Dead - 2
Surprise, Surprise, Surprise
Rick was in the waiting room with all the rest. Sadly, he already knew the answer. Although he didn't want to hear it again, he felt he owed it to the others to be there. He had even endured Josh chasing him out and blaming him for Kate's being shot in the first place. He had poked his nose into her mother's case and had placed a bullseye on her back. Though in this case it was more chest than back, not that it really mattered. Dead was dead.
He barely even acknowledged when someone came out and called for the Beckett family. He actually hung his head even lower. After Jim was told he was betting that Jim would tell the rest of them. This was easily the worst day of his life. It had him thinking back to the day that he was selected to escort dead people across the Void to the doors that would lead to their next life.
"She's alive." Jim couldn't believe it. He had been expecting the worst. "She's in serious but stable condition. They're going to keep her for a number of days. Right now they're only allowing family to see her. So if you'll excuse me." Jim left them and followed the doctor who had come out to talk to him.
"She's alive, Dad!" Alexis hugged her father who looked like death warmed over. At first Rick hadn't really heard her. Then it sunk in what she had said. "What?" He turned his head to look at his daughter.
"Kate's alive. They say she's in serious but stable condition. They're going to keep her in the hospital for a while, but she's alive." Alexis went back to hugging him. The young redhead wasn't a big fan of Kate thanks to how she had treated her dad, but she had never wanted Kate dead.
Rick sat up straight. "Alive?" It was impossible. He had personally escorted her to the doors that would lead to her next life. It was impossible, wasn't it?
He could picture the door she had chosen. Had that door led her right back to her old life? Was that even an option that everyone had? He had dreamed up all sorts of options that could be on the other side of a door. He didn't even really know how the doors worked. His only job was to escort people across the Void.
He had, however, learned how to put to use what he learned as each person revisited the moment of their death. It had told him a lot about people. Granted so far the majority of people simply died. Old age caught up to them or some illness took them. People died in all kinds of accidents. He could remember that he had even looked into how to make his house the safest house on the planet. How could he make sure that Alexis didn't die from an accident.
He was past all that now but he could still remember those early days.
"Alive." Rick tried it on for size. He sat back in his chair and let Alexis watch him laugh and cry all at the same time. She should be dead, but she was alive!
He also needed to start planning for the future. Tyson was going to capture Kate and he was going to beat him at his own game and have Javi kill him from long range. He needed to be ready. Ready to keep her from being taken and ready to beat him again using the knowledge that he had just learned.
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Rick couldn't be more nervous. It had been days but the hospital had finally moved Kate out of the ICU and she was now allowed visitors outside of family members. He stood outside the door leading to her room, trying to think of what to say. Nothing like this had happened before. Dead was dead.
Opening the door, he found Kate sitting up in bed and her room was filled with flowers. He also found Doctor Motorcycle Boy sitting on the edge of the bed. The one person that he didn't need to see was comforting Kate.
It reminded him of his place in her life. On the outside looking in. Rick offered up the flowers he was holding. "I heard you were opening a flower shop. I thought I would contribute." His flowers were actually a little pitiful compared to some of the others in her room. Still it was a hospital room. When she was out he would have her room filled with flowers. An entire flower shop would be delivered to her.
"Hi, Castle. I must look really bad." Kate wasn't sure just what to say.
Rick shook his head. "You look as beautiful as always. What do you remember?" He really needed an answer to that question.
"Can we talk later? I'm really tired." Kate needed more time to understand what she knew or thought she knew. To work out if any of it was real.
"Sure." Rick would give her time. All the time she needed. "I'll be back tomorrow."
"Can I call you? I want to be awake enough to talk." She was already fading fast.
"Sure, I'll be waiting. Get better, Kate." What he wanted to do was what Josh had done when he left. Kiss her forehead, but he wasn't her boyfriend. He was…he didn't know what he was to her. It was one of many problems that he and they had been avoiding for a while now. And it looked like they would be avoiding this one, too.
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"Why so glum, Richard? Kate's alive." Martha found him moping in his study sitting at his desk. She was thankful that at least he didn't have a glass of alcohol sitting on it.
"It's been a week, Mother, and she hasn't called." Rick had let her have her time and he'd gotten nothing in return.
"Richard." Martha knew what she wanted to say but also knew that her son didn't want to hear it. But she wasn't going to let that stop her. "So you told her that you love her. She has a boyfriend, that tall doctor. What did you expect her to do? Throw him in front of a bus and let you in in his place?
"You two should have been talking to each other all this time. Instead you danced around her like she was made of egg shells. One little misstep and you would kill her. That's not how relationships work, kiddo. I would have thought you had learned that by now." He was divorced twice, after all.
"I wish it was that simple." It seemed everything with Kate was complicated. One day he thought he read that Kate was interested in him and the next she was being hugged and kissed by Josh right in front of him.
"It is if you make it that simple. She could have died, Richard. It's time to put your cards on the table. Don't wait for her, go talk to her." Martha pushed one last time. If he didn't get moving then what happened next was all his doing.
"And if she pushes me away again?" It was what she always did.
"Then at least you'll know. Right now you're sitting in limbo. If you don't talk to her you're going to find her walking down the aisle with that doctor at the other end. Will that make you happy?" Maybe a little shock treatment would get her son moving.
Martha gave her last warning as she walked out of his study. "The longer you wait, the worse its going to get." She loved her son, she truly did. It was just that when it came to women… He lived around them and worked with them. She didn't understand how he could be so clueless sometimes.
She turned back to his study for one last piece of advice. "Richard, women want to be chased. They want to know that a man truly wants them. To know that they're loved. So go chase her. If you lose, you lose." At least it would be over.
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Rick was leaving the hospital, dejected and worried. She had been discharged mostly at her insistence and it had him worried for her. Where would she go? He feared that Kate would go it alone since she was so stubborn like that.
His next stop had him knocking and waiting. He let out a breath when Jim answered the door. "Rick!" Jim wasn't sure who could be knocking on his door, but he was happy it was Rick. "Come in. Kate's busy packing so you're just in time." Jim closed the door behind him.
"Katie has decided that she wants to get better outside of the city. But if something goes wrong, the closest hospital is miles away. I've tried talking to her but she won't listen to me. Maybe she'll listen to you." Jim hated this idea, but his daughter was always just too head strong. And stupid.
"I'm going to go get some more bandages for her. I'll be back in about an hour." Jim was hoping that an hour was enough for these two.
Rick was wondering around looking at everything. "Castle?" The sound of her voice had him turning and the look on her face told him a lot. Mostly that this had been a bad idea.
"You didn't call so I came to say hi. Only to find that you had checked yourself out of the hospital." Rick was betting it was against her doctors' wishes.
"I hate hospitals and they couldn't do anything for me that I couldn't do myself." Kate wasn't interested in listening to him condemn her choice.
"I just came by to see how you were doing. I wanted to make sure you were getting the best care." Rick was pretty sure what her answer would be.
"I'll be fine, you don't need to be spending money on me."
Her response told Rick a lot. "It's not about the money. I thought you would have learned that by now. I guess I was wrong. Maybe wrong about a lot of things." Like even coming here. Nothing had changed and he should have known better.
Kate really wanted to sit down but if she did it would hurt a lot and it would give Castle a reason to stay. "As you can see, I'm doing better. Not great yet, but better." Kate started to raise her arms but even that would hurt. Hell, everything hurt.
"So I see." Yeah, this was a really bad idea. "I'm going to go. I'm glad that you're feeling better and alive. It's a big city but maybe I'll run into you again." He was going to give Kate the space she obviously wanted.
"Yeah, maybe." Kate couldn't think of what to say. She knew that was a lie; she was filled with questions. It was just that they all involved her heart.
"Good luck with your recovery." Rick headed for the door. Kate said nothing so he opened it and started to leave. "Just make sure the next time I see you it's actually in the city and not nowhere." He closed the door behind him.
Kate opened her eyes wide. She had convinced herself that it had all been a dream. What he'd said to her at Roy's funeral and everything that had happened after that. It was enough that it had Kate moving suddenly, she needed to stop him. But the movement caused such severe pain that it had her stopping and stumbling for a place to sit down.
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"You're back early." Martha wasn't expecting to see him for at least several hours.
"Yeah, I am." Rick went past her and headed for the freezer and pulled out a small container of ice cream.
"Oh dear, ice cream. What went wrong?" What had her son done this time?
"Nothing, everything. Kate checked herself out of the hospital. She's planning on healing herself without the hospital's help. Likely with Dr. Davidson's personal help instead." Rick scooped out a spoonful and ate it.
"Did she say so?" Or was her son reading between the lines again?
"It doesn't matter, Mother, she's made her choice." That it didn't include him she had made that clear as far as he was concerned.
Martha didn't believe him but she was done trying to help these two. If they wanted to be miserable alone then she was going to let them. She did think it was a waste, though.
~{o}~0~{o}~
It had been weeks and Rick had been busy, just not busy writing. Suddenly he found himself helping people across the Void. In a way he was thankful for the distraction. It took his mind off of everything.
He had just finished helping a little kid find her way across and choose a door. She reminded him so much of Alexis when she was little. Helping all of the kids had hurt and helped all at the same time. To think that their time here had been so short.
It left him once again wondering what was behind all of the doors. The trip back across the Void was done alone like all the times before. It gave him time to think. Problem was this time he was remembering that Gina was after him for more chapters for the next Nikki Heat book.
It was his last contractual book for the Nikki Heat series and he was seriously considering making it his last one. He even had a name for it. DEAD HEAT.He knew what Gina would think of that but he hadn't let what she thought stop him when he had killed off Storm and what she thought wasn't going to sway him this time either.
The reasons might be different but that didn't matter. What he didn't understand was why he was still here. "Another one, seriously?" Rick looked around but didn't see anyone or anything.
He did know that there were a few people in the Void. Not everyone took to dying that well. A few, mostly women, had run off crying heavily. Their grief of having died, been killed, or not found what they had been expecting had been too much.
It had only taken a moment for them to get lost in the Void before Rick couldn't even get a word out. He hoped that this wouldn't be another one of those. He was here for a reason and he had always felt like a failure when that happened.
"Castle?" A voice had his eyes opening wide and his heart went straight into his throat. Turning slowly he saw her. It was Kate…again. He tried to say her name but what came out sounded more like a frog's croak.
"Castle?" Kate didn't know what to say. She knew this place. It was just that she had told herself it had been a dream. It was the only thing that made sense to her.
Rick reminded himself that Kate had made her choice. "This way." He began walking, taking her across the Void once again.
"Castle, have we done this before? I seem to recall seeing this before." Kate still wasn't so sure.
Rick didn't want to think about it so he remained silent and just kept walking until he heard Kate cry out in pain. Turning to look, he could see she was doubled over and clutching her chest. She looked up at him in a look of shock. "I…I think I was shot." It started playing out in her mind.
Rick didn't want to but it was part of his job. He watched Kate as she stood on a small porch for a small house. He just knew it was far out in the woods somewhere. She was standing there all alone when suddenly she felt a moment of pain and collapsed onto the porch.
He knew she'd been shot in the chest yet again. She hadn't seen anything or anyone so he had nothing to work with this time, either.
"OH GOD, CASTLE!" Suddenly Kate knew what she had done. Not just to him but to them. "It really happened, didn't it?" She stood there in the middle of nowhere and started to cry.
"I'm so sorry, Castle. I'm a mess and I screwed everything up." Kate couldn't believe she had screwed this up so badly. "I'm sorry," she whispered. She needed to save Rick from her. She was going to ruin him, she just knew it and that couldn't happen.
"I'm sorry, Castle. I love you, too." Kate started running. She didn't have any idea to where, it was just that if she was gone, she would save Castle. Loving her was going to end badly and she loved him far to much to ruin his life.
"KATE, NO!" Rick began running after her. It was just that she had only made it a few steps when she vanished from his sight. Rick stopped and spun in place, looking everywhere for her. "Kate, please come back. PLEASE. I love you. We can make this work. Kate, please." But all he saw was nothing.
He couldn't believe it. Of all the people to lose in the Void, it just had to be Kate. He didn't know what to do next. The Void itself was endless and filled with literally nothing, everywhere.
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Alexis needed to recap what her dad had spent all this time explaining. "Let me see if I get this straight. You're not Death, that's someone else. You just guide them across this…Void. To a wall of doors that takes them to a new life." Alexis thought she had it straight even if it did sound fantastic. Her dad nodded his head.
"Kate died and you escorted her across this Void after she'd been shot. She died but didn't die because of this door she went through." Kate had died and yet hadn't died. "Now she's died again."
Rick knew what it sounded like and was thankful that his daughter had listened this long to him.
"Kate told you that she loved you both times and then she ran off into the Void." This was the part Alexis was having trouble with.
"I know what it sounds like and if it wasn't me I'm sure you would say I'm crazy." Rick thought it sounded like he was crazy.
"Actually I do know you, Dad, and it sounds more than crazy." If it wasn't for a couple of facts she would have stopped listening long ago. "You're a mystery writer not a science fiction writer and we promised to tell each other the truth. So as wild as it sounds, I know it's the truth." Alexis believed her dad. He might be a handful on occasion but she loved and trusted him.
Rick needed to hear it. "So you believe me?"
Alexis chuckled softly. "Yes, Dad, I believe you." Alexis found it amusing that her dad almost collapsed, so much so that she reached out to try and catch him.
"I love her, pumpkin. Like I've never loved anyone. I just don't know what to do now. First she tells me that she loves me, then she ignores me and pushes me away. Then she tells me that she loves me and runs off." Rick was about as confused as he could get. Why was it so hard to understand women? "What?" His daughter was looking at him like he was the most stupid person on the planet.
"You own the Void, Dad. You can't get lost. You're the one person who can say that. So…go find her and this time, talk to her." It was the one part about how her dad acted that pissed her off the most. The two of them wouldn't be in this mess if they had just talked.
"But she's dead. Even after I find her she'll still be dead." Rick didn't see the point.
"She died before, Dad." Alexis didn't see the challenge. Just use the same door again.