I don't have an excuse for the delay, but I do have a ton of tomatoes. :)

The typical two hour drive stretched to three hours before Castle finally pulled into his parking garage. The doorman to his building smiled as he packed up to leave for the night. The building was always securely locked, but it was only staffed from 5am until 9pm. It had never bothered any of them and even knowing he could have been tailed by one of the two men that had lurked in the shadows in the Hamptons, it didn't bother him now.

The people who lived in his building were all careful and in the years he'd owned the place, notification of a security breech had only happened once. In fact, it had been when a doorman was on duty. Alexis had only been 10 then, and she'd protested holding his hand because she was too old, but he'd made her anyway. She'd refused to speak to him for 3 days, being too young to understand the implications of someone who didn't belong in their building.

When Castle stepped from the elevator and slid his key into the loft's lock, the door flung open and he found himself stumbling backward under her weight.

"Dad!" Alexis gasped, "Where have you been, we've been worried sick?"

"Yes, damn it!" His mother smacked him with her rolled up magazine as he trudged inside with his daughter. She shook like a leaf, and he pulled her small body against his in reassurance.

"I'm fine. What's happening? Why are we all so upset?"

"Detective Beckett called, she said you were missing. You didn't answer your phone, either of them. Someone is following you!"

"Yes, probably," He confirmed, "But I've been dealing with it for days. It's two guys they've deemed harmless."

"I don't think so. Dad, Kate was really worried. I could tell. She was using that voice, that one she uses when things are serious but she's trying to hide it."

"She shouldn't even be calling here, she'll blow the cover on the line." Castle moved to the drawer full of junk in the kitchen, weeding through old cell phones and chargers until he found what he was looking for. He pulled the temporary line from his pocket and plugged it into the wall. "I feel like we're missing something here."

"Why?" Alexis asked, as Martha sat perched at the counter.

"Those disposable lines weren't to be used to contact me if I was being tailed. She broke the protection order. That can only mean one of two things, they've got the kingpin in custody," He paused, evaluating before continuing, "Or something has gone very, very wrong."

"I don't expect anything from you." Jake explained as she stared him down over the use of the cell phone. When she looked away and pulled her knees to her chest, he knew there would be more.

"I don't want to love him, you know." Kate murmured into her knees from the tub. "He's an unarmed liability. I'm a cop. Either of us could get killed."

"I think you probably came close." Jake offered as gently as he could before they heard a car kill its engine as it rolled in.

"Shh!" Beckett and Jake both hushed each other at the same time.

He quickly flicked the mouse on the laptop at his feet, banishing the screen saver to reveal a man casually get out of his car and move towards the building. He was dressed for construction, and slipped a gun from his tool belt as he approached the vacation homes back door.

Jake jumped up and retrieved his gun from his shoulder harness as Kate reached behind her to pull her weapon from her back. She stood in the tub despite Jake's wave for her to get down.

"Stay," he ordered firmly, but she shook her head.

Together they ventured carefully down the hall. Jake's frustration and worry were not lost on Kate. She knew her safety was his business, but despite her healing injury she wasn't prepared to sit idly by. She allowed him to lead the way, but only because she knew there was not way he'd tolerate anything else.

When he took the corner, Kate couldn't be sure what exactly transpired out of sight. She only knew what she heard as a several pops sounded and the sickening thump of someone's head impacting with a hard surface before falling to the ground.

With her safety off, she crept around the corner. She easily spotted Jake lying on the floor, out cold beside the eat-in countertop that divided the kitchen. A smear of blood marked the edge where his head had connected from the shot's force. His shoulder was stained with blood, but not enough that Kate could stop what she was doing to help him. Her eyes scanned the open area, and spotted a small blood spatter against the opposite wall. Inching her way carefully around, she spotted a trail of blood that lead into the laundry room that stemmed from the kitchen.

She pushed the door open, to find the man passed out on the floor, a pool of blood forming at his leg. Within moments she'd retrieved her cuffs, hit 911 to report the incident and cuffed the man to the plumbing by both his hands.

She'd tied a towel tightly around the man's leg, unwilling to let him bleed, but not wanting to waste time with his care when her friend lay bleeding in another area.

When Beckett reached Jake, she didn't move him other than to press a towel beneath his shirt. Her primary concern was his head, and she touched the scalp carefully in an attempt to not move his neck. When his eyes flicked open, he groaned.

"Failure."

"I wouldn't say that," Kate explained, "I'm alive, you're alive and the gun who tried to end us both is cuffed to the plumbing."

"The Cavalry?" Jake groggily pointed out the closing sirens, "You'd better let them in." Beckett nodded.

It was nearly two hours later when Kate finally escaped the hospital and got a ride over to the hotel.

She'd spent a long time waiting and answering questions before she got to see Jake. She'd also spent a long time fingering her phone where it rested inside her pocket. She assumed Castle was fine, since the third man had remained in town. It didn't make the anxiety she'd suffered earlier disappear. She'd scolded Jake, but thanked him. He'd protested that it was his job and just another scar to remind him of his purpose.

"I like that idea." Beckett had touched her own stomach at the comment, though she couldn't quite come up with the purpose for hers. If anything it had led to nothing but tension and bloodshed.

Castle paced while the phone rang. What had gone so wrong that Beckett felt the need to break the rules? For him.

Both Esposito and Ryan's desk lines rang unanswered. When he dialed Esposito's cell and that also went unanswered, he began to panic.

Relief finally came when Ryan picked up his cell.

"What's wrong?"

"Castle? Glad to hear your voice. We've got the kingpin." There was a muffled pause when Ryan leaned over to tell Esposito who he had on the line.

"Good. Where's Kate?" He was relieved and already planning out what he'd say to her.

"Last I heard she was in the hospital with Jake."

"Wait, what?" Castle sank onto the counter, this couldn't be happening again.

"There was a third tail. The techie, no one ever saw him. He tracked a location on Kate's disposable after she called you. Probably would have been fine if she hadn't called your cells close to a dozen times. He put the lines together and traced it's location. He was working on your remodel, even our inside man didn't have a clue who he really was."

"Did he shoot her?" The pain and struggle not to panic was apparent in Castle's voice.

"No. He got Jake. But Jake got him too. They're both going to live, but the suspect nearly bled to death on your rental's floor. I don't think you're going to get a security deposit back on that." Castle listened as his body shook, relief paired with the sudden surge of adrenaline from the news left his hands fluttering and his chest pounding. He took a deep breath and mentally reminded himself that she was fine.

"She's alone up there now?"

"Well, they told us they put her in a hotel. You know, crime scene and all."

"Do you have the number?"

"I think her regular line is live again." Ryan smiled smugly.

The first thing she did as she set her bag and Castle's laptop down inside the hotel room door was to fish out her phone and check in with Esposito.

"Do we know where Castle is? Are we sure there isn't a fourth party tracking him?" Ryan leaned over and indicated he had Castle on the phone as they filed paper on the kingpin at Lock-up.

"Jeez, Beckett, give it a rest."

"Well? Do you?" She demanded a little more forcefully.

"Yes. He's fine."

"Good." Her relief was short lived, "Why didn't he answer his phones?"

"You'll have to talk to him." Esposito huffed, "I'm not his baby sitter, that's traditionally your job."

"Watch your mouth," Kate scolded, but he could hear her smiling just a little bit.

"You coming home tomorrow?"

"As soon as I've wrapped everything here. We'll probably need a statement from Castle on the two tails he witnessed and the third man from the remodel."

"See ya' then boss lady." Esposito ended with a click, looking over to where Ryan sat smugly having ended with Castle.