A/N: I'm so sorry for not replying reviews, it's just being a really busy summer this year, but thank you so much for all the reviews and alerts for this story. Credits go to Diana for her beta skills!
Disclaimer: Not mine.
Kate toed off her shoes, sinking a good four inches as her bare feet made contact with the coarse carpet fibers of the motel room. She rolled her shoulders, working out the kinks. Damn, today had been a long day.
It was close to midnight and Kate was just returning to her motel room. Going back to the Twelfth had taken out a lot more of her energy than she had expected.
Kate's mind flashed back to her phone call with Deputy Director Anthony Freedman that morning. Her happiness of being back in DC after spending two weeks in Seattle was cut short by the man's words.
"Agent Beckett, it's Deputy Director Freedman. 3XK was flagged as a possibility this morning."
Kate's heart rate quickened. After so many months of dormancy, without any word on him, she was once more on his trail.
"I'll let my team know. When do we leave, sir?"
"Agent Beckett, the flag at 1PP was raised by Captain Victoria Gates in New York. Your team is scheduled to fly to New York this evening. I take that this is the first time you'll be returning to New York since joining us. There won't be any problems working with the team at your former precinct, will there?"
She was going back to New York. Back to the Twelfth. All she could hear was a roaring sound in her ears as her mind went numb. Her mouth dried up, causing her tongue to feel swollen and heavy.
Her pulse quickened, and Kate could hear her own rapid, shallow breathing.
New York. The Twelfth. Home.
No, it used to be her home, but she'd burned those bridges a long time ago. If only-
"Agent Beckett?" Freedman's voice cut through the haze in her mind.
New York. 3XK. Right, she could do this. She had to do this.
"It's fine, sir. There won't be a problem. I was brought on for this anyway."
"Beckett, you were brought on because you deserved the position," he reminded her. "3XK was just the push that you needed to get on board."
Kate unconsciously grimaced. This wasn't the first time Deputy Director Freedman had said those words to her, but that didn't make them any easier to hear. Maybe it was because she had left the issue of joining the Attorney General's office unresolved for so many years.
She still lacked the closure.
No, she couldn't let her mind wander – she'd never get out of the rabbit hole once her brain began its "what-if?" journey. She had to focus on the task at hand.
"I'll prepare my team for New York."
Kate shrugged off her jacket and draped it over the back of a chair. A quick shower and then bed, or should she soak in a nice, warm bath? Decisions, decisions. That's what everything came down to.
New York or DC. Castle or 3XK. Shower or bath.
Sighing, Kate chose personal comfort. She knew that she was going to go over the case once more anyway, so she might as well do it while relaxing in the tub.
Kate turned on the water before returning to the bedroom. She removed the rest of her clothes and picked up her tablet before heading to the bathroom once more. Shutting off the taps, she slowly entered the tub.
The water was hot, but not too scalding. Steam curled up from the surface of the tub, quickly filling the small bathroom in no time at all.
Kate sat there and soaked for a while; letting the heat from the water work its way through her skin and muscles. The tension slowly drained from her body as Kate relaxed against the back of the tub.
Picking up her tablet, Kate was glad to see that her team had begun uploading the details from this case onto their 3XK folder. Starting from the very beginning of this case, Kate slowly worked her way through the details, keeping an eye out to see if her team had missed anything from her briefing by Ryan and Esposito.
The victim was Jenna Alexis Mays, a twenty-three year old Art major at NYU. She was a single child with a good family background. Both her parents were teachers in Chicago with a stable family income. Her parents had found out about the news earlier that day and would be heading to New York tomorrow.
Jenna didn't seem to have any familial problems, but Kate would personally talk to her parents and interview them anyway to see if they could shed some light on the case.
Ryan and Esposito had interviewed her roommate and found out that while Jenna didn't have an official boyfriend, she was getting close to a mass communications major in the recent few months.
She had a small group of friends, most of who stayed in the dorms on campus. The boys had brought them in for interviews earlier that day, but didn't find out much more about Jenna.
Jenna was pretty introverted, preferring small company to large, boisterous groups. She often roamed around New York alone, looking for places to sketch. On the weekends, she was usually found sketching in the parks or volunteering in the soup kitchen.
Kate made a note to follow up more closely on Jenna's volunteering at the soup kitchen. If she wasn't mistaken, the boys had also looked into that. Her team should be writing it into the federal database at that very moment if they haven't already done so.
She'd also get her team to canvass all of Jenna's local spots to see if anything popped up. That was the one thing she had come to appreciate about being on the federal task force. She had a greater access to manpower that the city task force could not afford. The boys had to keep their investigation focused to avoid being spread too thin, slowly working their way out, expanding the circle of investigation until something came up.
Kate flicked the screen jumping to the ME's report. She paused at the picture of the victim, the not-so-subtle threat issued by Jerry Tyson looming overhead.
She carelessly perched her tablet by the side of the tub as she leaned back, her mind drifting off to a certain writer. Castle seemed to be taking things slightly better than she had expected, or maybe he still hadn't gotten over her sudden presence back in the Twelfth. For all she knew, he was merely putting on a brave front to keep her at a distance.
Either way, she was a little surprised that Captain Gates had allowed him to remain on the team. Kate herself had doubts as to whether Castle could remain objective and impartial with a case that was so personal and close to him.
Hell, 3XK would always be a case close to all of them. Her former team.
Nevertheless, she should keep an eye out on Castle and maybe talk to Captain Gates about removing him if it turned out to be too much for him to handle. He would fight her tooth and nail over it and despise her for even suggesting it, but it was her job. She had to look at things objectively from a neutral standing as a federal agent.
Shaking her head to clear her mind, Kate went back to the ME's report, scrolling down past the picture of their victim.
Cause of death was confirmed as strangulation, and the time of death was placed at Sunday evening.
Jenna's last contact with her friends had been on Sunday morning at the soup kitchen, after which she went home. That left a rather large window of opportunity for 3XK to carry out his plan.
She was found by her roommate, Brianna, in the early hours of Monday upon returning from her trip. The medical examiner deduced that there had been a brief struggle before her death, indicated by the peri-mortem bruises found on Jenna's forearms.
The bottom side of her nails had been scraped clean, so there weren't any epithelial DNA samples to test. The tox screen also came back negative.
Going over to the CSU report, Kate found that it wasn't very helpful. The place had been wiped down completely. It was as though he knew that there was plenty of time to clean up after himself.
It felt as though Jerry Tyson was taunting them, leaving them with very little to work on while they were on a tight schedule. Three murders in a week. Jenna was the first and only victim so far, and if they wanted to keep things that way, they have to build this case up fast.
There was no conclusive evidence that it was 3XK but it was better to be safe than sorry.
Kate began feeling the weariness creep into her relaxed body, making her eyelids droop. Checking the time, Kate was surprised to find that it was almost two in the morning. The water was cool against her skin – it had been that way for quite some time, actually, escaping her notice only because she was so engrossed with the case.
Kate quickly put the tablet away, not wanting to risk dropping it into the tub as a result of her exhaustion. Kate's tablet taking a swim had become a running joke with her new team.
She should head to bed and check the boys' notes on Jenna's phone records, bills, and the videos from the soup kitchen and the apartment's security camera in the morning.
Kate went through her night routine quickly, climbing under the covers in no time. She was asleep the moment her head hit the pillow.
Someone was calling her name. The voice was faint, but it kept calling her name over and over again. She knew that voice. It was the voice in her dreams; the voice that filled her with hope and longing. It was the voice of home.
Castle was calling her.
"Kate, Kate. Open your eyes, Kate," he called, over and over again.
She blinked her eyes open. Castle was sitting in a chair in front of her but something wasn't right. There was a sense of urgency to his tone.
Kate rubbed her eyes with the back of her hand, chasing the sleep away.
"Castle?" she asked, confused.
"Open your eyes, Kate."
She focused on him once more. Castle was bound to the chair. Kate immediately sat up. What was going on?
Before Kate could go over to untie Castle, her ears picked up a distinct clicking sound. She swung her head to the direction of the source of the sound, body filling with dread.
"Not so fast, Detective. Oh wait, it's Agent now, isn't it?" Jerry Tyson mocked, aiming a gun at Castle.
"You should have left me for dead, Kate, but instead you joined the Feds and came after me. You leave me with no choice – I'm coming after you. But don't worry, I'll save you for last, so you can see how everything plays out in the end."
He narrowed his eyes, smirking evilly as his finger tensed against the trigger.
"Say goodbye to writer boy."
A deafening bang sounded.
"NOOOOOOO!" Kate screamed, lunging toward Castle, angling her body to cover his.
A/N: Next chapter will be up real soon, just some final tweaks left :) You can follow me on twitter for news and updates amandaOtweets. Review!