Frozen Love (A Castle Fanfiction)

Misery

"Yes, I remember her," the man in the suit said as he lead me out into his lobby. I had just finished asking about Sara El-Masri, our kidnap victim who related back to our hit and run victim. This hotel was the last place Sara was seen before she was abducted, so, obviously, I had to ask if the manager recognized her. Of course, he did. "Very lovely young lady," he accessed before confirming she attended based on her name on the list of sigh-ins.

After I asked, he said she seemed alright, not acting strangely or anything. He then confirmed that she left the ball room after the late night Q and A, only ever speaking with her friend. "Do you think you could describe this woman," I questioned as he couldn't tell me the friend's name.

"Red hair, pale skin, also very lovely," the man said.

I shifted a moment and suddenly remembered the book Alexis had gotten her father on climate change written by the same man who was giving the Q and A. Shifting a bit with a questioning brow, remembering also that Rick had said Alexis was out with a friend at a climate speech. "May I see your list for a moment?"

"Yes, absolutely," the man said. I accepted the clipboard, skimmed the names on the sheet, and there it was, Castle, Alexis, written as plain as day. I thanked the man, telling him I would need a copy of the sign in log, and then pulled out my phone. Dialing her number, I never expected to hear her ring tone play through the lobby. I searched the area, and followed the sound to find its location.

There I found Alexis' phone sitting in the lost and found box behind the bar. The manager cut around the back of the bar and pulled the phone from the box. "That's- her phone...," I breathed, trying to process this.

The man simply stated, "A guest found it last night laying in the road. So, I guess there's a benefit to having to come here. Now at least she won't be looking for it." His thoughts were kind, but naive. Mine were not.

"Do you happen to know if Alexis and Sara left together?"

"I couldn't be sure, but I do believe so," the man said. My heart sunk into the deepest pit of my stomach. I could barely process his words. Part of me scolded, You have no idea what happened. Don't jump to conclusions. That side, however, was silenced by the rational portion of my mind. The majority police reasonings in my head told me exactly what I knew to be true, and what I wished more than anything was a lie. Still, I had to be sure. Once again, I lifted my phone to my ear.

"You know, your son lights up every time he sees your picture on my phone screen," Castle said, not even offering a hello.

I hated doing so, but I had to break his random contentment. "Castle... is Alexis over there by chance?"

"No," he casually stated.

"Has she been by there today," I asked, my nerves now growing and the fear in my chest growing rapidly.

He finally caught on. "No, I haven't seen her since yesterday morning. Why? What's going on?"

I swallowed hard. "Rick, what are you doing right now?"

"Sitting on the floor, watching Brayden. Kate, what's going on?"

He was sitting. Brayden wasn't in his arms. He wasn't going to panic and do something stupid. "Rick, Alexis may have been..." Don't say it, Kate. You don't know for sure. "Alexis may have been kidnapped."

"What," he said, shock overriding his systems. "What do you mean? What-... Why do you think...?"

"She was with our other kidnap victim, Sara El-Masri just moments before she was abducted, and... we found her phone lying on the ground out front." My hesitance in saying those words was warranted. My throat closed at the thought of this. But-... I wasn't her parent. Not the way Rick was. I couldn't even begin to imagine hi pain as silence filled the line between us. I gave him a moment just to find a foothold on reality. Then, after a reasonable amount of time, after the voicelessness consumed me and hallowed me out, I finally had to call a tender, "Rick?"

All he said on the other end of the line was, "We're on our way."

By the time he got to the precinct, about five minutes after I arrived, giving me time to fill Gates and the boys in, a deep devastation had set into my chest. I didn't know what to say or how to feel. All I knew was, no matter how bad I was, Rick was ten times worse. When he finally made it through the elevator doors, I looked at him at didn't hesitate one moment before soaring to him and wrapping my arms around his neck as tightly as I could. His one free hand which wasn't occupied by our son's car seat wrapped around my back. In the smallest microseconds I had seen his eyes, I could see the pain he was in. "She'll be alright, Rick," I gently told him, "She has to be."

He breathed heavily, but didn't respond. He simply waited a short moment for me to pull away, and then looked into my eyes, swallowing hard before passing a trembling sigh and nodding softly. Then, knowing procedure, I told him, "FBI's waiting for us in the conference room." Again, he sad nothing. He simply followed as I guided him to our meeting. Inside those doors, he handled himself far better. While Brayden slept in his car seat beside me, we both did everything we cold. gave every ounce of information we could, and acted as rationally as possible. Still, there was no escaping the desperation. There was no getting around the pain. Pushing it down may have made us, particularly him productive, but- it wasn't an unnoticed burden. It was common. It was drive. It was exactly what the man wanted, instead of complete turmoil. He just didn't realize the kind of passion he was dealing with until it was too late to reel it in. Not even I could see it until... the van.

I had sent him home for the trap and trace portion of this investigation, and Gates had allowed me to stay although it was technically against regulation. When we got the call and we got to the scene, all I could see was... the blood. It stuckin my senses and devoured my every thought as I stood back and allowed Lanie to work. The thought of Alexis... that much blood... I- I was nauseous. Breathing had been hard enough before, but- seeing that... my mind shut down all other senses, and I was left only with helplessness and terror.

That was when Rick showed up, his eyes glassed over, his desperation evident in his face. I tried desperately to keep him from crossing the line, telling him repeatedly that it wasn't something he needed to see. We didn't know what this was. We didn't know what it meant. He didn't listen, and his anger grew. In fury, he passed me, somehow maintaining the self control to not lash out physically at all. The moment he caught a glimpse of the blood... his anger diminished. He was left with only a crippling agony that seemed like the worst curse he would ever endure. Thank God he knew her blood type. Thank God it wasn't her blood. Alexis wasn't there, but... she wasn't dead. We knew it wasn't her blood.

This bout of anger he had was in no way his worst. Rick was allowed to work the case after that van thing. He needed to help, and... having him around made things go faster in some many ways. So, when we found that blood's owner, one Douglas Stevens, Rick came with us to interrogate him at his sister's apartment. Ryan took his sister in for questioning and arrested her for being an accessory to kidnapping. Once she was gone, I was left to interrogate Stevens. The man didn't utter one word to a single question I had.

It was then that Rick asked to have a minute with him. I had no reason to say no. There was no greater threat than the missing child's father, and Rick... he needed his daughter back. Hell, I needed her back. If I could have, I would have done exactly what Rick did, but... I didn't. Still, I relished in the man's screams as Rick got everything out of him he possibly could. No guilt. No shame. I knew Rick got this way when someone threatened his family. I hadn't seen it, but... seeing him handle everything we'd been through in the past year, particularly all things involving my mother's case, I knew he had this side to him. I just didn't realize how extreme it could be.

Still, I never imagined in my wildest dreams where we would find Alexis. And never did the thought even cross my mind that my husband, the man I slept beside every night, the man I thought I knew inside and out would ever be so brash as to fly to Paris, France without telling a single one of us what he was doing, without taking backup, and without thinking for even a moment about anything but his daughter. And never in my wildest dreams did I expect what happened next.