A/N: Ok, well, I guess last chapter wasn't my strongest judged on the number of reviews and such. I'm sorry about that, but guess what? We're picking up the pace big time, my friends. This one is super long and totally action packed (that's what she said?). You'll recognize a lot of this from Knockdown, but I did it on my terms and you'll see what I mean. I'm also switching my camera angles from Character to Character. Basically what I mean by that is that the narrator's voice is going to be following one character's actions at a time; whoever I feel is the most important. Let me know what you think, please?
Oh, and don't worry, the Castle/Beckett stuff is coming up. I just need to get them caught up with the story-telling. Shutting up! ON WITH IT….
Disclaimer: If I owned them, I would have let everyone see Countdown (part 2) by now.
Dr. Lanie Parish prided herself on being a cool-headed person. However, as of this moment, she was certifiably freaking-the-hell-out. She had been on the phone with her boyfriend/colleague to tell him about something she had found on Raglan's body when her freak-out began. She knew they had found the hit-man that had gotten Raglan and Kate and they were currently tracking down a lead using a name they had gotten out of an illegal pharmacist. She didn't know, however, what the hell had happened on the other end of the phone call she had just been disconnected from. She heard Ryan's shout followed by a loud bang before the call had disconnected.
Lanie stared at her cell phone for a half of a second before dialing Captain Montgomery's number. She tried his office; she tried his cell; and finally had gotten out of Karpowski that he was briefing the Mayor and wouldn't be back for hours. She had told Karpowski what was happening and she assured Lanie that she would look into it.
Lanie was pacing the morgue. It wasn't enough to just "look into it." She knew she shouldn't do it; she knew better than to make the call she was about to make; but her new-found love clouded her judgment and fogged her brain and drove her to a place that made her irrational. So, she picked up her cell again, and dialed.
Kate Beckett hated being idle. It was the afternoon and she was sitting sprawled out on Castle's couch reading Harper Lee's "To Kill a Mockingbird." She had always loved that book and had not reread it in years. So, she selected it off of Castle's bookshelf and settled in, attempting to remain as still as possible to avoid the pain she felt in her side.
She had stopped at her apartment with her shadow in tow to grab some more essentials and her badge and spare service pistol. Castle had given her a long lecture about not needing them, but the truth was she just didn't feel complete without them these days.
The short trip had left her extremely exhausted and she wound up falling asleep as they headed to Castle's loft. When they arrived they spent the majority of the day in separate corners. Alexis and Martha had gone on some sort of shopping trip and Castle was being surprisingly distant. The only exception was when he appeared to force her to eat and take her pain medication. She would have loved to refuse the white pills, but he wouldn't let her. Deep down she knew she needed them. As the hours of the medication rolled on, the searing pain in side became white-hot and almost unbearable. It was nearing the time where Castle would appear again with pills in hand when her Cell next to her came to life with a shrill ring.
Richard Castle was avoiding. Over the past few days, his relief that his detective was all right gave way to feelings of unwarranted guilt and blind panic when she so much as flinched.
He was sitting in his office secretly watching her read through an empty slot on his bookshelf and playing with a Yo-Yo simultaneously. He got up to grab her pill bottle when her phone rang and her voice wafted into his study.
"Hey, Lanie." She answered, dropping her normal "Beckett" answer. "Whoa, whoa, Lanie, Slow down."
Castle's interest was piqued as he stepped out into his living-room and noticed Kate's panicked expression. He knew better than to interrupt and ask, so he just stood observing.
"Lanie, I need you to tell me exactly what happened and what you heard." She paused for her friend's answer, "Okay, okay, Lanie, listen to me, I'm going to take care of this."
Beckett looked up at Castle and mouthed "Laptop, NOW." He turned and went to retrieve what she was asking for. He knew better than to question her when she wore the expression she was currently sporting.
He didn't hear the rest of the conversation with Lanie. By the time he returned, laptop in hand, she was calling in her badge number and requesting a trace on Ryan and Esposito's phones.
"Beckett, what the hell is going on?" He asked, setting the laptop into her awaiting hands.
"It's the boys." She sighed, typing with both hands as she held the phone between her ear and shoulder. "They were attacked; Lanie was on the phone with them when it happened and Montgomery is out of touch at the moment."
Castle froze and was rendered speechless as Beckett returned her attention to the man on the phone. She thanked him, hung up, and went back to typing furiously.
"What are you doing?" Castle asked.
"Ryan is one of those cops that documents everything. So, I'm hacking into Ryan's computer at the precinct."
"WHAT!" He squeaked, "You're allowed to do that?"
"No," She replied, still typing, "but they might be running out of time and they're in this because of me. I'm not letting them down."
Castle didn't have a chance to speak again before her eyes light up at the screen.
"I'm in. It looks like they were investigating a woman named Joelle in Brooklyn." She rambled. "There were two women that matched the description. One lived where they were last seen, the other across town." She replied, standing gingerly. "Let's go, Castle."
"Kate, don't you think you should report this?" He asked, following her as she pulled on a pair of Converse Chuck Taylor's.
"To who, Castle?" She looked up, "If we call in too many reinforcements, we could spook whoever has them… We'd be signing their death warrant."
Castle considered this for a moment. She had to be in terrible pain. The medication only last four hours at a time and it was four hours, almost. He struggled for a moment before making his decision.
"Well, then." He sighed. "Let's get moving."
He pocketed Kate's bottle of pills and moved for his coat and hers. He walked over to her, looked into her eyes, and helped her, very carefully, into her coat. He hated this. He knew that they shouldn't be doing this – that she wasn't well enough to be doing this-but he had a feeling that Beckett would do this with or without his help and he wasn't letting her out of his sight.
Their present situation was an interesting one. They were peering down a long alleyway while sitting in Castle's BMW. Beckett knew his tongue had almost fallen out of his head when she suggested he drive, but the truth was, she just didn't trust herself to drive with residual pain medication in her system.
They had gone to Joelle's apartment and Castle had been smart enough to suggest tracking her recent phone calls, which brought them here.
"That gut will spot a SWAT team from a mile away." Beckett said, shaking her head.
Castle sat next to her studying her face. She was pale and developing dark circles under both of her eyes. He also saw the slightest bit of moisture at her hairline; all indicators that her pain level was increasing. He also noticed she had been carrying herself differently. Instead of the tall, straight posture she normally maintained, she was leaning slightly to her left as if to relieve some of the pressure on her ribs by compressing them together.
She knew he was worried, but he had respected her wishes thus far. She needed to do this. In her mind, it was her fault they were all in this mess and by God, she was going to fix it.
"I'm open to dumb ideas here, Castle"
"Good, because I've got one."
They didn't waste a second. They exited his car quickly and she leaned heavily on his side, a small gasp of pain traitorously escaping her lips as she leaned over.
Their gazes were cautiously focused on the leather-clad man in front of them staring them down.
"He's not buying it, Castle." She faked a giggle, and reached for the pistol on her hip.
What happened next will confuse Katherine Beckett for the rest of her life. She felt him swat her hand away from her gun and grab her so that she faced him. The feeling of lips on hers took her breath away. The patched hole in her lung burned with pain and she knew she was supposed to be focusing but she just couldn't bring herself to care about either of those things. She was so startled that she broke the contact and looked into his face. She saw fear; she saw hesitation; but it was the blind devotion that made her reconnect her lips to his.
She was blinking furiously to try to keep her eyes on the guard instead of sliding closed like she so desperately wanted. She ran her hands up his spine and they landed in his hair. His hand was caressing her lower-back gently and the pain that she had felt since the shooting disappeared. The combination of the two sent a small, satisfied, "mmm" up her throat and into his mouth. The small chuckle from the security guard that she was supposed to be paying attention to was the only thing that snapped her back into reality.
Forgetting about her side, she spun hard, spinning herself and Castle around while simultaneously grabbing her glock. She brought the butt of her gun down hard on the man's head and immediately doubled over as a searing pain hit her like a freight train.
"Kate!" Castle whispered fearfully, reaching out for her.
"I'm fine. I'm good." She replied, standing up tall again. She knew she was lying. She knew she had, at the very least, pulled a few stitches and she felt the trickle of warm blood form a trail beneath her shirt and overcoat.
"Just took me by surprise, is all." She turned to look towards the building.
"That was amazing…" Castle murmured and she turned at blinked at him. "The way you knocked him out, I mean."
"Let's go… yeah…" She trailed off, moving toward the entrance.
Kate Beckett wasn't stupid. She knew he meant something more than that, but this wasn't the time or the place for that conversation, so she turned her attention elsewhere.
"Stay behind me, Castle… I mean it" She commanded, "and don't get yourself shot ok?"
He nodded, swallowing heavily, and followed.
The minutes that followed baffled Castle. She moved with grace and speed as they entered the building. They could hear muffled shouting coming from Ryan and Esposito. Beckett signaled him over to the opposite side of the warehouse before she went in, gun blazing.
He watched her move and take aim at the people that were harming her friends. She was almost elegant with her movements and he didn't know how she maintained the control after all her body had been through.
She ducked behind a fork-lift to reload her weapon when Castle saw the final man with the gun take aim at her. He studied the man's movements and saw him squeeze the trigger and give a slight smile.
Panic swept through as all of the nerves in his body went alight at once. He could recall the feel of her lips on his and how it felt to finally kiss her and he leapt from his position onto the armed man.
Without realizing what he was doing, the fury from the past few days roared from him straight into the man's face in the form of his right fist. Once, Twice, Three times and he stopped and stared down at what he'd done. The lack of regret was what frightened him the most.
"You okay, Castle?" Beckett asked, he hadn't even heard her coming.
"Huh? Yeah, never better." He looked up.
Castle was sitting alone in the ambulance where a nameless EMT had just wrapped his hand rather poorly. Kate said she would come find him, but she still hadn't come by. He stepped down off of the back of the bus and looked around. A few yards away there was another ambulance parked with its bay doors open. He approached it slowly and heard her voice tinted with anger.
"Just stitch it, or glue it, or patch it! Just do whatever the hell you have to do to get me out of here and back to work so I can STOP working like you've just told me to!"
Castle rounded the corner and paled at the sight. Kate was half sitting, half lying, on a stretcher and her shirt was pulled up and her coat was discarded. She was bleeding again and the EMT was cleaning her up.
"Kate, what the hell?" Castle shouted, jumping into the ambulance.
"Castle, it's none of your concern, I'm fine."
"Fine?" You call this Fine?" He gestured to her bleeding wound. "If you call this "fine" I hate to see what "not-fine" is."
Before she could answer, a new voice entered his ears.
"Castle, a word, please." Roy Montgomery startled him out of his rage.
"Yes, sir." Castle stepped out and shot one last glare at Beckett on his way out.
They reached a secluded area between emergency vehicles and The Captain turned toward him and shook his hand.
"I'm damn proud to have you part of my team, Castle," He said. "but if you tell anybody that I'll deny it."
"Yes, sir," Castle smiled, "How are Ryan and Esposito."
"Mild cases of hypothermia. They'll both be fine. However, I'm worried about Beckett." He stated. "I am trusting you, Castle, to keep her out of my precinct until she is healed. Do you understand me?"
"Loud and clear, sir." Castle replied as Montgomery walked back the ambulance Beckett was occupying.
When Castle followed him, he waited on the ground instead of following Montgomery up into the ambulance. The EMT was fixing her pulled stitches and putting a new bandage on the area.
"Detective Beckett," he stood in front of her, "I do not need to tell you how incredibly foolish you have been tonight considering your medical condition." Beckett looked down for a second before looking back into the face of her mentor and boss.
"Yes, sir."
"And I also don't need to tell you that you could have compromised your life as well as the lives of your entire team."
"No, sir, you don't."
"However, you and Castle here did a damn fine job and saved the lives of Detectives Ryan and Esposito. In addition to that, you put a murderer behind bars and upheld the reputation of the NYPD." He added. "I am going to look past all the rules that you broke to get to this point, and it's a LOT of rules, but if you EVER pull a stunt like this again, I WILL have your badge. I don't know what I'll take from you, Castle, but it WILL be something important."
"Yes, sir." They replied simultaneously.
"Now, go home," He said, "and I don't want to see either of you for at least two weeks." He didn't leave room for argument and he just turned and left.
Beckett and Castle looked at one another. Now, what the hell were they supposed to do for two weeks?
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