Acceptable Untruths
Rick
As he sat in the chair, temporarily defeated by the Secret Springing Pistol (trademark pending) he reflected over an early whiskey. He really shouldn't but he's had one too many blows to the ego already today.
So he fibbed a little. But only acceptable ones. Untruths if you will not lies. He is an author and he likes the play of words. Acceptable untruths. He can live with that.
About quite a few things actually. But never anything important.
The bracelet he had surprised her with this morning may have required the odd meeting at Black Pawn that never actually happened but you didn't just commission a custom piece for the love of your life over the phone. It involved research and sampling and direct interaction with craftsman.
The refurbishment, hell upgrade was more truthful, of the PI office. Well that wasn't just a dash of paint slapped on. But he suspects his wife was well aware of that. Still to complete the charade he had been entirely hands off during the course of project. Instead he had left it in the capable hands of his supposedly trustworthy daughter – the perfidious turncoat as it turns out.
But he never obscurificated about anything important. Not anymore. No since their disastrous failures to communicate before getting engaged. And before that it was Smith and the deal. And he had a good reason for lack of candor. Keeping her alive was everything.
Still is because now they are there. They're married and staying that way until death parts them. A long time in the future.
And then Espo calls.
Alexis
A tactical retreat was called for after he surprised her at his own offices. The phone call from the Precinct was the perfect distraction.
She shouldn't be surprised by his appearance at his own office. Kate was starting her new job today and he couldn't go in. Not for a bit. So he would have got bored and come here.
She didn't feel guilty that she hadn't been sharing with her dad.
Certainly not about becoming his still-secret investigative partner. More a matter of non-disclosure than untruths. It was quite a thrill to solve four cases on her own.
Plus she had been safe. Kate had vetted each case before she accepted it. Kate even offered to back her up if necessary. Her dad would have got in the way.
Some things we just easier with Kate.
Like sharing about her boyfriend. Well that technically was a bit of a self-preserving fib. After the debacle of Pi and then her Dad's disappearance she had just wanted to get back to father/daughter without adding that clichéd father versus boyfriend track.
Plus he really, really was too much sometimes. Especially with her previous boyfriends. Admittedly she deserved it over Pi (what was she thinking?) but her new boyfriend was sweet, and respectful and so very hot in bed (and out of it). She gets that her dad wants to protect her but she's not a virgin anymore (another truth they both gloss over when together in mutual self-preservation).
So when he surprises her just after one of her happy customers walks out, she'll cop to the deception about the PI business and confess only to that. But not about the other. Her boyfriend stays her secret for now. It is not going to harm him she justifies.
Kate
Her heart had been in her mouth when she lied to Rick that morning.
It had been a necessary untruth. Not acceptable, but necessary.
To keep him safe.
To be honest it hurt her more now than the pull of the stitches from her new bullet wound. She could call it a graze - a lie - but it was going to be another scar that would be testament to her battles. Plus she had lost her bracelet in the gunfight. She hadn't expected the opposition and not so many. Nor the bullet wound, the blood and then to discover later that she had lost his perfect gift of that very morning, well she would be gutted if only she had the time for self-pity.
And she knows that somehow he will have it by now. And know that she is missing and in danger – which she most certainly is. Worse he'll know she deceived him and lied to him. And no matter how essential it was, that is going to hurt them both.
She needed to survive this. To get back to Rick. To fix this. Her oaths to the AG be damned. He, they, were worth more. Some secrets were not worth the cost.
Rick
LT had been wheeled off, his vest saving him but it is still a long haul to recovery.
The Deputy Commissioner, Gates, is on her way. Back to her old precinct.
All about him is frenetic.
ME, CSI, Homicide, uniforms, ESU all milling around the homicide floor, over and around the unswept broken glass and the body of their dead female assassin.
Damn that woman. She deserved her fate but not before giving up the truth of what is going on her. Why his wife is being hunted. Why she can't come to him.
He does his best to resist the temptation to hold the anger, but still the frustration seeps through him.
Alexis is down the hall, giving her statement.
Ryan and Esposito too. Somewhere else. Not before Espo had given up his gun to Internal Affairs, and simply strapped his backup piece to his hip before disappearing to another interview room.
His turn next.
So he sits there in the aftershocks of the day, her bracelet clutched in his hand, the evidence bag - courtesy of a friendly CSI - tense under his clenched fist.
Alexis was right.
He does trust Kate with everything. He trusts her to keep them safe. She's doing what she believes is best.
He'll still fret and worry but at least she is free and armed. Not like with 3XK and the creepy doctor. She can fight back. Has been fighting back. Even when on the run, and injured, she managed to save him, the ghost of her kiss still echoing. Frustrating, maddening woman. Wife.
It doesn't mean that they are not going to have a very hard and honest discussion about this.
When he has her back. Because make no mistake he is getting her back, alive and please no more battered than another bullet wound.
She doesn't get to do that anymore. They're married. It was meant to be different. Better. Safe. No more Bracken. Behind a desk. Both of them. At least most of the time.
She doesn't get to leave and not come back.
Not now. Not ever.
That is simply not acceptable.
So he'll fight for her, for them.
So right now he needs to figure out the story. Turn the fictions and lies of today into facts and the truth. And help her so she can come home to their family.
That is the only acceptable outcome.
Untruths be damned.
He can live with nothing else.
Author's Note
Welcome to Season 8 of Castle.
This kind of needed to sneak out.
Chapter 71 for One of Us is almost done. This weekend I hope.
Sorry for the delay but I had a month in East Africa celebrating 26 years with my one and done and then have sunk straight back into work and processing all the photos I took on safari has left no time for writing.