The Coming Future (A Castle Fanfiction)

Part One: The Art of Missing Things

Changing the tone, changing his rhythm, he ripped the knife across her neck. The girl coughed heavily. The blood rushed down her skin and coated every inch of her shirt in the life giving essence that coursed through the veins of the living.

Causing the group to all nearly vomit, the man on screen continued while the girl gasped in the background, "This is your start. How soon can you find an end? You have twelve hours." Immediately following these words, the screen fell black and began the loop again.

"Ryan, did you get a trace on this?" Kate's thoughts immediately turned to the young girl in the chair, leaving behind all the worries and personal issues she had.

Surrounded by an outcome that would benefit no one, "It wasn't traceable."

Hoping there was something there, she turned to her other detective, "Esposito, when did this come in, and has anyone sent it to tech?"

"It started its loop about three minute ago, right after you left, and I sent it to tech after the first loop. I told them to look for anything that could give us a location and to run her face for an ID. It was moved to the top of their lists as their number one priority," he answered with less disappointing news.

She nodded to her crew and looked back down at the screen just as the man began to talk. The look of terror on the child's face sent another twinge of disgust to her, but even worse, the young girl looked too much like Alexis for her liking. And when she stood, she could see the same pain in her lover's eyes. Sending everyone from her desk, instructing them to get to work, she then looked to Rick. "Call her. You'll feel better once you hear her voice."

Not wanting to argue with her, Castle simply said, "How do you doing this? I mean watch something like that, how do you see that and not..."

At the loss of his words, she picked up his thought and answered, "I'm a cop. It's my job to not look bothered by it. I need to keep a level head." Seeing the discomfort in his posture, she continued, "Call your daughter, talk to her, go see her if you have to, alright? And if you can't handle the case, go home. No one will blame you if you do."

"No," he said in a damaged, wounded answer, "I have to go through with this case. I have to help if I can." Seeing his determination, she nodded to him, and he replied to her other request, "When I call Alexis, did you want to talk to her?"

Actually wanting to be sure she was alright, Beckett knew a phone call wouldn't satisfy her need for knowledge, but she had to at least try. "Yeah, sure."

"Alright, well, I guess I'll be back. You should probably fill in Gates anyway, right?" As he left, she nodded in response to his question, which had her doing her least favorite part of her job. Moving from her lean on her desk, she tried to find a way to stop the film, but the virus continued on. With no way to stop the flow of the video, she sent it in a file to her boss and began towards her office. The only problem was, Captain Victoria Gates wasn't there.

Looking to the B team, she asked, "Guys, where the hell is Gates?"

"She called in sick today," the Hispanic man replied, "Something about her mother. Apparently she won't be back 'till Friday."

Kate then stated, "It's Tuesday." The boys nodded in return. Having nothing else to say, she simply asked, "We're on our own?"

"Yep," Kevin replied. "That change anything?"

"Yeah. You don't have to tell me where you're going with this case. You find a lead, go and send it to someone in a text if you think something's up. Don't bother checking in every five minutes," Kate instructed, and after acknowledging the information with a nod, the boys went back to work.