"Beckett... " Kate answered in a semiconscious haze.
"Yo, Beckett, we have a body. Ryan and I are pulling up now, I'll text you the address. See you when you get here."
"Okay thanks, Espo." Kate responded as she hung up and stretched her once dormant muscles as she admired her sleeping husband.
She didn't want to wake him, he looked so peaceful lying there, her idea of perfection. Gratitude washed over her in moments like these. The supposed commonplace ones, but they weren't without significance to her. Each one a touching reminder of the demons they had overcome to arrive here.
"Castle…" Kate said offering a soft nudge. He didn't stir, though it didn't prevent a loud snore from escaping his mouth. "Hey, Castle… wake up. We have a body." Her voice a seductive whisper.
He rolled into her. "Come cuddle just a bit longer…" He whined in a way she found tantalizing, as he glided his palms up her arms then pulled them around him. "Ah… you see, Mrs. Castle, that's much better..." he hummed through a smile, pleased with himself.
Each kiss that brushed her lips compelled her to stay wrapped in his warmth. "You know, you're not making this any easier…" she teased.
"Good. I wouldn't want to make anything too easy for you." He offered a satirical reply and resumed kissing her in persuasion. "I am rich you know… You could…"
"Curse you, Richard Castle… You are my kryptonite. Now, please let's start this day already so we can come home and finish where we left off." Her voice a sultry whisper and her expression impish as she kissed him again.
"Bonus points for the sexy nerd reference. You drive a hard bargain, Katherine Beckett." He said narrowing his eyes while shaking her hand in a way that suggested sarcasm. He startled her as he threw the warm covers off himself with enthusiasm and shot to his feet. "I'm up!"
The feeling in the air was different today, though Kate couldn't identify why until her eyes met the victim. She gasped as she dropped the cup of coffee in her hand. Shock set into her body which, a noticeable trembling spreading over her. "Castle…" She called out weak with a weak voice. "Please… don't… You need to go." The image of this scene before her now seared into her memory as wrestled her emotions.
"Kate, what are…?"
"No!" She converged upon him protective.
Disheartened and Ryan and Esposito agreed with her, compelled to follow her lead.
"Please... you can't…" Tears burned her eyes as she searched his in distress. "I…"
The boys hated pulling Castle away from Kate and in many ways they didn't want to. He was like family to them, but he couldn't see…not like this. Their arrival on the scene was only minutes before Kate and Castle had pulled up.
Silent tears graced Kate's cheeks as she stared at the broken body on the unforgiving earth, eyes still open to receive the world. A body once the vessel of a soul was now hollow and pitched aside as if insignificant. Standing here, now, under these circumstances felt so surreal. The anguish she'd been struggling against ripped through her chest and assaulted her heart.
"Please, Javi, tell Ryan take Castle to the precinct now. He can't…. It should be me that…"
"I know." He rested a hand on her shoulder as he looked at her with wounded eyes. "I'm staying with you." His look dared her to argue. He refused to go anywhere and she knew it.
"Thank you, Espo." Her voice drowned out by the onslaught of emotion.
Once she as sure that Rick was out of sight she dropped to her knees, too weak to stand any longer. She let out a pained cry as clung onto Javi who was now kneeling beside her. "Beckett…" He said preventing her from moving any closer to the victim. "Shhh… shhh…We can't get to close to the scene. We can't contaminate it." He wasn't prepared for this, none of them were. "I know…I know…shhh…" were the only words he could say.
She felt as though she was going to be sick and pass out all in the same breath. She could usually stomach crime scenes, but this one was quite different. She forced her eye closed tight as if to erase the image from her mind. Guilt bled into her. She was responsible for this in some regard, she knew it. Castle wouldn't blame her, but that didn't matter. Still, she blamed herself and she felt each breath pierce lungs at the thought.
Rick didn't know which he should be feeling, confusion or panic. Kate had never shielded him from a crime scene nor looked so panicked. He would never forget the ache in her eyes, the visible burden of the anguish forced upon her shoulders. It tortured him to see the light in her eyes completely extinguish. He needed answers, even if that knowledge had the power to suffocate him, he needed to know. He ached for Beckett just as he sensed the he would soon rely on the warmth of her smile and the tranquility of her presence.
"Ryan… Please… tell me what's going on?" Castle said anxious.
"This scene is… different… Castle so our procedure has to be too."
"How could it be…?" His mind assuming the worst.
"Castle, you have to know that she's doing this for you." Ryan said unable to look at Castle.