Richard Castle had made enough progress in recent days that not only had he been moved out of the intensive care unit, but doctors were actually discussing the possibility of letting him go home. All of his tests were coming back normal, and outside of his missing finger and the concussion he suffered a few years back, he was his regular healthy self.

Emotionally had been a different story – so much so that during one of his day-long sleeping spells, Kate had called Dr. Carvin Burke to see if he would be willing to see Castle if the writer were up for it.

Kate hadn't told him that yet, though, because she didn't want to pressure him. He was having a hard enough time, between remembering what had happened to him, dealing with the knowledge that his mother was dead, and trying to get to something resembling normal.

His story had come in bits and pieces, not because he couldn't remember, but because he was so emotionally wrecked after each piece that Kate would only allow him a little to a time. She knew how badly he wanted to get it all out, with the vain hope that maybe it would lead to something, but she hated the way he looked and acted every time he finished.

She sat at her fiancé's bedside, watching him sleep as the door opened. Kate looked up and smiled when she saw a familiar face. Standing, Kate crossed the room and extended her right arm for a handshake – a gesture the tall woman with dark wavy hair returned.

"Rachel." Kate sighed with relief. "Thanks for coming."

"Of course." Agent McCord nodded toward the bed. "How's he doing?"

"We're hoping he can go home within the next day or two." Kate couldn't tear her eyes from Castle; fortunately, Gates had been understanding the last week or so, giving her the time off so she could practically live by his bed. After three years without him, Kate wasn't about to let him out of her sight again.

The two women stood at Castle's bedside, just in time for him to stir and wake up. He blinked the sleep out of his eyes, before sitting up and running the hand not hooked up to an IV across his stubbled face. The sooner they took out the IV, the better – was it possible to be too hydrated?

"Hey, Beckett." His groggy voice cleared when the other presence registered.

"Castle." She smiled and took his hand into hers. "You remember Agent McCord."

He nodded and gave McCord a polite smile. "Good to see you again." The smile on his face disappeared. "Unless this means I'm dying again."

McCord chuckled and shook her head. "No, you're not dying."

"You here to offer Beckett another job?"

"No, babe." Kate squeezed Castle's hand. "I called her here as a favor."

Both women sat, and McCord pulled a legal pad out of her bag and placed it on her lap. "Kate tells me you remember everything that happened to you. Is that true?"

Castle nodded, swallowing his uncertainty and looking at his fiancée. Once he saw nod in reassurance, his shoulders relaxed and the expression on his face considerably lightened. "Yeah. I've been telling her pieces, here and there."

"Well, I'm gonna need some of those pieces too." McCord was all business, but at least the tone of her voice told Castle that she was sympathetic to his plight. "If what Kate's already told me is true, this is something the feds are gonna have to look into."

"Good luck finding him." Castle shook his head. "And even if you do, what then?"

"I'm afraid that sort of thing's above my pay grade, Mr. Castle." McCord clicked her pen, leaning forward. "When was the last time you saw your father?"

"Been about a year." He shook his head. "He's had Rankoff babysit me while he's been off doing…whatever."

"Luring us into a trap." Beckett could barely contain the anger and the hate in her voice. She caught the questioning look from McCord, sitting up a little straighter. "Little more than a month ago, Alexis found a manuscript in Castle's desk, a book called Molten Heat."

Castle frowned. "I haven't written any—"

"We know." Kate gave his hand a reassuring squeeze. "The dedication was a message from your father, and he told us that he wrote the manuscript as a way to feed us intel about where you were."

"My father wrote a Nikki Heat book?" Castle smirked. "I'll have to ask Gina if I can sue for copyright infringement."

"Next thing we know, your father's jetting us off to Tokyo to go find you and to take down Rankoff. Only once we've been there, your father turned on us." Kate let go of the breath she'd been holding, staring at her fiancé. "He even tried to kill me."

Kate had seen the look that descended upon Castle's face only once before – when they were trying to find out who kidnapped Alexis, and he had asked for a moment to talk to the man who drove the getaway van. It scared her then, and it scared her now.

He was staring at nothing in particular. Kate squeezed his hand again, hoping the contact would ground him, bring him back to the here and now and momentarily rid him of whatever completely justified thoughts he was dealing with. For a moment, she regretted sharing that knowledge with him, but he was bound to find out anyway, so why not from her?

"Rankoff fancied himself a string puller." Castle's voice was low, detached. "Had me believing he was the one responsible for Bracken's rise to fame, told me that my abduction was retribution for all the people Beckett and I had put away over the years."

McCord squinted. "You sound skeptical."

"William Bracken was a seasoned politician, with more than 25 years of public service under his belt and connections that probably ran a lot deeper than we ever realized." Castle shook his head. "Dmitri Rankoff looked like he couldn't have been much older than his early- to mid-30s. Why would Bracken answer to a kid?"

"Maybe Rankoff's a figurehead, and the real power lies with someone else."

"Not the way he talked. Every chance he got, Rankoff was telling me how powerful he was and how insignificant I was – about how much he wasn't scared of Beckett."

Kate shook her head. "Bracken was the same way. 'Oh, look at me, look how important I am. You stupid little gnat'."

"What I don't understand," Castle sighed. "Why my father?"

"Mr. Castle…I don't know what your father's told you the few times you've interacted with him, but I don't think he's been entirely truthful with you."

Kate arched a brow. "He's not CIA."

"Oh, he was." McCord sighed. "And believe me when I tell you, I will be owing favors left and right for the rest of my career for all the clearance hurdles I had to jump just to get this information." McCord sighed, setting down her pen. "Truth is, your father was CIA in much the same way as Sophia Turner."

Kate and Castle exchanged a look, then spoke in unison. "He was a mole?"

"More or less." McCord picked up her pen again. "Any idea where he might be now?"

"He was still in Tokyo when I saw him." Kate shrugged. "But I doubt he's there now. He probably bailed as soon as Alexis and I left."

"Why would he try to kill you?"

Kate shrugged. "Why would he kidnap you?" She sighed and ran her thumb over the back of her fiance's hand. "He did say…he said he made a deal with Rankoff, that Rankoff would let you live if your father killed me."

Castle frowned. "But I was in New York, being rescued."

McCord shook her head, pocketing both her pen and the notepad before standing. "There will probably be more questions in the coming days, but I don't want to overdo it. I'll let you rest some more, Mr. Castle, and catch up on time with your fiancée. I have a feeling you both need it."

"Thank you for coming, Rachel."

"Of course." To Kate's surprise, McCord reached in for a quick hug – one that was over before the detective even had a chance to react. The two women exchanged a brief smile before McCord left the room and Kate returned to her seat by Castle's side.

"You okay, Castle?"

He shook his head, grabbing Kate's hand. "My mother's dead and my father's a traitor."

"Guess it's a good thing you've got me and Alexis, then."

Castle sucked in a deep breath and squeezed Kate's hand so hard that she had to fight the urge to pull it away. She tried to hide the cringe as pain shot up her arm, but Castle eventually loosened his grip, just a little. She looked up and saw the watery look in his eyes, carefully crawling onto the bed beside him, letting her leg hook along his.

Their foreheads touched and Castle closed his eyes, a couple tears falling. She nestled in tighter against him, letting her own eyes flutter shut.

"We'll figure this out, Castle." She kissed his temple. "We'll find our way home."