He shouldn't be awake. He shouldn't be awake, but how could he not be when she could call at any minute. He hadn't slept in days, weeks even. He was tired, and he wanted to sleep, but he couldn't. His partner had been shot, then kicked him out of her life saying that she would call. She would call, right? At first he trusted her, continued on with life at the precinct with the boys. Then Gates showed up, and kicked him out. And she still hadn't called. He had lost any and all sense of normality. At first, the boys still called with updates, bot the investigation had slowed to a stop. Then, Alexis and his mother started noticing his altered state. He worked to hide it, but they had already caught on. He tried wr cute rand it worked for a while, but it just made him think of her. Then Paula called and told him he needed to do publicity, a few signings here, a few appearances there. He went, but he didn't enjoy himself. He just thought of her. His agent told him he had one more signing to do, at a Barnes & Noble next to a park he and Alexis used to go to. She always wanted to go in the bookstore afterwards, and he couldn't really say no to her cute little face, one only he could tell had seen things a first-grader shouldn't have. His anger flashed briefly to Meredith. His thoughts wandered to how many people would be at the signing. Probably not many, he had done so many in the past few weeks. Glancing at his window he saw the first signs of the sun coming up, a sight he had grown accustomed to seeing as of recent. He watched the sun rise for a few minutes, then relented to get up, shower, and put on the mask that was Rick Castle, The Master of the Macabre.
