Author's Note: lol, yeah, a safe house for the two of them. Does it mean a little Caskett time? Most likely. But they have a mystery to solve, too!

OOOOOOOOOOOO

Beckett was quiet as she drove Castle to his place. He watched her surreptitiously on the way, but she was staring ahead at the road, both hands on the wheel and probably wouldn't have noticed if he had stared at her the entire way. After several minutes of silence he cleared his throat, self-consciously.

"I'm sorry."

She looked over at him, surprised at the apology.

"For what?"

"Getting you stuck in a safe house and forced away from the case."

Beckett shook her head, and reached out with her hand and touched his elbow for just a moment before turning her attention back to the road and her hand back on the steering wheel.

"None of this is your fault, Castle."

"It might be," he countered. "We don't know for sure what I had to do with any of it."

"Well, if it turns out that you are responsible then you can apologize then, okay? Until then we'll wait and see what we find out."

"Okay." He was quiet for a moment, but then his curiosity got the better of him. "So… Safe house, huh?"

"Yeah."

"Like in the movies?"

"Not usually, no. Normally we'd put a witness or a potential witness or person of interest who isn't a suspect up in a hotel – usually a suite or something similar where there isn't a lot of access so we can control who is coming and going. In your case, though, we're not going to be able to do that."

"Why?"

"Because you're well known enough that people will talk about you being there, which defeats the purpose of trying to put you out of the way. So we'll go a more traditional route and hide you in an actual safe house. While we're getting our things together, they'll be getting it set up and stocked for us." She paused, and then looked over at him again. "It might not be a bad idea to call your mom and have her stay on the west coast until we figure this out."

"You think?"

She nodded.

"They're out of town already, so it couldn't work better, really. They were supposed to be gone for a few days, just see about having them extend it a few more days."

"I don't want them to worry…"

"Then don't tell them," she suggested. "Just tell them to check out more schools so they don't have to go back later."

He didn't look too convinced, but he shrugged.

"That's a good idea. I'm not sure I'll be able to pull it off without making mother suspicious but I'll try."

"Good." They were just pulling into the parking garage of his building and she found a spot by the elevator. "Make sure you get enough stuff for at least a few day, okay?"

"Okay."

"And if we see anyone, you don't tell them that you're going to be gone," she told them as they waited for the elevator. "We don't want people to know anything is going on."

"Gotcha." The elevator opened and no one was in it. Castle noticed that Beckett had her hand near her weapon as they got in and on the ride up. "Are you expecting trouble?" he asked, wondering if she knew something he didn't.

"We were here yesterday and everything seemed fine," she said. "But it doesn't hurt to be ready."

Which he had to admit made sense. When the elevator stopped, she went first, and she was the one who opened his door and walked in first. He hesitated just long enough to let her know that he respected that she wanted to make sure the place was safe for him and then he followed her in and closed the door behind them.

"Anything look different than when you left?" she asked him.

He looked around the living room and then did a quick check through the rest of the house with her trailing him.

"It looks okay," he told her, stopping at his bedroom.

"Good." Beckett noticed he looked at his bed a little longer than he had any other place in the entire loft, and figured he was tired enough that it looked inviting. Time enough for him to sleep when they got him settled, though. "Need any help getting your stuff together?"

He shook his head and went to the closet to get a bag and hesitated at the door. She caught the hesitation immediately, of course, and walked over, thinking that he might have seen something that didn't belong. Then she saw how pale he was and she realized that his walk in closet wasn't that much different than the room that he'd apparently been held in. No wonder he'd hesitated. She stopped beside him, and put her hand on the small of his back.

"Why don't you tell me what you want and let me get it for you?" she suggested. "Your shoulders must be killing you and reaching up to the shelves isn't going to help them feel any better."

Castle frowned, surprised by the offer and then his expression softened almost immediately when he realized what had prompted it.

"No. Thanks, Kate, but I'll do it. I can't be afraid of my closet."

"It'd be completely understandable," she told him.

He shook his head.

"It's all right."

OOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Twenty minutes later they were at her place. He'd filled a small duffel bag with enough clothes for a few days and some toiletries and had called his mother with his phone plugged into the charger. The call had been relatively brief but he'd seemed to have been able to convince them to stay a couple more days on the west coast. He'd packed his charger as well and they'd locked his place up and left. Now she was doing pretty much the same thing, only without the call to his mother. She chose casual clothing, knowing that they weren't going to be going anywhere exciting, and then to his surprise had taken the clothing that he'd been wearing when she'd discovered him at her place the night before and had put them in a couple of plastic bags.

"What are you doing with those?" he asked.

"They're evidence, now," she replied. "Before, you were just a guy who got in a fight. Now we need to see if we can match DNA on these clothes to anything in the room where we found the dead woman. Then we'll have proof that it's connected. I'll have one of the guys take them to the forensics people and see what they can find."

"Oh."

"Ready?"

"Yeah."

OOOOOOOOOOO

The safe house turned out to actually be a house. It was small, and made of brick, tucked into a very quiet neighborhood and set back from the street by a very large yard that was fully fenced and secured. A driveway led to a connected garage and there was a gate across the entranceway. The gate opened automatically and Beckett drove the car up and into the garage, closing it behind them before telling Castle it was okay to get out.

"We'll have a police car making a regular patrol around the clock," she told him. "And several panic buttons available if we need to use them. This place is pretty much off the grid, though, so it should be fine."

"You'll be here most of the time?"

"I'll be here all the time," she replied. "If we get a lead that the guys need me for, I'll make the call whether to take you with us or call someone to come stay with you. Most likely you'll be safe with us. Hopefully."

They had already been shot at, after all.

Castle didn't look concerned. More relieved than anything. The garage opened into the kitchen which had one window that was covered with a dark curtain and the basic needs that one would normally find in a kitchen. The living room was fairly plain, as well. A flatscreen TV on the wall, a single couch and against the far wall a table with four chairs around it. There were two windows, both also covered by heavy dark curtains, and a front door that didn't look like it had ever been opened.

"Two bedrooms?" Castle asked, looking into the bathroom and then the only other door, which led to a bedroom.

"Nope. Just the one."

"Rock paper scissors?"

Beckett smiled.

"We'll see."