"You're aware that you're violating about fifteen rules about proper use of firearms, right?" Beckett commented.

"Oh sure." Hayley was unconcerned. "Rookie? GO!"

Alexis sprinted the length of the firing range and kept firing till the gun clicked empty. Without hesitating, she ejected the clip, reloaded, and kept going. When she reached the end of the room, she bounded off the wall and ran back the way she came, firing again.

"You kept firing when you were dry." Hayley observed. "When you get Contacts of your own, I'll teach you how to set them to whatever weapon you're carrying. You'll have an ammo counter in front of you every time you pull the trigger." She looked at the target. "Good shooting, though."

"I missed the bullseye. By a lot."

"But you still hit the human target. Not easy to hit that mark while moving."

"Not safe to go running with a loaded gun while pulling the trigger, too." Beckett commented. "I probably shouldn't be watching this." She gave Alexis a nod and headed out into the bullpen.

Hayley stayed behind and summoned Alexis over to her. "Now me? I prefer one of these." She said brightly, and pulled a weapon Alexis didn't recognize. A short, thick tube mounted on a wide grip. She pointed it at the targets at the far end of the room, and pulled the trigger. Something thick and gooey flew across the room and hit the paper target with a wet 'splat'.

Alexis had half a second to look confused, when Hayley gave her a perfectly innocent smile, and the other end of the room burst into flame. Every paper target on the row burned away instantly, and the flames extinguished themselves instantly.

"I can see why you'd keep one handy." The young redhead said dryly.

Hayley grinned. "A girl's gotta have the right accessories when she goes out in a town like New York."

"Other than that..." Alexis grinned back. "How am I doing so far?"

"We're not doing as well as I'd like." Esposito declared.

"I know." Beckett agreed, looking at the map. "The Battery and Hell's Kitchen keep changing hands. The Dark Zone is completely out of control..."

"Yo!" Castle called from the door, sweeping in. "Kate, Espo! Someone here you should meet!"

They both spun around. Castle and Ramirez were on their way back in, and coming with them was a small crowd of strangers, well armed, and carrying crates of equipment between them.

"Castle, who are these people?" Beckett tried not to bark, but her Bullpen was filling up with people she didn't know, and she'd already fought off two invasions.

An Asian woman with a rifle slung in easy reach came up beside Castle, her eyes going straight to Esposito. "Agent Fay Lau. Strategic Homeland Division, Level Seven."

Esposito saluted, his contacts confirming her story as an overlay with her training and access came up. "Agent Javier Esposito, Second Wave, Level Eight. Glad to know we're not alone." He made introductions. "Captain Beckett, 12th Precinct."

Lau nodded. "Captain. You're to be commended in keeping your people together. Most Precincts have already been burned right to the ground."

While they started comparing notes, Castle slid over next to his wife. "Came across something interesting outside. We should talk."

Castle had laid out everything he had seen while outside. Including the Treatment Plant, and the moment he was captured.

"Okay, before we get to the other thing, I think we should agree not to tell Alexis that you were taken prisoner by the Mob, or she'd never let you out of her sight again." Beckett began seriously.

"Agreed." Castle nodded seriously.

"And we won't even mention the Dark Zone, but on that note..." She pounced forward and pulled him into a tight hug, kissing his face all over tenderly. "Are you okay?"

"Not an experience I ever wish to share with you or Alexis." He made her look at him. "Promise me. Nothing personal, Kate; but if the 12th ever has business in the Dark Zone, you make sure that everyone but you and Alexis get sent there first, okay?"

"I promise. Now, the Treatment Plant? Why were you there at all?" Beckett demanded. "What were you looking for?"

"The Timeline. At least, on the topic of water." Castle said quickly."There's something that doesn't add up."

Beckett looked at him carefully. "Is this because of how I reacted to you and Alexis? Because what I said about how this isn't cop work any more..."

"You were right, it isn't." Castle agreed ruefully. "But there are still plenty of mysteries to solve. For example, the water went off all over the place on the same day, and fairly early into the emergency, right?"

"Right."

"We assumed it was breakdown, because the entire staff was out sick, but it looks to me like it was done deliberately."

"Esposito thought it might have been that way." Beckett nodded. "He and Alexis were tracking the Factions that were forming. The Cleaners... They would have wanted the water off. They're determined to burn the whole city QZ to nothing."

"Nope, the recording I found was from one of the Cleaner's bodies, and it was five days later. After the water was cut off. The Cleaners tried to take over the water treatment, and got their butts handed to them. By someone organized, skilled, armed, and who could hold on to a hunk of City Infrastructure without raising enough alarms that we'd have heard about it. Communications were spotty, but we would have heard something if a hostile force had taken over the plant."

Beckett was slightly perturbed. "So what are you sayin', Rick? You're telling me that The First Wave were the ones that shut down the water?"

"That's the only way it makes sense to me." Castle nodded.

"Doesn't track. Once they found out it wasn't a water based virus, why wouldn't they turn it back on?"

"I've been listening to The Cleaner's recordings for over an hour. Whoever took the Treatment Plant tried to stop the spread by shutting it down, and then when they realized it wasn't water borne, they didn't even try to get it back. They filled up a truck with drinking water and drove off. Now, I don't know if the guys described on this tape are part of the Division, but I do know that they were all dressed in winter combat gear, and they were all using high caliber weapons. It looked like high level, but still standard issue stuff."

"Like a uniform." Beckett considered.

"I also know that they didn't take any casualties. None."

That got Kate's attention. "They could have taken their bodies..."

"Nope. Blood patterns all say the that fatalities were all coming from one direction. So either all the people shot in the battle happened to be facing the same way, including the ones on the opposite side..."

"So whoever took the water treatment was just that good." Beckett nodded slowly. "I go to Espo with this, and he'll tell me that we've got the wrong guy. He'll tell me that the First Wave would have had the authority to suspend the water if they thought that virus was there. He'll tell me that we don't know what happened after that. Not for sure."

"All of which is true." Castle admitted. "But is that why you don't want to go to him yet? Or is it something else?"

Beckett chewed her lip. "Castle, you know why the team we had last month was so good? It's because we were a family. You give me any situation, any problem, any objective. I could tell you how Ryan, or Espo, or you, or Lanie would have reacted to it. I wouldn't even have to ask, because they knew me just as well. But if I go to Esposito now, and say that there's something I don't trust about the Division... What will he do? Because I don't know."

"Neither do I." Castle admitted.

"Espo was so hesitant to attack the Docks three hours ago. One conversation with Lau, and he's ready for war. He doesn't trust us any more. He doesn't think NYPD can cut it in his world. And I hate to say it, but he may be right. We're down to eight people. Out of the entire Precinct... Eight."

"95%"

They both jumped, and turned to find Lau had somehow let herself in to hear them. One look at her face was all they needed to know how much of it they'd heard.

"Ninety. Five. Percent." Lau spelled it out for her. "You've done a whole lot better than most people have." She came over. "It wasn't Division. At the Water Treatment? Wasn't the First Wave, or the second. I know, because when I got activated, it was my first stop. I was trying to organize the engineers together to get the water running. We found a nest of hostiles, all wearing winter combat gear." She nodded to Castle. "It wasn't us."

"Then who was it?"

"A military unit. An experienced one. They got pulled from deployment overseas to help restore order." Lau told them, with a ironic smile. "One drawback to being top secret, you have to go through your own people sometimes. Those guys are still active, and they've got choke-points all over the city. We managed to get a bug on one, and it was less than six hours before found it and switched it off. But in those six hours, I was able to ascertain two things: One, they were military contractors, paid for their services... and two-"

Castle filled it in for her. "They realized early on that they weren't getting paid."

"So now they're just another player." Lau finished. "Possibly the most dangerous one on the board." She glanced at Castle. "You're lucky you didn't meet them. They're mostly around the northeast; but they've got people in the Subways, the Dark Zone, and the Infrastructure."

"Your people reporting on that?"

"They used to. Found the Drop Points all over the city. But..."

"The Agents in question are gone." Beckett finished. "They gave up?"

"Never."

"They died?"

"Must have, though I have no idea who did it." Lau sighed. "That's actually why I came in here. Esposito tells me you're good at spotting more that one mystery in the deaths of people. He tells me that you two often find something a lot deeper than who pulled the trigger." She shrugged. "I was hoping, since you weren't Division yourself, that maybe you'd spotted something we missed."

"I don't know if you noticed, Agent Lau, but there's a pretty big pile of bodies out there. Attrition would-"

"Would take a lot of my people, I know." Lau agreed. "But my people were trained for this set of circumstances exactly. Whatever happened to the First Wave, it wasn't attrition or gang violence, or even the Plague, because there would be at least a few survivors. There would have to be, because it was exactly what First Wave Agents are expecting."

"So whatever took them down, it was something... unexpected." Castle thought aloud.

"For people like us, that's not a long list." Lau agreed.

Beckett gave Castle a look, using their private telepathy that only married couples had. She's keeping us out of what's important, isn't she?

Castle barely shook his head. She's asking us to investigate a multiple homicide. It's what we do, but it's not what they do.

Beckett turned to Lau. "We'll look into it." She promised.

Hayley kept drilling Alexis on everything from how to use the fancy Division equipment to what their code signals meant. That much Alexis picked up almost as fast as Hayley could teach it. Working in a team was a little trickier. They didn't have much of a team until Lau's people showed up.

They didn't have much equipment either. Hayley and Esposito had their own Division Tech, but that wasn't enough to outfit a full team. Lau had more, but she'd been battling the Concrete Jungle for most of the last two weeks, and nobody was game to take what she had left.

Alexis was working on one of her tests, field stripping a weapon, when Hayley led Faye Lau in and introduced them.

"This is Alexis Castle. She is my... apprentice, for lack of a better term."

Lau shook Alexis' hand and looked a little closer at her face. "She has Contacts."

"My spare set." Hayley nodded. "I don't have an Initiation set, obviously."

"They are useful little things, aren't they?" Alexis added with a grin.

Lau nodded reasonably. "So, tell me Alexis, how many people did I bring in with me?"

"Five." Alexis said promptly. "But the way they all move? You were trying to give the impression it was a lot more than that. That's why they keep moving. You didn't get here from anywhere else in the city unless you can move a whole lot quieter than that."

Hayley smirked proudly at Lau, who gave a grudging nod. "Welcome to Level Zero, Miss Castle. Once we establish a proper Base, we'll see about getting you logged into the system with your own gear."

Beckett was checking the sights on her weapon when she noticed Castle looking at his watch. "Are you in a hurry?"

"I'm on a deadline. I told you about my run in with the mob?"

"You started to when Lau came in. What happened with the shark-woman?"

"The one that had me tied up? I didn't get her name." Castle admitted. "But I did get one tidbit. I know who's running the Families now. The ones that are left, anyway."

"So there's been a shakeup." Beckett put in, suddenly a cop again.

"A big one. The major players all survived. My guess is, they haven't personally handled money in a while." He smirked. "The mid level guys and the enforcers all went with the Outbreak. They've been scrambling, trying to consolidate their people into something that can stand up to the Factions. The one in the lead is named Nico Giovanni. He was in hiding when it all happened, and then looked up and found out the rest of the board was nearly empty."

"Did Dino have any influence over him?"

"Practically his godfather, if you know what I mean." Castle seemed pleased with himself. "You ready for this? His people have been hiding on the edge of the Dark Zone. Both sides of it."

Beckett let out a low whistle. "And they're still alive? Tough guys."

"Tell me about it." Castle admitted.

Beckett noticed the shadow cross his face. "It was bad, then?" She said quietly, putting her arms around him. They'd been doing that a lot for each other lately.

"I swear, Kate. I've been 'Master of the Macabre' for my entire adult life, but the Dark Zone... it was just... Like taking a crocodile nest, putting it in a Gladiator pit, adding a full blown warzone, and then setting loose an Asylum full of deranged killers and madmen." He snuggled into her hair for a moment. "I saw so many bodies... I hate to think on it too hard, but it wouldn't surprise me if there were full blown cannibals in there."

Beckett shivered hard. "It was the most upscale, high rent part of the world's top MegaCity. Less than a month later, and they're willing to eat each other."

"Alright, people." Esposito called for attention again. "To bring you up to date on the current situation: Yes, we have reinforcements from The Division."

This little announcement was met with a round of applause. Things had been getting tense since the last attack.

"Agent Lau and her team have been locating civic and public works leaders and employees. We weren't the only ones to stay and try and to make it work." Beckett put in, taking over the briefing. "Obviously, Lau wants to get a Beachhead for The Division to sent in the cavalry too. She had three sites, Esposito's pick was the best option. The newcomers will be joining us on the strike force."

Esposito gave a nod. "That's right. Now, this next part is rumor control: Yes, Lau was organizing everyone who was left into a Joint Task Force. Those civil leaders were organizing a food and supply drop, when they went missing. There were reports of gunfire exchanged, but there was no sign of any bodies. The assumption is that they were taken prisoner, but we don't know by who."

"Are they priority?" Someone asked.

"One of many." Beckett commented dryly. There was a general groan around the room at that statement. "Saving their lives is important, since they can get us an infrastructure back, just like securing the Docks are the top priority, just like finding a cure, just like getting the works back online, just like, just like, just like."

"We've had the docks under surveillance for the last few days, we've got about as much intel as we're going to get from there." Esposito declared. "We'll have three teams. Team One will be me and my fireteam, Team Two will be Lau and the people she brought in. Team Three is Captain Beckett and the NYPD."

"Assuming we win, how long will it take to get more of your people in?" Alexis asked.

Lau raised an eyebrow at the use of the phrase 'your people', but didn't comment on it when she answered. "The Third Wave has a staging area in Brooklyn. They'll be watching for anything from a satellite uplink to a smoke signal. Less than a day after we take the lace, the Chelsea Docks will be Camp Hudson." She glanced at beckett. "I'm assuming you don't want a hundred of us based here for the duration."

"I still can't believe I'm begging the feds to take over." Beckett snorted.

"We're getting ready to move." Esposito said. "We'll ship out for Chelsea early, get there just after dawn. We attack from the east, we'll have the sun behind us."

Beckett nodded. "We'll be ready, sir."

She was so frosty that there were icicles hanging from the whiteboard. Esposito knew that everyone in the room was aware of the tension, and wrapped up the briefing quickly. "Check in with Agents Shipton and Lau for details on the attack plan."

"You have to handle the problem with Kate." Castle told Esposito quietly.

"No kidding. What I'm not sure about is how to do that." Esposito said. "You know her better than anyone. Is she pissed about the secret, or about the fact that I'm not NYPD any more?"

"She's pissed because she can't bring Lanie and Ryan and everyone else back." Castle said solemnly. "It's like with her mom's case. When she can't see the solution, she goes over the facts as they happened, over and over, looking for the one thing that she can take by the throat and strangle a confession out of."

"And lucky me, I'm the One Thing." Esposito agreed grimly. "Okay. Well, might as well get it over with."

Beckett was checking her weapon in the shooting range. Over to the side, Hayley was taking Alexis through one last drill. Then Esposito and Castle came in. Alexis made eye contact with Esposito, eyes shifting to Beckett. Esposito gave her a look, and Castle came over to his daughter, giving Esposito and Beckett some space.

Beckett saw the whole thing playing out without even turning her head, and started shooting, firing five rounds, right to left, across the paper target's throat in a straight line.

"Say, Beckett..." Esposito said casually. "Feel like a quick dance? It's been a while."

Castle and Hayley knew what it meant and looked over, almost holding their breath.

Beckett knew what he was asking for too, and met his gaze head on. "You sure you dance with me, today of all days?"

"Better to get it out if the way before the gunfight." He nodded.

Beckett's eyes flashed. "Alright." She agreed coolly. "Let's dance."

The people who knew what was going on quickly closed the sparring room. Beckett and Esposito took their time, wrapping their wrists and knuckles, shedding their heavy overcoats.

She struck first. Three shots, one after another. Jab-jab-jab. Esposito blocked them, and spun around on his feet like a dancer, turning the spin into a toss. Beckett was able to get clear of that, lashing out harder. She was fury, and he was cold calculation. They fought like a firestorm hitting a glacier.

"So, when did it start?" Beckett asked after escaping a fairly devious judo hold. "Because the point of a Sleeper is that you don't know what they can do. Marines?"

"I never lied about being a Marine. I was with them for a year, and then got promoted to Special Forces."

"After a year? Is that unusual? Not even a full tour."

"It is, because I wasn't promoted so much as 'under observation'. I trained with Special Forces for a while, and then halfway through I got a different offer."

Beckett swung on him a lot harder than she needed to. He blocked her strike so fast she didn't even see him move.

"Just out of curiosity, your old buddies in the Corps, did they ever know?"

"Beckett, a lot of them are doing stuff they can't tell me about either." He retorted.

"I'm just running our whole career through my head." She growled. "For example, last year? That guy with hostages in the subway? Ryan was jumping through hoops finding out what he was sick with. But you stayed in the subway car and handled it yourself. Why do I think you saw more than you let on?"

Esposito set his jaw. "I... may have known more about his symptoms than was obvious on the cameras. It seemed like I should stay where I was."

"And, to take another example?" Beckett kept going. "When I was with the Feds, briefly? There was a case in New York that I couldn't talk about. How much did you know?"

"My sources aren't that... forthcoming, but I had a few details. Nothing you didn't know already."

"Bracken?" Beckett hissed, with a whole conversation loaded in the one word.

"I didn't know." He promised. "I found out when you did."

"Really? All your Presidential-ly assigned power and you're telling me you didn't know when a someone at his level was-"

"Beckett, I was a Sleeper. You know what that means. Nobody was going to help me. None of my people would even acknowledge me. Hayley and I didn't even know the other was also..."

"One of you?" Beckett challenged. She took the moment to lunge forward and toss Esposito over her shoulder, slamming him hard into the mat. "There's nobody more loyal to the team than people like us, Javi. And now I find out that you were never really 'my team'... I don't know if I can believe what you're saying."

Esposito quickly reversed the hold and rolled them both over, pinning her down hard. "Well, now you know how it feels." He shot back.

"Ex-Cuse me!?"

"How long did it take you to admit that you and Castle were an item?"

"That was different."

"Why? Because you were trying to keep something private? Because you didn't know that it was going to stick and it didn't affect us or concern us until something changed? Does any of this sound familiar?" He bit out. "Loyalty? You want to talk to me about loyalty? Castle was our friend, and every time you and he were on the outs, me and Ryan threw him under a bus until you said it was all forgiven. We never asked for an explanation, or for gratitude. We just waited for you to tell us it was okay to speak to a close friend. For all that, we didn't even get to the wedding, and that was after you never told us that you were finally together. You want to talk to me about loyalty?" He gave her a swift chop and put her down hard. "Me and Ryan were demoted from 'your team' to your backup singers when he showed up."

"It's not the same thing!" She snapped, trying to break loose.

He kept her pinned. "Why not?"

She was silent a long moment, and slapped the mat, surrendering the round. "Because this week is different." She said finally when he let her up. "All the stuff I did? It may have been unfair, but the world was a fairer place back then. Fairer than this, at least. Be honest: When did you know how bad it was?"

Esposito was silent a long moment. "Day One." He confessed. "I called it in."

"And then you went into hiding. With Alexis, sure. You kept her safe, and I'm glad for it. But I know about the code Castle sent. If you never got that message, would you have even tried to help any of us until your damn watch lit up?"

"I don't need you telling me how cold that is." Esposito barked. "Ryan's gone. Lanie's gone. Most of New York is gone-"

"-and I went through it without you!" Beckett snapped.

That once caught him off guard.

"Javi, I get why you went quiet, and I get why you didn't tell me sooner... But you know why this is pushing my buttons."

He did. "Captain Montgomery."

"It turned out The Captain knew about my mom's case since before I even became a cop, and..." She grit her teeth. "Javi, I know you loved Lanie and Ryan, probably more than I did, but if I find out that you had information that might have saved their lives, I'll kill you dead."

"And if I find out that you're keeping secrets from me in the middle of all this? I've got the authority to bust you down to latrine-digger." He shot back. "Because you're right. All the usual games? None of it means a damn."

Beckett put down her fists. "No, it really doesn't."

Esposito sighed and glanced at the door. "Look... Show of faith?"

Beckett nodded.

"I haven't told anyone this. Not even Hayley and Alexis."

Beckett hesitated. "You understand I'm not mad about being left out of the clubhouse."

"I do."

"Then go ahead."

Esposito glanced around and leaned in closer. "Quarantine has already failed."

Kate paled. "How bad?"

"Outbreaks in four different states and three other countries so far. That was the last I heard before communications went down. Hayley had a HAM Radio, but it went offline before she could confirm. Lau's information is out of date too. If I want more info, I have to take Chelsea Docks."

She gave him a single nod. "Then let's go take Chelsea Docks." She hesitated. "Javi... Are we still on the same side?"

"Of course we are." Esposito promised.

Beckett toweled off. Her voice suddenly dropped, vulnerable for the first time. "Could we have saved them?"

Esposito smiled, just a little. "I wanted you to join up. Did Hayley tell you that?"

"She did."

"This is why. You never concede defeat about anything."

Beckett shook her head. "I shouldn't be Division, for that very reason. My time with the Feds proved it. Some games you have to lose. Or else why does The Division exist?"

Esposito nodded, conceding that point. He let his voice drop too, showing the raw pain of the entire week. "They train you not to get too close to anyone or any place... It didn't work. I love this city. I love it so much. I love the people in it. Especially the 12th."

Especially you. He didn't say it. He didn't have to. Beckett almost, ALMOST shed a single tear, but she fought it back. "I love it too."

"Then lets go take it back."

"I still don't know why I got so mad at him." Beckett admitted to her husband later in private. "I get 'need-to-know'. I get that the whole point of The Division is that you hope you never get the call. And if anything should make it okay, it should be the end of the world!" She rubbed her red eyes. "So why can't I stop sniping at him like a spoiled teenager?" She almost laughed into his shoulder. "I told him point blank that I didn't want to be in his club. And I don't. So why am I reacting like this?"

"Because that's not what you're mad about at all." Castle rubbed her back as he held her. "You're mad about the fact that your city got hit with a plague that you couldn't even understand, let alone fight. You're mad about the fact that the day you discovered it existed was also the day you lost five loved ones, and it all happened without you even being there to watch. You're mad about the fact that you worked so hard to protect the innocent and punish the guilty and now both those words are fast becoming meaningless. You're pissed because you spent the biggest, nastiest week in New York History locked up in your office, downed by, of all things, the flu."

"Yeah, but there's nothing I could have done about any of that and-"

"And I bet that pissed you off dramatically." Castle said agreeably. "A control freak like you?"

"You think I'm taking it out on Esposito?" Kate sighed.

"Frankly, I'm jealous. You used to take it out on me." Castle teased. "It made the sex crazy awesome, as I recall."

"Oh, that's more than I needed to know." A voice winced.

They both turned to see Alexis was in the doorway to the office. She had been about to knock discreetly. Both Castle and Beckett turned away for a moment, very embarrassed.

"We're ready to go." Alexis told them lightly. "You, um... I don't know who's coming with us, but we're moving out."

"Oh, I'm coming with you." Beckett snorted. "Don't think for a second that I'm not." She turned to Castle. "Is there any point asking you not to come?"

"Let me think about it..." Castle tapped a finger dramatically against his lips, 'thinking' hard. "The two most important people in my world are running into danger. Do I want to go and try to help, or stay home and knit?"

Alexis looked to Beckett, asking the question without saying a word.

"I saw that." Castle pounced. "If you two are going to start teaming up against me in the field too..."

"It's not that, dad. This isn't like with Police Work." Alexis argued. "We aren't going out there to pull off some grand denouement. This isn't the arrest at the end of a whodunit. This is a strike force. I've been training for that. Beckett has too. You've been with them for eight years, but you haven't been training with SWAT or anything. You've been learning how to solve mysteries. There aren't any mysteries here. We're going there specifically to attack hungry, brutal people, and to get shot at in return."

Castle's jaw hardened. He looked to Beckett, who looked sadly back at him. "She's right, babe." Beckett said quietly. "This isn't what we do. In this game, last one to shoot wins."

Castle looked promptly ready to strangle something. "Alexis, I didn't even want you in this, and now-"

"And now... what?" Beckett put herself between him and Alexis. "You're mad that she doesn't want her daddy there for her first time?"

"Not my first." Alexis said softly. "I already have one 'kill'. Maybe two. I haven't seen the guy I got since we routed the attack on this place."

Heavy silence.

"Rick..." Beckett said softly. "You said yourself, you were on a deadline. You have to meet Nico Giovanni..."

"You two are ganging up on me!" Castle blurted, looking from his wife to his daughter in disbelief. "Partners, Kate."

"This isn't police work!" Kate argued. "This is war!"

"But you're still going! You're my wife, and you were my partner before that! Maybe this isn't what we joined up for, but I'm stepping up, just like you and Alexis!"

"Rick, you can't come anyway." Beckett told him. "I don't know how long this battle is going to take, but it's not like you can take a cab to your thing."

"Dad, if you can get some reinforcements for us, you'll save my life a dozen times. You come with us instead, you'll save my life only once at most, and might easily die doing it." Alexis added.

Castle deflated, almost sinking in on himself. "The pain of it is, that sounds totally realistic... And yet I'm certain you're humoring me."

"I just hope Dino's people are willing to talk." Beckett said seriously. "Because I can spare some people to get you to them, but I don't dare leave them out when we go to the Docks."

"Don't risk your numbers for the strike." Castle shook his head. "I'll go on my own."

"No." Alexis said instantly. "Dad, take my word for it, you don't last long on your own. There's plenty of wolves out there."

"The timing will have to be good. I want my escort teams back just in time for the strike." Beckett told her husband. "So you better go now. Get them on the team, or at least get them in their own territory. If they won't fight with us, at least make sure we can put our backs to them."

Castle nodded, having his marching orders. "Right." He collected his jacket and did it up tightly. "Mask?"

Alexis held up her gas mask. "You want mine? Police issue."

"So is his." Beckett put in and went to the door. "Ramirez!" She called into the bullpen. "You and Artie are on escort duty. Get Castle to the edge of the Dark Zone; and keep your head on a swivel." She turned to Alexis. "You got a vest?"

Alexis nodded, knocking her knuckles on her stomach. She was already wearing it.

Beckett grinned like a shark. "Then lets go get your team and show a few wolfpacks what we can do."

Castle suddenly realized what Alexis had been angry about for eight years. His wife kissed him, his daughter hugged him tightly, and they turned to go. Castle felt his chest hurting as he watched them leave. His beautiful women. His whole world, marching off to war without him.

"Alexis." Castle called after his daughter.

She looked back.

"You're the wolfpack." He told her seriously.

Alexis felt her shoulder's straighten as she strode out into the street. Damn straight we are.

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