Spoilers: Just general season 4 stuff, with a few references to "Cops & Robbers" in this chapter.

Author's Notes: The idea for this fic came from the below song. If you like country… duets… love songs… any of the above… I suggest you go find this on YouTube. NOW.

P.S. Thanks to Jess for beta-ing, for encouraging me even when I didn't believe this was any good.

Still I run, run, run, run right into you
Yeah, I run, run, run, run right into you

~ "Run" Matt Nathanson & Sugarland

The last drop of bitter coffee slides down Beckett's throat as she heads for the break room. Not for the first time that morning, she wishes her partner were there to make an espresso for her. That evil machine hates her, insists on spewing foam at her, and all she wants is a decent cup of coffee. One that doesn't taste like a monkey peed in battery acid.

She sighs, her fingers tightening on her mug, as she reminds herself that though Castle is her partner, he's not actually a cop. He's an artist, a master of words; a writer. And writers have meetings they have to attend and publishers' asses to kiss.

And after all, if he wasn't a writer, he wouldn't be following her around, pulling her pigtails.

As Kate rounds the corner, she realizes that half of her squad is crammed into the small break room. She frowns, her eyebrows drawing together as she notices they are all staring at the television hanging from the wall. Silence clings to them like a funeral shroud.

She sidles up next to Detective Ryan, gently bumping his shoulder with her own. "Hey. What's going on?" Her voice is a quiet murmur, so as not to disturb their vigil, as she focuses on the screen.

Her colleagues are watching the news; that much she can tell from the reporter standing in front of a building, talking into a handheld microphone as a headline scrolls across the bottom of the screen. The shot is a close-up, but after a moment, it switches to a video of a burning building.

"Someone set off a bomb in a building downtown," Ryan answers her.

Kate's heart stumbles in her chest as she studies the lines of the building; the marble steps, the gilded doorway, the rounded arch above it. The familiarity of it triggers something in her brain, something just out of reach.

Her whole world narrows to the video on the screen, to the thick, ashen smoke pouring from the huge, gaping hole the bomb had left, as she tries to decipher the clues, the pieces that fit together into some puzzle she can't quite figure out. She watches as flames lick at the edge of tumbled stone and firefighters pump gallons of water into the angry, heaving mess of it.

And then she knows, she remembers why the lines and shapes of the tattered building are familiar, as suddenly as if the bomb had dropped down on her head.

Her vision goes gray and fuzzy at the corners, like the white noise of an old television set.

Castle.

Kate grabs Ryan's forearm, sways to the side, her stomach heaving, churning the acidic coffee up into her trachea. Her skin goes numb and then prickles back to life in a blinding flash of heat. She chokes on the sudden lack of air in her lungs.

Ryan turns to her, worry shining in his eyes. "Beckett?"

Panic sears through her, and she can feel her blood draining from her face to her heart, which is thumping in overdrive. Everything goes blurry and all she can see is the twinkle in his blue eyes, his smile.

His name keeps flashing in her mind, skipping like a scratched tape. Castle. Castle. Castle. Castle.

Ryan squeezes her arm, yanking her out of the black hole she had been falling into. "Beckett!" There is worry etched on his face, his lips are tight with it.

Her eyes meet his. "Castle," she whispers, her voice scratching against her throat like sandpaper.

His eyebrows lift in confusion. "What? What about him?"

"That's the office building for Black Pawn Publishing. That's where Castle is today. He's… he's there."

Fear thrums through her, pounds against her brain.

"Oh God," Ryan says, and turns to find his partner's eyes. Esposito steps forward, frames Kate's body with support.

But she's already turning, running for the bullpen. She grabs her coat, skids into the hall, and slams through the heavy door to the stairwell. She hears the boys yelling behind her, but she doesn't stop, doesn't slow, because she can't. All she can think of is him.

She has to get to him.

So she runs.

Kate isn't sure how she manages to make it to 5th Avenue without wrecking the police cruiser. Her eyes are blurry with tears, her chest heaves with a gasping lack of oxygen. Her skin feels prickly, like she took a tumble into a bramble patch, little Jill following Jack down the hill.

Someone keeps switching the channel in her brain, she can't focus, can't think; can only see images of him flashing behind her eyes. His smile. His eyes. His hands. Touching her back gently. Handing her a coffee. Scrawling something on a scrap of paper. Diving into her hair as his lips claim her own. Pressing against the blood-slicked hole in her chest.

Her lungs squeeze tighter. Her scar feels like it's ripping back open, right down the line of her body.

A strangled sob tears through her lips.

A panic attack. She's having a panic attack.

Gone is the calm, cool Detective Beckett, and in her place is an already grieving woman, a terrified, shaking woman who can't stand the thought of losing yet another person she loves.

Loves.

Loves. She loves him.

God.

Kate's car squeals to the curb; she gets as close to the building as possible. She slams the car into park, flips off the sirens, and throws herself out the door. She runs, leaving the car on, the lights flashing.

It doesn't matter, doesn't matter, because she just needs to find him.

Suddenly a pair of hands reach out and grab her, yank her back. She turns to the source, ready to tear through the bastard with teeth and claws. She snarls, but the hands don't let go.

"Ma'am, you can't go back there."

"I'm a cop." She shoves her badge in the officer's face, but even though he's young, looks fresh, green, he doesn't back down. His determination shines through and she grinds her teeth, clenches her hands into fists so she doesn't deck him.

He reads her badge. "Detective Beckett, I'm sorry, but you're Homicide. Right now, I need you to stay back, to stay out of the way. There's nothing you can do here." His voice his gentle, but firm. She feels panic clawing its way up her throat, like a wild animal cornered.

"My partner's in there!"

"I'm sorry, Detective. You have to stay back."

She comes within inches of breaking his arm, but the call of her name stops her.

It's him.

Her heart leaps in her chest, pounds against her sternum as she turns her head to find him.

There. Crawling out of the back of an ambulance.

Alive.

So she runs.

Castle lets out an "oomph!" when she slams into him, and then throws her arms around his shoulders and neck.

"Castle!" Relief flows through her veins, sings in her blood, and there's a familiarity in that, too. Like he just defused a bomb in the back of a van. Or escaped another bomb within the walls of a bank.

He chuckles and squeezes his arms around her waist. "Kate."

"God! Castle, what is with you and bombs?" She pulls back to look at his face, and then grins like a fool, happiness sparkling through her.

"You're one to talk." He raises an eyebrow and she's reminded of all the times he's saved her life.

Her smile grows bigger, and she tosses her arms around his shoulders again, squeezes. She turns her face into his neck, breathes in the scent of him under the dust and grime of a broken building. Her lips brush against his skin and she feels him shiver.

Her heart trips in her chest.

Kate pulls back, looks at him, taking him all in. His hair is disheveled and his face is dirty. She has this sudden urge to lick her thumb and rub at a particularly dark spot on his cheek.

She tucks her thumb into her palm instead.

She looks down, noticing the bandage on his forearm for the first time, so she reaches out, capturing his wrist gently.

"What happened?" Her voice is softer, low, past the relief and utter thrill of seeing him alive.

She watches a shadow fall into his eyes and it clenches something in her gut.

"Gina and I were walking out of the building to go to lunch. I, uh… They offered us lunch upstairs, but I just needed a break. Needed to get out and get some fresh air. She offered to go with me."

A streak of jealousy shoots through her, but she shoves it down, wishes she didn't recognize it, didn't feel a quick spark of the residual disappointment she'd felt when he'd left for the Hamptons the previous summer.

She pushes the feeling away, strokes her thumb across the bone in his wrist.

"We were about… twenty feet from the building when the bomb went off."

"God, Castle," she whispers, her fingers tightening around him. Her gaze is glued to his face.

"It threw me forward, and I caught myself with my arms and hands. I didn't even have time to cover Gina." He frowns, like he's annoyed with himself, and then holds up his palms for her to see the scrapes there.

"Ouch," she murmurs and lifts his hands to inspect them. She sees a few other bandages on the fingers of his left hand. Kate curls the fingers of one of his hands into a loose fist, and then lifts it up to her cheek, holds it there as her eyes meet his.

She watches him swallow hard as he looks at her.

"Glass and debris rained down on us, and that's how I cut my arm, I think."

She trails her fingers down his wrist, and gently fingers the edge of the bandage. "It could have been so much worse," she whispers so quietly he barely hears her.

"If we were just thirty seconds behind..." He clears his throat. "I'm… I saw them carry some bodies out. I'll probably know some of those people. I just…" He lowers his gaze and shakes his head, as if trying to rid himself of the grief.

"Oh, Castle," she murmurs, and then reaches up to envelope him in another hug. She pushes up onto her tiptoes, cradles him close. "I'm sorry."

He nods against her, buries his face in her hair. "So senseless."

"Rick, I called—" Gina comes around the corner of the ambulance, her right arm in a sling. She stops suddenly when she notices Kate. "Oh. Hello, Detective Beckett."

Kate rocks back, feels her cheeks go warm as she releases Castle. She's a little embarrassed, caught hugging her partner by his ex-wife, but there's a tiny part of her that wants to say "screw it" and latch on to him again and not care who sees. She stuffs her fingers down in her jean pockets instead, trying not to reach out for him.

The adrenaline is wearing off and she has to straighten her spine, force herself not to tremble.

Kate nods to Gina. "Hello."

"You called who?" Castle asks.

"Oh, I was going to say that I called a car service to come get us and take you to the hospital."

"Hospital?" Kate asks and her stomach clenches in fear as her eyes once more sweep over Castle, trying to find something else wrong, something worse than a few cuts and scrapes.

"I just need stitches," Castle murmurs, reaching out to steady her with a hand on her waist. "See?" He holds up his arm and she can see that blood is seeping through the bandage on his forearm. "The paramedics were needed elsewhere. I told him I'd find my own way to the hospital."

She eases back, steps away from his touch, out of the line of fire. "I'll take you."

Castle turns to look at his ex. "Gina, you should come, too. Get your arm checked out."

"I'm fine, it's just a sprain." Her eyes hold sadness, and Kate berates herself for feeling jealous, for being territorial over Castle. "I want to stay here, wait and see who... who we lost. Someone should stay," she finishes on a whisper.

Castle steps forward and wraps Gina in a hug. Kate ignores the tightening in her chest and looks away, unable to watch. But she can still hear him murmur, "All right, but you'll call me? Let me know… Let me know who?"

"Of course. As soon as I know," Gina replies.

"Thank you."

Kate turns back to them, watches as Castle squeezes Gina's hand and then steps away. "Be safe," he says.

"I will."

Castle turns to Kate. "You ready?"

"Yes. Are you?"

He nods, and she lifts her hand in a slight wave to Gina, and then turns, leading the way back to her car. She struggles to suppress the shiver that wants to run down her spine when his hand lands against her lower back.

It seems that Castle needs the comfort of her touch just as much as she needs his.

"Yo, Beckett! Castle!"

Kate turns towards the sound of their names being called, spies Ryan and Esposito headed their way. She stops and waits for them to catch up.

"Glad you're okay," Ryan says, and pulls Castle into a man hug, thumping his back once.

"Yeah." Esposito repeats the gesture, then pulls back to grin at Kate. "Beckett had us seriously freaked out for a minute there, bro. You should've seen her face when she realized it was the building for your publisher. It was like she saw a ghost."

"Shut up," Kate mutters, furrowing her brows. But her lips twitch when she sees the delighted smile that takes over Castle's face at Javier's words.

"I thought she was going to pass out," Ryan says, drawing out the last two words. He grins.

"Guys, c'mon."

"It was kinda cute," Esposito finishes.

Kate punches him in the shoulder, then turns to do the same to Ryan, but he's quick and steps behind Castle. She sticks her tongue out at him.

Ryan laughs. "Real mature, Beckett."

"Oh, like you have room to talk." Kate runs her fingers through her hair, huffs out a breath.

And then they all stop and grin at each other, relieved that their team is still in one piece. Once again they've been saved from a disaster.

"So, what happened here?" Esposito asks, the smiling dropping from his face.

Castle sighs, reaches up to scrub his hand over his jaw. He winces when the scrapes meet stubble. He slides his hand back down to hang by his hip. "I don't know, exactly. I'm not sure what happened, other than someone set off a bomb, and at least a few people are dead. Gina's going to call me later once she gets more details."

"Let us know, okay?" Ryan says.

Castle nods. Kate reaches over and squeezes his arm gently, then turns to the boys.

"I have to take Castle to the ER to get his arm stitched up. Tell Gates that I'm taking the rest of the day."

"You got it."

"If she's got a problem with that, tell her to call me."

"We'll make sure it's not a problem."

End Note: There will be two more chapters after this. I have the next one mostly finished and hope to have the third finished by tomorrow, but we'll see! And tomorrow is "Kill Shot!" OMG! I am so excited.