`Chapter 12

The two officers, three detectives, one captain and one writer all made their way silently, and on different routes to 57 Hudson Ave. Ryan and the captain split up and came at it from either side. Officers Porter and Lyons took a longer way around and came up behind the house, making sure to stay behind the line of bushes that separated the yards. Beckett, Esposito, and Castle came at the house from a little off to one side, making sure to stay out of view of any of the windows.

Once they were all in position Beckett pressed the button on her radio. "Ok, I'm going to dial the house now, everyone wait for my signal before doing anything. We need him to take this bait. Officers Lyons and Porter, the room we are trying to get to is closer to the back of the house so I'm counting on you guys to get in there and cover the door. Do you copy?"

She got an affirmative from the two officers and pulled out her cell phone, making sure to keep the gun in one hand. Slowly Beckett dialed the number, keeping an eye on the windows she could see from where her, Esposito and Castle were crouched behind a car. She looked to her left to see that Captain Montgomery had made his way to the small strip of land in between number 57 and the house next to it. To her right Ryan was crouched behind a large trash bin on the sidewalk. She could only hope that the two officers in the back were still hidden. Seeing as they were closest to the target room she had entrusted them with the key.

Kate put the phone up to her ear and listened as it rang once. She peered through the windows of the SUV they were crouching behind, paying close attention to the windows of number 57. The phone rang a second time. All of a sudden Franklin Gunner appeared in the front window. Without hesitation Kate pressed the button on her radio. "Porter, Lyons, he's by the phone now you guys are clear." She got an affirmative answer as the phone was ringing a third time. Beckett, Castle and Esposito watched as the man in the window picked up the phone.

"Why detective Beckett, I see you've been doing your homework."

"Oh I certainly have Mr. Gunner. Or can I call you Frank?"

Esposito and Castle grinned and shared a feed the birds as the man they were watching froze at the use of his name. But Gunner barely hesitated in his speech. "Whichever you prefer detective, it won't make much difference anyways."

Beckett knew that they had to get closer to the house. Her only chance was to keep him distracted. She kept talking as she motioned for Ryan to get a little closer to the house. "What makes you say that?"

She heard the voice on the other line chuckle and watched as Gunner paced the room, repeatedly turning his back to the window. Beckett motioned for Esposito and Castle to follow her. "Because Kate, even if you know where I am, I'm watching the front door and the back door is-" he was cut off as a small explosion went off in the back of the house.

Kate looked in horror at the smoke rising from the back yard. She looked at each member of the team in turn. Beckett nodded to the captain and Ryan and then she surged forward with Esposito and Castle close behind her. Beckett and the two men behind her made it to the front door in a matter of seconds. The Captain and Ryan were at the back door just a second later.

Kate stood back a step then kicked the door in, wood splintering everywhere with the force of the blow. They ran into the front room to see Frank Gunner standing there laughing amidst the smoke. When he saw Beckett he stopped laughing and took off for the back of the house. The two detectives and Castle followed him, only to stop dead when they turned a corner.

Officers Porter and Lyons were lying on the ground where the back door used to be. There was a hole in the wall at least twice the size of the door and the edges were still smoldering. Beckett forgot where they were for a second and lowered her gun. She barely registered the fact that Gunner was opening a door next to her as she watched Ryan check for a pulse in the two officers. He looked up at her and nodded. "They both have a pulse, an ambulance is on the way."

"Along with backup." The captain added.

Esposito seemed the only one that kept his head. He could hear yelling from the room behind the door Gunner was trying to get open. "Gunner if I was you I'd step away from that door."

"What are you going to do Javier Esposito? Shoot me?"

"Yeah I'm thinking about it."

The voices seemed to bring Beckett back to reality. Making sure Castle was still behind her she spun around and raised her gun again, just in time to see Gunner open the door and disappear into the room behind it. She took a step closer and entered the room, followed by the team. As much as Castle didn't like it he waited until everyone else was in before glancing back at the two officers on the ground and stepping into the room behind the captain. He watched as all four of them fanned out on either side of the door. They all stared in horror as Gunner pulled Lanie up from the chair she was still handcuffed to. The chair dragged one arm down but he held on to her, using her as a shield. Pulling out a gun he pointed it at her temple.

"Let her go Gunner!" Esposito yelled.

"Why would I do that detective? You're just going to shoot me."

"It doesn't have to end like that." Beckett said. "Just let her go and you'll get a fair trial."

Franklin tightened his grip on the medical examiner as she squirmed. When he spoke this time his voice betrayed the fact that he was on the verge of losing it. "That's not how this game ends detective Beckett. Someone has to die."

"Well it's not going to be any of us. And it certainly isn't going to be Lanie."

Gunner smiled. "Well those two officers are as good as gone. The back door was rigged to blow up when it was opened. It looks like it did its job."

Captain Montgomery spoke up. "Those officers are hurt but they're going to be fine. Help is on the way now, along with a whole lot more officers. You can't get out of this now."

The man holding onto Lanie looked around frantically. Suddenly sirens could be heard in the distance, getting closer. He knew he had to make a choice. He shoved Lanie aside, not even noticing when she fell over the chair and didn't get up. He was breathing heavily as he turned and pointed the gun at the people standing before him. He was staring from person to person, not sure which detective to point his gun at. "You can't have me, I'm not going without a fight detectives, you should know that."

Four pairs of eyes watched as Lanie was thrown aside. They all noticed as she fell over and didn't get up. Four pairs of eyes turned menacingly back to the man standing before them. Franklin Gunner pointed his gun at Esposito as the detective spoke. "If it's a fight you want then you got it."

Beckett could tell that her partner was about to make a bad decision. "Detective Esposito, stand down!" she yelled.

Esposito kept his gun pointed directly at the man in front of him. "Are you nuts? Look at what this guy has done to her. You expect me to just let him go?"

"Esposito this is not how we are going to handle this situation."

Gunner laughed out loud and turned so he was point his gun at Beckett now. "You should have let him take me down Katherine." There was a split second pause and two shots rang out at the same time.

Kate watched as the gun that had been trained on Esposito turned on her. In the second it took the man to move, the air in the room had shifted. She knew she only had a second to make a decision and when she haw Gunner's hand tense up she knew what she had to do. She tilted her gun down just a hair and pulled the trigger at the same time she heard another shot go off. She didn't have time to look up and see where it was coming from but all of a sudden there was a searing pain in her shoulder and she was thrown back into the door frame. Beckett couldn't help but crying out as the air was knocked out of her.

Everyone in the room watched in horror as Franklin Gunner turned his gun to Beckett and pulled the trigger. Beckett's gun went off at the same time and Gunner went down with a hole in his upper thigh. Ryan ran over and kicked the gun away from him. The second they realized Gunner was down they heard Beckett cry out. They all turned to see her hit the wall and slide down, leaving a trail of red as she went.

"Beckett!" Castle yelled. The captain had to put his arm across the door way to keep Castle out of the room. Rick fought against the arm holding him back but the captain was stronger. Rick had no choice but to watch as Esposito ran over to where Lanie was finally stirring. Ryan was standing in the middle of the room, calling for another ambulance and yelling officer down.

For Castle time had seemed to stop as he heard the shots go off. All he could think was Thank god she had her vest on but then he heard her cry out and saw her fall down. Oh god, he thought. No, this can't happen. Not to her. He yelled her name and pitched himself forward, only to be stopped by a strong arm in his way. He vaguely heard a voice telling him to stay where he was but he didn't understand it. His vision had tunneled so all he could see was her. All he could see was her face contorted in pain and the pool of red that was slowly growing. He had to get to her. He saw the captain move to check on Lanie and Castle raced to Beckett's side.

He fell to the ground and grabbed one of her hands while his other hand moved up to her cheek, pushing a lock of hair out of her face. He didn't care that she would normally smack him for the public display of affection. All of that had gone out the window the second she had been hit. "Kate, honey, you're going to be ok Kate, everything's going to be fine."

Her breathing was getting shorter and coming in gasps. "Ca-Castle? What happened?"

He noticed she was getting pale and starting to shake. "Shhh Kate, it's ok. Just stay with me ok? Stay with me and it will be ok." He turned around and yelled at no one in particular. "Where is the damn ambulance?" Looking back at the woman lying in front of him he tried to figure out what he could do to help. He tore off his jacket and balled it up, pressing it to the hole in her shoulder that was still letting blood pour out. God there was so much blood. Why wasn't it stopping?

Kate watched from her spot on the floor as Esposito ran over to Lanie. She tried to keep her head up but the pain in her shoulder was making it hard. She felt a warmth spreading and looked down to see blood coving her entire left side. She closed her eyes as the pain got worse. She opened them and tried to figure out what was going on around her but her vision was swimming. She had been shot, she knew that much. She closed her eyes and tried to will the pain in her shoulder away. Everything was getting hazy. Where am I? She thought. What happened? What were we- Lanie…what happened to Lanie? Kate felt someone grab her hand and brush her hair out of her face. She opened her eyes yet again but there were clouds floating through her field of vision. She recognized the voice at once though. "Ca-Castle?" she tried to ask him what was going on but he stopped her, told her that it was going to be ok. She heard him say 'stay with me' and wondered how bad her shoulder was. She knew there was a lot of blood but the pain was already going way. She couldn't tell if that was a good sign or a bad one. Kate tried to remember her training, what to do if you got shot, but she couldn't seem to pull a single thought out of her head. Rick kept talking to her but his voice was fading away. No, she thought. You need to stay with him. You can't leave him yet. You haven't told him…just stay awake. She kept telling herself to focus on the sound of Castle's voice. She tried to tell him to stay next to her and keep talking but she wasn't sure if he understood her.

Castle watch as the medics ran in to the room and got Kate on a stretcher. A second before they had showed up he had watched as Kate tried to reach out to him and tell him not to leave her. She had mumbled something about his voice. He followed the stretcher through the house and out the front door, which was still swinging off its hinges. He was followed by the captain and Ryan. Esposito and Lanie were already out with another one of the medics.

"Castle, she's going to be fine. She's strong, she'll pull through." Ryan said.

"You go with her Rick." Said Captain Montgomery. "Esposito is going to stay with Lanie. She looks fine so he's going to take her back to his place for the night. Ryan and I will stay here and deal with the paperwork. She needs you right now. Just call us the second you know anything."

Castle looked at the two men standing in front of him. The level of concern in their eyes was touching, and he knew it wasn't just Kate they were worried about. He wasn't quite sure what his face looked like but he knew he wasn't even close to having his emotions hidden. He nodded and climbed into the back of the ambulance. The medic that was back there with him didn't look pleased but the captain had convinced him to let Castle ride.

The second Rick was next to Kate again he reached out for her hand. This time she didn't squeeze his hand back and he could feel her strength leaving her. As he continued to talk to her, saying whatever soothing phrases popped into his head he kept trying to convince himself that she would be fine, that she was the strongest person he knew. But the little voice in the back of his head told him that even the strongest people have to fall sometimes. She had lost a lot of blood and she was getting even paler. The shaking had become worse and he was worried she was going into shock. He shoved all of those thoughts to the back of his mind and concentrated on the feel of her hand in his, the fact that as weak as she was she was still with him. As the sirens started screaming and the ambulance pulled away he looked out of the small window in the back doors. They were pulling away fast but he managed to catch a glimpse of Montgomery, Ryan, Esposito and Lanie staring after the vehicle in shock. Lanie was crying and Esposito had his arm around her. The last thing Castle registered about the scene was the flashing red and blue lights, blurring out everything else. There was a sound beside him and he felt Kate squeeze his hand. She had somehow managed to stay conscious the entire time, and he knew it couldn't last much longer. He looked down to see her eyelids fluttering open, checking to see if he was still there. He looked up at the paramedic.

The man looked down at the woman on the stretcher. "She's strong, not many people stay conscious this long after getting shot." He paused and gave Castle a strange look. "If she's staying awake for you…It would almost be better if she let herself pass out. Save some of her strength. She…she's going to need it the next few hours."

Rick nodded, thankful for the mans' honesty. He looked back down at the green eyes that were still searching for him, as if they couldn't focus on anything around them. He smiled at her. "It's ok Kate, I'm still here. I'm not leaving you, no matter what." He paused and looked back at the paramedic before continuing. "It's ok to fall asleep Kate." She got a slightly panicked look on her face and he reached over to stroke he hair. "I won't let them take you away from me, I'll still be here when you wake up. I promise. But you still have a hard fight ahead of you, you need to save your strength."

She seemed to be contemplating his words, trying to make sense of them. He only hoped that she understood him through the haze he knew was enveloping her. Finally she nodded once and closed her eyes again. A second later the hand he was holding went limp. He looked up at the monitors that she was hooked up to. They all indicated she was still breathing and while her pulse was irregular it was still there. Rick managed to contain the swell of panic that had risen within him. He turned back to the woman lying in front of him. He couldn't believe this had happened. For the rest of the ride he focused on taking deep breaths as he watched Kate Becketts' chest rise and fall erratically. Everything was going to be ok…it had to be ok. Because he didn't know what he would do without her.

Well there you go. I had this chapter (and the shooting) planned for a while before the finale (I swear!) I just didn't get it written before then. I really tried to not have the characters reactions be the same as the finale and I hope I did alright with it. Castle's reaction was the hardest. Anyways. I hope you guys liked this chapter. Reviews please?