RECOGNITION AND ACCEPTANCE

I saw a thing on television last night that really seemed to hit home with me. Hell, it might have even been a commercial. One of the lines stated 'When you find something for the rest of your life, you want the rest of your life to start immediately'. I want that, Kate. I want you to come and live with us. I know that might sound strange since we really have had a restricted courtship during my recovery, but having you here almost everyday for short periods of time just makes me want you here all of the time. If you like, you can even consider it like your moving in with Alexis and Mother, and the three of you are allowing me to hang around. We have spent so much time apart struggling with the possibilities of our relationship, I want us to be together to work on resolving the past and creating new possibilities for the future.

So, as you read my answers, will you consider my question?

"Wow," Kate said as she put down the printed pages of his answers.

Is that 'Wow good', or 'Wow bad'?

"Rick, please stop second guessing yourself with me. I'm not going anywhere. It was just 'Wow'. There are things I wasn't expecting; some that I thought I was right about; and some that I was sure about. I hate that we have to use this form of communication to make things easier for both of us, but in reality you're a helluva lot more open when you write to me than when you talk to me. That is something we are definitely going to have to work on."

Ahem.

"I know. I know. I need to work on it just as well. ...I'm...sorry about the situation with Meredith. You never even hinted about something like that happening. I can understand about Gina, but it still doesn't make sense why you took her to the beach house."

I was lost, and even though I didn't mention you directly, she listened to my pain. I was never going to get that book done, and I thought that she would give me the kick in the ass that I needed. Anything other than that just sort of happened, but I knew it really wasn't going to go anywhere. I shouldn't have done it. I'm sorry I failed to handle things more appropriately.

"I'm not asking you to flesh out your original responses, you've been more than candid with me. I just wondered 'Why?' after all that time that she was back in the picture. I would have never guessed that one."

As he left his desk chair and moved to join Kate on the couch in his study, she was giggling and shaking her head, "I can just see you sitting in those theatres watching everything play out in front of you, your mind going a mile a minute. I think every kid would probably want to do that for a day, but to have to do it everyday must have taken its toll at some point."

Well stated, but I didn't know anything else until I started school, so I just learned to accept it.

Biting her lower lip before proceeding, Kate asked, "Do you really not put much thought into who might be your father?"

As I told you, when I was little, yes. As time went on, the thoughts just seemed to drift away. Now, the thoughts are almost nonexistent except when the subject matter is brought up.

"I'm sorry, forget I mentioned it."

No, it's alright. I'm nearing forty and I've lived this long without knowing, and no one has stepped forward to make a claim, so I don't see why I need to put much stock in his identity. My situation is hardly anything like yours. Together, we will bring you closure. I know that we can do it. Kate, please keep this between us, I love my mother deeply, but I find it difficult to believe that she doesn't know who my father is, or was. It's not like she was some fluzzy. She has to have some idea. The fact that she has chosen not to tell me, or given me any leads to follow-up on, is more painful than never having known. Does that make sense?

Reaching across to take his hand and pressing it to her lips, she answers, "Yes. I know that you would never think less of Martha, but I can understand that the 'Why' is always going to be there regarding her silence."

Kate continued, "You alluded to my mom. I trust us, too. It may take us a while, but we'll get there. …...God, doesn't that sound familiar. …...It has taken us a while, but here we are, and we're never going back. I won't let it happen."

And, neither will I.

"The things that you wrote about me...I don't know if I can talk about them. I know that you have the ability to paint a picture for your readers with your words, but those words just portrayed someone that I don't know if I can live up to. I read them and think, 'how could I have failed to understand what I mean to you'. I can't be that blind. I may not be able to put the words together like you do, but I love you, and you mean everything to me."

Kate, I may be able to paint a picture with words, but all I have to do is experience you to see what it is that you are. If I had no talent whatsoever, I still would have been able to describe you as I did. As I said before, you surpassed extraordinary a long time ago.

"Rick, Patty mentioned something at the hospital about Debbie getting a scholarship for her schooling through a grant that you funded, and that Debbie's sister was attending law school through a memorial fund that you'd established. Is there something I should know about?"

I may have been medicated, but I wasn't blind. Is this about Patty, or Debbie and her sister?

Momentarily taken aback, Kate sputtered, "Shut up. …...Just answer the damn question, smart-ass. Besides, she wasn't doing anything medical at the time. So there."

I love you, too. The other stuff, you're going to have to promise me that you won't get mad and kill me. The way things were heading over the previous six months, I never thought that I would ever have the chance to be with you, so I never thought I would have to answer for those things. You wouldn't find out about them until I was dead, so shooting me would be a waste of your time. With regard to Debbie, she benefited from one of the programs that I established during my early years of the Storm novels. With the help of some advisers, that fund has grown considerably. We have been able to finance the education of over two hundred kids in the last ten or twelve years. Now, please remember I'm recovering from surgery. Debbie's sister was one of the first scholarship recipients from the JB Memorial Fund that I established last year. I would have told you, but as I said there was a time that I thought that not only did you not want me, you wanted anyone but me.

Are you still staying for dinner?

"Yes, Mr. Smart-ass, I'm staying for dinner. There are so many things in that paragraph that make me want to jump your body right now, while there are others that make me want to beat the shit out of you. When were you planning on telling me, if I hadn't brought it up myself?"

We would have gotten around to it. If you want, I could just get my will out of the safe and let you read it, then everything would be out in the open. You can shoot me and Lanie could stop by on her way home to collect her crime scene evidence without ruining her whole evening.

"What the hell does that mean?"

Kate, can we let this go for now. I promise I will give you full disclosure.

"What's the combination to the safe?"

Right to 4 – Left to 26 – Right to 78.

"You used my birth date for your combination. That's so cheesy."

Before rising to his feet, Rick quickly typed, I need to go start dinner.

Grabbing him by the seat of his pants, Kate commanded "Sit down, we're not anywhere near through here."

If you keep up with this you're not going to get much of a dinner. Final word on this subject, which I might point out Detective was not made part of the original interrogatories that I was assigned to answer today. There are a number of clauses in my will that pertain to you. To be fully compliant in answering, Detective, only Mother, Alexis and you are specified in my will. The particulars are not important at this time, so can we just return to my written responses, or stop here and finish after dinner.

"Oh, alright, will stop. However, let me make it clear, your ass better be right back in here after dinner. Also, quit calling me Detective when we're at home talking about personal things," she stated as she rose from the couch and leaned over to kiss the top of his head.

Did you mean what you just said?

Turning back to look at the Notebook screen she responded, "Every word of it."

They had been communicating for much longer than they had thought. As they left the study and moved toward the kitchen, Alexis and Martha were already putting together another pasta offering. Martha spoke for both of them, "If you two are going to wile away the evening talking, we're never going to eat anything around here, but salads and pasta. Richard, there are perfectly good beef filets in the refrigerator that we could be dining on. At some point in time we need to indulge our palates with some red meat."

Placing his Notebook on the kitchen counter, Rick responded, Mother, I'm sorry, I should have started to get things together earlier. I'll fix the filets for the three of you tomorrow night. I promise.

Kate jumped in, "Martha, it's really my fault. I'm sorry. I just lost track of time. It's really his fault for writing an opus just to answer a few questions, but being the more mature adult in this relationship, I thought I would try to cover for him."

YOU DO KNOW THAT I CAN HEAR YOU, DON'T YOU. I JUST CAN'T SPEAK IN A MANNER THAT IS CONDUCIVE TO BEING UNDERSTOOD.

"You see what I mean, you could have just typed, 'I heard that'."

"Dad, when ARE they removing the wires and the bands?" Alexis asked.

Nxt wk. There, is that better, Ms. More Mature Adult.

Kate read his response on the screen, and typed her reply 'Nx wk', "Now it's better," she said as she walked past him allowing the back of her hand to glide across his hips as she went to get the china and silverware for dinner.

Sipping his Ensure, Rick watched his three ladies eat and discuss his mother's latest audition. She had a chance at a Broadway play that would be opening after the first of the year. It wasn't going to be a starring role, but it would not be an insignificant one either. She was excited that she had gotten a 'call back', and would have to return for future trials next week.

Rick reached for his Notebook to type a private message to Kate. Are you going to tell them about your moving in? He turned the screen so that only she could see what he had typed. Kate glanced at the screen and quickly typed her response. I'm not going to tell them, I'm going to ask them if they are comfortable with it.

Noting the obvious activity between her father and Kate, Alexis smiled as she asked, "Do you two want Gram and me to take our dinner elsewhere?"

Looking annoyingly at Rick, Kate replied, "No, Alexis. I'm sorry. Your father has the patience of a gnat sometimes. …...Uh, I need to ask you two something. These past couple of months have been difficult for all of us, but they have also been wonderful, at least I know they have been for me. Rick and I have been talking...uh, I guess I should say communicating, and…...well...Alexis, Martha, would it be alright with you, if I came to live here?"

Alexis immediately left her chair and circled the table to wrap her arms around Kate's shoulders, kissing her on her cheek, "Oh my God yes. This is fantastic. Dad, we have to redecorate. We have to give this place a 'touch of Kate'. …...Dad does get to stay here too doesn't he, Kate?"

Looking at him, Kate stated, "Did you let her read your answers?" Shaking her head, "Lord, is she ever your daughter. Yes, Alexis he gets to stay here too. …...Martha?"

"Darling, we've been waiting for you for almost a year now. You should have never left last winter. I said some things to you during our many hospital visits that I probably shouldn't have, but I'm not sorry for it. I'm sure that he has probably written the words to you, and that he can't wait to be able to say them to you, but I know my son. He loves you as much as any human can love another, and I know that he wants to spend the rest of his life with you. So, am I alright with it, absolutely. That chair you're in has been empty for far too long."

As she fought back the tears that were forming in her eyes, Kate clasped her hand with Martha's, "Thank you. I love him, Martha, so very much. Please don't ever forget to tell me what you think. You also need to promise me that, unless you get a better offer, you will stay here with us. We may love and want one another, but we need all the assistance that the two of you can give us."

"Kiddo, you'd better run that by your future hus...uh, Richard first."

The Notebook screen was turned to face directly to Martha, Mother, until it increases, we'll be a family of four.

"Sweetheart, …...that..., you'd better run by the loved one to your left."

A/N:

For those of you that do not care for adventurous playfulness, you may want to skip the next chapter. Two years of longing and three months of restrictive behavior may require certain protective measures to be taken.