Story A - Part 2 of 3

Laying back in the dentist chair, Richard Castle closed his eyes and took in a deep breath, trying to relax. He hoped the act of the hygienist picking at the plaque on his teeth would distract him from the turmoil inside his gut if for only a little while. If nothing else he supposed it would give him time to think through their latest fight and decide if there was anything he could say or do differently the next time around.

The prior evening like so many evenings before, Castle had been discussing weekend plans with his partner. He made half a dozen suggestions, but she refused them all. Even when he reminder her that all public events would be attended as friends-only, she still refused. His frustration had then bubbled over into a full-blown argument, but more and more he didn't see the point; they always ended the same: with him on the losing side.

Six months had passed since that night in a beach condo when the truth about Beckett's secret female identity had come tumbling out. They had been in a romantic relationship of sorts ever since, though due to the unique nature of Beckett's situation, there had been more frustrating times than not. When they were together, just the two of them in his apartment, everything felt perfect—as it should be. It was all the other moments in the day that caused problems.

Since it was still illegal for a woman to be an NYPD officer Beckett had to maintain the façade that she was a man in all public settings. Castle insisted that he had no problem being romantic with her in public even if she was impersonating a man at that time, but she refuted. It wasn't as much the perception of them being a homosexual couple she had the problem with, but them being a couple at all, as it was strictly against NYPD regulations and she did not wish to dissolve their partnership. He understood that and was completely on board with being platonic in the workplace, but he also did not see why that would prohibit them from holding hands in a dark movie theater. Evidently, she disagreed.

When it came right down to it, Castle could easily admit that he was happier then, being with her only behind closed doors, than being without her, but therein lie some of their problems. He was happy, very happy. Getting to know Kate had been an utter joy. She was kind, warm-hearted, and surprisingly funny once all of her walls came down. He never would have wanted to trade their moments together for any other relationship in the world—particularly since their intimacy made her noticeably looser even when she was in "James Beckett" mode. Being that happy with her made him think about their happiness in the future. The way he felt about her then made him certain they did have a future, but any such attempted discussions led to more arguments.

He understood; he truly did. While they might have been able to pull off a secret marriage with her still working on the force, once they had children, she would have to return to being Kate Beckett forever. For her, that would be a significant sacrifice that he was not blind to. Still, it was a necessary obstacle for them if they wanted to have a family together. While she seemed uncertain on the subject of a having children, Castle had known since a very young age that he could not imagine his life without them.

As if their personal struggles had not been complex enough, as of late, their jobs had become an added source of stress. Several months prior, there had been a shuffle of teams amongst precinct, and the Twelfth acquired two new detectives. One, a young hotshot named Danvers, seemed to take an immediate disliking to Castle and Beckett. The former immediacy brushed it off as Danvers being jealous of their skill and case closure rate, but she had never been convinced.

Though they tried to keep professional in the workplace, when they were alone together it was sometimes difficult for them to draw the line. One such afternoon they were in the breakroom together, teasing each other thoroughly about a topic he no longer remembered. What he did remember was hearing the door swing open the exact moment he had reached out to playfully squeeze her ass. When Castle saw Danvers eyeing them, he tried to brush the joke off and diffuse the situation, but he also felt from that point on Danvers was suspicious of them.

Shortly thereafter, Beckett began receiving derogatory statements and anonymous notes on her desk and in her locker eluding to the fact that she was a homosexual. Given the fact that she could not totally eliminate her femininity, this was not the first time such events had happened, but Castle felt these notes were appallingly aggressive and urged her to report them or file a complaint. She refused, insisting it would be better to ignore it.

Every time another note was delivered they would argue yet find no resolution. The more frequently that happened, combined with their other spats, Castle felt progressively more upset about the state of their relationship. As he exited the dentist that morning, he wondered for the very first time if there was a real possibility of them not having a future together. Whether her insistence that they had to be aggressively secretive or the fact that she did not want children and he did would lead to the demise of their relationship. Just the notion of that made his heart ache, but Castle honestly was not sure in that moment if he saw a way around it.

As he crossed into the next block, Castle pulled his phone out of his pocket meaning to turn the ringer volume up since it had been on silent while he was in the dentist office. Before he even got that far, however, he saw that he had three missed calls from Esposito plus a text message instructing him to call ASAP. Grumbling slightly, Castle pressed the call button next to Espo's contact name; the other detective answered on the first ring.

"Jesus, what is it? I've been at the dentist." Castle snipped, annoyed that the subject of the urgent message had not been better conveyed so he could determine its actual urgency.

"Oh. Well I wanted you to hear it from me: Beckett's been attacked."

Castle stopped walking and his heart began to pound. Certain he'd heard wrong, he asked quietly, "What?"

"He was jumped in the locker room just before shift started."

Castle felt his stomach lurch. "What? Who? How bad?"

"It's… how far away are you?"

"Fuck." Castle cursed, knowing it must have been bad if Esposito wasn't providing more info over the phone. He broke into a run shouting into the phone, "I'm ten minutes out," before hanging up and sprinting down the sidewalk.

"Where…where's Beckett? Where's Beckett?!" Castle demanded the moment he raced off the elevator, sweat dripping down his forehead after his several-block sprint. Of course, his questions received no answers because he was shouting them at no one in particularly as he ran down the hallway. Once he spotted Ryan and Esposito standing beside the latter's desk, he repeated his shouted questions and added, "It was Danvers right? It was him; it had to be him." That was the only conclusion Castle could come to as he ran and thought; no one else would have ever committed such a heinous act against one of their fellow brothers in blue, no matter how they fundamentally disagreed.

Espo shook his head quickly. "Nobody's copped to it yet. IA's up everyone's asses. And Beckett was taken to the hospital about ten minutes before you called me back."

"God how bad? How bad?"

It was Ryan who answered with a grimace. "We didn't see, but its not great. Not life-threatening, but not great."

"Oh god," he moaned and raked his hands back through his head. He tried to compartmentalize, he tried to enact his cop training and keep a level head, but it was so hard knowing that the person he loved most in the world was injured so severely that hospital treatment was needed.

Ryan's hand landed on his shoulder and he gave it a squeeze as he said, "I'm sorry man."

"Listen, Castle, you should know…" Espo glanced around to see if anyone was in the immediate vicinity. When no one else was, he lowered his voice and continued. "There's…talk, you know? Locker room type stuff. You know when it comes to us—we don't care what you do after hours and we'd never confirm or deny anything but…if we're all being honest here: we know."

A mirthless laugh escaped Castle's lips and he muttered, "I really don't think you do," in reference to the fact that Beckett was actually a woman. He was certain they were not aware of that, but as for their relationship status, he was fairly sure they had figured that out. When it came to the other half of the partnership quartet, Castle did not believe a great deal of caution was necessary—a point Kate vehemently disagreed on. As such, she did not permit any physical contact while in their presence, even if it was just the four of them. She did not, however, refute him answering questions about their weekends with "we" responses, which naturally implied they were a couple.

At first, Castle could tell that his friends and colleagues weren't quite sure to make of the relationship, but Castle didn't judge them for that, nor was he offended. Were the tables reversed, he knew he would have reacted similarly. Eventually, though, they seemed to accept it as the norm and no longer gave him strange looks when he told them his weekend plans involved trying out a new recipe with Beckett.

"No, Bro, I don't think you do," Espo said.

When Castle's brow wrinkled, Ryan clarified. "He means: they were out for both of you but…well, Beckett's the easier target."

Castle's jaw tensed and his fists clenched at his sides. "So its Danvers and who else? Who? I'll make them pay for-"

"No, you won't and you won't let IA hear you say that either," Espo said, placing a hand on Castle's chest almost as though he felt the need to physically hold him back. "Just-"

"Castle!"

The group was interrupted by their captain, Montgomery, calling out for Castle from the edge of his office. The summoned detective hurried over to his superior while saying, "Sir, I'm sorry but I need to go check on Beckett, and-"

"You need to come in here first," Montgomery said in a tone that made it clear there was no room for arguing. Castle reluctantly stepped inside the office and stood stiffly in the center of the room. Montgomery sat on the edge of his desk and calmly faced the detective. "I'm gonna be straight with you here Castle, so I want you to be straight with me too. I…I know you and your partner have a very special relationship, and I know you care about him, so if you can I need you help us figure out who did this." With that, Montgomery reached behind him and pulled a crime scene photo from his desk.

Castle audibly gasped when he gazed down at the picture taken of their locker room floor smeared with brilliant red blood; Beckett's blood. "Shit…what… oh god." He groaned as he took a closer look and saw what appeared to be a blood spattered bludgeoning implement at the bottom edge of the photo. "What's that?"

"Soap in a sock."

"Fuck." He cursed beneath his breath at the notion of the cruel, prison-style attack. Soap in a sock would do great damage to the victim, but leave the assailant injury-free unlike punches, even with gloves on.

Putting the photo back on his desk, Montgomery asked, "Had Beckett been getting any threats? Is there anything we need to know?"

Castle took in a few deep breaths both to calm the roiling bile in his stomach and to consider his response carefully. "I…I'm aware of a few anonymous notes. Not threats just…derogatory comments. I encouraged Beckett to report them, but I'm pretty sure he did not. I…I'm sorry can I please go and check on him? Please?"

Montgomery nodded, but before dismissing him warned, "IA will want to speak with you later."

"I know." Castle replied before hurrying out the door.

Twenty agonizing minutes later Castle arrived at the emergency room Beckett had been sent to. He flashed his badge at the intake desk to find out where his partner was and rushed to her side. Given what he'd seen in the crime scene photo, he thought he was prepared to look at her, but his first glimpse of her face had tears pricking at his eyes and his stomach flipping over in his gut.

"Oh, god…Beckett…" He rasped out, for she was practically unrecognizable. Nearly every inch of her face was bruised and bloodied particularly her left eye both above and below the socket. The eye itself was brilliant purple and completely swollen shut. She was covered with a sheet so he couldn't see any more than neck and her right arm, which also appeared bruised, but not broken.

Sniffling back some tears, he walked over to her right side, not sure if she was conscious or not until his hand landed on her forearm and her right eye popped open with a gasp.

"Hey, it's okay; it's me. It's okay." He told her in a soothing tone.

"They're going to find out—they're going to know that-"

"Shh," he hushed her, placing his hand atop her head and stroking her hair gently so as not to hurt her. He was not sure of the extent of a physical examination done by her doctors, but he could tell she wore a hospital gown, which meant that at the very least someone had discovered her breast bindings. They may have even discovered her breasts if those bindings needed removed, but clearly her overall health was of the highest priority in that moment. "Shh it's okay. Whatever happens it'll be okay."

"It's not okay." She croaked out. "If they find out, I'll go to prison."

He shook his head and said, "I'm not going to let that happen."

"You can't stop it."

He continued to stroke her head gently. "Let's not panic before we need to okay? Just relax and focus on getting better."

A tear dripped from her eye and then she winced. "My face really hurts."

He gave her a small, reassuring smile. "Yeah, I imagine it does, but I'm sure they'll give you painkillers soon. Did you see who did this?"

She shut her eye and her bottom lip began to tremble as she gave a quick nod. Unable to help himself, Castle leaned down and pressed a kiss to her right temple, which he felt was safe due to the fact that that her bed was mostly obscured by a curtain. Even if it hadn't been, he didn't care who in that hospital saw them together; all that mattered was that he made her feel better however he could.

"I thought he was going to kill me," she sniveled out. "I really thought that it was over and I…I didn't…"

"I know, I know," he sighed against her hair, rubbing his hand over her forearm.

"It was Danvers. He came up behind me and hit me with—with something. I was so stunned I sort of fell forward and that's when he pounced on me, hitting me again and again. He called me all these terrible things and then…then he got up and kicked me twice in the crotch, but…but I guess jokes on him." She added with the smallest quirk of her lips.

Despite the distressing information, a breathy laugh escaped Castle's lips and he clicked his tongue at her. "Terrible."

A moment later, they were interrupted by a nurse pulling back the curtain and saying, "Okay Detective, we're going to—who, who are you?"

Castle stood up straight, flashed the badge on his hip and said, "Detective Castle; I'm…I'm the partner."

"Well we're taking the detective up for x-rays now so you'll need to wait here."

He nodded and then smiled down at the woman in the bed. "I'll be here when you get back; I'm sure it won't take very long."

"Okay," she agreed, then just as they were about to wheel her away, she added, "Thank you."

"Always," he called out after her. Then, he went in search of coffee to sip while he waited for her to return.

Several hours later, Castle continued to sit dutifully by Beckett's bedside while they waited for the doctor to come in and give his final assessment of her facial injuries. She had told him that she caught a glimpse of the x-ray as they were leaving the room and could see what she thought was a fracture on her cheek. Given how horrific her face looked, neither of them were surprised, but she expressed concern that she might need surgery. He didn't know what to say to that, so he merely gave her hand a squeeze.

For the most part, they had been left alone except for the brief awkward incident when she'd sent him to find a nurse so that she could use the bathroom. The nurse returned with a bottle to use for urinating since she was supposed to be laying down. She politely requested a bedpan instead, but the nurse protested until Castle jumped in and loudly insinuated that the woman was not heeding the reasonable request of an injured cop, which had several heads in the ER turning in their direction until the irritated nurse scurried away and returned with a bedpan a few minutes later.

Shortly thereafter Beckett was moved to a room instead of being left in the curtained off area. They soon learned this was because the police detectives from the internal affairs division had arrived and were presumably preparing to interview her on her attack. Castle saw them standing at the intake desk and informed her of what was going on, but before the IA duo arrived, Montgomery popped his head in to check on her condition.

"My face is broken, sir; I'll probably have to stay at least one night," she replied.

Montgomery nodded and said, "Well of course I wish you a speedy recovery, but I must ask quickly before IA arrives—do you two have your stories straight?"

"I…I don't…" Beckett stammered and looked over to Castle, but he shrugged, feeling equally confused.

"Whatever you do on your own time is frankly none of my business, but if IA finds out you're a couple, I can't protect you and your partnership will be dissolved."

Without missing a beat, Beckett responded with, "But, Sir; we're not a couple; we're just partners."

Montgomery gazed between them for a moment and then nodded his head. "Alright then. Castle, you'd better come and wait with me."

"Yes sir." He agreed. After giving Beckett's shoulder a squeeze, he followed Montgomery to the ER waiting from. From there, he could just barely see the room that was Beckett's, but he could not see inside. He tried to sit down, but then got up and watched the IA duo enter the room. He raked his hands back through his hair and paced for several minutes before sitting down. He was only seated a minute before he stood and repeated the process. This happened twice before Montgomery called him out on it.

"Son, you have to relax. Beckett is not in trouble and neither are you."

Castle retook his seat and said in a somewhat confident tone, "I-I know that."

Montgomery looked at him directly and repeated. "She's not in trouble."

"I know, but—" Castle felt his face flush when he realized what Montgomery had said. He stared at the elder man while holding his breath for several seconds, waiting for Montgomery to react, but he never did. He merely continued to stare at Castle calmly. "I…what…"

Montgomery blinked slowly. "You're worried about IA finding out who she really is, but they don't care about her medical records, only who did that to her face."

"Wha—but you—you're—how…"

The captain smiled, clearly amused. "She didn't tell you, did she? I knew her mother."

"Her mother." Castle echoed a bit dumbly. Thankfully, Montgomery explained further.

"Her mother Johanna and I knew each other way back in the day—back when she was a legal secretary at the department. We got on well, so she would tell me about her family, her daughter. Years later, when Beckett showed up in my precinct and looked so much like her mother…well, I put two and two together and we came to an understanding of sorts. I'm the only one that knows her real identity—save you, of course—and I'm pleased to see she heeded my request not to let anyone in on that secret."

"I…" Castle paused to think about what Montgomery had said as it was really quite shocking. The fact that she would be found out by him because of her mother did make sense, but neither of them let on that the other knew—not one bit. It really was impressive. "But…how did you know that I knew?"

Montgomery chuckled. "Well, the thing about being in love is that you often forget you're not the only two people in the world and certain looks and gestures you don't think can be noticed are."

Momentarily annoyed with himself, he muttered, "But I tried to be so careful…"

"You were. It was her. I don't think I saw her smile once up until…oh, six or seven months ago."

Castle felt his ears heat up as he cleared his throat and confessed, "Yeah, ah…that sounds about right."

Montgomery hummed and nodded. "And now that its all out in the open I'd like to say that I'm very impressed with the ruse you've allowed to take place around you."

Castle huffed and pushed himself up and out of his seat again. "But look where it's gotten us? She's—she could have been—"

"You really think the men that did something as heinous as that wouldn't have done something similar if they found out she was a woman?"

Castle couldn't say for certain how they would have reacted, but Montgomery's comment did rejuvenate his initial concerns. "No, but I know what IA will say. She's terrified that they'll find out and send her to prison."

"I understand why and I'm not saying her fears aren't valid, but in my opinion, the odds of that are very small. Like I said, they just want to know who attacked her. Will she tell them?"

Castle nodded and skimmed his hand over his mouth. Suddenly feeling quite exhausted, he flopped back down in his seat and said, "Yeah. Yeah, she will." Then, he propped his elbows up on his thighs and dropped his head so he could hold it between his hands as he sighed out, "This is all just…insane."

He felt Montgomery's hand land on his shoulder. "I know it is, but justice will be served here; I can promise you that."

Castle lifted his head and gave his captain a small smile. "Thank you, sir."

"Of course. And as for the shifts your scheduled for—don't worry about that; I know she needs someone to care for her right now."

He nodded, feeling relief for the first time that day. "Thank you; we both appreciate that."

Montgomery nodded and stood from his chair. "Just remember that when it comes to who she really is: neither of us know at thing." Then, with that, he left Castle alone to wait—and think.

A/N: Thank you all so much for your reviews and your appreciation of this crazy story :)

I did notice a few people ask about why Beckett cannot be a female cop and while that was implied it was not outright said: no, women cannot be cops in this AU.