The doctor insisted I needed to rest for the rest of the day, but I could get up and see Punisher the next day if I felt well enough, which I did.

I was escorted to the room by a nurse, and let in by a police guard.

"Do you want me to come in with you ma'am? He is strapped down, but I can stay in the room if you're still worried."

"That'll be okay, thanks." I smiled a little, stepping slowly into the room.

"We'll be right outside the door if you need us."

I nodded thanks and gently shut the door behind me, slowly walking up to his bedside. "You're… actually the Punisher."

He nodded slowly, looking me over. "You don't look like you're here to kill me."

"I'm not. I just want to talk." I pulled a chair up to his bedside and sat down. "Thank you, first of all, for trying to save me. And for killing the teacher that drove my friend to kill herself when we were kids, you didn't do that for me but it's appreciated nonetheless."

He nodded a little. "What do you want?"

"To understand. What happened, all of it. Why you tried to deform Billy's face, why you were there at the warehouse."

"Who are you?"

"A concerned party."

"You're going to have to tell me more than that."

I sighed, and ran my hand through my hair. "Okay. My name is Celeste, I'm a stripper, I was using the warehouse as a place to practice before Billy and his guys started using it. He let me keep using it as long as I didn't rat them out to the cops. He started showing up to watch me practice, and we… got close. Really close. He's really vulnerable, with me, sometimes. He's got a lot going on, and… we just have really good chemistry. But then he's also paid me to seduce information out of a guy that turned out to be a child predator and then may or may not have killed him after, so it's a confusing relationship. That enough for you?"

He nodded, looking a little surprised, but he seemed to just roll with it. "Why were you following me?"

"Dumb curiosity. I'm an artist, smarts were never my strength." He exhaled in what I took as a laugh. "Why were you there?"

"Russo needs to be put down."

"Okay, rewind then. I want to know this story from the start. Billy told me you two served together. He said you were his brother-in-arms."

He sighed. "He was."

"That's the last he remembers. What happened?"

"He took a deal. We both did, but he took it harder. Doing black ops shit. Things that aren't even on paper, overseas. He went corrupt, I didn't. When I got back, the people that got him killed my family. He knew about it."

"Oh shit." I covered my mouth in shock.

"Yeah, shit. I found out. He tried to kill me a few times too. When I finally got him… it didn't feel like enough to just kill him. I wanted to break him for what he did to my wife, my kids."

"So you tried demolishing his face." I guessed.

He nodded. "He was always so cocky about his looks, it was the one thing he said he had going for him."

"So you put him in the hospital, then what?"

"Tried laying low. That failed pretty badly, and Bill started acting up again. Feds got in touch to bring me back into the picture. To take him out for good." I sighed, running a hand through my hair. "Not what you wanted to hear I'm guessing."

"I was kind of hoping Billy just jaywalked one too many times. Shit… you know he knew about your family?"

"He looked into my eyes and said so. Said if he'd been there, he wouldn't have missed shooting me too."

I groaned and let my head fall back for a minute, eyes closed. "God damn it Billy."

"I'm not going to let you stop me from killing him, if you're here to try."

"I never thought I could. Just… damn it. He doesn't remember any of this. As far as he's concerned, he was a normal ass marine who was best friends with you just last month and now you want to kill him for something he doesn't even know he did. I was there when he found out you were the one who tried to wreck his face. He was devastated, it was like his heart was breaking right in front of me."

"That doesn't take back what he did."

"Not for you. But when you broke him, you made him the person he used to be. A person that never did anything to your family, never betrayed you, hell, never did any black ops shit. You made him that by attacking him, consciously or not."

"You wouldn't understand."

"No I wouldn't. Here's one thing I do understand though. The human brain has big problems processing trauma. People can black out whole memories so the brain can just process life normally without having to account for that trauma. When you attacked Billy, he was finally confronted with every terrible thing he ever did to you, someone that from what I've seen he really cared about. Maybe his brain couldn't handle facing it all at once, and took him back to the last time he remembers being a good person so it didn't have to deal with the trauma of what he did to you."

"That doesn't change what I need to do. He's still out there hurting people. I'm going to put him down."

I sighed and leaned back in the chair. "Why couldn't his nemesis have been the red one who doesn't kill people?"

"Red's not the kind of guy to handle problems like this."

"At least he wouldn't kill him." I rubbed my face a little. "Sorry. I know you have to do what you have to do, I just… don't want you to. Please don't blame me if I convince him to flee the country."

"Wherever you take him, I will follow."

"Of course you will. At least it buys time."

"Castle, you didn't kill them-" A woman who looked like she was a cop walked into the room, stopping when she saw me. "Who's this?"

"Bill's new woman. Madani, Celeste. Celeste, this is Madani, the fed who brought me back. She was involved in Russo's case before he lost his memory."

We looked at each other, neither of us moving to shake each other's hands.

"You said he didn't kill them? I asked after too long of a silence. "Do you mean the girls?"

She nodded, and came to Castle's other side. "Forensics prove it. They were shot execution style, shots were almost point blank to the head. It had to have been Russo."

"Hang on, Billy wouldn't do that. His guys, I don't know, but he wouldn't just execute innocent women."

"He did." Castle insisted. "Celeste, this really is beyond you. You should go." I sighed, and got up. "Oh, and if you see him? Tell him I've got a bullet with his name on it waiting for him."

"He knows." I walked out.