A/N: Sorry for the long wait, and I'm sorry for not knowing when the next chapter will be ready for publishing, and sorry for not knowing how long this fic will be. Hope you're all good though and thank you all for your patience. Until next time, xxxx
Being stuck at a desk the whole day did nothing but piss her off, turn her even more against the new captain. If this was how captain Gates was going to run the precinct Kate couldn't see herself liking the new captain any time soon. Also, she could both see and feel how torn the boys were by not being able to tell her everything, not being able to ask her about what their next move should be. They'd given her as much information as they could but it seemed like any time they were about to go anywhere near her captain Gates suddenly appeared and held an eye and most likely a pair of ears on them too.
Kate was of course not able to connect any of her old cases to the shooting, she couldn't think of anyone she'd put in jail that would come after her the way someone had. The only one she could think of was the one she had no idea who it was. The one that had destroyed her family. The one killing her captain. The dragon. But of course she couldn't exactly tell Gates that. They had no idea if she was in on it or not, there was no way of knowing. She only trusted her partners with this, and that's how it would stay until they could expose the dragon behind it all. It was the only way.
"Hey Beckett, you found anything yet?" Espo came over to her, speaking loud enough for their captain to hear and Kate wondered if there was something else he had on his mind.
"Not really, what's up?" The answer she kept in the same tone that he did but her own question she kept in a lower tone to keep it from their captain currently pretending she wasn't trying to keep tabs on her detectives.
"We can't find anything, we're going to try look into Montgomery's records to see what was going on back then but Iron Gates is keeping close eyes on us," he whispered as he handed her another file. "And we found another possible suspect, what do you think of Jerry Tyson?"
She wrinkled her eyebrows as she looked at her brother in arm. "3XK? No," she shook her head. "There's no way. I'm not his type and his M.O. is strangling. It's not him."
"You sure? Maybe he wants revenge on you and Castle for exposing him," Ryan came out of nowhere and she gave him her look as she accepted the file from Espo. "Also we got DNA off of the sniper we found but there are no matches in the system, we flagged it though," he added a bit lower and she had a feeling the captain had specifically told them not to let her in on all the details coming up in the case.
Kate watched as their captain started to move from the place she'd been standing and looked down at the files on her desk. "She's coming, go." It was a simple whisper but her brothers immediately walked away with two identical nods of thanks.
When captain Gates got up to her Kate tried to focus on the files in front of her, maybe if she stared at it long enough the woman would leave her alone. Apparently not.
"Detective Beckett, have you found any possible suspects?"
Kate closed a file and opened another, looking at yet another case with an angry perpetrator locked away thanks to her and her team. "No, sir. And I could be of much more help working with my team out on the field." Even Kate herself could hear the irritation and frustration she felt imbedded in her voice.
"I'm not going to change my mind. You have desk duty." Gates said with a hard stare.
Kate mumbled something incoherent under her breath before she turned to her captain again. "Then you should at least let Castle come help me, most of these cases have occured during his time here anyway."
The sudden change of mood in her captain's face had her insides both freeze and boil at the same time. "Not for as long as I'm in charge," she said with anger evident in her voice before she turned around and walked away from her desk.
The state and the tone may have turned her veins into ice, but at almost the exact same time they had boiled with anger because who the hell did she think she was to come here and say that her partner, her partner!, wasn't good enough for this precinct?! She found herself having to take calming breaths in order to not do anything stupid, especially since she could feel her heart starting to race and her muscles getting ready for a change she shouldn't even be thinking about while being around people. Just as she took another deep breath she felt her phone vibrate and when she picked it up to see who the message was from she immediately felt her heart rate slow down irrationally fast.
"Hey, I took the liberty to go to the store in order to get us some dinner for when you're getting here. At what time should I expect you back? C"
It didn't make sense how fast they had grown closer this past year, but it both terrified and excited her all the same that he was going to cook dinner for them. She glanced up in order to check where her boss and coworkers were at before quickly sending back a message stating the time she'd be home. Then she checked the clock to see how much time it was left until she could leave. One hour left. With an exhausted and frustrating sigh she turned back to the paperwork.
Castle looked at the answer and couldn't stop the wide smile from spreading onto his face. When he'd first taken the risk of getting food for them he had almost expected his partner to shoot him, because no matter how much it felt like they were growing closer he could still feel there was something about her that he didn't know. It was as if it was something vital for him to know but also something she didn't want to tell anyone. Maybe it had something to do with her walls. Or how she dodged that bullet.
"Don't be stupid." He shook his head as he talked to himself, looking through the same words he'd read repeatedly all day from Johanna Beckett's case.
He hadn't been able to push that memory out of his mind since it happened. Even if she had heard his cry for her she shouldn't have been able to escape the bullet, and especially not have enough time to pull him with her. If he didn't know better he'd joke about how it was supernatural speed, but he knew that didn't exist. He'd spent too much time trying to prove it existed to know for sure that it didn't. Or did it? Looking down on her laptop he huffed at himself for having searched "supernatural speed" during his flashback to that second he thought he'd lose her to a bullet. He rolled his eyes yet he couldn't help but feed his curiosity by clicking the link that had a list of all the supernatural creatures that supposedly had supernatural speed as part of their abilities. There were basilisks, chimeras, demons of different kinds, vampires and werewolves. He saw the list was much longer but those were the ones that were the most popular, according to the site. alongside speed were also strength, heightened eyesight, hearing and the ability to change appearance from an animal form to a human one. Castle grumbled something incoherent as he thought about all the times he'd seen his partner in action. Sure she was strong, fast and had quick reflexes, but those were all thanks to her job. He closed down the site again and eyed his watch, it was time to start dinner preparations and so he stood from the desk and walked to the kitchen. He would've loved to believe in all things supernatural, but deep down he knew they weren't true. Just plots of deep imagination and the cluelessness people of before science was fact. He tried not to think about it as he made dinner, tried to focus his thoughts towards the case they were going to try and solve once and for all.
Castle was alerted with a knock on her door before he heard keys turn the lock and couldn't help but feel pride in the fact she knew he'd still be there and thought to alarm him before barging inside. He turned around just in time to see her walk in with an exhausted look on her face, which he presumed was due to the non-field work she'd been allowed to do at work. It made him dislike the new captain even more than he already did. Detective Kate Beckett was at her best out on the field, not behind a desk. She was so much better than her new captain seemed to give her credit for. Sure, he knew this case might hit a bit too close to home, but she'd dealt with cases like that before. This would be no different, if anything she was motivated to catch the killer. Especially considering the whole team thought it was the same person who ordered the hit on her mother all those years ago. Or at least he thought both Ryan and Esposito were thinking it too, he couldn't be sure since he hadn't been able to actually talk to them. Wonder if Gates keeps tabs on them to make sure they didn't involve him in their case?
"Hi," Beckett brought him out of his thoughts with her greeting as she slumped down in a chair by her kitchen table. She immediately put her head in her hands and the sigh that came out of her mouth didn't escape his ears.
"Hey, hope you're hungry," he said with a small hope to brighten her day some with the food he was almost done with. "It's ready in a few minutes."
He observed her as she nodded and wiped her hands down her face to put them onto the table. It looked like she needed some sleep, badly. But then again it wasn't like she'd gotten much sleep last night due to that run she'd claimed she took.
"So, you want to talk about the case or do you want to eat first?" he asked, simply because he wanted to know before he did something that might upset her. Truth be told he'd rather not talk about the case since he actually hadn't come any further than he had this morning, and that wasn't the good news he had wanted to give her. And by the looks of it the day hadn't turned out to give her any more leads than it had given him.
She sighed and he tried to observe her in the corner of his eyes, mostly to not make it too obvious he was looking at her and trying to figure her out.
"I think I'm in need for a run. And I suppose you've been here almost all day so how about we just eat and then you go home and I'll just run to clear my head." It wasn't a question even if her wording suggested it was, her tone told him she'd already made up her mind about this. Still, he couldn't help but try and convince her about giving her his presence.
"Well, how about I go for a run with you? I mean, it must be more relaxing having someone with you, especially considering someone still might be after you," he added the last fact when he saw the sceptical look on her face.
"I prefer running alone," she said and he felt his hope slowly fade along with the smile he'd tried plastering onto his face. "Don't worry, I have my gun." It wasn't much of an assurance according to him, the sniper had a gun too. And he could see her from a far while she could only see him if he'd come out in the open. That knowledge wasn't something Castle was comfortable with.
"But… I can be great company," he suggested and seeing the raise of her eyebrows he added. "I can be quiet company if you want."
She huffed with a chuckle in her throat. "Since when?"
He bit his inner cheek and nodded, "Point taken." He really, really, didn't want to leave her alone though. "Please?" He felt ridiculous, couldn't quite believe he was so deep down the rabbit hole that he was practically begging for more time with her, now more than ever. He almost fucking lost her for gods sake!
"Castle, I appreciate the offer, but I can take care of myself. Plus," she added, "you need to go home to your mother and Alexis, I'm sure they feel the same way about you not being home that you feel about me not being home in safety."
He hated the fact that she had a point. He'd spoken to his daughter earlier that day and had had to convince her multiple times he was safe and that he would call if and when he left the safety of his partner's apartment. To show he was serious he had even called her and spoken with her during his grocery shopping, to prove she could trust him. At the same time he'd been insistent that she'd skip school and stay at the loft, just in case the shooter would somehow come after him or his partner at their loft.
With a sigh he agreed, he would let her be. The least he could do was try.
To be continued...
