Sorry for the delay!

Rating is just to be sure.

Chapter 4

"Rick…" Kate started, after she got over the shock of what she saw.

"I-I need to get some air." Then he turned around and walked out of the apartment.

Kate handed the letter and pictures to Booth. "Can you guys handle it from here? I need to go check on Castle." The others nodded. "Okay, I'll see you guys at the Jeffersonian." And then she walked out of the apartment too.

She found him standing outside of the apartment building. He was talking to someone over the phone. Just when she stopped walking to give him some privacy, he hung up, so she continued to walk towards him. When she reached him, she put her hand on his shoulder.

"Hey," she said softly.

He turned around and gave her a smile, but it didn't reach his eyes. "Hi."

He sensed her question. "That was Alexis. I just needed to hear her voice."

Kate nodded in understanding. "Do she and Martha know why we're here?"

"Yeah, I called them just before we left for the airport." He fell silent.

"Hey, you know this is not your fault, right? Tyson is just trying to mess with you, with us. He killed all those women because he's a psychopath. A sick, murdering psychopath and that is not your fault."

Rick sighed. "I know, but sometimes I wish that I'd figured it out sooner."

She cut him off before he could continue blaming himself. "At least you saw through him. We're all detectives, for god sakes, and we didn't figure it out. YOU did. And somehow you saved Ryan and yourself in that motel room. You should be proud of that. Proud that you saw through a psychopath while no other detective in New York could." She put her hands on his shoulders. "Please, Rick, don't beat yourself up about this, because it isn't your fault at all." She stared into his sea blue eyes, hoping to see something, anything that said he'd gotten the message. He didn't let her down.

"God, what on Earth did I do to deserve such an amazing woman like you?" He said, putting his arms around her waist and kissing her softly. He tried to pull back after a few seconds, but she didn't let him go. Instead, she deepened the kiss, silently asking for entrance with her tongue. He gladly obliged. After a minute (or more, neither of them knew exactly) they pulled apart. Kate put her forehead against his.

"I love you, Rick," she whispered.

"Love you too, Kate. So much."

Xxx

"Did you guys get any hits on the photographs?" Booth asked Ryan and Esposito, who just came back.

"Nada. We showed all of the possibilities to the neighbors and some other people around, but no one recognized one," Esposito replied.

"We did see a camera at a shop across the street. But the owner wouldn't show us the video's without a warrant. What I can do, is check the feed from the traffic cam I saw. If you have a computer for me…" Ryan said.

"Yeah, sure. And I'll get that warrant. Esposito, do you want to join me?"

"Fine with me." Esposito was silent for a second. "Where is Beckett, by the way? I figured she'd be with you, updating the board."

"She went to inform the parents and ask them some questions. That reminds me, is Hodgins still at the crime scene?"

"Yeah, I think so," Esposito replied.

Booth nodded. "Well, let's go and get that damn warrant."

Xxx

"Do you want to do the autopsy, or shall I do it?" Lanie asked Cam.

"Well, I'd love to deal with a whole body again, but I think it's better if you do it. You've done 3 3XK victims before, and I think you know better what to look for, what is old, what is new, you know?"

Lanie nodded.

"And I need to call Michelle to briefly inform her and tell her to be careful. And I think I'm gonna tell her to come to the lab after school. I don't want her to be home alone. Not while Tyson is still out there."

Lanie put her hand on her friend's shoulder. "I understand, girl. Now go and call your daughter."

After Cam left, she started on the autopsy. She noticed the defensive wounds on the victim's body and how severe they were.

"Well, girl, you put up one hell of a fight." Then she saw something underneath her fingernails.

"What have we got here?" She took it out with tweezers and held it in front of her face. She couldn't identify it however. She bagged it and reminded herself to send it to Hodgins.

Just when she finished her autopsy, Booth came walking in.

"Dr. Parish, could you come to the conference room? The others will be there too. We need to talk about Tyson and his threats and what we're going to do about it."

"Yeah, sure. I just finished anyway. And 'Lanie' works just fine." Then she walked away, patting him on the shoulder.

"Right." Booth said to himself, and then he turned around and followed her.

Xxx

Silence. There was only silence. Everyone was seated around the big table in the conference room, but no one knew how to start. They just stared at the letter in the evidence bag. Eventually, Booth took it.

"Okay, here it says: "It's very easy for me to pick other victims. So, how close to death do you want your friends to get?" I get the first part, but what does the second thing mean? I don't get it?"

"It's what he said to me." Castle said. "While Ryan was unconscious, I profiled him. He got angry, said that I was drawn to death, that I liked to be around it because it 'thrilled' me and he asked me how close to death I wanted to get." He swallowed.

Kate saw he was having a hard time reliving it, so she took his hand under the table and squeezed it. Castle looked at her, and gave her a small smile. Then he continued.

"He's messing with me by using that sentence again. I think he's asking how far I'm willing to go, how far we're all willing to go." He was silent for a second or two. "I've been in the same room with him long enough to see that his need for revenge is huge, just as his ego. I think he's going to kill another young woman before he's going to… do something else. He's 3XK for a reason, and he wants to keep it that way."

Sweets nodded. "I agree with you. I've looked at the files and the letter and I too think he's too proud to break his pattern of killing three times a week."

"But we still need to discuss what we need to do to prevent him from doing something to one of us," Booth said.

"I agree. But it's going to be hard. We've got no clue whatsoever as to what he's going to do. There are no blonde women amongst us, so he won't take someone as just another 'typical' 3XK victim. I think the only thing we can be sure about, is that he's going to stay in D.C., but call Jenny anyways, Kev. You never know," Kate said, looking at her colleague.

"I will."

"He might not hurt one of us directly. He could hurt or take someone close to us. He's a psycho, after all," Esposito said.

"Espo's right. He could do that." Kate looked at Cam. "Cam, you should keep an eye on Michelle. I know she's a teenager, so you can't keep her from school, but maybe you can ask someone to keep an eye on her while she's at school."

"I already called her to be careful and to come straight over here after school."

Kate then looked at Angela, who, in turn, looked at Cam.

"Ange, you don't need to ask. Of course you can take Michael and keep him in your room. Normally it would be distracting, but under these circumstances it's more than okay."

"And furthermore, I don't think we can do more than be careful wherever we go and do our best to find him before he gets the chance to do something else," Kate finished.

"Oh, before I forget, Hodgins," Lanie said, "I found some kind of cloth underneath Emma's fingernail. Can you find out what it is?"

"Hey, you're talking to the king of the lab, of course I can!" Lanie gave him a weird look at 'king of the lab' but decided not to respond to that.

Xxx

Kate and Rick were the last two left in the conference room. Kate noticed Rick was silent. Too silent for her liking. She put a hand on his shoulder to make him look at her.

"Hey, what's wrong? And don't say 'it's my fault', we've already discussed that."

"It's just… Last time he was only after killing young blonde women as revenge on his mother. Now he's going to do something as revenge on me. What if he hurts you? I wouldn't survive that, Kate. Not again."

"And once again, I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself," she answered, a little harsher than she intended to. She saw his look.

"Look, I get that you're worried. But I'm worried to. He might hurt you as well as he might hurt someone close to you. And I wouldn't survive that either. I promise to be extra careful. You have my word on that." She caressed his cheek. He leaned into her touch, and just as he was about to lean in to kiss her, Ryan came in.

"I'm sorry, I-" He stopped. "Am I interrupting something?"

Kate stood up. "No. You were saying?"

Ryan looked from Castle to Beckett and then he continued. "I didn't find anything on the traffic cam. I think he knew were the camera was because he didn't appear in the picture, not even from his backside. Sorry."

"It's okay, that's not your fault. Was there anything on the footage from the shop across?"

"I haven't checked that yet. I'll go do that right away."

"Thanks, Kev."

After Ryan left, she turned back to Rick. "Come on, let's go back to rest. We've got a killer to catch."

Xxx

Someone knocked on Booth's office door. "Come in," he said without looking up to see who it was.

"Hey," Brennan said.

Booth immediately looked up. "Hey. What brings you here?"

"I think I'm going home. There's nothing I can do here anymore, since the remains are more than just bones."

Booth stood up and walked over to her. "No. No way. That's not going to happen."

"Why not?" She asked, genuinely confused.

"Because it's too dangerous!" Booth replied, his voice just a notch higher than usual.

"I'm pregnant, not disabled. I can get home safely, you know?"

"No. I mean, yes, you could get home safely, but I don't want to take any risks. Not while Tyson's still out there, not now we're so close to starting a family."

Brennan finally seemed to understand. "You're right. I'm sorry. I'm just not used to having someone around who's so protective of me. Of us, now, actually," she said with a smile while placing her hand on her belly. Then her eyes got a little wider.

"What is it? Are you going into labor? Should I drive the car in front?"

Brennan laughed. "Relax, Booth. I'm not going into labor. But she just kicked."

Booth relaxed again and put his hand next to hers.

"Wow, she's got some power, this one."

"Just like you, Booth."

"No, Bones, just like us."

Xxx

Ryan walked into the room where they'd set up the murder board. Castle, Beckett, Esposito Booth, Brennan and Cam, who were in there, turned around. Ryan was carrying a laptop and he put it on the table.

"So, I spotted Tyson, at least who I assume is Tyson, while going over the footage from the shop. But, unfortunately, he wasn't in a car so we could check the license plate and it's very unclear. I spotted him for the first time 16 days ago, and after that he came every other day. But, again unfortunately, I couldn't find him on the day of the murder, so we still don't know how he got into the vic's apartment."

"I do," Hodgins said, while walking in. "Follow me."

They followed him onto the platform in the middle of the lab, where Lanie already was. When they were all on it, he turned around to them and started to speak.

"Lanie found a piece of cloth underneath a fingernail from our latest victim, and I found out that it was kind of unique. So, I looked up what companies used this kind of material and I found one that would be perfect for Tyson to use: Citgo. They fix gas leaks." He looked at the others proudly.

"Hodgins, you are a genius," Kate said.

"I know, right?"

Xxx

Booth and Beckett went to Citgo (after Beckett apologized to Castle, but hey, Booth was a real cop).

They were now seated in a small office, waiting for the boss to arrive. They turned around when he entered. He raised his hands. "Don't get up on my account. I'm Mark Edison. My secretary said it was urgent, is that right?" He sat down.

"Yes, that's right. I'm Special Agent Seeley Booth, and this is detective Kate Beckett. We're here for a murder investigation."

"Murder?"

"Yes, we believe that the murderer worked here. We found a piece of one of your uniforms underneath the fingernail from one of the victims." Kate said. "Could you give us a list of people that started working here less than 3 years ago and who don't work here anymore?"

"Certainly." Edison clicked and tapped on his computer. "It's not a list, actually," he said. "There's only one guy. He started working here 2 years ago, and he quit about a month ago." He clicked and tapped again. "His name is Ty Marshall. Here it says he moved from hotel to hotel, so no address."

"Do you have a picture?" Beckett asked.

"Of course." He turned the screen to them. Booth checked his phone and went through the pictures of how Tyson could look. After a few seconds, he held his phone next to the picture on Edison's screen. The pictures were identical.

"We've got him," Booth said.

Hope you liked it!

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