CH4
Two weeks. Two long, stinking, straight-from-hell weeks. A trip to the local FBI office had gotten her nothing. They had never heard of her or her parents and had told her they didn't have any ongoing cases in New York City, not that they would have told her even if they did she was certain.
She didn't have any dead bodies, didn't even have anything to bury not that she could bury them without a death certificate and she couldn't get one of those since she didn't have anything to prove it.
She had spent the last week hoping beyond hope that that strange woman was wrong and that they were just missing. Kate just couldn't think of anything that her parents would be involved in that would get them killed. That was until this morning. This morning she found a large manila envelope had been slipped under her front door. She cautiously opened the door to look outside as if it had just been placed there and she could see who had left it. There were cars on the road but none of them looked like they had just left from her place. People were on the street but they all looked like they had someplace to go and like everyone else in New York, they all had tunnel vision, ignoring the person next to them, in front of them, or behind them. She closed the door and locked it.
She moved over to the dining room table which only reminded her that she didn't have any food in the house, not really. Sure there was some frozen chicken, frozen other things, but nothing to cook with it. Nothing to turn it into chicken anything. Not that it mattered much, she wasn't hungry and barely ate anything each day as it was.
She cut the packet open and dumped it all out onto the table. It wasn't much by the look of it. The first thing she picked up caused her to cry out in sorrow, weeping in body-wracking sobs all over again. She fell to the floor not caring and simply curled up into a ball and cried.
Death Certificate, Johanna Elizabeth Beckett. Signed, dated, and sealed. There was another for her father, James Bradford Beckett. The papers laid slightly crumpled on the floor beside her.
Two days later she just didn't know what to do. She had concrete proof that her parents were dead, no interest in going back to her classes, not really a whole lot of interest in anything. It left her standing outside of her mom's legal office hoping that there was someone inside that could help her. The door was unlocked and she found just one person inside. "I'm sorry but we're not open," she was told. "I'm Kate Beckett, my mother was Johanna Beckett," she explained. That got her attention and the woman moved right up next to Kate. "Do you know where she is? We've been sending clients away since there was no one here." Her hope only made Kate even sadder. She couldn't talk, or more accurately didn't trust her voice so she pulled her mother's death certificate out of her bag and handed it over while wiping away tears that she didn't understand where they still came from. "What's this?" the woman asked as she took it from Kate's hand. She read it and collapsed into a chair. "OH GOD!"
Two hours later and the two of them had worked out a time and place for a funeral without bodies. Found a company that was going to send a an appraiser out to view their home and everything in it and offer a lump sum for it and then they would sell it off piece by piece to make their profit. Had a way to advertise both cars since Kate didn't want either of them. She also had an appointment with their insurance company. They had gotten the name from Johanna's office.
"Looks like I need to look for a new job." She liked Johanna and her job. "I'm sorry." Kate felt bad for her. "Oh don't feel bad Kate, it's not your fault that they're both dead. You didn't cause any of this," Diane soothed and took Kate's hands. "What are you going to do now?" As bad as her future looked she wasn't the one who had lost her parents. Kate shrugged. "Bury my parents, sell everything they ever owned, find someplace else to live. Someplace less expensive, something I can afford with no job." Kate hung her head. 'No job!'
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Mike and Rita had flown to DC to do some recon to get a handle on what and where Bracken typically went and how he got there. They knew he was behind it or was mostly behind it. Question was how was he affording it all? If they didn't get rid of his financing, someone would just take his place and the killing would continue. "Hi doc." Jackson stepped into the hospital and found him at one of the nurses stations. "Mr. Johnson, good to see you. Kelley is expected to undergo her surgery in a moment. Our chief surgeon should be scrubbing in as we speak. The bullet has done a fair amount of damage but he's pleased that the area has been cleaned out for him and if he finds no signs of infection he'll start the operation. Joseph will undergo his surgery tomorrow if he continues to improve," the doctor informed him.
Jackson knew everyone had new names to help them hide. Plus the people here knew him by a different name, the name he had used when he bought the house. "Is he conscious?" Jackson was dying to talk to him. "Unfortunately no, both of them have remained unconscious during their time here. We have reduced their medication however they have remained unconscious which does not concern us considering the amount of damage they have each sustained. You can wait if you wish or come back just before visiting hours end. Her surgery should be done by then." Jackson heard the word 'should'. "Should?" he questioned. "I'm afraid there are no guarantees. It is possible that there is more damage to her bone structure that requires additional work, much like his operation will be tomorrow," he told Jackson. "I believe I'll come back tomorrow and wait for his surgery to finish."
"Of course, do as you think best." Jackson headed back home where he took out his cell phone and left Rita a voice mail update on their team members. A moment later his burner cell phone rang. "Yes?" Jackson answered. "Did he give an update on their future after the surgery?" Rita inquired. "Not until several weeks after the surgery. They are both still unconscious but stable and ready for the operations they need. Anything happening?" Jackson changed the subject.
"Mike's off looking over the car that he typically uses that he has someone drive for him." Rita was not impressed with Bracken. He was a weak political nobody that happened to have access to people willing to kill for money. "Mike's working so what are you doing?" She better not be lounging in a pool somewhere. "Sitting in bed reading what we have on Bracken again – naked." Rita bit her lip and listened to Jackson moan which told her she had him hooked. Now she just had to reel him in.
His mind went back to their very first night at his home. He had stayed up to read what they had yet again when he saw Rita walk downstairs wearing a towel. She smiled at him and walked outside to where the hot tub was and he watched her drop her towel. She really was naked just like she had teased and she shimmied her naked ass just a little as she climbed into the hot tub. The sight of her had Jackson charging upstairs to put on his swimsuit and then out to the hot tub. "Little overdressed there Jack," she purred at him. "I'm being a gentleman," he countered. "What if I don't want you to be a gentleman?" she teased and bit her lower lip. Just as he started to sit down she moved in and yanked his swimsuit down and off in one quick action and then threw it as far as she could. "Much better." She sat in his lap and slipped her arms around his neck. "So much better." And then she leaned down to kiss him.
It was an hour later. Jackson had pushed her naked core up against the jets of the hot tub and it had her screaming out an orgasm in seconds, seconds later came her third orgasm of the evening. When he didn't let go of her she pleaded, "Jack please, it hurts." He let go of her and allowed her to turn around and relax. The memory of it was still burning in her mind as she reached out to take his semi-erect penis in her hand. "Take me from behind? I want you to fuck me." Rita was soon holding onto the edge of the hot tub and he pounded into her just like she had asked him to. And god but he felt good.
"Still with me there Jack?" Rita was smiling wide since she was definitely not sitting in bed naked reading anything. She did have everything spread out all over though. "Don't say things like that when I can't do anything about it," Jackson snapped. It had Rita rethinking what she had asked him and found she had missed the ulterior motive behind it which made her laugh. "Sorry," she immediately said then thought better of it. "Actually I'm not sorry, not sorry at all." She grinned and her mind dreamed up just what his face looked like. "When are you 'coming' out here?" she asked him. She listened to the sound of nothing and started grinning even wider. "You can 'come' any time you are ready. Unless you think you can 'hold it' for a while."
"I'll be out after Jim's surgery and when I have a chance to find out how both of their surgeries went. Do not do something I wouldn't," Jackson warned her and ended the call. "I guess that means I can't use my own fingers." Rita had loved teasing Jack. "Or does it mean I can?" Now she was confused.
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Kate hadn't invited anyone to the funeral so she wasn't surprised that she was all alone. The man from the funeral home was there and when he started talking Kate told him to shut up and get out. "I SAID GET OUT!" she yelled which had him hustling away from her. She sucked it up, long since tired of crying. She was never going to cry again, never have a reason to cry again. Life had changed and it was time to change with it.
Kate placed a lily and a rose for each of them on their coffins "I'm going to miss you. I don't know what to do next," she admitted to the empty boxes that represented each of them. It was too late to go back to Stanford and she really didn't know what to do. Her dream had collapsed with her parents' deaths. Now what?
Kate had just sold the two cars and was watching the guy drive away. He'd just bought the house and everything in it except for the little she was going to keep. She was going to get the check for it all next week just before he took possession of the property. She had a week to get out of her own home. Her parents' home. The home she had grown up in. The home that was now in her past.
Two hours later she was leaving the bank after depositing the checks from her parents' life insurance policies. They were sorry and like everyone else they couldn't give her her parents back. She was 19 years old and on her own, completely on her own. No adult to help her. She hadn't even seen her friends since as far as they were concerned she was in Stanford.
One week to find a place she could afford to stay in for she didn't know how long.
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Jackson had waited and waited. He had waited for many things in his life. He had waited for his target to step outside because he needed some fresh air or just needed to see the sun rise in the distance. Followed immediately by him putting a round in one side of his head and then out the other side. He had waited sitting on the ground waiting for the signal. The light in the darkness that told him the waiting was over. In each case he was waiting with death resulting at the end of the wait. Now he was waiting and hoping for life instead.
"Sir, ...sir." Someone was tapping him on the shoulder. He jerked awake. If it wasn't for the fact that he remembered he was in a hospital and likely had fallen asleep feeling secure for a change, he would have leapt up and killed whoever it was. "What happened?" He wanted answers. "Both of your friends have exited surgery. The lady finished hers yesterday and I'm told her surgery was long but successful. His surgery was equally long and it was also successful. They are both looking at a very long time of physical therapy. We can accommodate that here," Jackson was informed. "I'll see what I can arrange to get each of them here. Can I see them?"
"They are both still unconscious from their surgery, we will be reducing their medication and expect them to wake up as it leaves their systems. She will likely wake up sooner simply because she had surgery the day before. Follow me." He took Jackson to see each of them. "They are not yet ready to move from the ICU into a room. We need to monitor them still. They will not be moved for likely a week if not two," he warned him.
Jackson tried to figure out how one of them was always going to be here while they combated what Bracken and anyone working with him was doing, Then something hit him and he needed to talk to either Mike or Rita, fast. He pulled out his cell phone. "No cell phones in here please. The signals may interfere with some of our equipment," he was suddenly told.
"Sorry." He wasn't used to being sorry for anything he did. However, he wasn't risking the lives of Johanna and Jim, so yes, he was sorry.
Jackson was soon back out in the waiting room where he made his call and left a voice mail message for Rita, who amazingly enough called him back almost immediately. "Give it to me straight," she said. If it was bad might as well get it over with. "They're both fine. They will be in the ICU for a week or longer before being moved to a room," he told her. "Thank god." Rita exhaled loudly. It was only now that she understood just how invested into these two people she actually was. "I have something else we need to discuss. You remember those two officers that we encountered at the site? I need one of you to go to New York and watch them for a while. Find out what they are doing," Jackson asked her. "And if they are?" She hated the idea of offing a pair of New York's finest but she would if she had to.
"Just find out first then we'll decide," Jackson rumbled. "Got it. I'll make reservations today and be there tomorrow. When do you want one of us to relieve you?" Rita knew he couldn't sit on the sidelines for long. "Give me two weeks and then one of you will need to be here." Jackson was happy that they worked good as a team. He was just sorry that they hadn't thought that their contact was in on it and being watched. "Okay. I'll tell Mike, gotta go." Rita ended the call.
What he wanted to ask was for Mike to come here so he could go to Rita, but he kept his mouth shut and cursed his sudden need to be with Rita. "I'm screwed."
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Kate didn't like any of the places she had seen, all of them were tiny and ugly and one was flat out dirty. It looked like someone had had a fight by throwing real shit since the place was not just filthy but stinky. Still she needed to pick one and the one she had just left was as good as any. So with her new pepper spray bottle in hand she walked the area and found that during the day it wasn't that bad. It was a little run down and filthy but for what she was willing to pay for it was okay.
She came back at night and found she was a little more scared of the place at night. She slipped into a bar that was in the area and sat at the bar and asked for a foreign beer and got a stupid Corona from Mexico. The entire bar felt like a dive, much like the entire area did. "Hi." A guy set his beer down on the counter and sat next to her. "PISS OFF."
"Damn bitch I was going to offer to buy you a drink and maybe offer you something else," was his response. Kate's response was to pull out her pepper spray canister and place it on the bar next to her beer for him to see and felt more than watched him leave. She picked up her pepper spray and put it back in her coat pocket. It had turned cold outside suddenly in just hours it seemed. She was nursing her beer when still another guy sat down next to her and it made her sigh heavily. Maybe this was a bad location after all. However, instead of hitting on her he slid a bag filled with white powder across the bar towards her then got up and left.
She was thankful that he had left. She had heard about this stuff and what it could do. She didn't know why but she found herself picking it up and putting it in her coat pocket. Everyone else left her alone and after one more drink and some reflection on life and how much it sucked she headed for home. A home that wasn't going to be home for much longer.
Kate finally selected a place and she arranged for a moving company to move the few things that she was allowed to keep as part of the sale. It wasn't much, but she didn't think she would need much and she had turned out to be right. She got her bed and her dresser, the love seat out of the living room, all of her clothes and a couple of lamps, plus some of the dishes, glassware, and silverware. It all fit in the back of one truck.
Her new place was a studio apartment that barely had a kitchen if it could be called that. No oven, and no range, and no microwave. Only a hot plate. The refrigerator/freezer was apartment-sized, meaning it was tall and narrow and old, but at least it wasn't stinky inside. Not that she had any food to put in it anyway.
Even with so little it all barely fit in the tiny space. She had taken the check from the sale and deposited it and set up a revolving payment system for the apartment so that she didn't have to remember to pay the landlord in person. Her bank account was large now, larger than she had ever thought possible. It wasn't just thousands, or tens of thousands but was actually hundreds of thousands of dollars.
Katherine Houghton Beckett was now officially gone. She was Serena Ann Kaye from now on. The apartment was in her new (fake) name, as was her bank account and even her old phone was gone and the new one, while less fancy and more bulky, was also in her new name. The power and water company would send bills for what she used in her new name.
She wasn't going to lose anyone else that she loved if Katherine Beckett didn't exist.
What she hadn't counted on was the nightmares that came with a new life. New smells and new noises. The encounter with her would-be rapists on the train started playing over and over in her mind. Only this time she didn't get away and at first only the one guy raped her. Several nights later it was all five. It was only when she could see her dead parents watching her being raped that she bolted upright out of bed screaming.
A glass of water out of her Brita system, not trusting the piping in this place and she was sitting naked on her love seat trying to get a hold of herself. She needed to toughen up. The weak Kate was dead and Serena was stronger than this, she just needed a boost. Something to get her started. It was a bad idea but she would stop when she wanted. She was Serena Kaye and she would stop. Like she was watching someone else, she placed one end of her rolled up dollar bill in her nose and watched the line of white powder disappear only to do it again in the other side of her nose to the other line of white powder.
Katherine Beckett ceased to be and Serena Kaye was born.
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Jackson met Rita at the airport. He wrapped his arms around her and found her burying her face in his neck where she started nipping at it. He had an instant erection and it didn't help that Rita had stepped into him by placing a leg between his and was slowly using her upper thigh to rub up against it. She knew what she was doing and stopped nibbling on Jackson's neck and just smiled. "How are Jim and Johanna?" She had been getting updates but she wanted to hear it from his lips. "Barely conscious long enough to talk with. They don't remember the previous talk to the next one. The doctor says they will get better and be awake for longer periods of time soon." He rubbed his nose in her hair and breathed in deeply causing her to giggle softly.
"Where's Kate? It was the only constant word either of them said," Jackson said which had Rita pulling away, looking guilty. "We've been watching...we're in DC not New York," she pointed out the obvious. He had his bag and started walking for the ticket counter. "I'm going to New York on the first flight I can find. You go watch our guy. If we lose Kate..." she interrupted him. "Jim and Jo will kill the three of us. GOD, can we screw this up any further?" Jim and Johanna were friends, they were a team. "Jim and Jo are alive..." This time Jackson interrupted her. "I'm picking her up and sending her to Mike. They're both alive and we can all wait, watch, and help with their recovery. Get her a new name and she can go with Mike to the hospital. When they're both out and into the house maybe the recovery will be faster with Kate being around."
Rita watched Jackson, who had just gotten there, run for the concourse to catch his plane to New York City. "So much for getting laid tonight," she lamented to herself. She wanted him badly and judging from the reaction she had gotten, he wanted her too. Still he should be back in two or three days. Just long enough to get a packed Kate on a flight to San Jose and then they were going to fuck each others brains out.