Thaddeus Dailey lived in a five-floor walk-up. It wasn't the nicest neighborhood, but it wasn't a slum, either, being tenanted by mostly hard working families and singles with decent paychecks but nothing too outrageous. The halls were clean and even better they smelled clean, too. The manager of the building told them that Dailey lived alone and commented that he'd never seen him have company, but that the guy also stayed out of sight, mostly, so he wasn't a hundred percent sure of that. He was planning on taking them up and letting them into the place, but a harried looking woman with a screaming toddler in her arms entered his office just then, so he just handed them the key to the apartment and asked them to remember to lock it up when they were done.

Esposito unlocked the door, while Ryan covered him. Not that they really expected any trouble, but you never knew with weirdoes, and that was a lesson most cops learned before they were even allowed on the street. They opened the door carefully, looking for any kind of wires or other indications that there might be a booby trap waiting for them, but it looked pretty clear, and Esposito nodded for his partner to go.

Ryan entered first, turning on the light because it was dim, but stopped almost immediately, looking around.

"Wow…"

It wasn't an alarmed sound, and Esposito joined him only a moment later and shook his head.

"This place is nuts."

It was, too. The room was dark. The windows were covered in heavy black curtains that were nailed against the walls to keep even a sliver of light from entering. There was a futon that was folded down into a bed, unmade and piled with far more blankets than the weather would indicate a need for, but not much else for furniture. A modest TV sat on an old entertainment center, but the dust that was layered on it made it apparent that it wasn't used very often.

"Look at that," Ryan said, pointing to the wall to their right.

It was a shrine. Neither of them could think of any other word for it. Pictures of Castle were everywhere. Newspaper clippings, articles from magazines, pictures from book signings and a couple that were clearly taken off the Internet and printed out and framed. A stack of Castle's books cluttered the small stand below the pictures and next to them was a picture of Thaddeus Daily with Castle's arm around him, both smiling at the camera and looking like the best of friends.

"Castle said he didn't know him," Esposito said, picking up the picture and looking at it.

Ryan looked over his shoulder.

"Looks photo-shopped. My sister did that one time with a picture of Johnny Depp. Made them look like they were kissing."

"Eww."

"I know."

"So this guy worships Castle…" Esposito said, looking at the photo again. Even in it there was a gleam in his eyes that just wasn't right. "What's he shooting at him for?"

"He was shooting at Beckett," Ryan reminded him, leaving his partner's side and looking around. "Castle just got in the way…" he trailed off, looking into the bedroom. "Or maybe not."

The tone of his voice brought Esposito to his side right away, and they both stopped at the threshold of the room.

"Someone wasn't a happy camper…" Esposito muttered.

"No."

This room was pretty much the Anti-Castle shrine. There were pictures of Castle that had been ripped up or mutilated in other ways, framed and then hung. Pictures of Castle with Beckett from articles and the Internet – also torn, or scribbled on – and a couple piles of ashes that led them to suspect pictures had been burned. A single picture of Beckett was framed, but there was a fairly graphic statement written across it – one that neither of them wanted her to ever see.

Instead of a bed, there was a single long table with a wooden stool. It was littered with pieces of metal in various stages of being soldered and several small devices that looked like they could be timers. Esposito looked through a stack of papers that were also on the table and shook his head. There were printed pages that Dailey had probably pulled off the Internet, with step-by-step instructions on how to make a timed explosive device.

"We'd better get some lab guys down here," he said as they both left that room and did a quick search through the rest of the place just to make sure no one was there. It was obviously a justified shoot, but the more evidence they had the better and they both knew it. Luckily, the contents of the bedroom were all anyone would ever need.

They locked the place back up and headed downstairs to talk to the manager again.

OOOOOOOOOOO

The doctors were thorough when they checked out Beckett. They always were when it came to dealing with police officers – something that she usually appreciated, since it showed that they wanted them to be at their best before they were pronounced fit to leave – but it was annoying this time, when all she wanted was to check on Castle and see how he was doing. Finally they announced that she was no worse off than she had been when she'd been released from their care only days ago, and advised to take the rest of the day – and the next – off. She got dressed, but as she was leaving, she was accosted by Captain Montgomery, who had been waiting to hear how she was doing and to get a complete report on what had happened.

That had taken longer than it should have to, but it was interesting. She hadn't known that Castle had called Montgomery right before the shooting, and wondered what the story was behind it, since Castle hadn't had a cell phone of his own at that time. Montgomery told her what he knew, she told him what she had witnessed, and what had been said, leaving nothing out and using the same inflections that Dailey had.

Finally the captain nodded and put away his pen and folder.

"You'll need to write up a report to go along with Esposito and Ryan's, but it can wait until later. Take the rest of the day off and try to stay out of trouble."

She started to protest, but realized he was teasing her, and she smiled instead.

"Yes, sir."

He stood up, well aware what her next stop was going to be.

"When you see Castle, tell him I said he's not allowed to cause me any more headaches for at least a week."

"I'll do that."

He left, and she went in search of Castle.

OOOOOOOO

He was in a private room – not the same one that he had been, but one that was set up for just one person. They hadn't needed to do more than take the bullet out of his shoulder, which according to the doctor she spoke with hadn't been that complicated, so he hadn't been put into recovery this time. His ribs were sore, but no worse off than they had been – although he had bruises of practically every color of the rainbow on his chest, now – and they weren't planning on keeping him more than a day or two for observation. She wondered if they were also hoping to keep the media circus from getting out of hand this time, too, since she hadn't seen any press in the hospital.

There was a guard on the door – no big surprise – but he waved her in with a smile and she tapped lightly on the door, warning them that she was coming in.

Castle was sitting upright in the bed, held there by a cushion of a half dozen pillows, with Alexis sitting on the edge of it and Martha sitting in a neatly upholstered chair on the other side. They all smiled when she entered, and she was relieved to see that he looked a lot better than he had. It helped that he'd managed to get some color back and he wasn't bleeding all over her, of course.

"Detective Beckett," he greeted her with a smile – slightly pained, but authentic enough that it reached his eyes and lit them up. "How are you doing?"

"I'm fine, Castle." She smiled a greeting to Alexis and Martha, and came over to his bed as well. The arm was in a sling, and he was wearing surgical scrubs instead of the regular hospital gown that he might normally been dressed in. "How about you?" She wanted to ask him more than that, but couldn't get it out. He saved her by flashing another smile.

"All things considered, I'm good."

He looked like he wanted to say more, but he hesitated, too, and they stood there looking at each other for a long moment, until a knock at the door made them both jump.

Ryan stuck his head into the room, looking around and not surprised to see Beckett there.

"Hey. Can we come in?"

"Did you bring me food?" Castle asked.

"No."

"Will you later?"

"Yeah."

"Then by all means, come in."