The Taurus was waiting, its engine idling in neutral. She opened the door and fell into the car looking to the driver….

Chapter 4

"Put the heat on. I'm fucking freezing." Kate said matter of fact at Special Agent Will Sorenson who frowned recognising the mood immediately from months of dating her, and flicked the heater on. She pulled off her gloves, blew warm air onto her hands then rubbed her palms up and down her thighs. "So cold." She whispered under her breath. "Fuck, I'm cold." She was wishing she was at the loft, warm and comfortable on the couch with Castle watching some silly movie he liked, whilst fending off his advances.

"You look like shit, Kate." He stated just as bluntly and hit the accelerator. He had to get her to a safe house for the night even if he wasn't happy about doing it.

"Well, what do you expect? I just hid from my boyfriend and one of my best friends. I've hidden on that roof, squatted in a filthy corner for nearly eight hours. I'm hungry, thirsty and cold." She replied heatedly pulling the seatbelt out. "I'm doing this because the CIA has leaked to the FBI there is a bounty on my head of unknown origin. I am so damn tired of living under threats. I thought it was all over with." She said thinking about the day she had finally resolved her mother's case.

"They couldn't confirm it was a bounty Kate. They just overheard bugged conversations that gave them enough information to know someone is after you and has a nice reward on your head. Who that someone is has yet to be determined."

"Well, maybe I should just stand in Times Square and wait for them to show up." She bitterly said, then took a breath. "I'm sorry Will. I'm not angry at you. I'm angry at the world right now." She muttered.

"I know." He said and kind of smiled to her in understanding, seeing her eyes in the darkness of the interior of the car. She was terrified and additionally agitated about something. Afraid, Will knew she could deal with, but terrified was more than she could do on her own. The agitation was probably due to Castle turning up. "There is a bag of sandwiches and beverages in the back. Eat and try to get some sleep. We will be on the road for a couple hours now," He told her. He reached for her hand. When he touched it her fingers were icy cold. "I'm sorry, Kate." He offered up sympathetically, stroking her hand just as he did when they had dated and instantly he heard Kate start to cry.

"I can't do this." She whispered, barely able to say the words she was so upset. She was staring at Will's hand, wishing it was Rick who was reassuring her. "I want to be with Castle." She confessed after a few seconds of crying. She dropped his hand and he returned it to the steering wheel.

"Kate, we have been through this. They showed you and me the evidence. I'm only doing this to protect you, because you wanted me to help you. I don't want to take you away from Castle, from your life. But I don't want to see you murdered either. Keeping you alive takes priority."

"You know, if there is any doubt in Castle's mind, he will not stop looking for me, he won't give up. It will destroy him. I will need to get back to him before that happens."

"If it goes according to plan he will stop hunting for you." Will replied, knowing she understood the subtext to his comment. She understood alright and Will almost regretted saying it.

Kate immediately squealed from deep within her throat, clutching her head, crying in pure unhappiness. She was distraught to the point Will started to think he would need to abandon the plan and return her to Castle. He had never seen anyone so distraught. He was unnerved by her emotional state. She usually held it together remarkably well, but not tonight. She was an awful mess. If he didn't take her home, alternatively, he wondered if the FBI could arrange to have Rick kidnapped to stay with her. Not likely, but he humoured himself with the idea of kidnapping the writer to be with his muse. He tried to touch her in reassurance but she made a noise of objection and jerked herself away. She tried to open the door frantically pulling on the handle but Will had locked her in the car. She started to pant with panic, struggled to escape the car and swore at the door.

"Kate?" Will called, having never seen her so hysterical. "Do you want me to stop the car?" He asked loudly and seriously over her cries and senseless words. She fell quiet verbally and physically as though she had just been slapped across the face.

She sat back in the seat, glaring angrily at him, still panting heavily. "No," she firmly stated. Will understood she had just remade the decision to move forward with the plan no matter how much it hurt. It took all the willpower she had to not beg him to take her home but she was not able to stop the tears because she felt so heart broken and afraid. She had been ok, until Castle had turned up in the alley had relentlessly called for her. His tone of voice had struck at her already frayed nerves, her heart severely ached to be safe with him. She also sensed she was being taken into a horrible situation.

Will recognized the tone of surrender to their course of action and said, "Please eat something, Kate." She stared at him a little longer then gave him a single nod of absolute acceptance to the situation. He reached into the back seat, brought the bag to the front and put it on her lap. He accidentally touched her hand. She was still very cold. He turned up the heat.

"William?" She said as she fished around in the bag he had given her. She had to admit she was very hungry and knew she needed to eat something.

"What's up?" He asked, trying to keep a calmness to his tone

She pulled out a sandwich she recognised as one of Will's homemade ones, his famous salad sandwich she used to love him making her. "Your salad sandwich."

Will smiled. "Especially for you." He told her. She was all over the place with her emotions, but thankfully calmer at the moment. He was pleased to see her unwrap the sandwich and take a bite, a good bite. She found a bottle of water and twisted the lid, taking a few mouthfuls.

"I'm so hungry." She murmured after swallowing.

"I can see that." He glanced to her. She was looking at him, her eyes large and very dark, her skin extremely pale. She looked almost haunted. He saw her put the sandwich in her lap, which was not where he wanted to see it. "Pick it up." He suggested.

"I will." She replied chewing what she had. She swallowed. "William?"

"Yes Kate?"

"I found out last night I'm pregnant." She stated quite calmly, seconds before she started to cry again.

"Is that happy cry or unhappy cry?" He carefully asked.

"Happy, scared." She admitted.

"So Castle knows?" He queried almost rhetorically. He quickly realised the impact the pregnancy had on the situation in many ways. He glanced to her seeing her head nod, as she wiped the tears from her face with the backs of her hands.

"Mmm Hmm. He was so excited and happy. He was crazy about it and then we had to pretend nothing is going on when we arrived at work."

"Jesus Christ Kate." He sighed now completely unsure about what he was taking her into. "How far?"

"About six weeks." She replied. "I didn't know. I just did a test last night because I didn't get my period for so long …"

"But you were like that …" He said remembering she'd had irregular periods, particularly if she was stressed. "You sure?"

"I pissed on half a dozen sticks I think to prove it to myself I was pregnant. I didn't believe them because we have been trying for so long."

He took his eyes from the road a moment longer than normal, seeing how pale she was even though she sounded excited about the pregnancy. He had often contemplated whether she was the motherly type when they had dated. "Congratulations Kate. I wish you were telling me this under more normal circumstances."

"Me too. That's why I'm saying Castle won't cease the hunt for me if he knows I'm alive." She said.

He took a breath resigned she wasn't going to let go of that hope, her belief in Rick's determination to be with her. "You had better finish that sandwich then Kate. You're pregnant and you haven't eaten for a long time. Drink that water too."

"I'm eating."

"Why did you tell him when you knew about this?" He asked thinking it was strange when she knew she was going to disappear that very next day.

"He's a writer Will, and spent the past four or so years following and studying me. He knows me better than I know myself, which is really creepy by the way, but it's true." She took a bite.

"I tend to agree."

"Mmm." She finished chewing and swallowed. "He's the one who bought the tests."

"Seriously?"

"Mmmm. He brought them home yesterday and told me to use them when I was ready to. He mentioned he already knew I was pregnant later one, but he also knew that I wouldn't believe him, that I would need the evidence in in black and white before me. He figured six pregnancy tests and a trip to his doctor friend tonight would have provided me with enough proof."

"I would have thought so."

"It was enough." She agreed. "He was euphoric, exuberantly happy." She smiled timidly as she recalled Rick's romantic behaviour the entire night. Whilst she had been doing the tests one after the other throughout the evening, not able to believe the results 100 per cent every time, Richard had been writing at his desk calmly waiting for her to bounce back to him with the next piece of news. When she had finally crawled into bed with him he had smothered her in his endless affection, showing his pleasure and excitement over their creation. They had spent hours focused on each other. It had been a special time for them as a couple.

"It is creepy he knows you like that." Sorenson replied. "But least you know he's the real deal."

Kate nodded silently in agreement, studying what was left of the sandwich. She looked back to Sorenson. "He is so in sync with me William, that he will know in his heart I'm alive. He will keep looking for me." She honestly stated.

"Jesus Christ." Will hissed glancing to her impatiently, "Castle will stop searching for you after tomorrow." He pressed annoyed at Kate's persistence that Castle would never give up the search for her. "He won't keep looking."

Kate grunted a response of denial and continued to eat the sandwich. She felt ill, but forced herself to eat the rest of the food mainly because she was already starting to feel better, at least physically warmer. A cup of coffee of soup would have been desirable. When she finished she slumped down in the seat feeling emotionally drained, extremely tired and fell quiet for awhile. Her eyes stared out the front window assessing all the traffic. It wasn't long before the movement of the car and the heat caused her to doze off. Will continued to observe her, and once she was fully asleep, he cut the heating down and continued to drive them to the safe house he had been ordered to take her to.

11.06 pm

Very late that evening William drove the car into a garage and put the car into park. He looked to his passenger who was fully asleep then peered through the front window screen to a door way as an agent came out to meet him. He stepped out of the car and gently shut the door so as not to disturbed Kate. He moved to the hood and shook hands with the agent he didn't know. They didn't even bother to exchange their names. The safe house agent wasn't quite as tall as Sorenson. He had bright blue eyes and dark brown hair. Irish ancestry. He was probably aged in his late twenties.

"Cargo is in the car. She's asleep." Sorenson stated.

"Keep her that way." The tall agent said, peering through the front window of the vehicle. He smiled to Sorenson. "She's a looker." He exclaimed with a whistle.

"Yes she is." Sorenson agreed. "Keep your eyes off her. She's taken. You're the safe house keeper and her guardian until she leaves here." Will reminded him, as his senior agent, and walked to the passenger side of the car, now worried about leaving his ex-girlfriend, who remained a great friend, with a total stranger. He looked to her through the glass to her sleeping face and was overcome with a powerful urge to protect her, even more so than he had ever experienced when they had been dating. He wondered whether it was because he knew she was pregnant, that some mysterious primordial instinct to protect her struggled to be heard from within him. It felt odd to experience, particularly as she was carrying another man's child, not his. It wasn't his place to be her protector the way he was feeling he should. He blinked several times hoping he could suppress the instinct. She wasn't his girlfriend anymore.

He opened the door expecting Kate to wake but she didn't stir. He concluded being pregnant was going to cause her to sleep more. What frigging unfortunate timing for her to get pregnant, not that she could have anticipated this mess winding up. Will assumed it was writer boy's way to get her out of police force. Will made the decision to carry Kate inside the house instead of waking her up. He unclipped the seatbelt, put one arm behind her, the other beneath her knees and lifted her easily from the passenger side of the Taurus. He felt relief she wasn't aroused by the movement as he didn't want another scene from her whilst he transferred her into the safe house. She remained limp in his arms, a total dead weight, but thankfully not heavy.

"Follow me." The agent said and led Will into the old house. Will checked out the room he was taken into, an old style kitchen with the aged décor of the eighties. He stepped through the kitchen, into a hallway layered with worn down carpet that had seen far better days about 20 years ago. They turned into the second doorway on the right, a bedroom with a single bed pushed into a corner. "Let her sleep there. I will hear her if she wakes in a panic. They normally do when they wake in this place. I'll have you sign the papers, then you need to get out of here. You made sure no one followed?"

"Do I look like an idiot?" Will replied and laid Kate on the bed.

"I've seen everything." The agent replied.

Will grunted. "I need to collect her bag." He spread a blanket over her, as the agent left the room, and brushed back her hair from her face. "Be good Kate. I'll see you soon." He whispered, knowing she was going to be scared out of her mind when she woke up in that strange room alone. But his orders from above were to transfer Kate Beckett to the designated safe house, leave her there and return immediately to New York City. He had to continue life as normal so no one would notice his absence. He backed out of the room knowing if she was to wake right now, she would struggle to keep him with her. He gently pulled the door to and walked back through the farm house to his car. He found the back pack with her belongings in the backseat and reluctantly passed it to the agent. He leaned on the hood of the car to sign the multiple forms and took one copy of each with him.

Sorenson reluctantly slipped behind the wheel of the Taurus and turned the key in the ignition. The engine started and he turned off the radio not in the mood to listen to music. His gut instincts were at him to return Kate home to Castle, that something was very wrong with the safe house. He struggled to understand why he felt as he did. He wasn't green, wet behind the ears with the process of protective work. He had transported people to and from safe houses numerous times and tonight wasn't any different to every other time, but he had a foul taste in his mouth, in his throat.

The garage door behind the sedan started to roll up. Sorenson disregarded his intense visceral reaction to the situation as he put the car into reverse and backed out of the garage. It was then he realised Kate still had the burner phone. He decided to leave it with her, just in case. He'd been told to take any form of communication from her, but it wouldn't be the first time he'd disobeyed an order and it probably wouldn't be the last. He pressed his foot on the accelerator and reversed right out deciding to tell anyone who asked she had lost it. The Ford in drive, he pointed it in the direction of the long track to the gates of the country property. What was to happen to Kate now, he had no idea but he imagined she would be out of the country within a day or so.

Outside the gate, and about half a mile down the road, he pulled the car over, opened the door and threw up because he felt that sick about leaving Kate at the safe house. He sat there a few moments dwelling on what he had just done. He reached for the bottle of water she had been drinking from and took a mouthful swishing his mouth of vomit. A part of him felt totally stupid but most of him was in a free fall panic over leaving her there. He took a drink, threw the bottle to the passenger side and started to drive the car head back to New York, to his apartment.

He had virtually handed Kate's life to an unknown man's control and it wasn't wearing right with William at all.

He felt as though he was the bastard who had carried Kate to the doorsteps of hell and laid her before the devil himself.

Well, I hope the tension in starting to build up on you all. It all about conflict and how the characters deal with it

There will be angst (my nails have all been bitten off), there will be a very bad period of violence and struggling, so we can get on with the focus of this story between Castle and Beckett. Once again, thanks Fitch for your unconditional support and assistance. I promise I will bite the bullet and keep it full of unexpected twists and turns and shocks.