AN: I don't own Castle.

So this little one-shot came to me this morning after re-watching Resurrection and Reckoning on my DVR. I needed to know what happened between Beckett and Neiman so I wrote my own little thing. I also changed the end of the episode a bit.

Don't worry if you're a Big Sister reader because I just took a quick break from that to write this. The next Big Sister update will be up on Wednesday and yeah, if you haven't read Big Sister and like young Alexis stories I'd suggest you check it out.

Okay so time for the story!


Thick, fast breaths escaped from between Katherine Beckett's lips as she slowly but surely slapped her hand tightly around the wrist of the other woman. The nimble but weak fingers possessed by the plastic surgeon did nothing against the strong, trigger pulling ones that were attached to the hardened cop's hands. The stronger hands barely had to tug and before they knew it the scalpel was held tightly against their palm. Kelly Nieman stood startled as she finally came to terms with what was actually happening to her. She let a small scream escape from between her lips as the now scalpel wielding cop used the sharpened blade to slit right through the constraints that were holding her limbs in place.

Katherine sat up with a smile that some may call crazed gracing her face. She slowly lifted the blade up and pointed it directly toward the other woman. Kelly backed away but as she turned slowly she realised that there was no place to go, that there was no where to run.

"Please no," Kelly felt downgraded as she had suddenly resorted to begging but even that wasn't going to help her now. The cop wasn't backing down, she wanted revenge. Just as Kate registered the plastic surgeon's words she sprung from her position pinning Kelly down on the ground beneath her. She slowly let the blade of the scalpel travel down Dr Nieman's perfect, almost porcelain like cheek and watched it be left tainted. Some more quiet begs were released but Kate was in charge now and she knew, despite the claims, that Kelly Nieman was in the wrong.

Katherine's lithe fingers continued on their journey leaving damage in their wake. She slashed at the sides of Kelly's face, along her chin, up and down her arms and legs. The long bleeding cuts were now visible completely to the naked eye and Kelly knew that she was in a bad place. Katherine looked down at the ruined skin of her opponents face and shook her head slowly. "Apologies Kelly but life is a loosing game and I'm sorry to say that you've lost," Katherine moved her hand and poised the knife just above the other woman's throat, "Oh and yeah, Bitch I've got your face."

As the final words rolled off her tongue Beckett slit her throat. She let the knife travel deep and watched as the life drained from Kelly Nieman's eyes just as Jerry Tyson would have done for his many victims...

Suddenly the adrenaline seemed to have drained from her system. As she let her now weary eyes travel over what was left of the plastic surgeon she felt nauseated, her sliced face and limbs paired with her lifeless pair of wide open, terror filled eyes, but despite that she felt a touch proud at her own accomplishments. She stood back slowly and she failed to pull her eyes from the other woman, she failed to look at her arm coated with blood or her blood splattered medical scrubs, she failed to feel anything at all.

A tall shadow engulfed Katherine Beckett's statue still body. She looked toward the direction in which the shadow was coming from and found that her own eyes were staring straight into the eyes of the man she had married. Unsure of whether to run into his arms or run in the other direction she just stood. Castle watched her slack jawed as she failed to move. The only sound that filled the room was that of the blood that was trickling from the ends of Kate's fingers.

She dropped the scalpel in one swift movement and turned, scared, to face Castle. She was unsure of what he would say, but he just opened his arms and she ran into them.

He cupped her face in his hands and she immediately let her guard down. She pressed her face into his wide chest and sobbed almost silently.

"I'm sorry Rick...I didn't know...I couldn't-"

He held his hand to her lips immediately shushing her. "Shush, don't, you're safe now. She's gone."

She spoke a few words, "I know that Rick, I killed her."

X-X-X-X

She examined herself in the mirror, she saw her face, the face of a killer. She saw her arms and hands covered in reddened, peeling flesh. She had scrubbed at them for ages but even when they appeared to be rubbed dry she could still sense the blood. Her blood. She realised that she might as well be Neiman. She had done just the same thing that the other woman had been willing to do to her. She had killed her, sliced her flesh and the scariest thing about that was the fact that she had taken pleasure doing so. She enjoyed watching the life drain from Neiman, she enjoyed watching the other woman bleed.

She shook away those thoughts to the best of her ability before collapsing against the bed. She nestled down into a little ball and she began to sob.

"Kate, Kate?" She felt a hand in her shoulder, a strong male hand. She looked toward Castle, who was standing before her. She was glad that he hadn't asked whether or not she was okay when it was clear that she wasn't.

"Castle, Rick, I can't close my eyes, I can't stop seeing her bloodied face, her lifeless form." Castle had sat himself down beside her and held her to his side.

"Shush, I know how you feel," He paused and looked into her eyes, "I know you're in shock Kate but you have to forget. These people, they are gone, and you need to stop letting them get to you."

He looked down at her hands and took one in his. He slowly drew small, circles over it with the pad of his finger.

She pulled it away and tucked it under her thigh. "You don't wanna touch that Castle, it still has blood on it." She paused and began pointing with her other hand, "Here and here and here-"

He stopped her and took the hand back in his. The blood wasn't there, it was all in her head. He pressed the soft hand to his lips and looked at her. "There's nothing there Kate, it's all clean."

She let a tear roll down her cheek as she realised what Castle had said was true.

"You're not the bad guy Kate."


AN: So I hope you enjoyed that. Feel free to review.

Thanks for reading!