Chapter 3

Tuesday, April 30

Outside Remy's Diner

4:00 pm

Jim Beckett moved steadily through the crowd until his belt was pressed against the police barricade, roughly two blocks south of the 12th.

"Sir, excuse me," he called to a young uniformed officer. "My name is Jim Beckett, my daughter, Detective Kate Beckett is an officer at the 12th; her partner is a man named Rick Castle. Can you tell me anything? Did everyone get out? Are they OK?"

The young man with ebony eyes, looked truly sorry when he shook his head. "I'm sorry Mr. Beckett. I don't know much at all. I don't know your daughter or her partner, and I haven't heard anything particular about survivors, except that they're getting more out all the time. I promise that if I do hear her name, though, I'll let you know."

Jim's shoulders sagged. He hadn't really expected to get much information, but he'd hoped. And right now, that was all he had.

With forced patience and straining calm, he stood where he was and watched everything unfolding before him. Emergency vehicles were still arriving and rescue crews raced toward the scene. Tents were being erected only a dozen yards or so in front of him as they set up and managed a triage center. News crews, reporters and photographers littered the area with their wires, trucks and equipment as they presented the world with sensational headlines from the tragedy.

The morbidly curious mixed with the truly concerned, whispering loudly among themselves, praying, reliving, and speculating about everything that had happened that afternoon. But Jim tuned it all out. He stayed as still as a statue and as focused as an eagle, waiting and watching for any sign of his baby girl.

He was so single minded in his concentrations that at first he took no notice of the bony hand on his shoulder. Only when he heard his name did he turn.

"Jim?" Martha asked before she could see his face.

"Martha, Alexis! You found me. I didn't know if you'd be able to track me down in this mob."

"We just tried to get as close as possible, we figured you would too." Martha answered gravely. "Have you heard anything? Do we know what happened?"

"Not really. I haven't seen or heard anything about either Katie or Rick. But I haven't been here long either."

"And have you heard exactly what happened? I've heard everything from gas main explosion to terrorists attack."

"My partner at the firm, who told me about this, said he'd been down here for a meeting somewhere, and they heard an explosion and went to the window. A minute or so later, the whole thing came down."

Alexis, who'd been quiet the entire time, turned abruptly and buried her face in her grandmother's shoulder.

Tentatively, Jim reached out and rested a hand on the young woman's arm. "Alexis, try not to think about the worst possibilities. If I know my daughter and your dad, they're probably fine and just busy helping others out."

The young red head nodded, but didn't lift her face, and Jim couldn't blame her. Right now he'd like a shoulder to cry on too. As if Martha Rogers could read his mind, she reached a hand out to him, both silently offering comfort and asking for it in return. They both knew the fears of a parent and could support each other better than anyone else at this time.

The three members of the make-shift family huddled close to each other in the crowd and continued to scan the street for their loved ones.

When a petite black woman raced from a triage tent to a nearby ambulance for supplies, Jim turned to Martha, "Did you see the woman in the purple blouse and gray pants just run to that ambulance? She looked familiar. I think that's Katie's friend, the medical examiner."

Martha shook her head no, but Alexis perked up, watching exactly where Mr. Beckett pointed. Sure enough, a second later, the woman reappeared.

Alexis broke away from her grandmother and stretched out over the barricade. "Dr. Parish! Dr. Lanie Parish!"

Jim watched as the woman in question, stopped and scanned the crowd. He knew the instant she spotted them too. Her entire body went momentarily rigid before she handed the supplies she was carrying to a medic and jogged toward them.

Lanie met them them with open arms and red puffy eyes.

"Dr. Parish have you seen my dad or Kate anywhere?"

The medical examiner dropped her arms slowly so she could take the teen's hands in her own. Then she made eye contact with each of them as she chose her words.

"I haven't seen them, yet. But," she emphasized, "People are still finding their way out. There's a lot of debris, and it just takes time to get past that, ya know? And all the injured are coming through triage, so when they show up, I'll be sure to see them."

"I can help you," Alexis offered eagerly.

"No Honey, not today. Under other circumstances, I wouldn't even be allowed to work here, I'm too close to the people inside. There's no way I can let you go back there.

Jim cleared his throat. He hated to ask the harder question, but he had to know. "I know you mentioned the injured. But what about...?"

Lanie tried to smile. "So far, I have not heard of any fatalities."

The group sighed almost as one.

"And if anyone can get themselves out of something like this, it would be Beckett and Castle. I'm sure that wherever they are, they're together and working hard to get themselves and anyone else around them out."

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Tuesday, April 30

The 12th Precinct's Elevator

2:45 pm

"Castle?" Beckett moaned.

"Uhhh."

"Castle, wake up."

"Can't. Hurts," he grunted.

Kate, who was for the most part on top of Rick, shifted and tried to sit up. But immediately the pain radiated up and down both of her arms and deep into her chest. "Ow, Ow!" she cried before dropping back onto her boyfriend's chest.

Her obvious pain brought Rick to. "Kate, what's wrong?"

"I'm hurt too."

"Where?"

"My right shoulder, and my left wrist. I think they're broken."

Rick tried to shift into a sitting position, but between the pain of his own injuries and the perilous rocking of the elevator car, he was blinded by nausea and wretched violently off to the side.

"My leg," he gritted out when he was done. "It's bad."

"How bad?"

"Let's put it this way, I won't be taking you dancing any time soon."

Beckett pressed her bad wrist to her chest and rolled to her side. Castle put a hand to her back and helped her into a sitting position.

"Use your phone as a light. Let me see how bad your leg is."

Rick grunted and groaned as he shifted his weight to reach his pocket. It took some time but eventually he reached the device.

He groped at it in the dark, searching for the button that would activate the screen but nothing happened. Again and again he roamed over the small electronic device with the pads of his thumbs, but it never came on.

"Shit."

"What?" Kate asked.

"It's shattered. I can feel the cracks in the case. It's gone.

"Well then get mine. It's in my pocket."

Kate stretched out her body as much as she could so that Rick could wiggle his large fingers into her snug pockets.

"You know Kate," he chuckled ruefully, "I fantasized for years about getting into your pants in this elevator... but never like this."

"Really Castle? Jokes? Right now?"

"I don't know about you but I could use a little humor right now." Finally he slid her phone from her jeans.

"At least I know you're not too injured then."

Suddenly the soft glow of her phone lit up the confined space. Kate almost immediately wished they'd stayed in the dark.

The elevator was no longer vertical, nor was it a cube. The entire car was tipped at a disturbing angle, the walls near the floor accordioned, and what was once the ceiling, was now a half-open frame of shattered ceiling tiles and hanging wires. But what was worse... was the look of Rick's right leg. His ankle was turned at an unnatural angle, and blood pooled from the cuff of his pants. When she craned her neck to see a little better, she was pretty sure she spotted the white of bone jutting out of his lower shin.

"Give me the good news, Doc," Castle stated grimly.

Kate looked him in the eyes and froze, unsure of exactly what to say.

"That good huh?

"We need to make a tourniquet for that leg, Rick. And I can't right now," she said, nodding down at her arms.

"Rick? Wow. I guess it must be pretty bad. Here, let me see how you're doing."

"Lets take care of you first."

"Nuh uh. I want to make sure you're OK."

She knew not to argue right now. If she wanted him to care for himself, she knew she had to let him care for her first. After slowly and painfully scooting up into a full sitting position, he shifted the phone's light to see her more clearly. Her face was bruised and scraped, her cheek had a small but deep looking cut, and her neck had an ugly green bruise creeping up from under the collar of her shirt. Gently he ran his fingers along her, searching for injuries. "I don't think your shoulder is broken, I think it's dislocated. I'm sure it hurts like hell, but I'm guessing it's an easy fix."

"What about my wrist?" she asked, watching as he moved the light to her other arm.

"Here let me help you with your jacket." Slowly and painfully, the couple worked together until the leather blazer was removed.

Once again, Castle shone the light on her arm. "That looks broken."

Her entire left hand and forearm were swollen, almost grotesquely, and patches of dark purple and green bruises stained her pale skin from finger tip to elbow.

I broke my arm when I was a kid, that didn't feel half as bad as this. My wrist is probably shattered."

"Looks like we probably have some surgery to look forward to. I'll be sure to bribe the nurses into letting us be roommates."

Kate couldn't help herself and actually smiled.

"So, other than your wrist and shoulder, anything else injured?"

"I've got fifty bucks that says my ass is sporting a fair sized bruise as well, but otherwise I think I'm OK."

The pair looked into each other's eyes, lost briefly in their own thoughts and fears.

"Now, lets get you taken care of." Kate said, breaking the moment. "You can use my jacket to elevate your leg, but we still need to tie it off and slow that bleeding.

Rick shrugged out his suit coat slowly, having to stop twice when dizzy spells attacked. Eventually he got out of his button down as well, ripping it into strips for bandages, a tourniquet, and a sling for Kate.

"What do you think happened?" Castle asked as he worked.

"I don't know. It sounded like an explosion. It's possible it was just in the elevator shaft, but I have a feeling... Did you hear the thundering after we fell? I think that at least part of the building has come down."

Rick tied off the final knot around his leg and then picked up the phone. After tinkering with it for a second, he dialed 911. The call never connected. He tried texting Espo and Ryan, but neither message could be sent. There was no internet service getting through either. "A lot of good this is doing us."

Kate yelled several times for help but there was never any response.

"I wish I could see what was on the other side of this door," she growled and kicked at the offending wall panel. The entire car swayed in response. Sparks rained down from the wires above.

"Careful, Kate. As much as I'm enjoying our current situation, I'm not exactly eager to see what happens if this elevator loses it's purchase.

"Yeah right. Besides, even though I think we fell far enough that we're near the first floor, if the explosion happened in the basement, there's no telling how far away the ground really is. But we have to try to get out somehow."

"How Kate? I can't walk or even stand, and you can't use either hand, it makes climbing or escaping almost impossible."

Determined to do something, Kate slid her back up the wall using her elbows for support, until she was standing. The car groaned and rocked, and the loud whine of creaking metal was almost deafening in the enclosed space.

Castle tipped the phone so he could see her.

Kate's head beaded with perspiration, and her face paled with excruciating pain as she tried to stretch her dislocated arm. "Hold it there so I can see the panel. I'm gonna try the alarm."

She practically launched her entire body toward the square of buttons, causing more rocking and sparks, but she didn't give up. Eventually she was able to reach the red knob, and through sheer will, pull it. But nothing happened. No bells, no alarm.

Kate used her elbow to push every button on the panel, but still nothing resulted outside of frustration and anger.

Ten to fifteen minutes passed while Kate tried everything she could. When her options and her body were both exhausted, she slid back around and down next to Rick.

"Kate, I'm sure we'll be rescued soon. I don't want you hurting yourself worse than you already are."

"I can't just sit here helpless."

"We aren't. We have the phone. We'll keep trying to get through to someone that way."

"And if we can't?"

Rick didn't have an answer for that, at least not one that needed to be spoken.

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A/N: Day 3, chapter 3, as promised!

Thank you for all the continuing support and feedback. I'm absolutely thrilled to see people so invested in the story.

And don't you just love the cover art Teel made? I sent her an email with my rambling ideas and she totally nailed it!

Until tomorrow...

DeBo81