Got some people seriously worked up with that last chapter. Hopes this helps.

"Seriously Beckett!" Esposito bites at her. "You're wearing a path in the concrete. Not to mention driving me crazy."

Beckett stops pacing, glares at him from across the small stark room. The prisoner cuffed to the bench in the corner huffs out what sounds like a 'thank god' but doesn't dare say anymore when she shoots him a warning look over her shoulder.

She glances at her watch again; eleven-thirty. They've been cooped up in this ten-by-ten cinderblock interrogation room for almost ten hours now.

"What's taking so long?" She takes another couple of steps, hears Espo's frustrated sigh and stops.

"It's a prison riot, Beckett. Takes as long as it takes." He taps the top of the stainless steel table he's sitting on. "Sit."

Beckett takes a seat beside her partner; her boots make a clopping sound against the attached bench. The metal is cold beneath her; it seeps through her wool dress pants – chills her to the bone. She leans forward, presses her forearms into the tops of her thighs. It's the only way she'll be able to keep herself still and quiet.

"Next time Gates asks us for a favor I think we say no."

"Huh. Not sure we had a choice."

He's right, of course.

Your Captain tells you to drive upstate to conduct a witness interview in a decades old case you do it; an order's an order. The fact that the witness is in prison, and the other inmates chose today to incite a riot, take over the common areas of the facility, beat up a few guards?

Not really Gates' fault.

On the bright side, the prisoners haven't gained access to the administrative section of the prison, just somehow managed to cut it off from the exits. So Beckett and Esposito are safe; relatively anyway. She'd feel better if she had her weapon and her cell phone, but the whole facility is on lockdown protocol. Reinforcements have arrived and are in place. It's just a matter of subduing the prisoners, getting them back to their cells. Could be another hour, could take all night.

"I had a choice." Beckett buries her face in her hands, scrubs her fingers through her hair. "She was so sick, Javi."

"Yeah, you said."

"She was so sick and all she wanted was her mommy. I left her. I chose work."

"You left her with Castle. He's a good dad, Beckett. Capable."

"Yeah." She whispers in concurrence. Because he is a good dad, the best really. "But…"

"But what?" Esposito snaps and she's surprised at his sudden temper. "Look Beckett, I'm not sure what you want me to say here?"

"Me either really." Kate's head sags, her hair drapes on either side of her face, hides the tears that threaten to flow. "Just ignore me. Cabin fever, you know how it is." She doesn't dare blame postpartum hormones or painfully full mammary glands. He'd never look at her the same.

She moves to stand, to return to the pacing, but Esposito's hand slides over hers, gives them an apologetic squeeze; calms the wringing. She stays seated at his side.

"You're a great cop, Kate, best I've ever worked with. Probably the best I'll ever work with."

He lets go of her hand, but doesn't move to get up. He has more to say, so she waits him out. He's usually so quick to the point. Castle's been rubbing off on him; making him long-winded.

"You know that feeling you get when someone says 'I'm on the job'?" Kate nods, but he's already moving ahead.

"The sense of pride those four little words invoke, the camaraderie. It's a noble thing we do, Beckett."

She nods again, agreeing full well with everything he just said.

"But…"

That there's a 'but' surprises Kate, even more so, his hand at her back, the gentle way he tugs at her until she's looking at him. His eyes expectant. "But what?"

"But at the end of the day that's all it is, really. It's just a job, Kate. It's just a job."

He's still reeling. He knows she's okay. He hasn't been able to talk to her, doesn't know firsthand, but at last report she was unharmed, alive.

He gets it; why they were all there, in his loft.

His cell was dead; they couldn't get a hold of him. His wife is practically being held hostage in a maximum security prison and his damn cell phone was dead. So they called his daughter, his mother. Jenny came to help with the babies; care for them in case Alexis and Martha weren't able.

He gets it – he really does. But hell, they scared the shit out of him.

He'd thought Kate was gone. He'd thought he'd never see her alive again, never hold her, hear her voice, kiss her lips. He'd thought he'd never get to make love to her again.

He'd thought the dream was over.

"You holding up back there, Castle?"

Lanie's voice startles him. He jumps, drops his cell on the floor of Ryan's cruiser. He reaches for it in the dark, panics a little until his fingers are once again wrapped around the warm plastic.

Because it's his lifeline right now.

Not just because Alexis has been texting him every twenty minutes or so with updates on the babies, especially Erin; if she's sleeping, if her fever has gone down. But also because the Warden has promised to patch Kate through as soon as she and Esposito are safe; getting to their cells and weapons may not be possible immediately, and needs to hear from her immediately.

So he holds on tight, waits for the tiny device to buzz in his hand, to let him know for sure.

He feels bad about leaving Erin, but he couldn't just sit at home and wait any longer. He needs to be there when she gets out. Needs to see for himself that she's okay.

She'll probably scold him for it too; for leaving the girls. She'll tell him what a baby he is. Remind him that she wasn't really in any danger, after all.

The prisoners can't get to her. Everyone keeps saying it. They can't get to her. They're all being barricaded in, cordoned off; all five-hundred and sixty-two of them.

Castle Googled the prison and its population - Five-hundred and sixty-two violent criminals, including one-hundred and seventy-two murderers and ninety-four rapists; some of those overlapping.

Twenty murdering-rapists.

And his beautiful wife is in there with every last one of them.

"They can't get to her, they can't get to her, they can't get to her." His breathing is erratic as he repeats it to himself, "They can't get to her."

"Castle!"

His head snaps up, "Yeah, I'm okay… I'm okay."

"We're almost there." Ryan chimes in from the driver seat. "Another couple of minutes."

Castle can already see the lights; the large search beams that have been set up all around the massive structure. They illuminate the entire area. It's as if it were closer to noon instead of approaching midnight. Helicopters are circling overhead and he's not sure if they're part of the effort to get the prison back under control or if they're media.

As Ryan pulls the cruiser to a stop, the phone vibrates in his palm. He doesn't recognize the number, it's not Alexis.

"Kate!" Castle is out of the car, his feet pounding against the blacktop. He can barely hear her, but it's her. "Kate? Where are you?"

"We're out, Castle. We're safe… I'm safe."

He's still running. People are filing past him, stunned women and kids being shoved around by armed men, National Guard by the looks of them. He'd been told there were civilians in their too; visitors, families of the prisoners, but kids?

"Jeez who brings their kids to a prison?"

"Castle!"

"Yeah Love, I'm here."

He's spinning in circles looking for her amongst the confusion. The choppers overhead have him disoriented; the wind and the noise filling all his senses.

Then he sees it; the unmistakable silhouette of her body outlined by an almost blinding light. Her never-ending legs, the regal set of her shoulders, the sharp point of her bent elbow where she holds the phone to her ear.

"Castle?"

"Kate?"

Then she's safe, in his arms, the only place she ever wants to be.

I promise, at least three, maybe four chapters of nothing but fluff coming up. I think you all deserve it for surviving that little cliffhanger. Especially you Twyger, and thank you for all the virtual love.