A/N: Long gap between updates, longer chapter as a reward. And I tried to thank everyone personally last chapter but I had some computer issues and I think I missed a few reviewers - if I did - I apologize, I was blown away by the response to the last one, and humbled by it - thank you all. Side note, I understand everyone wants them to reunite - but I'm writing a novel length story here and that kinda happens towards (but not right at) the end guys, getting to it is the whole point of the story's journey - still we are one chapter closer - hope you are all still loving the ride?

Chapter Twenty Eight: A second chance is all I'm meaning.

Why I believe it's the sound of hammering," he says smiling, "of the first nail in the Valez coffin."

Kate smiles at Javier over Ryan's comment and the handsome Latino can't help but notice that some real colour has finally crept back into her cheeks; tiny hints of sparkle have reignited within her arresting eyes. The young detective knows full well that the final unravelling of Castle's message is wholly responsible for this, and he smiles inwardly at how vital and alive the love between them still is – even after all this time apart.

Esposito's about to open his mouth with a suggestion about what avenue of investigation they should perhaps pursue next when he notices the elevator door opening and his jaw drops slightly as a figure he recognizes exits. He taps Beckett on the shoulder and nods at the Twelfth's latest visitor his eyebrow climbing.

Beckett looks over her shoulder and then back at Esposito, her expression confused as she shakes her head..

"I don't recognize him," she says. "Should I?"

Javi shrugs. "Maybe not," he replies. "But I think our next avenue of inquiry just came to us."

Detective Marc Gibson doesn't look anything like a cop, and for good reason. A long time undercover in the gang task force, he keeps his head down and almost never enters a police precinct unless it's under the guise of him having been arrested. In fact he's taking a risk walking into homicide today – but Gibson is determined, he's got to step up now and face the consequences come what may, it's the only right thing left for him to do.

He approaches Beckett, Esposito and Ryan with calm and certain demeanour, pulling the backwards facing ball cap off his head as he does so.

"Hey Javi." Gibson offers as a greeting.

Esposito nods cautiously, "Detective Gibson – it's been a long time."

Ryan looks between Gibson and his partner curiously. "You two know each other?" he asks.

Javier inclines his head.

"We worked at the 54th together," he says. "Gibson was on the Organized Crime squad with me before I transferred here to Homicide and he went undercover to the Gang Unit."

Ryan's eyebrow rises.

"Ah – that explains the get-up."

Gibson grins ruefully. "It ain't a suit and a shield for sure," he says, clearly eyeing Ryan's as usual immaculate appearance. "But in my role these are the only clothes you can wear."

An awkward silence lasts a beat too long.

"Wait," Beckett exclaims. "Wait – I do recognize you," she says suddenly. "You were here that day; you were laughing with them, because Slaughter had played some kind of prank on Castle."

Detective Gibson eyes the faked murder board behind her before his dark eyes meet hers, something shimmering in their ebony depths that looks to Kate a lot like remorse – he nods.

"Yeah," he says. "That was me. Slaughter is – was . . . "he trails off for a moment as if he's trying to accurately find a word. "I guess you could say I was the closest thing to a friend on the force that Ethan had," he says in the end.

He holds Beckett's perplexed gaze before he continues, "That's why I've come by actually. It's all over the street that Slaughter's remains have been exhumed and his death is being re-investigated as a 'targeted' homicide."

Beckett bites her lip thoughtfully, they knew it would get out – it's the whole reason for the dummied up board – but 'all over the street', especially in the gang-run areas of town where Gibson hangs out? Where Valez is- Damn, she thinks, and suddenly it feels like she has almost no time left on a clock that's ticking too loudly.

"What of it," she snaps defensively.

The gang unit cop reaches out his hand and tentatively squeezes her elbow, releasing her again almost immediately.

"I'm glad," he says softly. "I should have been pushing for it from the beginning when the fifty-fourth buried it."

Kate's eyes widen.

"Buried it?"

"Ethan was unpopular and unrepentant and on a whole slew of levels he was a crappy cop. His methods were verging on the criminal most days – but what you need to understand Detective Beckett – is that he genuinely hated the bad guys. He was an asshole – but in his own way he had honor. He wanted the drug dealers and the murderers off the street as badly as the rest of us. He just didn't care how he did it."

Kate frowns. "You said they buried it."

Gibson looks around them as if checking the bullpen for eavesdroppers. The others unconsciously huddle closer.

"I think they did," Gibson remarks quietly.

"Who are 'they'? And why?" Espo tries to clarify.

Gibson sighs. "I don't mean that someone specific deliberately set out to conceal that Ethan was murdered – I just mean that no-one could be bothered to look at his death the way any other cop shooting would have been looked at. And all because of the way Ethan was - who he was. I think even the medical examiner kinda thought Ethan had just finally caught what had been coming to him. That it was some kind of cosmic retribution that he died in a hail of gunfire by accident."

Beckett pins the undercover with a scrutinizing stare. "But you never believed that did you? You believed he'd been murdered and yet you also let it go." She states. "Why?"

Gibson looks at his feet, guilt written starkly on his face.

"Rumors," he replies. "I'd heard rumors of a motive, tales of a culprit and honestly-"he looks up and Kate can see it in his dark eyes. "I was scared," he admits, and she can tell that it's really hard for him to say that. "Especially when almost immediately your mystery writer friend disappeared – I mean when that was added in it made the rumblings really seem like they could be true."

"What rumors?" Javi growls "Stop talking in circles and spell it out bro."

Gibson's mouth firms into a thin line.

"Rumors that Slaughter was taken out because of what happened to a Mexican drug lord's family, rumors that your author pal was quietly murdered to punish you Beckett for the same reason."

Kate's mouth drops open – stunned.

"Punish me? Castle . . . Castle-"she wants to tell Gibson that Castle isn't dead, but she doesn't dare trust him with that knowledge. She swallows rapidly and stops her partners from betraying anything with no more than a mere flick of her eyes at them. She struggles a few seconds more for composure and then dives back into her questioning.

"What drug lord?" she demands.

"Valez," Gibson responds and Kate's stomach cartwheels as she realizes her missing motive for all that's happened the last five months might finally be coming.

"Cesar Valez?"

Gibson nods once, Beckett pushes on.

"Something happened to his family – what?"

Gibson lowers his voice to barely more than a whisper.

"His wife and his children were beaten, tortured and killed – to punish him for appearing weak, making the cartel look bad. He blames you Detective Beckett."

Kate shakes her head – she only met the gang leader once and just barely long enough to tell the dirt-bag to consider getting out of town. Then her eyes widen in horror.

"I – I threatened him," she says brokenly, remembering, her gaze darting from Gibson to Ryan before it lands on Esposito. "Javi-"

Gibson interrupts her. "Beckett – you intimidated him in front of witnesses and he let you do it without saying a word, and when Slaughter broadcast that to the whole city . . . "

"Slaughter did what?" The declaration fairly explodes out of Ryan, and three sets of eyes land on him, Ryan repeats his words more quietly. "Sorry – Slaughter did what?" he asks.

"He told everyone. Every drug dealing gang-banger in New York had heard the story within weeks of Slaughter leaking it. You have to understand," Gibson emphasizes, his eyes boring into Kate's. "You have to understand what that kind of public humiliation, what that perception of weakness does to a cartels reputation. To a cartel, 'fear' is everything. Valez was a leader, a big man who blinked and showed no balls when confronted with a beautiful female cop. He was a laughing stock Beckett – and as a result so was the entire Mexican Mafia. They took out his family to restore their own pride, prove to their rivals how tough and uncompromising they were. Valez had allies but it was basically a civil war for the Mexicans."

Tears shine in Kate's eyes and she blinks them back. Valez might be scum but his wife – his children . . .

"He won though – didn't he?" she forces herself to ask.

Marc Gibson nods. "It was a bloodbath but he retained control – in the end."

She takes a deep breath to steady herself. This is what she's been looking for after all, a solid motive for Valez to have gone after and killed Detective Slaughter. But she would never have dreamed it as twisted as this, of how she herself would so directly have tied Castle into it all. The man she loves was targeted to die as an act of revenge on her – oh God! Sick to her stomach she moves through it.

"So," she continues, hating the quiver in her voice. "Once he had control of his gang again – you believe as retribution for the murder of his family that Valez himself took Slaughter out."

Gibson nods.

"Yeah that's exactly what I think. Bastard waited until he was untouchable and then he struck. He took out Slaughter first, and then he was more careful about your writer. Beckett, the rumours say that when Valez has had enough of watching you suffer while you search in vain for your missing lover that then he'll simply take you out too."

Ryan almost chokes and Esposito's face brooks no messing with.

"Like hell-"they both say in unison.

Detective Gibson waves them off. "It's the word on the street," he explains. "And now that you're poking around and treating Ethan's death as the homicide it is – how much longer do you think Valez is going give her before he decides to strike her down?"

Esposito's face is darker than any storm cloud, he steps right into the undercover gang detective and pokes him hard in the chest.

"Why didn't you report all of this to someone months ago?" he growls demandingly. "You're a cop Gibson. A pathetic excuse for a cop, but a cop Goddamit. Some scumbag threatens one of us and the rest are supposed to come running – that's how it works asshole. And you sat on this, you sat on it you-"

"Javi-" Beckett steps between the two detectives with difficulty; she rests her hand gently against the wall of Espo's chest and pushes him to back off.

Spinning around as Javier eyes Gibson threateningly, she narrows her eyes at him.

"You said Valez waited until he was 'untouchable' to go after Slaughter?"

Gibson nods, he looks miserable.

"He did," he replies.

Beckett shakes her head. "What does that mean – exactly?"

Gibson swallows nervously.

"Valez is protected. Nothing sticks to the guy. Six months Slaughter's been dead and even before that any bust we attempted that would have interfered with his operation went south. Tips that were concrete, stings that were iron clad – it was like Valez always knew everything the gang task force was doing."

Kate looks thoughtful. "He has someone on the inside," she states.

Gibson shakes his head.

"This is bigger than the NYPD. Valez is trafficking amounts that should be impossible to move covertly. He's one step ahead of every search warrant, knows the identities of almost all the drug cops on the beat. He's even made me, but as long as we don't touch any of his people he lets us all be and doesn't pass his knowledge along to his rivals, not even for a price. He's got federal protection Beckett – it's the only thing that makes any sense – how he got it, what he's giving them in return I can't say. But Valez is operating on different level now than any of the other gangs in the city; he's gone from a liability and a joke, to probably the biggest drug kingpin in country in under a year."

Beckett remembers Castle's other warning then.

"You're right," she tells Gibson, before she turns to her partners. "It's the CIA," she says, looking pointedly at her desk and the pile of 'Heat Lost's' typed pages. She sees the comprehension dawn in both Ryan and Esposito's eyes immediately, sees them realize where the novel again ties in.

"CIA protection would explain a lot," Ryan admits. "If Valez was working for them somehow, the agency works closely with the DEA, they could easily be ignoring him in return for something."

Esposito looks over at Gibson slightly mollified. "This is why you've remained silent huh?"

Gibson nods. "Bigger forces are at work," he says. "Slaughter, well honestly I was afraid to push for it, I figured his death – but I can't stand by any longer and not warn you guys that the word is out about Beckett, and about your investigation. I don't want another dead member of the NYPD on my conscience; and I don't want Valez to get away with another murder." He turns to Kate. "You're a good cop Beckett – everyone knows it, and for what it's worth I liked Castle – when I met him. He seemed like a decent guy."

Beckett smiles, and after a moment she thoughtfully holds out her hand to the gang squad detective. Marc Gibson shakes her slight strong fingers gently.

"Thank you," Kate says, "for the warning."

Gibson nods at the three homicide cops, replaces his ball cap back on his head and eyes darting around the bullpen he makes himself scarce again.

Kate turns to her partners.

"Well he gave us our motive," Ryan states. "At least that's something."

Beckett agrees. "We know who, why and how. What we need now is enough proof to make this stick, although if Valez has the CIA in his pocket . . . "

"If he does," Esposito interrupts, "then even an airtight, cast-iron case is never going to go to court," he says bitterly. "The Feds, the Agency – they'll just take it over."

Beckett looks thoughtful.

"Maybe. But if he has to sell out so completely, disappear into WITSEC, it at least takes him off the streets."

Ryan looks at her pointedly. "It's you we're worried about Kate," he says softly. "How do we stop him from coming after you, or Castle – from finishing what he's started here? WITSEC still technically leaves Valez free."

Beckett shakes her head, her hazel eyes uncertain. "I don't have an answer for that," she says. "But clearly Castle is telling us to solve this murder, to get Valez arrested. Maybe he knows something else that we don't – I don't know what else to do guys – except what Rick is asking us to."

Ryan looks thoughtful, Esposito paces angrily, Kate stares at the faked board and wishes Castle were beside her to tell her what to do. She sits on the edge of her desk and let's her mind drift over everything they've learned and he comes to her. A memory surfaces, another long ago conversation from Melanie Cavanaugh's case . . .

"You know what helps?"

"Yeah?"

"Sometimes when I'm trying to figure out how a character of mine does something I will walk the crime scene. This one time I was trying to figure out how to throw someone off the Empire State building and that movie 'Sleepless in Seattle' had just come out – so many lonely women approached me thinking I was their Tom Hanks, I got laid-"

"Castle!"

"The point is – you want to get inside a killer's head, go to where the killer was – and see what problems he had to face. Field trip?"

She startles, doesn't know why exactly this particular memory has surfaced now but she looks down at the pages of his book and finds herself smiling anyhow.

"Guys," she calls, and her partner's stop their mutual brooding, focusing on her.

"I want to see the crime scene."

The boys look confused.

"What crime scene?" Ryan asks.

"Slaughter's crime scene. I want to see where he was killed six months ago, figure out where Valez was exactly when he shot him. Maybe something will pop, maybe it can lead us to the evidence we need," she says.

"Beckett it's been six months." Javi reiterates very gently.

Kate nods. "Exactly. And it's been five months since the day the man I love disappeared – it's a long shot Espo, I get that. But a long shot is all I got – so are you guys coming or what?"