Transitions

Chapter one.

Kate Beckett hadn't realized how long she'd been staring at the empty chair beside her desk. She'd sat down, coffee in hand to get a leg up on the paperwork for this week's caseload, which blissfully had not been particularly heavy. The thought of working cases without that chair's usual occupant, Richard Castle was more heartbreaking than she could bear to contemplate. Even the puzzling behavior he had exhibited a few weeks ago was better than the thought of his complete absence from her life. This was the first case she had worked without him in nearly four years and she had felt almost dead inside the entire time she worked it.

Ryan and Espo, God bless them, had done most of the heavy lifting on this one, knowing that "Mom and Dad" as they liked to call them had some serious issues to work out.

Every so often Kate would look up from her paperwork, or away from Castle's chair long enough to glance at the elevator doors whenever she'd hear them open, secretly longing...and dreading that he would walk through them. She didn't have Ryan or Esposito to keep her distracted this time as they were down in holding, retrieving their suspect for interrogation.

She'd slapped the cuffs on him, herself just this morning. The boys had let her have the collar to keep up appearances with Captain Gates that she was more involved with the case than she had been. Javi had taken it quite hard when it had hit him that he had known Castle had been observing the interrogation during the bombing incident a few weeks ago. (when she had told the suspect she remembered everything about the day of her shooting)

The incident that had set Castle on a self destructive downward spiral of anger and pain directed at her. He and Ryan had later paid Castle a visit, she'd heard on very good authority and "convinced" him to come talk to her about it.

Kate turned her attention back to her still unfinished paperwork, when a crisp throat clearing next to her caught her attention. She looked up into the clean cut earnest face of Alexis Castle. Fresh faced, prim and professional, her hair tied carefully in a bun. Only the accusing glare of her pale blue eyes and the furrow in her otherwise flawless brow gave away the true ire she was feeling for her right now.

"I have the autopsy report from Dr. Parish for you Detective Beckett." emphasizing her title with just the barest hint of cold contempt.

"Thank you, Alexis" Kate replied.

She longed to bridge this gulf that had carved itself out between them. She wanted nothing more than to ask, no beg, the bright, young intern for her forgiveness. For the pain she had thoughtlessly laid on her father's heart by keeping the lie she had told him all those months ago secret for so long.

She had this epiphany not two weeks ago, shortly after Rick had gone on a two week sabbatical from the NYPD to tour the FBI's Quantico facility and do research on the Violent Crimes Task Force for an upcoming Nikki Heat novel, at the invitation of the FBI Director, and Special Agent Shaw.

Shortly after he'd left, Alexis had cornered her at a crime scene and read her the riot act when she'd found out her father had been beaten up while shadowing Detective Slaughter. Since dressing her down for that unprofessional outburst while on duty, Lanie had made a point of sending her to drop paperwork off to Beckett as a mild rebuke for being out of line without filing a formal reprimand when Alexis had begged her not to.

Today was different though, Castle was expected back from his sabbatical. Kate knew could tell by the way Alexis was shuffling her feet she was expecting to meet her dad at the morgue. She wanted to be anywhere but here, but was waiting to be dismissed. Kate signed for the paperwork and flashed her the barest hint of an approving smile which Alexis acknowledged with a nod of her pretty red head.

As she turned on her heel to retreat, the elevator doors opened, disgorging Esposito, Ryan, their suspect and a very animated Richard Castle regaling the boys with everything he had seen at FBI Headquarters. Kate rose and rounded her desk with renewed purpose, having decided what she wanted most, as Rick marched right up, and hugged Alexis tight.

"Hey there Beckett, how's the murder business?" he said with his customary good cheer.

"Castle," she replied, "not as much fun as I'd like."

This seemed to be the substance of their conversations lately since their big dust up. Kate began to say what she had in mind, but fate once again cruelly intervened...

The suspect, having twisted out of his cuffs, elbowed Ryan in the face, spun Velasquez around as she moved to stop him, and pulled her gun from it's holster.

"You've ruined everything you bitch!" he screamed as he brought Velasquez' service weapon to bear.

Kate reacted without conscious thought as Alexis screamed, shoving her to the floor under her desk while drawing her own weapon and shouting "Gun!" only to be unceremoniously shouldered into the floor on top of her, as the stolen Glock 17 barked once, twice, three times in succession.

The first shot grazed him in the arm, but Rick was spun clean around like a rag doll and slammed into the reinforced glass wall next to the murder board as the second round hit him high in the chest. The third penetrated the glass. Esposito's Glock 19 spoke once almost in unison with a recovered Ryan's Glock 17, ending the exchange as the would be assailant crumpled to the floor like a marionette with it's strings cut.

A chorus of "Castle!" and "Daddy!" rang out in unison as both Beckett and Alexis rose to see Castle slide slowly toward the floor trailing blood on the wall behind him. Both were on him before he settled fully to the carpet. Everything else forgotten in their wake.

"No no no no no" Beckett muttered through welling tears as she pulled off her scarf and shoved it into the open wound in his chest, "Please dear God, no..." as Alexis wailed piteously over her fallen father.

Castle reached up to Kate and said "Tttake care of...lexis...yyyy ppromised.." before coughing up blood and losing consciousness.

The only sound to be heard over Beckett's tearful prayers, and Alexis' keening wail was the loud, autocratic voice of Captain Gates over the phone: "This is Captain Victoria Gates, 12th Precinct, we have a 10-13 in progress, shots fired, civilian down, we need a bus and a medical examiner,immediately"

(moments before)

Castle had gotten to the morgue, hoping to pick up Alexis and beat a hasty retreat from the 12th Precinct without coming into contact with Lanie, or with Kate, at least not today. He had a plan in mind for Beckett. They'd cleared the air with that huge fight they'd had before he left for Virginia, and he'd had quite a lot of free time on his hands while he was there on the FBI's dime.

Agent Shaw had been impressed enough with his perspective on the criminal mind that she wanted him to go over some evidence she had on her latest serial killer Du jour while he was there. Though the idea of tracking serial killers had lost most of it's appeal the last time he'd encountered one.

He'd spent most of his downtime writing, and pondering his behavior over the past few weeks after learning that Kate had lied to him and feeling deeply ashamed of himself for being such an immature jackass.

Mother had tried to talk sense into him, but he'd ignored her. He went right back into the precinct and had done his damnedest to drive Kate away. The trip to Vegas and the fling with the flight attendant was a new (well okay, not so new) low for him. The doubts that Sophia had slipped into his brain so many weeks before had fully come home to roost. He felt like an idiot.

He had something big, something perfect, something absolutely romantic planned to make amends. He owed her no less after his huge overbearing stream of jackassery. Yes she'd hurt him, but given their ties she had deserved better. Ryan and Espo had made that even more abundantly clear to him the night before he left for Virginia when they stopped by the house and not-so-subtly warned him to tread lightly.

No such luck. Lanie met him at the door to the morgue before he even had it all the way open.

"If you're looking for Alexis, she's upstairs delivering paperwork to Kate," she said with a twinkle in her eye. Rick reminded himself to find some harmless form of revenge for sabotaging his exit strategy. "if you even think about starting a fight with her when you get up there, Imma follow you home and smack you."

Castle rolled his eyes and headed for the door. After the elevator arrived bearing Ryan, Esposito, and their handcuffed prisoner on their way up to the precinct he very jovially regaled them with the cliff notes of his trip to Quantico. They seemed to get a kick out of seeing him in a better mood than he had been in when he left. Upon exiting the elevator he saw Alexis at Kate's desk getting the ME paperwork signed for. By the time Alexis saw him and let out her chorus of "Dad!" He was right next to his chair at her desk, and said

"Kate, how's the murder business?"

Her response let him know he was missed anyway which was a very good sign after all the angry words that had passed between them when he'd revealed he'd been looking into her mom's case again behind her back. She seemed genuinely glad to see him.

Next thing he knew a voice behind him said "You've ruined everything, you bitch!"

Kate shoved Alexis to the floor while drawing her weapon and shouted "Gun!" just as Castle shouldered her to the ground. He barely heard the shots when all of a sudden the right side of his chest felt like it was on fire as he was spun around and slammed into the wall.

Two more shots then he heard the shouts of "Castle!" and "Daddy!" as both Kate and Alexis were on him. As she was pushing her scarf to his chest (wasn't it white a second ago, not red?) he reached up and she took his hand fighting back tears.

"Take care of Alexis, like you promised." he'd tried to say, but it got garbled by the blood rising in his throat.

He stared up at her, then Alexis for a moment, could have swore he heard Captain Gates' voice, then saw only shadows...