The flight from San Francisco International was just getting ready to touch down at JFK. She had just finished her first semester at Stanford when she got the call that her mother had been taken from her. During his heartbreaking phone call, her father told her that she was taken in an act of wayward gang violence. Her youth made her doubt this. She also found it hard to believe that the police had no leads and no suspects. What she was most upset about was the fact that it was less than a week when they decided to shelve her mother's case for lack of evidence or witnesses.
The captain came on the intercom and told everybody that the flight was making its final descent into JFK and the flight attendants were to prepare for landing. As she folds up her seatback tray she wonders when she gets home what she would find, if her dad would even be at home. She had a bad feeling that he would be utterly devastated, and couldn't be comforted. The second the plane touched down she already had her carry on bag placed in her lap and her seat belt unfastened. Getting off the plane in a quick fashion will take some time.
She steps outside the terminal and has just enough money for cab fare to get back home. She quickly hails a taxi. Since she took the red-eye flight and the taxi ride is quick due to the early hour and lack of traffic. Less than 25 minutes later, she's paying the driver and stepping out of the car. She looks up at the apartment on the second floor and it's dark. She hopes this is a good sign, and that he's up there sleeping. She has a thought to walk by the shop, but she quickly rethinks that idea. She needs to get inside to see her father and see how he's coping.
She slips her key into the lock and it opens freely. Stepping inside she sees that not much has changed since she left for school four months ago. There are still books stacked in piles all over the apartment. She looks at some of the titles and she notices that even though her mother's gone a part of her will still live on through her books. As she ventured deeper into the apartment she noticed that there were two empty whiskey bottles. One was lying on the counter, the other lays near the garbage pail. He most likely missed the pail when he threw it away. She had hoped that her father had not decided to drown his sorrows with alcohol. She quietly walks down the hallway, avoiding the wooden plank that creeks whenever you step on it in just the right way and stopped by his door. She listened for a full minute before hesitantly turning the knob on the door. What she sees in front of her is a man broken. She watches his chest as it rises and falls showing her that he is still alive. As she quietly moved into his room, she sees that he fell asleep clutching a picture of her mom to his chest in a death grip.
She hopes that this was just a one-time thing with the whiskey. Her mom has been gone for 4 days now and she hopes that it's not going to be the start of something that could lead to being something a lot more ominous. She takes a look around his room and notices that it's neat and well kept. She hears him snore gently as he exhales and decides to let him get his rest. She doesn't know what time he actually went to sleep but she can tell by the look on his face that he needs it. She had just come in from a long flight and she needed a shower, her sleep would wait until later.
She quietly backs out of his room and closes the door. She heads back into the living room, retrieves her carry-on bag and heads to the bathroom. She has a lot on her mind but first and foremost is her father's well-being. While she's in the shower she decides that she'll give him another 3 to 4 hours to rest. By then she'll have something ready to eat for him, and while he eats they can talk about the shop.
The shop. As a child, this was the one place where she could go to escape the real world. After school, she would go to the shop and head to the kid's section and just get lost in the tales that she read. There were times when she sat there right in the aisle reading for hours. Most of the time her mother would have to get her by dragging her off the floor kicking and screaming. Kate remembers the shop had been her mother's since before she was born. She actually might think that it was her grandmothers before it was her mother's but she can't really be sure. She walks over to her mother's desk and takes out the ledgers that have all of her bookkeeping records. Kate takes this year's ledger, and last year's ledger to compare how the business is doing. She takes a seat at the dining room table and opens last year's books. She studies them intently. From what she reads her mother's shop is doing well, at least for last year it was. After spending about 45 minutes sifting through last year's book, she set's it aside and opened this year's book.
As she studies the book, it's clear that the store that just opened up 3 blocks away has taken away a lot of their business. The new store is one of those box-type stores that are so impersonal. They're more commercial than anything else. They don't cater to this individual needs of the reader, and all they're interested in is making a dollar. She notices that along with the business that they've taken away from them, her mother's shop has been losing money steadily.
She's startled by the touch of her father's hand on her shoulder. She turns back to look up at him and she sees that he looks well-rested and not hung over.
"Dad, why didn't you tell me that the new store that opened up six months ago is slowly driving mom's shop into the ground."
"Katie, this has been going on for quite some time. The new store is not going to worry themselves about your mother's shop. In reality, if your mother's shop wasn't there they would be better off."
"We need to do something dad. They just can't walk in here and take away everything we've worked so hard to build."
"Katie, there's not much we can do. The shop is small and they know it. It's just a matter of time before they completely run us out of business."
Kate once again looks to the stack of books next to the dining room table. She knows that her mom was going to bring them to shop to be sold. But the one thing that has her attention is the book that's on top of the kitchen counter. Her mother must have left it with the intention of picking up where she left off before they lost her. She walks over to the countertop, opens the book and notices that page 87 is dog-eared. She flipped to the dedication page and notice that the author has scribed a note to her mother.
"Joanna, if you ever need anything in the future please don't hesitate to contact me."
As Kate stares at the statement written in her mother's book and her mind starts to form a plan. She just only hopes that it will work. Her father walks over and stares at the same note that the author had left.
"Katie, what's going on in that head of yours?"
A/N: This story is based on a prompt from Castle fanfic prompts:
rtds9fan asked: "AU, Kate is now running her mom's small bookstore after the woman's death. A large chain bookstore has opened close by and is slowly putting Kate out of business. Her only hope is getting Richard Castle to come to her store instead for his next book signing. But how is she going to pull that off?"