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Disclaimer: I do not own Castle or it's characters.

A Family That's Chained Together, Fights Together

I was finally out of my cast and Aunt Kate thought it would be a good idea to get out for a while. I've been going to the rehabilitation center for about a week and my leg was doing pretty well. I was thankful to be out of that itchy and irritating cast. I was also thankful that I got to sleep in my own room again. Not that sleeping in Castle's room was so bad, but I missed all my stuff.

It's been awhile since Aunt Kate and I have been out together, just the two of us. I missed spending time with her and it was great. We stopped at a local restaurant and had a fun lunch together. Our day together has been filled with laughter and joy and I didn't want this day to end. We decided to walk through central park to bring our exciting day to a calm close.

"This is great," I said.

"Yeah, it is pretty nice. We haven't done something like this for a while," Aunt Kate said.

"I'm glad we can have moments like these."

"Me too."

"Can you believe that you and Castle are getting married next month?"

"No I can't. I never would have thought I'd be marrying Castle."

"Me either, but it's pretty awesome."

She smiled at me and said, "It sure is."

"Do I have to go back to school tomorrow?"

"Em, you haven't been in school for almost two months, you need to go back. I think you need to get out of the house anyway."

"Fine, but it's going to be weird going back."

"I know, but just think, in a couple of months it'll be summer break."

"That's true. I guess that's something to look forward to."

"Yep."

We started leaving the park and heard someone screaming for help in the distance.

"Help! Please! Somebody, please," a man's voice called out.

My Aunt and I ran towards the sound, finding a man bloody and bruised down an alley. We stopped at the entrance of the alleyway and Aunt Kate said, "Stay here, Em. Call 911."

I started dialing 911 while my aunt went over to the man. The phone rang and the operator said, "911, what's your emergency?"

I was just about to speak, when something covered my mouth. I mumbled incoherently into the cloth covering my mouth and everything around me started fading fast.

I started to regain consciousness and I woke up on a cold, damp floor. I went to move my arms, but they were handcuffed in front of me. I sat up and leaned against the wall behind me.

"Em, are you okay?" my aunt asked.

I looked over to my aunt, who was sitting right next to me. She was handcuffed too and she was looking at me with concern.

"I'm fine, Aunt Kate. Are you okay?" I asked.

"Yes I'm okay."

"What happened?"

"I think the guy we went over to help was a divergence. I think it was all a setup to kidnap us."

"Why would someone do that Aunt Kate?"

"Honestly I don't know. Until then, we're going to have to find a way out."

Aunt Kate got up and went to walk around the dimly lit room. She got a few steps before a chain rattled, stopping her in her place. I looked down at the floor and saw that my left leg was chained to her right leg.

"I guess we're chained together," I said.

"Yeah, looks like it. Guess this is better than being handcuffed to Castle."

"I bet you enjoyed it though. Didn't you get to play with a tiger too?"

"It was more like the tiger was playing with his next meal. Hopefully there are no tigers here."

I stood up and walked over to my aunt Kate.

"What do we do?" I asked.

"I don't know. Help me search the room," she said.

"Okay."

We looked around the room, checking every nook and cranny. I saw a small light shining through a hole in the brick wall and I went to take a look. I forgot we were chained together, so I got half way before the chain jerked to a halt, making me lose my balance. Luckily I was able to steady myself before I fell to the ground.

"Em, careful. We have to work together."

"Sorry, I wasn't thinking."

"It's okay. What do you see?"

"There's a light shining through that area over there."

"Nice eye."

"Thanks."

We walked over together, making sure we took it one foot at a time. When we got there we both squatted and looked at the opened area. Aunt Kate looked out the hole and I asked, "What do you see?"

"I can't tell. It kind of looks like a grassy area. There's another building across the way, but I can't make it out," she said.

"Can I see?"

"Sure take a crack at it."

I looked through the hole and I saw exactly what Aunt Kate described. There really wasn't much to go on. I sighed and looked back at Aunt Kate.

"Do you think we could pull out more bricks?" I questioned.

She shook her head and said, "No, they're all pretty secure. I think that was the only lose brick out of the whole wall."

"Maybe there's another area that we could check."

"I think it's pretty much a dead end in here, Em."

"You're giving up?"

"No… I just think we should think about this before we wind up setting something off, getting us both killed."

"I guess that would be a smart move."

"Yeah…"

She started looking around from where we were standing and I could see that her face was in deep thought. I leaned against the wall, trying to think about how we would get out of this one.

"There," my aunt Kate said pointing up at something.

I squinted and looked at the vent she was pointing to. It was a medium sized vent and I could probably squeeze through it, but I don't know how I could get up there.

"How do we get up there?" I asked.

"I haven't thought that through yet."

"Do you think we could break these chains?"

Aunt Kate took a knee and tugged on the chain. She looked at the shackle and shook her head.

"No… There's no getting out of these. They're pretty durable."

Aunt Kate leaned against the wall and slid down it. She let out a sigh and scrubbed her hands down her face. I sat next to her and said, "Don't worry Aunt Kate. I'm sure we'll get out of this mess. I bet Castle and the precinct are already looking for us."

"I'm sure they are. By the looks of it, it's already the next day. Castle would've noticed we didn't come home. Hopefully they know where to start looking," she said.

"Yeah, they'll find us. I just hope whoever has us doesn't kill us first."

"Try not to think about it, Em."

"How can I not? Every time I've been kidnapped I've been close to death."

"I know, but I'll protect you Emily. I won't let anything happen to you."

I laid my head against Aunt Kate's shoulder and said, "Thanks, Aunt Kate."

She kissed my head softly and said, "Anything for you, Em."

We sat there together, both considering the fact that something drastic could happen. Out of everyone I could be stuck with, I'm glad it's Aunt Kate because I know we're going to get through this together.

As far as I can tell, at least a few hours went by, but it could be more or less. I was starting to get hungry and sleepy, but I wanted to stay calm until we could get out of here. I looked over at Aunt Kate and she looked over at me, her hazel eyes shining with concern.

"They'll find us soon, right?" I asked in a whisper.

"I don't know Em. I hope so, we just have to stay calm," she said.

"I know, but it's starting to get dark out."

Aunt Kate sighed and said, "Yeah… Just try not to think about it. I'm sure the precinct is close to figuring this all out."

"We're on the inside and we don't even know what's going on."

"But maybe since the precinct is on the outside, they have more information to work with."

"We can only hope."

The lonely door in the far corner of the room unlocked and Aunt Kate and I flashed our eyes over to the dark metal door. The door opened and revealed two men in dark hoodies. Their faces were covered with a bandana and the only thing we could see as they crept closer was their eyes. They grabbed for me and I tried to pull away from them.

"Don't touch her," my aunt said as she tried to pull me out of the men's grasp.

The one man put a rag over my aunt's mouth, making her struggle against him until she went limp. The man laid her down gently and then unchained our ankles from each other.

"What are you doing?" I asked frightened.

They didn't answer me and led me out of the room. I looked back at Aunt Kate laying peacefully on the floor until the door slammed shut, shielding her from view. The men continued to usher me through the small building and we wound up at a big area with a large black curtain.

"What is this?" I asked.

"Shut up! Just stand here and don't talk before I tape your mouth," one of the men said.

I kept my mouth shut as I watched the two men opening up the black curtain before me. Once the curtain was raised, I was looking out at about a dozen or more people. There were men and women and they were all dressed to the nines. They were all murmuring to each other and pointing at the stage I was occupying.

"Is this like a black market auction?" I questioned.

"I told you to be quiet. Another outburst from you, I'm going to have to sedate you," the same man said.

A man in a nice business suit went up to the podium and started speaking, "Okay, we've already had three bids this evening. Fred bought three blood-red rubies from Africa for $1.5 million dollars. Jenna and Sam J. bought a Greek marble statue for $4 million dollars. The last bid we had a few minutes ago went to James P. who bought an antique vase for $12 million dollars. Give them a round of applause."

Everyone gave a round of applause and once everyone settled down, the man spoke again, "Okay, we have a couple of more bids this evening. Our second to last bid is this young girl on stage. She can smuggle anything you want in and out of the country. She can also be your own personal maid. Maybe send her to work at a sweat shop or do your dirty work. I don't know, but you won't be disappointed with this unique item. We don't get live ones around here to often. We'll start the bid at three-hundred thousand dollars."

Someone raised a paddle and said, "Three-fifty!"

"Ooh… three-fifty. Do I here three-sixty?"

A lady raised her paddle and said, "Four hundred!"

"Four-fifty!" A man in the back yelled out.

"Six-fifty," another woman yelled.

Watching people bid on me wasn't really fun. Who knows what these creeps would do if they bought me. I stayed quiet and watched as the bidding war kept raising the stakes higher and higher.

"We have $2 million dollars. Do I here another bid? Going once… Going twice… Sold to Olivia and Calvin B. Congrats you two," the auctioneer said as he brought down his gavel, closing out that auction.

The two men with hoods dragged me off stage and to a small open area. A couple walked in and I figured that they were the ones that bought me.

"She's a cutie. I think she'd do well," the woman said.

"I don't know Olivia… We may have to bulk her up a bit before we put her in," the man said.

"I guess she is a little scrawny than most of them. You can fix her up, right?"

"Of course. I am the best."

"I know."

"All right, uncuff her. We'll be taking her with us."

One of the hooded men started to remove the cuffs from me, while the other one reached a hand out to the couple. The man who bought me let out a large huff and pulled a check book from his suit pocket. He quickly wrote the check out and handed it over. The two hooded men gave a curt nod before they walked off. Olivia grabbed me and started leading me out of the building.

"You are so cute. What's your name?" Olivia asked.

"Emily," I said.

"Pretty name, I'm Olivia and this is my husband Calvin."

"Who are you people?"

"Oh um…"

The man sighed and said, "Listen kid, forget the life you had before. We're going to make you something big."

"Come on Cal, don't frighten the poor girl."

"She needs to learn what she's in for now. We own her, so stop coddling her."

"Okay," Olivia whispered.

They pushed me into the back of their large vehicle with tinted windows and Olivia said, "Put your seatbelt on."

I put my seatbelt on and looked out the window. I looked at the building in front of me and hoped that Aunt Kate would be okay.

A few days have gone by since I was auctioned off at that crazy bid. I've been staying with these two people for those three days and they haven't been horrible, but they aren't Castle or my aunt Kate. I missed them a lot, but I figured the precinct will come to my rescue eventually. I still wasn't quite sure why the couple bought me, but I have a feeling it wasn't for anything good.

"Charlie get up! You have to have breakfast before we go!" Calvin yelled.

They also changed my name to Charlie. I wasn't too fond of the name, but I wasn't going to complain. I want to stay on these peoples good side before I wind up getting into serious trouble. I went out to their beautiful kitchen and a plate of pancakes were sitting on the dining table. I sat at the table and started eating the pancakes diligently.

"Oh good, you're up. We're going to have so much fun today," Olivia said as she sat down with a cup of coffee.

"What are we doing today?" I asked.

"You'll see when we get there. It'll be very interesting…"

"Okay…"

The way she put what we were doing today sounded awfully suspicious. I bet whatever we're doing today is illegal and extremely nerve-wracking. I continued eating my pancakes in silence and tried to keep my fears at bay.

"Hurry up! We need to get on the road now before we're late!" Calvin yelled from the front room.

"Coming!" Olivia said.

She cleaned up our dishes and placed them in the sink. I followed her out to where Calvin was waiting and he ushered us to the car. We got in and started driving to an unknown location. We got to the location a few hours later and there were dozens of cars in the dirt lot. There was an old rundown shack and we made our way inside. The place smelled absolutely disgusting. It smelled like blood, sweat, and tears. I looked around the building and saw kids of all ages with their families or "families." We went up to an older gentleman at an old table and the man said, "Calvin, got a new one I see."

"Yes, I did," Calvin said.

"Think she'll do better than your boy?"

"Hope so, but we're going to have to wait and see."

"All right. How much you putting down? Don't forget the fifteen dollar entry fee."

"Three hundred and her names Charlie."

"Welcome Charlie, we're going to have fun."

"When's our fight?"

"You're first fight is in about fifteen minute. We have two before you."

"Okay, thanks Tim."

"No problem."

Calvin and Olivia pulled me over to another area and I said, "Is this some kind of underground fighting rink."

"Yes, it is. This is only for children though. Seven to fifteen years old," Calvin said.

"Is there age brackets?"

"Yes, you'll be fighting in the ten to twelve age bracket."

"This is insane."

"Trust me you'll be fine, just fight like you don't want to die."

"It's fight to the death?"

"Not all the time. Most of the times the ref will call it before hand, but sometimes we can't control it."

"You got this Charlie. I bet you'll do better than Eric," Olivia said.

"Was that your boy?" I asked.

"One of many."

"Stretch before you go out there. Need you limber," Calvin said.

"Fine," I said.

I stretched my body and looked at all the children around me. I couldn't believe I was entered in an underground fighting ring. This was horrible. I saw one of the younger kids exit the ring and he looked terrible. He had blood dripping from his mouth and he had a very bruised eye. He limped over to his "family" and got smacked on the back of the head. They started yelling at him and he started to weep heavily.

"Okay, you're up, Charlie," Calvin said.

He grabbed my arm and led me to the ring. Another man was helping his kid get into the ring and I felt my nerves picking up. She was a little bit bigger than me and looked like a scrapper.

"Don't let her get on you. Tag her first and hit hard," Calvin said.

I nodded slowly and stared down the girl in front of me. A ref came into the circular dirt ring and said, "Nothing is off limits. The dirtier the better. Now get ready, get set, and fight…"

He quickly exited the ring and the girl rushed towards me. I ducked and swung to the side to avoid her fist. She came at me again and I swung my fist. I connected with her face and she got a very angry look on her face. She swung for me and hit me dead in the jaw. I went down and let out a short huff of breath. I wasn't going to stay down, I was going to fight until I could see my Aunt Kate again. I got up and went for the girl. We wrestled each other to the ground and were throwing punches left and right. I finally was able to get on top of her and slammed my fists as hard as I could. The ref picked me up and off the girl and pushed me to a side of the circle. He helped the girl up and she was bruised and bloody.

I felt bad for hurting the girl, but I needed to make it through this. I need to survive, so I can eventually get out of here. They pulled the girl away and she stumbled to the people who brought her here. The ref came over to me, lifted my arm up and said, "We have a winner."

Some people clapped and some people mumbled incoherently to other viewers. I went back over to Olivia and Calvin and Olivia gave me a large hug.

"You did so well. I would have never thought you'd be able to take her out. She's been seven for zero in the past month," Olivia said.

"Yeah, she was a good fighter. Glad you came through Charlie," Calvin said.

"Thanks," I said.

I wiped the blood from my mouth and looked around the room. There had to be a place to escape, but should I really chance it.

A few hours went by and I was placed into two more fights. I was getting extremely tired and I was beaten pretty well. I was bruised all over my body, from my head to my toes and I didn't think I could make it in another fight. I heard a chopper hovering over us and everyone stopped and looked up.

"Is that a helicopter?" someone asked.

"It's the five-o. Let's get the hell out of here," someone else said.

Everyone started panicking and grabbing their children. The cops started swarming the place and grabbing who they could get, putting them under arrest. I was grabbed by the wrist by Calvin and he dragged me out the backdoor. He led Olivia and I towards the SUV and roughly pushed me in. I tried desperately to get out, but Olivia was holding me back. We drove out of there, but police vehicles were right on our tail. I looked out the back window and saw my aunt Kate in her car, chasing after us. Castle was sitting shot gun and I couldn't help the smile growing on my face. I was finally going to be free.

"Pull your vehicle over," I heard a police unit say.

"We're not going to make it," Olivia said.

"I can get us out of here," Calvin said.

We kept driving at a high rate of speed and we got to a bridge and our tires got blown out by what I assumed was spike strips. Calvin was barely able to keep control of the car before we skidded to a halt. Calvin reached for me and pulled me with him out of the car. There was dozens of officers with their weapons drawn, waiting for the opportunity to drop him. Calvin pulled me to the side of the bridge and I was hoping he wasn't planning on dropping me into the water below.

"Calvin Bennington, release the girl. Don't do anything rash," my aunt said as she continued to keep her weapon aimed at him.

"I'm not going to jail. I can't be with those lowlifes," Calvin said.

"Hate to break it to you, but your lower than half of those lowlifes," Esposito said.

We got closer to the railing and I could feel the shivers running down my spine. Calvin climbed over the railing first, and pulled me along with him. We were dangerously close to the edge and I heard everyone pleading with Calvin to do the right thing. Even his wife was crying out to him. He pulled me back and we went falling into the lukewarm water below. I swam to the top, choking out water as I bobbed up and down at the surface. I looked up and saw my aunt Kate diving in after me. She swam to me and I grabbed onto her for dear life. I knew how to swim, but I wasn't the best at it.

Aunt Kate swam us over to the side of the waterway and we laid in the mud, breathing heavily.

"Glad you found me," I said.

"I wasn't going to let you down. I'll always try to find you," Aunt Kate said.

"How did the precinct find you?"

"They figured out about the underground auction and raided the place. That's when they found me, but you were already gone."

"How'd you figure out where I was?"

"We tried to get a lot of the people from the auction to talk. We finally were able to get something out of the auctioneer which led us to Calvin and Olivia. We raided their house first, but then we found out about the underage fight rink. I'm thankful we got there in time."

I hugged Aunt Kate and said, "Me too. I don't think I could have handled living with them anymore."

She hugged me back and said, "I love you, Em."

"I love you too, Aunt Kate."

"Guys, are you okay?" I heard Castle say.

I looked up at him and ran into his arms. I gave him a huge hug and said, "I missed you too Castle."

"I missed you too, mini Beckett. It was weird not having you around."

"Yeah, it was strange living a completely different life. They even named me Charlie."

"Charlie? I like Emily way more."

"Me too."

"Why don't we get to the bridge and get checked out," my aunt said.

"Okay," I said.

We made our way back to the top of bridge and I was greeted by Ryan and Esposito. They both gave me small hugs and Aunt Kate and I got checked out by the EMT's. Thankfully we were both fine, except for my minor cuts and bruises from my fights earlier. I was able to go home, so that's what we did. When we got to our place, we all sat on the couch together. It was silent for a while until Castle broke it, "I'm curious… Did you win any fights, Charlie?"

I chuckled and said, "I did pretty well. I got banged up, but I held my own."

"That's my girl."

We all chuckled quietly and I was thankful to be back home. The one thing I learned from staying with the Bennington's is that I couldn't have asked for anyone better in the world to care for me. I can't wait for Aunt Kate's and Castle's wedding, and I'm going to make sure I cherish it forever.