The days grow longer.
The time and energy spent trying to find what has been lost is slowly draining the lives out of the ones closest. The seasons say goodbye only to return once again and still, the search for happiness has not been found. The thread that kept them all together had unraveled so fast that they all didn't see that they were growing farther apart by the seconds. No one wanted to say what should have been said. No one wanted to believe that there was a chance their hero would never come back. Katherine Beckett would never come back. The hopeful soon lost their sense of reasoning, trying to find something that would lead them back to her, but every lead they followed soon led to a dead end. They began telling themselves that maybe - just maybe - their dead end was because the one they revolved around was just like it. Dead. The hopeful soon changed into the hopeless and the dark they spent so long running away from, finally caught up to them. They would never say what they all thought, but they didn't pretend that it wasn't there. She wasn't there.
Still, in a room confined only to the dead, sat one person whose light shines through even in the worst of times. Someone who believed that her best friend wasn't dead and that someday, no matter how far into the future it might be, she would contact them in a way that would make them believe that she was alright. Dr. Lanie Parish spent every waking moment outside of work, looking for clues or people who would be able to tell her the truth. If she was dead, like everyone believed she was, Lanie needed to know why and how. She needed closure, but everyday that had passed made it difficult to gain.
Richard Castle wasn't the man that they all knew. He had stopped writing and would visit the precinct once in a while, just to show them that he wasn't off the deep end, but they knew that he was. He would call Lanie a little less than his visits to the precinct, asking her to give him any information that would lead to her but after a year, the information looked less promising. He would call her now, asking her to check on unidentifiable bodies that matched her descriptions - and she would, but secretly she just wished that one of them would be Kate, just so they could all sleep at night.
The day was like any other for Lanie. She woke up, kissed her fiance goodbye and left for work, a simple routine that she did almost as if she wasn't there. She walked to work every morning since it was in distance of her home, and although Javier wished that she wouldn't do that, it was the easiest way rather than taking a cab or the bus. It seemed so simple to her but his fear of the same thing that happened to Kate was overwhelming. It took over him but it affected her. She wasn't important, at least in her mind, and she always thought that if something were to happen she would never get in the middle. That theory worked for most of her life, but it changed the moment someone grabbed her arm.
What Lanie didn't know was that for the past three days, she's been followed. She felt it the night before, eyes staring at her when there was no one around, but she often felt that way after a large case. She didn't have time to think about it or bring it up to Javier, or maybe she didn't want to because she just wanted to be normal. Still, she looked at the hand that squeezed her tight enough before looking at the face of the holder. It was an older man, a man she had never seen before. He pulled her into his direction. "Come with me," he said before crossing the street with Lanie right next to him.
He moved into a diner, almost letting her go when she didn't say anything. He sat in a booth calmly and picked up the menu that had been there. So many things ran in Lanie's mind as she stood in front of the table, holding onto her purse. Maybe he got the wrong person? Maybe this wasn't as bad as she thought it was. She analyzed him quickly, trying to figure out what she was dealing with. Her eyes wandered to his buzz cut. She got the feeling that maybe he was apart of the military. Possibly someone Javi knew. Retired military? No. His clothes, they looked as if he didn't care. As if his life went down the drain during or even after. Dishonorable discharge. Her brows pushed closer together, still unsure that she needed to be in this place. He glanced at her, moving in his seat impatiently as he looked back to his menu. "You gonna sit down or what?"
Lanie had a choice and she already made it as she sat on the side opposite of him. She placed her purse next to her, staring at this man who seemed to as ease. In the simplest terms, she was afraid. Afraid of what he might do to her, or to the people around her. She looked at the exit, making sure that if she needed to, she had an open way to get out of there. The possibilities of what could happen in this instant surged through her mind. She couldn't die. Not here. Not now. Not today. "You know," he said discreetly as he dropped the menu, leaning forward. "I hoped that bringing you to a public place would make you feel better. I guess not." She glared at him, unwelcoming to his jokes. She didn't move, staring him down was the only way to play out the things that could possibly happen next.
His eyes moved towards the waitress who stood before them and Lanie's eyes followed. She was ready to take their order, but the tension between the two was visible to the ones in their perimeter. He pushed through it, ignoring what he had just caused in that moment and ordered his meal. Two eggs and hash. An odd plate, at least she thought so. The waitress turned to her, waiting for her order but she declined. This wasn't a time to eat, it was a time to find answers. She gave her a closed smile before walking away. "Who are you," she asked almost immediately, impatient to know why she was still sitting there. She couldn't hear the noises of the children crying behind her, or the forks and spoons clinking against their plates. She stared intently at him, refusing to break a sweat. He let out a small chuckle, pleased at her commitment. "A friend."
"Really? Because you don't like like any friend of mine."
He nodded his head. He'd take that. "I'm a friend… to your friend." She inhaled, her brow moving up, waiting for him to finish. She was tired of this mysterious bullshit and it seemed like he was taking his time. She rolled her eyes when he didn't respond. "What friend?" She knew the answer, but she needed to hear it. She needed to know that she wasn't jumping to conclusions and that this wasn't a trap. She kept her face solid. Still, he knew it was a test and now was just a good time as any to answer her. "Kate Beckett." The name rang from the examiners ears and piercing the very fragile heart that she had as she sat there. The corners of her eyes misted as she looked away from the man. Her jaw clenched, trying to find a way to believe. "She sent me for you," he said softer than before. She crossed her arms over her body, thinking that maybe she could control herself from shaking but it was useless.
"Look," he continued in a sigh. "There's a lot of things that you should know and a lot of things that I'm willing to tell you but I need to know your answer."
"Answer to what?"
"Kate asked me to look for you. Only you. I'm willing to explain, but not until you come with me."
"Why should I trust you?"
"You shouldn't. But you should trust her."
Her eyes flashed back to him. How dare he mock her? He should have known that she would do anything for her and that she would always say yes. But things were different. Everything became different and she didn't know how to analyze that. "She needs you and she wouldn't have risked her life to contact me if this wasn't important. I just figured that you would be willing to help her…. But I guess things are more important now." He nodded towards the ring on her finger and her eyes followed. She clenched her hand before bringing it underneath the table. "We'll be meeting at the docks tonight at 03:00 sharp. If you come, then great. If you don't, we'll do it on our own. Either way, Kate's coming back." Her jaw clenched involuntarily refusing to say another word. She moved out of the booth only seconds before his food arrived, unable to process the information she had been given.
The nights grow colder.
The entire day had left her confused and side tracked. It took her longer to write her reports and examine the bodies. Usually things didn't affect her during her work, but this was something serious. Javier came to visit her during lunch like he always did, but she asked him to take Ryan instead. They needed more time together although they hadn't spoken in a while about anything personal. They were drifting apart and as Lanie contemplated her decision, she knew he would need him if anything happened to her.
She laid in bed next to him that night with his hand over her. Things had been different between Javier and her since Kate's disappearance. At first the occasional booty call that they had soon turned frequent. Neither one of the wanting to be alone and neither one of them wanting to tell the truth. The sense of solidarity that the two shared melted into something that they were afraid of. Love. Though neither one of them spoke the sacred words they continued moving forward as their booty calls soon turned into an on and off again relationship that had weathered through the storms. When he proposed, she finally knew that she wasn't afraid. She wasn't afraid of love and any other disasters that came her way. She saw who she could be with him and she enjoyed it. It worried her to think that one day he wouldn't be there. Or she wouldn't.
But something always bothered her.
Since their proposal, Lanie never planned their wedding hoping that one day Kate would come back and they could do it together. Lanie needed her anchor, her rock to make it through. She needed someone to tell her she was doing the right thing and without Kate, Lanie felt like there was something missing. She knew that Javi felt the same way too.
She turned to the clock like she had been doing for the past two hours. It was now 2 AM. Lanie had a choice to make but somehow the choice was inevitable. Kate would have done the same for Lanie. It was time for her to return the favor. Slowly, Parish moved out of the bed doing her best not to wake him. She got dressed and gathered clothes into a bag. She moved back to the bed once more, taking one last look at her fiance before leaving him a note. With a little struggle she pulled her ring off, leaving it on top of the note. She wanted to kiss him goodbye but she knew that he would wake. With nothing else left, she moved to the door. Refusing to look back again.
'I'll be back soon. I promise.'