Chapter 2
"KATE!" Castle yelled out. Every pair of eyes in the room was now fixed firmly on him, each brimming with a spectrum of emotions.
'But no. Oh my god Kate. Her head was bleeding. They didn't just do that?' Castle thought as every weapon in the room was now directly pointing at him. It took every ounce of strength he could muster in order to not rush to her side, and hold her in his arms, willing her back to life.
"Beckett, Beckett, do you copy?" Technical Assistance spoke into the mic trying to get some response from their only contact.
"What the hell's going on? Where's Beckett?" Esposito yelled as he and Ryan burst into the operations room.
"We lost contact. We have no idea what is going on. Either they found her bugged, and destroyed them, or…" Captain Taylor said, the worry evident in his shaking voice.
"Or what?!" Ryan replied. "Oh god.."
Beckett blinked her eyes open slowly, trying to see past the black spots and blinding light as the daytime pierced her face. She felt the cold of the floor against her cheek, and as she tried to readjust her position, the back of her neck screamed in resistance as the muscles moved against the tender bruised bones of her vertebrae. A cool trickle of blood leaked from her wound. Out of the corner of her eye, Beckett saw Dr Collins roughly grab Castle round the throat and slam him up against the wall of a private room, traces of skin, hair and blood lay trapped against the cracks in the glass. Wincing against the pain, and gasping for air, Castle looked down into the angry eyes of the fuming man, whose fingers were pressing deep welts into his neck.
"Who are you? How do you know her?" Dr Collins shouted at Castle. He narrowed his eyes, and tilted his head to inspect Castle's ever reddening face.
"I.. er.. can't.. brea-" Castle managed to get out. Dr Collins squeezed and dug his nails into Castle's flesh, before throwing him to the floor as he released his grip. Castle panted for a few seconds, before standing up and facing the onslaught once again.
"I am… just a guy.. A writer, actually. Of crime novels, how ironic." Castle said, his humour not failing him for a moment even after the breath had been knocked from his body. "Oh!" yelped Castle, as calloused hands grabbed the back of his neck and held one of his hands behind his back in a vice like grip. Dr Collins steered him to the still, vulnerable body of Kate Beckett. His muse. His friend. His partner..
"LOOK AT HER. Who is she? Why do you know her name?" Dr Collins spat, as he bent Castle's spine, forcing his head to face the bloodied mess that was Beckett. He hated to see her gorgeous face lying in a small puddle collecting at her cheek, just touching her nose, seeping gently from her mouth. A black angry bruise was visible beneath the bloodstains. Castle's eyes pricked with tears.
"I.. er.. she is.." Castle stuttered, trying to think straight, knowing he could not give up Beckett's identity.
"No.." A small whimper caused them all to look round. Kate tried to say something, but every drop of energy was being spent on the strain of her injury, her body falling fast into survival mode. Castle locked his eyes onto her.
"Who. Is. She." Dr Collins repeated in frustration.
Castle blatantly looked him in the eye. "I am not going to tell you," he said.
"That's it." Dr Collins voice raised in anger, and he released Castle from his overpowering grip, for the second time that morning. Swinging his gun back over his shoulder, he proceeded to kick Castle to the floor, and then grabbed Beckett under the armpits, pulling her to her feet. Still not alert from her unconscious stupor, he and another perp dragged her away from the hostages. Castle attempted to jump up and help her, but he was knocked out momentarily from another blow to the head. It didn't take much, because of his previous head injury, and weakened state from the strangulation.
10 seconds later, he came round, and began to rise from the floor, but several machine guns pointed directly at him caused him to reconsider.
"What is going on, what the hell happened to Beckett?" Ryan said to Esposito as they sat in a corner of the operations post.
"I don't know, but I don't know what all these guys are doing! You can't just stand around and watch, the pregnant chick came out on the gurney ages ago, probably got her baby in Trinity General Hospital right now! So why hasn't Beckett come out too?" Esposito replied, wondering what on earth was happening in the depths of the bank right now.
"Maybe we should try to stop worrying about Castle and Beckett, and try to find out what is happening with that safety deposit box – like Beckett said, if it was important for Castle to send out using Morse Code then it's got to be the key!" Ryan exclaimed, running to pull his laptop out of the kit bag and plugging in his external hard drive to access files as they would at the Precinct. He wasted no time into pulling up the backgrounds of the couple who had previously owned the box, and scrolled through their case file.
"Ok, so we know that they were strangled, but their place was tossed. So what were they looking for? It's the only legitimate reason as to why they would toss it, everything in the CSU report indicates that it was not a straight up home invasion," said Esposito. "Shall we go check this place out?"
"Yeah, that's probably a good idea. These guys are good, Captain Taylor can handle the hostage situation," replied Ryan, and with that they packed up their gear and got in their car, and drove across town to the apartment of the deceased couple.
Beckett blinked as bright lights popped her eyes. She turned away, taking a few more moments for her vision to clear. A man leaned against the wall in front of her, studying her movements.
"Kate.. I'm guessing." She turned her head at the sound of her name, and her vision cleared. Her cheek was itchy; her neck throbbed and it took almost all her strength to keep her head up. Then she noticed that she was bound. Panic whooshed through her. She flexed her fingers and strained against the plasti-cuffs holding her hands and feet tightly against the arms and legs of the chair. She tried several more attempts to free herself, but it was in vain, so she stopped as it was only causing more unnecessary abrasions to her skin.
"Don't struggle. It really won't work." He walked behind her, and back around again, jumper cables swinging from his hand. Occasionally he pressed down on the clip, and then released it so it snapped shut with a metallic ping.
"What do you want from me?" she quizzed him. It scared her that she did not know who this guy was, or what he wanted with her. Of course, it could be revenge from a case she had closed, from an enraged friend or family member, but how would they know who she was?
"I've been studying you. Not that you would know it of course," he said, with a sneering smile. He placed his hands on the back of the chair behind her, and leant down so he was only mere inches away from her face. His next words escaped him in barely a whisper.
"I know who you are."
She recoiled from the odour of his angry breath, trying not to give him the satisfaction that he was getting to her. He inhaled deeply, closing his eyes as he did so, before pulling back and looking her in the eye with an unnerving stare. Still looking at her, he walked backwards towards the door, swinging the tangle of jumper cables over his shoulder, before slamming the door shut.
Castle was in more emotional pain than physical. He kept wondering what had happened to Beckett. They had been gone for a while now, and despite his best efforts, he could not hear a thing. Footsteps echoing off the marble surfaces of the plush interior of the lobby brought him back to the present. Hands still behind his head, and kneeling on the floor, he turned slightly to see Dr Collins walking into the room, jumper cables over his shoulder. A sly look with deep intentions was written across his face. He approached one of the other guys.
"Where is that defib she came in with?" he spoke in an audible whisper, eyes flicking over to Castle as he spoke. Castle tensed up, a million thoughts raced through his head, bouncing around his skull.
'Was she dead? Defibrillators were used to restart the heart after a cardiac arrest. She could be lying on the floor, or slumped up against a wall, fighting for her life, and he could never hold her. Never tell her how he felt.'
Dr Collins walked in the direction that the masked man showed him, and picked up the defibrillator, and began to walk away again. He disappeared into the back room.
'It's not about the books anymore.'
Kate heard his boots clunking over the tiles as he approached; the irregularity of his footsteps told her he was carrying something.
He came through the door, jumper cables still over his shoulder and the defibrillator in his left hand. He set it down a metre or so from her feet. He pulled out a knife, and walked back over to the chair. He slid it up her sleeve, and pulled upwards, giving him access to her arm. He continued well past her elbow up to the FDNY badge emblazoned on her sleeve. Putting the blade back into the hilt, he replaced it in his pocket, and tugged the fabric apart to finish the job. The midnight blue material fell from her body.
"Now, this is how it's going to work. I am going to ask you a question," he said, clipping the jumper cables onto the defib panels. "Then you are going to answer it. Truthfully. If not, I shall know."
He switched on the machine, and put the voltage up to 120V.
"And then, I will add a little… persuasion, let's say."
The green light beeped. The static was charged. And with that, he brought the metal down on her arm. Current flooded through her as it sped to earth. Each nerve it passed over was set on fire. Kate yelled out in pain, before spasms took over her body and shook it, leaving her clenched and speechless.