Hi guys! thanks for the reviews! Someone asked me to update today so I did my best to do it. ;) Don't forget to play RainyMood again on this part because...well, it's still raining outside hehe. Have a good weekend people and enjoy your reading ! xxx
"Kate, don't run so fast!" Lanie said, out of breath, a few steps behind her. The pouring rain was freezing her. Breathing heavily, her hair drenched, Kate turned to Lanie.
"Come on Lanie, we're almost there."
"I can't run anymore…I can't and I'm scared, the boys said they would join us but they're not here, and I…"
"Lanie!" Kate interrupted her, taking her face between her hands. The brown woman was drenched and her long black hair was sticking to her cheeks. Kate looked at her.
"I'm sure they're alright. Let me remind you we didn't hear any more gunshots, alright? They must be keeping watching or walking around. But they're coming. Maybe they got the guy and…"
When another gunshot interrupted Kate's speech, the young woman felt her world collapse. Even worse. After the gunshot, they heard a man's scream. Full of pain, that kept echoing through the woods for a few seconds. She felt a shiver down her spine while she stared at her friend, her mouth half opened. Still holding her cheeks between her hands, Kate felt Lanie was starting to shake.
"Oh my God. What was that…Who was it…Javier!" Lanie cried as she turned back, escaping from Kate's grip. But Kate grabbed her arm.
"Lanie no! You go back home", she ordered.
"…What? Kate, didn't you hear it? They got shot!" Lanie burst into tears.
"What if it was him? Kate, I haven't told him what I feel yet…" she stammered, her tears falling down on her cheeks.
Kate took a deep breath. She had to calm her down.
"Lanie, listen to me", she said softly. "You go home. The manor is just another hundred meters ahead, after the woods, you go straight, remember?"
"Yes", Lanie stammered, swallowing hard.
"You run like a crazy," Kate said, persuasive. "You run, you don't stop, you run and you don't look back. And you join the others. Go honey," she said as she let her arm go.
"What about you?" Lanie asked.
"I'm going back to see what happ…"
"Not alone," Lanie interrupted her.
"Lanie, I'm a cop! It's my job, not yours. Please, go home. I need to see what's going on, if they need my help…" she didn't finish her phrase.
"So you think they need help?" Lanie asked in a low voice. Kate nodded.
"Lanie, go home. I promise you it's going to be okay." Kate said.
Lanie finally nodded, panicked.
"I'll go…Please be careful."
"I will, don't worry," detective Beckett gave her a soft smile.
Then Lanie ran away to the manor like Kate had told her to. The rain was hitting her face, as well as the tears, but she wouldn't stop to wipe her eyes. She kept running as fast as she could, holding her suitcase that was balancing with the speed.
When Lanie was only a tiny dot out of sight, Kate turned back, relieved she was heading to the manor. She started to run to the woods again although the only thing she wanted was to run away, to the opposite direction. This time, the night had completely fallen out. She couldn't see anything.
She almost tripped over a muddy hole but got her balance back just in time. Her clothes were drenched and she was frozen. But she wouldn't stop. She wouldn't give up on her friends, her brothers who might need her.
"Javier? Kevin?" she shouted a few minutes later, as she arrived next to Gina's body. She checked around, panicking.
"Kevin, Javier!" she shouted again after a few seconds, using her hand as a megaphone. No answer. She could hear her own heartbeat through her drenched pullover. Her heart was beating so fast.
Kate Beckett was freaking out, so much she was about to give in and burst into tears. When suddenly…
"Kate! Right here!" a voice answered after a few seconds. A panicked voice. Out of breath, terrified. Kate turned her head to the voice, looking for her friends. Then she saw two silhouettes in the dark. A small dot was shining on the floor. The flashlight. Kate frowned. Why the hell was it on the floor?
Then she understood…the flashlight wasn't the only thing to be on the floor…Kevin and Javier's silhouettes were also there, in the frozen mud. Kate stepped further, weak and scared. She felt a shiver down her spine when she saw them better. Her eyes widened as she realized what she had in front of her.
"Oh…my God." She stammered, shaking.
.
/
Another thunderbolt tore the sky as the door opened. Jenny, Martha, Alexis and even Rick startled and turned their head at the same time towards the entrance of the manor.
"Lanie!" Rick Castle said as he saw her coming inside, drenched and paralyzed. Lanie threw her suitcase in a corner and leaned over, putting her hands on her knees, trying to catch her breath. She had never run that fast before.
"What are you doing here, all alone? Are you okay? Where are the others?" the writer asked, concerned as he rushed to her. Lanie was so breathless she couldn't even answer all his questions.
"Alexis, go get a glass of water," Martha kindly asked her granddaughter as she stood up from the couch. The red-haired young girl nodded and headed to the counter of the kitchen.
"What happened?" Rick asked again, standing close to her, worried.
"Somebody was there…somebody who started to shoot us…" she hardly explained, still out of breath. She took off her coat as she was shaking and threw it next to her suitcase.
"What?" Jenny said in astonishment.
"You mean the killer…the killer shot you?" Rick corrected. Lanie shrugged and took the glass Alexis had brought. She drank it in one go.
"Thank you, honey," she whispered after drinking, before she looked at Rick.
"Killer or not, he started to shoot and the boys told us to go home…so we did, but on the way, we heard another shots and Kate wanted to go back there."
Rick rolled his eyes, irritated by the detective's bold behavior.
"Dammit", he groaned, anxious.
"And then?" Jenny asked. "After the gunshots?"
"I…I don't know. I have no news." Lanie stammered as she put the glass back on the first furniture she found next to her.
"Dammit…I shouldn't have let her go…"Rick mumbled as he started to pace.
"Richard, let me remind you Katherine is a cop. She's an excellent detective…"
"Mother, excellent detective or not, when a maniac is chasing them, it doesn't matter," the writer protested aggressively. He was anxious.
"It wouldn't have been different if you had been there instead of her, dad," Alexis said softly, as she brought Lanie a towel. The M.E used it immediately to wipe her face, her arms and her hands. Then she quickly wiped her long dark hair so they would stop freezing her.
"How many gunshots?" Rick asked Lanie as he ignored his daughter's comment.
"I don't remember…five I think, when we were doing the autopsy, and then when we were running, two…and then we heard a man's scream," Lanie stammered as she fiddled with the towel. She hated remembering that moment as she didn't even know what happened exactly.
"Okay, I'm going there to see what's going on," Rick decided resolutely.
"No Castle, if they told me to go home, it's certainly not for you to go there. And Kate forbade you to go", Lanie replied.
"As if I complied with the orders," he smirked, heading to his coat rack.
"Richard, for God's sake…" Martha began.
"Mother, don't insist."
"What if something happens to you? What are we gonna do?" Alexis protested.
"Nothing is gonna happen to you here."
Alexis sighed heavily.
"Dad, stay with us, please…"
"Honey, you're safe here. But if a maniac finds funny to shoot them outside, I can't stay here and twiddle my thumbs. I can't imagine that maybe, they're…"
He couldn't finish his phrase.
The door opened again loudly and the writer felt chills all over his body.
"Kate!" Rick said as he rushed to her. The detective was soaked and was holding Esposito's flashlight as well as Rick's gun in her hands. Lanie noticed it and frowned. Kate didn't say anything when Rick ran to her and hugged her tight. He couldn't have helped it. Kate hugged him back a few seconds before he let her go.
"I was worried to death. Are you alright?"
Kate swallowed hard and looked at him, trying to catch her breath. She had run like a crazy.
"I'm alright," she replied, shaking. She was anxious and frozen. Rick frowned. Everybody in the room had heard her. She was alright. But the fact she was holding the gun and the flashlight was weird.
"Why…Why do you have Javier's flashlight?" Lanie finally asked, scared. But Kate said nothing. She glanced at her, then Jenny, remaining silent. Jenny frowned as well.
"What's wrong, Kate…" Jenny whispered. She hated the serious and tormented look on her face. Kate didn't have time to reply.
Javier Esposito entered the manor, holding an inanimate Kevin Ryan in his arms.
.
...to be continued...