Disclaimer: The wording is mine but the characters aren't

Thanks for the reviews. Here's another chapter to keep my English from deserting me completely here, in the land of the rising sun.

Are you following?

He tasted bile in his throat, creeping up on the back of his tongue and he dry heaved, struggling for control.

Not sure if he had the control to talk, he started on the text he had neglected when he entered the room.

Ryan, get Esposito and get up here.

…..

4.

It seemed Thomas Donovan did not understand the idea of personal space. To be fair though, her idea of what was considered to be her own space drastically increased around him. Beckett tried to step away, as if looking absently around the room while waiting for Castle, but every time she regained her distance, he would close in again.

The fact that he was carefully made up to look like her partner and boyfriend was only added to the creep factor.

What ever Castle was doing, she hoped he would finish quickly.

"So how did you meet Ms. Prenton?" she asked, shooting for conversational to pass off her unease. Also, to remind him of his girlfriend.

"Through work."

"And where exactly does she work?"

"Not hers," he skillfully evaded the question. "Mine."

He went to continue but Castle reemerged from the back of the apartment. She looked at him with barely restrained relief until she saw his white, strained face. He didn't slow as he stared for her but deliberately cut in front of her, blocking her from Thomas, every line of him rigid.

"Detective Beckett," his voice was rough. "I think there's something you should see."

She couldn't remember seeing him so affected by their work, outside her mother's case or when they were fighting for their lives. What the hell was going on? She moved from behind him, retracing his path to the hall, very aware that he moved with her, blocking her from any contact with Donovan.

Surely he hadn't found a body? Donovan would be out the door by now if that were the case.

Running didn't seem to have occurred to Thomas Donovan, instead he had started to try the opposite and block them from entering. Castle put his size to good use, blocking all passage through the hall and making himself into a barricade between her and Donovan: imitating Castle or not, Donovan was a full head shorter and apparently not as muscled under the suit he wore as she knew her boyfriend to be.

When he failed to get past Castle, Donovan settled for yelling. "You can't go in there."

She shot him a sharp look and stepped in enough to turn on the light. In the hall came the sound of a scuffle and she looked back in the hall way to see Castle throwing the smaller man off. Donovan must have made a last running attempt to tackle his way through Castle's barrier.

She moved to help her partner but the front door was thrown open and Ryan and Esposito poured into the room, weapons drawn.

"You can't come in here!" Donovan's voice was shrill. "This is private property. You have no warrant!"

"You're wrong about that," Esposito's voice was hard.

"A message from a member of our team asking for back up gives us probable cause," Ryan's blue eyes matched his partner's voice.

"And," Beckett added, grateful for Castle's intervention while exploring. "As I recall, this isn't your house."

Donovan whirled to face her but the newcomers each took and arm, stowing their weapons and subduing the livid man.

"Keep him out of our hair, would you?" she asked and both men nodded shortly. She made her way into the bedroom with Castle close behind her. As with the rest of the apartment, it was somewhat lacking in ornamentation, in keeping with Castle's theory that she had only moved in recently. Recently enough for the lock to be obviously new and for there to be empty, flattened cardboard boxes off the kitchen.

Unsure what she was supposed to be looking at she let Castle move past her. He stopped at the side of the bed and jerked his chin at the laptop. What could be on there that disturbed him this much?

She took a steadying breath and moved to his side to watch the screen.

When she processed the image there, she forgot about expelling the air. She was vaguely aware of Castle pressed along her side but her eyes never left the photo. The longer she stared at it the stronger the itch behind her eyes became.

Kate wanted to believe it was looking at the screen that was causing her eyes to blur, but she knew better. She had felt it before, standing confronted with another's obsession with her; an obsession which had overtaken a whole apartment.

It was shock and it was anger and it was hurt.

"The screen saver is all us," he said quietly.

She closed her eyes against the tears. She couldn't do this now.

"Kate?" he sounded a little lost and just as sickened as she was.

Turning away from the screen she pulled out her phone and hit the speed dial button she had used so infrequently since the person on the other end of the line also changed. Despite their undefined relationship, Beckett was relieved for once that there was someone else to make the decisions, and someone she could go to. Because she was at a loss here.

"Detective Beckett," her Captain greeted her.

"Sir," she replied evenly. She never thought there would be a day where hearing the older woman's voice would make things seem better.

"What is the situation?" Gates asked brusquely.

"We are in Louise Prenton's apartment. She's not here, but her boyfriend let us in."

"And?"

"Castle," she paused to take a much needed breath. "Found photos on the computer."

"You found your stalker?"
"Without talking to her, the evidence is circumstantial at best," Beckett sighed, feeling a little defeated. "We don't know who took those pictures."

"So what is your next move, Detective?"

"I don't know," she admitted. "I'm in homicide. I can hardly ask a plain clothes to watch the door for Prenton coming back, and I don't have grounds to call in a surveillance detail on a possible stalker either."

"You're right about that. Do you know her current location?"

"No. The boyfriend has been…uncooperative. Even if he were willing to help, I'm not sure he even knows."

This time the sigh of frustration came from the other end of the phone. "Fine. Well at least you're legally allowed to confiscate the computer. I assume it was out in plain sight when Mr. Castle found it?"

"Yes, Sir."

"Take the computer and we can work from other angles back here."
"Thank you, Sir."

"What about Donovan?" Castle asked as she slipped her phone back into her jacket pocket.

"Unfortunately," her mouth twisted in distaste. "Being creepy is not a crime."
"It should be," he muttered darkly. "I am never teasing you about Natalie Rhodes again."

She shook her head and was almost shocked to feel her lips start to curve. Smiling had seemed impossible.

"You know Thomas is going to call her and she'll run," he said tersely.

"I know," she said softly. "But I can't take him in, and I can't steal his phone."

"Even if you did, it's not like he wouldn't just leave and find her."

"No," she disagreed. "I really don't think he knows where Louise is."
"So," he said after a quick moment of contemplation. "We get his phone away from him so he has to wait here to tell her about our visit. We can ask the doorman to contact you when she gets here- that wouldn't be violating any of her rights."

"And then we get down here before she can rabbit," Beckett finished for him, still avoiding looking at the laptop. "It's not a bad plan, Castle. But how were you planning on getting his phone away from him?"

"I'm thinking."

"Well, you think about that while you pack up the laptop. I'll go and relieve the boys of their babysitting duties."

"Kate," he squeezed her hand. "I'm sorry."

"Castle," she expelled quietly. "We don't know anything. She could just be unhinged and using Thomas as a substitute for you."
"I don't care if this has anything to do with Nikki Heat or not. I'm still sorry."

"Yeah, me too."
…

Review?