"Seriously, is all this necessary? It's just a bump and some brushes." Castle said while the doctors got him on a stretcher into an ambulance.

"It's better to be sure, Castle." Beckett said bossy.

They had given the order for search and arrest Tyson and his girlfriend. Ryan and Espo, feeling responsible, had insisted on handling the situation by themselves. Gates was in the precinct talking with the FBI. Everyone insisted to Beckett to 'handle' Castle, and that with that she had enough work, so she got into the ambulance with him back to Manhattan.

The writer wore a collar so he could not move his neck to look around, during the trip he was watching the ambulance roof and Kate's smile sideways while he was telling her about the kidnapping.

"Bah! I don't believe that thing with the saw" Beckett said tapping his shoulder.

"It's true! It happened that way!" Rick complained like a kid.

The detective smiled and raised her eyebrows, then Castle leaned to sit on the stretcher and looked at her eyes offended.

"Wait, don't move, babe." Kate said standing up and forcing him to lie down again.

She caressed his shoulders and his arms. Castle moved a hand and caught her fingers. Together. A while ago he thought he would never see her again.

They kept looking at each other's eyes for a few minutes, until Castle broke the magic silence.

"There is something I missed... How did you locate the correct slaughterhouse? Only with that accelerant?"

Beckett smiled and moved her head feeling that the normality had come to their lives after the hell she had lived last days.

"Matic" she said.

"Matic?" he repeated confused.

"Tyson betrayed himself. I know you used 'Matic' in honor of 'Katic' that lanky actress you like so much." Kate said sighing.

"Ok, don't be jealous, I like her so much because she reminds me of you." Rick said smiling.

"No way!" Beckett said rolling her eyes. She though in how many indie films Castle had invited her to watch only because that 'Katic' took part in them.

"Anyway... how 'that' led you to the correct slaughterhouse?" He asked.

At least Kate was checking that Castle was able to maintain a logical conversation, which sometimes was difficult to him with no hits in his head.

"When I looked at Matic's eyes I had a hunch. The surgery only had changed his face but I never forget a killer's eyes"

"You recognized him, didn't you?"

Beckett frowned while she remembered the moment. Broken by the pain of losing the love of her life, she was receiving condolences from dozens of people, most part unknown to her. When Mr. Matic walked away, a light inside her head switch on and her mind changed to detective mode. Suddenly there was no more pain, only a hunch.

She apologized to all and went to a corner. Kate felt her father worried looking at her. Then she used her cell phone to call Gates. A few sentences between the two women started the plan to find the slaughterhouse.

"Kate..." Castle whispered to take her away from her thoughts.

Beckett shared her feelings with him:

"I thought I was going crazy, seeing ghosts where there weren't. It had been hard, Castle. The hardest thing that ever happened to me. Your car on fire... your remains... your burial..."

Kate's eyes got wet. Rick was touched with her confession. His fake death had been worse for Beckett that the death of her mother. He held her hand stronger.

"When Gates told me about that kind of accelerant I remembered Tyson had grown up near a slaughterhouse. That one we found you." Her voice cracked with emotion.

"And you say that you have not participated, ahem?" He said proud of her.

Rick smiled and caressed her wet cheeks. Kate hugged him and relieved her tension in tears.

Castle and Beckett were coming to the emergency room when they heard a scream.

"Dad!"

Kate saw Alexis running towards his father, still lying on the stretcher. The girl hugged him resting her head in his chest. Behind her, Martha came smiling to Katherine and hugged his son yelling "Richad!".

The nurses needed to carry the stretcher inside but they couldn't with Castle's mother and daughter attached to it. Beckett made a signal to the nurses with her hand asking for a minute.

"Oh, you're going to kill me. Let me breathe a little." Castle said taking a look at them.

Neither of the two ladies moved an inch. Beckett was watching the funny scene with a smile.

"Martha, Alexis, let them to check him as soon as possible, o.k.?"

"Oh, Yes, darling." Martha said releasing her son obediently.

Kate leaned with love over Alexis and whispered her that they could visit his father later. The girl released him with wet eyes and hugged Kate immediately. The detective hugged her with one arm and used her other arm to embrace Martha. The three women looked Richard moving away.

Castle made an o.k. gesture with his hand to his three women, and then he made a hand-horns like in a rock concert. The three ladies smiled.