Ch. 2 Smoke and Mirrors
"Beckett!" That was the second time I heard someone calling my name and this time it seemed to work because this time I felt my whole body jerk awake as my brain registered who it was that called my name. "Yes sir?" I hadn't known what was going on because apparently the look on my face gave it away as my boss, sitting across from began to grow worried. "Detective, I have been calling your name for the past five minutes. Now what I would like to know is why you are still here when you did have the day off." Day off, since when did I take a day off of work and more importantly how did I end up here when I was at home? Apparently the Captain took my silence as an answer to his question when his face slowly softened into a warmer one. "Beckett, too say that what you and Castle both went through in the past 48 hours was Hell would be an understatement. While on that note, I suggest that you take a couple of days off as well as when the moment you leave here, schedule an appointment to get checked out."
I was completely taken aback by his statement because he has never suggested such a thing for me to do and surely he wasn't going to start now. "Checked out, sir with all due respect I am alright aside from the obvious stress…." I knew that as soon as I had said that, all bets were off and now I was in deeper trouble than before. "Detective Beckett, I wasn't asking you too because I had thought you would do so voluntarily. Now this isn't just for you, I am having every one of my officers who worked this case to go to counseling, even Ryan and Esposito because of how stressful this unusual case was for all of us." "But sir..." "No buts Detective, you have your orders and I would hate to put you on desk duty until you went and spoke with Dr. Wyatt." It was only then I relaxed into my seat as I found myself breathing a sigh of relief. "You are one of my best detectives, Beckett, and all I want is for you to be at your best and in order to do that, you have to start by taking care of yourself." Knowing he was right, I watched as Captain Montgomery got up out of Castle's seat and quickly return to his office. Surprisingly the only thing I could think about at that moment was Castle and speaking of which, why wasn't he here?
Having my orders, I knew that if I didn't leave soon, the Captain would be all over my ass. With a quick glance at the wall clock, I decided that I had enough time to walk over to Ryan and Esposito's desks to see if they had seen Castle today. That was the plan until the phone in front of me starting to go off. "Beckett." The moment I answered the phone I could feel the hairs on the back of my neck begin standing up as Castle's voice filled my ears. "Kate….help….me…" Before my brain had time to process his urgent request, the line had went dead, sending me directly into cop mode as I found my hand pulling out my cell phone, speed dialing Castle's cell. Please God let Castle be alright…please… Those were my only thoughts as I desperately willed Castle to answer his cell phone; however I knew that wouldn't be the case as it suddenly went to voicemail. "Shit…" Without even thinking about what I was doing, I made a mad dash into the Captain's office; fear written all across my face. "Sir, Castle is in trouble."