Prompt: "Insert for Cuffed. Castle and Beckett were put in separate rooms and Beckett banged through the wall that released the tiger and Castle has to listen to her screams as she's being eaten."

A/N: I'll fill this, but we're going to have to compromise on that ending.


"I think I've got it," he listens to Kate announce and he pauses in his attempt to eradicate the wall between them.

"Yeah?" he calls back.

They had been working on kicking down the barrier of the wall for the last hour if his watch is still working correctly and they had made good progress, but Kate had recently decided to try her luck with the opposite wall in her room in hopes it would lead to some type of exit.

"Yeah. It's starting to give," she replies.

Castle remains quiet, listening intently to the sound of her heels hitting the wall of the room she's been confined to, knocking loose tiles and old wood, but seconds later, the sound of her working away at the wall comes to a halt and a low growling noise fills the air instead.

Rick presses his ear to the dirty wall.

"Kate?" he calls again, his heart picking up with a touch of panic. "What is that?"

She doesn't answer and he slams his shoulder into the rotted wood, feeling it give under his weight. The growling starts again, louder this time, and then he hears her scream.

"Kate!"

The growling turns to a roar that echoes through and shakes the entire floor and is that - some wild animal? Oh god, is she trapped in a room with a beast that's going to eat her alive?

"It's a tiger," she yells back, her voice high with terror, and he slams into the wall again, losing his breath at the image he has yet to even see.

"Hold on, Beckett," he shouts, stepping back and taking a running start to throw his weight into the wall. "Just hold on."

"No, no, Castle, don't-" Her sentence is cut off by another scream, one filled with agony this time.

Rick crashes into the wall, again and again and again, all to the screams of her pain. It takes him three fierce blows to finally breach the wall and tears have blurred his vision by the time he tumbles through the broken wood. Kate is cornered on the opposite side of the room when he looks up, blood staining the pale blue of her sweater, the tiger right in front of her, teeth bared and gleaming.

The tiger startles at his entrance, her attention leaving Kate for the briefest of moments, landing solely on him. Oh, not good.

Castle hastily digs in the front pocket of his jeans, remembering the jerky he had stored there earlier simply because he had wanted a snack for the ride back, but it could save his life rather than satisfy his hunger now.

Rick catches the tiger's eye with the dried meat as he stands from the ground, wincing at the prominent throb in his shoulder, and tosses it as far away from Kate as he can.

The beast goes for it. He goes for her.

"Kate," he breathes, rushing for her as she staggers, trying to make it towards him and the exit he's created.

"Go, go," she chokes, shoving him when he catches her by the waist. Castle glances to the tiger, noticing she's almost done with her appetizer, and wraps his arm around Beckett.

She keens at the contact, bowing forward, and that's when he notices the source of all the blood coloring her top.

"Oh god," he whispers, staring in horror at the gaping wounds streaking down her back, the deep gashes where claws cut into her flesh. He longs to inspect the injuries, to ease her pain somehow, but he has to prevent her from sustaining more flesh wounds first.

Kate's already listing into his chest as they shuffle far too slowly towards the Castle-sized hole in the wall, and Rick quickly reaches for her thighs, hefting her up so her legs can wrap around his waist and her back can remain untouched.

"Hold on to me," he instructs even as he notices the slight hitch in her breathing, but she still manages a nod while he hurries back into his side of this strange prison.

"Castle, she's done with the snack," Kate husks in his ear and his heart plummets, not only at their diminishing chances of survival, but at the pure fear in her voice.

"The freezer," he murmurs, carrying her towards the large box, setting her carefully on her feet while he unlatches the box.

"We'll suffocate," she argues, but he climbs in nonetheless.

"Better than being eaten and I'm sure as hell not watching you get devoured," he mutters, tugging gently on her arm until she steps in with him.

"Here, just lay on top of me so your back-"

She doesn't even hesitate, collapsing atop him with a whimper, her entire body trembling with agony, and Castle quickly reaches for the top of the freezer, pulling it down, locking them in.

Just in time.

He hears the tiger bursts through the last of the useless wall seconds later, crashing into the freezer with an enraged roar, sending them skidding a few feet and sending Kate jerking into the wall of the box.

She cries out, a ragged sound that rips at his insides, and he does his best to secure her through the tiger's frustrated clawing on the outside of their safe haven.

"Kate," he breathes, stroking her hair back in the darkness. "Are you-"

"No," she grinds out and he feels the hot drip of tears on his neck a moment later.

Once he's sure the tiger isn't going to jostle them again, he skims a tentative hand along her back. Kate stiffens, tensing under the gentle touch of his hand over the torn fabric of her sweater, the bloodstained skin of her back and shoulder blades.

"She had me cornered within seconds. I tried to fight it off with a sharp piece of the wood," she murmurs, hissing when his fingertips brush one of the weeping wounds, coating his skin in the slickness of her blood. "But that only made her angrier and then she came at me. I turned away and felt the claws - scraping through my skin. Can't tell how deep they are"

God, she's still bleeding, the hot rush of her blood streaming from her back onto her sides. He can feel it dripping onto him, penetrating his shirt, can smell it in the confined space, and it's almost too much, too similar and he can't lose her again, he can't-

"Castle, I'm here," she whispers, her voice still strained with torturous agony, but tinted with understanding. "We'll be okay. The boys will find us in time."

"And if they don't?" he gets out, feeling the pained exhale of her breath against his neck.

Her rigid body relaxes just a fraction above him, melting into him, and he curls his arm low at her waist.

"Then I'm glad it ends with you."