Chapter 1

Call it what you will, nuthouse, insane asylum, mental health facility, sanatorium, or a psych unit. Use the term that makes you feel most comfortable. But for Kate Beckett the word that best describes where she is, is a prison. A prison she might or might not deserve. It all started with a phone call. Her story begins about 3 years ago. She had received a call from the director of prisons that Jerry Tyson had used a false name to get out of being on parole. Knowing that Castle and Ryan were on his protective detail she rushed to the hotel where they had kept him. Breaking through the hotel door with gun drawn she asses the situation. Seeing Ryan lying on the floor, she thinks that Tyson is trying to take Ryan out for good. Without hesitation, she fires three times into Tyson hitting him squarely in the shoulder, and two rounds land into his mid-section.

Amazed at her great marksmanship she steps over to Tyson's lifeless body. Rolling him over she now is in a state of shock because the person she thought was Tyson was actually Castle bending over to untie Ryan. Ryan looks in Kate's direction and asks "What the hell Kate, what were you thinking." she falls near Castles body lying there not moving. Ryan has the sense to call for an ambulance to get Castle the help he needs. Kate is still sitting there with a blank look on her face. Ryan wonders why it's taking so long for the ambulance to arrive, in actuality it has only been 3 minutes since he called them. Before long Javi enters the hotel room and looks at what has unfolded before his eyes.

"Kate what happened here?"

"Javi I made a mistake thinking that Rick was Tyson and I shot him three times." "What have I done?"

Javi crouches to where Kate is sitting on the floor and he asks her to run through everything that has happened from the moment she broke through the door. She tells him that she saw Tyson leaning over Ryan thinking he was trying to kill him so she fired three rounds into him.

"Kate now what I need to ask now is did you think Ryan's life was in danger at any time?" "Was what you did justifiable?"

"Javi of course I thought his life was in danger, I could swear that Tyson, or who I thought was Tyson was holding a gun to Ryan's head."

The ambulance arrived and the paramedics took a look at Castle. One of the medics says to the other, "John there is no pulse."

"Pete are you positive?"

"Yeah this guy is D.O.A."

Kate hears this and starts to sob uncontrollably. She had not meant to shoot Rick. But as she looked over to the paramedics as they were placing him into the body bag she grabbed Javi's hand and asked him "Javi what have I done, I just killed Castle and now he will never come back to me."

Javi looks at her like she and Castle had a relationship and asks "Kate were you and Castle seeing each other?"

Kate can't believe she had said that out loud. While they were not actually dating she was hoping that he would come around and ask her out one day. Montgomery arrived at the crime scene and surveyed the scene. He needed to do something that he hated to do. He had to make a recommendation to the brass to be sure that this was a legal shooting. After walking the crime scene he came up with these following facts while the shooting might have been justifiable, there was going to be a legal firestorm to deal with.

Montgomery was not a man to hang out another cop out to dry, but the facts here show that Kate could have waited before firing to correctly identify her suspect. If she had done this Castle might still be alive. Javi walked up to his captain and asked him what he thought and he replied "Detective Espostio, right now I am inclined to say that this was a justifiable shoot." "But, on the other hand, there will probably need to be a Grand Jury investigation into the matter what I see here warrants it."

"But captain if you do that and the grand jury indites her it will ruin her and her career."

"Detective for now this is out of my hands and I will not waver in my recommendation." "Now detective you know what you need to do right?"

Kevin is just about to be wheeled out on the gurney and asks the paramedic to stop while he looks over to Javi. Javi walks over where Beckett is standing still looking down at the floor where Castle had been shot. Javi makes the following statement to Kate.

"Kathryn Beckett you are under arrest for the murder of Richard Castle. You have the right to remain silent, anything you say or do can be used against you in a court of law, you have the right to an attorney before and during questioning, if you are not able to afford an attorney one will be provided to you at no cost. Do you understand these rights as I have read them to you?"

Kate answers "Yes"

Javi relives Kate of her service weapon and secures her shield.

Javi turns her around and pulls her arms behind her back then places her in hand cuffs.

Kevin can't believe his eyes and starts to shed tears uncontrollably. He thinks this is all wrong and it can't be happening.

Montgomery and Javi lead Kate out to the waiting cruiser and place her in the back seat. He hates to do this, but he still has a job to do. Walking around to the drivers side he gets in and makes the short drive to the 12th. Kate has never been in the back seat of a patrol unit before and reflects on the events that have just happened. Before long they are pulling up to the precinct and Javi wheels the squad car through the underground entrance, giving Kate the decency of not taking her out of the car on the street. Parking the car he sits in the drivers seat for a little while hoping that Kate will say anything to him. He is just about to open the door when he hears the whisper of her voice. "Javi what have I done, I killed my partner, my best friend. How am I supposed to explain this to Martha and Alexis?"

With all that has happened he totally forgot about Martha and Alexis and then it hits him with the power of a gale force wind. He has been holding in all of his emotions since he arrived at the scene. He is tough on the outside, but he can't stop from crying silently. He sits in the drivers seat as tears streak down his face. This goes on for about ten minuets and Kate looks to him and tells him that everything will work out in the end. Composing himself, he looks back to Kate and asks "Are you ready?"

She replies "Yes I am lets get this over with."

He gets out of the car and circles around to the back door and removes Kate from the car. Leading her to the elevator he pushes the up button and they wait for it to arrive. It arrives and they step in. He wants to warn her about what will happen when they get to the bullpen so she will be prepared for the comments and looks that she will most definitely get.

"You know you are going to get all sorts of looks and comments about what happened out there today right?"

"Yeah and you know what?" "A part of me deserves what they will say"

"I will try to get you to processing as quickly as I can."

She looks at him eye to eye and thanks him, she knows that he is only doing his job.

The elevator arrives at the 4th floor. He takes her quickly through the homicide floor. There are not too many cops on the floor, but just as they pass Karpowski's desk the comments start. She ignores them and Javi gets her to the processing room and starts to fingerprint her. Taking all of her personal effects he catalogs them. With the processing finished Javi walks her over to holding and places her in the cell.

"Kate you know if there were any other way..."

She looks at him with an understanding look and says "It's okay Javi don't worry. about it" Walking over to the steel bench she takes a seat and places her elbows on her knees and then drops her head into her hands and weeps.

Javi slides the cell door closed and turns to walk away. If he looks back at her in that cell he will most definitely loose it again. Returning to his desk he starts to type up the incident report of what happened at the crime scene today.