Disclaimer I do not own Castle.

I have no idea if anyone is reading this. If you are, please review. I think there are about two or maybe three chapters left.

Truth at Last.

Kate stared at Castle as his words began to sink in. It was unthinkable that the Mayor had been involved in the death of her mother. She just couldn't take in the news.

"Are you sure?" She stared at the author as he sighed.

"Yes." He took her hand. "Kate, I am only telling you what I have been told. When your mom died there were two others killed in the same way. You know that. All three were working in the same field. All three were helping a community that were causing too much trouble for a rising politician. He is the third man."

"No." Kate got to her feet and began pacing the room. It was too much to take in. She had no idea what to do. When they had thought Roy Montgomery was the third man she had been devastated but now she was lost. She had no idea how to get the proof they needed to discredit and prosecute the man. Castle watched as she sat on the chair opposite him.

"I am sorry."

"I can't do this." She ran a hand through her long brown hair. "This is too much."

"We don't have to do anything. Not tonight."

"We do nothing and he gets away with murder." Kate narrowed her eyes as she spoke. "I have a duty to do something."

"Kate."

"To my Mom, my dad and as a murder squad detective. Rick, I cannot just leave this." She buried her face in her hands as Castle realised just how frail she still was.

"I know. And we will get all the evidence we need. Ryan and Esposito are with us on this. It isn't just you anymore. There are four of us now. He can't get away from this forever." He stood and knelt down in front of her. "Kate, please."

"I'm just so tired." She met his gaze. "This has been my life for so long. Everytime we get a crumb of information it feels as though my heart is being ripped open. Someone killed my mother. You can't even begin to imagine what that does to you. Rick, it killed a part of me then and everytime we get that bit closer to finding who did it only to hit another dead end another part of me dies again."

"Kate." He pulled her up to her feet. "It's late, there is nothing that we can do tonight. So, bed."

"Castle."

"You need to sleep. I need to sleep. Ryan said Laine would ring if there was any news." He kissed her chastely as she let herself relax against him. He knew that however much they needed it they were very unlikely to get some sleep that night.

##############

Ryan sat on the sofa at home. He was exhausted. The murder of the man in the diner was spiralling out of control. He rested his head back on the sofa as Julie walked in. She had been worried about him for days, she knew he classed the team as family. Especially Esposito, Laine and Beckett. She sighed as she placedhis coffee on the small table in front of him.

"Kevin." She smiled slightly as he lifted his head.

"Honey."

"Captain Montgomery will be fine." She sat next to him as his arm fell around her shoulders.

"Yeah." He smiled slightly. "He will. It's not him I'm worried about."

"No?"

"Beckett has taken this whole thing real hard." He watched as Julie stared at him. "Esposito has been slogging his guts out."

"So have you."

"Yeah." He closed his eyes as he felt her hand on his chest as she rested her head on his shoulder.

"It's late. Or real early depending on how you look at it. Come on." She stood up and reached her hand out to him. "Bed."

"Ok." He smiled as he let her pull him to his feet. "You win."

################################

Laine threw her coat over the back of the chair as she walked in the room. She was scared out of her witts and exhausted. The coffee from the hospital canteen was not enough to keep her awake but the extra caffiene had made her nerves worse than ever. She couldn't resist the urge to glance at her boyfriend.

"Hey." Esposito took his own jacket off.

"You ok? I mean you were with the Captain for a long time." She watched as he closed his eyes.

"Yeah." She stepped closer to him. "Wish I hadn't been."

"What's that mean?" She stared at him as he kept his eyes closed.

"Laine, I'm just tired. Real tired and the Captain told me more than I think I wanted to know."

"Such as?" Laine folded her arms as she stared at him.

"Can we talk about this tomorrow? It doesn't make sense to me at the moment. To be truthful I don't think it ever will." Laine frowned slightly as she watched him. He looked more exhausted than she had ever known him. There was something else instead. She had never known him to be scared but right there as she watched him she could see the fear radiating off him. Slowly she rested her hand on his arm.

"Javier? Come on." She tugged his arm slightly as he sighed. The fight had gone out of him as he followed her towards her bedroom.

#################

Castle opened his eyes as the ringing cellphone began to get annoying. He hoped Alexis and Martha hadn't been woken by the noise. Kate rolled on her side as he answered the call.

"Castle." He paused as Kate sat up in bed. She watched as he pinched his nose. Something was clearly wrong. She watched as he listened to the caller on the other end of the line. She had no idea who was calling at 3 am in the morning but it was definately not a social call.

"What is it?" Kate stared at him as he placed the phone back on his bedside table.

"Nothing." He smiled slightly as she raised an eyebrow.

"Rick? Talk to me. No more secrets remember." He smiled as he remembered the blazing row they had before she had been shot.

"Ok." He watched as she moved closer to him in bed. "That was the station. It seems that someone tried to shoot the Mayor tonight."

"What!"

"They missed, but the bullet pulled out of the wall matches the one pulled out of our victim." He watched Kate as she looked away, her sleep fogged brain trying to process the information.

"Someone is trying to brush this under the carpet." She hugged her knees to her chest. "I need to know who."

###################

A/N Last chapter soon.