AN:Thank you again to everyone for following, favouring, and reviewing this story. Here's the next chapter everybody, enjoy. Don't forget to Review. :)
Disclaimer: I do not own Castle or it's characters.
Doomsday Highway
Today was going to be epic! The whole fourth grade were getting ready to take an end of the year trip to the Bronx Zoo. My class was sitting on one of the school buses being loud and obnoxious with overexcitement. I was sitting next to Mike and our other friend, Shawn, was sitting in front of us with another kid we hung out sometimes, Kyle. Our teacher and our assistant principal were our chaperones and Mr. Linden was taking roll.
"Mike Mulligan?" he said.
"Yo," Mike said raising his hand.
Our teacher chuckled slightly and said, "Shawn Newt?"
"Sup," Shawn said, flashing a peace sign.
Our teacher shook his head and he had a few more names before he'd get to mine. Once he went through those he said, "Emily Beckett Roswell."
"Here," I said, raising my hand.
As he took the rest of the names, Mike, Shawn and I had a conversation together.
"What animal do you want to see?" Mike asked.
"I don't know, maybe a giraffe or orangutan," I shrugged.
"I want to see the lions, tigers, and bears," Shawn said.
"Oh my," I laughed.
We all giggled at the silly joke.
"I want to see a lemur or a crocodile," Mike said.
"That's cool," I said.
"Yeah, maybe I can get the lemurs to dance to "I Like to Move it" like in Madagascar. That would be awesome," Mike said.
We all laughed again and then our lively conversation was interrupted when our teacher said, "Okay, settle down everyone. We are going to start heading to the zoo, and I need everyone sitting in their seats correctly and I want you to use your inside voices for any conversations you have. Okay?"
"Yes, Mr. Linden," we all said simultaneously.
We started heading out, following the few buses ahead of us. It was so exciting and I'm glad I got to go because my aunt almost forgot to sign the permission slip.
"Do you think we'll be able to see all the exhibits?" Mike asked.
"I don't know, but I hope so. All of them seem like fun," I said.
"Yeah, maybe we can sneak off and see some if we don't get a chance to look at them all."
"I'm all for it, but if we get left behind, I'm blaming you."
"Fair enough. That would be fun though."
"It kind of would, but then I'd be in big trouble with my aunt."
"Yeah, my parents wouldn't like it very much either."
Throughout the whole trip to the zoo, everyone was talking amongst themselves. We pulled onto I-95 N and everyone was bustling because we knew we were getting close. Out of nowhere though I heard a large roar of an engine, flying past our school bus. I looked out the left side window which I was seated next to, and caught a glimpse of a sleek black van going by.
The van screamed suspicious and I wondered what they had done. When I thought they were just fleeing something, I didn't expect the next moment to happen. The back doors of the van flew open and two men wearing all black fired shot after shot on the highway.
"DUCK!" our teacher screamed with fear.
We all ducked behind our seats with our hands on our heads. It was like a scene out of a live action movie, but this wasn't just pretend, it was very real. The loud blasts from the guns were loud and carried through the bus. It felt like forever before the sounds stopped. I looked out the window to see the doors of the van close and then they took off down the highway, fleeing the scene. They left a barrage of bullets in their wake and the highway was littered with stopped cars which were riddled with bullet holes.
I looked around the area and a few of the windows were either shot out or had a bullet hole through them. Our school bus pulled over safely, but I heard our assistant principal, Mrs. Cleaver, let out, "OH MY GOD!"
I looked over to where our teacher was trying to help our bus driver keep pressure on his wound. He must have been shot during the attack, and I could see the blood spilling out and onto the two men's hands.
The bus driver spoke up with gritted teeth, "I'm fine. It only got my shoulder."
"All the blood," Mrs. Cleaver said.
"Its fine, Mrs. Cleaver. We have it under control. Call the police, even though many people probably already did," Mr. Linden said.
I watched our assistant principal dial her phone frantically and she kept looking over towards to the two men with fear.
"Emily?" Mike asked.
"Yeah," I said.
"Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I am. How about you?"
"Yeah, I'm still in one piece."
"That's good."
Just a few minutes later, sirens were blaring down the highway. Ambulances and police cruisers were all over the highway. Some police officers were making notes and looking around while others were taking eyewitness accounts and helping the paramedics with the injured. It was a chaotic scene and I watched it all play out in front of me as we stood on the side of the highway.
Some of the cars and people were covered in yellow tarps, signaling that they did not make it through the wild events. I saw some more cars pull up and my aunt got out of one of them, and Castle was with her. My aunt looked around inspecting the area, and then she spotted me. I waved to her and she came walking over to me, Castle on her heels.
"Em, are you all right?" she asked.
"I'm fine Aunt Kate. Only our bus driver was seriously injured, only a few classmates got minor cuts from the glass," I said.
"Thank god," she said.
She pulled me in for a quick hug, to show that she was worried about me and glad I was okay. We pulled apart and Castle said, "Glad to see you're okay mini Beckett."
"Thanks Castle," I said.
"Em, did you see anything?" my aunt asked.
"Just the black van and two men in the back. I couldn't catch the license plate number," I said.
"Okay," she said.
We spent an hour on the scene, everyone was shaken up. From the kids, to other travelers, and even the parents picking up their children. It was a horrible day today and everyone knew it, we had to find these criminals before they struck again. When we got to the precinct, everyone was on high alert and the phones were ringing off the hook. It turns out, four people died and fifteen people were injured in on the highway. Esposito and Ryan came up to us with their work faces on.
"Beckett, we got some calls coming in that the vehicle used has been spotted," Esposito said.
"We were going to go check it out. Do you want to come?" Ryan said.
"Yeah, I'm coming. Em, stay here and don't get into trouble," she said.
"I won't," I said.
"Okay see you soon," she said.
"Okay."
"See you later mini Beckett," Castle said.
"See you later, Castle," I said.
I stayed at the precinct, waiting for the team to get back. I grabbed a few sticky notes and decided to doodle little monsters and shapes. The phones were calming down for a while, but right after my aunt, Castle, Ryan, and Esposito came back, the phones started ringing uncontrollably throughout the precinct.
"We have multiple calls coming from a few miles north of here. I need all hands on deck," the captain said as she came out of her office.
"We're on it," my aunt said.
Everyone left the precinct in a hurry, trying to catch these maniacs before any more damage can be done.
Three hours later Ryan was dragging a man with handcuffs into the precinct. The man looked dangerous and I didn't like the tattoo over his left eye. It looked like three red claw marks going across it, making it look very eerie. The man took a quick glance at me and gave me an evil yellow and black toothed grin. Ryan took him into the interrogation room and my aunt went in with them.
"Hey mini Beckett, how's it going," Castle asked me.
"It's going pretty good. Is he one of the shooters?" I asked.
"We're pretty sure. Three others were gunned down by the police."
"Wow, that's crazy, but I'm glad it's over."
"Yeah, well at least we hope."
I nodded at him and then his phone started to ring. He checked his phone and quickly rejected the call. I looked at him quizzically and asked, "Who was that?"
"No one," he said.
It started ringing again and he rejected the call for a second time.
"Is it important?"
"Nope."
His phone rang for a third time and he answered it and said lowly, "Not now Natalia. We're just friends, bye."
"Who's Natalia?" I asked.
He cleared his throat and said, "No one."
"Is she your girlfriend?"
"No she's just a friend."
"Uh-huh."
"Yep."
It went silent between us and I was kind of sad that Castle apparently went back to his playboy ways. I heard my aunt talking to Lanie on the phone one night and they were talking about it. My aunt also said on the phone that it might be too late for her and Castle. I just hoped it wasn't true. I was pulled from my thoughts when a commotion came from the interrogation room.
Everyone ran towards the room and Esposito quickly opened the door. What greeted all of us was a very hostile situation, Ryan was knocked out and the man had the chain of his handcuff around my aunt's throat, holding her close to his large body. Esposito drew his gun and pointed it at the man.
"Let her go, Mr. Halligan," Esposito said.
"Drop your gun, and I'll think about not killing her," Mr. Halligan said.
My aunt looked over at me, fear present in her eyes. I wasn't sure if she was more afraid of me seeing her in this predicament, or for her life, but it's probably both. The man grabbed her tighter and I said, "Aunt Kate."
Castle quickly grabbed me and pulled me away and I was trying to fight him off, but to no avail, he was able to take me away from the scene. I was frantic and I wanted to make sure my aunt Kate was going to be okay. Castle dropped down, trying to get to my level and he grabbed me by the shoulders.
"Emily look at me," he said.
I looked at Castle and he said, "Your aunt is going to be fine."
"We don't know that."
"Yes we do. There isn't much he can do with a room full of cops."
"Yeah, but it can take one mistake."
"Trust me. She'll be fine."
Just then a gun shot went off and everything was silent. I wanted to rush out of the room to go see, but Castle grabbed me and held me close.
"It's fine Emily. She'll be here any minute," he whispered to me.
I stayed in his arms, watching the door of the break room for any sign of my aunt Kate. The longest ten seconds of my life went bye, I saw my aunt coming in, and I ran into her rms. She hugged me tight and said, "It's okay, Em. I'm fine, nothing happened to me."
"I know, I was just really scared," I said.
"I know, you were. Esposito took him down with no trouble and Ryan just has a little cut. Everything is okay," she said as she smoothed away my hair and looked at me with concern.
"I'm glad you're okay," I whispered.
"Me too," she said.
She looked up at Castle and said, "Thank you for staying with her."
"It was nothing. I knew you didn't want her to see that," he said.
She nodded and said to me, "I'm going to talk to the captain and write up some paper work as quick as possible and then we can head home."
"Okay," I said.
She gave me a quick kiss on the cheek and went off to see the captain.
I let out a sigh and leaned against the wall. I looked up and saw Castle looking at me with a small smile, "Hey, it's okay mini Beckett."
"Yeah, today it was. There's been so many close calls lately. What if one day we don't get lucky?" I said.
"I understand what you're getting at. Don't worry about it though, we just have to stay positive."
"Yeah, I guess so. It's just hard to think that you might not fulfill something on your bucket list because life went to fast. Especially when it's so clearly in front of you."
Castle cocked his head with a questionable face and asked, "What are you saying Emily?"
"Emily, come on," I heard my aunt say from her desk.
I gave Castle a small smile, hoping he knew what I was talking about. Hopefully, I'll be able to get through to one of them. It's never too late to bring two people who are meant to be together, together. I'll figure something out, I always do.
I left with my aunt Kate, heading home after the hectic day we had. We had some dinner, but instead of going straight to bed, I broke out my small notebook that I've made a little after I started living with Aunt Kate. I flipped to the page that said, "Tactics on getting Aunt Kate and Castle together."
Half of the items were marked off with large X's, but I'll be bound to find the perfect idea on getting those two together. It might not be today, it might not tomorrow, but definitely sometime soon. The whole night I stayed up, making plans in my little notebook to bring this dream home.
AN 2: Get ready Caskett lovers, the next chapter is finally going to be the moment we've been waiting for. I'm shooting to get it done by Sunday, and hopefully it turns out as good as I want it to. :)