Close Encounters 30

Despite the groan of collapsing catwalk, what Castle heard first when he regained consciousness was her voice.

Castle

He opened his eyes and watched the warehouse fill up with sunlight, dust motes swirling like a ballet, choreographed to a music he didn't hear. There was a long moment, warped by the isolation of shock, in which he could only track those points of light; he could do nothing else.

And then a piece of the railing above him shifted and brought the center pole down against his shoulder and he cried out.

Pain had him by the teeth, shaking.

Castle gasped, his body jerking reflexively, and while that redoubled the agony, it also served to shift the structure, the metal bars gaping about a foot off the ground.

Free. He could get free.

If only he could get to that gap.

The center pole with its welded steps was still pressing against his shoulder while he laid flat on his back, and every movement sent fresh terror through his arm, as if his hand itself had already shut down and what he was feeling was the tremor of shock pouring through his system.

Reminding him he had to get out of here - now.

In the middle of this shifting destruction, Castle really did hear her voice.

"Beckett," he tried calling back. But his chest was restricted by the force of the pole, and the pain was dancing lights in front of his eyes. He growled and lifted his knees - tried to - tried to move the fucking-

"Oh, God, Castle."

She was there, pressed against the bars of the railing that trapped him, a hand reaching for him.

"Beck-"

She turned immediately and grabbed at Salome, who had been right behind her. "Help me. Help me."

Salome wriggled out of her grip, jostling Beckett so that the spiral staircase teetered - on the fulcrum point of Castle's chest.

He groaned, eyes rolling back as the pain crushed down into him.

"Stop, stop, Salome-"

When he could open his eyes again, it was only Beckett - on her knees before the cage, slumped towards him so that her forehead touched the bar.

"Castle," she moaned.

"It's okay," he told her. But it wasn't. It wasn't okay; he was stuck, and the pain was crippling, and she wasn't going to move, was she? She wasn't going to leave him. And the building would go down with them.

No.

Kate was undaunted. Her fist uncurled and she gripped the bars of the railing, pushing hard on the metal. He grunted and moved his good hand to help, using his thighs against the pole, but it was impossible - they were pushing into each other rather than with.

And then without warning, Beckett was trying to fit her whole body under that foot-high gap.

"Don't, don't," he panted. "Baby, don't do that."

"Let me get in-"

"No," he growled.

"You're pinned," she cried out. "You're stuck, Castle. The pole. I need to get in there-"

"No. Help me get out."

She kept coming, gripping his good arm where he tried to push her away. "I am. I am - I won't be able to lift it straight up, Castle. Fucking stop - stop-" as he tried to shove her back out. "Stop. If I can get in there, I can get to the pole and help you shift it. With my legs. But I cannot do it from out here. You have to let me in there."

He growled in complete frustration, but she was coming inside the cage, squirming through the gap to press right up against him.

"Kate," he begged.

"Hush, baby, this is the only way I can help you."

He almost said then go.

He wanted to. He wanted her to save herself and let him try to work it alone, but she would never - she would never forgive him for even suggesting it.

And he didn't know how much time they had before the building came down around them.

"On three," she gritted through her teeth. She pushed experimentally at the pole with her toes, gripping Castle's hand in her own. "One. Two. Three."

Together on their backs, they shoved against the center pole, Kate placed up closer to his torso while Castle did the best he could with his knees and feet. The whole structure shrieked, creaking metal and popping joints, and she felt it beginning to shift.

"Almost there," she panted. "Almost-"

Castle suddenly groaned and his body shifted; she felt the pole's weight buckling her knees as she held it alone.

"Castle!"

"Hang - hang on, my hand."

"What's - wrong with your hand?" she cried, loosening her grip on the one she held.

"Other hand. Hang on. Wait a second, wait," he groaned. "It's pressing against my hand."

"What do you need me to do?" she said fast. Her heart was pounding, their palms sticking together. The center pole was pressing against his hand?

"Okay, wait, I need-" Castle grunted and she felt him shift beside her. Her shoulder was wedged at his armpit. "I need you to lift straight up. Not over. Can you-?"

"Fuck, yes, I can," she growled back. Already she was rebracing her feet and pushing up. Castle gasped and something in the structure shook free, rattling and clanging somewhere past their heads.

"I can move my shoulder," he gasped. "I can-"

She suddenly had the full weight of the pole bearing down on her, and she realized Castle had dropped his side to work on wriggling out from under it. She grunted and had to press her fists into the floor to keep her balance, but as the center pole began to slowly collapse her knees, Castle shoved his torso against her shoulder.

"I'm out," he croaked. "I'm out. Kate-"

The pole clanged sharply as it hit the concrete floor and they both laid there a second, breathing hard.

"It's a tight fit," she whispered. The gap had been narrow for her; she couldn't imagine Castle getting through it. "We'll have to make this part of the pole turn-"

"I can fit," he said. "We have to go. We don't have time to shift it anymore."

"Okay," she said. But-

"Right now, Kate. I will fucking break the bars in half if I have to. I want us out of here."

He was right; they had to get moving. She had peeled apart the contact points on three more C4 packs at support pillars as she'd searched the warehouse for him, but it was still going to be very bad.

Beckett maneuvered her body around the crooked slant of the steps and then around a loose piece of railing. She had to slither like a snake between the steps and then she was crawling out of the cage of the staircase to the concrete floor.

She turned back immediately. "Castle-" But her words were stolen when she saw him. Curled half over, his body compact as he tried to work through the railing, Castle was cradling his left arm against his chest.

"Not - as bad as that," he rasped.

"Oh, my God," she whispered. She jerked forward and gripped the edges of the railing, tried to lift it straight up to help-

"Gonna be okay," he said. "Get out of here, be okay." His movements weren't quite as precise, his body took too long to unfold.

"Come on, Castle," she snapped. "You have to move. Right now."

"I am. Am." He nodded and winced, licked his lips. Determination steeled him, and he pushed both shoulders through the foot-wide gap.

Impossibly.

And yet Castle got a knee under him, a shoulder braced against a section of the steps, and he pushed upwards. The gap rose to two feet, and Kate got her own shoulder under it, gripped a fistful of his shirt. "Now, now-"

He stumbled and fell out, groaning as an elbow hit the floor. She couldn't keep the staircase lifted, couldn't hold it up, but Castle gasped her name and she twisted out behind him-

The edge of a step caught her hip as she moved, bruising an already bruised pelvis, but she didn't give a fuck. Castle was hauling himself to his feet, his hand up against his chest, the other reaching for her.

"Let's go," she said, taking his uninjured hand in hers and turning for the exit. "Back this way. There's a fire door on the opposite side, away from the offices. Salome left through there." She was running now, but she found herself pulling on him as she did, his steps too slow. "Come on, Castle, come on. This place is going down any second."

"Fuck," he groaned. She knew it was hurting him, not just because of the pain of broken bones, but the pain of his regimen-enhanced blood attempting to knit them back together.

"Castle, pick up your feet. I'm not dying in here."

"Hell, no," he growled. "You are not."

"And neither are you," she tossed back at him. "So fucking move."

"Yes - yes, ma'am," he panted. But he did pick up his feet, galvanized by her imprecation. She knew running flat out like this had to be killing his arm, but he was still with her.

He was with her until the first charge went off.

When the explosion hit, Castle was thrown forward, careening into Beckett and pushing her to the floor with sheer momentum. He covered her as the percussive blew over them, and then debris peppered their clothes and hair, blasted across his back.

"Castle? Castle-" she was yelling under him.

He scrambled to get to his knees, his arm on fire, his hand bent wrong. "Fine, I'm fine. Are you-"

"That was the silo in the warehouse yard. This place is next."

He heard that horrendous, now-familiar sound of metal tearing away from metal, and Castle looked up.

The massive inventory shelves were starting to topple.

"Oh, God-"

He ran, shoving on her, not wasting breath or energy to speak, simply gripping her upper arm and dashing for the back wall. His bones were being ground to dust, but he didn't have the luxury of pain. There was no such thing as pain when death was breathing down their necks.

The shelving units were crashing like dominoes at the front of the warehouse. But they had to run the gauntlet of these two - in the dead middle of the range - before they could get clear and get to that damn door.

The sound of metal crashing against metal built to a crescendo right at their backs, and even as he sprinted, he felt Kate falling behind him, felt the shelves beginning to collapse.

He gripped her arm and catapulted her ahead of him, pain ripping out of his throat as his body contorted, but the impact of those shelves toppling sent a jarring note through his bones and a gush of hot air at their backs.

They had just managed to get clear. Momentum carrying him forward, Castle crashed into a ceiling beam that had fallen. He gasped and crumpled, his good elbow catching the slope of the fallen beam and catching his fall. Beckett had dashed ahead of him to pry open a door in the metal wall, but she glanced back and cried his name.

"Fine," he shouted back, ducking awkwardly under the beam. "Keep moving." He came to her side, used his good hand to put a little more force into her efforts.

"Rusted shut," she grunted. Her eyes tripped to his hand and he saw the way it affected her.

"She didn't leave this way," he remarked. "Did she not - find the pixel? Go back up for it?"

"No, she found it," Beckett clipped. "But I lifted it off her when she left you to fucking die under the staircase, the fucking bitch. It's in the back pocket of my jeans. She doesn't get shit if she leaves you."

"That's my girl," he breathed, finally muscling open the rusted door and letting strange, blue sunlight in through the crack.

Beckett slipped out first, turned back for him. But he was wriggling out beside her, the wind howling across the bleak yard, kicking up dust and spattering his face with rain. When he popped free, he stumbled again, pain making him dizzy.

"Still alive," he croaked. Dirt had caught in his eyes and he worked to keep himself upright.

"Rain delay," she panted, and nodded towards the chain link fence to one side. He didn't fucking care why, he just knew they'd been given a miracle.

Time.

"Move, Castle," she said sharply in his ear. He realized she had a grip on his elbow, the injured side, his hand cradled at his chest as he tried to hustle. They were running again, making their way to the fence, and the demolition crew had spotted them.

Cries went up, alto! alto! but no fucking way they were stopping. "The Jeep-"

"You have the keys," she hissed out.

"I do," he confirmed, feeling them rattle against his calf in the cargo pocket. "I have the keys. Can't let them catch up to us though."

"I don't know where Lo went to, but at least - at least workers spotting us means they won't go through with demolition."

Beckett sounded winded. Fuck, he was winded. He wanted to collapse, but they couldn't afford to lose another second. They'd already left a trail so wide and long that the CIA was going to have a time of cleaning it up.

When they got to the fence, he glanced at her fast, safety check, but she was still with him.

"Ready for this?" he grimaced. The fence was eight foot, though the razor wire here had been stripped. Just chain link, and beside it, a motionless excavator.

He climbed into the cab of the excavator and then monkeyed to the roof, more slowly than he'd hoped because he kept forgetting about his useless hand and trying to reach out with it. The metal roof of the excavator was sloped, and burning hot with the morning sun, but he gestured for her to come on up.

Beckett scrambled up a lot faster than he had. They moved as one for the long mechanical arm of the digging apparatus, climbing the metal beam to the right-angled arm where it was poised just at the fence.

He made her go first, wrapping his legs around the metal arm and giving her his uninjured hand. He lowered her over the side of the chainlink fence until her toes had a foothold, until she could get one hand in the links, and then she was climbing down the fence.

Castle sat up, swung one leg over the metal arm, and then side-walked the metal lip of the frame. When he was over the top of the fence and far out on the other side, he stopped and estimated his distance.

Might be tricky one-handed. But it was all he had. Already construction crew had unlocked the main gate and were pulling a couple of trucks through to chase after them.

Castle curled his good arm through the piston rod that maneuvered the digging end of the arm, hooked tight, and then he dangled himself over the fence.

Kate, who had not gone all the way to the ground, reached back with one hand and guided his feet into footholds, gripped his belt to anchor him until he could catch himself. He had a moment of breathless suspension, hanging from the excavator and trying to keep his balance on the fence, before the strength in his upper torso kicked in and he crashed hard into the chainlink.

His hand was excruciating.

"Thank, God," she groaned. "They're coming. They've found the police too."

"Fuck," he whispered.

It just didn't end.

Beckett jumped to the ground and he followed after her, couldn't help the noise that tore out of his throat when every bone in his body jostled with the impact.

But Kate had a fist in his shirt and was shoving him towards the place he'd hidden the Jeep.