In Holland, Castle ended a few weeks ago after 'The Blue Butterfly', and it probably won't continue till after the summer holiday. But I heard and saw things from 'Always' and then I just couldn't resist. I had to see the ending. Now I can't stop watching it…
And thanks for the story alerts and stuff.. (L)
Don't own anything, but I guess you knew that already.
Chapter 2
When the three detectives, the medical examiner and the writer got off the plane, they looked around to see if they could find the FBI agent. They all turned around when they heard a female voice.
"Lanie? Lanie Parish? Is that you?"
Now they also saw the woman who had called out. She was standing there with a guy next to her, who was wearing a black suit, a read tie and sunglasses covering his eyes. Yep, definitely FBI. They walked towards them. Now Lanie recognized her.
"Camille Saroyan! It has been waaay to long since I saw you! Girl, I thought you'd disappeared off the face of the earth!" When she reached her friend, she hugged her tightly. "Never thought I'd see you again!"
They released each other and Cam introduced her and the man standing next to her to the rest.
"This is Special Agent Seeley Booth from the FBI and I'm Camille Saroyan, head of the Jeffersonian lab. You're from the 12th precinct, am I correct?"
Kate answered. "Yes. I'm detective Kate Beckett. These are detectives Javier Esposito and Kevin Ryan, my partner Rick Castle and apparently you already know Lanie Parish, our medical examiner."
"Nice to meet you, guys," said Booth, taking his sunglasses off. "First, you can drop your bags at your hotel and… wait? Rick Castle as in Richard Castle, the writer?"
"That's me," Castle replied with a smile.
"Awesome! Anyways, after you've dropped your stuff at the hotel we can head to the Jeffersonian. We got you 3 rooms in a hotel near the lab. Is that okay?"
"That's great, agent Booth, thank you," said Kate.
xxx
Roughly an hour later, they walked into the Jeffersonian. Ryan, Esposito and Castle were carrying boxes with files and other stuff about the triple killer, his victims and more. Booth led them into the conference room, while Cam went to get their other colleagues.
The guys got along really well, and they started talking about some guy stuff, to which Kate and Lanie rolled their eyes. Then Cam entered with 2 guys and 2 women, one of them pregnant.
"Guys, meet Detective Kate Beckett, her partner Rick Castle, detectives Kevin Ryan and Javier Esposito, and their M.E. Lanie Parish from the 12th precinct. They worked on the 3XK case last time. And New Yorkers, this is our team: Jack Hodgins, our bug guy, Angela Montenegro, forensic artist, Wendell Bray, an intern and Dr. Temperance Brennan, forensic anthropologist."
"Nice to meet you," said Beckett. When everyone was seated, she started to hand out copies of the 3XK files. Just then, another man walked in.
"Sorry I'm late. Traffic was horrible. I'm Dr. Sweets, by the way. I'm-"He was cut off by Booth.
"He studies people. You know, he knows when they lie, and can he can tell what kind of a person someone is by just looking at the guy. Shrink-y stuff, in other words." He looks apologetically at Sweets. "Sorry, but no one would have understood what you were going to say."
Beckett suppressed a smile and continued handing out the files. When she was done, she sat down.
"We're just going to tell you the most important things, the rest you can read in the files I just gave you. Espo, you can start, if you want."
He nodded at her and started to speak. "Quite some years ago, the triple killer strangled three young women in one week, dropped out of sight for a month, and after that he killed three more women. They gave him the nickname '3XK': triple killer. A few years ago, we got a body and Castle recognized the MO; she was killed by 3XK. The reason he hadn't killed for some years, was because he'd been in prison."
Ryan took over. "We arrested a guy named Marcus Gates. He confessed to all the murders in great detail. Details only 3XK himself would know. Castle and I went to tell Jerry Tyson his girlfriend was fine even though Gates tried to go after her. He didn't sound very relieved and Castle figured it all out. Paul McCardle, Gates' foster brother and the only person Gates ever cared about, had just had an expensive surgery, and he didn't have it until after Tyson got out of prison. He was the one who paid for it. He and Gates were in prison together, and Tyson had told him everything he needed to know about the murders so Gates could take the fall for them and McCardle would get the surgery he needed in exchange for that. Gates wasn't the triple killer, Tyson was. After Castle told him this, he uh… he knocked me out and took my gun." He swallowed.
"He tied me up to a chair, and he planned on shooting me. Or so he said. But I knew him and I told him so. Tyson was raised by only his mother. She was blonde. She never really wanted him. When Tyson was a teenager, she suddenly died. Drugs overdose, presumably. He went into bad foster care. He blamed his mother and he hated her so much for abandoning him. He killed all those young women to get back at her. But, as much as he hated his mom, he also loved her. That's why he left the bodies looking peacefully," Castle continued after seeing Ryan was having a bit of a hard time.
"He learns the victim's habits by stalking them. Very discrete, though. Then he gains access to their apartments by disguising himself as a security guard, repairman or something similar. He strangles them with 3-strand, twisted quarter-inch rope made from green and white nylon. And, as Castle just said, he arranges them in a funereal position. All the victims are blonde and in their early to mid-twenties," Beckett finished.
"What we have discovered today all matches up to what you have just told us," Brennan said. "The bone fractures clearly indicate strangulation and when we arrived at the crime scene the body was indeed funereal positioned."
"And this is him, Jerry Tyson?" Cam asked, holding up his picture.
"Yes it is, but it he probably changed his appearance. We won't be able to recognize him," Castle replied.
"I might be able to help with that", said Angela, "You know the program with which you can turn photos of young people in how they look when they're older?"
They all nodded.
"Well, I have something like that but then it gives possibilities for how people can look after changing something in their face. It's complicated, so I'll save you the explanation."
"That is just awesome!" Castle exclaimed. "Except that we're looking for a man who killed a lot of women which isn't awesome at all," he finished, after receiving some strange glances.
They exchanged more ideas and findings until Cam spoke up.
"I know the clock is ticking on this case, but maybe we should continue this in the morning. If we continue now, we might make mistakes, what we absolutely don't want. And everyone knows what he or she has to do tomorrow, so we can start off early and quick, and maybe we'll even see new things. I suggest that right now, we're going out for a drink, get rid of the stress. Anyone who disagrees?" She looked around, but everyone seemed to agree.
xxx
They'd packed up their stuff and went to the Royal Diner. The 2 teams got along very well and it seemed as if they were talking non-stop. The team from the Jeffersonian now knew about Kate and Rick's relationship, about Lanie and Esposito and that Ryan is married. And the team from New York knew that Angela and Hodgins are married and that they have a son, that Cam has an adopted daughter and that Booth is the father of Brennan's baby.
"Dr. Brennan, how long till…" asked Castle, gesturing to Brennan's swollen belly.
"2 weeks," Booth replied, before Brennan had the chance to answer. He put his arm around her shoulders protectively. She glares at him for the PDA.
Oh, I recognize that glare, thought Castle. I get that one from Kate a lot too. It's the touch-me-again-and-I'll-kill-you look. Actually, they remind me of Kate and I. Except for the being pregnant thing of course… Yeah, let's not go there yet.
He was interrupted from his thoughts by a hand on his knee. Kate smiled at him with a hint of worry in her eyes. He squeezed her hand reassuringly and smiled back.
"Castle, you wrote Derrick Storm and Nikki Heat, right?" asked Brennan.
Oh God, Booth thought. Please don't insult him or his books.
"Yeah, I did. Did you read them?"
"Yes, I did. Usually I don't read such books, but I found myself really enjoying yours. They're very true to reality and from the way you described every detail I could see you're a very talented writer."
"Thank you, Dr. Brennan, that's great to hear and-"Castle was cut off by Lanie.
"Please don't inflate writer boy's ego more. His is big enough already." The others around the table all laughed, while Castle faked a hurt expression.
"Writer boy?" Hodgins asked.
"Writer man, Hodgins, writer man. I've been upgraded, but Dr. Parish just pretends she doesn't know that. You agree with me though Kate, right?" said Castle, looking to Kate.
"Actually, Mr. Castle, I'm not so sure about that," Kate replied with a wicked smile.
The others laughed again at Castle.
"Very funny detective Beckett, very funny. But you will pay for this, I promise you."
"Looking forward to it." And then she just continued to talk to the others.
xxx
Later that evening, at the hotel.
"Lane?" Esposito called.
"Yeah, babe, what's up?" When she didn't get an answer, she walked out of the bathroom towards her boyfriend, who was sitting on the bed. "Hey, what's wrong? You know you can tell me everything, right?"
He nodded. "It's just-"He took her hands and pulled her down next to him. "3XK is dangerous, and we've seen what he's capable of. And usually I don't go all overprotective and sappy, but… Be careful, chica. Okay?"
She nodded, before kissing him softly on the lips. "I promise, as long as you promise the same."
She went to turn off the lights and crawled back in bed with him.
"Love you."
"Love you too, chica." But she was already asleep.
xxx
Just as Kate finished brushing her teeth, Rick showed up behind her and hugged her.
"Hey, beautiful," he said. She gave him a smile in return. When he didn't let go, she raised her eyebrows and met his gaze in the mirror.
"What, Castle?"
"Tyson nearly killed me last time, Kate. I don't want him to finish that job on you. I can't lose you, Kate, I really can't. I know you're perfectly capable of protecting yourself, but I want to cherish moments like this in case-"
"Stop it." She turned around. "You're right. I'm perfectly capable of protecting myself. And we'll catch him, because I plan on cherishing many moments like this in the future." She stood on her tiptoes and kissed him softly, pouring all love she possessed in it.
He surprised her by suddenly lifting her up and carrying her towards the bedroom. He pulled back. "What? I did say I was going to make you pay."
I hope you liked it. Review please?
-xxx-
