[Ch.2]

Once again, he stood in the shadows of the hangar, watching her and the Captain. Except this time there was no exchange, just her on her hands and knees, sobbing over the man that died to protect her. Castle just couldn't walk over there yet, he couldn't yet face the fact that he was partially responsible for this man's death so he picked up the phone and dialled Esposito, gave him a quick rundown, told him to bring Lanie, told him to get Ryan to run interference. They would protect Roy's honour through this, they owed it to him.

Castle began making his way over to her, placed a hand on her trembling shoulder. She didn't budge so he knelt down beside her and pulled her up, shoulders firmly gripped in his hands. She shot him a look, but it wasn't the glare he expected. It was a look of longing, summed up in her eyes was the feeling he felt every time he looked at her lately. He pulled her into him and she wrapped her arms around his waist. He nuzzled his face in her hair. They stood there like that for quite some time, not saying anything, just letting their bodies do the talking. All of the sudden she pushed him away, threw her hair up in a ponytail, and rolled up her sleeves. The detective was back in the building.

"Rick, we need to get our stories straight," she said.

"Stories….what do you mean?" Castle replied.

"We need to protect him, this has to go down as the heroic fight that it was. Nothing about the Captain's past with Raglan and McAllister has to come out. We'll say…..we'll say he thought he had a lead, that we found something else to do with the helicopter, told us to meet him, then….then…."

"Kate, are you sure? I mean I called Espositio, he is going to be bringing the cavalry, we'll be lucky the FBI don't get involved. If we do this, the story can't have any holes. Let me do what I do best. You tell me what you want to say, I will write the story."