Hello there and welcome! I've been working on this story off and on since May and now that summer is all but technically over and the new season is about to start (yeah!) I figured it was time to get this show on the road, so to speak.
I have only the vaguest of vague knowledge of the upcoming season so there are NO SPOILERS here. This takes place after the finale but those events aren't really the main focus of this story (once you get beyond the first half of this chapter).
I don't own Castle. I'm just a girl with an imagination and too much free time on my hands.
Castle stared out the window at the deepening navy sky and the moon rising above the building across the street. A few days had passed since it was full but it was still bright and large and round, hanging low in the sky over the city. The room behind him had grown dark but he wasn't bothered to turn on any lights. From the darkness of the study he could see the people on the street below and in a few of the apartments across the way.
A harried looking mother was serving slices of pizza to her two children while her husband tried to comfort their screaming baby. Two floors below a couple sat together on their couch watching what looked like Jeopardy, while on the street a young woman was walking her miniature schnauzer and talking animatedly on her phone.
He watched as a car came to a stop at the curb and a little girl with dark pigtails and a pink dress hopped out and ran to meet a man waiting on the sidewalk. He crouched down and held his arms open for the girl and was almost knocked over when she threw herself into his embrace.
He remembered when Alexis was that little, how she would run to him and jump into his arms and laugh as he swung her around. These days she still smiled when she saw him but more and more lately there was a note of worry clouding her clear blue eyes and a hint of what he thought might be pity hiding in her smile. He'd seen it earlier that evening when she'd said goodbye to him before going out to meet her friends at the movies. His forced cheery smiles and corny jokes weren't fooling her and apparently, they hadn't been fooling his mother either. She'd gone to visit friends in the Hamptons for the week but he had heard Alexis on the phone with her a few days ago talking about him.
He felt rather voyeuristic, standing there in the dark staring out the window, but watching these people didn't give him any pleasure. In the middle of the city, he felt a hundred miles away from all the people outside, cut off from them as if he was living in a different world.
If the tabloid writers and photographers could see him now, he thought ruefully and almost laughed. The famous Richard life-of-the-party, never-a-dull-moment Castle, alone in a silent, empty apartment watching the world go by outside his window.
He could see the faint reflection of his study in the glass around him and he took a small step to his right to block the image of his laptop from view. He didn't need his screensaver to remind him of what he was supposed to be doing.
His deadline for Heat Rises was quickly approaching and so far he'd only managed to write a few chapters worth of presentable material. He'd had the whole story planned and outlined months ago but then certain recent events had occurred and a different version of the story had taken over in his mind. The problem was getting it out of his mind and actually writing it.
There was a difficulty in writing Nikki Heat that he had never encountered with Derrick Storm or any of his other characters, because writing Nikki meant thinking about Kate and lately, thinking about Kate made his heart, his stomach and his head ache.
It had been over six weeks since the morning he'd stood in this very spot, watching the sun rise and ignoring the reflection of himself dressed all in black, thinking how inappropriate it was for the sun to be shining so brilliantly on such a sorrowful day.
And it had only gotten worse from there. He could still see it all so clearly- the folded flag, the glint of reflected sunlight, the tears leaking from her eyes and the red of her blood against the white of her gloves, followed by the agonizing endless hours of waiting.
It had taken her two days to regain consciousness after her surgery. Two days he'd spent wandering the hospital corridors and becoming numb to the pain of the uncomfortable waiting room chairs, and two nights he'd spent tossing and turning, writing random sentences and paragraphs of a story he would probably never share, forgetting he was supposed to write Nikki instead of Kate.
Josh and her father had maintained a constant vigil, staying beside her night and day and the only thing that had kept Castle from keeping a vigil of his own had been Josh's presence at her bedside.
He'd tried, he really had, but the combination of anxiety and envy he'd felt every time he stepped into that room had been overwhelming. The sight of Kate, pale and small and unresponsive beneath the hospital blanket, surrounded by tubes and IVs and monitors, tied his stomach in knots of worry. And no matter how hard he tried to stop it, his eyes always strayed to her right hand, the one Josh constantly held in his own, his thumb brushing across her slim wrist, caressing the back of her hand. And Castle had never been able to stop his heart from aching at the sight of it.
It had always been too much. Too much worry, too much jealousy, too much uncertainty and too much silence punctuated only by the steady beeping of the monitors and the ticking of the clock.
It had overwhelmed him every time and forced him from the room, back to roaming the hallways. But he could never stay away for long. He could feel her pull on him, like the pull of a planet on the moon orbiting around it. It kept him close but never let him get as close as he wanted to be. There was always a distance between them, forces keeping them apart, when what he wanted was to fall out of orbit, to crash into her and let the fiery collision consume them both and transform them into something they could never be without the other.
Only Alexis's silently pleading eyes had been persuasive enough to convince him to leave the hospital and go home at night.
On the third day the ringing of his phone had woken him from a fitful sleep. He'd been half sitting, half lying in the armchair he could now see reflected in the window beside him. His laptop, black screened and cold from a long dead battery, had slid towards the floor as he jerked awake and lunged for it and missed as his stiff neck and back protested the movement. His phone had been sitting on his desk, in the same place it was now, at the corner next to a drink he'd poured hours earlier but hadn't been able to stomach.
By the time he'd stumbled to his feet and made it to his desk, the phone had fallen silent and when he reached for it, the screen flashed indicating a new voice mail.
It had been Jim Beckett calling to tell him Kate had woken up. He still had that message saved, but he hadn't listened to it again since that morning. He didn't need to. He had memorized it instantly, but whenever it replayed in his mind, it was always the beginning of an onslaught of complicated memories- her hand, the flowers, her smile and the nurse revealing Josh's plan.
He had walked away from Kate's room later that day with a sinking heart. The happiness he had felt walking down that hallway just a short while earlier had vanished and he'd already started resenting himself for that with every step he took. Kate was alive and awake. She would heal and she would be okay. That should have been enough to make him happy. And he was happy about that, but seeing her with Josh had hurt more than he wanted to admit and more now than it ever had before.
What had he been expecting? That just because he told her he loved her, she would dump her boyfriend and fall into his arms as soon as she woke? He didn't even know if she remembered anything he'd said before she lost consciousness.
And now she'd spent the last month and a half with Doctor Motorcycle Boy constantly by her side, taking care of all her needs and, try as he might, he couldn't stop himself from imagining the two of them curled up together with Kate flirtatiously complementing Josh on his excellent bedside manner, her voice dripping with innuendo, her eyes shining behind fluttering lashes.
He was the one who knew exactly how she liked her coffee and he knew that she was secretly a Temptation Lane fan. He knew how she held her back just a little bit straighter when she entered a crime scene and he knew as much about her mother's murder as she did. But he didn't know how she acted on a lazy Sunday at home. He didn't know what it was like to whisper with her in the darkness and he didn't know the exact color her eyes were the moment she first opened them in the morning. And he wanted to know. He wanted to know all that and more. He wanted to know everything about her and spend years and years filling books with everything he learned, choosing facets of her mystery and modifying them so that they fit Nikki Heat and keeping the real truth of her to himself.
And he wanted to be the one to be there for her now and help her through the process of healing, but she had a doctor who could take her home and take care of her. How could he compete with that?
Castle sighed, watching the taillights of a taxi disappear as it turned around a corner below. It had been over a month since he had actually seen Kate or even spoken with her and it had been even longer since they'd actually had a real conversation, just the two of them.
He knew he could have, and probably should have, called her but at first he hadn't wanted to bother her if she was resting and then with each day that passed it got harder to press call and harder to think of what he could say. So he texted instead and spent time he should have been writing thinking of questions he could ask and claim were for research. At least that way he could say they were keeping in touch.
Every morning when he woke he felt the prodding twinge of guilt for not checking in more often and not doing more to help her recover. But what was he going to be able to do? He was just a writer after all, and she had Josh. She didn't need him for that.
…
Kate sighed as she carefully sunk into the hot water and breathed in the vanilla-lavender scented steam filled air. There was a book beside the tub but she ignored it as she closed her eyes and slid further down into the water until she could feel it lapping softly at her chin and the hairline at the back of her neck. She took a deep breath, letting her lungs expand until she felt the tightness and brief tug of pain in her side.
Healing had turned out to be a far more difficult and frustrating process than she had imagined it would be when she was released from the hospital. She experienced the first few weeks at home through a haze of pain medications that had left her constantly exhausted and blurred any distinctions between the days. The pain had been deep and intense whenever she moved and even with the prescribed painkillers, there was an ever-present ache that had made it impossible to ever feel entirely comfortable.
As the weeks passed and the meds became less necessary, the days had started to pass through a haze of monotony as she went through the same motions day in and day out within the confines of her apartment. The pain lessened and her muscles loosened, increasing her mobility, although her movements remained stilted and taxing. Over the past six weeks she'd watched countless hours of TV and movies, read through the box of books she'd ordered online and re-read half of her own collection again, trying not to let herself dwell on thoughts of her mother's unsolved case, Montgomery's death and the nameless and faceless Dragon who was still out there somewhere and wanted her dead.
Josh had been by her side for the first four weeks before he went back to work on a reduced schedule. He was sweet and attentive but not overbearing and she finally appreciated what a great doctor he was to all the people he treated and helped. Still, it had been awhile since she'd had to regularly share her space with someone else and at times she'd found herself longing for her independence.
As soon as she was allowed to get the wound wet, the bathtub became her oases of solitude. She would shut the door and sink into the water and, surrounded by silence, let herself get lost in a book. They were never Castle's though. She skipped over his on her bookshelf, unwilling to pull one out and see his face on the back cover or read his words. The comfort she usually got from them was now overshadowed by the emotional turmoil she felt whenever thoughts of him crossed her mind.
When she woke up in the hospital, the doctor had explained that some memory loss was normal after a traumatic event and injury, but for her that wasn't the case. She remembered everything perfectly. The images were clear, the sounds distinct, the scents and sensations lodged in her brain. The warmth of the sun, the light breeze against her face, the subtle scent of the flowers on the podium and the sharp crack of the shot, Castle shouting her name, the cries of the crowd, the sudden intensely hot pain and the sensation of falling.
She remembered the smell of the grass and the color of the sky and the look of horror on Castle's face as he filled her vision. She could still feel the ghost of his hand cradling her head and she could recall with exact detail the sound of his voice and the words he'd said. And as impossible as it seemed, she thought she could almost remember the sensation of losing consciousness.
When he walked into her hospital room a short while after she woke, she had pulled her hand away from Josh's without thinking. She remembered how an odd look she didn't know how to describe had crossed Castle's face before he lifted his eyes to meet hers. He'd had dark circles under his eyes to rival her father's and a shadow of stubble along his chin and jaw, but when he smiled his blue eyes had sparkled familiarly.
She smiled as she thought of what had happened after that. He had told her it was good to see her awake again and then he'd brought his hands together in front of him and, with a dramatic flourish, a flash of red, yellow, pink and green had appeared. It had taken a moment for her mind to recognize that it was the magic trick bouquet of feathery flowers she'd given him months ago back in January when he and Gina split up.
"Re-gifting, I see," she'd teased. "Bestselling author can't even spring for something original for his partner?"
And for a moment, as he'd smiled back and offered to buy her a teddy bear from the gift shop instead, everything had felt normal and right. Josh and her father had watched them waiting for an explanation but they'd both kept quiet. Even when Josh had asked about it later she hadn't told him. Whatever she and Castle were, whether friends, partners or something else, their relationship was theirs alone. They knew the story behind those flowers and that was enough.
Kate wiggled her toes in the bathwater and watched the little ripples appear and expand. That moment in the hospital had been lost when a nurse walked in and revealed that Josh had already made plans and taken time off from work to stay with her while she recovered. The woman in the cheery, polka dotted scrubs had thought it was the sweetest thing and couldn't stop smiling at Josh, but Kate's gaze had sought her partner. Castle's smile had disappeared for a moment before he forced one back in its place but it never reached his eyes.
She had only seen Castle once since that day in the hospital. The day after she was released, he, Ryan, Lanie and Esposito had brought dinner over to her apartment. Their visit didn't last very long and she didn't eat much but she had enjoyed seeing them all together again even though Josh's presence lent an aspect of awkwardness to the occasion.
After that, Lanie, Esposito and Ryan had dropped by whenever they could but Castle hadn't made a reappearance.
He hadn't been totally absent though. A few days after the dinner, he'd sent her a box set of Temptation Lane DVDs. The accompanying card had been unsigned but she knew they were from him. No one else knew what that show meant to her.
There were also the texts. He sent her at least one a day, asking a random question he claimed was research for the Nikki Heat novel he was working on. She'd seen through his excuse right away but didn't mind. She was glad for the texts. They livened up the days and made her smile, but it would be nice to actually see Castle in person again. She couldn't deny that his distance hurt a bit but she also couldn't deny that she understood why he was staying away. And phones work both ways, she reminded herself. She could just as easily call him instead of choosing to reply to his texts with ones of her own.
In the idle moments when the books and the TV screen couldn't hold her attention and her mind got away from her, she wondered if his interest in her faded when she was just sitting around at home rather than out catching killers. It was foolish and she knew Castle better than to actually believe that, but she had a hard time controlling her thoughts. Or maybe he'd been pushed too far with her stubbornness over her mother's case, Montgomery's death and her shooting. Maybe it was too much and he was distancing himself from her before he got irreversibly caught up in the vortex of death that seemed to constantly swirl around her.
She really couldn't blame him if that was the case. He hadn't known what he was getting himself into when he started shadowing her, but he'd said always and she'd gotten used to having him around.
Castle had said he loved her but then he'd practically disappeared from her life. Was he trying to do the noble thing, bowing out because he thought she was happy with Josh or was he regretting his words, realizing it was a mistake brought on by the emotional upheaval of the moment? And why did the thought that he might regret it make her heart sink like a stone?
Kate shook her head, trying to clear the tangled mess of thoughts in her mind and took a deep breath before submerging herself fully under the water in the tub.
She was with Josh and she was happy, wasn't she? They'd stayed together this long and that had to mean they had something.
Castle was her friend and colleague but he had a life beyond the work he did with her. He was probably busy doing things more important and more interesting than hanging out with her while she recovered. He was a bestselling author, after all. He had a book to write and he didn't need her for that anymore.
…
His phone vibrating on the desk behind him pulled Castle out of his reverie and he stepped away from the window, crossing the shadowy room to get it. He glanced at the caller ID quickly as he picked it up.
"Hey, Esposito!" he answered, "How's it going?"
"Hey, Castle," Esposito greeted him shortly, his voice flat. Castle could hear the murmurs of indistinct conversation in the background and thought he may have heard Ryan and Lanie's voices. "We're at a scene," the detective continued, "Think you could come meet us down here?"
"Um, yeah, sure," Castle answered, taken a bit by surprise, the edge on Esposito's voice starting to make him feel uneasy. "Is everything okay?"
"Uh, yeah, just think you ought to see this one."
"Okay."
"I'll text you the address. And pick up Beckett on the way. She should see this too." Esposito hung up without another word and a few seconds later Castle's phone chimed when the text arrived. He slid it into his pocket, grabbed a jacket, keys and wallet, and after leaving a quick note on the counter for Alexis, headed out hoping he wouldn't have to wait long for a taxi.
…
Castle took a deep breath before knocking on Beckett's door and then panicked slightly in the seconds that passed before it was answered. He should have called her, he should have visited more, he should have gotten more information out of Esposito before turning up outside her door at 9:15 at night after not seeing her in more than a month.
When the door opened, he was greeted by Josh looking surprised and not exactly happy to see him.
"Uh, hey, is Kate around?" he asked and then mentally kicked himself. Where else would she be?
The look on Josh's face told him he was thinking the same thing. "Um, yeah, she's here," he answered and stepped back to let him in.
"She should be out in a minute," Josh told him as he closed the door. "She just got out of the bath."
Castle nodded and glanced around. The apartment looked pretty much the same as it had the last time he was there, just a little less tidy and a little more lived in. They stood just inside the kitchen area and an awkward silence fell between them until Josh broke it.
"So, you must be getting a lot of writing done lately with all the questions you've had for Kate," he commented and Castle thought he picked up a note of irritation in his voice.
"Uh, yeah, well, it's important to get the details right, you know. That's what makes it realistic."
"Right," Josh said, nodding slowly.
Castle glanced around again and noted the pile of books stacked on the coffee table.
"Do you read much?"
"Mostly medical journals."
"Right, doctors have to keep up with the latest developments." Josh nodded again and they were both spared further conversation when they heard Kate's voice.
"Josh, was someone at the door?" she asked as she walked into the living room, still fastening the last button at the bottom of her shirt. "I thought I heard-" She looked up and spotted him and her lips spread into a wide, surprised smile. "Castle, what are you doing here?"
He smiled in return and answered, "Esposito called me. He and Ryan are at a scene and he said it's something we'd want to see."
Her brow furrowed as she looked at him and he could tell her mind was flying through all the possibilities that he'd already considered on his way there.
Her eyes questioned him and he could only shrug in reply. "He sounded serious."
"Ok," she said and glanced down at herself, seeming to decide that the jeans and loose button down she was wearing would be alright for a crime scene.
"I'm sorry Josh, I need to go," she told him, already moving to slide her feet into a pair of flats.
Josh stepped toward her. "You're still recovering, Kate," he protested. "Can't they handle whatever it is without you?"
"I'm sure they could, but if they asked us to come, then they had a good reason and it must be important." She slipped on a light jacket and grabbed her phone and keys. "I'll call you later," she told him and turned to Castle.
"Let's go."
…
The cab ride to the scene passed mostly in silence, not awkward but not truly comfortable either. Castle kept glancing at her out of the corner of his eye and each time he did he got the feeling she had just turned her eyes away from him.
It was the first time they had been alone together since the moments just after Montgomery's death when they'd sat beside each other in silence waiting for Ryan and Esposito and the Jersey troopers to arrive.
In the back of that cab he could feel all the things that needed to be said and acknowledged between them hanging suspended in the stale air. But he kept his lips pressed firmly together, preventing himself from forming the questions he was dying to ask her but was terrified to bring up. The backseat of a smelly cab was no place to have that conversation and they had a crime scene to worry about.
The cab dropped them off about a block away from the address Esposito had sent him. The street in front of the building was crowded with CSU vehicles, the ME's van and squad cars, their blue and red lights throwing splashes of color across the front of the building.
The officer posted at the front door nodded in recognition at Beckett as they climbed the few short steps. "They're up on the fifth floor," he told her. "Apartment 5D."
They crossed the building's lobby toward the elevator as its doors slid open revealing a young CSU tech with a box full of evidence bags. He glanced up and grinned as he caught sight of Castle and Beckett.
"Detective Beckett, it's so good to see you again! And you too, Mr. Castle," he said, shifting the box in his arms so that he could see more easily around it.
Beckett smiled back at him. "Hey, Bradford. Do you need some help with that?"
"Oh, no, no, I've got it," he said, shaking his head, his gold waves flopping back and forth. "But I should probably get it outside. They want it sent to the lab soon. I'll see you around, Detective Beckett and Mr. Castle."
Beckett nodded and stepped into the elevator and Castle followed, frowning as he turned to watch the young man cross the lobby to the front door.
"What's the matter?" Beckett asked him, reaching out to press the button for the fifth floor. The circle around the number five lit up and the elevator shuddered as it started its ascent.
"Have I ever actually met that kid before?"
"Bradford? Yeah, I think so, but he's like that with practically everyone. He used to just work in the lab but he got promoted a few months ago so now he does field work, too."
The elevator jolted and came to a stop and the doors slid open onto a dimly lit hallway. The main source of light was an open door with a uniformed officer posted beside it. When he spotted Castle and Beckett he stepped inside and a moment later Ryan and Esposito joined them in the hallway.
"Hey," they said in unison, their expressions serious.
"What's going on?" Beckett asked and Ryan glanced at his partner a bit apprehensively before answering.
"You should probably just come see for yourselves."
Esposito led them into the apartment, down a hallway passing the kitchen on the left and the bedroom and bathroom on the right, into a small living room area. A window let in waves of blue and red lights from the squad cars on the street below drawing Castle's attention to where they danced across the collection of framed art prints on the wall above the couch. He recognized the works of van Gogh, Klimt and Monet before his eye dropped to the couch itself.
He only just managed to bite his tongue and keep the string of expletives from flying out of his mouth.
A young woman was laying there. Her hair, a startlingly familiar shade of chestnut brown, fell in waves over the edge of the seat cushion. Her eyes were closed and her hands were resting gracefully on her stomach. She could have been sleeping except for the band of angry, red bruised and abraded skin around her neck.
He heard Beckett's sharp inhale beside him as his heart plummeted and his stomach filled with dread.
"Her name's Polina Bancroft," Esposito said, his voice sounding like it was coming from far away as it competed with the whirlwind of memories flying through Castle's head. "Building super was going around checking smoke detector batteries when he found her. The boys at the 8th called us in when they found this."
Esposito grabbed an evidence bag from a box on the floor and as he turned back to them, Castle recognized the book inside it immediately. He should have. After all, he was the one who wrote it. He glanced at Beckett and saw from the steely glint in her eyes and the tightness of her jaw that she recognized it as well. She reached out to take it from Esposito and Castle stepped closer to look over her shoulder.
It was open to the dedication page, the dedication page he'd spent days agonizing over, choosing the perfect words for and then waiting anxiously to see her reaction, the tiny smile and the warmth in her eyes, which had made it all worth it in the end.
Only the dedication in this book had been altered. The changes had been inked in with red pen so that it now read: To RC, the extraordinary KB and all my friends at the 12th – 3XK
"She was holding it when they found her," Ryan said softly and Castle tore his eyes away from the page to look at him.
"Is it really him?" he asked although the look on Ryan's face had already given him his answer.
"As far as we can tell at this point, yeah, it's him."
"But what about her hair?"
"She's a blonde. The brunette is just a wig," Lanie said as she joined them, her worried eyes settling on Beckett. Castle glanced at her too as she tucked her hair behind her ear and felt his stomach clench as he connected the victim's wig to the dedication in the book Beckett was still holding open in her hands.
"He tried to make her look like you," he said through the sudden tightness in his throat and he could tell from the look in her eyes when she turned to meet his gaze that she had already made that connection for herself. She was careful to arrange her expression and appear unfazed but behind the mask of impassiveness he could detect a glimmer of unease.
"There's more," Lanie stated grimly, stepping closer to the couch. "She was shot, post mortem."
Lanie leaned down and gently moved the young woman's arm, revealing a bullet hole in the right side of her abdomen, just below her breast.
"How the hell does he know where you were shot?" Castle exclaimed and he could feel the beginnings of panic bubbling in his chest. This couldn't be happening, not now.
No one answered his question and Beckett turned her attention back to Ryan and Esposito. "What else do we know about her?"
Ryan flipped open his notebook and read out what they knew so far. "She's twenty-five years old, originally from Albany. She moved down here a few years ago for school and has lived in this apartment for the past three years."
"Her ID badge says she works in the education department at MoMA. She also has an ID for the New York City Police Museum. She was a volunteer there," Esposito supplied, showing her another evidence bag containing the two badges.
"He's making sure he has our attention," Beckett said quietly, almost to herself.
"Lanie puts TOD around twenty-four hours ago," Esposito added as Beckett stepped away to take a closer look around the room.
"And no one heard or saw anything?" she asked and Castle watched as her eyes skimmed over the neatly arranged row of DVDs beside the television and the picture frames and candles arranged on the small table at the end of the couch. Nothing appeared to be out of place and there were no marks on Polina Bancroft's body to indicate that there had been any struggle.
"Neighbor down the hall said she saw Ms. Bancroft come home last night around 6:30 and nothing seemed out of the ordinary. She didn't notice anyone come or go after that," Ryan told them.
"There's no doorman on the building and no security cameras," Esposito said and shrugged. "We can check the surrounding buildings and traffic cams but it's a long shot."
"And pointless since we already know who did this," Castle cut in, his voice sharp.
"We don't know for certain that it was him, Castle," Beckett said, turning around to face him and crossing her arms in front of her.
"The hell we don't, Kate. This is no copycat and you know it." He pointed across the room to where Polina Bancroft was laid out on the couch. "He dedicated this murder to us and signed his name to it."
She sighed, her teeth worrying her bottom lip as she looked at him before glancing away to Ryan and Esposito beside them. Neither of the other detectives said anything, their silence speaking their agreement with Castle.
After a moment she sighed again and nodded. "Check for cameras still. We might be able to get a current picture."
Esposito glanced at his watch and then at his partner who nodded. "It's late and we've learned everything we can for now. How 'bout we call it a night? We'll look into the cameras and then see what Lanie's autopsy and the lab reports say tomorrow and proceed from there."
"That is, if you're feeling up for it," Ryan said, his concerned gaze falling on Beckett. "We know you're still on the DL, but I have a feeling we're going to need all the help we can get on this one."
She nodded. "I have to get cleared to make it official but, yeah, no way am I going to sit this one out."
Thank you for reading! If you have any thoughts you would like to share please feel free to use the review button below.
The next couple chapters are basically done so they should be posted soon-ish. Stay tuned.
-Kiisu
