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Gone
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Chapter Ten
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How far can you travel to find what is gone? AU after Boom (2x13).
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Rick draws his daughter closer to his chest, resting his chin on the top of her head as he attempts to breathe through the panic. All he can feel is utter desolation at sitting inside the cell he'd shared with Beckett, the cell that had witnessed their first kiss, the cell that's now empty of his partner.
He'd been so stupid. He'd strolled out of the car and back into their prison still half-elated over their successful 'mission', thinking that maybe this was it and they'd be going home now that they'd completed both jobs for their Mexican kidnappers.
Except, as he and Beckett had been ushered into the main room, it had become apparent that he'd been so far from wrong, he'd been in a different galaxy.
Alexis had stood between two masked guards, tears sliding down her face, her skin translucent under the naked bulbs hanging above them as she'd mumbled 'sorry' again and again.
The assholes had given them a choice; the punishment for putting scotch tape on the locks, for trying to escape, would be faced by Alexis or Kate, and while he'd pleaded at them that he should endure the consequences, that he should suffer for their stupidity, Beckett had stepped forward.
The last thing he recalls is the way her gaze held his, her bottom lip squeezed between her teeth as she'd shook her head. Then he'd lunged for her, and well...
The rest is nothingness, the lump on the back of his scalp filling in the blanks.
Alexis shudders in his embrace once more, the silence broken by the sound of her quiet sobs into his shirt. He increases the pressure of his hold each time, as if he can keep her together with enough force.
There's not enough strength in his arms, in his body, to keep her in one piece though. There's not enough strength in him to save his daughter, to save Kate, and he swallows his own cry of misery.
Beckett deserves so much better than this, than him, than whatever the fuck they are doing to her at the moment.
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The restraints holding Kate's wrists above her head release, her arms falling to her sides before she topples with the shift in gravity, her body dropping into the small pools of blood that dot the concrete floor.
Her blood.
She has to move, has to fight, if not for herself, then for Castle and Alexis, for what will happen to them once they finish with her? No psychic powers are required to know that if they don't escape now, no one is getting out of this hellhole.
"Giving up already, Senorita?" Their head captor - she's not going to forget his voice in a hurry - circles where she lies prone, around and around, and she closes her eyes to the constant motion. The thump of each boot echoes until the next one lands and the noise crawls across her skin, seeping deep into each of her muscles.
There's no other sound except for him, just his prowl and the heavy breathing he makes as he imitates a lion preparing to pounce.
It's just him, and her...
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Rick shifts Alexis within his arms, the nerve endings of his thighs protesting at the unmoving pressure, his heart screaming at their inaction.
They can't just sit here and wait for the next domino to fall; he has to do something, but what?
"I'm sorry, Dad. I'm so sorry." Alexis' apology quivers as she speaks, her body mimicking her words. He lifts his right hand, raking his fingers through the long strands of her red hair, making soft, soothing noises, just as he'd done when she was a baby, crying without reason.
"I was just so happy to see the door unlatched after breaking nearly all of my bobby pins that I didn't think. I just ran for it."
His body freezes, his breath wedged hard in his throat at her confession. Not because she was caught, that could have happened to any of them, but the detail she'd let slip.
"Bobby pins?"
Alexis twists in his embrace, the back of her forearm rubbing her cheeks free of the tears that smear her skin, her eyebrows drawing together as she peers up at him.
"What?"
"Bobby pins. You said you broke nearly all of your bobby pins?"
Her head nods as she withdraws to stand, her hand digging into her jeans. "I only have two left. I'd been trying to pick the lock like you showed me as a kid."
She hands them over and he stares at the tiny pieces of metal. Will these be enough?
His hands shake with the fear that they won't be.
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Kate inhales through her slightly parted lips, her eyes closed, her limbs curled into the fetal position as she spaces each breath further apart than the last one. She has one chance at this. If there's not enough energy coursing through her body, not enough stamina to see her through to the end of her plan, then it will be over.
He won't let her live if she fails.
The worry lies in the tremor that vibrates her body. Shock and cold tangling together, draining her already fragile state, but, as she remains limp on the concrete floor, her hair grubby and loose across her face, she opens her eyelids a fraction, squints in the semi-dark.
"Had enough yet? Cause I'm just getting started." His words leech from somewhere behind her, his tone creating another round of convulsions.
She rolls with it, emphasizes each tremble, allows her body to shift dramatically.
He stalks toward her head, his laughter filling the room, and as he reaches the empty void in front of her, he squats, bringing his nose almost down to hers, his tongue flickering across her cheek.
Revolution surges in her throat, but she fights it down, forces her eyes to stay open wide enough to search the area around his waist, finding the handgun tucked into his belt.
And then she pictures Castle, the smile he wears when he arrives at the precinct with a coffee in hand. How his eyes meet with hers, how he never looked anywhere else, how she can no longer ignore that fact.
Maybe he loved her all along?
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Rick jiggles the bobby pin again, urgency smacking hard into the dread that it's too late, that he's no longer on a quest to save Beckett, that he'll succeed at escaping only to discover her body tossed to one side.
"You've got this, Dad."
Alexis' encouragement slices through his down-spiraling thoughts, her words soft and supportive, and if there were a moment to spare, he would stop and hold her, thank his daughter for her belief in him.
Just as he believes in Kate. He believes in her badass ways, believes in her strength and determination, believes in her ability to fight when her back's against the wall.
Even more than that, he believes in them. That together they can overcome anything.
All he has to do is get through this door, and he has no doubt that he can find her, that with his partner by his side, and his daughter safe in his arms, they'll get out of here.
"Thank you, Alexis."
And a click punctuates his sentence, the metal inside the lock shifting next to the bobby pins.
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Kate propels her torso up, her arms stretching, her hands reaching for his weapon, but as she does, she realizes that she's left it a fraction too late. He's withdrawing, shifting back and away from her, creating more distance for her to overcome.
Fuck.
She repeats the word over and over, she can't stop though, it's all or nothing, and nothing isn't an option, not with Castle and Alexis next in line, not when this is her one and only possibility of getting the gun.
"What the hell?"
The metal of the gun's grip slides past her fingers and into her palm, finding home. Grasping with both hands has given her left one chance as he knocks away her right, her surprise attack creating enough confusion and hesitation now that she has a hold of the Glock.
She withdraws it from his belt.
Victory, unfortunately, doesn't last long.
The weapon wedges itself between their bodies, four hands scratching at it like straws, struggling to obtain the upper hand as they both crash onto the bloodstained floor, the back of her head, and maybe his, loud as it strikes the concrete.
Yet the sound is nothing compared to that of the gun as it goes off.
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Rick's momentum down the corridor comes to a halt, Alexis slamming into his back as she reacts too late, or worse, maybe she doesn't realize what that sound is.
He does.
It's the sound of a gun being fired.
His feet work before his brain does, and he's hurtling through the semi-dark and toward the noise, toward the main room where he'd last seen Beckett.
Oh God, Kate.
Running the last stretch, he leaves all sense of safety in the dust of their cell, his slow, cautionary steps with Alexis replaced with a mad dash, and he bursts into the larger room, his heart shattering at his feet, the pieces splashing in the pools of blood that are scattered across the floor.
The floor where two bodies lie still and unmoving.
He should check on the second one, ensure that the man is actually dead and not just waiting to attack them, but the voice of rational reasoning can take a hike.
His only thought is Kate, and he falls beside his partner, scooping her up and into his arms, his stare taking in the marks that line her face, red smeared in splatters across her skin.
"Castle?"
His breath leaves his chest, a sob of her name chasing after it, and he nods as her eyes flutter open, the corner of her lips twisting into a smile, or maybe a grimace.
"Did I get the bastard?"
Huffing out a laugh, he grins, turning toward Alexis as she shifts to stand at his side.
"Are you okay, Detective Beckett?"
Kate drops her head as she strains within his arms, attempts to sit up. He assists as slowly as he can, the shaky way her eyes roll definitely not a good sign, but as he gets them both on their feet, shouts echo from the opposite direction of their cell.
They have each other, but in the joy of finding Kate, he's overlooked the fact that they still need to get out of this hellhole.
Shit.
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Thank you again for all the support, it's been two years since I wrote and published my first story on the 18th and it's been an amazing ride because of people like you.
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A massive hug to Jo for taking that chance on me, and Jamie for being so persistent at the start ;) I wouldn't be writing if it wasn't for you two xoxo
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And to all the friendships I have made since then, I thank you xoxo