When Esposito and Ryan arrived at the precinct the next morning, they were met by a flurry of activity. As always there were crooks, cops and everyone in between, but there was also a large group of cameramen and reporters of all sorts trying to gain entrance into the main areas of the building – and a small army of officers keeping them at bay.

"Captain wants you guys in his office," one of the other detectives told them as soon as they walked through the chaos.

Ryan nodded his thanks and they kept walking, but someone else slapped a newspaper into his stomach as they walked through the busy room. He looked down at the front page and shook his head, but it was Esposito who spoke first.

"Not good, huh?"

He'd been looking over his partner's shoulder at the headline that screamed at them as soon as the paper was unfolded.

"Mystery writer and NY Detective missing."

Underneath was a picture of Castle and Beckett taken at the opening party for the first book he'd written with Beckett as his muse.

They both came to a halt to read the article, but before they could get past the first sentence, someone called them. Someone who was not happy.

"Get in here!"

Montgomery wasn't alone in his office. The mayor and the chief of police were both there as well. And both of them had the paper in their hands.

"Care to explain this?" Montgomery asked, brandishing the paper at them.

Esposito shook his head.

"We didn't have anything to do with it, sir."

The captain scowled. He knew that, he'd just needed to yell at someone – and he couldn't yell at the mayor.

"Beckett's dad has called me twice already, today. I'm just waiting to hear from Castle's mom and daughter."

"We spoke with his mom already this morning. She called me early."

Montgomery's expression softened a little.

"How is she holding up?"

"They had a rough night, sir," Ryan answered. "We're keeping them in the loop with anything we hear."

"What have we heard, Detective?" asked the mayor.

"Nothing good. They don't have any indication that the plane went down – no wreckage anywhere along Castle's flight plan, not even any burned areas that might have shown that it went down. They're saying that there is a lot of wilderness that they were flying over, it's possible they went off course."

"There weren't any storms, though," the chief pointed out, quoting the article in the paper.

"They're looking, sir," Esposito said. "And they're going to let us know the minute they have anything."

"See to it we hear before the press, will you?"

"We'll try."

There was little hope of that, though. The press was everywhere. Look how they were trying to take over the station, after all.

OOOOOOOOOOO

Beckett woke slowly, warm and comfortable and aware that the quiet morning was not the norm for her. She was used to alarms, and sirens and shouting and the sound of thousands of cars and people and the hum of a city that was known the world over for never sleeping. She preferred to wake up to those sounds, she decided, even as she stretched and winced when she felt more aches this morning than she had the morning before. Her legs felt like they were knotted from hip to heel and her arms ached from the unaccustomed chore of gathering wood and toting it through the woods.

She'd rather chase crooks any day.

With a groan she sat up and looked around, wondering how Castle was feeling that morning. Running her hand through her hair and wishing for a brush – and even more, a shower and some soap and a toothbrush – she frowned when she didn't see him sleeping near her, or at least somewhere close to the fire resting.

"Castle?"

Her throat felt a little scratchy, and when she saw the cup he'd obviously left her by the fire, she got up and went over to make coffee before doing anything else. If the man was going to be so considerate, she definitely wasn't going to let it go to waste. As she sipped it, she noticed another note in the dirt by the yellow box.

Back in a while. – R.C.

Again with the signature. Shaking her head, she stretched her free arm to make it stop aching and shivered a little in the chill of the morning. As she did, a splashing sound from the lake drew her attention and she turned. And dropped the coffee she was holding.

"What the hell!?"

Ignoring the fact that she didn't have her shoes on she rushed down to the water's edge.

"Castle!"

On the same log he'd spent most of the day before fishing from there was a pile of clothing – and a pair of battered leather shoes. Out in the water there was a lot of splashing as Richard Castle's dark head came up from under the water and he looked over at her shout. He waved at her, but his attention was clearly elsewhere, and he dove back under the water after only a moment's pause for a deep breath.

She hesitated, uncertain if he was in trouble and needed her to rescue him. She could swim, but was well aware that he had already pulled her out of the water after the crash. He was the stronger swimmer, and he had waved at her to acknowledge that he'd seen her, but hadn't called for help. She took another step to the water, aware that there was no way she'd be willing to tell Alexis Castle that she'd stood on the water's edge and watched her dad drown, but before she could go any further he reappeared again.

This time he turned and headed toward the shore, swimming slowly, but not in distress as near as she could tell. Suddenly furious with him for scaring her, she waded out to meet him as he struggled the final twenty feet.

"Are you out of your mind?!"

He was gasping for air, so he didn't have the breath to defend himself for his foolishness. She didn't give him a chance to, at any rate.

"It's freezing out here. You're already sick and you go and pull something stupid like this. What were you thinking?" She slid under his arm to support him as he staggered out of the water, and he leaned heavily against her. She could feel him shivering hard enough to make her shiver as well, and his teeth were chattering so badly it was a wonder that they weren't falling out. "You better not have been trying to get your luggage."

He shook his head, coming to a stop so he could catch his breath now that they were out of the water.

"I was… looking for the… emergency… transponder…"