Fate's Case (a Castle Fan Fiction)

Endings Bringing New Beginnings

"Stay back! Stay back, and this man lives! Come any closer and he dies!" Carter began slowly walking from the door toward the car. I didn't have a shot and I didn't have a choice. I couldn't let him kill Rick. I stayed poised over the car, watching absorbedly as he moved. His eyes had scanned for cops originally, but now all he saw was me. His eyes sliced to squinting slits that that focused purely on my eyes over the barrel of the gun. "Julia, it's nice to see we've finally met."

"Let him go, Carter. It's over. There's no where you can go, there's no where you can hide. Just let him go and everyone will walk away from this alive," I called back, searching his eyes and coming up empty.

He laughed, "Now, Kris, it I let him go, what's keeping you from shooting me?"

I studied his motion, his movement, his intentions and he merely scanned me back, seeing I came up short. I had one thing left I could do. I dropped the gun, raised my hands, and walked around the car, "Take me instead," he stopped his slow movement and sized me up. "You don't want him, really. You don't want any of then. You want me. Take me, I'm yours. Take my life, leave them alone."

"Kris, no!" Castle screamed and instantly yelled out in fear as the barrel of the gun pushed further into his back.

Carter's eyes pierced my own to find something of even a hint of a plan, and came up empty. "What makes you think I want you more than him? What makes you think I don't want you to know that every ounce of blood on my hands is equal to the red staining yours? This man made the mistake of concealing you, protecting you, and now he's going to pay for it. Because of you, he is going to die."

His eye focused on me and only me. I had to get through to him somehow. "Listen to me, Carter, I want you to look at that man. I want you to look him in the eyes. See his panic, see his fear, his pain. I want you to look him in the eyes right now and see the truth in what you are doing," he continued to look at me, but glanced at Rick for brief moments, still slowly inching toward the street and way from the cop cars. "Look him in the eyes. See his pain, and see your own. You remember how you felt when you found out Jamie was dead, don't you? You remember that pain, that anguish, that inner wrath that build more and more as the days went further and further on, right? Think about what you're doing to his daughter, this about what you're doing to his fiancé, think about his mother. Do you really want to be that murder to them, to all of them? You never wanted to hurt the families, you just wanted us to all understand your pain. I under stand now, I do, so please, it's my fault you went on killing, it's my fault you're in this mess, just let him go and take me instead."

He searched my eyes. Somehow, I'd taken him off guard, I'd stripped him and exposed his true intention, his true feelings, his true thoughts. He searched my eyes in bewilderment and awe. Turning to look at Castle's face, he saw the pain he was causing, he saw himself in Rick. Suddenly, he snapped back at me as I'd taken a few steps toward him. He searched my eyes for deceit and found none. A few steps closer, he found himself slowly releasing his grip on Castle, slowly letting him fall farther and farther until Rick hit the ground on his knees and choked up a breath. Immediately, he bolted to me, pulling me into the same hold as a body shield. Gun to my head, he began pulling me back with him, slowly, facing Rick as we both stepped back together. My heart raced, and as the gun harshly shoved into my liver, I felt the pain of the burning opening. It'd recently been fired.

As the barrel began to create a burn on the skin of my lower back, I felt the cool breath of his labored lungs on my shoulder. He said, "I'm sorry, I'm sorry. I- I didn't mean to hurt anyone. But people had to learn, people had to understand what I'd been through. Those mothers had to learn, they had to learn. They had to understand."

"It's alright, Carter, I get it. They weren't listening, they had to understand. Your mom was leaving your dad, wasn't she? And your dad went after her. They crashed into each other. If your mom and dad weren't fighting, if your mom hadn't left then they'd both be alive. Just like if Jamie hadn't fought with you and left in the early morning, she'd still be alive, your baby would still be alive. Am I right?" His breathing remained stress as we walked away. Inching out, I could feel his loosening grip slipping for sweat and the gun slowly pressing less and less into me.