Here you go. My second to last chapter is finally here. Once again, my dear followers, I am sorry for you to be waiting so long. With the ending of the season, it has been crazy everywhere and I kind of needed a bit time off. Same goes with Brett. He is crazy busy. I am on the road again. Hopefully! There is only one chapter left to write, so I try to be very quick. My goal is to have the last chapter up next week (I'm trying to be good and actually finish this fic!).
Thank you all of you who have still stayed with this fic. Extremely grateful that you still read it and comment on it. Its just. Thank you. You have no idea how much it means to me.
Thank you Sheyna and my special loony german who have been by my side with this story.
"I think she is starting to wake up..."
An unembodied voice comes from somewhere near to her, but she can't quite figure out who it is. It sounds familiar. Yes, it does.
"Beckett, open your eyes," she hears the soothing male voice. Castle's comforting voice.
Her eyelids flutter and she sees the face of her partner crouching over her.
"Hi," he smiles at her and then averts his gaze to the medic sitting beside him. "She's up, thank god."
"What's going on?" she mumbles through the haze of pain. Her whole right arm aches.
Castle focuses his attention back on her. "You have a knife in your arm. Alfred stabbed you before he ran away," he shares in a comforting tone.
"Did he...?" she tries to find out if they failed to apprehend the suspect or he managed to escape.
Castle already guesses what she's asking. "No, Espo got him just after... right before I found you."
"Ah, well," she manages to smile weakly, "so it wasn't a total failure then."
"No, it wasn't," he nods, looking the hands of the medic working on her arm. She suddenly hisses when the pain hits her as the medic lifts the arm gently.
"Does it hurt a lot?" he tentatively asks.
She nods. It hurts like hell, she can't even form the words in her head. After a few moments of silence, the medic saves her from answering.
"It probably hurts a lot," she says softly. "She still has knife in her arm. Even though I stabilized it, the ride to the hospital won't make it any better. She should feel much better once it's removed."
Castle listens and nods, his eyes resting on Kate's face.
"Pain... painkillers?" she grits through the teeth, raising her head to look at her injury.
"No," the medic soothes her. "Once we get to the hospital, the doctors will decide if you're only gonna need meds or an operation."
Beckett nods in resignation and leans her head back against the gurney. Great. She has to suffer more. Suddenly she feels a warm hand surrounding her fingers. She looks down at her hand and sees Castle's palm cradling hers. A wave of gratefulness hits her. He's there. With her. He cares enough to be there at her side, even on her worst day.
"Thank you," she whispers.
There's a beat of silence before he answers.
"Always."
She smiles at him weakly. Damn, why does he need to be so charming? Closing her eyes for a second, she draws in a long breath.
"Everything will be alright," he mumbles, raising her good arm to bring her hand to his lips. "It will be."
"I know," she whispers. She really does. The injury seems to be serious, but she's awake and responding, so for now, that's a good sign, right?
The ambulance stops.
They've arrived at the hospital. Castle lets go of her hand when the medic starts to move around the vehicle to get Beckett ready for the transfer. Kate almost immediately feels the loss of warmth on her hand. Like something is missing. His care, his love.
Castle is ushered out and soon enough Beckett is greeted by several nurses who wheel her inside. The writer doesn't stay behind - he walks all the way to the emergency room with her, sharing details of the accident with the doctor. She loses sight of him when she is rolled to a separate room to assess her injuries.
"Do you think she's okay?" Ryan whispers to his partner who is standing next to him. They are both peeking into the hospital room that houses their boss. Their injured and heavily medicated boss.
"I don't know yet, I haven't asked," Esposito answers with a shrug.
"How long have you been here?" Ryan pokes fun at him with a smile.
"Arrived few minutes ago. Why?" the Latino answers with a deadly serious voice.
"And you haven't asked yet? Is Castle in there?" Ryan scowls.
"He's there. Seems like they are in deep conversation, I don't want to interrupt... yet," Espo points at the writer next to Beckett's bed. Kate seems to be listening to Castle intently while he is looking at the ground, searching for words.
"Ah," Ryan nods understandingly. "Let's wait a little bit."
"Castle, I'm not coming to your place," she states firmly.
"Why not?" he whines. "The doctor said you are going to need somebody to take care of you while you are recovering from this!"
"It doesn't mean I have to stay with you," she tries to object, but she already feels like she's losing the argument.
"Why can't you stay with me?" he asks quietly, looking down at his hands.
"I..." she starts to answer, but her glance slides over his features. He's serious, he's not joking about the offer of her staying at the loft.
"I … don't know," she finally confesses. It's the truth. She doesn't know anymore why she is fighting with him. After all, they have become closer over these past few days, the connection between them growing stronger and stronger. Maybe she should stay at his place, to talk things out, to enter the new territory of their relationship?
"Beckett," he finally looks at her, her loopy eyes and pale skin against the pillows of the hospital bed.
"I'm not leaving you alone," he states firmly. "You need care. These kinds of injuries are not a joke. They just removed a knife from your right arm. You were lucky that it didn't hit any major nerves or blood vessels."
"I know," she sighs.
"What is it then?" he pushes a bit. "You know I care about you. Please let me take care of you..."
"Castle..."
"I know it may be too soon for you. I promise to behave. Please?" he looks at her with his best puppy-dog eyes.
She rolls her eyes slightly and smirks at his expression. "Okay..., but …"
"Hey, no buts," he interjects.
"Castle, let me finish. I just wanted to say that we need to stop at my place before, okay?"
He nods, seemingly relieved, and breathes in a deep breath. "Okay. Thank you."
She smiles at that. "Well, you can be pretty persuasive."
His open smile widens at that and he reaches for her hand, bringing it to his mouth.
"Oh, you have no idea, Detective."
That catches her off-guard. The direct flirting. They have done this dance for years now, but never this openly. Never so publicly. She opens her mouth to answer with something equally flirtatious, but she realizes that she doesn't know what to say. He is right with regards to a lot of things. This may be too soon, the step forward in their partnership. But at the same time she needs somebody. Her whole arm will be useless for quite a few weeks. He offered. And she agreed.
They fall into a silence, Castle boring his eyes into her. Suddenly there is a knock at the door. Both of them turn their heads towards the sound to see Ryan and Esposito standing in the doorway.
"Heey," she greets them weakly. "Come in."
"How are you?" Ryan steps in first.
"I'm slightly better now that I don't have a knife in my arm anymore," she replies sarcastically, smiling at the boys.
"Good to hear," Esposito smiles back at her. Both of the detectives seem genuinely happier now when they know she feels better.
"What happened in the house?" Ryan inquires, feeling left out of the details of what exactly happened to her. He's curious. He wants to know.
Beckett looks at Castle with a confused look on her face.
"I don't exactly know," she replies. "I think Castle knows better, I wasn't awake most of the time."
Both boys turn to Castle and he is more than willing to spin a story for them.
"Well," he smiles. "When I went inside the house after you had taken down the suspect, I found her laying on the floor, knife stuck in her arm. The doctors say it's a miracle that she is in this condition. The knife somehow missed all the biggest nerves and nicked an artery only a little." The hold of his hand tightens around hers as he looks at her. "She was lucky."
"They said I can go home tomorrow," she continues, her voice weak due to exhaustion.
"That's great!" Ryan pipes up, stepping closer to her bed. "I'm really glad that you are okay."
"Did you do the interrogation?" Beckett is suddenly curious as she remembers the ongoing case.
Esposito nods. "Yeah. After we told him that he could go to prison for life for murder as well as attempted murder, he was singing like a bluebird."
"Dude, it wasn't that easy," Ryan interrupts.
"Whatever," Espo sidetracks Ryan's attempt to grab attention. "Well, we may have helped him a little bit."
"So, he confessed that he killed Kalev Järvesoo?" Castle asks out loud. When both of the boys nod he continues, "With a … a... blow dart poison?"
The detectives nod again.
"What was the motive?" Beckett finally inquires, trying to quit stalling. She wants to know what they managed to find out.
Both Espo and Ryan light up at the question.
"Ooh, that's a good one," Ryan smiles. "You want to do the honours?" he asks, looking at Esposito. Esposito holds his gaze for a second and nods.
"Well, as we found out, they story goes way back to 2008, when our victim was finishing up his studies in London. Apparently, he met a girl there. Lovely lady. Aanjay Maneni was her name. She and Kalev dated about 5 months, before the girl ditched her studies and flew back to Indonesia."
"Maneni?" Beckett is familiar with the name.
Espo nods. "Yep, you heard right. Aanjay is Alfred's little sister. Apparently, when she had returned from London, something wasn't right in her head. She was so messed up that she was committed to a mental institution. Alfred implied that Kalev had done something to his sister while she was staying in London. Some kind of weird sexual rituals, domination, cutting. He even forced her to use drugs."
"Alfred claimed that when he last spoke to his sister two years ago, he had sworn to her that he was gonna find the bastard who did this to her and finish him. Apparently, Alfred loves his sister very much," Ryan comments.
"So," Esposito continues. "Since his grandmother had been a dart-maker in the village where the Manenis grew up, he asked his grandmother to teach him the secrets of making blow dart poison - that's how he got the chemicals. They were handmade in the Javanese jungle."
"Oookay?" Beckett drawls out. "So he had this whole thing planned out? The poisoning, the blackmail?"
"Yep. Alfred hated Kalev. Passionately. For what Kalev did to his sister. But the timing was wrong, he didn't know that Kaarel was going to kill Kalev on the exact same day. The anger of the old Consulate General totally ruined Alfred's plans." Ryan muses with a little smile on his face.
"How did Kalev not recognize him?" Castle perks up, suddenly curious. "They must have met before?"
"According to Alfred, he was trying to win Kalev's trust by earning his friendship. Kalev never knew that Alfred was Aanjay's brother," Esposito offers.
"I knew that Kalev was a freak!" Castle cheers, turning the attention of all detectives onto him. "I mean... when I was looking through the files on his computer? I found folders full of disturbing pornoggraphic materiall. Remember?" he tugs Beckett's hand gleefully.
"Yes," she nods. "Well, it makes a whole a lot more sense now. Where is he now?"
"Alfred?" Ryan asks over. "He's on his way to the prison probably. We finished the paperwork on him an hour ago."
"So, the case is closed?" Castle wants to know.
"For now, yes," Espo states.
"So, in the end, we have two killers with different motives and the same victim. I'd say there's one too many killer for this kind of man," Castle jokes, making Esposito and Ryan chuckle.
"Well," Espo smiles, "at least it's over now."
"Yes," she sighs, "it is. Thank god."
Castle chuckles at that. "I have to say, this has been one of the craziest cases I have worked on with you guys..."
"Yeah," Beckett agrees. "Espo, Ryan, you did great."
"Thank you," the detectives mumble at the same time, making Kate smile. They are so adorable when they do that.
Ryan shifts his balance from one foot to another, and there is visibly something that bothers him. "Uhm," he starts tentatively. "Can I ask you guys, something?"
Beckett nods, "Sure..."
"Are you two together now?"
That question catches Beckett and the writer off-guard. Neither one of them expected the question to be that. Sure enough, Espo elbows Ryan in the ribs and hisses, "Dude!"
"Um, where did that question come from?" Castle asks when Kate only stares at Ryan, her mouth open slightly.
"I don't know, you seem like you get along better now. And you have been holding her hand the whole time we have been here," Ryan points at their joined hands.
Oh. He lets her hand go.
"Oh, no, don't stop on my account," the Irish detective apologizes. "I was just curious."
Finally Beckett opens her mouth. It has been a confusing few days with the complicated international case and Castle's actions so far - she doesn't even know where she stands anymore. Shyly, she looks at Castle, searching for his eyes.
"We... um... I don't know" she answers truthfully. She really doesn't know where they stand. They haven't had time to talk about the kiss and the silent embraces they have been sharing with each other.
Castle stares at her slack jawed. He was clearly expecting her to deny everything. But this - this gave him new hope. Just as he opens his mouth to to say something, the nurse walks into the room.
"I have to ask all of you to leave. Visiting hours are over, the patient needs her rest."
Ryan and Esposito quickly exchange good-byes with Beckett and step out of the room, leaving Castle alone with her.
"Have a good night," she mumbles weakly, her meds starting to work in her system.
"I wish I could stay here," he confesses.
"I know," she smiles, "But go home, sleep. I'll be here tomorrow."
He sighs and stands up from the chair. "Tomorrow's a new day, more hopeful maybe?"
She smiles again. Always like Castle - not so subtly indicating that he understood her hesitance before. "Yes. Let's talk tomorrow."
"Tomorrow," Castle agrees and steps closer to her, bending down a bit. He kisses her forehead. "Tomorrow is a better day. When she hums sleepily in reply, he can't hold himself back and closes the distance between their lips.
"Tomorrow," he whispers when their lips part.
As Esposito is heading out of the hospital room, he glances back to find Ryan. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Castle leaning down to meet Beckett's face, planting a gentle kiss on her forehead.
He takes his hand out of his pocket and jabs Ryan's arm with quite a strong blow.
"Dude, look," he points towards the room.
Ryan turns around. "Owww, easy. What are you …." he falls silent when he sees what Esposito is seeing.
They watch as Castle shifts closer to her in the other room, his attention to Beckett's lips and leans down to capture her mouth with his. Both of the guys just stare at the couple.
"Woah," Ryan breathes out.
"I totally won the bet," Esposito mumbles, unable to turn his gaze away from the pair.
"Huh, look at that," Ryan smiles. "I think you did."
"Come on, let's go," Esposito turns around and starts walking away from the room. "I don't want to be here when they start doing something else."
Ryan chuckles and follows his partner.
Review? I would be extremely grateful if you would write down your thoughts :)