The Western Way

Disclaimer: I still don't own them but they sure are fun to play with. =)

A/N: Thank you to everyone who is reading, reviewing, following, etc. I greatly appreciate it and I'm glad you all like this story. It definitely is fun to write and a nice break from reality. About half of this chapter is new content so read and enjoy and you get Kate and Lanie time. Woohoo!

Also, I have been thinking of doing a Castle SVU crossover set in the 1920s inspired by the PBS Prohibition series- thoughts?

Now, on with the story!


Chapter 4

Kate Beckett let out a deep sigh as she slumped uncharacteristically on her horse. She was tired. No, she was utterly exhausted. Between Lockwood, having to babysit Castle and dealing with the issues on the reservation the past week had been hell. Kate was ready for a vacation- not that a vacation was even an option. Maybe she would go hunting for a couple of days once everything calmed down- being out alone in the woods with only a bow and arrow and Whisper, her horse, sounded fabulous.

She had once again spent the day out on the reservation trying to mediate between Lieutenant Bryant and Little Bear and once again it hadn't gone well. To be fair, the day had started out well until some of the soldiers had started in on their stash of rum and began throwing insults. The younger Cherokee had responded in like and soon their insults had graduated to fists. Little Bear, Bryant and Kate had spent the majority of the rest of the day separating the two groups and tending to the wounded. It hadn't helped when Bryant had begun blaming Little Bear for the incident and claimed that the Cherokee had slipped the men alcohol. Kate had to resist rolling her eyes at his argument that his men knew better than to drink while on duty.

Whisper plodded lazily towards the edge of town, taking her owner's lack of direction as an indication to take her time. Kate dozed quietly on the horse's bare back, her bare dirty feet hanging down by the mare's round belly and was caught completely unaware when she heard Lanie Parish's cheerful voice call out to her. Jerking upright, Kate blinked her eyes trying to bring the world back into focus. When had she made it back to town?

"And where are you sneaking home from so early? You go see writer boy?"

Kate wiped a hand roughly over her face, trying to rub the sleep from her eyes. It didn't work. No matter what she did, her eyes felt like sand paper and her skin felt gritty from the patches of dust and early morning dew that had gathered on her skin.

"Do I look like I just came from spending the night with a man?" She glared at her friend as she slid unceremoniously down the side of her horse. Her bare feet sunk into the soft dirt and she wiggled her toes in an attempt to wake up her sleepy limbs.

Lanie merely looked over her friend from top to bottom and let out a sigh. "You at the reservation again?"

"Yeah, and negotiations aren't getting any easier. A war is coming Lanie, I can feel it and no matter what happens it is not going to end well for the Cherokee. The soldiers want the land and payment for protection and the Cherokee do not want to move and can take care of themselves. Once Bryant gets fed up or the young tribesmen get restless it is going to explode. It's like we are all sitting on a ton of TNT and I am the only one trying to snuff out the fuse."

Lanie's heart went out to her friend as she took in Kate's tired face and slumped posture. The woman had been running herself ragged for the last few weeks between tracking and capturing Lockwood, keeping an eye on the town and the brewing storm on the reservation. Soon it was going to catch up with her. Grabbing Kate's elbow she led her friend over the steps in front of the currently empty saloon.

"You know sweetie, no one would blame you if you gave up on this. They can battle it out. Who knows, maybe they can come to an agreement on their own," Lanie reasoned softly.

Kate let out a scoffing laugh. "It would be a blood bath Lanie. Plus, my mother would never have wanted it to go even this far. I have to do this Lanie. I have to do this for her. If anything happened to Little Bear or any of the others it would have crushed her. She worked so hard for them to have peace, to be left alone. I can't just walk away from her mission."

Lanie hung her head and patted Kate's thigh gently in understanding. "Okay, sweetie. But promise me this at least. Ask Montgomery to pick up some patrols so you can get some sleep. You look like death run over and you are going to do something stupid and get yourself hurt if you keep going like this."

Lanie pushed herself off the step as Kate nodded her acquiescence, pausing to adjust her skirt and pat down her hair. "Plus, you don't have chance of bedding with Mr. Castle if you look like you do right now."

"Lanie!" Kate's jaw dropped in shock and a red heat burned its way up from her chest to her cheeks and the tips of her ears. "I have no interest in bedding anyone at the moment. Especially Richard Castle."

"Mmmhmm. I have seen the way you look at him. You like him."

"Like him? I can barely stand the man. He's annoying, petulant, conceded, self-centered, smug, arrogant and… and his hair is too perfect!"

Lanie let out a hearty laugh. "I think the lady doth pretest too much."

Kate glared at her friend, her patience wearing thin on the lack of sleep she had had over the last few nights. Of course, she would never think of Richard Castle and his boyish grin and soft hair, just asking for her fingers to run through it, that way. Stop it. She didn't think his wit was charming at all either. Glancing around her sluggish mind finally clicked as she forced her thoughts off of Rick Castle.

"Lanie, what are you doing out so early? The sun is barely up and we both know you would sleep until noon most days if you were allowed," Kate questioned sweetly, her eyes batting innocently up at her friend.

Lanie blanched slightly, caught off guard by the question. "I, um, Mrs. Johnson thought she was going into labor so I went to check on her. Turned out to be a false alarm."

Kate eyes her friend as she shifted from foot to foot, deftly avoiding eye contact.

"Uh huh, Mrs. Johnson just found out she was pregnant a month ago." Kate's face broke into a sly grin as she leveraged herself off of the step. "Tell Javier I said hello."

Lanie's jaw dropped as Kate turned towards the jail, a little bounce in her step.

"Kate! Beckett!" Lanie called after her. "Don't you go talking about things you don't know about."

"Truth is truth, to the end of reckoning," Kate quoted over her shoulder.

"Kate!" Lanie cried.

"Speak low if you speak love."

"Kate, quoting Shakespeare does not make you right."

"Go to you bosom: Knock there, and ask your heart what it doth know."

"Kate! If you don't stop I am going to disown you."

"Alas, I am a woman friendless, hopeless!"

Kate scampered across the street, laughter bubbling up out of her and a newly found energy buzzing through her body. Sometimes just a few minutes with her friend was better than a full night's sleep. She could hear Lanie's exasperated cries following her as she leapt over the steps and through the doors of the jail.

Kate shook her head to Montgomery who was dozing lightly at the desk before turning her attention to the cells. The first one held the usual suspects- a couple of the town drunkards. Hesitantly she let her eyes drift to the second one only to find herself staring into the cold eyes of Hal Lockwood. Any levity she had felt fled from her and she could feel her chest tightening. Her lungs ached for air but her body refused to suck in the greatly needed breath of air. No, she thought to herself, he wasn't going to get to her today. Not today.

As Kate stared down Lockwood, willing her lungs to start functioning again and her heart to stop pounding in her chest she saw what could only be described as a feral grin cross the man's face.


"No!"

"Yes."

"No!"

"Come on, sheriff, please?"

"No, I don't feel comfortable letting you in the cell to interview Lockwood. He is highly dangerous. He hasn't talked to you in any of the other interviews you have attempted what makes you think getting closer to him will make a difference? Plus, he hasn't said two words since we caught him, so I highly doubt he would say anything anyway."

Later that day found the two having their current face off at one if the small tables in the middle of Jim Beckett's saloon. It been a week since Richard Castle arrived in Colorado Springs and while interviewing the town's people and law enforcement officials was nice, he wanted more. He needed more. Porter had sent him a telegram the day before stating that Castle's first draft, which he had sent to him previously by wire, was a disgrace and he needed to get an interview from Lockwood. He also said Castle needed to get more background on Beckett but somehow, despite the current conversation, Castle felt it would be easier to get the interview with Lockwood than to be granted permission to expose Kate Beckett.

Castle threw back the rest of his drink- whiskey, Kate's choice, and gave her his best puppy dog expression.

"Forget it, Castle. I'm not letting you in the cell with Lockwood. In fact, just stay away from the jail all together."

Castle watched her as she pushed her chair back from the table, drained her still mostly full glass, and made her way towards the door swaying slightly as she did. Something was not right.

For the past week Richard Castle had been Kate Beckett's shadow- whether she liked it or not. He had followed her around as she went on her daily rounds, made notes as she broke up bar brawls and even sat in the jail beside her for hours as she idly passed the time keeping an eye on Lockwood. Kate was a secretive person, as Jim put it she "played her cards close to the vest". She didn't let anyone in, especially him, but as the week had worn on he had found little cracks in the tough exterior. He had heard stories of some of the adventures she and the boys had had when they were kids and she had pointed out the caves they used hunt for gold in. Apparently they had never found any, but it hadn't stopped them from pretending to be pirates in search of buried treasure. Her telling that memory was burned into his mind forever because it was the first time he had seen her truly smile. She had even consented to him coming to the reservation with her later in the week.

In that time, he had seen her drink on a few occasions but never to an extreme and never so much as to impair her motor skills. He watched her lose her balance slightly and bump into a chair as she stumbled again.

Roy Montgomery and Jim Beckett watched her silently from the bar but made no move to help her or stop her. As Castle met Jim's eye the other man ducked his head down and busied himself in drying a glass. He knew something.

Castle studied glass in his hand; the mood that morning had been tense. Castle had found Beckett, Jim, Ryan, Esposito and Montgomery huddled in a circle on the front step of the jail. All of them had turned to stare at him as he had approached; the hushed conversation they were having come to an abrupt stop the moment he had been spotted. The four men had disbanded mumbling one excuse or another as they all parted in different directions through the town. Esposito simply backed his way through the swinging doors of the jailhouse. Kate had made an off hand comment about doing rounds and had practically hauled him down the road kicking dust up in their wake. Previously, the woman had come up with any excuse to get away from him for at least a few minutes but today she had stuck to him like glue until the moment she had stumbled drunkenly out of the bar.

Castle had noticed the black circles that had taken up residence under Kate's eyes and the unsightly purple bruise on her left cheekbone. He had noticed the way she wouldn't make eye contact with him and how she had been distracted whenever he had tried to make idle conversation. He had also noticed that she hadn't poked, hit, slapped, rolled her eyes or made to pinch his nose or ear whenever he made an offhand smart-mouthed comment. Richard Castle had definitely noticed that something wasn't right.

He had noticed it all, but had dropped the topics of her face, her lack of verbal sparring and the now disbanded huddle when she had told him that she had been up all night dealing with a brawl on the reservation. When she had shrugged off his concern saying that she hadn't been to sleep, he had chalked it all up to exhaustion. Now, sitting in the saloon watching her sway away, Rick began having second thoughts.

Looking down at this glass once more, and then up at Jim and Roy, who were attempting to watch him inconspicuously, he made up his mind and pushed his chair back from the table. If the others weren't going to tell him what was really going on he was going to find out on his own.

"Hey Esposito," Castle announced his arrival as he made his way up the steps to the jail and through the swinging door. "Beckett said I could…"

Castle's voice trailed off as he looked from Esposito's bewildered face to the two very empty jail cells.

"Interview Lockwood… Esposito, where is Lockwood?"

"Castle you have to get out of here now and forget what you saw here."

"Did he escape? Is that why you all are being so secretive?"

"Castle, just leave. Go get Alexis, get on the train and go back to New York. Write your piece about Lockwood like he is happily sitting in our cell waiting for trial and everything will be fine."

Castle tore his eyes away from the empty jail cell to meet Esposito's gaze. The other man was standing leaning with one hand placed firmly on the top of the desk. The other hand was placed firmly on his still holstered gun.

"You know I can't do that. My job is to tell the truth."

Castle watched Esposito's eyes flicker momentarily and his jaw flex. He was about the start pressing the other man for more details when he heard the undeniable sound of a gun cocking next to his ear. He had been so focused on Lockwood and Esposito that he hadn't even heard someone enter behind him.

Turning slowly he found himself staring down the barrel of Kate Beckett's revolver. Her eyes were glassy and that steel that he had seen when they first met, that steel that had been in place almost constantly for the past week was gone. The dull look that replaced it made Castle's stomach fall. He may not have known Kate Beckett for very long, but he knew this look and these actions were not right. Nothing about this situation was right. She was not the kind of person to hold a gun to an innocent person's head. He knew her well enough to know that, but the look in her eyes told a different story. There was no strength, no fear, and no pain. There was no emotion at all.

"Kate." His voice was soft. "What happened? Where is Lockwood?"

He saw that fear once more. That fear he saw in her eyes on that first day when she had seen him watching Lockwood. It was that simple flicker that told him that so much more was going on than he knew about. Something had happened before he had arrived in Colorado Springs and something else had happened the night before. He made to take a step forward only to find her gun, which had lowered slightly a few seconds before, pointed back up at his nose. The fear was once again gone.

He stared at her for a moment longer, his heart pounding heavily in his chest. He wouldn't have been surprised if she could hear it too.

"Kate," he prompted again.

Her eyes met his, and her voice was hollow when she finally answered him.

"I killed him."