Beckett opened the door, pointing her gun forward and suveying the scene. She peeked into every corner carefully, but found nothing, or no one. This one was about the fifth room she explored. She was completely aware of how dangerous game was what she played - seeking alone, split from the other cops in a house filled with cold-blooded killers and criminals, searching for one of them: Christopher Herbert.

She didn't know if he really stayed in the building, but she had this tense feeling in her heart that he actually did. That this was the endgame... She tried to tame her racing heart and concentrate, not letting anything to deflect her attention.

At least she tried...

She heard a clicking noise behind her - like triggering a gun. Her heart skipped a beat. She slowly rose her hands as she heard a man laughing maliciously.

'Turn around, I wanna see my victim's face!' he said. Beckett turned very slowly, then when she caught sight of the weapon from the corner of her eye, she managed to kick it from the man's hand with a quick move. However, the attacker wasn't numb either, he sqeezed and twisted the detective's arm and got her gun.

'Aahh.' she screamed in pain as he wriggled her wrist. As Kate got her arm released, she punched the man in the nose with everything she had. The gun landed halfway between them.

Then they finally looked at each other's faces... As Beckett recognized the man she felt anger, hatred and mostly vengefulness burst and rush every inch of her body. The man in front of her was a hitman: the one who killed Adam Deston's parents - a very own butcher of Christopher Herbert's.

'You were the girl standing by Deston when I got his head blown...' he mumbled. Kate suddenly felt dizzy... He murdered Adam, as well? The entire family...?

The detective's mind filled with pictures of the victims of this case, the blood, the bodies, the pain... She couldn't concentrate anymore, she totally lost contol of herself and attacked the man with her bare hands.

It took him aback, he got a punch in the belly, but then he managed to catch the detective's arm and twisting it he pushed her away. Beckett immediately turned around to start another rush against the hitman, but she didn't expect his next move.

She felt screaming, unbearable pain striking into her lower arm. She yelled out, but her vengefulness couldn't be simply killed by any ache. The man bended forward and released her as he felt her toe powerfully kicking his stomach. Kate fell aback, then collapsed against the wall.

She finally had a moment to realise what happened: a knife stuck out of her arm, deeply stabbed into her flesh. She breathed heavily, as she watched the warm, red pool of blood widening around the wound, streaming down her arm. Her eyes got veiled as unstoppable tears watered her face.

However the man wasn't finished yet. He took Kate's weapon from the ground, and pointed it at her, so she had no choice, but to stare into the barrel of her own gun and prepare...

So this is the end... - a shot fired.

**A few hours earlier**

As they arrived back to the 12th's Castle decided to take the task of explaining the situation to Ryan and Esposito - carefully avoiding the part about him and Beckett. The boys didn't have much time to discuss what they heard, because Kate quickly took the confessions of the four volunteer witnesses, then gained a warrant against Herbert - meanwhile avoiding to contact her colleagues.

Shortly they got the address of a property on the outskirts. The detective gathered a smaller group, containing Ryan and Esposito, so few minutes later they were already driving to the house, Kate sharing a car with Castle.

Pouring rain watered the windshield, the only sound was the knocking of raindrops as they tried to gain admission to the vehicle.

'You shouldn't have lied to Geronn.' Beckett broke the silence.

'About what?' Rick shot her an innocent, puzzled look.

'About Adam intending to protect Charlene.'

'I didn't lie.' he said straightly. 'I think at first he wasn't about to kill her. If so, then why would he marry her?' he pointed out. Kate was truly surprised by the fact that after all what Adam pulled both of them into, Castle's still able to defend him.

'Are you detesting him?' she asked quietly after a short break.

'Well, I didn't really know him. And after all the things he had to go through...' he started, but suddenly stopped. He was sure that the detective wouldn't like to listen to a story very much similar to her own gloomy, tragic one. 'I don't think I'm the one to judge...' he summarized his opinion.

Beckett nodded, then silence took over in the car. Raindrops covered the windshield, just to moments later get vanished by the wipers.

'And you? Are you detesting Adam?' the writer tossed back the question, and it caught the detective unprepared. Kate hesitated.

'I... Don't know...' she forced herself to look into the sky-blue eyes. 'I'm just afraid.'

'Of what?'

'Of the man he turned into...' she sighed. 'And of me becoming just like him.' she finally admitted. Since Deston's reappearance this thought had been on her mind, like a heavy cuff holding her captive - and now that she confessed, it still didn't disappear.

'Look at me, Kate...' he asked, then piped up in a gentle, but serious tone: 'You are not the same.'

'How do you know?' she asked being stubborn, but with honest worry in her voice.

'Adam seeked revenge.' he started. 'But you seek justice. And that is not the same.'

Kate looked deeply in the calming blue eyes. She couldn't imagine what would happened to her if the writer hasn't been here for her in the last few days to pull her back to the ground of reality just when she loses herself... For a moment she felt horribly weak... For a moment she considered how great it would be if she could forget everything, if she could leave herself, her life, her past behind and just float in the infinite ocean of non-existence... Just her and the blue eyes...

The rumbling of thunder yanked her back to Earth, to find that they arrived. She got her composure back, then got out to the pouring rain with a sigh. She looked up at the grey swirl of clouds above her. She had to admit that the deeply desired peace could only come if she's able to finish what Adam had started...

'Castle.' she called for him, who was about to fasten his writer-labelled body armour with not much luck. 'You don't have to come.' she shot him a sharp look. He discovered some sort of worry in her voice, which wasn't surprising, since she actually did worry about him...

'Hell I don't!' he replied speaking like it was natural for a writer to go for a little boom-boom with his muse. For him, it was natural. He couldn't imagine letting her down right before the endgame. 'I'll cover you.' he flashed a smile, but Kate didn't return his gesture. She stepped to him with a serious look on her face and handed him a gun.

Castle took it, then both walked to join Ryan, Esposito and the others to approach the building in the Middle of Nowhere.

oOo

A lightning bolted outside, it's luminosity filled the room. Then a thunder rumbled...

Kate opened her eyes to see the hitman lying on the ground in the pool of his own blood. The dark, killer smile on his face froze, and his eyes looked empty...

'Castle...' the writer in the doorway held a gun in his shaking hand, and stared at the body, horrified. Then he dropped the weapon and jumped to Beckett with a few long steps. He noticed the knife in the detective's lower arm.

'Kate...' he whispered. His heart beated so hard that he beleived it'll break through his chest.

'This is nothing...' she breathed the words, thus it was quite obvious that the injury was definietly major. She felt herself becoming weaker with every moment. She lost way too much blood, no one could tell when will she lose consciousness.

'Don't!' Castle tried to keep her from pulling the knife out of herself, but Beckett shot him a look so the writer released her hand. Rick didn't want her to suffer though he knew that there is no other way.

Kate pulled the weapon out with one quick move, then dropped it. Castle clamped the wound, and searched for some kind of cloth to bandage it. The detective breathed heavily, her forehead was covered with drops of sweat, and her face watered by tears. She had to stretch every sense to fight the pain.

The writer gently touched her face with one hand.

'We need to get out.' he said quietly. Beckett tried to nod. As her senses got dull, she felt the pain ease, but also felt the darkness approaching...

'Castle...' she whispered, as the owner of the name carefully watched every little movement of her, not leaving for even a moment. 'Herbert...'

'Don't think about him!' he said stricktly then gently embraced her, and she hugged his neck with her unhurt arm. The writer lifted her up. She couldn't protest anymore. She couldn't really think in fact, the disappointment about not catching Herbert also left her mind, and she closed her eyes.

'I Love you...' she whispered, then let herself marry the darkness as she became unconscious.