The precinct was a buzzing hive of noise and light, word having gotten out about bringing Kali into custody. Esposito could feel the uniforms' excitement at being part of such a major homicide bust that wrapped successfully. He wanted to remind them all that homicide investigative success on this one was a relative term as Kali had killed four people including a cop, abducted and tortured a fifth and was planning to do all of that to Will Newman's son.

The trophy room had sickened him, so much that when he'd gotten back to the precinct, he'd ducked into the men's room to call home and tell Meredeth, he would need the most comfy of comfort foods followed up with the dirtiest of dirty sex she could conjure for him. Meredeth has simply used that sweet, smooth angelic voice of hers and told him he would come home to whatever he wanted, food, body or heart.

It had given him the boost he needed, or at least a partial one - what Esposito really wanted was to hug all his children close to him, hear Max babble on about what he learned on Dis-cov-ah-wee Shannel about bugs or fish, listen to Leo wax poetic about spending time with Violet, hear Trini's ridiculously awful singing and Tessi's laugh so much like her mother's it was frightening. And he was self-aware enough that the knew when he did so, the weight of the last week would crush him like a tonne of bricks, but that his Danish angel, his saving grace and love of his life, would be there to pull him back out of the wreckage.

The only ones who didn't look positively orgasmic with joy were Avery, Toh and Watkins. Instead they were huddled in the breakroom, looking exhausted and drawn over cups of coffee, tea for Watkins. It was the young bride-to-be that looked up when Esposito came in in search of caffeine, let out a long breath.

'Detective, we didn't think anyone would miss us for a few minutes,' she said in a shaky voice.

'Majority of those dimwitted assholes are treating Adam like the guy about to fuck the prom queen,' Avery said in a low, tight voice, the kind that reminded Esposito of Meredeth about to blow her stack. She sipped black coffee, hissed out her breath through her teeth. 'Then they say that Beckett versus Kali is the best kind of girl on girl action there is.'

'Morons,' Toh agreed. 'Figured it's just be easiest to hang out here until the captain comes by, gives us all what-for.'

'You're not wrong. Captain Karpowski's emotionally compromised on this case and she'll go up for review.'

'Up for review?' Watkins looked dumbstruck. 'Why? She led the team that resulted in the capture of a violent criminal.'

'She'll have to answer for Newman, it's SOP whenever a man goes down in the line of duty.'

'But he didn't, so what would they want with her?'

Before Esposito could give them an answer, his phone rang; when he saw Ryan's name on the display, he picked up stepped away for a moment. 'Hey bro, what-'

'Have they started on that fucking bitch yet?'

Esposito could hear it in Ryan's voice, the rage and anger, and knew there was only one thing in the world when his partner was in cop mode that could make him sound like he'd just won a fistfight with Lucifer himself. 'No, she's still in holding.'

'I want a crack at her.'

'You'll get your turn.'

'I want her first.'

'No.' Esposito used the same tone he used on his children when they were trying to wheedle something from him. 'Ryan, you go in there hot to make a kill, that will just shut her down more. She feeds off that, you know that bro! Why do you think she likes to cause this kind of chaos?'

He heard Ryan exhale heavily through his nose, could perfectly picture him shaking his head. Ryan was the right amount of unpredictable a cop needed to be but when it came to pregnant women in jeopardy - and this was not the first one they'd rescued, either - Ryan was reliable as an atomic clock. He would be steaming until he got to the precinct, right up until he got into the box with the ass-hat who'd done the mama-to-be wrong. Then he would go volcanic, slowly and slowly building up the pressure until he blew his stack and the mope was sucker-punched by the sudden assault.

Esposito had been Ryan's partner for over two decades and he knew his bro as well as he knew his wife; the more he thought about it, the more he realized that despite Beckett and Adam's combined prowess in the box, they wouldn't get her to crack with Ryan.

'Javi, you there?'

'Sorry, bro. How far out are you?'

'I'm at Lexington and Thirty-Three.'

'Alright.' Esposito scrubbed his hand over his face, formulating the plan in his brain. 'Alright, when you get here, text me. I'll make sure I'm not in the box with her.'

'Good.'

He hung up, and forgetting all about his coffee, he marched straight to Karpowski's office where Montgomery, Karpowski herself were conferencing with Adam and Beckett. Esposito wasn't offended in the slightest, since he knew that Beckett and Adam were handling the brunt of the interrogation. Could it still be called that when everyone knew they had their killer?

'Excuse me, sir.'

'Come in Esposito, we are discussing strategy to get Kali to crack.'

'That might be unnecessary. I just got off the phone with Ryan, he's on his way back from the hospital with something he can use in Interview. Sascha Russell is seven weeks pregnant.'

'Oh man.' Beckett closed her eyes, covered them with her palm. 'Are we gonna need to worry about him?'

'That's a silly question, Detective, you know how he is with pregnant women who'd been hurt,' Karpowski reminded her. 'The better question would be, how do we use it so we get Kali on her heels to get everything we need to ship her off to the darkest hole we can find.'

'What if we play her, the way she likes to play?' Adam suggested, and considered it a sign of his professional growth that he didn't turn cherry red when all eyes turned towards him. 'I mean, she likes the theatrical, so why not use that against her? Remember that case from a year or two ago with the dead magician Beckett, and you and Castle got the guy to confess with having the twin brother dress up like a ghost?'

'Yeah, the Zalman Drake case.' Beckett remembered it vividly since it had fallen right near so many important dates for her friends' personal lives - Jojo, Heddie and Duncan's birthdays, Lanie and Dave's anniversary, Robina's birthday too. 'Given her little stunt, making it look like Daphne's cousin Laurel was involved, it was all a way just to fuck with us so why don't we give that back in spades?'

'What do you have in mind, Detective?'

'Remember what we did when we went to see Sean Delancy's execution? How we made sure he saw all those lives he tried to destroy with his drug-ring activities? What if we bring her up, and she sees people who would be able to idea her? The bartender from where Sascha went missing, Emily herself, the clerk from the store where Tyson McKinley went missing, Daphne Newman? I'm sure they'd all be happy to give a little back given how much Kali turned them upside down.'

'Karpowski, how much longer can we hold Kali before she'll start to whine for a lawyer or complain about being denied her rights?' Montgomery turned to the captain. 'Or do we have to worry about that with her?'

'Kali's a braggart and she wouldn't hide behind someone else. If she were, she'd be hiding in plain sight like with the stolen Laurel Turner ID.'

'Good. Go make the calls, tell them what we're going to do. We will meet here in half an hour.'