Chapter Seven

Five Months Previously


She stood in the kitchen, eyes darting warily towards his door, hearing the clacking of keys, and bent forwards, hand cupping around the receiver as she listened. She waited, heart in her throat, leaning against the counter, then pushing off, walking the length of the island and back again.

And then her heart leaped, a fluttery rise and her eyes shone with an ache she hadn't let herself feel in ages.

His deep, calming voice percolated through to her ear. A soft, yet low tone that showed no hint of the small excitement she had in talking with him. And it helped to dampen her mood, set her straight to business.

"So...He's looking further into it isn't he?" He inquired with a tone that clearly said he was not surprised.

She sagged against the table, not knowing when she got there, and fell into a chair. Her eyes rested on the study door and stayed there as she answered. "Alexander...what do we do?"

"I've been in contact with Jim Beckett." He replied without pause.

She gasped, free hand covering her mouth. "Don't you think this is a little extreme?" She rasped, voice rising in pitch, but she muffled it with a purse of her lips, closing her eyes for a moment.

He sighed, as if in mild defeat, and gave her a moment to collect herself. "Martha, my lo-"

"We need more time..." She cut him off, that ache for him, his voice, and loving endearments returning. She thought she could do this... she can... he just...he can't be his charming self...

"I don't think I can." He replied honestly.

"Please...just give us more time... try to convince them both it's not worth it." She begged, standing from the table, seeing Rick shuffling around in his office through the crack in the door.

Alexander took in a heavy sigh, she could imagine him pushing his hand into his hair like her son does, and then dragging it over his face. "You have a month. One.Month. To turn this around. To get her to stop looking into her mother's case..." He paused for only a moment, and then his voice rose with a bit of excitement. "Use him. Use him to do it."

Martha shook her head, turning away from the door as Rick appeared through the crack. "I can't do that ... it's too much to ask of him."

"Then don't ask him. Use your charms Martha, You have a way with words...manipulate the situation... You say he's in love with her?"

Martha said nothing, schooling her features and waving Rick off as he stepped out of the study. "Very much so." She replied.

"That's your key." He said, and the line went dead.

"Alright dear, see you soon." Martha said into the dial tone, and hung up.

"Who was that?" Rick asked opening the fridge with one hand, and feeding his hand into his hair with the other.

Martha twirled the phone in the air. "Oh you know...one of my theater students, having a bit of trouble, So I offered a private lesson." She lied. Lied straight through her teeth and hated how good she was at it.

"Oh." Rick said with a smile, pouring himself a glass of water, and kissing her on the cheek before returning to his study.

She waited for the door to close, before sinking into the nearest chair, and covering her face with her hands.


"No! Please don't do this!" Martha yelled, trying to force her way into the operating room. But she was held back. Too blind to see who it was and fought them the whole way until she was literally picked up from the floor and brought into another area of the hospital.

"It has to be done." He said, setting her down in an empty on call room, holding her by the shoulders until she stopped.

She looked up at him with fierce eyes, her red hair all disheveled. "There must be another way!"

"No." He said, standing firm. "There isn't. You and I both know she won't stop until she's dead. And he will carry on after until this thing gets him killed as well. It's not his fight!"

"It's not yours either!" She shouted back, tossing her hands into the air and pushing him off her.

His jaw tensed, and he looked away from her. "He's my son.. it's my duty to protect him."

"By breaking his heart? By taking from him the one person he has ever truly loved?"

"He'll live." He said, opening the door and slamming it behind him.


Rick was stunned. Stumbling back and nearly catching himself on the wall behind him. Martha stood beside him, hand on his back rubbing small circles as he leaned forward as if he was about to be sick.

"What...what did you do?" He seethed, trying to stand upright.

The Doctor looked over at Martha, somehow unsure how to proceed, but she only glared at her. "Are you familiar with the workings of selective memory, Mr. Castle?"

He stared at the woman, not much older than himself, hair graying in various areas from what he could see peeking from her scrub cap. His heart jolted with the question, and he frowned deeply. Not understanding but realizing...this...this is not going to be in his or Kate's favor.

Why on earth would a brain surgeon be talking to him right now if the problem was in her heart?

"Yes...but why?"

She ignored him. "Then you understand the workings of the brain, how it sometimes chooses particular events in our lives, to forget."

"Forget? Forget! What happened, what has she lost?" His voice was rising, and his stomach was flipping, dizziness taking over as he started coming to realize that something had gone terribly wrong.

"You." She said.

His eyes grew wide, that jolt entering his chest once more, but it did not leave, throbbed on the edges, piercing him as he breathed. "Me?... You said event. How can she forget a whole person?"

"With help."

"With..." He pushed away from his mother who stood tear stained in the middle of the hallway as he paced, hand in his hair and then stopped, pointing a vicious finger at the Doctor. "What did you do!"

The doctor looked at Martha once again, who only shook her head slightly, "We.. I was asked to select a specific memory..." Her mind was telling her to talk like a surgeon give him all the procedural details. How she had to slide a probe into Kate Beckett's Temporal lobe, into the hippocampus, and... "You..." She finally said. " When she wakes up... she'll remember everything up to her shooting. Every last detail.. except for-"

"Me." He stated, before doubling over, and throwing up.