Disclaimer : Castle is not mine.

She takes a deep breath and just stops doing everything. She stands in the middle of the room thinking about everything that has happened with this case. She wants to move her family far away from this area but 1) she knows that they will adamantly refuse to move and 2) she feels as if this man who is determined to destroy her and her family would just follow them.

She knows hes planning something big because why else would he send her these notes, trying to make her fear him, trying to intimidate him.

She takes another breath.

All these notes have been delivered in different ways and every single note had a message that was meant to make her fear him to send her in a spiral of fear.

'I hear you wonna play a game.'

'I spy with my little eye some Katie-pie,

I've met some old buddies of yours

let's say hello to Dunn

Bang...'

'I know you've lived but don't worry I'm not done yet.'

All these messages, all these threats they are making her head spin and she hates it, hates that some guy is making her feel this way as if she isn't the strong and stubborn detective she knows she is. As if she hasn't survived the most almost deaths experiences she's had. Hell she was almost frozen to death, drowned, blown up, eaten and she is surviving her PTSD and she survived a bullet to the heart. She refuses to let this guy intimidate her, make her fear him.

She is scared for her family and she knows this guy is planning something big and hell he even met Dunn the guy who blew up her home with her in it. She won't let this man hurt her family.

She looks up and around at everyone looking at her, expecting her to fix everything and it's just not that easy and they don't know of all the hard work she puts into everything she does, how she stays up late and how she skips meals because she forgot that it was lunch or dinner time. How she sometimes falls asleep at her desk or how she has at least 4 different work tops in her locker so no one will ever know. No one ever knows how much work she puts into her investigations, well that's not exactly true, Castle knows, he always calls her out when he realizes she has been sleeping at the precinct and he always makes sure she eats even if it is just an apple and he always gets her coffee and makes her smile and laugh when she most needs it.

Kate Beckett slowly turns around and she feels Castle on her heels as she slowly walks out the door and down the path for 20 minutes and they are literally in the middle of nowhere. There are no cars or houses and no one in sight.

Beckett bends her knees and runs her hands through her hair and takes deep breath after deep breath as she tries to stop her tears, tries to calm her worries and fears. She won't cry in front of him. She won't cry because she isn't scared. She won't cry because there is not someone watching her with a gun pointed at her or trying to kill her. But she is scared and there is someone watching her and there is someone trying to kill her and she can't handle much more.

She feels Castle sit down beside her and he puts a gentle hand on her back trying to calm her, trying to get her to talk to him.

"I'm so scared Castle and everyone expects me to keep them safe which I will, I will keep them safe. But Castle I'm still hurting and I'm scared and someone is trying to kill me but I just feel like I can't let anyone know how scared I am or how much this is all affecting me because I need to be the strong one for them."

"Kate you don't need to be the strong one all the time, let me be the strong one for once, let me help you and Kate everyone is scared that doesn't mean you can't be scared. You're entitles to feel how you want."

He rubbed soothing circles on her back with his index finger and Beckett felt all the tension melting away. She slowly stood up and held out her hands to help Castle up and he stumbled as he stood making her laugh.

"Jeez Castle careful, we wouldn't want you breaking a hip."

Castle put his hand on his chest in mock offence "I beg your pardon Ms Beckett, I won' be breaking a hip any time soon thank you very much or are you forgetting there is only a few years of age between us."

Beckett's jaw dropped as she said "A few Castle there is almost 10 years between us what are you trying to say I'm almost 50 as well."

"50 !" Castle exclaimed "Beckett I'm only 40 and you know it."

"You may be 40 Castle but you can barely get up by yourself."

Castle stepped closer to her and leaned in to her ear and whispered "I may have trouble getting off the ground but believe me detective I have no trouble with any other forms of movement."

"Careful Castle my dad might hear you." And then she turned away laughing to her self and expertly hiding her blush.

Beckett heard Castle running to catch up with her so she walked faster so he ran faster so she started jogging and before long they were racing back to the cabin.

She knew she could trust Castle enough to tell him her troubles and to cry in front of him but does he trust her enough to tell her his troubles ?