Author's note: I do a lot of cliffhangers sometimes, but I try not to make you wait for the next installment when I do, because I'd hate to wait, too.

OOOOOOOOOOOO

He tapped a couple of the controls on the main panel, but nothing lit up. Beckett looked down; the trees were a lot more defined than they had been.

"We're going down…"

"I know." He toggled a switch above their heads, the one she saw him use when he was speaking to the tower back at the airport.

"Mayday, Mayday," his voice was a lot calmer than hers would have been. Especially since her heart was lodged somewhere in her throat. "This is N7145 out of New York's Allentown Airport. We are declaring an emergency and ditching. Mayday, Mayday, repeat, we are declaring an emergency…"

He might have said more, but the plane suddenly lurched and he had his hands filled trying to bring it back into line.

"Hold on!"

She didn't know what to hold onto. She watched as he looked around below them, and somehow managed to keep their flight level – although they were still definitely going down.

"Can you swim?"

"What?"

"Can you swim!?"

She looked down and saw that there was a small body of water a short distance in front of them.

"Are you nuts!?"

"Can you swim?" he snapped.

"Yes!"

"Water or trees…" he muttered, still looking around for an airstrip to magically appear out of nowhere.

"Water."

Her breathing was short and her hands were clammy. She'd never felt – or been – more helpless.

"Yeah." He fought the plane again and somehow it turned just enough to be lined up with the lake. He looked over at her, and aside from a beading of sweat on his forehead he was remarkably composed considering they were probably going to die any minute. "Sullenberger landed in the Hudson… this plane's a lot smaller than that."

She kept her mouth shut, thinking that the lake looked a lot smaller than the Hudson.

He looked over at her, then slapped a red button on the control area and looked at her again. But he wasn't looking at her, she realized, because he reached over and grabbed a red tab on the side of her seat. He yanked it and she suddenly felt her seatbelts tightening – the one across her lap as well as the one that was holding her body to the seat. Looking down she realized that it had suddenly inflated somehow. He repeated the process with his own and then met her gaze for just a moment before he turned his full attention back to what he was doing.

"Brace yourself…"

With the seatbelt inflated she couldn't move if she wanted to. She put her hand on the edge of her seat and tried very hard to breathe. The water was getting closer and closer, and the plane seemed to be picking up speed – although the air speed indicator was blank so she didn't know for certain that it wasn't her imagination.

The lake was probably 15 miles long or so. A fairly large one for the area – unless you were trying to use it as a parking lot. It loomed closer and closer until he was actually flying just above the trees at the very edge. Then he forced the nose down to avoid over-flying it and crashing into the trees on the other end.

There was an incredible noise when they first touched the water. It stopped immediately and Beckett was vaguely aware that they had bounced. Just as she reached that realization they hit again, this time even harder. The cockpit window buckled in and water came rushing at them, but with a curse that she'd never heard him use, Castle managed to wrestle the controls back and the nose came out once more.

Just as she thought they were starting to slow down and it might have worked, the water had a final say and a backwash from their impact slammed into the front, causing the entire craft to turn abruptly and cartwheel.

Everything that wasn't bolted down or held down with straps was suddenly flying around them as she felt them turn upside down for a moment and then crash back into the water. She heard a gasp, realized that it came from her, and suddenly they were still.

Amazingly, Castle reached out and unhooked her seatbelt.

"Go!"

She didn't make him say it twice.

Water pressure was keeping the door on her side closed, but the front end of the plane was already starting to sink back into the water, and with the cockpit window gone it wouldn't take long for it to fill completely. She forced the door open and a wave of ice-cold water washed over both of them.

With another gasp she untangled herself from the seatbelt and jumped as far from the plane as she could.

"Castle!"

"Go!"

He was moving inside the plane, but she couldn't tell if he was tangled or if he was following.

"Get out of there!"

She couldn't leave him.

"I'm coming!" he yelled.

"Hurry!"

She was treading water, now, but her body had already started to cramp from the cold despite the clothes she had on.

The entire front end of the plane was just starting to disappear under the water and Beckett was just about ready to swim over to help him when a large bright yellow case was tossed out of the destroyed back pilot's side door. A moment later she saw him follow it. He turned in the water and saw her, and gestured for the closest shoreline.

She waited only long enough to make sure he was away from the plane before obeying that emphatic gesture and striking out for the rocky shore. Dragging the yellow case behind him, Castle followed.

It wasn't that far but it seemed like it was taking her forever. He was a stronger swimmer than she was, because he managed to catch up with her fairly quickly, and even with the case that he refused to let go, he was still able to lend her a little assistance when she started to falter in the cold water.

"Here…" he wheezed, pushing the case toward her. "Hold that."

She grabbed it automatically, and then felt his arm go around her. He pulled her against his body and she could feel the warmth of his exertions immediately. Too tired to resist, she allowed him to pull her into the shore, dragging the yellow case behind them.

Only a few minutes later she felt ground below them and he staggered as her weight suddenly drove him down. She wriggled out of his grasp, and now she was the one who took hold of him with her free arm and helped him out of the water and onto the only area she could see that was free of rocks.

Only when they were both on dry land did she drop to the ground, panting and shivering. He went down beside her, sprawled in a heap and shivering.

"You okay?" she asked, dredging up enough energy to lift her head and look out over the lake. The only part of the plane she could see was the tip of one of the wings, and as she watched it slowly sank below the water, leaving a lot of air bubbles and nothing else.

"Yeah…"

She closed her eyes, still trying to catch her breath. Before she could fight it, blackness came up and caught her in its grip and she passed out.