1999.
Kate Beckett was alone. She was an orphan. Well … she was not literally an orphan but it was exactly what it felt like. Her mother had disappeared. Vanished into thin air. She never came to the restaurant Kate and her father were waiting at. When they finally decided to go home, she was not there either. Jim called her office, it would not be the first time she forgot to leave. She was not there either. Then he called her brother. He hadn't heard from her. Next he called her friends and colleagues. Nobody knew where she was. As he continued checking their phone book, he could see his daughter pacing around the coffee table, thinking hard. When it was clear that no one in their acquaintances knew where Johanna Beckett was, Kate decided it was time to call the police.
The police, right … She hated them with everything she had. How could they tell her father they couldn't do anything before 48 hours? Next time she saw a policeman, she would tell him what she thought of their protocol, that was for sure! She knew something was wrong, she could feel it! Her mother would never just disappear like that. Something must have happened to her. That was the only plausible explanation.
O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O
2009.
Ten years. It had been ten years since her mother had disappeared. Simply vanished from the surface of the Earth.
Kate felt strange, sitting at her desk at the missing persons division of the 12th precinct. She felt like nothing had changed in those ten year, even if it wasn't true. In fact, a lot had happened in those two years.
Her father had turned into an alcoholic and lost his job. He was fine now though, working at the university library and sober for five years.
Kate herself had changed a lot in those ten years. Gone was the carefree and joyful Kate she was when it all happened. She had dropped out of college and joined the Police Academy, deciding if no one was doing anything to find her mother, she would do it herself. After a few years, she had let it go … tried to at least, realizing that it was eating her alive.
Now, she was more or less back to her old self, even if her job as the lead detective of the missing persons division was not always easy. Everyday, it brought her back to her mother. In a way, it fueled her. She never wanted anyone to suffer as much as she did. Not knowing was the worst that could happen. If you knew, good or bad, you could move on with your life. When you don't know, you can't.
At least that's what she thought before Richard Castle came into her life.
O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O
2012.
Kate had never been so happy. She had everything she could have hoped for in her life. Well … almost everything. She had a wonderful family, great friends, a job that she loved, the perfect home to live in … everything was great.
She had been married for two years now. To Rick Castle of course. They had tiptoed around each other for two years before admitting how they felt. This weekend in the Hamptons would be forever burnt in her memory. The rest of the summer had be hard though. How are you supposed to go back on your own for two whole months after living so much with the love of your life for two days? They had managed though.
Many thought that their engagement and marriage was too quick – not even a year after getting together. But everyone who really knew them understood. You could see that they were in this for the long haul just by looking at them. Of course, their story fed the gossip papers. Well, at least until everyone saw that they were build to last and that the six months that the papers had predicted before a divorce (with Kate running away the the money) had been passed. They could not write infinitely about the happy Castle Couple. People wanted scandal, cheating and drugs … and they would definitely knot find that with them.
After a year-and-a-half marriage, the Castle clan grew bigger with the addition of its latest member: Emily Johanna Castle. Since then, Kate felt really complete and happy. Even the disappearance of her mother could not touch her happiness. Today, Emily was staying with grandpa though, because it was Alexis's birthday and Kate and Rick had planned a dinner for her.
O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O
"Come on, you're not going to sulk for the entire evening!" Kate said as she opened the front door of the loft.
"She has a boyfriend Kate! A boyfriend! And she didn't even tell me!" Rick whined.
"She's a grown woman Rick, she can have a boyfriend. Plus, he is really nice … and good looking." she scolded gently, getting her shoes off.
"She's not a woman. She's my daughter. And since when do you think twenty-year-old guys are good looking?" he asked from the couch where he had dropped himself.
"I don't find them good looking. But I like him. He's nice and it's more than clear than he loves Alexis. They look really good together."
"Yeah well, I don't like him."
"Yes you do, and that's what's bothering you isn't it? He made you laugh at dinner. You talked about books, comics and video games with him. You can't find anything to hate in him and that's why you whined all the way back home. You think it's your duty as Alexis's father not to like her boyfriend."
"Since when can you read minds?" Rick asked, astonished by the way she voiced exactly what he had been thinking.
Kate plopped down next to him on the couch, put her feet on his lap and wriggled her toes, her way of asking for a massage.
"I know you Richard Castle. I don't need to read your mind. I know exactly how you work. I know what buttons to push. I know absolutely everything about you."
"When you say it like that, it's a bit scary to be honest. You sound like a crazy stalker fan." Rick laughed, rubbing her feet, his hands occasionally moving up under her dress.
"Well, I am a fan. The biggest fan you could ever have. And I'm crazy about you. But I'm definitely not a stalker. I don't need to, you're always with me anyway." Kate said, sliding one of her feet up and down his thigh sensually.
"You know what I just noticed?" Rick asked, stopping her before she reached where he knew she was headed.
"What is that mister Castle?" Kate inquired, getting on her knees to get closer to him.
"Neither of our daughters are here tonight. We have the whole to ourselves. No one but us." He answered, already lowering the zip of Kate's dress.
"That does not happen often." She said, kissing him on his neck, her hand busy unbuttoning his dress shirt.
"Great minds think alike." he simply said, pushing her down on the couch while getting rid of her dress.
O-o-O-o-O-o-O-o-O
Kate slowly opened her eyes, quickly closing them again when she was hit by the sun. She groaned and turned around. She couldn't move, Rick was literally draped around her. She smiled when she remembered the night before. It had been a long time since they had a night like that. A whole night just the two of them, without any interruptions. They had quickly got submerged in their passion and the state of the loft showed it. They never made it to the bedroom. It all started on the couch, several times. Then the kitchen when Kate had wanted a drink. Then they moved on to Rick's office and somehow migrated back to the living room. Her eyes moved around and stopped on the DVD player. It read 11:00 am. Kate panicked when she saw that.
"Rick! Rick wake up! Now!" she almost shouted, trying to get him off of her. God that man was heavy. "Rick come on! My dad will be here in less than an hour with Emily!"
"And?" the writer asked in her neck, making her shiver.
"And we need to clean everything up! The loft looks like it's been hit by a tornado!"
"A delicious tornado."
"Yes, a wonderful tornado." Kate relented, kissing his shoulder softly. "Now, I'm sure you don't want my father to know all the delicious things you did to me last night, uh?"
"Definitely not!" Rick answered, suddenly awake and away from her. "Come on, chop chop, we've got approximately forty minutes to get ready and clean up everything."
That morning, records were certainly broken. When they heard the knock on the door, everything was in order. It was actually cleaner than before. Kate went to the door to welcome her father and her daughter. When she turned inside to give Emily to her husband, she was surprised to see that her father was still in the doorway.
"You're not coming in?" she asked.
"I have a surprise for you Katie." Jim said, looking both extremely happy and nervous.
"What is it?"
Jim went in the hallway and came back a few seconds later. Kate hardly heard the "Hello Katie" before everything went dark.
