Detente
Season 9, Episode 1
Written by Trinity Everett and encantadaa
This is a work of fiction by writers with no professional connection to ABC network's Castle. Recognizable characters are the property of Andrew Marlowe and ABC. Names, places, and incidents are products of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
May 17, 2016
"You know, I really shouldn't be surprised that there are this many people in here before 8:00 a.m., but I am."
Snorting in unison, Kevin Ryan and Javier Esposito clapped their hands on Vikram's shoulders and propelled him into the bar, Lanie trailing behind them. It wasn't crowded by any means; roughly a dozen patrons were dispersed through the room, some with luggage at their feet, some looking as if they had come in for a bit of the hair of the dog that bit them. Still, the room was populated enough that nobody looked at the newcomers twice.
"Welcome to the city that never sleeps."
"You say that like I haven't been living here since September."
Ryan and Esposito exchanged a look - that was another conversation for another time, a time when they weren't so sleep-deprived and the dust had settled on the whole LokSat thing - before shrugging.
"Yes, well, you may have been here since September, but you haven't been here with us since September. And this, my friend, is a time-honored post-case tradition. No matter what time it is."
Beside his partner, Esposito nodded. "My boy's right, bro. And since you're part of the team now, it's time for you to be a part of it."
"Is there a secret handshake?" Vikram drawled, looking back to Lanie for support. The M.E. just rolled her eyes.
"Don't give them ideas, please. They might actually make up club rules and everything."
"Yeah," Esposito agreed, knocking her with an elbow. "First rule: no making fun of the rules."
"Or the club founders," Ryan added, leading the charge to a booth near the back of the room while Esposito hung back to get the first round of drinks.
Lanie rolled her eyes, allowing her tired body to sink onto the battered vinyl seat. "I'd say you two do that well enough on your own without any help from me."
Ryan shrugged, flopping beside her and offering a lopsided grin. "Never take yourself too seriously. Rule number two."
"Should I be writing these down?" Vikram asked, looking around the table as the others chuckled. "Would that make me club recording secretary?"
"What'd I say about encouraging them?"
Lifting a shoulder, Vikram settled in. "When in Rome. Or, well, a New York bar at eight in the morning on a Tuesday."
"Atta boy. See? You're learning already."
"Go team." Vikram fist-pumped, taking the proffered pint glass from Esposito's hand as soon as he neared the table. His companions snorted, relieving the detective of their glasses as well.
Esposito slumped finally, dropping his head back against the booth's wooden ledge. "Jeez, what a day."
Mimicking his partner's posture, Ryan exhaled. "Yeah."
Four glasses lifted, but only two sipped. Instead, the partners shared a long look.
"I just can't believe-"
"Yeah," Ryan agreed, cutting him off. "Yeah, me either."
Vikram looked from one to the other. "Is this how you decompress? Seems kind of… counterproductive. I thought this was all about the party? Celebration?"
Esposito eyed him, shaking his head behind a slow pull from his beer. "It's part of the process. You can't just skip straight to the dancing until you get it out."
Vikram gave them both a nod. "Understood. Well, I am here to learn your ways. Teach me."
"Don't," Lanie warned, dropping her face into her hand as Ryan and Esposito leaned forward, eager to share their secrets. "Now you've done it."
Two sets of eyes turned to her, feigning wide-eyed innocence. "He asked, Lanie; it's the least we can do."
"No, the least you two can do is not make up something to torment the poor guy."
Esposito lifted a shoulder, looking Vikram over. "Does he look distressed to you, Ryan?"
Kevin tilted his head, studying the analyst with a critical eye. "Looks okay to me."
Shaking her head, Lanie tapped the table. "Let me out. I'll leave you three stooges in peace for a few minutes."
"Hey, we resemble that remark."
"Of course you do. Now move, Ryan, before I have to hear something about how all of this silliness plays into your 'game.'"
Esposito sniffed, holding his glass to his lips. "My game is just fine, Lanie."
Getting to her feet, the M.E. could only laugh. "Sure it is. Sure. All the ladies are just lining up for you this morning, Javi."
She made sure to pat his shoulder on her way around him, patronizing as ever.
Grinning, Vikram looked back at the other men. "So teach me, sensei, other sensei, teach me. Because I gotta tell you, the line for this guy," he paused, jabbing his index finger against his chest, "is a little short."
Both men chuckled, but Esposito was the one to answer. "Oh, don't you worry. You may have been burned before, but we'll take care of that."
When Vikram laughed again, only one other voice joined him. Glancing over, he saw Ryan's amused smirk had faded, replaced by downturned lips and a furrowed brow.
"What?" Esposito asked, turning to his partner. "Jenny? The baby?"
"Ah, no. Just… he's been burned before."
Vikram's eyebrows jumped. "Well, you don't have to rub it in."
"No. Not that. Just thinking about earlier. Caleb Brown and… you know who."
Esposito's face blanked. He wasn't following in the least. "What about it?" he asked.
"Why would he have had the body burned elsewhere? He wanted to get rid of Brown, why would he have his lackey kill him in the car when he had that incinerator downstairs."
"To rattle Beckett's cage? To warn her off of him?"
"Yeah, that's true." Ryan licked his lips, trying and failing to release the tension from his shoulders. "But this guy was all about covering his tracks, right?"
Vikram nodded, agreeing. They had all witnessed that much.
"Then killing Brown, burning the body, and leaving it where the cops could find it would be the opposite of what he'd probably do."
"What're you saying? This isn't over? It wasn't… you think somebody else killed Caleb Brown?"
Ryan shook his head, scrubbing a hand down his face. "I don't know. Just something doesn't add up."
"Next thing you're going to tell me is the body was a plant."
Ryan's eyes widened. "What if it was? Lanie, you ran the records, but they could've been tampered with. We've seen it before. What if the body in the car was a contingency plan? Their way of pulling a Jerry Tyson and disappearing?"
Esposito glanced around the table, meeting Lanie's eyes first, then Vikram's. The analyst looked pale. "Could he have done that? Faked his death and covered it up?"
"This is LokSat, anything's possible. They hacked my records once; they could've changed Caleb Brown's DNA in our system before we even started looking into him and nobody would be any the wiser."
Already, they were scooting out of the booth. Espo pointed to Vikram. "Go back to the precinct and dig up everything you can on both of them: Caleb Brown, Mason Wood, everyone they've worked with. I need aliases, I need childhood homes that could become safe houses, I need everything."
Vikram nodded. "I'm on it."
"I'll call Beckett," Esposito announced, grabbing his cell from his jacket pocket.
"I'll get Castle." Ryan lifted his phone to his ear, following Lanie out of the bar and onto the street. "Damn it. Straight to voicemail. His phone must be off."
Esposito shook his head. "Beckett's not picking up, either. We need to get over there."
Hailing a cab, he gestured for Vikram to take it. "Call my phone the second you know something. Don't get the Feds involved until you have to."
The analyst nodded, climbing in without a word. The car pulled away from the curb before the door had even closed, leaving the others to turn toward Castle and Beckett's SoHo loft.
"You think he's coming after them?" Lanie asked, dogging it to keep pace with them.
"I think they need to know he could be out there. And since they're not answering their phones, they're gonna get the news in person."
Ryan nodded, the agreement coming without hesitation. "Lanie, maybe you should…"
"Nah uh. Not a chance. If you think they're in trouble, I'm coming, too."
Without slowing their pace, the detectives shared a look.
"We don't know what we could be walking into, Lanie. It could be bad."
"Or it could be nothing, and they could just be in bed ignoring their phones. After the night they had, I wouldn't blame them for needing some peace and quiet."
"Try calling again," Esposito instructed, nodding for Ryan to hail a cab as he made the call for backup. Just in case. They needed to make sure this LokSat thing was over, once and for all, and whether Castle and Beckett were in bed or not, whether they were asleep or not, it was happening now.
They just had to make sure they made it in time.
The only thing she could think about was pain. It washed over her body in waves, so strong that she shuddered with each forced breath.
She had to keep breathing; she couldn't let it end this way. Her mother's life hadn't ended for her daughter's to come to this.
She had to keep breathing.
A cough came at her side. Castle. No, not him, too…
Kate reached out her hand, and he took it, his grasp frighteningly weak. "Kate," he croaked, his voice little more than a whisper.
It was so poetic she almost wanted to laugh. They'd been through everything together - they'd almost died in a freezer, almost died side-by-side inches away from a bomb, almost died who knows how many other times - and now, it had come to this. Both of them lying on the floor of the loft, the one place they were supposed to be safe, with their lives bleeding out of them.
The idea came to her so suddenly, she couldn't believe she hadn't thought of it before. Lucy. She called out the name, her voice straining with the effort as she attempted to get the system's attention. She felt like she was screaming, but little more than a whisper was coming out. Lucy couldn't hear her.
"Kate," Castle rasped from beside her. "Don't."
He could feel it, too. They were going to die.
"Alexis," Kate started. "Martha… my dad…"
"Love us," he finished. "Be okay."
She was fading fast, but he was fading faster. She could feel his grasp weakening, his fingers growing cold.
"Rick," she whispered, desperation in her voice. "I love you."
"I… luh…. luh… Kaaa..."
Silence.
Tears had been pricking at her eyes since she collapsed to the ground, but she let them flow freely now. She couldn't live without Rick. She couldn't. He couldn't leave.
"Rick," she rasped, her voice stronger now as she fought to keep not just herself alive, but her husband too. "Rick, don't go…"
It was too soon for their lives to end. There was so much they hadn't done yet; so many experiences they would be missing out on. They'd never get to travel to all the places they still hadn't visited, never get to have kids…
She couldn't let it end like this. But her life was draining out of her so quickly that she couldn't fight hard enough.
Gathering her strength, Kate squeezed Castle's hand once more, her fingers hardly tightening around his. She wished she could call her dad, tell him that she loved him and that everything was going to be okay. He knows, a voice in her head reminded her. He knows how much you love him.
Suddenly, her mom appeared, standing over Kate with a warm smile on her face. She didn't say anything, simply smiled, and no matter how hard Kate tried, she couldn't say anything, either. I must be hallucinating, she thought. If Mom were here, I'd be dead.
Kate attempted to reach her hand out, but it felt as though her body was filled with lead. She was weighed down; she couldn't move. Desperate to touch her mom, to know if the form in front of her was real, she tried once more to reach out. But the effort of moving only made her even more tired. The loft began to fade, her mom's smiling figure still clear in front of her.
Just then, she heard someone shouting her name. It sounded like it was a million miles away, but she would know that voice anywhere. Javi. Why was he here? Nothing was making sense anymore.
"Beckett!" The scent of Ryan's cologne washed over her, bringing her closer to reality. He was there, actually there, but no matter how hard she tried, she couldn't see him. She could sense his presence, though, and with a start, she realized that the two detectives must have come to save her.
Kate tried to speak; tried to tell them to save Castle first, but the words wouldn't come. She must have made a noise, though, because Lanie appeared by her side, quicker than she knew was possible, her hands pressing down on one of her wounds. "Kate, baby," her best friend pleaded. "I know you can hear me. I need you to hold on, honey. You're gonna be okay. Castle's gonna be okay, too. You're both gonna make it."
As Lanie spoke, she heard Esposito in the distance, shouting things. Things like "two ambulances" and "emergency" and "gunshot wounds" and "they both have a pulse."
They both had a pulse. They were both going to make it. Both.
With those words, relief washed over her, and the vision of her mom finally disappeared as Kate's world faded to black.