Disclaimer: I do not own Castle or the recognizable characters who appear in this story. Any other names, for characters or businesses, are fictional, uncompensated, or are in the public domain.
After a quick conference over their desks, Ryan and Esposito sneak out of the precinct in abject defiance of Gates' new requirement about checking out. But desperate times call for desperate measures.
A quick call to LT gets them readmitted fifteen minutes later, sneaking in through the fire escape. Tory, who harbors an unknown but greatly-appreciated rebellious streak, did them the favor of disabling the alarm long enough to enable their return. Some of the bounty from this trip is directed her way in appreciation. And while she smiles in gratitude, it's fairly apparent that her payoff was in defying Gates' new regime.
Second thoughts start to plague Ryan and Esposito in the stairwell, though. They stop for a quick conference on the landing to make sure their efforts will be taken well. While they talk each other into staying the course, each is privately worried about the reception they might expect up on the Homicide floor. Still, they're committed.
Beckett, meanwhile, is oblivious to the departure of her teammates. She's been introspective, worrying about issues outside of the precinct. It's been four days of silence since sending a simple text to Castle. "Simple" at least in relation to the odd communication device he left for her, something that looks like the hidden love-child of a forbidden union between a cellphone and a modem. After spending far too long in trying to compose a message to him, she ultimately realized that they needed to talk, not text. So, she sent a short, declarative note: Thank you for taking care of dad. Thank you for taking care of me. There's so much more to say – can we talk?
He'd mentioned the device would allow him to reply to her 'when he could,' so perhaps it was foolish to expect an immediate response. But that only makes her think of what he might be doing – or what might've happened to him – that would prevent communication. Hardly reassuring.
Movement on her periphery finally catches Beckett's attention. She turns her head to see her boys, each looking more sheepish than the other, slowly advancing toward her desk. Ryan carefully places a tall coffee cup on her desk, shuffling aside to allow Esposito room to deliver the paper bag with her bear claw.
"Guys…," she manages to emit, touched more than she would've imagined.
"You just…," Ryan starts to explain before fumbling. Then, steeling himself, he wades in. "You look like you need something to cheer you up. And if it can't be Castle, it can at least be what he'd usually provide to make you smile."
"But that's it," Esposito gruffs, clearly a little uncomfortable with the touchy-feeliness of their endeavor. "We ain't gonna do any of the other stuff Castle'd do to cheer you up. No dumb theories, no flirting, no staring…"
Beckett laughs, at much at his discomfort as in his characterization of Castle's previous antics. "Thanks, guys," she offers sincerely, hand already reaching for the coffee. "I have been a little down. Lots on my mind," she admits to knowing nods from both of them.
"Can we help?" Ryan asks after a quick, surreptitious look around the bullpen.
Removing the lid to her coffee, Beckett peers into its depths before looking up. "Yeah," she replies to their surprise, "you can. Talk at lunch?" she asks.
Esposito nods quickly and nudges Ryan toward their desks. Surprised at Beckett's willingness to talk, he wants to move on quickly to secure their unexpected gains. Ryan's on board, scooting into his desk and setting to paperwork with vigor to ensure there's no administrative reason to delay lunch.
"This place?!" Esposito asks as Beckett deviates from the expected path and pulls open the door to a tiny empanada shop. There are only four tables, three of which are pushed up against the glass windowfront and one wedged near the door to the kitchen. "We've never eaten here before."
"Exactly," Beckett explains with a nod before striding to the corner table at the window. "I don't want any surprise visitors and I don't want anyone to overhear us." Then, after rifling through her pocketbook, she extends a ten-dollar bill. "Get me something?"
Esposito waves her off and sidles up to the counter with his partner, surveying their options from the laminated posterboards mounted on the wall above the ledge where food is passed through from the kitchen. Ryan shakes his head and leaves his culinary fate in his partner's hands, joining Beckett at the table.
Less than ten minutes later, Esposito ambles over with a red cafeteria tray laden with food. With his usual formality, he slides the tray into the middle of their small table before hooking his ankle around a nearby chair. Dropping into his seat, he waves at the pile of undescribed food and mutters "Dig in," while reaching in with both hands.
"Nice," Ryan comments, though he follows suit. Beckett demurely waits to see what'll be left at the bottom of the pile.
The next few minutes pass quietly in terms of words but loudly in terms of the gastronomic exclamations of the boys. Once they've settled down, Beckett decides to start talking.
"So, about Castle…," she beings, immediately diverting her colleagues' attention from their food.
"We goin' after him?" Esposito asks, looking ready for the charge.
"Is he hurt?" Ryan asks at the same time.
Pausing to let the questions stop, Beckett takes a sip of water to draw out the silence to make sure they're listening.
"We're not going after him," she says while raising a brow to Esposito, "and I don't think he's hurt, though I haven't heard from him since the day he was in the precinct." In response to their curious looks, she reaches into the pocket of her jacket and extracts the communications device Castle left behind. "I asked him to call me, but I haven't heard back yet."
"What the hell is that?" Esposito asks while reaching out for the device. Beckett's surprised by her urge to pull it out of range of his grasp. Instead, she wrestles with unaccustomed discomfort as she watches Esposito turn the device over in his hands. "Hello?" he says, talking to the device. He's about to give it a vigorous shake when Beckett launches to her feet and yanks it out of his hands.
"I'd thank you not to destroy the only way I have to communicate with my rogue partner," she growls before looking around quickly to make sure her words weren't overheard.
"He's prob'ly listening to us right now," Esposito answers, unaffected by her pique. "And I'd bet he's tracking that thing, too."
"Good," Beckett answers. "I hope you're right. Because we're not going after him. We're going to help him."
Ryan and Esposito share a silent, wide-eyed look before turning back to Beckett.
"What happened to 'that son of a…,'" Ryan starts to ask before Beckett cuts him off.
"I reconsidered," Beckett interrupts peremptorily, looking stern before her cheeks redden and she shifted to abashed. "Besides, that was a terrible thing to say, especially about Martha," she admits with a shrug. "I misunderstood Castle, how far he's been pushed and how far he'll go. So, I can either sit back and hope he doesn't get killed or do something that'll help us both. You don't have to join me," she says, looking from one detective to the other, "but I hope you will."
"'Course we will," Ryan interjects quickly, in case his partner has any reservations.
"Why?" Esposito still asks, despite Ryan's efforts. Beckett nods, expecting this reply from her older teammate. "Why 'help?'"
"Because he's not going to stop anyway," Beckett answers honestly. "He can do things we can't and he seems to know what he's doing. Tell me this," she continues, spinning her head to focus on Ryan. "You've tried to find him, haven't you? Through financials, phone records, his websites, something – have you found anything?"
Feeling uncomfortably like the subject of one of his boss' interrogations, Ryan gives up the efforts he thought had gone without notice.
"Nothing," he admits, not even bothering to deny that he'd looked. "And it's worse than you think. Remember what he told us about Alexis? Do you believe him – that he tucked her away in some foreign boarding school? I do," he offers immediately, waiting for nods from his colleagues. "But do you believe he'd send her alone and never visit? And he never mentioned where Martha was recuperating. There's nothing in the TSA records on any of them, domestic or international. Nothing."
Beckett and Esposito share a look at this, wondering what it means. It sounds unlikely that Castle would've stayed within driving range. It would've been easy to get on a train without ID, but it's hard to imagine Grand Dame Martha Rodgers abiding a trip on Greyhound. A chartered plane sounds much more likely, especially if Castle found a way to get around passport control wherever he was going.
"Here's what I want to do," she offers to combat the pessimism Ryan's comment threatened to spawn. "I've got four things we can look into. Yeah," she admits with a shrug and a raised hand, "I know, sounds familiar. These aren't the same four as his, though. First stop," she explains, turning again to Ryan, "bank records on Raglan and company. Seems like Castle found something. He might get there first, but we still need to pull on that thread. Maybe we'll see something he didn't."
Esposito looks doubtful, but nods. Ryan shrugs. "I've got the files he started with," Ryan offers. "I've started to look but haven't found anything yet. I'll get you copies."
"Good," Beckett answers with a nod. "Second track: Castle's kidnapping. It couldn't have been easy to kidnap a famous author, hold him for five days, then turn him loose. Castle couldn't have made it to a hospital alone, right?" she asks briskly, trying to avoid thinking about how Castle must've looked stumbling into some emergency room, burned, bleeding, and feeling utterly alone. "We need details – when and how he was taken, where he was held, how he left, where he was treated – then we can backtrack the bastards who took him."
"I'll take that one," Esposito offers. "But don't you think Castle's already run this down?"
"Maybe," Beckett allows. "And if so, then we'll know we didn't miss anything. But if nothing else, this'll help us understand what we're dealing with."
"Not sure we need much more to know that we're up against pros," Esposito replies. "Gotta be, right? Your sniper slipped away. Fine, maybe it's not hard to find one guy who can pull off something like that. But Castle said three guys worked him over. And you know what? It ain't easy to inflict the amount of abuse we saw on Castle without killing him. Either they got lucky…"
"…or they've had practice," Beckett finishes the thought. "Yeah, it's starting to look that way, isn't it?" she asks with a heavy sigh.
"Hey, look on the bright side," Ryan offers, trying to fill Castle's role by pulling the team away from their maudlin thoughts. "It'd be great if we're dealing with mercs, right? Castle's running around with tens of millions after selling his places. If this comes down to spending, maybe Castle can write a check to make this go away."
"We tried that before," Beckett replies, shaking her head and looking haunted. "Didn't work so well, did it?"
"Don't know about that," Esposito answers fatalistically. "Coonan's dead, isn't he?"
"He was probably replaced before his body hit the floor," Beckett replies again.
"Sure, but after enough bodies go down," Esposito argues, "it gets harder and harder to find a new guy. And more expensive. You think that's what Castle's doing?"
"No," Beckett answers honestly, leaning in to whisper her darker thoughts. "I think he learned from Coonan. And from watching us in interrogation. No one's found Sands or Bader yet, right? I think Castle will find a way to get the information he needs."
"Castle?" Esposito asks incredulously, leaning back to emphasize his rejection of this idea.
"Yes, Castle," Beckett answers, certain. "For Alexis? He'd do it. Even if they hadn't tortured him, he'd do this, and more, to protect his daughter."
"That's not your next track, is it?" Ryan asks, sounding oddly protective. "We're not going looking for Alexis, are we? Because I'm not gonna…"
"No," Beckett assures him immediately. "We're not going to do anything to find her. A small part of me would like to know where she is so we can provide more protection, but I suspect Castle's already got her well-guarded and any effort on our part might backfire by leaving a trail to her. You think Castle's off the reservation now? Just imagine what he might do with all that time and money if anything actually happened to his girl."
Beckett lets that dire thought settle for a moment.
"Third track," she offers a few long moments later, "is on me. I know we can't investigate and I don't want to give Gates any reason to watch us, but I'll do some gentle poking on Sands and Bader. Nothing official," she interjects quickly to calm the looks of alarm on her teammates' faces, "just public searches I can run from private accounts outside of the precinct. I just don't want to be surprised if they turn up somewhere."
"Dead or alive?" Esposito offers with gallows humor. Beckett just shrugs.
"Fourth track," she continues, pausing for a big swallow before she hares down this path. "You called the fourth track, Espo."
But Esposito just knits his brow, not following.
"Josh," she admits. "I talked to Castle about this…"
"Bet he loved that," Ryan interjects. "He just couldn't hear enough about Josh while he was around," he offers facetiously.
"Yeah, I know," Beckett replies quietly, surprising the boys by not flaring up at the topic. "Anyway, they didn't take Josh. They didn't need to. They just sent someone who could get what they needed with pillowtalk rather than torture."
"Bet Castle wishes they woulda used that option on him!" Esposito erupts after a moment of stunned silence.
"Wouldn't have worked," Beckett offers with quiet confidence, wondering again about her ex-partner. "Even they knew it wouldn't work. What's that tell you?" she asks rhetorically, hung up on how the man she was with sold her out but the man she abandoned stayed true under much harsher circumstances.
"A lot, actually," Ryan offers, surprising them all by answering. "Think about it. Castle's got a reputation, right? He hasn't really been that way, at least not since joining the precinct. But based on his reputation, you'd think sending a gorgeous woman…"
"Or three," Esposito offers and is completely ignored.
"… his way would be an easy way to get access, right?" Ryan asks, getting a vigorous nod from Espo and pursed lips from Beckett. "But they didn't. That suggests they know him, they know how he acts around us…," he trails off, growing wary of drawing out this line.
"They know how he feels about me," Beckett finishes with a small, frustrated nod. "Or how he felt," she offers pessimistically while recalling how forthright Castle's been in their few, short interactions lately. At least the boys have the good grace to look doubtful about her shift to the past-tense. "You're probably right. They've got intel on Castle. Probably on all of us."
"So, what's the story with Josh?" Esposito asks, getting them back on track. "You want us to track him down, find out what he spilled?" he offers before adopting a fiercer demeanor and cracking his knuckles. "Want us to plug the leak?"
"Nothing like that," Beckett offers. Curiously, Espo's big-brother offer to rough up Josh for his betrayal doesn't interest her at all. She just wants that bit of her history done and heaven knows Josh had rightful claim to the bitterness following their split. Best to just move on.
"Castle distracted me. I was so surprised by his comments about how they got to Josh that I didn't think," she confesses, still chagrined about what she'd figured out in the quiet solitude of the last few days. "I'd asked him if Josh was one of this lines of investigation and he'd answered 'not anymore.'"
"Ominous," Ryan interjects. "Just like he'd write it."
"I know, right?" Beckett replies with a huff and a smile. "But I didn't go back to those words after hearing about Josh. Which was stupid. I didn't think about what they meant. Josh isn't the focus anymore…"
"Because Castle's tracking the woman," Esposito finishes her thought, thinking about whoever seduced Josh. "'Least he's playing to his strengths. It'd be ironic if he…"
"That's not the way he'll handle it," Beckett interjects, not wanting to entertain thoughts in this direction. "He won't sleep with someone who's been with Josh."
"That might be the dumbest thing you've ever said," Esposito replies, looking at her like she's crazy. Ryan looks even more incredulous. "That's exactly what he wanted all last year!"
Blushing furiously, Beckett tries to drive the conversation to safer waters. "Anyway, I'd appreciate it if one of you guys could look into that angle. I don't think someone like that would stick around with Josh afterward, but I think it's best if I'm not involved in those inquiries."
The partners look at each other in confusion, wondering exactly how they're supposed to run this down, especially if Davidson's off in some foreign country. But they shrug and nod, figuring they can work out the details later. Any further response is preempted by a short vibration from Beckett's communication device.
"Is that…?" Ryan starts to ask even as Beckett scoops up the device.
She's so anxious to read Castle's reply that she makes an error inserting her new security code, producing an ominous warning noise from the device.
"Paranoid much?" Esposito asks as he watches the multiple attempts at getting the ten-digit code right.
Beckett makes a shooing gesture, she finally gets it right on her third try. Sorry, been out tracking something down. I'll be back in town in a few days, will stop by. Please be careful.
She decides to pass the device around rather than read the text aloud. She's not sure what to make of it. She's disappointed there's not more to it, that he didn't acknowledge her gratitude. But she's happy to hear he'll be here soon. A face-to-face talk will be more difficult but it'll also be a better opportunity to connect with Castle. Maybe, if things go well, they can even start rebuilding something of a partnership.
"I'll keep an eye on the TSA lists," Ryan says, interrupting her thoughts. "Sounds like he's away somewhere. Maybe I can figure out how he's moving around."
Beckett shrugs, not really concerned with figuring out Castle's movements for the same reason she's unwilling to track down Alexis. Then, collecting the communication device, she slips it back into her pocket and prepares to leave.
"That's it?" Esposito asks, startling his teammates at the table. "What about Castle's other track? Even if you're right about these, there's still one left, right? And don't forget about Sands and Bader. He took them!"
"We don't know that," Beckett replies weakly. After all, Castle clearly knew he needed an alibi for the disappearance of those two and he knew it in advance. So, even if he wasn't involved, he was privy to the plan.
"Bullshit," Esposito calls her out. "He was involved, maybe even planned it out. So," he says, leaning in and lowering his voice, "unless they're dead, that means space, right? Someplace to hold two guys, keep them contained, fed, the whole bit."
"Be ironic if Castle's using the place they held him," Ryan muses, enjoying some thoughts on the potential of poetic justice.
"Nah, I was thinking about the Haunt," Esposito admits. In response to their curious looks, he explains. "Just because he blocked the doors from his old office doesn't mean the secret rooms and passages don't exist. Maybe he's just got a different way to access them. Maybe he didn't really sell the Haunt."
This perks them up.
"You think it's all a shell game?" Ryan asks. "That he formed a different business group and sold the place to himself? I can check that," he offers before turning a smile to his partner. "And you can go poking around the sewer entrances to see about finding another access to the Haunt."
This starts some bickering between the partners, a welcome return to normal that helps restore some of Beckett's equanimity.
"Thank you," she offers sincerely, collecting their attention. "I appreciate your help. And I need you guys to know something," she offers quietly, drawing them close. "Seeing what Castle's doing made me realize some things about how I've handled my case."
"Legally?" Esposito suggests pointedly.
"No," she rejects immediately. "That's not what I was talking about but we all know I've bent the rules in pursuing mom's case. And I always thought I might need to do more than that," she offers to her shocked teammates. "But, I was actually talking about something different. When we talked to him at the Haunt, Castle made it clear he was forging ahead and without help and without permission. It sounded familiar," she offers with a shrug. "I even accused him of being hypocritical, after his comments on my choices."
The boys nod again, sharing a wary look as they recall the discomfort from that conversation.
"But you remember how he went to see my dad?" she asks, taking time to make eye contact with each of them. "He wasn't involving my dad in his project or pumping him for information. He was protecting him," she offers, looking abashed. "For everything that happened to him, Castle's still taking the time to protect people. It's something I never bothered doing. Obviously. If I had, he might not've been taken."
"Not your fault," Ryan interjects, looking sad himself. "Besides, you were gone. We were right here and didn't notice a thing."
"Still," she continues, not taking the out he's offered, "Castle was right. I've got tunnel vision when it comes to this case," she flinches. "So, I'm gonna try to follow his lead. Help where I can, and get help to make sure I don't lose focus."
"Get help from…?" Esposito asks, shocked at the notion of Beckett reaching out for help.
"From someone else," Beckett answers vaguely, unwilling to talk about the resumption of her sessions with Dr. Burke. Esposito and Ryan nod at the characteristic evasion. "But I want you two to keep me honest. You see me falling again, call me on it, right?"
"Yeah, okay," Esposito offers while Ryan nods contemplatively. The deal is sealed with a three-way fist bump.
"Now, you guys better get back," she offers after a quick glance at her father's watch, sounding again like the team leader rather than a confidante.
"You're not coming with?" Esposito asks.
"One quick errand to run," Beckett answers with a sigh. When both men cast her doubtful glances, it's clear they're already wondering if she's haring off on her own, so Beckett provides a terse explanation.
"I'll probably regret this," she admits, "and Castle's probably already made arrangements. But he looked after dad, so I should make sure others are covered." Then, after standing, she gives the boys one last clue. "I'll let you know who wins your bet. You had the under, right, Espo?"
A/N: Hi all. My apologies - with longer stories, some chapters end up being about moving pieces into place. I'd hoped to get to Beckett's next meeting in this chapter which might've livened things up, but that's where we'll start with the next chapter. I'm mid-way through my deadlines and if I managed to post this week, I'm confident I can do it again. Plus. we're nearing the bit I'm looking forward to writing, so that'll speed me up, too. More soon, I hope.
And, as far as some of the PMs go, I'm still doing fine in DC. Interesting days, especially trying to explain things to the kids when I can't quite get a handle on them myself.