1043. Chapter 1043

After Knockout

Episode 3.24

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: Yes, I own Castle. I am such a liar. Rating: K Time: AU between and during episodes 3.24 and 4.01.

"Good news. He's not that badly hit. He'll be okay."

Kate shook her head. "Lanie, that's not possible. I saw him. He was shot in the heart. He's badly wounded."

Lanie smiled. "Well, in my capacity as ME and official homicide team investigator, I talked to several people in the ER and I figured out what happened. Sergeant Frank Kelso was also shot."

"Fatso Kelso?" Ryan muttered. Kate glared at him.

"Kelso is a big man and the bullet first hit him in the hip. He'll be on disability but he'll live. The bullet exited Sergeant Kelso, but was moving much slower. Then it hit something. The ER nurse told me there was some white residue on the bullet, so it probably hit a marble tombstone. That slowed it down some more, changed its trajectory and caused it to tumble. It hit Castle in the ribs, but sideways. It tore some rib cartilage and cracked the sternum, but the bullet didn't penetrate the rib cage. He'll be fine, sweetie."

Kate slumped against the wall.

Kate took several deep breaths, then saw Espo heading for her.

"What do you have?" She asked.

"We got him."

Kate smiled. "Bring him to Interrogation One. I'm going to…."

Esposito shook his head. "Sorry, Beckett. Lanie is the only one who'll get anything out of him now."

"Who dropped the bastard?" Ryan asked.

Espo pulled a notebook from his pocket. "One Alejandro DeJesus Portillo. A Cuban-American from Miami who now lives in the Bronx, and who is a retired employee of the United States Central Intelligence Agency. Mr. Portillo was carrying his 1911 Colt, for which he has a valid concealed carry permit. He saw the sniper setting up and took a snap shot at him. He hit the bastard's left arm which caused the shot to go wide. The sniper tried to turn on Portillo but got a round in the head for his trouble."

"Why was he at the cemetery?" Kate asked.

"Laying some flowers at a grave. The funny thing is, the grave has what looks like a standard military issue headstone, but all that's on it is the word "Unknown" and a date, 11-19-1997."

"Where is he now?"

"At the precinct. He knew we'd want to talk to him."

"Keep him there. I'll talk to him, but I want to wait until I know Castle's okay. It shouldn't be that long."

Kate leaned back against the wall, but Lanie grabbed her arm and pulled her into an empty room.

"You know that bullet was meant for you, right?"

"I know."

"And Castle is the one who got shot."

"God, Lanie. Do you think I don't feel bad enough as it is? Do you have to throw it in my face?"

"I don't know what you feel. I do know that Castle is crazy about you. Even you have to have seen that."

"Lanie, it's complicated."

"Okay. Do you know what isn't complicated? Death. Death is very uncomplicated. Castle will keep following you because he loves you. He needs to know that you have those feelings for him. Or, if you don't, he needs to know so he can get on with his life. Unless you're perfectly happy to help Martha and Alexis bury him the next time."

"Of course, I don't want that. I told Castle we'd talk after all of…this. We did have a fight before Montgomery…" Kate choked up. "….Before he died. And I will talk to him. I do have feelings for him and I want more than we have. I promise I'll talk to him."

"You'd better, Sweetie." Lanie gave her a hug. "Now go out there and find out who did this."

After half an hour, a nurse came out and told those left that Castle was out of surgery and resting comfortably.

"I need to see him." Kate announced.

"I'm sorry, Officer, but…."

"He's my partner and I need to see him." Kate headed past the nurses' station.

"He's still sedated. l If you try to see him, I'll call security." The nurse called after her.

She got lucky and found Castle almost at once.

"Hi, how are you feeling?"

"Better…weird….I….shot?"

"Yeah, but you'll be okay." Kate could hear heavy footsteps coming down the hall. "I have to go now. I'll be back."

"Beck….?...You….okay? You scream'…..Thought you…." Castle's eyes slipped closed.

Outside she found LT in a conversation with a hospital security guard. Both looked happy that Kate could leave on her own.

Once back at the precinct, Kate changed from her blood-stained uniform and met Mr. Portillo. There was a second man with him, as she suspected there would be.

"Detective Beckett? I'm Richard Leonard of Jorgenson, Haley and Coll. Mr. Portillo thought he might need legal representation." He said while handing her his business card.

Mr. Leonard looked every inch the prosperous lawyer, from his $500 shoes to the gold rimmed eyeglasses now perched on top of his head. And, Kate recalled, Jorgenson, Haley and Coll had more ex-Senators, ex-Congressmen and ex-Cabinet Officers than any firm this side of Washington, D.C.

"First, I'd like to thank Mr. Portillo." Kate said, offering her hand, which Portillo took. "Two people were shot today, but both will live. One of them is my partner who is very dear to me. So, thank you."

Portillo just chuckled. "Always glad to do a good deed, Detective Beckett."

"Now, today you were at the cemetery to visit a grave, is that correct?"

"Yes. It's a grave of an unknown. I always felt they should be remembered as well as anyone else."

"But you have no knowledge of who this unknown is?"

"Not a clue."

Leonard looked like he was going to say something, so Kate quickly asked, "Tell me what happened in your own words."

Portillo nodded and frowned in concentration. "I was kneeling by the grave and I saw this fellow laying down behind a gravestone. He pulled a sniper rifle out of a sack he'd been carrying and began…"

"How far away were you, sir?"

"About 40 yards."

"And at that distance you could tell it was a rifle? And a sniper rifle?"

Portillo looked at Leonard who nodded very slightly. Portillo went on. "I identified it as a Knight's Armament SR-25, although Detective Esposito has told me that it's more properly called a Mark 11. That's the correct Navy designation for that rifle."

"Please continue." Kate said.

"I drew and took a snap shot while yelling as loud as I could. I hit him in the left arm, just as he shot, breaking his forearm and causing him to miss, I suppose. He turned to me and tried to bring his weapon around to shoot me. I fired one round into his head. That was it."

"At no time did you ever think that he might have been a police officer?" Kate asked.

Portillo shook his head. "I know how to set up a sniper, Detective Beckett. You put them as high up as you can get them so they can see as far as they can shoot. That man wasn't in any kind position to shoot anyone but the people at the funeral."

"I think that should be sufficient, Detective. "Leonard said with an air of finality.

"Certainly. I'd just like to thank Mr. Portillo again. He saved some lives today."

As the two men got up to leave, Kate asked, as casually as she could, "Mr. Portillo, do you know an author named Richard Castle?"

"No, I don't know him, but I have all of his books, including….." He stopped and stared at Kate. "Oh my God! You're Nikki Heat! Right here in front of me."

"I'm not Nikki Heat, I'm afraid, but Richard Castle is my partner and he was shot. And I suspect he'll want to give you an autographed copy of every book he's ever written or will write. He'll probably want to name a character in a book after you."

"Detective Beckett, I'm not sure that would be in my client's best…."

Portillo cut him off. "Of course, it's in my best interest. There a are a million Portillos out there. How's anyone going to know it's me? Wow. Me, in a Richard Castle novel."

When the two men had left, Kate looked at her notes. An ex-CIA agent who's a crack shot, who just happens to be near the funeral, knows about snipers and doesn't know Rick Castle. Does Castle think I'll believe that?

The investigation into the sniper, identified as Cole Maddox, went nowhere. Everything led to cash transfers to and from banks in Third World countries, corporations run by people no one could find, from corporate headquarters located in empty lots or in the middle of rivers. Even when Esposito used a friend of his from the Army to track down Maddox as Cedric Marks, it did no good.

"Beckett, this guy Marks got out of the Army years ago and just fell off the face of the Earth. There's no record of him anywhere until Cole Maddox shows up with a walletfull of phony IDs. We have nothing." Espo finished.

Kate sighed and pressed her hands to her head. "Okay. I'm going to go pick up Castle at the hospital and take him home. When he's better, I'll ask him to look over everything we have on Marks. He may see something we don't."

"Tell Castle to get better and to stop standing in front of snipers." Espo said with a grin.

"You're not going to let him forget that, are you?"

Ryan and Esposito just laughed.

After making sure Castle was ready, Kate pulled her car around to the main entrance to the hospital, where Castle waited, impatiently, in a wheelchair.

"Thank God you came, Beckett. Did you bring something to eat? Hospital food is an oxymoron, I tell you."

"Here. Alexis made you a sandwich and sent along a bottle of orange juice." She said, handing him a brown paper bag.

"That's all?" Castle whined.

"Your mother has a feast waiting for you at home. Don't worry, she ordered every bit of it from a gourmet grocery store."

Castle took a bite of his sandwich and put it down,

"We have to talk." They said in unison.

"There are parking spaces for cop cars here. We can park."

Once parked, Castle spoke first. "You'd better let me go first. After I've spoken to you, you might not want to talk to me. Okay?"

Kate nodded, wondering what he had to say.

"Before Montgomery called me, he sent some documents to someone he trusted. Documents that could be very damaging to this Dragon. The idea was that this person would blackmail the Dragon to keep you safe. But the deal would only work if you stopped investigating your mom's murder. Montgomery said he wanted me to get you to do that."

"Castle, why…"

"Beckett, please. Let me tell the whole story. I told Roy that it would never work. Given a choice between me, or anything else, you'd always pick your mom's case. Your dad talked to me as well, asking if I could stop you before you got killed."

"Castle, why would my dad…."

"Because he buried his wife and he doesn't want to bury his only daughter. Anyway, I told Roy it would never work, but I went to talk to you just the same. The result was just what I had predicted. You kicked me to the curb. Roy was sorry, and hoped everything would work out anyway."

Kate shook her head, trying to clear it. "Who is this guy? What do you know about him?"

"Absolutely nothing. Roy never said anything about him. Or her. Or they. I have no idea who he is. Beckett, it's like I never knew Roy Montgomery at all. The Roy I knew would never have kidnapped mobsters, held them for ransom, killed an undercover FBI agent and framed someone else. I keep thinking that maybe Roy was worse than we thought. Suppose he still had contacts from those days. Someone just as bad as the Dragon, or some dirty cop, or mobster, or…Hell, I just don't know. I do know that Roy told me not to try to find this guy. That it could be fatal."

"Please don't…."

"I'm not done, Beckett. Now you do have to stop. Not because you want to but because we have to. We've gone over your mom's file a hundred times and found nothing. We went over her friends who were killed. Nothing. The same with Dick Coonan's files. Nothing on your mom. The same with Lockwood, Raglan, McAllister and Ryker, the prison guard, and Lockwood's girlfriend. I heard from Espo yesterday. This Maddox or Marks is also a ghost. Beckett, all we can do now is go over the same information over and over until we both end up at the bottom of the rabbit hole. You have to stop."

"Can I speak now?"

Castle nodded.

"I saw you die, you know. Right in front of me."

Castle smiled. "If I could present an alternative theory?"

"Please let me finish. I saw you die, Castle. I saw you shot in the heart and fall with very little bleeding. That usually means the heart has been destroyed by the bullet, so no blood can be pumped through the bullet wound. Lanie later told me that I was screaming."

"I heard you. I was so afraid you were hurt."

"That's so sweet, Rick. But, according to Lanie, at one time I was screaming, "No, not again. I can't go through this again." And that's what it was like. For a few seconds of absolute terror, I was back in that freezing cold alley, identifying my mom's body and knowing that my life as I knew it was gone. I saw you die and I knew my life was really over this time. I had run out of chances."

"Kate, you know that's…."

"Please, Castle, let me finish. You were right when you came to see me. I would have always chosen my mom's case over anyone or anything. But you died, Castle, and I realized that all I want is you."

"I am so glad to hear that." Castle grins.

"There's more. I do want you to look at what we have on Cedric Marks, just in case you can see something we missed. And I trust you enough to know that if you did find something, that you'd tell me. So, with that proviso, I'm done with my mom's case. "Castle gave a huge sigh of relief until Kate added. "For now."

"For now?" He said, starting to get angry.

"Rick, this is about more than my mom. Three other people were killed with her. And Lockwood killed Raglan, McAlister, Ryker and his own girlfriend. And Montgomery. Since the Dragon's MO seems to be to kill anyone who gets in his way, I'll bet there are a lot more. I'm a cop, Castle. If I find any evidence leading to the Dragon. I have to follow it. And I hope you'll be right there with me. You don't want the Dragon out there killing people any more than I do."

Castle nodded his head slowly. "I hate to say it, but you're right. If we get a lead on the Dragon, we go after him together."

Kate moved closer and leaned against his chest. Very carefully, Castle put his arm around her.

"So, assuming I find nothing tomorrow, your mom's case is history, for now?"

She nodded. "I want us to be partners and friends again, and best friends, and lovers, and a couple. I want to take us as far as we can and see where it goes."

"So the case is over?"

She smiled. "It doesn't have to be over. We could go to dinner. Debrief each other."

"Why, Beckett? So I can be one of your conquests?"

"Or I could be one of yours. Come on, Castle. It'll be great."

Castle kisses the top of her head. "You have no idea."

The End

Author's note: As I said before, I'm working on the further adventures of Lord and Lady Castle in Renaissance Italy, but that may take a while. Meantime, I'm writing a story that's very AU, set thousands of years in the future on another planet. But, don't worry, Kate is still a cop and Rick is still a writer. I have decided not to make Kate an intelligent pterodactyl, and Rick an intelligent megalodon. I think I decided that. Let me look again at the first draft just to be sure.