Home, a castle fanfic

Disclaimer: I do not own!

She didn't even flinch when the shot went off. She didn't take her eyes off of the man she'd just shot, and she sure as hell didn't make any moves towards him. When the medics came and announced he was dead, (of course, being shot between the eyes) she lowered her gun. And only when Castle wrapped a hand around her wrist did she finally turn around and lay her head on his chest, his arms wrapping around her shoulders.

xxxxxx

"Coffee?" He asked her, extending his arm towards her.

"No, thanks anyway," she answered, waving a hand in his direction.

"Kate," when she finally turned to him he held his hand out again, "You're running off two hours of sleep and a granola bar in the past three days." The staring contest didn't take long for him to win, and when he did she rolled her eyes and took the cup.

"Thanks, Castle." And she downed it.

"Beckett," Esposito was almost running to her desk where she and Castle were still seated. "We got an address." And then he was running past her desk and to his, grabbing his coat and making his way to the elevator.

"Castle, you need to stay here. I can't have you there for this." She started to follow Esposito but Castle grabbed her arm.

"Kate, what happened to wanting me there when you caught this son of a bitch? You're not going without me."

"Fine, then let's go," she pulled her arm away and jogged to the elevator, only holding it long enough for Castle to slip inside.

When they were walking to her car, Castle glanced at her feet, the clicking of her heels on the cement. The things she can do in those still amazes him, and he almost smiles thinking about the latest new thing he discovered she could do in them.

"Let me drive," he whispered to her when her shaky hands couldn't fit the keys in the lock, and when he reached towards her hand she didn't even hesitate to drop them in his hand. He unlocked both of the doors and turned on the car, the address Esposito gave them bouncing around in his head.

The drive to the warehouse was agonizing. If Kate wasn't tapping her foot, she was picking her nails, or fidgeting with the glove compartment. She even reached into the glove compartment at one point and pulled out a CD only to snap it in half. The glances Castle was giving her didn't go unnoticed, but she wasn't ready to tell him about how that was the CD she received in the mail two weeks ago from an unknown address.

Castle pulled into the parking lot next to Esposito and shut the car off. He strapped on the last part of his vest, (that had respectfully said 'police' in this situation) and turned to Kate.

"I will be with you every second. Esposito and Ryan will be there with you every second of this, okay?" When she didn't answer, just reloaded her gun, Castle tilted her chin so she was finally looking at him. "We're not leaving you."

"I know," was her only response, and then they were getting out of the car. It didn't take long for the backup to come, and once they were all out of their cars, Kate didn't skip a beat with her instructions for them.

"You get in, you get him, and you get out. I don't care if you have to shoot him. I don't care if you have to tackle him. I don't care what you do to him, I want him out here. Dead or alive he comes out of that warehouse in cuffs. Do you understand me?" Everyone nodded. "Good. Let's go."

There were 25 people going into this warehouse. Twenty of them were just working. This was their job. It was what they did. Five of them were closer to this case than any cop had ever been. Gates took five men and went to the west side of the building. Esposito and Ryan took five each and went to the south and east. Castle, Beckett, and five more were going in through the front. Castle even got a gun.

Beckett kicked in the door and ran inside, her heart pounding so hard she could hear it in her ears. Her head turned when she heard Esposito shout at her, but the impact was so sudden it knocked her off her feet. Punches were thrown, and she even got a few kicks in before she stood up and raised her gun at him.

"Where's Thorne?" She shouted at him. He raised a hand to the left and she glanced at a uniform, silently asking to cuff him as she ran to find Thorne.

She heard Castle's footsteps behind her and almost turned around and slapped him for being so loud. This time when Ryan called to her she processed it quicker, turning sharply to the left and not hesitating to cock her gun.

"You take one more step and I swear to God I will put a bullet between your eyes."

"I don't need to go anywhere, sweetheart. I found exactly who I'm looking for." The man smiles and puts his hands on his head, cocking it slightly.

"Go," Beckett says when Ryan and Esposito are starting to close in on them. She can still feel Castle about a foot behind her and her gun is still raised, aimed in the center of his eyes.

"You wanna know why I killed your mommy dearest?" Beckett tries to look away but she can't. And she can't let him walk away right now. When Esposito tries to pull Thorne's hands away from his head, Beckett eyes him, begging for him to step back. So he does. But not far. A foot, maybe two. "'Cause she was just like you."

"Excuse me?" Castle steps forward and lays a hand on her shoulder, but she shrugs it off.

"See. Just then. You don't depend on nobody. Just yourself. And that's exactly what she did. She didn't depend on anybody but herself. And that's what got her killed." He glances back at Esposito and Ryan. "You ladies should sit, we're gonna be here a few minutes. Actually could you get me a chair? It'd be nice to sit."

"Oh, you wanna sit?" Esposito asks, and he almost sounds generous about it.

"It would be a nice touch," replies Thorne. Again with the sly smile.

"Too fuckin' bad, jackass." And then Thorne shrugs and turns back to Beckett.

"Your momma was killed 'cause she couldn't depend on people when she needed to. She wasn't even a target, you know. There were still a few more I had to hit before her." Beckett stepped forward and pressed the barrel of the gun into his forehead.

"Give me one good reason why I shouldn't pull the trigger right now."

"I have answers." So she steps back, but she doesn't lower her gun.

"I didn't intend on killing your mother. I really didn't. But I'm not sorry for it, that bitch was squirmy." Beckett returns her gun to his head and leans into him.

"I will not hesitate to pull my finger. I don't even have to move an inch to do it." He smiles again and she almost pulls the trigger. Almost.

"I was going after her friend. Angela. But when I went after Angela I was dumb enough to do it where your momma could see it. Apparently, Johanna," he lets her name roll off his tongue, almost seductively, "was watching the whole thing. So once I find out I had to kill her. See what happens with stuff like that? Chain reaction. All this, all these years, all because the bitch saw something she wasn't supposed to."

Beckett steps back and takes a breath, closes her eyes briefly and before she can react, opens her eyes to Ryan's shouts and Thorne holding Esposito in a choke hold. How the fuck did that happen? She thinks.

"Are you serious, Thorne? Can you be any more idiotic?" She keeps a straight face, and when Thorne grabs Esposito's gun and throws him out of the way, it's almost as if he does it on purpose.

She doesn't care about who sees her. She doesn't care about who hears her sobs and she definitely doesn't care about the medics that give Castle a sympathetic look as they bag Thorne's body. She just falls into Castle's arms and lets him rock her in the warehouse.

"You're okay," he keeps whispering to her. Over and over and over in her ear. "You're okay. You're okay. You're okay." And then when he finally says "It's over." She wraps her arms around his waist and she holds him just as tight as he's holding her. Because it's over. It's all over. And he was there when it ended.

"It's over," she repeats to him, linking her arms around his back. She feels him pull her closer, and she knows this is it. This is where she's supposed to be. With him. In his arms.

You wrap your arms around me and I'm home.

A/N: So. Yeah. It's two in the morning again, and I just finished this. I actually kind of like this. I'm really sorry for the shitty backstory about Johanna's killing. It's so awful because I have truly no theories about it LOL. Thorne is just some random name my brother supplied me with; I didn't get it from anywhere. I hope you guys like this!