Close Encounters 27

She could smell the ground turkey browning in the pan, but she had set it on low; she had some time. Colin Hunt had collapsed back into the couch and soon fallen asleep, while she and James were cuddled into the armchair. She knew there was something Colin wasn't telling them, something that made him antsy and irritated, but she was too tired to get at it, to tease it out of him.

She was just too tired.

James's little fingers played with her hair, his head coming up from time to time as if he was looking around, and then curling back up with her. She stroked her fingers around and around the shell of his ear, her knees drawn up at his back. She had tried to put him down twice to start the spaghetti sauce, but he had clung to her.

And, okay, yes, she might be clinging to him as well.

Kate tilted her head back and closed her eyes, the warm weight of her baby at her chest, and she tried to memorize this moment. The snuffle of his breathing, the restless wriggle of his body in sudden twitches and then the settling down again. He had a bump on his forehead under the soft fall of dark hair, probably from running around today.

"Mama," he murmured.

He liked to call her name today. He wasn't much for talking, though they often caught him babbling to himself in his bed after a nap. But this was a kind of claiming, she thought, calling her name so that he had her attention.

She didn't mind, not today. It wasn't something she wanted to encourage in the future, and Colin Hunt must think James was a brat, but she'd indulge her son to give him some security.

When she had to leave-

The house alarm whined and clicked off.

James's head went up, eyes open wide and looking first at the door and then at her. "Dada?"

"Yeah, that's Daddy coming home," she smiled. "I hope. Could be Mitch. But let's go with Daddy."

James gripped her shirt and scrambled down, running for the door before she could stop him. She had to struggle up to try and catch him, and then the door opened to Castle.

He did a double-take but squatted down and grabbed James in one arm, stood again as he came inside with the boy. James patted his chest and beamed at Kate, as if proud of what he'd brought home.

"Yeah, there's Daddy." She stepped into the entry but Castle came straight to her, wrapped his free arm around her neck. He dragged her into him, kissed her temple.

"You look tired, love."

"Would everyone stop telling me that?" she muttered.

"Sorry. Not sorry," he rumbled at her ear. James was squirming around between them and Castle stepped back, releasing her. "What do I smell?"

She wrinkled her nose. "Dinner. Damn. I hope it didn't burn-"

"No, not burned. Not yet." He gave her a crooked smile and glanced past her shoulder towards the couch. "He - uh - okay?"

"Asleep, I think," she said, shrugging. Castle nodded and shifted James to his other side.

"Come with me? I'll fill you in while I finish dinner."

She followed him into the kitchen through the dining room, gripping his arm as she stepped over the baby gate after him. Sasha greeted him just inside the kitchen, her tail wagging, her patience at his delay just beginning to falter. Castle stooped down and rubbed her ears, setting James on his feet as well.

Kate moved to the kitchen counter beside the oven, tipped the lid on the pot to look inside. The meat was fine, actually, so she hadn't burned dinner yet.

Castle stood and went to the sink, opening the faucet to wash his hands. James ran through the kitchen back to the dining room, Sasha - for once - not chasing after him but dancing close to Castle at the sink. Kate lifted her foot and rubbed her toes across Sasha's back, getting a look for it from the dog before their wolf went back to begging Castle for attention.

"Rick, I'll do this. Play with Sasha."

He gave her a look. "She just wants turkey meat," he said, shaking his head as he flicked water off his fingers. He dried with the clean towel and came back to her at the counter, moving her aside. "Were you thinking chili or spaghetti?"

"Spaghetti. Too hot outside for chili," she murmured.

He was nodding and already moving for the pantry to collect ingredients.

"You said you were gonna fill me in?"

"I've got Espo watching Diane Jolin's place with NSA's surveillance team," he started. Sounded like he'd been holding back for her. She folded her arms and waited on him. On the counter, Castle deposited organic canned tomato sauce that they'd bought at the farmers' market only a few weeks ago.

"Italian spices?" she asked, reaching for the cabinets. At his nod, she pulled down the old stand-bys - oregano and basil - and added rosemary and celery seed, two extras that Castle had started putting into their sauce.

"We're still waiting on video of Jolin," he told her, "but her crew has been gathering records from the Military Archives here in New York."

"Coonan?"

"Yeah, and three others. But not the whole team, which gives us hope."

She nodded, but her heart was still sick. "Only a matter of time."

"Why?" he said.

"Why what?" she said, staring over at him.

"Why's it only a matter of time? Nothing out there to connect Coonan to any of those other guys."

"But you do connect to me," she said quietly.

"But she's not going to have the military connection to me. Coonan, Doyle, Collins, and Poe. That's it, Kate. Their records have been scrubbed clean so many times not even I could find the right way up."

"But I'm the one who-"

"Who killed him, as a police detective in self-defense, about twenty years after the program."

"The police detective married to you," she hissed.

"Me," he reminded her, nudging her hip with his as he emptied tomato sauce into the second pan. "Your accountant husband who was raised by his actress mother, led a bohemian lifestyle which prevented a lot of records, but who was never in the Persian Gulf with Dick Coonan."

She closed her mouth, her frown pressing deep. He kept straightening things out; she found tangles and knots, and he made it smooth so easily, with just a few words.

"Kate, the connections are there for us, of course they are - we can fill in the gaps. But the information that Jolin has found - according to her emails-"

"Emails," she gasped, slapping his arm. "You never said you had email access."

He winked. "No? Pretty sure I did."

"Castle," she complained, groaning as she leaned her forehead against his shoulder. She felt him chuckle and his hand come up to cup the back of her head. "It's not funny."

"It's a little funny. Plus, I thought you were reading the alerts."

"I was. James got squishy."

"Squishy?" he laughed.

"He's squishes all down against me. Fits himself into me."

Castle laughed harder, squeezed the back of her neck. "You're hilarious, babe."

"And you've just been freaking me out for the last-"

"You're not freaked, are you?" he murmured. "We've got a handle on this. It's going to be just fine."

She lifted her head to glare at him, a strange panic welling up in her guts at the thought that Castle didn't find this as important as she did, that he wasn't taking this seriously.

"It's not fine," she said. "Diane Jolin knows me as the original human experiment for the regimen, but it's not me, Castle. It's you. It's our son-"

He gripped her shoulders, his eyes staring straight into her own. "Kate. Kate, slow down. Honey, we know that, but she doesn't. She thinks Coonan and that military group were it, that they were an unmitigated disaster."

She chewed on her lower lip, tried to find the center truth in the gnarled facts of this case. "But Castle. She knows me from Paris. She saw my face in Paris, called me by name. John Black said that he told her it was me who damaged him, and when she came to talk to me - she wanted to warn me about the regimen. She thinks it's me."

"But Kate, that doesn't mean she knows anything about me," he insisted. His fingers gripped her shoulders a little tighter. "Hey. Stop. Please, just stop. You look like you're - losing it here, Kate."

She pressed the heels of her hands into her eyes. "We should - we need to send Colin Hunt home."

"I - well - yes. I don't want him here. But. You want to send him home-home? As in an international flight?"

"Yes," she said, dropping her hands.

He stared at her.

And I could go with him.

She opened her mouth to say it, but the words wouldn't escape her. If she said it, then he knew and he'd stop her. He'd stop her and she had to leave before Jolin destroyed everything she loved.

Everything she loved always-

"Kate," he husked. "What's going on in your head?"

She was panicking. This was a panic attack. Her heart was thumping, sweat pricked her palms, but the usual intensity wasn't there in the physical symptoms. No, it was all in her brain's death spirals.

"I was going to leave you," she admitted, lifting horrified eyes to his.

His face went white. "You what?"

"Not leave you but leave you both, leave, I was going to - leave. I - oh, God. Castle." She twined her arms around his neck and pressed her face against him, shaking with the release of having spoken it out loud.

"Leave?"

"Just to - get her away from you both," she whispered, eyes closing. "That was so stupid. I'm so sorry. I wouldn't - no, fuck, I would. That's the problem. God, I just-"

"Kate, I was going to leave you first."

She jerked back, arms falling from him. He looked sick.

She felt sick. "Leave me?"

Castle bowed his head, hands in fists.

"Mama?"

Kate turned blindly towards her son, but he found her before she could even orient, all of her heart still on the kitchen floor at Castle's feet.

James crawled up into her arms even as she bent down for him; she pressed her cheek to the top of his head, standing up with him.

"It was a stupid idea," Castle's voice cracked. "A fucking stupid idea and I'm sorry. Kate. I'm sorry, but don't you leave me either."

He showed her the duffle bag.

They stood on the street with the back door of the Land Rover open to the night and James curled in his arms like a lamprey - squishy indeed - and he showed her the duffle bag.

She was still shaking.

"What - did you think - what were you going to be doing with all this firepower?" she whispered.

"Take her down. Quietly."

"This isn't quietly."

He cleared his throat, feeling James's fingers at his neck as if to catch the swallow. "I apologize. Quietly was imprecise. Unofficially."

"No. You can't."

"I - see that now." He released one hand from the boy and caught her fingers, tugging until they laced together, forcing that connection. "We both - are thinking along the same lines, Kate."

"You were going to murder someone," she hissed.

"You were going to leave me."

She bit her lip. The night was muggy with summer heat; she was only in jeans and a t-shirt, sandals she'd shoved on at their front door. She looked heartbreaking and young and he'd done this to her.

"It's my fault that Jolin is here. She-"

Before Kate could open her mouth to claim her own share of the responsibility for this, his phone alert went off. They both fell silent, but he didn't let go of her hand, couldn't let go of James.

"Would you?" he murmured.

She used her free hand to reach into his back pocket for his phone, their bodies close and brushing, points of contact, the baby quiet between them. James was laidback and he was solemn and stubborn, but this was new for him. He felt limp and - squishy. He really did. Melding his body to his father's.

Castle didn't know what that meant, except that they were affecting their kid.

Kate pulled out his phone. "Espo. He sent you a video."

"Play it," he said grimly, his mind snapping back to the case at hand.

Kate glanced to the open duffle bag. "We are not leaving that out on the street. I don't care how good this car's security system is - that should be in the panic room."

"Fine. Grab it and lock it up for me? We'll play the video in the house."

She patted James's back, a brushing kiss against the boy's cheek as she moved towards the car. He watched her repack his arsenal inside the duffle; he didn't miss the moment she found the passports.

"Two."

"Kate, I-"

"You were going to send me away with James."

"Yes."

"You knew you'd be in trouble."

"Yes. If - sometimes this is what it takes."

"This isn't how we live our life together," she said fiercely, rounding on him with both passports in her hand. She slapped them against his chest. "We don't do this."

"You already said it, Kate. She knows you. And you're my life. She knows you."

Her expression said it all. He knew, and she knew, and it was just how they were. About each other. It was that stupid short story about the watch and the combs and selling everything just to make a gift of life to the other one.

"Take James inside," she said finally. "I've got this."

He stepped back up to the sidewalk, watching her as she moved, his phone sticking out of her back pocket, her hair sliding against her cheeks. He didn't take James inside; he waited on her. They did this together.

When she had the duffle bag strapped to her back and the car alarm was silently activated, she turned and saw him still standing there. Instead of saying something about his disobedience, instead of mentioning the fact that they were the same in this - it went unspoken now anyway - she reached into her back pocket and pulled out his phone.

"Right here, then?"

"Please," he murmured. If it showed him what he suspected, he wanted those weapons - and Kate - close at hand.

He had it programmed so that her thumbprint unlocked his phone, and she entered the passcode after that for second user access. Her hair had fallen forward and hidden her face, the short strands often dislodging from behind her ear. Castle held James, the boy they were going to end up nicknaming Squishy after today, he could feel it coming, and he softly rubbed his son's back.

Kate played the video, stepping in against his side to angle the phone towards him as well. He watched as the frames resolved and moved forward.

Diane Jolin came walking out of the front doors of the motel, striding forward like she'd never been touched. Her jacket was blood red and her lips were two thin slices of red, lipstick slightly smudged at one corner; her hair was a tight knot at the nape of her neck, shot through with silver.

"Her hair's white," Kate gasped.

"That's what troubles you?" Castle growled, lifting a hand from James's back to grab the phone. "Beckett, she's walking."

"She's walking," she repeated dumbly. "Her coat isn't buttoned correctly. Her lipstick is - crooked. That day on the bench in Paris is - something of a blur - but this wasn't her. Her hair wasn't so..."

"She's walking, Kate. I shot her through the knees not more than a few months ago, and she's walking."

"She's... lost it," Kate blinked. "She's crazy. Oh, God, Castle. She's taken the regimen."

Exactly. "She's taken the regimen."

"That's what I was afraid of," he grimaced.

Kate followed him back inside the house, heard the locks and alarm click on. James's head perked up from Castle's shoulder, his eyes following their trek through the dining room and back into the kitchen.

The spaghetti sauce was bubbling; Kate reached for their son and leaned against the counter with him, waiting on Castle.

"It's good though, right?" he said finally.

"What's good."

"She's crazy, and anyone can tell. There was chatter about her doing this unsanctioned, and if she injected herself with whatever prototype they've got - clearly it's healed her gunshot wounds - but it's also put her right off the reservation." He was stirring the sauce and moving it off the burner, but he gave her a quick look over his shoulder for confirmation.

"Maybe," she admitted.

"That's good for us," he promised. "She sounds crazy, looks crazy - therefore whatever truth she digs up has to be looked at by the Collective with a fair amount of skepticism. In fact, they may think she's gone so far around the bend-"

"That she's not reliable," Kate finished. Her heartbeat had resumed something of a more normal pace, but her arms were shaking with weariness - and now that she thought about it, probably the remnants of that silent panic attack. She moved to put James down but he clung to her shirt, tried to climb back up.

She gave up and sat on the kitchen floor with him. James scrambled back into her arms and sucked on his bottom lip, giving her a look before he put his head back down on her shoulder.

"We make him sad," she whispered.

"What?"

She glanced up. "Do you think the Collective is ignoring her? Or will they send people after her to clean up her messes?"

"Probably clean it up. Which means we need to be clear of it. So yes, I would like to get you and James out of here, but only as far as I'm willing to go."

"All of us," she insisted.

"All of us," he insisted right back. His hand came to the top of her skull, fingers tapping.

She tilted her head against the cabinets to look up at him. "Where can we go? I don't want to lead Jolin or the Collective to any of our places. Not my dad's cabin either."

"No, I don't either."

"Shit, his apartment is public record as being ours. Is there-"

"I have a team on him, remember? We talked about this."

"Oh, good. I remember the talk, just didn't know if it got done. But we can't hide out here - not inside the city limits. Not while Jolin's hunting through archives and-"

"You're right," Castle said easily. "And I had a place in mind."

"Share with the class?"

"I - um - bought you something. Kinda huge."

Her jaw dropped; she stared up at him. "What. What's kinda huge?"

"It's an island," he winced.

"Holy fuck. Rick Castle."

"Uck!"

Kate startled, glancing at her son. She'd forgotten for a moment that he was here. Not that she hadn't known she was sitting on the floor of her kitchen with her baby in her arms, but just his - presence - had softened to something indistinct. But now he was scrambling off her lap and trying to get to his feet, a little unsteady, so she reached out and helped him catch his balance.

He ran off.

"Where's he going?"

"I don't know," she murmured, still stunned by island. But immediately after that, she heard the sharp grunt of a man in pain, and then the quiet words of Colin Hunt speaking to her son.

Castle was already jerking after them, so she got to her feet more slowly, waiting until Castle came back through with James in one arm and shoving Colin ahead of him, Sasha dogging their heels and looking about as fierce as her husband.

"Castle," she chided tonelessly. "He's wounded. For us. Don't push him around just because you can."

"He was eavesdropping. James found him out."

Colin snarled. "How the bloody hell do you expect me to find out anything going on?"

Kate rubbed her forehead, saw Castle setting James down. "We'll tell you what you need to know."

"That doesn't work for me."

"Well, you're at my mercy," she said pointedly. "So tough shit."

Hunt glared at her. "You're beautiful, but you're frustrating as hell."

Castle cuffed the back of his head and Hunt staggered forward, but she had this stupid giddy urge to laugh. Instead she reached out and caught Castle's free hand to keep it a little more occupied.

"If you two are through abusing me," Colin muttered, rubbing the back of his head and easing his good side against the counter. "I heard you coming up with a plan. And I say get the hell out of this city. Island sounds really nice about now."

"It's not for you," Castle growled.

"Castle," she said quietly. His eyes came back to her. She gestured to the boy and then to Hunt. "Colin, can you pack some essentials from his room?"

"Kate-"

She quieted her husband with a look, turned back to Hunt. "A whole bag of diapers. Clothes. You'll find a go-bag in his closet already packed, so just add more of all of that. Castle, I need your help down here."

"Look, you guys - we all - need to get away from Jolin. She's crazy. She is bloody bonkers, and nothing is going to protect you from her." He gestured to his side. "How do you think I got this?"

"We're handling it," Castle growled.

Kate kept her gaze steady on Hunt. "The sooner we're packed, the sooner we leave, right? So. Please go upstairs and help me." It wasn't really a request.

Hunt looked like he knew she was trying to get rid of him, but he sighed and slunk off. When the kitchen was theirs again, Kate shifted closer to her husband, let her smile widen, light up her face.

"You bought me an island?"

"A very small one," he muttered, his eyes sliding towards the doorway where Hunt had disappeared.

Kate put her arm around his neck, folding herself into his body and James's, stroking the soft hair at the nape of Castle's neck. "Babe. You bought me an island."

"It's a - gift," he said, his eyes coming back to her. "It was supposed to be a surprise. Romantic."

"A gift? For what?"

"For James's birthday," he husked. "For not dying. For being here so that October 17th is a day we celebrate instead of wish had never happened."

"Oh, God."

"Sorry, I'm sorry. That's not very romantic at all."

She shook her head and pressed her mouth to his, silencing him a moment. When he had subsumed into her kiss, she pulled back just enough to kiss his nose, the soft place under his eye. "It's romantic to me. Heartbreaking. But very sweet. You bought me an island."

"With a little house on it. You said one time maybe you'd go to the beach with me."

"Oh, Rick."

"Will you?"

"With you? Anywhere. Anywhere at all."

They ate dinner fast, in between getting ready, though Castle had managed to get Kate to sit down at the table with James for a few minutes. She had watched the kid chew on meatballs with that wide-eyed wonder on his face, and Castle had gone up and down from the basement, Sasha following at his heels.

Kate had looked better after that time with James.

Hunt had been put to work, in his limited capacity, but Castle expected to ship the man off with one of Mitch's guys as soon as they possibly could. When James finished eating, Castle came back in and cleaned him up, and then he took him off his mother's hands, unwilling to have Kate over-extend herself.

He carried James with him as he packed, tucking underwear - Kate's, soft, they always seemed to run out of hers for some reason - into a backpack underneath the ammunition. Castle remembered that when they had done assignments here and there in Prague and Rome and Minsk, all leading up to the big mission in Russia, her hair and skin had smelled like gunpowder all the time, from her spare clothes being packed in with their weapons, and there was something erotic about it now.

The baby laid his head against Castle's shoulder, squirming, but he couldn't let the kid down in here. Not with pieces of equipment going into bags, his own weapon was at his back in the snug holster. Fuck, baby-proofing the house was complicated with two CIA agents.

He felt a sharp crunch and glanced down to find James was gnawing on his collarbone through his shirt. "Ouch, wolf. You got teeth?"

Castle pushed his thumb into James's mouth, felt along his gums. Two in the front, at the bottom. Wow.

"Hey, Kate," he shouted. She was somewhere - packing stuff, on the phone with the team outside to coordinate their departure. Island getaway, though it was close to home, just down the coast. "Kate, come see this."

"Hang on."

He rubbed his thumb against James's gums and the baby actually cried, a pitiful sound that made Castle stop. "Sorry," he whispered, kissing the top of the boy's head.

"What is it?" she said, her voice preceding her into the room.

He turned from the bed where he was attempting to zip the duffle one-handed; she came forward and held one end for him, teamwork to get it closed. "Look in his mouth."

"He's chewing on your shirt."

"My collarbone actually. Look in his mouth."

Kate glanced at him and back to the baby, came in closer to push her fingers between his shoulder and the boy's cheek. "Is he getting teeth? I thought-" She gave a startled yelp and shook out her fingers and James started to cry. "Oh, fuck. Sorry, my fault, hush, little wolf. You're okay. I didn't expect you to bite me, that's all."

He rubbed James's back while Kate kissed his cheeks, shushing him with that soft voice; James was soothed in seconds, but he reached out for her, little whimpers.

"This isn't good," she muttered, taking the baby. "Traveling with him like this?"

"Must be bad if he's crying. That's not usually him."

"He's been squishy all day," she sighed. "I thought he was just - attuned to us. Isn't that stupid? He's just a boy."

Castle kept his mouth shut; he was absolutely not going to comment on whatever he thought might be at work inside his kid's DNA. Not right now anyway.

"Do we have any numbing agents in the supplies downstairs?"

"In the panic room?" he said, startled. "Kate. We can't drug him-"

"No, the topical stuff. I rub a little on his gums."

"Can you do that to a baby?"

"Yes," she said, her lips quirking at him. "They sell baby oral gel."

"They do?"

"Promise," she hummed, shifting James again. He reached for the boy and took him back; she was too worn out for that.

"See if we do," he said, shrugging. "I'm almost through up here; I'll bring the bags down and pack the car. We'll go pick up your dad."

"Two cars," she said, insisting. "Dad and James in one."

"I don't like splitting us up."

"I don't like having my eggs all in one basket."

"What eggs?" he said, bewildered.

"Rick Castle," she muttered, rolling her eyes at him. "You have got to be kidding me."

"I - what?"

"Think it through, come back to me." She patted his chest and lifted on her toes to kiss him abruptly, and then she was gone.

Eggs in a basket? What basket? The car? If you carried the basket responsibly, didn't rush around, then the eggs would be fine. What was she talking about?

James mewled and went back to gnawing on his clavicle. Castle absently stroked his son's back and then picked up the duffle from the bed, slung it over his free shoulder.

Now to get the munitions together.

"I'll take him," she said, narrowing her eyes at her stubborn husband.

"No. You won't. Take this instead, put it between the front seats, Kate." He handed her the bag instead and she sighed, released her hold on James's arm. "Hell, this weighs more than he does."

"Yeah, but it doesn't try to squirm or bite your collarbones," Castle said, swinging James back up into his arms. True enough, James's mouth came down to start gnawing. Castle nudged her for the door.

She took her gun with her; it was that kind of feeling in their house. Colin Hunt was passed out again on the couch after she'd woken him to get him moving. He had actually fainted, Castle sneering in disdain.

We all know you've got the biggest, she had muttered to him, fed up with his macho bullshit. He had turned to her, grabbed her hard, and said, We better not all know it.

There was going to be hell to pay for her offhanded remark. Some well-deserved fierceness tonight, she was sure, though a whole island made her soft for him. Squishy as her son. Maybe she'd just take it, whatever punishment he wanted to dole out, maybe just relish it.

"Beckett, get moving, woman."

She yelled a curse cheerfully back to him and went out the front door with the heavy bag of fire power. Her phone vibrated in her pocket as she moved towards the Land Rover double parked in front of their home. At least the street was quiet since this was the last of their block. She opened the passenger door to free up a hand, answered her phone while she shoved the bag between the front seats.

"Yeah?"

"Why are you on the street?"

"Mitch?" she said, confused. He sounded like he was out of breath, running, his voice too loud. She glanced up, wondering if he was looking at her right now or if it was just the security team reporting her movements. "Mitch, where are you?"

"Coming for you. Following Jolin and her fucking goons. Oh, shit. Oh, shit."

"Mitch?" she gasped, slamming the passenger door shut and sprinting back to the front door. The security team had already materialized; Mitch must have warned them. They were yanking open her front door and Reese was dragging her inside.

"Get Echo and go," Mitchell croaked. "Fucking hell. We're pinned down."

"What?"

Castle appeared right before her in the entry, James in one arm, gun in the other hand, the team forming up around him. He reached out and grabbed her, pulled the phone towards his ear, her fingers still gripping it.

"Mitchell. Report."

She half-heard the status update - incoming, Jolin, nine guys (where had they all come from?) and she was already twisting out of the knot of protection and racing towards the couch.

"Hunt!" she snapped, yanking the blanket out from where she'd just tucked it around him. He burst into wakefulness with a shout and she gripped him by the shoulders. "Hunt, we have to go right now."

"Wha-"

"Right. Now. Get the fuck up."

"Beckett." Castle was bellowing for her; she lifted her head, realized they were the whole room apart, a whole security team between them, moving for the door. Sasha was indecisive in the middle of the living room, whining at her, ears laid back.

She set her jaw and turned back to Hunt, heard Castle cursing her but making his way back to her, completely ignoring the security team who wanted them all out of here and into cars.

"Panic room?" Castle asked with a grimace, coming to the couch and hauling Hunt up.

"We can't," she cried out. "My dad-"

"She's on her way there."

"What?"

"Mitch is tracking her - his lead car was firebombed. He's stuck-"

"Castle. Castle, she's going to my dad's?"

"She's nearly there."

"No," she choked. "No. No, I can't-"

"We're going to pick him up," Castle said fiercely. "He is right down the street. We are not leaving him behind."

"Then get a bloody move on," Hunt said weakly. She snapped her gaze to him - he was standing.

Barely.

"Where's James?"

"With Reese and the dog. Heading for the car. I've sent half the team down to your dad's place, securing the building. It might come to a firefight, Kate. What are we doing here? You have to tell me."

Her chest was tight, but she wasn't going to panic. She was okay; they were going to make it. They would make it.

"Let's get my dad." She took a quick breath, made her decision. The Land Rover was steel-reinforced, bulletproof windows. "All of us. We don't split up."

Even James.

Oh, God.

"Let's go," Castle said tightly.