Beckett Behind Bars

CHAPTER NINE

All standard disclaimers apply

Castle painfully pulled himself along enough to peek around the boulder he was behind. He watched as he saw Serge staring down at the mangled wreckage that once was his very expensive sports car.

Serge only watched for a few minutes, then he pulled back, and seconds later Rick heard the Range Rover speed off into the oncoming night.

For once Rick's bad habit of neglecting to fasten his seat belt had proved, against all crash statistics, to have saved his life.

When the Ferrari had hit those rocks that caused the car to flip over onto its topside, it also flipped Rick completely out of the car. He landed a good twenty feet away amongst some smaller boulders and shrub brush. So by the time that Serge was looking down checking the crashed vehicle, it had already hit bottom and Rick was several feet away.

Just because he was thrown out of his car, didn't mean he avoided being injured. He'd only avoided being dead. He had hit the rocky slope hard, and every move he made caused some part of his body to hurt.

He carefully rolled onto his back and began to assess his injuries. His left leg was badly bruised and scraped up, he hoped it wasn't broken. The right leg wasn't banged up quite as bad.

His right arm hadn't hit ground directly, so that was just bruised. He had landed on his left side, and his left arm was under him when he hit. He was sure the arm was broken in at least in one place if not two. While his right hand was almost completely unscathed. His left hand was a gruesomely mangled mess. Several bones had to be broken in the hand and some of the fingers were shredded. The optimist in him said he'd be lucky to regain even partial use of that hand again.

He wondered if Gina would allow broken, mangled hands as a legitimate excuse for being late with his next chapter.

Rick, moving very gingerly, reached his still workable right hand into his pants pocket. It took a couple of minutes to actually find the pants pocket since his trousers had been ripped up pretty bad also, but he was able to pull out the small flip phone he kept as a backup in case he ever had trouble with his iPhone. Considering he could feel multiple pieces in the shirt pocket that he kept that phone in, he was glad to have the backup.

The coming twilight was making it hard to see the poorly lit number pad on the small phone, but he was able to tap out the number he wanted.

It rang a couple of times. "Esposito."

"Hey Espo, buddy."

"Castle, what do you want? I'm kind of busy right now."

Rick shot a quick prayer into the ether. "I really hope you are with Lanie right now, because I'd really love to see both of you right away."

Castle could hear some unintelligible conversation away from the phone.

"You're lucky that Lanie likes you better than I do. Why are you bothering us?"

"It seems I've run into a bit of a problem. Some no-neck Russian thug just rammed the Ferrari and knocked me off the cliffside out on High Ridge Road."

"Jeezus Castle, you should be calling emergency services not me. Are you hurt?"

"Some bumps and bruises, but I can't draw any attention to myself yet. They think they eliminated me and I don't want anyone to know I've survived yet. How soon can you get out here?"

"Are you crazy, Castle? You probably need medical attention, and I doubt if I can get there before someone notices the wreck."

Castle frowned. "It's getting dark, and the car went all the way down to the ocean. Come on, I need you buddy. I want them to continue to think they killed me. Do it for Beckett."

"Beckett? Does this have something to do with her special assignment?"

Castle could hear Lanie's voice in the background. 'You never said it was something special'

"Just get here as soon as you can. I am bleeding you know."

He could hear Esposito swearing in Spanish. "Okay, we'll be there as soon as we can."

Castle smiled. "Thanks buddy."

"Oh don't thank me. If you die, Beckett will kill me."

The line went dead. Rick hoped that Espo and Lanie would be get to his crash scene before anyone accidently noticed it. And before he passed out.

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Kate was laying back in her bunk staring at the ceiling of their cell trying really hard to calm her mind enough to be able to fall asleep. She was actually a bit sore from putting up and tearing down lunch and dinner tables and chairs.

She found the couple hours of physical labor both a little taxing, and a somewhat satisfying. She actually did something besides wandering around the prison, and sitting on her but, or laying on her bunk.

Now that it was lights out, she was glad to be in her bunk, she felt like she could use a good night's sleep and her mind wouldn't let her get it.

Since she couldn't come up with a plan to circumvent Hellicson, she let her thoughts drift to Castle. It had only been two days, but she missed him something awful.

"Katherine Beckett," she whispered at the ceiling. "You've become a love struck sap."

And it was true. She had never loved someone who weren't her parents as much as she loved Rick. It was a humbling experience, and one that the proud Detective Kate Beckett had a hard time reconciling with the person she was just a few months ago.

Who would have thought that the self-aggrandizing, annoying skirt chasing, King of page 6 would turn out to be the man who captured her heart. She fought it for years, but she is able to admit to herself that Richard Castle was the love of her life, and the man she really felt was going to be her one and done.

Castle would joke that he planned to be her 'fun' and done. He was probably right. No one has ever been able to bring out more real emotions in her than Rick, he broke down her walls, and when he told her 'always' she believed it with all her heart.

Thinking of Castle had calmed her frenetic thoughts and allowed her mind to focus on something that she knew she could always count on. And surprisingly, she was able to fall asleep… with a smile on her face.

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Rick was laying on Lanie's couch. Esposito was looking down on him and shaking his head.

"Bro, you really need to go to the hospital."

"Can't, yet. Need to find out why Kristoff felt threatened by me. I need time to replay in my mind what he told me that worried him."

Lanie knelt down next to him with a wet rag and was wiping the blood from all his scratches and torn skin. "Honey, you really need a doctor to see to your broken arm, and that hand. You could incur permanent damage if they are not taken proper care of."

He smiled. "I've got the best doctor I could ask for."

She wanted to slap him but she didn't dare. "Honey, I'd rather not have you on my table because you expired from your injuries while laying on my couch."

"I'll get you a new one." He smiled at her again, revealing an open space where one of his front teeth was no longer smiling with the rest.

"Castle, if you die in my apartment, Kate will kill me."

Esposito shifted a glare in Castle's direction. "Speaking of Beckett, why do I think that your little excursion to see the guy who everyone thinks is the king of the Russian Gangs has more to do with whatever Beckett is doing, than with our murder victim Dimitri Chekov?"

Rick fought to stay awake. "Because you're a lot smarter than you look Espo."

"Damn right I… wait a minute."

Lanie was biting her lip to keep from laughing. Then she swatted Javier on the arm. "Come on smart guy. If I can't get him to the hospital I'm going to need your help getting his arm and those fingers on his left hand splinted before they begin to heal crooked."

It was a time of pure hell for Castle. He bit through his lip a couple of times during the time that Lanie, with Javier's help, spent getting his arm and broken, mangled fingers immobilized. Castle finally allowed himself to try and get some sleep, after gaining a promise from his friends that they wouldn't report his survival to the authorities. He didn't want it getting out that he was alive yet. He wanted Anitovich to believe he was out of the picture so there would be no possible blowback at Kate. Though Castle really hadn't felt that Anitovich was even aware that Beckett was in play.

Castle still wasn't sure what Kristoff might have said to him during their talk that he was now uncomfortable having said, but he'd let him continue to think he was safe from it for the time being.

He dozed off while still trying to figure out what the Russian let slip.

Lanie and Espo let Castle sleep since they couldn't convince him to go to the hospital. It was obvious that he was in a lot of pain just from the grimaces on his face while he was sound asleep.

Lanie grabbed Javier's sleeve and pulled him away from her unplanned patient.

"Javi, what's going on? How can Castle's accident be tied to Kate's special assignment? And what the hell is Kate's special assignment?"

Javier directed her to the kitchen so as not to disturb Castle, who needed all the rest he could get.

They both sat at her small kitchen table. He grabbed her hand. "I don't really know much, and I wasn't supposed to know anything." He shrugged. "Neither Kev nor I were supposed to be privy to anything. If it wasn't for Castle we wouldn't have. I'm pretty sure Castle wasn't supposed to know anything about it either but he does. It's my guess it's because Castle and Kate are more than partners now."

Lanie laughed. "Of course they are. What, are you blind? Anyone with eyes can tell those two are in love."

Javier frowned at Lanie. "Did Kate tell you that?"

Lanie shook her head. "She didn't have to. I know my girl better than she even thinks, and I knew they had 'gotten' together before I wormed it out of her."

Espo looked hurt. "So how come she didn't tell her team? Neither Kevin nor I knew about it. She never said a word."

Lanie rolled her eyes. "Simple, you simpleton. She doesn't want to risk Gates finding out and using regulations about fraternizing to toss Castle out."

Espo affected a hurt look. "I'd never tell Gates."

"No, but you'd find a way to tell everyone else." He doubled his look. "Oh come on, Javi, your worse than a nosey neighbor when it comes to gossip."

"That's not true."

"No more stalling. Tell me how this is tied to Kate's assignment, and what you know about it. Or I'm gonna smack you."

Javi nodded. "Well, when we got back from the crime scene, we didn't really have much to work on other than the kid was a Russian punk. Castle wandered away for a few minutes right after we got back. Apparently he went and called Lt. Walters over at the 29th."

"Why would he do that?"

Esposito's frown grew deeper. "Walters' is in charge of the Gangs Task Force. And Walters confirmed that our victim, Chekov was muscle for Kristoff Anitovich."

Lanie looked worried. "Even I have heard of him."

Javi nodded. "Yeah, he's a bad dude."

"Okay, I can see why Castle would call Walters' about Anitovich because of the gang connection, but how would Castle even know that? And why would he have his number?"

"That's what we were arguing with him about when Gates came back from 1PP and dragged us all into her office."

"Oh, oh."

"Yeah." Esposito grimaced. "She told me and Kev to just sit down and shut up, then she proceeded to read Castle the riot act for talking with us about stuff we were not to know about."

"So what'd she do to Castle?"

"She just yelled at him, but Castle just told Gates that he was worried and because of the possible gang connection he wanted to check with Walters to see if Chekov's death could have any connection to what Kate was doing, and if it might put her in extra danger."

Lanie gripped his wrist tightly. "Well would it?"

Javier shrugged again. "He said that Walters didn't think so."

Lanie pursed her lips. "But he more or less admitted that Kate was doing something related to either Anitovich or Russian gangs… or both."

Lanie looked over toward the couch. "I'll bet Gates pitched a fit, and tossed Castle out on his ear."

"That's the strange thing." Javier grabbed her hand. "Yeah, she yelled at Castle for blabbing about stuff he shouldn't. But I got the impression that Gates already knew that he knew. She acted like it was expected."

"Why do you think that?"

"Call me crazy, but I think Gates knows that Castle and Beckett are together outside the precinct."

Lanie started to laugh. Esposito glared at her. "What's so funny about that?"

She had to take a couple moments to regain control of herself.

She reached out and patted him on the cheek. "Oh Javi, I think you and Kevin are the only two left in the precinct who don't know that." Lanie giggled. "They're not the most circumspect when they are together. But at least they aren't being so obvious that Gates can't pretend to ignore it."

Javier nods, mostly to himself. "So do you think it could last if they give it a chance?"

Lanie allowed herself a hopeful smile. "I'd bet he puts a ring on her finger before the end of the year."

Espo turns and looks at his friend whose blood was all over his girlfriend's couch. "If they live that long."

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Kate had slept surprisingly well considering all that kept going through her mind as to what she and Valeria were going to do. Kate had the information she needed. At least the when. She hadn't gotten the name of the ship from Val yet, but Kate was confident that she would once they got out of there.

If Kate was able to convince Val that Kristoff really was the piece of scum she knew him to be, she was sure she could get her out of Belmont with her. And it would be in her best interest to cooperate with authorities.

After showering and eating a typically modest breakfast, Kate turned to Val for direction. She was still Val's henchwoman as long as they were in here, even if they weren't able to sell any product for a while yet. The lack of availability of product might make a few customers a bit cranky. Kate might find herself pushed into a situation where she'd have to protect Val from disgruntled junkies.

"So, without anything to deliver, and we aren't on dining room conversion, what do you want to do?" Kate asked of her roommate.

Val looked up at Kate, who was standing next to her bed. "If I were you, I'd make an appointment with the barber to get that hair shaved over your little kitty kat."

Kate frowned at her while she subconsciously rubbed her finger along the left side of her head. "You can't even feel any stubble beginning to come up yet."

Val laughed. "That may be true now, but as busy as Laverne can get, you don't know how long it will take to get scheduled."

Kate leaned back against the bed post. "So, you just want to wander around for a while?"

Val shook her blonde mane as she forced herself out of bed. "I didn't sleep all that well last night. I kept having dreams that I couldn't really understand, but they just gave me a feeling of dread."

"That's not good."

"I think I'll go down to the library and take a nap. I'll read from a boring book and that will put me to sleep."

Kate nodded and reached up a grabbed her Storm Fall book. "Okay, I'll bring my book and read for a while."

Val waved her off. "You don't have to do that. There will be a guard in the room, so no one will come over and hassle me about product. You can wander around, make an appointment with Laverne, whatever you want to do. Just wake me up when free time is over so we can get back to our cells before lunch."

Kate gave Val a strange look as it finally got through. "Her name is Laverne?"

Val laughed. "Yeah, I heard her mother was a fan of an old sitcom."

The two of them walked out of their cells, onto the walkway to the stairs down to the first level.

They both entered the library. Val walked over to the nearest shelf and grabbed the most boring looking book she saw. It was a book on flower arranging. Kate just smirked. The prison needed to expand the vocational self-help content of some of their books.

Kate raised her brow as Val flipped the book open to a random page. "I'll be back before we have to get back to our cells." Kate held up her own book. "I'll probably be back reading this if you wake up."

Val just waved her hand as Kate walked away. Kate nodded at the guard who was sitting on a single chair near the doorway. She just gave Kate a mild scowl.

Kate moved quickly down the hall toward where 'Laverne' had her haircutting chair. Kate could already see a line of women waiting their turns. She moved near the chair and stood waiting to be noticed.

Laverne looked at her with a frown on her face. "What? The line's over there."

Kate shook her head. "I just want to make an appointment."

Laverne nodded toward an open book on a small table. "The appointment book's over there."

Kate walked over and next to the open appointment book was a placard that had Laverne's pricing on it. Simple haircuts/trims were $50. Others were $75. Her appointments were 20 minutes and she only did haircuts during the morning and afternoon free times, which made sense. And she didn't work weekends.

Kate noticed that the first opening was Friday of next week, so she signed up for it. She didn't think her fuzz will have grown out much by then, but might as well sign up even if she wasn't around by then. If only for appearances sake. She really hoped that she would be out by then, the ship with Anitovich's drugs was due in the day before.

Kate wandered around a bit. She wandered into the little convenience store, noted there weren't any other Castle books available, nor any other author that struck her fancy. She settled on buying a candy bar for four dollars.

On a whim she went over and checked the amount she had on her card. She knew she had well over a hundred when she was originally processed, but with the prices they charged for things she'd better get in the habit of keeping track of her spending.

Her card almost fell from her hands when she stared at the amount she was seeing. She had over a thousand dollars in her account. She had to step away quickly before she started crying. She didn't know how he knew, but she was sure as she was standing there, that Castle had arranged the influx of money into her account.

God she loved that man.

She munched on her candy bar as she walked back over to the library. She took her time, not wanting to get back there too quickly. Sure, she had her book to read, but she had already read Storm Fall a dozen times at least so it wasn't like she was eager to get back to it.

She did a little inmate watching as she ambled along. The gym was currently being used for a game with a rubber ball being kicked around. It was kind of a combination of hockey and soccer. There were two flimsy hockey style nets set about thirty feet apart from each other. Each team consisted of a goalie who roamed closely in front of the goal, and four individuals who would through skill and team work, try to kick the ball into the other team's goal. The first to five goals won the game.

On the other end of the Gym there were several women shooting basketballs into hoops along one wall. And over in a far corner, were some weight lifting apparatus. These were the kind that were part of a machine, or something mounted on the wall. Kate didn't see any free weights around. Too easy to use as a weapon.

She decided to check the outdoor area, so she veered away from her path toward the library.

Kate, once she stepped out the door, was greeting with the same scenery that she'd encountered the other two times she'd been out in 'the yard'.

She took a deep breath of the fresh air and began to just walk around the grounds. The thought that she could do some jogging around here flashed through her mind. She quickly dispensed with the idea. She wasn't going to be here that long. Not long enough to establish habits like jogging. She wasn't.

As her long legs ate up the distances around the grounds she noted the glares she was getting as she passed near any group of women. It was already getting known that she was Valeria's 'henchwoman' and her little scuffles with Marsha had probably gotten around.

Whenever she passed by someone who gave her a nasty look she gave them back a wide grin with bared teeth.

Before she'd done a full lap she found herself by the bench she and Val had used the last two days. She sat for a few minutes. She was appalled by how out of breath she was. She'd only been here three days and she was already out of shape.

She decided to go back inside and do a little reading before they had to go back to their cells.

As she approached the entrance back into the building she approached one of the guards who wandered the grounds during the free time. She was a younger gal, probably fairly new to the job. She made eye contact with Kate and smiled.

Kate saw no harm in it so she smiled back.

She pointed to the book under Kate's arm. "I see you are a reader? A good book?"

Kate stopped next to her. "Yes, it's an old favorite of mine." Kate showed her the cover of the book.

The guard nodded. "Yes, it's one of mine also. I have all his books."

Kate allowed herself a slight smile. "As did I."

The young guard's face suddenly fell and the woman shook her head slowly.

"Yeah, it really was a shame what happened isn't it." The guard bit her bottom lip.

Kate gave her a confused look, and the guard's expression changed to one of sudden comprehension. "Oh that's right. You don't hear the news reports unless the administration thinks you should know."

Kate frowned. "What news report?"

The guard shook her head. "It's a real shame. His Ferrari sports car was found at the bottom of the cliffs at High Ridge Road. Apparently he lost control and went off the road. The car was found smashed on the rocks, partially under water and partially out."

Kate felt a painful icy stab plunge into her heart. She had to fight to control her breathing and her shaking legs which wanted to just fold up and let her fall to the ground.

"Did the news report mentions any injuries?"

"They didn't find a body. The authorities thought that from the severity of the damage the most likely outcome would have been he was either dead or unconscious after the car hit the rocks and slid into the water. His body probably floated out with the tides." The guard shook her head, then looked at Kate. "Hey, are you alright?"

Kate just ran away from the guard and found a nearby tree to stand behind. She leaned her back against the trunk of the tree then let herself just slide down the trunk till she hit ground. Her body shook like she was having an attack of palsy as tears flowed from her eyes like from a busted pipe.

No! She wouldn't' believe it. Rick wouldn't go out and get himself killed… without her. She wouldn't believe it, she couldn't believe it.

She clenched her fists so tight she sprained a couple of fingers. She bent her head, but it didn't allow her to hide her pain and suffering. Her hair wasn't long enough.

It took a great effort to pull back her tears and slowly regain her breath. She would not… she would not assume him dead. There was no body, so she could believe he was still alive. She would not believe he was dead.

She would hold on to hope until someone showed her Richard Castle's dead body.

Until that time, Rick was merely missing.

After a couple of attempts she was finally able to stand on her feet again. She wiped her eyes as best she could with the hand that wasn't holding her copy of Storm Fall.

She quickly moved past everyone and stumbled her way into the building. She leaned against the hallway wall as she staggered forward. She had just turned the corner and moved toward the library when there was a disturbance. A crackling noise came over speakers that Kate had forgotten were even there.

She looked up and saw the telltale metal circle with holes that hid the implanted speakers. Some more crackling noises came out before a brief silence.

"Attention to all inmates and employees of Belmont Women's Prison. This is Lieutenant Hellicson with an important message for everyone. As of 7 a.m. this morning. Margret Winslow has officially retired from her position of Warden of this facility. She has decided to retire while she still has the health and ability to enjoy her retirement."

There was a pause while all the gasps and murmurs were allowed to die down.

Kate's eye grew big. This was bad. This was very bad. If Warden Winslow hadn't given someone she trusted the information about Kate what would she do? Will this information get back to Walters so he can pull whatever strings he needs to get Kate, and Valeria, out of here?

The speaker crackled, then Hellicson's voice was heard again. "Just so everyone knows, there will be no break in the chain of command. I will be absorbing the job of warden until further notice. Over the recent past I've taken on more and more of the warden's duties as she has prepared herself for this retirement. I have no doubt that I'll be able to continue the running of this facility in the same efficient manner I have so far, and I fully expect to be named the warden of this exemplary prison by the State Board of Prisons before long. I appreciate everyone's understanding and full cooperation with this transition. That is all."

Kate slid down the wall to the Library and stared out into space, her eyes registering absolutely nothing. She didn't even feel the arms of a confused Valeria wrap around her shoulders as her cell mate sat down next to her.

A/N: And the fun just keeps on coming!

All Readers are Appreciated, Review if you wish.