Sorry for the delay. It took me a little while to figure out the entire plot and pass my Mid Terms haha. Hopefully the upcoming chapters will be coming a bit quicker...but I make no promises :)

Sometimes You Have to Drown

Monday 10:15 am

"Have you ever used your handcuffs for something other then arresting people?"

Rick had snuck up right behind Beckett while she was entranced in her murder board and tossed his smarmy question over her shoulder with as much sincerity as he could muster. Beckett hadn't noticed him until his offensive, yet charming, question breezed past her ear and she jumped just enough to brush up against him. She could hear the smile the breached his face as she stumbled for a Beckett response. Why does he have to get that close? I am supposed to be offended right now and not slightly turned on. Focus, Becket. Focus! When she failed to immediately reciprocate his banter, Castle decided to push his luck.

"It's a pure Nikki Heat question…unless…"

Before he could finish that thought, Kate whipped around and held her position inches from him with a taunting brow raised to match her smirk. Her reaction caught him off guard and the proximity of her body caused castle to choke down the rest of his sentence. Holding his stupefied gaze she bated him.

"Are you sure you want to know, Castle? Cause we could always take the rest of the day off and play good cop, bad cop…Or…you could go take a cold shower and let me get back to work."

With that she slinked by him and headed for the break room for a caffeine fix to refocus her mind. After he caught his breath and thought about some dead puppies, Castle sauntered after her. Kate seemed to be lost in the steam that was escaping her fresh mug of coffee and Castle recognized that tortured wrinkle in her brow. He softly leaned on the counter next to her and his eyes lingered on her zoned out face while he tried to find the right words. Simple would be best. She likes simple.

"Hey, you ok? I know this case must be hard on you…" His words trailed off as Kate snapped from her reverie and gave him her best poker face.

"I'm fine, Castle."

Before he could utter another word of concern, she brushed past him and returned to her scrupulous post in front of the murder board. Castle expelled a sigh of defeat as his eyes magnetically followed before putting one foot in front of the other. Why can't she just let me in?

Monday 10:20 am

Beth stood on her porch staring at the solid oak door that used to be the threshold to her home. Now it just closed in useless memories. A hollow breeze whisked her cheeks and stuck to the streams of pain that had made their final descent. The chill lingered and numbness swept her body as her mind effortlessly went blank. Her hand was on the knob but she couldn't bring herself to turn it, as if it were a knife imbedded deep in her heart. Each turn wrenched it in deeper mercilessly bringing on waves of torment that crashed down on her fragile soul. She glanced down at her left hand resting on the offending doorknob and her eyes automatically sunk to the ring that was helplessly clinging for dear life. An empty promise. The longer she stared at it, the more she hated it and everything it stood for. The gold and diamonds started to burn and she couldn't rip it off her finger fast enough. With an unsatisfactory clink, it left her hand and ricocheted off the door as her heart finally burst open and any last drip of emotion poured out of her. Her knees crumbled from beneath her while her fists pounded the door. A whisper escaped between the sobs.

"Till death do us part wasn't supposed to happen. You weren't supposed to leave me. I'm not supposed to be here alone…"

She sank to the floor and curled herself in a ball tightly holding her knees to her chest, attempting to hold herself together as her life melted around her.

Monday 10:25 am

"There has to be something here that leads us to who hired Henderson."

"You couldn't wile it out of him, Beckett?"

Beckett pealed her eyes away from the board just long enough to kill any last smart remark that was circling through Castles head before he could dig himself a deeper hole. Castle took the non-verbal cue and squared himself to the board as he leaned back and made himself comfortable obnoxiously close to Beckett.

"Well, if Henderson rigged the wrong car, then where was the intended car?"

Just as Castle was about to get lost in his own imagination with his new idea, Beckett caught his immediate attention by accidentally putting her hand on his thigh to push her self off the desk for a closer look. Her hand froze in place when she realized what she had done and Castles frozen face melted into a smirk. His crystal blue eyes suggestively peered at Beckett struggling to compose herself and pretend that didn't just happen. Just as her eyes sheepishly met his, he saw something on the board behind her and bounced up off the desk towards a picture of the crime scene.

"What?" Friggen A.D.D.

"Look!"

Castle jabbed his finger at the bottom right hand corner of the crime scene picture.

"So?"

Beckett squinted her eyes and leaned in for a better view, completely unaware that she was once again sharing personal space with Castle.

"It's the same car, but with a different license plate!" Castle proudly exclaimed.

"The intended victim's? CSU never bothered to check the other cars in the area because they didn't know the wrong car had been set off."

"Maybe we should go make a visit to Lexus owner number two?" Castle suggested, the idea of another adventure clinging to the upturned corners of his lips.

Beckett pretended not to be amused at his excitement and turned to face him with an eye roll not realizing how close she had wormed in to see the picture. Shit. How did we end up this close again? Why is he staring at me like that? …Why am I staring at him like that…? Look away, Kate!

"You guys need a minute?"

Esposito's question knocked Beckett from her lingering trance and she spun towards him armed with a death glare. Castle's chuckle at her sudden movement sent chills down her spine and Ryan's stifled giggle sent her over the edge.

"Esposito, I need you and Ryan to run this license plate and track down the owner. We need to have a little chat with them." She barked, squandering any amusement that was still fleeting across his face.

Tuesday 9 pm

Kate could feel everything and nothing. A wrenching pressure was consuming her left arm and reverberating up through her head into a fiercely blinding throb. But her focus was on a deeper internal pain that was slicing open wounds she had taken years to mend. She was sinking deeper and deeper into her subconscious unaware of her surroundings; helplessly drowning under endless waves of turmoil.

The precinct was immaculate. There was a blinding light filling the room shimmering off every surface it could find. The desks were all cleared off and the murder board was wiped clean as if it had never had the blood red evidence of crime smeared across its face. Kate glanced over to her desk and immediately the pieces of her heart rattled inside her. Her shoes echoed through the hollow bullpen as they struck the floor.

"Mom?!"

Her mother was leaning against the front of her desk. She was just as Kate last saw her but with an ethereal glimmer that made Kate afraid to touch her. A smile danced across Johanna's perfect face and Kate couldn't help but reciprocate it.

"Hello, Katie."

"What…where is this? Am I dead?"

Panic started to spread through Kate's body at the realization that this was not a normal dream. She grabbed at her chest to feel her heart beat and was soothed by a faint pitter-patter as it pulsed what little life was left in her.

"No, sweetie, you're not dead. You still have a choice. But you have to open your eyes; they've been close for so long. You need to let go. Let go of it all. You don't have to do this alone anymore, Katie."

A warm sensation caressed Kate's face as her mother softly placed a reassuring hand on her cheek. Immediately Kate tried to put her hand over her mothers, but Johanna faded into thin air leaving Kate alone once again. Her face crashed into the hand hovering inches from her cheek as her other hand came up to meet it. Every repressed tear was pouring out of her as she crashed to the floor from exhaustion.

A faint all-too-familiar voice echoed through the empty air.

"Open your eyes, Kate."

Those four simple words pulled Kate from her misery and whipped her back into reality. She could feel the tug of consciousness begging her to return. The aroma of ash and blood wafted around her. And another voice broke through the walls of her subconscious. A choke of the sweet voice that was endlessly filling her ears was saying her name. He was there. But she couldn't see him…because her eyes weren't open. Her mother's words finally started to seep in and she knew what she had to do. But she didn't know how. His voice swept through the air around her again; clinging to the tears she has shed.

"It will be ok. I'm here. I'll protect you."

The whisper lingered and she could feel his breath on her neck. His body close to hers. His grin erasing her fears.

"Castle."

Kate's eyes fluttered to life as a fresh tsunami of raw agony crashed down over her. Kate filled her lungs with polluted air struggling to stay afloat before she realized her surroundings. Pieces of the bullpen were scattered around and above her. Her haven was demolished…but she didn't need it anymore. Her face was resting in a shallow pool of blood that was streaming from a wound on her head. Rick was nowhere to be seen and the silence was shattering. She lifted her heavy head and put every effort she had into rolling on to her right side, cradling her mangled left arm on her chest. As soon as she brought her head around she saw his bent frame crumbled over a ceiling beam that had fallen. No! After a few relentless seconds she saw his chest rise and fall reassuring her that he was alive, but he wasn't moving. She dragged herself out from under the bookcase making sure all her other limbs worked accordingly in the process. Her heartbeat was resounding in her head and she could feel the warm trickle of blood making its way down her cheek where her mother's hand had been moments before. She was losing strength as a haze engulfed her but she was determined. She crawled to the beam that Castle was draped over and pulled herself up to his level with her good arm. A breath escaped his nose and traced across her hand sending her heart into unanticipated excitement. Her head was getting heavier and heavier and she was having a hard time keeping it up but she had to get over to Ricks side and get him to regain consciousness. I'm not losing you, not like this. She swung her leg up over the beam and the movement threw her equilibrium off balance causing her to plummet over the beam and onto Castle knocking him backwards and smashing his head back against the ground. The warmth of his body beneath her was the last thing she felt.