622. Chapter 622

After Boom

Episode 2.18

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: It's not complicated. I don't own Castle. Rating: K Time: See above.

"Goodbye, Nikki. Goodbye, Nikki." She heard the voice of the killer and dove headfirst into her tub. Oddly enough, it flashed through her mind to be thankful that she lived in an older building with a cast iron bathtub. She heard the blast and felt the heat roar over her and the pressure wave rocked the whole tub. She shook her head to clear it. I'm alive. She thought. I think. Slowly she began to check herself over. No pain, no blood, no obvious damage.

She peeked over the rim of the tub. Her apartment was on fire, but not badly. She could get out, although she had to hurry. The air was getting thick.

"Beckett!" She heard a pounding on her door and then heard the door crash inwards. "Beckett?"

"Castle! Be careful, there could be…." Her warning was cut off by a second blast.

On the street below, Scott Dunn looked up with triumph in his eyes. Nikki Heat and Jameson Rook. Both dead. This is my greatest triumph yet. I am invincible! No one can defeat me! Then he walked off into the night.

Kate crawled out of the tub and went to Castle. His face was peaceful, as if he were just asleep or knocked out. "Castle, wake up. We have to get out of here." She grabbed his arm to pull him up and slipped in something. Looking down, she saw she was standing in a pool of blood and something else. It took her a second to recognize the something else. Intestines. Those are intestines. Looking closely, she could see that Castle's legs were gone, shredded by the blast and his intestines had spilled onto her floor. She checked his vital signs, knowing it was pointless. He was dead.

She was still screaming when the first fireman entered the apartment.

From the floor of the old warehouse, she looked up at Scott Dunn's face, looking at her down the barrel of Jordan Shaw's pistol. She was going to die.

"No!" Castle screamed.

There was a shot and Scott fell back, a bullet through his head. Beckett shuddered briefly, but quickly got up. She had to make sure Shaw got the FBI agents out of the other buildings. "Castle, come on. We have to help Shaw."

She turned to chide him and saw his head in a pool of blood. She ran over, but it was too late. Richard Castle was dead. She lifted his corpse into her arms and held him until Shaw and the other agents gently made her release him so he could go to the morgue.

It took Mukhtar Baylor several rounds before he figured out he didn't have to wait for the police to stick their heads over the counter to shoot them. The cabinet they hid behind was made of cheap wood. His bullets would simply tear through the wood and into them. He estimated where the man would be as he would doubtlessly be the most dangerous. He fired three rounds and was rewarded by a sharp grunt of pain, and then a woman's scream. Had he gotten them both?

Kate felt the blood spray onto her face. "Castle!" She screamed. One round had gone through his neck, right to left, severing both jugulars. She reached for him when three more rounds were fired, one clipping her sleeve.

Baylor wondered if they were both dead. Should he look, or shoot again? As he thought, the woman rolled around the side of the cabinet and began shooting. She didn't stop until she had emptied her magazine. Moving quickly back to Castle, she was too late. He was gone.

Karl Nadir rolled to the ground with the big cop under him. Luckily, he still had his gun. He hit the cop in the head with his gun, then pushed himself up. Knowing cops wear protective vests, he aimed at his head and fired.

He heard a scream and saw a female cop. He swung his pistol to shoot her, but she was too fast for him. He felt nothing as the first round tore through his heart. Nor did he feel anything as she emptied her weapon into him.

"Roy, please. Put the gun down."

"You'd better…."Coonan began.

Kate could see from the look on Montgomery's face that he was about to shoot. She went for her own gun and whirled to face Coonan just as Castle slammed his head back into Coonan's nose. The crack of his nose breaking was marginally before he fired into Castle. Kate's single shot hit Coonan in the heart. She ran to Castle and began CPR, but it was too late. She had lost the only lead to her mother's killer and worse, she had lost Castle.

Kate Beckett's eyes opened. She sat up, noting she was drenched in sweat. It was just a dream. Castle is safe downstairs in his bed and I'm here in his guest room. Scott Dunn is in jail as are all the other men who could have killed Castle. She slowly relaxed and thought over the conversation she'd had with Agent Jordan Shaw.

"He cares about you, Kate. You may not see it. You may not be ready to, but he does."

"Castle is…complicated." She had said, as if that explained everything away.

"There's nothing complicated about death. Castle could have died when he went into your apartment."

"The bomb had gone off and the fire wasn't that bad." She countered.

"I've had to study terrorist bombs. They like to set off one bomb and follow it up with another when the first responders are there, all crowded around the first victims, increasing the kill count. I wonder if Scott Dunn would have wanted to kill Nikki Heat and Jameson Rook. To him, that who you two were, I imagine."

Kate thought about it. "There was no second bomb."

Shaw nodded. " Not this time. And if things had gone a little different in that warehouse, both you and Castle might be dead."

"I really can't control Castle. No one can, I think."

"I've checked into your records, he's risked his life several times for you. He just cold bloodedly decided he'd follow you into danger, no matter what. He cares for you, Kate. He cares for you a lot. And sooner or later, you're going to have to come up with something more than just saying "it's complicated". Think about it."

Kate had thought about it. She had just had a terrible, gut wrenching nightmare about what could have happened. Or what might happen in the future. Jordan Shaw is right. I have to do more than just write Castle off as complicated. The problem is, we're both complicated. Very complicated. I do like him and value him as a partner, greatly. And he's my friend. Yes, he is my friend. He's kind and generous and sweet and caring and vain and childish and incapable of taking anything seriously and if I'd let him, he'd break my heart. A horrible thought occurred to Beckett. All he has to do is stay with me and he could break my heart. The more he's with me, the more he'll care. The more he cares for me, the more I'll start to care for him. Eventually, whether I want it to happen or not, I'll be at a point where he'll break my heart when he leaves. I can't stop that. What will I do?

Kate Beckett was awake for a very long time that night.