You let him go.

That thought rings on a continuous loop in Kate Beckett's head, taunting her. It screams at her above the torrent of rain that descends, thoroughly soaking her clothes and hair. It drowns out the conversation that surrounds her.

"Detective!"

She let him go.

"Detective Beckett!"

Kate snaps out of her trance, her vacant eyes searching for the source. They land on Captain Gates.

"Nice to see you're back on Earth, Detective," Gates remarks wryly, causing Beckett to blush. "Detective Ryan will transport you back and Detective Esposito, you will come with me."

Esposito groans a little more audibly than intended, glaring at Ryan who rolls his eyes in response. "Of course; it's my fault!" Ryan hisses as his partner climbs into the car, purposely slamming the door after him.

Drama Queens.

"Ryan, I trust that you and Detective Beckett aren't planning on running off?" Captain Gates queries.

"No, Sir."

"Well then, we shall meet you back at the precinct," are their Captain's last words as she disappears inside her car.

Once again, Beckett is withdrawn; her eyes on the droplets of rain that run down the car window and her mind on the same thought that has been provoking her for a while.

"I let him go," she blurts out, shocked that she'd said it aloud.

"Beckett, you were hanging off the edge of a rooftop! Of course you did."

"No...I don't mean Maddox."

Ryan frowns. "Who then?" Ryan realises he is asking the obvious immediately after he finishes. "Castle."

"He was right. And I wouldn't listen." Kate tries to hold back tears. She can feel it now. Her wall is crumbling, gradually tumbling at her feet. She loves him. She needs him. She wants him.

"We'll find Maddox," Ryan uncomfortably changes the subject. "Somehow."

She laughs cynically. "He doesn't want to be found. Said that if I die, I'd die knowing that I'd let him go. But if I live, he would have to die."

I let him go.

Ryan smiles for the first time all evening. "Beckett, that's good! You live. He dies."

She let him go. She lives. He dies.

Beckett's face whitens.

"Beckett?"

Maddox wasn't talking about himself.

She lives. He dies.

"Kate, are you okay?"

Oh no!

"Castle!" she gasps.

"Kate? What about him?"

"I live. He dies; except he didn't mean himself. He meant Castle."

Ryan's eyes widen. "He must have seen us rescue you. That's when he ran. He knows that you're alive!"

"And he's going to kill Castle!"