Kate only allowed herself a moment to calm down. She blinked the tears from her eyes, gulped down sips of tea in a feeble attempt to soothe her aching stomach. Castle wrapped her in his arms for just a second, lips pressing to her head before he let her go.
He didn't promise it would all be okay. Neither did she, unwilling to make a promise she was no longer sure she could keep.
She squeezed his hand before dragging him from the room, into the bullpen, voice already booming.
"Okay, everybody, listen up."
The morning rush stalled, everyone coming to a halt at once, all eyes landing on her. Releasing Castle's hand, she clutched at her jacket instead, tried to still the quivering of her fingers. She swallowed back the bile rising in her throat as she walked over to the murder board.
Ryan and Esposito's case notes were scrawled across it. She tried not to let it get to her.
"From here on out," she told her team, "consider your orders changed."
Officers shifted, stepped further into her line of sight until the group was staring at her. Castle stepped closer until he was standing by her side, a pillar of strength, offering her support without saying a word.
"Detectives Ryan and Esposito are missing," she said, fighting to tune out the gasp that filled the room. "We have reason to believe it's connected to our latest case. From here on out, consider that your top priority until they're found."
She paused, waited while her team of officers rushed to gather information on the investigation. It was only when everyone began to turn away that she spoke again, pointing to the uniform who had informed her of Ryan and Esposito's absence.
"You," she said, "get me Dr. Calvin McCormick in interrogation one."
And she only waited long enough to see the officer nod before turning away, once again swallowing against the churn of nausea in her stomach.
She'd thrown up twice more, Castle's hand on her back and tears burning in her eyes, by the time the nausea had subsided enough for her to stalk into the interrogation room. Her husband followed her, still silent, still strong and comforting and calming the stuttering arrhythmia of her heart.
He held her chair back for her, waiting for her to sit down before sliding into his own seat.
Dr. McCormick sat before them, squirming in his seat, one hand massaging the back of his neck.
"What happened?" he asked instantly.
She didn't bother hesitating to answer.
"Two of my detectives have gone missing while investigating a lead on this case."
It was harsh, perhaps too harsh and laced with excess anger, but she couldn't bring herself to care. Even when Dr. McCormick's face blanched, body stilled, eyes went wide. His jaw fell open with a broken exhale before he seemed to remember to speak.
"I didn't do it!" he shouted. "I was here all night. You can ask that officer you had watching me back in that- that cell."
She sighed, hating the fact that she needed to speak the next words that tumbled from her lips. "I'm well aware of your alibi, Dr. McCormick."
He sank into his seat, sucking in a relieved breath. "So you don't think I did it anymore?"
"You are no longer as promising a suspect," she confirmed. "But you are our most valuable source of information."
"But- How?"
Castle spoke next, voice thick, and she could hear him fighting to keep it from quivering as he explained. "Whoever did this was trying to frame you." He paused, lips twisting into a deeper frown. "Do you know anyone who may have wanted to hurt you this way?"
Dr. McCormick scowled in return, shoulders going tense with defensiveness. "No, you know what, I wasn't aware that I upset any serial killers recen-"
"Dr. McCormick," she warned.
He sank back in his seat once again, eyes falling closed. His hands, which had been clenched into fists, loosened at his sides and he breathed an angry exhale. "I'm sorry," said the doctor. "And I'm truly sorry your detectives are missing, but I don't know anything about this case, Captain Beckett, not beyond what's in the victims' psych evals."
It was genuine, far too much so. Had her shoulders sagging and anger dissipating.
He had an alibi for both murders and the boys' disappearance. The likelihood of his guilt was fading fast.
So…
"Okay," she conceded. "Then you're free to go, but you have to call me if you think of anything that could be of value to my investigation."
Besides, maybe the tail she would stick on Dr. McCormick would lead them to their killer.
Castle wrapped her in his arms the moment she closed her office door. The team was refocused. Officers were combing through the victims' financial and phone records. Others were digging through Calvin McCormick's life for any indication of someone with motive to frame him. She had sent a team of detectives and CSU to the warehouse where the boys had gone missing, and she stared at the murder board for far too long afterward.
Jenny's voice, broken and desperate and crying for Kevin, echoed in her head. Memories of a perfectly peaceful family dinner, only the night before, played on repeat, weighing down her already aching heart.
They were her family. They were missing. She had to-
"We'll find them," whispered Castle, pressing his lips to the side of her head.
She didn't say a word, couldn't bring herself to agree when he sounded so unsure, couldn't argue and face the doubt clouding her mind. Her arms stayed at her sides, hands coming up just enough for her to grip at his shirt, to clutch the fabric in her fists just as she wanted to hold onto his - however shaky - confidence.
He waited a second, for a response that never came, before speaking again.
"I called Hayley, asked her to drop whatever case she was on and focus on this instead," he said.
Drawing from his arms, she stuttered a wordless breath.
"I know your job is to do this the legal way, but Kate, legal ways take time, time Ryan and Esposito might not have." He paused, hand drifting along the length of her back. "They're our family, and you said it yourself, all hands on deck, so-"
She silenced him, kissed him to quiet the cracked words of how the boys might not make it home.
"Okay," she breathed. "Of course. You're right. No matter what it takes, we have to find them."
They would find them.
Their captor came and went countless times, disappearing behind corners and closed doors only to reappear before them with that same wicked grin. Ryan watched, still bound to his chair, as she returned once more, planting herself in line with the beam of sunlight coming through the nearest window. He swallowed thickly at the pleasure so evident in her eyes.
In her hands, she clutched a file.
"What do you want with us?" asked Esposito.
She didn't bother with an answer, or even a glance in his direction. She simply opened the file, eyes scanning the pages too quickly for her to truly be reading.
Her eyes stayed locked on those pages even as she spoke.
"It's not you I want, but your boss, Kate," the word was sharp at the K, cut at the T, disgust leaching into her tone, "never seems to leave the building anymore. Neither does her husband, so for now, you two will have to do."
Her eyes were shining, alight with some bizarre combination of anger and satisfaction, when she looked back up.
"Don't worry," she said. "I'll get to Kate eventually."
Ryan swallowed back his protests. Esposito did not.
"Beckett will have you locked up before you can lay a hand on her or Castle," he spat. "That, I promise you."
She glared at that, stood still for a moment before spurring back into action. Slow, methodical steps led her to be standing in front of Esposito, a single page from her file pinched between her fingers. She threw it to his feet, only waited a second to allow them an attempt at decoding the illegible print.
"I would be more careful if I were you," she told Esposito. "I know your biggest fear, and how to make it a reality."
Esposito refused to offer the nod she silently demanded, so she turned to Ryan instead.
"And yours." She grinned.
He tried to shift in his seat, back pressing hard against his chair as he tried to get away. But that only made her smile widen, a hand dropping to draw a lighter from the waistband of her pants.
She flicked it open. He swallowed.
"I guess I owe it to that fire for making it so easy."
The file fell to the ground, and Ryan was once again left staring at a single paper being pinched between her fingers. She waved it in front of him, allowed Ryan to see the block letters of his name printed across the top. Flickering firelight drifted over that very spot, lingering until the piece of paper shrank, crumpled, burned.
His eyes slammed shut, breath catching in his chest.
The sound of burning paper remained. Of the page hitting the floor. Her laugh. Her foot stomping.
"Don't worry," she said again.
Ryan forced his eyes open to see the fire extinguished, the lighter closed. Relief, however fleeting, welled in his chest.
Fire had once almost stolen him from his family, before he'd even had the chance to meet his little girl. It wouldn't happen again.
"We haven't reached that point in my plan yet," she added.
Yet.
The door to the P.I. office slammed closed behind Kate as Castle was already walking over to where Hayley sat at her desk.
"Anything?" he asked, so quickly the syllables bled together.
"Not yet," answered Hayley. "There are no cameras at the warehouse, so I'm combing the surrounding area for-"
"You have to find something," interrupted Castle. His hands clenched into fists at his sides, anger melding with the desperation in his tone.
Hayley nodded, promised that she wouldn't stop trying until Ryan and Esposito were safe, but Castle was already turning to face Beckett instead.
"We're missing something," he said. "What are we missing?"
She didn't answer, couldn't when she had no idea of what could lead them to their killer, to the boys.
The warehouse had offered no clues. The boys' phones couldn't be tracked. Traffic cameras showed nothing. They had one suspect, who was seemingly framed. Two victims with strange causes-
"Another victim," she blurted.
He looked up, blinking away the confusion as it was replaced with the subtle spark of budding ideas.
"Think about it," she continued. "Which killer goes from never having killed anyone, to kidnapping a married man, holding him hostage and killing him with a snake, of all murder weapons?"
"No one."
"Exactly."
He nodded. "So, assuming this other victim follows the killer's MO, they would be someone who was recently arrested-"
"-had a psych eval," she picked up.
"Done by Dr. McCormick," he added.
"Was released-"
"-and killed a few days later-"
"-using their biggest fear," she concluded before pausing, lips pressed together to hold back any further, conjecture-born theories.
They didn't have time for crazy ideas, even Castle seemed well aware of that.
They had Ryan and Esposito to find. A victim to identify.
"We need access to McCormick's patient files," she told him, watching Castle nod his agreement.
Hayley pushed herself from her seat at that, her chair skittering across the floor as she spoke.
"And I know just how to get them."
"You're sure about this?" asked Castle for the umpteenth time, drawing another glare from Hayley. "Really, really sure, I mean."
She stilled her attempts to pick the lock on the door to the office of Dr. Ramos, one of Dr. McCormick's coworkers. "Would you be quiet before we get caught?" she hissed. "This door leads directly to Dr. Ramos' office. Since he's on vacation, it'll be empty, which means we can use it to access the hallway, and then the ar-"
His lips parted around a question the moment she halted her whispered explanation, but it only took a second for the door being pushed and Hayley's satisfied smirk to fill in the blanks.
Step one of their plan: complete.
Next: steps two, three, four, five…
"Couldn't we have come up with a simpler plan?" he asked.
She shushed him, glaring once again before leading him into Dr. Ramos' office.
He lingered by the door, keeping watch as Hayley rifled through desk drawers. She was quiet, sliding them open and shut, mumbling under her breath as she searched.
"Aha!" she breathed, a little louder, when she found her goal. Dr. Ramos' key card to the archive room.
He smiled. "Initiate step three."
Hayley rolled her eyes, stepping towards him and the door leading to the hallway. "Step four, Rick."
He was still trying to identify the first three steps when she reached past him, shoved the door open, and stepped into the blessedly empty hallway.
She led him through the building, whispering door numbers under her breath as she went. Without hesitation, she identified the archive room, swiping the key card and sighing in relief when it beeped to announce they were allowed entry.
But the archive room wasn't empty when they stepped inside.
"Dr. McCormick?" said Castle. "What are you doing here?"
"What am I doing here?" countered the doctor. "I work here. What are you doing here?"