Castle: Between the Lines
Chapter 7:
- Hello Again Darkness -
By NRZWolf 13

Alex had done it again when he arrived back at the apartment. Kate had just come back herself from being with Rick and was surprised when Alex had come in just a few minutes after. For a couple of heart stopping moments, she thought her step-dad might have seen her and Rick together, but to her relief, he hadn't.

He still… took her again.

Kate looked out the window at the darkening sky while she sat in her favourite spot on the windowsill. All she could think about was Rick Castle. It was strange. She had to admit he was handsome, like some of the other girls at school had, and he was the first person in a long, long time to make her even smile, let alone laugh. But he was a boy. That was the problem. And if Alex ever saw her with another boy, he would go ballistic.

All the same, Kate already knew she would try and see Rick again. The time she had spent in the library today was just too good to pass up, especially if Rick was willing to see her again.

With a small smile on her face, the emerald eyed teen slowly got off the window sill so she could get ready for bed. With any luck, Alex would be done for the night.

But Kate's hopes were dashed when Alex came to her again, flouncing into her room while she was changing into her pyjamas. She stopped buttoning buttons, knowing what he was there for, and slowly lowered her hands.

He cupped her buttocks from behind and then slid his hand between her legs, touching her sensitive slit. Then, without further ado, he pulled down her bottoms, baring her creamy ass and pink private cunt. He pushed her onto the mattress and spread her outer lips with his thumbs. She whimpered, clutching the sheets, as he drew a long slow lick across her snatch.

"You smell so sweet," Alex murmured and then delved his tongue into her. "You were so good when I came home that I thought I'd give you a little reward."

"You don't have to," she gasped, gripping the blankets as he pushed a finger into her. "Please…"

"Don't worry, we'll get to it. Just let me pleasure you," he whispered.

He put his thumb on her clitoris and rubbed it, sending spikes of unwanted pleasure through her body. She didn't want to, but she moaned and felt herself getting wet. She squeezed her eyes tightly shut and put her face into the sheets, smothering her sounds. Alex gripped her hair, pulling her head back.

"No, no, scream for me. I want to hear you," he whispered against her skin.

He stroked her deftly, swirling her clit and pumping his fingers in and out of her moistening snatch. His belt jingled as he undid his pants and stepped out of them. She felt his dick pressing through her folds and then probing her entrance. With one powerful thrust, he filled her to the brim. He cupped her breasts, feeling them jiggle as he thrust into her, ploughing through her body. Since he had already had her once today, she was looser and it didn't hurt so much.

It almost felt… good.

She made a small sound and he reached around to touch her clit, offering her more stimulation and pleasure.

"Go on, Katie. Scream for me…" Alex said breathlessly.

"R…" Kate gasped, curving her spine.

He kissed the back of her neck, nibbling at her earlobe. "Say my name," Alex gasped.

"Ri…"

"Say it," he whispered. "Say it's so good. Scream!"

"Rick," she gasped out.

She felt his muscles seize up, turning to stone against her back, and knew she had done something terribly wrong. The last thing she remembered picturing in her mind, as she always did as a distraction when Alex took her, was beautiful cerulean blue eyes and the very person's name she had uttered.

"What did you just say?"

"I… don't know," she whispered honestly.

"Wrong answer."

That was the first time Alex had ever struck her so brutally. Once her face was swollen and red and her eyes were filled with tears, he let her fall to the floor. She shivered in a half-naked heap. When she finally pushed herself into a sitting position, he forced her mouth around his dick and fucked her throat. He finished, cumming on her face, grabbed her by her wrists, and tossed her onto her bed before leaving.

It was then Kate realised her notebook was missing. She supposed it could be a form of self-harm. It certainly made her feel less like she was going to explode from emotion when she wrote in it… but now it was gone.

Kate found herself sobbing, struggling to breathe as she pulled on clothes before practically tearing her room apart in an effort to find it. It wasn't anywhere. Where was it? When could it have gone? Who had it?

The questions tore at Kate all night as she finally fell onto her bed and cried herself to sleep.

०౦ംഠ०҆'˚'҅०ം◦∙ × ∙◦ം०҆'˚'҅०౦ംഠ०

The next day, Rick only glimpsed Kate. She avoided him constantly but refused to tell him why, refused to even talk to him. In English they once again sat in silence despite Rick's constant attempts to talk to her. He tried to sit next to her at lunch but she got up to go to the toilet. After school, he tried to find her and maybe talk to her with Alexis around but she was picked up by her step-dad.

Lying on his bed, Rick tried desperately to work out if he had done something wrong the day before. They'd slowly settled into a steady conversation about everything and anything pointless and for a while everything had been fine. Of course there was the huge elephant in the room bellowing in both their ears constantly about the one thing neither of them wanted to talk about. Their parents.

But that was to be expected Rick supposed. It wasn't supposed to come up in idle conversation. All the same, he couldn't think of anything he'd said nor done that had made her seem uncomfortable. They'd even left the library well before her step-dad was due to be home according to Kate, so it wasn't like he had found out. So what was it?

Rick sighed and buried his face into his pillow. This whole thing was so confusing. First she pushed him away, then she opened up just the tiniest bit, and now it felt like every time he tried to talk to her he was running head long into a brick wall. Was this what friendships were usually like? Rick doubted it.

Something must have happened. Something bad, or at least something worse than usual. He shifted slightly on the bed, suddenly aware of the little red notebook safely hidden under the mattress. He still wasn't sure how to tell Kate he had it. But after reading everything inside, what could possibly have happened to make things worse?

The brown haired teenager closed his eyes and tried to relax. His dad hadn't beaten him last night, simply grunted a warning that Rick needed to return that money he stole soon. Rick was at a loss for what to do. It wasn't like he actually stole it in the first place. But that didn't matter right now. He had a little bit of his own money saved up from before they had moved to New York. It wasn't quite enough pay back everything his father needed but if he was lucky, maybe Anthony wouldn't notice.

As for Kate… there was still Thursday and Friday. Hopefully he could talk to her again.

So even though it was only five o'clock or so in the afternoon, Rick allowed himself to fall into a much needed sleep.

०౦ംഠ०҆'˚'҅०ം◦∙ × ∙◦ം०҆'˚'҅०౦ംഠ०

Unfortunately for Rick, Kate didn't speak to him again until Saturday.

To his immense relief, his father had been forced to work much later than usual due to one of the employees being ill. Out of this came two things Rick would always be thankful for. One, Anthony got paid overtime for filling in, so much in fact that he almost completely forgot about the whole 'Rick stealing his money' thing. Two, his dad had ended up working late enough that by the time he got home he was too exhausted to do anything except fall asleep.

So for the past week Rick had been able to heal without interruption. The only real drama had been when his step-mom had woken up on Friday evening and decided throwing glass bottles at the walls was a good idea. When she had finally calmed down enough for Rick to tentatively ask what she was doing, she had simply looked at him like he was stupid and said," Redecorating,"

Needless to say, Rick and Alexis hadn't gone near her since.

But it was on Saturday evening that it happened. Rick had been leafing through Kate's book again, not really reading it but simply trying to work out how to tell her he had it, when he heard the apartment door slam open and then slam shut. His step-mother shrieked, but he heard his father's heavy footsteps pounding down the hallway. Quickly, Rick shoved the notebook back under the mattress and then rolled himself into a tight protective ball. His door crashed open on its squeaky hinges, slamming into the wall.

"Boy!" his father screamed. "You worthless little shit!"

Rick had no idea what he had done to anger his father so, but at that moment, it didn't really matter. His shoulders trembled and he put his hand over the wound on his stomach. He could get away tonight. Alexis was safe in her room behind her locked door and he wasn't so injured.

Taking a deep breath, Rick leapt to his feet and barrelled past his father down the hall. Anthony took a swipe at his son, grabbing a fistful of soft amber hair and getting off a clean blow to the side of Rick's face. Luckily, Rick managed to pull away and charge from the apartment. He dashed down the stairs, slamming into the walls when his feet skidded on the tile. He knew his father wouldn't follow him so, for now, he was safe.

When he finally got outside, the night was clear and cool. Above, thousands of stars shone merrily above while pieces of fluffy white cloud danced in the wind. The moon was full and round, casting its light onto the streets below. From almost every apartment he could see, warm amber light shone forth, eradicating the darkness that tried to reach in. The air was cold, but smelt of flowers and soil.

The world seemed clean. It seemed quiet. It seemed safe.

Putting his hands as deep into their pockets as they would go, Rick slowly made his way towards the park that was just down the road from the red-bricked apartment building. He only had a t-shirt on, but at least when he had come home the library earlier he hadn't bothered to take off his trainers.

The grass beneath his feet crunched slightly as he entered the play park. It was eerie, coming here at night. The climbing frames cast long shadows that, with just a touch of imagination added, looked like monsters reaching out to grab their prey. Rick ignored them. It was stupid to be afraid of imaginary monsters when the real one was at home.

It was as he was reaching the swings that he noticed for the first time someone else was sitting on them. Someone wearing a jacket as dark as the sky above, light blue jeans and had long, beautiful brown hair.

"Kate?" He whispered incredulously.

She looked up and their eyes met. Her emerald eyes were full of tears, shining with moonlight. He was sure his own were bright from running and his skin felt shiny with fear-sweat. She jolted to her feet suddenly, stumbling backwards away from him.

"Don't… please don't…" she whispered.

"I'm not going to hurt you," Rick replied softly. "I'm… I'm here to escape too,"

"…Escape…?" Panic entered Kate's face and she shook her head violently. "You don't know…you can't know!"

Rick sat heavily down on one of the swings and wondered what to say. Kate was still standing there, looking at him like he was going to suddenly attack her or something. In the end, he simply replied, "I'm just here because… bad things happen at home. It's safe here,"

Kate frowned and slowly approached him. When Rick didn't move, she came closer and hesitantly sat down on the swing beside his. "Bad things happen to you?"

"Bad things happen to everyone," he replied softly.

Kate looked at the ground, burying her toes in the sand under the swing set. It was only now that Rick noticed she was barefoot.

"Can I ask how that happened?" he ventured. Kate shook her head.

Rick sighed before leaning back against the chain and staring absently at the sky.

Timidly, Kate whispered, "Your face is bruised,"

Rick reached up instinctively to touch it. The skin under his fingers was warm where his father had managed to land a blow. "Yeah…"

"How did it happen?" she asked quietly.

Rick didn't answer for a second. Eventually he shrugged and muttered, "Being stupid,"

The wind rustled through the trees and unexpectedly the crickets began to sing. The two abused teenagers sat in silence for a while, Rick looking up at the stars and Kate staring down at the sand.

"Are you angry with me?" Rick asked suddenly, breaking the silence.

Kate pushed back and let the swing glide to and fro. She bit her lip as long strands of brown hair tickled her cheeks and stuck to her lashes. "Why would you think that?"

"You avoided me all week," Rick replied, unable to stop the hurt from entering his voice. He heard her inhale sharply but continued to look at sky.

"I… I wasn't," she whispered.

Rick sighed. "Okay, so you're just not speaking to me,"

Kate's feet dragged across the ground slightly, slowing her down but she still continued to swing. "I'm sorry," she said quietly and Rick believed her. "I just… I lost something… I'm scared of what might happen if someone finds it,"

Rick immediately snapped his head in her direction. She had acted the way she had because he had her notebook? Rick knew it was the perfect and yet the very worst time to tell her the truth, but he also knew he had to. So he did.

"Do you…" he paused slightly before finally asking. "Do you mean your… notebook?"

Kate dug her feet into the sand below, stopping herself swinging abruptly. "You mean… you didn't read it did you?"

The blue eyed teen said nothing but he knew his silence answered her question. He was still shocked when the sound of sobbing reached his ears however. He looked at Kate as tears spilled down her face and she began taking in great gulps of air.

"You do know…" she whispered. "Shit, shit, shit! You do know!"

"Kate-"

"Shit!" she yelled out and Rick glanced around nervously to see if anyone was looking to see what was going on. Kate jumped to her feet so forcefully the swing swung back and chains rattled. Rick got to his feet as well and watched warily as the girl in front of him paced back and forth, crying all the while. He wanted to reach out to her, he wanted to comfort her but he didn't know how.

Then all of a sudden her sobbing turned into hysterical laughter. Rick stared as Kate practically doubled over in laughter, her mirth bursting out of her in gasps and giggles before once again turning to sobbing.

"Kate," he tried again, not sure what else to do as the addressed girl broke down in front of him.

And then to his shock, she began undressing.

At first she wasn't entirely sure what she was doing, and when he heard the zipper on her coat he became even more confused. It was only after she began unbuttoning the thin blouse she'd been wearing under her coat that Rick realised she was taking her clothes off.

Taking them off for him. The very idea made him feel sick.

"Kate," Rick said desperately. "Kate, what are you doing?"

"You know," she whispered and kept whispering it like a mantra while her cold fingers struggled with the buttons on her blouse. "You know, you know, you know…"

"Kate," he said louder this time.

"You know what I am," she was still sobbing as Rick moved towards her. "You know I'm nothing but a worthless cheap whore-"

"Kate!" Rick grabbed a hold of her thin shoulders and openly winced when she practically screamed in fright. He kept a tight hold nonetheless. She stared up at him while terror swam in her eyes. She had stopped trying to undress but Rick knew she'd unbuttoned enough to allow a lot more cleavage than needed show. He didn't look at it though. He didn't want to. He simply stared back into Kate's emerald green eyes and realised something. Despite her burst lip, despite the tears running down her face and snot bubbling from her nose, Rick realised how beautiful he thought Kate Beckett really was. Not in the way her step-father saw her. Rick saw passed that. He saw the beautiful broken angel Kate was.

And it almost broke what little of his heart he had left.

He also realised he didn't have a clue what he was going to say to her. Telling her it was going to be okay would just be plain stupid seeing as how it obviously wasn't and probably never could be. So Rick simply said the next thing that came into his head. "It's not your fault,"

Surprisingly enough, it seemed to be exactly the right thing to tell her. Kate's shoulders relaxed underneath his grip and her face turned hopeful. "R-really?"

"Yeah," he murmured. Her eyes, big and innocent and sparkling with tears, held his for a moment longer before she buried her face in his chest and hugged him with all her strength.

"I'm not going to hurt you," he held her gently as she cried, the sound reverberating around the park. For a few seconds that felt like an eternity, the two teenagers stayed like that until Kate pulled away. Rick watched her sit down on the swing while furiously wiping her face and picked up her coat for her. She started slightly when he placed it around her shoulders and he shrugged. "It's cold out,"

Kate smiled slightly before biting her lip. "Sorry…"

"For what?" Rick replied softly. "There's nothing wrong with crying…"

"I don't like people seeing me cry," Kate admitted still wiping her face.

Rick was silent for a moment before quietly beginning to speak. "Sometimes we need to cry. Knowing fear, anger, happiness… love. Getting into trouble, running away and crying… that's how people grow up. It's okay for you to cry,"

Kate looked over at the other teen and was suddenly struck by how old he sounded. He didn't sound like a sixteen year old boy struggling through high school. He sounded like…

"Rick?" Kate said hesitantly. "What happened in the nurse's office on Tuesday? You looked scared when you came out…"

"…She asked how I got the gash in my side," Rick said almost emotionlessly. "I told her I fell into the coffee table but I didn't really fall and I think she knew I was lying. It was my dad… he pushed me…"

Kate trembled slightly. "How?"

"Coffee tables have sharp corners," Rick replied dully.

Kate glanced over at Rick, taking in the moonlit curve of his face. "How could he…?"

"He's… a drunk," Rick admitted. It was so… weird talking about this to someone else other than Alexis. He felt almost emotionless, like he was talking to someone he didn't really like about the weather which was of course further than reality than it could possibly be. The teen supposed it was his way of coping with it. Kate broke down and Rick… he shut himself off.

"Doesn't your mother try to stop him?" Kate asked and Rick openly winced at her question.

"It's my step-mother actually," he corrected. "And no… she's a drug addict,"

"So your dad… hits you and your mum… what does she do?" She sounded almost afraid to ask but Rick didn't blame her. He'd be nervous too if it was the other way round.

"She doesn't really do much to be honest. She has her fair share of… incidents I guess, but she doesn't hurt me or Alexis," Rick shrugged while idly doodling in the sand with his foot.

"And Alexis isn't… she's okay?"

Rick licked his lips, tasting blood. "I protect her,"

They sat in silence for a while, occasionally broken my Kate sniffing while she stared at Rick and he stared anywhere and everywhere but her. He was completely unaware that she was thinking again of what Stewart had said. About how Rick needed a friend, someone he could talk to, someone he could trust, someone clean. She wasn't clean, but she needed someone too.

"Rick, you're…"

His posture tightened, tense with fears and insecurities. "Please," he whispered. "Please don't say something cruel…"

Kate felt tears pool at her eyes again and this time she simply let them fall. "Rick, you're really wonderful. I don't know how anyone could hurt you,"

He looked at her and took in the way she stared at him while clutching her jacket as tears fell from her eyes. Most of her face was hidden by the deep brown tresses sticking to her wet cheeks. Her back trembled, rising and falling jerkily. Rick swallowed hard and shook his head.

"I don't know how anyone could hurt you either," he whispered back and Kate smiled softly. For a while, just a little while, the two broken teenagers simply looked at each other and pretended that things weren't so bad. They pretended that the world wasn't really a cruel place and that reality wasn't such a terrible place to be. Just for a little while.

Eventually however, Kate bit her lip before slowly getting to her feet. "I need to get back," she admitted sadly and Rick shrugged.

"S'okay," he replied. Kate hovered for a couple of seconds, waiting for Rick to rise with her. When he didn't move, she finally voiced her thoughts.

"Are you coming?"

Rick shook his head. "No, I like it out here. It's quiet… besides, if I go back now…"

Kate realised what he was talking about and her heart reached out for the boy in front of her. "Are you going to be alright?"

Rick flashed a smile at her but she knew it was fake since it didn't reach his cerulean blue eyes. "I'll be fine. You need to go in,"

Kate waited for a moment longer before nodding and heading inside, leaving Rick outside alone to think about what just happened.