As soon as he got home, he kicked off his shoes and sunk into the couch. He didn't even bother to turn on the lights as he came through the door. He would rather sit in the dark and wallow… his 'go to' method of self-pity.

He had been home alone, sitting in darkness for over an hour when Alexis walked through the door and flipped the switches he had purposefully neglected. The sudden brightness hit violently, and he groaned, shutting his eyes tightly.

"Sorry, Dad. I didn't see you there." She flipped back one of the switches, dimming the room slightly. "Better?"

"Yeah… sorry." He rose from the comfortable appeal of the couch, giving his daughter a kiss on the forehead as she walked over and embraced him.

"Are you feeling okay?" she asked, worried.

"Yeah… just a long day. No need to worry about me." He squeezed her tight, like he would do when she was younger. "I think I'm just going to go to bed… get some rest."

He pulled his wallet out of his back pocket, passing his daughter a credit card.

"Order in, if you're hungry. Mother will be home soon, I hope. She did mention a Thai craving the other day…" he suggested. He pulled her in for one last hug before going to bed. "Do your old man a favour… try to stay in for the rest of the night, yeah?" he whispered into the top of her head.

"Something I should know?" he had asked similar favours in the past, trying to protect her from a looming 'big bad', without actually being able to talk about the case.

"No," he reassured, as convincingly as he could muster. "It's most likely nothing… but I had such a good feeling about today – well, let's just say it's been less than ideal and… I'd just feel better knowing you were here." He placed a kiss atop her head and went to bed – not that he would manage to get any sleep.

It was nearing 2am and the three detectives were well past tired. Ryan stifled a yawn, hiding the signs of fatigues behind the sleeve of his jacket.

They had been piecing together the remnants of these files for hours now… and still had nothing more than a few individual words and a small string of numbers – certainly nothing to allude to what was so damning about these papers.

The trio had left the precinct earlier in the evening, opting for the comfort – and privacy – of Beckett's apartment, to continue sifting through the scraps.

Beckett tilted her phone, illuminating the screen.

"He'd probably answer if you called." Esposito said, fiddling with the scraps of paper in front of him.

"I was checking the time." She said, bitterly.

She rose from the table, heading to the kitchen and putting on a fresh pot of coffee.

"You guys can go, whenever you're ready. No sense in us all being sleep deprived." She said as she added a filter to the pot.

"I've already told Jenny that I'll be here for the night." Ryan explained.

"Yeah… we're not going anywhere, Beckett." Esposito firmed the boys' unspoken agreement that, until this guy had been caught, she was not to be left alone. She had explained the situation to them, as soon as she could manage the words without the tears.

"That's really not necessary, guys." She felt guilty, keeping them away from their loved ones, their beds… the comfort and safety of their own homes.

"It's what we do – we've got each other's backs." Esposito tried his best to eliminate her guilt, knowing it was a lost cause. He paused, briefly, not sure on how far he could push her right now… but he continued, "Castle, too."

Her eyes shot up from her fixation on the coffee pot, meeting his from across the room. "Don't…" she warned. But her warning fell on deaf ears.

"Or what? You'll kick me off the team, too?" he dared.

"He withheld evidence…" she tried to ignore the personal factors at play, stating only what truly mattered.

"He messed up… I'm not disagreeing with you there. But he's not a cop – he never took an oath for the greater good. He's just a person, trying to protect someone he loves." He defended his position.

His words hit hard, and she couldn't stand to hold his eyes. She bit on her lower lip, staring at the bench in front of her.

"I think Javi is just trying to say that he –" Ryan rethought his words. "We… wecan definitely understand why Castle's first instincts weren't that of a cop… he wasn't thinking about the case – he just wanted to do anything he could to protect you."

"Call him." Esposito pushed again.

Ryan and Beckett both shot him a glare.

"I'm just saying – this is the kind of crap writer boy would actually be helpful with." He tossed a few shreds of paper in the air, discouraged by their lack of progress.

"He does have a point." Ryan said, encouraging Beckett to take that leap. "You don't have to forgive him – that's not up to us. But you know he can help."

"It's two in the morning… I can't call him now." She tried to argue.

"You really think he's sleeping peacefully right now?" Esposito shot down her excuses. He placed a finger on the phone, right where she had left it, and slid it a few inches across the table.

She stared at it, internally debating whether she should call him. The boys had a point – Castle would have made double the progress they have managed. But she didn't want to see him right now – she couldn't. Even just picturing his face was enough to bring the angry heat back to her stomach. She took a deep breath, trying to calm her frenzied mind. With an irritated groan, she forced herself to move. She grabbed the phone from the table and headed for her bedroom.

Thirty minutes later, there was a knock on the door.

Beckett rose from her seat, to answer it, before being stopped by Esposito. Sitting back down, she turned to watch as he made his way to the door, hand resting on his gun holstered at his hip. He placed an eye to the peep hole in the door, before announcing "Just Castle."

Beckett rolled her eyes.

"I had every intention of looking through the peep hole." She was irritated – already growing tired of being coddled.

Esposito and Ryan shared an amused smile, and Esposito opened the door for Castle.

"What do you need me to do?" Castle asked as he entered the apartment. He noted the mounds of paper on Beckett's dining table. Usually, he would be daunted by the sight and do everything possible to avoid it – but he was eager to prove that he could be trusted on this case.

"I hope you like puzzles." Ryan stated as Castle took the seat at the end of the table – careful not to crowd Beckett too much. It was a miracle she had called him at all… he didn't want to push his luck. Not just yet, anyway.

From where he was seated, he could see her perfectly in his peripheral vision… and not once had she looked at him – not even a quick glance when she thought he wasn't looking. Realisation settled in – this hadn't been the olive branch he was hoping for. But he wasn't surprised… he knew she wouldn't forgive that easily. Not when it involved her mother's case.

They sat in silence, for what felt like an eternity – shifting through papers, sorting them into piles of the most likely matches. Judging from the different types of paper, there seemed to be a variety of documents in front of them – receipts, photographs… Esposito managed to put together a header for an old police file… Montgomery had definitely done his homework and provided them with what could have possibly been a guaranteed conviction. But they weren't ignorant to the fact that this could also be a dead end. Maybe Montgomery had talked a big game… and instead of actual evidence, they had been putting back together the pieces of a completely useless file of irrelevant papers. Surely not… but they proceeded cautiously – cautious not to put too much faith in the mess in front of them. Cautious not to be too hopeful.

Beckett glanced over to the piece of paper Castle had been assembling on the table. She was irritated – as expected, he had more than caught up to the progress she had made. She groaned, standing and stretching out her back. Another minute hunched over this table felt like it could actually kill her.

"You should try to get some sleep." Castle suggested, daring to be the first to point out just how tired she was.

She rolled her eyes, walking laps of the room. She just needed to stretch…

"I'll keep sorting through this. I'll wake you up the moment I find something."

"Will you?" She scoffed.

"I said I was sorry." He barked back.

"Did you? I must have missed that part." She finished her lap of the room and joined the group at the table. But she wasn't read to sit yet – her back already ached.

He took a moment to think back to the conversation… to go over everything he had said. And she was right – not once had he apologised for what he had done… for the secrets he had kept.

"I had no right… I'm sorry." He said – better late than never at all. He stood and took a few small steps toward his partner. "I really was just trying to keep you safe."

Ryan and Esposito kept rummaging through the paper, trying their best to not be a part of this – to not listen in. But there was only so much they could do when the only thing distancing them was the width of a small dining table.

"If you had just told me…" Beckett started, before being cut off by Castle.

"You would have dived in, headfirst and gotten yourself killed." He was trying to be patient with her – he understood that she was furious, he really did… but how could she be so blind to see his reasoning?

"You asked me to back off and I did. I didn't push you away, I didn't argue… I didn't start digging in secret… I gave you no reason to think you couldn't come to me with this, Castle. And yet you chose to keep me in the dark." Her upset was increasing with every word, and she could feel the tears forming behind her eyes. She swallowed hard, trying to decrease the size of the lump forming in her throat. "You make this huge deal about honesty… and yet you knew you were lying to me. You're a hypocrite."

"This is different, and you know it. I watched you die, Kate – I couldn't do that again." He was choking on his words, but he had to push through. "Smith could keep you alive… so yeah, I lied to you."

"Well, now Smith is gone, and we have nothing." Her words were soft, he thought he misheard.

"What?" his eyes stared into hers, wider than she had ever seen them.

It dawned on her that in her determination to avoid conversing with Castle, she hadn't updated him on the case at all. Ryan and Esposito obviously had the same realisation.

"The hospital called several hours ago…" Ryan started. Castle turned, already shaking his head, knowing what was coming. "Smith's heart gave out."

"Are – are they sure?" he didn't want to be negative, but he had to make sure this wasn't a case of someone coming back to 'finish the job'.

"Yeah, we had uni's posted outside his room the whole time. No one in or out without an escort." Esposito explained.

The look on Castle's face screamed exactly what they all already knew… with Smith out of the way, and the evidence seemingly destroyed… there was nothing stopping them – whoever they were – from coming after Beckett.

"No…" He shook his head, bringing his focus back to Beckett. Beckett could sympathise with Castle's denial… she too had been there, just a few short hours ago. "It was all for nothing?" he asked.

The look on his face was one she hoped she would never have to see again. He looked so sad… so lost and confused. So… defeated. He turned away, trying to hide the tears that were pooling – but she saw. The man standing in front of her was not one she easily recognised. In this moment, she wanted nothing more than to take him in her arms and reassure him that everything was going to work out – put all their anger aside.

Castle's reaction to Smith's death had cemented it for her – sooner or later, she would be hunted down, and she would be killed. The final loose end.

And despite how everything had played out – she loved Castle. And she owed it to him – and to herself – to not let him spend the rest of his, hopefully long and fulfilling life, thinking she held any ounce of hatred for him.

"Hey…" she whispered as she walked toward him, reaching out and gently touching his hand. When he turned to face her, she wrapped her arms around his shoulders, holding him as close as she could. He hung his head, resting it in the crook of her neck, and wrapped his arms around her waist. "Thank you for wanting to protect me."

He tightened his hold around her – if he had it his way, they would stand here forever, in the safety of each other's arms. He muttered into the side of her neck, "Always."