Chapter 2

"You say it's money that we need
As if we're only mouths to feed
I know no matter what you say
There are some debts you'll never pay"

Richard Castle was a raging tornado mess of a man.

She had been here, she had been right here, and then the next minute, she was gone. He was having serious déjà vu and couldn't help himself from checking in every single rack of coats, jeans, shirts, anywhere that she could hide, even though she was a little old for those games now.

He swears to whatever gods there are that she was right there. He had already gotten all of the security guards involved, and he had, no doubt, scared more than a few of the customers shopping in the store, but he couldn't give a tiny rat's ass. There are several moments where he almost ran people down in his mad dash around the rather empty department store. He does accidentally trip an older man at some point, and he definitely slams shoulders with someone, but it doesn't matter at all.

Where is she?

He keeps thinking back to this morning, when they were gathered around the kitchen island and she was talking about school and it was almost Christmas break and how she would have all this free time during the holiday to read. His coffee was perched on the counter in between them as he made her breakfast – waffles – and she prattled on about all the books she was going to read.

"Think you'll get around to reading my new book on this wonderful reading list of your's?" He had grinned, flipping over the waffle iron and continuing to peel the oranges to go along with them.

She had rolled her eyes in an exaggerated fashion, "Dad, you know I can't read those books yet, they're not suitable for kids."

"Wow," The waffle timer buzzed and he flipped it back over, opened the lid, and pulled the freshly made waffle out on to a plate, licking his fingers as he poured on an obscene amount of syrup, "I'm surprised you even referred to yourself as a kid, you're more like a tiny lawyer. You even used the word 'suitable'!"

Alexis giggled as he set the plate down in front of her, and she leered up at him with a smile, "Dad, the oranges? I need at least some sustenance."

Castle put a hand over his heart in a dramatic manner, placing the oranges next to her plate, "Goodness, how could I have forgotten?"

They both laughed, and he brought his cup up to his lips and—

A blood curdling scream filled the air and abruptly cut off his flashback.

He whipped towards its direction as did several others in the store, and it was only then did he realize that the scream wasn't just a scream, but a word.

Dad.

Castle jumped in to action, leaping forward and sprinting off in the direction of his daughter, tears welling in his eyes. Skidding around one corner, the yell got extremely louder, and he heard someone trying to calm the girl down. When he turned left, his vision blurred slightly as he laid eyes on his daughter, standing amidst a crowd of three or four people, face red and blotchy, a cut on her lip and a bruise forming over her left eye, but alive and whole.

The second she saw him she burst forth from the small group and ran in to his arms, where he willingly caught her and swung her up, shoving his face in to her hair.

"Oh god, oh thank god, Alexis you're safe. Oh shit, oh thank you." He was muttering in to her neck, her screams had turned in to sobs that he accepted willingly on to the shoulder of his wool coat.

The small crowd had mainly dispersed, the old man whom he is pretty sure is the one he knocked in to, has a soft smile on his face as he walks away. All he can do and think about is cradling his daughter against his chest, softly stroking her hair as she continues to sob. The security guards are there now, telling him how lucky he is to have found her and how bad the situation could have been, but it's all merely background noise to him, and nothing he doesn't already know.

Both guards stay hovering around him at a small distance, obviously wanting to know what happened, and in all honesty, he would like to know that as well. After the last time this happened, he made sure to have a long talk with her about leaving him in public places, and that if she ever got bored or wanted to leave, she just needed to talk to him. Someone had obviously tried to take her, judging by her screams and her wounds.

Gently, he tried to pull her back a little to look at her face, but she merely clung to his shoulder tighter, wrapping her skinny little legs around his waist as tight as she probably could, clinging to him like the koala bears they saw in the zoo a couple weeks ago.

"Alexis, honey," He stroked through her hair again, eyes closed as he inhaled her clean, fruity scent that had the undertone of fear and adrenaline to it, "Honey, you've got to tell me what happened."

The guards have taken two small steps forward, hoping to hear this part, and there are still a few people milling about on the outskirts, watching the terrified father and daughter reunited.

"Please, Lex, what happened, baby?" His voice is soft in her ear and for her only, his hand still carding through her ginger hair.

Finally, her heartbreaking, loud sobs turn in to whines and hiccups, her grip slowly loosening on his jacket, but her legs stay tight wrapped around him. He let her take a couple deep breaths, hiccups and tremors still wracking her body as she leans back to look in his eyes, her tiny hands wrapping around his neck. She may be ten years old, but at this moment, he could swear she looks five again.

Her face is incredibly red, and he runs his thumb along the edge of the bruise on her forehead, cupping her skull in his hand. Her bottom lip is trembling and she is still taking deep breaths, trying to garner enough calm to get words out of her system. Lifting her sleeve, she wipes away some of the snot and tears that are on her face, looking in to his eyes with great fear, her eyes suddenly wide.

"I had only t-t-taken a couple steps away from you, Daddy," she takes a pause to take in another rattling breath, before continuing, "Then there were these men in the store, they each grabbed one of my hands and told me I had to go with them."

Castle's grip on his daughter tightened as she sniffled, her voice still trembling as she told the story, "But I know you told me not to go anywhere with anyone, so when I tried to tell them "no", they started pulling me out of the store really, really fast, and I couldn't yell for you, and-" at this point she dissolved in to tears again and Castle hugged her to him.

"It's okay, it's alright, you're safe now." He whispered to her, hating to see her so upset and traumatized, but so thankful that she was here to be that way.

Abruptly, she pulled back out of his embrace, almost causing him to lose his hold on her, her wide blue eyes catching his, "We have to help her, Dad!"

She was now wriggling out of his embrace, and she wasn't small enough anymore to just hold on to her, so he gently set her down, holding on to her shoulders as she tried to run, "Wait, Alexis, honey, who? Help who?"

One of the guards had already left to call in what had happened to the police, while the other took a step forward as she continued to look wild eyed at her father.

"The lady! The one who saved me from the men!" Alexis exclaimed, looking from her dad to the guard now, who was calling the other man back over who was still on the phone with the cops.

Rick felt frozen in place, hearing her say the words "saved me" just struck him smack in the face again about how close he had come to losing her. Taking a deep breath in, he loosened his hold on Alexis's shoulders, convinced she wasn't going to try and run off again.

"What are you talking about? What lady?" He was trying to calm his own voice down so as not to further scare his kid, but he was still pretty shaken up and seeing her so worked up was certainly not helping.

"When the men took me out in the parking garage, they put masks on over their faces and started dragging me to their van, and when I tried to scream for help they covered my mouth and kept telling me to be quiet or else!" She was trembling now, the fear large in her eyes, but she pressed on, "Then, out of nowhere, there was this tall lady who screamed that she was the police and came running at the guys!"

Rick's eyes were the ones wide now, thanking his lucky stars and all other beings in the universe that someone had been out there to help his little girl. He was snapped out of his reverie when he realized that Alexis was still talking animatedly, now looking madly back and forth between him and the guards, "They started fighting and she was beating them off, she got the guy to let go of me, but they teamed up against her and one guy was holding her and the other was hitting her, but she told me to run, so I did!"

Suddenly, everything changed, Castle's face blanched just as the guards sprang in to action, both bolting for the parking garage as they screaming in to their radio, the other still on the phone with dispatch. Seeing that Alexis was quick to follow the guards to help, Castle scooped her up in his arms again and dashed off after them.

Pushing out through the double doors with Alexis in his arms, he followed the bodies of the guards as they rounded the corner, feeling his little girl curl against him a little tighter.

Rounding the corner, he almost wished he hadn't brought Alexis, that somehow he could've left her back with the sweet old man and she wouldn't have to relive this. Strangely, though, when they took in the scene, Alexis was the one who perked up, looking around in a desperate frenzy, while Rick took it in with horror.

There were two black, thick tire treads where the car had obviously peeled out in a hurry, but the most striking thing was that there were several puddles of blood on the ground that made Castle sick to his stomach. However, one very important thing not present at the scene, that had Alexis squirming around, was hard to miss.

"Where is she?" She questioned, turning about in his arms and then looking at him as if he should have the answers, "Where is she, Daddy?" The rise in her voice was inclined towards panic, and the two guards looked at each other with grief on their faces.

"Where is she!?" Her tone had turned to one of horror, drawing one of the security guards over to the pair of them while the other left to direct the arriving officers where to go in the garage.

The man looked apologetically between the two of them, and then settled his eyes on Castle, "We'll have to check the security cameras to make absolutely certain of what happened, but it seems…" He trailed off, glancing at Alexis's heart stricken face, but they both understood the context.

"They took her, instead?" Her voice was small and tiny, now trembling with tears, again. Castle clutched his daughter to him, but he didn't know what to say, how to comfort her. He owed this woman his life, and now she had taken his daughter's place. When they find her, he would thank her for the rest of his life, anything she ever wanted.

The guard pursed his lips silently, turning to walk back to the scene of the crime as the wail of sirens pulled up, several officers exiting out of the vehicles. One of the patrol cops headed over to the guard, scratching his head, both were still within earshot of the father, daughter pair.

"So, you said we got an officer taken? Do you know who?" The officer who had asked the question looked to the guard, who shook his head and then gestured over to Castle and Alexis.

"No, there's only one witness, and she's the one that they were originally after. It looks like when she interrupted the kidnapping; they took her instead, which is strange." The guard shook his head again, and shrugged, while the officer thanking him and then walked over towards the duo.

Rick's head was now rolling with the word 'kidnap', and he told himself that he refused to be sick at a crime scene. The cop nodded his head as he stopped in front of them, glancing back and forth with kind eyes.

"So, I hear that one of you may have been a witness." His eyes landed on Alexis, who gave him a very solemn, yet polite nod, sniffling back her tears, "My name is Officer Thompson, but you can call me Pete. I'm going to need to take your statement, you feel up for it?"

Alexis nodded again, and gestured to her father that she wanted to be set down, and then she looked up at the officer who had knelt in front of her, "Will it help get her back?"

Pete smiled at her, "It will certainly help."

She glanced up at her Dad first, who still had a comforting hand on her shoulder, before she looked back at the police officer and gave a solemn nod.

Officer Thompson stood up and placed a hand on Alexis's shoulder blade, "Let's go over and sit in the squad car, I'll even let you play with the lights, if you want."

Castle let his hand trail on her shoulder as she walked away as long as he could reach her, not wanting to let her out of his sight, but at least knowing she was safe, what with the twenty something police officers crawling around here.

His mind was going non-stop, couldn't quiet it down even if he tried, something about this just didn't make any sense. It was the writer in him, he knew, he just needed to figure out the story. What kind of kidnappers would turn around after a botched job and take a grown woman instead? Nothing about it made any sense.

He lifted a hand up to scrub over his face, he could feel the weary lines that had creased his skin that hadn't seemed to be able to settle yet, even though he could see the bright orange hair of his daughter in the passenger seat of the closest squad car.

Fresh lights flashed up the scene as another squad car pulled in, parking a little far off to the right, and out stepped yet another man donned in a patrol uniform, but Castle recognized a little more of a seasoned look about him. The cop made his way over to a small huddle that had formed at the crime scene, where they watched the crime tech people mull about, but then after a moment, they pointed him in the direction of the security guards and he walked towards them. Castle watched with something like intrigue as the cop shook the hands of the security guards and began to talk, he could barely make out what they were saying, but he saw no harm in eavesdropping.

"So, give me the run down." The officer had a sense of calm that Rick himself certainly did not feel, and admired, but then again, he supposed that is his job.

"There was an attempted kidnap of a little girl, who she says a woman intervened, yelled out she was the police and then fought the two guys. Little girl was able to get away, but from the looks of it, they took the woman instead." The security guard's description of what happened was brief and distant, the father in him still shuddered at the thought, but the writer was somewhat desperate for the story.

"Odd." The cop echoed his sentiment while he took in the crime scene, "I'll need to look at the security footage to get a better look at what we've got here."

Both of the guards gave him a brisk nod, but one of them spoke up, "The little girl said that the guys didn't have their masks on yet when they took her from the store, so we might need her for ID." He gestured to Castle and then to Alexis, who was just getting out of the squad car with Thompson not too far behind.

The cop nodded and began to walk over to where Castle was standing, his daughter reaching him moments before and already had him in a tight hug.

The officer nodded to both of them, addressing both Alexis and Rick as he spoke, "We're going to have the security footage pulled from inside the store, and out here in the garage." The next part he spoke only to Alexis as he pushed his hands in his jacket pockets, "Hon, we might need you to tell us which guys in the store tried to grab you, depending on the look we get at their faces, but I promise that you won't have to watch a lot."

Alexis was already nodding, determined now to help in any way she could, while Castle stood slightly thrilled to see the security footage. With his daughter safely by his side, holding his hand, he hoped to be able to witness the story of it all, instead of just the terror, he wanted to help as much as he could, too, whatever he could.

"If you guys will just follow me, we'll take you inside to the security room to have a look." The cop gave them a smile, trying to set the both of them at ease, before he quickly pulled one hand out of his pocket and thrust it towards them, "I'm Royce, by the way, Officer Royce, but we can just stick with Mike, if that's alright by you." He said, shaking first Alexis's hand, and then Rick's, "Let's head in."

About a half hour later, the tapes were pulled up in the security room, and Alexis was just being placed in to the swivel chair up front as they hit play. Castle could see himself milling about in the coat section, while Alexis wandered a little closer to the aisle, running her hand along the sleeves of the coats.

At the bottom right of the screen, two men appeared, only the backs of their heads visible to the camera, but she quickly pointed her finger to the screen, her body tense, "That's them."

Royce, who had not left Alexis's side the entire time, even grabbed her a coke from the vending machine, nodded, "Good, thanks, that's really helpful."

Alexis gave a small smile back towards Rick, who gave her one back in encouragement. Royce was still intently studying the screen, a crease forming on his forehead as he watched the men speak to Alexis and then begin to lead her out of the store.

Quickly giving up her seat once she saw the tape had progressed, Alexis went to the back and stand by Rick, whose eyes were still transfixed on the screen. With no audio, there was no way to make out what they were saying, but Royce lightly slapped the table, hand coming up to his mouth.

"They know where the cameras are." He muttered, mostly to himself, as they watched the two men begin to swiftly drag Alexis out of the store and in to the parking garage, never once showing their faces to the swiveling camera.

Castle held his breath as they jumped to the tape inside the garage, feeling Alexis turn her head to bury in his coat. He wrapped a protective hand around the back of her skull as he watched a black van pull out of its parking space and position itself in the middle of the road, tinted windows not allowing a view of the driver. By the time the two men rounded the corner in the tape with Alexis, their masks were already donned, so they no longer had to worry about camera position as one of them pulled open the doors and went back for Alexis and his partner.

The man whose hand was covering her face got a sharp surprise as she twisted her head around and bit down on his hand. He recoiled back just enough to allow Alexis to open her mouth and let out, what Castle had no doubt, was a blood curdling scream.

Not three seconds later did she appear. A woman sprinted in to frame, her back to the camera as she charged towards the first man, delivering a swift kick and then dealing with the second man, a nice punch to the jaw. Rick's eyes were wide, watching the brown hair of her ponytail swing wildly as she dodged a punch, taking out the guy's knee, and then breaking his nose. When the man released Alexis, the woman's face came in to brief profile, and all of a sudden Royce was pressed against the screen, eyes huge. The two other officers in the room also gathered a little closer as the tape played on, the man who had been on the ground dragging himself up and then flinging himself at the woman, ensnaring her in his arms.

At this point, the woman turned her face to look at Alexis, who was still standing off to the side, and opened her mouth to yell to her when the resounding crack and shatter of the ceramic filled the room. Alexis jumped, and even Rick couldn't suppress his shock at the outburst; Royce's head now in his hands as the mug he threw rested in pieces near the wall.

"It's Beckett." Royce pulled his head up to look at his fellow officers in the room, his lips in a tight, white line against his face, "It's Kate Beckett."

Castle forced his eyes away from the distraught officer long enough to look back at the video, still playing, and see one of the men get a hold of the woman—Kate's arm, while the other pistol whipped her across the side of the head. Mike grunted as he watched her body crumble to the ground, every eye in the room now fixated on the screen.

They watched the men deliberate, talking over her, and Castle felt everything in his stomach seize up as they bent down to pull her body up from the street. She twitched on screen though, obviously still conscious and Rick let out a breath of relief, until he saw the guy drop her legs and pull a syringe out of his pocket and plunge it in to her neck, her body going limp as it was place in the back of the van. One of the guys pulled a roll of duct tape out from a bag on the floor of the car, and began wrapping her wrists and ankles while the other man walked over to the driver's window.

The angle was still wrong to see whoever was in the vehicle, but as the man outside and them obviously exchanged words about the situation, his hand reached back and swiftly pulled off his own mask, the other hand coming up to rub down his hair.

Royce paused the footage, a barely repressed, "Fuck," hissing out of his mouth, his hands coming up to rub at his eyes, "fuck, fuck, shit."

Alexis had turned herself around in his arms at these words, but everyone in the room was still silent, until Castle couldn't take it anymore, "Who are they?"

Mike lifted himself from his hands, one of the officers in the room already radioing in to dispatch, but Castle watched as Royce placed his index finger on the screen, never once turning his head, "They're traffickers." His finger slid down the screen as Castle felt his stomach roll with nausea.

Everything crashed down around him as Royce confirmed the horrifying reality in his head, "They're known human traffickers."

AN - So, here's chapter 2, I already had most of it written yesterday when I first posted the story, and didn't have too much to finish up today. Plus, I'm avoiding studying for a test I have tomorrow morning, so there's always that. Thank you to everyone who reviewed, and followed, and are just reading the story. I'd love to hear everyone's thoughts, and I appreciate those who do.

Yes, this is going to be a human trafficking story, and I hope everyone likes where I will take it, but I will say in advance that there will be NO rape scenes, that I can promise, so there are no worries there. As for the subject matter, I have actually spent a good deal of one of my classes researching and talking about human trafficking, but, while I will try and keep the story as realistic and factual as possible, there are some things I am bound to get wrong. Other than that, I really hope you guys are enjoying the story so far, and continue to enjoy it!

Disclaimer - the characters belong to Castle and its creators, the song lyrics at the beginning belong to Arcade Fire