For the Dead Travel Fast
—-xxx—-
Kate had dreaded this call but she could no longer put it off.
She sat perched on the edge of the chair in the kitchenette space, using the burner phone despite the impossibility of hiding any longer, with Castle at her elbow to lend either moral support or perhaps a quick flight of fancy if she needed a better story. She had no intention to lie, but neither did she assume the NYPD wanted to hear vampire stories.
It was Esposito who took the call, answering in that clipped and annoyed tone, the bullpen phone at Homicide.
"Espo, it's me."
"Are you kidding—yo! Ryan." There was a furtiveness on Esposito's end; Castle lifted his eyebrows and mouthed are they tracing the call? and Kate couldn't be sure they weren't. "Captain." Espo's voice was low, guarded, and then Ryan's echoed. "Where are you guys? Are you together? Do you need back-up?"
For back-up to be even offered—she was sure she didn't deserve their wholehearted trust, but she was damn glad of it. "Espo, Ryan, we're both here—" She tilted towards Rick, holding the phone out from her ear a little.
Castle crashed his head into hers, muttered an ow, said hi with a little wave of his fingers as if they could be seen.
"We're at a rehab facility," she explained quickly. "On tribal land."
"Martha and Jim were in here earlier," Ryan said. "They told us."
"I'm sorry I couldn't call before now," she winced. "It's been... rough."
"Well you can answer some questions now," Ryan said easily. "Will being on tribal land help hide you?"
She glanced at Castle, went for something like the truth. "Yes. I really do think so."
"No jurisdiction," Espo said, as if to Ryan.
She was not sure that was valid. But let them think so.
"Yeah, um, in case you couldn't tell by what we left behind, we need to lay low."
"Speaking of—Who was that in Castle's loft?" Esposito hissed. His voice sounded like he was huddling over the phone. "Did you know his body was drained of all blood?"
"I... yes." She threw Castle a bewildered look but they had no explanation; no amount of brainstorming or writer's imagination could get past that obstacle. "I can't explain it." Because if she did— "But it was Caleb Brown, the lawyer, and he was there to clean up the mess of LokSat."
"I don't understand how he wasn't dead already," Ryan added. "I don't understand their conspiracy, if that's what it was, and why it would put him in the loft to shoot you, when he had a perfect cover to escape once Mason Wood was arrested."
"Castle had already begun to have doubts," she hesitated, sighed. "No, I don't understand it either."
"Castle?" Ryan asked.
"There were just tiny inconsistencies." Castle scrubbed a lanky hand through his hair; it seemed to have grown over his ears already. "Using the furnace in the CIA basement. I don't know. Honestly, my memory of LokSat stuff, after these past few days, it's not the best."
"You were shot," Esposito said, but they could all tell it wasn't a question. "There was massive blood loss. You don't know what the crime scene techs are telling us over here, about that amount of blood."
Castle looked at her. "I was shot. Kate was shot."
"And who took out Caleb?" Ryan asked, but again they knew he was just piecing together his own theory. "Center of mass, multiple bullet wounds. Beckett's service weapon."
"Yes, me," she said. "We traded gunfire after he shot Castle."
"I don't know how you two lived through that," Esposito said grimly. "And Caleb, bleached—"
"Lanie is saying he had a clotting disorder," Ryan put in. "But she's also saying by the amount of blood left on the floor of your kitchen, Castle should be dead."
"He should be dead," Kate husked. "Y-yes."
There was a hush.
Castle closed his hand around her knee in solidarity; she nearly slammed her elbow into the table, made off-balanced by the strength of his grip. Whoops he mouthed, eased up. She straightened and took a deep breath. "He's not completely out of the woods yet, but we're safe here, safe to recover. I need you guys at the precinct, I need you both to tie up this case, make it as neat as possible. Because we are not keeping it open. Do you understand?"
There was a hesitance on the other end.
"I'm going to call HR," she said quietly. "And settle getting the days I need, leave without pay, for discharging my weapon. I'll call my union rep after that—"
"Call your rep first," Espo said abruptly. "I think you need to call the rep first."
Kate swallowed. "Yes, okay." She could imagine the shit had hit the fan over at 1PP, considering she was a decorated captain, she had arrested a senator, there was a dead man in her husband's loft. "My union rep. Then HR."
"No, your rep will call HR," Esposito told her. "The union rep will handle that. And then HR will handle assigning us a temporary captain to run the Twelfth until you're back. We'll put out that you've been shot, Castle too, in your own home, that there's some worry about security—"
"There is every worry about security," she said. "That's not a lie." But security against deranged vampires. She wasn't half so concerned about whatever remained of LokSat.
"Is any of this a lie?" Ryan said.
Kate winced. "No, no, but I understand it doesn't make sense, that the evidence you have before you doesn't neatly slot together. When we get back, Castle and I will explain."
"Castle in this too, huh? More LokSat?"
"For once," she sighed, "no. It's not. That's over." And if LokSat wasn't over, right now it paled in comparison to what they were going through here. "You tie it up, guys, you understand? Everything has to look reasonably clean, no strings, no questions."
"Because you're done," Ryan insisted. "This time you are both done. You're finished, you have your answers, your closure."
Castle lifted his eyebrows at her, and she knew it was a dare.
Yes, they were vampires, and all the power that came with that was theirs. But.
"We're done," she said firmly. Castle's tension eased, he nodded.
"Then we can wrap this and put it to bed no problem," Ryan answered her.
"Call your rep," Espo reminded her. "We got your back."
These were the peacemakers she counted on.
—-xxx—-