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One Night Stand

Chapter Thirty Six - "Watching You"

They arrived at the crime scene half an hour later. Espan were already waiting for them.
Kate showed her badge to the Officer as he held up the tape for them to duck under and walked straight to Esposito. "Hey Espo."
The Detective spun around. "Uh ... Kate, hi."
Kate looked at him quizzically. "What?"
"Nothing."
"Yeah, nothing is a dear friend of mine. Tell me what you found. Now!"
Esposito looked at Castle, clearly uncomfortable. "We found something in her pocket. A picture ... of the two of you ... "
"No."
"Kate ... "
"No Espo! Who is this sick bastard?"
"I don't know, but Gates called the Feds."
"She didn't!"
"Yes she did. They'll be here in the morning."
Kate growled something under her breath and went on. "When was the photo taken?"
"We don't know. Mind to tell us?" he asked and held up the picture for her to see.
Kate gasped.
"He took the picture in front of the Maddie's restaurant? Alexis graduation party ... "
Kate turned away. She was feeling sick with one time.
Esposito and Castle watched her concerned.
"I'll take care of her," Castle said and slowly walked away a few feet with his girlfriend.

When they came to stand on the sideway she crushed. Tears streamed down her cheeks. She was crying. Her tears soaked into his jacket as she had her arms clinging around him.
"He's been following us since weeks Castle ... since weeks! And we didn't suspect anything ... What if ... What if he already ... " she sobbed uncontrolled.
Rick held her in his arms protectively and tried to sooty her. "I know, but he didn't try anything Kate," he whispered leaving the yet hanging in the air.
"And if he does now? Rick ... ?"
"I'll keep you safe Kate. Always. Because I love you and because I love our baby. He won't get to you. He has to put up with me first."
She hugged him tighter. "We don't know anything about him Rick."
"Yes we do Kate. We know that he has an affection with you. He kills women looking like you. He is ... he is out of control."
"What do we do Castle? What do we do?" she sobbed.
He held her. He just held her until he had an answer for her. "I will keep you safe Kate. We all will," he whispered and pressed a soft kiss to her temple.
"What if you can't? I can't lose you Castle. I just can't. If he gets me ... promise me you will never stop looking for us?"
He bit his lip. "He won't get you. He won't even get close enough to take a picture of us again."
Her sobbing improved again and they stood there in each other's arms in front of their colleagues, ten Officers and a crime scene.

He watched them with a smile. They must have found his little present for Detective Beckett, his warning. He would snatch her off the streets of New York City. Once and for all. She would be his once he had killed her little bastards. That's why he killed all these women for his employee. His employee wanted to see Mr. Castle hurting. He smiled. He would get the woman. He would own her. Forever. All his blood rushed south when he thought of what he would do to her. He laughed and walked away.

The next morning ...
When Kate and Rick arrived at the Precinct at 8:30am in the morning, the Feds were already there. Kate spotted Jordan Shaw right away. With a sigh she nudged her boyfriend's arm and pointed her way.
"Agent Jordan Shaw?" he asked in surprise.
Jordan must have heard them, because she turned around to them. "Detective Beckett, Mr. Castle. How nice to see you again," she said with a smile. "The circumstances of course aren't so nice, but I promise you we'll catch the bastard."
"Before our home blows up?" Kate asked drily and went to her desk.
Rick watched as she walked away.
"So you two are an item now?"
Rick nodded.
"I couldn't believe what I read and heard, but now I can see it with my own eyes! Congratulations. I knew you belonged together."
"Yeah, I guess we do."
"I thought you'd be happier."
"I am, it's just a complicated situation at the moment. Serial killer problems, you know."
"Well, she's pregnant. Hormones are a bitch."
"She's coping with the hormones. She's just worried. She tried to not let the case near her, which didn't really work, and now he's been following us, or at least her, around?"
"We will catch him. Before something happens."
"You better do. I would never forgive myself if something happened to her. She's been thinking about possible enemies all night long."
Jordan nodded. "She must be feeling what every mother would feel like. Trust me, it will get worse once the why is here."
"Babies. She's having twins."
Jordan sighed with a smile. "Good luck."

Half an hour later everybody was gathered in the conference room for a first briefing. Now it was Kate's turn.
She stood in front of her murder board, one arm wrapped around her bump protectively. "As you know we had four female victims so far. They all had brown hair, green eyes, were about 1,73m tall and four to five months pregnant." She looked at Rick before continuing. "We didn't find any evidence until victim No.4, where a photo of Mr. Castle and myself was found. He must have been watching us for a longer period of time since the picture was taken a month ago in front of a restaurant in downtown Manhattan." She bit her lip. "We don't know if he is still watching us, or me, of if he already stopped, but the chances are high that he's still watching us. From his MO we are figuring that he has some kind of affection on me." With that she ended her short speech.
"That's all?" the young male FBI Agent asked.
"Isn't that enough trouble?"
"Yes it is, but what I don't understand is, why are you still working this case when the killer is kinda after you?"
"Well, that's a question I can answer. I'm a Cop with all my heart and I don't stop just because some bastard tries to get to me. The best way to stop him is to find him and I'm determined to do just that. Find him and stop him. Since you are still pretty green, you may ask Agent Shaw what I am like when I'm working a case with a serial killer coming after me. It's not the first time we're working together. One last thing: Learn to listen and learn when not to interrupt by talking."
Jordan smiled when her Agent stared at the pregnant Detective wordlessly. "I told you all the stories were right Allers, now, would you please let the Detective continue? She can't stand there in front of her murder board forever as she is pregnant as you know," she rather commanded than said and looked at him sternly.
"Thank you Jordan." She turned back to look at Rick. "Castle and I have been thinking about enemies all night long and the only ones we've come up with are Jerry Tyson, or somebody hired by him, and another person which name will remain unsaid."
"Jerry Tyson? Isn't he dead?" the female Agent asked.
Rick rose from his chair to stand next to his girlfriend. "He is assumed dead, but we are not entirely sure he is dead."
"Didn't you shoot him Mr. Castle? And didn't he fall into the Hudson River?"
"Yes he did, Agent ... "
"Summers."
"Yeah, Agent Summers. I did indeed shoot him and he fell into the Hudson, but that doesn't mean he is really dead. I didn't shoot him into the head nor the heart. We can't be sure."
"And you agree with that, Detective Beckett?"
"I do now, yes."
"Now?"
"The last time we saw Tyson was after he had tried to pin a murder to Castle and held me hostage to shoot Castle. When Castle shot him I thought it was over once and for all, but you can never be sure with him. Not until my M.E. conducted him on her table."
Jordan nodded. "She is right. I studied Jerry Tyson. He is nowhere in the range of a normal serial killer. You can never say what he will do next. And he is always two steps ahead. He stole Detectives Ryan's service weapon after knocking him out in a motel room, tied Mr. Castle to a chair and fled the scene. After that Detective Ryan's gets into trouble because there was a murder commuted with his stolen service piece and then Tyson tried to pin a murder to Mr. Castle to make him pay. He thinks he is smarter than everybody else and he can't stand it if somebody can read him, if somebody is smarter than him. Both, Mr. Castle and Detective Beckett have proven theirselves smarter than Jerry Tyson and it is highly possible that he's trying to make them pay."
Gates had watched the briefing silently until then. "I agree with you all. I know Beckett won't stop working this case even it I would send her home and I think, too, it would he safer for her if she was under our watch." She turned to Kate. "Kate, whether you want it or not, you two will each be assigned two Officers for your own safety. They will always be with you and guard you. They will guard your home, too."
"Sir ... "
"No Beckett."
"She's right Beckett. I'm sure Castle will feel a whole lot better knowing he has help to keep you three safe."
Kate rolled her eyes. "As if I couldn't defend myself," she huffed.
"No you can't and you know that. All you have to do is keeping care of our two little bundles of love," he whispered the second sentence and she gave in.
"Fine, but ... "
"Uh uh, no buts Beckett. I will pick out the Officers myself and brief them. You can work normally, that's all I can do for you."
"Fine," Kate snapped and left the room.
Rick looked rather stunned at his girlfriend as she left the room. All eyes shot to him. "What?"
"Don't you think ya should go after her, bro?" Esposito asked.
"Give her two minutes to cool off, then I will go and find her."
"As ya say, bro."

Five minutes later everybody left the room and Rick went to find his girlfriend in the break room. He found her sitting on the sofa, a cup of tea in one hand, her other hand gently stroking her bump. "You okay?" he asked.
"I'm fine," she said without looking up.
"No you're not. You hate the fact that all of this is happening."
"You're damn right Castle! I wanted to enjoy this with you and now all we have is a crazy serial killer who kills women looking like me. Pregnant women! And it's highly possible that Jerry Tyson is behind all of this!"
"I know you do. How about after this case we turn our backs to the city and travel? We should use the time before the twins arrive."
"Maybe, yeah, but first of all we have to find him Rick."
"No, first of all we have to keep you and our babies safe. That's our priority and nothing else."
"If he really wants to kill me there is no stopping him Rick."
"Yes there is. Me. I will always keep you safe."
Kate put her mug down on the table and stood up to walk into his embrace. "I know you will try."
He wrapped her up in his arms and pressed a soft kiss to her hair. "I will always put up with him Kate. Always, even if it kills me."
A single tear slipped from her closed eyes.
"And we will put up with him, too. No matter what, how or how long," Esposito said.
Rick felt Kate tense in his arms for a second and thought she would step out of his embrace, but she stayed. She only looked up to look at the boys.
"Thank you."
"Anytime Beckett," Ryan said.
Rick pressed another kiss to her hair before letting go of her and sitting down on the sofa with her. She leaned into his side and he wrapped his arm around her again. "We will be okay, you will see." Of only he'd known just how unsure of that he would be soon enough.
The boys looked at them before grabbing two fairs and sitting down with them.
"So you think it could be him, too?"
Everybody instantly knew whom was meant.
"Maybe. It would be a way to provoke her. Or all of us. He knows that we know and he may think that if he hires a serial killer to kill women looking like Kate, that he will get away with even more murders."
"You think he would do that?"
"We do," Kate said and grabbed her mug to take a sip of the hot liquid. "We know he has ordered murders before. He knows that we figured it all out and he needs to get ... he needs to get rid of me. I'm a threat to him, a big one. We all are."
"Yeah, but would he be as stupid to have you killed? You are in the newspapers, you are a public person, you're somewhat a celebrity since you two have gone public and you're pregnant. Having you killed would make a lot of people ask questions. Your death would be investigated to the smallest detail. They would eventually find out about everything. Do you think he would be that stupid?"
"You never know Espo. Not until it's too late," she said and got up.
"Kate, he won't get to you."
"Yeah? Castle, he's been trying to kill me several times! He got me shot! In the chest! You know as well as I do that they had to defibrillate me three times at the hospital! I was dead Castle. He nearly had reached his goal and that was even before we had it all figured out!"
"Kate, calm down," Rick said.
"Calm down?! Castle, there is a fucking serial killer out there probably figuring out when it's best to snatch me off the streets of Manhattan and how to kill me! And you tell me to calm down?" she yelled before storming off.
The three men looked after her, partly stunned.
"Bro, shouldn't you go after her?" Esposito asked after some time.
Rick nodded. "Yeah, I probably should. Um ... where did she went to?"
"She stormed out of the Precinct. Your Captain followed her."
Their heads shot around to look at Jordan.
"Give her some time to cool off. She's pregnant, messed up by hormones and followed around by a serial killer, or worse from what you said in the briefing. It's a lot to cope with."

A/N: All mistakes are mine!

Woohoo! The Feds are back! Just like they're back on Castle hehe ^^ I can't wait for the next episode! Andrew and his 'to be continued ... ' I bet there are millions of fans, including me, who want to know why he always does that to us ;)

Nonetheless how did you like the new chapter? And Jordan Shaw? I love Jordan Shaw! little tease: There will be a lot of Gates in the next chapter, maybe even only Gates and Beckett.

How about 820 Reviews to celebrate the new season of Castle? I promise updates on ONS will get longer again!

xoxo,

OneWriterGirlOfficial

*Update on Tuesday*