Disclaimer: Nope. Still don't own Castle.

A/N: While I absolutely hate being subject to a cliffhanger myself, particularly for months; it seems I have no problem at all imposing a cliffhanger on my three remaining readers. Enjoy.

Beta Note: Thank you elizabeth . bynog for all the help.

Edit Note 9/30/23: Changed back to incomplete by way of a mea culpa. I'll try and work in a more satisfying ending for people. No idea how long it will take, I apologize, but I am severely unmotivated by the show right now.

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The effort required to get in the back of the car was extreme, climbing from the chair to a bed was positively simple in comparison. Rick had hired a stretch limousine for the trip rather than a Towncar, the extra space to stretch out his legs was totally worth it. He was going to tip extra for the driver heaving the chair into the back of the car; it was not a minor proposition, the thing must be really heavy.

They had talked some the night before, after his revelation of her mother's murder; she had been hesitant to speak of the subject and he could tell even now it was a sore topic. Not surprising after what he had learned this morning reading the rest of hisnotes. Last night though he didn't know the entire story, just that he had poked his nose into a personal matter that she had specifically told him to stay away from. In light of that he thought the evening went remarkably well, they'd eaten, chatted aboutgeneric things; stayed well away from difficult topics. There was a certain nervous tension between them, both knowing that a landmark topic had been broached, but Rick was unsure how to proceed.

The next morning has some of the same hesitation, Kate had started to say things several time but stopped each time with a rueful smile, and comments to the effect of him not knowing the whole story yet. That is what had inspired him, after she left for work, to really dive into the rest of his notes.

Rick felt the weight of guilt now as he sat in the back of the car, guilt of such a scale that he had never experienced was his fault. The deaths, near deaths, and the secrets that had stemmed from them; he blamed himself even where the notes had been simple objective statements he could read between the lines.

The whole thing felt like he was a participant in an Indiana Jones movie. He's seen the shiny idol, the story of a murder, and despite all the warning signs pasted around it, he just hadn't been able to resist the temptation apparently. He'd grabbed it with relish, dived in and absorbed the case. As always happens in those movies though, the whole thing was booby trapped. Not the case file itself, but it had triggered the first rolling marble of some overly complex Rube Goldberg device, small movements building on bigger ones, tripping other devices until finally that giant boulder started rolling down the slope. Only it didn't rolltowards him, but towards those around him or more so around Kate. That giant boulder had killed Montgomery, almost killed Detectives Ryan and Esposito, and almost killed Kate on more than occasion. There had been lies and secrets kept, pain and hurt both physical and emotional and both of them ejecting the other from their lives.

While he freely acknowledged the one saving grace, that he had never been the one to directly kill anyone; he also recognized that none of it would have happened if he hadn't grabbed the shiny gold idol of a case file that had been hidden safely in archives. He'd pushed and there'd been consequences. The whole story was laid out by his own hand in narrative, the story of poking where he didn't belong, and people dying as a result.

He lacked the five years of detailed history that went with those notes, what had happened, how he had gotten over the guilt hemust have felt; how he had re-established a professional relationship and turned that into a personal one with Detective Beckett.

There were so many other things in those notes too, she might not have wanted to get back together with Sorenson, but she had with Demming and Doctor Motorcycle boy. Apparently he'd been willing to wait around through all that, salving his sorrows in part by disastrously getting back together with Gina. He'd done other stupid things too, patently foolish when looked at through the objective eyes he had now, not clouded by emotions, just the story discovery.

His mind had not even begun to get around knowledge that Alexis had been kidnapped, but the notes were skimpy, whatever had gone down Kate had only a slight connection to her recovery. He had now discovered who Tyson was too, his good buddy Jerry was a scary nasty killer; but he'd put it aside from conscious thought, better not remembered and not acted upon lest unwelcome attention be drawn.

In all though, the biggest thing, relationship aside, whatever that meant; without the cloud of emotion or even perhaps forgiveness from others, he could see what he had done, and it had gotten people killed.

Curiosity hadn't killed the cat, it had killed people. He didn't know how to face that, the pain inside, how he would talk to Kate about it, how he could face the other detectives, Montgomery's wife. It was all too much to deal with, he needed time to think, process, perhaps build the next part of the story. So he had made some calls and by noon he was on his way to find solitude in the Hampton's.

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Beckett had reached the precinct on the dot of 8am, things were a little off with Rick after he'd read his notes about his original prying into her mother's case. Despite the fact that she'd forgiven him long ago, and that the prying had eventually led to the discovery of Bracken, the whole topic was still a raw nerve no matter how old. It put a bit of strain on the morning too as she made him his green tea, when he discovered how far they had come, albeit on a rocky bumpy journey, then everything would bein context again. Though she thought it best to let him discover on his own, build the story in his mind rather than have her put together a time line and frame the history for him.

It was another paperwork day, the guys were playing cards and Kate had decided to try her hand at making a origami castle. She was absolutely sure if she was in DC right now there'd be no time for such distraction, she'd be busy on some national security case instead. No time for such distraction, and she was sure she could have excelled, advanced, taken more responsibility; lost herself in a job once again. Time was scarce though, Rick's near death had shown her that; he could be lost to her at any moment, and what she wanted was time with the old Rick more than time invested elsewhere. He needed her, and her priorities of where to spend time had changed as a result. Whether they should have changed, or been there all along was a topic she felt no desire to overanalyze; the accident provided an epiphany moment and that was all that mattered.

The day was moving slowly, and about noon she decided to text Rick, see if he wanted to eat together since she could easily spare some time away from the precinct. Just after she sent the text though her cell rang [Dispatch]. Collecting the details, she frowned; it set her senses tingling, before calling out to Ryan and Espo, "Guys, we got a body. Central Park, The Rambles, we'll get the details when we arrive."

They started gathering their gear and just as they were leaving, Gates stuck her head out of her office. "Beckett, one moment. Ryan, Esposito, go ahead, she'll catch up in a few minutes."

Beckett had no idea what was going on. "Sir?"

Gates was holding out three files, pushing then into Beckett's hands. "Pick one by the end of the week. Your new partner Detective."

She didn't want or need a partner, never had until Castle, and didn't want anyone but him now either. "But Sir! I don't need a partner."

Gates was given her a relatively severe, by the book look, "Yes you do. Policy. Captain Montgomery let you bend the rules for too long, hell so did I while Mister Castle was here. He isn't now, and likely won't be coming back. So you pick a partner or I assign one to you. End of the week detective. Dismissed."

Beckett was distracted on the way to the scene, having tossed the three files onto the passenger seat and fuming quietly. So distracted she'd forgotten to call Castle about the body and tell him she wouldn't be bringing lunch over. It wasn't until she hadwalked through The Rambles and spotted a uniform eating a hot dog that she suddenly remembered.

Quickly pulling out her phone she called, speaking before he could get a word in. "Sorry Rick. We caught a body and I can't bring lunch over."

Ryan had stuck he head out from a cluster of bushes as she was talking and was gesturing urgently, he had barely begun to speakas she talked over him, "I gave to go, I'll be back to the loft as soon as I can get away tonight, but it might be late you know how it is. Love you. Bye."

Beckett hadn't even let him respond, instantly dropping into full detective mode as she approached Ryan.

He was giving her an unhappy look as she approached, so she snapped at him, "What? I'm a couple of minutes behind, had to call Castle."

Ryan shook his head and started to pull back into the over grown greenery. "Not about that Beckett. You are not going to like what we found."

The tingling sense of something being very wrong was back, "Tell me Ryan."

Esposito started to speak instead, from where he was stood next to the body, standing over Lanie as she worked, "We've got Jamie Schneider, 27, blond, blue eyes, 5 foot 5 inches, all matches the ID. No sign of robbery or sexual assault, looks like she was out for a jog. She's been posed here. Cause of..."

Lanie looked up from the body, butting into the conversation. "Kate, cause of death is strangulation. There's green nylon in the wound. It matches the MO.."

"Tyson. It was Tyson."

"I'll have to take her back to the morgue for a precise time of death, but right now I'd say between 6am and 8am."

Kate was distracted, but knew the first thing she needed to do, she pulled out her phone and called Gates.

"Detective? What do you have?"

Beckett responded, trying to keep everything in the purely professional level, "Sir. It's Tyson, he's back and active. Strangled a blond, the green nylon marker is here."

"Understood detective, all resources necessary are authorized; how about we get this scumbag this time?"

"Yes Sir. About those resources Sir, I would like a detail assigned to Castle; he won't like it, but he may be at risk, he's the only man who's seen Tyson recently."

"Hold detective."

There was a pause, and some really quite awful hold music while Kate waited anxiously. Then Gates was back, "I've sent two uniformed officers over to check on and wait with him until something more formal can be worked out."

"Thank you sir."

"Find Tyson Detective, and make the whole problem go away."

"Yes Sir."

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A solid half hour later everyone was back at the precinct, beginning the laborious process of assembling a murder board. It wasnot Beckett's first experience with Tyson, but nonetheless it felt strange to place the first photo up on the board under perpetrator. They knew who did it, they just needed to find him and ensure that he never did it to anyone else.

While Jamie Schneider was possibly just a randomly chosen victim, they ran phone records, financials, all the usual background checks. Jamie was a second year associate at a major investment bank, and her parents were coming into town from Boston in the afternoon; a conversation that Beckett was not looking forward to at all.

Her phone rang, indicating [Dispatch] once again, but she hoped it wasn't another new body already, Tyson related or not.

"Detective Beckett."

The voice at the other end was hesitant, a little young and unsure. "Err. Detective? This is officer Charlie Miles. Captain Gates sent me over to check on a Mister Castle. His doorman won't let us in, says nobody is answering the phone upstairs, and it was a courtesy right? So we don't have a warrant."

Beckett was a little frustration. Yes Castle's building was secure, but all the officer had to do was mention the 12th or her name and he would have been waved though. "Pass me to Eduardo please."

She heard muttering about Detective Beckett wanting to talk to him, and some shuffling of handsets, followed by a far more confident voice, "Hello?"

"Eduardo. It's Kate Beckett. I need you to let the officers upstairs please, into the loft to check on Castle."

The response was not at all what she was expecting, "I'm sorry but I can't do..."

Not at all, so she butted in, "Eduardo! Did he tell you not to let anyone in?"

She heard the smile in his voice as he spoke, "Not at all Detective, but you have a key. I couldn't very well let the officers into an empty apartment unsupervised. He's not at home Detective, I thought perhaps Miss Castle would be, but Mister Castle, well he left about an hour ago."

Kate felt a moment of panic, just a tiny shiver of fear. He'd left an hour ago, right about when the body had been discovered. Something about all this felt off.

"Do you know where he was going Eduardo?"

"I'm afraid not, but Mrs Rodgers left just after he did. She may know. Sorry I can't be more help Detective."

"Thanks Eduardo. Can you tell the officers to head back to the 12th please. Thanks."

Beckett hung up and immediately turned toward the guys who where running background on their victim. "Ryan, run Castle's phone right now! I want to see any text messages he got this morning."

Both Ryan and Esposito looked up a little startled, "Castle's phone?"

"Guys he's gone, left the loft about the time the body was discovered; something seems off, he's in not state to be going anywhere. Maybe it's just a coincidence, but maybe it's not. I'm going to call Martha, you run his phone."

Espo understood a little of her reaction, but still there seems to be an easy way to answer some of the questions, "Why not justcall him?"

Beckett didn't slow, striding off towards the break room, "Because if it is to do with Tyson, if it's the worst case and Tyson has him, calling him isn't going to get us anywhere."

Once in the break room she quickly called Martha, wasting no time with pleasantries and speaking right over the greeting. "Kather.."

"Martha, do you know where Rick is?"

"Of course, he went to the house in the Hamptons, he didn't tell you?"

Kate relaxed a little, but not completely, there was still a serial killer on the loose who had a serious hankering for making Rick's life as miserable as possible. It did seem less likely that Tyson had him currently though. It also didn't make a lot of sense, they'd had a bit of a strained patch and the first thing he does is run off? After he'd pushed her? She was going to give him a piece of her mind when she caught up to him.

For right now though, she'd take the little comfort she could, "No he didn't tell me Martha."

Maybe Martha's currently role in whatever play she was working on was that of a profiler, "You seemed worried Katherine, is there anything going on?"

Kate drew a deep breath, she might not be able to get Rick to understand just how scary Tyson was, but perhaps a double team would work better. They tried before and it hadn't but now they had hard information, if she shared with Martha. "We had a body today Martha, just about lunch time, right when Rick apparently left; I was worried."

It was quite impressive really, for so many people discussion of a dead body put a damper on things, not for Martha Rodgers though, "Why on earth dear? Bodies are hardly unusual in your line of work."

"I know, but it just felt off immediately. The victim was dumped in Central Park, The Rambles."

There was an almost wistful tone in Martha's voice to begin with, remembrance of bygone days, but that ended fairly quickly, "Such a lovely place for a walk Katherine, perhaps less so now I know this."

Kate hadn't been holding back, but it was time to let the cat out of the bag, "It was Tyson. His MO."

Martha voice switched completely, from her mothering, actor mentoring light tone to a cooler, firmer serious one she only deployed on rare occasions, "Tyson."

"Yes, he dumped her near the top of The Rambles, deep in the undergrowth, a park ranger found her."

"Katherine? I realize you have other things on your mind, but how close to the top?"

"Well it was a pretty winding path to get there, you know The Rambles, but high up."

The tone was firm, but questioning, "Just out of sight of Belvedere then? Hidden near the castle?"

She couldn't believe she'd missed it, that all the other distraction of the day had compounded and she'd overlooked something soobvious in hindsight. It was Tyson all over. He'd dumped the body so close, hidden in shadow while Belvedere Castle loomed just out of sight; standing sentinel over Central Park and The Rambles. He was taunting Castle, but obviously if Castle didn't remember anything there'd be no reaction from him; but if he did then Tyson would expect something.

Worse possible coincidence? Castle deciding to leave town the moment Tyson's latest victim was discovered? Kate had no doubt that Rick had left for some other reason, but Tyson might not see it that way. Might not see it that way at all.

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Rick's phone was ringing when he finally roused himself from an uncomfortable doze, he pulled it out of his pocket just as it stopped ringing, leaving it's little message behind [Five missed call], but that only stayed on the screen for a few moments before it started ringing again. Apparently Kate was determined to reach him.

He answered, or at least connected, but didn't get a word out, just as he hadn't the last time she'd called, before she was barking orders at him. "Rick! Turn that car around right now and get back to the city."

"Kate, I just need..."

Again she wouldn't let him talk, tell her why he needed space, "Rick, listen to me, Tyson is back, we have one victim already, Ido not want you to be the next one ok? There's no one to watch your back in the Hamptons, it is not safe. You need to come home."

"What makes you think he's going to come after me? I barely remember anything, and all I do know comes from old notes."

That redirected questioning from her end, "You read about Tyson?"

"I read all my notes this morning Kate. I may not remember things as they happened, but I know them now."

"Some of the things you read made you want to...No! We'll talk about it in person, when you get home. Turn the car around Rick, you can't run from this, or from Tyson."

"Seeking solitude to think and recover is not running away Kate. I thought you might understand that."

"Right at this moment everything else is secondary, you left town right as Tyson's victim was discovered Rick. He's going to seethat as a sign, a red cape to a bull. Whatever he had in mind for a reunion, I've got no doubt it's in play now. Last time Rick. Come home."

He'd never liked ultimatums, and he didn't like this one either, "If I don't?"

The sigh at the other end of the line meant she knew, heads were being butted, "If you don't? I'll be out at the house in three or four hours with cuffs and a material witness warrant. I will not let your life be put at risk, by you or anyone else."

His notes told him she'd done the same, put her life at risk time and again, never listening to him about how reckless it was; but she was right, she could drag him back kicking and screaming if she wanted. It was an ultimatum he couldn't fight.

He spoke to the driver through the lowered partition, "Turn around, back to where you picked me up please."

Rick spoke only one word into the phone then "Satisfied?" Then he hung up.

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Kate had instructed Ryan to continually ping Rick's phone, making sure that he did turn around, and when he had her heart beat a little easier. It would take him probably around two hours to get back, and she planned to be waiting his arrival when he apparently had some more things to sort out regarding whatever he'd read this morning.

Time right now was better spent digging for anything, absolutely anything that stuck out regarding their victim. So far there was nothing. Her parents would be here in a few hours, roughly the time Rick was due back in the city. Normally she always handledthe notifications, one of the things she was best at, had always been complimented on by Montgomery, empathy for families and victims. This time though, she was going to pass that responsibility on to someone else; she had a higher priority thing to takecare of.

Nothing really was added before her train of thought was interrupted by Ryan. "He's just exited the Midtown tunnel Beckett."

She was off, tossing a thank you over her shoulder as she headed straight to the elevator. No real hurry, she knew she'd beat him back to the loft, the precinct was closer than the tunnel exit by a good distance.

She had parked and was propped against the wall of Castle's building by the time his car pulled up; at which point she pushed herself away from the wall and immediately jerked the limo door open and stuck her head inside.

"What were you thinking Rick? Seriously?"

He was tucked in the back glaring at her, "Seriously? At least help me out of the car before giving me the third degree."

Kate withdrew her head and helped the driver extricate the chair from the trunk of the limo, positioning it so that she could gently pull Rick from the car, whispering in his ear as she did, "I will hold my tongue until we get upstairs."

She did, kept her promise until she had closed the loft door behind them; only then did she let him have it, not with a gentle consoling tone of voice, but with a hard questioning almost yelling one, "What do you think you were doing!? You push me, prod me; then the first time you feel stressed you bug out for the Hamptons?"

"Detective..."

"Do not Detective me Rick! Do not. I want to know what is going on. I told you that you wouldn't like some of the things you read. I told you we had to talk about them. We need to talk about them. But you didn't. You left instead. Didn't want to face it!"

"No! No I didn't! People died Kate. I made that happen!"

Kate paused, had to recalibrate. This was not her Risk, but one who had their entire history, the entire history of the conspiracy behind her mother's shooting, compressed into one morning of reading. So much at once.

Her voice softened materially, she needed to pull him back to reality, it wasn't his fault, what had happened had not been his fault. "Rick, you may have poked where you shouldn't but you didn't cause the problems, they were already there, all of it lays at the feet of Bracken, not you."

His eyes were squeezed tightly shut now, his brow furrowed. "I may not have pulled the trigger that killed Roy, but I loaded thegun Kate; when I opened the door I loaded the gun that killed him, that shot you. That's on me."

Kate crouched down beside him, grasping his hand. "You can't blame yourself Rick, not for every little consequence. Am I to blame for you being in this chair? You were distracted because I asked you to meet me at the swings. Am I responsible for Jamie's death, jogging in that park, because I didn't catch Tyson the last time? You, I, we can't hold ourselves responsible for every consequence of our actions Rick, some things just can't be foreseen."

Rick squeezed her hand in turn, "Can we not talk about it right now? I grant I shouldn't have left, I should have stayed to talk it through with you rather than leaving to deal with it on my own. But not now ok? Tomorrow maybe, let me get my head around everything a little first."

A kiss on the back of his hand sealed the bargain for her, "Just so long as you promise to be around to talk Rick, I'm willing to be here too. We can work it all out together."

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Rick didn't know precisely what it was that woke him, not a noise, just a sense of something; a quick glance showed his alarm at3:23am, worse he could see where the low light from it's LED display allowed the slightest outline of a person to be seen justinside the closed door to his bedroom.

The voice was familiar, only slightly though, recollection recent but memorable given everyone else's reaction to it, "Hello, Castle."

Rick remained calm, not much choice really, he had nowhere to go, nothing he could do in his condition. Yelling wouldn't help, whatever Tyson was going to do it'd be well over before help could arrive.

"Hello Tyson."

The shadow stepped closer and he saw a unpleasant grin stretched across the face, and a silenced pistol in his right hand. "Ah, Castle, so you remember me now?"

A certain precision with words was always good, "I know about you."

"Hmm, well that is interesting, a writer making semantic distinctions. Know about, not remember. Very interesting."

"What do you want Tyson?"

Jerry Tyson stepped even closer then, voice rising just. Voice still little more than a controlled whisper, no inclination to cause a disturbance just yet apparently, "Really? What do I want? You never cared before Castle. When I wanted to be left to restart my work elsewhere and you had to interfere, then again when you got yourself out of jail and Detective Beckett didn't lose it as a result. Always interfering and now you want to know what I want?"

Rick now knew why Kate rolled her eyes, sometimes it was just the thing to do, "Not really, just making conversation. Feel free to leave."

The gun's silenced barrel was now pressed against his forehead, so Rick concluded Tyson was not up for much of the jovial banter tonight. The barrel wasn't being ground into his skin, it just rested there as Tyson continued to speak. "I'm surprised you came back to the city Castle, my latest piece of work right under your nose and you ran, a smart move, staying out of my way. Not interfering. Then you came back, came back to help the cops; not such a smart move Castle. You should learn to keep your nose out of things that don't concern you, or one day it might get someone killed."

"Why are you here Tyson? To gloat?"

"Gloat? No. To see if you remembered, and you do; or at least you know, and that's close enough."

"We've got a bit of a standoff here you know Tyson. All I have to do is yell and Detective Beckett will come running downstairswith a gun. You'll never get away."

"Perhaps, but you would be dead and I don't think you want that. Plus I'd know she was coming and have the element of surprise. I think I could probably get you both and still walk out of here. You want to take that chance?"

"I don't like those options."

"No I don't suppose you do. I could pop you in the head here and walk out, you die but your Detective lives; or I could walk outand let you both live for now, we could visit again later; or my favorite, you get all self-sacrificial, scream like a girl, I kill you and your Detective and still walk away. Anyway it happens Castle, I'm walking away from this; the only question is whether you are. Not walking obviously, but living at all after tonight."

Rick didn't see the options quite the same way, he'd seen how carefully Kate had descended the stairs after the broken lamp withJudy, she wasn't the type to rush in unaware even when she suspected Tyson. If he called out, screamed, like a girl or not, hethought the chances were good that Kate would end Tyson, that Jerry wouldn't get to walk away. Neither would Rick, there'd be no escape if he called out; just a bullet to the head. It was a strange reversal from his guilt the prior morning, his actions years ago had started the ball rolling to death and near death; now his actions could stop a killer.

Tyson gave a push with the gun, trying to jog Rick into action, and hissed, "Pick!"