Kate Beckett's POV
When we had eaten breakfast Castle told Alexis to go up and pick out some clothes she could take with her to go out to a hotell with her gram.
"Are they going to sleep over at a hotell tonight when we're at the speech?" I asked Castle the second Alexis was up the stairs and out of hearing.
"Yeah, I thought that might be the best. That way we don't have to worry about someone coming here while we are away" Castle answered and I nodded.
"That's a good idea, I didn't even think about it..." I said low before I shook my head and turned to him, "when does that hacking friend of yours come?" I asked and he put his arms around my waist.
"I think she's coming at 2pm, which reminds me that perhaps we should get my mother to take Alexis before she comes" he said and I bit my lip.
"How did you even befriend a hacker?" I asked curious, not only because of his friend being a hacker but also because I could feel some jealousy kicking in knowing it's a woman.
"Why principal Beckett, is that jealousy I can hear in your voice?" Castle mocked me and I rolled my eyes moving out from his grip.
He caught me before I could go any further and pulled me back towards him. He kissed my neck and I couldn't help myself but moan as he found my weak spot.
"You don't have to worry, she is and always has been, a friend. Nothing more" he mumbled towards my neck and the feeling of his lips was calming.
"Dad, I can't find my green dress!" Alexis came rushing down the stairs.
"Alexis, you shouldn't be running, you were sick yesterday" I exclaimed and I myself heard the worry I exposed in my voice.
"But I feel fine today, I think I slept it off" she said and I got a strange feeling I knew what had caused her sickness the day before.
"What if she was food poisoned?" I asked out loud and I could feel the atmosphere change around me.
"What do you mean?" Castle asked careful and I pulled away so I could look between him and Alexis.
"What if the reason she was sick yesterday was because she got something in her food, Alexis" I said turning to her, "you said you started feeling ill right after lunch right? Did you see anything different in your food compared to your classmates'?" I asked her and she looked like she thought about it, tried to remember how the food looked like.
"Good morning darlings" I heard Martha say as she came through the door.
"Maybe it did look weird, I remember me having more spice on it than Sarah" Alexis said and Martha came to us with a questioning look on her face.
"What looked weird?" she asked and I bit my cheek.
"I think she got food poisoned. Castle, when you left the school, did you look around to make sure no one saw you leaving?" I asked Castle and he shrugged his shoulders.
"I looked around but I didn't see anyone" he said and I started to get paranoid.
"What's going on?" Martha asked and I suddenly remembered she had no idea of what was going on.
"Mother, you and Alexis are going to stay at a hotell tonight, I've already booked the room and everything so you should go pack. Alexis, was it the green dress you didn't find?" Castle said, trying to get something else on everyone's mind.
After some minutes Martha agreed and walked to her room to pack a bag w me and Castle followed Alexis to her room to find the green dress she was looking for. When we had found it we helped Alexis pack it down and I suddenly saw her stuffed monkey on the floor by her bed. I smiled and picked it up.
"Isn't Monkey Bonkey coming with you?" I asked in a shocked voice and the little girl looked at me before she came towards me, reaching for her monkey.
"Yes he is!" she exclaimed and I chuckled handing it to her.
I felt Castle's gaze on me and when I met his eyes I could see love, which somehow seemed to increase when he looked at me. After Alexis and Martha's bags were done we sent them away to the hotell Castle had booked for them, he told Martha he had booked it in a different name and that they should stay there until they heard from us the day after. Martha was asking why but gave up when we told her not to think about it too much. After they had left me and Castle sat down in the couch with his laptop and he connected a machine to it so he could play the tape through the laptop. He also made copies of the tape on his laptop, sending one to Roy and posting it to the cloud so that we could reach it in case the laptop or the tape was destroyed.
"How are we supposed to get detective Gates there?" I asked and Castle took out his phone.
"I guess we should call her and tell her she should be there in case something would happen" Castle said and I narrowed my eyes in thought.
"But maybe she'll take that as a threat and try to stop us" I said and he 'ooh'ed.
"Perhaps we should try and tell her we have evidence that we want her to take a look at, and just decide that we should meet at Bracken's speech" he suggested and I nodded.
"That actually doesn't sound so bad, that way we don't say it's Bracken but we're still there for him to get arrested" I said with liking in my voice.
That's when we heard a knocking on the door and my body immediately stiffened. Castle raised from the couch and walked over to his door. Since I didn't quite like the idea of him opening the door by himself I quickly followed him and took out an umbrella passing by the stand in case the person behind the door was after us.
"It's just Tory" Castle said when he'd looked through the peephole.
I looked at him with a raised eyebrow and he opened the door to reveal a woman with black long hair.
"Hiya Rick" the woman, Tory, said and Castle let her inside.
Before she passed me she stopped and reached out her hand for me to take.
"I'm Tory Ellis, the hacker" she explained and I shook her hand.
"Kate Beckett" I said and she smiled warm at me before she went towards the couch and put down her bag on the floor.
Castle closed and locked the door before he took my hand and dragged me along with him to the couch. As we sat down Tory had pulled out a computer of her own and logged into it.
"So where's that tape you want me to play tonight at a speech?" she asked and Castle gave her the machine that he had used to connect the tape to the computer.
She took it and without further words she took out headphones, put them on and played the tape. I gave Castle a questioning look and he just shook his head. After a few minutes Tory took off the headphones and looked at us.
"You really weren't kidding when you said you had evidence Bracken had someone killed" she said with surprised eyes.
"So you'll help us?" Castle asked and she nodded.
"Without a doubt. When's the speech?" she asked and I saw her tap in something into her computer.
Castle looked at me, giving me the chance to answer.
"It's at 5pm, how long does it take for you to hack the speaker system?" I asked and Tory smiled.
"Usually they don't have much safety put into that so it should only take couple of minutes. Though I need to be inside the house, so we need to get in there. Do you have any contacts that can get us in?" Tory asked and I saw Castle suddenly look bothered.
"I haven't even thought of that" he admitted and I smirked.
"Good thing I still have contacts since the time I played detective" I said and he looked at me with shock.
"Then I think we should meet outside the building at 4pm, go through with a plan and then we'll get to it" Tory said and I nodded.
"Sounds like a plan. Remember not to bring a bag that looks suspicious, I can get us in but only if we look like reporters" I warned and she nodded.
"Got it, have you called someone from the police yet?" she asked and I looked at Castle.
"No, not yet, but we think about calling a detective Gates, she's the only one we have met and kinda knows" Castle answered and I nodded. "Wait, what about Roy? Isn't he a cop?" Castle suddenly exclaimed and I looked at him.
"Yeah, he is. Maybe we should give him a call as well" I said and he nodded.
"Okay, seems like you got some to do, I'll meet you guys outside the building at 4pm" Tory said and I thanked her for doing this.
She said it was her pleasure before we said out goodbyes and she went out of the loft. I started to feel nervous about everything. What if something went wrong? Castle could probably see the worry I felt in my eyes because without warning he took me into his arms to hold me close.
"Everything's gonna be fine" he whispered into my ear.
I breathed in his scent and it calmed me down together with his soothing voice and the small circles he rubbed on my back.
"You really think so?" I asked and he looked down at me.
"I know so" he answered and bent down to kiss my lips.
We stood like that for a while, kissing each other, holding each other, sharing comfort. Castle was the one to break the silence, and knowing we needed to work I didn't blame him.
"If you call Roy I'll call Gates" he offered and I nodded.
"We should get to it. And remember not to tell Gates too much, we don't really know how she stands in this question" I reminded him as we both took out our phones and dialed the numbers of the people we hoped could help us get justice.