A/N: Thank you guys for your lovely reviews! Here is Chapter Two, as promised.

Disclaimer: I own nothing but this plot and this here laptop.

Chapter Two: Statements.

Everything was changing. Beckett followed Castle into a break room, where he shut and locked the door, drawing the blinds. She felt a thick veil of dread settle over her, and she settled into the chair, nursing her coffee cup. "Castle, what's going on?"

He looked a mess; his hand ran through his hair so many times that the tracks were clearly visible in the brown waves, his eyes were so far away that she feared he did not hear her. His eyes focused on her again and she knew he had heard. "Just...give me a second, okay?" She felt her body grow cold at the blatant fear coloring his handsome features. She shoved it aside and went into detective mode.

"Castle, I have a murder to solve," Beckett stood from her chair, and Castle held up his hand, his eyes closed. "Get to it, or I'm leaving."

"I lied to you," he blurted. She lowered herself into her chair, and kept her eyes trained on Castle, her lips set in a thin line. "So, will you just give me a second, please?" She remained seated and calm, but her heart was in overdrive, galloping at triple its normal speed. Whatever lie he had told, it was a huge one, if he looked this tortured. "The call I got a second ago, it was about you."

Beckett narrowed her eyes. "Why would someone call you about me?" She curled her fingers around her coffee cup. "Who was it?"

"I don't know."

She froze, her hands locked around the cup. "What do you mean you don't know?" She exclaimed angrily. "Someone has been talking to you about me, but you don't know who they are... What do they want?"

He felt the ache in his chest again, knowing he was about to lose her forever. "They want me to keep you from looking into your mother's case." He kept his eyes on hers, and watched them shift, from irritation, to hurt, to confusion, to...nothing. She was cutting him off, and he grappled desperately to get her back. "If I didn't do what they said, you would be dead right now!"

"I was already dead, Castle!" She was on her feet, a fierce hurricane, and he felt himself want to cave. "I was shot, by a sniper, and you kept me away from this?"

Castle reached out for her, but she took two hasty steps back. "I did this to protect you, I didn't have a choice!"

Her voice was low. "You always had a choice, Castle." She was turning away from him now. "You lied to me."

He grabbed her shoulder gently. "I did the only thing I thought I could do. I was trying to protect you, like you protect me all the time. I felt like this was the one thing I could do, even if it was a sacrifice. Beckett, it killed me, every day, knowing that I was lying to you. But it would have killed me even more if you were dead." She wrenched her shoulder out of his grasp.

"So you would rather have me alive and broken instead of dead and at peace," she said quietly.

"I don't want you broken or dead," Castle pleaded. "I want you alive, and I want you at peace. I want to help you with this, which is why I'm telling you now."

But she wasn't listening. "You...you kept me from fixing the one thing that could have led to us..."

"Led to us what?"

Her mask was firmly in place, her eyes expressionless. "Nothing." She picked up her coffee cup, and handed it back to him. "Take your coffee and go home. For real this time."

He felt a sharp pain in his sternum. "Kate..."

But she was immovable. "You told me you knew I could do this alone, but I didn't have to. It seems like you were wrong. Go home, Mr. Castle, and don't come back." She was lost now, tumbling back into the shadows that held her for so long, before he had pulled her out, before his light had saved her. He had nothing left to lose. So he decided to fight.

"I'm not going anywhere."

"You can go, or I can make you," she snapped.

He blocked the doorway, and boxed her in. "That threat only works so many times, Kate. I'm not leaving you, and I don't intend to. It's time for us to sit down and actually talk about this, like adults. I am not willing to wait another three months for you to decide to call me." Her eyes shot upward at that, and he saw emotion there again, but it was only fury.

"But you were willing to wait three months to show your face around here again, but that was only after we arrested you!" She put her hands together in front of her waist, wringing them together, tighter and tighter until her knuckles turned white.

He racked his brain, but came up blank. "What are you talking about?"

"The Hamptons? You left for three months with Gina and then you didn't come back until we arrested you, and only because your friend, the sculptor, had been murdered," she was rapidly getting out of control, and she closed her eyes to reel herself in. She could feel his anger increasing, his defense mechanism showing itself in the raised volume of his voice.

"This isn't about the Hamptons!" He was practically shouting at her now.

"Get out, Castle," her voice was quiet, but he knew it was like the calm in the middle of the storm. "Get out, now." It was not a threat, but a warning. He took it as such, noted it, but did not heed.

"No."

"God, Castle, please, get out," she looked like she was deflating, but he could see the anger, things she was going to say that he needed to hear, that she needed to get off her chest building behind the eyes he loved so much. What she was about to say was going to hurt, but it was going to hurt a lot less than never seeing her again.

"No, say what you have to say to me, and then we'll work it out," he crossed his arms over his chest and waited stubbornly. Beckett was absolutely furious, but at the back of her mind, where she was truly impartial, she was impressed with his stubborn attitude.

"You said this has something to do with the Hamptons. What about the Hamptons?"

Her voice was small. "Nothing."

"No! You don't get to chicken out on me now! You were finally telling me how you really felt, and you were finally giving me the truth, and now you want to run away from me again? Not now, Kate. So does this have to do with the Hamptons or not? Because it doesn't, not from my eyes."

"But it IS about the Hamptons, just like it's about you lying to me, and about you throwing yourself in front of a bullet to save my life, when you think it is okay to just say things that you don't mean!"

A ringing silence fell, and Castle had to actually steady himself on the counter that held the espresso machine. Beckett looked worn down, tired, and sad.

"So you did hear me," he said quietly. "You actually heard me," he laughed ironically. "You heard me, and you lied to me. But I'm the one getting the third degree for lying to you?"

"You lied to me about my mother and her case!"

"You don't love me, do you?" His voice was small, quiet, and broken.

She let the silence stretch on as far as she could. "That's not the subject at hand."

He nodded. "That's all I needed to know," he turned to walk away, this time for good. He had decided, the first time he told her 'always,' that he would stand by her no matter how much it hurt, no matter what the capacity. Deep down, though, he always had the feeling that she loved him. She would tell him eventually, and they would finally be happy. He just had to be patient, and when she was ready...but it was never going to happen. Her voice stopped him.

"You lied to me, Castle, but I lied to you too. So do you want the truth or not?"

He should walk away, he knew his dignity was shattered on the floor beneath him, and there was no regaining it, not today. But her voice was shaking, and he knew there were tears in her eyes. He could not deny her. So he closed his eyes, took a deep breath, and turned around to the love of his life, if only for the last time.

"I don't know if I want to hear the truth."

She gave him a grim smile. "I don't either," she took the seat she had vacated, and motioned for him to do the same. "But I'm going to listen, and so will you." He took the proffered chair, and she leaned back, holding the coffee cup. "So tell me what you know."

"I know as much as you do," he shrugged. "The man told me to keep you away from your mother's case because if I didn't you would die."

"When did he call you?"

"On your first week back at work after the shooting."

"When else?"

"Just a few more times, but during the case with the Mayor is the one I remember the most," Castle narrowed his eyes, struggling to remember. Beckett put her head in her hands and massaged her temples, like the day was sucking the life out of her. "And just a few minutes ago."

"So what you're saying here, is Josh's death has something to do with my mom's murder."

Castle nodded. "Someone is trying to make a statement. So what is it?"

Beckett leaned forward in thought. "I don't...know..."

Castle watched her think for a few seconds, before clearing his throat. "Your turn."

The alarmed look on her face almost made him retract his question, but he stood his ground. She put one head on her hand, and watched him, not unlike the way she watched him that night in LA, when he was sure they were going to finally kiss, but she ran from him. He wasn't going to let her run anymore.

"I heard you."

He smirked. "I know that. What else."

"That's it," she was uncomfortable now.

"Why did you tell me you hadn't?"

"Because I was afraid that you only said it because I was dying, and that you didn't really mean it. People say stupid things in the face of death, Rick, I wasn't about to hold you to something that was clearly in the heat of the moment. And I didn't want to hurt you."

Biting back the obvious retort of "too late," Castle prodded, "Hurt me how?"

"You deserve someone better than me."

Castle actually laughed. "Better than you? Beckett, those girls don't exist!"

She gave him an icy glare. "Someone who isn't...like me, who isn't wrapped up in a tragedy that happened so long ago. Someone who can really love you." Her tears were waiting on the wings, ready to take flight, but she pinched her leg to keep them at bay.

"Beckett...Kate," he caught her attention with her first name, "Remember what I said a long time ago?"

She laughed through a sob. "Which time?"

He laughed with her. "I said if you don't believe in magic, you'll never find it." He paused. "I also said the heart wants what the heart wants."

She lowered her eyes, a smile on her face.

"So what do you want?" Her smile froze. She paused, even though she knew exactly what she should say, and opened her mouth to speak, when –

A knock came at the door. Esposito poked his head in, looking tentative. "Not that I want to interrupt the screaming match that's going on in here, but you guys looked like you've calmed down enough to tell Gates what happened, and if she doesn't hear from you within an hour, she says," he pulled out his notebook to read a quote Gates told him to say, "She's going to assume that you were kidnapped again and put in a cellar with a tiger, but this time she's not sending your boys to save you." He snapped the notebook closed and gave them a half-hearted smile. "She can be funny when she wants to be."

Beckett laughed, and Castle grinned.

"You guys okay?" He asked, legitimately concerned.

It was Beckett who answered. "We will be."

"So let me get this straight," Gates paced around the back of her desk, her eyes half closed, but her anger at full force. "You have been getting calls from someone threatening Detective Beckett's life if you do not do what they say, and you haven't told anyone...until now."

Castle, looking abashed and slightly ashamed, nodded at his feet.

"This is why you're not a cop," Gates retorted. Beckett opened her mouth to reply, but Gates cut her off. "And don't even think I'm going to let you work this case, Detective, last time, you got shot."

"With all due respect sir, when we took the badge we knew it was a risk. I'm willing to take it," Beckett replied calmly. "And you need us. No one knows this case like we do. And, I'm not working this case without Castle."

Gates turned to her, fire in her eyes. "I was not aware I gave you leave to decide where this investigation is going, Detective. It doesn't work like that."

"I think it does, sir."

Castle turned to Beckett, surprise written all over his face. She gave him a small smile before she turned back to her superior. "I understand that you are trying to follow protocol, and what you are saying will ultimately protect us. However, I am telling you that I have memorized that case file, and so has Castle. This is a unique situation, one that requires creative thinking. Castle has that creative thinking. And he has the ability to keep me from losing myself in this again." She crossed her arms. "No one else can solve this case but us."

"Your confidence astounds me, and yet..." Gates sighed and took a seat behind her desk. "The second either of you steps out of line, and I'm pulling you both off the case, and he's gone for good," she jabbed a finger at Castle. "And you both will have a protective detail on you at all times."

"Understood."

Gates gave Beckett a genuine smile. "Now go catch that killer, Kate."