Started my daily ficlets to make the hiatus pass, then decided to keep going with a 2nd cycle, and then a 3rd, 4th, etc through 52nd cycle. Now cycle 53!

THIRD ANNIVERSARY CYCLE: It's late October again, and within this cycle I will be completing my third year of daily gleekathon stories and commencing a fourth! As in previous years, this means special things happening. I've selected my favorite stories from throughout the year, and I'll be treating them to something special. In previous years this included Prequel, Sequel, and POV Swap, and then Additional Scenes and Alternate Endings. This year I'm adding two new treatments: Genre Swap (I think that's pretty straightforward) and Element Change (I change one thing in the story, see how it affects the rest). Note that in both these cases and some of the others, there may excerpts directly transferred from the story it references. Also, since this year saw the addition of 'shift days', and since I suck at picking, I have selected 42 stories, to be treated two per day! So here we go!

This story is an Alternate Ending to A Dish Best Served Cold, a Castle/Glee crossover story, originally posted from May 10 to 23 2012.

This is a double shift day. There will be one more upload today: My Mother Is A Star.

"Leave None Behind"
New Directions + Castle cast
Castle/Glee crossover extra (see above)

After he'd hung up, they'd watched Matheson just standing there in the small office. The mention of a van didn't take long to make its effect on them. They equated landing in that van as a no return. If they were put in that van, then they were never coming home. Now waiting to see what would happen, even after hours of being trapped in that room, was the most stressful moment they had experienced.

When the phone rang again, hands reached out for hands all around, just as they had on and off throughout the day. They listened, waited. It was hard to make heads or tails of what Matheson was being told, from the one side of the conversation that was receiving and not getting, but eventually what they did get was their fears come to pass. They were giving him the van.

They had sat there, all thirteen of them, stunned for a beat. They had all done their best to stay brave throughout this whole ordeal, because no matter what, they knew that there were people out there trying to rescue them, and they had the belief that this would be exactly what they would do. Only it was one thing to be rescued from a building, a room. If they got into that van and were driven off, then the variables just opened wide… They could die. Once that started sinking in, bravery was shrinking away.

There was talk of staging a coup, thirteen against one, it could be done. Except in this case it was thirteen unarmed against one with a gun, and the risk was too strong in their book. If they weren't all on board, they wouldn't do it. Still, they remained stuck just as they had been for hours, and they remained prey to whatever would happen in that van.

Then the call had come in. The van was here, at the back door. The smile that had come on his face had struck them all like ice. All they could hope for was some kind of plan, to intercept him before they drove off…

"You," he pointed to Puck. "Pick him up," he now pointed to Artie. "Not going to slow us down with that chair." Artie looked to Puck, who had a frown for Matheson but did as told. Of all of them he was probably the most likely to try something, and they were sure even a lunatic like Matheson could figure that out. Now by putting Artie literally in his hands, he had as good as cuffed him. "Group together, three lines of four, one behind the other, hands on the shoulders in front. So you go ahead," he looked to Puck, who carried on his dirty stare.

Matheson had opened the door, scanning the halls to make sure there was no one, before ushering his hostage lines to group together and walk out. Puck, with Artie, was the first out, with Quinn holding at his shoulder, Rachel behind her, and Finn behind her. Then came Mike, with Tina behind him, and Brittany behind her, and Santana behind her. The last row was led by Sam, with Mercedes behind him, and Kurt behind her, and Lauren behind him. The three rows were made to stand close together, a solid square of three by four. Matheson made them lead the way, assuring them that he had his gun trained on their backs at all time. Puck, Sam, and Mike, the row leaders, couldn't help but look to one another, trying to see if there was anything at all they could do that would help them without getting anyone hurt. Matheson had played this right, because they knew any movement deviating from what he had asked would mean a bullet in the back for either Finn, Santana, or Lauren. And they couldn't risk it.

The halls were clear. No cops, no nothing. They were nearing the door, and every step closer they got, they only felt hope pulling further and further away. Now they were there, and they had to stop. "Open it," Matheson ordered, and Mike, in the middle, was the one to reach for the handle. Through the windows they could see the van. They could only see the van. Mike opened the door. "Alright, let's go, move along, get in." Once they were all outside, seeing no cops still, all seemed lost, and they could feel it. "In, now!" Matheson told them, so they climbed on, dropping into the seats as they went, most of them two by two. Matheson came in last, shutting the door and looking to the thirteen faces staring at him. He smirked to himself. "Let's go for a ride, kids. And don't try anything," he got in the driver's seat. When he turned the key and the van roared to life, there were some whimpers, more so when they started to move. The van had been parked at the back, no doubt to prevent turning this into a spectacle for the families, the onlookers, and the reporters. The road was set for them to make an invisible exit, and they were strongly starting to believe this was it, they were done.

It was Brittany, of all people, who had spotted it, the movement. She had looked up, her eye called to attention by something moving in the opening next to the panel which stood behind the driver's seat. And when she'd looked up, a pair of eyes had turned to her. Her hand had slapped to her mouth, keeping herself from making a noise when she saw what it was, who it was. She pulled it right down and laid her head on Santana's shoulder at her side, so not to appear suspicious. Santana had looked to her, figuring she was spooked, and she'd taken her hands in her own. Brittany wanted to tell her what she'd seen, but then what if…

They had driven for a good ten minutes, when they started to hear noises, like the engine struggling, sputtering. "No, no, what…" Matheson was looking at the dashboard, trying to keep the van in motion, and then he saw… they were out of gas. "Son of a…" He froze when he felt something at his neck that, if he had to put money on it, was probably a gun.

"Hands behind your head," Beckett emerged from her hiding spot, and the sound of her voice was like a rush of relief to the thirteen kids in the back. Matheson was forced to obey, and he was quickly cuffed, one cuff going around his hand, the other looping the steering wheel before it landed on his other wrist. "Why don't you cool off for a while, I'll be reading you your rights in a minute," she told him before pulling a radio from her belt. "This is Beckett. Matheson has been apprehended, the hostages are safe, roll out," she instructed before moving to join the kids. "Thanks for not ratting me out," she nodded to Brittany, who smiled, while Santana looked to her, now understanding what had happened.

Minutes went by before several cars came along, carrying Castle, Ryan, Esposito, some of Lima PD, Blaine, Sugar, and the families. All were reunited, and Matheson was transferred out to a car so he could be taken in. Beckett returned to her trio. "I wish I could have seen the look on his face," Castle told her. After giving them a few minutes, he had gone and found Brittany, so that she could call Alexis. He had not been a hundred percent as to the plan, but if Beckett was sure, then he could give her his vote of confidence, and seeing the faces of all those kids, he knew it had all been worth it.

THE END

A/N: This is a one-shot ficlet, which means that signing up for story alert will not bring you any alerts.
In the event of a sequel, the story will be separate from this one. And as chapter stories go, they are
always clearly indicated as such [ex: "Days 204-210" in the summary] Thank you!