Chapter 18

The back windscreen shattered as gunfire screamed through the air and Beckett ducked, coming face to face with Castle. The look of fear in his eyes, was, she was sure, identical to her own.

Houghton drove on, though, the car leaving the machines in its wake, fewer bullets flying in their direction until the car took a sharp turn, and the immediate threat died off.

"Have we lost them?" Castle managed, and from the front seat, Houghton nodded.

"For now, anyway. We need to get out of here though, before they find us."

"Where are we going?" Alexis asked, and Houghton coughed out a small laugh.

"All going well? You're going back to 2011 with Castle and Beckett."

"And the rest of us?" Jordan asked.

"Uh…" Houghton hesitated, taking another sharp turn as she headed down what had been a one way street - the wrong way.

"The rest of us?" Clay echoed, his tone distinctly less calm than Jordan's, and Beckett caught the way Houghton's eyes flashed in the rear view mirror before she answered.

"You're staying here… for now. There are others you need to meet. Reconnaissance you need to do."

Trista huffed out a sigh. Wedged between Clay and Jack, Beckett thought she looked the calmest of the three. "Better out here than in that camp," she offered, her hand wrapping around Clay's, and he nodded.

"We're here," Houghton announced, killing the engine as she glided into a parking space - one Beckett recognized as her own. They were back at the precinct. "Come on. Upstairs. We're expecting visitors any moment now."

Kate grimaced as she extracted herself from the car, unable to refrain from bending and clutching at her side as the scar pulled. First thing, when she got back, she was seeing a doctor.

"Everything okay?" Castle murmured in her ear and she nodded, but instead of returning the nod and moving to follow the others, he hesitated before taking a step toward her and bringing his own hand to her torso, his touch so very tender as the warmth from his skin bled through her shirt, easing the pain that had flared.

"I'm okay," she murmured back, and he nodded, at last, holding his position as she dropped her gaze, exhaling.

"Okay," he said after a pause, leaning in and pressing a kiss to her forehead before letting his hand fall from her side. "Okay."

She smiled, lifting her eyes to his, understanding flooding her. This wasn't something she could run from. Not now, and not back in 2011 by buying herself time up at the cabin.

One day, this would be real.

Her last everything.

And, damn it, she was going to do it properly, not by jumping him and spilling her heart in the precinct's parking garage in 2016.

He couldn't turn it off. Not now, not ever.

His hand still burned from where he'd touched her side but he smiled back at her, forcing himself to keep his breathing even while his heart tried to thud itself out of his chest, a speedy rhythm keeping time with his thoughts as they raced around his head.

He said nothing though, not even when Beckett slid her own hand into his and nudged him in the direction of the rest of the party.

Trailing after her, he struggled to meet her stride. For someone who had been near doubled over in pain just a minute ago, she sure was moving, and they made their way up the stairs into the building.

Home.

Or, it was meant to be.

The scene at which they'd - and he was going to say it now, but silently, so he didn't jinx it - fallen for each other. The space in which coffee after coffee had been shared as a token of appreciation, her disdain for his fancy machine falling away as she let him in, one step at a time, in her own way.

Montgomery had thought he, Castle, was the only person who could make Beckett stand down. That wasn't strictly true but he thought he understood, now, what the Captain had meant, what Roy had seen when he looked at them.

A partnership.

It was time to go home, and Beckett opened the door, hope on her face as she preceded him into the precinct. His own smile froze on his face as he realized, too late, what was happening.

They'd walked into an ambush.

Protecting Castle had been hard enough, and being charged with the care of both Beckett and Alexis had nettled at Houghton.

Trying to look after an additional six humans, one of whom was a child, had proved a nightmare from the minute she'd met them at the compound, gunfire on their tail as she hit the gas.

Castle, she reminded herself. Castle mattered. Castle and Beckett. Anyone else could be collateral damage.

But whatever they'd done to her when they'd hacked the mainframe, drilled into her programming, and forced her to save Richard Castle instead of kill him had obviously gone deeper than she'd realized, and she found herself pushing the humans out of the way as she charged toward the first generation models, her own guns drawn.

One first generation model was one thing. Hell, two she could handle, but there were five of them. Much as she knew the team she'd had Castle assemble needed some models to experiment on, this was too many.

The last thing she wanted was to draw Castle into the line of fire, but somewhere in her consciousness, she wished he were beside her, his own weapon drawn.

If they were partners…

But Beckett had never let Castle carry a weapon. Her vision blurred as she took a bullet to the skull, righting again in an instant, but the uninvited anger remained, a flash of fury directed toward Kate Beckett.

She didn't deserve him.

More bullets flew through the air, most making contact with their target; her flesh sizzled as the bullets bounced of the metal encased in the synthetic skin, and vaguely, she was aware of the humans - which ones, she didn't know - opening fire too, the air fairly alive with the barrage of gunfire.

Where was Castle?

Another bullet hit her squarely in the jaw, and still she kept going, determined that mere first generation models wouldn't best her.

She needed to save Rick-

The third bullet to her skull knocked her flat on her back, and for a moment, the world stilled, her vision blacking out again, and she struggled to pull herself together as the rest of her system threatened a complete shutdown.

Online.

She just needed to stay online, get her visuals back, and keep firing, keep Castle safe-

A fourth bullet, and she was out cold, everything dark and silent.

Houghton's vision flickered as she regained consciousness, turning her head and letting her gaze span the room. Five gen ones. All down.

Humans. She counted. Five, that she could see; one on the ground, evidently wounded, two others crouched over him.

She stood up as her internal drive flicked back online, assessing her physical prowess as she did so; gunshot wounds had torn flesh from her torso, her arms and her face. She ran a quick system check; something was off, but what, she didn't know.

She turned around, counting the other humans that she recognized. Closest to her stood Beckett. By the break room window, Alexis. Jordan Shaw. Behind them, in the break room, rummaging around in the first aid kit, a man.

Her sight flickered again, momentary fuzz distorting her vision, and she forced the man into focus.

Richard Castle.

She took a step toward him, bringing her handgun up and taking aim.

Richard Castle.

She was programmed to kill him.

A/N: Thank you J&K. And readers... *hides* x