Two news for Castle, the good: He no longer had ankles bound; the bad: In less than a second a saw cut him from bottom to top.

His brain worked quickly: head back, legs up... and with urge Castle did a backward roll like he never had done before. One bad thing after all: he fell from the conveyor belt to the floor like a heavy stone and felt pain in all his body. The good thing was that it meant he was one-piece man.

Rick was exultant and he did not realize that somebody had switched the machine on from the control panel. And when he saw a blonde woman above him carrying a fire extinguisher about to hit him... The only thing that Castle could do was damn Tyson's plastic surgeon girlfriend. Then he heard a 'PONG!' in his forehead and fell unconscious again.

Richard Castle had lost count of how many times had regained consciousness in that dammit slaughterhouse. This last time was very painful. He was feeling palpitate the veins in his head, and with each beat an acute twinge went through his brain. The only good thing was that now was alive a conscious. It ruled out severe injuries.

"This could have been really easy, Mr Castle!"

Castle heard the echo of a voice in the big room. He looked around but could not see Tyson. The writer noticed that he was hanging by his wrists again and somebody was raising him very high. If the cows used to be battered this way, he will consider becoming vegetarian.

"I don't wanna do this, but you have been a bad boy!"

Near the roof, the hook carrying Castle moved slowly but without pause to its goal. The writer though to ask what the hell Tyson would do to him, but frozen by terror, he preferred to remain ignorant. Tyson had tell that he did not want to kill him, but Rick wondered how far would make him suffer.

Castle was approaching to a big machine, not very impressive. Basically it was a big container with a gate on top, which he could see clearly from above.

"Do the honors, honey." Tyson said, presumably to his girlfriend.

Then an ailing noise filled the instance. The top gate of the container opened an Castle could see inside a collection of gears moving. It was like a garbage truck but much more... violent.

"Don't worry. I don't want to kill you."

The sentence did not calm him. Moreover Castle bent his legs. He did not like how close his feet were. The hook stopped just when Rick was right over the opened gate. The writer looked down terrified but he did not scream.

"The question is: What percentage of Richard Castle will keep one-piece after this?"

After this, the hook started going down dramatically slow. Castle grumbled and shook his body like a hunted animal about to be devoured... in his case 'devoured' by a bone crusher machine.

"Don't move like a bunny! Be a man, Castle!... It's funny, isn't it, honey?... honey?" Tyson asked but he couldn't see his girlfriend.

He looked up to the writer, shaking while going down, then walked towards the control panel. She was there just a moment ago...

"NYPD!"

"Put your hands up!"

"Don't move! Drop to the ground!"

The eyes on three cops, two men and one woman who Tyson immediately recognized, stared at him with hate. He put his hands up slowly. They had surrounded him, but they were only three. He smiled to Beckett.

"Tyson! To the ground! NOW!" Beckett's characteristic hoarse shout echoed throughout the room. She kept stare at Tyson even when Castle, realizing she was there, asked for help desperately.

"I'm going to demand my surgeon." Tyson said just before jumping to the control panel and pressing a button.

In the next second many things happened: The hook carrying Castle went down quickly, Beckett shot Tyson's legs three times, Esposito jumped over the bastard and pinned down him, Ryan press the button to stop the crusher machine...

And a deathly silence fell.

"Castle?... CASTLE!" Kate yelled while was running towards the machine holstering her gun.

Espo and Ryan stared how Beckett climbed a ladder attached to the crusher machine container in record time. From the floor they could not see Castle, who had probably fallen into the machine.

They expected the worst.

When Beckett arrived to the top her face puzzled. The boys said from down:

"Beckett?"

She did not say a word, but they heard Castle complaining and saying "Help... me... NOW!". Beckett made an O.K. signal with her hand to the boys and they breathed again.

What had surprised Beckett was that Castle had managed to avoid falling through the gate, stretching like a stick, so that both arms and calves were put on the frame of the gate. Rick was keeping his muscles tense with a lot of effort. His face was intense red.

"Mmmm... I don't know HOW!" Kate said while looked at the stopped gears and blades inside the machine.

At that point Ryan had learned how to drive the hook. He raised it again and Castle went up once more time.

"I'm really... really... tired of all this" the writer said when his ligaments tensed again.