I'm so sorry I haven't been responding to the wonderful reviews being left. Please know that I appreciate each and everyone of them. You guys really inspire me to keep writing. I know this isn't a Pulitzer Prize winner, but it's definitely an accomplishment for the Spanish speaking kid who failed English in 5th grade and again as a freshman in high school. I hated reading until the 11th grade, when I finally learned to read for enjoyment. Then learned to enjoy writing only about 10 years ago. Castle has sparked my imagination and for that I thank everyone involved in the show! Now on with the show!

Walker liked to play with his victims, and these were no different. He wanted them to know he was there. That he was in their lives and was coming for them. Every sound and movement out of the ordinary would unravel them. Fear would consume them and cloud their eyes. By the time he disposed of his chosen targets, he imagined that they would almost welcomed it. Then in those moments late at night he would relive it all again. That was part of the fun for him, reliving his kills over and over in his mind.

He had watched the author's family in his spare time. The young red head was very pretty, took after her grandmother who was probably hot in her day. He would start with them first, play with Castle's mind.

Alexis, was found rather quickly. He had a picture taken in February a year and a half ago for reference. He searched the websites of the top private schools in the area, then went trolling and discovered a picture of Alexis on the school website with her science fair award from the previous year. From there he found a school newspaper article listing the schools seniors had been accepted too, and the college they were attending. It didn't take him long to find her at Columbia. After that it was easy to learn everything about her routine. Even now, with her security detail, it hadn't been hard to follow them to the loft. From there he followed Martha to her studio and performing at the theater.

If he just wanted to kill them, with the weapons and explosives he had available to him it would been easy. What he wanted was to maybe kill the security detail after today's plan was executed, then take his time with them.

Walker printed the picture he had from his thumb drive, as soon as he arrived in his room. He put on the gloves he had snagged at work, and arranged the pictures across the bed. He wanted to make sure he chose the best ones. The ones that showed he had been very close, sometimes close enough to touch. A picture of Martha as she signed an autograph for him, and one as she bought shoes at Bloomingdales. Alexis' picture showed her as she entering her dorm, and one of her with the security detail on the train. He added a few that showed them as they entered and left their building. Once he had picked the ones he liked he had put them in a brown envelope and sealed it. In an hour he would return to the hospital. Three hours later she would get escorted to her therapy session. For now he would slip the envelope into his back pack, show up early for his shift at the hospital and wait for the perfect opportunity.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ C&B ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Castle had been awake for two hours, that was the longest stretch yet. The orderlies and his security detail had taken him to get a CT Scan earlier, and then he had seen the doctor to get his stitches removed from his chest. It had been a long day for him. He was thankful for Beckett's company. For the last two hours Beckett and he had enjoyed each other's company. They had tried to push everything aside and enjoyed being together. Playing poker had been part of them since he first started following her.

"This is the last hand, Castle. I've got to get to physio in a few minutes."

"You're just jealous because I have all your jelly beans. This hasn't been your day."

"It's ok Castle, I'll win when it counts more." Castle looked over and wiggled an eyebrow at her.

"And when would that be, Beckett?"

"Castle, by the looks of you, if I'm lucky maybe in six months!"

"Are you kidding me? Six months?"

"I'm no doctor, Castle, but it will be when the doctor says so and not a minute sooner." Castle pouted and put on his most pathetic sad puppy dog face.

"Those sad eyes aren't going to work on me, Rick. We need you to focus on getting better and then everything else will fall into place. Now I have to go. I might be trading these crutches in for a cane today." She walked over and brushed her lips against his. "I'll be back in an hour. Stay out of trouble, ok?"

Castle nodded as the door opened and LT stepped in, "Time to go Detective Beckett. How you doing, Castle?"

"Not too shabby, LT as long as I have the pain meds it's bearable. Once they start to wean me off and start physical therapy that will be another story."

"Well, you hang in there and I'll bring her back in a little over an hour."

Castle nodded at Beckett and gave him a small wave before the door closed. He put on a happy face for everyone. He didn't want them to think less of him, he didn't want the dullness that went with the pain meds, but he had never been in so much pain. Not a second after they were out of sight he pushed the button for the pain medication.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ C&B ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Beckett waited with LT for the elevator to open. When it did the custodian rolled his cart out and they stepped in. The custodian's face had startled her. She had seen him before on this floor and on her way to her therapy but had never noticed the scar on his cheek or the darkness in his eyes.

"Excuse me ma'am." He mumbled in a heavy accent as he bowed his head.

"No problem," she answered. "Have a good day."

"You too," he responded with a nod of his head as he walked down the hall as the door to the elevator closed behind him. Beckett and LT resumed talking and not another thought was wasted on the custodian as they went to therapy.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ C&B ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Walker pushed the cart down the hall and was glad this direction had his back to her. He wondered if he'd seen a reaction in her eyes before he glanced away. He knew he had to be careful. People were put off by his face for some reason. He'd learned to hide it most of the time but now and then he liked to enjoy letting them see what was coming. He didn't dare look back at her to check it out. Homicide detectives who were good at their jobs, and she was, were also experts at reading people. That had been close but when she didn't callout to him, he was sure he was safe.

When Walker approached the door to Castle's room, the security detail was not standing by the door. The officer was probably in the john and he would have to move fast. Before he got to the door he pulled the envelope out and held it near the handle where it couldn't be seen. As he walked by the door, he fiddled with one of the bags and dropped the envelope onto the floor and shoved it under the door with his foot. From all his surveillance he knew the hospital camera was down the hall and that the cart would hide his movements. He had always made sure never to face any of the cameras, and keep his head down. He grabbed a spray bottle and cleaned a window on the other side of the hall. The nurses at the main nursing station didn't even look his way. They were pushed to the limit with patients and paperwork to the point anything routine, including him, was invisible to them. He felt a little spurt of pleasure at the thought of the panic his act would cause. Then he continued with his duties. Now all he had to do was wait and watch.

The discovery came quicker than he had expected. Not ten minutes after he had slipped the bundle under the door their two male detective friends had come in. He wasn't sure what had happened in the room but as soon as they came out they were shouting orders and locked down the floor. The cart had already been stored and locked up in the custodial closet for a quick escape and he made it to the stairs before they fully locked down the floor.

Walker opened the door and walked out of the stairwell on the fourth floor. Then watched as LT accompanied the detective as she hobbled down the corridor to the elevators. The detectives upstairs had obviously contacted her. He had seen enough, he turned and walked towards the nearest exit. At the main entrance an officer checked his ID badge against a list of employees, and then checked the contents of his backpack, after a minute he was released to continue on his way.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ C&B ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

When LT and Beckett arrived back on the floor with Castle's room, Ryan and Espo waited for her in the corridor. The door to Castle's room was closed and they told her he was still asleep inside.

"What the hell happened?" Beckett was definitely in detective mode.

"Gates sent us to get more information from you and Castle. The security detail was at the door when we got here. We opened the door and kicked the envelope as we entered. Picked it up and looked inside." He handed her gloves. "We were suspicious and Castle was asleep so we backed out of the room. Officer Brigham left Castle's door to go to the men's room. He said he didn't see anything. I'm going to have him replaced. I think he needs a review, this is inexcusable. If they could drop off an envelope, they could have just as easily killed Castle." He handed the envelope to Beckett.

Beckett turned to LT and said, "You're going to relieve that idiot and take his place until someone competent shows up? Right? Can you also check on Hunt in ICU, make sure nothing there is out of the ordinary?"

"You read my mind, Detective." LT agreed then headed off with the obvious focus to deal with Officer Brigham and check on Hunt."

Kate opened the envelope and slid the pictures out. She stumbled back thankful for the wall behind her. The first pictures in the pile showed Alexis entering her dorm at school. She gasped as she flipped through the rest. Martha at her acting school and then Alexis on the train!

"I have to talk to Gates and Shaw. This nut job has gotten too close. I want my badge and gun back, if not Javi I want you to bring me my back up. When Castle wakes up we need to update him right away. If he used the pump to medicate we won't get anything out of him for another couple of hours. Meanwhile, get Karpowski up here to grill the nurses. They had to have seen something. Pull all the security footage on this floor. Look for anything that freaking moves."

"Beckett, we need to know what you know about Alexis kidnapping." Espo asked.

"Not right now, Espo! There are two parts to this. Right now, staying alive is more important than finding out who is behind this. We need to find the psycho that's taunting us. Alive if possible."

"Beckett, this could possibly be connected. We traced the money trail for the men who held Castle back to a bank in Moscow." Ryan continued. "We remembered Castle saying something about the people who kidnapped Alexis being foreigners."

"Screw that! Where the hell is my phone, I need to get Shaw and some Federal Marshals up here to guard Castle."

Espo said, "Ryan, you update her, I'll get cracking on the immediate problem." He walked away poking at his phone.

Beckett stood there silent, still fuming that Castle had been left unguarded. She looked at Espo's back and said, "Thanks." He nodded his head clearly absorbed in what he was doing with his phone. She turned back and said, "Ryan, we're going to stand in front of Castle's door until LT gets back from dealing with Officer Brigham and checking in on Hunt."

Ryan nodded his acceptance and moved over to the door. Beckett, was clearly in pain the elevator dinged and LT walked off the elevator and in their direction. "Detective, Brigham is on administrative leave pending a review. He left his post against orders. It won't happen again. I have two officers on their way here. We will keep two officers outside the door at all times. I checked in ICU and nothing there is out of the ordinary."

Beckett said, "Thanks, LT. Please make sure that the same is done for Mr. Hunt." Her immediate concern satisfied, and confident that the appropriate actions were underway to increase security for her and Castle, she sat on the floor to take the weight off her leg. She had a second thought and said, "LT, we'll keep an eye on the hall, would you take a look around Castle's room and be sure there wasn't anything else left in there? If you see my phone please bring it out here?"

"Sure, I should have suggested that myself."

Beckett nodded her thanks to LT, sighed and massaged her leg for a few seconds. The pin helped, so did the inflatable cast, but it still hurt big time if she abused it, and between the therapy and hustling down here, it was telling her she needed to back off. Well, it could tell her what ever it wanted, but she'd do what she needed to do to keep Castle and their family alive. The leg could just deal with it.

Beckett turned to Ryan, "He didn't go into detail, but he did tell me that the man who abducted Alexis was a spy for the SVR. The French government wanted to avoid an international incident and kept it quiet. We have to wait until he wakes up to get the rest of the information. If this has to do with the SVR then we might look at Sophia Turner too. I'll explain what I can about her to you too, but it's classified information. I'm going to call Shaw and Gates now. If you boys are right this is bigger than we thought."

Beckett stood there silent. Castle had told her about Hunt and his involvement with Volkov who was part of the SVR the "new" Russian KGB. There had also been the incident with Sophia Turner. It made some sense That those two things could be connected. They would have to wait until Castle woke up to get accurate information.

I'm hoping this story makes it to over 600 reviews and the 50k word minimum needed for the 2014 Castle Hiatus Ficathon. It's starting to wrap up, but still has some life left in it yet. I promise to update at the very least once a week. This is the third time this week. I'm honored and shocked at the reception this story has gotten! Thank you to my helpers, betas and fight scene coordinator because without you guys my ADHD mind would drive all you readers away! They rock! Thanks again for reading :) Follow me on Twitter glo1196 - Tumblr: MyCastleObsession and on Pintrest glo11962 where I have a Castle board!