Actions Have Consequences or Rewards.

by Castlefan6

Authors Note: This is Totally AU; Beckett has found a new love, Castle is hiding a deadly secret, Takes place after the punch to the stomach in Headhunters.

Taking Literary License to fill in the blanks.

I don't own Castle; I use the characters for amusement purposes only, except the ones I create.

Also, we take liberties with the timeline from Canon and use events to make this a more believable fiction, thanks.

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Chapter 1

12th Precinct,

Conference Room

Rick had screwed up, big time, he would be the first to admit it. Riding along with the fanatical Slaughter wasn't the absolute dumbest thing he had ever done in his life, but it was close. Now he had to beg his partner, yeah, if she would still admit he was, for a huge favor. Slaughter had crossed the line, and he couldn't sit by and watch anyone innocent be sent to prison, not if he could help it.

He approached the conference room where Kate had been busy for the last 5 weeks preparing for the Boylan Square Bombing trial about to get underway, she was the star witness for the prosecution, and she wanted to be prepared like Beckett always was. He saw her moving some folders into her briefcase and walked in quietly.

Dialogue Courtesy of Sub like script dot com since Dust Jackets Dot Com remains down.

"Hey, how's it going?" He asked softly,

"You can skip the small talk, Castle. What do you want?" she replied without even looking up to see his face,

"Slaughter went too far," Rick replied,

"Well, isn't that what he does? Along with "kicking ass and taking names"?" once again she continued to put the folders away into her case.

"He pressured a kid into making a false statement so he could arrest Vales," Rick said with urgency in his voice,

"So you came to me so I can fix it?" She finally looked up, the look on her face and her tone was of disgust,

"You have every right to be mad. You warned me about Slaughter and I wouldn't listen, I'm just trying to make this right." Rick said with a pleading tone,

"It's not my case, Castle. Even if I wanted to help, we've got strict rules about interfering in another cop's investigation." Beckett said as she returned to sorting folders,

"I'm not asking you to do it for me. I'm asking you to do it so the real killer doesn't get away with murder." Rick continued to beg

"What makes you think I'm actually gonna fall for that blatant manipulation?" She looked up, even more, disdain and anger in her voice and on her voice

"Because it's true." He was pleading, when she handed him a folder, without saying a word,

"What's this?" he asked as he opened the folder to reveal pictures of a car, and time-stamped,

"A traffic cam shot of Vales' car 10 blocks from the cemetery, heading away from the overpass
where Glitch was killed." She said nonchalantly, still refusing to even look at him,

"11:57? Glitch was killed after midnight. This shows that Vales couldn't have killed him." A look of shock came over his face, he swallowed hard, then said, "You did this for me? All this time you had my back?"

"I had Ryan run a traffic cam search while he was pulling a plate? It's not a smoking gun, Castle. Okay? You can't even see Vales' face in that photo. It's not enough to change Slaughter's mind unless you've got something else." She said,

They discussed the logistics of the crime scene, the more he talked the more Beckett believed Slaughter was just trying to railroad a kid with a checkered past into confessing so he could mark the case solved. God how she hated those kinds of cops. She went out on a limb and took Castle back to the crime scene where Slaughter approached with threats of reporting her for jumping his case.

They returned to the precinct, after discovering who the real killer was, Glitch's own father, and released the suspect Slaughter had arrested, now with his attorney. As Beckett gave a word of warning to a smug gang leader, Slaughter had a message for Rick, as he checked out Beckett's ass walking to and standing talking to the two men.

"That is sexy." Slaughter slurred, in a sleazy tone,

"What?" Rick asked completely relieved to be out of this maniac's clutches,

All of a sudden from out of nowhere comes a solid, very hard punch to his liver area, knocking the wind completely out of him, almost sending him to his knees, Kate saw the punch just as she started back towards them

"That's for not having my back. And if I ever see a character in one of your novels like me,
we're gonna have words." Slaughter slurred as he once again gave Kate the eye, and snaked his way out of the precinct.

"Thanks for having my back, Kate," Rick gasped out sucking in as much air as he could,

"No problem, Castle, it's what REAL partners do," she said, "now if you'll excuse me, I have an appointment" as she gathered the folders, and her attaché case, and walked out the door"

She wasn't lying, she did have a meeting, actually a date with Paul Gonzales, the Assistant District Attorney who was prosecuting the Boylan Plazza case, the one that Kate was serving as the chief prosecution expert of how the crime was solved, including the face-to-face confession.

Rick looked around to see Ryan and Esposito walking in the doors, so he thought he would try to mend some fences. Things had been icy, hell downright frigid between him and all of the 12th precinct since the Boylan Plazza case was solved. Once he had provided the leads and broke the case he had no time for any of them, especially Kate Beckett.

FLASHBACK TO TWO DAYS AFTER BOYLAN WAS SOLVED

Rick had stopped by the 12th precinct unannounced after a long day of meetings with Gina and Black Pawn, to find the bullpen almost empty, except for Beckett, and a man in a suit standing very close to her. He recognized him as the ADA, Paul Gonzales assigned to prosecute the case, nothing unusual with Beckett working with him, until he saw the kiss. It was brief, but still a kiss, and it was definitely a mutual effort, Kate had kissed him as much as he had her.

He had hoped to answer the question she had asked after the bombing case was closed, what he had wanted to talk about. It wasn't nothing, and it certainly wasn't unimportant. He knew that Kate had gone out with the ADA a few times for lunches in the past, she had always claimed it was strictly business. Surprise, that was another lie, maybe it was for the best he hadn't opened his heart to her. She was obviously with someone, and he never went after women who were taken.

He slipped out of the precinct without either noticing him and decided, it was time to work his real job. Beckett had made it clear; he wasn't in the running for her one and done, how many times did he have to face the same humiliation.

Gates had assigned the boys to work for Roz until the case was concluded allowing Kate to have all the time she needed to prepare for the case, or anything else. He thought, what a fool, once again, how many times Rick, how many times does she have to tell you by her actions I'm just not into you. Go pursue someone else.

XxX

Crime Scene,

Same Time Frame

"Hey, Javi!"

Detective Javier Esposito turned to greet his partner, Kevin Ryan, who was picking his way carefully around the debris of the construction site. Ryan made his way to where the other detective was kneeling beside the body. The victim's clothes were that of a young man, but even at a glance, it was clear that there would be issues with identification.

Ryan stopped short as he caught sight of the gruesome scene laid out before him.

"Jesus!" he exclaimed before he could stop himself. Making the sign of the cross as any good Catholic boy had been taught to do.

Esposito got to his feet, nodding as he did so. "I know, bro."

There was a long pause as they surveyed the body in silence. The man's face had been smashed, beyond the point of recognition, perhaps with a piece of rubble lying everywhere on the site.

Adding to the gruesome sight of any dead body was the fact that all of his fingertips had been removed, crudely, perhaps with a commercial box-cutter, Lanie the ME assigned had determined. "Oh my God," she exclaimed as she opened his mouth to reveal all of his teeth had also been removed.

"Whoever this person is, somebody sure doesn't want him to be identified," Lanie's voice cut into the partners' musings. She gave a sigh,

"I'll get him back to the lab and we'll see what we can do, but unless his DNA is in the system it's going to be a struggle to give you guys anything to go on. I'll do my best, though." Lanie said with a hint of disgust at how one human could treat another like this.

"Thanks, Lanie," Ryan said with a grateful smile

"Can I take him now or are you guys still processing the scene?" She asked as her crew awaited her orders,

"We were gonna wait for Beckett but I haven't been able to get through," Esposito responded, "She's not answering at home and I've tried her on her cell a couple of times."

"What about Castle? Have you tried him?" She asked.

Esposito shrugged. "Beckett usually calls him."

"Call him, maybe he'll know where she is," she gave another glance at the body, "And it might be an idea to call him in any way. This certainly qualifies for what you call Beckett Flavored crimes, it might be just the kind of case that you guys could use one of his crazy ideas on."

Esposito nodded. "I'll try Castle, Ryan you try to get through to Beckett this time. Hold off on removing our victim for a bit OK Lanie? Beckett won't like it if she doesn't get to see the crime scene."

Lanie nodded. "OK, but we're gonna have to make a move soon. There's rain in the forecast and if we don't move him soon, we could be looking at something worse than a pissed-off Kate Beckett. Gates will shit if we have to tell her that we have compromised evidence because we waited on one detective." She said as the boys nodded,

XxX

Castle's Loft

After Leaving The Precinct

Castle's fingers groped for the glass on his study desk and he raised it to his lips just as his cell began to ring. He hesitated only for a second and then instinct kicked in. He grabbed his cell and checked the caller ID to see the name, Esposito. That was strange, Beckett usually called him about cases, not Javi or Kevin.

"Castle," his greeting had none of the humor that he usually answered calls with, he reached again for his glass of scotch.

"Hey, Castle," the detective at the other end of the line responded, "Have you seen Beckett today?"

The author had been in the process of taking a mouthful of the amber liquid, AKA pain reliever, and the question her biggest defender had just asked threw him off balance.

Esposito heard spluttering and coughing.

"Are you ok, man?" Espo asked,

Rick coughed again, harder, cleared his throat, took a deep breath to get his voice back. "Fine. I'm fine. Sorry, I was just taking a drink, it went down the wrong way," he explained somewhat unnecessarily.

"So, have you seen Beckett today?" Espo pressed again,

"Me? No, no," Castle was guiltily stumbling over his words, "I haven't seen anyone today. I've been home writing all day. Actually, I'm writing now, why do you want to know? Anything wrong?"

As he waited for Espo's reply he resisted the urge to start banging his head against his desk. He'd always been a terrible liar, that was Beckett's specialty. Why was Esposito calling him? He was almost positive he had escaped the precinct unnoticed by anyone three hours before. Had he been seen at the precinct? Had Kate seen him leaving the bullpen? Was she wondering why he had bolted out of there without speaking to her?

Esposito gave him his answer with his next comment, "We have a case. I've tried her at home and she hasn't answered. And she's not answering her cell either. Ryan and I thought you might have seen her; this one is definitely Beckett flavored and we could really use your help on this case."

Javi listened, nothing, just silence, he started to call out, then Rick responded by clearing his voice,

Javi took that and his silence and lack of response for acceptance: "The address is the construction site downtown at thirty-first and "

Castle cut him off. "Sorry, Espo, I'm writing tonight. I'm sort of on a roll and I've got a deadline coming up so you guys will have to go without me, I'm not gonna make it tonight."

There was something a little funny about his tone, Javi looked at his phone, and frowned,

"Sure, Castle, maybe we'll see you tomorrow." He said,

Rick said something, but Javi couldn't make it out, he thought he said "about that, we'll see," but he was mumbling,

"Javi, if you get in touch with Beckett, tell her to give me a call, if you would please?" Rick replied,

If he needed proof there it was, Rick thought. She's with him, the only reason for her not to answer repeated calls about a crime. No one had to spell it out or what THEY were doing, instead of reporting to crime scenes when called.

"Of course." He said, then heard the line go dead, Castle had hung up. Something was definitely wrong between Mom and Dad. Kevin and he thought they had worked things out after the Slaughter debacle, Beckett was pretty pissed, but seemed to be getting over it,

They finished up and Lanie's crew got the body loaded and the crime scene released just before the first clap of thunder. The rain was pouring down by the time he and Kev reached their cars, the rubble of the site making it treacherous to try to move too quickly. Both were soaking wet, and still no reply from Beckett, so they headed back to the precinct to change into a dry set of clothes they kept, all cops learn to do that, it only takes one experience to seal the lesson in their memories.

Meanwhile back at Castle's loft, he didn't need any more proof. The facts spoke for themself,

Detective Kate Beckett was uncharacteristically failing to answer her home phone.

Kate Beckett wasn't picking up her cell.

Kate Beckett was unavailable.

Kate was with him.

He was scarcely aware of his body rising up out of his chair, of his fingers curling around the now empty glass, of his arm swinging away from his body, or of the glass sailing through the air.

But when the glass crashed into the thick wooden door of his office and shattered, he heard it.

And he felt it, it hurt like hell, worse than his stomach, his heart now hurt as well, nothing he hadn't felt a few times before he finally settled himself down, as he poured a fresh glass, he was in pain.

XxX

In another apartment on the other side of town, Detective Kate Beckett was being pinned against a wall by ADA, Paul Gonzales, her co-worker turned lover once Castle started hanging out with the maniac from Gangs Unit. She didn't seek it out, it just happened one night when they worked late and wound up in his apartment.

"You taste incredible," he mumbled into her mouth.

She smiled in response, "You're only saying that because we skipped dinner."

It was true. Paul had made a reservation and everything but when he had shown up at the precinct to pick her up, they'd made a mutual decision to go straight for dessert back at his place. As soon as they'd entered, his apartment, they'd pretty much jumped each other, allowing hormones to take charge. There had been a flurry of kisses and rapid movements of hands trying to get rid of clothes that were in the way.

When she was down to her bra, with her attention focused on making short work of the buttons of his shirt, he had used the opportunity to pin her against the wall with her hands above her head.

Kate Beckett was one tough cop and if she had wanted to get him off her, she would have but she was enjoying the feel of his lips sliding down her neck and making their way towards her breasts even as his free hand fumbled at the zipper of her pants.

They'd been sleeping together for a few weeks now and he always managed to surprise her in the bedroom, proving to be a far better lover than Will or Josh, the last two steady men she had slept with.

They had met at his office a month before when she had briefed the team on the evidence they had gathered. The attraction between them had been instantaneous and uncomplicated. Paul Gonzales was a nice guy, a fun guy but Kate Beckett was under no illusions, he was not the type of guy she was going to fall for. She had needs, he had needs, both were unattached, and he was attractive, why not?

She gasped as his fingers finally found their way into her pants and were brushing insistently between her legs through her silken panties. When he did that, she could almost feel her body shake from within, it had been a long time since she had a good session with a man. Before Paul there had been a long gap in her sexual history, mostly self-medicated while reading page 105 of Castle's book.

Her hands broke free from where he had been holding him. One moved to hold him in place she arched into his touch, and the other began working his belt.

Just as she reached into his boxers her cell began to ring. It was the ringtone that she had set for all things work-related.

Paul sighed and pulled away, his eyes filled with amusement and frustration.

"I guess it was too much to hope that we might both be able to escape from work for a full night."

He started to pull his hand out from between her legs but her fingers curled around his wrist.

"You stop doing that and I'll shoot you," she sounded serious, as she bit his lower lip playfully,

He grinned and pushed her panties aside so that he could start working her clitoris without anything in the way.

She moaned into his mouth and then started to run her fingers slowly up and down his shaft to even the playing field. The groan and jerk of his hips that this elicited were gratifying.

Her cell rang again, this time with Ryan's ring tone.

"Could be important," he mumbled between kisses, "You should probably pick up." He didn't sound very convinced, however, and he certainly hadn't attempted to stop what they were doing.

Kate wrestled with her conscience, then her longing for a good love-making session, for just a moment, and then she shook her head. "Quickie first, then I'll call them back."

Paul grinned as he allowed himself to be dragged towards his bedroom, "Yes, ma'am."

The 'quickie' was a hell of a lot better than her battery-operated friend in her drawer, there was only so much sexual frustration any woman could take, she reasoned with herself as she drove rapidly towards the crime scene, hoping not to throw up too big of an internal "I Just Got Laid" sign to her co-workers.

XxX

Crime Scene,

Same Time

It was only forty minutes later when Beckett got to the precinct, after checking with the remaining uniforms at the crime scene. That was an eternity of time for the always prompt, by the book detective. Ryan and Esposito both knew something was up, and based on the conversation Espo just had with Castle, they knew it wasn't with him.

Something had changed with her that no matter how hard she attempted to disguise, it was useless. Even if her hair, slightly more messed up than usual, and slightly rosy cheeks hadn't been a dead giveaway to her colleagues, the happy walk and sway of her hips told Lanie exactly what had delayed her friend. The spring in her step and the secret smile that was impossible to hide completely proclaimed exactly what she had been up to that evening.

"Esposito. Ryan," she greeted them enthusiastically, "Sorry I'm late, I had some personal business I had to take care of."

"You didn't bring Castle with you?" Ryan inquired innocently, both detectives carefully watching her reaction.

At the mention of his name, she felt a little emotional pang, pull at her heart. She suddenly realized that she hadn't thought of him at all when she had been Paul. Her cheeks blushed with embarrassment slightly at the realization, something that didn't go unnoticed by the other two cops, and she felt angry at herself for the guilt that suddenly came over her.

"I haven't seen Castle all day," she said shortly, her mood suddenly growing darker than when she arrived. "Isn't he here?" She asked, "Did anyone call him?"

"I called him Kate, he didn't sound good, something is wrong. When I started to give him the address, he cut me off and said He said he was writing tonight," Esposito replied, watching her closely.

She silently breathed a sigh of relief, thinking thank heaven for that, at least she wouldn't have to face him, wearing the smell of another man on her body, as she had told him earlier, lose the just got laid look, now she wouldn't have to worry about him knowing.

"Fine, he can catch up tomorrow," she said and then abruptly moved the conversation away from the mystery writer with a jerk of her head in the direction of the corpse, already loaded in the ME's vehicle. "What have we got?" She asked staring both Ryan and Espo down, daring them to ask any personal questions.

"The last thing he said, was if I saw you to ask you to call him, I think he had been drinking Kate, he wasn't drunk but he wasn't the old Castle" Javi dared offer,

Kate just glared at him, and repeated, "What do we have?" again.

END OF FLASHBACK

Next Day, After Slaughter's Punch

Castle's Loft

6:00 AM

He didn't go to the precinct the next day, his stomach was hurting him where Slaughter had used it for his punching bag two days before. He thought it would be better by now, ice, heat, pain relievers, it seemed nothing seemed to work this time.

He did owe Gina three chapters, but that wasn't the reason he stayed home. Between the pain, physical and emotional he thought it best to be alone. Martha and Alexis both were gone for the next three weeks, so he could drink as much as he wanted without anyone nagging.

The alternate pain relievers didn't seem to be working, so the alcohol would always numb the pain, both physical and emotional if he drank enough, it would make him forget, at least for a little while. He thought about her words to Bobby Lopez, how they had hurt. He thought it was the worst pain he would feel, he was wrong.

Seeing her kiss, the ADA, Paul Gonzales, hurt almost as bad as his stomach region where Slaughter had sucker-punched him. Not physically but emotionally, he knew they were in trouble the moment he heard her in interrogation with that petty thief, Lopez; "I remember every single minute". Five words that changed his life. He was only kidding himself and keeping alive a hope that would never come true, except in his imagination, it was alive only in HIS mind.

Something was wrong, he kept seeing double, and he was having trouble concentrating, he hadn't drunk enough to be this drunk. The pain was increasing from his lower back all-around to the complete lower stomach area, he felt queasy like he was going to throw up. He grabbed a wastebasket, when he hurled, to save the rugs, he had the forethought to remember he would have to clean them if he missed.

The last thing he remembered before he passed out, was throwing up in the wastebasket and feeling extremely warm. If he kept this up, he would have to call Gina or Dr. Williams. Right now, he just wanted to sleep, as he lowered his head into a dishpan, he managed to pull from under the sink, then darkness.

TBC