AN: I didn't have time to post a chapter yesterday, but this is the longest chapter yet, so that makes up for it (I hope)! Thank you for the follows, reviews, favorites, and sharing my fanfic. I see some of you on Twitter and Tumblr and I try to thank the ones I do see. Enjoy the new chapter :)
He was sitting at his desk when Josh came in. "What are you doing here?"
"I came to talk to Kate. She told me it's either we work things out or I go to Haiti and we're done."
"Bracken isn't going to like this."
"I don't like this."
"What happened when he found out that she broke up with you?"
"He hired you. Our breakup though wasn't my fault. Yours however will be your fault."
"Not helping."
"I need to call him."
"Good luck. Glad I'm not in your shoes. I have a case to solve, so if you don't mind." He waved Josh off so that he could go to work.
Josh walked out and Castle sighed, glad he went the other way. He told Beckett he had to go call Alexis before they went to the storage unit, but really, he was going to check on Demming. He didn't think Josh was going to be there, but he was. He heard almost everything. Who was hiring these two to watch her and to date her? He wanted to tell Kate, but he wasn't sure what to say.
"Hey Beckett, your boyfriend and ex-boyfriend were hired to date and spy on you, but I have no idea who." Yea, that didn't sound good. He had to get out of here though before he was cau...
"Hey, Castle. What are you doing down here?"
"Oh, hi, Demming. I was just scoping things out, seeing if any of these floors looked different or had any different equipment. I'm thinking about going more into a few other departments besides homicide in my next book."
He nodded. "Nothing wrong with being thorough."
"Exactly. Anyways, I probably should head back. I told Beckett I'd only be a few minutes. We have places to go."
"Oh yea, where you heading?"
He wasn't sure what to tell him. Should he lie? He was probably going to find out anyways, tracking her phone and car and all. "Some storage locker the victim had. There might be a bomb there. Here's to hoping that there's some cool things in there at least if it's not what we're looking for."
Demming nodded before heading back into the the bullpen. Castle made his way to the elevator, hoping that he didn't walk over there too quickly. He got into the elevator and pressed the button for the homicide floor. He still had no idea what he was going to tell Beckett, but he knew he had to think of something. When the doors opened, Beckett was there waiting for him.
"Ready to go?"
"Ready."
Little did he know, he was going to be spending a good amount of time in a containment tent with Kate. When they got to the storage locker, there was radioactive material in there and they were going to be kept in this containment area until they were given the all clear. He sat across from her.
"How long do you think this is going to take?" He figured he'd make some small talk before he dropped this bomb on her.
"Not sure."
There was some silence for a few seconds before he broke it. "Kate, there's something I need to tell you." He looked at her to see that he had her full attention. "When I went to go call Alexis, I didn't exactly call her. I went to go see if I could find anything on Demming's desk that would help us figure out why he was following you."
"Did you find anything?"
"I didn't have the chance to look, but I heard something."He paused for a few seconds. "I heard him talking with Josh. Both him and Josh were hired by someone to watch you and in order to do that, date you. I know that sounds crazy and I know I might sound like a jealous man here, but it's the truth. I don't know who hired them, but they're watching you for someone else to be one step ahead of you."
"You're right, it does sound crazy..." She was silent for a bit before she finished speaking. "But I believe you, Castle. Do you think they're working with Lockwood?"
He shrugged. "I don't think they'd be working with him, but whoever hired Lockwood..."
"The Dragon."
"Do you think it's safe to keep Josh around?"
"I don't know. It's not right for us to be in this now pretend relationship, but if they want to watch me it's probably better I know who exactly is doing the watching." She paused for a second. "You know, the reason why I pursued this relationship was because we were both so busy. I was able to keep one foot out the door. I just want to have someone that I can be there for and they can be there for me and we can just dive right into it together."
"Kate, I..." He was interrupted by a man in a hazmat suit.
"You guys are free to go."
They looked at each other and Kate got up first. There was still a murder to solve and she wasn't going to discuss what they could have.
Josh had made an appointment with the senator, to talk about what Kate had told him earlier. They made sure to do it in his office, but under a different name. Unless Bracken had a bad heart, there would be no need to meet with a heart surgeon. He got there on time and his secretary escorted him into Bracken's office.
"Josh, come sit. What is it that you wanted to talk about?"
"I can't go dark for a week. I know me leaving gives you opportunity for you to see if she starts investigating, but she told me this morning if I leave, we're done."
"I'm not surprised. I knew something like this would happen sooner or later." There was a silence between them for what seemed liked hours to Josh. "You'll stay. If you can, try to be busy at the hospital."
"Will do." He got up from his seat and was about to leave, but Bracken spoke again.
"Josh, do you think she has any idea about you?"
"I'm not sure. She knows I'm hiding something, but I don't think she knows what."
"Lets keep it that way. Our partnership is over the second she finds out, understood?"
Josh swallowed, knowing exactly what that meant. "Understood."
"I'll see you Friday for our poker game."
With that, Josh exited the senator's office and headed out the building. He got into his car and headed towards the precinct.
Kate wasn't at the precinct though. She was currently trapped in a freezer with Castle. She was trying to find a way out, but the door was shut, her gun wasn't going to get them out of here, and there were no cell service. Her and Castle tried to knock the door down, but that didn't work either. So they were now just sitting in the middle of the freezer, away from Jamal's body, huddle up next to each other.
"Castle...are you there?"
"Yea, yea. I'm right here." He tried bringing her closer to him, but he was just too cold to move.
"I can't feel anything." He wanted to lean down and kiss her lips, let her feel something, but he couldn't. "I always thought, being a cop, I'd take a bullet. Never thought I'd freeze to death."
He was able to move just a little bit closer to her. "Hey, we're not dead yet."
She looked over to his hand, wishing that she could touch him, but she was too cold. "I just wish that this was one of your books and we could rewrite the ending."
There was silence for a little bit, but he broke it. "I'm...I'm sorry."
"For what?"
"For being me. For going rogue into this. If we hadn't gone..."
"Shhh...Castle...You were right. We found the bomb. We were just too late." She turned, slowly, so that she could face him. If she was going to die here, she wanted him to be the last thing she saw. "Castle..." She slowly moved her fingers to his chin. She wanted to bring it to his lips, to feel what his lips felt like one last time, but she couldn't. "Thank you...for being there."
"Always."
Her hand dropped to his chest and her eyes closed as she rested against him. "I just want you to know how much I..." She couldn't fight it anymore. The cold took her and her hand dropped from his chest.
"Kate? Stay with me."
She heard his words and whatever power she had left in her she used. "How much I..."
"Kate, that's it come on...stay with me."
"I love..." She had enough strength to tap his chest before her hand dropped again.
"I love you too, Kate. Now, stay with me..." He didn't hear a response from her this time. "Come Kate, stay with me..." He brought her as close as he could to him. He wasn't sure how long he stayed awake for, but the last thing he remembered was seeing some light and going to wake up Kate.
The next thing he knew, he was waking up in the back of an ambulance. "Beckett?! Where is she?"
"Sir, I'm going to need you to calm down."
"Where is she?"
"She's going to be fine." His attention turned to the voice that he had heard before. "You're both fine. Found you just in time."
"Josh?"
"Hey." As much as one part of him said he didn't want to save Rick Castle, the doctor side of him took of the jealous boyfriend side...especially since him and Kate weren't in a real relationship. "You're recovering from a mild case of hypothermia. You're going to be a little sluggish for awhile. Get some warmth and some fluids and you should be alright."
"I thought you were in Haiti..." Even though he saw him this morning, he knew his flight would have left by now.
"Didn't go." He took out the IV that they had in Castle. "OK. Lets see if we can get you to sit up."
He did, a little weak at first, but he was able to sit up. "How long was I out?"
"About an hour."
"The bomb..."
"Searched the entire warehouse. It's gone," Esposito came in right on cue.
"How'd you find us?"
"We figured you were with Beckett, until Josh came in and when we couldn't contact either of you, we figured you were out there doing something incredibly stupid against orders. So we tracked Beckett's car, searched the area, until we found a light from the storage container," Ryan answered his question.
"I'm glad we could be this predictable. Thanks." His eyes then focused on the girl that was a few feet away from Ryan, wrapped up in a blanket. She was alive and looking at him. He got out of the ambulance and walked over to her, but first grabbing a blanket to wrap around him. He saw the smile that was on her face as he made his way over to her. "So, your boy's here?"
"Yea."
"So what does that mean to you."
She looked at him. "It means we have a chance. A chance to figure out what he's hiding and find out whoever the Dragon is. He could have easily let us die, Castle. He might be hired to watch me, but he's protecting me."
"So your relationship...?"
"It will stay in tact...for now. I feel bad for using him, but this might be the only way I can get justice for my mother."She let her hand that was closest to his take his and held it. "Until then, what I said in there..."
"I know and you know that I feel the same way about you."
She gave him a soft smile before she let go of his hand. "Come on. They want to debrief us."
Kate headed back to her apartment with Josh while Castle went to his place. "Get into bed. You need your rest. I'll go get you some extra blankets and make you some soup."
She didn't argue with him, she just went into her bedroom and got her robe. She put it on, along with a pair of her slipper socks (once she took her shoes off). She got underneath the covers and got herself comfortable. A few minutes later, Josh was coming in with a tray of soup and a blanket. "Thank you," she said as she took the soup. She took a sip of it before she spoke. "Josh, we need to talk."
"I know. Kate, there's some things that I can't tell you. I am hiding something from you and I hope once you find out, you'll understand. I'm not cheating on you, I promise you that. I just can't tell you what I'm doing."
She wanted to ask, wanted to know who The Dragon was, but he wouldn't tell her. She knew it. "Ok...I don't know what you're doing, but ok. Can you tell me anything else?"
"No."
"I'm not cheating on you with Castle. I have feelings for Castle, but I never slept with him."
"Then why aren't you with him, Kate?"
"At first, it was because I had feelings for you too, Josh. I made the mistake of dumping my last boyfriend to see if I could work things out with Castle and that didn't end well. Now, it's because I know something might happen if I'm not with you. I know you're working with someone that has eyes on me, but we're both going to pretend like I don't know that and everything is going to be like how it was." She took a chance here, hoping that letting him know she knew wouldn't hurt her in the end.
"Ok...I don't know anything." He looked over at the clock on the side table. "You should get your rest. There's still a bomb out there and I know you're going to be looking for it first thing in the morning." He pressed a soft kiss to her forehead. "I'm glad you're okay."