Already at chapter 20! Thank you to everyone who has left a review I appreciate you taking out the time to do so. They mean a lot to me! Thank you to everyone who has helped with this story, your help, encouragement and suggestions have made it what it is. I'm so excited that we only have one more Castleless Monday! I'm nervous, excited and scared. After the season ending I want the fun and magic back, I do NOT want to be disappointed. I will have faith in the writers who have always managed to make me want to come back each week! This is my entry into the 2014 Castle Hiatus Ficathon!

It was like struggling to break the surface when your oxygen starved lungs screamed for air. He struggled to regain consciousness. Castle heard the incessant sound of the machines that monitored him, then the shuffling of many feet. Mumbled voices and whispered tones made his mind race with fear. The sound of the door as it clicked open and shut echoed in his head. Finally the strong odor of hospital infiltrated his perceptions just before his eyes finally blinked opened.

He scanned the room quickly. Other than Shaw and Avery the room was crowded with everyone he considered family. Gates, Shaw and Avery stood at the foot if his bed. Lanie, Esposito and Ryan sat to the right of him. The concerned looks on their faces startled him. His mother and Alexis to the left of him. Martha's arms wrapped securely around his daughter. Tears tracked down the soft slope of her cheeks. His heart skipped a beat.

Castle scanned the room again. "Where is she? Where's Kate?" He struggled to get up. Pain seared through his chest and he hissed. "Where's Kate!"

"Mr. Castle!" Gates loud voice startled him still. "Detective Beckett is right outside this door. She is calling her father with information he needs. You need to lie back down in that bed and relax. There are two armed Marshall's outside that door with her."

His heart pounded with fear, the new information about the armed Marshall's hadn't escaped him. "Dad, she's ok. Just calling her father." Alexis said as she eased him back into the pillows. "You need to calm down, Dad."

"What's going on? Why are you all here? Why do we have armed Marshall's now?"

"Castle, there has been an incident." Shaw offered. "When Beckett's finished her conversation with her father, we will discuss it."

The door opened and a disheveled Kate Beckett hobbled in making more use of her cane than she had the day before. Her natural beauty showed through the overlay of pain, stress, and uncertainty that clearly enveloped her every thought. Her apparent anguish washed over Castle's pain and for a moment was almost overwhelming. She had obviously been running her hand through her hair, a nervous habit when she struggled with a frustrating problem. Her eyeliner was almost gone, which meant she had cried at some point. Her bottom lip was swollen from her teeth biting into it. He doubted that she had slept much in the last few days.

"Hey, you're awake." For a moment a smile broke through the tension as she struggled to his bedside. Her leg obviously hurt as she sat back in the chair next to his bed.

"What's going on Kate?"

"Castle..." Kate looked over at Martha.

"Why don't we give Katherine and my son a few minutes. We'll be right outside." Martha announced as she shooed everyone out the door. "Katherine, will explain and then we'll come back in and figure this out. Plenty of people out there with us."

Castle's eyebrow shot up as he looked at them. "Thanks, Mother."

"Kate, I can see it in your face. What's going on?" He questioned as the door clicked behind Martha.

"Castle, stay calm, we have this, but I need to update you. While I was in therapy earlier today, someone managed to slip these under your door." Kate flipped through the pictures. "There are no prints on them, and we have Tory going over footage from the hospital cameras now."

"Kate when were these taken? These pictures are close, my God my mother is autographing a picture for whoever took these. They've followed Alexis at her dorm and on the train! They aren't safe." He grabbed a hold of her hand and let her see the raw desperation and helplessness in his eyes.

"Castle, they're here. They're safe. We have officers all over this floor as well as Hunt's floor. Shaw added Federal Marshals around the hospital, too. Five of us in this room are armed. Whoever this is knows our routines. The boys found the pictures when they came to ask us more questions. The officer outside your door had stepped away to use the men's room. He's currently on an unpaid leave pending a review. The boys traced the money deposited in your kidnappers accounts to a bank in Moscow. We need information about what happened when Alexis was abducted. I know you don't want to relive that time, but I think it might be connected. I think Sophia might be connected too. She was an ex SVR sleeper, deep cover operative. We need to tell them everything we both know."

"Send them back in, Kate. The French government be damned. My family will always come first."

She bent over and brushed her lips warmly against his. Her tongue traced his lips and her hand feathered across his cheek gently. "Castle, we'll get through this. We'll have our fairytale ending."

"I know. I'm just not comfortable with that psycho being so close. Let's bring them back in here, and get this guy." After one last kiss to his forehead, Kate hobbled to the door and motioned everyone back into the room. Her dad had just arrived, Castle watched as he gave her a quick, but careful hug.

"How are you doing, Katie?" She saw and felt his eyes probe hers for the truth as he passed by her into the room. "How's he doing?"

"As well as can be expected under the circumstances." The look her father gave her made her stomach churn. "Yes, there's more. Come on in, we are about to update everyone."

Shaw and Gates updated everyone on the money trail that lead to Moscow. The room remained silent. "Mr. Castle, Detective Beckett said that you may have information relevant to this case?"

Castle felt a surge of affection when Kate slipped her hand into his in a gesture of support.

Castle turned to Agent Shaw and said, "This will require me revealing classified information about a CIA Covert Officer that not everybody present has heard before. Is that okay?"

Shaw nodded her permission and he continued, "It started with CIA Covet Officer, Sophia Turner. Back then I thought it was sheer luck that got me access to a CIA agent. Now I know otherwise. Sophia Turner was the CIA agent that was the inspiration for Clara Strike in my Derrick Storm books. I shadowed her for a year. We had a relationship, but we went our separate ways. Captain Gates, do you remember the case where the scientist Nelson Blakely faked his death, and was then killed in our custody? Blakely had found a "Linchpin" that would end the world as we know it. Sophia Turner was the CIA agent in charge of that case. In the end it was Sophia who killed Blakely and attempted to murder a young Chinese girl, who was the Linchpin. Sophia had a gun to my head and revealed that she was a deep covert SVR spy. In the end she was killed by another CIA agent just before she intended to kill Kate and me - her finger was on the trigger."

"One thing she told us was that my father had paved the way for my access to the CIA. At the time I, we, had no idea who my father was. We were never able to find out if what she said was true. Earlier this year Alexis was kidnapped and taken to Paris. It was there that I was rescued by Jackson Hunt. Jackson Hunt is a CIA deep cover operative, and, as will become obvious, my father. Gregory Volkov, a Russian spy, had taken Alexis to flush out Hunt. He knew Hunt would not let his grand-daughter die without a fight. Years ago Hunt had captured Volkov and turned him over to authorities, in the struggle to capture him, Volkov's wife became a casualty, collateral damage. Volkov wanted revenge. Alexis was meant to draw Hunt out and then he would kill both of them. Hunt devised a plan to rescue Alexis."

Ryan's phone rang and he stepped out of the room to take the call.

Castle continued with his description of events, " I was purposely caught by Volkov's men while planting explosives. Hunt rigged the walkie talkie I was carrying with explosives. When Volkov took it from me and used it to threaten Hunt, Hunt remotely detonated it and killed Volkov and those near him. Alexis and I were able to escape and run to the French Embassy. I think we need to find where Gregory Volkov and Sophia Turner intersected. They must have something or someone in common."

The door opened and Ryan returned. "Castle, everybody, that was Tory. She got the footage from the hospital and has gone through it. The only person that approached your door in the few seconds Officer Bringham was in the men's room was the custodian. His name is Steven Carlton. Tory ran his name and this is his DMV picture." Ryan held out his phone so the others could see the picture. It showed a thin, late 20's, blonde hair, green eyed white man. "I told Tory the guy in the picture doesn't match description you gave of the custodian you and LT encountered at the elevator. You said he had olive skin tones, long black greasy hair and dark eyes. Both of you mentioned the nasty scar across his cheek. Tory is sending a sketch artist so you and LT can build us a picture of the man that was here."

Kate took the phone from Ryan and examined the picture Tory had sent. "That's definitely not the man we saw coming out of the elevator today. The guy we saw today has been working on this floor the entire time we've been here." Kate answered. "Find that janitors cart. As soon as you do, get CSU to process it for prints and start processing them through every database out there. As soon as the sketch artist is done with LT and I, we need everyone to have a copy of it. We need to find this guy!"

Shaw stepped up. "As of this moment you are all in federal custody. We need to move you all to a safe location away from the city. Right now you will all stay here. Where we have NYPD as well as Federal Marshall's and the FBI to protect you. Detective Ryan your wife and daughter are being escorted here as we speak. As soon as a safe house is procured we will move you there. We will find this guy and whoever is controlling his puppet strings. Mr. Castle and Mr. Hunt will remain here under the strictest surveillance."

The room exploded with loud objections.

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

The neon sign from the motel shined through the slats of the window blinds giving the room an eerie glow. Walker had walked in and removed his shirt. After he checked in he was going to change his shirt, treat himself to a big juicy steak and a beer somewhere, and if he was lucky he'd get a girl drunk enough to fuck her brains out, then dispose of her after her usefulness was exhausted. Or maybe, if there wasn't a lot of time, just watch her die. If he was honest with himself, watching the lights go out was the real pleasure. The only part of the sex he liked was how hard they always tried, how desperate they got when they thought it was going to save their lives. It never did. In the last moments they always asked their God to help. He never did. Then he'd watch the lights go out. There was that last moment when they realized it was really over. That look was the part he always remembered. He wanted that moment with the Detective in the worst way but wasn't sure he'd have time for it. In a couple of days he'd be on his way back to Moscow, and all this would be another memory to be replayed endless times for his pleasure.

The weapons he needed had been a cinch to find in Washington Heights. You could find anything there, you could buy souls if you had enough cash. He knew that because he'd done it. Under his bed sat a locked piece of luggage, he had filled it with everything he needed. Then he had snuck everything into the hospital and hidden it in a long forgotten storage room where he could easily access it and the service stairs to the floor where Castle and Beckett were waiting. He had his plan, his distractions, all ready and in place. Everything was exactly as he wanted it. Tomorrow he would walk in the front door of the hospital without a problem and then he'd complete his objective.

Walker sat at the worn desk his cell phone plastered to his ear. "It starts tomorrow. I have established myself as an employee, no one will suspect me. By the time they do I will be long gone. The fewer of them alive when this is over the better. I'll make sure Hunt and Castle watch their loved ones die. Thank you, I'll check my balance as soon as I get off the phone."

He hung up the phone and immediately dialed his bank's automated teller $250,000.00 had been deposited into his account this morning. Walker ended the call and walked over to the bed. He laid down and stared at the ceiling. Tomorrow, the next day at the latest, he'd get to torture their souls and squeeze the life out of them. He might even take a nibble or two of one of the females, but right now the night was young and he could feel the anticipation of another defining moment of personal pleasure building. The time was right for everything.

I'm getting closer to the 50k words needed for the 2014 Castle Hiatus Ficathon. It's starting to wrap up, Walker is one scary dude. I promise to update at the very least once a 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!