Frozen Love (A Castle Fanfiction)

Ignoring Instincts

About three days after being snowed in, my own personal brand of hell trotted through the doors of the twelfth precinct. Senator Bracken, the dirt bag that I would have rather slaughtered than have allowed him to live another day on this earth was suddenly my charge to protect. Yes, that's right, I had to protect the man who destroyed my life. I had to keep him safe instead of letting him die the way I desperately wanted to. And in it, in protecting Bracken, I wound up having to chase someone whose son was killed by Bracken. I had to try to act like this guy wasn't in the right. The only way I was able to do so was by knowing that his plan would wind up possibly wounding some other innocent civilian.

Still, it wasn't just the pregnancy making me nauseous every minute I was with the man. Actually, that stress added to the first trimester misery was creating some kind of perfect storm for my body. Not a single morsel of food went anywhere near my mouth for that entire time. Castle stopped by at lunch, drove me to work and picked me up. He never brought food after that first day of retching out my guts before I even saw the food, the occurrence repeating at dinner. Instead, he brought me water with vitamin supplements stirred in. Luckily, no one took real notice, so for the time being my pregnancy was a secret.

People did notice how horribly I was taking this case, but no one asked what was wrong. Gates once asked me if I was alright, and I lied to her, claiming Brayden wasn't sleeping well because he was sick and I was awake all night again. After that, Gates just watched me work, but didn't pull me. I almost wish she had, however. I mean, it's hard to admit this, but working when I could barely function kept me from working well at all. The boys wound up doing more than I did and eventually brought in McManus. They hesitantly let me take lead on interrogation. I told the boys I had a connection with him and I could get him to tell us where the bomb he planted was, but- I couldn't. Even giving it my all, I couldn't get him to talk. All we learned was the Bracken was an ass and according to the boys, Gates heard me tell McManus about my mother. They lied and said I was just trying to build a connection with him, but- I got the feeling Gates didn't totally believe them.

After that, there was nothing we could really do. We continued to work and gave it our honest all, but- by the time the convention started, we had no reason to believe Bracken was in any danger. It wasn't until late that night that I knew we had to have missed something. Sitting at home, watching Brayden stand beside the couch, not realizing I was holding him up, I couldn't shake the feeling something was going to go wrong. Castle told me to let it go, that I had caught McManus and doing anything more would be far too risky. I tried to ignore the feeling, but- I couldn't. I called in the bomb squad.

Knowing I had to go down there, Rick voluntarily bundled Brayden up and put him in his car seat so he could drive me to the convention center. We stood and waited, watching the teams work, watching the attendants wander about, loading in various cars and chatting about nonsense as though they were insulted by this. I just simply scanned the crowd, attempting to locate Bracken. He found me before I found him as he furiously stormed toward me.

Just as he wound up in front of me, the bomb squad unit captain did too. He informed me, "We finished our search of the primary target area, detective. We found no explosive devise."

"What about the stage," I immediately questioned, "Did you check the stage?"

"We swept everything in a fifty yard radius of where the Senator would be speaking."

"Alright well this is ridiculous," Bracken stated, "Lets just get everyone back inside."

The captain stated, "I'm sorry senator, but we still have to conduct a thorough search of the building. Its going to take a few more hours before you can go in." With that, the man gave me a look as though he was blaming me and walked off.

Bracken then instantly turned toward me and spat, "You think I don't know what you're doing? You let McManus get away so he could take me down, and when that didn't play out, you decided to ruin the most important moment of my career."

I then told him honestly, "That's not what this is about. This is-."

"You save that for the review board," he called over me, cutting me off. Then, lowering the finger he'd pointed straight at me, he told me, "You have overplayed your hand and I am going to bury you." With that proclamation, he turned and wanded away.

I immediately felt nerves begin to churn my stomach in a thousand different ways. As I pivoted toward Castle who was slightly leaning against the car to watch Brayden in his carseat, I asked, "God, Castle, how did I get this so wrong?"

"You knew you were taking a risk," he explained.

"No, there's got to be a reason they were framing McManus. They had to be planning this for tonight, here. That's the only thing that makes sense."

He then sighed and looked at me with an emotion somewhere between pity and concern. Looking back over his shoulder at our sleeping son and then turning to face me, he suggested, "Maybe we should go home. Whatever they find will still be here when you wake up and there's nothing more either of us can do here. And concidering we are talking about a bomb, maybe this isn't the best place for you and the baby to be."

I had stopped listening. Something else had caught my attention. Behind me, the sound of a lighter opening and closing again and again was more piercing than any other sound I had heard in a while. Turning toward the Senator who was walking straight toward a car whose driver was persistently flipping the top on and off, I could see exactly what was about to go down. As soon as the driver's hand drifted into his pocket, my body was in motion toward Bracken. One foot after the other smashed into the concrete as I barreled toward him. Just as the drive smashed his thumb along the trigger, I was able to tackle Bracken to the ground. The moment I did, the car exploded.

On the ground, pain immediately flew into my stomach, crippling me in a way I never knew was possible. Rick looked over at me, immediately calling, "Kate!"

Even through the pain, I was able to edge out, "Castle, the driver." He looked at me and then back over his shoulder, taking toward him and tackling him to the ground. Cops immediately helped Rick slap handcuffs on the guy, but I couldn't watch. I was cringing inwardly. My whole body felt collapsed to one spot on my torso.

The senator took in the sight of me as he stood and immediately called, "Help!"

I must have looked so pathetic, but- I could barely breathe. Castle was to my side in a moment's notice, watching my eyes, trying to distract me. "It's alright, Kate. You'll be alright. Don't worry." He barely got these sentences out before the paramedics had to move him.

They immediately started questioning me in a thousand different ways, but- I already knew what was happening. All Rick had to tell them was, "She's pregnant," before they knew. As they loaded me on to the gurney, Rick walked with me to the ambulance and swore again, "It will be alright, Kate. No matter what, you'll be alright. I promise."

Just as he said this, the world began to blur until finally, it fell to black.