The lights aren't working in the tunnel and the shades of darkness are disorienting. Kate balances on her toes to keep the bike steady just outside the entrance of the Lincoln Tunnel.
"How're we going to keep track of one another in there?" she asks, pulling on her ponytail.
"Keep talking?"
She grins. He can't see it in the black of the night but he hears it when she speaks. "Yeah, you'd be all over that method. But it's going to echo and just make things worse."
"Wait." Castle fishes in his pocket, the handlebars of the bike twisting perpendicular. The hand-crank flashlight. "This. I think it'll be just enough light that we can stick together."
"I'll clip it to my pants," she says, already working at the crank to charge the batteries. "You know this could take a while, right? Going through the tunnel?"
The darkness in front of them, stretching out into infinity, is daunting.
Nothing for them has ever been easy.
"We can do it," he responds finally. "But first." His bike topples over as he clambers to her side, fisting her shirt in his right hand. The kiss is soft and he pours the remaining hope from his well into her mouth. He feels her breath shudder out, her forehead falling to his shoulder. "I'll get you home, Kate."
She nods, fast and jerky, before she reaches down to loosen his hand from her shirt. "New Jersey first."
New Jersey first. Then home.
If home is even possible.
He gets back on his bike as she finishes cranking the flashlight. He watches the muscles of her arm and back flex as she spins the plastic handle in circles. Her hair is matted, sticking to her neck with sweat and oil, and there are deep circles under her eyes that he can only see when she flips the switch of the flashlight.
"Ready?" she asks, working the clip over the waistband of her pants so the light floats down to the pavement.
No. But he nods. "Let's go."
It takes him a moment to push off, to get the bike started into the tunnel. The flashlight does nothing to combat the darkness and he can almost see the poetry in it. How little they mean to the world, how weak their light is against everything else in this city.
After a minute, he needs noise, some sort of sound to break apart the silence as they travel under the Hudson.
"Once this is all over," he starts quietly, eyes on her back and the thin light off her hip. "If we survive, do─"
"When. When we get back home," she prompts.
"Okay. When we get home, do you want kids?"
He hears her breath catch, the subtle sound echoing. "Do you?"
"Asked you first."
She doesn't answer. Not for almost a full minute. "I don't know," she says finally. "Not if the world is going to be like this. But if everything works out, a girl." The wistfulness that leaks into her words makes his heart melt. "My looks but your sense of freedom."
Castle sighs, just her name because he can't find any other words.
Her peddling slows and he knows she's picturing it. Their life, lives, when they get back home. A pregnancy and turning the guest room into a nursery. Bringing the baby into the loft and not sleeping for the next year, taking turns quieting the cries and causing joyful laughter. First steps and first words and even though he's been through all of it, it'll be so brand new. Because of Kate.
The road curves and green light shines against the tiles of the walls. He laughs and her eyes dart to him. "Just…" He waves to the exit. "The light at the end of the tunnel."
She grins. "Let's hope."
People with guns stand at the arch of the tunnel's exit, every single one of them alert as the two bikes brake at the line of darkness and light. One steps toward them when Kate puts her hand in her pocket, the guns raising up to steady on her figure.
"Wait!" he shouts, scrambling off the bike and toward her before half the weapons turn on him.
Kate stays calm, free hand steadying the handlebars as she holds up her badge. "I'm NYPD," she says, "and he's my partner. We aren't infected."
"And we're supposed to trust you?" one of the women asks.
"Yes," Castle says, stepping closer to Kate's side. "Because someone trusted you when you got over here. All we're asking is the same favor."
Something ripples through the guards and the guns lower.
Which is perfect because it takes five seconds for him to lose consciousness.