Author's Note: First off, my apologies for the mishap with Chapter 2. Somehow Chapter 1 was posted twice, and then the right chapter went up without all the proper formatting. This is as far as I have written after I began the initial idea, but my goal is to have the whole thing finished before Sunday. I'd like my version to be wrapped up before we all watch the real thing.
Also, thanks for the reviews/follows. They are very nice to read/see! As usual, spoilers for episode 6X09 'Disciple', as pulled from the promo and interviews with Tamala Jones and Andrew Marlowe. Anything that proves the same or similar outside of those is merely coincidence as this is all, most definitely, a figment of my imagination.
It was a mark of having too much stuff when you had to drop half your purchases in order to unlock the door.
Laden down with bags as he was, Rick did stop, putting down the dinner order and the magazines to free one hand and turn the key to his front door.
It swung open easily, and he heaved out a sigh, pleased that the room looked just as he had left it. Apparently his mission had been a success - he'd left, gotten dinner and managed to return without Kate having noticed.
His keys went into the bowl beside the door, a habit picked up from Kate, and he scooped up the shopping bags. With a slight kick backwards, he heard rather than saw the door drift closed behind him as he moved to deposit everything on the kitchen counter.
The smell was the first thing he noticed, minutes later, the sharp metallic tang of blood registering as he strolled from the counter towards the sofa, two plates of food in his hands.
The phone was next, the bright blue of the screen and the generic ringtone for unknown callers cutting through the space.
Kate's phone. A photo of Kate that he'd never seen set as her wallpaper. Her phone in a pool of blood.
"Beckett!" The name ripped out of him in a scream, every nerve ending firing as the rush of panic and terror filled his body, those emotions replacing his blood, his bones, maybe even his very soul as he dropped the plates, the smashing of china the only sound as he passed the blood and ran through the office into the bedroom, praying that Kate was still curled in bed and it'd been some horrible hallucination.
The bed was empty, along with the bathroom and the closet, as the phone sounded again from the other room to hammer the point that she wasn't here to answer it.
He ignored the ringing, unable to face the reality that the facts presented as he sprinted up the stairs and checked every additional room, even doubling back into Alexis' room - variations of Kate, Beckett and multiple swears on his lips as his search proved worthless.
Collapsing in the kitchen with another plea of 'Kate' echoing on the tiles as the phone sprang to life again. Castle's own was in his hand, finger poised over the screen to dial for help when he jerked forward and headed towards the sticky pool of blood and technology.
Whatever training had been hammered into him by the 12th about touching evidence was ignored, though he found himself shivering as his fingers trailed into the blood when he picked up the phone. His heart was racing, tears building in his eyes as he swiped a finger across the screen to accept the call.
"Castle," he croaked, his breathing coming in short gasps as he lost the battle on his emotions. He was unable to think, unable to do anything but sit in blind terror on the floor in his home until the answers came. Until someone, anyone, could help him make sense of the scene in front of him.
"I was looking for Detective Beckett," the voice said, the cadence enough to tell him this wasn't a civilian, "We've had a body drop, and she's the next one on call."
"I…she….." the words lodged in his throat, and Rick paused, the emotion again surging forward to consume him as he fought the urge to moan in pain, "Something has happened. I think she's been attacked. I need….there's blood and….her phone and….Esposito and Ryan. They need to come."
In the early hours of the morning, the 12th Precinct was quiet. Or maybe it was the knowledge of one of their own being unaccounted for that brought on the silence. Either way, it was an atmosphere that Rick hadn't seen since the days following the death of Roy Montgomery.
It was one he never hoped to experience again.
Esposito had taken the call to the loft, arriving with three officers and the Crime Scene Unit who quickly went to work while he answered questions and gave a statement.
Yes, Kate had been there when he left. No, he didn't know of anyone coming to visit. Of course there were people who wanted her dead.
Samples had been taken of the blood, the rug had been rolled up for further testing, but they all knew the results would come back - that they would declare the blood to be Kate's.
The photos saved to her phone had been all the confirmation he and Esposito had needed. There were eight of them, all showing Kate lying on the floor, blood spread across the rug from the knife that held center stage in the fourth photo. It was a small comfort that she only appeared to be awake in one of them, her glassy eyes the likely result of a whatever CSU could determine had once filled the syringe they'd discovered in the sweep of the room.
Those photos were now plastered on the murder board, stretching across the top in some unimaginable gallery. It was killing him to keep staring, to see how the attacker had succeeded, to know that she'd been unable to fight while he'd been buying a damn box of cereal.
"Castle," Ryan's voice lured Castle from his internal war, the detective's eyes weighed down with a combination of worry, exhaustion and sadness that he was sure would be reflected in his own, "The Captain wants to speak to you…." he continued, tilting his head towards the conference room where Esposito, and Captain Gates were waiting.
He rose automatically, his body carrying out the command even as his mind stayed attached to the photos, to the loft, to Kate. Was there such a thing as sleepwalking when you were wide awake? Because his body continued to function, he continued to breathe and speak and move even while his mind and his heart seemed to be incapable of anything but all encompassing fear.
Still, he sat, taking the seat indicated to him by Ryan. He nodded as Gates spoke directly to him, confirming the results of the DNA test on the blood to be that of Kate. Other tests were still pending results, but they were hopeful they would find something to point towards the attacker - perhaps on the needle. And then he lost track, visions of Kate bleeding on the floor, so afraid as her body fell under the power of the injection and left her unable to defend herself.
He must have groaned, or jerked or given some other indication that he had stopped listening because she had stopped talking. But the silence didn't last, as Ryan's voice cut in. "Castle, there's something else you should know," he offered lightly, the tone of his voice enough of a clue about what was to come.
But Castle jerked his head up quickly, taking in the stunned expression on Esposito and the regretful one of Ryan, as his heart rate kicked into overdrive and his throat became uncomfortably dry. "What…." he ground out, his hands tightening against the arm rests of his chair while his body flexed in terror.
"The crime scene that Detective Beckett was being paged too…" Gates paused, pressing her lips together as she assessed her audience, "….the body was of a man who bears a striking resemblance to Detective Esposito," she added gently, two evidence bags appearing in her hands, "These were also found with the body, stuffed into the coat pockets."
They were photos, one featuring the five members of their team, along with Jenny, as they stood outside The Old Haunt. They were all grinning widely, watching as Kate gestured with her left hand while the right remained firmly clasped in his own. She looked radiant with her bright smile, and the way her eyes sparkled as she got caught up in the story - her engagement ring also on full display to paint the complete picture of how her life was going. But her happiness in the photo didn't mask the red circle drawn around her head.
When compared to the second photo - this one of Lanie and Espo as they hailed a cab outside the morgue - the message was clear. Unlike the circle around Kate, both of their faces were covered with a scarlet X.
"She's the target," he whispered, his eyes lifting from the photos to take in the expressions of the others at the table.
"We believe so, Mr. Castle," Gates said, "Judging from the evidence before us, we believe this to be the work of a man who has been planning this attack on Detective Beckett for quite some time."