MOM OF THE FUTURE

Notes:

Hi. First Castle solo fiction posting on FFNet. I have written for this fandom before, only posted on Archive of our Own if you're interested. As it is; while I like reading vanilla Castle fanfictions I do not like writing them, so expect the Sci-Fi, the Supernatural, and the Bizarre from me all the time. Case in point; Mom of the Future. Enjoy and please leave some form of feedback if you can, its ALWAYS appreciated!

Chapter One

She held the bulky office phone to her ear as she signed off on the last of her forms. "Yes, reservations for three please. A private seating? Yes. Make it under Beckett. Thanks so much. You too. Bye."

She put the receiver down with her pen and locked her hands behind her head stretching her forearms up and hearing her tired bones crackle under the tension. But she had no business being tired today; her daughter was finally deigning to grace her family with her presence and not be out with friends on the town or shopping. A quiet private dinner in one of the better restaurants the city could provide was the perfect send off.

She quickly packed up her bag, hoping to get a nice soak in before making their reservation. As she was picking up her careworn copy of In A Hail of Bullets, which she had just finished rereading, her phone rang. she rolled her eyes at the bothersome device before picking it up. The person who answered made her think she wasn't going to be able to get that soak in after all. Checking her watch she nodded; yes, she had just enough time to meet her contact then make it to her family dinner slash college send off.

Tapping the mother of the ceramic family of elephants sitting on her desk on the trunk she gathered up her things, leaving In A Hail of Bullets on her desk to pick up later, she walked out of her office to meet her contact, three inch heels clicking in her wake.

Johanna hurried across the alley wishing she had enough sense not to pursue this case as relentlessly as she had. She had dinner scheduled with her family for gods sake and yet here she was chasing down blind leads and walking down dark alleys in bad neighborhoods like she didn't know any better.

And really what pursuit for justice was she searching for anyway? Pulgatti was a mob boss; he had probably been responsible for the deaths of hundreds of people and if this case was the reason he was behind bars then she should be grateful for this particular miscarriage of the justice system that allowed a man like him to not roam free on the streets.

However, as was Johanna's nature, she tended to see any miscarriage of justice as a slight on her profession and integrity. Lawyers were already considered the lowest scum in the system, doing anything for money and she hated the stereotype and then there was her daughter to think about. Her Katie looked up to her mother so much that she actually was pursuing the same exact career and Johanna never wanted to see the day when her daughter would stumble upon an unsolved case of hers and ask the question that if she knew this man was innocent then why didn't she pursue this case to the best of her abilities.

And so there she was, being late for her dinner because one of her shadier contacts had called and asked to meet with some damning evidence. She just hoped whatever it was wasn't going to make her miss her meeting with her family.

The hand that grabbed her came out of nowhere, she didn't hear a footfall behind her or even feel like someone was watching her, all she felt was the hard grip of rough male fingers around her elbow and another gloved hand covering her mouth and she was yanked away from plain view. She struggled but the man was built like a rock and there was no budging him. She had never felt so helpless in her life. Then she heard the sound of a knife being unsheathed, her eyes widened as the glint of silver came into her sight then plunged down towards her midsection.

Johanna didn't know where her surge of adrenaline came from but just as the knife went to plunge her kidney she lifted her heeled foot and somehow managed to deliver a glancing blow at the man's left calf muscle, his hand faltered at the last minute and the knife plunged into her right forearm causing a searing pain to flare up, she reacted to the pain and twisted in the man's grip to get away.

The blinding light hit her as soon as she got out of her would be killers grip, she stumbled around trying to blink away the spots behind her eyes not understanding where the light was coming from. Did he shine a flash light in her face? Did he have some kind of flash bang grenade like the ones the Swat police used? Her eyes hurt and so did her arm. She needed to get out of there, she couldn't allow herself to get killed, it would completely destroy her family to lose her. If she could just get the damn light out of her eyes.

She finally managed to blink away some of the spots and then shook her head disbelievingly; she was standing in broad day light, in the same alley as before only judging by the hot sun glaring down at her from clear skies it was probably mid morning. What the hell?

Looking back down from the sky though she saw her supposed attacker leaning down elbows on his knees, dressed in all black with a dark trench coat, collars turned up, he looked less menacing in the light especially with hands covering his face trying to blink out the blinding light.

Johanna looked down at her arm and saw the knife sticking out of her forearm, she grimaced and pulled the weapon out of her arm, her stomach turning as her body shuddered with pain. She wanted to drop the weapon but any second now that man was going to regain his senses and come after her. She was tempted to plant the knife in her attackers back but she was no killer so she did the sensible thing and pushed the man from behind making him fall face forward then ran as fast as her heeled feet would carry her in the opposite direction.

She left the alley and found herself in a semi crowded street with people bustling around going about their business, not really bothering to care about the middle aged woman with the bleeding hand and a knife in their path. New Yorkers; you could always count on them to mind their own bloody business, especially in these parts.

She looked around knowing there was a payphone nearby but didn't find one, she frowned; she could have sworn there was one near the alley. She finally spotted one across the street and rushed forwards causing a couple of cars to honk at her but she paid them no mind. Something was going on, something she couldn't explain but it was freaking her out. First of all she needed to call nine one one and an ambulance then she needed to call her family and have them comfort her, otherwise she was going to have a mental break down.

She was grateful for the alcove the payphone provided, the stand hid her from view of anyone coming out of the alley she had just been in so she could make the call relatively safely.

Johanna glanced at the ad on the payphone booth as she passed and did a double take. 'What the hell was Free WiFi?' She shook her head, she'd wonder about that later, right now she needed to call the police and have herself checked out before she bled out.

"Nine one one emergency response how may I help you?"

"Hi. My name is Johanna Beckett and I have just been attacked in an alley near 44th & Lex, I managed to get away from my attacker but I was stabbed in the arm and am bleeding very badly."

"Okay Johanna, I need you to remain calm, an ambulance and the police are on their way to your location right now."

"Please hurry, he was still in the alley when I ran, he could be after me."

"Don't worry Johanna, just stay with me okay."

"Hey, excuse me ma'am are you okay?"

She looked up into the eyes of a young police officer, he was a few inches taller than her and had dark brown eyes. His face was concerned as he took in her bleeding arm but the minute he spotted the knife in her hand he tensed.

"Ma'am please put the knife down," he said slowly and clearly his hand unhooking the strap on his holster.

Johanna immediately dropped the knife and tried to raise her free hand in the air but since it was the injured one it didn't go very far.

"Johanna? Who was that?" asked the girl on the other end of the line.

"Please," said Johanna, her voice tired, her night or day, was not going the way she had planned. "I was attacked in that alley," she hooked her finger back at the alley of death she had come from. "I managed to get away but he got me in the arm."

The officer looked at her shrewdly but didn't lift the hand off of the gun. "Who are you talking to?"

"Johanna? Is it him?" asked the operator. "Is your attacker there?"

"No!" said Johanna a little too loudly in the receiver. "I...uh...called nine one one," she said to Officer Keith spying the name tag on his breast pocket.

"Step away from the phone ma'am," he said closing in on her and she complied readily, as long as the boy didn't arrest her or leave her she was fine with whatever he wanted to do.

Keith walked over and took up the receiver. "This is patrol Officer Vincent Keith, badge number 419175 from the 7th precinct please confirm that this is nine one one emergency dispatch."

She watched him nod and the tension eased off of his shoulders. "And what was the nature of her call?" he asked after a moment. "Okay. I'll take it from here and escort Mrs Beckett safely to the hospital. Thank you for you help.

Keith turned back to her his brown eyes softer as he took out a baggie from his utility belt and bagged the knife. Then he approached her his arms open and nonthreatening.

"I'm Officer Keith," he said cautiously. And Johanna nodded. "Want me to take a look at that?" he asked pointing at her wound.

She shrugged and offered up her arm feeling her body deflate a little, the blood loss plus the anxiety and the sudden change from night to day was getting to her.

"Please officer," she asked as he looked over her stab wound. "My family was expecting me for dinner yesterday evening, I need to get into contact with them."

"I'll help you call them as soon as I can," he promised then shook his head. "I can't do anything about this except help stop the bleeding!" He opened his belt again and pulled out a thick woolen piece of cloth. "Here, hold this over your wound tightly until the EMTs get here."

Johanna did as she was instructed and stemmed the blood flow with the surprisingly soft cloth Keith handed to her.

"Now you said that you were attacked in that alley?" he said pointing at the alley of death. Johanna nodded. "EMTs are two minutes out, wait for them here and I'll go check the alley out see if he's still there."

Feeling vulnerable all of a sudden she shook her head. "Officer Keith, Vince. Please don't leave me alone here," she didn't say it but she was terrified she might be attacked again, she definitely didn't feel safe.

Keith looked at her then back at the alley for a second obviously conflicted then made up his mind. "Okay but as soon as back up arrives I'm checking that place out then I'm taking you to the hospital, got it?"

Johanna nodded. "Got it," She agreed feeling no reason to really contradict the boy.

She looked over Keith or rather Vince speculatively, even through trauma she was still thinking like a mother and she couldn't help but think that maybe Vince and Kate might get along. Before she could help herself she spoke up. "You have a girlfriend, Officer Keith?"

His eyes widened at that question. "Mrs Beckett I'm flattered and I think you are very beautiful but I might be a little young for you."

Johanna blushed at that remark. "Oh no I wasn't talking about me," she hurried to explain. "My...my daughter Kate, she's about your age and I thought..."

"Kate?" asked Keith his eyes sharp on hers. "Kate Beckett?"

"Yes," Johanna said slowly. "You know her?"

"Know her?" asked Keith incredulously. "Only..." he was cut off as the sirens hit their ears and an ambulance and two squad cars sped over to their location screeching to a halt beside them. The EMTs were all over her and Keith took one of the patrol cops that had arrived and went off down the alley to search for her attacker.

He came back fifteen minutes later nothing to show for his efforts, Johanna's arm had been bandaged and she was refusing to be allowed to be taken to the hospital to get stitches. Johanna was insisting that she could get there herself and didn't need to ride with them.

Keith waked up to them. "I'll take her over there," he said dismissing the argument. "You alright?" he asked the older woman and Johanna nodded. "You wanna come with me to the hospital to get that arm stitched up?"

She nodded again and stepped in beside the officer. "I parked around the curb, was actually on my lunch break when I saw you.."

They came up to a beefed up police squad car and her eyes widened at the sports car like design.

"Nice huh?" Keith asked as he opened the passenger door for her. "This isn't my normal squad car but we busted a street racing ring down in Chinatown last night and I still have to return this to the precinct."

"So what car is this? My husbands sort of a car nut, I might recognize this from some of his ramblings."

Keith grinned grateful to have someone to brag to. "This here," he said stroking the steering wheel lovingly. "Is a 2010 Chevrolet Camaro SS fully customized and tuned for interception precision. It's been modified a little for police work mainly to make it more sturdy for ramming but this is the real deal right here. American muscle in a sleeker package."

Johanna held in a breath. "T-two thousand and ten?" she asked not believing her ears.

Keith raised his eyebrows as he fired up the engine. "Yup, I know it's four years old but it gets the job done, you know."

"F-four... years...old..."

"Johanna?" asked Keith as she started slipping. "Johanna!" She heard once more then everything went blank.

End Notes:

Yeah! So how was that? Tell me please? Down in the reviews. Please leave your feedback, it helps me churn out chapters faster and gives me more insight into my own story. Also this is going to be a long one. At least I hope. Next chapter? Some Caskett fun. Enjoy!