Kate stood in front of Castle's door, unsure if she should knock or not. She wasn't even sure why she was here, but for some reason today, after they had solved another case, she felt the strong urge to simply thank him. If she did, he would probably make a joke out of it, tell her that he would want it in written for. That would be just him. She debated for a few more seconds and was just about to ring the doorbell when the doorknob turned and the door opened.
"Kate! What a lovely surprise!" "Martha!" Martha, Castle's mom, stood in front of her, a suitcase in her hand. "Going somewhere?", she wanted to know and Martha laughed. "Chad had that crazy idea about a weekend getaway. I'm way too old to be spontaneous, but he put so much effort in it that idea that I felt bad turning him down. Now I have those train tickets in my hand and since I have an empty calendar, I figured instead of getting on my family's nerves, I could use the time away", she explained and Kate smiled. She had always liked Martha. Her spirit reminded her much of Castle.
"I am guessing it was not me that you were looking for, but Richard is out with his agent right now. I can't tell you exactly where, to be honest.", she told Kate. "It's okay, it was nothing important anyway!" Martha looked at her and Kate could feel her watchful eyes on her. As a cop you learnt to conceal your feelings to the people around you, but for some reason she felt that Martha was looking right through her pretenses. "Come on in, I think I have some minutes to spare!", Martha suddenly said and Kate looked at her in surprise. She didn't know why Martha was inviting her inside, but the look in the older woman's eyes told her that it was merely a chance to talk to her. And to Kate it felt bad declining. She went inside, followed by Martha.
"So where did Chad wanna take you?" "Oh, just up to the Hamptons, nothing more! I always loved going there though. When Richard was little, we used to go up there on the weekends. If we didn't, he would bug me the whole week and be mad at me for not going!" "I never knew he liked the Hamptons so much!" "He does! He has a summer house there now and spends his days writing there!" She paused and Kate had the feeling that all of her words had been made to lead up to this point.
"Kate, I have to tell you something!", she started and Kate was listening. More so, she was basically hanging on every word that Martha now said. Why, she wasn't sure, but she felt anxious to hear what Castle's mom wanted to say. What was wrong with her? Why was she so eager to hear the words she wasn't even sure she was prepared to hear? And why did she even think she KNEW what Martha was going to tell her? "Kate?" It was Martha's voice and just then Kate realized that she had been preoccupied with her own thoughts for a moment. "Yes, sorry!" "Rough day?" "Not much worse than usual!", she smiled and Martha nodded, simply pointing Kate to sit if she wanted to. From the look that Kate gave her though she felt that Kate was much more comfortable simply standing.
"Okay, you know, when Richard first started writing, he got his inspiration from everything. The conversations he overheard in the store, the dreams he had, the people around him." Kate nodded. She had heard as much. Being a huge fan of his books before he started working with her, she knew about his history up until that point. And also about his motivations to write, so Martha's words so far were nothing new to her. Still, Kate had the feeling that this was not what Martha really wanted to tell her in the end.
"He would sit and write for hours without taking his hands of the keyboard. For days I would talk to him and I would not get an answer. It was disturbing at first, but I learnt to deal with it because it was what he loved doing." She stopped again and Kate simply looked at her, waiting for her to go on. "Writing is his passion and I might add, he's fairly good at it, too!" Kate had to smile at that. "So I heard!" "You read his books!" It was not a question, but a statement and Kate didn't bother to comment. She couldn't deny it anyway. "What I wanted to tell you is that...when he started working with you, it was like his inpirations never stopped coming. I have never seen him work harder on a book then when he wrote "Heat Wave". You were his inspiration and I'm not sure either one of you grasp the meaning of that yet. Now, I'm an old woman that has no right to tell people what to do, but I wanted you to know that Richard has grown as a man ever since he met you. He's still wild and uncontrollable at times, but you made a side of him come out that I didn't think I'd see again ever since his last fiasco with a woman."
Kate swallowed. She had no idea what she was supposed to say, or if she was supposed to say anything at all. Then again, she wasn't even sure what it was that Martha had told her now. "Okay, I really need to get going now. It is always a pleasure to talk to you, Agent Beckett!" "Likewise!", Kate said and smiled, her feet automatically moving towards the door. When Martha closed the door behind her, Kate took a deep breath. Her mind was spinning and she had no idea which thought to focus on first. She was confused by Martha's words and yet they stirred something inside of her. Hope? Longing? Relief? She couldn't place it and decided that for tonight, she would try not to work it out. Tonight, she only wanted to find the comfort of her own bed, far away from all of those irritating thoughts that now swirled her head.