Always.

Eight.

I was getting closer to finding Castle- my husband, and the future father of my baby.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

We took back off to D.C. right away. It took as awhile to get back to the plane crash, but when we got there, we went into super-speed. I took the boys to where I found Grover, and we drove up and down the road. We were looking for any sign at all that Castle had been there, but we couldn't find anything. We were about to give up, when all of a sudden...

"Yo, Beckett! Pull over, I think I see something." Espo shouted, as I stopped the car (rather quickly), jolting everyone forward.

"Is that a... parachute?" Ryan noticed the odd shape of the fabric Espo pointed out.

"Yeah! And look, that's Castle's jacket! He would never leave his jacket behind on purpose, he wanted me to find it!" Seeing that jacket, which was obviously him, since he's the only person I know who would buy such an expensive jacket, was quite relieving. Espo and I started out on foot from that point, while Ryan was patrolling the area in the car.

We had been walking for hours, and it was starting to get dark. We were beyond tired, and knew that we should be calling it a night. But we didn't want to. We wanted to find Castle. And, of course, the other missing people. We were taking a rest, when all of a sudden, I heard a familiar noise.

"Hey, Espo, did you hear that?" I asked, as I was texting Ryan. I just got really freaked out.

"Yeah... gunshots?"

"Three of them. They were close."

"Let's go check it out. I think they were this way."

We walked for a very short period of time, less than two minutes, maybe even less than one. But, it seemed like centuries passed. All I could think about was him.

"Yo, Beckett! Over here!" Esposito yelled. There was fear in his voice, which scared me, because it was so rare.

"Blood." It was a large puddle of blood, coming from behind a gathering of trees and bushes. We were on a slope, so it was rolling down toward us. I immediately jumped into action, gun out and ready, and sneaking behind the gathering of foliage, when I heard the rugged, labored breathing that I knew to be distinctive to Richard Castle. I jumped out from my hiding space, not quite ready to view the gruesome, and possibly very disturbing, scene that was in my path. What laid in front of me took my breath away.

"Castle."