Beckett and Castle ran back to his car, tore open the doors and jumped in. Castle started up the engine whilst Beckett locked her door before reaching across him and locking his. He looked up at her, briefly pausing to assess her face. She looked pale and terrified, her eyes wide and wary, darting around them.

"Come on," he said, abruptly turning the car around, "let's get outta here."

As they sped back down the dark wooded road Beckett sat rigid and watchful in her seat with her arms wrapped around herself. Castle's eyes darted sideways to her constantly as he drove.

"You must be chilled to the bone," he observed, once they had put some distance between themselves and the blockade. He reached onto the back seat behind them and grabbed his coat, handing it to her. "Here, put this over you."

She took hold of the coat with a small, 'thanks', wrapping it over herself with robotic, automatic movements. Her mind was elsewhere as she stared silently out of the window.

"Kate?" Castle said with concern. She didn't seem to hear him. "Kate," he repeated louder. She jumped and turned her head to him. "Are you okay?" he asked.

"Yes, I'm fine," she replied, turning back to stare out into the darkness. She didn't look 'fine.'

"I'll get us home and warmed up and we'll sort everything out tomorrow. Don't worry," he said, placing a reassuring hand over hers, "we'll figure this all out. There's nothing we can't figure out together eh." He smiled at her but she wasn't even looking at him, just staring… staring out of the window. "They picked the wrong people to mess with," he added angrily, almost as if to himself, before pressing his foot harder on the accelerator.

When they got back to the beach house Castle had planned to make them both a hot drink and Beckett had wandered into the kitchen with him, but one look at her face when the thunder rolled and the sky could be seen through the patio windows flashing with lightening, and he changed his mind. She had stood there rooted to the spot, staring outside with that look of terror.

"C'mon, I got a better idea," he said, grabbing her hand and leading her out of the kitchen and across the hallway to another room.

The living room she found herself in was a lot smaller than the long open area of the kitchen, and it seemed somehow warmer and more cosy. It had two rich chocolate coloured leather sofas which took up most of the room along with the large, abstract, cream golden and blue rug and wooden coffee table in the centre. The focal point of the wall facing the doorway was an impressive looking fireplace surrounded with light wooden panelling running to the far wall and the windows which Castle covered by drawing some heavy curtains across them.

He turned then to see Beckett hovering by the doorway as if unsure about… well everything. This wasn't like Beckett at all and it concerned Castle.

"Take a seat," he prompted, gesturing to the sofa. "I'll get us a drink: I think we could do with one," he said, striding over to a drinks table and pouring them a large tumbler of whisky each.

She moved tentatively into the room and took a seat. He joined her on the sofa, handing her the tumbler.

"Here, drink this; you need it. You've had a big shock."

She accepted the glass and took a huge gulp of the contents. "I don't know what happened," she began, cringing slightly when the fiery golden liquid hit her throat. "It started when the car passed me; it was so strange. How could it have got past the blockade so quickly? And then I was moving the logs fine but the storm got worse and it was dark and…but…when I got out of the car there was no one there." She glanced across at Castle. "I'm telling you Castle, there was nobody on that road anywhere in sight," she repeated adamantly as if trying to justify herself.

He held up his hands in surrender, "Calm down, I believe you."

She continued, needing to verbalise her chaotic thoughts in an attempt to find some reasoning.

"Then suddenly there was someone in my car, but it was dark…really dark, and I could only see through the lightening ..but then there had to be someone there because the car drove off…" Oh God she was rambling like a crazy woman; it all sounded completely nuts!

"Like you said, it was dark and if someone wanted your car then I guess they wouldn't want you to know they were there," Castle reasoned.

He was just trying to reassure her but both of them knew there was more to it than that.

She bit her lip because what was really troubling her was the strangeness of the people themselves. How could she explain that to Castle without it sounding utterly absurd? Then she remembered the image she had captured on her cell phone. She swallowed down her nervousness and pulled the phone out of her jacket pocket but before she scrolled through her images she paused and reconsidered, handing the phone to Castle instead.

"Here, take a look for yourself; I think I got a picture of them on there," she said, sitting back in her seat and taking another sip of her whisky whilst avoiding any eye contact with the screen of her cell.

He glanced at her with surprise before curiously searching for the image, finding the most recent photograph and waiting for it to open.

"Woa!" he said, springing back in his seat when he saw it. "What's that? Who's them?" he said, pointing to the screen.

"So I didn't imagine it then," she said, leaning over to take a quick look.

"No, there they are. Hey I've seen these before," he said.

"You have?" she replied instinctively.

"Yeah, on that movie 'Attack of the White Faceless Dudes.' Scary movie!" he joked, trying to lighten the mood.

"Shut up, stupid" she said, slapping him on the arm.

"I'm not kiddin'," he smiled. "No but seriously I'm not surprised you were so shaken up, I'd have been crying for my mother…well, more probably Alexis actually; she's more sensible in a crisis," he explained with a grin.

She gave a small laugh and he smiled in response before sobering again slightly when he took another look at the image.

"You wanna know what I think?" he asked.

"What?"

"I think that someone went to a lot of trouble to stage this for your benefit," he said, contemplating the picture.

"But why?" she asked.

"Don't know. I haven't figured that out yet but we will. There's also something else that springs to mind," he added, handing back her phone.

"Can you make it good news please because…" she took the phone but closed it quickly and slipped it back into her pocket, sitting back in her seat with a sigh, "I'm all out of patience for more bad news tonight."

"Well," he thought for a moment, "in a way it is. If it's any consolation I don't think that these people mean to harm us. I do think that there's a connection between what happened to you tonight and events next door…"

She turned to him suddenly then.

"…don't you?" he asked. "It seems all too coincidental to me."

She nodded her acknowledgement of his point and sipped her whisky thoughtfully.

"But," he went on, "if they had wanted to hurt us they'd have done it by now. I left my patio doors unlocked last night and you would have been an easy target," he pointed out.

She put a hand to her head as if it hurt. "Don't remind me." It suddenly hit home how incredibly amiss she had been: how downright dumb to have got herself into that situation. All at once she felt overwhelmed with the last few exhausting months of working overtime and self derision for not being able to do her job as well as she thought she had before Castle had come into the Precinct and turned everything on its head. Then he'd left and she had felt dysfunctional without him which had prompted her to work twice as hard to prove to herself that she could do as well on her own. But even Montgomery had told her to take a break; he must have noticed her work slipping too.

"I don't know if I can do this anymore," she suddenly announced.

That got his attention and his eyes shot to hers. He watched as she held her head in her hands.

"What do you mean?" he asked cautiously.

She groaned, ran a hand through her hair and then looked up suddenly at him. "It's just…" She didn't want to hear her own words admit that she had failed and her eyes suddenly swam with unshed tears. Her throat ached with the effort to hold them back and retain some kind of dignity and so she moved her gaze from him, avoiding eye contact. "I can't figure out what happened, how I ended up like that. I mean, I'm supposed to be trained better than that; I should have been more prepared and aware of the situation. How am I gonna explain this to Montgomery?" she said desperately.

"Woa, hold your horses," he said, taking her by the arms to look at her squarely in the face. "Before you throw the towel in, it's not the end of the world…or anything close. We'll just explain what happened. He has a lot of respect for you Kate, it won't be a problem," he assured her.

Nevertheless, she hung her head again as the tears welled up all the more because Castle seemed to have so much faith in her when she had lost all faith in herself.

Castle felt completely helpless watching Beckett suffering so much and it became a physical pain for him not to try to comfort her more. He so much wanted to say the right thing: the thing that would make her smile again. Reaching out to her, with no idea what he was going to say until he said it, he lifted her head and took her face in his hands, gazing at her tenderly. Her eyes met his with surprise.

"You listen to me Kate, you are the most amazing cop. I'm telling you, I'm in awe of how well you do your job. I've written books about it for God sake!" he exclaimed. She gave a small laugh then but the tears began to fall uncontrollably, dripping down her cheeks as she was overcome with emotion. She had nowhere to hide them but she figured that he had already seen her break down on the highway and she no longer had the energy for pretence. Besides, there didn't seem to be any awkwardness between them, he simply wiped the tears away gently with his thumbs. "Don't ever doubt that," he whispered. "But one thing," he went on, "you're not Superwoman sweetheart. You make a huge difference to the lives that you touch but you can't save the world and you shouldn't feel responsible for everything when things don't turn out how we would all like. Give yourself a break, you need a life for yourself that doesn't involve work and I think that will make you even better at what you do because you'll be more satisfied." He grinned then. "I can help with the satisfied bit," he added cheekily.

She laughed then. He was so incorrigible! And, she had to admit, he was being really sweet, amazingly so!

"Joking aside though, Kate," he continued, "I'm always here for you. If you need to let off steam remember that I'm not really part of the team, you know, I'm the weird in-between guy, and that means you can talk to me and not worry about having to be the boss, or the employee. It's just me, Castle."

He smiled warmly into her eyes and she smiled appreciatively back. He moved towards her then and leant his forehead against hers affectionately, gazing down at her. He felt so much affection for her at that moment and funnily enough his only thought was to show her that when he shifted his head slightly and slowly, instinctively moved his mouth towards hers. He felt the softness of her lips very briefly before something suddenly changed. His heart beat raced at the realisation. He could hear and feel her sudden intake of breath and she moved her head back from him very slightly but their mouths were still inches apart. Then time stood still again. Both of their parted lips hovered before each other's. She was so close that he could feel her breath.

Something very significant was happening; they were both on the verge of something: each waiting and unsure. Then as quickly as all this had happened it stopped when she abruptly pulled back.

"I…you…I…" she stuttered, her mind not functioning at all properly. "Thank you," she said quickly, turning and looking awkwardly around the room for a diversion.