He sways on the sidewalk, water sloshing with each of his steps, the pain in his arm pressed against his chest excruciating, the cold in his bones wearing him down. No one is looking at him, of course, they are in New York after all, the city of crazy people and everybody minding their own business.

But he needs someone. He needs a phone, and something to wear, the air on this March night too chilly to be walking in wet, icy clothes.

Maybe it's good that he seems to be invisible. Maybe that will keep him safe. He still didn't really register it fully. Someone tried to kill them. Paid one of the drivers from his company to drive them in the Hudson. Who would do something like that for money? Kill two innocent people? His heart aches as he looks at the scenery a block behind him. The sirens, the blue light lighting up the surroundings, the helicopter that just arrived and probably searching for the car, for them if they survived.

He needs a phone. Someone hurries past him and he just grabs his arm to stop him.

"Yo, man, let go!" The guy screams and tries to yank his arm free, furious eyes lie on him, indignation hard around the mouth, decorated with a goatee, but stops when he sees him. "Holy shit, what happened to you, mate?"

"Can I have your phone for a minute? Mine is flooded." He has no time to explain, not even sure what he should tell him. That he was in the wrack all this circus behind him is all about? That he fell in the water by accident, maybe distracted by the car flying and crashing in the river?

"Ye-yeah, yeah, sure, mate, here", he gives him his phone and Castle tries to type the number with shaking fingers. It only rings once, then her breathless voice answers.

"Hello?" His mother's voice is cloaked, brittle, she probably heard then already what happened.

"Yeah, it's me, mother." She exclaims in relief, almost breaking his heart, but he doesn't have time for it. "Listen, I need you to get a message to Lanie or the boys."

"The boys left as soon as Gregory called and stuttered something about being hijacked, crash, and you, but Lanie is still here." Here? Is she at the loft? He closes his eyes in relief, sways some more on his feet, his energy draining way too quickly, the guy grabbing his arm, holding him upright.

"Good, tell Lanie please that I need her services for the living here, a broken arm and a head wound, and I need dry clothes, please. Tell her to meet me at the … uh… Sixty-seven fish diner on the pier, maybe bring the boys as well." He can sense the nervousness of his mother rising, almost vividly imagining her face, "I'm alright, mother. Everything will be alright, I promise. Will you tell Alexis, so she won't freak out over the news?" He hangs up and gives the man his phone back.

"Man, what happened to you?" He just shrugs and feigns a smile.

"Date with the wrong girl, I guess." He looks at the long worn, but woolen trench coat and beanie the guy wears. "Uh, could I maybe buy your clothes? Is 200 bucks enough?" He fiddles the wet package of banknotes from his suit jacket and hands it to him.

"Uh, mate, I don't know if they fit you. You're bigger than me." Castle waves him off.

"Doesn't matter. It'll be enough to keep me at least a bit warmer until my friend arrives."

"Yeah, yeah, sure, here you go. Oh, and keep the fifty bucks here, buy yourself something hot to drink from the guy there, he's got the best chai, mate."

Loaded with clothes and tea, Castle makes his way to the diner, rounds the corner to get to the small alley behind it, steps leading to the Hudson, probably an old jetty, but nevertheless were his lifesaver.

Her long legs, still dressed in the mesh tighs, are the first thing he sees from her, hiding behind the old barrel, and his heart stops, too heavy with fear to continue beating. But when he steps around the barrel, her head lifts to meet his eyes, her greens clear and awake, relief floods him.

"Hi", she croaks, her teeth clattering, but a soft smile appears on her blue lips. He almost falls on his knees before her, the sight of her awake, alive, and as beautiful as always strikes him, but he manages to slowly lower himself to the ground instead, his face crunched up in pain that shouts through his arms, the clothes pressing painfully on his broken bone. She rises to her knees without question, takes the hot cups from his shaking hands, sets them to the cold stone beneath them, and carefully detangles the clothes from his broken arm.

"Went on a little shopping trip and kept a girl waiting, huh, Castle?" He wants to kiss her for that, laughter bubbling in his chest, easing the strained muscles and anxiety a bit. Someone tried to kill them in a car accident. Someone from the club. Just because they were at the wrong place at the wrong time, not even knowing if they heard anything.

"Couldn't help myself, they were on sale." She joins him in his delight. "I figured the trench coat would look beautiful with the drowned rat look. Heard it's a new trend."

"Then it's mine. I dig this trend." Castle chuckles and helps her in the trench coat, his heart leaps at her sigh of relief at the sudden warmth that envelops her freezing, half-naked body. Carefully, he detangles the bloody wig from her hair to take a look at the wound. It doesn't look deep, the wig probably took away most of the impact from whatever she landed on in the legroom – maybe a rail? But it sure hurts as hell and probably gave her a concussion as well. Softly, he pulls the beanie over her wet hair, to keep her warm, and she smiles thankfully at him.

"I'm really lucky to have my partner back", she says, her eyes earnest and deep, then she presses the thick hoodie in his hands. "But tell me, did you rob someone? Do I need to help you hide the body?" Castle chuckles as he shrugs his wet jacket and shirt off, her icy finger aiding him in carefully tucking the fabric over his broken arm.

The cold air hits his naked body and he doesn't miss how Kate stares at his naked chest, her lips slightly parted, her tongue darting out to lick her lip, causing his blood to boil. If it wouldn't be so freaking cold, he'd give her a show longer reveling in the way his naked body affects her, but it's just way too cold, he quickly slips into the still-warm hoodie, leaving his broken arm outside and under the fabric, sighing as well. Even if his pants and shoes are still soaked with ice-cold, smelly river water, at least his upper body is warm.

"No, I just met a very generous guy. I mean, I paid him 200 bucks for the clothes, but I only wanted to have his coat and beanie for you. He gave me his hoodie and fifty bucks to buy some hot tea." Taking it as a cue to hand Beckett the still-hot cup of deliciously smelling chai tea.

"Mh, there is still humanity and altruism in this world." She closes her eyes, scaring Castle that she might lose consciousness again, but she opens them again almost instantly, looking apologetically at him as if she knew what he thought, and takes a sip of the hot liquid. He lowers his gaze, feeling way too exposed to her.

"I'm sorry about your arm and your laptop. You lost everything you've written, probably a lot of personal photos and other stuff and with your arm, it's probably gonna be hard to write again any time soon."

"Don't be. Not your fault." Kate shrugs, not convinced, keeping her eyes trained on the swirling steam of her tea.

"Not sure about that. You were there because of me. You fled from me to the storage rooms. And I wasn't careful enough in my snooping so they got curious in the first place. This accident was planned for me, not for you." Castle gently puts a finger under her chin, lifts it to make her look at him.

"This is not your fault. Not that I was there, not that I stumbled into their scheming. They planned that accident with my car service. So it's definitely not your fault. And to ease your mind. Since I spilled coffee once over my laptop and lost all the work, I was the first to invest in the development of cloud services - that investment paid off a hundred times by the way. So neither my memories nor my work is lost. I wonder, though, how they knew about my car service and how to hijack us?"

"Yeah, I've been wondering the same thing. Did you make any other calls?" Castle grimaces, feeling guilty because of the way his scheming exposed her to the press.

"Yeah, to the press. I figured it's hard to kill you when you're all over the newspaper. Didn't think far enough." Kate lies her hand on his unscathed arm, squeezing softly, sending hot waves through his body despite the chill of her skin.

"No, it was a good thought. I also didn't think that they would be able to fake a car accident with your car service. I also thought we'd be safe for the rest of the night." She sighs, rubs her hand over her forehead, thinking.

"I think, this is way bigger than smuggling, trafficking, or selling illegal substances. That was the only thing that made sense to me before. But this …" He trails off, not sure yet what to make out of their experiences.

"Yeah, me too. Drugs or Alcohol made sense. Human trafficking, prostitution would be too conspicuous and they've been so careful along the way to not raise any suspicions. Maybe the mafia?" She looks at him, full in her theory-building mode, making his heart leap with joy.

"Thought about that, too. But it feels different. Bigger."

"Yeah, especially when they have access to your car service, maybe even your phone. Who would be willing to kill two people staged as an innocent accident only to cover their tracks?"

"Lunatics? Maniacs? CIA? Aliens? Politicians? Terrorist? Cartels? Jealous ex-friends?" he tries to joke.

"Oh, no. I just broke up with my fiancé this morning, you think it's him?" She slaps a hand over her mouth in feigned horror, his heart stumbles. She broke up with her fiancé this morning?

"Definitely. He couldn't lose you to a ruggedly handsome unemployed writer, so he'd rather kill us both."

"At least we're together in death", she sighs dramatically, putting the heel of her hand on her forehead, as if playing theatre. Both chuckle, before turning sober again, both in their own thoughts. "You're unemployed? Did you lose your contract with Black Pawn?"

Castle sighs. "Yeah. Had to pay back my advance as well. They gave me a year, full of threats, but at least a year, but no matter how often I tried, the words just didn't want to come. I sometimes had spurts when imagination struck me, but it was useless, just some stupid babble on paper. It only got worse. Another half year later, they started suing me, it didn't take long. The case was clear. I violated the contract. Got the final letter to the end of my career last week, just before I went to the club."

"I'm sorry, Castle." But he shakes his head.

"No, it's not your fault. I owed them two other Nikki Heats, but I was too cowardice to go back after you were with Demming …"

"I broke up with him before you left. That's what I wanted to tell you that night. I wanted to come to the Hamptons with you." Castle closes his eyes and lets his head fall back against the bricks of the diner. All this pain, all the wasted time because they weren't able to properly talk. He clears his throat.

"You broke up with your doctor fiancé this morning? He a criminal supermind?"

"Could be. He's telling me all the time, that he has to work late or take over shifts, and he's traveling all the time, too, pretending to be for Doctors Without Borders, but who knows? Maybe he's a smug lord." Castle bursts in laughing at Kate's wordplay.

"A smug lord?"

Chuckling, she explains. "Yeah, he sometimes was pretty smug, might have been a smuggler and the boss. A smug lord."

"I love it", he smirks, before adding honestly. "I'm sorry about your break-up."

Kate lifts a shoulder vaguely, "Yeah, well. He was not the one, I've known for a long time. So it was long overdue."

"Still sorry."

"Thank you." The way she's looking at him makes his breath catch and almost on its own accord lean forward, getting closer and closer until their breaths mingle.

"Castle?! Castle!" A voice suddenly yells, scattering them apart quickly. With a grunt, Castle gets up inelegantly, pressing his throbbing arm against his chest, to get to Lanie before she draws any more attention to them. He steps out of the dark alley, into the light of one of the street lamps, Lanie immediately catches the movement and runs to him. Her eyes wandering over his body, searching for his injuries, after her assessment her eyes searching their surroundings, lack of understanding on her face growing by the minute.

"Kate?" She meets his gaze, her eyes wide with fear and horror, her hand trembling over her mouth.

"In the alley." She looks behind him as if waiting for Kate to come out of the shadows. She probably could, tried to fight him earlier when he went alone to find a phone, to let her come with him, but he didn't want to take any risks - neither with her head injury nor for people looking for them and recognizing her. So this time, she stayed without even starting a discussion.

"Is she …" Lanie trails off, not able to finish the sentence. But Castle knows her fears, knows what she's afraid of, so he quickly jumps in, softly lays a hand on her shoulder.

"She's fine, Lanie. Just banged her head a little, that's why I forbid her to move too much." She deflates instantly, all of her nervous energy draining out of her and falling into Castle for a moment, pressing awkwardly against his broken bone, nausea flaring up in his stomach, but he just grits his teeth and endures it. Kate is her best friend, she must've been sick with worry after hearing what happened and he was vague on the phone for a reason.

"Come on, let's get you to her. I don't want to stand out in the open for so long. Who knows who might be watching us?" He quickly leads her in the alley, around the barrel to Kate.

"Oh, my God, Kate. Don't you dare scare me like that again!" She falls on her knees next to her friend, takes her face in her hands, and looks her in the eyes, probably already starting her assessment, the bag waiting next to her feet.

"I'm fine, Lanie. I just hit my head when Castle pushed me in the legroom."

"Castle!", Lanie calls.

"No, it's not his fault, Lanie. He saved our lives with his quick-wittedness, otherwise, we'd be flying through the whole car at the impact." Lanie hangs her head.

"We all thought you were dead when we got the call from Gregory and the boys heard about the accident on the radio only moments later and the car had already sunken …"

"We're here, Lanie. I had my weapon in my bag, Castle found it, shot the rear window, and had the presence of mind to swim far enough from the wreck and near the wall, so we'd hopefully stay undetected. At least for now. We need to talk to Montgomery to spread false information that we died in that wreck." Lanie nods.

"He's on the scene with the boys. I told Espo to meet me at the diner to grab something to eat, but I misspelled it to 'heat'. Didn't want to raise suspicions."

"Grab something to heat? That's brilliant, Lanie. He knows that you'll never interrupt him from a case as important as this for some random food. I'm gonna use that for my next novel", Castle chimes in, causing both ladies to roll their eyes, but he hears their muted snicker.

"So, let me see your wound, Kate. How are you feeling? Nauseous? Dizzy? Headaches? Were you unconscious?" Lanie grabs her bag, opens it, and retrieves her tools, to check on Kate. "You know I don't like to treat the living. You should see a real doctor, both of you. Castle, you're arm needs to be put in a cast, Kate should get a CT and you both need precautionary antibiotic shots because of the polluted river water. But maybe Castle can call someone he trusts to come to the loft. So, Kate. Tell me."

"A bit of a headache, not nauseous, not dizzy. But I was unconscious for …" She looks at Castle for help.

"Only about ten seconds. She fainted, probably too much stress, pressure, and movement, I don't know. Sunk in the water for a moment, but I grabbed her and pulled her back up fast. Didn't take long until she was fully back with me, able to talk, think, and hold herself over water while I searched for the gun and she swam with me to the surface."

"Okay, that sounds good. Your pupils also show a normal reaction. And the wound is not deep. I'll patch you up and then I want to see your arm, Castle. How did it happen?"

"He tried to soften the impact when the car hit the water and held me close to his body, but there was a ridge on the floor and we both crashed down on his arm and the ridge."

"Ho-hum", Lanie hums, smiling to herself. Castle meets Kate's eyes, her gaze soft, grateful. "Oh, I got dry clothes for both of you. Your mother packed a cashmere set for you, Kate, and some sweats for Castle. There in the bag."

"Ah, perfect." Castle pulls out his sweats and hoodie in his size that doesn't make him feel strangled and carefully shimmies out of the sticking dress pants, trying to ignore the blush on Kate's cheeks, the way she averts her eyes, but is still looking at him from under her lashes, making his blood sing with joy. She obviously enjoys the show. He keeps his wet boxers on, though.

"Wait with the hoddie," Lanie says, finished with Kate's wound and handing her the cashmere set, so she can get dressed. "Let me see your arm." Sighing Castle lifts the tight hoodie to let her assess his broken bone.

"You definitely need a proper x-ray and a cast, when you ever want to use your arm and write again. I can only give you a makeshift cast that will steady the broken bone, I can't see how bad the damage is without an x-ray."

"I know, Lanie. But after the quick and deep scheming that went into the accident, I don't actually feel safe walking into a hospital and maybe get surgery."

"That figures", she deadpans, making Castle grin, but then she gets sober. "I'm really glad you guys had Kate's gun and got out of the car." Her hand lies warm on Castle's arm, squeezes softly.

"Yeah, me too. Otherwise, I would've had to come up with some heroic act to burst the windshield with my bare hands." He tries to show off the muscles in his upper arm but winces as it strains his broken arm too much as well.

"And we all know that this would've ended with both of us dead," Kate marks, dressed in his mother's loungewear now, and he can suddenly picture lazy Sundays with her at the loft, a thought that warms his heart. The ringing of Lanie's phone breaks the gazes between them, and Lanie quickly draws it from her back pocket to answer it, clasping it between her shoulder and ear to attend to Castle's arm.

"Yo, chica, where are you? I'm really hungry."

"Alley around the back. I'll be waiting for you behind the barrel," she directs him, making her voice sound sultry, in case anyone might be listening and hanging up. "Hold his hand, Kate. This is going to hurt, I have to set the bone for the cast." She doesn't need to be told twice and is instantly at his side, holding on to his hand, looking him deep in the eyes.

"Tell me about the story you wrote in the Club. Is it a new Nikki Heat?" Castle swallows, anxious about when Lanie sets his bone, but he's grateful for Kate trying to distract him.

"Y-Yeah. I didn't know you were Kitten. She just reminded be so much of you, that suddenly all the ideas came flooding back into my mind, just like the first time I met you. But yeah, so it had to be a Nikki Heat of course." He knows he's rambling in nervousness, probably telling her way too much that he'll regret later, but her soft gaze, the open smile on her lips just keep him going.

"Do you already have a title? Can't get any worse than Naked Heat, right?", she jokes, squeezing his hand tighter as if she were as anxious as he is.

"Ah, no. But I don't know what you have against Naked Heat. It's a good name. Still love it. I'm not yet sure about the title. What I like most for now is Heat Dance."

"Heat dance", she repeats, the smile blooming on her face. "Yeah, I like that one." And with that Lanie sets his bone and he bites his lips hard to keep from screaming. Lanie acts quickly, adjusts the makeshift cast, and bandages his arm, while he listens to Kate's voice telling him things he doesn't understand, his whole body reeling in pain. Then Kate's soft lips press against the pulse point on his neck and it's all he can feel.

"My, my, we'll leave you alone for less than an hour and see what happens", Espo jokes, leading Kate to jerk away from him, his body already missing the warmth of hers.

"Hey, guys," she chuckles softly, beaming with joy.

"Damn, I'm so happy to see you two. I really thought this was it", Ryan steps closer with tears in his eyes, hugging Castle tight, squeezing his hurt arm, making him wince in pain.

"Ryan, you're hurting him, his arm is broken," Lanie chides him, pushing him away so she can finish her makeshift cast. "Kate, can you help Castle change into his hoodie, so I can pack my things?" She grins, obviously enjoys playing matchmaker. Kate's cheeks are burning when she steps into him, but her still cold hands grab the hem of the hoodie and carefully lift it, her fingers wandering over his bare skin, causing goosebumps wherever they are – and not from the cold. He closes his eyes, relishs the feeling, the way Kate takes her time to spare his broken arm.

"Okay, now the head," she whispers, helping him pull it off and then into his own, unfortunately, she has no reason to go slow this time, it's way bigger than the other. But she still straightens it a few times, making sure his broken arm is secured underneath in the sling, Lanie gave him. Her eyes meet his, she bites her lips, smiles shyly, and steps back. "All done."

"I'm so glad to see you, Castle, and Beckett", Roy Montgomery's voice pulls them back into reality, making them realize where they are and that there are more important things right now. "Welcome back, Castle." Montgomery cautiously claps his shoulder and nods at both of them. "I suggest, you two ride with one of us in the back. I heard, your building has a secluded back entrance, Castle? I heard we need to bring our condolences to the Mother of one of our own, so let's do this."

He shares a long look with Castle. He's one of their own. He's still part of their team, their family.