"Julia!"
Turning around, the girl smiled quickly when she saw that it was her best friend, and she was about to say hi when Mari was suddenly wrapping her arms around her tightly. "What's wrong?" she asked.
"I had a feeling something was wrong with you," Mari replied. When they let go of each other she asked, "Are you okay?"
"I'm… well, I am worried about Mom and Dad," Julia said honestly as they began walking around the upper field at the Academy together. "I'm just getting a feeling something's happening… not bad but just something."
Nodding as she knew her friend could feel like that, Mari asked, "Did you text them?"
Without a word, Julia handed over her phone, watching her friend reading the text she'd sent and the one her mother had sent. "I still don't know though," she said.
"What about your grandmama and Mamó?" Mari asked.
Looking over her right shoulder, Julia smiled before she looked at her friend and said, "Just Mamó is here, Grandmama's waiting to see if she needs to go." She was going to keep speaking when her friend was suddenly doing so to her surprise.
"Do you know what's going on in Washington DC?" Mari asked her before her friend stopped walking and turned to her. "What?"
"You sound like you know what happened," Julia responded.
"I saw my parents watching the news on Monday night and they showed your mom and dad at the plane that crashed," Mari whispered. She was a little surprised when her friend grabbed her arm and she asked, "You didn't know?"
"No, Mom and Dad told me, I didn't want you to worry about that," Julia told her with a smile. "It's okay."
"Are they okay? It looked really scary," Mari said in concern.
"I know," Julia said. She wasn't surprised when her friend looked at her in confusion and she said, "I watched on my computer, the footage, and it was scary. But I think they're okay, just right now something doesn't feel right with them. I don't know what."
"Maybe they'll tell you later," Mari said though she wasn't very sure.
With a quick nod Julia started to walk with her friend before she said, "I hope. I just hope they're okay."
"I think they will be," Mari told her, squeezing her hand. "Especially if your grandmama is there."
"Thanks," Julia said, smiling at her friend. She looked behind them towards the playground that was for the elementary schools and said, "Lizzy didn't want to come with you?"
Shaking her head Mari answered, "I saw her, but she was playing with her friends."
"Emmie and Quentin?" Julia guessed.
"And a couple others," Mari replied. "Think she'll come up here with us next year?"
"Probably, but just for lunches," Julia said. She then said, "Want to come over after dance class?"
"I can try," Mari replied. She looked at her friend and asked, "Missing your parents?"
"A lot," Julia said. "I'm just glad that once they come back, they probably won't go away. At least not until we go to Mill Valley and then we'll be all together." She looked at her friend and then said with a smile, "I'm so excited."
"Me too," Mari said. She gently bumped into her friend and asked, "Will you be okay when I go to camp?"
"I will, but that doesn't mean I'm not going to miss you a ton," Julia replied. She then turned to her friend and hugged her tightly before she said, "But at least it's only five days. And we're going to Spain together too."
"Oh, I know," Mari said, nodding her head rapidly. She smiled as they were walking again and she told her, "I was thinking about your house in Mill Valley."
"What about it?" Julia asked.
"I'm probably going to remember it too," Mari told her.
"You will course," Julia said. She saw the hesitation on her friend's face and asked her, "What's wrong?"
"I kind of remember it," Mari said. "But I can't remember where I stayed when I was there."
"I bet we'll figure it out once we're there," Julia said. "And it doesn't matter at all back then, what matters now is we're sharing my room. With Marie and Kath," she and Mari saying the last bit at the same time. They laughed together before she said, "Oh, that reminds me, Marie e-mailed me yesterday. She has a sixties style dance; like the Sock Hop we had; coming up and a girl in her class asked her to go with her."
"Really?" Mari asked with a smile as she knew their California friend had come out.
"Yeah, she said she needs to talk to her moms but since her whole family is going to be there it won't really matter," Julia replied. "I told her that, but she didn't answer back yet, she probably will later."
"Cool," Mari said. They were walking another lap around the playground and she said, "How much longer do we have for recess?"
Taking her phone out rapidly, Julia said, "Ten minutes."
Hearing her friend's disappointed tone, Mari was about to ask her what was wrong when she hurried to stand in front of her as she was looking more obviously at her phone. Just as she opened her mouth to warn her to hurry, her friend was speaking quickly before slipping her phone into her pocket.
"I was hoping that Mom texted me but… I don't know," Julia explained to her friend.
"Are you still feeling like something's wrong?" Mari asked her. When Julia nodded, she sighed and said, "I'm sorry."
"It's not your fault," the girl replied. Julia then said, "Let's talk about something else… or else I'll never be able to pay attention in class."
"Sure, what about San Francisco?" Mari asked.
Julia was smiling widely as her friend spoke and she responded with a question of her own asking her friend, "What do you want to know?"
"Do you know where we're going yet?" Mari replied.
"We already talked about it," Julia said. "And I put everything for the trip in my diary."
"Like you did when you went that weekend?" Mari asked. When her friend nodded, she smiled and said, "And it's nice for you to have so if your parents ever forget what you're going to do…"
"Dad joked about that too," Julia said.
Seeing the mention of her parents was making her friend start to frown, Mari was quick to say, "What about going to the zoo?"
"I told you we were going to the Academy," Julia told her.
"No, is there a chance we could go again?" Mari asked.
"I think so," Julia said. "But I don't know when it's going to be the next time we can go really."
"I know, we have Spain and… what?" Mari said.
"I just remembered when my family was going again," Julia said. "Christmas."
"It's okay, it's not that big of a house so we can't all fit for that long," Mari said quickly to reassure her. She then hugged her friend and told her, "You have to tell me what it's like when you come back."
"I will," Julia said with a nod. "I don't know how I wouldn't be able to say."
Mari laughed with her before she said, "What're we going to do for the dance class today?"
Glancing at her, Julia said, "You know already. And I know you're trying to keep me from thinking of my mom and dad." She couldn't help laughing when her friend was nodding rapidly and she told her, "Thank you for that. But let's talk about Spain, I know something our parents are going to surprise us with."
"We get to stay together again?" Mari asked eagerly.
Nodding her head Julia said, "I overheard them and luckily they didn't get too mad at me when they saw me. They said we would but not everywhere."
"Did you tell them we don't care at all?" Mari asked.
"Yep, it made them laugh but I made sure to tell them thank you; for both of us," Julia replied.
"I'll have to tell my mom and dad the same," Mari said. She then thought of something and asked, "I can, right?"
"Yeah, I'm only telling you now 'cause I forgot about it completely," Julia said.
"I don't care," Mari said. When she saw the face her friend was making she said, "Really, at least you told me now!"
Julia started to laugh at the way her friend's voice went up in her exuberance and she said, "Okay, I'm glad to know you're not mad. But know what? I'm sure we're going to stay together in Madrid."
Nodding her head in agreement Mari said, "That makes sense, we're going to be in a big city." She paused and then said, "Maybe we will in all the big cities."
"Definitely Barcelona," Julia said with a smile. "But they might not be suites like we had before."
"Do you care about that?" Mari asked her, studying her.
"No way, as long as we get a room to ourselves it'll feel like we're even more grown up," Julia said. She laughed with her friend before she said, "It's so hard to explain it better than that."
"I know what you mean," Mari said in understanding. "Of course we're gonna feel grown up but it feels like more." She became thoughtful for a moment and asked, "Do you think it's because it reminds us of when we shared that room back in the forties?"
"I thought of that too," Julia said. She thought that over herself and then smiled a little saying, "We became really, really good friends."
"We did," Mari replied. "But," she then said, losing the smile she'd had. "I'm missing a lot of things when we were working as WASPs. I see us going to movies together, having dinners with the other girls at that house or out too. But…"
"Don't worry," Julia said, reaching over to her and holding her hand for a moment. "I know what you're talking about since I have that same problem. But I bet it'll come back to us soon… something needs to remind us about it and when that happens it'll all come back."
"Like you remembered stuff when you went to the house?" Mari asked her with a smile.
"Yep," Julia said. She and her friend started to laugh, and she said, "I wish you could spend the night too."
"Maybe this weekend," Mari said. "Or does it depend on your parents?"
"I'm not sure, I don't know when they'll come back," Julia said. She then brightened and said, "I'll talk to them about it later," before she recalled her anxiety and then sighed before looked at her phone again, still seeing nothing from them.
"They'll be fine," Mari said, hugging her quickly as they were still walking. "Tell me about Mill Valley," she told her.
Smiling, as she knew her friend was again trying to distract her, Julia said, "You know I won't, you need to be surprised. But it's the best city to feel like you're in your own world." She was about to tell Mari that they'd walk and drive around most of it when the bell ringing interrupted her. They both groaned and she then said, "I better go, I have history and I need to make it."
"Me too," Mari said, since she was in a top floor classroom at the elementary school. She and Julia exchanged a quick hug before they promised to see each other in the quad before dance class and she took off for the stairs.
Though she had wanted to wait to see her friend go, Julia knew she would have to run and she did to loop around the playground. But when she reached the building she slowed down as she suddenly felt a great deal of anxiety and looked back to find her grandmother and great-grandmother were standing there. 'Is everything okay?' she asked in her mind.
Yes, they're both fine but your mother is worried, Johanna was telling her.
Not about your father, Mamó added.
'But she's still worried,' Julia stated.
Yes, but they'll want you to go to your classes, Johanna said.
And they'll call you later of course, Mamó replied. Now go before you'll be late.
'Thank you Grandmama, Mamó,' Julia said. As she heard their your welcomes in her head, she was going into the building and making her way to her classroom. She felt something was still wrong but knowing her parents were okay she hoped everything would work out before they were calling them for the day.
"Where exactly are you thinking of walking Darnley?" Sumner asked her partner as they were walking over the field.
"I wonder if Carman would be that stupid to sit in the same area she did shooting McRae," Darnley replied.
"I'm not sure but… it wouldn't be that hard to check," Castle said, slightly surprised when he saw the two detectives were looking at him.
Darnley looked thoughtful before he said, "Alright, Jodie?"
"Not a problem," Sumner said with a quick nod.
"Is… never mind," Castle said, thinking the detective was going to go on her own. He saw she was going to an officer near them before they were talking together rapidly. "Something's wrong," he said.
"No," Darnley said slowly before his partner was waving to him. "Come on," he told Castle before they walked back together to her.
"Dyson is asking to take Proulx out of here," Sumner replied.
"Medical attention?" Darnley asked though he was looking around them while he spoke.
"No, he's being checked out by an EMT right now in one of the ambulances," Darnley said. "And I just heard from Lewis that Mr. Corbin is on his way back."
"So he's fine," Castle commented absently. He glanced at Darnley, seeing the man was looking at him and said, "Sorry."
"That's okay," Darnley replied before he looked at what he'd thought was movement in a tree. He then turned his attention back to his partner and said, "Go ahead, but I want you with them to take them out of here." He gave another quick look around and then said to her in a low tone of voice, "Try and start evacuating the kids if you can. If we can get them out of here we'll try the adults. Gather them across the street at the schools' fields."
"And you?" Sumner asked as she was nodding briefly in agreement.
"We'll be fine," Darnley said. "Though I am going to bring Lewis along." When Sumner had left, he said to Castle, "I'd give you my spare but…"
"Yeah, I figured," he replied. "But I am going to be sticking close."
"Kate would kick your ass if you didn't… mine first and then you since she told you directly," Darnley said. "Stay here, let me grab Lewis and we'll head together around the house."
Castle nodded before he looked at the parking lot, just seeing Dyson leaving an ambulance before Proulx was a moment later. Sumner was there to meet them and just as the two were walking he suddenly felt the hairs on the back of his neck standing on end. He turned around, just as the first shots were being fired and he threw himself behind a crate as people were yelling around him. He thought of his wife, trying to turn towards the hill she had gone to and hoping she would be safe.
"I'm wondering, why did we take the horses?" Beckett asked her friend.
"Just in case we need any kind of speed," Skye said as they'd taken two horses from some Calvary officers. "Mary?" she asked then.
"I'm fine, though I could have gone on a horse of my own," the doctor said in obvious annoyance, sitting behind her wife.
"We're lucky we got these two," Skye replied. "Okay, we'll have to dismount here," she said when they'd reached the halfway point at the hill. They got off their horses and she and Beckett were tying them to the tree that was there.
"What're you doing?" Beckett asked as she saw the investigator was taking off her coat.
"This thing is a bit too stifling," Skye replied, placing the coat in the saddle bag that was attached to the one on the horse she'd ridden. She patted the neck of the horse before looking down at the coat her wife was handing her. "Luckily you have a bag for yours," she commented.
"Yeah, do you need me to take one of those?" Beckett asked as Mary was holding the rifle and scope.
"I'm good," the doctor replied as Skye was taking the rifle back.
"We should go," the investigator said before they turned and started walking up the rest of the way.
When they were nearly at the top Beckett stopped with the other two women as there was a distant popping sound and they looked back at the field before they shared a look. Before any of them could say anything, the walkie-talkie she had in her pocket let out a burst of static before Darnley was calling through it.
"We have shots fired, get a lock on Carman, she's trying to kill Dyson and Proulx," the detective was saying.
Without a word the three women were running up the hill before they laid on the grass and Skye was looking through the custom scope as Beckett was taking the rifle.
"Do you see… there, there's a glint," Mary said, spotting it in the trees further east from where Carman had shot McRae.
"I got it," Skye replied as she was adjusting the settings. "There she is," she said.
"Let me have the scope," Beckett told her friend.
Shaking her head, Skye moved then and crawled over on the grass before she was directly next to her and on her shoulder.
"What're you doing?" Beckett said, looking at her with wide eyes before she had to pick the rifle back up.
"I know this is awkward but you're going to have to trust me on this Kate," Skye told her seriously.
Though she was about to say she needed the scope herself, something made Beckett pause and she said, "We can't be off; my husband is down there."
"We won't be," Skye said. "Close your eyes Kate, I'll guide you."
With a rapid nod, Beckett only did so once the rifle was ready to shoot, propped on a small, filled prop bag that Skye had found as they were getting the horses. She had her chin against the side of the butt before her friend was murmuring to her.
"Head five clicks to the right," Skye said first.
Though she had no real idea what a click was in terms of measurement, something made Beckett move the rifle before Skye was continuing instead of trying to correct her.
"One down," Skye said, checking in the scope.
"Skye," Mary whispered.
"Hold on," Skye replied before she reached for the trigger. "Now."
"Are you okay?" Castle asked, jogging up to Darnley as the detective had tripped while they'd been running to find Carman before she could hit someone in the field since she'd been aiming for Dyson and Proulx in the parking lot.
"Yeah, I went too fast," the detective replied before they were both silent and looking around. When there were no sounds other than the natural ones from the trees around them, he said, "Where's Kate?" as he'd asked the man to contact them so the three could help with them finding the woman who was obviously in the trees.
"I have no idea," Castle said. "Either they turned it off or they're not paying attention to it so who knows where they are on that hill."
"We better go back," Darnley told him.
"Yeah," Castle replied though they were both shooting looks around them as they started to head back to the field where they'd come from.
"I'm so confused," Darnley said.
"It's happened to us before," Castle said. "I'm calling Kate on Skye's phone, tell her to come back wherever Skye took them." He got his phone out and dialed the investigator's number rapidly as he knew she had it before it went straight to voicemail. "She doesn't have it on," he told his wife's friend.
"Damn it," Darnley said. "I don't want them out in the middle of nowhere while the shooter's out here."
"Did Skye have a walkie-talkie?" Castle asked.
"If she was smart she would have taken it," Darnley said before he was grabbing his. Just as he was about to press the button so he could talk, there was a shot from above them into the ground ahead and they both ran to the cover of the trees and he was looking up. "Where the hell was that?"
"I don't know," Castle said. He saw movement from the branches above them and called out, "There!"
"Stop! Metro PD!" Darnley was yelling, his weapon on where he thought the shooter was. But he was having a hard time tracking them and said, "Where are they?"
"There…" Castle started to say before there was another shot.
"Shots fired; shots fired!" came over the detective's walkie-talkie.
"Lewis! Lewis! Call backup into the trees," Darley was yelling as the shots kept continuing. When there was no response from the officer he looked down at his device and said, "Lewis?" There was still nothing from the officer and he was quickly changing the frequency before saying, "Sumner?"
"Darnley, what is it?" his partner said on the other end, sounding tense.
"We're below the suspect," the detective said, speaking in a low voice as he was looking up at the trees. "And we need backup, it's only me with a weapon."
"I'll be there," Sumner replied.
"Castle," Darnley said, watching his friend's husband as he was looking up the tree. "Castle," he said again, that time sternly as the writer was going to try and climb up it. "If you do that I'll break your ankle," he said as the man was looking at him.
"Kate will hurt you," Castle replied, still looking up which the detective was soon doing as well.
"After she hurts you," Darnley said. He knew; though he couldn't see; that the writer was nodding and they were quiet, listening and waiting for backup.
Only a few seconds later, Castle heard movement next to him and turned to look at Darnley, seeing the man was moving around the tree trunk. "Patrick," he whispered to him, trying to make sure he got his attention. "Don't…" he said as he was looking up at the branches again though right when he did, he spotted a foot sliding over a branch before it went back up to rest on it.
Just as he turned his head down to Darnley, Castle heard the explosion of the shot a second later. Everything seemed to go grey in his shock and a yell of pain echoed around them in the trees as they were falling back to the forest floor in unison.
Pulling the trigger, though Beckett still wasn't sure why exactly Skye's finger was on hers, she had a brief thought that shooting with her eyes closed wasn't going to work. And when her friend suddnely exclaimed in her ear she knew that it hadn't before she realized what the investigator was saying.
"Fuck! That bitch! She shot below her before you hit her!" Skye said. She got off her friend, still looking through the scope and said, "I can't find her, the trunks are in the way. But her arm seemed to explode so that stopped her."
"Where was she shooting?" Mary asked her wife as they were standing up.
Switching the scope for the rifle in Beckett's hand, Skye said, "Maybe you'll have better luck. And if anyone asks I shot her, permit?" When the writer shrugged, she nodded and then said, "Yeah, better just say our roles were reversed." She then said to her wife, "Down, around wherever she was."
"Take the gun we might need to run back," Beckett said to Mary, Skye handing her the rifle. She was bringing the scope up to her eye, looking where she recalled their killer had been and said, "I can't see anything," reaching for her pocket as she tossed the scope to Skye. She got the walkie-talkie she had out before she was calling into it, "Patrick, Patrick come in." she waited, Skye and Mary looking at her in concern as there was no answer.
"It is working," Skye said, turning to look down at the field. She put the scope up to her eye before she stopped when a familiar voice came over the walkie-talkie and she and her wife were looking at it with Beckett.
"Shots fired, shots fired," Castle was saying urgently on the radio. "Bring the EMTs… injuries."
Without a word to the other two women, Beckett was running down the hill before Skye and Mary were sharing a look and running after her. They reached their horses and mounted them, riding down to the field where they could see some people running for the trees where Carman had fallen.