A/N: I hope I give you a full picture of who Tommy is in this chapter, hope I created a vivid character for you. Let me know! :)

His breath grows hard in his throat as his chest tightens, a tight mix of fear and disbelief snaking itself like venom in his blood.

"What's the matter, Ricky?" Tommy asks with a pout. He always was an arrogant, sarcastic ass.

Castle feels his muscles twinge as he takes another step toward him. He wants to turn and run away, book it down the street as fast as he can, but everything about him seems untrustworthy.

Tommy's feigned pout turns into an evil grin, his teeth gleaming as his eyes burn into him. "You look like you just seen a ghost."

"Tommy..." His voice scratches against his throat.

Tommy lifts his arms up in the air, holding the newspaper in one hand and smiling. "Twenty years and you still recognize me."

His heart is pounding against the inside of his chest as a cold sweat washes over his skin, the hairs on his neck pricking up on end. "It was you."

"You know, Ricky..." He says, taking another step toward Castle and putting his arm around his shoulders, and Castle feels his muscles drain of all strength as Tommy starts slowly walking them down the alley. "I can't help but feel hurt." Tommy says and puts his hand against his chest as he continues to guide Castle down the alley, away from the hustle of pedestrians crowding the sidewalk.

Once they're down the middle of the alley, Castle feels his blood grow cold and his muscles tense, his mind easing into a darkness he hasn't felt in a long time. He stops dead as he tightens his muscles and balling his fists, feeling his knuckles crack.

"After what you did, I expected at least an apology." Tommy says and steps in front of him, his humorous, arrogant air vanishing as his glares over at him. "Even a half-assed one would have been nice."

"You might have gotten one too if I didn't know what that tattoo on your neck really meant."

Tommy smirks as he tosses his head back, showing off the rose tattoo on the left side of his neck. "You like it, huh?" He says, blindly tracing the faded, blurry lines with his fingers. "You know, I could have gotten you one too, Ricky."

"So it's true, then." He says in a low voice, his eyes and brow hardening. "You're really with La Rosa."

"Ass-backwards, Ricky." Tommy says, jerking his head off to the side. "They're with me."

Castle stays silent, his jaw tensing.

"See, after you left me for dead, they pulled me from the wreckage." Tommy starts, clasping his hands together with a smile. "Got both my legs broken and lost a hell of a lot of blood. And because I didn't get pulled out in time by a certain someone," he says and points his fingers into Castle's chest, "it got infected and I had to spend three years in a coma. Surprising, they got good docs, unlike the hacks they stuck us with."

"So, you're pinning that on me."

Tommy's eyes flit off to the side before he shrugs his shoulders. "Well, I can't pin it on the people who sent us down there, Ricky. I killed them years ago."

His breath hitches in his throat as Tommy throws it out there so casually and off-handed, like an afterthought. "Which just leaves me, then."

Tommy smirks evil again, his eyes narrowing with a dark glimmer as he moves his hand up and pats Castle on the cheek. "Bingo."

"After all this time, Tommy? Really? I've heard of holding a grudge, but twenty years is pushing it."

"I might have let it go, but that little incident at our warehouse is forcing me to take steps that I've been wanting to take for a long time."

"I saw you and I know who you're working with. You don't want any undue pressure put on your operations, is that it?"

"I'm sure the cops already know all about it, Ricky." Tommy says in a voice that's radiating with tense anger as he waves the paper in his face, holding it in front of him.

Castle holds Tommy's eyes before snatching it out of his hand and opening it up to page six, feeling his heart twinge, fear and anxiety gripping his spine. With a picture of them from last night, her with his coat over her shoulders, one hand wrapped around his arm, the other twirling a strand of hair around her finger as he smiles forward, walking down the street, the headline reads More Than Just A Muse?

"I guess we could call it pillow talk."

Castle looks up to Tommy again for a second before crumpling up the paper angrily in his hands and tosses it to the side. "I haven't told her anything, Tommy."

"Oh, really?" Tommy says with a raised brow.

"I left that life behind me when I got home. I'm a different person now."

"So I hear." Tommy says with a lowered brow and pouted lips, crossing his arms as he leans forward. "You actually got that writing thing to work then, huh? You uh..." He says and leans back, shrugging his shoulders and narrowing his eyes again, "You're pretty well-off, I hear."

Castle's blood turns to fire in his veins as he feels his fist shake he's balling it up so tight. "Is that what you want, Tommy? You want money?"

"I got more money than I know what do to with, Ricky."

"Then what do you want?!" He spits through clenched teeth.

"I want the three years of my life back!" He yells, his alcohol stenched breath wafting into Castle's face. "But since I can't get that, I'll have to go with plan B."

"Just tell me what you want, Tommy! If you're just here to kill me then just do it already."

"Nah, see," Tommy says and puts a hand against Castle's chest, "back when, you had nothing to lose. That's what made you so good. But now..." Tommy says, roving his eyes over Castle again, as if he's taking him in. "Now look at you." Tommy says and snaps the end of Castle's collar. "You got money, you got a beautiful girl, I bet your mom and you are close again. I know you had a lot of resentment against her, sending you off to boarding school like we all were. Hell," Tommy says and lifts his arms in the air with an open smile that's still radiating with darkness, "you even got yourself a beautiful little girl."

Castle's body turns to a tight, flexed wall of boiling hatred as Tommy looks over to him, his open smile curling into a grin.

"What's her name?" Tommy asks, tossing his head back.

But he refuses to answer, his fists shaking and his breath ragged.

"Come on, Ricky, what's your little girl's name?"

His teeth grind as the image of his daughter takes over his mind. "Alexis."

Tommy grins again, nodding his head. "Alexis." He says slowly. "That's a beautiful name."

Castle stomps forward, all his strength consumed in wrenching his fists into Tommy's coat and throwing him against the brick wall, pushing him up off the ground and forcing him back as hard as he can. "If you come anywhere near my daughter-"

"You'll what, Ricky!?" Tommy screams. "You already killed me once, remember?"

"You even think about touching my daughter or anyone I care about, you'll wish you'd stayed dead."

"Then go ahead, Ricky." Tommy says, his voice straining as Castle keeps him pinned against the wall. "Kill me. I know you got it in ya." Tommy reaches into his pocket and pulls out a small phone. "But my men have their orders. If I don't check in in ten minutes, they're set to kill everyone you have, Ricky."

Castle has to force his muscles to relax, to force his hands to release Tommy's collar, but his body is still vibrating with anger, even as Tommy is shaking himself off, dusting off his shoulder with the back of his hand. "What do you want, Tommy?"

He just chuckles in response, shooting him another evil smirk as his eyes go down the alley and toward the street. "In due time, Ricky. All in due time."

"This isn't over." He says and Tommy starts out of the alley.

Once he's out on the sidewalk, he turns back and looks at him. Castle's body tenses, his heart still a cold, angry stone. "It'd break my heart if it was, Ricky."

Tommy vanishes out of sight as another slew of pedestrians pass in front of him.

Kate checks her watch again, seeing just two minutes have passed since the last time she checked it. It's fine, he's just a little late. He can be late once.

Pacing restlessly in front of her couch, she jumps when a rapid, loud knock comes pounding on her door. She smiles nonetheless and quickly moves to answer it, soothing over her shirt, slightly nervous at her apperance, being dressed only in a thin grey t-shirt and a pair of black yoga pants, barefoot. The pushes her hair behind her ear as she unlocks her door and turns the knob to let him in. The door opens and her smile brightens at the sight of him. "Hey, your-"

She's silenced by his forceful lips slamming against her. Her breath hitches violently in her throat as her skin flushes with an intense wave of excitement, his hand quickly cupping her cheek and tenderly yet passionately pulling her into him. It's just a quick second of his satin soft lips pressing against hers that she feels her shocked body start melting into him. Her breath starts to move out of her lungs in a shaky stutter, her hands landing weakly on the back of his arms as he kisses her lovingly. He lets her lips go for a second and she goes chasing after him, but her ears ring at the sound of his soiled breath drawing in. But she kisses him tenderly in return, softly grasping his biceps.

He pulls back after another long, loving kiss and keeps his hand cupping her cheek while he moves his other hand up and brushes her hair behind her ear with his finger. "Are you okay?" He asks in a scared voice.

Her brow knits together in instant worry. "Of course, I'm fine, Castle." She reassures him and folds her hands into his, pulling him off her to ease him down. "What's going on?"

His eyes quickly go behind him and he closes the door, quickly locking both locks before turning back to her. "I need your help."

Castle is darting passed her and into her kitchen in a flash while she's left standing in the foyer of her apartment with nothing but questions. She finds it in her to follow him after a second. "Castle, what is it? You look like you're about to have a heart attack." She says as she comes into her kitchen, seeing him with a pen in his hand writing something down on what looks like a napkin.

"There's something I didn't tell you, Kate."

Her heart squeezes inside her chest at his words, the thought of him having even more secrets that he didn't share with her. She's still trying to work him through the ones he's already told her. The words are washed from her mind as she silently paces toward him.

"Last week," He starts, his eyes finding her as he continues to scratch his pen across the napkin. "The guys that ambushed us at the warehouse. They had a tattoo on their necks that I've seen before." He says and shoves the napkin across the island toward her as he quickly digs his phone out of the pocket of his jacket.

She takes another shaky step forward and looks down at the napkin, seeing a haphazardly drawn rose with a dagger going through it diagonally. She looks up to him and sees him with his phone to his ear.

"It's the tattoo of a group called RDLM." He says, running a ragged hand through his hair. "It's short for Rosa De La Muerta."

"Rosa de... The Death Rose?" She translates in her head.

"They're the group I fought in Central America. Espo!" He says, turning away from her. "Listen, I need you to get to the loft as fast as you can."

"Castle." She says, taking another step toward him, silently demanding answers.

"I'll explain everything when Beckett and I get there."

"Get there? Castle, what the hell is going on?"

"My mother should be there, but Alexis is going to Ashely's for dinner and I need to know that she's safe."

"Castle!" She shouts.

His eyes find hers again and she can see fear and panic crackle in his iris, as if silently telling her that he needs all the help she can offer him. "I'll text Ryan Ashely's address. If she's there already, she'll be safe, if not..." His voice shakes and quivers in his throat as his eyes quickly brims with tears. "Thanks, Javier." He says and presses his thumb against the screen and lets his phone fall to the island with a clatter.

"Castle, what the hell is going on here? What's happened to Alexis? Is she alright?"

"Last week, in the warehouse, when I went after those guys that ambushed us, I recognized their tattoos and ran after them. After I took one of them down, I ran outside and saw someone with them that I didn't think existed anymore. But now he's back."

She takes another step forward, pacing her way toward him the entire time he's explaining with a deep furrow in her brow. "Who?"

"I-I don't know how it happened, but Tommy survived and now is in control of RDLM. And now, I'm afraid he's coming after my family. Kate..." He says, his voice quivering as if he's on the verge of a complete breakdown. "I don't know what to do."

His eyes are brimming red, he looks so vulnerable and scared, the same way he did the night he told her about all this.

"I need your help."

A/N: (Side note, semi-unrelated) I've always found it a little amusing that people can suspend reality so much while they watch the show, but not when they read fanfiction. You realize that you watched a 5 ft 6, 105 pound asian woman take on a dozen fully grown behemoths all at once and not drop a bead of sweat in season 7 and probably didn't say shit? Or like in the series finale, when the big baddy said his gun was plastic, which wouldn't be possible considering it would either explode in your hand with one shot, or the chamber would melt after the first bullet left the barrel. Or when in that same episode, they used "truth serum" on Castle, which doesn't exist and is scientifically "impossible" to force someone to tell a certain truth against their will.

That's the end of my rant. Sorry if it annoyed you. :)