Woman in White

Part 18

March 3, 2014 — "In the Belly of the Beast"
19 weeks 2 days pregnant
       He loves watching her. She thinks it's creepy, but he thinks it impossible to not become enchanted with her. Her pink yoga mat is sprawled across their living room floor as she does some maternity yoga exercises to help with the aches in her lower back and hips. He was happy when she agreed to take the day off. He knows she hates when he hovers, but she is his wife and carrying their baby. He'll always hover when it comes to their well-being and protection.
      "How long are you going to stare at me?" She asks as her eyes are closed and she cools down from the workout. "I-um-I wasn't," "Save it, Castle. I'm a trained detective. I can tell when someone is watching me." She says before holding her hands out signaling for him to help her up. He pulls her off the ground and plants his lips on hers. "Did the stretches help?" He asks, "A little. I think a warm bath might help later." She says. He nods and kisses her forehead, "I do have something in mind that might help another ache." She teases.
      He grabs her hand and starts pulling her into their bedroom when her phone rings. They both sigh as she answers it. "Beckett." "Detective, how soon can you get here?" Captain Gates asks. Castle leans down and begins kissing her neck. "Uh, Sir, I'm actually not on call today." Beckett reminds her superior before pinching her husband's ear to get him to stop his exploration of her neck. "I'm aware of that, but something has come up and I'm afraid it can't wait." "Well, I can get their in 20 minutes." Beckett responds.
     She sees her husband look at her with a 'are you serious?' expression and she mouths her apology to him. "One more thing: come alone — do not bring Mr. Castle." "Uh, yes Sir." The call ends and Beckett slips her phone into her pocket, "So, what is Gates up to aside from sabotaging our domestic bliss?" Castle asks. Beckett rolls her eyes and steps up to her husband before wrapping her arms around his midsection. "I don't know, but I gotta go." She presses a kiss to his lips, "I don't suppose I could convince you to just..." "No." "Yeah, didn't think so."
      She walks into their bedroom, "Don't worry about it. I'm fine. I'll just, uh, I'll do some writing. If I can manage to focus." He says as he tries to dial down his arousal. His wife gets ready is record timing and presses a kiss to his cheek, "Hopefully I'll be home soon." She says before leaving the loft and making her way to the precinct. When she arrives, she notices the large amount of brass in the bullpen. "Yo Beckett! I thought you were off?" Esposito calls out to her. "Was that the deputy commissioner?" Beckett asks.
"Yeah. There's been more brass through here than a marching band." Esposito explains. "What's going on?" She wonders. "It's all need-to-know, and we didn't make the list. But, whatever's happening is going down in that conference room." Ryan tells her. As if she was listening, Captain Gates opens the door, "Detective." "Yeah?" The boys answer in sync. "Beckett." She corrects them. Beckett smiles, "Sorry." And then makes her way into the conference room. "Detective Beckett, Captain Fowler — head of narcotics." Gates introduces them. "Thank you for coming, Detective." Beckett nods, "What I'm about to tell you cannot leave this conference room."
She nods, "Yeah, understood, Sir." "These six victims had their throats cut. They were mid-to upper-level drug dealers. Two were teenagers. They were all murdered in the past few months when a new drug ring muscled in and took over most of the uptown heroin and cocaine trade." Fowler begins explaining while Beckett examine the six crime scene images. "A new drug ring? Well, who are they?" She asks. "The commissioner asked me to find that out and shut them down, but they're invisible these guys." Beckett is still confused on how she's involved in a narcotics case.
"They don't use banks, so we can't follow the money. They make sure their street dealers never meet their suppliers." She catches on, "So when you bust a dealer, he doesn't know who he's working for." She finishes Fowler's point. "Exactly. So, three months in and we have nothing. We don't even know any of their names, except for Lazarus." "And who is Lazarus?" "The leader. Not his real name of course. Then yesterday, a phone intercept led us to this woman: Elena Markov." Fowler shows Beckett Markov's picture before explaining her story to the homicide detective.
"She copped to being a low-level drug courier in the ring. Born in Russia, she came here as a mail-order bride, divorced her husband. She learned to speak English better than we do and was getting by as a freelance translator. She's never been in trouble before, at least not till now." Fowler plays the interview between himself and Elena for Beckett in which she learns exactly how the system worked. "It looked like another dead end. Then this morning, Elena got another text from the ring. This time they wanted to meet her to offer her a promotion."
"Which would give you guys a chance to get eyes on someone." Beckett follows along. "It's the break we've been waiting for. So, we leveraged Elena to take the meet, but she tried to commit suicide. She's in intensive care under police guard." "Sir, I'm sorry to hear about that, but what does this all have to do with me?" Beckett finally asks, still not understanding why she was brought into this investigation. "The meeting is set for 5:00 today, and a chance like this is not gonna come back around, so we combed the NYPD database for someone about Elena's age and appearance who speaks fluent Russian, in case it's relevant. Only one name came up: yours."
It finally dawns on Beckett what her role is supposed to be. "You want me to go in her place?" "To the Widmark. Show up, meet your contact, and leave. In and out." She feels her heart begin to race. "What if they found out that you turned Elena and that this is all a trap?" "Then they wouldn't be meeting at the Widmark Hotel. We were very careful. No one knows she's made contact with us." Fowler assures Gates.
"Still, there's the risk that they could see Detective Beckett and realize that she's not Elena." "In the text, they asked Elena to wear a red scarf, which tells us that they don't know her on sight. My people will be in place watching every move you make. We can even fit you with a monitored mic if you'd like. Detective, something big is going on out there, and this is our best chance to find out what. But the meeting's in two hours, so I need your answer." Fowler gives the final push. Beckett takes a deep breath.
"Look, I understand this operation is important to your unit, but I'm going to have to decline your request. In case you haven't noticed, I'm almost five months pregnant, and I don't think it's safe to put myself in harms way. We have no idea how this meeting will turn out, not to mention these men deal with drugs on a daily basis which I'm pretty sure are the type of people I shouldn't be around." Beckett stands her ground. "Detective, we could plant security at every single centimeter of the hotel you'd be in." Fowler tries getting her to agree.
"They can't be planted in the room. Do you know who Detective Beckett's husband is? The type of heat the entirety of the NYPD would face by the mayor if Richard Castle's wife and child were injured during an undercover operation we forced her to embark on? Now, my detective gave you her answer and I agree with her decision." Captain Gates says sternly standing up for her detective. "Well then, I guess there's no point in me being here. I need to go brief one of my detectives for this meeting." Captain Fowler says as he packs up his things.
"I'm sorry, Sir. I know this is going to cause you a lot of hassle." "Not as much as your husband would cause if something happened to either one of you." Captain Gates says nodding to Beckett and her bump. "I guess I'll stay here and wait for updates on the meeting." Beckett says as she walks out and sits down at her desk. Ryan and Esposito wheel their way over to her desk, "You sure pissed off that narcotics captain." Esposito says, "Thanks Espo." Beckett rolls her eyes, "Where's your shadow?" Ryan asks, "Why, Ryan, you miss your girlfriend?" Beckett teases.
Esposito laughs while Ryan scoffs, "I'm about to call him." Beckett says as she picks up her phone and dials their home phone number. "Castle." "Hey, so I'm stuck at the precinct doing paperwork if you'd like to bring lunch and come help me." Beckett offers, "Um, yeah, about that —" "I wasn't really asking." She interrupts the excuse he was forming. "Okay, okay. I'll be on my way soon. Remy's for lunch?" He asks, "Cheeseburger, fries, and a strawberry milkshake please." She requests, "Yes ma'am. I'll see you soon. Love you." "Love you too." She responds with a smile.
An hour later, Castle exits the elevator with food in hand. "I come bearing gifts." He announces to the bullpen and the boys come rushing over to grab their food. "What was your meeting about?" Castle asks as he sits in his chair and they begin eating. "Narcotics wanted me to pose as a drug courier and go to a meeting set up by ring leaders." Beckett answers, "You told them no right?" He asks and she nods, "Sorry, I don't mean to be overbearing. It's just that I worry about you and our little peanut in there."
Beckett smiles, "I know. I worry about them too, Castle. That's why I said no." She assures him. Captain Gates exits her office, "Detectives, we have a problem." She says. They all stand and walk into her office, "Sir, what's wrong?" "I just got off the phone with Captain Fowler. Detective Marley Shepard took your place as Elena, Beckett. She went into the meeting in room 1123, only she never made it off the elevator." Gates says. "She was abducted?" "Right out from under their noses. I assured Fowler we'd be of assistance in finding her." Gates tells the team.
"I'll track down the taxi she took." Ryan says, "I'll call and check to see who was staying in room 1123." Esposito follows, "And I'll look into the database for more information on Detective Shepard." Beckett says. They all exit to office and sit at their desks to begin finding the trail to the missing detective. "Please don't blame yourself." Castle whispers, "Castle, if I had just taken the assignment —" "Then both you and our child would be missing." Castle finishes her arguement. She takes a deep breath and nods before getting to work on finding the missing detective.
It's hours of scrubbing, tracing, and searching until they get a call. Marley Shepard was found safe in the woods. "Did she say anything?" Beckett asks, "Beckett!" She turns to find Esposito calling her over before she can get an answer from Captain Gates. She walks over to the boys, "Apparently Detective Shepard gave a description of Lazarus." Esposito says, "She describes him as a tall, African American male with a deep voice and intimidating mindset. Says he's the head of the whole dope smuggling operation." Ryan finishes. Beckett quickly puts the pieces together, "Vulcan Simmons." Beckett sighs. "He's the head of this whole thing."
Later that evening, Castle and Beckett are sitting in front of the piano with her laptop propped up as they watch Senator Bracken announce his run for presidency. "Vulcan Simmons isn't Lazarus. It's Bracken. Hiding behind Vulcan Simmons, funding his campaign with dirty money, killing whoever gets in his way, just like he did with my mom. It's him. And we have no way of proving it." Beckett concludes as she looks at the paused image of her mother's murderer on her laptop screen. "Maybe the feds will find something." Castle says holding out hope.
"No, Bracken is so well-insulated. It's genius, actually. He has all the campaign funds that he needs without having to compromise or be beholden to any special interest groups." Beckett says. Castle sighs and kisses her forehead before closing the lid on her laptop, "Let's get Mom and Baby to bed." Castle says. She knows he gets scared of her falling down the rabbit hole, of losing herself in the case again especially while pregnant. She takes his hand. She shows him no matter how many leads are produced, she'll always make sure to come home to them. Always.
Chapter 18! So this chapter was difficult figuring out how to alter the actual episode plot since Beckett is pregnant in this story and there is no way she'd go on the undercover operation while pregnant. Let me know what you think of this alter operation!