AN: Amazing doesn't even begin to cover the response to the last chapter, thank you all so much! To Nat who raised a hell of a valid point (don't know why I didn't think of that – apparently logic eludes me at times) I hope I've addressed it sufficiently in this chapter.

Chapter Thirty-Two

"It was incredibly tedious waiting for the two of you to wake up. Let's not waste time with chit-chat," he grinned.

Beckett was struggling to form words, her mind was cloudy and her throat was aching and dry. Throwing up never did her vocal ability any favours. That, coupled with the crippling fear was enough to keep the words from exiting her mouth. Castle, on the other hand, had found his voice and was doing his darndest to use it.

"Help!" he shrieked, anxiety adding a high-pitched quality to his tone that was not all that becoming for a man. It wasn't the time to be worrying about how masculine he sounded in front of Beckett though, getting them away from this psychopath was slightly higher on his list of priorities. "Anyone, please help!"

Dunnings was observing the pair of them silently, doing nothing to prevent Castle from calling out.

"No one's going to hear you," he mentioned coolly, a menacing smile his most prominent feature. "Don't you think the room looks lovely?" Beckett regarded him with a fixed glare, confusion the undercurrent emotion. Why on earth was he talking about the aesthetics of the room at all? He noted their confusion and panic and chuckled in response. "This entire wing of the hospital is being renovated. We're the only people here… Isn't that fantastic, I do so love privacy," he smirked. "Oh, and that lovely uniformed officer who was posted outside of your room may have accidently stumbled onto a tranquiliser. We won't have to worry about her bothering us." The resolve slipped from Beckett's glare, leaving unmasked fear the only expression in her eyes.

X-X-X-X-X-X

Ryan hung up the phone, expelling a frustrated breath of air.

"That was the manager of the coffee shop Castle and Beckett got their coffee from this morning," he informed Esposito, as well as Gates who had come to stand beside his partner, tight lipped and arms crossed. Evidently she was not happy that this was the path the morning had taken. Poisoned cops were most certainly not on her agenda, nor were poisoned civilian consultants for that matter. Ryan waited a moment, ascertaining that the attention in the room was most certainly directed fully on him. "He said that Carl Pardray usually takes the morning shift but he called in sick this morning, very last minute. The manager was furious, told him he had to show up or he would lose his job. Carl said that a friend who had barrister training would cover his shift. The manager agreed that as long as Carl vouched for the guy then he could do the shift, but if the guy screwed up then it's Carl's job on the line."

"Did he say if Carl sounded sick?" Gates inquired, her tone somewhat brash. Worry for Beckett and Castle definitely not softening her as far as outward appearances were concerned. Ryan glanced at the notes he'd taken whilst on the phone.

"Mentioned that Carl sounded a little off, but nothing too unusual," he shrugged.

"Anything else?" Gates prompted, wanting to draw the debriefing of the conversation to a close so that everybody could get back to work.

"Carl had never pulled a stunt like that before, usually a model employee, great with the customers. The guy who took his shift wasn't too bad, got the job done sufficiently, apart from taking the time to poison Castle and Beckett," he added dryly.

"I spoke to the hospital," Esposito cut in. "They haven't had any other reports of poisoning apart from Beckett and Castle. It was definitely intended for them."

"Dunnings," Gates sighed, somewhat exasperatedly. "We need to get him back off the streets before he tries anything else." The boys nodded ardently, they were in full support of that particular plan.

"We're going to go check out Carl's place. We'll let you know if we find anything," Esposito informed Gates, effectively ending the conversation. She nodded curtly at them before heading back into her office.

X-X-X-X-X-X

"Mr Pardray," Esposito shouted, banging on the front door of the rundown apartment building. There was no response, so he intensified his efforts. "Carl Pardray! It's the NYPD, we're coming in." He signalled Ryan who forced the door open with a grunt.

The sight that greeted the detectives curled their hardened stomachs somewhat. The apartment was small and decrepit, the dank living room was filled with the fresh corpse of the homeowner himself, Carl Pardray.

"I'm going to call Lanie," Esposito gritted out through clenched teeth. From the amount of the blood leeching into the worn and already stained carpet it didn't look as if this killing had been merciful.

He disappeared from the room for a moment to make the call, heading back out into the hallway of the apartment building where the air was a bit fresher and the scene less gruesome. Ryan's eyes perused the body carefully, taking note of the way in which the blood was splattered and anything out of ordinary in the room. The messy and dishevelled condition that the apartment seemed to be in generally was not making the task any easier. He moved closer to the body, eyes still carefully scanning, he zeroed in on the weird angle that Carl's left hand was slowly stiffening in. Pulling on gloves he nudged the hand carefully, a scrunched up ball of yellowed paper slipping out from under it. He pulled the corners, smoothing the creases out a little before taking in the words scrawled on the paper, the print wasn't exactly neat but the message was clear all the same.

"Espo," he called tensely, holding up the note, preparing to read it solemnly to his partner as he came back into the room. "Found this in Carl here's hand. You're not going to like it."

"What's it say?" Esposito's pace quickened, coming to stand beside his partner, gingerly avoiding stepping on the corpse in the cramped living room.

"Here's a whodunit for you. The individual responsible for this innocent man's death is NYPD Detective Kate Beckett," Ryan read, his tone casual, his expression anything but. Esposito scoffed immediately in response, indignation flaring on his face.

"Beckett would never murder anyone," he declared adamantly.

"I know," Ryan rolled his eyes. "What this means is Dunnings is killing people to get to Beckett… and Castle," he added as an afterthought. Understanding dawned on Esposito.

"With that man's strewn moral compass, Beckett is responsible for Carl's murder because if she had just stood back and left Castle to rot with that madwoman then he wouldn't have had to find another way to torture her, and Carl would still be alive," he muttered.

"That's some skewed logic right there," Ryan agreed.

X-X-X-X-X-X

The mood in the waiting room was palpable with tension. Martha still laid a comforting hand on Alexis, but both the red-headed women's eyes were trained on the nurses' station, willing another doctor to appear and inform them that they were allowed to visit their loved one.

After some time had passed and still no word, Alexis expelled a broken sigh and turned to her grandmother.

"I'm so over this. He always gets hurt. She always lets him get hurt. I can't handle it anymore," angry tears lapsed at the rim of her eyes as she glared at Martha, desperately hoping for answers she knew weren't coming. Martha drew a deep breath and continued her soothing movements.

"Kiddo, you know Detective Beckett wants to protect your father…" she started carefully, not wanting to anger the child before her anymore. As much of a mature young woman that she was, she was still her daddy's little girl and no little girl likes the idea of their father being placed in harm's way over and over again.

"Half the reason Kate hasn't shacked up with your Dad already is because she's so worried about putting him in danger," Lanie cut in, coming to sit beside Alexis, ensuring that she was sufficiently implanted into this conversation. She wasn't about to sit back and watch Castle's daughter pin all his troubles on her best friend. "All she wants is to protect him, even if it means protecting him from herself."

"I guess I can see that," Alexis admitted cautiously. "But she's not doing a very good of protecting him. Whatever she's doing, it's just not working," she added biting her lip. She respected Lanie, she worked with her after all. But she wasn't in the mood to have her jumping to Beckett's defence, especially when she was desperately looking for a scapegoat – someone to blame for all this madness. If being angry and having someone to blame distracted her from the unadulterated worry that was threatening to reduce her to a frantic, quivering mess, then pinning this on Beckett was something she was planning on doing.

"No," Lanie shook her head. "You didn't see how petrified she was last night. Beckett would throw herself in front of a bullet to protect Castle, without a moment's hesitation." Martha was the only one to notice Jim shudder at Lanie's words. The others were too caught up in the conversation, staring heatedly at one another, Alexis biting back childlike anger, on the cusp on a full-blown tantrum and Lanie adamantly loyal to her friend and not afraid to fight for her.

"That's the problem," Alexis gritted out, "he shouldn't be near bullets in the first place."

"You can not put that on Beckett," Lanie fiercely declared.

"She's right, sweetheart," Martha gently edged her way back into the conversation. "You know how many times Beckett has kicked him out and he's forced his way back in."

"She tells him to stay in the car and the next second he's at her heels," Lanie added, with a subtle smile at Martha, glad to have the older woman's support in this conversation.

"It's not his fault," Alexis argued, glaring at her grandmother.

"Oh darling, he's a grown man. He's completely responsible for the amount of danger he brings on himself," Martha responded with a frown. "I'm not happy about it either, you know that right?" Alexis nodded sadly, the anger in her eyes flashing to grief.

"I think the thing that gets me the most is that I feel like Dad gives Beckett so much, he loves her so much and he isn't scared to show her. But she refuses to show him. I mean, there are little moments where she opens up, but I just don't see her ever being ready to really be with Dad. Without that I don't see him ever being happy. It's just not fair," Alexis divulged with a downcast expression. Her eyes dropped to her hands curled tensely in her lap and she missed the silent exchange that went on above her head. Lanie wanted to grin; naturally Beckett and Castle had been too busy this morning to mention to Alexis that they'd finally taken a step forward in their relationship. It was a little heartening to know that this was part of what Alexis was so worried about, the harm befalling her father's heart. The physical fear they couldn't quell right now, but the emotional? Surely one of the adults in the waiting room could help her with that. After all, they were all in on what appeared to be a secret for the most part, that Beckett and Castle had barely stopped smiling adoringly and lovingly places small, burning touches on one another all day. The unspoken conversation landed the ball of the responsibility of divulging the truth in Jim's court. It seemed fitting somehow that if Alexis' own father couldn't tell her what was going on then Kate's could.

"Alexis," he began carefully, his tone friendly but admittedly a little hesitant. It wasn't exactly his place after all. "I'm sure your father and Katie were waiting for the opportune moment to tell you this, but I guess now is as good a time as any," he chuckled half-heartedly, a little nervous about overstepping and angering his daughter and her partner. "When I met up with your father and Katie for coffee this morning they had some news for me…" he paused for a moment, caught in the memory of how happy his daughter had been just hours earlier. His stomach clenched in concern, he sincerely hoped with all his heart that she was doing okay. Alexis wasn't the only one anxious for the patients to be allowed visitors in the distinctly present future. "They're dating," he added, bringing himself back to the conversation, noting that Alexis was regarding him intently waiting for his contribution to the conversation. At his words, she drew a muted gasp, raising her hands to clasp over her mouth.

"What?" she shook her head, dazed somewhat. "I'm sorry, Mr Beckett, but I don't believe you."

"There was most definitely something going on this morning," Martha added, a small twinkle back in her eyes at the memory. Lanie nodded her support.

"It was all Beckett could talk about when she was busy throwing up in the toilet," Lanie supplied. Alexis regarded each of the people around her carefully, eyeing them all for a moment or two. She pursed her lips a while longer, caught in quiet contemplation. Finally her mouth spread into a grin, echoed gently by a shine in her eyes.

"Wow," she breathed softly. "Dad is going to be in such a good mood, like forever… It's been so long coming, yet somehow I still didn't expect it," she admitted quietly, her tone reflective with an air of shock. Jim grasped her hand gently for a second before dropping it.

"I think we're all feeling a bit like that," he laughed tenderly. Lanie opened her mouth to assure them all that she most certainly knew it was coming and a long time coming at that, when her phone shrilled and she answered it with a frown.

"Hi Javi," she listened solemnly, her expressing dropping noticeably. Clearly Esposito had something to say, Lanie barely threw in a, "Uh-huh…I'll be there soon…" before the call was over and she faced the other occupants of the waiting room with a frown. "They found the barrister, Castle's usual one, not the one who poisoned them. He was murdered in his apartment this morning. I've got to go. Can one of you call me when you know more about Beckett and Castle's condition." With that she spun from the room and was gone before the others had a realistic opportunity to form a coherent response.

"Oh boy," Jim managed after Lanie's figure had retreated from view. "This Dunnings character means business."

"Yeah," Alexis murmured. "I'm just glad we know that Dad and Beckett are both in the hospital and safe. I'd be worried sick if I didn't know where they were."