I'm sorry but I mixed up the timeline. These new chapters take place 3 years after the first two not one as I said before. Enjoy

Chapter 5

She woke to darkness and a silence punctuated by occasional grating and tearing sounds like nails on a chalkboard. Murmuring she twisted to slip her elbow into Castle's side, hoping that he would get up and shut off his alarm, each shrill screech was causing her head to pound. Turning she moaned in discomfort as a pain shot through her back. She really needed to have some time off work just a day to laze around the loft, take the kids to the park, maybe make a blanket fort in the lounge and hibernate all day. There was no way she was going to make it out of bed this morning without at least one cup of coffee. She had been pretty good throughout all her pregnancies to restrict her caffeine intake but in deference for the other detectives at the precinct today there was no way that she could string two words together without something to jolt her awake. The only thing she wanted to do today was stay in bed with her husband and shut out the world for just twenty-four hours but she knew that was impossible especially now when a madman was out there targeting other people's children, other people's families.

"Castle" she mumbled, turning towards him as she reached out to swat his chest, or where she thought his chest was because the loft was so dark this morning. She figured Castle must have remembered to close the curtains in their bedroom for once before they fell asleep.

"Castle, shut it off "God my head hurts. The pounding was reaching a crescendo that was causing her stomach to pitch and roll. Great, all I need is another day of morning sickness. Ok, baby be kind to Momma today and I promise I'll try to take it easy today.

"Castle! Oh..oww" she cried out as her hand hit something hard and unforgiving beside her. A low moan resonated across the room in response to her outburst. 'What the…"

"Beckett" the weak cry floated out of the darkness.

"Castle?" It didn't sound like him. Rolling to her side she tried to sit up. An intense crippling pain shot through her head, accompanied by the taste of bile in the back of her throat as she moved. Holding her head still she reached up with her hand only for it to come away wet and sticky. Something was wrong but she couldn't connect the pieces, her head hurt so much, and her back, and her elbow. God she hurt everywhere but it was her head that was making it so difficult to think. And why was it snowing, in their bedroom. Nothing was making sense. Where was Castle?

"Beckett, where are you?" She heard the voice again its volume rising as panic set in from its owner.

"Cas…Ryan, Ryan is that you" She called out softly. A rasping cough was her only reply. She squinted into the dark void around her and realised that it wasn't completely black. Actually it was a grayish black now, almost like an old grainy black and white television, she could make out light filtering through. It wasn't snowing, it was smoke intermingled with dust and bits of paper raining down on her. She lend back against the bedhead, closing her eyes against another intense wave of pain lancing through her head and her back. God it hurts. With a start she looked up as the realisation that she wasn't in her bed but in some sort of box penetrated the fog of confusion clouding her thoughts.

Reaching out she ran her hands up the walls to find that it only surrounded her on three sides and there was a partial roof above her. Maybe two feet of board covered her head, leaving the side to her left open. Tentatively she stretched out into the grey void until her hand came into contact with a small irregular shaped object. Holding it up to the filtered light she gasped. It was one of the elephants from her desk, remnants of the five dollar note still within its curled trunk. Kate felt the burning fear as it stole the breath from her and left her lungs screaming for air. The precinct, she was in the precinct, under her desk. That wasn't Castle's alarm sounding in her ears but the moans and groans of the building as it collapsed around them. Dropping the elephant she placed her hands on her belly, willing the child within to stir and let her know she was ok. Holding her breath, Kate resisted the urge to sob as terror caused her heart to race. The pounding in her head intensified with each silent moment that passed. After what seemed like an eternity she felt the baby stir and roll within her even before her hand picked up the movement. Letting out a strangled cry she collapsed back against the underside of her desk sucking in one gritty breath after another as she tried to regain some sense of control.

"Beckett" Ryan's strangled cry brought her spinning back to the present with enough speed to cause whiplash.

"I'm here Ryan, I'm still here" She reassured the younger detective. "Are you ok"

"Yeah, yeah I think so. My ribs feel like someone is sticking a red hot poker into my side and I think I cut my leg but otherwise I'm pretty good." His laugh ending on a choking cough as his ribs protested. "Are you ok? The baby?"

"She's good Ryan, at least as far as I can tell she's good"

"It was a bomb wasn't it?" He asked even though he knew the answer, wishing that maybe she would tell him something different.

"Oh god, I think so." Fuzzy images of the morning rolled through her mind as she tried to piece together the events leading up to the explosion. She had been at her desk finishing up another endless round of phone calls, trying to track down any leads she could. Glancing up at the wall clock as she stretched out her sore back muscles she realised that there was an hour before she had to pack up and head home. Her detective brain was telling her she needed to stay, that the next call, the next lead might break this case wide open and she couldn't afford to take any time off to play happy families. But her heart knew that her family needed this time with her and she needed this stolen time with them if she was going to continue on without falling down the next rabbit hole. So in an hour she would finish typing up her last report, she would close down her computer and divert her phone to the desk sergeant's and she would head home to have Thanksgiving dinner with Rick and their family.

Her decision made, Kate pulled out her phone to call Rick and give him the head's up. A bright smile burst across her face as she opened a missed text from him and saw a photo of the kids in their Halloween costumes piled on top of Rick on the couch, and two small turkey onesies held aloft in his hands. The caption read '….and next year there'll be five!' Kate chuckled as she caught the grins on all their faces.

"Yo Beckett. Don't tell me, Castle's sending you inappropriate texts on work time again. Don't let Gates see, she'll never let him back in." Esposito laughed as he spun his chair around at her chuckles. She poked her tongue at him before catching it between her teeth as she typed out a message to Rick.

"No, just a bunch of turkeys" She said cryptically after pressing send on her text.

"Rafter" Ryan called out from his desk stopping his perusal of the victim's financials to jump into the conversation.

"Huh Dude, really what the?" Esposito leant back in his chair, a confused look on his face.

"A bunch of turkeys. It's a rafter. Some people mistakenly call them a gobble but the correct term is rafter."

"Dude, enough with the walking encyclopedia act"

"Actually it was Wikipedia. Sarah-Grace had a school project on turkeys for Thanksgiving."

She exchanged a bemused grin with Esposito as he wheeled his chair over towards her desk. Still grinning at Espo, Kate felt a sudden loss of air pressure as her world tilted on its axis before a loud loud boom and rumbling that seemed to go on forever resonated in her ears. The force of the percussion wave threw her from her chair onto the floor, her back and right elbow coming into contact with the edge of her desk as she fell. The cell phone dropped from her hands and slid across the floor out of her reach. Kate frantically scrambled to her knees ignoring the pain as she tried to gain some purchase on the convulsing floor and managed to catch the glimpse of horror on Esposito's face as the floor disappeared below his feet and he tumbled out of sight.

"Espo" Kate cried, reaching her arms out in desperation as the floor continued to shift and quiver below her feet. She felt a blinding pain in the back of her skull as the world suddenly turned upside down. Flinging herself beneath her desk she watched the precinct come apart at the seams with a loud rip before her vision faded to black. Her last image that of the gaping hole where her friend had been sitting just seconds before.

"Espo, Javi, Javier!" Kate yelled as she scrambled out from under her desk as she was returned to the present. Through the dirty filtered light she could just make out what remained of the 12th's homicide division, a large gaping hole having opened up in the middle of the bullpen, separately it from Gate's office and the interrogation rooms. Large metal beams lay across shattered desks, having fallen there as the roof above collapsed. Looking around she saw that her desk was one of the few to remain standing. A large section of the roof now occupied the area where Javi and Ryan's desk had once stood. Smoke billowed from the staircase beyond as flames leaped up from the floors below.

Ignoring the ice pick tapping away in her head, Kate crawled to the edge of the hole in the floor, her progress made painfully slow by her pregnancy and the concrete and steel debris littering the floor. Peering over the edge she could make out the desks of the robbery section that called the second floor of the precinct home. She hadn't spent much time lately in that division but remembered the layout from when she had dated Tom Demming and she could see that the entire third floor had disappeared under the force of the explosion. In the dim light she could identify the outline of bodies lying amongst the rubble but none were moving and the light wasn't sufficient enough to make out who they were. She couldn't be sure if Javi was down there or if he was alive. Small spot fires had started up and the resulting smoke was stinging her eyes, making it even more difficult to see. Resting back on her heels, Kate struggled to breathe. Each breath felt like it was being torn from her throat as her body shook with supressed sobs. She refused to allow herself to give into the waves of grief buffering her tight control as she realised that not all of her precinct family was going to make it out today. A soft kick from her little girl was a reminder that she had to focus on getting those she could out of this mess and that included her baby.

"Ryan" She called out as she scooted back from the hole in the floor and made her way carefully towards where she had last heard his voice. "Ryan"

"Kate" He croaked, his voice tinged with pain.

"Can you tell me where you are? What can you see?"

"I'm wedged between my desk and the filing cabinets. There is something lying on top of me, it won't budge and it's got me pinned in."

"I think it's the roof. Can you see any gaps?" Kate continued to gingerly weave her way towards his voice. Her vision fading in and out as the dizziness worsened, her head pounding with each step. Kate paused resting her head in her hands as the world threatened to fade completely. I will not faint, I will not faint. She chanted to herself, sucking in deep breaths to try and settle the nausea.

Large segments of the ceiling beams and roof were obstructing her view of the boys' desks. As the dust and debris settled she was able to see the full devastation that lay around her. Kate hadn't heard any other voices but Ryan's since she regained consciousness and she was scared to think what that might mean. It had only been just after six in the evening when the bomb had gone off and although this was past the usual knock off time for the dayshift, many had stayed behind to do unpaid overtime in order to catch the bomber before he was able to terrorise any more people.

Bruce Patton and Fred Sole had been standing by the elevator doors, the two detectives drinking coffee and deep in conversation about the Mets game the night before. Officer Velazquez had just dropped a file off on Karpowski's desk and LT had slipped into the break room seconds before the explosion hit. The glass walls of the Captain's office were gone now, the glass lying in shattered pieces across the bullpen floor. She knew Gates had been in her office at the time of the explosion arguing with the FBI agent in charge over jurisdiction issues that had been stalling the search for the bomber. There was no movement inside Gate's office now. Apart from the odd groan from the broken skeleton of the precinct around her the building itself was eerily silent. No cries for help, no screams of pain, no sirens. Just silence, eerie heartbreaking silence.

"Beckett, you still there"

"Yeah Ryan, where else would I be" Kate said sarcastically as she continued towards him. "It's not like I got a sudden craving for one of Remy's strawberry milkshakes and just popped out"

"Oww, ouch don't make me laugh Beckett" Ryan moaned in pain "I think I may be able to slide out of here. Don't come any closer, I'm not sure how stable it is."

Kate felt useless as she listened to Ryan bite back cries of pain as he manoeuvred his way out from under the fallen roof. Finally she was able to see his legs then his torso as he slid from beneath the steel beam that had been concealing him. Pushing against Esposito's desk she was able to shift it enough to give Ryan the room to climb out. Kate clasped his hand in hers and gave a small tug to assist him to his feet. As soon as he was upright she sank into his arms, squeezing him tight as relief washed over her.

"You can't imagine how happy I am to see you now but you need to let me go. Broken ribs remember" Ryan gasped as she tightened her hold on him, shuddering in relief that he appeared unscathed. "Having difficulty breathing now"

"Oh yeah, sorry" Kate reluctantly stepped away from the younger detective but kept his arm tightly in her grasp, not ready to let go completely.

"Have you seen Javi? He was right near you when the bomb went off" She watched the concern etch new lines into his usually smooth face, his blue eyes crinkle with worry.

"The floor's gone Ryan. It just collapsed beneath him and I can't see him. I'm sorry" Kate stepped out of his line of vision so that he could see the devastation around him.

"Holy…" he cried as he pushed aside debris in his haste to get to the large crater in the bullpen floor.

"Javi, Javi" He yelled as he ignored his fractured ribs to lean out over the edge of the floor. "Oh, god Beckett it's a mess" He cried as the full scale of the horror hit him.

"Yo" the soft cry reached them from the rubble below. Kate watched as Ryan leant further out into the void, kneeling down she grabbed his ankles scared that he would slip over the edge as well. Kate swayed where she knelt, a wave of pain bursting through her head, edges of her vision blurring as she almost blacked out.

"There he is! Beckett I can see him! There see" Ryan excitedly pointed out a figure lying two floors below them.

"Hey Javi, you finished lying around on the job yet" Ryan yelled.

"Bro, just waiting for you to get your lazy butt down here and help me with all the work as usual." The retort came firing back from below them. "Beckett there with you?"

"Yeah Javi, I'm here" Kate blinked to dispel the blackness as the dizzy spell receded. "Kevin, he's not moving."

"Yeah I know. I think he's pinned down. But he's alive Kate, he's alive" She watched as his clear blue eyes filled with tears.

"We need to find a way out. I lost my cell during the explosion. Do you have yours?" Ryan shook his head." OK, I'm going to take a look at the stairs. The elevator looks like it took the brunt of the explosion and even if it is working I'm not sure we should be using it right now. You stay here and keep talking to him. Keep him calm. I'm going to look around, maybe there are others up here as well" She patted his arm as she awkwardly got to her feet, unable to hold back the wince as pain shot through her back.

"No I'm coming with you, you need to be careful Kate. There's lots of things to trip over in here." Ryan said as he caught her arm when she started to weave as the dizziness overcame her again.

"I will, I promise Kevin" Kate squeezed his fingers in acknowledgement of his concern.

"Yo guys, you still up there" Esposito called up to them, coughing as the smoke filled his lungs. "Guys, I think I hear sirens. They're faint but I can hear them."

"Hang in there Javi. We're coming." Ryan yelled

Kate and Ryan searched the bullpen, calling out one name after another, hoping for a response, their voices drowned out by the sounds of the approaching sirens starting to fill the air. It was slow and hot progress as they searched the bullpen. Beneath a pile of shattered roof tile they located Fred Sole, the 59 year old's signature grey pressed suit torn to shreds where he had been hit with shrapnel. The force of the explosion having propelled him across the bullpen, the deep laceration to his scalp no longer bleeding. Kate slowly closed his sightless eyes as Ryan took off his jacket to cover the detective.

"He had two more weeks on the job. Told me the other day, he was planning to move to Saratoga to be closer to his grandchildren." Kate placed an arm around the younger detective as tears welled up in his eyes.

"He used to carry peppermints in his pockets for his grandkids. When I had a particularly bad day I'd find one sitting on my desk. No note, just the candy." Kate smiled sadly as Ryan helped her to her feet. Kate absentmindedly rubbed her back as she allowed Ryan to steady her before they continued their search for other survivors.

Reaching the far end of the bull pen they found their path blocked by the steel cage that usually separated the pen from the adjoining rooms. The entire top floor had collapsed in this section and there was no way they could get out. Kate called out the names of those that had been on shift tonight but no one answered back, the approaching sirens her only response. She slammed her fist into the bars that had them trapped, frustration and grief intermingling as she sobbed. Kate felt Ryan's hand reach for her shoulder and turn her around as he pulled her into a tight embrace.

"What about your ribs" She murmured into the piece of his shirt she had trapped within her fists.

"All good" He said as he tightened the embrace, trying not to wince in pain. "We will get out of here Beckett. Jenny would never speak to me again if I don't. And who would Castle annoy if you weren't around"

Kate stiffened as she felt an invisible hand wrap itself around her belly and squeeze, the pain causing her knees to buckle underneath her, saved from falling by Ryan's arms.

"Owww" She gasped as the pain intensified. She looked up to catch clear blue eyes widen in horror at the sudden hardening of the muscles of her abdomen.

"Ohmygod! I felt that Beckett!" Ryan cried "Was that what I think it was?"

"If you think that I'm in labor, then yes, yes it was" She panted as the pain slowly receded. I need Castle. I can't do this without him.

Thanks for the favs, follows and reviews for all my stories. I know I turned my fluffy story a little bit angsty but hope you still enjoy it.