CH1 (April)
"Beckett, my office." Roy calls out from his doorway.
Kate gets up from her desk and looks at the guys for a clue to what Roy wanted her for and quickly went over the open cases in her mind. They were still working all of them, they even had two white boards up.
Their closure rate hadn't dropped in a long time, certainly not since Kate took over. In fact the 12th had the highest closure rate in the city, it was something Kate was proud of. Roy's confidence in her wasn't something she took lightly.
"Sir?" Kate steps into his office.
"Close the door Beckett." Roy tells her from his seat behind his desk.
Kate was confused, this had happened already once. Hadn't it? Kate even knew what Roy was going to say next.
"Sit down Beckett." Kate was sure what he was going to say next.
"I'm retiring Beckett, effective in two months. I want you to think about taking the captain's test and applying for my position. You've proven yourself over the years and I've taught you everything I know. You're the best detective this city has ever seen." Roy tells her, still sounding tired to her ears.
"You've been in overall command of the homicide floor as a lieutenant for over a year now. You'll have to learn about robbery, gangs and everything else that goes with running a precinct and I'll be here for the next two months helping you."
"I accept sir, so long as you'll help me." Kate pushed what Roy was going to say along a little faster.
Roy tried blinking back his surprise; he didn't expect Kate to agree so easily and quickly.
"1PP is already aware of my intention to retire. I've heard rumors that a Victoria Gates is my likely replacement if you decide not to take the test." Roy tried to apply a little pressure.
"Cast Iron Gates from Internal Affairs? …. She hates cops sir. She would turn this precinct into hell. There would be massive transfer requests. We'd go from the best precinct to the worst. This place would be filled with people that didn't want to even come into work, let alone do their jobs to the best of their abilities." Kate felt like she had said all that before, but when?
"I'll do it sir, when do we start." Kate already knew she was going to do this.
Kate steps out of Roy's office and heads for her desk. "I'm going for coffee." Kate informs Ryan and Espo, and grabs her weapon, shield, cuffs and her jacket since it was still cool outside.
Kate was walking for the coffee shop when she suddenly knew who was just about to step out of the coffee shop and it got her to start running and opened the door just in time for Richard Castle to reach for the door. "Hi!" Kate tells him.
"Hi." Richard answers back, thinking that he had seen her somewhere before, just couldn't place it.
"I'm Kate Beckett." Kate tells him.
"Nice to meet you, I'm Richard Castle. … Have we met somewhere before?" Rick shook his head. "I know what that sounds like. Some cheap come on ploy, but I swear, you look familiar somehow." Rick was confused.
"Well I did go to one of your book signings once. … Ok twice, the first one was years ago that my mother dragged me out to." Kate knew that was the truth, just that, that wasn't what she was thinking about. Kate could swear she had just seen him yesterday, and there was something that she just couldn't quite get grasp.
"That must be it." Even if somehow Rick knew that wasn't it. It was like he had just seen her yesterday, and there was something about her, something special. "I'm sorry but I really need to get going. I have several appointments that I need to attend and other things that I need to finish.
But it was really nice meeting you Kate Beckett." Rick started to walk away but stopped and turned back around and opened his mouth and then closed it. "Hold this for me?" Rick handed over his cup of coffee to Kate.
Rick pulled out a scrap of paper and wrote down his cell phone number. "Here's my cell phone number. Call me when you have some free time, we can talk over coffee perhaps." Rick asks and exchanges his number with his coffee.
"Thanks, I'd like that." Kate really did want to spend time with him. There was something calming and quiet about him. It made her feel warm in a way that she hadn't felt in years.
"I, … I have to go. Let me know if you want that coffee." And Rick took off since he was late now.
Kate had her coffee and was back in the precinct with the guys stealing glances at her. Kate knew it was likely because of what Roy had called her into his office to talk to her about. It's just that if he wanted everyone to know that he was retiring he would have told them. So it was up to Kate to keep her mouth shut.
"Where are we on the girlfriend?" Kate asks, hoping to get their minds off of her conversation with Roy. Even if her mind was lost on seeing Richard Castle and getting to talk to him.
Rick stepped into his bank that he had been using for years now, however today it was time to say goodbye to this bank. Rick was asked to wait till someone could help him.
"May I help you?" A lady walked up and asked him.
"Yes, I need to close my account and make a wire transfer." Rick explains.
"I see, if you'll follow me please." And takes Rick into her office.
"I'll need your account number and your ID." She tells him and Rick hands over both of them.
She sees the remaining balance and is now suddenly concerned as to why he is closing his account. While losing this amount of money wasn't going to hurt the bank, it was still going to be noticed.
"May I ask why you want to close your account Mr. Castle?" She asks wondering if there was something she could do to change his mind.
"I'm relocating and I need a more local bank to work with." Rick tries explaining since he had no interest in explaining what he was doing. It was just that Rick thought he had already done this before, except that the lady went through all the forms with him, just like last time. Just he had never had used this new bank before.
Rick was stepping out of his taxi after paying the driver and looked up at the building his lawyer was in when his phone rang. Rick took a look at who was calling and frowned when he saw the caller ID.
"I've already told Gina NO once already and not interested in the new book she wants me to write. … Screw Gina." Rick talks to himself and declines to accept the call and walks into his lawyers building.
Rick steps into the building and takes the elevator up to his lawyer's office. "Hi Vicki, I think I'm running just a bit late today." He had stopped to talk to a beautiful woman who he was sure he had met somewhere and given her his number.
"You can go right in Mr. Castle, he's expecting you." Vicki tells him.
"Henry, how are you?" Rick offers his hand.
"Doing fine Rick, I have all your paperwork here waiting for you." Henry offers a chair to Rick.
"You're sure this is what you want to do?" Henry knew what Rick had asked of him, and thought this just wasn't like the Rick he knew, or thought he knew.
"I'm positive Henry; it feels like my life is supposed to do this. It's the right thing to do." Rick was sure. Somehow he just knew something was going to happen, just not what.
They went over all of the paperwork and Rick actually moved additional money into Alexis's college fund. $1 million more couldn't hurt and he was willing to take the risk that he didn't need it. Besides he wanted to do all he could for his little girl, who wasn't so little anymore.
"Bye Vicki, take good care of yourself." Rick mentions in passing on his way out the door.
It caught Vicki by surprise, Mr. Castle had never sounded like this in the past. "Thanks Mr. Castle." Vicki got out before the door closed.
Rick unlocks the front door and closes it and re-locks it behind him. Rick finds Alexis in the kitchen getting something to drink out of the refrigerator. "How did everything go dad?" Alexis was curious.
"Everything went off without a hitch. Everything is sold and everything has been purchased. We are now proud owners of the next phase in our lives.
Not to worry, I made sure that your trust fund for college is still intact, as is my mother's" Rick beat her to the punch.
"That's not what I meant dad. … I'm just glad that you are happy. You sure you won't miss writing?" Alexis knew that what her dad had planned was going to keep him busy, and even if he did want to write, he might not find the time to.
"Everything will be fine. … You'll see." As Rick kisses the side of her head. "Interested in lunch?" Rick changes topics.
"That would be nice. I'm going over to see Paige later today. You're sure she can come out for a visit?" Alexis didn't want to lose complete touch with her friends.
"Of course she and your friends are welcome; you can even fly them out if we don't have anyone to fly out as part of their reservations." Rick assures her and starts pulling things out of the refrigerator.
"Fly out." Rick talks to himself. "We fly with someone, but whom?" Rick could see that there was someone, it's just that he couldn't picture who it was. Maybe it was Paige and Rick was happy to have his daughter's friend come with them.
"I never knew there was this much paperwork." Paperwork and Kate just didn't get along, and here she was trying to get a job that had still more of the damned stuff.
In-between Roy teaching her how to run a precinct he was helping her with her upcoming captain's exam.
Kate didn't even wait for Lanie to call her and just stood up and went downstairs since she knew Lanie had something on the Peterson case and she was right.
"How goes all the testing girlfriend?" Lanie wanted to hear it from Kate.
"Captain Montgomery is going over everything he knows; he's even helping me with my captain's exam." Kate offers some information.
"Is it really what you want to do Kate?" Lanie needed to hear it, since she knew Kate liked being a homicide detective.
"If I don't take the job, we'll end up with Cast Iron Bottom. I've heard rumors that half the precinct has already filled out transfer requests. If I don't make captain and apply for the job, she'll ruin this precinct Lanie." Kate offers up her reasoning for trying.
"Is that your only reason?" Lanie wanted to know if Kate had actually thought this through?
"Do I need another?" Kate counters.
"So you're willing to make yourself miserable being captain of a precinct, just to prevent Gates from being made captain?" Lanie was thinking she now needed to talk Kate out of this.
"I'll be fine Lanie. Captain Montgomery has told me that I can run the precinct my way and if I want to, be more involved in homicide cases than he is, I can. … I'll be fine." Kate was trying to convince herself as much as Lanie.
"Just make sure you're doing it because you want it, not because everyone else in this building wants you to. Making yourself suffer for the sake of others is admirable, but what about you?" Lanie knew Kate was driven. She was also worried that her friend wasn't having any fun.
"And how will you find time to go out on dates if you take on even more work." Lanie was also worried about her social life.
"Life isn't all sex Lanie." Kate knew where Lanie was going. SEX, Kate felt like she had just had sex yesterday, just couldn't seem to put a face or name to the feeling. Which was stupid since she knew she hadn't had sex in months, though it was actually over a year now, it not close to two years.
Come morning almost a week later, Alexis came downstairs still dressed in her PJ's and didn't find her father in the kitchen. Instead he was sitting in the living room watching TV, again.
"What are you watching dad?" Alexis had seen him doing this a lot yesterday.
"Something weird is going on." Rick responds also dressed in his sleep clothes.
So Alexis sat down next to her dad and watched TV with him and was soon finding herself immersed in what the broadcaster was talking about. "Twelve countries that have a sudden outbreak of rabies? Who ever heard of such a thing? One local area near some small town in the mountains maybe, but 12 whole countries?" Rick questions.
"Think they're lying dad? … It's a news broadcast; if it was really that bad wouldn't we be hearing something from the CDC or WHO?" Alexis counters.
Rick didn't know what to say, he just didn't like the sound of it. "We still have work to do dad. You need to go talk to that advertising company followed by going to one of the travel agencies on our list." Alexis pats her dad and gets up to go back upstairs to take a shower. "And something for breakfast dad." Alexis offers a hint calling over her shoulder.
Alexis however stops at the first step. "Dad, do you feel like we've talked about this before?" This all felt really familiar to Alexis.
"I've had that feeling for like the last two weeks. I thought it was just the pressure of what I was doing. I mean if this doesn't work, it will ruin me financially." Rick points out knowing that his plan had risks.
"And the news broadcasts dad, there is something about them that I just can't place." Alexis felt it was important.
"It's likely just that zombie movie we watched the other day, you know the one with Brad Pitt." Rick offers, since he felt it too.
"Yeah, maybe." Alexis wasn't convinced but went upstairs anyway.
It is now one week later:
Both Alexis and Rick were making good progress on their list of people they wanted to see and Alexis thought they were making an impact on all of them, after listening to her father. Not that Alexis was keeping her father out of the loop. Alexis was telling him what she thought of the reaction she was getting.
Rick however had a secret that he was keeping from Alexis because he knew that if he told her, his daughter would go ballistic on him. So he was hiding all of his recent purchases in the storage area down in the garage for now. He would move them to the car when they finally left the city.
"Except Alexis finds out about the guns." Rick talks to himself. "Just why can't I remember how she will. And getting them is actually a good thing. I need another one. Time to make a phone call." Rick tells himself and pulls out his phone.
Alexis was up in the middle of the night and was walking downstairs to get a drink of water when she noticed that the TV was on. Alexis abandoned her glass of water and went over to the sofa and found her father sound asleep while still sitting up with the remote still in his hand.
He was on the CNN news channel and they had a running news band at the bottom of the TV, telling everyone that the CDC and members of the WHO were now researching the reported outbreak of rabies that had suddenly expanded past the 12 countries and involved still more.
It was enough to get Alexis to sit down and listen to the broadcasters talk about it. Alexis was forced to really listen because Rick had the volume turned down low, probably in an attempt to not wake up her or her grandmother.
It seems the first case was located in South Korea and had quickly spread from there. It was in China, Japan, Russia, Vietnam, Cambodia and several countries as it worked its way west towards Europe.
There were also reported cases in the Philippines and there were reported new cases in South America somehow. Speculation was that it was traveling via airplanes to other countries and spreading fast.
While Alexis was watching the banner across the bottom of the screen it changed to saying that the United States was stopping all international flights from entering the country. The United States was closing its borders.
"It's going to turn serious, like deadly serious, just why can't I remember when or why?" Alexis felt it without really knowing about it.
Lanie hoped out of the booth seeing Kate headed their way and hugged her tight. "How did it go girl?" Lanie was dying to hear what Kate thought.
"I won't get my official results for another 48 hours but I think it went pretty good. Captain Montgomery was a big help, I might not have passed without him." Kate was sure Roy had a lot to do with her passing. In fact Kate knew she was going to pass, just didn't understand how she knew.
"Don't sell yourself short girl, you're good and we all know it." Lanie still wasn't sure about this, but if Kate wanted it she was going to help all she could.
"She's right chica, you're good. You're lead detective for a reason, you'll make a great captain. You've already got half the precinct behind you and you aren't even captain yet." Espo points out.
"They're both right Beckett. You know that if Gates makes captain the 12th will be a ghost town and she'll fill the good people that leave with people like Slaughter and the 12th will be a laughing stock instead of the best precinct in the city.
You are going to be great, and you're not in this alone." Ryan points out.
"Anyone been watching the news?" Lanie brings up getting Kate and Espo to shake their heads, while Ryan was nodding his.
"Jenny is working herself into a meltdown and I can't get her to turn the TV off. She wouldn't go to bed at night if I didn't turn it off and take the remote away from her." Ryan moans.
"You really need to get her away from that TV, stress isn't good for her or the baby." Lanie warns him.
"So what is the TV saying that has Jenny so worked up? Espo asks, being concerned for his partner.
"Something about a massive rabies outbreak that started in South Korea and is spreading fast, and the US has closed its borders. No international flights, no ship traffic." Ryan explains.
"Mexico, Canada?" Kate asks. Kate frowns since she had heard all this before she was sure. Were the others thinking what she was? If not, why just her?
"Haven't heard anything about them, likely they will be next, Mexico at least. Little harder to close the border with Canada." Ryan answers.
"Not like they have the border with Mexico closed now or ever will." Lanie points out.
"We'll be fine guys, that's what we have the CDC for, stop things like this." Kate counters. And yet Kate suddenly knows everything isn't going to be fine. She can feel it, just that she shakes her head dismissing it.
"And you trust all those millionaire politicians who say they aren't involved with inside trading, or pass laws that affect the rest of us, just not them. Or give themselves huge raises when the rest of us are losing jobs by the millions, or change maps of who votes where to the benefit of one side and the detriment of the other?" Ryan counters.
"They're all corrupt Kate; the only question that needs to be answered is just how corrupt this one is compared to the other. We're not voting for who's best anymore, we're voting for who's not the worst." Lanie offers.
"They each spend millions telling us just how bad the other guy is, nothing about how good they are since they know that they are just as corrupt, only that the other guy is worse than them." Ryan piles on.
Kate knew they were both right, it's just that unless there was another revolution the size of the one with the British all those years ago, nothing was going to change. Even if you voted in a non-corrupt official, how long would he last? The others would swallow him up like Jonah and his whale.
The system was corrupt and Kate knew it, just that she only had control of what was around her, and if she was captain of a precinct, she had control over that.
The conversation quickly turned to less confrontational problems and more about local things. How Jenny was doing in her pregnancy, Espo's lack of a social life, Kate's lack of a social life, getting Kate to glare at Lanie. "Well it's the truth girlfriend." Lanie defends herself.
Ryan and Espo were the first to leave, leaving Kate and Lanie behind. "So girl tell me you are happy, I need to hear it."
"Lanie!" Kate moans, Kate thought Lanie knew she wasn't going to ever be Lanie's kind of happy.
"Your mother was murdered, blah, blah, blah. Are you trying to make yourself suffer even more because she's gone?" Lanie tries a different track using the same old cars.
"Of course not Lanie, it's just that it's not that easy for me. … And I am happy." Kate puts up a weak meaningless smile to prove she was happy.
"And that fake smile isn't fooling anyone girl. When was the last time you actually smiled because something went incredibly well? When did you last bust a gut laughing over something, and when was the last time you went out on a date?" Lanie questions Kate and doesn't give Kate a moment to respond.
"And if you say Will Sorenson I am so going to smack you." Lanie glared at Kate which actually did have Kate cowering even after all the times she had seen it.
It didn't help any when she knew Lanie was right. "It's late and I need to get up early and spend the day with Captain Montgomery to learn more about being captain of a precinct." Kate drinks down her drink and works at starting to get up only to find that the alcohol had affected her a little more than she thought it was.
Plus Kate could feel that she was going to be happy, just not why she was going to be happy.