Warning: Castle Whump ahead.
Detective Kate Beckett-Castle walked into the NYC morgue early Friday morning. It had been four days since her husband had disappeared, 106 hours since she had told him she loved him and would see him soon. The team had spent a day and a half working with other departments, looking for clues. They had returned to the city last night basically empty handed. There was no evidence to go on, no clue as to what had happened to Castle, and Kate had spent yet another sleepless night crying for the missing love of her life.
"Kate," Dr. Lanie Parrish quickly wrapped her best friend in a warm hug. Lanie had been there for Kate for years, had been Maid of Honor at her wedding last year, and was Kate's "go to" person when things got tough. "Girl, sit down. Did you get any sleep last night."
Kate just shook her head solemnly. "I tried, I just…"
The doctor part of Lanie came out then, taking Kate's pulse, looking into her eyes. "You need to sleep, Kate," she admonished, "You have your child to think of as well."
"I know, I just…." Kate's wall collapsed and she fell into her friend's arms, "I just keep thinking I'm never going to see him again. Oh Lanie, I can't, I don't know how to do this without him. He's my life, he's…" the rest was lost in the sobs that now wracked her body.
There was nothing to say, so Lanie just held Kate as she cried and let her emotions drain from her.
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Richard Castle sat on the bed in the cage that had been his home for the last four days and stared at the wall. He was hungry, that went without saying. He knew Beth was drugging his food so he simply refused to eat. At first it was difficult, she constantly brought food with mouth-watering smells to him, and he had verbally refused in the beginning, now he just ignored her.
At first it had been difficult, the cramping stomach, the pounding headache. Now, he was finding it easier to refuse. His stomach was rebelling against the smell of food. He wasn't sure if he even wanted to eat.
Each day his captor had become more and more agitated, first pleading, then begging or demanding he eat, but other than water, nothing else went in his mouth.
She had then switched tactics, turning off the lights for hours during the day so he was stuck in the dark. More recently she had switched off the heat. He shivered and huddled under the blankets, but still would not give in.
To occupy his mind, Castle had taken apart the laptop she had left for him. He refused to write anything for her, he had made that decision the first day, so he did what he could with the kitchen utensils in front of him. The activity kept his mind active.
While working on the laptop, he began to formulate a new plan. He had gotten pretty good at using the makeshift tools, why not try them on a larger scale.
Moving to the door of the cage, he had sat down near the bottom hinge. For the next six hours, Castle had pried, bent and wiggled the knife, fork and spoon he had chosen into the door hinge. He was encouraged, he had begun to make progress and the damage was not obvious. He thought he could conceal his actions from Beth long enough to free himself.
He was taking a break, resting his sore hands. He was so cold and the tools would sometimes slip. He had quite the collection of nicks and scratches. They would be worth it if he could just get the hinge completely off before night. Then he would have hours to get out of this cage and work his way out of the house.
He heard the door at the top of the stairs open, Beth slowly descending the steps. He would not give her the satisfaction of looking at her.
"You've been misbehaving, Rick," she admonished. "Did you really think I wouldn't know what you were doing?"
Castle's heart was hammering away in his chest. Did she know, or was she just playing another game?
"I let you go for the day, let you think you might be getting somewhere," she chuckled at him, "Don't worry, I have all the tools I need to fix the hinge and reinforce the frame."
Castle let his head fall back and closed his eyes. She did know what he'd been doing. He didn't know how, she must have a camera down here somewhere. It didn't matter, he'd been caught. He doubted he'd get another chance like that again.
"Now I have some repairs to make. Of course, I have to come in there to make them. May take out all the utensils as well, not like you're eating anyway." She was taunting him now, they both knew it.
"Why don't you just kill me?" Castle asked, "You can't keep me here forever, and I'm never going to love you. Just kill me." The defeat was evident in his voice and the slump of his shoulders.
"Oh no, Rick, I don't want to kill you," she smiled at him, mocking his defeated attitude. "I am, however, going to have to punish you for the all the trouble you've caused me."
That got Castle's attention, as she went to unlock the gate Castle rose to his feet, hoping her anger would give him an opening. It never came. As Beth swung open the gate she raised from her back a taser gun. By rising, Castle had given her a bigger target to hit. She fired, dropping him to his knees with a strangled cry as the weapon overwhelmed his nervous system. She wasn't content to hit him with just one jolt, she continued to send shock after shock into him until long after he had mercifully passed out.
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Nick McAgee was an agent for TSA stationed in Boston. He was recently divorced and had just spent the week on a mini vacation in Punta Cana with some friends. He had especially enjoyed the nice weather and a chance to get outside. Walking out of the airport in Boston, he groaned at the cold and dismal weather New Englanders were used to, even if they didn't like it. McAgee hailed a cab to take him home and settled into the back, calling up a news app on his tablet and trying to catch up to what he had missed.
Flipping through most of the news, much dealing with the extreme weather, he came to a headline about a missing author. Clicking open the story, he read the full synopsis "Mystery Writer Richard Castle Still Missing after Five Days!" McAgee skimmed the article to find out the author's last known location and the information he found scared the hell out of him. Asking the driver to go as fast as he could, McAgee searched for the contact information for people with information on the author.
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Detective Beckett was getting ready to send her team home for the night when her phone rang. Answering it, she found herself talking to one of the volunteers assigned to screen calls made to the tip line for anyone with information about Castle. As in other cases like this one, they received so many crank calls. This time, though, the young man on the other end said he had someone on the line that might have a legitimate tip.
"Put him through," Kate tried not to get too excited, she had been down this road too many times this week.
"Hello," the man on the other end began, "my name is Nicholas McAgee and I think I may know who is responsible for that mystery writer's disappearance."
Kate sighed, but responded, "Mr. McAgee, I'm Detective Beckett, what do you know that you think may help us?"
The man seemed to hesitate but then pressed on, "I was out of the country but just got in a few hours ago. I saw in the paper about Mr. Castle's disappearance, that his car was found in Green County." He took a deep breath then continued, "My little sister lives in Green County. She has a problem."
"What kind of problem?" Kate continued to probe.
"Beth is a sweet girl, but she suffers from OCD, Obsessive Compulsive Disorder, has since we were kids. She tends to obsess on authors, she loves to read. Look, she's been arrested a few times for stalking, been institutionalized for making threats." He was obviously having trouble relating this information to Kate but continued on. At the same time, Kate had gotten the attention of her team and Captain Gates. They all stood around Beckett's desk now and she put the call on speaker.
"She has long been a fan of Mr. Castle's books; I know she's been to book signings a ton of times. When I saw the report in the paper I tried to check her recent credit card charges, to see if she'd gone to that convention he was at. She changed the password but I do know there's been a lot of money taken out of her trust fund recently." He took one more deep breath before he said it, "I think my sister may have kidnapped Mr. Castle. If she did, I'm sorry to say, she does have a violent streak when things don't go her way. He could be in a lot of danger."
The detectives all looked at each other, "Can you give me your sister's address, Mr. McAgee?" Kate inquired. After writing it down, Kate informed him, "I'm going to hand this call over to another detective, he'll get the rest of your information."
"Please Detective Beckett," McAgee pleaded, "She's not right in the head but she is my sister. Try not to hurt her."
"We'll do what we can." was the last Kate said before turning the call over to a junior officer.
"Let's go!" Captain Gates ordered, "We'll contact Deputy Collins on our way there."
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The return trip to Green County was much faster than the first time, the snow cleared roads combined with lights and sirens the whole way and the cars holding the four NYPD detectives arrived little more than an hour after they began.
During the trip, the combined departments had gathered plenty of information about Beth McAgee. They were now waiting on a local judge to okay the search into her credit charges and then the teams could move in, assuming they found the information they wanted, found that she had been at the convention or hotel. Kate was a combination of anxious, afraid and determined. This was their last chance, she feared, they had to find him.
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Waking up to a pounding head and a spinning room had become routine to Castle over the past few days. Today, though, he had the added soreness as a result of having being tasered multiple times. As he reached to rub his sore chest he noticed another difference, his right wrist was cuffed to the frame of the bed he was leaning against as he sat on the floor. He pulled a few times, testing the restraint, when he heard movement behind him.
Turning his head, he saw Beth working on the broken section of the gate door. She had a few slats of wood, some 1X2's and a 2X4 and was trying to secure the door hinges and frame. She had not noticed that Castle was awake, or if she did, she paid no notice.
Castle watched for a few moments more before speaking up, "Secure it all you want, I won't stop trying to escape." Beth's back stiffened at his words but she did not turn around. "You can just stay upstairs too, I don't want to see or talk to you anymore."
Still no response from Beth so Castle straightened up a bit more and raised his voice, "I won't ever love you. I love my wife, my family." With that she rose and slowly turned, still holding the 1X2 board she'd just picked up. "I could never love someone like you."
"You don't know what you're saying, Rick. You've been sick, when..."
"Sick?!" Castle yelled at her, "I'm sick? The only sickness I have is from you drugging me. You're the sick one." Beth kept slowly approaching, the anger beginning to seethe in her. "You kidnapped me, you drugged me," by now he was screaming, furious at the fact that he would never see Kate or Alexis again, never get to hold his unborn child or walk his grown daughter down the aisle at her wedding, "You're crazy enough to think I could ever love a psycho like you. I'd rather die than stay here with you."
With that, Beth raised the wood slat above her head and crashed it down at Castle. He reacted just in time to get his left arm up to block the blow but the resounding crack of bone and wood preceded a scream of pain.
The second blow caught Castle in the shoulder and grazed the side of his head, snapping the wood in the process. The third, fourth and fifth strikes from the splintering wood carved deep gashes into Castle's back, neck, shoulder and arm as he turned to try to shield himself from Beth's wrath. Blood began to pour out of the wounds as several more weaker assaults followed.
Finally dropping what was left of her weapon, Beth looked silently at her now blood covered victim. Silently turning away, she returned to her work on the door, Castle's quiet moans just background noise to her single-minded purpose.
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"We got her!" Esposito raced into the meeting room. "Elizabeth McAgee, age 32, attended the con, was spotted in the book signing line both days."
Ryan chirped in, "Video shows her car following Castle's out of the hotel garage within minutes of him leaving and," he held up the papers he had been carrying, "the way to her house is off the exit less than a mile from where they found Castle's car."
"What are waiting for?" Captain Gates questioned, "Let's go."
Silent throughout the exchange, Kate's heart leaped at the hope that they might finally find Rick. She only hoped they weren't too late.
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Finishing her work on the door, Beth cleaned up the area she was working on before noticing, as if for the first time, the injured man behind her. Getting some towels and clean water, she went to work cleaning the deep cuts she had inflicted upon him less than an hour ago. He moaned several times as she worked, the pain of his injuries overwhelming his senses.
When Beth took a clean cloth to wipe the blood and sweat from his head, Castle quietly called out the name closest to his heart, "Kate."
Beth hesitated, and then gently corrected the semi-conscious man, "No silly, it's Beth. I'm here, I'll take care of you."
"Kate," Castle persisted, "help me."
"Rick, please, it's Beth. I'm here."
"Kate!" one last cry before sinking back into unconsciousness again.
Beth stopped and stood up slowly. She wasn't enraged this time. This time she was determined. He's injured, she thought, he's not thinking clearly.
Setting her mind to the task at hand, she started to turn to leave when her gaze fell on her love (victim) once more. She bent down, pulling his left hand to her, eliciting a loud, pain filled moan from Castle as she moved his broken and torn arm. She wiggled his wedding ring off and dropped the hand to his side, ignoring the agony she was inflicting on him. Walking up the stairs, she stopped at the garbage can and dropped the ring in. Then, turning towards the door, she walked out, she needed time to think. She now had just one purpose in mind, to make Richard Castle a widower.
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A/N: Had to include some Castle Whump. I always feel the writers let Castle off too easy in the whump department.