DISCLAIMER: The characters of the show CASTLE do not belong to me, they belong to ABC.

Author's Note: Sorry for the late update guys. I've got an inner ear disturbance which means that I'm almost always dizzy...and that makes writing & staring at a computer screen quite hard. But here is this weeks chapter, please leave a review and let me know what you think!

Chapter Seven

He felt as though his world was coming to an end. There before him was the love of his life, and she was in a lot of trouble. He reached out to her, but found that he couldn't reach her. "Kate!" he called out as he sat up.

Castle blinked and realized that he wasn't trapped in the nightmare that was already fading from his mind. He was just in his own bed, and thankfully awake. It was a dream, he thought as he rubbed his eyes. Thank god it was nothing but a dre—

The soft ring of his cell phone assaulted his ears. Confused at why someone would be calling in the middle of the night, Castle was slow to pick it up. But as his mind woke up he realized that it might be Jim calling about Kate.

"Hello?" he asked as he held the phone to his ear.

'Oh Castle thank god we got you,'

"Esposito?" Castle asked. "What is it?"

'It's Beckett bro,'

Castle felt as though his heart stopped. "What about her?"

'She's gone man.'

...

Kate drifted in and out of consciousness. There was a blindfold over her eyes so when she was awake she couldn't see where she was, and so she focused all her energy into listening. Muffled voices always seemed to be around her. Sometimes they seemed argumentative, and sometimes they seemed angry. Sometimes they were calm and sometimes there was no voices at all. And even though she was doing her best to listen, there was nothing that her drug-addled mind could put together that would help her figure out a way out of the kidnapping that she found herself in.

...

"What do you mean you don't know where she is?" Castle asked angrily as he confronted both Ryan and Esposito outside Kate's room. Her father Jim was there and he looked too shocked to even speak.

"They don't know," Ryan stated. "The nurse came to check on her, and then left to do her rounds."

"When she came back to check on her again," Esposito continued. "Beckett was gone."

"So what do we do?" Castle asked.

"We?" asked a new voice. Castle, Ryan, Esposito and Jim turned to see a woman in a business suit walking towards them. "Who is this we?" she asked.

"I'm sorry," Castle asked as he took a step forward to the woman. "Who are you?"

"I'm Captain Jillian Carter. I've been appointed by the mayor."

Ryan and Esposito shared a look.

"Your our new boss?" Ryan asked.

Captain Carter nodded. "That I am and I want you both back at the precinct now, there's nothing that can be done here."

"Well then I'll meet you guys there."

"I don't think so," Carter argued. "Mister Castle, while my predecessor might have been more open to having your presence around, I'm going to be running the twelfth a little differently. And there's just no place for you."

"But I—"

"Detectives Ryan, Esposito... time is ticking."

With that said, Captain Carter turned and walked away. Ryan and Esposito shot Castle an apologetic glance before following. Castle stood in the hallway feeling like he had been gutted. Worse than that it was like he was in a daze. Jim, Kate's father tried to talk to him but Castle didn't hear anything that he said.

A part of his brain was aware that he and some excuse and excused himself from Jim's presence and the next that he knew, he was walking through his front door. Like the night before, his mother and Alexis were standing there waiting for him.

"Dad?" she asked, worried the moment that she saw his face.

"Richard?" Martha asked, equally as worried. "What's happened?"

"Is Kate alright Dad?" Alexis asked. "She's not—"

"She's gone." Castle muttered.

"Oh Dad," Alexis cried.

"Oh Richard," his mother said at the same moment. "I'm sorry."

Castle shook his head. "She's not dead," he assured. "She's just gone."

"What do you mean Dad?" Alexis asked. "How can she be gone?"

"I mean that she's gone," Castle explained, feeling anger at the hopelessness of his situation. "Taken."

"Taken?" asked Martha. "Richard whatever do you mean?"

"I mean that one moment she was there, and the next she wasn't." Castle explained. "She was kidnapped. Taken, by the same people who probably killed Montgomery and were behind those murders that involved her mother."

Alexis's eyes were wide. "Oh Dad... why aren't you looking for her?"

Castle let out a bitter laugh. "Because the new captain of the twelfth has decided that I'm not a valuable member of the team anymore."

"So you're just giving up?" Martha asked as Castle walked to the kitchen and made himself a stiff drink which he downed in seconds. "That's not like you Richard."

"What can I do?" he asked with a shrug. "We've got no leads. There were no cameras in the hospital. No one saw her get taken. I can't help Ryan and Esposito because this new Captain has banned me from the precinct..." he paused momentarily and in a fi of anger and rage he threw his now empty glass and threw it against a wall.

"Richard," Martha chastised, though it was more because she felt that he could have hurt someone rather than for he fact that he was letting out his anger at the situation.

Castle leaned on the counter and put his head in his hands. "I don't know what to do..." he whispered in a voice that was barely audible to his mother and daughter. "I can't lose her... but I don't even know where to start."

Martha was about to suggest something when there was a knock at the door. Motioning to her grand-daughter to get the door she walked towards her son and put her arms on his shoulders. "I know that it seems hopeless now," she said at last. "But you and Beckett have been through too much to lose each other now and—"

"Dad?" Alexis interrupted as she cae back to the counter with a brown envelope in her hand. "You've got mail."

"Not right now Alexis," Martha chastised.

"But Dad you'll want to see this," Alexis insisted. "It's from Captain Montgomery."

TBC