Thanks to Trish (deandreamer) and to Madsthenerdygirl for feedback and edits!

and to Marlowe et al for creating these amazing characters

Erosion

Chapter 2- Tied Up

Beckett came awake to a throbbing behind her eyes and the taste of blood in her mouth. She felt the tight bindings around her wrists and ankles, and memory came instantly. She fought the instinct to lash out and instead extended her senses trying to determine if she were alone.

She was blindfolded and sitting with her back against a wall. The ground was cold beneath her and the room smelt of mould and old leather. There was movement beside her; faint shuffling and quiet, but ragged, breathing. Muffled, and at a distance, she could still hear the gusting wind and the sounds of the dock; they'd not been taken far.

She focused her attention on the sounds of movement beside her. Was it a guard? Or was Castle with her? When she decided the muffled grunts sounded familiar she risked whispering his name.

The shuffling stopped straight away, "Beckett? Oh, thank god. Are you okay?"

"Yeah, sore head, but good. You?"

"Ribs are a bit tender, and I think they knocked me over the head. I'm tied up. Are you?"

"Hands and feet, and I'm blindfolded." She pressed her ankles together and then twisted her hip to the wall to feel for her holster, "My weapon's gone."

"They got my cell phone too."

"You realise your phone is not actually a weapon, don't you?"

"Ah, all depends on how you use it, Detective."

Castle started again on tugging and rolling his hands over the metal frame that he was tied to.

"What are you doing?" Beckett asked after a moment.

"Trying to loosen the knot."

"Getting anywhere?"

"Maybe. It might be looser. What are you anchored to?"

"What do you mean?"

"Are you tied to anything?"

"No, I have the wall at my back." She extended her legs and felt around her.

"Can you shuffle over here?"

She lifted her joined hands over her head and felt around herself. The wall was smooth, and the space above her head was clear. She realised she was no longer wearing her flak vest. "Hang on. I want to see if I can get this blindfold off."

She ran her fingers awkwardly around the back of her head to locate the bindings. She tugged the back and worked at her forehead with the tops of her arms at the same time. It didn't loosen, and she ran her fingers back around it. She noted the smooth glide of the blindfold against her skin and cursed.

"What?" Castle asked.

"I think they've duct taped the blindfold on."

"That's gonna hurt like a bitch to come off."

"I'm not going to complain so long as it does come off." She gave up on the covering and started shuffling towards her partner by wriggling her butt across the concrete. Her feet made contact first and Castle sighed in relief at the nudge.

"See if you can work on this knot," he said, jiggling his hands despite neither of them being able to see it.

Beckett lifted her arms in the air and reached towards his voice. She found his shoulder and squeezed her fingers around him. He immediately shuffled his legs sideways to press their lengths together and they sat facing each other.

Beckett ran her hands down his elbow and followed his forearms up again to where they were suspended in the air. She moved straight over his hands and then up along the cold metal frame that he was tied to. She gave it a gentle pull, and then another harder one. It didn't budge.

"I tried that," Castle protested.

"Yeah, I know. I'm going to pull myself up, see if I can work out where we are."

With her bound hands linked together she extended her arms and heaved herself up. Hopping on her joined feet she adjusted her weight and slid her grip up higher on the railing. The metal continued straight up above her head with hooks and holes spaced along its length. There was nothing branching off from it. She let go briefly to extend her arms in a semi circle to feel around them. Nothing.

Lowering herself back to the ground she took up her position, legs alongside her partners, and slid her hands down the rail until she found Castle's hands. She closed hers around his for a moment, and Castle responded by hooking his fingers around hers; mutually reassuring with the contact and warming both their cold fingers. She allowed them no more than a few seconds before releasing her hold and fumbling lower to work on the knot.

The rope was smooth and it slipped repeatedly against her fingers. She stuck her hands between her knees to warm them for a moment before trying again.

"Can you get it?" Castle asked.

"I'm trying. Hang on." She wasn't sure if she'd be able to loosen it. She couldn't get a feel for the shape of the knot and her fingers were numb from the cold and reduced circulation. She fumbled again for another minute, growing more frustrated.

"We're still at the docks," Castle said to distract her. "I'm guessing we're in a storeroom or something. Was there a lower level? It feels insulated somehow."

"Could be a shipping container."

Castle went quiet for a moment, thinking. "Modified, maybe. We're on concrete."

"You're right though, it does feel like we're further removed from the storm." With a sigh, Beckett dropped her hands to her lap, "I can't get the knot. My fingers won't grip and I can't get under the rope."

"Use your teeth."

"My teeth?"

"Can you kneel up close enough? You could bite at it."

Unfortunately it wasn't a bad idea, "Don't foxes chew their own paws off when trapped?"

"Could we stick to chewing at the rope for now?"

"I'll do my best," she taunted him, and tugged on the railing to hoist herself onto her knees.

She resisted the temptation to bite at his fingers and tried to feel around the knot for a loop that she might be able to get undone. His fingers poked in her face as she tried to find a way to get her teeth over the loosest part of the knot.

"Can you get your fingers out of my ear?"

He mumbled an apology and linked his fingers together, "Better?" Without his sight he was reduced to pure sensation and her warm breath on his cold wrists, the gasps she made as she nudged against him, was pure distraction.

"Might be easier from the other side so your wrist bends away," she mused aloud and felt around the knot with her fingers again. The only flex in the knot was where she was already working. "No, wait, I'll try again."

Castle ignored the cramping pain in his wrists and hips, the ache of his ribs and pounding in his head and focused instead on the tickle of her hair against his fingers and her mouth so close to his skin. It could be altogether pleasant in different setting.

"We can't seem to manage this without a considerable downside to the whole situation," he said, hoping to lighten the mood.

"What's that?" she asked around her grunts and puffs at his wrist.

"You have to admit there's a certain appeal in our predicament..."

"A certain appeal?" Beckett sat back, and if it wasn't for the blindfold she'd have levelled a glare at him.

"If only we could ignore the crazy gunmen and the concrete prison. Why are there always crazy gunmen?"

"We were knocked unconscious, bound, and we're being held by drug running murderers and you're dreaming up some crazy bondage scenario for Nikki and Rook?"

"Hey, I never mentioned bondage! I was just saying..." Castle realised he wasn't going to get the laugh he was hoping for and tried to change the subject, "Nevermind. How's the knot coming?"

"Mmmm." She sounded unimpressed. Castle cursed the blindfold that prevented him from seeing if she were truly pissed at him.

Beckett knelt over him and lowered her teeth to his wrist, "This would work so much better if only one of us were tied up and blindfolded." She smiled into the resulting silence.

.

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A/N- I'm not sure how Castle stands all the innuendo... i would have just spontaneously combusted months ago.