Chapter 19

From the periphery of her vision, Beckett watched, stunned, as Houghton rose unsteadily. With Clay down, but no one else injured, they'd all done well in the gunfight, all five machines destroyed quickly.

She hadn't expected Houghton to go down though.

And she hadn't expected her to stand and aim her weapon directly at Castle.

Beckett lunged.

The element of surprise was in her favor, or maybe Houghton just wasn't firing on all cylinders yet - in Beckett's estimation the machine had been out cold for a solid 60 seconds, maybe more - and she knocked the gun out of her doppelgänger's hand.

A scramble ensued, Houghton clawing at Beckett's face, but she held her ground as Jordan and Castle rushed to help her.

"Watch out," Castle yelled, and together with Houghton, she looked up to see him towering over them. Houghton's grip around her neck slackened as she focused on Castle, and Beckett used the moment to slide away, Castle and Jordan upturning a desk on top of the deranged machine, the weight of them pressing it down and pinning her to the floor.

"What the hell?" Jordan exclaimed, and Castle turned to them, helpless fear in his eyes.

"I have no idea," he admitted. Beneath the desk, Houghton struggled to become free, and Beckett forced herself to move.

"She's bad," she said, her fingers already wrapped around the weapon she'd managed to knock away from Houghton. "She's gone bad."

Below the table, Houghton's face was visible, her skin blanched white as she shook her head desperately.

"Not the gun," Castle said, holding out a knife and a screwdriver. "We have to end this."

"She's the only one who knows how we get back," Beckett said, torn. Pressed up against the break room door, Alexis whimpered.

"No, no, I know," Castle said, his words coming in breathless rasps. "I know. I read the blueprints. We don't need her, we can end this." He moved toward Houghton, sliding down onto the floor next to her and gripping her face with his left hand, the knife in his right. "We can end this."

"No," Houghton protested. "No, no." The fear rose in her voice. "No, Castle. No. I'm better. I'm better. I'm sorry. I'm fixed. I fixed-"

"You were going to kill Beckett," he snarled back at her, and Houghton stared up at him, her eyes wide with fear as he brought the knife to her skull.

"I'm better, I'm sorry. I made a mistake. I reran my program, I'm better."

"Don't listen to her." Alexis' voice wavered across the bullpen. "She's lying."

"No, I'm better. I'm sorry. I rebooted, and I'm better. I just-"

Castle sliced into her skull, pulling back the flap of skin that covered the chip.

"No. Castle, I love you. I love you, Rick-"

Castle froze, his eyes meeting Houghton's, then drawing up to meet Beckett's. "What do I do?" he whispered hoarsely, and she stared back at him.

"Let me stay with you, don't let me go, please," the machine begged, and Beckett closed her eyes.

Kate, I love you. I love you, Kate.

"I love you, Rick," Houghton said again, and Beckett opened her eyes, words leaving her own mouth as a tear rolled down her face.

"Let her live."

"Is Clay okay?" Jordan asked, rushing over to the man on the floor, and Castle turned from Houghton, meeting Beckett's eyes.

Intense.

From across the room, Alexis glared at Houghton, her arms wrapped around herself, and he swallowed.

There was no way to know if he'd done the right thing, but Beckett had sounded sure, and Houghton-

Houghton had told him she loved him.

Machines couldn't feel.

Could they?

"I'm sorry," Houghton whispered again, and he shook his head, unable to meet her gaze as he helped push the desk off her. "I really am better."

"Then prove it," Beckett said, her voice heavy as she scrubbed a hand across her face, wiping away the tears that had spilled. "Prove it by getting us back home."

Houghton nodded. "Everything you need is here. We just need- only you can go. Some of the others need to stay here. And the circle can be big, you know that."

Castle nodded, remembering the way his own copy had been brought with them last time.

"So what are we waiting for?" Beckett asked, and Castle clenched his fist, inordinately proud of the way she was holding it all together while he stood there, shaking.

"Visitors," Houghton said, and as Clay stood up unsteadily, Jordan and Trista supporting his weight, footfall sounded on the staircase and the group turned as one, weapons drawn, ready to fight the next intruders.

"Yo, hold up," came the call, and Castle's jaw dropped as he watched Beckett run across the floor and throw herself into Esposito's arms.

"'Sito," he choked out, following her, and offering his hand to their friend.

"Beckett? Castle?" Esposito stepped back from them, confusion all over his face. "What- but I left you-" He stared at Beckett's stomach, his mouth gaping open. "Beckett?"

"Javi?" she asked, reaching a hand out to brush against his arm, but he jerked back from her touch.

Understanding flooded Castle all at once. "Different Beckett," he managed, lost for words as he tried to explain. "You… know a Beckett here? She's different. We're different. We're-" he halted his rambling, following Esposito's gaze which had landed on Houghton.

"You wanna explain this to me?" Esposito demanded, rounding on Castle, and he nodded, trying again.

"She's different too." He jerked his thumb in Houghton's direction. "She's one of us, but she's a-"

"I know what she is," Espo growled. "Is that what you are, too?" Beckett shook her head as Castle fumbled on.

"She's on our side. You guys- you're the resistance, right? You reprogrammed her. She's one of us now."

"We reprogrammed her? Our technology can't-"

"That's why we're here," Beckett interrupted. "Why you're here. Your technology can't, but hers can. She's from-" Kate swallowed before continuing. "She's from the future, and we- we're from the past."

Esposito looked down at Beckett's stomach again before drawing his gaze up to hers and folding her into a rough hug, and Castle felt himself relax, his fingers twitching as he worked the tension out of his body.

"Espo?" Kate asked, and Castle felt his eyebrows draw together again at the waver in her voice. "Do you know us? Here, I mean."

Esposito nodded, his jaw clenched as he stared across the room, his eyes unfocused. "Yeah. Yeah, I do. But you- you're in hiding, and, well-" he shrugged. "I don't know why. I keep hearing things. Whispers about the future. 2036 keeps coming up, over and over again. But I know you. And last time I saw you," he managed a small smile, "you were five months pregnant."

Beckett drew her hands up to her belly, a little gasp escaping her mouth as she wrapped her arms around herself protectively. "I'm pregnant?"

"Yeah, you-" Esposito chanced a glance at Castle before returning his steadfast gaze to a point behind Beckett's head, "you're pregnant."

"Let's go." Houghton's voice boomed across the room, and Beckett closed her eyes, their reunion with Esposito cut short.

Wait, she wanted to say. Wait.

"Ryan?" she asked, casting a frantic look at Espo, and his face fell, giving her all the answers she needed. "But you- you're free. You're okay?"

"I'm okay," he managed, but his voice was world weary. "We- it's hard. We live," he lowered his voice. "We live in the subway tunnels, and there are so few of us. We have so many ideas…"

"That's why we're here," Houghton said, striding over to them, and the flash of revulsion on Esposito's face was all too familiar to Beckett. "You have the beginnings of the resistance, but you just don't know it yet. But Castle-" the beaming look she threw at him forced Beckett to roll her eyes; could a machine really love? "But Castle needed to come here. I didn't know who else you needed. I wouldn't have known who to bring out."

"And you found Jordan." Esposito shot Beckett another look that spoke louder than words as he silently asked her, really?

Beckett found herself nodding. "And Jack, Trista and Clay."

"You have someone already, yes?" Houghton asked. "Someone who knows computers?"

Esposito nodded. "Tory," he said, his jaw clenched as he revealed her name. "She worked at the 12th," he clarified to Beckett and Castle. "After 2011. You'll like her, when you meet her."

Beckett nodded, interpreting Esposito's hesitancy to speak of Tory at length; they were in a relationship. She swallowed. What about Lanie? But the answer - no answer - she'd received when she'd asked about Ryan burned too badly, and she bit back her question.

If this worked, maybe she'd never have to find out what happened to everyone she loved.

She ran a hand across her torso again. Now, there was only pain. Would she really be pregnant someday?

"And now you have Trista," Houghton said. "And you need the others too. That's why you got the message to come here. Plus," she pointed to the generation one machines on the floor, "you need them. You need to start somewhere."

Esposito nodded, his on-alert stance never faltering as his eyes swept the room.

"And you have me," Houghton added, and Beckett watched the way Esposito's Adam's apple bobbed as he swallowed, silently accepting the situation.

"And these guys?" he jerked a thumb toward Beckett and Castle.

Houghton's gaze lingered on Castle a beat too long before she answered, her voice soft. "My mission was to keep Castle safe. But I have other assignments now, too. They're going home."

Houghton's heart pounded as she gathered everything she needed. Most of the parts for the time travel circle were in Captain Gates' office. She had asked Castle to open Beckett's desk drawer to find the calendar device and Beckett had narrowed her eyes at him when he'd held up her little stick man, questions in his expression before Kate had snatched it away, rustling through herself and locating the metallic disk.

She didn't want Castle to go.

Alexis' eyes still flashed with anger every time she chanced a glance her way, but Beckett's expression was harder to take. Beckett was looking at her with compassion, like she could read Houghton's mind. And, okay, yes, Houghton could admit to herself that crying to Castle that she loved him was the opposite of keeping her cards close to her chest, but it still cut, somehow, that Beckett knew her mind so well.

Except it was really the other way around.

Houghton swallowed, clenching her fists as she forced herself to remember she was a machine. She didn't need feelings, least of all an echo of Beckett's feelings.

But she couldn't fool herself; her feelings for Castle were not a mere echo.

Rick, meanwhile, was avoiding her gaze altogether, as he followed Beckett with his eyes, every step she took.

She shrugged, taking the disk that Beckett handed her, and assembling the device, winding the date back to where it needed to go. It was so tempting to roll it back a few days earlier; she wanted to chance that enough had changed. If only Castle could re-live his book launch party without casualties this time round, if only someone else could blow up the building in 2011.

With a sigh she set the date correctly. Rules were rules, and if they hadn't affected great enough change the risk was too big.

Location, again, was easy; no way could Beckett, Castle and Alexis land in the middle of the precinct, so the cabin it was.

"Go downstairs," she instructed Esposito and the new members of the resistance. "Down to the ground floor. You need to be out of range."

She watched as Castle and Beckett embraced their friends, Beckett's arms wrapping around Esposito's neck, her tiny figure dwarfed by her partner.

"Keep her safe," Esposito murmured to Castle, and she looked away as he nodded. Had Beckett and Castle put two and two together, yet? Did they understand just why they needed to be protected, and who they were waiting for? To this Castle and Beckett, 2016 was so far in the future, until yesterday unimaginable from 2011. But for Houghton, 2036 was everything, and the fact that she'd been able to keep Castle safe, save him at his book launch party…

Pride swelled through her.

She'd done it.

For now, she was needed in 2016. She might never get back to 2036, might never meet the very person this had all been done for, but she would continue her mission here. She offered Esposito a smile as he disentangled himself from Beckett. He didn't trust her, and he might not for a long time, but he'd partnered with Beckett for years; she'd be there for him now, fight by his side as Tory and Trista and the others worked through the technology they needed to bring about the end of AI and prevent the apocalypse.

"This button here," she said once everyone else had departed, and she handed the device to Castle. "You just need to press it. It'll take you back."

He nodded, surprising her by leaning in and pressing a quick kiss to her forehead. "Take care," he whispered, and she nodded, unable to stomach any more of a goodbye.

"Be safe," she whispered. A handful of days, and a flurry of years between them, she'd only just pulled Castle from his ill-fated book launch, driven him around New York. She wanted a do-over. This time she'd let herself be pulled into his games, tease him, let him get under her skin. Hell, if she could do it again, she'd count cows, record license plates, just to have the time with him.

But now it was time to go.

With one last look at the three of them, she turned toward the stairs. She'd made it all the way to the bottom when she reached the others, and a flash of blue reflecting off the stairwell even three flights down told her it was done.

Castle was back in his own time.

A/N: I was meant to publish this yesterday, but I was out of range for the whole weekend... back to RL now. Thank you guys for your hardcore love last chapter. Again, with the no replies, again, due to road trip. Mwah! x