Been ruminating on this on and off for weeks.
Been meaning to scribble this out and never had the chance until now. Got to finish a couple of APRs unfinished Magnum Opuses (is that a word?)
I might call this Jumping to Conclusions but it depends.
Untitled by Oldest Man
12th Precinct
Homicide Squad Bay
9:45am
Beckett hated being late for anything but being late for work was #1 on her 'hate being late for…' list. She hadn't slept much the night before – okay, she hadn't slept at all until sometime around 4am when she'd cried herself to sleep. She kept rehashing the argument she'd had with her ex-fiance, Richard Castle. It had all been one-sided.
'Yeah,' she thought to herself, 'yeah, ex is the appropriate prefix.'
He was selfish and arrogant and egotistical and self-centered and untrustworthy.
The evidence: Natalie Rhodes had answered his phone at 1am and had to wake him up to take her call. The final nail in the Castle/Beckett coffin had been Natalie's comment.
"I sure was wrong about him. He's definitely not gay!"
When he took the call and said 'Hello' she unloaded on him.
She was done with him. She told him to 'stay in California and I'll pray for the Big One to hit, right underneath your studio, Castle, and I hope it swallows up you and your Nikki Heat slut and spits you down to Hell!'
That was the most memorable part of the conversation. He'd tried to explain something to her but she'd been so shocked and angry at his betrayal that she didn't even recognize any of the sounds as words.
"We're done. I'll leave your damned glass bauble at the loft, you cheating son of a bitch!"
It had been the last time she'd spoken to him and it was the last thing he heard her say.
She still had it on. It wasn't a glass bauble by any means. It was perfect and she hadn't even been with him when he picked it out.
'What am I going to tell people? He cheated on me? He fell back into his old habits? He never was the man I thought he was?'
She got off the elevator and turned on her phone. It was another sign of her distraction that she'd turned it off in order to avoid any of Castle's calls. She wouldn't have done that 3 months ago. Three months ago she was a focused homicide detective. Last night she'd been a heartbroken woman sobbing into a quart of Chunky Monkey.
She threw her purse down on his chair and turned on her computer and started her abbreviated day.
Kate checked her phone while the system came on-line and saw that she had 5 voicemails and 5 text messages.
Text #1 Kate, pick up the damned phone – Rick
Text #2 Please pick up the phone, Kate – Rick
Text #3 I'm coming home. Pick me up at A/P 4:30pm – RC
Text #4 Sorry. Taking TransCon Flt 221 to LaGuardia – RC
And the final text – I love you, Kate. Always.
She keyed her voice mail and listened to increasingly desperate messages from Castle. She didn't understand. It wasn't what she thought it was. She needed to talk to him. She was jumping to conclusions. He'd explain everything when he got home.
"Where's Castle, Kate? Still in L.A.?"
She looked up and saw Lanie who was looking at her with concern. The eyes. She's seen my eyes.
"According to his text he's somewhere over the central US. He expects me to pick him up at the airport. He's coming in on some TransCon flight to LaGuardia. Well, guess what? The son of a bitch can just take a cab. I'm through with him, the lying, cheating, philandering, son of a bitch of an ex-fiance. I never should have – "
"Yo, Beckett, what flight did you say Castle was on?"
"I didn't, Esposito. Mind your own damned business and do some paperwork or run up someone's financials. I better not see you surfing the damned – "
"Beckett! Shut up and answer the damned question! What flight? Are you sure he said TransCon?" Esposito never talked to her that way and even Lanie shot him a look of impending doom.
"Yeah, so what? Do your job, Esposito."
She felt him looming over her and when she looked up she realized that she'd never seen Esposito so upset.
"What flight is Rick on? It's important, Kate. What's the flight number?"
She gave an exasperated sigh and took her phone out and checked his texts. "Flight 221 arriving around 4:30 at LaGuardia, why? You going to go pick up your buddy? Don't bring him back here, Esposito. And you're taking personal time for the little trip to the airport."
He went back and pulled up a news site and Lanie turned when he said, "Aw, Castle." She walked over and read the news over his shoulder and then looked over at Kate.
"His plane went down somewhere out west. All 141 passengers and crew – Kate, there were no survivors.
Kate froze, unable to move or speak. His last text message – she'd never hear him whisper it in her ear or text her or leave it in a little note in her shoe. He'd never tease her about her giggling while making love, he'd never bug her to drive, to try a new restaurant, to marry him before Xmas.
He was gone. Her field of vision narrowed and finally she fell from her chair.
There's another chapter or so and then the end. No one lives forever. Everyone leaves. No one wins. Life is an unwinnable game.
OM