Working with Richard Castle was an unexpected miracle. He was calm, but firm. Annoying, but only just. She would never admit it, but Kate Beckett liked his company, because he kept her mind occupied and off of the past. Witnessing your mother's murder would break anyone and nothing was special about her in that regard. She was broken, but, while everyone knew solving her mother's case was what drove Beckett, there was something else that helped fuel that fire.
How do you tell a rookie cop, two weeks out of the academy, that the attack wasn't her fault? That there is only so much she could have done? Graduating top of your class means you're good, the best, and the best don't lie there while their mother is killed. They fight the unconsciousness that comes with being hit over the head with a brick from a building in that alley. They fight to keep their mom safe and Kate hadn't fought hard enough. Her mother was dead and not even a month into becoming a cop, she had failed to protect and serve one of the most important people in her life.
What she hadn't told them, though, was that she had been fighting every day since then. Fighting the trauma that comes with a sexual attack. No one needed to know what they had done to her before she was knocked unconscious. She didn't need their pity and she didn't want the constant attention. She wasn't a victim, she was alive. The real victim was lying in a mahogany wood casket in the Westfield Cemetery only blocks away from her house. She hadn't fought then, but she would now, and she knew no matter how hard she tried to keep him away, Castle would be right there. Fighting with her.
This is my first story, let me know what I can work on/if I should continue with this story line. Thanks!