Kate eased back into the pillows propped against the headboard of the bed, biting back a wince as she jarred her bruised ribs. She let her eyes drift close as she slowly drew a deep breath…or at least as deep as she was able. The tight wrap around her rib cage did little to help, in fact it was beginning to increase her feeling of claustrophobia with each passing hour…and she had never been one to feel claustrophobic. The feeling could be attributed to the fact she was confined to a hotel room, closed off from the outside world by a pair of very ugly tapestry drapes drawn closed across the room's only window. She was beginning to feel a deep sympathy for every witness she had ever helped to protect. It was rough experiencing it from the opposite side of the shield and gun. She felt helpless…and she hated feeling helpless.
Get a hold of yourself, Beckett.
She let out a slow breath through her nose in an effort to calm her troubled thoughts. Her eyes slid open a crack, settling on the puzzle spread out across the far wall. The FBI had confiscated the data from her murder board at the precinct during their takeover of the case. She and her bodyguards had spent the morning reassembling the data on the whitewashed wall of the hotel room, along with the data from her personal murder board from her mother's case. They had spent the remainder of the morning and into the late afternoon reviewing both cases from every angle with the assistance of the reports she and her partners had filed the day before the funeral. Blake and Reed were both quick to process the data she briefed and provided a few good questions of their own…but she missed her team. She missed Ryan and Esposito's banter, Castle's off the wall theories….and Montgomery's fatherly concern. The dreams had returned the previous night…dreams of the night in the hanger. She found herself reliving the moment every time her eyes settled on the glossy eight by ten photo of the Captain's smiling face. Blake had taken notice of her pale face and the hitch in her breath and had suggested they all take a break.
Kate turned her head slightly, watching the agents out of the corner of her eye. Blake sat at the small table by the window, typing up the notes from the debriefing into her laptop while Reed had taken the opportunity to catch a nap on the room's remaining bed. He had taken the night watch the previous night and was planning to do so again. Her eyes softened as she shifted her focus back to the makeshift murder board. The agents were good people and she was thankful for their help…she only wished she could figure out the missing pieces to the puzzle before her. Will had assured her that the case was a crucial piece to the finally pinning the 'boss' for all the crimes he had committed…but he knew little other than that. The main files were being kept in the hands of agents in the higher levels of the agency with the tasks doled out to the field agents on a need to know basis.
Her eyes moved to the paper tacked above the rest representing the boss. They knew who he was. It must have been in the files or things would not have moved this quickly.
I don't know how but somehow he found out what we'd done…he could have turned us all in but he instead he demanded the ransom money. He took that money to become what he is…and God forgive me, but that may be my greatest sin.
She closed her eyes against the onslaught of tears that weld within her as she heard the Captain's voice in her head. She had asked him who it was…and he had refused.
I might as well shoot you where you stand.
Whoever the man was, Roy's words suggested he was in a position of authority and power. Her weary mind filtered through a list of the city's highest ranking officials and uptown 'royalty'. Half of them were already suspected of underhanded dealings…though few had been proven as money and power had often proved more powerful than the law. New York City was a city rich in history…and a lot of that history contained stories of corruptions, mafia wars, mobsters and crooked politicians. As the saying goes absolute power corrupts absolutely…not that there weren't good people too because there were. People like Roy, a man who had spent his life trying to atone for the mistakes of his past…people like her mother, who had died in the pursuit of the truth…people like her partners, including her shadow, who risked their lives in order to make the world a bit safer. The good remained…and it was worth fighting to protect. At least it was unlikely that the man was a mafia boss or one with mafia connections. If he had been it was more likely that he would have killed the men, rather than blackmailing them, in retribution for what they had done. That fact alone probably narrowed the field of suspects by half.
A loud knock startled her from her thoughts. Kate reached instinctively for her non-existent sidearm as the agents sprung into action fluidly as a well oiled team. Reed moved toward the door, gun ready as Blake moved to shield her. A second knock sounded, this time followed by a voice muffled by the thick door. Reed peered through the small peep hole in the door and shook his head slightly as he opened the door a crack before holstering his weapon and stepping aside.
"I have pizza and I hope you guys are hungry because I brought a lot of it." A familiar voice announced.
Kate could not help the slow smile that slid across her face as her eyes met the aqua colored orbs of the owner of the voice. Will Sorenson returned her smile as he greeted his fellow agents and set the pizzas and bags down onto the table, shoving aside the empty coffee cups and laptops. Blake chided him as she moved quickly to save her computer from its precocious perch, to which he just grinned as he piled a couple steaming slices onto a pair of paper plates and snagged two sodas before moving toward Kate.
"Hey there, you hungry?" he asked as he settled onto the edge of the bed beside her.
A smirk pulled at the corner of his lips as her stomach answered for her…loudly. She accepted the plate with a grateful smile, and bit into her slice. "Thanks." She stated around a mouthful of hot cheese. "What are you doing here?"
Will shrugged slightly as his eyes swept her methodically, assessing her condition. "I made a promise to some, honestly, very scary people that you would be returned in one piece…and though I fully trust the abilities of Agent Blake and Agent Reed," he stated, nodding at each in turn, "These people convinced me that I would be better off attending to the job myself." His eyes met hers with a slightly pained smile. "You have some very, very intimidating friends, Kate." She snorted softly at his dramatics as he reached into the pocket of his jacket and removed a bottle of mild prescription pain killers. "Your doctor friend with the Napoleon complex sent these along with a message." He cleared his throat dramatically before continuing on in a poor imitation of what she assumed was meant to be Lanie's voice. "Take good care of my girl and make sure she eats and takes her meds. I am holding you personally responsible and, believe you me, you do not want to get on my bad side. I have access to some very sharp scalpels."
Kate gasped weakly as the resulting laughter sent a sharp pain along her ribs. She collapsed back against the pillows propped against the headboard as she attempted to catch her breath. After a moment she opened her eyes and smiled weakly up at him. "Laughing is bad." She stated as she accepted the pain pills and the soda he offered. His blue eyes grew serious for a moment as he studied her before a slow both sympathetic and understanding smile crossed his face and she was suddenly reminded of starched white sheets, the bleeping of monitoring equipment and the sharp smell of antiseptic…and the fear she had felt as she had watched over him as he recovered from his own wounds…fear and concern she could see mirrored in his eyes. As if he could read her mind, Will squeezed her arm gently before settling back with his pizza and continuing with his story.
"Anyways…you should have seen the show she put on at the hospital when my guys carted off your 'body'. Though come to think of it, I believe I can get a copy of the security feeds." Kate snickered softly at the expression of comic thought on his face. "It truly deserved an Academy Award. If the monkey writer hadn't grabbed hold of her, I believe she really would have charged her way into the morgue." Will continued as he bit into his pizza.
Kate felt his eyes settle on her knowingly as her laughter quieted at the mention of her partner. Her eyes dropped to her half-eaten slice. "How is he?" she asked softly as she picked at a piece of pepperoni. She raised her eyes as she felt him sigh, the humor gone.
"He's worried about you, but he is playing his part convincingly…almost too convincingly." He replied. "If I hadn't seen you get off the gurney with my own two eyes, I might have believed you were dead too."
A different sort of pain twinged deep within Kate's chest as she remembered the fear and pain in her partner's eyes in the ambulance. The burden he had been asked to carry was the heaviest of all of them…and she was concerned about the effect it would have upon him. The happy go-lucky image that Castle portrayed to the world was only a shield…a shield that protected a fragile heart. Her partner's greatest strength, and his greatest weakness, was the depth of his capacity to care for those he loved and for strangers who needed help…a trait which had remained unshaken despite the darkness her world had exposed him to and she loved him for it. Kate knew he would perform his role to the best of his ability…he was Martha Roger's son after all…and yet she feared the damage it might do to him. He was her beacon of hope in the darkness that surrounded her, her laughter when life was too harsh, her comfort and her source of strength when all seemed lost…she needed him. She prayed this would be over soon for all their sakes.
She felt Will's attention shift to the wall before them. Her eyes swept over the familiar photos and data once more. Tears pricked at her eyes as they settled on the photo of the Captain before shifting to the image of her mother. She wished she could ask her mother what she had found.
She died because of what we did that night.
Her mother had known the truth and it had gotten her killed.
"How's it going?" She heard Will ask softly and she shrugged in reply, not trusting her voice to respond. She felt him shift to sit beside her against the headboard, close enough to offer his silent support but careful not to undermine her image in front of the other agents…agents who were currently sitting with at the small table with their backs to the couple, eyes locked on the laptop before them. Kate sniffed softly as she accepted her friend's silent offer and laid her head against his strong shoulder. Will raised his right arm slowly and carefully wrapped it around her shoulders, drawing her deeper into his side. She closed her eyes and relaxed slowly, feeling safe and yet a little guilty as she allowed her ex to comfort her. She felt him sigh heavily after a long moment.
"Roy was a good man. We will get the guy who did this." He stated softly. "We will get him for your mother too. I promise you."
Fresh tears pricked at her eyes as she felt the sincerity in his words. She brushed the tears away with a trembling hand before she straightened slowly. Will released her after one final gentle squeeze, drawing his arm back to his side as he reached over to retrieve a thick messenger envelope from the table beside the bed. The Bureau's symbol was stamped in its center with the word's 'Classified' and 'Eye's Only' written in bold black type. She took it slowly as he held it out to her, exchanging it for the empty plate.
"This is for you. I'm told that it provides the missing pieces to your case…both of your cases."
Kate's eyes met his briefly before she unwound the clasp and opened the envelope, tipping the contents into her lap. A thick folder dropped heavily against her legs…a legal folder. She folded back the cover slowly and paused as her eyes alighted on a sheath of hand written notes pinned to an official report. Her fingertips ghosted over the words as her breath caught.
Her mother's handwriting.
Her mother's missing case notes. All feelings of fatigue and pain faded as her mind narrowed in a sharp focus as she began to read.
Several hours later she dropped the last of the documents onto the bed and leaned back in disbelief. Her mother and her colleagues had nearly succeeded in unraveling the story all those years ago…at least someone had thought so…enough to order each of the killed. Kate slid off the bed, gathering a stack of photos and a pen as she moved. She felt the eyes of the remaining three upon her as she began to slowly fill the gaps, connecting the dots between the three cases before her. When she finally capped the marker and stepped back, the picture before her was difficult to believe but undeniably the truth. A low whistle sounded from Reed's direction as she heard the shifting of various pieces of furniture as the agents moved to stand beside her.
"Are you certain?" Will asked quietly.
Kate nodded tightly as her eyes moved to the words she had scrawled on the paper pinned above the rest. What she had missed, her mother had discovered…and vice versa. Together the cases provided the whole picture. She folded her arms across her chest, suddenly feeling very cold as Roy's words came rushing back…words that she had missed the significance of until now…words that had seemed uncharacteristic of the Captain…and now she knew why.
This is my house, Kate, the mayor doesn't call the shots here, I do. You ought to know that by now.
"Heaven help us." Blake whispered.
Kate could not agree more.