The Haunting Past (A Castle Fanfiction)

Part Four: Hunch

"Castle, I told you, when we get in there, I need to talk to her alone. I can't have you in there breathing down my neck," Beckett insisted. She and Rick had barely hung up on Ryan before he started asking her to go over exactly what she'd told him once already. "Besides, Rick, you told me yourself that Isa creeps the hell out of you. Why do you want to go in there anyway?"

He looked at her, thought about telling the truth and instead insisted, "I think it's better two on one. Besides, you know interrogation is my favorite part of this job, aside from working with you, of course."

"Rick, stop sucking up and tell me the real reason," Beckett snapped back. "You know I can see through it and you know it annoys me."

He inhaled and exhaled, weighing his options carefully. He could either tell her and piss her off or ignore her request and piss her off. Either way, he'd annoy her, but one would be worse than the other. Knowing her in this moment, he decided not speaking and giving her one more thing she wasn't in control of would be the worse of the two ideas, even if it would likely be the option to get him in more trouble. "I think- I- don't want you pushing too hard for the twins' sake. And, to be honest, I know you know your limits, but I think you push them when you get on cases like this one, ones that are particularly personal."

"I'm fine," Beckett insisted.

Rick didn't buy this for even a moment. "Kate, listen, I know you think you're fine and when you tell me you're fine, I try to believe you and give you the space you need. But this time, it's not just you. This time it's our sons' lives, and I know you know that and you are taking every possible precaution you can, but- I need to be sure that you and the twins are alright. I need to make sure that Jaxon and James are alright and that you don't run yourself into heart failure by accident."

"Rick, I'm-."

"You're fine, I know," he cut her off, hallowed out and exhausted. He was so completely sick of trying to argued with her when he knew she wouldn't listen. If he'd learned nothing else from working her mother's case, he'd learned to accept that she would never willingly let him help her.

She sighed in her place, turned to face him as best she could, placed one hand on his thigh and told him kindly, "I was going to say I'm not going to do anything but talk to her calmly. I don't want her to feel as though she has to be defensive and I think she's more likely to talk to a woman and only if that talk is one on one. That's why I want to do this alone. I'm not asking you to stay behind because I'm thinking of doing something reckless. I'm asking you to stay behind because I want to have a normal, civilized chat with her that doesn't make her feel threatened. This way is better for everyone. Trust me."

His eyes stayed glued to the road for as long as they needed to be there until he finally looked at her. Even now she looked at him with such sincerity that he couldn't doubt her. He had to believe she was telling the truth. He sighed, knowing there was nothing he could do to stop her. He couldn't ask to interfere if she was doing her best to take every step to keep herself in check. Instead he just took ahold of her hand, locking his fingers with hers and let himself accept his wife's plan without argument.

The two of them rested in a comfortable silence for the rest of the car ride, lost in thought, troubled but calm. They held on to one another and just let the truths surrounding them slip away and into oblivion as they took in the quiet of the universe. The nightmares of reality blew away in the wind as they remembered that, for now, they were alive and well and that no one was in any immanent danger. For now, everything was fine.

When they reached the asylum, Carpenter and Burns were waiting for them in front of the building with the court order sighed by Judge Hail. Melissa stood between her fellow detective and a man in a doctor's coat wearing a pastel blue polo and a black tie with jeans. He looked old enough to be the chief of staff, which was the common assumption based on the lack of scrubs, but when the couple reached the trio, the man introduced himself as, "Doctor Fred Carlson, second in command here."