Chapter Ten: Revenge

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: Let me see? What was it I don't own? Lord of the Rings? Breaking Bad? Castle? Yes! All of them. Rating: M Time: Before 47 Seconds.

"Castle is that you?" She yelled, waving to Ryan who grabbed his phone.

"Me." His voice was so low she could hardly hear it.

"Where are you?"

"Don't…know."

"Are you okay?"

"Hurt…bad."

She felt her heart begin to break. "Are the people who took you around?"

There was no reply for several long seconds. "Alone. Parking garage…..White truck. Hurt."

"I've got him!" Ryan yelled. "The GPS on his phone is working. South east corner of 18th and Lex. And it is a parking garage." He and Esposito grabbed their coats and looked at Kate.

"Castle, we're coming for you. We know where you are, but stay on the phone. I'm coming for you."

Kate raced to her Crown Vic and raced through the darkened streets of Manhattan, beating her two partners by several blocks. She started going up the ramp of the parking garage, looking for a white truck. "There" She yelled and slammed on the brakes. She ran to the truck and began searching madly for Castle. There was no sign of him. Please don't let this be another trick by those sadistic bastards. Please.

She spoke into her phone. "Castle can you hear me? Are you there?"

"Yeah." He could just barely whisper.

"I'm going to turn on the siren. Tell me if you can hear it." She let the siren blast for a few seconds.

"Close." He muttered.

She got back in the car and turned a corner. There was another white truck. She slammed on her brakes again and ran to the truck. There was something in front of the truck.

"Castle!" She screamed and ran to him.

He was lying on one side, facing away from her. She turned him over on his back so she could examine him. He screamed in pain.

"Castle. I'm so sorry." She knelt beside him.

"…'M not." He mumbled, "Good to see you."

Castle was naked. He was covered in bruises, cuts, scabs, blood, dirt and feces. She could hear a car coming up the ramp. "Espo! Ryan! Over here!" She screamed.

Beckett checked Castle from head to toe. Both eyes were blackened and swollen nearly shut. His nose appeared to be broken. When he spoke she could see that at least one front tooth had been knocked out. She thought a shoulder might be dislocated and both his wrists seemed broken. His torso was one massive bruise. The bruising went down his legs. She was sure that both ankles were broken.

She heard a car stop and turned to see Esposito and Ryan hurrying to her. "Where the hell is the ambulance?"

"It's on its way." Javier and Ryan stopped and looked down at Castle. "Jesus." Espo muttered. Ryan crossed himself.

Kate knelt down by Castle again, gently putting her hand on his arm, afraid to do anything else that might hurt him. "We're here. You'll be fine."

He gave her a gap toothed smile. "I feel better already."

"Me too."

"Beckett." He whispered. "Sorry. I never got a look at them. Didn't hear anything either."

"Castle, don't you dare apologize." She could feel tears forming in her eyes and blinked them away. Not yet. I can't fall apart yet. Once he's in the hospital and I'm alone, I'll fall apart.

She heard a siren in the distance, coming closer.

"That's them." Ryan said. "They say they're four minutes out."

The four minutes passed like four days for Kate, but finally the ambulance arrived. The paramedics jumped out and ran to the detectives.

"Crap! What happened to him?"

"He's my partner. He was kidnapped and tortured."

The paramedic looked up at Kate, who had moved aside. "Don't worry, detective. We'll take good care of him."

"I'm going with him." Kate said.

The paramedic looked up, then nodded. "He's your partner? Sure. Happy to have you along."

Kate turned to Espo. "Call Martha and Alexis and tell them we've found him and that he's alive but badly injured. They can meet me at the hospital. Then get CSU out here. Go over the parking garage, canvass the area, check all of the traffic and security cams, see if there's anyone who saw anything, check for the homeless…"

Espo put his hand on her arm. "We know what to do. He's our partner, too. They're getting ready to load him in. He's on the gurney now. You take care of him. We'll do the rest."

Kate climbed into the back of the ambulance and moved as far from Castle as she could to allow the two paramedics to work on him.

"Detective?" One paramedic said. "We have him on oxygen and we started a saline drip since it looks like he's dehydrated. We gave him a sedative, so he's pretty much out of it right now. But, his vitals are pretty good considering. Your partner is one tough son of a bitch."

"He's a lot more than that." She said softly. I feel like a weight has been lifted off of me. He'll be okay, I'll tell him how I feel and we'll be happy. I'll never need to tell him I lied to him about not remembering anything at the cemetery. No! I can't lie to him. So many of our problems were caused by my inability to tell him how I really felt about him. To tell him what I needed. But I don't need to tell him immediately. It can wait.

"Almost there, Detective." The paramedic called.

Kate craned her head around and looked out of the front window of the ambulance. She saw the red neon sign that said "Emergency" as they shot past it. The ambulance came to a sudden stop and the doors opened. Kate jumped out to give the crew room to get Castle out. She flashed her badge to the medical personnel who were rushing out to the ambulance and then followed them inside. She kept walking with Castle who was being rolled on the gurney. Finally she was stopped by a nurse.

"This is as far as you go, Detective. We'll take it from here. You can go home now. You look like you've had a long, difficult night."

Kate shook her head determinedly. "I'm not going anywhere for a while. He's my partner."

The nurse nodded. "Okay. Tell you what. Go to the nurses' station to your left and wait. You can probably get some coffee there. I'll come and talk to you when we know more."

Kate found the nurses' station and got a paper cup full of coffee that tasted worse than battery acid with monkey pee in it. She drank it anyway, needing to stay alert and awake.

A half an hour after she arrived at the hospital, Martha and Alexis came in. The two redheads ran to Kate and they were enveloped in a three way hug. "Katherine, "Martha said, "tell us how he is. Don't sugar coat anything. We need the truth."

"He's been beaten very badly." Alexis started to cry, but Kate went on describing the injuries she had seen. "But the paramedics said his vital signs were good for someone who's been beaten as badly as Castle has. I think he'll be just fine, but we'll need to hear from the doctors."

"Why would someone do something like that?" Alexis asked, resting against Kate and crying.

The detective hugged the young woman. "I have no idea, but now I can spend all of my time finding them so we'll find out."

Kate led the two woman to a couch by the nurses' station where they sat and waited. Alexis held Kate's hand tightly and leaned on her.

"Meredith still hasn't called." She said.

"That's probably a blessing." Martha said tiredly.

"I don't care. I have a better mom now."

Kate quickly looked at Martha to see how she reacted.

Martha smiled at the two. "Indeed you do."

After a half an hour or so, a nurse came out to see them. "Detective? And these are..?" She nodded to Alexis and Martha.

"These are his mother and his daughter." Kate explained.

"We've done X-rays and an MRI on Mr. Castle, and the doctors are working on him now. He's in good shape for what he's gone through. But I don't wish to minimize how much damage has been done. However, it looks like he should recover with no real permanent ill effects."

"Thank God." Martha breathed,

"He'll be unconscious until tomorrow at least, but if you'd like to see him, it'll be a couple of hours. "

"Yes!" All three women said at once.

Martha spoke. "Yes, please let us know when we can see him. And thank you so very much."

"Thank you. We appreciate all that police officers like Mr. Castle do for us." The nurse said with a smile.

"Oh!" Kate said. "Castle isn't a police officer, he's a civilian investigator who consults with us, but he is my partner."

The nurse's smile never wavered. "Same thing, right?"

"Right." Martha said quickly.

The three sat on the couch drinking coffee for almost three hours. Then a nurse in scrubs came out, and almost immediately Ryan and Esposito arrived.

"You can see Mr. Castle now." The nurse said.

"Beckett?" Esposito said, motioning for her to come to them.

Kate sighed. "Martha you and Alexis go see him. I'll be in after I talk to my team. Okay?"

Alexis and Martha followed the nurse and Kate turned to the two detectives. One look at their faces told them everything she needed to know. "You found nothing."

"Afraid so." Ryan said sadly. "Sorry."

"Tell me anyway, it might be useful later on."

"CSU went over the whole place. We're betting the guy drove in, dumped Castle and never got out of his car."

"What about security cams in the garage?"

"Nada." Espo said. "Apparently the owner figures that not enough people try to skip out without paying to make cameras a paying proposition. There aren't any traffic cams for a couple of blocks. We're scrubbing the video from them, but we don't expect much."

"What about the cashier?" Kate was getting more and more frustrated.

Ryan opened his notebook. "Miss Patel is from India and just got here and got a job with her uncle, who owns the garage. She wouldn't know a Harley from a big rig and spends all of her time reading celebrity magazines in the little cashier's booth. She might notice George Clooney, but not much else."

"We checked the phone that Castle called on. It belongs to a Sarah Goldman, age sixteen, a high school student. We checked her and her family and can't find any link to Castle or any criminal activity. We're betting the phone was stolen. We'll check in the morning, which is just a couple of hours away." Espo looked closely at Kate. "You should get some rest. This has been hard on you."

"Not as hard as it was on Castle." She snapped angrily.

"I never said it wasn't hard on him." Espo said softly.

Kate looked at her feet. "I'm sorry, Javi. I didn't mean that. I'm going to grab a few hours of sleep here. I'll meet you at the precinct and we'll go to see the Goldmans together."

"You can't do it all, Beckett. " Ryan said.

"No, but I can do as much as I can. I'll have plenty of time to sleep once we find these bastards."

As Kate turned to go see Rick, Alexis and Martha came out through the doors to the ICU. "He's all cleaned up, Katherine. He looks better, they tell me. He'll be okay. If you'd like, we can wait and take you home."

She shook her head. "No. I'll grab some sleep here and then go to the precinct. We have another lead, but it doesn't look promising. I have to check it out, though."

"I'll come down here and bring you some clean clothes in the morning, dear."

"I'll come, Grams.' Alexis said. "You'll be tired."

"You don't have to do that." Kate said.

"Of course we do, dear. After all you've done, it's the least we can do."

The three hugged and the two redheads left. Kate found a nurse who directed her to Castle's room. He was asleep, or unconscious, she didn't know which. He did look better now that he had been cleaned up. A nasal cannula was giving him oxygen and he had IV tubes in both arms. She could see casts on both wrists and his fingers.

She leaned down and very gently brushed her lips against his. "Rick, I love you. I love you, Rick."

She heard a noise behind her and whirled around. Two women dressed in scrubs were standing there in the doorway. The older woman spoke. "You are…?"

Kate pulled out her badge. "Detective Kate Beckett, NYPD. This is my partner." She saw the women looking skeptically at her. "In more ways than one." She added.

The older woman smiled. "Obviously." She walked into the room and held out her hand. "I'm Doctor Marguerite da Silva and this is Nurse Peggy Baer. We're looking after your partner. Would you like a briefing on what we've found?"

"Very much so."

All three moved to the bed next to Castle. Dr. da Silva spoke. "Starting at the feet, both of his ankles were broken. It appears that they were broken first, probably to limit his mobility. His left cuboid bone, in the foot, was also broken, probably by stomping on it. Both of his big toenails were torn off. His calves and thighs are severely bruised. His left patella is fractured and his right anterior cruciate ligament is badly torn." The doctor looked at Kate. "He was kicked repeatedly in the groin. There appears to be no permanent damage, but you won't be having sex with your boyfriend for a while."

Kate nodded. I've waited for years. A little more time won't matter, but when he is ready, we won't stop for a month. I have a lot of time to make up for. And a lot of things to make up to Castle for.

Dr. da Silva went on. "He's been repeatedly struck in the stomach and in the lower back. He'll probably have blood in his urine for some time. A total of five ribs are cracked, two on the left, three on the right. His left shoulder is dislocated, and both wrists are broken. In addition, his right thumb and two fingers are broken and his left thumb and all four fingers are dislocated. Two teeth were knocked out and his jaw is broken, a hairline fracture. His nose was also broken. As you can see, he has two black eyes."

To the outside world, Kate appeared to be completely calm. Inside, she was seething with rage.

"We have seen this sort of thing before, but never quite so severe." Dr. da Silva said.

"Where? When? Who?" Kate asked sharply.

"According to police, they were people who ran afoul of loan sharks. In spite of the pain inflicted on Mr. Castle, he should recover completely. Loan sharks like to inflict a great deal of pain, but leave their victims able to work and pay their debts."

That started Kate thinking. Loan sharks? I can't imagine Castle needing a loan shark. But, Cano Vega needed one, so it's not impossible. And if we arrested someone who owed money to a loan shark, that might make him mad. It's hard to collect your money from a guy in prison.

"There's something else." That was the nurse.

"What?"

She looked at the doctor, who nodded. "When I first saw Mr. Castle, I thought that whoever did this had some knowledge of medicine. Probably not a doctor, but maybe a physical therapist. Someone with some medical knowledge.

That also set Kate thinking. "Thanks for the information. If I could, I'd like to stay here tonight."

"Mr. Castle won't be awake, Detective and there are hospital rules."

"Castle is my partner…"

Dr. da Silva broke in. "Since Mr. Castle was kidnapped and tortured, I think it would be advisable if an armed guard were present. Would you care to volunteer, detective?"

Kate smiled. "Absolutely."

"We should be able to squeeze a bed in here for you." The nurse said. "Why don't you wash up and I'll see about the bed?"

By the time Kate got out of the bathroom, a bed had been placed next to Castle. She gently kissed Rick good night, told him she loved him and crawled into bed.

Very early the next morning, Kate was woken by Alexis. "Kate, I brought you some clean clothes. I also brought you some coffee. It's just the coffee from the hospital, but it's a fresh pot and it isn't too bad."

Kate mumbled her thanks, took a sip, frowned and put the cup down. "I'll be in the bathroom." She went into the bathroom, got ready for the day as best she could and got dressed. She came out, took another sip of coffee and found Alexis was still there.

"Detective Esposito texted me that you came here in the ambulance and didn't have your car. I'll be happy to drive you to work."

"Alexis, you don't have to do that."

"What? Make my new mom take the subway? Never."

Kate blushed, then decided she might as well accept it. She walked over to Castle, kissed him gently and whispered, "I love you."

Alexis was right behind her. She kissed her dad and told him she loved him as well.

Arriving at her desk, Kate called Ryan and Esposito over. "I got some information from the doctors last night. They say they've seen similar injuries to Castle's from loan sharks, who want their clients to suffer, but to be able to get back to work and pay their debts. Check and see if any loan sharks were inconvenienced by anyone Castle helped arrest. And, I hate to do this, but we should check Castle's finances. I can't imagine him needing to go to a loan shark, but we're getting nowhere. We have to look at anything and everything."

Kate thought about what she was going to say next. "One of the nurses thought that the people who beat up Castle might have some sort of medical training. Mr. Kim and Ms. Mardikian are both pre-med students. Check them and their families out again. And check out Doctor Josh Davidson."

Ryan looked up. "You think he might be involved?"

Kate shook her head. "No, but I can't take any chances. Josh wasn't happy when I broke up with him and he knows I broke up with him because of Castle."

"How'd he know that? It sure never looked to us…" Ryan stopped, seeing that he'd said too much. Esposito slapped the back of his head.

"That's okay, Ryan. No one knows better than I do how badly I've screwed up with Castle. Check Davidson anyway. Espo and I will go see the Goldmans."

The Goldmans lived in a very nice brownstone not too far from Central Park. Mr. Goldman was a stock broker, Mrs. Goldman was a stay at home mother. Sarah, the only child was a pretty girl. Her dark hair was pulled back in a ponytail. She looked nervously at her hands. She was dressed in jeans and a colorful blouse.

"May I ask what this is about, Detective?" Mr. Goldman addressed Esposito.

Kate replied, "My partner was kidnapped and tortured. When he was found, he had a phone registered to your daughter. We'd like to know how he got it." She showed a photo of the phone to the Goldmans.

"That's my old phone. I lost it about five months ago." Sarah spoke up. Her father glared at her.

"Where did you lose it, Sarah?"

The girl looked around. "I'm not sure. The mall, for sure."

"Which mall?"

"Bridgeview. It's just down the street from school. We had a half day because the teachers had some kind of a conference to go to."

"What school do you go to?" Kate asked.

"Manhattan Science and Technical." Sarah said proudly.

"Sarah's studying computers. She knows all about them." Her mother added.

"What happened at the mall, Sarah?"

"We went to Jimmy's, it's a pizza place. The pizzas aren't good, but they have some real cute guys who…" She looked at her father, who was glaring again. "We had pizza." She finished quietly.

"We? Who else was with you?"

"Elsa Chen and Grace Summers. They're my best friends. After we ate, we went to Conroy's. It's a clothing boutique. They have…" She looked at her father again. "Nice things."

"What happened there?"

"I had my phone in my backpack. I put the backpack down, just for a second, to look at some clothes. As we were leaving Conroy's I remembered I had to check my e-mail for my technical writing class homework. I looked for my phone, but it was gone. I went back to Conroy's and the Jimmy's, but I couldn't find it."

"Money does not grow on trees, young lady." Her father began. "When I was your age, I had to work for everything I got. Every single thing. I didn't have the luxury…"

Kate interrupted. "And you never reported the loss to the police?"

Sarah shrugged. "I thought I had lost it. So, no."

"Did you see anyone suspicious, or unusual at either Jimmy's or Conroy's?" Espo asked.

Sarah shook her head. "No, but I wasn't really paying attention."

"And because you weren't paying attention, we're involved with the police." Her father said sharply.

Kate took the names, addresses and phone numbers of Sarah's friends in the hope they might remember something. As they left, the two detectives could hear Sarah's father berating her.

"I almost feel like grabbing Sarah and giving her to Castle. She'd be another Alexis in no time."

"Yeah." Kate said absently. We could make another Alexis. Or another Rick, or another Kate. Whoa, girl. One thing at a time.

Ryan was waiting for them at the precinct. "If no news is good news, I've got good news for you."

Kate just nodded. She was getting used to this. "What do you have?" She finally asked, sitting in her chair. She noticed that both Ryan and Esposito made a point of not sitting in Castle's chair.

"I can't find any connection between the Mardikians and Castle or between the Kims and Castle. I did talk to the office of the UN High Commission for Refugees here in New York. Josh has been in the eastern Congo for the last year."

"It was worth a shot." Kate said, unhappily.

"And I can't find any other medical personnel that might have been pissed off at Castle for arresting someone close to them."

"How about the loan shark angle, bro?"

"I did get Castle's financials. I called Martha and she asked his lawyer to come over here." Ryan handed Kate a sheaf of papers. "I knew the guy was rich, but this…He could buy all of the loan sharks in New York."

Kate had known Rick was rich, but she was surprised at the number of zeros in the bottom line. I've worried too much about money. That millionaire playboy Rick Castle would never want me. And the money means nothing to either of us.

Ryan continued. "As far as any loan sharks that might have lost money because you and Castle put someone away, that's going to be harder. It's not like loan sharks publish quarterly reports. I'm working on it though."

Kate smile at her friend. "Thanks, Kevin, I appreciate everything that everyone is doing, and I know Castle appreciates it, too."

Kate's cell phone rang. "It's a call from Martha, let me take it alone, okay?" The two detectives went back to their desks and Kate accepted the call.

"Beckett."

"Katherine, I hate to ask you this. But the FBI has left and there's no one here but Alexis and me. I'm afraid that since they let Richard go, they might want one of us. I know you'll want to be at the hospital tonight, but could you just come over and sleep here tonight? I'd appreciate it so much. I know it's a huge imposition, but…."

"It's no imposition at all, Martha." Kate smiled. "We're family."

"Yes we are, dear."

"I do want to drop by the hospital and see Rick tonight, so I'll call you when I'm through there."

Kate hung up and helped Ryan and Esposito look over reports of their old cases that might involve loan sharks. They found nothing.

"Why don't you take off?" Espo asked. "You had a rough night last night. You could use a good night's sleep."

Kate checked her watch. "It's only four."

"Go!" Espo said, "We've got this."

When she got to the hospital, she was stopped by Dr. da Silva. "Detective Beckett, we decided to do some more work on Mr. Castle today, we put some pins in his ankles among other things, so he's still under the anesthetic. You should be able to talk to him tomorrow afternoon, though."

"Can I see him now?"

"Certainly."

When Kate walked into his room, she thought he looked better. The bruises on his face and arms were fading. He briefly opened his eyes when she came in.

"Hi, Castle. It's me."

His eyes fluttered and then closed.

She leaned down and gently brushed his lips with hers. "I love you, Rick."