WOW so long break between parts there. Finals in school and Christmas break with two families (my parents are separated) and babysitting and *sigh* okay. Back on track :D

enjoy!


SATURDAY

It was early the next morning by the time the doctor made it in to see Beckett, the sun not even touching the horizon yet. Lanie was asleep on the small couch while Ryan had gone home to Jenny and Esposito had gone for hot chocolate for himself and Castle.

The writer sat in his chair again, watching his muse sleep peacefully, one of her hands curled in his. His free hand trailed gently over her wrapped right wrist, down over her bruising knuckles and back up again.

"Ah, Mr. Castle, Dr. Parish tells me Detective Beckett woke up briefly?" Dr. Rodgers spoke quietly to Castle first, not wanting to wake his patient unless it was necessary.

"Yes, she seemed a little, out of it. Not herself, could that be a side effect of the drug?"

"Detective Beckett has suffered a trauma, from what her injuries and your reports tell me; combined with an unstable and dangerous drug, I'm happy she's only a little out of it." Dr. Rodgers said honestly.

"I'm going to need to wake her up, take some blood, ask her a few questions and the like," he finished.

Castle nodded and squeezed Beckett's hand, shook her shoulder gently. "Kate, the doctor's here, you have to wake up,"

Beckett's eyes drifted open and she looked confused and more than a little worried before she focused on Castle's face. "What?"

He smiled a little and repeated himself. "The doctor's here. Can you stay awake? He needs to look you over,"

Beckett submitted to the tests sleepily and quietly answered the questions. She reached for and squeezed Castle's hand when Dr. Rodgers drew some blood.

When the doctor left and Lanie was still softly snoring, Castle returned to his chair, reaching for her hand again. "Hey, how're you doing?" he asked gently.

"I don't want to talk about it." Beckett answered quietly, meeting his eyes warily.

"Okay, that's fine. What do you need me to do?"

Beckett thought about it and the first thing that came to mind was that wanted to feel something other than the chains she'd felt, something other than the concrete and hardwood and bandages and IVs. Smell something other than blood and gunpowder and sweat. Hear something other than screams and gunshots and the beeping of the IV pump.

She shifted backwards, away from him and touched the space she'd created. It wasn't much, but the more he hesitated, the more she wanted it to happen.

Castle bit the inside of his cheek at her request. "I don't know, Kate, you're hurt and-,"

"It's okay. Never mind." the woman had been right; Castle didn't feel anything for her. He stayed because he knew she'd be so much worse off if he didn't. She'd teased him too much, pushed him away too many times and too hard.

Castle heard the note of something in her voice that threatened to break his heart. It wasn't that he didn't want to climb into that bed and hold her close and never let her go, because he so did, but she was injured. She'd been held captive for almost five days, had seen people killed in front her, people that looked like them. He didn't want to take advantage of her.

"No, no, keep sliding over," he said, toeing off his shoes and unbuttoning the top few buttons on his shirt for comfort.

Beckett looked up at him gratefully and shifted a little more so he could slide onto the bed next to her. He was on top of the sheets while she was under them, which was a little binding, but she didn't mind.

Castle hesitated again for a moment before sliding an arm under her head and pulling her over gently to rest her head on his shoulder. She came willingly and folded into his side, sighing quietly.

"Better?" he whispered into her hair.

"Yes,"


It felt like he'd been asleep for only a few minutes, but when Castle woke to use the bathroom, the sun was rising above the skyline. A quick glance at his watch told it was coming up on 7:20am-

Glance at his watch? His arm had been wrapped around Beckett...

He turned his head and found Beckett was far from him as she could get and still be on the bed, blankets kicked off her body and face flushed red. Sweat beaded on her forehead and when she shifted restlessly, the collar of her gown slipped down, showing the red spreading down her neck and blooming on her chest.

"Uh, Beckett? Kate? Kate, wake up," he shook her shoulder gently, and then more firmly when she didn't react to him.

"Lanie," Castle called as he rolled off the bed, pressing the call button on the side of the rail as he went.

"What?" Lanie grumbled awake, sitting up and rubbing at her eyes tiredly. She stood up immediately though when she caught sight of Beckett's flushed form. "Kate?"

"I woke up and she was bright red," Castle said in a slight panic. He touched a hand to her cheek and pulled it away quickly. "She's burning up,"


"It seems to be a side effect of the cocktail. Detective Beckett's body is fighting whatever compounds are still in her system. We've given her something for the fever, hopefully it will work with her body to eradicate the residual chemicals," Dr. Rodgers explained.

It was coming up on 8 am now and Jim Beckett was sitting with his daughter as Castle and Lanie waited outside.

"How long will it take? Before this drug is out of her system?" Jim gripped Kate's hand tighter as she slept, his thumb moving in soothing circles over her heated skin. He'd arrived a few minutes earlier to a nervous Castle and pacing Lanie. The ME had explained what had happened, with Castle filling in every now and then.

"It's hard to say," Rodgers explained carefully, "since we've never seen this type of drug before, but our best guess is that this is the end of it; her body is getting rid of the last dredges of it."

"So, you're saying she's okay? She'll be okay when the fever breaks?" Jim glanced down at Kate.

"Yes, that's what I'm saying. But I have to remind you, Mr. Beckett-,"

"I know, the drug is unstable and experimental. I'm choosing to be optimistic here,"

Rodgers smiled tightly and folded his hands together. "Right. I'll leave you to it. Should I let Mr. Castle and Dr. Parish in?"


"I don't think I can do this." Castle looked through the glass at the man sitting in the interrogation room; he looked unruffled, completely unaffected.

Dark hair, blue eyes, easy smile. Could pass for normal.

Except he had kidnapped Kate and effectively tortured her for days on end.

He had gotten a call from Ryan and Esposito shortly after Jim went in to discuss Kate's fever with Dr. Rodgers; Lanie stayed behind to see how Kate was while he went with the boys to see the man responsible for putting her in the hospital.

"You don't have to, we're not going in." Ryan said carefully, crossing his arms and glaring through the glass. The man on the other side picked at his nails, bored, before yawning and settling back in his chair.

"What?"

"Montgomery isn't letting us in there to interrogate this asshole," Esposito filled in. His fists were clenched even though his face and voice were relatively calm.

"Why not? We're the ones who caught this guy!" Castle exclaimed, forgetting the fact that moments earlier he hadn't wanted to go in to the room at all.

"Too close to the case. Cap said it was a gift he let us work it as much as he did. Said there's no way we're going in there now. Karpowski and Jenner are gonna crack him." Ryan moved to lean against the small table against the far wall.

In the other room, Karpowski and her partner, a newbie by the name of Jenner, entered and closed the door with a firm click behind them. Karpowski dropped the case file onto the metal table and sat down, ignoring the man's gaze as it lazily sought hers.

Jenner took up a folded-armed stance off to one side.

"So, Mr. Daniels; can I assume you know why you're here today?" Karpowski began with a sarcastic drawl.

"You could, but you know what they say about assuming," Daniels replied with a thin smile. He folded his fingers together and rested them over his stomach as he reclined.

"Right. I'm not sure if you're aware we have your sister in custody? She told us everything. Now, you can either co-operate now or we can just arrest you and go home early while you sit in our finest holding cells in the basement."

Karpowski waited in silence as Daniels narrowed his eyes at her, something finally ruffling his feathers.

"She didn't tell you anything. You have nothing. Otherwise I'd already be in handcuffs," Daniels bluffed, settling back into his chair. "For example, why haven't I been in a lineup? Or had my DNA tested? Where is this cop I allegedly kidnapped?"

Jenner spoke now. "She's in the hospital. Fighting off the drug you kept feeding her. The drug administered by hypodermic needle, very much like the one clutched in your accomplice's hand when we arrested her. Did we mention the fact that we arrested her coming out of one of your warehouses? Chasing this cop you 'allegedly kidnapped'?" He made air quotes over the last two words.

Daniels turned to face Jenner for the first time. "That just proves someone broke into my warehouse. Does this mean I can press charges?"

Jenner's poker face didn't change. "This accomplice fingered you as the brains behind the operation. You forced her hand by threatening someone who means something to her."

"And you didn't consider the fact that this woman could be lying?" Daniels said with a smirk.

"You mentioned something about DNA earlier." Karpowski said, bringing Daniels' attention back to her.

Daniels didn't answer, but she had his attention again.

"Your prints were all over a secret little room in the back. A room full of blood."

There was heavy silence in the room, mirrored by the thick silence in the observation room. Castle curled his fingers into fists so tightly his fingernails indented half moons into his sweaty palms. They needed to get this guy.

When Daniels spoke, it was slowly, carefully. "Like I said. I own the warehouse. My fingerprints could be in any number of places in that building. As for the blood, the sight of it makes me faint,"

Karpowski raised an eyebrow at him and nodded once slowly. "Right. So, aside from the prints on the door knobs, walls and door frames, your fingerprints were also on a set of restraints attached to the wall. And on a glass of water next to these restraints. And on the plate of a half-eaten sandwich."

"Do I really need to explain this over and over again? This woman is obviously troubled; she targeted my warehouse and clearly broke into my house to steal my dishes and glassware."

Esposito clenched his fists tighter in the observation room. "Is this guy serious?"

Karpowski flipped open the folder now, seemingly unfazed. "I don't think she did. I think you kidnapped Detective Katherine Beckett," she slid a picture of Beckett towards Daniels, who didn't look down, "by breaking into her apartment. You held her captive in your warehouse where your sister, pardon me, half-sister, Annabeth Clark." Karpowski put another picture, this one Clark's mugshot, in front of him, "kept her under control by drugging her with an unknown and unstable chemical drug that she created."

Daniels finally looked down at the pictures. "I've never seen these women before." he reached out and brushed a smooth finger down Beckett's picture. "This one's a looker though," he smirked up at Karpowski.

Karpowski ignored him."You then proceeded to use Annabeth Clark's drug to kidnap and murder ten people. Five of them looked like Detective Beckett." she laid out five pictures of the women he'd murdered.

Victoria Bright. Sydney Logan. Gabrielle Adams. Jennifer Hale. Julia Wilder.

"They're all very beautiful. But I don't know them," There was a slight hitch in his voice now, his tell, and Karpowski heard it, kept up her steady track.

"You also murdered five men, all of them resembling Richard Castle. He's the man your half-sister has a crush on, correct? The one you kept threatening to keep her doing what you told her to?" She slid the other five pictures out into a line in front of Daniels.

Sam Bright. Jack Young. Ben Allan. Henry Jackson. Oliver Wilder.

"This is a fabulous story you're weaving here, Detective, one worthy of Richard Castle himself. But I had no part in it. I'm here aren't I? If I had been involved in this, why would I stay in the city?"

"Is that why we picked you up as you were getting into a town car headed for the airport? And sure you had a part in this." Jenner cut in, moving to stand behind Karpowski now. "You're the one who cut them up, put a bullet in each of those women's heads."

"I didn't do anything." Daniels' patience was slipping, and with it went his cool facade.

"See, we've got your fingerprints, a witness who is also your accomplice ratting you out-,"

"Is that it?" Daniels tried.

"Did I forget to mention this?" Jenner leaned over and pulled another snapshot from the file, this one of a slim, sharp, shiny scalpel. Blood stained the blade and handle. Another snapshot. A .45 caliber handgun.

"Are my prints on the scalpel? The gun?"

"Actually, your prints were on the bullets in the gun and on the handle of the scalpel. Didn't clean up after yourself," Jenner said plainly, straightening up again and crossing his arms.

Ryan let out a low whistle. "The kid's good."

Daniels clenched his jaw and cracked his knuckles.

"Ready to take us seriously now?"

"Don't I get a lawyer." Daniels bit out, a statement rather then a question.

"Sure. You think it'll help?" Karpowski directed the question to Jenner who shook his head.

"Couldn't hurt."

"See, what we don't have, Mr. Daniels, is the why. At this point it's just a formality, a side note compared to all the evidence we have stacked against you."

Daniels smiled a little now, seeing he still had some form of leverage.

"You mean you haven't figured out a motive yet? Seems to me a jury is going to want to know why I would do such an abominable thing, wouldn't you agree?"

Karpowski and Jenner exchanged a bored look before Jenner spoke. "Sure, they'll be curious. But all we have to do is show them what you did to these poor people, what you did to a cop, and they'll forget all about needing a why,"

Daniels settled back into his chair. "Has she spoken yet?"

The detectives, both in the interrogation room and the observation room, frowned at the sudden change in direction.

"What?" Karpowski asked before she could stop herself.

"Kate. Has she spoken yet? That is, if she's even conscious. You said that drug was unstable right?"

Jenner held better control of his reaction than Karpowski and Daniels seized on that.

"You must know Kate, right Detective? Work side by side with her?

Jenner looked back and forth between his partner and Daniels; he didn't know what to do. They hadn't rehearsed this part.

"Since you seem to have this pinned on me, shall I let you in on a few intimate details?" There was a loud bang as soon as the sentence was out of his mouth.

Ryan and Esposito held Castle back as he tried to lunge for the glass again, though they were half-tempted to let him lunge through the mirror and throttle the man.

"It's probably in your best interest to stop talking now, Mr. Daniels, we have our confession." Karpowski tried to recover.

"Oh, no, please; let me confess my sins. You wanted me to talk, so now I'm talking. She cried, and begged. Screamed. Her lovely, lovely face turned a beautiful shade of red as she tried to get me to stop."

"Enough," Jenner ordered, sliding the pictures into a pile and scooping them into the file. Daniels shot a hand out though and grabbed Beckett's.

"I'm just getting started. She was fun to play with. So strong and with so much attitude. Feisty. Independent. But she had fears just like everyone else. Just like my idiot of a , by the way, just wanted part of our inheritance and to keep that author safe. Turns out half of that was true for the good Detective too."

Two officers came in to the room, intent on cuffing him and taking him down to booking.

"What, you don't want to listen anymore? Tell me, has she stopped raising her arms? Stopped giving attitude? How badly have I traumatized this lovely creature?" he teased, even as he was roughly pulled to his feet.

As he was yanked into the hall, Castle burst through the doors out of the observation room ahead of shouts from Ryan and Esposito.

"Tell me why, you sick bastard!" he bit out.

Daniels smirked and eyed the writer. "Ah, the object of my sister's desire. How does it feel, being the cause of such torment for two otherwise strong, independent, beautiful women?"

Castle fisted his hands in Daniels' lapels and ignored and shrugged off Ryan and Esposito's hands.

"Why did you do this? Why did you kill them?"

Daniels smirked wider. "Because I wanted to. It's a lot scarier when there's no motive, right Castle?"

Montgomery emerged from his office at the chaos and helped Ryan and Esposito pulled the author off Daniels, who was still smirking, even as handcuffs were tightened around his wrists.

"Breathe, Castle. Take a deep breath. He's going away for a long time." Ryan said, still keeping his grip on Castle's arm and shoulder. Esposito did the same.

"Come on, let's go see Beckett, tell her and her dad and Lanie the good news." Esposito said, forcibly turning Castle towards the elevators.

From behind them, Karpowski and Jenner were coming out of the interrogation room, both rubbing their necks as stress knotted itself in their already tense muscles.

"Yeah, let's go."


It was coming up on dinnertime when the detectives and writer made their way through the maze of hallways in the hospital to Beckett's room.

When they got to her room, Lanie and Jim Beckett were sitting in chairs outside her room, heads in one hand and cold cups of coffee in the other. They looked tired.

"What's wrong? Is Kate-,"

"She's fine, writer boy, well physically anyway," Lanie said before looking over at Jim carefully.

"Her fever broke, but she's refusing to talk to anyone. She didn't want us to sit with her or be with her or anything," Jim said sadly, looking up at Castle.

He immediately moved towards the door and only stopped when Jim's hand touched his elbow.

"Tell her we love her, okay? And that we'll be here when she's ready."

Castle was suddenly very aware of the trust Jim was placing in him and nodded before taking a deep breath.

The room was quiet, the tv off and the blinds open to the darkening sky. There was a slim chance they'd see the stars in the heart of New York City, but the glitter of the lights from the surrounding buildings was just as enchanting.

Kate lay on her side facing the window and away from the door and didn't move when he entered.

"Kate?" he asked quietly, carefully walking into the room. "It's me. How are you feeling?"

When he got no answer, Castle walked further into the room, taking the seat on Kate's left side, effectively cutting off her view of the window. "Hey," he said softly.

"Hi," Kate said after watching him for a moment.

"How are you feeling?"

He watched her bite her lip and raised a hand to her cheek, thumb gently pulling her lip away from her teeth. "What's wrong?"

"Everyone keeps asking me that."

"So why don't you tell us?" he asked in genuine curiosity, a small, comforting smile on his face.

Kate looked away and then back at his face. "I don't want to tell them."

"Why?" Castle noted the 'them'. Was he not included? Would she tell him?

"It'll upset them. They won't, I can't tell them."

Castle stroked the hand on her cheek back through her hair. Someone had washed it for her, or else she'd finally been allowed out of bed to shower properly. Her hair fell in messy waves over her neck and shoulder.

His hand reversed and came over her cheek again, no longer too pale or too red from fever or shock. When Kate didn't stop him or move away, he gained confidence and edged his chair forward so he could take her hand with his free one.

"We got him Kate, both of them. The bastards who killed those people and did this to you," he said lowly, watching her face for a reaction.

Relief washed over her features and the hand that was in his squeezed tightly.

"They gave me sandwiches. Tuna, egg salad, peanut butter and jelly. And a glass of water. Every day." she started slowly, not looking at Castle.

He took this in and then nodded, squeezed her fingers. "Did they hurt you?"

Kate frowned a little. "No. Just the cut on my face, but that was after. They gripped my face a few times, but...no. They didn't hurt me. My wrists hurt though,"

Castle took the hand from her face and held both of her wrists gently, thumbs stroking over the undersides of them carefully.

"How did you get the cell phone to call Lanie?" he asked a moment later.

Kate swallowed and inched closer on the bed towards him. "I took it from the woman. She always had it in her pocket, so I took it when she changed my clothes. I had to put it back after though, I tucked it into the sweater she changed me out of,"

"They changed you," Castle commented seriously.

"The woman did."

"How did you escape?"

Kate met his eyes then, finally, and answered. "They stopped restraining me. I wasn't bound at all. I didn't have shoes, but I could just get up and walk out. So I did."

Castle left the implication unspoken. They'd made her give up. Forced her into submission so much that they felt confidant enough to leave her unbound. It hit him square in the chest.

"I'm so glad you did," he said instead, letting go of one wrist to cup her cheek again.

"Really?"

"Yes. Really. I was so scared for you. I'm so glad you're okay," he said with a smile.

Maybe the man hadn't been wrong in all those speeches. The woman had been wrong when she'd directed those stinging jabs. Kate could see it now, plain as day on Castle's face; he loved her. Wanted her. She was safe with him and always would be.

"I'm glad I'm okay too," she said, smiling a little for the first time in too long. A weight lifted from her shoulders and she tugged on his hand.

"What?"

Kate moved back on the bed and looked up at him expectantly.

"Bossing me around from your hospital bed, Kate? I'm impressed." Castle said even as he climbed willingly into the bed with her. This time she was on top of the sheets too and could curl into him more easily.

Castle hesitated before understanding, or at least hope, made him follow her lead; Kate didn't do well talking about her feelings and when it came to explaining how she felt, forget it. But she could show it so easily.

"Thanks, Castle," Kate whispered against his shoulder.

"Always, Kate. Now sleep. When you wake up we'll have some dinner for you, okay?"

She was already out.


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