They didn't bother wasting the time it would take to bring Dr. McCormick back to the precinct, didn't want to spend precious minutes waiting when a serial killer was still holding their friends, their family hostage. So Castle paced back and forth in her office, twisting his hands in fearful anticipation as she made the phone call.
She counted the rings, hyper-aware of each passing second since finding Ryan and Esposito, saving them, became so much more imminent.
Potentially imminent.
"Dr. McCormick's office," came the voice over the phone, and she released the breath she hadn't realized she'd been holding.
"Dr. McCormick, it's Captain Beckett," she spoke, her voice shaking. "We have one last question for you, with regard to the investigation."
"Okay," he said, the word dragged out. "Do you need me to return to the precinct?"
"No. No, it's okay. You can answer over the phone." She paused, offered him only a second to muster a response before continuing. "We think whoever is behind this may be using a location linked to you to hold their victims. That way, since they're framing you, the murders would be linked to you instead of them."
She fell silent again, allowed Dr. McCormick the time to hum his agreement with the theory before rushing to continue.
"So we need to know if you or someone close to you owns property secluded and empty enough to hold people hostage in."
Her chest ached when she sucked in a breath, held it as she waited for his answer, for her hope to be shattered, or-
"Actually, I do."
And she could breathe again.
"I'm opening my own practice, but it's still in the construction stages," continued Dr. McCormick. "But work has been on hold for the past month due to issues with the permit. And the entire place is soundproof."
Oh. Oh, that was promising. It could work. They could find the boys.
They could-
"Okay," she choked out. "Okay. Can I get the address?"
She scribbled it down once, twice. Handed the first copy to Castle so he could text Hayley, and slapped the second copy down on Karpowski's desk with instructions to get a SWAT team there as soon as possible.
And then she rushed from the precinct to save the boys.
Hayley was already at the scene when Castle and Beckett arrived. She was standing next to her car, loading her gun, when Kate drew her own car to a stop, parked it right outside the building.
She almost jumped out, hand clutching the gun at her hip, but Castle stopped her before she could.
"You have to stay in the car, Kate," he told her.
Her lips parted, protest ready to tumble from her lips, but he couldn't bear to hear them, couldn't stand to deny her if she shared all the reasons he shouldn't.
"Please, Kate," he begged. "This isn't just about you anymore and I can't- I just... just please wait a few minutes, at least until SWAT gets here, and then you can follow them in, but I can't... I can't have anything happen to you, either of-"
She stopped him with a kiss, hard and fast with her fists clutched in the fabric of his shirt. Tears were brimming in her eyes when she pulled away, failed to let him go.
"I'll stay," she conceded. "But please be careful."
He nodded. "Always."
It made her smile, had her leaning over to press a second quick kiss to his lips. "I love you."
"I love you, too."
Her hands fell from his shirt when he pulled away, stumbling from the car, already strapping on his WRITER vest before fumbling with the gun Kate had planted in his hand. He clutched at it as he made his way over to where Hayley was leaning against the wall by the door.
"She's not coming in?" asked Hayley, motioning to where Beckett was still in the car.
"Not today," he answered.
Hayley's brow hitched in question, but she didn't ask, didn't voice the suspicions he was sure were brewing. She simply said "Okay then," and shoved the door open, leading him into the building.
She went one way, he darted down the opposite hallway. Doors lined his either side, leading to small rooms which would one day see files, offices, many therapy sessions. He opened each one, gun poised in his right hand as he ensured each one was empty.
No Ryan. No Esposito. No killer. Moving on.
The smell of smoke was the first thing he noticed as he stepped closer, just strong enough to have him scratching at his nose, his heart pounding against his ribs in panic. His grip on the gun tightened, eyes falling closed briefly before he pushed forward, forward, forward…
To the last door, with a plate reading Dr. Calvin McCormick on it.
He pushed it open.
The sign came into view right away, the words McCormick Psychiatry staring back at him. Then it was planks of wood, layers upon layers of sawdust.
A chair. Esposito. Another chair. Ryan.
And the killer.
"N.Y.P.D. put your hands up!" he shouted, voice shaking, knees weak under his weight.
Ryan and Esposito stared at him. Smoke swirled in the air. The killer drew a gun from her waistband, aimed it right at his chest.
His breath hitched. Heart stopped. Body went numb.
The shot. The pain. The blood.
"I told Mason you would figure it out."
Kate. His name. Kate.
The boys were shouting his name, sound echoing off the walls and muted in his ears. Spinning in his head like the memories, the world, the-
"I'm sorry, Rick, but how am I going to enjoy my retirement with you and the missus hunting me?"
"Castle!"
Kate. Kate. Kate.
The killer talking. Taunting. Something about guns and PTSD and Kate and-
Her body hitting the floor. Her groans of agony.
Aching. Burning. Stabbing pain.
Moving. Crawling for her. To her. To her hand in his.
I love you. He couldn't say it. The world spinning, blurring, darkening, darkening, darken-
And nothing.
He couldn't breathe. Couldn't think. Couldn't move.
Castle was right there. Right there. Staring and unmoving and Ryan did all he could do, shouted his name to try and get his friend to snap out of it.
But their captor was talking too, taunting with that oh so familiar evil grin.
"So, getting shot really does mess you up, doesn't it?" she said. "Like husband, like wife, huh? PTSD must run in the family- first Kate, now you. Good to know."
She paused, turned to face Ryan and Esposito before looking back at a still frozen Castle.
"Too bad it'll keep you from saving your friends."
Castle still didn't react. But Hayley did, the additional noises of heavy footsteps starting to fill the building.
SWAT. More hope.
Ryan and Esposito watched Hayley shove Castle to the side, their friend shaken, stumbling, dropping his gun. Hayley stepped past him, into the room, gun poised, aimed, fired.
Glass shattered. No blood was shed.
SWAT arrived, ran past them all, around the corner, to the back door their captor had taken. Rifles locked and loaded. Footsteps impossibly loud.
Hayley pulled a knife from her belt, and Castle couldn't even look at them as she cut the rope from around their ankles and wrists.
And then a SWAT officer shouted-
"We lost her!"
-and tampered the joyous relief of the moment.
She was gone.
But they were safe.
Ryan sank into the couch in Beckett's office, the giving cushion such a stark contrast to the chair to which he'd been strapped for too many long hours. Esposito stayed standing, as though he was scared to sit after the day they'd had, massaging the bruises on his wrists.
And Castle lingered in the corner, eyes downcast, locked on a picture of the four of them that sat on Beckett's desk.
Beckett slapped the phone onto its receiver, dropping into her desk chair. The smile she offered was half-hearted in the comfort it offered, but there all the same.
"The case is officially in the hands of the 54th," she told them. "Lanie still doesn't know why the fingerprints were there, but her best guess is that they were planted. And we still don't have an ID on the killer."
Her gaze dropped to the file of evidence, which Castle could see even from across the room. He knew the composite sketch, the product of his and Espo's descriptions, sat atop the pile of papers. The image, almost scary in its likeness, of the killer turned captor turned fugitive.
"Hopefully they'll be able to track her down before she can harm anyone else," she whispered.
Ryan swallowed, nodding his head. "I hope so, too," he mumbled. "Especially…"
"Especially?"
Esposito sighed, dropping his weight to the couch's armrest. "Especially," he picked up for Ryan, "because her next target is you."
The room stilled, silenced. Castle finally looked up, eyes wide with worry, the look on his face mirrored by Beckett.
"Kate?" he breathed.
"Me?"
The boys nodded, Ryan clutching at the cushion beneath him as he rushed to explain. "She said you were her target, but you and Castle don't leave the precinct enough for her to get to you, so she had to settle for us." The words bled together, far too rushed, quieting when worry etched across Beckett's face.
"But she's in the wind now," said Esposito, "so I'm sure you'll be fine."
Beckett's face was still ghostly pale, eyes too wide when she nodded, knowing, just like the rest of them, everyone else that Esposito was trying to convince himself as much as he was trying to comfort her.
"Yeah," she breathed. "I'll be fine." She paused, eyes falling closed only to open again as a smile cracked across her face. "And I'm really glad you guys are okay."
Esposito followed Ryan to his door, staring at the apartment number nailed to the wood. The sight was all too familiar, the feeling strangely foreign.
How many times had they narrowly escaped death? Never had it felt quite like that.
Ryan reached for the doorknob, but paused before he pushed into his home. He turned back towards the hallway, his partner.
"Your biggest fear is really that you won't be able to get me home?" he asked.
Esposito looked away, stared at the floor to hide the sincerity surely shining in his eyes.
They didn't do this, especially not in hallways right before Ryan was to reunite with his family.
So, instead of offering an honest response, he tried to lighten the mood. "Yours is fire?"
Ryan chuckled, the sound barely audible, lost in the silence of the hallway. He reached over, slapped Esposito on the shoulder lightly in quiet gratitude.
"Thanks, bro," was all he said.
And then he turned away, pushed the door to his home open.
Noise erupted immediately. Jenny, with baby Nicholas in her arms, ran to her husband, mumbling questions of are you okay? as Ryan held her close.
And Sarah Grace, she came running from the living room, eyeing her parents briefly before jumping into Esposito's arms instead.
"Uncle Javi!"
He cradled her against his chest, pressed kisses to her head as she asked about his and daddy's latest adventure.
How empty was his life, their captor had asked.
It wasn't. Not at all.
"Castle?"
The image returned. Them in their kitchen. Caleb appearing out of nowhere. The gunshot. The pain. Her voice. More gunshots. More pain.
Their temporary death.
"Rick?" she said this time, stepping towards him. Her hand landed on his shoulder, drifted so she could play with the hairs at his nape. "Are you going to tell me what happened?"
He blinked away the memory, focused on her instead. "Huh?"
"When you went in to save the boys," she explained. "You couldn't look at them afterward."
His shoulders sagged at that, the memories of how he had... had failed them returning.
"Remember your first case back after your shooting? When the guy pointed his gun at you and you... you-"
Her hand curled tighter at his nape. "I remember."
He sighed. "Yeah, well, I... I did it, too," he said. "I froze, Kate, and I couldn't... couldn't save them. I couldn't even move."
Silence fell, heavy for a moment until her free hand landed on his cheek, drew his gaze to hers.
"Rick, I promise you that the boys won't blame you for that. They don't. Trust me, they get it," she told him, eyes wide and begging him to believe her.
He nodded. Hesitated, but nodded.
She pressed herself closer to him, offered a shaky smile. "But maybe you should book an appointment with Dr. Burke," she suggested. "Just... to help." She paused. "I promise, it helps."
Protests welled in his chest, insistence that he was strong enough to handle, and overcome, memories on his own. But Kate, oh Kate, had always been stronger than he'd ever be, and she'd needed it. It had helped her.
So, he sank into her arms, pressing his lips to the top of her head.
"Okay."
And then he held her until she pulled away, led him to bed to comfort him with brushes of her lips to his and the soothing weight of her body curled up against his side. Until he fell asleep with his wife in his arms and images of Ryan and Esposito having never been saved flashing in his mind.
He booked the appointment the next morning, Kate sitting across from him at the kitchen island, offering smiles of encouragement. He found himself mirroring them.
Because he couldn't see the woman on the other end of the line grinning. Didn't see slashes of green highlighter staining words in his file.
Shooting. PTSD. Losing Kate.
His biggest fear.
Episode beta work by amtepe2 and acertainzest
Castle Season 9 is produced by Team Planet and the writing team of Castle Season 9. Executive Producer is encantadaa.
For a full list of season 9 authors, please look at our ffnet profile.
Twitter: castleseason9
Tumblr: castleseason9 dot tumblr dot com
Special thanks to castlefanfics for promotions