A/N: Just got back from holidays through central Australia! If you guys ever have the opportunity to take a gap year, do it! 100% best life decision so far!
This chapter is kind of short, but I hope this is up to expectations! Enjoy.
They have Tattoo Face in custody. She's standing behind the two way mirror, with the help of Alexis, looking at the face of her assailant with morbid curiosity. She's alarmed that she doesn't recognise his face. Actually, that's not true. There's a familiarity to him, something that she can't quite put her finger on and is not sure that she cares to.
Regret radiates from the quiet man. She's looked at his rap sheet and seen clearly why his DNA was in the system. Unfortunately, the DNA they pulled from the rape kit only turned up for this man, but she was grateful to her lucky stars. He had been the key suspect in a murder investigation but been dismissed of the charges years ago, almost ten, actually. However, from the looks of things he had cleaned up his act. Before the murder charges he had a rap sheet out the window, but since then – nothing, hardly even a traffic violation. Beckett's eye brows furrowed as she stared into his milky eyes, "This doesn't make sense." She mumbled under her breath.
"Pardon me?" Alexis' voice jarred Kate's thoughts. She turned her eyes to her company repeating, "It doesn't make sense, why would he do this? He's been clean of any criminal activity for so many years. Why now?"
Alexis opened her mouth, possibly to offer a Castle-like theory, when there was a knock on the door. Alexis' head whipped to the door, back to Kate and to the door again. Feeling Alexis' unspoken question, Kate offered a tight nod of her head before the girl moved to let the man in. There was a shift in the air as he emotionally and physically replaced the girl before everything settled in a tangible tension.
"Kate?" Castle's voice was hoarse as he whispered her name and her eyes briefly fluttered shut as the week of silence broke.
She turned like in slow motion, her eyes locking with his for an instantaneous year.
"Lanie said you looked bad but… hell, Beckett." His voice grew louder, more angry as he continued, "You need to take care of yourself. You need to call me. You can't just run off on me again, we're engaged for Christ's sake!"
Kate cast her eyes down, shattering the tight anger in the room.
Castle's voice quieted again as he continued, "I was so worried. You need me, Beckett. You need to depend on me or you aren't going to make it through this."
He stepped closer and reached for her. Stiffening as she allowed him to pull her into a gentle and comforting embrace. She whispered into his ear, "I don't remember him at all, Rick. I'm a trained cop, years of my life have been dedicated to holding my head through intense trauma; to remembering all the details when I come out of life or death situations so I can convict killers, but I couldn't have even picked this guy out of a line up."
She pulled away as the officer in charge of her case stepped into the interrogation room and listened as the stranger pulled apart the intimate story, ripping her wounds fresh. She's ashamed that these men could overpower her. She prides herself on her strength; her ability to thrive in a male dominant world, she's not afraid of the worst criminals. She has stood up to brutal murders and professional killers just to fall flat before some man who is so weak he gives up every single detail he knows in a matter of hours.
"Michael, there's no way you took down a trained NYPD detective by yourself, especially if you were as intoxicated as you claim to have been. We have your DNA evidence, that's enough to put you away for years." The interrogating officer slapped pictures of injured Kate in front of the criminal as he continued, "Look at these photos, you're not going to convince any juror out there that this was consensual, especially considering that the DNA results showed multiple assailants. Just give us the names of the men who were with you, and I'll see what I can do about knocking a few years off your sentence."
Kate watched carefully as Michael's shaky hand came from below the table to caress against her face in the photo. Her hands clenched as she reigned in her anger at the officer who was allowing this man to take further possession of her through the picture, despite her knowledge that he was probably using his guilty conscious to juice the information.
"Steve," Michael's voice caught on the word and he cleared his throat before continuing, "Steve Rady, Max Tergesen, and Rickie Culp."
Kate's world fell away as the last name rolled off of Michael's lips. She looked at Castle, whose face turned sheet white before reddening in anger.
Rickie.
She reached her hand up and gently cupped his cheek, "It's not you, babe, you didn't do this to me. It's just a coincidence."
He pressed his cheek into her hand and whispered, "I'm so sorry, so sorry Kate. I don't… I wish I could…" He paused as his eyes flicked back and forth frantically between hers, "I wish I could protect you from everything."
"That's no way to live, Castle. I've learned that with everything we've been through. Nobody's tomorrow is guaranteed, so we have to live for today; not in the fear that tomorrow could be taken away, but in the joy that today I have life, I have you."
Blue eyes and hazel melted together. A thousand love songs simultaneously harmonizing as her hands cocooned his face and their love blossomed in the room. His eyes brimmed with tears as they, almost subconsciously, drifted together. Their foreheads touched, their eyes shut and they breathed each other in. Her nails scraped along his coarse cheek and climbed up to wrap around his ears.
Then, softly and with smiles, they, together as in everything, whispered, "I love you."
This chapter has been itching at me, I wanted to add more, create more of an arch for the chapter, but this seemed like a natural finish. Plus writers block has been hitting me pretty hard, so I was hoping that posting this would give me some inspiration. I have some pretty exciting plans for where this story is going! I hope you guys see me out!
Thoughts, please?