“Nooooo”, the scream was silent, in her head; not voiced out loud.

It all happened so fast, she didn't have time to react. He laughed, “clever girl” and the next thing she knew, he had Castle, a gun shoved into his back. She had only been able to reach for her gun, her hand on the grip, unable to pull it from it's holster. She knew the reason she didn't pull it was because he had Castle. She kept her eyes on Coonan, but was painfully aware of Castle; he swallowed hard, his breathing changed, and he kept his eyes on her.

She finally stole a look at Castle, she could hear the sound of her heart beat, feel it pulsing in her neck and saw the look in his eyes; and so the silent conversation between them began. Him silently asking her to watch over Alexis, her silently reassuring him that she wasn't going to lose him. “Oh God, Rick,” she thought as Coonan shoved the gun harder into Castle; driving home the fact that he would shot him right here, in the liver, and that he would die slowly and in considerable pain. She released the grip on her gun and turned as they made there way towards the elevator.

As they walked, she exchanged another look with Castle, again the silent conversation between them. They seemed to both know that this was somehow going to end badly. As they walked, Beckett stated that he know, her mother was his victim; he stated it wasn't personal, she was just another job to him. Beckett answered him, she wanted to know who put the hit out on her mother. He said she would never be able to touch him but she needed answers, and most importantly, she needed to keep Castle alive.

The Captain appeared at the end of the hall, his gun drawn, near the elevator. Beckett moved forward quickly, between the Captain and Coonan and Castle. “No … no sir, I need him alive.” Coonan agreed and told her to back him off, or Castle will die. “You want to know who put the hit on your Mommy, back him off now” Kate stole a glance at the Captain, asking him to back off please. “You know I can't do that….” Again Coonan taunted her about finding who put the hit on her mother. She looked again at Castle, slowly shaking his head, knowing that if she let Coonan walk, she wouldn't get the closure she had been seeking for over 10 years. Right at that moment, her concern was for Castle, she had to get him out of this alive. Again, softly, his name voiced only in her head….Rick!

“Roy, please …” as the Captain slowly lowered his gun. Coonan agreeing “that's right Roy … nice and easy” Beckett turned her head slowly towards Castle, listening to Coonan and watching Castle at the same time. He was leaning forward, slowly, she thought he was going to pass out. In the next instant he whipped his head back, hit Coonan square in the face, knocking Coonan off balance and back away from him. Before Beckett could move forward, Coonan pulled out his gun and was ready to fire at Castle. A gun went off, Castle slowly looked up to find the source of the shot, expecting to see the Captain with his gun drawn. He wasn't expecting to see that Beckett was the source of that shot.

She quickly dropped to the ground next to Coonan, performing CPR on the man, counting off, as Esposeto and Ryan come running in, the rest of the squad room watching her. Coonan faded away, and Castle pulled her back from him, stopping her CPR attempts. She cried, ran the back of her blood stained hand across her brow, as the tears filled her eyes. She didn't look back at him, she knew his eyes had been on her the whole time. Everyone thought the tears were for her mother, which they would be partially right. Most of the tears were the realization of how close she came to losing Castle.

She rose from her squatting position, she couldn't turn to look at Castle, she was afraid of what she would see in his eyes. She made it to the bathroom, just in time, and throw up in the toilet; that's were Lanie had found her moments later. The blood was dried on her hands, her face tear stained and her breathe coming in gasps. Lanie dropped down next to her, put her arms around her, stroked Beckett's head, and let Beckett turn into her arms as she cried out the rest of her tears.

Beckett slowly composed herself, smiled weakly at Lanie and got up from the floor. She walked to the sink, washed her hands off, Lanie watching her throw the mirror the whole time. “It wasn't your fault Kate, you did the right thing. Your mother would be proud, you found her killer, got her some justice and she would understand that you had to save him”. Beckett turned towards her, opened her mouth to say something and closed it again. She walked to Lanie, helped her up and hugged her. She walked out of the ladies room and headed to the Captain's office.

They spoke, briefly, he told her he would write up the incident report, and to take the weekend off. She did the right thing, he reassured her, got some justice for her mother and saved her friend. They would all help her catch the person whom ordered the hit, she didn't have to do this alone. She looked out into the office and saw Castle, the Captain followed her gaze. “You need to speak with him Kate, he's worried about you and he cares.” She looked at the Captain, nodded her head and walked out of the office.

She walked slowly to her desk, Castle standing there looking at her. She pulled her bag from the drawer and straightened. Her eyes finding the front of Castle's shirt and slowly moving up to his face. She opened her mouth to speak, but couldn't, her eyes filling with tears again. He reached out to her, but she shook her head. She placed her trembling hand over his heart, looked at him again and walked slowly out of the squad room.

Thanks for the great response. 

You know that we just wished that's how it happened.  I'm working on the next part of it and hope to have it posted later tonight.