Kidnapped Ch.16

Castle quietly tiptoed out of the room and closed the door gently behind him. Before he left, he took a good, long look at the woman lying on his bed.

Her face was now relaxed and her long hair was fanned out on the pillow beneath her head. Her eyes were swollen, and there were still tear stains on her cheeks.

Alexis was sitting in the kitchen when he came out, the shattered glass carefully wrapped in newspaper and thrown away. She had a cup of hot chocolate sitting in front of her, and a textbook that was laid opened next to her, but a glance at her eyes told Castle that her attention was not on the book at all. Hearing footsteps behind her, Alexis looked up quickly.

'How's Kate?' Alexis asked, the slightest wobble in her voice.

'She'll be fine,' Castle answered, his voice so strong and reassuring that for a moment, Alexis believed that could happen straight away.

'Kate is the strongest person I know, dad. I've never seen her like this, not even when the guy shot her at the funeral,' Alexis said softly. 'I'm scared, dad. Kate is so strong, but just now, she literally just crumbled.'

Her eyes had a faraway, haunted look, and Castle knew that she was reliving the moments that Kate had crouched there, not responding to neither Castle's nor Alexis' words.

Flashback:

'Kate, it's me, Rick. It's Castle,' Castle pleaded as Kate stayed on the floor, whimpering in fear.

'Leave me alone, leave me alone,' Kate screamed, sobbing, and Castle's heart broke into a million pieces. He would rather that he was the one trapped in the fear of his own mind, than to have Kate ever having to go through this experience.

'Please, Kate, it's Dad and I. We're your family. We won't hurt you,' Alexis cried, the emotional situation causing tears to start leaking out of her eyes.

Castle knelt down beside her, and immediately felt a stinging pain across his right knee. He knew he must have placed his knee down awkwardly, and as a result, a sliver of glass must have cut through the fabric of his pants and grazed his knee. He simply used his hands to brush the rest of the glass away, for what was his pain compared to his wife's? He bent down next to her. Despite her protests and struggles, he managed to pull her into his arms and wrapped them around her tightly. Slowly, her struggles began to lessen, and her breaths began to slow.

Alexis had came back with a cup of warm water and her medication. Kate had taken them slowly, before allowing Castle to take her back to their room. She fell asleep almost instantly.

End flashback

'She needs help, dad,' Alexis told him, close to tears as she told the truth they all tried to ignore. 'She needs professional help.'

'Yes. Yes she does,' Castle agreed, digging through a cupboard of cards, trying to locate the one card that he had desperately tried to hide.

'Sir, I promise, everything will be taken care of,' he told the person on the other end of the phone. He was perspiring heavily despite the coolness in the room, and his voice was laced with stress.

Yelling could be heard on the other end of the phone as he fingered the golden plate that stood on his desk, displaying his name and title to anyone who happened to come into his room.

'Yes, sir. Yes, I completely understand,' he agreed, nodding his head vigorously as if the person on the other end of the conversation could see and interpret it as a sign of his willingness to serve.

More shouting came from the other end of the phone, and he sat up straight.

'Trust me, she will be out of this world and dead the way she should have been long ago,' he said out loud confidently.

At that exact moment, a knock was heard and a woman in her late fifties waltzed into the room without waiting for a response. He put his phone down in alarm, watching her as she settled a large pile of folders on his table.

'Here's the last batch, chief,' the woman told him, and he smiled back tightly.

'Thank you, Elizabeth,' he answered, hoping that she did not hear anything of what he said right before he hung up. He liked this woman a great deal, and she treated him just like a mother would his son. He would really hate to have to kill her.

'Mikey, heed my words: no matter how bad a girl treats you, never go kill any of them. Who knows? One day, they might be good for you,' Elizabeth told him, chuckling slightly as if they were sharing a joke.

His heart dropped like lead. Now, instead of having to get away with one murder, he would have to get away with two, with one victim being someone he truly cared for.

'Why isn't there an air conditioner?' Esposito complained loudlu as he sat on his chair at the precinct, fanning himself by using the pages of the diary. Ryan groaned. It was the fifth time that Esposito had made that exclamation in the past hour. Since Beckett was on leave, their workload had increased massively, and without her, they were getting very good at leaving their work until the last minute, which is why they were now facing a mountain of paperwork.

'It's so hot,' Esposito whined once again, and Ryan swirled around in his chair, intending to smack him with a book, but as Esposito continued to fan the pages in quick succession, something caught his eye, and he snatched the book from Esposito.

'Hey, what are you doing, bro?' Esposito asked, surprised.

'You'll see in a minute,' Ryan called back, disappearing into one of the meeting rooms.

Kate opened her eyes and saw that Castle was snoring gently next to her, one of his arms slung around her shoulder protectively. She took a look at the clock and saw that it was already midnight; she had slept for about twelve hours. Gently extracting herself from Castle's arms, she headed for the bathroom.

After getting a warm bath ready, she took off her clothes and headed for the bathtub. She glanced at the mirror quickly, and stopped short at the sight of it. Something was different, and she was sure that just yesterday, it was not like this.

Her abdomen protruded slightly, showing a slight baby bump.

A/N: Ta da, no cliffies. I had an internal debate between a cliffie and a fluffy ending for this chapter, but since I finished most of the school work due this week just now, I am in a relatively good mood, and decided to be kind, and give you all a happier ending to a chapter, as we never really had a happy ending so far, right? Anyway, I really hope you guys all like it.

As usual, PLEASE REVIEW. Criticisms are much appreciated, but no flamers please.

This chapter is dedicated to Bianca tabbycat for being wonderful beta.

Zoe tabbycat