Disclaimer: I own a new turtleneck and maybe I only bought it because it reminded me of the ones Beckett is wearing. But I still don't own Castle.
Okay, so let me apologize right at the start: This is a tough one. Rereading it I realized I'm really not easy on the characters in this story. Maybe I should add angst to the genre... So I'm sorry for all of you who prefer to read fluff more than drama. But hey, I'm updating a day early and maybe I'll manage to have the next chapter up a little sooner too. And instead of making this a short chapter leaving on a cliffhanger you get a long chapter with a cliffhanger!
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Kate tore her eyes from Castle's and looked over her shoulder to find Esposito and Ryan, who had come up to them. Slightly confused she looked over to Esposito as her troubled mind wasn't able to process his question fast enough to answer him before he repeated himself. "What deal are you talking about?" His voice was hushed so no one except the four of them could hear him. Hesitantly Castle started to talk, halfway expecting Kate to stop him but she let him speak.
"The information Montgomery held back about whoever is responsible for the murder of Beckett's mother, the ones he would keep from the public as long as they would leave Beckett alone." Kate frowned at the mention of Montgomery's name but Esposito nodded firmly. "We know about that, but Montgomery's dead." Hearing those words once more felt like a dagger to Kate's chest. Castle licked his lip, unsure if it was wise to tell anyone apart from Kate about the deal he had made with Michael Smith. "Montgomery passed the file that contains the information on to someone else before he died."
"Who?" Esposito shot back but Castle slightly shook his head. "Doesn't matter. All that matters is that Montgomery made a deal for her. His friend will keep the information hidden as long as they stay away from Kate." He briefly looked at her and found her staring to the ground. "But only as long as she stays away from her mother's case." Castle swallowed hard. "As soon as she starts to search for them again the deal breaks. And we all know what happened last time." He firmly looked at Kate as everyone else remained silent, seeming to process the new information.
"I didn't make no deal with anyone." Esposito broke the silence. Kate looked up at him, confused, and then over to Ryan as he said "No, me neither." Frowning at her fellow detectives she shook her head. "No way, I can't have you risk your careers or your life for my personal matters." She said, her voice still on the edge of cracking. Esposito's expression hardened. "C'mon Beckett, you know by now this is a personal matter for all of us." He said while Ryan nodded his head in agreement. Kate's eyes wandered back to Castle, his face worried and pensive. "It wouldn't make any difference," he said, his mind working in overdrive. "Even if it would be you going after him, or anyone in this precinct, they would be able to connect you to Kate. And they wouldn't hesitate to stop you either no matter how, I'm sure."
Esposito sternly stared at Castle and then shrugged his shoulders. "I don't care if they want to come after me. That's my job. If I have a lead I will follow it, no matter what. I made an owe to this badge and I won't break it for some assholes who like to play games, thinking they can keep the police under their control just because some dirty cops wavered a few years ago." Esposito stepped up to Castle. "We all want to catch these assholes, Castle. And Beckett's right, this might be the only chance we're getting." Esposito looked at the other man's face and briefly glanced down at his hand, still wrapped around Kate's. He understood there was more to Castle's restraint than it had been the last time they had gotten into this case. But this wasn't the time to ask questions. "Man, I promise we'll keep her safe." He whispered.
Ryan also walked up to the group and looked from one face to another. "Javi is right. We have a lead, it's our duty to follow it. And if you can't, we do." He looked at Kate. "And I won't have any issues hiding every evidence you were involved," Esposito confirmed his partner's words with a firm nod. Kate looked from one man to the other, overcome with gratitude for them. "Are you sure you want to do this?" She asked quietly and was answered with firm nods from Esposito and Ryan.
Once more she searched for Castle's eyes. She could see he struggled to bring himself to agree. As she slightly squeezed his hand, he closed his eyes for a second and when he opened them again, he looked over to the two men by his side. "You promise you keep her from the records? You swear you'll keep her out of the line of fire?" Locking his eyes with Castle's Esposito said, "I swear. I won't let anyone touch her."
Releasing a deep breath Castle fastened his grip around Kate's hand again and forced his legs to move to follow Esposito towards the elevator. All of them remained silent, a wordless agreement to leave all open questions for later.
For the whole way to the address on the scribbled note, Kate held clenched between her hand and the steering wheel she and Castle remained silent. When checking the rearview mirror a few times, Kate could see Esposito and Ryan's car closely behind them. The closer they got to the address the more she felt her heart rate speeding up. She knew they wouldn't meet Maddox there and there was a chance all of this turned out to be a dead end. But even the possibility of getting closer to catching Maddox and finding another piece of the puzzle to her mother's case shot waves of pure adrenaline through her veins.
She pulled into the street whose name had burned itself into her mind and immediately her eyes spotted house number twelve. It was a completely normal, small prefab house as they were built a thousandfold throughout the city. As she stopped the car at the side of the road a few houses away, Esposito and Ryan's car pulled up behind them, all four of them getting out and gathering on the sidewalk. "I'll go first," Esposito said, and his tone left no room for discussion. Following him the whole group came to a stand on the threshold of number twelve, Esposito firmly knocking on the door.
When it opened a few seconds later they met the surprised gaze of a man who looked just as average as his home. But the shock of four people in front of his door, three of them holding up their NYPD badges was clearly noticeable on his features. "Oh, hello officers. Can I help you?" Esposito put his badge away, his hand lingering on his belt, close to his gun. "Are you Ethan Cavanaugh, brother of Charles Cavanaugh?"
Ethan Cavanaugh nodded with wide eyes. Ryan held up the bad-quality printout Esposito had shown Kate at the precinct. "Is this your brother?" He asked. It took the other man a few seconds to survey the pixeled image before he nodded again. "Yes, that's Charlie. Is he in any trouble?" Esposito ignored the question and asked, "Can you tell us your brother's location?" Ethan Cavanaugh looked even more confused and slight concern mixed into his expression. "Um, no, not exactly. But I can give you his address?"
Esposito handed the man a little notepad and a pen and when the man had written down the address he took it back from him, handing it to Kate. "Sir, for reasons of possibly endangering this investigation you'll have to come with us." He said and gestured towards his car. "What?" Ethan Cavanaugh's eyes widened in shock. "But I didn't do anything! What is going on here, what did my brother do?" Kate wondered whether Ethan Cavanaugh was a very good actor or had actually no idea of who his brother really was.
"We can't tell you," Esposito stated as a matter of fact. "And you can come voluntarily, or I'll have to arrest you." That perspective seemed to scare the man standing in the doorframe and he hesitantly stepped out of his house and towards the cars by the road. Esposito walked close behind him, ready to react to any movement the man could possibly make. Just in case there was more to him than his appearance would suggest.
When they reached the car and he noticed her hands trembling Castle didn't let her any choice and darted for the driver's seat. Without any protest, she let him get in the car. She shot the door of the passenger seat and her unsteady fingers fiddled at the notepad to find the right page. Showing it to Castle he carefully put his hand over hers. "We can always turn around. Or stay behind," he mumbled and felt a futile spark of hope that she might agree. But she shook her head. "No, when we let the brother go he'll warn him." She turned to him and he could read on her face that she was scared. "I won't do anything stupid, I promise."
Castle's heart started to sink realizing she was right. As soon as Maddox would learn they were back on his tracks she would get into the crosshairs again. Their only chance to put an end to this was catching Maddox and unraveling who he was working for before he had the chance to warn whoever hired him. Castle didn't dare to think about what might happen when they couldn't manage to get a hold of Maddox. But now there was no going back. He started the car and Esposito and Ryan followed close behind him, Ethan Cavanaugh in the back of their car.
The address was a little bit further outside of town and it took them almost thirty minutes to get there, which they spent in tense silence again. When they came close to the house Castle stopped the car a few houses away, Esposito and Ryan doing the same. Kate eyed the house suspiciously. It looked like all the other houses in the street, nothing would give anyone an idea the person living inside of it wasn't the average citizen. But probably that was exactly what made leading a double life possible. She spotted Esposito and Ryan walking up to the car, Ethan Cavanaugh locked in theirs.
It took Kate a few seconds to bring herself to open the door. With all her strength she was fighting the flashbacks of the rooftop, pushing back the horror the thought of having to face Maddox again caused her. But this time she wasn't alone. And she knew whatever might happen the three men surrounding her would have her back. She looked from one face to the other, all expressions quite the same, the faces covered in stern determination. "You'll stay here," Esposito told her and took his gun out of the holster to hold it ready by his side. Kate frowned at him and shook her head. "No, you'll need all the cover you can get in there."
"You can cover us from here," Esposito stated with a clenched jaw. Kate pulled her gun from her holster too. "Bullshit Esposito. If he is in there you're going to need as much backup as possible. You know how dangerous he is." Esposito's stare remained adamant. "That is exactly why I don't want you in there." Unlocking her gun with a soft click Kate stared back at him. "So you'd rather have us waiting here for him to storm out and meet us in the open field with only one gun to take him down? You know it's safest to stay together. I appreciate your chivalry but we can't stand around here and discuss this now. This is still my battle. And even if I let you do this fight for me I won't be standing here, waiting for him to first get you and then us." Esposito shot Kate another firm glare but the flicker in his eyes told her he knew she wouldn't give in. "You will stay behind me all the time, do you understand me?" he growled. Kate swallowed, a little surprised by the harsh tone in Esposito's voice.
She softly nodded her head and as Esposito turned to slowly walk towards the house she felt Castle's hand at the small of her back. She briefly looked at him and in his eyes, she could see her own fear mirrored. His mind was still racing and his instinct told him to keep her out of that house. But reason and the experience he had gotten over the years told him she was right. Out here he had no chance to protect her. The safest place for her to be in all of this was between Esposito and Ryan. He wanted to tell her to be careful but what would it use? They had no idea what to expect and the best he could do was hoping, that they would be quick enough to react if it was necessary. He had to force his legs to follow her steps as everything inside of him was pulling him away from the front door. But there was no way he would stay behind and let her go alone even though he knew there was nothing he could do to protect her.
After what felt like a mile-long walk over the sidewalk Esposito reached the house and with slow, quiet steps he climbed up the few steps leading to the door. As he reached it he carefully glanced through the milky glass window in die middle of the door and held his ear near to the wooden surface. There was no sound coming from inside and no movement to be seen. He looked back at Kate Castle and Ryan who were waiting at the bottom of the stairs.
As Esposito nodded and reached his hand out for the doorknob Kate felt like the tension inside her chest would tear her apart every moment. Sweat started to build up on her forehead as she saw Esposito twisting the doorknob, causing it to click slightly as the door opened. Esposito raised his gun and without making a sound he slowly pushed open the door. Kate's feet sneaked up the three steps without her realizing it. Esposito took the first step inside the house and quickly shot glances to both sides of the room. Kate's heart was racing in her chest as she slowly followed him, feeling Castle's presence close behind her.
Esposito stayed a few steps ahead, his gun pointed at anyone or anything that could cross their path. Kate felt her one gun feeling slightly slippery in her sweaty hands and she fastened her grip around it as she walked further into the house. The house was completely quiet, and the inside was just as inconspicuous as the outside. They walked by an open door that seemed to lead to a living room but Kate was too focused on the way ahead of them to pay attention to anything else.
Esposito walked around a corner and for a split second Kate thought the next thing she would hear would be a gunshot. But everything remained silent. As she carefully looked around the corner, she spotted Esposito crossing a kitchen and walking over to a dining table that was placed on the other side of the room. Kate felt herself relaxing the faintest bit as she realized the kitchen didn't have any other doors than the one they just walked through. So Maddox couldn't come storming from the other side of the room and she knew Ryan was behind them to have their back.
Stepping sideways to keep the door behind her in sight she slowly walked up to Esposito, careful to make as little sound as possible. Throwing a glance over Esposito's shoulder she saw him picking up a piece of paper lying on the blue tablecloth and felt her heart skipping a beat.
She saw Esposito eying the words that were written on it for only a second. Before her brain was able to make a conclusion, she saw the male detective looking down at the floorboard he was standing on and then up to her. As in slow motion, she saw his panicked face mouthing something but before his voice could reach her ears his voice was swallowed by a loud click. Her brain wasn't fast enough to process what was happening as Esposito jumped towards her. Her eyes grew wide in surprised shock just at the exact moment the kitchen was torn apart by an exploding force originating from the other side of the room just where Esposito had been standing one second ago.
Shreds of wood and stone flew by her head as she was knocked over and hit the ground with full force. She felt something cracking in her chest and a sharp and suffocating pain shot through her body as she was buried under what she realized was another body. Her ears went numb by the unbearable noise tearing apart her eardrums and as her head hit the floor the dumb pain on the back of her head overshadowed the one in her chest. For a moment the room became foggy and she couldn't tell if it was the dust lingering in the air or her eyes that were losing sight. The pain in her head spread down her spine and the last thing she felt was the weight of the body covering her before the world went dark.
The excruciating pain of broken bones crashing against each other tore Kate out of her daze. Her head was spinning and her eyes failed to see clearly. All she could feel was pain and the feeling of being ripped apart as she was dragged over the floor, the rubble surrounding her painfully cutting through her clothes and skin. Suddenly her blurry vision was hit by the blinding light of the sun and somewhere in the very back of her mind Kate realized someone was pulling her out of the building. When her body hit the three little steps of the stairs she had walked up only a few minutes ago, the pain shooting through her body caused everything to black out again.
She had no idea how much time might have passed when screaming voices dumbly found their way to her mind and pulled her out of the dark again. The pain was still there, still everywhere. But this time nobody was tearing on her body and she felt the surface she was lying on soft and steady under her body. The daylight was blinding her as she blinked and caught a glimpse of the cloudless blue summer sky above her. Suddenly the blue was gone and a shapeless face appeared before her eyes, screaming at her.
She blinked a couple more times and forced all her strength into clearing her vision just far enough to recognize the face as Castle. With her numbed ears she hadn't recognized his voice right away but now she felt a wave of relief to know he was there. The feeling was almost comforting enough to allow the darkness to drag her back down with it again but when he shook her and the broken bones in her shoulder and torso crunched against each other once more the pain forcibly pulled her back up again and she felt a scream escaping her throat.
The adrenaline the pain was causing to flow through her blood was enough to bring her mind back to the rim of consciousness. She heard the voices surrounding her a little clearer and realized it wasn't only Castle who was screaming. There was also Ryan's voice but it sounded like a few feet away and it didn't seem directed to her. With pain shooting down her spine and up her neck, she slowly turned her head towards the direction she figured Ryan's voice was coming from.
She needed to blink a couple more times before her vision was clear enough to make out the two men about eight feet away from her. They were sitting on the green grass of the front yard Kate was also lying on and Ryan supported Esposito's hunched body. When she blinked once more and focused her eyes on Esposito she saw the large, splattered piece of wood, that was pierced through his shoulder, the bloody tip of it peaking out of his chest.
Another scream rose in Kate's throat, but it was muffled by bile that suddenly shot up her to her mouth. She felt hands on her body, rolling her to her side, causing her broken shoulder to shoot sharp arrows of pain through her body again. She spat the bitter taste onto the grass and felt the hands now softly touching her face. Castle's voice slowly came through to her mind and she found her eyes searching for his face. As she spotted it and saw his lips moving she was finally able to make out the words he was shouting at her face.
"Kate, you have to stay awake! Do you hear me!" She wanted to say something but her throat felt choked. She coughed and the pain in her chest told her that the broken shoulder wasn't the only damage in her body. Realization and panic jerked through her body and numbed the pain far enough to ignore it when she pulled in a sharp breath and tried to lift her head enough to look down at her body. Lying flat on her back she couldn't see anything, so she tried to focus on the pain, tried to find the origins of it but it was impossible. The pain was everywhere.
Even though every movement hurt she lifted her hand to search for her stomach. Her eyes fell shut again as her fingers found the little bump. Suddenly she felt Castle's hand covering hers, pressing them to the little bump. "Castle…" She brought out in a hoarse voice. It was too hard to keep her eyes open as she fought for consciousness, but she wanted to stay awake. She wanted to hear him tell her everything would be fine. But his cracked voice told her nothing was fine. "Shh, Kate, it's okay. You'll be alright." He mumbled and she could hear he was crying. "The paramedics will be here any minute, just stay awake, okay?"
As he pressed his hand to her body, he looked at her face, as if staring at her could do anything to keep her with him. Her cheek was grazed with two little cuts, and a little strain of blood was running out of her left ear, into her hair. Her eyelids were closed but fluttering so he could tell she was still fighting behind them. "Do you hear me, Kate? The paramedics will come and they'll get you to the hospital. You will be alright." The slightest movement of her hand under his told him she was hearing him.
The minutes felt like hours until he could finally hear sirens in the distance. He tore his eyes away from her face for a second to look down the street, feeling huge relief flooding over him as he spotted the big red vehicle at the end of the road. Looking back down to her and squeezing her hand he shouted "They're here, Kate! Stay awake!" Her eyelids fluttered open for a second as the vehicle pulled up, the usually ear-piercing sound of the sirens sounding dull to her.
He saw people jumping out of the trucks and starting to run around the scene. The fire the explosion had caused was roaring behind them but he barely noticed how the firefighters started to do their job. All he could think about was when finally someone would come to help them. It only took a few more seconds until a dark-haired young woman ran towards them but it felt like they had waited a lifetime.
The woman shot him a quick glance before focusing on Kate. "Ma'am!" She shouted through the noise of splashing water, screaming voices, and the roaring of the fire. "Ma'am, can you hear me?" Kate didn't react and Castle felt panic taking over his mind. "She was awake! Just one minute ago!" He felt the tears running down his face and desperately stared at the woman as she let her fingers search for a pulse at the side of Kate's neck.
Two men were arriving by their side with a rescue stretcher. "She's got a strong pulse, breathing is steady!" The woman called over to the two men, who quickly walked over and helped her to get Kate onto the stretcher. Stumbling Castle got up to his feet. The woman looked at him. "Do you know her?" Castle nodded and tried his best to steady his voice. "She's my girlfriend." He stared into the green eyes of the woman in front of him. "Please, she's pregnant." All his fear and despair flowed into his voice.
The woman stretched out her hand and softly touched his shoulder. "We will do everything we can." She said and the look in her eyes and her touch were at least a little source of comfort to him. He watched as Kate was loaded into one of the trucks, while Esposito disappeared into a second one. They quickly drove off and he searched the scene to look for Ryan but he immediately appeared before him. "Let's go." Ryan said and they hurried over to Ryan and Esposito's car to follow the paramedic's truck. The whole drive to the hospital Castle felt like he was dying inside. Not being near her, not knowing what was going on drove him mad.
Was she even still alive? Was their baby still alive? He stared out of the windshield and barely noticed Ryan in the driver's seat. He was closely following the trucks and Castle held his eyes pinned to them as if he could stare through the metal doors and see what was happening inside of them. Like from far away Ryan's voice fought its way to his ears which were still dumbing every sound after being hit by the explosion.
"Castle, I had no idea," Ryan mumbled without taking his eyes off the road. Castle remained silent. There was nothing he could or wanted to say. "She's a fighter, she'll make it," Ryan said but he still got no reaction from Castle. "And he is too," Ryan mumbled. But Castle's mind was far too focused on Kate and their unborn child to worry about Esposito, even though he knew that if it wasn't for him neither Kate nor their baby would even have had a chance to make it out of that house alive.