A/N: not a very long one today but I wanted to get another update in this weekend!

"But uh, these break ins. No one was hurt but the victims they all um, all of them looked similar to me or you.."

"I uh..what?" Castle asked, he was in a state of shock, he never thought it would end up this bad.

"Four break ins were reported and robbery didn't think anything of it until the second one. A friend of mine, Tom Demming, he made the connection - the female victims from both cases looked similar to me and Espo said one of the males looked like you. Castle, we're wanted for the murder of a police Captain, not to mention whoever else is after us!"

"Hey hey, calm down, we're gonna get out of this, okay!" He reassured.

"How?" She sniffed.

Good point. "Well, if Esposito is right, then these guys are probably figuring out right about now that we aren't in the other four locations. That quite possibly means they're coming here next. And when they do, we'll be ready. We take down as many as we can - shoot to injure, not kill. We tie them up in the basement and torture them for information."

"Yeah, except holding someone against their will is still illegal in the state of New York."

"Mm, I believe they call it kidnapping. But you're the police, surely you can spin some sort of tale?"

"Yeah, being a suspect in the murder of your boss usually puts a dampener on those sorts of things." She said, "but I guess we have no other choice, do we?"

"Unless you wanna leave? Head back to the precinct, see what the guys have got..I'm sure your colleagues there won't believe the stories?" He suggested.

"Uh, yeah..I guess we could.."

"Great, let's pack up your stuff and get out of here then." He noticed her hesitation as he went to walk away, "hey, we're gonna be alright, I promise."

"After this I'm done," she admitted, "for good. I'm going back to being a regular cop."

"And I'll be right behind you every step of the way," he promised.

Castle was pacing downstairs by the front door whilst Beckett hurriedly packed anything she needed. He was worried, way more than he was letting on, he wanted to be strong for her but it was getting harder and harder - they had no idea who they were up against and he was willing to bet it was something worse than either of them had ever come across.

"Done." She said, bounding down the stairs, "let's get out of here."

Castle followed her out of the door, making sure it shut properly as he closed it. He was too busy checking the door that he almost walked straight into Beckett who had stopped dead in her tracks and she was staring at something coming up her long driveway. He followed her gaze with his own eyes and immediately panicked - they were too late, they'd been found.

"Kate?" He asked, unsure of how she wanted to play this.

"Gun," she said, snapping back to reality. "I'm not hiding, not anymore, I've had enough. I'm taking them out or I'm going to die trying."

Oh god he really wished she wouldn't say things like that. "Okay, looks like we have company, then."

"You can go, if you want," she whispered quickly, "take the car, there's a secret exit under the garage.."

"I'm not going anywhere without you." He stated simply and she knew better than to argue.

"Then we better get ready.." The car was fast approaching the house now and they could make out three men..that was good. Three was better than 10. Three they could take.

Beckett shot at the front windscreen and managed to take out the passenger. They were down to two. Two against two. They could get out of this. But uh, killing them wasn't getting answers "we taking them all out? I thought you wanted answers," he asked, noticing as the car came to an abrupt halt at the sudden death of one of their group.

"Just a warning." She replied, keeping her eyes and gun trained on the remaining two.

They both climbed out of the car, one of them shooting at Castle and Beckett as he did - and missing by a clear mile. Castle shot back, hitting the first shooter in the stomach - from the brief glance he got at the wound before the guy fell to heap on the floor, he would say it was enough to stop him for now but not hitting anywhere that would kill him instantly. He might bleed out in an hour or two, but if he gave them the answers they needed then they'd get him to hospital.

Meanwhile, Beckett had her gun trained on the remaining man who was casting worried glances around - seemed to have figured out he was now outnumbered. In a move that shocked Castle and Beckett, he dropped his gun to the ground and raised his hands above his head. "Please," he cried out, "don't shoot!"

"I'm not going to shoot, not if you tell me what I want to know."

"I..I don't know anything," he pleaded, "I was told to take you both out, no questions asked."

"Who gave the order?" Castle asked.

"The chief."

"You're gonna have to do better than that if you want to live, kid." Beckett threatened. Jesus, Castle was scared of her right now, he was surprised the guy in front of them wasn't spilling his guts to her.

"Wait! His name..um I heard them call him Coonan..yeah, that was it."

"First name?"

"Oh god..I don't know! Um.."

Beckett watched the guy search for the name - she had a feeling she already knew who it was though. She had looked into her mothers case once more since making detective, Lanie had looked over the autopsy report and realised the stab wounds were that of a professional killer and they were the same as the stab wounds in their latest victim. They'd brought Coonan in but he'd played them and had got away by holding her at gunpoint as she walked him out of the precinct. She was pretty sure the guy behind this was the same man who killed her mother.

"Dick! Name was Dick Coonan!"

Son of a bitch.

"Beckett? Who is he?" Castle asked. They'd handcuffed both surviving attackers and had propped them up against the side of the house, placing as much padding as they could the guys bullet wound.

"The man who killed my mom." And in that moment he saw the very thing that would be the ending of Kate Beckett - if she didn't get justice for her mom when she was so close to the man who had killed her he wasn't sure she'd be able to survive it.

"How do you know?" He asked and she spilled out everything, from Lanie looking over the case to catching the guy and how he conned them, to having him slip away and how it had almost destroyed her.

She expected some words of comfort, the usual Castle spiel on how it was all going to be okay and they'd figure it out but what he told her shocked her; "then I guess we better find him and take him out for good then."

And with those words she fell the rest of the way in love with the man stood in front of her.

A/N: feeling a little 'is anyone even reading this anymore' at the moment because not many of you are reviewing. It'll only take a minute and you just need to let me know you're still with me and let me know what you think at the moment..it would be very greatly appreciated, I don't want to write if no one is there to enjoy it! (Thank you if you have reviewed!) It's true what they say - lots of nice reviews make you write faster!

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