A/N: I'm behind on my outline, so bear with me. My pacing might be a little screwed up because parts of this chapter were supposed to be in the last one, but I kinda forgot? Excitement of Christmas and all that. Did everyone have a good holiday? I start driving lessons tomorrow..I'm literally going to be behind the wheel of a moving vehicle. Stay in your houses, everyone. But business: a startling realization, a shocking discovery, and finally, a way for the team to get in on this case. r&r if you need a new episode. Because I know I do. Yours 'till the wheels fall off ;)

"And who gave you the right to scare my family? And who gave you the right to shake my baby, she needs me. And who gave you the right to shake my family tree? You put a knife in my back, shot an arrow in me, tell me, are you the ghost of jealousy?"-Michael Jackson


Though watching as someone was struck down was nothing new to Castle, he still looked distressed. Beckett was too busy watching the action on the screen to notice. Ryan was a complete mess, and her heart broke for him. All of this was too much for him to bear alone.

"Who fired?" she demanded suddenly, mind racing. No one had instructed their sniper to shoot.

"Ross, did you shoot the suspect?" Kate asked over the com. Ross radioed back instantly.

"No, no one gave the signal-"

"The shooter's still here!" Castle and Beckett concurred together.

"All units, we're looking for the shooter. Someone else shot the vic-" Castle burst out of the can and took off running. Maybe if he was lucky, he'd catch a glimpse of something...But there was nothing. And judging from the way that the rest of the kidnapping had gone, he wouldn't find him. They were some sort of experts. His eyes found the body, which still lay, covered, in the middle of the lot. If they were professionals, then why send a kid? Kate jogged up beside him.

"Anything?"

"No, I couldn't.." But his mind was elsewhere.

"Kate, do you have other people looking for the shooter?"

"Everyone else who's here. Why?" Castle pointed to the body without a word. Then he spoke.

"This is officially a homicide. We're in."


Ryan had almost dozed off from exhaustion when he remembered what the kid had said to him before he'd been shot.

"Javi!" he yelled desperately, not caring who heard. There were more important things to worry about than his pride. His partner was by his side in an instant.

"You okay?" Kevin's voice was unsteady as he struggled to recite what he'd heard.

"He..He told me where he was keeping them..." And then the full weight of what he was saying hit him, and he jumped up and seized his partner by the shoulders.

"He told me where he was keeping them!" Javier didn't question, only shoved Ryan into the car and climbed in beside him, radioing for backup and starting the engine. Ryan was going to see his family again. But even then he knew that it was all too easy.


Kevin and Javier were three paces in front of everyone else when they stopped the car at the storage unit. They hadn't encountered anyone upon arriving, but they still walked, in formation, to the storage locker in particular. Just in case.

"We don't have a key," an officer pointed out. Esposito took one look at the lock and shot it off with his glock. Normally, it would have been funny. But there was too much pent up, nervous energy for anyone to do anything but wait for further instruction. Javier looked to his partner, who bit his lip and stared intently at his shoe.

"I have to see." Both of them had seen enough of these things go down, and they knew that the odds of seeing Jenny and Riley were slim to none. And that was assuming that they actually were inside.

"You wanna go first? Or do you want me to look and then tell you?" Esposito asked, weapon still drawn and aimed at the door. Ryan was torn between wanting to be the first to see, and not wanting to know what was inside. But he had to be strong. He had to be.

"I'll go first."


Beckett and Castle stood side by side as they waited for Gates to arrive. She'd radioed in and announced that she was on her way, no one touch anything.

"This is ridiculous," Kate growled, crossing her arms. A few news stations were setting up across the lot, aiming their cameras at the crime scene. They'd set up a barricade, but that hadn't stopped them from calling out questions that Beckett pointedly ignored. Finally, a black car pulled soundlessly up beside them, and Gates alighted from the vehicle.

"Beckett," she said coolly, by way of greeting, "Castle," she added at the last moment, undoubtedly done purposely. He offered a tight lipped smile in return and studied the scene while Kate got Gates up to speed. His mind was thinking like a mystery writer's not a cop's, and it wasn't helping. Not this time. He tried to see the scene like Kate would. The kidnappers had obviously sent this kid to do their dirty work for them, because he contrasted terribly with the professionalism of his subsequent murder. He considered the notes. Those made it seem personal. Let The Games Begin. But the following letter, the ransom note, was pretty generic. It was businesslike, and not in any way personal. Richard was confused by the facts of this case, and he was pretty sure that it wasn't just him. Perhaps there'd been confusion by the kidnappers as well. He hadn't heard anything from the van; there was no sound. And Esposito had taken Ryan and half of the force to a storage shed to follow up on something, he hadn't heard exactly what when Javier had hollered it out of his window. Whatever it was, though, it seemed pretty important. Maybe when they all met back up at the precinct-

"Castle, let's go. We're in."


With shaking hands, Kevin Ryan tossed away the destroyed lock and pushed open the door. And then he closed his eyes. He didn't know what to expect, and he wasn't quite sure that he was ready to look just yet. He knew that everyone else was behind him, and every single one of them had his back. But that did little to comfort him. All that he could think about was noise. If they were alive, wouldn't they have made some sort of noise? Yelling, screaming, crying, calling out for help? Wouldn't that be the normal human response? Why weren't they making any noise? The answer, of course, was simple. But Ryan didn't want to even suggest it to himself. But he knew that he had to open his eyes, and he also knew in his heart of hearts that they were dead. For that very reason, he wasn't surprised when he finally forced himself to look. Javier sidled up behind him and put a hand on his shoulder.

"Bro..." Kevin was motionless.


Scarface sat in the back room of Alfonzo's, waiting for Vinny and AK to come back with some sort of news. But as he flipped from station to station, they all seemed to say the same thing: a kid involved with the kidnapping of a cop's family had been murdered during the drop. He unmuted the volume and listened.

"...no leads or suspects at the moment. The victim has not been identified yet-" Good. He muted it once again and checked his watch. They had five minutes left before he-

"Boss," Vinny said, striding in, AK at his heels.

"What'd you do with the baby?" he demanded. Vinny pulled up a chair and sat back, feet up on the table.

"Dropped her with JoJo. She's gonna keep her 'till this shit blows over." Scarface gave him a nod of approval. AK still stood by the door, waiting to be told what to do.

"You kill him?"

"Yeah, straight through the heart like you said. Left real fast, too."

"Good. They're gonna figure out who he is in the next coupla days. We're gonna leave now and drop 'em off." Vinny got back up again and pulled his keys out of his pocket.


Ryan forced himself to walk all of the way into the storage unit. He dropped to his knees beside the bodies.

"Javier," he whispered as the room seemed to spin. Javier knelt beside him again, just as he had before in the precinct.

"Got you," he assured his partner. But Javier's assurance did nothing to calm him. He was near tears all over again.

"It's not them," he murmured, closing his eyes.