Disclaimer: I do not own Castle and am not affiliated to the persons that own the rights to Castle. All characters are fictional, and borrowed from the show.
Chapter 1
When the tears had dried up, there was anger.
There was so much anger.
It blinded her, torched the shattered debris of her soul, and propelled her.
It pushed her, prodded her, and jabbed at her, till it made her put on some warm outdoor clothes, and leave the house-home didn't sound right anymore-out into the snow-cloaked New York, after three weeks of hiding away from humanity.
She found herself walking through neighbourhood after neighbourhood, down familiar streets. There was no pattern to her wanderings; her feet took her on their own accord, her aimlessness a reflection of the chaos reigning in her mind.
When the pain had been fresh, it had seemed like the sorrow would never go. She had never been a downright optimist, but she hadn't been one for expecting worst-case scenarios either. Even the darkest, most fearsome nightmare had not been close to what had happened.
There was always light at the end of the tunnel, they said.
She couldn't bring her to believe it. Not when things had gotten worse over the past year.
If that was even possible.
A month after her mother's murder, by which time the world had pretty much forgotten about it, police had stopped frequenting the Beckett household, and the media had announced the detective's ruling it as a 'random act of violence', Kate Beckett transferred to NYU.
Stanford seemed like another world to her now. She had had very specific aspirations for her life, and her parents' work had greatly affected her, growing up. She had always been one for justice, one for setting things right. A lawyer seemed like a perfect vocation for her to channelize her energy into-saving the innocent from conviction, arguing for the sentencing of the guilty.
Her mother had been instrumental in her decisions and a steady support throughout her teenage years. Even when Kate had rebelled, during her tattooed, leather-clad, Harley-straddling wildcat phase, her mother had played good cop, while her dad had been the one resisting, guns-blazing.
It was ironic, really. To a family of its devoted disciples, Justice wasn't served to the man or men that tore them apart.
Also ironic was how Kate saw through the gaping holes in the system that she had earlier such superficial ideas about, that now denied her the right to know. To know WHY. And to know WHO.
She couldn't kid herself into studying the law any longer.
Not when her own mother's case had never reached the courts, got buried in the police archives for complete lack of evidence, suspects or motive.
But there had been other reasons for leaving Stanford and moving back.
Author's Note—Reviews will be appreciated. Thank you!
