A/N: Little quicker update this time, yay! :) I continue to be absolutely floored by the response to this story. I appreciate your support so much and I hope you enjoy this chapter!

XXXXXX

A surge of irrational anger blindsided Rick for a moment. He'd become so adept at avoiding her calls that it was almost habit to ignore this one.

'What. The. Fuck. Is. Wrong. With. You.'

Turning that anger on himself – where it belonged – Castle swiped his thumb across the screen.

"Kate? Where are you? Why haven't you been answering your phone? I know that's a little hypocritical coming from me but…Do you know what's happening at the precinct?"

Rick was babbling and didn't care. He did force himself to shut up and let Kate get a word in edgewise.

"Kate?"

A throaty chuckle came over the line.

Male.

Shit. Not Kate.

'Well, it seems we have a name for the hot cop. Tell me…Castle is it? You're that hack writer? I heard about you following the cops around. You need a new pastime. You're number one on the speed dial. Did you know that? Not another cop, not even Daddy. You. Does that make you feel special? Anyway, to answer your question, yeah. The bitch knows what's happening at the precinct.

"If you hurt her…" Rick began.

The man laughed again.

"I already have."

The call abruptly clicked off.

"Wait!" but it was too late.

Damn it.

Rick looked over to the barricade but Esposito wasn't in sight. He shot off a quick text to him and to Ryan, but he wasn't sure either would look at it with everything that was happening.

Not to mention how pissed Espo was at him.

And it was fair that he was so angry. Rick had cut all ties to the 12th. It hadn't been just Kate's calls he'd brushed off.

It didn't negate his own feelings, but maybe he could have not broken himself off so cleanly.

Shit, there wasn't time for this. Rick dialed Esposito.

No answer.

He dialed Kevin's number and got the same response.

Now what?

He glanced over at the uniform patrolling the crime scene tape, making sure no one crossed the barrier.

Castle sighed. There was nothing for it but to approach the guy who would cheerfully dump him in lock up and conveniently forget to call his family.

No. This is not about him. This is about Kate and the other hostages. The bad guys contacted him. Castle. And he had to let the people in charge know.

"Hey! Officer!" Rick jostled his way through the crowd of onlookers. The uniform looked up and scowled.

"You were told in no uncertain terms to go home," the cop barked.

Castle noted the officer's name badge.

"Look, Officer…Austin," he cajoled. "I have got to get a hold of Detective Esposito. Or Detective Ryan. I'll even take Captain Gates if she's available. It's important!"

"You already talked to the detective, and you know what he told you. You must really like the feel of handcuffs." Austin reached for his belt, searching for the item in question.

Rick held up his hands, his phone still in his right.

"You don't understand, Kate called me…Well, not Kate, but…"

His rambling didn't stop Austin from grabbing his cuffs.

"She is in there!" Castle exclaimed before the officer could make good the threat to arrest him. Jabbing a finger toward the 12th, he continued. "Detective Beckett is definitely inside the precinct! One of the bastards holding the hostages just called me from her phone. I need to let Ryan and Esposito know and they're not picking up."

That did stop Austin. He leaned close.

"If you're lying…"

"I'm not lying! Not about this. Never about this."

The uniform still eyed Rick suspiciously as he brought his radio up and began speaking into it.

XXXXXX

"So, Mr. Castle. Are you really planning on worming your way back in? I can assure you your friendship with the mayor is not going to help you this time."

"Captain Gates, I…"

The captain shook her head at herself.

"We don't have time for this conversation right now, I realize that. Detective Beckett called you?"

"Not exactly."

Rick had been taken to a surveillance truck that had been set up across the street from the precinct. Captain Gates, along with several hostage negotiators had been discussing whether or not to storm the building now, or wait until they heard from the attackers when they got Austin's message.

To say the captain was livid would be understating matters. It wasn't just that it looked like Castle was horning his way back in – no – she was furious with how he had just walked out, without telling anyone. Not the detectives who considered him a friend, and certainly not the detective to whom he was so much more – whether she realized it or admitted it to herself or not.

But Castle was claiming to have received a phone call from Beckett. Gates and the negotiators needed every scrap of information they could get, so they sent another uniform out to bring him back.

"Then how, exactly?"

"It was from her phone," Rick explained. "I have a specific ringtone for her. It wasn't a long conversation."

He described the call in detail, his years of observing people for his writing and then with the team of detectives helping him to recall what the captor had said to him.

"He's hurt her, Captain," he reported, stricken by his own words. "He didn't say how, just that he had."

Gates closed her eyes.

She knew she wasn't fully trusted yet by the detectives under her charge. They had all been extremely close to Captain Montgomery and her style of command was much more standoff-ish than his had been.

But that didn't mean she wasn't protective of her people.

"Well, Mr. Castle. It looks like you're back."

Rick let out a small relieved sigh.

"However," Captain Gates wasn't finished. "We only need you because these men are calling you. This truck is your headquarters. I've heard how well you've followed Detective Beckett's orders to stay in the car."

"Captain, that was a long time ago…I have a vest now but…"

"You will stay here, understood? No following when it's time to raid the precinct."

"Yes, Sir. Esposito already made that clear to me earlier. I don't have my vest with me anyway, and I don't want to jeopardize Kate…or any of the other hostages by running in there."

The captain eyed Castle a little warily, not quite trusting that he would do as he was told.

"And after all this is over? Are you still back, or will you be gone again?"

A look of pain crossed Rick's face.

"Captain, I think that depends on Detective Beckett."

He wasn't sure if he meant that she would consent to take him back, or if she could explain her admission in the interrogation room well enough to convince him to return.

XXXXXX

Kate woke up.

The grogginess made her question what had happened. She couldn't quite remember.

She looked over to her side and saw Eggerstrom had come around, still weak, but lucid, his wound attended to and bandaged as best she could.

'Oh, yeah,' she thought, trying to raise herself up to a sitting position.

Damn it. Cuffed again.

In hindsight it was a stupid thing to do. Throwing the scissors from the first aid kit under the desk thinking she might be able to get to them later…yeah, it was a dumb idea.

She was lucky she hadn't been shot.

The only reason Kate had thought it might work was that Myers looked away for a second. She hadn't counted on Freddy coming back over with Skull-Face in tow.

Freddy had seen her make the toss and although she swore she'd just dropped them, she wasn't fooling anyone.

Skull-Face grabbed her arms and held her while Freddy beat her unconscious, the other cops still bound on the floor, Zombie and Creepy Clown aiming their guns so they couldn't to do anything to stop it.

Marcus Andrews was the first to notice she was awake.

"Hey, Beckett," he whispered, trying not to attract attention from Freddy. "How do you feel?"

"Like I've just had the shit beat out of me," Kate replied sarcastically. "Sorry, that was uncalled for," she went on, "I'm angry at myself for being so stupid."

"Hey, you took a chance. It's just too bad it didn't work."

Marcus helped her sit up.

"Yeah, well it was still contingent on staying uncuffed." She noticed something odd. "Wait, what? You're tied in front. How did you get them to do that?"

"Shh!" Marcus grinned a little. "Bathroom break. Somehow we managed to convince them it would be easier for everyone if the cuffs were in front. Including them. They haven't bothered to retie everyone."

Kate groaned as she sat up, her ribs pulling.

"God I hope nothing's broken. How long was I out?"

"A little over a half hour. I was starting to get worried."

Kate looked at Marcus in surprise.

"That long?"

Marcus nodded.

"I was ready to ask if you could be released so you could get real medical care. I'm glad you woke up."

"Yeah, me too."

Kate didn't want to ask the next question, not remembering that would be a blessing of sorts. Her pants were still on, but she had to know for sure.

"While I was unconscious – did they…did he…?" She couldn't spit out the word.

Marcus understood what she was having trouble saying.

"No. The clown and zombie were joking about it, but it didn't happen."

Well that was one consolation.

Freddy and Skull-Face came out of the break room.

"Well, well, well. Katie's up."

Beckett stared in confusion. How had he learned her name? Then she saw her phone in his hand.

"Called your boyfriend," Freddy guessed the question in her eyes. "So precious, he was all panicky and pissed off."

Boyfriend?

It couldn't be Josh, she'd finally deleted his number last month, after forgetting about it for nearly a year.

Her dad was the only one who called her 'Katie', but Freddy would know he was her father right off.

A similar thing with Ryan and Esposito. He'd know they were her work partners.

That left…

He called Castle? And Castle had picked up? What made him answer now?

A lightbulb turned on in Kate's mind.

The explosion of course. Something like that would have made the news. Castle would have heard about it.

But why panicky? Pissed off, Kate could understand, she knew he was mad at her about something.

"What did he say?" she ground out.

"Well, he didn't say he loved you," Freddy leered. "He threatened me," he laughed. "As if a pansy ass writer with his pretty boy hands could ever do any damage to someone like me."

"You'd be surprised," Kate returned, thinking of Hal Lockwood.

Freddy backhanded her again.

"Hey!" another detective, Bruce Lennox called out. "She just regained consciousness, are you trying to kill her?"

"Bitch has a smart mouth," sneered Freddy. "So do you. Only I want more from her than I want from you."

He gestured to Myers.

"No leg shot."

The group of detectives shouted simultaneously.

"NO!"

Myers fired.

XXXXXX

Kevin Ryan came running into the HQ truck, interrupting Captain Gates' discussion with the hostage negotiators.

"Captain, more shots have been fired and the fourth floor window is opening again."

Gates sighed heavily.

"Every available person is huddled around under the window in case they throw out a body this time."

"Oh, hell," came a quiet voice in a corner of the vehicle.

To Ryan's surprise, Castle was sitting there, head in hands.

"Castle?"

"He received a phone call from the captors, Detective," the Captain explained. "Beckett is inside."

"But…the shoes…"

"She had been upstairs in the gym. She may not have had time to put them on."

Ryan nodded.

"We've got a bus here as well."

"Good. Now, get ba…"

She was cut off by shouts coming from outside.

Esposito burst in.

"They dropped Bruce Lennox. He's shot. Amazingly, he's alive, but I think that's only because we caught him coming out the window."

The ambulance siren screamed past.

A member of the SWAT team stuck his head in the door.

"The paramedics don't hold out much hope, but they'll do what they can."

He went back to his station by the main entrance.

Captain Gates turned back to the negotiators.

"We're going to have to step up our assault. They've shot… and maybe killed… at least one person, and Mr. Castle tells us they've hurt another, possibly seriously. I want a workable plan within the hour at the latest. Let's go."

She moved over to Rick and spoke quietly to him.

"Mr. Castle, I can't stress how important it is – now more than ever – that you stay here in the truck. It's too dangerous for you out there, and… we need you to tell us the demeanor of the man you talked to."

"I understand. Whatever I can do to help."

Gates nodded and gestured him over to the rest of the group.

Rick continued; "I hope Detective Lennox will be all right."

"As do I, Mr. Castle. As do I."

XXXXXX

A/N 2: Tell me what you think!