A/N: Hi there! It's me again. This chapter isn't long cause, my mom left her charger at her office so this laptop is gonna die soon, but I figured I'd just give you something. I hope this chapter is okay. Thanks for the reviews and your words of encouragement, without them…. I would definitely not be updating this so often. So here's chapter 10. Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Castle… Obviously and unfortunately

Kate woke up the next morning, only to be greeted by the harsh rays of the sun assaulting her eyes. She quickly shut her eyes and shoved her face into the pillow, a pillow that smelled at lot like Castle. She smiled, until she remembered the events that brought her here, she inwardly cringed at the way she yelled at Alexis and just lost any semblance of control she held on to during this whole ordeal. It was then she realized she was alone in the bed and rolled over on to her back, she hadn't had any nightmares that night, she made a note that whenever Castle was involved, she didn't.

Her senses became aware of the delightful smell that wafted in from the kitchen, her stomach getting the better of her, she immediately jumped out of the bed and made her way through Castle's study, but stopped short when she heard whispering on the other side, whispering that included the words "Kate", "Stalker" and she didn't want to hear the rest of that conversation. She turned back into Castle's bedroom heading for the bathroom, she washed her face and brushed her teeth with the extra toothbrush Castle must have put out for her. She borrowed Castle's hairbrush and attempted to detangle the mess that was on top of her head. When she could find nothing else to stall with, she cautiously made her way back through the study, hearing nothing, she pushed the door open. She was pleasantly greeted by the sight of Castle with sleep rumpled hair, still in his sleeping clothes with a blue apron covering them.

She felt her heart thump at the sight and couldn't help feeling warm at the sight of domestic Castle. She wanted to do nothing more than walk up to him and run her fingers through the adorable mess of brown locks that fell down into his forehead. She wanted nothing more than to wake up every morning to this, but first she had to fix herself. Castle had offered her to world with no conditions, he was willing to do anything for her, she knew that, the least she could do was give him something at least partially whole and not so broken in every way.

It was then he caught sight of her just standing there staring at him, she felt her cheeks flush at being caught and she ducked her head. If she hadn't, she wouldn't have missed Castle almost dropping the spoon in his hand at the sight of her, in his shirt, fresh from sleeping, glowing in the sunlight that streamed in through the window. She was always beautiful, but this was a different kind of beautiful. The beautiful he just wanted to snap a picture of, to hold hands with and to just be with. When she chanced a glance back up in his direction, he was smiling at her, she smiled back shyly.

"Pancakes?" He offered, gesturing to a plate already piled high with them and she wondered, who in the hell was eating all those pancakes.

"So much pancakes Castle, what are you doing cooking for 5000?" She joked, feeling completely natural in this scene and for some reason that scared her. She walked the rest of the way and plopped herself down on one of the kitchen stools, facing him. He was even cuter up close, she noted with a slight smile.

"I did go a bit…. Overboard" Castle admitted staring at the pile of pancakes with some sort of dismay. She laughed.

"So" He said, taking down a plate for her and putting two pancakes on it, hesitating and then adding a third. "What are we doing today?" He placed the plate in front of her, handing her the syrup.

"I don't know about you, but I gotta get to work." She told him, stuffing her face with pancake, much to his amusement, but what she said had the smile dropping off his face.

"Kate, you can't go to work today." He said frowning. She knew what was coming, she was hoping he would just let it slide and pretend it never happened, but then she realized this was Castle and that was never going to happen. They were talking about it.

"Look Castle, I know last night was …." She paused, searching for the right word to say, "something" she finished when she didn't know how to describe last night, "but I'm okay now, I have to go to work."

"No Kate, you're not okay. You have a creep stalking you, he found your apartment, God knows what else he'll do next, I won't let him take you again Kate, I won't." His jaw was clenched and his eyes serious, focused on her. She felt a little taken aback by this side of Castle, she wasn't used to this, she was used to being the one to call the shots, but she refused to back down.

"Castle, look, the precinct's the safest place I know. I just need this okay? I can't sit here all day, knowing he's still out there, I have to do something, I have to help." She told him, staring into his eyes begging him to understand why she needed this. She didn't want to feel as helpless as she did right now, she didn't want to feel as if she had to put her entire life on hold because of some guy. She had to get to work and she had to find him.

She was relieved when Castle nodded slightly. His lips were drawn into a thin line and he made no attempt to mask how he was feeling about this. She finished her pancakes in silence, before going to get a shower and head out to work. She wouldn't admit it, but when she finished getting herself ready for the day, she was happy to find that Castle was also ready, holding two coffee travel cups in his hand. As much as she so desperately needed to go to work, she didn't necessarily want to go out alone either.

The drive was quiet as Castle's expression still hadn't changed, he was obviously in disagreement with her about her going out to work and he kept looking through the windows, clearly checking to see if anyone was following them. When they finally pulled up at the precinct, he was the first out of the car, scanning the parking garage, ensuring there was no threat, before following Kate over to the elevator. He visibly relaxed when the doors closed and the elevator began to move.

"Thank you Castle." She said softly, breaking the silence. He looked at her, his face relaxing as soon as he met her eyes.

"Always." He responded, his eyes burning into hers, hoping all the feelings he had for her could be delivered to her in just those 6 letters.

She looked into his eyes and had to admit, she felt overwhelmed at the intensity of what she saw there, the intensity she only hoped she could return someday, if this guy didn't kill her first. The ding of the elevator caused them to break eye contact and focus on the doors as they opened and they stepped out into the bullpen.

Before she could even sit down she heard Ryan call out to her from the conference room, beckoning for her to come, while watching to see if Gates had seen or heard anything. She quickly made her way over to him, Castle close behind, he closed the door behind him and turned to see a desk full of papers of all sorts. Ryan handed him a paper before turning to speak to Beckett.

"So, we searched your apartment last night, the whole place was clean." He informed Beckett, who felt her heart thump hard in her chest, "except, this…" He finished, holding out a file to her.

"Mr. Newman's fingerprint." She stated her voice flat, "He was in the apartment too? So his DNA was found both in my apartment and on your vic from before?"

Ryan nodded.

"We're guessing the two cases are connected somehow, now we gotta find out why." Esposito spoke up, from where he was slaving through files on the desk, "I've been going through their financials, records everything, but I can't find any connection." He said, slumping in his hair, running his hands over his face.

Castle had finished reading the paper Ryan had handed to him and was now vibrating with rage and fear.

"He left this on your bed?" He asked Kate, his voice controlled, not wanting to yell.

She looked at the paper in his hand and nodded, feeling the fear she first felt when she just read the letter creeping back into her bones.

"This guy needs to die." He announced, his voice deadly, his face furious.

"We'll get him Castle" Ryan assured, while Beckett just stared at him, no words coming to her. She simply turned towards the door and made her way over to her desk. Castle, Ryan and Esposito watched her as she went, sharing glances before Esposito spoke.

"We need to get him soon."

Castle spent the next few minutes discussing the case with the boys before making his way to her. She was staring at her computer screen that was displaying nothing and she was gripping her coffee cup so tightly, her knuckles where white. Reaching over, her gently pried her fingers off the handle, drawing her attention to him. Her eyes were wide and her lips parted, she stared at him for a while and he stared back. She eventually turned back to the pile of paper work she had on her desk and got to work, he sat back in his chair and just watched her. He felt the fear drain away from her as she focused on the work in front of her for the next 3 hours. He had gone between checking on the boy's progress and just watching her work.

"I'm hungry." She finally spoke as she finished another file.

"I can go get you something to eat. Want a burger?" He asked, standing, stretching out his legs.

"We'll both go, it's a short enough walk." Castle stared at her, wondering how she could just go from being so scared to acting like there was no danger, but it was a short walk and he knew she didn't like giving up her independence, so he just held out his hand for her to lead the way.

When they got out to the street, she could feel him tense as he scanned the crowed for any form of danger and she felt him relax ever so slightly when they got inside Remy's. When they ordered what they wanted and something for the boys, his body tensed again as they stepped out of the store and shortly after, hers did too.

"Castle someone's following us." She whispered, holding him in place as he tried to turn around so as to not let them know they were on to them.

"Wha- how did you know that?" He asked, clearly upset with himself for not realizing that first.

"Detective." She said, trying to sound detached, but he could hear the tremble in her voice and feel her grip on his arm tighten. He moved slowly and pulled his phone out of his pocket, quickly sending a text to Esposito, they were close enough to the precinct and Beckett didn't have her gun on her so he didn't want to risk taking on whoever was following them on their own, although he had a pretty good idea of who is was and clearly so did she as her grip was so tight, his arm was beginning to feel numb.

As they turned the corner, Castle spotted Esposito and Ryan, standing at different point on the street, guns in hand. Castle nodded to them as he passed and then everything happened so quickly, he just grabbed Kate and ran.

"Police! Down on the ground!" He heard someone yell.

"Gun!" He heard someone else yell.

The next thing he heard was three gunshots ringing out and a thud as a body hit the ground.

A/N: So I don't know if any of you know the O'Malley book series, but in the first book, it was pretty similar to this, the girl was kidnapped when she was little and her brother is an FBI guy dedicating his life to find him and when they got him well it was awesome and so the end of his chapter was kind of inspired by what happened when they found the guy. You should read that series though… But yes! So how did you like it? Or not like it? Leave a review and tell me and maybe I won't make you wait a long time for another update ;) Thank you!

Ashley.