Castle found her trembling with rage at the front of the courthouse, her chest rising and falling too quickly, her weapon carefully down at her side. The NYPD and first responders were milling about; Beckett was stony-faced and referring all the detective's questions to Shaw at the FBI.

NYPD wanted to take her in, somewhere, question her more extensively, but they finally got Shaw on the line and were countermanded. Then the Captain came down and ran interference with IAB, who'd been mistakenly called (or purposefully, who knew).

Castle fielded a phone call from Ryan, then got the latest information on the cases they'd pulled out of the Records room. Ryan arranged to stop by the loft later and have a war meeting, even though Rick explained they'd be taking his daughter to college and it might be late.

Well, he would be. He wasn't so sure about Kate now.

Castle ended up sitting at the bottom of the stairs, waiting on her to finish up. Montgomery gave him a nod when he came through, walking with a guy from IAB, Capshaw, and then a local FBI agent showed up and began conferring with the two of them.

It was a mess. A huge snafu. Castle checked his watch again, lifted his eyes in time to see Beckett arguing with her former Captain now, her finger pointing towards the now-vanished helicopter. He ducked his head and tried not to let his disappointment show.

He called Alexis.

"Dad! Where are you? It's nearly ten-thirty."

"I know. I'm stuck at the courthouse with Kate. She had. . .a police incident, and now that she's in the Bureau, there's a kind of turf war going on here."

"A police incident?"

"Yeah. Nothing to worry about."

Castle watched the federal agent shake his head at Kate as she argued quietly, her eyes flicking to Rick's every few seconds then darting away. She reached out towards the Captain, as if drawing him into her argument, but even Montgomery looked to be resistant to whatever it was Kate was saying.

He knew Beckett was begging to be let in on the manhunt. Could see it on her face.

"Are you guys going to make it in time?" Alexis asked quietly. He could hear the carefully concealed disappointment.

"I will, for sure," he asserted. "But I don't know about Kate. The NYPD look like they want to hold her here." They might, but in the end, if Kate wanted in on the manhunt, he wasn't sure something like Alexis's going to college was going to stop her. He just didn't want his daughter to know that.

"Dad."

"I know, pumpkin. But it's not like Kate did it on purpose." Even though she might be now.

She sighed over the line. "Ashley will be here in thirty minutes, Dad."

"Okay. All right. I promise I'll be on my way by then, with or without Kate."

"Thanks," she said, but he could still hear the wistfulness in her voice.

"Love you," he said, and after she had echoed him softly, he hung up.

"Castle."

The harsh bite of his name reached him; he glanced up. Beckett was headed his way, her face rigid.

"You finish giving your statement?" she asked.

He nodded, dreading the moment she had to apologize and back out.

"Let's go."

He froze, watched her start to walk away, clearly expecting that he would follow. "Wait. What?"

She glanced at him over her shoulder. "Come on. We're running late."

He trotted to catch up to her, then grabbed her elbow to get her to slow down. "What about all this?"

"They don't need me for this," she said, but he could actually hear how it pained her to say it.

"But Lockwood-"

"Is loose. There's nothing I can do about that right now."

"And you don't want in on the manhunt?" He was more than surprised. He was stunned she wasn't still back there, arguing with the both of them.

"I didn't say that. But I'm not NYPD any more, Castle. They don't want me. I'm a Fed. I don't have jurisdiction, and I'm still on probation."

He hated to admit it, but his heart lightened. She was sour with it, though; he could see it on her face. He was being selfish, wanting her to come with him to drop off his daughter. She needed to be here, chasing after Lockwood-

His heart stuttered. Lockwood was a hired killer, an assassin. Everyone associated with her mother's case was murdered. So even if Kate wanted to be chasing the guy down, he couldn't feel sorry for being grateful that she wouldn't be allowed in on the fun.

"Alexis is going to college," she said. "That's where I'll be if they need me."

"You aren't serious."

She turned back around, glared at him. "Castle."

Gift horse. Right. He hustled up behind her and resisted the impulse to put his hand at her lower back. Probably wouldn't be welcome at right this moment.

But he did have something. "Remember our big idea?"

"What?" she bit out, still irritated.

He tried not to take it personally. "Our big idea for going through old arrest records from Raglan and McCallister-"

"Yeah?" She was suddenly interested, wasn't she?

"Ryan and Esposito are coming over tonight with something they found."

"Castle! Beckett!"

They paused at the doors, turning as one towards the sound of Captain Montgomery's voice. He was jogging their way with a frown on his face.

"Beckett. You still got the boys working your mom's case," he said, without preamble.

Beside him, he felt Beckett stiffen. "Sir."

"Beckett," he said, shaking his head. "You know you got no right to do that."

Castle gave Kate a cautious look, wondering what this was about. "Roy, how's the precinct?" He tried to diffuse the tension with a charming smile.

"Going good, Castle. It'd be better if you two didn't have my best detectives out scouring Archives instead of doing their jobs. Beckett, you are not an NYPD detective any longer. You want to investigate your mom's case, that's fine. Do it on your own time. Your federal time-"

"Are you upset with me?" Beckett growled. "I wasn't the one who set me up and got me fired. He was. Whoever he is, which I still don't even know. So excuse me for wanting to find the bastard who did this-"

"Beckett," the Captain's voice was a warning. And even though she didn't answer to him anymore, it seemed she was still under his spell. Beckett backed off.

Castle thought maybe he should memorize that tone for future use. Right?

"Sir. I just needed a couple of favors. That's all."

"You tell me it won't happen again, Beckett, and I won't believe you. Just keep in mind that those are my detectives, and they have work to do." Captain eyed her for a long moment, then turned to Castle.

"I know her excuse, Castle. What's yours? You think now that Lockwood's escaped, this has gotten easier? You think these guys are gonna be content with getting your partner fired? Because they won't. You two keep pushing at this, it's gonna go off in your face."

With that, Montgomery pushed past them, pulling out his cell phone and cutting off further conversation.

Castle turned wide eyes to Kate, saw the twitch in her jaw that betrayed her emotion.

"Kate."

"Not now. I can't-" She shook her head and pivoted back towards the doors, escaping.

What was *that* about?

And was it true that Lockwood might come for Kate?

She didn't want to be here, but she did. How was that for simple? Nothing was simple in her life anymore, not even this.

Kate Beckett dropped another box off at the trunk of Castle's car, then headed back for more. Alexis was grunting as she shoved an overloaded laundry hamper into the backseat, but she called out a thank you as Kate left.

She turned. "No problem, Alexis. One more load, I think."

"Oh no," Alexis moaned, resting her forehead against the frame of the car. "I don't know how I'm going to fit it all in here."

Kate met Castle at the elevator where he'd come down to the parking garage with the last of it. "This is it?" she asked, reaching into the elevator for a duffle bag and a shopping bag filled with hangers.

"Yeah. Thank goodness. Jeez, she ransacked her room."

But Kate could see the vulnerable darkness in his eyes, so she reached up and tugged on his ear. "Cheer up, Castle. We have the place to ourselves tonight."

He did grin at that, but then it fell off his face. "But Esposito and Ryan are coming over."

"And after that-?" She stepped closer, shifting her weight so that the duffle bag didn't swing from her shoulder and hit him. His body was tense, expectant. She swiped her lips along his jaw and blew into his ear, making him jump. "After that, it's just you and me."

He blinked and cleared his throat, but all that came out was a grunt.

"So get packing," she added.

Castle nodded and leaned over to scoop up the last of the elevator's load, then led her back to the car.

She itched to be somewhere else. Leading the task force dedicated to hunting down Hal Lockwood. She needed it; she wanted his smirking face under the crosshairs of her weapon, wanted him to drop to his knees in defeat, confess it all.

He wouldn't come quietly though. She knew that in her gut. Lockwood was not going back to prison; he'd had a mission from the beginning and had bided his time in solitary until the Dragon had managed to get Kate kicked off the force. Once phase one was complete, phase two had been set into motion: eliminate everyone connected to her mother's case.

And she knew, just as the Captain knew and maybe Castle suspected, that Kate Beckett was on that list.

Her heart pounded just thinking about it. Raglan and McCallister were two cops who'd been part of a dirty scheme to stick it to the mobsters in this city while collecting a hefty payroll. Only they'd killed an undercover FBI agent (which is how Kate had gotten Shaw's official approval to keep investigating her mother's murder). The guy framed for the killing had needed Johanna Beckett's legal help, but her mother had discovered the truth, had been silenced for it. She and her associates.

It all began there, for Kate at least, but that wasn't where it began for the Dragon. She had stuck her nose into something big; she knew it, but she didn't know how to bring it down. She didn't even know the extent of the thing, how it big it really was, only the people it had hurt.

And the Captain was riding her ass about using Esposito and Ryan to chase down leads. She'd have to talk with them about being a little more discreet, maybe not let the Captain in on everything from now on. What the hell was his problem?

The archived arrest records. That could be a waste of time or it could lead to a major crack in the case. The Chief of Police had been blackmailed, then threatened with the killing of his regular prostitute the same week Beckett had been tossed from the NYPD. Chief had been set up cleverly to make it seem like he'd been the one behind so much of that, but they'd at least discovered the smokescreen.

Didn't mean they were any closer to discovering the identity of the Dragon, but she could sense that they were at a tipping point. The arrest records-

Alexis squealed, jerking Kate from her circling thoughts.

"Oh my word, it's all in!" Alexis slammed the car door and jumped back, as if she expected it to burst at the seams anyway.

Kate tried on a smile, found it slipped on easily enough but wouldn't stay in place. "Are you ready?"

"Yeah. Ashley? Where is he?"

Kate glanced to Castle.

"Out front, waiting in his car; he'll follow us."

"Oh. No, Dad, I'm riding with him-" Alexis frowned at her father and moved forward to kiss his cheek. "Besides, there's no room for me. I packed it pretty full."

Kate glanced past Alexis's shoulder and saw the girl was right. The backseat was stuffed. She fought the smile that threatened, knowing that Castle would definitely not appreciate the humor, and schooled her features.

"Oh," Castle was saying. "I thought. . .um, okay. Well, meet you two out front."

Alexis grinned and flung her arms around her father's neck. "I'm so excited."

"I'm not," he sighed. Kate slapped his ribs and he huffed. "I'm excited too!" His fake cheer was a mite ridiculous.

Alexis laughed. "That's okay. I know you don't want to see me go. But you've got Kate!"

Kate frowned, not sure she liked being Castle's next entertainment. "Not yet, he doesn't."

Alexis giggled and shot her father a look. "Okay, almost. Don't ruin it, Daddy, by pouting now."

"Don't call me Daddy right before you run off to be with your boyfriend at college. That makes my heart hurt," Castle whined, giving her an unbelievably sad face. "I'm reminded of that three year old who came running to me when the boys pushed her into the dirt under the slide, her big blue eyes swimming in tears-"

"You are so maudlin." Kate rolled her eyes. "Okay, let's get this show on the road. And Castle, if you mope the whole drive, I'm gonna have to kick your ass."

Alexis laughed and patted her father's cheek. "Hear that?" She slid out of Castle's grip and headed for Kate next, throwing both arms around her and squeezing. Kate, surprised, hugged back. "Thanks, Kate. I'm so glad you're coming. Keep him in line."

She stepped back and gave that dazzling, too-cheery grin that always fooled Kate into thinking that the girl didn't have a care in the world. But recently, Kate had discovered how untrue that was, how the young woman had managed to create an effective barrier of happiness between herself and the world.

Honestly, though their defense mechanisms manifested differently, she and Alexis had more in common than Kate had ever thought. Alexis might look unscathed, but she worked hard to not let it touch her: her father's fame, her mother's abandonment, the betrayal from girls she thought were her friends.

Lockwood. Kate swallowed hard. She hoped, fervently hoped, that Lockwood came nowhere near this young woman.

What was she doing, risking Castle when he had this beautiful daughter who had already been left by her mother? How could Kate even ask him to follow her down this dark road when the only thing she was certain of was that death waited at the end?

For Lockwood. Or for her.