Close Encounters 27
When Beckett heard the first shot, she was instantly scrambling down the tree; she got to the lowest branch, gripped with her hands and swung out, dangling into darkness.
She couldn't remember just how far the drop was, but she dropped.
And rolled, came up hard with her back against a trunk but it only rattled her. Beckett got to her feet and took off for edge of the slope, wanting high ground and the slight clearing of trees where they had been ambushed so that she could see.
She heard two more shots, sporadic, but coming from across the gully, and she couldn't remember how many rounds Castle had left in her gun.
Fuck, and he'd made her take Jolin's, which had fresh ammunition. The bastard. He'd done this on purpose; he had led the man away from her.
Something barreled into her at top speed, crashed her back into the underbrush, the air leaving her in a rush. A warm tongue, cold nose, whining, wriggling, furry - their wolf.
"Sasha," she gasped, tightening her arms around the dog. "Okay, okay, you're okay."
She had trouble hanging on to her, trouble keeping Sasha still. The dog was licking her face rather joyfully, all things considered, and Kate had the strange thought that Sasha's happiness meant Castle was okay. Sasha wouldn't be here if Castle wasn't okay.
"Let me get up," she husked into rough fur. "Let me get up and go find Castle."
Sasha whined and untangled herself, yipping in her throat in that way she had done when James had been a newborn mewling for them and Sasha didn't yet know what to do - only certain that something had to be done. It had been kind of adorable, Sasha whining and James mewling, the two of them talking to each other, call and response.
"Come on," Kate murmured, rubbing her hands over Sasha's fur to make certain she wasn't injured. "You're okay. Let's go."
She didn't try to keep her fingers under the dog's collar; she was afraid something would spook Sasha and the wolf would be back, uncontrollable, not a tame thing.
They skirted the edge of the gully - apparently the dog wasn't eager to go back down there either, Jolin's body somewhere in that glade. Kate heard one more gunshot and picked up her pace, unable to understand the pattern, no clear picture in her head of what had gone down. Or what was going down.
The moon made the darkness all that deeper, the woods moved around her, the entire forest floor was conspiring to keep her away from him.
And then just that fast, she was colliding with another body, this one hard and rigid and male.
And bleeding warmly. Hanging on to her.
"Castle," she grunted, feet tangled in the excited dog and Castle's own forward momentum. He gripped her arm and hauled her into his chest, something a little desperate to his fierce embrace.
"Kate." He sounded like he had never expected to see her again.
She was pissed. "You fucking drew him away."
"Kate. You okay?"
"Yes, but you're not. You're bleeding, you asshole, and you led him straight-"
"Made a good trail," he husked. "Shut up, Beckett, I just need to hug you."
The fight left her in a rush and she snaked her arms around his neck and went up on her toes to press her body to his. "You stupid bully," she murmured, her mouth at his ear, her cheek scratched by his scruffy beard. "You damn man."
"Love you, too, sweetheart." He was still gripping her tightly and it told on him, just how dangerous it had been, just how much he'd taken on.
She socked him in the shoulder for it - the uninjured shoulder, because she was nice - and he grunted and bit her neck, sucked a kiss right at her skin, squeezing her harder.
"You're giving me a hickey," she muttered.
He scraped with his teeth and she lifted her knee, got him in the thigh where he blocked her move. She was still pissed at him for drawing fire away from her when he had been shot, but she was never going to change him.
And he wasn't going to change her.
"I'm just lucky you're concussed," he rasped. "Makes you easy to trick."
"I hate you," she groaned. He was laughing at her now, dropping his arms from her only to rub his thumb at the place on her neck where he'd claimed her. She slapped his hands away and yet she knew he was grinning in the dark.
She was stupidly, stupidly in love with him.
"Sasha, calm down," he said then, bending over to pet the dog.
"I take it the last one is dead?" she said.
"He is."
"And you?"
"Not dead, babe."
She rolled her eyes and reached out, gripped his injured arm by the bicep, shocked to feel the hard knot, the ragged flesh, and the clotting blood. "Shit, Castle."
"It just needs to be stitched up," he said grimly. "And don't - don't knock loose the scab."
"What fucking scab?" she hissed. "It's a damn hole in your arm-"
"It's not," he said. He reached across and grabbed her hand, squeezed her fingers a little too hard. "Listen to me. You know what I am. You know how this works. Just - the sooner we get to the rendezvous, the less blood I lose."
Fucking hell.
He laced his fingers with hers and brought them to his lips, kissed her even with the blood sticky at her skin.
"Go on, Sasha," she husked, nudging the wolf with her knee. Her chest hurt. "Scout ahead."
The dog bounded out a few feet and came back to them, licked Castle's fingers, and then loped off into the trees.
Castle nudged her now, their joined hands coming up to her waist, pushing a little. "We can make better time now. Let's go."
Wasn't so bad. He was built for this - made for this quite literally - and the trek through the woods with a bullet wound in the meat of his deltoid was not that big a deal. His only issue would be blood loss, but he could still go quite a while before it felled him.
Kate had trouble picking up her feet at first, but she got into a rhythm and he didn't see her faltering. The sweat was dripping into his eyes, the dead of night and still summer out here, but they were close.
In fact, Sasha barked ahead of them, her happy-to-see-you bark, and Kate let out a long breath of relief. They picked up their pace and already they could hear boots crashing through the woods towards them.
When their team came from between the trees, fanned out in a search-party line, Sasha was bounding ahead of them, excited and proud of herself, more puppy than wolf. She came straight to Kate and danced around them; Kate took a second to bend over and rub her ears for her help.
It was Reese who got to them first. "Sir," a nod to Castle, and then one to her. "Agent Beckett."
"Reese, good to see you. Our son?" Castle said quickly. "Jim?"
"Everyone's fine. Waiting up at the bypass where it meets the road. Satellite heat signatures confirm we're the only human beings moving out here. Mitchell says hi."
"Good," Kate said, pushing ahead to get to Reese. "Take Castle to the rendezvous with a man, you three come with me. We have to drag Colin Hunt out of a hole in the ground."
"Kate-"
She snapped her fingers at him, more furious, more grief-filled than she'd been in a long time. "Do not argue with me, Rick Castle. You need stitches. And James needs to see one of our faces."
"Both of our faces."
"I promised Colin he'd see mine. I'm the one with perfect orienteering and you're the one shot. Don't even fight me on this."
Castle gritted his teeth, nostrils flared. He glanced to Reese. "Mitchell checked the satellites himself?"
"He did, sir. Yes, sir. We saw your incursion with the two in the woods, we just couldn't get to you in time."
Castle rubbed his hand down his face. "Fine. Beckett, so help me God, if you-"
"I won't," she promised, lifting on her toes and wrapping her arms around him. She put her mouth at his ear. "I promise, Castle. You do this for me, then you can trust me to do this for you. My turn to send you up a tree, babe."
"I hate this."
"Welcome to my world."
He huffed and gripped the back of her neck with his good hand, crushing their foreheads together, his eyes closing. "Fine. Fine. Go."
She kissed him hard and backed away, grabbed Reese and two of his men. "Back this way. It's a fallen tree, the hole where the root system pulled up."
Reese fell in at her side and she glanced back once to make sure Castle was leaving. He was. He was heading away with one of the security agents.
Her heart was at ease.
Castle approached the SUV and watched in grim silence as the door swung open and Jim Beckett got out. He nodded to the man to let him know everything was fine, and her father opened up the back door and pulled James out.
Shit.
James was set on his feet and he wobbled on the rough gravel of the bypass, but he was clearly eager to see Castle. He managed a few halting steps and then the dog was slinking past Castle to run to James's aid. The boy caught hold of Sasha's ruff, and together they came towards Castle.
James was beaming.
Castle got to one knee and opened his good arm, gathered James up against his chest. "Hey, wolf. You happy? You're giggling. Walking is pretty awesome, isn't it?"
James chuckled like an old man, wriggling close to his father as Castle stood up, blood dripping from the fingers of his other hand. He kissed James's cheek, smiled at the sound the kid made, kissed his neck to hear it again.
"Kate and Colin?" Jim asked, coming up to him. "Whoa, Rick. What's this? Hey, Len! Len, get over here. He needs medical treatment."
Len, apparently, came running from around the SUV, a kit in his hand and his gun holstered, thank goodness. Around his kid, shit. The dog was shying away from the security team, jumping into the back of the SUV and staying there.
Castle kept James in his grip, glanced once over his shoulder to the woods. "We had to leave Colin in a hole. Kate's leading the team back there." Castle grunted when Len started cutting the sleeve from his t-shirt. He glanced at Len and the man ignored him.
"Mama?"
"Yeah," Castle said gruffly. "Mom's coming with Uncle Colin."
"Uncle Colin?" Jim barked.
Castle flushed and glanced to Kate's father. "Kind of a joke," he said. He gave Jim a knowing look, then jerked his chin towards the security team around them. Mitchell's guys, yeah, but they were keeping the circle very limited as to who knew about John Black.
"A joke," Jim said nodding. "Just thought you hated him, so making him an uncle surprised me."
The cover was a little weak, but Len and the others didn't seem to notice. The guy who had guided Castle back to the rendezvous was conversing with Reese over walkie and not paying them any attention, plus the other two guys were standing guard in a loose perimeter.
"Yeah, well, heat of battle, right?" Castle said finally. "But I'm sure I'll go back to hating him soon enough. You guys okay here?"
"All fine. Pleasant drive through the woods. You guys make it out okay?"
"Most part. Rover's gone and I'm afraid the kid's blanket was in the car."
"But elephant's here," Jim said, nodding. "And we're all alive. So I'd call this a win."
James cuddled up to Castle, laying his head on Castle's good shoulder, his fingers scratching at his father's scruff along his jaw, over and over.
"Elephant was saved," Castle murmured, kissing James's forehead. "It's late, even for you, wolf. You wanna try to sleep?"
"I need you to sit down." Len pressed an alcohol swab deep into to Castle's wound and it made him flinch, which made James grunt in displeasure.
"Okay, shit, Len. Ease up, man. I'll sit." Castle headed for the open back of the SUV, sank down to the tailgate where he could still watch the woods. Sasha nosed into his elbow and licked James's bare toes, making the baby giggle. "Have at it, Len."
James shifted but only to snuggle in closer, fingers flicking over Castle's beard.
"Hey, soon as Mommy gets back, you need to try to sleep."
Jim sank down beside him on the SUV's tailgate, but he was on Castle's other side, not blocking his view of the woods. "What happened back there?"
"We followed the plan," Castle said tonelessly. He was used to debriefs. "Beckett - Kate - drove; we made the curve, she stopped. I got out with the RPG, fired when the pursuing vehicle came into sight. The blowback caught the Rover." Castle paused, winced as Len started stitching his shoulder without the local. He didn't need it, but it was damn uncomfortable.
"And then?"
"Hunt was already injured," Castle said, carefully editing. "He was struggling to keep up. I wasn't certain we had immobolized everyone in the pursuing vehicle, but I knew we had to put distance between us. After a mile or so, we realized we were being followed on foot."
"You're kidding. Who managed to survive that?"
"It was Diane Jolin," Castle said grimly, sliding his eyes to Len once more. Who was Len? Mitchell's friend or previous resource, some guy he'd picked up, what? Obviously, he was competent and Mitch trusted him with high-value targets, but Castle didn't know this guy.
He wasn't sharing more than he needed to.
"Jolin and one other man came after us. We took fire. Hunt was slowing us down so he opted to fall back. Beckett and I struck out together, Jolin chased after Beckett, and I had to get creative."
"And now?"
"The threat has been eliminated," Castle husked. James was a heavy, tired weight against his shoulder. It was incongruous, mission speak with his innocent boy laying on him, those little fingers flicking against his skin.
But Castle was here for him, and not dead in the damn woods; his mother would be coming out through the trees at any moment. They had made it and that's what counted.
"And now that Jolin is - gone - what are we doing? Just - going back to the city and pretending like this never happened?" Jim growled. "Just like everything else never happened? Just like-"
"No," Castle said tightly, shaking his head. "We're continuing on to the safe house - the island - and we'll stay there while Mitchell's security team cleans up for us."
Jim grunted but that quieted him.
The medical team was back in New York, not compromised so far as they could ascertain, the entire lab still under wraps. The CIA Office might have to be relocated, which was going to a massive undertaking, but Castle and his family were heading out of town for a little while.
Until they could be sure the Collective wasn't going to send someone out after their missing doctor.
"Mama."
"She's coming, wolf. Promise." He kissed the top of his son's head and held him closer, but his eyes stayed fixed on the woods.
"Lower me down," she said to Reese.
"Agent Beckett-"
"I'm the lightest. And you can stand to lose my weak upper body strength anyway."
"Agent Castle-"
"-isn't here," she cut in. "And he'd say it anyway. Hunt's unconscious down there; we need to haul him up. Someone has to go down. Reese. Stop arguing with me and just make it happen. I want to see my son."
Reese clicked over just like that, mild disapproval to military command. "Yes, ma'am. Doernberger, get her harnessed. She's going down the hole."
Beckett felt not an ounce of smug satisfaction; her mind was in a million places at once. She was back with Castle, the gunshot wound; she wanted to wrap her arms around her son; she couldn't stop worrying about Colin stuck down there and not answering her.
Doernberger proved to be the only female on the team, and she came jogging up with a length of matte black rope, began looping it around Beckett in a simple harness. Her hands were fast, light, but rather intimate as the rope passed between her legs, and Kate was stupidly and suddenly grateful that Reese hadn't done it himself.
And that Castle wasn't here because he'd have done it, and his hands on the rope and his body close and the way he looked at her when they parted on some mission anywhere - that would have been too much.
She was about one kind word away from breaking down. She was pretty sure she had a concussion, and the wound in her side burned like a bitch.
"Tug on this," the agent told her.
Kate tugged on the two straps going over her shoulders, nodded to show they were secure.
"It will keep you from flipping," Doernberger said. "Use your toes as you go down, lightly, not your hands. A sudden drop - don't panic. I've got the other end around a tree and you won't elevator crash."
"Elevator crash?" Beckett echoed, eyebrow lifting.
Doernberger grinned. "You know. Plummet sixty stories, flattened like a pancake. Elevator crash."
"Great," Beckett said wryly. "Thanks. Where'd Mitch find you again?"
"Honorable discharge, ma'am." She saluted and fell back in line with Reese and the other one, and she got her hands on the rope. Reese was the pivot man, and he came to Beckett, gripped the knot at her stomach, tugging himself.
"Don't be stupid. Slip out of the harness, put it on Colin Hunt, two tugs for when he's ready. We're pulling him up fast so our arms don't wear out. Then we lower it back down to you and we pull you up. Do not try to climb with your hands, use-"
"My toes," she said back. "Doernberger already told me. Let's go. No time to waste."
Reese's jaw ticked, but he turned slowly to his team. "All right. You heard her."
In moments she was over the side of the hole and going down. She couldn't believe she had let Hunt fall backwards into this cavern of dirt, this black pit. Fuck, she hated dirt and darkness together like this, the close feeling, the decay. Reminded her of a cave in Russia.
Fuck, stop it.
Her feet hit the bottom before she knew it and she called back to them, "I'm down." She heard a response from Reese and she started slithering out of the harness before even pulling out the light.
She had a glowstick from Reese in her back pocket, tugged it out and broke it open, holding it up to see. Colin Hunt was sprawled in the bottom, unconscious, blood soaked through his shirt. The glowstick they'd dropped when they had arrived was weakly illuminating the far corner of the hole, unhelpful.
She hurried over to Hunt, dragging the harness and rope with her, and she quickly assessed his condition. Slow blood loss, stitches ripped, but she needed him conscious for this.
Kate got the harness over his feet, tugged up to his knees before his dead weight prevented her. "Colin," she said quickly, being careful not to jerk on the rope. "Colin, you gotta wake up."
She crouched over him, slapped lightly at his cheek. He didn't stir; the harness was simple but she thought even with his dead weight in the ropes, it wouldn't flip as he was pulled up.
She gripped the length of rope that formed the loop for his leg and she worked it up his thigh to his crotch. He moaned and his lids fluttered and she grimly rolled her eyes.
"Of course. Colin Hunt, you're a lecherous bastard, now open your eyes." She had to lay down the glowstick between his knees so she could see what she was doing and get a good grip; she scrambled over to his other leg and worked the rope up.
Her knuckles grazed him and he grunted and came awake, hands grabbing for her, crushing her down against him in a sudden reflexive move.
"Kate," he croaked.
"Yeah, it's me," she whispered. "Let me go or Castle-"
"Fuck," he cursed, gasping as he came upright. "What are you doing?"
She chuckled, tried not to really, but he had deserved that a little. "I'm not coming on to you, Colin, I'm trying to get this harness up to your hips. Help me out."
"I can - can barely move."
"You can do this if you want out of the damn hole."
"Yeah," he said roughly, nodding his head in a kind of crazy bobble. She lifted her hand to his face and felt the clammy heat of his skin. "Okay, okay, Colin. Come on. Arms into the loops, right here. Let's go."
She started hustling him through the ropes, working faster now that she could feel how loose his body was, how ready to slide back into unconsciousness. He was worse than she'd expected, though a knife wound to the side - what had she been expecting?
And his mother. God, she hadn't even - Diane Jolin was dead and Castle had shot her and at some point they were going to have to tell Colin Hunt that information. But not right now, in a hole in the darkness.
"I thought," she said slowly, talking to keep him with her. "You'd be a little super too, you know? Sharing genetics."
"He never gave me the fucking shots. Bastard."
"I know," she hummed. "I know. Come on. One more loop."
"I never got a damn thing. Just - demands, all the time. Do this, follow this, go here, apply here. I didn't want to be an Interpol agent. I just want London. I'm a cop. Just London."
"I know you are, and I'm gonna get you back there, Colin. I promise. Just shift your hips up so I can get the harness on you."
He did, grunting as he moved, a moan rippling from his mouth.
"There we go, that was it. Last of it." Kate reached up and tugged sharply twice on the rope. "They're going to pull you out now, Colin. Okay? They're going to get you out of here."
"What about you?"
"They'll drop it back down for me. I'm fine. Here." She bent down and grabbed the glowstick, put it in his hands. "Take this up with you. It helps. Put your toes against the sides to steady you. They'll be going fast."
He blinked in the sickly green light and then suddenly he was jerked free of her, rising already, a gasp on his lips as the movement jostled him.
"Fuck," he groaned.
"You're fine. You're gonna be fine. There's a medic waiting at the rendezvous."
"Kate."
She crossed her arms over her chest and watched him go.
When the walkie crackled with Reese and Beckett's location, coming through the trees and nearly at their perimeter, Castle completely ignored the two men trying to hold him off and walked straight out into the woods.
With James and the dog, and probably not entirely a wonderful parent decision, but he didn't stop to think. Jim didn't try to follow and Castle walked the trail they'd had coming out until he saw the ragged line of them heading their way.
"Beckett," he called, unable to help it.
She brightened when she saw them, her whole demeanor changing in an instant when their eyes caught. Worth it. Worth walking out into the woods, bringing Sasha back with him despite the way she slunk against his side because he had James and Sasha followed James no matter the trauma.
No more trauma.
"Hey," she called back, her smile widening. She started to hurry, the most graceful thing in this woods, long lean lines and the radiance of the moon on her skin. She met them in a moment, threw her arms around them both, kissing first James's sleepy happiness and then Castle, her mouth warm with promise.
"Hunt okay?" he asked, rubbing his free hand up and down her back, his shoulder aching with the effort.
"I think he will be," she said, turning her head to look. Reese and another guy were carrying Hunt between them, the man unconscious. "Did someone treat your shoulder?"
"Yeah, guy named Len. He's got the worst bedside manner."
Her eyes came back to his, a rueful smile. "And you make the worst patient. Come on, let's get to the car. I think I could crash. Hey, James, my little wolf, are you being squishy with Daddy?"
James held out both arms to her and Kate took him, cuddling him at her chest, swaying him back and forth in the middle of the woods. Castle let her long enough for James to feel her presence, bask in it a little, and then he took the boy back. He hadn't forgotten she had a scrape in her side and a concussion.
"You still got a few yards to go," he told her when she protested. "Get moving, Beckett."
"Aye-aye, sir," she muttered, rolling her eyes. He put his bad arm at her back and nudged her forward, and she went, moving quickly now through the trees, a woman in combat gear shadowing her - must be the man-to-man security detail that he'd asked Mitchell for. He hadn't realized they were with him here.
Oh, right. Reese was his own shadow. That made sense now. No wonder Reese had protested their splitting up.
Kate hooked her fingers around James's bare little ankle, her thumb stroking his leg as they walked, and Castle felt the boy grow heavy with sleep. He had already started to drool by the time they got to the SUV, fists loosening in Castle's ruined, bloody shirt.
He had his family back, everyone safe. They were all safe.
"What do we do now?" Kate asked, allowing him to open the back passenger door for her. She grasped the door handle and the overhead grip and hauled herself up into the backseat. "Jolin's dead. What are we doing now?"
"Going to the island," he said. "CIA has some clean up to do and we'll put feelers out, see if the Collective sends anyone after Jolin."
"La Lune," she murmured, her eyes ranging out into the dark woods. "I didn't tell Hunt about - about her."
Castle stayed quiet, handing the sleeping James over to her; Kate scooted in and Castle dragged himself into the backseat with her. She seemed, for an instant, reluctant to let James go, but she brushed her lips over the top of his head and carefully put him in the carseat.
Castle leaned past her to draw the boy's arms into the restraints, moving slowly, not waking him. He dipped two fingers down the baby's sloping nose, and then Castle leaned back in his own seat and closed his eyes.
Kate curled her body into his and buried her face against his good shoulder. He faintly recognized the sounds of the SUV loading up with their original security crew plus Jim and Hunt in the middle seat. A contingent would remain here until the other vehicles could get to them; they'd have to cordon off the woods where Jolin and her agent had been gunned down, recover the bodies.
Hunt would have to be told.
There was so much left to do, but he was mentally exhausted.
He just wanted to feel his wife against him, feel the thud of her heartbeat as it slowed to resting, feel her fingers trace designs over his chest where the wolf was inked.
"I love you," she whispered.
He hooked his arm tighter around her neck and dipped his head down to push a kiss to her temple. "Love you too."
From the driver's seat, Reese made the move out signal and the SUV lurched forward, turning around in the gravel and heading away from the bypass towards the road.
Castle let out a long breath and heard his son's echoing sigh from the carseat as he sank deeper into dreams.