861. Chapter 861

After Target

Episode 5.15

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: Even if you appeal to my humanity, I don't own Castle. Rating: K Time: See above.

"I'm sorry." He whispered in her ear as they hugged in a darkened corner of the precinct.

"What for? You have nothing to be sorry for." She ran her hand along his cheek, feeling the stubble on it. "Nothing is your fault, here, Castle. Nothing." Kate wasn't surprised that Castle felt he had to apologize for something. That was the kind of man he was, taking responsibility for things he wasn't at all responsible for. It was one of the many reasons she loved him.

He shook his head just slightly. "I told you I'd never forgive you if you promised to get Alexis back and couldn't. That was a stupid thing to say, Kate. If it wasn't for you…." He stopped and pulled her closer. She could feel his tears falling onto her cheek. "If it wasn't for you, I'd have completely collapsed a long time ago. Thank you for being there for me. Thank you for being you. You really are everything to me, Kate."

"Always." She whispered back.

"And I was angry there in Greenpoint. About the blood. I shouldn't have…." He stopped unable to go on.

"Castle, you had every right to be upset with the situation. I never thought you were angry with me. I know how much you love Alexis. I love her, too."

"She loves you, too. She thinks you're the best thing that's ever happened to me. She's right." Castle kissed her cheek. "We really have to talk more about us when this is over." He holds her tightly and softly strokes her hair.

"Gates will see us." She whispers.

"She saw us before. She won't complain about a partner giving her partner a hug at a time like this."

Victoria Gates made every effort to not look in the direction of where Castle and Beckett were hugging in the darkness at the back of the bullpen. At least they're still trying to act as if they aren't together. I'll admit that Mr. Castle is still not my favorite person in this precinct, but with his little girl gone he deserves every break I can give him.

Gates smiled coldly, remembering the short and private conversation she'd had with Douglas Stevens.

"You want Mr. Castle arrested, Mr. Stevens?"

"And I'm going to sue the police, too. That man tortured me and your cops just stood by. I'm going to sue you and everyone connected with this. You'll all be out on the streets when I'm done with you." He said angrily.

Gates nodded. "However, my people said that nothing like that happened. There was no violence at all. In fact, you were very cooperative. When I hold my press conference tomorrow I plan to tell everyone how cooperative you were. I'll tell the DA that you were as much a help as you could be, and he'll give you a light sentence. Perhaps no more than five or ten years. Not bad for a kidnapping charge." Then she added with a cold smile. "And I'll see to it that you do it all in the general population."

Stevens reacted as she had known he would. "You can't do that! There's nothing that cons hate more than snitches. They'll be lining up to put a shiv in me. You might as well kill me yourself."

"As I see it, it's the word of three cops and a famous writer against that of an ex-con who took part in the kidnaping of two girls. Or, you can forget about charging anyone with anything and your name stays out of everything and you get a relatively mild sentence." Gates glared at him. "Take your pick."

"He tortured me."

Gates laughed. "Mr. Stevens, consider yourself lucky it was Mr. Castle. Detective Esposito was Special Forces. If he'd interrogated you, we'd be having this conversation in an ICU somewhere. And just be thankful that Detective Beckett didn't go after you. Then, you'd be in the morgue. What do you want to do?"

"I cooperated, right?"

Gates smiled at him. "You sure did."

Ryan and Esposito also avoided looking at Castle and Beckett, not wanting to draw Gates' attention to the couple.

"There's something wrong with this, bro." Espo said softly.

"Damn right. Alexis and another girl have been kidnapped."

"No, more than that. According to Agent Harris said they had a video camera with the feed routed across four continents. And inside they found Roger Henson. GSW to the head and tortured, by someone who knew their business. That makes no sense."

Ryan thought and then shrugged. "Henson was a hired gun. If he got arrested, he might have talked. So he shot callers on this decided to tie up a loose end."

"But why torture him first. Everything about these guys says they're pros. A quick bullet to the head I can understand. But torture? What the hell could Henson have told them they didn't know? Unless we have more players than we know in this."

"What do you mean? More players? How? Who?"

"This is the Middle East we're talking about. The first thing they do is divide up into multiple sides and start shooting. I know. I was there. I've seen it. Sunnis against Shias against Kurds against Druze against Christians against Jews against…Hell, everyone against everyone. There's an old Arab saying they told us about in Iraq. "Me against my brother. Me and my brother against my cousin. Me and my brother and my cousin against the foreigner." And by the foreigner, they mean some guy from the next village."

"So what do we do?"

"I wish I knew. All I can think of is to ask Harris to get in touch with Washington and try to find out about some of the people who'd hate al-Masri enough to grab his daughter. Maybe one group wanted in on the kidnapping. Maybe there are bunches of groups that hate al-Masri. But this is too well organized, too professional to be a couple of local radicalized hot heads going for the big bucks. There's some serious money and serious people behind this. A government maybe, or someone trying to be a government. I wish I knew more. There's just too damned much going on here that we have no clue about."

"We'll work on Henson and Stevens." Ryan said. "Check their known associates. Someone must know something."

Esposito nodded. "And don't mention any of what I said to Castle or Beckett. It'll just upset them more and it won't help anything."

Ryan nodded. "Maybe we'll get something and then we can talk to them." He didn't sound too convinced of that.

Beckett pulled Castle further back into the dark so she could kiss him. It was a slow, gentle kiss filled with all of the love she could put into it. She broke the kiss and smiled up at him. "You should go home, Castle. See Martha and let her know what's happened."

"I called her and talked to her. She's with the FBI. She's okay."

"Still, you should go and…"

"I meant it, earlier. Without you, I'd fall completely apart. I just feel that whatever happens, I need to be here when it does. And I know I need to be with you. I'll go crazy if I'm not here with you. I'm staying."

Kate rested her head on his shoulder. "And I'm staying with you, no matter what."