Chapter 9

Beckett and Castle were sitting at a table in the dining car. She had not wanted to leave the sleeper compartment but Castle had started whining about being hungry and how it was not fair that she should let him go hungry. In the end she had given in to his pleading if for nothing else than to stop his whining. At this time of the night there weren't too many people in the dining car. Several people were seated at the other end of the car.

Beckett was tucking into a plate of fried chicken and a side of fries. Castle had selected a chicken salad. With his hands still handcuffed he was having difficulty in trying to eat. Setting aside a devoured chicken leg Beckett looked over to him and was amused at his attempts to try and feed himself.

"This is very difficult, Beckett." Castle grumbled as he watched as some food slid off his fork as he tried to lift it up to his mouth.

"Would you like me to feed you Castle?" Beckett offered amusement dancing in her eyes.

Castle gave her a childish pout before resuming trying to get at his salad. He speared some of the food and carefully lifted the fork. He bent his head down. He opened his mouth and shoved the fork in. A triumphant look sparkled in his eyes when he looked at Beckett as he chewed on the food. He swallowed and nodded his head.

"I don't think you're as mean as you pretend to be." Castle said, looking at her. "If you were really mean you would continue to let me struggle to eat. Though the thought of you feeding me in here does have some appeal."

Beckett regarded Castle for a moment or two. He had a hopeful look on his face. A look that was not all together displeasing to her. After another moment of consideration she set down the chicken piece she had been holding and wiped her greasy fingers.

"Do you promise not to try anything?"

"I promise." Castle nodded, his face brightening. "Scout's honour."

"Okay."

Castle grinned as he lifted up his manacled hands and held them over the table. She unlocked the cuffs and shoved them into the pocket of her jacket. Castle rubbed his wrists letting out a low sigh. She watched him as he picked up his fork and started attacking the food in front of him with eagerness. She returned to her own food.

They ate in silence for some minutes. A waitress came to their table leaving the bill on the table. She lingered a little longer than was necessary, smiling down at Castle. The author returned her smile.

"Would you mind if I could get your autograph?" She said hesitantly.

"I would be delighted."

Beckett looked from Castle to the simpering waitress and back to Castle and rolled her eyes.

The waitress passed over her pad and pen. Castle gave her another smile before he quickly scribbled his autograph. He passed the pad and pen back to the waitress. The girl looked at the autograph and then clutched it to her chest.

"Thank you Mr Castle."

"My pleasure." he watched her as walked away before he turned back to his meal.

"Must be annoying getting interrupted during dinner by autograph hunters?" Beckett remarked.

"It comes with the territory." Castle replied, shrugging his shoulders. "You get used to it."

Beckett nodded her head before she picked up a drumstick and sank her teeth into it.

"Why do you eat that fried food?" Castle asked breaking the silence between them. "You know it's not good for you."

"I don't think about it." Beckett replied in an offhand manner. She dropped the chicken bone to the plate.

"Well that's living in denial."

"I'm aware of that." Beckett shrugged her shoulders indicating that she did not care.

"It's sounds kind of foolish, don't you think, Beckett?"

Beckett looked over to Castle.

"No. Stealing twenty million dollars from Victor Racine, now that sounds foolish."

Castle shrugged his shoulders. "I didn't think I'd get caught." He added.

"Now that's living in denial." Beckett accused with a hint of a smile on her lips.

"I'm aware of that." Castle matched her grin.

"Oh, so you're aware of your behaviour," Beckett was warming to the conversation "but continue to do things that aren't good for you?" She paused to shake her head. "Sounds kind of foolish, don't you think, Rick?"

His blue eyes held her amused gaze for a few moments before he looked down at this half eaten meal. He really liked the way she had pronounced his name.

"What I did helped a lot of people." He confessed.

"So you pissed off a mafioso boss just to be loved by a bunch of strangers? Yeah that makes a lot of sense." Beckett mocked.

Castle did not respond immediately. He reached over and picked up his glass of water and took a long sip. Setting the glass down her looked at the woman sitting opposite him.

"Beckett, do you have a family?" He asked.

Beckett was startled by Castle's sudden change of their conversation. She regarded him for a moment as she debated whether to answer the question.

"I'm not into sharing intimate details of my life with strangers." She said carefully.

"How far is it going to go?" Castle chuckled. Almost as quickly his face sobered up. "I'll probably be dead in a few days, anyway."

The grin vanished from her face. "How do you figure that?"

"Knowing what I do about Racine and his business..." Castle shook his head. "I wont last twenty-four hours in jail, you should know that."

Beckett did know that. She knew better than most people what Victor Racine was capable of. The reason she now found herself on a train heading for New York was because of Victor Racine. The reason her whole life had been turned upside down was because of Victor Racine. She hated to admit that Castle was right. Within a day of landing in jail he would be dead. Racine would see to that. She tried hard not to think about that she would be somehow responsible for that happening. It was moments like this that she hated herself and more to the point hated the job she now did.

Looking at down at her half finished dinner she suddenly found she was not hungry any more. She pushed the plate aside. She found herself staring down at the table for some moments. She had told him the truth about not revealing about herself to strangers. She could feel Castle's eyes on her. What did it matter if she told him a little about herself. Slowly she lifted her head to look at him.

"It's just me and my dad." She told him.

Castle's eyes rose in surprise.

"Not married?" He asked.

"No."

"Divorced?"

"Never married."

Castle looked even more surprised. He found that hard to believe. A beautiful woman like her?

"Not the marrying kind?" He ventured.

"Never found the right guy."

Castle nodded his head in understanding. A small grin tugged at the corners of his mouth.

"No boyfriend?"

"Not at the moment."

"Well I supposed doing the kind of work you do, you wouldn't have much time for a boyfriend, at least an understanding boyfriend?" Castle observed.

Becket shrugged her shoulders in response to his remark.

"Just you and your dad, huh?" Castle said more to himself than to Beckett. He was intrigued with her and wanted to find out more about her."So what happened to your mom?"

Castle saw pain flare up in her green eyes. They became shiny as if she was on the verge of tears before she turned away from him.

"I'd rather not talk about that." Beckett said tersely.

"Okay." Castle breathed. "Sorry."

He became even more intrigued about her. The mention of her mother had caused her great pain. Something terrible must have happened, he concluded. He felt a little bad about bringing up that subject. Once more he had managed to put his foot into it without realising it.

"I don't suppose you've been a bounty hunter all your life" Castle said, quickly changing the subject. " So what did you do before?"

Beckett continued to look elsewhere and did not respond immediately to his question. Castle thought that she was not going to answer at all. Finally after some moments, Beckett spoke.

"I used to be a cop." Beckett announced. Slowly she turned her head to look at him. "I was a cop in New York."

"Then you must know all about Victor Racine?"

Beckett nodded her head, a hard look had settled on her face. "Met him a couple of times too."

"Really?" Castle could not hide his excitement. "You met him? What's he like?"

"You know, Castle, you have a way of worming things out of people that I don't like."

"Can't help it," Castle said offering a smile. "It's the writer in me."

Beckett rose to her feet. She picked up the bill and took a look at it before she set it down. Pulling out her wallet she took out several bills to cover the bill and set them down on top of the table. She looked down at the bill again and then pulled out two single dollar bills for the tip from her wallet. She put away her wallet and then placed the extra bills on the table.

"Two dollars? Is that all you're going to leave?" Castle questioned as he rose to his feet.

"It's fifteen percent." Beckett replied.

"It's thirteen percent. I know about these things."

Beckett was not about to argue with him over the percentage of the tip. She turned around as she reached for her wallet. As she turned back she found that Castle had vanished.

She let out an angry growl and rushed for the exit. She burst through the next car and spotted the author at the far end. Setting off down the aisle Beckett had to dodge or shove aside passengers who were in her way. She heard their outraged shouts but she had no time to stop and apologise her thoughts were on getting Castle.

She reached the end of the car and pulled open the door. The roar of the rushing train was almost deafening and a blast of cold air hit her making her shiver. She ignored the cold as she stepped across the narrow walkway separating the two cars. Reaching the other side she pulled open the door to the other car. Entering the car she ran down the aisle.

Castle had reached the far end of the car and had flung open the side door and stood in the doorway. Beckett slowed down to a walk when she saw Castle in the doorway staring out into the rushing darkness. Castle turned to look at her. She could see that he wanted to jump but was hesitating. Beckett would hesitate too about wanting to jump off a speeding train. A look of panic crossed Castle's face as he turned to stare out the door.

Beckett came to a halt and folded her arms across her chest. She allowed a small smile to settle on her lips as she watched Castle debating with himself whether to jump or not to jump.

"What are you going to do? Jump out of train going ninety miles an hour?" Beckett said mimicking him.

Castle turned to look at her. He did not know which was worse jumping off a speeding train with the inevitable injuries that would come once he hit the ground or facing Beckett's wrath for having tried to escape.

"Go ahead." Beckett encouraged, smiling at him. "I'll just get off at the next stop, scrape you up and mail you back to New York."

Castle took another look out the door. As much as he wanted to escape he realised that he would more than likely get himself killed if he jumped off. His shoulders sagged in defeat as he stepped back from the doorway. He was going to have to face the wrath of Beckett. He took another step away from the door.

Beckett unfolded her arms and moved quickly up to Castle. She placed one hand on his arm and with her other she reached up and took hold of his ear and twisted it. He sank slowly to his knees.

"Ow...ow...apples! Apples!"

Beckett released his ear and glared at the author.

"You promised you wouldn't try anything."

Castle rubbed his throbbing ear but could not help himself, he grinned sheepishly at her. "I was never a scout."

Beckett levelled her most lethal glare at Castle. The grin vanished from his face instantly. Without a word she propelled him down the aisle in the direction of their sleeping compartment.

XXX

Tom Demming was leaning against the rental car that he had practically thrashed as he had sped through the night in order to reach Needles California so that he could catch the South West Chief. Not that he was really concerned too much about losing his deposit or anything like that. He had signed out the car in Beckett's name. She could worry about it when she got the bill, he thought to himself with a laugh.

The sound of a horn of the approaching train broke the stillness of the night air. Demming glanced at his watch and saw that the train was on time. He threw down the half finished cigarette and crushed it under his boot. He grabbed his dufflebag and slung it over his shoulder and headed

for the train station.

As soon as the train came to a halt the conductors and porters emerged from the various cars. The train staff had smiles on their faces and they said good-byes to the passengers who were disembarking here and welcoming smiles to those passengers getting on.

Demming quickly made his way along the platform. The train barely stopped for ten minutes here at Needles. He showed his ticket to the conductor who stood at the entrance to the Coach Car. The conductor punched the ticket and waved Demming through. Demming nodded his head and climbed aboard.

He strolled slowly down the aisle his eyes sweeping back and forth as he looked at the passengers. Some were fast asleep oblivious to the fact that the train had stopped. A couple were silently making out. There was a sailor who was fast asleep across two seats. He reached the end of the car and turned to look back just to make sure he had not missed his quarry. No, they were not in here.

Demming turned and slid open the door and made his way to the sleeper car ahead. On entering the sleeper car the train jerked into motion and pulled away from the platform. As he continued walking down the corridor the train rocked as it picked speed. Demming had to throw out his hand to brace himself and stop from falling. After a moment he continued walking.

Miles the Porter emerged from a staff room and saw Demming approaching. He brought a smile to his face.

"Trying to find your room, sir."

"Nah, I'm actually trying to find Kate Beckett." Demming replied. "She told me to meet her there."

Miles turned and pointed behind him. "Number four, next car, sir."

"Thanks."

Demming nodded to Miles and continued walking. Miles regarded the departing figure for a moment before he turned and went about his business.

Demming slid the door closed and slowly crept along the corridor of the next sleeper car. He checked the number on each door he passed until he found the one he was looking for. He set down the dufflebag beside the door and reached for his gun. He checked to see that the coast was clear before he reached for the door handle. He grimmaced at finding the door was locked.

He shoved his gun into the waist band of his jeans and pulled out a lockpick from a pocket of his jacket. He crouched down in front of the door and went to work on the lock. Less than a minute later the door is unlocked. Demming could not help but smile. When it came to picking locks there was no one who could do it as fast as he could. He put away the lock pick and rose to his feet.

Taking a deep breath Demming pulled out his gun and slowly turned the door handle. He peered into the room. He saw Beckett laying on the top bunk with her back to the door. He crept into the room and then paused. He could hear her snoring lightly. For some reason he found that amusing.

He dragged his eyes from Beckett and looked at the bottom bunk. It was empty, there was no sign of the man he had been hired to bring back. He turned away from the bunk and focused his gaze on the bathroom door. He saw a line of light at the bottom of the door and smiled.

Demming moved up to the door and tried the handle. He found it locked. The smile vanished from his face as he reached for the lock pick again. It took him a little longer to pick this lock as he did it with one hand. He still held his gun. There was no way he was going to put it away, not while he was in this compartment.

Opening the door he found Castle sitting on the toilet seat reading his copy of In A Hail Of Bullets.

Castle was surprised to see the door open but was even more surprised to find that it was not Beckett standing there but a man. A man holding a large gun. He started to open his mouth to say something but the man moved swiftly and put his free hand over his mouth and pressed the gun against his head.

"Not a word." Demming whispered. "Or I'll splatter your brains all over the wall."

Castle stared up at the man wide-eyed but he slowly nodded his head in understanding. The man smiled back at him. Castle regarded the man carefully. Then his eyes shifted a little as he caught sight of a blur of motion behind the man.

Beckett's clenched fist smashed hard into the side of Demming's head. He let out a cry of pain as he staggered against the sink. Beckett did not stop, she moved in swiftly and delivered a series of short, sharp punches to Demming's kidneys that had him sagging. She grabbed him by the jacket and hauled him out of the bathroom.

Demming despite the pain in his head and kidneys recovered a little and rounded on Beckett throwing a punch that grazed her cheek. Having left himself open with that punch Beckett ignored the sting on her cheek and took advantage of the opportunity that he presented her. She punched him in once in the stomach and then in the ribs that sent Demming staggering out of the compartment. He crashed against the wall. The gun dropped from his hand.

Beckett moved in before Demming had a chance to recover. Two hard punches to the stomach had Demming sagging against the wall.

Miles the Porter had heard the commotion and appeared to see Beckett and Demming scuffling in the corridor. He saw Beckett pressing her forearm against the man's throat.

"What the hell is going on here?" He demanded.

Beckett used her free hand to pull out her FBI ID. She held it out for Miles to see.

"Wil Sorenson." She announced. She turned to stare at Demming. "How'd you find out where I was?"

"Go to hell." Demming wheezed while also ignoring the various centres of pain in his body. "I don't have to tell you anything. You ruined my car, do you know that?"

Miles approached the two of them.

"Radio ahead. I want the local police at the next stop to place this man under arrest." Beckett ordered.

Demming despite his pain looked at Beckett and laughed. "What the hell are you talking about?"

Beckett looked at Demming. She removed her arm off his throat. She hit him hard in the stomach that had Demming doubling over. Then she grabbed him by the hair and smashed his head into the wall. Demming's laughter died instantly. His legs suddenly collapsed and he dropped to his knees and then he fell face down on the floor, hitting it with a loud thud.

"That's enough out of you." Beckett said to the unconscious Demming. She looked over to the Porter. "Get on the horn, call the cops."

"Yes, mam." Miles replied quickly, he turned and all but ran down the corridor.

Beckett bent down and from her jacket produced a plastic hand tie. With practised ease she quickly bound Demming's hands behind his back, securing them tightly. Then she picked up the gun from the floor and then rose to her feet.

Castle had been stunned by Beckett's display of fighting skills. She was like an angry ninja. He had followed them out of the bathroom in the expectation that she might need a hand. He followed as they moved from the compartment into the corridor. He watched the rest of the fight from the doorway of their compartment. He could not believe how fast she had moved. He could not believe how hard she had punched. A couple of punches she had delivered even he had felt. Definitely not a woman to get on the wrong side, he concluded as he watched the man crash to the floor.

When she turned to face him, he saw the glint of triumph in her green eyes.

"Who is this guy?" he asked her.

Beckett glanced down at Demming before looking back at Castle.

"Just a guy I dated once."

Castle nodded thoughtfully. He glanced down at the man a moment. Slowly his eyes rose to hold her gaze.

"Didn't work out, huh?" Castle said.

Castle saw a spark of amusement in her eyes before he wisely stepped back into the compartment.

XXXXX

You're thoughts, as always would be greatly appreciated dear reader.

Con