The usual disclaimers apply: I'm not making any money off of this, Castle belongs to ABC and Andrew Marlowe, and any similarities to real people or places are strictly a coincidence.

Author's notes are at the bottom. Please enjoy!

The Spellbound Affair - Alternate Ending

Chapter Sixty-Five

Beckett forced herself to stay calm as the brightness of the faint aura around her partner ebbed and flowed. She consciously monitored how tightly she held his little hand so she wouldn't accidentally hurt him. Her building adrenaline was due to a mixture of anticipation and anxiety. She could not wait until Javier and Kevin were back to normal - back to Detective Esposito and Detective Ryan. At the same time, she feared something terrible would happen.

So far, the counter-spell was going smoothly. Javier's naturally tan face remained lax and free from signs of pain or distress. Likewise, Randy was at ease. The doctor witch's mouth moved as he spoke silently to himself, weaving his spell. Thanks to her new second sight, Beckett was able to keep track of her partner's well-being based on the strength of his natural aura.

Bianca hummed to herself as she blindly tended to her mussed hair. Her gaze never left the bed, but Beckett could tell that her mind wandered occasionally. The lapses were brief, so the detective didn't call the older woman out. At least, that was the impression Beckett got, considering she hardly ever looked away from Javier.

Randy paused and took a deep breath before transitioning to the next part of the spell. Nothing seemed amiss to Beckett, but Bianca sat upright and focused more closely on the spellwork. Randy murmured a few short phrases, one hand hovering a few inches over the child's chest and the other loosely circling Javier's wrist. For the first time, Javier's face scrunched up in discomfort. The doctor paused to check on his patient's state. Javier relaxed again, so the witch continued his work.

A moment later, Javier gasped in pain, though he remained unconscious. "What's wrong?" demanded Beckett. Bianca scooted forward and placed her hand on Javier's knee.

"The retrogression's permanence is due to the spell's close integration with his being," said the white witch. "I imagine having it removed feels like withdrawing a knife from a wound."

"That sounds pleasant," muttered Beckett. She let go of Javier's hand with one of hers so she could press her cool palm against his warm forehead.

Randy frowned as he paused once again. "Bianca…"

"I've got it," said the older witch. She moved her hand from Javier's knee to his bare ankle, where she pressed her index and middle fingers against his pulse point. A soft, rhythmic thudding sound filled the room. Beckett realized that Bianca was monitoring her partner's heartbeat using her witchy abilities in place of an EKG machine. It was a little faster than typical for a six-year-old, but given the stress he was under, Beckett didn't let herself start to panic just yet.

Randy continued as carefully as he could. Javier moaned and his heart stuttered rapidly for a second. Beckett's concern ratcheted up when her partner's aura darkened as redness bled up to stain its tip. "This doesn't look right," said Randy. Javier's heart stuttered again, then settled on an increasing tempo. Beckett's own heart started pounding rapidly, nearly matching Javier's for speed. And then his outpaced hers.

"Damn it!" Bianca stood up, toppling her chair, and leaned over the shuddering child. She kept her fingers pressed tightly against Javier's pulse point at his ankle and reached her other hand towards his chest. The little boy's heart was beating so fast that it sounded to Beckett like the pulses were overlapping each other. Javier writhed in pain and started to cough as his breathing was hampered.

"What's going on?" demanded the detective. She had to shout to hear herself over the ringing in her ears and the echoing thuds of Javier's heart beat.

"He's going into cardiac arrest," said Randy. The unveiled worry in his voice nearly gave Beckett a heart attack, too.

"Do something!" she yelled. She was standing now as well, tightly clasping Javier's hand. "Make it stop!"

Bianca's white aura intensified as she pushed healing magic into the cursed detective. The pure magic was absorbed without aiding him at all. Randy also tried to stabilize the failing six-year-old, but his efforts were futile. Javier whined low in his throat. The sound was barely audible over Bianca's cursing as her healing continued to have no effect.

"Make it stop!" Beckett could feel the hot tears cascading over her cheeks as she demanded that the witches bring her partner's heart rate back to a safe pace and return his blackened aura to gold.

A burst of gold light from the little boy momentarily gave Beckett hope that disaster was adverted. That hope was immediately dashed when his faint glow evaporated completely. The background thudding from the magical EKG went silent. Javier's tortured writhing stopped and his heaving chest fell flat. The little boy lay perfectly still.

Beckett needed a moment to understand what had just happened. Realization hit her like a speeding semi. "That is NOT what I meant!" She desperately pressed her fingers under his chin, searching for the faint pulse that would assure her that her partner wasn't gone. "Javi! Javier…" She could hardly yell anymore around her devastated sobs. The door to the bedroom opening and closing barely registered to the detective.

"Kate!" Strong hands gripped her shoulders and forcefully pulled her away from the side of the bed. Away from her partner.

"No! NO!" Beckett clawed at the arms surrounding her, holding her against a body that was just as wracked with sobs as hers. "Javier!"

"Kate. Gods, Kate," wept Castle into her hair.

"Do something!" screeched the lead detective at the hapless witches. She started to cough and had to swallow convulsively to keep the bile rising in her throat from escaping. The only thing holding her up now was Castle, who must have come running at the sound of her screams.

"Katherine," said Bianca slowly, as if trying to calm a skittish animal. She purposefully stood between the devastated lovers and the bed, blocking the lifeless child's body from Beckett's sight. The witch's eyes were watery, though no tears fell. "I'm sorry."

"Don't be sorry," snapped Beckett. Her anguish morphed into anger. "Fix him."

"There's nothing to fix," said the older woman softly. "Nora Bellefonte… she must have put a failsafe in the spell, so that if anyone besides her tried to undo it, it would stop his heart. It happened so quickly that there was no time to prevent it."

Pounding on the bedroom door, coming from about waist-high, captured all of their attention. "Beckett? Castle? What's going on?" Kevin's voice, muffled as it was through the wood, sounded terrified.

The two lovers stared at each other, unsure of what to do. "This can't be happening," said Castle with a low groan. "This has to be a bad dream. Someone wake me up."

Randy's horror at the tragic way his counter-spell had backfired left him frozen in shock. He came to suddenly, his witchy glow flaring wildly. He held his hands over the prone form in preparation for more magic. "Randall." Bianca turned around to confront the younger witch. "There's nothing…"

"His spirit hasn't fled yet," said the doctor. His brow furrowed in determination.

"You can't bring him back," said the white witch. "The failsafe is irreversible."

"I'm going to try," stated Randy firmly. "If the point is to prevent us from removing the spell, then I'll just put it back." His hands glowed brightly where he placed them on Javier's forehead and over his still heart.

From the hall, her younger partner continued his assault on the locked door. "Beckett! Let me in!"

"Rick…" Beckett didn't want to lose his comfort, but she refused to let Kevin see his best friend this way. The writer was of a similar mindset. Castle summoned his courage and hastily wiped his cheeks dry with his hands. After a fortifying inhale, he marched toward the door and pulled it open. He caught the four-year-old before Kevin could make any progress into the room. The blond's demands to know what was going on echoed back to Beckett as Castle carried him down the hall to boys' temporary guest room.

Beckett pressed her fist against her mouth to hold in her sobs as she watched Randy work. The doctor witch was sweating profusely as he strained to pump as much energy into repairing the damage as he could muster. "Be careful," cautioned Bianca. She looked pained as she monitored her peer's progress.

"Everything is back to the way it was. I just have to overcome the failsafe and restart his heart," said the doctor between pants for air. He sounded like he was running a marathon and Beckett hoped she was only imagining the way his arms trembled.

For a moment, the detective thought she was seeing double when Javier was suddenly encased in a semi-transparent shroud. When it started to rise off of the bed, she was reminded of the way Dresden's soul had fled his corpse after Bianca finished him off. Her stomach turned on her and the room spun sickly around her as she realized that Javier's spirit was also heading heavenward. She had to drop to the floor and hide her face under her arms. She couldn't physically cry hard enough to express the terrible loss she felt.

"No, damn it," ground out Randy. "I'm not losing him."

"Too much of his life force is gone," said Bianca tearfully. She ran her hands over her face in defeat.

"Then I'll give him mine," snapped the doctor.

"Randall, you can't be so reckless," lectured Bianca. She straightened her shoulders and approached the bed to continue trying to talk down the younger witch.

"My family is the one that did this to them. I will fix this," Randy said angrily. "If I'm as gifted as you say I am, then I can overcome my mother's spell." He looked down, refocusing on Javier's pale form. The atmosphere grew tense as he ignored Bianca's admonishments and put everything he had into reversing his mother's devastating curse.

The air in the room pressed against Beckett as if it was trying to expand but had nowhere to go. The ringing in her ears increased in volume and her lungs burned. She was about to cry out for the witches to stop whatever they were doing when the pressure spontaneously exploded. Beckett lost her balance and barely braced herself before landing hard on her side. There was a thud across the room as someone else wasn't so quick to catch themselves. "Randall!" shouted Bianca. Around her, anything that wasn't bolted down toppled over. A falling lamp from the antique dresser barely missed Beckett's head.

The witches from the Council that hadn't left yet to return to the city poured into the room. They surrounded the bed, the cacophony of their voices making it impossible to understand anything being said. Beckett could see nothing, which she considered a small blessing. She didn't think she'd ever be able to erase from her mind the image of her junior partner's tiny remains looking so fragile on the rumpled bed. The destruction in the room seemed to confirm to her that all hope was lost.

to be continued…

Author's Notes:

Please let me know what you think, especially if you have ideas of ways I can improve. I cherish all my reviews. I write for fun but I always want to improve, so constructive criticism is always welcome. All mistakes are my own.