The pain in his back is so intense, it's a struggle for him to breathe. Watching Kate on the monitor as she's tormented by Nieman and trying to stay calm for Lily, isn't helping.
"I'm giving Kel a week before that kid drives her crazy and we've got to dump it in a river somewhere," Tyson chuckles. Lily seems to be arguing with Nieman on the screen. The sound is muted, but the frustration visible.
Castle grits his teeth, but can't manage to speak yet. The splintering pain down his back is too raw, too deep, and taking all of his willpower to stay conscious. It could be worse, but Tyson wasn't lying - he remembers where all of Castle's most vulnerable scars are and he went for them, not having to do much to do damage.
"Well, Rick, if you've got nothing left to say - for once - I think I'm going to make the call, speed things along so we can get going already," Tyson sighs, pushing up from the table and wiping the bloodied knife on the dark leg of his pants. That twisted smile graces his lips, the malicious twinkle in his eye, and he stares down at Castle, clearly relishing the power. "Still think you're getting out of this alive? That she is?"
Castle lifts his head, his forehead damp with sweat and his eyes stinging with the held back salt of tears. He glares back at one half of the team that tortured him for six years, sucks in a breath through his nose, and parts his split lips. But before he can try to speak, spit a few final words at the other man, he notices a flicker outside the window at Tyson's back. A familiar flash he knows too well.
"Yes," he gets out.
Jerry's brow furrows, but he doesn't have the chance to respond.
The bullet pierces the glass, hits Tyson in the back and causes his eyes to go wide. Castle watches as his own personal dragon is finally slain, the surprise draining from Tyson's black eyes, along with his life.
The door swings open.
"Dad," Alexis sighs, a relief that quickly turns to horror as she rushes forward. She doesn't even spare a glance in Tyson's direction as the monster collapses sideways. Alexis stutters to a stop in front of her father while Ryan races past them to ensure the man is truly down, truly dead this time. "Oh god, we have to get you to a hospital-"
"No, no, Kate and Lily," he presses, his heart accelerating with desperate hope. He jerks his head to the monitor and Alexis's eyes expand at the sight, fly to Ryan.
"Ryan-"
"Already on it," he states, the phone pressed to his ear, Tyson's cell alight in his other hand. "Yes, I need an emergency trace on the following number."
"How did you find me?" Castle asks. Alexis cuts through the restraints around his wrists, offering her hands to help him stand.
"Either Lily or Kate pressed the panic button on your phone, which activated the emergency tracker I had installed," Alexis explains, her features carved deeply with concern as he struggles to straighten. His back is weeping, but it doesn't matter, can't matter right now. He has to get to Kate, to Lily- "We arrived at the scene of the crash, found… found Rachel and the rest of her team dead and Agent Stephens got this address after talking to Tyson's old cellmate. I'm just so glad you were actually here."
"I'm glad you installed a panic button on my phone," he breathes, clutching her shoulder and sealing a kiss to her forehead. "But Kate and Lily are - we have to get to them. Nieman's going to kill her, maybe Lily."
"Got an address," Ryan announces, bounding towards them with the coordinates on his phone as uniforms begin to spill in. "Castle, do you really think you should-"
"There's no time and I'm fine, we need to go," he insists, doing his best to put the pain out of his mind and striding through the open doorway with Alexis on his heels. He follows the trail of officers to the front porch, just grateful to have the privilege of walking outside, of being free again.
"Hey, you okay?"
Castle spins at the sound of Esposito's voice. His gaze snags on the headgear resting around the other man's neck, the sniper rifle in his grasp, and the NYPD issued jacket held out to him.
"I owe you," Rick murmurs, accepting the outerwear, but Esposito shakes his head, purses his lips with what looks like a tinge of guilt.
"Nah, bro. You don't."
Castle's mouth twitches, but as Ryan rushes up alongside them, he nods to the phone in the other detective's hand.
"Nieman has Kate and Lily and we need to get to them. Now."
Esposito's face hardens, exactly what Castle needs, and he jerks his head towards their police cruiser. "I'll drive."
She can't feel her fingers anymore, but she refuses to stop, spinning the bolt round and round until it slips free. She slides the strap of her restraint to the unhinged edge of railing, only a few threads of fabric left for her to scratch away.
"I think I'll call her Madison," Nieman muses from her seat at the front of the room. Her attention is on the computer screen where she's virtually carving away at Kate's face and plastering it onto an image of her own.
Lily watches in disgust, but asks the question they're both wondering at Nieman's random statement. "Who?"
"You. Oh, did I forget to mention that?" she mumbles, angling her chair towards Lily. The way Nieman looks at Kate's daughter with such intrigue causes her stomach to churn. Her raw fingers work faster to scratch through the bindings. "I wish we had found out about her sooner, but between Jerry and I, we couldn't have eyes on you at all times, Detective. It took a while for us to even learn of Lily's existence, to factor in this unexpected addition, but the solution is simple. She's coming with me after we're done here."
Kate's brow furrows, so does Lily's, but she has a sinking suspicion as to what Nieman's talking about, the only thing she could possibly mean by that.
Her heart starts to riot with rage.
"What?" the girl asks.
"You have potential, Lily. I can harvest it, turn you into something great. You, me, and Jerry… it'll be wonderful," Nieman tells her, but the woman has finally pushed Lily into an ultimate panic.
"I'm not going with you," Lily argues, her voice an octave too high.
Kate works quicker to break free, feeling fibers falling apart beneath her fingernails, yanking once on the metal railing.
Nieman sighs, pushing back slowly from the desk and strolling across the room to stand in front of the stool.
"We're going to have to work on your disciplinary skills," Nieman assesses calmly, crossing her arms and staring down at Lily as if she's an experiment, a problem needing to be solved.
Kate growls.
"Don't touch my daughter," she gets out past the gag, pausing in her escape plan as Nieman glances back over her shoulder, the corner of her mouth curling.
"She won't be yours for much longer."
"I won't go with you! You can't make me!" Lily shouts at her, kicking forward with both legs, nearly knocking herself from the stool as her foot connects with Nieman's knee.
The other woman jerks back, cupping her knee and cursing under her breath before regaining her composure, standing straight again.
"I apologize for this," Nieman prefaces and Kate's pulse picks up, rallies, because if that woman lays a hand on her kid- "But my methods of behavioral training will be far more effective than anything you've ever experienced. Just ask your father."
Nieman's palm slaps loudly against Lily's cheek, a yelp of pain flying from the girl's mouth, blood, and it's the final straw.
Kate's wrist jerks against the table, ripping free of the binding at last.
She immediately bends forward to unbuckle the restraints at her ankles next, more ripping out of them than anything, and swings her legs over the edge. Her hand is trembling, her wrist raw, but she snags the first and sharpest tool she sees on the stand to cut her other hand free.
"Lily, close your eyes."
Nieman spins around at the sound of Kate's voice, a hand instantly rising to defend herself, but Beckett catches her by the wrist. She crushes the bone as she yanks Nieman away from Lily.
She drives her body backwards, shoving her into the farthest wall. Kate pins her there with the slam of her forearm to Nieman's throat.
"Lily," she repeats, still sensing her daughter's gaze on her. Kate waits until she does as she's told, checking over her shoulder to watch Lily bury her reddened face in her hands and turn away to curl her knees into her chest once more.
"Detective," Nieman chokes, but Beckett only tightens her grasp, digs her nails into the other woman's skin. "You're making a-"
"I told you not to touch my daughter."
The scalpel slices through the porcelain skin of Kelly Nieman's throat.
Kate lets her go, the blood spilling onto her hand as she watches the woman collapse to the ground with shock in her gaze and a gurgling noise bubbling past her lips.
It doesn't take long for her to choke on her own blood, for the lights to go out in her eyes, but Kate waits, the scalpel heavy in her fingers and dripping blood onto the leg of her jeans. She waits until the woman who played such an integral role in Castle's torture, who killed her friend, kidnapped her daughter and subjected her to horrors no child should ever have to see, is well and truly dead.
"Mommy," Lily calls quietly. Kate spins, her heart descending from the heights of panic. She quickly drops the scalpel, scrambles to pull herself together, to come back from the edge she's balanced on. "Can I turn around now?"
Raking a hand through her hair, she gulps down a breath. "Yes."
She strides for Lily and her daughter jumps down from the stool, instantly runs towards her with tiny hands still bound. Kate goes to her knees to wrap her arms around Lily, grabbing her up.
"I told her, I told her she was a bad guy and that you'd get her," Lily whispers breathlessly, burrowing deep into Kate's embrace. It takes all she has not to sob, to lose it right there with her little girl curled against her. "I knew you wouldn't let her take me."
"Never," Kate promises, biting down on her own trembling lip and burying one of her hands in Lily's hair. She allows herself the moment to cradle her daughter to her chest, to assure them both that they're safe, before she's forced to think, to get her mind straight so they can find a way out of here, find Castle.
Oh, god, she has to find Castle-
A shout from outside has them both startling and Kate jerks to her feet. She shoves Lily behind her and reaches for another daunting tool from the the tray. She recognizes those sounds, though - the break of a door, the call of commands, and then she hears her name, his voice.
"Beckett!"
The door is kicked open, Ryan and Esposito racing through first. Their attention immediately falls to Nieman before swinging towards her. Alexis isn't far behind, a vest strapped to her chest and her gun raised, two SWAT agents flanking her. Lily gasps.
"Lexi, you did it," she cries out, stumbling forward with her hands still tied. Javier lowers his gun, already withdrawing a knife from his belt to cut Lily's bindings.
But Kate's heart is still in her throat, her eyes searching the group of faces, until-
"Oh, thank god," Castle breathes, breaking through the small crowd at the door, his gaze already on her. She drops the surgical tool in her hand just in time for him to reach her. Castle pulls her into an embrace that she rises into without hesitation, that finally, fully crushes the panic in her bones. "I was so scared it was too late. I was so scared I lost you both all over again."
She does lose it a little then, her body sagging and a sob catching in her throat that she buries in the fabric of his NYPD jacket. Her eyes are burning with tears and his arms tighten, practically drag her off her feet.
"Did he hurt you?" is the first thing out of her mouth, her entire body trembling beneath his touch, because the scent of copper is filling her nose, fresh bandaging.
"Later," he murmurs into her hair, his cheek wet against hers. She eases her arms up from his sides, curls them around his neck, and closes her eyes.
"Daddy," Lily whimpers softly and Kate immediately loosens her hold on him, looks over to see Alexis standing beside them with Lily in her arms.
Castle unwinds one arm from Kate, hoists Lily onto his hip with Alexis's help, and buries them both against his chest. Lily clings to him and he drops a kiss to the top of her head, whispers words Kate can't hear into her hair.
"I'm sorry I left you, I didn't want to leave you," Lily gets out, her voice starting to hiccup.
Kate splays her hand at their daughter's back, begins to rub soothing circles out of habit while Castle shakes his head.
"Never be sorry, Peanut. You have no reason at all to be sorry," he rasps. "You were so brave."
Lily curls her fingers in the fabric of his jacket. "I pressed the panic button like Alexis said and she found you and you found us. I knew you could do it."
"That was you?" Castle whispers. Lily nods, opening her tear-filled eyes when Kate leans in close, touching her forehead to Lily's.
"My smart girl," she manages to expel the words evenly. "I can't tell you how proud I am of you."
"How proud we both are," Castle adds, resting his cheek to the top of Lily's head, and it's the smile her little girl musters that finally coaxes Kate's heart to ease.
"Is it really over now?" Lily asks, wiping her tears against Castle's shirt, and he nods.
"Yes, promise," he murmurs, lowering his arm to Kate's waist. He dusts one more kiss to Lily's forehead before he allows Alexis to take her, watching Lily wrap her arms around her big sister's neck.
"Then can we go home?"
Alexis chuckles and cradles Lily in closer against her chest, the exhaustion settling deep beneath the younger woman's eyes. "We're all going to take a family trip to the ambulance outside and then yeah, we're going home for the night."
There are still statements to give, questions to ask and answer, but Kate doesn't argue, dropping her head to Castle's chest. Ryan is standing beside them with Lily and Alexis, talking gently to Lily and examining her wrists, telling her how happy Sarah Grace and Nicholas will be to know she's okay.
"Kate," Castle murmurs, his lips brushing the shell of her ear. But her face begins to crumple, her control slipping, and all she can do is shake her head, burrow in deeper against him.
"Just don't let me go," she whispers, tears spilling from her closed eyes as one of his hands rises to cradle her skull, submerge in her hair.
"Never," he promises, kissing her temple, the crown of her head. "Never again."
They're examined together in the ambulance outside of Nieman's lair, having Lily go first with the paramedic until Lanie arrives, demanding to take over.
Their daughter is fine, a bump on her head from the crash, a bit of chafing on her wrists from where the zip ties cut into her skin when she struggled against them. Ultimately, physically, Lily is okay. But she witnessed Rachel shot dead in front of her, was kidnapped by a serial killer who intended to steal her mother's face; Castle knows it's going to take a lot for her to cope with the trauma of tonight. For all of them to.
For now, though, Lanie is keeping their daughter distracted, massaging her tiny wrists and dragging soft laughter from her lips while the paramedic treats Kate.
"I texted Burke, gave him a brief explanation of what happened," Kate tells him through grit teeth. The paramedic has her lying on her back atop the gurney, Castle sitting at her good side as the other man draws her arms outwards. "He - he can see all of us individually. Then t-together later this week."
They both suffered concussions from the crash, his back is a mess, but Kate has a dislocated shoulder. The paramedic suggested a drive to the hospital, but she refused, insisted it be popped back into place here. And now she's trying so furiously not to cry in front of Lily, in front of him.
The paramedic adjusts his grip on Kate's hand, avoiding her abraded wrists and pulling her arm towards him. Castle winces as she squeezes her eyes shut, purses her lips. He almost tells the other man to stop once the tears begin sliding into her hair, but then he hears the sound of bone popping into place.
Kate's chest heaves and her eyes flutter open.
"He thinks Lily will be okay, though. Bounce back quicker," she breathes out and Castle exhales too, realizes he's been holding his breath this entire time.
The paramedic steps away with the promise of retrieving a sling for Kate's arm and Castle scoots in closer to her side. He reaches out to swipe his thumb along the corner of her eye, the quivering edge of her mouth that steadies beneath his fingertip.
"I think so too," he murmurs.
But what about us, he wants to ask.
He's afraid he already knows the answer.
"Hey, little miss, I'm not done with you," Lanie calls from the other side of the ambulance, even though he's pretty sure she's gone over Lily's vitals at least four times. But she doesn't try to stop Lily from trotting over to them, sidling up next to Castle with her worried eyes scanning over Kate.
"Are you going to be okay, Momma?" Lily whispers, her small hand rising to touch Kate's cheek.
"I'm okay, Peanut. Promise," she murmurs, combing Lily's hair back from her forehead. "Just tired, ready to go home."
Lily nods. "Me too, because we're safe now. For real this time."
Kate chuckles, a watery sound, and covers the hand at her cheek, placing a kiss to Lily's palm.
"You're right. We're safe for real now."
"And you'll feel a lot better once we get home," Lily adds, leaning into Castle's side.
Kate hums. "Yeah, curling up with you and your dad in our bed is a great cure all. It'll keep all the nightmares away too."
He ignores the urge to internally freak out a little at the sound of our bed coming so casually from Kate Beckett's mouth to their daughter's ears, how neither even blink at the wording.
"Momma," Lily huffs, grinning at Kate. "I'm too big to sleep in your bed."
"You're never too big for snuggles," Castle protests, shifting to hoist Lily onto his lap even though it causes the fresh stitches in his back to pull.
"Fine," their daughter sighs, resting back against Castle's chest. "But I don't think I'll have bad dreams. There's nothing to be scared of anymore and no one's missing. We're all together now."
"Good point," Castle concedes, propping his chin atop Lily's head, hoping she's right, hoping Lily's mind will be bare of bad dreams. He wishes the same logic could be applied to him, to Kate.
Castle stands with Lily on his hip as the paramedic returns. The other man helps Kate into a sitting position and adjusts her bad shoulder into the sling before he begins to list treatment methods for her shoulder.
She nods along, but leans into Castle's side even as the man continues to speak. Her body is still trembling with what he assumes is leftover adrenaline, but she feels relaxed against him, her head resting heavy on his abdomen.
Rick brushes his fingers through her hair, curves his palm at her nape and feels her sigh out, breathing easy. Finally, they can breathe easy.
Castle steps out of their bedroom to check on Alexis later that night, padding silently into the living room so not to wake her. His oldest daughter knows they're all okay - hell, she's one of the reasons their little family is still intact - but she insisted on sleeping on the couch for the night, wanting to stay close.
He gingerly bends forward, the cuts in his back stretching with warning, but he's able to brush the fiery strands of hair from Alexis's face, drape an extra throw blanket over her slim frame before he straightens and starts back for the bedroom.
Kate is still awake, lying on her side with Lily curled against her chest, her head on his pillow and her eyes trained on the wall. Lily drifted to sleep between them hours ago, their daughter immersed in a deep slumber now, but neither he nor Kate have been able to do the same.
"Kate?" he calls softly. She glances up, staring at him in the golden lamplight of the bedroom, some of the shadows receding from her face when her eyes meet his. "Is there anything I can do?"
Her lips flicker with the ghost of a smile, all he thinks she'll be able to manage for the night, for a while. She carefully untangles from Lily, sits up in the bed with her hands curling at her kneecaps, her blunt nails embedded in swollen skin. He saw her fingertips in the ambulance, scraped raw and covered in her own dried blood.
"I just want to take a shower. Feeling okay enough to join me?" she whispers, her eyes so tired, her attempt at a smile weak, and the bruises he knows must be littering her body calling to him.
"That sounds perfect," he murmurs, holding out his hand to her. She pauses to tug the comforter higher at Lily's shoulders, ensuring their daughter is tucked in snug and warm, but then she reaches for his outstretched hand. His heart stumbles a little at the soft pleasure in her eyes as she curls her fingers around his palm and walks with him into the bathroom.
They promised Lanie and the paramedic - turned medical assistant, courtesy of Lanie - to keep an eye on each other throughout the night and he intends to keep his word. He wants nothing more than to stop thinking about the events that led them here and just take care of Kate for the night.
Castle starts the water when she lets him go to begin undressing, the simple task a process for them both. The paramedic that patched up his back covered his stitches in a thin layer of ointment, dressed them in waterproof bandaging so the wounds wouldn't be so vulnerable, protected but able to breathe. He still avoids the pound of water against his back as he steps inside the shower.
The hot water feels heavenly on his chest though, his head, soaking his hair and his bruised scalp. He savors the sensation until he hears Kate joining him seconds later, opening his eyes to watch her step inside with her head down and her hair spilling over her bad shoulder. She hisses as the hot water makes contact with her injury, pursing her lips so tightly they blanch. He has to refrain from the urge to touch her, draw her away from the downpour. But she closes her eyes, exhales slow and deep, and the tension steadily begins to drain from her body.
"Okay?" he asks after a moment and her eyes slide open, her limbs loosened and drifting towards him.
"Yeah, how's your back?" she murmurs as the steam starts to build between them.
He shrugs, forgets that hurts again, and reaches for her shampoo.
"Kind of excruciating," he answers honestly, squeezing a dollop of the sweet smelling liquid into his palm. He works it into a lather in his palms before gesturing for her to come closer so he can slip his fingers into her wet hair. "But not as bad as I thought it would, not as bad as the first time. Tyson likes to choke people, isn't as good with a knife."
Kate makes a grim sound of acknowledgement, her lashes fluttering as he blends the shampoo through her hair, massages his fingertips along her scalp.
"Did Nieman… do anything to you? Hurt you at all?" he inquires, sweeping his gaze over the slick skin of her body in front of him, but most of the scrapes, the bruises, appear to be from the collision on the road. Not from a human hand.
"No, I don't think she had it in her to do anything. Prior to removing my face," Kate mutters, but her bones visibly shudder at the mention of it, and Castle grabs for the conditioner.
"You never would have let her get that far. You're too strong, too much fight in you, and - and thank god our daughter is just like you, Kate," he sighs out, running his fingers thoroughly through her hair again. But she lifts her hands to curl around his wrists, shakes her head.
"Not just like me," she argues quietly, tilting her head back into the spray of water, allowing it to run through her hair before she looks back to him through the spill of water, her lips in a tender smile. "She has your mind, Castle. So smart, pushing the panic button."
He chuckles at that and reels her back to him once the last of the suds have been washed from her hair, watches her eyes roam his figure, checking for extra injuries.
"You know her better than I do," he murmurs, earning the rise of her gaze back to his face, the slight wrinkle in her brow. "Do you think she'll be okay?"
Kate's hands coast up his sides, ascending to rest atop his chest, her fingers spreading over his heart.
"I do," she nods, her eyes on her hands. "I still want her to talk about it, to work through it completely, but… it's almost like you, isn't it? I know it's not the same, but you did tell me you witnessed a tragedy, a death, when you were around her age."
Ah, one of the few stories he hasn't told her completely. Kate knows the summary of his nightmare in Hollander's Woods all those years ago, enough to make the comparison now, and she isn't wrong. He didn't think about it, probably never would have formed any kind of connection between him and Lily in that way, but… it gives him hope.
"It haunted you, but you didn't let it destroy you," she continues, her fingers steadily venturing back to his sides, skimming the edges of his back, avoiding the placement of bandages. "In fact, I think you turned out pretty great and if she's anything like you, then I know she'll be even better than okay."
Castle glides his hands up the naked skin of her back, against the sluicing stream of water. He lets his chin fall to a rest against the top of her head when she lowers hers to his sternum, presses her lips to the base of his throat.
"I don't know how you handled six years," he confesses aloud, tracing the slippery contours of her back, the river of her spine. "I didn't know where you were, if you were alive, for maybe an hour and I felt like I was going to lose my mind."
Kate exhales a stuttering breath against his collarbone, the wet wings of her lashes fluttering beneath his jaw. "We know where you were now, where they were keeping you."
He dislodges his chin to glance down at her, curving his palm at her nape when she's slow to meet his gaze.
"Stephens let me know they had a lead before we left, but he told me at the scene that they've confirmed a location," she murmurs, her eyes lingering on his chin. "We can go there, if you want to. If you think it would help."
His chest bumps against hers with the inhale he attempts, sputtering at the mist of water he intakes. Kate cups his cheek, sweeps her thumb beneath his eye.
"It doesn't have to be now," she adds, her voice warm like the water, soothing. "Or it doesn't have to be ever. I can ask them to just give me the address, send photos, whatever you're most comfortable with, Castle. But that's what it comes down to - what you want, and I'll support your decision either way."
The irrational fear, the leftover panic, that began building in his chest, dissipates at her words and Castle draws her in closer. He aligns the slick pieces of their skins, revels solely in the comfort of her body slotted into place against his and not the slow burning need she never fails to evoke.
He can't afford to tear his stitches.
"All I want right now is this," he breathes, whispering his lips along her forehead. "To be here, with you, our family, to just - heal."
Kate's head tilts backwards, her lips staining his jaw before he leans in to kiss her, to sip the droplets of water from her mouth.
"It's mutual," she mumbles, one of her arms slithering up to wind around his neck while the other, her dislocated shoulder, curls at his waist.
Her mouth parts beneath his, their tongues meeting in a languid glide. Castle walks her back into the tile wall of the shower, avoiding the most intense of the spray, and eases a thigh between her legs.
"Rick," she gasps, her spine arching into him while he carefully bows forward, his body a cove around hers. "Oh, oh, Castle, you can't."
He nuzzles her cheek with his nose as she pants, paints his mouth to the hinge of her jaw, the sensitive spot behind her ear. He sucks at her neck until she rocks forward, whimpers into the thick air.
"You can," he murmurs, traveling back up the column of her throat to return to the holy place of her mouth, feeling her body throbbing against his, her heart galloping hard between them. "I've got you, Kate."
She looks up at him in the haze of steam, of arousal in her gaze, and touches two fingers to his chin. She guides his mouth to hers in a gentle gesture amidst the thrumming need, her kiss like a caress, the gratitude, the relief, heavy on her tongue.
"I know you do," Kate whispers, arching on her tiptoes, her hands cradling the back of his skull. Her eyes are washed clean of trauma, flooded with naked want, with the bright promise of love.
He kisses her again, skates a hand down her spine and drags her closer, and yeah, this is all he wants.