I worked as hard as I could to get this up ASAP, and it's probably my favourite chapter so far (By far my longest) .. I wasn't too keen on the previous one. Also! Rise was on last night (It's about freaking time) So I was a complete mess last night, but I got this up, so now I'm happy(: Enjoy :D

Chapter 6

"Shit." Beckett dropped her keys for the third time since entering her apartment building.

She wasn't focussed, Castle thought, she had bypassed the elevator saying she felt like working her calves. He knew it was something more.

She was freaked.

She was fine at the loft. She had seemed to be herself on the ride over, despite the protective detail Montgomery had refused to pull which annoyed her to the max. But then .. Then her phone went off. She received that text. The one she shrugged off.

Her phone. He need to see her phone.

She was spooked, Detective Katherine Beckett did not get spooked.

Rick had his arm draped over Alexis's thin shoulders, holding her back. He made sure they were both a fair number of steps behind Beckett at all times.

Kate was refusing to let her eyes rest on any one object for more than a few seconds at a time. She was checking around walls with her hand resting on the butt of her gun at her hip before they even came close to clearing the corner. Now they were standing at her door and New York's finest Detective was having trouble finding the key to her apartment.

She glanced down the hallway and back to where Alexis and her father were waiting. She bent down, scooped up her key chain from the wooden floor, aged by careless citizens scuffing their shoes along the panels and the useless polishing done by maintenance, then straightened herself back up before Castle could blink.

She began fumbling with her keys once again but seemed to have more luck this time. She slid the key into the brass lock, the mechanisms inside the door clicked and it creaked open.

Kate pushed her door flat against the wall and peered around the door frame. She made a sweeping notion with her arm when she was satisfied with her survey. Signalling to Rick and Alexis, letting them know that it was fine for them to enter without saying a word.

Rick nodded his thanks and ushered his daughter inside, all the while watching and trying his utmost to read the shifty Detective at the door. Said Detective then stuck her head back out into the corridor they had just passed through and cased the area once more. Something must have caught her eye - she did multiple double-takes before pushing the door shut and setting the dead bolt, following the Castles into her living area.

I knew that text would get to her. So it should. The way she reacted to it. The way that writer bastard was trying to figure out what was wrong.

Thrilling.

He thinks he knows everything.

He thinks he knows better than everyone else.

He even thinks he knows Kate better.

He's wrong.

I knw Kate way better than 'Rick' ever has, and ever will.

'Rick' is an idiot.

'Rick' is self- centered.

'Rick' is wrong.

'Rick' doesn't deserve her.

I DESERVE HER.

She is mine.

She loves me. Not him.

He pondered this as he watched the cocky Hispanic struggle against the restraints.

This will teach them.

The young girl, the ginger. That hurt them, yeah. But not enough.

But this, he thought, this will show them. All of them.

"Hey."

Kate craned her neck to look at him over the couch.

"Hey," She began softly. "How is she?"

Castle planted himself on the spare cushion next to Kate and lolled his head back against the soft material covering the back of the couch.

"She's .." He rubbed a hand over his face, the activities of the day behind them finally catching up to him. It felt as if he was gaining years just recounting the previous hours. " Shaken. Really shaken. She's having a shower now."

She nodded. "I thought she might need one. Just hope she doesn't scrub herself raw .. I'd want to."

Castle watched her, sipping distractedly at her tea, her knees pulled to her chest. Concern overpowered every feature of his tired face. "Uh-huh. Yeah, I guess I would too."

Kate continued to slowly drink her tea. Staring out into space, straining thin air, searching for something that wasn't there.

He moved closer to her, she didn't flinch. He placed one large warm palm on her knee, using his other to gently pry her fingers from the white ceramic and set it on the coffee table, entwining her newly freed hand with his.

"Hey," Her eyes halted in their frantic scanning of the room and connected with his, they had always reminded her of the colour revealed when the ocean shook hands with the sky at dusk. Now, they seemed blank to her. Everything seemed blank to her. And he noticed. Boy, had he noticed.

Kate had appeared distant, she was there physically but in no other way. Her mind was elsewhere, she had disconnected. Even over dinner, when they were explaining the situation to Alexis. She had just put it bluntly, as if she was filling in a fellow detective on the case, not a teenage girl who had just been violated by a psychopath.

He looked into her now and he barely recognised the woman before him. He was used to the tough, compartmentalised, professional, Detective Beckett. Not distant, blank, worried, frantic, shocked into submission, Kate.

This version of his partner was not known to him, she looked familiar, sure, but in that way that people sometimes do when you see them out of context: your Grocery clerk standing in line at the bank, or your postman sitting across the aisle of a Movie Theatre.

She sighed, "As long as you and Alexis are settled in, I think I'd better head to bed." Moving to stand, she started to loosen the grip her fingers held on Castle's.

"Kate." He sounded concerned.

She continued, "Chances are you wont be up before me. But if so, help yourself to cereal, coffee and toast and things .."

"Kate."

"There're extra blankets in the linen closet. In between the bathroom and spare bedroom .."

"Kate," He stood beside her. "Please, what's going on?"

She seemed to soften a little.

"I'm tired, Rick. Please, I'm just .." She ran a hand through her hair, her other resting on her hip. "I'm not shutting you out. Don't think I could if I wanted to." She cracked a grin, but it dissolved as rapidly as it had appeared. " But not now. Now I just need to rest. Tomorrow. Tomorrow we can talk."

Rick stood there, watching as she double - triple - checked the locks on her door, sliding the chain into place. She gathered her things from the table and padded barefoot into her bedroom.

"Night, Kate."

She smiled, " Night, Rick."

And with that she closed the door, clicking it into place behind her.

Castle heard the water being shut off upstairs. He switched off the floor-to-ceiling lamp in the corner and made his way upstairs. Longing for a good night's sleep with his daughter at his side. But he doubted he would ever be able to shake the image of Kate's vacant eyes from his head.

Sleep well Katie. While you still can. Sweet dreams my darling.

Kate awoke the next morning to the sound of bacon sizzling, coffee brewing and pots clattering.

She stretched, releasing a long yawn, propping herself up against the headboard.

Thinking a good night's sleep would set her straight was stupid. It was obvious Castle knew something was up, and he was relentless. But a good night's sleep was the opposite of what she had experienced last night. That damn text.

' I knew it was true. You should've told me, you know. But I'm getting close. I forgive you. I'll save you soon. Don't worry.'

It was like a broken record, she had long ago gone past the point of memorising it. Now it was driving her insane. She had tried, God knows she had tried to purge it from her memory. She had failed miserably; it was stronger than ever, imprinted in her mind.

She had to tell Castle. She had promised him she would. Today. She was finding it impossible to keep most things from him these days anyway.

Slowly she pushed her comforter to the side and rotated, placing her feet on the cold, wooden floor. She moved over to her dresser and pulled on some pale grey ankle socks, thinned on the sole from over-use, before trekking into her bathroom to splash her face.

Castle had woken just before seven. After kissing his still sleeping daughter on the forehead, he jumped out of bed and tip toed down the stairs, being sure not to make too much noise. He figured that Kate would still be asleep, and he was determined to let her sleep for as long as need be.

He'd entered the kitchen in search of something to brighten the spirits of the two most important people in the world to him. Deciding on a delicious breakfast, he had set to work finding what he thought he would need. He was currently cooking bacon, cracking eggs, brewing coffee, setting up the toaster and seeking out any kind of fruit he could add to the feast.

He had just started chopping up the strawberries, when a very casual and torn, yet still absolutely breathtaking, Kate Beckett emerged from the door opposite him, phone in hand. She was dressed in a pair of woollen grey ankle socks, black athletic shorts and a dark blue shirt that was two sizes too big. Her hair was tied back in a loose pony tail at the nape of her neck.

She put on a smile which appeared to turn into more of a grimace with each step she took towards the man in her kitchen. He set the pace with a comforting smile of his own.

His face fell as she moved closer still and he took in the puffy redness surrounding her eyes.

Taking no notice of the blatant change in his demeanour, she moved over to the counter he was working on and sat atop one of the stools situated in front of it.

"Where's Alexis?" She asked.

Castle set down the knife and looked at her, "She's still sleeping. Where're you?"

Kate looked down at her hands, fiddling with her phone beneath the counter. She thumbed through her inbox until she found the message she sought, opening the file she slid the phone across the worktop to him.

He looked at her warily, trying to figure out what he was about to get himself into. But her face was buried in her hands. Unreadable.

He sighed and carefully spun the phone around to face him, lifting it off the surface. He read over the text. Glanced up at Kate. Read it again. His rage building and causing his face to change to a brighter shade of red each time he registered the words on the screen.

He set the device face down on the granite.

"Kate," His voice broke. "Who?"

He head rose from the sieve of her hands, tears streaming down her cheeks, she shrugged.

"Hey." He breathed, moving around to stand between Kate and the stool next to her. Rick used the pad of his thumb to wipe away the tears, before pulling her into a tender embrace, one of his hands drawing smooth patterns in between her shoulder blades.

She was stiff for a brief moment, but then she folded into him, wrapping her arms around his torso. She laid her head against his chest, in an attempt to keep her breathing in sync with the rhythm of his heart. She soon discovered there was no point in even trying; the dam behind her eyes broke and her tears fell free, soaking her partner's flannel to the skin.

"Hey," He whispered again. "Sssh, Kate."

"It's my fault." She hiccupped.

He gently separated the two of them, lifting her chin so she had no choice but to look up at him.

"Now, you listen to me," He tucked a few tear soaked tendrils behind her ear. "None of this is your fault. Okay? None of it. It's the rat bastard who did this. It's his fault. All of it. Not even the slightest yours. Understood?"

She lowered her eyes, boring holes into the wet patch she had left on Rick's shirt, before looking back up to him and nodding weakly.

"Good." He smiled. "Now you," He moved away and helped Beckett get to her feet. "Have already given me a shower," He laughed, pulling the soaked material away from his chest, before letting go and allowing it to pang back into place, clinging to his skin once again. Even she seemed to laugh at that. "And I think one would do you good. So how about you go and do that, while I cook up a new batch of bacon, this one seems to bear a slight resemblance to my Mothers' many failed attempts at brunch and quite frankly it's shameful."

Her head bobbed in consent and she swiped at the last of the tears lingering on her cheek bones with the back of her hand, smiling gently. She picked up her phone and slowly actuated back to her bedroom, heading for the adjoining bathroom.

All of five minutes had passed when Kate re-entered the kitchen, Alexis was up by then and had begun to help with the cutting of the various fruits Castle had laid out.

Rick seemed confused when she first appeared, she was still in her bed clothes and her hair was still bone dry apart from the odd strand fused to her face from before.

She looked devastated. Utterly distraught. Fresh tears left salty trails down either side of her face.

Alexis froze, clearly freaked. She had, after all, never seen Detective Beckett in this state, never witnessed this side of the woman.

Castle dropped everything and sped over to her, placing a firm hand on one of her shoulders.

"Kate. Honey, what's wrong?"

Beckett, would have scolded him for that 'Honey' comment. But not Kate. Not now.

She brought her lashes off her cheeks and held up her phone.

"Ryan rang," She croaked. "Lanie rang him," She cleared her throat, on the verge of yet another breakdown. "Esposito. He's …"

"Kate, look at me." Her eyes rose to meet his. "You're safe. What is it?"

She took a deep breath. "He's gone."

I hope you liked it(: I'm a little stuck on what to do next, I know where I want this story to end up, but have no idea how to get it there .. any ideas on how to fill in the blanks are appreciated. Any ideas at all(: 3