her head and rubbed her temples. She closed her eyes for a moment trying to digest everything the boys had told her. A black SUV harassing Castle on the road, no evidence of a body in the wreckage. Her detective mind was racing. She lowered her hands and turned towards Ryan and Esposito,

"Okay...Okay, You know what...I think... I would like to look around a little myself." she told them, paused for a second then added, "and guys… thank you for looking into everything. I really appreciate it."

"Of course" said Ryan.

"You know we always have your back." Esposito added

"I do know that." Becket replied. "Thank you."

She turned back towards the crash site and decided to climb down the embankment towards where the car had come to a stop. Once down there she turned and looked back up at the road. There were bushes and weeds all along the embankment as well as some litter. A few water bottles and soda cans that had likely been tossed out of passing cars as well as a container that looked like it once held a fast food burger. Apparently even the ritzy Hamptons had litterers. She let her eyes travel to the left of where the car had driven off the road, the opposite direction from which it was traveling. She started walking towards a thicket of dense brush that was close to the road about thirty yards from the crash. Something in the brush caught her eye, something bright white that stood out in the green and brown of the brush. She didn't know why, but she felt compelled to look more closely at what she assumed was another piece of litter. She approached the brush and saw that the white object she had observed was in fact a piece of paper, that looked like it hadn't been there long. She bent down to pick it up and as her eyes focused on the paper she let out an audible gasp, her whole body started trembling. The paper she was now holding in her hand, was her and Castle's marriage license.

"Oh my god, Oh my God, Oh my God!" She repeated over and over again, as tears stained her cheeks again.

Ryan and Esposito heard her and ran down the embankment.

"What is it?" Esposito asked

"It's our marriage license!" she yelled in disbelief, her hand shaking as she held it. "It's our Marriage license." she repeated. She looked up at the boys through her tears and continued,

"When Castle called me from the car yesterday, he said that he had our marriage license in his pocket. If...if it is here now...it means he probably wasn't in the car when it went up in flames." She paused for a moment, her mind racing again.

"He left this as a clue, he must have... he must have." she pleaded. "If he was in the car the entire time, there is no way the license could have gotten from inside Castle's pocket to this bush thirty yards away from the crash. It would be impossible. Castle must not have been in that car when it was engulfed in flames." She took a beep breath and tried to calm herself "Okay….Okay.…so what happened then?"

"Well...let's think about this." said Esposito "We know there was no evidence of a body in the car and we also know someone in a black SUV was harassing Castle on the road."

"Yes… so whoever was in the SUV must have, at the very least, forced Castle to stop his car." Beckett continued "Then what….they took him, kidnapped him and crashed the car to make it seem like a fatal accident?"

The three of them looked at each other.

"I can't believe I'm about to say this but, that actually sounds somewhat plausible." said Ryan, with a little shock in his voice.

"It does…doesn't it?" Beckett quickly responded. "Castle left our marriage license for someone to find….. I know he did. He must have been alive when the car crashed. He must have been. So…. who was in that SUV? Who the hell would take him?" She paused for a second, another realization suddenly hitting her,

"Oh my god…. maybe there is actually a chance.. he will come back to me." She added, as she looked over at Ryan and Esposito, then asked, "It's possible… right?"

Esposito and Ryan glanced at each other for a moment and then Esposito said,

"Well, we obviously have a lot of work to do, but yea... I would say it's a hell of a lot more possible now then it was a few hours ago." Then added "Listen, Ryan and I should go fill in the local authorities. Are you alright if we leave you for a bit?"

"Yea fine." Beckett replied, "Go…. Go we need all the help we can get."

The boys turned and started up the embankment to the road. Beckett stared down at their marriage license again. She could get Castle back - it could actually happen, she thought. An intense look of steely determination slowly crept across her face, then under her breath she uttered,

"Hang on Babe ….hang on. I will find you….I will."