Castle wakes with a start, his arm jerking over the edge of the bed, his knuckles slamming into the cold, hard surface of flooring before his fingers curl around his gun. He's gasping in breaths, his body trembling and wet with sweat, his heart beating so hard, he fears it may burst from his chest, break his ribs on its way out.
"Rick." The whisper of Kate's voice so close, the familiar touch of her lips to the corner of his eye coaxing them to flutter open, tempting his heart to slow and his breathing to steady. "Castle, you're okay. I promise you're okay."
His eyes peel open, gritty with a restless kind of sleep that has him feeling even more tired than he had before he'd drifted off with his body curled around Kate's. She's still next to him, sitting with her legs folded beneath her and her spine curved where she leans over him, dusting her fingers through the sweat dampened strands of his hair.
"Time?" he croaks, scrubbing a hand at his jaw, scratching at his skin. He'll need to find a razor soon, shave away some of the stubble that's grown into scruff along his face, despite how fond Kate seems to be of it.
"About four a.m.," she murmurs, checking the watch on her wrist and lowering her hand to rest against his shoulder. "So you slept about three hours, give or take."
"Lexis," he mumbles, sitting up and casting his gaze across the room, onto the huddled lump of his daughter beneath the bedding, her back to them.
"She's fine, sleeping heavy," Kate reassures him, her voice even, steady, as if she's been awake for a while, which leads to his next question.
"What are you doing up?"
"I slept for a couple of hours," she shrugs, reclining backwards to rest against the wall, hooking her thumb in the ring that hangs from her neck. He knows the summary of that story, the significance behind the jewelry that she wears without fail, but he still hopes to learn the details someday soon. "Then just decided to keep watch."
"Still anxious about being here?" he asks, plucking at the soiled fabric of his shirt. He wants to go search for the showers Ryan had mentioned earlier, but not while Kate sits with tired eyes and tension in the stiff set of her shoulders.
She won't rest, not until they learn more about this place, not until she can ensure their safety, and neither will he.
"Kate?"
"I don't remember how to feel anything even close to safe," she admits, knocking her head back against the rough wall. "This place seems safe, but I just… I feel like I'm waiting for the other shoe to drop, for the next battle."
Castle covers the bone of her knee with his palm. "I know the feeling."
"I know you do," she whispers, blinking up at the ceiling and dropping her hand from the fiddling with her mother's ring to spread her fingers over his knuckles. "That makes it even worse."
There's nothing to say to that, no argument to be had when they both know how it will end – with her wanting more for him and him for her, both of them in mutual agreement over Alexis. He'll always wish he had met her before the invasion, he'll always wish for more time, but he has her now, and he wants their time together to be something worth surviving this hell on earth for.
"Want to go explore this place?"
Kate lowers her gaze to him with a quirk of her eyebrow, the corner of her mouth twitching with a rare flicker of amusement.
"Only for a few minutes," she murmurs, her gaze traveling to Alexis. "Don't want to leave her alone for long."
"Not long at all," he concurs, easing the tangled fabric of bed sheets from around his waist and placing his feet to the floor without making a sound. He draws the notebook from his backpack, scribbles out a brief note for Alexis and props it up on the small table between the two cots, within immediate sight. Though, he intends to be back before Alexis wakes.
Kate is at the door when he approaches, her fingers turning the handle and pulling the grey door – so much grey in this place – open, only wide enough for them to slip out of. The lights in the bunker are dimmer than before, to preserve energy he assumes, but the soft glow of gold still illuminates the compound, casts enough light for them to walk the hallway without trouble. The short path leads them back out into the main area, far less active now in the dead of night, but still alive nonetheless.
People in the customary all black clothing are milling around, some perched at tables with notebooks, candlesticks brightening the space they've claimed, and others in huddles, deep in conversation. Castle feels out of place, walking with Kate past other humans who don't spare them a second glance, too engrossed in their own happenings. It doesn't stop the instinctive flare of panic that surges in his gut, the fear that humanity has induced within him. For the last three months, the only people he has been able to trust are his daughter and Kate, no one else. Everyone else has been the enemy.
"There's a directory," Kate points out, leading him towards the entrance they had originally come through, stopping in front of a small, simple map pinned to the wall. Bathrooms to the right, housing to the left, kitchen up ahead; training, tech rooms, and the armory on the level below. "This place is massive."
"They were prepared for the apocalypse, whether they knew what it would be or not," Castle nods, glancing towards the right. "Well, prepared to keep at least 300 people alive."
Kate slips her hand into his and follows when he starts in the direction of the bathrooms. That comment Esposito made earlier had unsettled her, knocked the breath out of her, and she wasn't alone in her disbelief. He had already known that only the strong could survive, but human life should still be precious, every life should still matter, shouldn't it?
"Shouldn't bother me," she mutters, circling her thumb over one of his knuckles as the floor beneath their shoes becomes tile.
"Yes, it should. It's what makes you human," he argues under his breath, but Kate hears him, cuts her eyes to him with something like desperation in hers, need for reassurance that she never openly seeks. He's all too willing to give it to her. "You could have killed Alexis and I that day, before that… thing tried to. You probably would have been doing us a favor."
"Castle," she breathes, pained, but he squeezes her hand.
"You could have turned us away when I showed up at your building, but you didn't. You took us in, you let us into one of the only safe places left, and you cared, Kate. Not many people know how to do that anymore and no matter what anyone says, it's not a weakness. It's what keeps your humanity alive. Once you lose that, there's no point in living anymore."
The bathroom is a change of scenery, the tile lining the floors a clean white, the walls matching, and the rows of showering stations empty in the early morning hour, offering them a form of privacy they've never had the chance to experience.
Kate releases his hand to face him, her gaze falling to caress his lips before returning to his eyes, her hands rising to snag in the hem of her shirt. His heart trips, lungs seizing with his breath trapped inside, as she draws the long sleeved t-shirt over her head, exposes the black cotton of her bra cupping the soft swells of her breasts.
Castle steps in closer, backing them into one of the shower stalls and tugging the frosted glass door closed behind him.
"You keep my humanity alive, Castle. You and Alexis," she murmurs, skimming her fingers along the edge of his t-shirt, easing the fabric up his torso, the tips of her fingers trailing like fire along his skin as she goes. "I told you, there was nothing before you. Nothing in this world worth staying alive for."
She hangs his shirt over the edge of the door next to hers, splays her hands over the naked flesh of his back.
"You'll be the last one standing, Kate Beckett. You're going to beat this world," he says with true conviction, echoing back words he had heard her promise to his daughter, and Kate sways into him, the bare skin of her stomach grazing his, awakening sparks of electricity through his veins.
"With me," she breathes, lifting her mouth to his and sealing her belief to his lips. "You'll be with me."
Alexis is still asleep when he slips back into the room, his body warm and thrumming, scrubbed clean with generic soap and the memory of Kate's lips on his skin. Kate, who had promised to follow in a few minutes, needing to use the bathroom first. Alone. I'm not going to go with you right there listening, Castle. Go to the room, I don't like Alexis being alone. I'll be right behind you.
Famous last words, he had wanted to throw back, but no, she would be back. He had learned over the last few months that there was very little that could keep Kate from what she wanted once her mind was set.
Castle places the set of clothes on the foot of his daughter's acquired bed. There had been a shelf of them in the bathroom next to the towels. Black shirt, pants, and undergarments. Kate had picked out Alexis's size along with her own, but he noticed her hesitance in drawing the fabric over her head, up her legs.
"We're not committing to this place, not yet," she had whispered to him once she was dressed, her lips to his ear to ensure not a single word of hers could be deciphered by anyone else. And Rick had nodded in affirmation.
They were naturally suspicious, rightfully so, but he hoped that their finely tuned instincts were all wrong. He hoped that this place could be a home for them, a safe haven where they could sleep without one eye open, a place where they could thrive, where they could live without the impending sense of doom creeping up on them.
"Daddy?" Alexis whispers, the tight coil of her body unwinding as she peeks up at him from behind the sheet that covers half of her face, exposing the icy shimmer of her eyes in the darkness.
"Hey Pumpkin," he greets softly, hoping that maybe those bright eyes will close again, allow her a few more hours of rest, but Alexis sits up in the bed, cocks her head at him in confusion.
"Why is your hair wet?"
"Found the showers," he explains, watching her eyes travel down to the fresh clothes he wears. "And the clothing options. Good thing black never goes out of style, right? Oh, and I brought you-"
"I like my clothes," Alexis states, curling her knees to her chest in defense, and it's him who stares in confusion this time.
"Okay, these can just be extras then," he decides.
"Where's Kate?"
"She wanted a shower too. She should be back any second now," Castle assures her, but Alexis squares her jaw.
"We shouldn't split up. Ever," Alexis murmurs, kicking off the covers and holstering her gun.
"Something you want to talk about?" Castle questions, dropping his spare clothes onto the top of his backpack and approaching his daughter with bubbling concern. She's looking up at him like a terrified little girl, but with the glint of a warrior in her eyes, adamant and sparkling. Just like Kate.
Alexis steps in close, lifts on her toes and cups her hand over his ear like she's about to tell him a secret.
"I have a bad feeling, Dad. A really bad feeling about this place."
Castle sighs and cups his daughter's shoulders in his palms. "I know, sweetie. It makes me nervous too, but-"
"No," she hisses, dropping back down to the soles of her feet and glaring up at him. "Kate taught me to always trust my gut and my gut is in knots. Something is wrong."
"Yo, Beckett." Kate reluctantly slows to a stop before she can step into the hall that will lead her to Castle, Alexis, their temporary home, and arches her brow at an approaching Esposito. "What're you doing up? Thought you and your clan would be exhausted."
Beckett rolls her eyes, crosses her arms. "How much longer is the unnecessary bitterness going to last, Espo?"
"Who's bitter? I'm just being a good friend, worried about your health," Esposito shrugs, crossing his arms in return, challenging her. She used to be the one with higher authority amongst them, and perhaps the tables have turned, but she had never taken Esposito for one to capitalize on an opportunity of power.
"Yeah? Well, thanks for your concern, but I'm just fine," she mutters, turning on her heel, but Esposito sighs.
"Listen, Beckett-"
One of the doors down the hall swings open and Alexis is striding towards her, her hair a flame rippling behind her, Castle jogging to catch up with her.
"Alexis? What's-"
"Javi, we have a situation," Ryan cuts in before Kate can get the question out, trotting into the main area with his face pale, his eyes wide. "Captain wants us in headquarters. He requested Beckett's presence as well."
Her heart skips a beat, but she hesitates, long enough for Alexis to step up beside her.
"This is professional business," Esposito states, his gaze morphing into a harsh glare as it lands on Alexis.
"Where's the line between professional and not anymore anyway?" Alexis challenges and Kate waves her former partner off before he can start an argument with a teenager.
"They go where I go," Kate decides, sharing a brief nod with Rick over her shoulder before starting off after Ryan, who is shifting from foot to foot with anxiety, practically forcing himself to lead them to 'headquarters' without racing down the stairs.
The five of them enter the room filled to the brim with technical equipment, working computers and screens that are alive with maps of the world, most prominently the United States. Montgomery stands in front of one that is alight with the southeast, branching from Tennessee to Texas, and it takes Kate a single glance to realize what must be going on.
"They're fighting back," Montgomery announces, twisting his wedding band around on his finger out of nervous habit. His head nod towards a different screen, one that displays the northwest, California alive with activity.
"But DC just went dark," Ryan curses, slamming his fist into the control panel, tugging on a pair of headphones that screech with audible static. "We've lost contact."
"Houston's going out too, bro," Esposito grunts, his dark eyes flashing with the dying flicker of the city on the screen. "And there went Georgia."
"It's like there's a wave going south, a rolling attack of some sort," Castle mumbles from between the two, their group staring up at the darkening screens with barely repressed horror.
"What the hell are they hitting us with?" Esposito growls, his forearms bulging with the flex of his hands into fists. "Another tsunami?"
"No, the bunkers would survive that," Montgomery dismisses. "Doubt it's a natural disaster."
"Great, more alien technology that we're no match for," Ryan sighs, tearing the headset from his skull and scrubbing his hands over his eyes.
Castle steps in closer, standing beside her former captain and studying the maps. "And they're all hitting in perfect succession. Each attack is happening in synchronization. They found out where the last of us have been hiding."
"How?" Ryan demands, the light in his eyes dying with the last of Houston's. "We've been so damn careful."
Alexis shifts at Kate's side, nervous energy zipping through her bones when the girl purposely bumps her with her elbow.
"Something's wrong," Alexis whispers, her breath trembling against Kate's ear and the words have the hairs on the back of her neck rising.
"Aside from the obvious, what do you mean?" Kate mumbles back, her lips barely moving, her voice low enough for only the girl curling her fingers around Kate's elbow in a death grip to hear.
"I know how they're finding us," Alexis breathes, her pale skin turning gossamer beneath the fluorescents, and Kate's stomach begins to roll.
She really doesn't want to ask, but-
"How?"
"I – he isn't who he says he is. He's - he's like Grams, like Lanie. He's one of them, he's a spy," Alexis gets out, rushed and panicked and earning a glance from Esposito that has Beckett wrapping her arm around Alexis's shoulders.
"Who?"
Alexis swallows, meets Kate's eyes before casting them to Montgomery back, and – and no. No, can't be right.
"But his eyes aren't-"
"Contacts," Alexis hisses. "Kate, he's the traitor. I thought it was nothing, but while you and Dad were gone, I - I was walking past his door, trying to find the kitchen, and he was talking to someone, in another language, but mentioned Atlanta, Houston, and DC. He's the one giving out base locations."
Beckett lifts her eyes to the man at the front of the room to find his gaze already trained on them, a half smile gracing his lips that causes her stomach to churn.
"Oh Beckett, Roy really doesn't want to do this," Montgomery sighs, her captain's voice, but those aren't his words. "But you've left me no choice."