"How come Hollister's team gets to go to Hawaii and we have to interview junkie roommates?" Hendricks complained as he and Beckett secured the hallway of the tenth floor of an apartment complex in the Dupont Circle neighborhood.

"Seniority?" Kate guessed and shrugged her shoulders.

"It's a new task force, Heat. We've got no seniority, period."

"Look at the bright side. No jet lag and you can't whine about seeing the beautiful beaches without actually enjoying them."

"Oh great, you're one of those glass always half-full people, aren't you?"

"Not really. I bet it's insanely hot in Hawaii right now anyway."

"Oh you mean unlike this city?" Hendricks swept his hand around him. Suddenly he came to a stop and nodded. 10D. They'd reached the right door. He knocked three times and announced their presence to Christopher Fields, roommate of Steven McEntire. The latter was one of five names Rookie's magical algorithms spit out on a list of most likely suspects with recent international travel. Steven McEntire, who was officially on vacation in Venezuela, was also a mid-level data analyst at Booz Allen Hamilton. They had already contacted local law enforcement to apprehend McEntire, but in the meantime they were going to question McEntire's friends and especially his roommate about his recent activities and whereabouts.

A quick background check of Christopher Fields, the roommate, revealed two prior convictions for drug trafficking – interesting living arrangements for a government spy to say the least. Castle would have already started spinning theories about Colombian drug syndicates with Steven McEntire as the mule by now. She kind of missed that, even though she used to complain about it all the time. And like any good junkie who was about to questioned by the feds, Christopher Fields did what came natural to all criminal lowlife. He tried to make a run for it.

The noisy rumble inside tipped off the two feds still waiting outside the door. Matt held up three fingers and motioned for Kate to take up her position on the other side. After a quick nod, he counted down silently, before he kicked down the door.

"NYPD, don't move!" Kate yelled as she spotted someone making a move to the window. Fields stopped dead in his tracks, arms held up disarmingly, right in front of the window. His eyebrows furrowed in confusion, as he glanced between Kate Beckett and Matt Hendricks in his doorway and the 200 grams of coke on his coffee table.

Hendricks frowned next to Beckett and lowered his gun for a split second, "Wh…"

"Shut up!" Kate hissed and glanced at her new partner. Matt chuckled. Their suspect took advantage of their break in concentration and ducked out the window.

"Fuck!" Matt let out an expletive and already turned around, while Kate holstered her weapon and followed their perp out the window. "He's making a run for the fire escape. I'll cut him off at the other end."

"Wait!" Kate yelled and stuck her head back inside through the window, "He's heading to the roof, better get to the top."

Hendricks nodded and dashed out of the apartment, while Beckett climbed up the fire escape. When she reached the end, she took a deep breath and told herself she could do this. This was just your average junkie roommate who got spooked when they canvassed the neighborhood. He was not Maddox; he wasn't even armed. Still Kate peered carefully over the edge, and only after she made sure the air was clear, she pulled herself on top of the building. She spun around, quickly assessing the situation. The rooftop was empty, neither Matt nor their suspect was in sight. Instinctually Beckett crouched behind a chimney and pulled out her gun. Peering around the corner to ensure safe passage, she quickly crossed the roof to hide behind another concrete column.

Where the hell was Hendricks? Ryan and Esposito would have long caught up with her, not to mention Castle who would have leaped out of the window hot on her heels, no matter how many times she would have yelled at him to wait inside. Kate reached for her walkie-talkie and relayed her position and a rough description of their suspect.

The device crackled a few seconds before Rachel's voice ordered her to wait for back up. What back up, Kate thought. As if she'd read her mind, McCord told her they'd taken up position in the alley on the east side of the building. When Beckett looked up to the sun to orientate herself, a sliver of movement on the north side of the roof caught her eye. Gotcha! She grinned and trained her weapon on the man in the green sweater. Lifting her radio again, she informed that she had her eyes on the suspect now and was in pursuit.

The radio crackled and Rachel ordered Kate to hold her position until Matt joined her. Hendricks, what the fuck is taking you so long? Wanting to have a better visual of their perp, Kate crawled behind a few pipes to close the distance between them.

"Hendricks, where the hell are you?" Kate spoke into her radio but got no response. The man in the green sweater was now ducking behind another set of pipes, making his way to the edge of the rooftop.

"Suspect on the move. I repeat, suspect's on the move."

"Hold your position and wait for back up, Beckett. I'm on my way."

"Negative." Kate replied, as realization dawned on her, "He's going to jump across the alley to the other building. We're losing him."

Beckett rose and turned once around her own axis to assure herself that Hendricks was still nowhere in sight. If she didn't take up pursuit of the suspect, they'd lose the only good lead they had on Steven McEntire. She had to take in his roommate who could provide them with important information about McEntire's whereabouts. How would that reflect on her if she'd let a suspect, well, viable witness, escape on her first week on the job. They'd never let her hear the end of it and the teasing would only increase. No thank you very much, the Nikki Heat hazing was enough, she wouldn't give them more ammunition by letting their suspect flee.

Holstering her radio and turning it off to avoid making her presence known, Beckett trained her weapon on the suspect who had his back on her now, as he was contemplating the jump across the alley. A rattling noise drew their attention to where they'd come up the fire escape. McCord must be climbing the steps as fast as she could but it was too late. She'd already spooked their perp, who now noticed Beckett approaching him.

"Give up, Christopher. It's over." Beckett pleaded with the suspect. "We just want to talk to you."

"It's a trick, I know how you work. You're just going to twist my words in my mouth."

"I don't care about your substance abuse, I just want to talk about your roommate Steven." Kate kept her weapon trained on him, while she strode along the edge of the rooftop, cutting off his escape route. Not that he was likely to jump without at least a little running start, and even that was still mostly a suicide mission.

"Stop!" Fields warned Kate and took a few steps backwards.

"I just want to talk, Christopher. I'm going to lower my weapon ok?"

Fields took another couple of steps backwards, when another voice carried across the rooftop.

"Freeze!" It was McCord who pointed her gun at Fields from where she peered over the edge of the rooftop.

Panicking, Fields' eyes darted between the two women before he took a deep breath and took a running jump off the building. Kate gasped and leaned over the edge, watching Christopher Fields land with a squat on the next roof. Without missing a beat, Kate holstered her weapon and took a running start.

"Beckett!" she heard McCord call out behind her but Kate was already in the air.

Her eyes widened in horror, when she realized that Field was now standing on the other rooftop, holding a gun. Shit, shit, shit. Where the hell had that come from? There was nothing she could do but hope that he had bad aim. When the first shot fired, Beckett was in mid-jump across the narrow alley between the buildings. Thank god for narrow alleys. Not risking a second shot, Kate pulled her own gun and fired it. Once. Twice. The third bullet finally made impact with Fields' shoulder, causing him to lose his balance and his hold on the weapon. It clattered to the floor at the same moment Kate's feet touched ground. To soften the impact, Beckett rolled over and took up position to fire in a crouch. However, Fields was still down for the count. Moaning and whimpering he held his shoulder, where Beckett's bullet had grazed him.

"Christopher Fields," Kate spoke as she rose and leaned over he suspect. Holding her gun to his temple, she continued, "You're under arrest for discharging a firearm, obstruction of justice and resisting a law enforcement officer and what I'm sure are half a dozen or so substance abuse violations." Beckett panted. Fields wriggled around, trying to escape her grip of him, as best as he could despite his wounded shoulder.

"What? But you said you weren't interested in the drugs!" Fields protested.

"That was before you took a pot shot at me, jackass!"

"Beckett, you ok?" She heard a male voice behind her.

"Richmond?" Kate replied astonished never taking her eyes off Fields. "What are you doing here?"

"Yep, here." Rookie's face appeared on the edge of her vision holding out his handcuffs. "I'm your back up!" He beamed, "That was amazing! The way you jumped and… he shot… and then you fired… and then you landed and and and…"

Never one to know when to give up, Fields tried once more to release Kate's grasp on him, and wriggled his good arm free to reach for the gun he'd dropped, before Richmond would be able to put the cuffs on him.

"Go ahead and resist, I need the practice." A very pissed off Kate Beckett hissed and pressed the gun firmer against his temple, leaving a mark.

Rookie gaped at Kate, before he snapped out of his reverie and handcuffed their suspect. "Christopher Fields, you have the right to remain silent. You also have the right to an attorney, should you find yourself unable to afford one, we'll provide one for you. Now get up, before I ruin my new suit." Richmond jerked Fields off the ground, who groaned at the manhandling of his injured shoulder.

"Hey!" A breathless Hendricks joined them. "You started the party without me!"

"Matthew! Where the fuck have you been?" Kate let go of Fields, trusting Rookie to take care of him, and charged into Hendricks.

"Whoa, easy there, Nikki. I came as fast as I could. The door to the rooftop was locked and made of iron, so I head to run all the way down. Outside, I caught Rachel just as she was getting on the fire escape, so I took Rookie here to secure this building, when I saw Fields jump. I took the staircase again, Rookie took the fire escape to make sure we cut off all escape routes." Hendricks explained, still panting.

"You should have seen her!" Richmond piped up, suspect in an iron hold, "She was incredible! She went after him without batting an eyelash. And then he fired at her and she took him right out. While she was still in the air! It was just like straight out of her novels!"

Kate rolled her eyes and blew a loose strand of hair out of her face. She watched as Hendricks took hold of Fields with a chuckle and started to march their suspect to the rooftop door together with Richmond, who kept on gushing about Kate's little stunt.

0~0~0~0~0

"If you think that was awesome, you should've seen her when she barged into the apartment after me, all badass Nikki Heat and then she yelled 'NYPD, don't move!' That was priceless." Hendricks laughed when they crowded into the small elevator to go down.

"You didn't?!" Rookie grinned at Kate.

"Sure did, it was hilarious!" Hendricks insisted. "Our little escape artist here looked at her like she'd grown a second head."

"NYPD's got no jurisdiction here, so what's she doing here?" Fields piped up, as the elevator indicated they'd reached the first floor with a ping.

"Just your lucky day, Fields, that the extraordinary Detective Beckett ditched the NYPD to join the feds this week." Hendricks laughed and pushed their suspect through the open elevator doors roughly.

"Hey, I just realized this is your first arrest as an agent. We should take a picture or something," Rookie chuckled.

"Thanks, but no thanks." Kate rolled her eyes.

"And what an arrest! Seriously, Matt, you should have seen her! I was still on the fire escape, when suddenly bullets start flying above my head. I look up and there she is, mid-jump aiming at him." Rookie gave Fields a shove forwards as they exited the building still laughing.

"And then, when she had him already apprehended, he tried to make another move for his gun, so she said, 'Go ahead, I need the practice.' Just like Jameson Rook in the novel! I'm telling ya, it was awesome! That was so cool the way you imitated Rook in Heat Wave."

Kate grinned and protested, "Hey! Where do you think Castle go that line in the first place?"

"No way, he stole that from you?"

"Sure did!"

Their laughter died on their lips when they saw McCords stern gaze welcoming them on the sidewalk. She raised her eyebrows at the trio, then nodded for Rookie to take their suspect across the street where the paramedics were already waiting with an ambulance.

"What the fuck was that?" McCord stalked across the sidewalk, closing the distance between them.

"Fields was about to bolt, so I made a judgment call." Kate explained, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear. Chasing their suspect across rooftops and fire escapes had left her a tad little out of breath and her hair in a messy ponytail.

"Without proper back up?" McCord glared at Kate, "That was stupid, Beckett!"

"But I had Hendricks with me. I followed the suspect up the fire escape, since Matt was heading up the stairs to the rooftop to cut off his other exit." Kate defended herself.

"I thought I made myself clear the other day, Beckett? No going rogue!" McCord charged into Kate. "What the hell were you thinking jumping after an armed suspect like that? You're lucky you're still alive."

"I didn't know he was packing heat," Beckett explained. "And what was I supposed to do? Let him escape? He's our only strong connection to McEntire."

"What are you trying to prove, going after a suspect like that?" Rachel was not in the least mollified by her explanation.

Matt shook his head, "It's okay, Rach. She couldn't have known. I hadn't seen the gun on him, either." Of all people, Kate expected Hendricks to stick up for her last. "It was a judgment call."

"A really poor one at that. What the hell happened in there? How could you let Fields escape through the window in the first place?" She trained her anger now on Matt.

"How about we all calm down, before Rookie signs us up for family therapy with the department shrink." Hendricks tried to diffuse the situation by lightening up the mood. "He's getting real antsy."

Kate and Rachel glanced toward the young man, fidgeting behind the yellow tape.

"It was a clean shot," Rookie shouted, when he noticed three pairs of eyes watching him curiously. "I saw it all with my own eyes. Fields opened fire first, Kate was only defending her life."

McCord closed her eyes and took a deep breath. "Alright, you know the drill." She held out her hand and Kate reluctantly put her weapon into it.

"Until you're cleared for the shooting, I don't want to see your face. They'll probably set up an interview sometime tomorrow, Monday morning at the latest. Take the rest of the weekend off." McCord shook her head. "That's gotta be a new record. Not even a whole week on the job and already fired her gun."

"Actually," Richmond piped up from behind the police tape, "Agent Brink's holding that record. He fired his sidearm only three hours into his… you don't really want to know that." He trailed off when he saw Hendricks and Beckett shaking their heads slowly. Right now he reminded Kate so much of Castle, when he spouted his useless little trivia tidbits at crime scenes.

"Not really," Rachel confirmed and then looked at Hendricks, "I'll take Rookie, you drop her off. Let's meet at the hospital in an hour to see if we can question Fields." With that McCord turned on her heels and joined Richmond.

"She's just pissed because of the paperwork she has to do now because of the shooting." Matt looked at Kate with a timid smile.

"Thanks for sticking up for me. Why didn't you tell her?"

Hendricks put his arm around Beckett's shoulder, drawing her a bit closer. "You think you're to blame for Fields' escape? He wanted to run, he was going to run. He would've found any number of ways and reasons to bolt, even if you hadn't slipped up."

Kate glanced at Matt's arm around her shoulders. It was a friendly gesture and yet it felt wrong. He was just trying to comfort her but she was mad at herself for giving Fields an opportunity to run.

"Don't be so hard on yourself, Nikki Heat." Hendricks gave her a squeeze before he pulled his arm back. "Come on, I'll drop you off at your place, before Rachel makes me fill out all the paperwork as punishment."

Beckett looked at Hendricks, a small smile hushing over her face. Maybe Matt Hendricks wasn't such a jackass after all. And really, she was starting to get used to her new nickname. There were worse things in the world. Like letting a suspect escape.


A/N: Just a heads up but the rating for this story will go up to M in the next chapter probably or the one after. They just won't behave and who can blame them, they're engaged after all. ;-)