862. Chapter 862

After Hunt

Episode 5.16

By

UCSBdad

Disclaimer: Luke, I am your father….Oh, wrong. Um, I don't own Castle. Rating: K Time: See above.

"Gaston, you told me about a man that the French government sometimes uses when they can't afford to take official action."

His friend slowly shook his head. "Richard, I cannot help you."

"Gaston…."

"Richard, you are a week late. The man has been sent on a mission. He's not available."

"For how long?"

"I don't know, but these things sometimes take months."

"Is there someone else that I can ask for help? This is Alexis, Gaston." Richard Castle was starting to get desperate.

"I know of one other man, but…"

"I'll pay anything. Anything he asks for. Everything I have."

Gaston shook his head. "He's in the hospital, Richard. He was….injured. You'd be lucky to be able to talk to him in a week."

"There must be someone else? You have connections with the Ministry of Defense. Can't you ask…?"

"Richard, I know of these two men because I had to brief them. If I start to ask about other such men, my superiors will want to know why and they'll end up by arresting both of us."

"Is there anyone who can help?"

Gaston slowly shook his head. "These are not the sort of men who advertise themselves, Richard. I know of no one."

"What am I going to do? I have to find Alexis."

"Perhaps you should have a partner?"

Castle whirled around to find a very familiar person behind him. "Beckett? What are you doing here?"

"More to the point, why wasn't I here with you from the start." She nodded to Gaston. "Your friend can't help you?"

Both Gaston and Castle shook their heads.

"Then we should leave, Castle." She reached out and took his hand and pulled him out towards the sidewalk. "Thank you for trying to help Rick." She said over her shoulder to Gaston.

"How did you find me?"

Kate managed a slight grin. "You are a world famous author after all. Finding the famous Richard Castle didn't turn out to be that hard once I found your hotel."

"Are you mad at me for doing this alone?"

"Yes." She said, flagging down a cab. "But we don't have time to talk about that now."

"Where are we going?" He asked, once they were in the cab.

"We're going to the St. George Tea Room."

"Why?"

This time Beckett did grin fully. "I know a guy, Castle."

The St. George Tea Room was almost to Versailles and catered to English tourists who wanted something of home. It was a nice, cozy place, redolent of tea and biscuits, old mahogany furniture and polished brass. Entering, Beckett saw a man sitting all the way in the back, where she had been told he'd be.

"Mr. Owens?" She asked.

"You're Esposito's friend?" He countered.

"That's right."

Kate sat down and faced the man. He was bearded, long haired and muscular. She couldn't quite place his accent. She decided he might be an Eastern European who had spent some time in the US.

"What do you need?"

"For starters, two Glock 19s and two Glock 17s."

Owens smiled and ran his hand up Beckett's leg. "We need to discuss payment."

"That payment isn't going to happen." She removed his hand from her thigh.

"Good. So, ask your boyfriend to come over and sit with us."

"Pardon?"

Owens pointed to Castle. "The man in the dark glasses, reading a newspaper and trying not to be obvious about keeping an eye on us. He doesn't belong here. Not English. At first I thought he was a cop, but his expression when I groped you gave him away. He's your boyfriend, right?"

Beckett turned and waved Castle over.

"Sorry about groping your girlfriend, but I had to find out if you were a cop or her boyfriend. Your reaction meant you weren't a cop." He turned back to Beckett. "As it happens I've got all kinds of Glocks today. Three thousand Euros apiece. Take it or leave it, but they come with three spare clips, holsters, and two hundred rounds of ammo. Deal?"

Castle nodded and handed over the money. When he did so a waitress came over and placed a tea urn and biscuits in from of them, and two small packages.

"Can you help us with finding the girl?" Beckett asked.

Owens shook his head. "I can't, but Ernst can. Here's his address. He's expecting you."

Ernst was all the way on the other side of Paris. When they found him in a small workman's café, Castle groaned. Ernst was an old man in a wheel chair.

"Foreign Legion." Ernst said, noticing Castle's discomfort. "Parachutist. Got hit in the spine in Algeria in 1962. The Republic isn't overly generous to her disabled soldiers, so I do this and that."

"Can you help us find Alexis Castle?" Beckett asked.

"I can let people know that you're interested and I can weed out the phonies who'd just try to steal from you. I'll need a thousand Euros to spread around and ten thousand when they contact me. Okay?"

Castle took out his wallet.

That night back at his hotel, Beckett got in bed with him. "If something happened to my dad, or someone I care about, I'd expect my partner to be right there with me. Why don't you feel the same?"

"I love you."

"Castle, that's not…"

"I love you, Beckett. More than I ever imagined I could love. And I hate it that you're a cop. I'm terrified that you could get killed any day. But I realize that it's not only your life, but it's one of the things that helps protect you from Bracken. But every time you go through a door, I'm terrified. Alexis' life is in danger. I can hardly function knowing that." He pulled her close. "In one way I hate to say this, but I'm glad you're here. And absolutely terrified. If I lost you and Alexis, I couldn't handle it. And if I lost you, it would be all over for me. You mean that much to me. You mean everything. Maybe it was selfish of me to come here by myself, but now I'm glad my partner is here. I love you, Kate."

She kissed him softly. "We'll get Alexis back and we'll all go home and forget all of this. Okay? And I'll be with you always. Always."

After two nerve wracking days, Ernst called and told them he'd had a contact. They went to see him.

"An Arab kid brought this to me." He held up a photo of Alexis holding a copy of a newspaper. "That's today's edition. And the kid doesn't know anything. He said he was grabbed from behind and pulled into an alley. Some guy told him where to take the message. They want three million Euros. Late this afternoon in the Forest of Fontainebleau. They even drew a little map. Did I do my job?"

Castle took out his wallet again.

Late that afternoon, Castle and Beckett pulled up near an SUV on a dirt road. "That's them." She said.

They got out of the car slowly, with their Glocks drawn. "We should have gotten bigger guns, Castle. They have assault rifles."

"There are four of them, but I don't see Alexis."

"Damn it! They're spreading out. Get behind the car and…." The rest was cut off by a burst of automatic fire.

"Castle, they're working their way around us. They'll get us in a crossfire." Kate fired at the men, without result. Then the forest was suddenly silent. Beckett looked under the car and could see two dead men, dressed in black. She raised her head and saw two more dead men.

"We should get out of here, Castle." She headed for the driver's side door.

"We need to talk." A voice yelled from the trees.

"Then come out." Kate said, trying to aim her pistol at where the sound was coming from. She recognized the man as soon as he stepped out of the trees. "You're the man who tortured and murdered Roger Henson."

"Do you have proof of that, or just some drawings made by witnesses? Look, if I wanted you dead, I could have just sat here and let those fellows kill you. I'm the good guy here, Beckett. I know where Alexis is, who has her and how to get her back. At least I hope we can get her back.""

"Who are you? Why do you care about Alexis?" Castle yelled.

"Because she's my granddaughter. Richard, I'm your father. Now can we go somewhere safe?"

Beckett lowered her Glock. "I want to get their weapons. I think we'll need them."

Jackson Hunt walked over to Castle and watched Beckett retrieve the assault rifles. "Don't let this one get away, son." He said.

"I heard that." Beckett called back.

"You were supposed to hear it."

Hunt's plan worked. As soon as Volkov was killed by the booby trapped radio, Hunt began firing from the front of the building. As Volkov's men responded, Castle freed Alexis, then Beckett, coming from the back, got the two of them to the US Embassy safely.

Once back at his loft in New York, Kate snuggled up against Rick in his bed. "So now you know about your father." She said.

"He's a spy. But that's not the most important thing I learned."

"What is?"

"That I should always be with my partner. Always."