Within minutes, the fold-up beds had been assembled and covered in thin white sheets. Castle couldn't help wondering how many people they were expecting to get sick as they constructed five, ten, twenty beds. Several of the hazmat men set about sealing off the newly assembled quarantine zone to ensure that nothing could get in or out, not even the tiniest virus.
"C'mon, Kev," Esposito said, looking a little shaky. "You'll be fine."
"Get him in there," Ware said, pointing to Ryan. Four of the men set upon Ryan, dragging him up off the floor and towards the quarantine zone.
"Javier," he slurred.
"Hey, I'm right here, buddy," he said, standing up and following Ryan.
"How did Ryan get infected so fast?" Beckett asked Ware, her brown eyes wide with shock, as she watched her colleague get dragged away.
"Like I said, it affects everyone at different rates. He must have been particularly susceptible."
Esposito went to follow Ryan in to the quarantine when a suited man stepped in front of him.
"Sir, you can't go in there."
"Get out my way, man," he said, threateningly.
"You can't go in," the man repeated.
"Try and stop me."
Castle and Beckett both moved forward at the same time as Esposito went to barge past the man guarding the door.
They grabbed his arms from behind and he struggled to throw them off.
"Get off me!" he shouted.
"Esposito, you are not going in there!" Beckett said.
"Do you want to get infected?" Castle asked, struggling to hold on to the stronger man as he fought against them, "because you won't be any good to anyone if you do."
He stopped struggling and his arms went limp.
"Damn it," Esposito hissed, pulling his arms from their grasp and running his hands over his head exasperatedly.
Beckett put a sympathetic hand on his shoulder. "He's going to be fine, Espo," she said.
Esposito said nothing, but pulled his shoulder sharply away from her and went back to his desk, kicking a chair half way across the room in fury.
Beckett watched Esposito, looking a little hurt. Castle put a supportive hand on her back for a moment. She turned to look at him and gave him a quick, half-hearted smile.
"What about Detective Ryan?" the Captain asked.
Castle had only looked away from Ryan for a matter of seconds, but when he looked back, the detective was lying in one of the beds, looking even paler.
"The medical team will go in and look after him as best they can."
"Is that it?" she growled.
"That's all we can do, ma'am."
"There's no cure?"
"Not at the moment, but we will find one, mark my words."
Castle felt a little sick. Ryan looked as though he was on death's door already, and they weren't even close to having a cure.
"What now?" Beckett asked Ware.
"Blood tests," he answered. "Then we can start moving people to the safe-zone in the morgue. Ah, here comes the medical team now."
Castle had no idea how Ware knew they were the medical team. The six suited-up figures that entered the room looked identical to the other twenty that had already arrived. Four of them entered the quarantine and the other two started organising needles and vials for blood tests.
"Is everyone from this department here?" Ware asked.
"Yeah," Beckett started. "It's just us, no one else is working today." Suddenly she gasped. "Oh God! The suspect, Greg! He's still in the interview room!" She ran down the corridor and disappeared. A few seconds later, her voice came round the corner.
"I need some help in here!"
Castle ran after her and found the suspect curled on the floor and drenched in sweat, just like Ryan.
"I don't feel so good..." he moaned.
"Come on," Beckett said, heaving him to his feet. Castle pulled one of Greg's arms over his shoulder in an attempt to help him walk, but he was already so weak that with Beckett's help, he practically dragged the suspect towards quarantine.
Two hazmat men took Greg from them and put him in the bed opposite Ryan.
"Okay," Ware said, stepping forwards. "Blood tests, now."
Castle groaned inwardly. He hated needles, but with Esposito, the Captain and, most importantly, Beckett surrounding him, he was going to have to act brave.
Beckett rolled up her shirt sleeve and presented the medic with her arm. Castle couldn't watch as the needle came out of the medical kit. Seconds later, Beckett was rolling her sleeve back down and the medic was approaching him.
"Arm," the medic said tersely. Castle couldn't be sure, but he thought it was a woman behind the mask. Her hair was tied back and she had rather androgynous features, so it could have gone either way.
He grudgingly rolled his sleeve up as the medic pulled out another needle and grabbed his arm. She lined the needle up with the inside of his elbow, but just as she was about to pierce his skin, Castle panicked and pulled away, hiding his arm behind his back.
"Castle, don't be such a scaredy-cat," Beckett said, clearly trying not to laugh. "Here, let me," she said to the medic, reaching out to take the needle. The medic looked to Ware, clearly unsure of the procedure. Ware just shrugged and nodded.
"Hey, woah," Castle said, pulling his arm further away. "Are you qualified to do that?"
"Of course I am," she said, rolling her eyes. "My dad had a muscle infection a few years back and I would give him antibiotics this way. He would have done it himself, but he's a big baby when it comes to needles, too."
"Hey," Castle said, feeling his ego deflate a little, "I'm not a big baby." But he couldn't help the little squeak of fear that escaped his lips when Beckett took the needle from the medic.
Taking his arm in her warm hand, she stroked the inside of his elbow with her thumb and Castle felt a shiver shoot up his spine.
"Hey, Castle?" she said softly, gazing up at him, her brown eyes ablaze with some unspoken emotion.
"Yeah?" he said, unable to drag his gaze away from her.
"OW!" he yelped suddenly. She had stabbed him with the needle while he was distracted. By the time Castle had even registered what had happened, the syringe was full of his blood; Beckett had taken it out of his arm and was now pressing a cotton ball to the little puncture wound.
"Big baby," she said again with a sly smile.
"You tricked me!" Castle exclaimed, feeling a little put out, not because she had taken his blood when he wasn't expecting it, but because, for one short moment, he had thought she was going to tell him something really important or meaningful. But she had just been trying to distract him.
"Cheap trick," he muttered.
"Don't sulk, Castle," she laughed and patted his arm.
After a few moments, the Captain and Esposito had also had their blood taken.
"How long until we know if we are infected?" asked Esposito, starting at Ryan through the plastic wall.
"No more than a few minutes," one of the medics replied, peering down a microscope.
"Detective Beckett," the possibly-female medic called, "you're clean."
Castle saw Beckett breathe a sigh of relief.
"You too, sir," she said, pointing to Castle.
"Please, call me Rick," he said, hoping to God it really was a woman beneath the hazmat suit.
Esposito tore his gaze away from Ryan for a moment. "Castle," he said matter-of-factly, "you can be as macho as you like in front of the nice lady-medic, but we all heard you squeal like a little girl at the sight of that needle."
Beckett laughed out loud, but quickly tried to disguise it with a cough. Castle couldn't help but smile too.
"Mr Castle, would you and Detective Beckett please wear these?" Ethan Ware said, handing them both surgical masks. "It should prevent you becoming infected."
Castle covered his mouth and nose with the mask and looped the elastic straps around his ears.
"How do I look?" he asked Beckett, raising an eyebrow seductively.
"Like a moron," she said. "But you looked like that before you put the mask on, too." She shot Castle a playful smile before putting on her own mask.
"Could you not have given them the masks sooner?" Castle heard the Captain hiss as she gestured to Ryan who was now surrounded by medics.
Ware kept his voice level as he replied. "Regrettably, we have a limited number of surgical masks with us. They have to be reserved for those who are definitely not infected."
The Captain was just about to come out with a scathing retort when the medic interrupted.
"Uh, Captain," she said, "I'm afraid you're infected."
"That can't be right," Captain Gates said firmly. "I feel fine."
"The virus may not be affecting you as quickly as the others," Ware explained, "but as long as you're infected, you present a risk to your colleagues. Can I ask you to step inside the quarantine?"
The Captain looked like she might hit him, but eventually she did as she was told.
"Captain," Esposito said, hurrying up to her and handing her Ryan's cell phone. "Would you uh," his voice broke a little as he spoke, "would you call Ryan's wife and tell her what's happened? And, you know, see if he wants to speak to her or whatever." Esposito swallowed hard and didn't seem able to meet anyone's gaze. It was strange, unnerving even, to see Esposito scared.
She nodded solemnly and took the cell phone.
"Detective Esposito, you're clean," the medic said, holding a mask out for him.
"Now," said Ware after he made sure the Captain had safely entered the quarantine, "can I ask the rest of you to go down to the safe area in the morgue?"
"No," Beckett said almost instantly, her voice slightly muffled behind her surgical mask.
"Excuse me?"
"We have evidence sitting in our basement which could lead to the person responsible for this virus. I'm not going to hide in the morgue when I could be solving this case and maybe preventing any more public buildings from being infected."
"Uh, I second that," Castle said, raising his hand.
"Yeah, me too," Esposito said, putting his mask on. "And I'm not leaving Ryan up here while I go hide with dead people."
Ware stood up a little straighter. "I cannot leave you in an infectious area," he said firmly.
"Too bad," Beckett said, giving a little shrug. Castle marvelled at how authoritative and in-control she seemed in spite of the chaos around her.
"Fine. But you realise you are staying here at your own risk and against my advice?" He seemed angry.
"Yeah, sure. Now, is there any chance one of your guys could bring up the device that released the virus?"
"Right. Fine." Ware said. "Barker, Craig," he said in to his radio, "get down to the basement and bring the air purifier up here. And keep it covered, I don't want to be spreading any more of this virus around than necessary."
As the suited men departed, Beckett sat down at her desk and started rubbing her temples.
"You okay?" Castle asked.
"Fine," she said. Castle continued to look at her, dissatisfied with her answer. Sighing, she gave him a more truthful reply.
"I just hate feeling helpless, that's all."
Castle couldn't think of anything to say. Honestly, he felt as helpless as Beckett, perhaps even more so. For all his charisma, he would never be able to handle a situation like this as well as Beckett could.
"It's funny isn't it?" he said.
"What is?" she asked, looking less than amused.
"That air is one of the only things we need to live, and it's trying to kill us."
Castle couldn't tell if she was smiling behind her mask, but her shoulders relaxed a little.
"Are you going to use this for the plot of your next book?" she asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Depends on the ending," he said simply. Beckett suddenly looked serious as they both realised that they may not leave the precinct alive.