Disclaimer: The characters are all AM's, not mine.

Chapter 2

"Katie, sweetheart, you know exactly what I mean. Josh is not the man for you and in your heart you know that."

She shifted as far away from him as she could on the seat. She was trembling with suppressed fury and her voice was ominously quiet as she tried to stop herself from screaming at him. "And you decide to tell me NOW that you feel this way! When we're on the way to a church where four hundred people are waiting for me!"

"I've tried to talk to you before but you shut me out. You shut everyone out. You can't tell me that Lanie was very happy with this sudden decision to marry Josh, only a short time after you left hospital. You told me she wasn't very supportive."

"What's the matter with you all? Josh was there for me throughout my recovery. He gave up going abroad, he helped me. He even moved in with me."

"Rick Castle offered you his house in the Hamptons and his loft to stay in. He was willing to get you anything you needed to help you recover. You refused everything and you pushed him away. I thought he was your best friend, your partner."

"Well, so did I and look where that got me."

Her voice broke a little and he could see that her eyes were bright with unshed tears.

"He told me to walk away from the case. He didn't stand with me. He let Roy be killed. He said 'Always' but he didn't mean it."

She couldn't go on and her head drooped lower and lower. Her hands were clenching and unclenching as she fought to keep her emotions in check.

'Katie, both Roy and I asked him to convince you to walk away. He didn't want to do that, but he did it for our sakes. Roy called me about his conversation with Castle, and we were both in agreement that the case would get you killed. We knew that only Castle could get through to you."

Kate slowly raised her head. Her voice came out in the smallest whisper, so that he had to lean closer to hear what she was saying. 'I didn't know that. No one ever told me. Why didn't anyone tell me?"

This last sentence was almost shouted. She looked him full in the face and he could see that the tears had finally spilled over and were making tracks in the makeup.

"Didn't Rick tell you?... No that's not the kind of man he is. And when he saw that Josh was there and you seemed to want only him, then Rick walked away. He is really something."


There was a long pause and he heard Kate take a deep breath.

"Yes, yes he is." She laughed bitterly, a shocking sound at that point. "What the hell am I doing?"

She dragged the veil and tiara off her head, wincing as she pulled out a lot of pins with them, and threw the expensive fripperies onto the seat next to the bouquet. The bouquet that she had hated on sight.

There was a minute of silence as they each marshalled their thoughts. "Katie..." "Dad..."

They both spoke at once, but Kate took her father's hand in hers and said, "Dad, let me say something. Let me explain."

"It has been a terrible few months. Roy was killed and I couldn't save him. I got shot and it took so long to recover. I'm not sure I'll ever be back to normal. Then the strain of trying to catch the guy. Mom's case has been my whole life for so long. It's why I became a cop. When the case was closed, I felt rudderless, like I didn't know how to steer myself into the next stage of my life. I even thought about leaving the force and going back to school.. I have always thought of myself as a really strong person, and now I just don't recognise who I am anymore. I had no clue what to do with myself and, on top of that, I thought that Rick had let me down, Yet I still wanted him to fight for me. But he didn't. He just let Josh take over." Her voice faltered on that last sentence.

"He thought that's what you wanted. So he backed off to give you and Josh space. That's what he told me when I asked him why he was no longer around."

"Well, it looked to me like he had given up. When Josh proposed, it seemed like a lifeline, like a place of safety. It gave me something to do, something to be. Mrs Josh Davidson. All the decisions were taken out of my hands. It was so easy, so quiet. Being with Rick Castle is like being in the eye of a storm. Being with Josh is peaceful."

"But, Katie, do you love him? Finding your soul mate is like being battered by storm winds sometimes. It's tempestuous and difficult and totally disrupts your life, but you find your safe harbour together, if you're lucky."

"Like you and Mom did. Not everyone is lucky like that. And look what happens if you lose your soul mate. I don't ever want to be hurt like that again, like I was when Mom died. I do love Josh, but not so much that I have no independence left. My heart still belongs to me. If I lost my soul mate, I wouldn't survive it. You nearly didn't survive it."

"It was terrible, but I'm still here, and I would rather have had that time with her than a lifetime of second best. It was worth every second of the pain I've felt since she died."

He pulled his hand from her grasp and lifted her chin so that he could look into her eyes, which were filled with doubt and confusion.


"I don't know what to do, Dad. If I let myself love Richard Castle, then I'll lose myself in him and that's the most terrifying thing of all. It would be all or nothing with him. I can't allow that."

"Katie, what would your mother think of you just settling for something? For not being brave enough to risk all to have all. And I think it's a crock to talk about 'letting' yourself love Castle. You already love him. I've known that from pretty much the first time you ever told me about this annoying writer who'd started shadowing you."

She could not help her lips turning up into a smile at that. But then the enormity of her situation suddenly hit her and she flung herself into her father's arms, seeking comfort there as she had when a child.

"What am I going to do, Dad? What am I going to do?" she whispered into his chest.

He tightened his arms around her and murmured soothingly into her hair. 'It's alright, Katie-girl, we'll sort it out, don't you worry." He had not called her that since she was very small and it made her feel as if she were no longer alone in all this.

Once she had calmed down, he cupped her face in his hands and said gently, "We're going to stop this nonsense right now."

"But, Dad, we can't! There are so many people waiting for me! And I can't do this to Josh. He doesn't deserve this!"

"He doesn't deserve a wife who's pining for someone else. He's entitled to find his soul mate, just like everyone."

She had no answer to that. So she just nodded her head slightly, closed her eyes and leaned back against the seat. Kate Beckett, erstwhile control freak, was content to let someone else take charge.

Jim opened the door and stepped out of the car onto the wet pavement. He pulled out his cell phone and made the first call. "Javier. I know we're late. I'll be there in a short while to explain..."

A few minutes later he made a second call. "Hello, this is Jim Beckett….. Well, I'm calling as I need a favour from you...Great! I'd heard you'd gone out of town, but I had a feeling you might be here... Yes, yes, you're right; we should be at the wedding but there's been a change of plan... I need you to come and get Kate."

Jim smiled as he ended the call. The next few hours, even days, would be difficult. It would not be the easy way, but it would be right. In the end, his daughter would be with her man, safe and loved and happy. And that was all he had ever wanted.


Ok, the 'missing scene, which was not put on the Shotgun thread, as it takes place in Kate's apartment, starts in Chapter 3. Should I continue posting? Is anyone interested? Let me know if you are, just by pressing that little blue link below. Feedback makes all the effort worthwhile! :-)