CHAPTER 21

Funny how the heart can be deceiving

More than just a couple times

Why do we fall in love so easy

Even when it's not right

Try, Pink

Locks of her hair flew out of places. Her feet ached from too much running and not enough time resting. The chilly air pricked at her eyes. And above all, her heart raced, faster like never before as she raced the length of the lobby to Castle's door, the other uniforms tagging close behind. She couldn't take the chances. It had been less than twenty four hours since Stefanie walked out of the NYPD precinct, and Kate couldn't afford thinking that she had been a little too late. She kicked the door open, and it stumbled before her, wood shattering on her wake. A sea of cops flooded in and out of each and every corner of the loft.

"Castle!" she called out, "Castle, where are you?!"—to no avail. It was eerily quiet, except for the steady shuffle of footsteps around the halls.

"Clear!" one cop announced after another, until they were all gathered in the living area, awaiting their next order.

Kate couldn't quite grasp it yet. But she had to be strong. She had to remain optimistic for Castle. For Alexis and Martha. For herself. Swallowing back feelings, she took a deep breath and cleared her throat. "Call in CSU and search the loft. Turn the place upside down and don't stop until you find something that could lead us to Castle or Stefanie Patrick." Her heels turned to the direction of the door, when her eyes caught something off a shelf on one side of the loft. It was a framed photograph of Castle and Alexis on her high school graduation, the girl's arms wrapped around her father's broad waist, and the proud dad grinning from ear to ear, beaming with pride. She couldn't help but think that on the same night, she let her walls down for him.

"Be careful, though."

She didn't waste any more of her valued time and hopped on to the Crown Victoria lent to her. She hit on the accelerator, a little too hard, and blended into traffic. Kate took the short cut to the precinct, a small road across a residential area, when she saw an over speeding sports car in the corner of her rearview mirror. It was Castle's red Ferrari quickly fading onto the other side of the street. There could be a hundred red Ferraris on the island of Manhattan, but she knew. It was his.

Kate made a bad detour and followed the vehicle, and reached for the radio, only to find that the freak device wasn't working at all. Grunting and smashing it back to its port, she reached for her phone, and cursed herself at the sudden realization that it wasn't in sight. There was only her, and her gun. Gun is enough.

She sped up, but Ferraris always beat Crown Victorias, especially because the one she was driving wasn't exactly the latest model. Kate reached for the siren next, and it wasn't there. "What the hell?!" She grunted once more, and tensed on her seat.

No back up. No siren. No nothing.

Following the car and her instincts, she realized she had reached a less-crowded area in the city. There were more abandoned houses than occupied ones, and up ahead was a tall, abandoned building where the Castle's car turned. Kate reduced her speed, and stopped the car on the entrance gate—tall, rustic roofs fashioned into a makeshift entrance.

Nice and slow, Kate. Nice and slow.

She repeatedly told herself as she took a good hold of her guns, two tucked on her holster, and an extra slipped into her ankle. She took a sharp breath as she went outside the car, swiftly navigating, cautiously striding towards the building. Castle's car was nowhere to be seen at this point.

Kate sighed in relief as she reached the concrete floor on one piece. But that relief was short-lived when she heard the click of a gun's hammer close to her ear.

"Drop your weapon."

Kate froze. She knew this voice all too well. And for the person who had so much to lose, Kate couldn't turn away from this fight. "Stefanie…"

"I said." Stefanie shot back, her voice firm. "Drop. Your. Weapon."

Kate held right to her gun, the wound on her arm throbbing from the muscle contraction. With a swift movement, she lifted her elbow and hit Stefanie on the abdomen, causing the other woman to fall out of balance. Stefanie's gun fell to the ground, and Kate was quick to shove it far from her reach. "Where is he?!"—she demanded, pointing the gun to Stefanie.

Stefanie gave a small smirk, relaxing as a subordinate closed in on Kate without so much as a sound. "Tsk, tsk, tsk…bad move, Detective."

Before Kate saw it coming, she blacked out on herself when something hard hit the back of her skull. The pain didn't even have the time to register when she felt her whole body fall to the cold concrete, before her consciousness completely faded away.

~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

"Kate. Kate?" He whispered, low as it was deemed possible, slightly shaking Kate who still lay unconscious on the floor, her feet bound together, and her hands cuffed from behind. He was in a less uncomfortable situation, with one hand cuffed to some kind of pipe. He leaned close, occasionally grunting because the cuffs limited his movements.

Two awfully large men brought her to the cell in this situation. Deadly still. It's been five minutes of trying to wake her up, and Castle began to worry.

"Kate, wake up." He pulled her close with one usable arm, and lay her head on his lap. "Kate," Castle tapped her cheeks, softly, and slowly catching intensity with each failed attempt in bringing her back. He instinctively ran two fingers on her pulse, relieved at the steady throb of her artery against his skin.

"Kate, please…"

She grunted. Kate's senses were coming back to life. She felt the restricted movements on her lower extremities, the searing pain of her GSW, and the numbing feeling of her hands bound behind her back. Above all, there was a newfound pain on the back of her head. She wondered why her head was elevated than the rest of her body. Then a hand ran its course on her cheeks, then to her shoulder; the touch calming, and soothing, and like no…Castle!

"C-Castle…?" she slowly opened her eyes, slowly adjusting her rods and cones to the dim lighting of the small room. "Where…"

"There you are. Wake up." He said, now helping her to sit with her back against the wall. "How did you find me?"

"I followed your car. And there was…" Stefanie. Does he already know? "Castle, do you have any idea who did this?"

Castle shook his head. "These armed men came to the loft and took me here. They are working for someone." He said, and then traced his gaze on the bleeding coming from the back of her head. "Are you alright?" He lifted his fingers to the contusion, "…did you recognize who did this to you?"

"It's nothing." Kate swallowed a big lump in her throat. But she had to tell him. He deserved to know. Especially now that his life is in apparent danger. "It's Stefanie, Castle."

Castle's heart sank to the ground. He might have expected it all along—with the facts lying around, and his innate talent for theories—but "love" kept him from seeing all that. His emotions stopped him from looking at things on the bigger perspective. He saw what he wanted to see: Stefanie's a victim; she couldn't be the suspect. But coming out of Kate made it more real. A sense of finality washed over him, as the last few months of his 'happy' life melted away in a cloud of lies over his head.

She did this.

She played me.

And now, she wants to kill me? And Kate?

"I'm sorry, Castle. I know how much you cared for her." Kate said, wanting so much to engulf him in her arms. But technically, she couldn't.

"I guess I'm sorry, too."—he whispered into thin air.

He gave her a small glance and a nod. Castle swallowed the last bit of pain possible for the moment, "What did you find out?"—he asked, soft and uncertain. But he had to know. He deserved to know the reason behind all this.

"That she's not Stefanie Patrick. As far as I know she was a Ruth Lister, and four other women. I didn't get the chance to know more because that's when I followed your car. Then, this." She nodded to the whole of her, her wrists burning from the friction of the metal against her skin.

Castle extended his good arm to Kate, and pulled her close, so she was a good arm's reach. He fiddled at the rope on Kate's feet, hoping to unlatch it with one hand.

"That isn't even a tough rope. I think you can bite it off."

"You're right," he agreed, and slouched down to tear off shreds of the rope, until it was reduced to a thin thread, weak enough for Kate to kick off. "Why would someone use a rope that easy?"

"I don't know." She set her legs apart, relieved from the ability to regain her movements. "I don't know why she's doing this to both of us."

Castle gave her a sideways glance, "I wish I knew."

~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~O~

One. Two. Three. Deep breath. Kick! "Damn it."—Kate grunted.

Okay, you'll kick it down this time. One, two, three…Kick!

"Kate…" he called out, his voice depicting hope, long gone in a spiral of madness. "…there's no way out. You'll only hurt yourself."

Kate kept her back on him, reasserting dominance, not to him, but to the whole situation in general. She wasn't supposed to be losing. She wasn't supposed to be feeling claustrophobic; drowning in the airless duct with her emotions and feelings for Castle all over the place. Above all, she still couldn't believe she was abducted. Outsmarted, and locked away to nowhere. Does Esposito and Ryan even realized she was gone? Are they even looking?

It's been a while since she woke up. It's been forty unsuccessful attempts at taking down the steel door before her. She stood straight, preparing for the 41st try.

"Kate, there's no way out."

For once and for all, she gave in to what he had to say. She returned to his side, wishing she could put a hand over her bad arm. Without the painkillers, the pain had skyrocketed from dull to almost unbearable.

"See? You hurt yourself." He pointed out, "Just…come here." He flung his arm around her, his hand slightly caressing the bondage wrapped around her wound, his touch soothing the pain in some way. "We'll survive this. I don't know how, but I know we will."

Kate gave in to his embrace, cherishing the moment, no matter the current circumstances. "The odds are pretty slim this time, Castle."

"Well, did you think we had a chance against that tiger?" he joked, his breath hot against the nape of her neck.

Kate chuckled. "Touché,"

They shared a brief laugh, taking their minds off of their situation for a second. They were in a small room, with nothing and no one but each other. After her frail attempt at escape, it was clear all they had to do was wait for their cards to play out, hoping their luck didn't run out just yet. Huddled close to each other, their thoughts couldn't help but wander into the unscathed territory. Especially that kiss, and what it meant for the other.

"If I hadn't left for that job in D.C., do you think we'd still be together?"

No point in not talking about it right now. She didn't dare look at him. Kate knew, and feared she might drown in his big, blue eyes like she always had in the past. Instead she stayed still, with his hand still on her shoulder, his caresses reduced to soft, lingering strokes.

"I think we'd be married by now." He replied, straightforward as an arrow shot by Merida. There wasn't a hint of hesitation in his voice; only an honest truth. His grip around her went only tighter.

"I bought the ring on Valentine's Day. I could have proposed by then but…" he broke his contact on her arm, and his hand gently traced her jawline, tilting her head towards him. "…I didn't think you were ready. I could have saved both of us that bitter proposal, you know."

Kate didn't smile. She didn't move a muscle. She just looked on, hoping to the heavens above he'll tell her his side of the story.

"So I chose to give you the earrings instead, and saved the ring for later. For when you're really ready. I never could have guessed that you were getting bored."

"Castle…" she protested.

"Okay, not bored. But we were dragging our relationship. We knew it, but we didn't talk about it. We imploded because we didn't talk enough. You had no idea how committed I was, and I had no idea that you were ready to move forward."

Kate nodded, and rested her head on his chest.

"So, yes. If things had only gone our way, I think we'd be married by now." he whispered into her ear, sending a cold shrill up her spine. Then it became all too unbearable, and she wasn't referring to the throb of her arm. A rogue tear slid down her cheek, and thank goodness he wasn't facing her to see it.

Having heard all that, she mentally slapped and kicked herself for changing the course of the game all those time ago. Their game.

Mr. and Mrs. Richard Castle?

Oh, how good that could have been.

A/N: Yo! Are you still there? I hope so. :)

I am terribly sorry for the long delay. It's been really crazy at school.

I can't promise regular updates, but I promise I'll try and give you quality reads each time I do.

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