Disclaimer : Castle is not mine.
Their lips had touched for a second. One blissfully filled seconds that Richard Castle will never forget so long as he lived. Their lips had touched for a second and they would have touched for longer if not for Jim Beckett storming into their room wide eyed and out of breath only to pause and smirk as he saw his daughter move so far away from Rich she was on the edge of the bed and stumbling over her words "We were... er... just talking about the... um... case." Only for her father to raise an unbelieving eyebrow at her and for her to go beet red. But Castle, Castle can't say anything because he is still stuck in that one second that seems like every fairy tale rolled into one and is on constant replay in his brain. He wants to touch his lips just to feel where her lips had been but her dad is still in the room and Beckett is still stumbling over an explanation as if her dad thinks she has never kissed a man before. She never once questions why he stumbled into her room, why he didn't knock or what did he want she just simply stumbled over her words.
He turns to see her beautiful face, her sparkling eyes which have just a spark of fire to him but not an angry spark, quite the opposite actually, it's a spark of them, of how much that kiss affected her, how is arose so many feelings and how everything is in over drive. He knows her heart is racing just like his wants to see if he can see her heart pounding in her chest or the pulse pounding in her neck with the adrenaline of that beautiful second and the shock of being caught by her dad but he can't. he can't because then he would be staring at her chest and her dad is still in the room and she is uncomfortable enough as it is. She hasn't realized her dad isn't angry or doesn't need an explanation because he is smiling but he also has a spark in his eyes. The spark of pure happiness a parent gets when the child finally finds the one for them but he sees the fear of letting her grow up and finally letting her go. Not holding her hand but passing it onto another man, trusting that man to love her forever and to never hurt her. He sees that look and he hopes she will let him take her hand and not be so stubborn.
He is brought back into reality when he hears her go "Da-ad." And he loves hearing her say it like that, just a hint of a whine to her voice and he wonders what a teen Beckett would have been like before the harsh reality of losing her mother tore her down and she built herself back up, stronger than before determined to not let anything tare her down again building her walls so high that only a few will get over them. He sees that determination every day and he loves it, scaling higher and higher up her walls and he is so close to the top and he can feel it, can feel how she treats him differently, she is gentler towards him, she is more open to which these past few days have proven.
"What did you want dad." She asks annoyed because her father just burst through the door on a moment which could be blissfully beautiful, it was beautiful already, how they moved so slowly and when their lips touched their was just this energy that she knew she would never be able to get ride of, how this moment, this second is burnt into her memory forever. She acres about him and she knows he cares about her to, that's when she feels it that familiar guilt about knowing he loves her and lying to him everyday about not knowing what happened and she wants to tell him so badly but she is terrified because she loves him back she truly does and she knows he is her one and done and she will fight for him if she has to, knows she will do anything for him.
"Oh I was just going to say we found another note in the garden but if you guys are too busy I can just come back later." Jim said pointing behind him as if coming back later with such important news was actually an option.
Castle and Beckett are up in seconds rushing downstairs Jim is still at the bedroom door a bit frozen at how quickly they had moved.
They see the Beckett family in a circle surrounding the area where the note is. When Beckett and Castle reach there its a simple note lying on the grass. As soon as she sees it she is in cop mode. First thing she knew she had to do was get her family safe and there was a feeling that the house wasn't safe the house in which everybody had thought safe not 5 minutes ago. She looks around, frantic trying to find some movement somewhere until she remembers she doesn't have her gun and she sends a quick look at Castle and he sees her eyes drift to his hip and he gets the message instantly.
"I'm going to call Ryan and Esposito." He said already on a fast pace back in the house and grabbing her gun and as he passed the kitchen he saw a knife just sitting there and he grabbed it and tucked it into the back of his jogging bottoms and is outside again within 30 seconds and that's when he hears the first gun shot, an ear piercing scream and a whole crowd of people moving towards the house and he sees a flash of panic in Beckett's eyes at everybody's direction and he closes the door and it yelling at everybody to get in the lake and they're all looking at him as if he is crazy but he knows its harder in the water and the foggy water will hide their positions if they're underwater.
Once he sees everybody moving towards the lake and he sees Beckett behind a tree he starts to run for her but something hits his leg and that's when the second gun shot registers to him and he falls to the ground, quietly wanting to give the illusion he is down but he has just enough time to slide Beckett's gun across the ground and he will never hear the heart breaking cry she lets out, hears her screams for him and not being able to get to him.
That's when he hears it the rustling of the bushes and finally their messengers are revealed. He hears Dunn first hearing him telling her that last time wasn't the end, how it wasn't meant to end like that and he can feel the fear she radiates and the cries from her relatives. He hears the water rippling and then he hears her yelling at them all to stay in the water and he hears a splash, probably one of her relatives holding Jim down. He knows it's Jim because no father would just stand by.
He feels a boot nudge him and he makes him body go limp so he is dead weight. He doesn't react when the boot presses into his neck, holds his breath and then he hears it. That sickening voice. The one of Jerry Tyson. The one who has no mercy and he fears for her but he knows its not time yet. Knows he shouldn't move that now just isn't the time to reveal himself. The boot presses a little harder and he tells himself not to react over and over again. When the boot finally lifts from his neck he wants to gasp for breath but then he feels someone leaning over him, so close and he can feel his breath on his face and he tenses.
"You know Detective you should really stop thinking you're going to win this battle between good and bad. That you'll ever win because we all know why you became a cop and we all know you're never going to catch your mothers killer, do you want to know why Detective ?" He hears the voice moving around as if they're circling her and he hears a gun shot and wood splintering as if from a tree and he knows he can't stay like this for long. He feels Jerry Tyson moving away from him and he releases a breath slowly after waiting another 30 seconds of waiting to make sure that he wasn't close enough to tell anymore. "Because you will never win, you try so hard to be this hard core Detective, who follows a code when in reality you're just out for revenge, always following leads when it comes to your mothers case after all isn't that what happened with Montgomery ? With Detective Raglan and McCalister ? Every lead you will ever have, every lead you will ever get will go, it will be taken care of because this person is just too powerful for you. You like to think you're better then us but in reality you are just as bad as us, you've taken lives before everyone knows it after all didn't you kill the person who stabbed your mother in the precinct that you work." There was a pause and she knows she is trying to keep her emotions in check. "TELL ME I'M WRONG DETECTIVE !"
And then he hears her shouting back hears her fear, how she is scared for herself, for her secrets coming out, for him and he knows he is on the list because he can feel her gaze every so often. "You're wrong. You don't know anything about me and this so called too powerful to catch person, he will be caught because there are leads, leads you don't know about and he has sent people after me and they are all gone. I've survived every attempt on my life even yours Dunn. I've survived my apartment being blown up, being nearly frozen to death, standing in front of a bomb, and even a bullet to the heart so what tells you I'm so easy to get ride of. What gives you that idea because I keep getting back up every time."
That's when he hears all hell break loose, water splashing, guns being fired and he knows there is no attention on him what so ever so he gets up soundlessly reaching for the knife that is tucked behind him and he goes for Tyson first kicking at the back of his knees hearing him fall and hitting his head on the way down with a sickening crack. That must be when everyone realizes he is very much alive and he sees Dunn turn a gun to him and there is the distinctive crack of his gun. Then everything freezes. Everything and everyone is stuck in time, immobile.