Close Encounters 17
The elevator doors slid open the second Castle got to the end of the hall. Their eyes met.
Castle lunged at Mitch and slammed him back into the elevator car, the man's head crashing into the metal panel. Half-stunned, Mitch lashed out with a poorly-executed defensive block and Castle grappled with the man, trying to get enough space to punch him.
He caught a fist in his eye before he managed to get a knee on Mitch's bicep, pinning him to the elevator floor. It was easier then to land a vicious blow to Mitchell's face; he felt the bone shift under his knuckles.
The man groaned like a beast and lurched under him, feet kicking up and trying to tangle him, and Castle realized Mitchell was screaming through his bloodied nose.
"What's gone - what are you talking about? Who have I fucked over?"
And then Castle heard his own voice, dark and snarling, "You left her. You left her to die."
"What? Fuck, you're chok-"
"Without that evidence, she's fucked."
"Castle!"
Her voice broke his rage. The pause allowed Mitchell to drive him back into the open door of the elevator, his head smacking the metal and sharply clearing his vision. He lashed out with a kick and caught Mitch in the solar plexus; the man heaved but rolled to one side.
Castle staggered upright.
"Castle, stop," he heard her.
She was suddenly plowing into him, throwing off his aim and sending them both sprawling. He twisted just enough to cushion her fall, appalled at the thought of her tackling him with those bruised ribs. He saw Mitchell lurching to the corner and then dragging himself off the elevator and now Castle was struggling to untangle himself from his wife.
But she wasn't having it.
"Stop, Castle - stop. Stop it."
"What the hell, Castle?" Mitchell yelled, slumping down against the wall of their hallway. He touched his bloodied nose and growled a string of curses in Farsi. The language they'd learned together. He was going to pummel Mitch.
"Castle, stop. You have to stop," she was grunting against him, holding him inside the elevator car.
He finally managed to set her aside, but she darted around and positioned herself between the heavy drag of the elevator doors, standing in his way. He wouldn't - he didn't dare try to shove past her, not with her so - not with her.
She glanced over her shoulder. "Mitch. Sit the hell down."
Mitch groaned and slumped back to the floor, his head tilted back as he probed his nose.
Castle came close, his chest brushing against hers, his eyes on Mitch. "Kate," he growled at her ear. "Let me through."
"No. You'll kill him. And we don't even know."
"Know what?" Mitch garbled. "What the hell. Holy - you beat the shit out of me."
"Good."
"Look at him," she hissed, her hands dropping from the sides of the elevator. The doors clanged and tried to close again but she didn't move. "Look at him, Rick. If it had been him, he'd have run."
"Or he's so good - so deeply buried that he thinks we'd never-"
"What the hell?" Mitchell groaned again. "I was on my way up to warn you. They're coming, you asshole, and you're fucking tackling me? My nose."
Castle took a breath, drenched in adrenaline and sweat and fury. "Who's coming."
Kate dropped her hands and circled his wrists, led him out of the elevator. It shut with a crash and immediately headed for the lobby.
Castle didn't take his eyes off Mitchell. "Who's coming," he repeatedly tonelessly. The rage had drained out of him and been replaced with hollowness.
Kate kept him from stalking towards Mitch when the man said nothing, but her noise of alarm caused Mitchell to look up at least. He flinched and tried to get to his feet.
"Mitchell," she hissed. "If you know what's good for you, sit down."
"He's gonna take a swing at me - I'm gonna be on my feet for it."
"Sit down. He's not taking a swing at you."
"Oh, yes, I am-"
"No, he's not," she insisted, glaring at him. She gripped his wrists harder and pushed him back against the opposite wall. "Castle. You're not some damn thug. My husband isn't some macho asshole. So get your shit together."
"He left you to die," he scraped out. "He stole everything."
"Steal? What the fuck did I steal? And I didn't leave her to - what the hell are you talking about?" Mitchell thundered. He winced and touched his nose gingerly, groaned as he sank back to ass. "Fuck, this hurts. I need some ice, Beckett. Can I get up and get some ice?"
"No," she said. "Who is coming?"
"Oh, shit. The NSA. The NSA took everything."
"We know that already. It was you," Castle burst out, shoving past Kate to grab Mitchell by the collar of his shirt. "The NSA took everything that would save Kate and you-"
"No! No, it wasn't me - why the fuck do you think I'm warning you?"
"Castle," she warned him. "So help me, if you do not drop him-"
He released Mitch's shirt but he didn't step back. Mitchell pushed himself up to his feet and glared back at him. "You're being an asshole. You wanna lay off me?"
"Mitchell, I'd be quiet if I were you," Kate said. "We have evidence against you. That you betrayed us. So Castle isn't in the best mood."
"Betrayed you?" he hissed. "What the fuck? Castle. I have done everything to make this up to you - every day since I fucking took you down in Germany-"
"Took me down?" he snarled.
"I did what Black said because you were killing yourself trying to get to her," Mitchell yelled. "I gave you that damn sedative because you were breaking yourself to pieces trying to get out there. You had to stop. Someone had to stop you."
"What are you talking about?" Castle growled. "You left her. You promised me you'd go back for her but you didn't."
Mitchell cut a look to Kate, so bewildered, so hurt, that Castle startled backwards.
"What are you - I did go looking. Beckett, I swear, I looked for you. I told you it was a needle - I found the car but you were nowhere nearby and I have spent every day since then trying to make it up to you. I swear to God."
"Make it up to me?" Kate rasped. "What did you have to make up for?"
"I tricked him," Mitch said, pressing the back of his hand to his nose to stem the blood. "I told him it was just a little - but we put him under for days. Days. And you were out there. I thought you'd died; I really had. You weren't at the rendezvous, you weren't - and here he was, killing himself to get to a fucking a plane and no flight plan, no plan at all. Shit, Castle, man, you couldn't even see. You had those white spots in front of your eyes, remember? And you were trying to fly into Russia blind."
Mitchell stared at him and he stared at Mitchell, and Castle had nothing - there was nothing he could say to that. It was history, long gone, and whatever guilt festered about Kate being left in a cave to die - that was all on Castle. Not Mitch.
At least, not if Mitch had actually gone looking for her.
"This isn't about Russia," Kate said quickly. "This is about now - this case. We've been looking for our traitor-"
"And you think it's me?" Mitchell yelled. "Are you kidding me? You think I'd wipe out the evidence room when Malone was murdered by that asshole? And you - I'd leave you out to hang? No way. No fucking way."
Castle narrowed his eyes. "You're either very good or-"
"Listen to me - hold on. The NSA are on their way here. They're coming for whatever you got, for both of you. You gotta put this aside for a moment, Castle, and you gotta listen to me. The NSA are gonna be on that elevator."
Castle looked over at Kate and she raised an eyebrow. So he stepped back. "Okay, all right. The NSA are on their way up. Why?"
"They're taking over the whole thing. I got there right at the end, when they were taking the damn furniture - they took everything, man - all of our files, every last computer. They took it all. And they're headed up here to take what you've got as well."
Before Mitchell could even finish, the elevator chimed and the doors slid open.
"Shit," she breathed. "Mitch, stall for us."
Castle flinched but Kate dragged him down the hall, both of them sprinting towards their closed apartment door - she had swung it shut on the dog who'd been more than eager to get involved. Castle was at her back and hopefully blocking her from sight since she technically wasn't allowed out. She heard Mitchell calling out a boisterous greeting to the men filing off the elevator right as she and Castle hustled fast through the door.
"I guess you trust him," Castle said.
She turned to look at him. "After that?"
"He could be acting."
"You know he's not," she said, moving away from him to grab all the reports off their dining room table. The NSA were here to clean house, and she'd had enough of disappearing evidence. "That was real. - Hey, grab those. - I know you believed him too."
"Because I want to believe him. But I can't let my emotions about Mitchell get in the way of-"
"Sometimes," she shot back, "you gotta go with your gut. Grab these, Castle - and, oh God, the Congo files. They cannot find those. I have that all on the laptop."
"The laptop's in the bedroom. You're sure Mitch-"
"I don't know who the mole is, but they're not stupid. They left just enough so we'd fight with each other while they went around cleaning this up. Now, hide this."
He sighed at her, but she was reasonably certain he wouldn't attack Mitchell again. The dog followed her wolfishly into the bedroom, slinking at her heels and skulking around the door. She knelt down in front of the bed and opened the laptop, her palms sweaty at the idea of men outside coming to take - everything.
Her?
If they found the files on Black's work... they couldn't. Castle - their baby - everything was exposed.
The door thudded with the agents' knock and Sasha barked, the fur on her ruff standing up. For half a second, Kate was shocked by the dog's ferocity, by the teeth and growl, the aggressive stance, the wolf that dominated all her other, sweeter aspects. And then Sasha whined and backed up into Kate, that touch of body to body that signaled her herding and protective instincts, like Sasha was the mama wolf.
"It's okay," she whispered to the dog. She took a moment to drag her fingers through Sasha's fur. "We're okay. Castle's out there."
They pounded on the door a third time, rattling the walls with the force of it, and she heard Castle's sharp reply as he opened up to them. Sasha stayed on her feet in front of Kate, and the gesture of support actually made Kate's chest tight, like she would cry.
She hooked her fingers in Sasha's collar and dragged the Congo files to the flash drive, one after another, hoping there would be enough time. She didn't know what was going on out there, but Castle could keep them occupied for a while, could hold them off with the excuse of her bruised ribs.
She managed to copy over the whole folder - it'd been pdfs of the Congo information - so she started moving the Bracken evidence over. One folder and the zip drive was full. One folder. This wasn't going fast enough; she had one more zip drive and the damn laptop was so new it didn't have a dvd slot to burn the information.
Before she went further, Kate used the shredder program on the laptop to destroy the Congo files. No one could ever see those.
Satisfied all trace was gone, she got off her knees and went hunting through Castle's bedside drawer for more data storage. He always came home from work with things in his pockets - like he wasn't a cover operative who was keeping secrets for a living - and he dumped them in here when he got undressed. She found a lot of change, a few pens, a pack of gum, wads of paper - what a slob, jeez - and two more flash drives.
She jammed it home and started copying more files. It wouldn't be enough - it would barely skim the surface - but she needed to get the most crucial information. The video files, the transcripts from testimonies, the things that Malone had been bringing her as well - all in that satchel.
The external hard drive.
Surely Castle had another one around here somewhere. She scrambled to the closet and started going through their stuff - the collection of things they'd shoved inside since they'd been here for the last six weeks. He had spare parts for the laptop, weirdly enough - battery, a few fans - and she found a case of handwritten notes that she'd never seen before. Castle was always taking notes though, on everything, jotting things down and later coming back to them, writing her letters that he sometimes never even gave her.
What a terrible spy he was. Seriously, his personal habits were just...
She rifled through a big box he'd brought over from home - stuff she'd thought was just for her - and at the bottom she found an external hard drive.
She yanked it out and gathered up the cords, headed back into the bedroom. She couldn't believe how much time she still had, how he had managed to delay them this long.
Maybe they weren't taking her into custody.
Kate took a second to concentrate on the voices she could hear from the living room, plugging the hard drive into the outlet. She connected it to the computer and suddenly Castle's voice cut through loud and clear.
"And she's free to go? I do this, and she's free to go."
He did what?
Kate ignored the files, shoved the two full flash drives into the cushion of the chair, and barreled out of the bedroom.
Castle was not trading himself for her.
"What are you doing?" Kate said. She was heading too fast down the hallway and it had alerted one of the agents standing closest; he was moving for his hip holster and Kate at the same time.
Castle shouted a warning and rushed forward to get between them, shoving the agent back and cleanly taking the gun from his fingers. "Are you fucking insane?" he hissed, still blocking Kate as she tried to move around him.
"Castle, what are you doing?" she said again. Panic laced through her voice.
Mitchell had already pulled his gun on the other guys, weapons drawn inside the apartment, and now here came Esposito and Reynolds through the front door.
"Castle-"
"Why the hell are you pulling a gun on my wife?" he growled.
"I didn't know-"
"Why would you pull your weapon at all?" He shoved the man again, so furious it boiled in his veins. "Are you trying to kill us? She's under house arrest and you're here to fucking make a deal and you think you're somehow in jeopardy? That your life is at risk?"
The green agent turned bright red with shame; his superior, the man Castle had been talking with, barked at him. "Stand down. Fuck's sake. Stand down, Patten."
"Yes, sir. I'm sorry sir. It's just the reports we read on them."
That gave Castle a nice warm glow - the idea that the damn NSA held dossiers on his wife - but Kate was already sidestepping his protection to get a look at the scene.
"What deal?" she said. Her eyes bore into his.
"Not like that," he growled. "Neither of us are going anywhere."
The taut line of her shoulders went down an inch.
"Espo, Ren - we're fine. Just a young idiot overreacting," he told the guys. They hung back, holstering their own weapons, and Castle ejected the clip from the gun, removed the bullets entirely before giving it back to the green agent.
Patten was scowling at him.
"Whatever the report said," Castle told the kid, "we're alive and most everyone else who's crossed us - they're not. So I'd settle down and listen to your team leader, stop trying to be a hero."
He gestured Kate ahead of him, away from Patten and his surly demeanor, and they headed back for the team leader.
The NSA agent was silently fuming. Castle didn't give a fuck. "Kate, this is Agent Denver. Denver, you'll forgive us if we seem skeptical-"
"Fucking paranoid is what it seems," Denver grunted.
"-but we've had bad luck with place names," he finished dryly.
"I don't even know what that means," Denver said. "Are we doing this or are we giving training lessons to my guys?"
"Which would you prefer?"
"Just sit the fuck down, Agent Castle. Agent Beckett."
Neither he nor Kate sat down. They had a tendency not to follow directions too. It also gave him a shot of pride that his wife was such a gorgeous badass; she just didn't take crap from anyone. A guy came at her with a weapon; she handled it. She always handled it.
"Fine," Denver bristled. "If you please. We have a lot to talk about. The first being that a US Senator is dead and the country needs a scapegoat. So you might want to listen to what we have to say."
"I already told you," Castle answered. "She goes free. Completely. Innocent of all charges, her record at the 12th is clean, IAB drops it. Everything."
"In exchange for what?" Kate said. This time she sank to the couch across from Denver in the chair and Castle reluctantly followed. "What do we have that you want?"
"Give up Maine."
Castle growled. "That man abducted my wife - one of my agents - and he-"
"What does that mean?" Kate interrupted. "Give up Maine."
"The NSA has its own open investigations. We aren't at liberty to discuss."
"You'd better discuss," Castle said. "This man - I want his head on a spike in front of my Office for everyone to see what happens when he rides against my team."
"But you want your wife's freedom, don't you? More than Maine."
Fuck, yes. But-
"But Maine is my scapegoat," Kate answered calmly. "If he disappears into the NSA's hands, then the public is only left with me. So you're still not doing us any good. Tell us why you want him and maybe we can work out shared custody."
"This isn't a case in family court," Denver said. "This is serious."
"Then tell us why," Castle said easily. His voice sounded calmer than he felt. He was writhing inside, caught between wanting to nail Maine to the wall and wanting to take the deal and run, take Kate far, far away from here. But she was right - there were no guarantees.
Agent Denver placed his hands on his knees and gave Patten a long, hard stare. He shook his head and finally answered. "The NSA has an open case against John Black. Maine can get him for us."
Beckett didn't want Black to be got. Not when her husband's life might depend upon the knowledge in Black's head.
But they didn't have much choice, and there was already a CIA Capture/Kill order out on the man.
She watched as the NSA agents methodically and ruthlessly tossed the apartment. Castle had given up demanding things, had started packing their bag, hopefully doing something about the hard copies of the Congo files, but Kate was stuck in the middle of the living room.
There wasn't much of a deal when the NSA could do whatever they wanted. It wasn't a deal at all, actually, because they'd stopped talking to her and Castle, had just moved on. Agent Denver had called in his guys and they'd mercilessly put their hands all over everything, going through their files, digging through their things.
She'd shredded the documents on her laptop, hadn't she? Yes. Yes, she'd made sure they were gone from the computer. The paper originals were in their safe at home, not here, and Castle was dealing with the flash drives.
At her side, Sasha issued a warning growl as one of the men in black got too close. The man actually took a step back, but he didn't stop running his hands through the couch cushions, and then he pulled out a knife and flipped up the blade.
Sasha barked, teeth flashing.
"It's okay," Kate choked out, dropping her fingers to the top of the dog's head. But it wasn't okay.
At least it wasn't their home. At least it was just the cover apartment.
But after so long, it had grown on her.
A sudden thought hit her and she gripped the dog's collar, dragged Sasha down the hallway towards the bedroom. Castle was sloppily folding clothes into a suitcase. Every item had already been inspected by Denver himself, and had been deemed cleared to leave the apartment. The flash drives?
"Rick," she said. She could hear the catch in her voice, but she couldn't control it.
He rubbed his eyes and his shoulders slumped. "I'm sorry. There's nothing - they've cleared out the evidence room, Kate. I can't see any way out of this."
She shook her head, pressed her lips together. "That's not-"
"I know you wanted justice for Bracken, and I swear to you that Mason, Mitchell, all of them - they'll work on getting the truth brought to light. I promise you that Bracken will not go down as some kind of fucking hero."
Kate lifted her chin and blew out her breath slowly to keep from getting choked by it. "It's not that," she said roughly.
"I know it's not ideal right now, but I don't know how long we'll remain in the NSA's good graces, Kate." He leaned in close and gripped her by the shoulders; desperation was burning in his eyes. "They could let you take the fall - they could - they don't have to charge Maine with anything at all. I just - I just want to get us all out of the country until this is cleared up. Until it's safe."
She nodded and let him fold her into his chest; she'd had to come to that acceptance nearly an hour ago when the NSA had basically told them to get the fuck out of the country or be prepared for a court case.
She would never have run from this if it was just her. It made her sick to think that by defending her own life, she had made Bracken into a martyr. The man who had murdered her mother had turned into the unjustly accused, and if it was her alone, if the wolf didn't need her protection, she'd be here, making her stand.
This had always been her fight.
Castle wouldn't have liked it, but he'd have stood with her.
But the baby made it impossible.
"That's not it either," she whispered against his neck. Her throat tightened and she skimmed her fingers up his chest and finally to his shirt pocket, felt the edges of the sonogram photo and let out a quick breath. "It's this."
He pressed his hand over hers with a grunt. "James," he croaked. "I forgot this was in my pocket."
"They'll search us," she murmured, panic cresting suddenly over her. "Castle. I don't want to destroy it, rip it up. I can't-"
"Hide it," he said. "We'll hide it."
"Where? How? They're being very thorough. A guy just attacked our furniture with a switchblade. And the flash drive with..."
She felt the mattress bounce at her thigh and lifted her head to see that Sasha had climbed up on the bed, standing over their pile of clothes like a guard dog.
"Sasha," she said, pulling back from Castle. "The wolf with the wolf."
"What?"
"Here," she said. Kate grabbed the ultrasound photo from his pocket, her breath hitching when she caught sight of the blur of grey on black. She took a breath and folded it in half, in half again, and then she reached for Sasha. "Here, puppy. Come here."
Sasha came obediently, sat down just beside the suitcase. Kate didn't know how much time she had before another agent passed through to inspect their bedroom again, to watch over them, and she moved fast. She unlaced the belt of Sasha's collar, tucked the photo up into the buckle, and then she relaced the belt once more. The collar was so wide that it completely hid the edges of the photo.
"They won't search the dog?" Castle said, reaching out to comb the fur down around the collar.
"They're all afraid of her," Kate answered. "She keeps growling at them."
Castle laughed, a tight and choked thing, but he leaned in and kissed the dog. Right between her eyes; Kate didn't think she'd ever seen him do that before.
"You're going to give her a heart attack," Kate said. "So much love. Right, puppy?"
"Wolf with the wolf," he said back, smiling at her. "Help me pack. Doesn't need to be neat, just get it all in."
She knew that meant they'd be shaking their tails - whomever it would be trying to follow them - and they'd make a run for home. Their real home - the house on Broome Street. But not for long. "We'll go to Rome," she said. "Or Cyprus for that second honeymoon you promised me."
Her throat was tight with it; everything they were leaving behind, but everything they were leaving to protect.
"We'll be back in time," Castle promised. "I'm getting you back home before..." He trailed off and skimmed the back of his hand against her stomach. "Before this."
She nodded; she believed him.