A/N: Kudos to the readers who spotted the references to previous episodes. I snuck one more in toward the end.


Their opponent seemed to be losing interest in Slaughter, who was intermittently shouting at him and ducking in and out of range as shots from the window came less frequently.

"He's having way too much fun," Castle muttered. He grabbed a small object from a pocket somewhere, stood swiftly, and pitched the object all the way to the end of the alley, landing about two feet from Slaughter.

"Nice arm there, Castle," said Kate as her partner ducked back down behind the dumpster. "Was that a signal?"

"Get ready to rumble," he grinned. Pulling the hood of his suit over his head, he said, "If you lose track of me, just give out with that whistle you use at the ball games."

"You know how to whistle, don'tcha?" Rita grinned in her turn. "Single file, under the window?"

"You two take that wall," said Castle. "I'll go back the way I came. Maybe catch his eye, give you a little more cover."

"You getting shot is unacceptable, as cover or anything else," Kate told him sternly.

"Hey," said her husband. "It's *me*."

He closed the front of the hood and started to edge out from behind the dumpster. Kate turned to Rita, who had a smoke bomb in one hand and a weapon in the other, and loaded herself up similarly.

"Ready...set...go," said Rita. She tossed a smoke bomb out, and under cover of the cloud she and Kate darted from cover and moved quickly to hug the wall on the left. Castle must have had some squibs left; the air was full of explosions, shots from various weapons, and bursts of smoke from canisters that were being set off by Slaughter's gunfire.

Kate wondered if this was what a war zone sounded like, and suppressed a cough with her arm as the smoke grew thicker. Neither she nor Rita spoke at all; occasionally Rita would fire a shot at a random window or wall, just to add to the confusion. Kate could see that, while their assailant could lean out the window to fire on them beneath him, they couldn't get a bead on him without having to wait for his arm or head to appear.

Aha - that's what Slaughter's for, she thought, and prayed that he was as good a shot as he frequently claimed. The sniper had resumed fire and was working his way along the opposite wall, shooting at evenly spaced distances in hopes of hitting what he could not see.

They were about halfway to the alley's entrance when Kate heard a sharp cry from her right. She had to stop herself from breaking and running to where Castle was - it was his voice, raised in abrupt pain and profanity. She couldn't see a thing, but she could hear him as he kept moving forward, more quickly now.

Rita glanced at Kate over her shoulder, looking pleased at their progress, then tossed another squib, back towards the dead end, just to confuse even more.

"Run for it?" she whispered, and Kate nodded.

The sniper paused - reloading? thought Kate - and through the smoke Slaughter shouted, "Keep firing, idiot, backup's almost here. You're pinned, and I'm gonna be so happy to put a round through your skull when you refuse to surrender."

They were slinking ever faster toward freedom when Kate heard two shots close by and the clatter of something falling from above onto the pavement.

"What the - ?" she hissed. Rita grabbed her arm and half-dragged her forward. The gunfire had stopped, and so had the sound of Slaughter's voice. They stumbled forward, then sharply left and out of the clouds choking the alley.

Ethan Slaughter looked down at them and smirked.

"Took you long enough." Then he raised his voice yet again. "Hey, Sherlock, asshole is down. I got Castle's Angels over here."

They could hear Castle coughing, getting closer, finally emerging from the alley with the hood pulled off, a bizarre head without any visible means of transport.

Kate saw the blood seeping from nowhere, staining the arm of the suit, and this time it was even harder not to run to him. He stumbled over to where they stood, around the corner from the battlefield, and started peeling off the suit.

"I'm gonna go clear the building," said Slaughter.

"I'll go with," said Rita. Slaughter nodded, not even asking who she was, and the two of them disappeared.

Kate watched as Castle stuffed the suit into a messenger bag he'd been wearing, then launched herself at him, even so taking care of the wounded arm. His arms closed around her, holding her tight, as though she might try to escape.

He smelled like gunpowder and smoke and, unbelievably, freesia - he must have been using her shower gel! - and she breathed him in and realized he was trembling.

"Hey," she said, drawing back to look at him. "It's done. We're safe. It's over."

"Really over?" he asked, like a child.

"LokSat is dead. Rita killed him herself. There was no question of taking him into custody - he was completely willing to fight to the death. His underlings chased us into this part of town…"

"Three dead," announced Slaughter, leaning out the window next to the now-empty one the sniper had been using. "So far. Screw the story, Sherlock, go on and kiss her already."

He disappeared again and Kate grinned up at her husband. Then she sobered and said, "If you want to. I know it's been - I probably should have - "

Castle stopped her with a kiss, hungry and hot and far overdue. A faint cry of "That's more like it!" was answered with a one-finger salute from Castle, who otherwise did not let up on kissing his wife.

At last, they drew back a little to look at each other in awe.

"You did it," he murmured. "You really did it."

"How did you know we were here?" asked Kate. She was eager for details and desperate to talk about anything but her next mission.

"Alexis," he said simply. "She and Hayley have been monitoring police chatter for any word of two women in peril, especially if there were shots fired or someone missing. She found you two a couple of times in the last few weeks, but you seem to have gotten out of whatever trouble you were in, so I held my hand."

Kate appreciated his remarkable self-control. Had she really ever compared him to a cocker spaniel? Well, when it came to some things…

"But yesterday, we got word of some big collapse in the criminal world - drug raids, missed shipments - everything seemed to be coming to a head. NYPD was finding bodies right and left - all suspects in drug trafficking or conspiracy, or just pissing off the wrong people.

"Slaughter got hold of us, asked if there was anything he could do. We brainstormed all night and figured we could do worse than keep our ears open and stand ready."

"So you got hold of the suit from Sarkov's lab, and explosives from I don't want to know where - "

"That was Slaughter's department," said Castle.

"Of course. And just - cruised around until you heard gunfire? That's pretty random."

"Slaughter had a tip," Castle told her. "From a reliable source."

"Anybody we know?" asked Kate with a sense of foreboding.

"I'm not supposed to say," said Castle. "But he might be, um, married to someone you know."

Kate's jaw dropped. "Jackson - "

Castle once again employed unfair tactics to silence her. Not that she complained. By the time they surfaced, Rita and Slaughter had rejoined them, Slaughter stepping away to call in the scene.

"Three dead, total," said Rita. "Our sniper, one guy on the ground floor, another in a stairwell. Ethan says he didn't take the stairwell guy out, but neither of them were on our side of the law, so I'm not gonna shed any tears."

Somehow, Kate thought that Rita wasn't likely to shed tears over anyone, except maybe Jackson Hunt. And Castle.

Rita then surprised her by pulling her into a one-armed hug.

"We did it, Kate," she said. "Not just us, and we're not completely out of the woods yet. But we damn well did it, you and I."

She grinned at Kate. Slaughter came over, hands in his pockets, looking for all the world like a tourist.

"So, Sherlock," he began. "About our deal - "

"Not now," said Castle hastily. "Haven't discussed it with the missus yet."

Slaughter rolled his eyes. "Don't drag your feet, pal. I want to make the catch before my hero status wears off."

Kate rolled her eyes in her turn. Rita snorted. Castle scowled.

"Now what?" he asked.

"You know what," said Kate, suddenly weary. "Processing the crime scene, clearing the bodies, controlling the media. Paperwork."

"I bet you don't miss that part of the job," Castle said. "Gates has been filling in, in your absence, by the way."

"I arranged that," said Kate. "If this all went south, I was going to take the fall. Gates understands that kind of sacrifice."

"And now that you and Rita have succeeded?"

"NYPD claims it was all part of a plan, I get some credit and resintatement at the Twelfth." Kate squeezed Castle's hand. "And I get you back. Even without the rest of it, that's enough for me."

"Listen," said Rita, looking up and around at the abandoned buildings, "I have to go. Get some breakfast, you know? I'll catch up with you two later."

Castle looked puzzled, but Kate smiled and nodded. Slaughter just looked bored as Rita strode briskly away, then he brightened at the sound of approaching sirens.

"Come on, Captain," he said to Kate. "Time to face the music and bask in the glory."

He started walking toward the approaching squad cars. Castle shook his head.

"Mixing metaphors. Cheap trick."

"By the way," said Kate as they walked hand in hand after Slaughter, "what was the deal between you and him? Do I want to know?"

"Well, I'm gonna need your help with that," said Castle. "I promised him a date. Not with you! Are you kidding me?"

Kate chuckled. "With Bachelorette Number Six?"

"Um, actually, you know, while we were apart I learned some interesting things about Detective Slaughter."

"Again - do I want to know?"

"He majored in musical theatre," Castle told her. "And he loves to cook."

Kate stopped in her tracks. "No."

"Yep. Believe me, I was even more shocked than you. Anyway - he's been wanting to go to Q3, your friend Maddy's restaurant..."

"Oh, so he wants us to get him in?"

"So to speak," said Castle. "I promised him a date. With - Maddy."

Kate's jaw dropped at the absurdity and audacity of such a promise. Then she shrugged and laughed.

After defeating the most powerful drug ring on the East Coast, she thought, anything is possible.

=fin=