Hey all, now that Fanfiction is up and running again Chapter 2 of In the Mix is up. Thanks to all who Faved, Followed, and Reviewed. You guys are the reason I am continuing this. Anyways, hope you all enjoy the Chapter.

-Disclaimer: I do not own Alex Rider or Castle

Acrobatics

Alex's aim had been true. Alex had aimed for the man's shoulder. Not life threating, but extremely painful. This way he would have a tough time running away. The bullet exited the chamber and struck the man with a high velocity. That was all Alex saw before his hand was wrenched to the right, and his gun sent flying. The man had shot Alex's gun right out of his hand. The bullet had refracted slightly off of Alex's gun and embedded itself in the wall behind the trio in the room. The only damage it had done was scratching Alex's gun. (1)

"Let's go!" Beckett yelled and sprinted out, with Castle in tow. Alex had a better idea. He dashed over to the trash can and pulled out the empty bag. When he had moved in front of the window to shoot, he had noticed an awning that jutted out about 3 feet from the rooftop of the next building. That would make the 10 foot jump into a 7 foot one. Plus, there was an updraft; the wind was funneling upwards due to proximity of the two buildings. He dashed forward and leapt out towards the awning. For a few seconds the world seemed to stand still for Alex then, the updraft inflated his makeshift parasail and carried him a good four feet, before the bag was ripped from his hands. Alex had expected this which was why he had jumped towards the awning instead of straight for the other building. Alex's momentum carried him the last 3 feet, landing niftily on the edge. Alex scrambled forward as the rafter began to groan. He reached the man; the culprit wasn't even trying running. He lay there simply groaning in pain. (2)

"Who are you!?" Alex asked vigorously, kicking away the man's gun as he approached.

"Wouldn't you like to know?" the man gasped back, smiling sickeningly.

"This is NOT some joke!" Alex ripped the edge of his shirt and pushed cloth to the man's injured shoulder, hard. "Give me answers now!"

"You may….. have me, but I will never be….tray the mistress. Good bye Rider," the man pulled a knife and tried to stick it into Alex. It never reached its target, the hand fell limp and the man turned cold right in front of Alex. (3)

"Fuck," Alex wasn't even sure what was going on, the shot he had fired had not been fatal, yet here was the man, dead. He had also learned nothing from him. Except for someone named the mistress, who was probably this man's boss.

"WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING PLEASURE! JUMPING OUT OF THE 41ST FLOOR WITH A TRASH BAG, ARE YOU OUT OF YOU'RE MIND!?" Beckett and Castle had arrived, at the former was quite outraged.

Alex smiled sheepishly, "You know, I thought it better to corner him. You know, me chase while you cut him off."

"Don't you dare do anything like that again; I will not have a trainee die on my watch! Anyways, how is he?" Beckett spoke again, calming down a little.

"He's dead, I don't know how. All that I know is that it wasn't my bullet that did it."

"What do you mean?" Castle piped in.

"I shot his left shoulder, here is the entrance point." Alex pointed. "There is no exit wound that I can see, which means the bullet is probably still in his shoulder."

"So was he dead when you reached him?" Beckett asked.

"No, he wasn't. He wouldn't say anything though. All he said was that he would not betray 'The Mistress,' which means he wasn't the one behind the killings." Alex answered.

"Alright, I'll need to take you're official statement later, for now sit down. Seeing someone dying in front of your eyes isn't easy. Once the coroner gets here we can leave." Beckett informed, her voice softening a bit.

If only they knew. He sighed; the adrenaline in his blood was still running, there was no way he could just sit right now. "I'm headed over to the apartment to take a look around." He announced. "I'll take the long way." He added as an afterthought. Beckett shot him a glare.

"I'll join you!" Castle yelled.

As soon as the elevator doors closed Castle exploded, "That was AWESOME! It was like from some action movie. And the idea of using a trash bag, pure genius."

"Thanks, I guess?" Alex responded.

"Oh and…" the compliments and questions continued. Alex tuned out, nodding once in a while to make it seem like he was still paying attention. Alex had much more important things on his mind. Like how the man had recognized him so easily. Sure, he still had fair hair and brown eyes, but 11 years had changed him. At least Alex liked to think that he looked older and more responsible. The other thing that also puzzled Alex was the emotion that had run through the man's eyes as he mentioned 'the mistress.' Professional killers were taught be cold and emotionless, even when on their death-bed. Yet, Alex was sure he seen a mix sorrow and happiness shoot through the man's eyes.

"Alex, Alex…Are you still in there?" Castle shook Alex out of his reverie, "Am I that boring?" he joked.

"No, just lost in thought," Alex replied.

"Just thought you should know you're bleeding."

Alex held up his the cloth in his hand, "Oh, this? Nah, my hands fine, it's the other guys blood, I was trying to stop the bleeding." Technically Alex had not lied, he had used the strip to stop the bleeding, just a little bit more forcefully than was normal.

"No, your left hand, it's injured."

"Huh?" Indeed, there was blood on his left arm. In fact, his entire left forearm had a gash running its length. Apparently his gun hadn't completely deflected the bullet, he had not even noticed. His left sleeve had absorbed the blood leaving the once white shirt stained red. He had not even noticed, his mind had been too busy with the events that had been occurring.

"Damn and it was a new shirt too." Alex complained.

"You're injured and you're complaining about the shirt!?" Castle was evidently shocked again.

Kate Beckett

Kate sighed for the umpteenth time a she cursed her luck. This new trainee was like another Castle, only he performed his maniacal tendencies instead of writing them on paper. Kate was beginning to question how Alex had passed his psych evaluation; no sane person would jump out of building to pursue a suspect.

She had gone back to check on Alex after she had noticed that he had not followed her and Castle out of the apartment. For a minute, she had worried he had been shot. No, he had not been shot. He had grabbed an empty trash bag and jumped out the window. When the wind had ripped the trash bag out of his hands, she thought for sure it was over. No, he somehow had made it to the other side. This when her anger had taken over, just what the hell was he thinking. The entire way over to the other buildings rooftop, her mind was seething with anger.

Though, Kate had to give up some props, he was committed to his job, even if was absolutely crazy. After Lanie had taken the body back with her, Kate had gone back over the apartment to find Castle working on evidence gathering and Pleasure watching on.

"Wow Castle, you're doing this type of work now too?" she laughed at the sight.

"Well, I couldn't just let Alex do it; his left arm is bleeding badly."

"I'm telling you, it's just a scratch. It won't even leave a scar." Shrugged off Alex, "The bullet on skimmed me."

"Whatever the reason, go home, get that wound properly dressed, and come back to the station tomorrow." She ordered, she could see how tired the trainee was from the look in his eyes.

"Yes ma'am," Alex Pleasure sighed and trudged out.

"Why'd you give him the rest of the day off? He could have come back." Castle asked.

"Castle, this is probably his first case in the field and he had already shot someone, been shot, and watched a man die right in front of his eyes." She then proceeded to give him a flat stare.

"Well, when you put it that way. What's next for us then?"

"We're going to talk to Lanie."

"I have cause of death," the medical examiner, announced as the pair walked in.

"How did he die?" Kate asked her friend

"A bullet," she pointed at a petri dish. " 9mm caliber, went straight through the heart."

"How is that possible wasn't he shot in the shoulder? I saw Alex shoot him myself." Castle spoke.

"Don't underestimate the strength of bones, Castle," Lanie skeptically spoke. "True, the bullet did enter through the left shoulder, but it deflected off of his clavicle and tore through the rest of his body. I fished the bullet out of his hip."

Kate nodded, "Ok, so we have cause of death, anything else?"

"Nothing yet, I'll call if I find anything."

Kate sank into her couch that night, extremely tired. They had searched high and low for a facial match of the dead man. Nothing had popped up. They had sent the man's DNA to CSU for identification. Those results were not due back until the next day. There had also been one more file that Kate had ordered, the file of Alex Pleasure. After the stunts he had pulled, if she wanted to work with him, she needed more information. When she had accepted him all she had heard was that he was promising and very resourceful young man.

Now she pulled the file from her bag.

Alex Pleasure

- Born: Feb 1987

- Family:

- Edward Pleasure-Father, Status-Alive

- Elizabeth Pleasure-Mother, Status-Alive

- Sabina Pleasure-Sister, Status-Alive

- Education

- Undergraduate Degree in Criminal Justice- Graduated Magna Cum Laude, University of Albany-SUNY

- Master's Degree in Criminology- University of Albany-SUNY

- Police Academy of the New York State- Currently in probationary period at NYPD 12th precinct, Homicide division.

- Experience

-Held a job in the Justice department after earning Undergraduate Degree, left citing personal reason.

- Police Academy of the New York State Instructor Notes

-Brilliant Student, very adaptable, smart, and quick. –Instructor J. Hollison

-Top of the class, very capable, though he can be a little anti-social –Instructor M. Kelly

The list went on after that, mostly filled with compliments. The only recurring trend that Kate thought as odd was the 'anti-social.'

That was when a knock came at the door. Kate immediately grabbed her gun. She wasn't expecting any visitors and castle was having movie night with his daughter. She opened the door a crack, her gun held ready. It was Pleasure. She let him in.

"Where did you get this address?" she inquired.

"I called Castle. I figured it anyone had it, it would be your boyfriend." He stated plainly.

"I told you we're no-,fine, just don't tell Gates," she relented after seeing Alex's face.

"Met her, not nice."

"So, what did you come here for?"

"Oh, I came to apologize about my behavior earlier today. I should not have jumped."

"Ok, I'll let you off the hook this time; just don't go skydiving off any buildings in the near future. Anything else?" Kate jovially spoke.

"Yes actually," his face somber, "What was the cause of death?"

Ah, that topic. It was bound to come up. The only question in Kate's mind was how she was going to tell him that the bullet had come from his gun. It had not been his fault, but that probably wasn't going to stop him from blaming himself. In the end, she decided to tell him directly, Alex was an adult.

"Well, you see. Lanie, our medical examiner, found a bullet in the man's hip."

"Hip? Had he already gotten shot before? I don't remember seeing him limp."

"That's the thing, he hadn't gotten shot before. It was your bullet she found."

"My bullet?" Confusion flooded his face, then recognition, and then finally dread settled in. He continued in a low voice, "My shot deflected off of the clavicle didn't it. It probably went straight through the heart."

"Yes, I'm sorry."

"For what? You haven't done anything wrong." Then his face brightened up, "Anyways, since I'm here, let's go over the case."

"Okay," Kate could not answer with anything else, the change was just so complete. She would have completely believed that everything was fine with him. The only thing that did not change was his eyes, his eyes remained sad.

"Wait a minute… this isn't the case." Alex piped up from the coffee table. "These are about me." His tone was a little suspicious.

"Oh, you know," she spoke back, "I am the officer who will be handing in your evaluation in couple of months; I thought it better to get to know you a little bit."

"Oh, ok." He answered simply.

"Hey, throw me my phone, I'll call Esposito and Ryan to see if they can come and help." Kate asked as the idea came to her mind. He did as asked.

Then a phone began ringing. "Ah, it's mine." Ale replied. His eyes dilated when he saw the caller id. "Sorry, I have to take this."

"Hello?... Yes… WHAT?...Got it." His face seemed shocked.

"What was that all about?"

"That was an old contact of mine,"

"From the justice department?" She remembered that he worked there for a little while.

"Something like that, yeah."

"What did they say?"

"He just told me to lay low for a while."

"Why?" If the man was telling Alex to "lay low" he probably wasn't the most legal of contacts. She did not pry, sometimes these contacts helped solve cases.

"Apparently the FBI has taken out a warrant for my arrest."

"What!? Why!? On what charge?" This was surprising news indeed.

"Murder."

Ok, so not as much action in this chapter. Still in the introduction phase of the story. Beckett POV added. I am not really sure how well I portrayed her; please tell me if she is or isn't in character. Also, there will be no pairings other than Canon. Hope you guys enjoyed the chapter. See you all next time.

-Wheel Then

(1)-When bullets refract they don't refract at the angle that the struck in like light does, no they follow the direction of surface they hit. That's why Alex's left arm was injured.

(2)- Don't try this at home. Any accidents that occur are not my fault. In theory this would work, of course the updraft would have to be present to allow any air to enter the bag. That's only in theory in real life… You know, I am just going say, don't try this at home and leave it at that.

(3)- Contrary to popular belief, if a person is shot through the heart, they do not die immediately. The brain still has some oxygen left, so it allows for the person to think and limited range of movement for a small amount time. Not sure how much, when I researched it, I saw answers saying everything from 1 minute to 4 minutes. However, it depends on the size of the GSW. A 9 mm bullet is small, but a shotgun shell would mean instant death.