Sleep never did come that night for either Kate or Castle, and they were both chugging their respective coffees as the elevator dinged to announce their presence on the Homicide floor. Her mind was awash with possibilities, none of them good, and she was desperate for Roy Montgomery to answer the questions that tape left her with.

Castle, for his part, still felt responsible for everything. He understood that it wasn't his fault that their last case led them straight to Dick Coonan, that Jack Coonan had been killed in a manner similar to her mother. But Castle's more irrational side couldn't help but wonder: if he hadn't gone behind Kate's back all those months ago, if he hadn't enlisted Detective Esposito's help in digging up Johanna Beckett's case file, would they still have come to this point?

From the moment he learned about Kate's tragic past, Castle wanted to find out who killed Johanna. He had to admit that his reasons were, at first, a tad selfish – maybe if he solved the case, she wouldn't hate him quite so much – but as the weeks turned into months and he could sense an ever-so-slight shift between them, Castle went from wanting to impress Kate to simply bringing her the justice and closure she deserved.

That tape would be part of the process, but it was clear there was so much more to do. They had reached the denouement without any of the exposition or backstory or the trials and tribulations in between.

Kate and Castle strode straight toward Captain Montgomery's office, ignoring the questioning glances Ryan and Esposito threw their way – because honestly, they didn't need to be a part of this. The pair walked into the glass box that looked out over the rest of the bullpen, Kate slamming the door shut as Castle took his place on the sofa across from Roy's desk.

The slamming door startled Montgomery, and he sagged into his chair once he saw who had bombarded his office. The bags under his eyes were darker than usual, and the meeting he had earlier that morning at One PP hadn't helped matters.

In fact, it was becoming increasingly clear that Roy was going to lose his badge. And that was the best-case scenario.

"Beckett—"

"Shut up," she hissed, pacing back and forth in front of her boss' desk. The adrenaline and the caffeine made it impossible for her to keep still. "What's going on, Roy? Why would William Bracken want my mother dead?"

"And how does someone in his position meet someone like Dick Coonan?" Castle added.

"Look, I know you want answers," Montgomery said, "but I can't give them to you, Beckett. Not if you plan to stay alive."

"What I want," Kate spat back at Roy, "is to find out who hired Dick Coonan to stab my mother and why!"

"I can't tell you that," Roy shook his head. "I give you a name, I know you'll run right at him. I might as well shoot you where you stand."

"Dammit, Roy!" Kate pounded her fist against the surface of the desk, the sound loud enough that it drew the attention of everyone in the bullpen. Kate's fist shook and there were tears in her eyes again, but she sucked in a deep breath and kept them from falling.

Roy's eyes went from Kate to Castle, narrowing at him. "You put her up to this?"

"No." Castle stood and took Kate's side, hiding his hands in his pockets so the captain couldn't see them balled into fists. All of the conflicting emotions were simmering to a boil inside Castle, and the potent mixture vaguely resembled the sort of anger that threatened to burst out at any moment. "I'm just along for the ride."

"All these years," Kate snarled through gritted teeth, "all these years, Roy, you had the answers I was looking for. You knew who killed my mom, and you sat on it!"

"For your own good."

"Save it, Roy!" Kate shook her head, her jaw clenched as a couple tears managed to escape after all. "I'm not leaving this office until you tell us everything."

"Random gang violence," Castle recited from memory, his eyes bearing a hole in Montgomery's head, lacking their usual brightness. "So what was it? Was Detective Raglan that bad at his job, or was he covering something up?"

Roy glanced out at the bullpen, where uniforms and other plain-clothed detectives had returned to the business of their day. LT was tossing a baseball around Esposito while he and Ryan animatedly discussed something – knowing those two, it was either a case or Esposito again teasing Ryan over his relationship with Jenny.

Everything appeared to be normal. No one on the other side of that door knew that the day Roy Montgomery had forever dreaded had finally come. He knew it would; on his many sleepless nights over the years, Roy had envisioned every possible scenario, every which way Kate Beckett would learn the truth and everything would crumble before him.

Roy leaned forward in his chair, and Kate leaned over the desk even more until their faces were inches from each other. Montgomery broke the stare just long enough to pull open a drawer near the bottom of his desk, pulling a stack of NYPD-standard manila folders from it and placing them on the desk.

"These files incriminate the man responsible for Johanna's murder," he explained. "I've kept them hidden, and in exchange, those responsible backed off."

Castle frowned. "Backed off."

"They wanted to come after you," Montgomery told Kate. "The day you got your badge. My keeping these files hidden? That was the only thing keeping you safe."

"Bit late for that, isn't it?" Castle asked, putting his hands up in a show of surrender when both Kate and Montgomery glared at him. "Think about it: you killed Dick Coonan in the middle of a precinct. Word's bound to get out. If Senator Bracken doesn't already know, he will soon."

Roy's eyes flicked to the stack of folders in front of him. Bracken did know, and he wasn't pleased.

"I'm thinking," Castle continued, "this keep-the-file-hidden-and-keep-Beckett-safe plan had strings attached. Let me guess…" The writer's jaw clenched, and he took another step toward the desk. "You keep the file, they don't come after her, but as soon as she gets involved in the case again, the deal's off."

Kate frowned and glanced over her shoulder. "Based on what?"

"If I were writing a conspiracy like this, that's how I would do it."

Turning her attention back to Montgomery, Kate reached in and grabbed him by his tie. She gritted her teeth, steel in her eyes. "What's in the file?" she demanded. "What can I use to bring down Bracken?"

Roy shook his head. "You can't—"

"I can, and I will."

Roy sighed, his shoulders deflating. He glanced over Kate's shoulder at Castle, hoping that the writer would step in and tell her to back off, but he wouldn't. Of course he wouldn't. That man would follow Kate Beckett into the fires of hell if that was what she decided to do. Even when Castle was full of anger, Roy could see the love he had for her.

Some part of Roy hoped they would survive this, that they would make it. He was just sorry he probably wouldn't be around to see it.

"Alright," he said with a slow nod. "It starts with a mistake I made years ago, before your mother was killed. Only it wasn't just me; Raglan and McCallister were right there in on it."

Kate and Castle exchanged a look.

"They took me under their wing when I was a rookie," Montgomery explained. "I didn't know any better, so I went along with it."

"With what?"

"We kidnapped mobsters for ransom," Montgomery said. "Hefty ransoms, too. But one night, we screwed up. Cornered a man in an alley – the same alley your mom died in. But everything went sideways, and we killed him.

"Come to find out later, that man wasn't a mobster. He was an undercover FBI agent."

Castle nodded. "Bob Armen."

"We pinned the murder on a man named Joe Pulgatti."

Kate glanced over her shoulder, looking at Castle again. " Pulgatti…Castle, my mom was working his case when she died."

"And when Bracken caught wind of it—"

The sound of glass shattering interrupted Montgomery, and his body went stiff before keening to the right. As glass rained down onto the floor, Castle ducked for cover as Kate leapt across the desk, grabbing Montgomery by the lapels of his blazer as they both hit the floor. Glass shattered again, and this time, the sound of a gunshot in the distance registered.

By the time Kate gathered her bearings, she saw the blood pouring out of the side of Montgomery's head, brain matter and bits of skull strewn about the floor. She choked on a loud sob before covering her mouth with a shaky, blood-soaked hand before Castle could crawl over to her and lead her away.

By the time Kate returned to the moment, she reached for a nearby trash can, burying her head in it to empty the contents of her stomach. Her retching was lost in the commotion of the precinct; uniforms were on high alert as Ryan bolted toward the elevator, Esposito bursting into Montgomery's office, weapon drawn, examining the broken glass.

Grabbing the walkie-talkie on his hip, Esposito turned his attention to the chaos before him, eyes wide when he saw Captain Montgomery's now-lifeless body, Kate and Castle huddled together on the floor.

Glancing back toward the broken window again, Esposito shook his head. "Captain Montgomery is down. Sniper is still on the loose. Repeat: sniper is still on the loose! The building across from the captain's office – start on the twelfth floor and work your way up!"

Esposito and Castle exchanged a nod before the detective bolted from Montgomery's office.

For the second time in as many days, Kate was sobbing at work. The blood on her hand paled in comparison to what had splattered onto her white turtleneck. A moment of panic overtook Castle, and he brushed aside her jacket to make sure the blood wasn't hers. Logically, he knew it wasn't, but logic had since flown out the window.

He placed a soft hand on Kate's shoulder, feeling the way her sobs wracked her body. He hated seeing her so defeated, so broken; it was unlike anything he had seen before. The guilt returned, and despite every fiber of his being telling him not to, Castle glanced over his shoulder to glance at Montgomery's body.

The captain had just been gunned down right in front of them – all while explaining what had happened leading up to Johanna Beckett's murder. Confident that the gunfire was over with, Castle reached out to grab the files still on Montgomery's desk, trying not to let his fingers smear against the blood on the top folder.

He hid them under his jacket as best he could, taking stock of his surroundings. The bullpen was largely deserted now, practically every cop on the floor doing what needed to be done to find the sniper.

He glanced down again, frowning at the sight of Kate wrapped up into herself, sniffling.

"Beckett," he whispered. When he got no response, Castle dropped to a knee and grabbed his partner by her shoulder. "Kate." He tried to smile when Kate's bloodshot eyes rose to meet his, but it looked more like a cringe. "C'mon, we gotta go."

Kate rose with Castle's help, her legs still wobbly. "Go where?"

"Somewhere safe," the writer answered, leading Kate out of Montgomery's office just as EMT personnel and a representative from the morgue came in. Castle expected Kate to argue, but she kept silent as he led her down the stairwell near the back of the bullpen.

They couldn't stay in the city. Not now. Not until they cracked this case and brought down Bracken. Fortunately, Castle knew exactly where they had to go. There was a place, only a couple hours outside of Manhattan, where they could go and no one would know where to find them.

He wasn't sure he'd even tell his mother and Alexis where they were going.

Once they spilled out onto the sidewalk running parallel to a side street, Kate tugged on Castle's hand to get him to stop. He turned to face her, the look of despair in her eyes too much for him to take. He swiped his thumb under her left eye to brush away a tear, and when Kate didn't recoil, he scooped her into his arms for a hug.

It was an awkward hug, partly because they'd never hugged before and partly because of the bulk hidden in the writer's jacket. Once the hug ended, he opened his coat to reveal the files, smiling briefly at the stunned look on his partner's face.

"Castle…"

"We need all the leverage we can get," he explained as the pair started down the sidewalk again.

"We need to talk to Raglan," Kate said.

"Why?" Castle stopped dead in his tracks. "So we can watch him get gunned down in front of us, too? Kate, he's cleaning house. No one's safe."

"Least of all you," Kate argued. "I can't let you risk yourself like this. I'm not gonna be the reason Alexis loses her father."

"I'm the reason we're in this mess," Castle insisted. "And if I don't watch your back, who else will?"

"Rick…"

"You know me," he continued. "You know I'm the guy who always thinks we can push that boulder just a little bit further, but you know what, Beckett? I don't know if we can win this. But I know I'm seeing it through until the end."

Kate watched as Castle started walking again, seeing him in a different light for the first time. No longer was he the plucky sidekick with the inappropriate wisecracks and the outlandish theories. He was acting like a partner, a responsible adult who shouldered blame that truthfully, he didn't need to shoulder.

It wasn't his fault their last case led to Coonan, and it wasn't his fault she had to put a bullet in Dick's gut. It also wasn't his fault that Roy Montgomery had lied to Kate after all these years, that there was a massive conspiracy that led all the way to a charismatic Senator who some believed had higher aspirations.

Yet there was Castle, being far more stalwart and gallant than his law enforcement credentials allowed, and if Kate was being honest with herself, she liked him just a little bit more for it.

"Hey, Rick," she called out, cringing when her voice gave out.

He stopped and turned back to look at her. Kate then closed the distance between them, letting her shoulder bump against his as a ghost of a smile crept onto her face.

"Tell me where we're going."