Author's Note:-This is gonna be a slow burn, so keep with it. The first three chapters are written and a new chapter will be uploaded every weekend. It's very loosely based on Ed Sheeran's Castle On The Hill but if any of you can work out how I'll be surprised haha. Enjoy, let me know what you think, NYLF xx

As the dust settled, and the shock waves dissipated, the momentary silence was suddenly broken by

a cacophony of noises.

People screaming, crying, people yelling out for the survivors, their partners, their family.

Castle turned up his jacket collar against the worst of the weather, as he looked up at the twelfth precinct.

It had been so long since he'd been back.

It didn't seem real that it was so long ago, and yet it looked as though it had never happened, as though some lunatic had never thought it was a good idea to blow up a police precinct in the middle of the day.

He shook his head to himself, keeping his body safely tucked in his jacket, as he watched people fill up the street in front of the steps his friends had run up and down for years.

Five years really was such a long time.

Castle groaned, trying to get his bearings as quickly as possible, despite the blinding pain racing through his entire body.

They'd been sat in the squad room, trading banter and laughing, while they wrote up the paperwork from the last case. Jenny was sat with them, waiting for Ryan to get back so they could go to lunch, telling them all with sparkly eyes, and teeth filled smiles, about Ryan finally being able to feel their baby kick.

Everything had been normal.

Then suddenly it wasn't.

Rick took a few deep breaths, trying to pinpoint what he was sure were several injuries.

He couldn't move, but as his eyes slowly got used to the dimmed light around him, he realised that wasn't his body not working. He was pinned on his right side by what must be Kate's desk.

Oh god, Kate.

He watched quietly, taking in the gathering.

There were plenty of faces he recognised, but some things never change, he could still spot her in any crowd.

He watched her, watching as she scanned her surroundings carefully, rabbit in the headlights, still watching for any danger.

Once a cop, always a cop.

He looked around frantically, spotting her caramel curls by his knees. She was facing away from him and her body was contorted into a position even her flexible figure shouldn't be able to achieve.

"Kate?" He tried, croaking the sound into the dust filled darkness. He tried to move his leg, managing to shift his left leg enough to gently nudge the back of her head. "Kate, baby, you okay?"

He nudged her once more, getting a groan in response, which, as pain filled as it was, was music to his ears.

"Don't call me baby." She muttered, grimacing as she pulled herself up into seated position.

Castle laughed, a little hysterical. "Hey, I'll call you anything you want if you tell me you're okay." He promised.

She hadn't spotted anyone yet, she wasn't even sure they were coming.

So much had happened, so much was broken now.

They had been family once, but she couldn't honestly say that she still even knew them. Their lives had all changed so much that day, and she wasn't sure she'd be able to recognise her old team if they were stood in front of her now.

Her heart ached, but she couldn't regret being here.

They had all lost so many people that day, they deserved one evening out of her time, even if it did make old dragons rear their ugly heads in her psyche.

Kate looked around her, trying to make sense of the scene before her.

One minute they were sat at her desk, everything was fine, and now everything had gone to hell.

She cradled her head with one hand while the other landed on Castle's ankle.

"I'm okay, just a bit banged up. How you doing?" She asked slowly, a definite concussion causing a slight slur in her words.

"I, uh, I don't really know." He told her quietly. "I think I'm okay." He looked around, Kate following his example as they tried to piece together what had happened.

"Some sort of explosion, right?" Castle murmured.

"It had to be right on top of us to cause this kind of devastation." Kate replied quietly, before gasping. "Jenny and the baby!" She cried, standing too quickly but she had to know.

She stepped carefully, not sure of the floor's integrity right now.

Light but quick on her feet, she made her way over to where she presumed her desk used to be. She managed to stop one step away from the devastating open mouth of the crater where her squad room had been.

Ground zero.

She slowly got to her knees, peering over, her heart lurching at the chaos beneath them.

Debris and bodies were strewn around like bits of sea glass, carelessly tossed from the ocean.

Kate did what she did best and tried to document the scene, but she had to look away when an all too familiar face looked up at her from under what used to be the floor.

Jenny's eyes were open, lifeless, and if that wasn't enough to confirm the detective's worst fears, the crushed left side of her head did.

Ryan's wife and baby were gone.

She found herself tracing the names on the memorial board, the brass plaque reminding them all why they were there, as if any of them could forget.

Her eyes stuck on the name that they had all fought with all their strength to have included.

Jennifer Scout Duffy O'Malley Ryan. She was etched forever among the names of the fallen, as much a part of their team as anyone else, had only been there to meet her husband for lunch. She was theirs, and they would have fought till death to have her included.

Kate shuffled back to Castle's side, her eyes prickling with tears that she couldn't let fall yet. She needed to get them both out, neither of them could be sure that the threat was over, and there were almost certainly secondary dangers they had to think about.

"She didn't make it, huh?" Castle murmured quietly, his voice thick with emotion.

Kate shook her head, running her fingers through her hair, before sliding the hair tie on her wrist into the dirty strands, grimacing at the dust, grime, and what had to be her own blood, that had clung to the strands. With her hair up, she could concentrate better on the situation at hand.

She took in her partner's situation, realising immediately that he was worse off than he had told her. He was pinned to the wall beside Interrogation, her desk crushed against his side.

Her mind immediately jumped to worrying about rib injuries.

"Castle, I need you to be honest, what hurts?" She fussed, taking out her phone with one hand while gently taking his hand with the other, needing the comforting touch almost as much as she was sure he did.

She woke the phone up, ignoring the cracked face for now. By some grace of god, it still worked, and that's what mattered now. She lit up her torch and aimed it at his chest, making sure not to blind him with it.

"Nothing feels broken, miraculously. I think my leg is trapped though, think the desk landed on it." He winced as she tried to get a closer look, leaning over him. He slid his hand down her back, hand landing on the back of her thigh. He needed to hold onto her, feel the warmth of her body, couldn't believe how lucky they were to both be having this conversation.

Kate aimed the torch beam at his leg, her breath catching in her chest when she saw the extent of damage that had occurred. His pant leg was torn around the injury site, the skin livid purple underneath, but that wasn't what she was most worried about. His leg was alarmingly colder beneath the edge of the desk.

She couldn't tell if it was from the injury or the desk, but she knew they had to get out of here, soon, and if his leg was dying, they had even less of a chance of getting out safely than they did now.

"Castle I think we need to move the desk." She murmured.

Castle groaned. "That's gonna hurt." He winced.

"I know, I know babe, but your leg is getting cold and I'm worried about blood flow."

Rick increased his grip on her leg. "Can you move it?"

He knew how heavy that desk was, before it had landed on him, but now he was acutely aware that it was solid.

Kate shrugged. "I think I have to try." She brought her eyes up to meet his. "I, I'm so scared." She murmured wetly, letting her head rest on his shoulder for just a moment, letting him cup the back of her neck while she buried her face in his.

Under the smoke, and the dust, and everything else in the air, she could still faintly smell the aftershave she had watched him put on that morning, in her bathroom, while she sat across from him, sipping the coffee he had made her.

They were perfect together, this was so perfect, and a small selfish part of her couldn't help but question if this was the universe's price for their happiness.

She pulled back slowly, cupping his cheek, leaning into him and sealing their lips together for a moment. When she pulled away, she could see the determination on his face.

"Okay. Do it." He pushed through gritted teeth.

Kate steeled herself, getting a good grip on the bottom of the desk, before pulling it up off his leg. Rick gasped out, loudly, at the release in pressure and Kate tried to push the desk away from them, but she'd barely pushed it clear from his thigh when it hit debris and slipped from her fingers.

Rick screamed out as the desk landed on his hand, and the sickening crunch of a crushing break echoed around them.

"Shit!" Kate cried, "Rick, I'm so sorry!" She scrambled to grip the desk again, but he batted her away with his free hand.

"Stop! Just stop! You've done enough." He grimaced as pain coursed through his entire system.

Kate pulled her self away from him quickly, curing into her bent up knees as she leaned against the wall a few feet from him.

She'd made it worse, and now couldn't look him in the eye.