The Coming Future (A Castle Fanfiction)

Part Twenty: Going Back

As the boys stood in the bullpen of the forty-third, being told by Erica's partner that staring at a victim like they were a victim only made things worse, their eyes were drawn to Kate fleeing this place. She was walking as fast as she could, nearly jogging, but not wanting to run into anyone with her blurred vision in an unfamiliar office area. It took seconds for Rick to come after her, calling her by her first name as he tailed her toward the elevator. He finally caught up to her in an archway between the bullpen and the hallway near the elevators, grabbing her arm and stopping her. She turned to him and said a few words before he pulled her in close to him and spoke to her. The boys just simply couldn't look away as they'd rarely seen their boss cry.

When Buckley came out, she caught the boys' attention by saying, "I told you she wasn't ready to talk to this guy."

"We had to ask," Ryan explained. "We need to talk to him and he won't talk to anyone but her."

"You boys have never worked with a rape victim before. Neither of you could possibly understand how personal that trauma is. It's not a regular ass kicking or some idle threat. You're going to have to give Beckett some time on this. She isn't ready to take this guy on face to face. Just seeing him petrified her."

"Well what are we supposed to do now?" Javi asked, more to his partner than the others.

Still, Erica's partner told them, "You talk to the rapist about the victims and let him enjoy it until he says something and slips. You act like hearing the details of the rape is something you get off on too, almost like you understand him. It's disgusting, but it will get him to talk, I guarantee it." To this, both men responded in unease.

Espo was the first to ask, "You're telling me that hearing about this sicko's pleasure in raping teenagers and our partner is the only way to get him to talk to us?" The knowing pair nodded. "No. No, if I go in there and hear him talk about raping some innocent child or Beckett, I will end up ripping his throat out."

"Espo, there might not be another way and we have to talk to him," Ryan replied, level headed but queasy at the though of hearing about Kate the way he would probably describe her.

Buckley then answered, "Your only other way is crying into Castle's shoulder. You've run out of options, boys."

"What if he still doesn't talk to us?" Ryan questioned.

"Then you will have hit a dead end because Kate won't go in there, I can promise you that." At Erica's words, Ryan shifted his stance to think a minute. He didn't know if he could handle this. It sickened him to even think about thinking about doing this. But when his head involuntarily twisted to see Kate backing out of Rick's hold with tears still glistening on her cheek and a desperately frightened look on her face, he knew he couldn't just turn his back on this.

He took a long, heavy breath and let it out before looking up. "Espo, I'm going in there, and you don't have to, but I need to help Beckett. She'd do this for us, so I'm doing this for her."

Javi looked at his partner and told him honestly, "Bro, I can't. I will snap his neck if I have to hear about him abusing young girls and/or Beckett like that. I'm sorry, but I really, really can't."

Ryan just nodded in understanding and patted his partner's shoulder, silently telling him, "It's okay, bro. I get it." Javi then watched as Ryan crossed the room with the Sargent. The moment Ryan walked in, seeing Gerick's devilish smile of satisfaction, he was sickened.

The man's rough voice asked with pride, "Where's Detective Beckett?"

"She's not coming in," Ryan announced. "You did quite the number on her. She's scared out of her mind."