It's a harder way and it's come to claim her
And I always say, we should be together
And I can see below, 'cause there's something in here
And if you are gone, I will not belong here
Her head hits the top of the trunk and she curses, her full body weight falling back onto Castle. He groans as her elbow connects with his jaw.
"I really wish you hadn't followed me," Kate says as the car turns and his head slides into the side of the trunk.
He groans again. "You're crazy if you think I was going to let you do this alone."
The car goes over a bump and the oversized hood of Castle's grey hoodie falls into her face.
"Castle, I met you in the park to tell you to stay away, not to chase after me."
"You do remember what happened the last time I let you go after this guy alone, right?" he asks as the car jerks again and his knee strikes her in the abdomen. "You almost fell off of a building."
His knee knocks the wind out of her and it takes her a few minutes to regain her breath before she can respond.
"At this rate, they're not going to have to rough us up any when they take us out of here. We'll both be unconscious with matching black eyes."
Castle mutters something sounding like an apology as he braces himself for another turn. Kate tries to knock the hood back off her head the best that she can with her hands bound together. She manages to get it off, but her elbow hits him in the jaw again in the process.
"Will you quit doing that?" he groans.
"It wouldn't be happening if you would have stayed at home."
"I'm your partner, I couldn't just –"
"You don't get it, do you?" Kate cuts him off. "I can't protect myself the way I need to if I have to keep looking over my shoulder to make sure that you're okay."
"Hey, I can handle my own thank you very much."
"Castle, you don't understand what we're going up against. Bracken's men aren't the average, run-of-the-mill criminals you're used to."
"I know exactly what they're capable of, Kate," he tells her as he hits his head again. "I've been with you through every step of the way. I've seen them shoot you, and beat you up, and hell, even water board you. And I'll be damned if I let them do any of that to you again."
She shakes her head, causing the hood to fall down again. "What are you going to do to stop them? They already took away my gun. You're not trained in hand-to-hand combat –"
"I'll think of something, all right? Whatever it takes. I'm not losing you."
She lets out a sigh and rests her forehead against his as the car comes to a stop. "I'm not losing you either. I can't. Losing my mother to this son of a bitch was bad enough. I won't survive him taking you from me too."
The engine stops and the fear growing in the pit of her stomach reaches her chest.
"I love you," she whispers.
"I love you too."
When the men take them out of the trunk, they immediately put cloth bags over their heads. She's reminded of that case they worked with his ex-muse, Sofia. She remembers watching her point a gun at Castle and hearing a shot go off, and for the briefest moment thinking that she'd lost him. They weren't even together then. He hadn't even been hurt. And yet she never wants to experience that feeling again, especially because this time, if anything happens, the pain will be so much worse.
Kate feels the barrel of a gun jam into her back and she wonders if it's her own. Wouldn't that be poetic? She wishes that her hands weren't bound so she could reach out for Castle. She doesn't even know if he's still beside her. They could be taking them to separate destinations. The thought makes her sick.
The man with the gun to her back urges her forward and she stumbles, but stays on her feet. It feels like they walk for a quite a while before he instructs her to get on her knees. She does and the man pulls the bag off of her head. Kate whips her head around frantically, searching for Castle. She finds him kneeling next to her, his eyes searching for her as well, and breathes a sigh of relief.
The relief is short-lived, however, as the two men with guns step around in front of them and aim at their heads. One of them is freakishly tall and the other is all muscle.
"What do you want from us?" Castle growls.
"Your time has come to pay the piper, Detective," Muscles tells her, ignoring Castle.
She glares at him, her gaze unwavering. He lurches forward and smacks her in the jaw with the barrel of his gun.
"Kate!" Castle yells.
She spits, her mouth filling with the copper taste of blood. "I don't know what you're talking about."
He draws back again and she closes her eyes anticipating a hit that never comes. Kate slowly opens them and finds a third man standing between the giant and Muscles. Bracken.
"To what do we owe this pleasure?" she asks, her tone dripping with sarcasm.
"I figured that you'd want to thank me in person after I saved your life a few months ago," Bracken tells her, his grin smug.
"Thanks," she says through gritted teeth. "Can we go now?"
"I do believe my Russian associate also delivered you a little message," Bracken says.
"I thought she said that we were even. I don't owe you anything."
"You're right," he starts. "You don't. But as I am throwing my hat into the presidential race, I can't very well have you releasing that supposed file of yours to the public."
"Who says I even still have it?" Kate asks, her tongue snaking out to sooth the cut on her lip from the gun.
Bracken nods to the giant and he smacks Castle with his gun, hard. Castle groans, reeling backward from the hit.
"Leave him out of this," Kate growls, struggling to get to her feet.
Muscles holds her down.
"If my memory serves me correctly," Bracken starts. "He knows just as much as you do. He's been in this ever since he pushed you to start digging."
The giant hits Castle again.
"Don't. Touch. Him." Her voice is dripping with venom. If they hadn't taken her gun from her, she'd have killed them by now.
"You were right, boss," Muscles grins. "He is the perfect leverage."
"Get her to talk," Bracken instructs as he turns on his heel to walk away. "Do whatever it takes."
The two men turn their attention to Kate. "Got anything you'd like to share with the class?"
She remains silent, her mind whirring with escape scenarios. If she could just distract them long enough to get one of their guns…
"Time's up," the giant says, punching Castle again.
Blood trickles down from his nose. "Don't tell them anything, Kate. I can take it."
He gets hit again, a gash opening up on his forehead.
"He's not the one you're after," she says in a rush. "I am."
"So then talk," Muscles instructs, jamming the barrel of his gun under her chin.
"Don't do it," Castle tells her again, earning himself another punch.
"I don't have the file anymore," she tells them.
"Kate –"
"She's lying," Muscles says. "Shoot him."
"No!" the scream rips through her throat as the gun goes off.
The moment of panic from earlier in the year comes back full force. But this time when she sees the blood she knows it's his. Tears sting at the back of her eyes, her anger blossoming in her chest. The bullet hits Castle in the leg and he falls to his side. A sob escapes her lips at the realization that he's still alive. Castle tries to grab at his leg with his bound hands, a slur of curse words stumbling from his mouth. Kate lunges for him, but Muscles pulls her back by her hair.
"Next time he won't miss," he grits out. "Now tell us the truth or say goodbye to your little boyfriend."
"I am telling the truth," she pleads. "I don't have the file. I never did. It got blown up in the same explosion that killed Maddox. I've been bluffing for the past two years to keep Bracken off of my back."
"I don't believe you," the giant says, aiming at Castle again.
"No, please!" she begs. "I'm telling the truth. I'll do anything. Don't kill him."
She inhales a sharp breath as he turns and aims the gun at her. Out of the corner of her eye she notes that Muscles has holstered his gun in favor of pushing her around. She could reach up and grab it. She could save them.
"You'll do anything?" the giant asks, slowly advancing on her.
"Yes," she nods, peering around him to look at Castle.
It's now or never, Kate.
He gets closer and she reaches for Muscles' gun. Just as her hand wraps around it, the giant fires at her. She pushes herself into Muscles and the bullet manages to graze her shoulder. Kate groans, sucking in a breath and yanking the gun completely out of his pocket.
Muscles swings at her with his fist and the giant shoots at her again. His fist connects with her cheek, and the bullet just nearly misses her ear. She fumbles to get a good grip on the gun with her hands bound and manages to shoot Muscles in the foot. It wasn't intentional, but it's enough to get him off her back until she can deal with the giant. She stands and raises her arms to shoot at him, but then realizes his gun is no longer aimed at her. It's pointed at Castle.
"Go ahead, Detective," he taunts. "How good of a shot are you? Think you can take me out before I take him out?"
She bites on her lower lip as she registers the sound of Muscles moving behind her. Kate spins and shoots him square in the chest before she focuses back on the giant.
"I'd say pretty good," she tells him.
"I don't know if pretty good is going to be good enough. And now you've killed my friend, so it's only right that I kill yours."
"You don't want to do that," Kate says, her tone surprisingly even.
"Why not? Cause it'll make you sad?" He sticks his bottom lip out in a fake pout.
"Do you even know who he is?"
"Your boyfriend?"
"He's my fiancé, first of all. Secondly, he's Richard Castle, best-selling author of Derek Storm and Nikki Heat?"
The giant shrugs. "I don't read much."
"Oh well, that doesn't matter," she says, taking a step toward him. "What matters is the number of friends he's made. The mayor is one of them. And sure maybe that's not so impressive since you have a senator on your side, but it's something. He's friends with a mob boss. Now there's a guy you don't want to piss off. His father? CIA. He's certainly not the guy who is going to just sit back and let you live after you kill his son. Plus he has all of the NYPD backing him. I'm sure you know how much we hate cop killers around here."
"What's it matter?" he asks. "If I kill him, you're just going to kill me. There'll be nothing but a corpse left for them to come chase after."
"Because you're forgetting his most important friend," Kate says, cocking the gun. "Me."
In his confusion she shoots at his hand holding the gun and he recoils, dropping the weapon on the floor.
"Son of a bitch," he mutters, lunging for his fallen gun.
She doesn't let him get very far, emptying the rest of the round into his chest.
"Kate," Castle breathes from the floor. "I think you got him."
She stays rooted in her spot for a moment with her arms still raised and the gun in hand. Her breathing begins to return to normal as the adrenaline starts to dissipate, and the pain in her shoulder becomes more apparent. She tucks the gun in the front of her jeans and runs to Castle's side.
"Help me get this rope off," she tells him, thrusting her arms in front of him. "I can't help you with my hands like this."
"There should be a pocket knife in my back pocket," Castle says. "I brought it for, uh, protection."
"I'm going to buy you a gun," she mutters, as she fumbles to get the knife open.
"Seriously?" he asks, as she works to cut off their ropes.
"Later, Castle."
The ropes fall away and she slides the pocket knife back into his pocket. She takes off his sweatshirt that she had still been wearing and starts to wrap it around his leg.
"What are you doing?" he asks.
"Making a tourniquet for your leg, to reduce the blood loss," she says, tying the arms of the sweatshirt together tightly above the wound. "It's not the best, but it will have to do for now. Can you stand?"
He ignores her question. "How's your shoulder?"
"It's just a flesh wound. I'm fine. Now come on, we have to get out of here."
"Kate –"
"Don't. I can't do this right now. The minute I stop to think about all of this, I will fall apart, and we don't have time for that. So please, try to stand up and let's get out of here before Bracken or more of his men come back."
He nods and she helps him struggle to his feet. She drapes one of his arms around her shoulders, letting him use her as a crutch.
"Any ideas on how to get out of here?" Castle asks.
She glances around the room and spots a door on the other side. "That looks like the only way out."
"It also looks like the only way in. The same place Bracken exited through."
"We'll have to take our chances," she says, starting to head in that direction, taking Castle with her.
The adrenaline kicks back in and her heart starts beating faster in her chest the closer they get to the door. She pulls the gun back out, realizing she'll have to shoot left-handed unless she lets go of Castle.
"Switch sides," she tells him, already removing his arm.
"But your shoulder," he starts to protest.
"I can't shoot left-handed. You have to move."
He hesitates, eyeing the blood stain on her collar.
"Castle, please."
He sighs and hops around to her other side. But now his injured leg is caught in between them and it makes walking as a unit even more difficult.
"Kate, if you have to run to get out of here, just leave me," he says, softly.
"No," she says forcefully, dragging him forward. "I'm not just going to leave you here to die."
"I'm dragging you down."
She stops walking and twists so she can cup his face in her hands, letting the gun hang off one of her fingers.
"Rick." Her voice breaks around his name. "You're my fiancé. My partner. It's my job to have your back. Always." She brushes her thumbs over the scratches on his face. "We're both going to make it out of here alive. And then we're going to go home, curl up in bed, and get lost in each other. Okay, well maybe we go to the hospital first…But my point is I'm not leaving you here. And after all of this is over, we're going to get married and you're going to be my husband and I'm going to be your wife. Do you understand?"
He nods and she let's go of his face and props him back up on her shoulder. She winces when his arm knocks into her wound.
"Kate," he starts as they begin walking again. "I promise to stay home next time."
"Yeah, yeah," she smiles. "That's what you always say."
"I think I mean it this time."
They make it to the door and Kate grabs onto the handle. "On the count of three?"
Castle nods.
"Okay. One…two…three!"
She yanks open the door and digs her heel into it to keep it open. She raises the gun and looks around for anybody who might be lurking in the shadows, while she helps Castle get through the doorway.
"It looks like we're alone," he whispers.
"Do you see an exit?"
Castle scans the room. "There." He points to a door to their right with light streaming out from under it. "That has to be sunlight. It's too bright to be artificial."
"When did we get taken?" Kate asks, as she starts them in that direction.
"Early enough that the sun's still up," he shrugs.
She opens the door like before with her gun at the ready. Sure enough, it leads them outside, but as soon as she pulls on it, an alarm starts going off.
"Shit," she curses, looking around for guards.
"Run," Castle says, pushing her.
"Not without you."
"I'll be right behind you, moving as fast as I can. You have to go wave down a car or a truck or something to get us out of here."
"Castle, you can barely walk. We stay together."
She pulls him back around to her right side where it was easier for him to walk in pace with her.
"I thought you said you couldn't shoot left-handed."
"There's a first time for everything," Kate mutters as she gets them moving towards whatever street or highway is in front of them.
She hears the shouts start behind them and her heart sinks. They have to make it out of here. They have to survive this. They have to make it to their wedding day.
"Beckett!"
She freezes and as a result Castle trips out of her grip and falls, hissing when he lands on his injured leg wrong.
Kate spins around. "Javi?"
"Yo, Ryan, I found them!" He calls behind him.
She sinks to the ground beside Castle, burying her head in her hands. The tears start and she can't get them to stop.
Esposito jogs up to them and kneels down beside Castle, helping him to sit up.
"How'd you find us?" Castle asks.
"We got an anonymous tip, believe it or not," he says as Ryan jogs up to meet them. "Told us to come here. The place was deserted when we arrived and then we heard that alarm you set off."
"An anonymous tip?" Castles wonders aloud. "What do you think that means?"
Kate lifts her head, her cheeks red and puffy from crying. "Someone on Bracken's team is on our side."
"Is this thing ever going to be over?" Ryan asks.
She looks over at him and shakes her head. "Not until he's dead."
Kate puts on one of his shirts before crawling into bed with him. She crashes into his side with such force that it startles him. Castle laughs and wraps his arms around her as tight as he can, bending to place a kiss on her bandaged shoulder. Her ear is pressed up against his chest and she hears the steady thump of his heartbeat. The tears start again before she's even aware it's happening.
"You think quick on your feet," Castle says softly, stroking her hair. "Distracting that guy by rambling on about my important friendships? How'd you know that would work?"
"I didn't."
Her hands fist into his shirt, her engagement ring digging into her skin. She couldn't explain it, but she had to put it on. The moment she walked in the door she made a beeline for their bedroom and slipped the ring onto her finger. It made breathing easier. She didn't know why. Probably just her PTSD acting up again in its own weird way.
"I thought losing my mother was going to be the hardest thing I'd ever have to suffer through. But I was wrong. Losing you," she shakes her head. "I couldn't come back from that."
His hands snake under her shirt, needing to feel the radiating heat of her skin against his. Her legs tangle around his uninjured one.
"I used to never understand why my dad turned to alcohol after we lost her. Because all I wanted to do was get out there and fight and catch the bastard who took her from us. But now I've chased that bastard down too many rabbit holes and I'm tired of it. And if I had lost you? I could easily see myself becoming my father."
"I'm not going anywhere," Castle says into her hair. "I'm going to stay right here, and hold my wife."
Her lips twitch upwards. "We're not married yet."
"Fiancé doesn't feel strong enough anymore."
Kate hums, turning her head up to kiss him. She can taste his toothpaste and the familiarity of it comforts her.
"I'm done," she tells him, when she pulls away. "I don't care what evidence we turn up after this, I'm done with Bracken and my mother's case. It's not worth risking our lives over. I solved it; I know every piece of the puzzle. And that's exactly what I set out to do. So no more."
"You have no idea how happy I am to hear you say that."
He bends down to kiss her again.
"You know I almost hate to say it," Castle starts when he pulls away from the kiss, running one of his hands up and down her spine.
"Then don't."
"But just because we wash our hands with him doesn't mean that some other psychopath isn't going to try to kill us."
She sighs, moving to slip her hands under his shirt as well, her fingers trailing over the muscles of his back. "Then maybe you should buy an island and we can move away from all of this."
"Honey, I'm rich, but I'm not that rich."
Kate laughs, flattening her palms against his back. "Then I guess we'll just have to push through the crazy together like we always do."
"We make a good team, you know."
"Whatever you say, Hooch."
"It's been five years, Beckett," he groans. "It's time to let that go."
"Almost six," she corrects him.
"Even worse."
She laughs again hugging him tighter. "I don't know what I'd do without you."
"Live a sad a lonely life. If you survived I mean, remember how many times I've saved your life?"
"Actually, you're probably right. Without you, there's nothing stopping me from throwing myself head first against Bracken."
"Well I'm glad you found me then."
Kate presses a kiss against his chest. "Me too."