Just Being There

A Castle Story By

HCBalwayshappy

It was very early when Beckett arrived to the precinct, her two partners arrived an hour later. The note was now on the murder board along with Thompson's victims and Thompson himself. As Kate was staring at it Ryan and Esposito stood beside her...

"He has to be testing us, but what does he want?" Ryan said.

"The police has been after him for years, and he is fifty- eight years old," Javier added.

"It's strange, you would think he would have retired by now," Ryan stated.

"Okay, we know that there will be another victim today... what we don't know is how he chooses his victims, or how they're connected to Thompson," Beckett said. "Let's check and double check everything, go through old police files, everything."

"Got it."

After several hours, Castle had come in and they still had nothing. She looked through every file on Thompson she could find, and everything she did get, just proved to her that every detective that had Thompson as a suspect was just as confused as she is.

"Yo Beckett," Javier said as he walked over to her.

"What did you find?" Beckett asked anxiously.

"The same note that we got was left for two previous precincts, I spoke with their homicide detectives they each said, that they believed Thompson was testing them also and that they believed Thompson wanted to get caught. All of their victims were also girls in there early to late thirties with good careers."

"Anything else?"

"After that they simply said, good luck."

"That's great, thanks Espo."

Suddenly Kate got a phone call...

"Beckett," She answered.

"Hello Detective, I trust you already know who I am," the voice of an older man said.

"Thompson," she said, signaling Esposito to trace the call.

"Yes, you see I have another victim for you guys, but she's not yet dead. You can save her, if you can find her. She's in a building, the address to there, you will have in a second. I call it test 2. You have nine minutes to find her, when you get there. Good luck Detectives."

"Wait-" But he had already hung up, Kate looked over to Esposito, "Get it."

"Got it."

"Let's go."As they reached the place, they saw that it was once again an abandoned building. Entering the building, they were confronted with themselves. Mirrors were everywhere, aligned in such a way that there were four pathways leading into the building.

"We have eight minutes left, we don't have time to double back," Castle said.

"Alright, let's split up...Castle take my spare, just in case. Yell if you find her," Kate told them as she handed Castle her spare gun.

"I have an ambulance on stand by," Ryan said and with that, they split up and went alone into one of the four pathways.

As Kate walked down her path, she felt strange, her gun was drawn, her flashlight was on, and she moved quickly, when she turned around corners she'd see another dark hallway, or herself at a dead end. In the distance she thought she could hear crying, she went that way.

When Javier heard the crying, he quickened his pace. He didn't like the mirrors, to him it felt as though he was going in circles. Walking down another hallway he saw that there was only six minutes left.

Kevin rounded a corner, and ran right into himself, very nearly breaking the mirror. Rubbing his head and backing up, he continued straight, hearing the cries of a girl, he knew he was close. With new determination, he practically jogged down the long dark hall.

Rick stopped when he heard the cry, he stopped and listened. Once he was sure he had figured out the right direction of the noise he stepped in that direction. He pulled out his temporary gun and turned a corner. They had four minutes left.

Kate turned a corner, Javier kept going straight, Kevin just followed the sound, Castle hit a dead end. They had three minutes left.

All of them started running, as the cries grew stronger... they had two minutes left.

Ryan reached her first, she was bleeding out on the floor. She was at least thirty years old, she had bright blue eyes, and blond hair. Her face was filled with pain. Being covered in blood, Ryan had a hard time finding the wound.

"I'm here it's okay," Ryan said, she smiled at him, "where is it, where is it?" She pointed to her stomach. There was blood all over Kevin put as much pressure on it as he could. She just smiled.

"I'm Detective Ryan, what's your name?"

"Baylee," she choked out, her breath was becoming very ragged.

"Okay, Baylee hang in there! HERE! I FOUND HER! HERE!" Ryan shouted, hoping his friends could hear him. He looked back at her, her eyes full of tears... she kept staring at him, begging him to save her. They had one minute left.

Her eyes, suddenly went dark... she was giving up, she looked at Ryan once more, "Tell...," she tried, "I love him." She finally said. He nodded.

"Just wait another minute please!" Ryan cried, please. He heard footsteps coming closer, "Hold on! Hold on Baylee. Please!" Ryan pleaded. There was blood all over him. His eyes never left hers, as she cried one final tear, breathed one last breath, and died in front of him. The bright blue eyes forever closed. Kevin sat back, wiping the blood on his shirt. They were out of time.

"Ryan!" Beckett ran in, she stopped when she saw the girl. Esposito followed soon after, along with Castle. Kate sat next to him and put her hand on his shoulder.

"Her name is Baylee," he said, Kate looked at the pretty girl, with a pool of blood surrounding her.

"Goodbye Baylee," she said softly, Esposito sat by Kate, and Castle by him and they sat mourning the loss of the girl they couldn't save. They sat there until the paramedics found their way through the maze, until they covered her up and took her to the ambulance, they sat there together until they felt they were ready to leave.

Jonathin Thompson, watched as the blood covered detectives walked out of the building. They passed his second test, they cared for her, called her by name, they cared for each other, they passed. He smiled, time for test 3! Tomorrow, detectives, tomorrow, He thought as he turned and walked away.

Goodbye Baylee

Hi! Sorry this one took so long to post! Thanks for reading and if you have any suggestions, questions, comments, please let me know! Thank you!

-HCB