CH53

At the risk of repeating myself since the guest didn't listen. Guests who don't pay attention to the warnings should read or not read and remain silent. Very, very silent. And since you're the only one who cares what you think, ... enough. Read, don't read that's the beauty of reading stories on this site. If you sign in you deserve to say your piece, until then, ... SILENCE!

And for everyone else, my apologies for this and the guest who doesn't care. From now on I will simply ignore her for the sake of everyone else who reads.

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It is now two days later: (August 18, 2001)

Kate had given her initial statement to the officers and detectives that had shown up before she was taken to a local hospital to have her wound looked at. She was now ever so happy that Jill was smarter than her. Jill had healed her liver damage, however she had left enough of the knife wound itself for Kate to claim injury and explain her bloody clothes.

She was worried that she had left a bloody trail to the other guy that she didn't have a cover story for. How could she explain that she ran invisible down the sidewalk, made her way around him without being seen, and used her training to take his weapon away from him while breaking his wrist? Let alone shooting him in the legs with his own gun?

Kate had gone home to change and now she was sitting in an interrogation room of a different precinct with different detectives asking her questions. Well, she was until Frazier showed up and threw out the detectives. Frazier was secure in the knowledge that Hammond was the only person in observation.

"Let's take it from the top Beckett." Frazier started asking her questions, most of which she had already answered.

"Castle is out following up on a lead, that's why I was headed for the office when I was abducted. I haven't been able to call him since this started to let him know anything," she said, telling a white lie. It was true that she hadn't called him. In fact she herself hadn't talked to him since this started. Jill had been talking to Jack for her.

Then it hit her. Jack and Jill could talk to each other, so Nero and whatever name the other unit is called should be able to talk to each other as well. Even if Castle had placed the drug manufacturer (if it even was him in the first place) in some isolated location, that didn't mean he couldn't talk with Bracken since they were both convinced that Bracken had a unit.

She needed to get this information to Castle, not that he could do anything about it, since he had trapped himself in Hawaii for 24 hours. IDIOT! The more she thought about it, the more sure she was that she was going to shoot him. She would just get Jill to fix him after she did.

It was hours before Kate was allowed to go home; she was given the next two days off work because of her injury. The same could not be said for Castle. He was expected in the New York field office tomorrow.

"You are expected to be in the office tomorrow Castle," Kate told Jill, who told Jack, who in turn told Castle.

"Good news is I'm in LAX at the moment trying to find a redeye out of here to get me as close as I can if not all the way to New York," Jill responded, speaking for Castle.

"Jack has found a flight that will land at 10:46 in the morning, he says it's the best he can find," Jill informed Kate.

"We wouldn't have this problem if you hadn't gotten stupid on me Castle. Just what the hell were you thinking?" Could he talk himself out of being shot by her?

"I was thinking that these drugs were meant for some of the most influential people in our country, and I wanted them gone. If we still had them those two men might have gotten their hands on them. …Are you sure you're alright Kate?" Rick sounded sorry he wasn't there for her.

"I'm fine, it took six stitches to close the wound and in a couple of days I'll have Jill fix the rest of me and remove the stitches. …You should have been here, Rick. You're supposed to be my partner." She was still angry with Castle.

He remained silent since that seemed to be the best he could come up with. "Castle, you still there?" She didn't like the silent treatment.

"I'm sorry Kate, I really am, it's just that it seemed like a good idea at the time. I didn't think that their units could talk to each other like ours can and have Bracken order up a capture order on you to get the drugs back," Jill spoke softly to convey the way Castle was talking to Jack.

"Capture nothing, Castle, that knife to my liver should have killed me! And you're a dead man when you get back here!" She stopped talking to Jill, forcing Jack to tell Richard that Jill had stopped talking to him. Kate was letting Castle know just how pissed she was with him.

Rick went straight to the FBI field office via taxi as soon as he made it outside of the airport. "Well, look what the cat dragged in," Frazier teased as he watched Rick sit at his desk.

"It better be a really big cat, I am so tired." Rick had only gotten a little sleep on his flights. A commuter flight to Honolulu, followed by a 6 hour flight to LAX, followed by another long flight to Chicago with another flight to New York. Rick was dead on his feet and still wearing the same clothes without a shower.

"How is Beckett?" Frazier knew about the knife wound and attack.

"Shaken, pissed as hell, but otherwise fine. She told me it only required a few stitches." Rick apprised Frazier, knowing Kate didn't need stitches only due to Jill.

"She's lucky, she must have moved just at the right time or that knife would have split her liver wide open and left her lying there bleeding out." Frazier knew a little just not as much as Rick did thanks to Jack.

"Probably all that Ranger training I put her through before we joined the FBI," he offered as an explanation. His response seemed to satisfy Frazier since he remained silent allowing Rick to study his computer screen.

Jack had been trying to study the report on Kate's encounter, however no one had transferred their notes into a computer system yet, so Jack was in the dark. "Nothing yet." Jack typed on Rick's screen.

Rick did without lunch since Kate was at home and he didn't feel like going through security to go find any. What he wanted to do was to go home, face the music, and see for himself that Kate was okay.

Rick's cell phone vibrated. "Castle." Rick didn't think to look at the caller ID.

"Hello Richard, I have the evening off and thought I would call to see how you and Katherine are doing," Martha said to him.

"Hello Mother. Kate is pretty good actually, she has the next two days off while I get to slave away in the office," Rick moaned.

"Lucky her! Please tell her that I got her invitation. I must say, son, that you two are really going all out. It suggests a choice between a hotel room or a room in your villa. You didn't tell me that you two bought a house out there." Martha just hoped they could afford all this.

"We only just closed on it a couple of days ago Mother. Once we get more replies we'll have a better idea of where everyone wants to be. Kate and I were thinking of giving you the Sunset Room. It offers a lovely view of the sun setting over the ocean," Rick disclosed.

"The bedrooms have names?" Martha was surprised.

"There are four master bedroom suites and Kate named each of them based on where they're located. I think she already loves the place and would have us move there permanently if we could." Actually Rick wasn't guessing; he was sure Kate wanted to live there instead of in New York. They could turn their New York place into a vacation home. It was almost possible if they were both willing to live with the loss of losing 4 of Rick's 6 actions every 24 hours.

Rick didn't really get very far in his research of what happened to Kate. He was forced to take a taxi to go get their car and drive home. Once home he tried to walk softly, in case she really did plan on shooting him.

Rick turned into the butler's pantry headed for the kitchen. "Kate?" he whispered.

He found her cutting up vegetables in preparation for what she was cooking. He held up his hands in surrender since she had a knife. "Kate I'm sorry, I just really wanted the Nuke gone. I was simply thinking of what that stuff could be used for...including our own government if they ever caught wind of what this stuff could do." He saw the possibility of CIA making use of Nuke written all over the case.

"You left me Castle. My partner left me all alone in Bracken's apartment. Left me to fend for myself while his goons hunted me down and did this." She dropped her knife and lifted up her shirt to show him her new scar.

Rick stared at her wound and started to reach out to run a finger over it, but changed his mind. Then he thought about bending down to kiss it better, but changed his mind about that, too. He simply gave up and let his shoulders sag, defeated. "I screwed up, I get that, and I am sorry Kate. I never dreamed that they would be brazen enough to take you right outside of our building."

"Yeah, well they did, and if it wasn't for Jill I would be dead right now Castle. Got that? Dead! As in 6-feet-under dead. Buried-next-to-my-mother dead." She picked her knife back up and went back to chopping, only a lot more aggressively then she had previously only to stop and slam the knife onto the countertop.

He left the kitchen downhearted, went into their bedroom to change and to take a much needed shower. Then he went into the larger spare bedroom and made sure it was ready for him to sleep in tonight. At least Kate hadn't sent him to a hotel room.

Dinner was quiet and Rick knew better than to go into HER kitchen, so he let her clean up while he sat dejected on the sofa in the living room. "Three uses have returned, a few minutes before one more and a few minutes after that will be the fifth. The sixth will take a little time," Jack spoke up.

She came out of the kitchen. "I'm going to go see my mother Castle, I haven't been there in months." She felt bad about that, she even gave consideration of inviting her dad, but thought he wouldn't be interested.

"I'll go with, just let me get my weapon," Rick offered and stood up. Just at that moment there was the sound of glass breaking and the dining room table next to Kate was struck by a bullet.

She hit the floor and crawled back into the kitchen so she could reach the weapon that was stored there. Rick also hit the floor and crawled for the two weapons that were stored in the dining room. From there they met in the butler's pantry.

"Jack?" Rick needed information.

"Hacking the CIA now… One of their satellites is still in position, however, it will exit this area in 6 minutes. The next one will not be in range for over an hour. Scanning… I have a single person in the rocks across the street that is part of Central park. Scanning… I believe that he has a dirt bike on the other side in Central Park waiting for him," Jack informed them.

Kate crawled out of the kitchen and into the hallway where Rick lifted her to a standing position. "Activate your invisibility and keep hold of me," he instructed Kate who did as she was told. She suddenly found herself standing next to a dirt bike. "Go that way and find cover," Rick pointed as he bent down to remove a vital part on the dirt bike so that it couldn't be used.

Rick was just finishing and on his way to find cover going the opposite direction from Kate when a man with a sniper rifle suddenly jumped down from the rocks taking both of them by surprise.

Rick wanted this one alive so he rushed him and instantly found himself in a hand to hand fight.

From Kate's perspective the two of them were using their hands in a wild display. There would be a sudden flurry of arm movements followed by stopping all together. It was during these lulls that they would silently circle each other.

She lined up her weapon and waited for an opening. Suddenly she thought she saw a knife in the sniper's hand. It was difficult to tell since there was another sudden surge in hand to hand fighting.

Then Kate heard what sounded like the sniper crying out in pain followed by Castle throwing the knife up into the rocks. After that it seemed like only moments until Castle had him down, pinned to the ground and had his head lifted up with Castle's arm around his neck.

It took a little time however the sniper was finally rendered unconscious; Castle let go of him and stood up. "Kate," Rick said, motioning her over. She stepped over and ended her invisibility.

She was impressed, Castle had obviously been well trained. Problem was so had been the sniper. "I only have 2 uses left. I'd like to take a few things with us, but we just don't have the time. I want to interrogate this guy and find out what he knows. I think to do that means taking him someplace that is isolated," Castle told her.

"And you can't take both of us." Castle had a weight restriction.

He nodded his head. "I'll gain another use in a few minutes. I want you to go pack a number of items and wait for me with all of it in the living room. After I secure him, I'll come get you and the stuff and then we can get to work on this guy. I think we deserve answers."

"Please have Jill scan him and then run for home. I'll be right there, I promise. We are going to do this together this time," Rick asked Kate and though he wasn't sure she would let him, he leaned down and gave her a quick kiss. Then he bent down, touched the sniper, and they were both gone.

Kate still wanted to shoot him, and yet her heart was aching for him. She ran for home and pulled out the well hidden key that would get her back into her own home and reset the alarm. She began searching for what she needed.

She was standing in their living room, waiting. But she was nervous. Just where had he taken him? What were they going to do with him?

She shook her head to take her mind off all that and went through her list: backpacks, food that didn't need heating (not an easy task), water bottles (empty since water has weight), clothes, sleeping bags, lanterns and flash lights, toiletries, water purification tablets, one bicycle, weapons (all with silencers), ammo clips for them, cooking supplies for camping (Rick had brought up the idea of camping out for a day or two so they had a few things), a dome tent, ground cloths, handcuffs (2 sets). Kate checked it all off and went into the kitchen again to pull out some protein bars to add to their backpacks.

"Kate?" Castle's voice suddenly called out. To her, his voice sounded tentative. Had she really sounded that angry with him? Yes, she was angry, but not really THAT angry. She came out of the kitchen and stuffed the protein bars into one of the backpacks.

"He is still unconscious and mostly secure. Are you ready? " Rick asked. She nodded her head.

Rick picked up and put on one of the backpacks as she followed his lead. "Pick up the bag, touch the bike, and hope this isn't too much weight." He touched her after she touched the bike and they were gone.

Kate looked around and saw a large river and could smell the ocean, there were no buildings in sight. "Castle where are we?"

"We're in North Korea to be precise. The river is called the Tumen, the closest town is actually on the other side of the river in Russia. It's called Khasan and is home to a little under 800 people. It also has a railroad crossing that has a train that crosses every other month from Russia into North Korea. The closest North Korean town is several miles west of here along the shore, it is called Unggi. It isn't any bigger than Khasan," he responded.

Her mouth was hanging open. NORTH KOREA? SERIOUSLY!?

"Okay, Castle, I'll bite. Why North Korea?" she queried as she watched him pick up the bag and start walking. She was just behind him, pushing the bike.

"I had a mission at that border crossing. We had intel that a special train was going to cross from Russian into North Korea and it wasn't going to be the passenger train, which by the way is the train between Moscow and Pyongyang, the longest continuous passenger train service in the world."

"However this train wasn't carrying passengers, well not innocent civilians anyway. We had intel that the Russians were going to be sending some second grade missile scientists along with parts and intelligence on how to build long range missiles. Long enough to reach the west coast of the states. Seattle, Portland, San Francisco. Maybe LA or San Diego even."

"Our task was to take the scientists and bring them back, take pictures of everything and blow the train and everything on it to hell and gone."

"We set up a base camp while we scouted the terrain and waited for the train, which was a little under 3 hour walk from here. We were to bring everyone back to camp and wait for nightfall then take everyone out by rubber raft to a sub that was waiting for us."

"We had taken into consideration that the scientists and their equipment would be guarded, but we hadn't taken into consideration how well guarded they would be."

"We had just found the scientists while another team was planting the explosives when we were spotted by two teams of Russian Spetsnaz. Russian Commandos. To make a long story short, we were forced to blow the train with the scientists still on it, while fighting our way clear."

"We lost two and had three wounded, including myself. It was nothing really. Can't even see the scar anymore unless you know where to look. We carried our dead since we couldn't let anyone find out it was a US mission and end up with a political nightmare."

"Our base camp is still here which is where I left him all tied up. As for why here, you speak Russian and I speak Chinese. So if for any reason we run across anyone we won't have to speak English, which is a good thing since no one anywhere near here speaks English." It also meant if the sniper managed to escape from them, hopefully he didn't speak either Russian or Chinese.

Kate couldn't believe it. Castle had just told her about one of his missions while he was a Ranger. She had just been given a glimpse at what his life had been like before he injured his knee and met her. By the sound of it, it was obviously a top secret, never to be spoken about again mission and he had told her! Suddenly her anger at him melted away. She was in, way in.

Suddenly he slipped to his right and then slid to his left and was gone. Then she saw him stick his hand stick out and beckoned her to follow.

She pushed the back out in front of her and worked at maneuvering it through this side opening. The opening wasn't visible until she right by it.

Inside she found a large dome with a dirt floor along with the sniper lying in the dirt. The dome had openings that looked like PVC pipe which let light in. "We built this. It's made up of wood branches with straw, mud, leaves, and plants for the top. Except for the PVC tubes that let in light and take out smoke, it should still be mostly water tight in case it rains, which is likely around here. The roof should be alive by now, covered in plants and weeds making it look just like any other dirt mound," Rick explained.

"Find a spot and set up our tent," he requested as he opened the bag, pulled out one pair of handcuffs, and moved over to the sniper. Once there, Rick untied him and cuffed one of his hands to one of several spikes already long ago hammered into the hardened earth, and then went to help Kate with their new home.

"Why here Castle, why not someplace closer to home? And do you really think he is going to talk?" Kate asked questions while pulling out their cords for the tent that Castle was laying out on the ground cloth.

"He may not talk, you're right. He has obviously been well trained, likely Green Beret or something similar. To make that kind of shot means he has had sniper training which should help us identify him.

Plus when we are done, I intend to leave him here where he will be caught by the Koreans. I can guess what they will do after they find him." Rick had visions of torture that his training would have prepared him for. He would either die during the torture or immediately after. Though they might keep him and torture him for years.

She had no problem thinking about what the North Koreans would do to him either. She wasn't sure she was comfortable with that, even if he had tried to kill her.

They had their tent up and Kate was inside it unpacking while Rick spent his time doing a survey of their area. He had wanted to see what had changed over the years.

While he was gone and she was still inside the tent, their guest awoke and was testing his handcuff as well as the spike that was in the ground. Jill, however, was keeping her eye on him, so to speak. "He is awake and moving," Jill quietly informed Kate.

Kate stopped immediately. "Tell Jack," she whispered and exited their tent.

She approached their guest. "I see you recognize me." Kate saw the look on his face. "Welcome to your new home."