Frozen Love (A Castle Fanfiction)

Shattering Shot

As Rick and I drove to the crime scene, the car was silent. Not for any kind of bad reason, but I was completely exhausted. The baby had been moving around all night and I couldn't sleep. I also couldn't have any coffee because it was bad for him. Basically the entire car ride, I was half asleep in the passenger's side, trying my hardest to rest for a short few moments while the baby got to rest. Eventually, however, Castle had to put the car in park and we began onto the street.

He mistakenly asked, "You alright, Beckett?"

"Yes, Castle. I'm fine. I'm just- tired and pregnant and sick of you asking me if I'm alright," I snapped. He'd really done nothing wrong, I was just moody. This got him to be silent until we were behind the tape. I looked to Javi as he met us in our walk toward the victim and asked, "What do we got?"

"Victim's name is Sarah Vaschez," he replied, "She's a twenty-eight year old kindergarten teacher. She and a classmate were coming out of yoga when Sarah suddenly dropped."

By the fine he was finished, I was squatting next to the body, which Castle always worried about, and looking at her injury. Without even noticing, my hand came to my own bullet wound and rested there as I spoke aloud, "Bullet wound straight to the heart." My mind went back to my shooting, but I forced myself to focus.

"Yeah. What's weird is no one heard a shot or saw a shooter." Espo's reply gave me no comfort.

I had to suggest, "Maybe the weapon was silenced."

"Maybe it was a stray bullet," Castle suggested, "I just read an article about how a madman in Portland was killed when a bullet fired in the air six blocks away fell back to earth."

Lanie then shot that idea down. "This bullet didn't just drop from the sky and hit Sarah Vaschez. The angle's wrong. It went from front to back, not up to down."

As she'd spoken, I'd stood up to relieve my knees. With a need for information as a motivater, I asked, "Can you tell us point of origin?"

She replied, "Not until I do a full exam."

"Was yoga a regular thing?" I asked Javi.

Thankfully he confirmed that. "She was in Thursdays at seven AM before school started."

Instructing him and thinking things through so that I could hear my thoughts, I instructed, "Let's look into enemies and anyone who knew she was here." Sito agreed and the two moved on. I was just left to look at her body, to study her wound and her life. She was engaged and instead of being happy and living on, her life had been cut short. Castle watched as I looked through the streets and looked at Sarah, studying and remembering every aspect of the scene. I think he knew I'd drawn a parallel between the victim and myself.

This lasted for a while. Even at the precinct, I couldn't get the similarities out of my head. It only got worse when I went to the morgue and had to hear Lanie and Esposito avoid the word sniper by using the phrase long range shooter and the simple title of shooter. They were only thinking of me and worrying about me, but I didn't need to hear that. All I needed to hear was the sound of handcuffs wrapping themselves around this guy's wrists. Plus, I was absolutely fine! I didn't need to be babied. All I needed was a lead and after talking to the fiance we had a stalker. The only problem was the guy was faceless and Castle was right. She could have been shot at random.

And by the next morning, victim number two joined the case. He'd been shot in the head, long range. Espo was giving me the run down of the scene, but I couldn't stop thinking about the memories of my shooting that I hadn't fully forgiven.

All I could hear was the sound of the gunshot. Everything around me forced me to scan every face of every person. A slamming door on a car called my hey immediately to attention, but only I notices it. Lance showed me the bullet and confirmed that it was the same kind as the other one. He'd been shot from above and all I could do was look at every roof top. Light glared off every window. Everywhere I looked I saw another potential threat.

Esposito began to walk us through the needs of a sniper and I was able to listen, but the tensions in my body had built. "It's not a point and shoot activity. You factoring all the conditions, like target. Minute of arc and..." he scoured a moment and found taped to a sign on a light pole, "windage."

"What is it," I asked, unsure of what he was talking about.

He explained, "This flag is the perfect wind gauge."

"That can't be a coincidence," Castle said as he walked ahead of me.

I then followed, saying, "Ok, so if he hung that up there, we might be bake to get eyes on him. We should canvas the area for surveillance cameras or a-." I dropped. Straight to the floor, I fell and took shelter behind a mail box. Instinct had told me to take shelter. Something else told me my life was in danger if I stayed standing. My head had turned and my knees had gone out at the ssudden sound of a police siren.

Looking up at Espo, I could see he knew what had happened. I could see he was concerned. But he wasn't half as bad as Rick. "Kate, are you alright? Are you hurt?" Castle pried, following me down to the pavement.

"Yeah, Castle. I'm fine," I said, trying to just regain a foothold in reality.

He insisted upon asking again, however, checking, "Are you sure? Do you just need to sit a minute? I mean, you don't have to get up right away. Just relax if you need a second to-."

"Castle!" I said, desperate for him to just shut up. "I'm fine. Please. Just back off."

He did and stood up, but all three of them watched me as I stayed on the ground a moment longer to take a breath and recover. I then started to stand, but probably couldn't have made it up without Rick's helping hand. Again he asked, "Are you sure you're alright?"

"Yes, I'm fine." I wasn't fine. My heart was racing. I was hypervigilant. Everything and everyone was moving too fast and not fast enough. It would only get worse. That night, everything only got worse.