The flight home from San Antonio to New York was quiet, as far as Rick was concerned. However, a few men made comments about how cool he was, and the like. However, there was one woman who gave him a look that could kill. She gave him such a venomous stare, that he was thankful that he was up in First Class, and not near her. One thing that helped is that he had purposely rebooked his flight on a smaller airline, so that he would have to sit near Gina and feel awkward. Fortunately, the stewardesses didn't say anything or hint at any knowledge of what he was accused of.
But she offered everyone a drink expect for him Rick left his seat and walked up to the stewardesses. "What do you want?" Her friendly smile turning into an eye roll and frown. "Can I get a drink, please?" Rick asked.
"What kind of drink?"
"Just a water please." Rick shrugged as the stewardesses as she scooped some ice into his cup and then filling it up with water.
"Would your mistress like anything?" The stewardesses asked hands on her hip. "She's not my mistress alright, she's just my publisher."
"I'm a happily married man who loves's his wife very much and I wish everyone would just hear out my side." Rick turned around and announced to the whole plane, but all he got was. "Shut up Jerk."
"Who let him on the plane." "Sit down idiot."
When he got to New York, it was about three in the afternoon. He decided to head straight for the loft since Kate had the day off. As he was riding the elevator up to his floor, he began to get very apprehensive, and when he got to his door, he paused for a few moments, in an attempt to gather his thoughts, and to best try to figure out a course of action. When he felt as ready as he could be, he unlocked the door and went in.
When he got inside, he looked around. There was no one in sight. But then he looked again and saw Kate standing over by the stone. Both her arms were straight down, and she was leaning on them on the stove countertop. He couldn't be sure, but he could have swore that he saw her trembling for a second. But then the door closed behind him. The sound called her attention to him. She slowly looked up.
When she saw who it was, her face took on a look of such hate, despair, and regret. Just as he bent to set his suitcase down, she immediately turned, grabbed a coffee mug from a shelf behind her, and threw it at him.
"YOU GODDAMN BASTARD!" She yelled as she whipped it at him.
He had only the briefest second of warning before it thudded hard into his chest and fell to the ground shattering. The pain and the impact forced him to step back, a few paces. He looked down and saw it was the coffee mug that Kate had bought him shortly after they'd gotten married. It said WORLD'S GREATEST HUSBAND. He looked up at Kate. As much importance as the cup was to him, he knew why she'd used that one, and not a random one.
Rick decided to walk over to her. He stopped on the opposite side of the stove counter.
"Kate! I didn't make that movie! That's not me! I don't know who did it or why, but I didn't do that! I would NEVER betray your trust in our vows! Never!"
She had watched him walk over to where is was now. She looked him in the eye and said. "Yeah, I'm sure it was your evil twin brother, right?" She spat out, still looking at him as if she could just wish him to death.
"Please, Kate. I know I don't have proof right now. But I have talked to Ron Weber, my lawyer. You know him, right? He's looking into it right now, and as soon as we find out who is making these tapes, we'll get an injunction to stop them. We're going to figure out who did this, and get the evidence we need to prove it for you… and me." Rick said the last two words more quietly than the previous ones.
Kate paused for a moment. It looked like maybe she was calming down. But she looked him square in the eye and said. "I think you need to move out for the time being. Maybe we should even have a trial separation until this is resolved. If everything works out as you say, then we'll be alright again. But if not." Kate paused for a moment, and then looked back down to the countertop. "My lawyer will contact you with divorce papers." "Could I- Would I be able to see the girls, … sometimes?" Rick said with pleading in his voice.
"Yeah. But not today. Stop by tomorrow, while I'm at work. I don't expect to be home before 6 PM. Joe takes the girls to the park in the morning. You can stop by after that." After another pause, Kate continued. "But for now, I'd like you to leave."
Rick nodded his head. "Alright. I'll stay at the Cosmopolitan. It's only about a mile away. I'll text you the room number when I get there." Rick walked a few feet towards the door, and then he turned back to face her.
"Kate? I'm so sorry that this is happening to us, to you, to me. I swear that I will resolve this for you. I'm sorry."
With that, he turned to face the door and headed over to his suitcase and laptop bag. Before he picked them up, he bent down to examine the coffee mug she'd thrown at him. It was only a cheap ceramic mug. But she'd had loved in her heart, and a sparkle in her eye when she'd given it to him with a kiss full of passion. He could only pray that he'd be able to restore them back to her. Soon.
For now, he picked up his belongings, and headed out the door, with a heavy heart. He rubbed his chest, where she'd hit him with the mug.
#
Having lived in New York all his life, he caught a cab and had them head for the hotel. He checked in there and sent a message to Kate informing him of where he'd be staying. Once that was done, he called Black Pawn to find out if there was any news for the rest of the book tour.
The main receptionist, Rhonda, answered the phone. "Black Pawn Publishing. How may I direct your call?"
"Hi, Rhonda. This is Richard Castle. I was wondering if Gina Cowell had come in, or if you'd heard from her today?"
"I'm sorry, Mistah Castle. I ain't heard from her or seen her today. Ain't you guys supposed to be in Who-ston by now?" Rick smiled to himself at the way she said, Houston.
"Um, no. They had problems and had to cancel my appearances there. What about Mr. Grimm? Is he there?"
"Nah. He never comes in on the weekend. Do you wan' me to leave him a message for ya?"
"Well, yeah. That might be a good idea. Please tell him that since Houston canceled my appearances, I need to know if any other locations have done the same. And Rhonda? If Gina contacts you, have her call me as soon as she can, alright?"
"You got it, Mistah Castle. I'll pass the message along, like you wan'. By the way, that was one hell of a movie you made with Miss Cowell, huh?" She said with a snort.
"Uh, that wasn't me in that movie, Rhonda. I don't think it was Miss Cowell, either. I'll call tomorrow to try to catch them later. Thanks!" And he ended the call.
'Oh boy. I guess I shouldn't be surprised they know about it here, too.' He thought to himself. He thought about what he could do for the rest of the day. He decided to go out to a newsstand down in the lobby and get any papers or magazines that are talking about him. He figured that the Ledger would probably have the most coverage since they had their beloved Page 6 section to deal with celebrities and gossip.
As Rick was reading thru the papers, there were stories about President Bush downplaying the chance of a Palestinian state in the next year, After that, Martha Stewart was sentenced for her crimes for attempting to cover up illegal stock trading, and it looked like Enron was going to come out of bankruptcy with a new company name.
He didn't find the story about his own problem until deeper into the paper. 'Thank goodness for some sense of decorum' Rick thought to himself. But, just like he thought, there WAS a bit of news on Page 6, near the bottom.
########################################
What's Richard Castle up to these days? If you hadn't heard, he seems to have an explicit sex-tape out now, for the discerning viewer. I guess he either thinks he's not famous enough, or else he just likes sleeping around with a VIDEO CAMERA watching him. Sources say that his publishing company, Black Pawn, has yet to make any comment on the hour-long film. You can purchase it online for under $80 bucks if you want to watch it yourself. We here at the Ledger had a chance to watch it, and we have only one thing to say. That man has STAMINA! So if celebrity sex videos are your thing, pick up a copy today. You won't be disappointed.
Rick has a bittersweet laugh at his own expense when he read that. 'I sure hope Kate doesn't read that. What am I saying! If anyone at the precinct sees it, they'll probably tell her.' He thought to himself, with a sigh.
He looked through all the rest of the papers, and fortunately, none of them had any bigger of a story than that. Although one of the gossip rags had a two-inch by a three-inch image from the movie itself. Thank heavens it just showed him sitting on the bed, apparently talking to Gina's look-alike. It must have been before the action started because he still had clothes on. One thing about it made him a little happy. The suit the fake-Rick was wearing was a way too loud of a color than he'd ever wear. A bold purple pattern. It looked like it was straight out of a porn movie.
By this time, he figured that he should probably eat. True, he wasn't very hungry, but still. He had room service deliver a lite meal for himself. Just a cold ham and cheese sandwich, with a beer. When he was done, he couldn't quite bring himself to watch any television, for fear of seeing something more about himself or Gina. He considered the idea of trying to work on his next novel but didn't really feel any inspiration. Without Kate, he felt dead inside. At last, he decided to go down to the hotel workout room and get some exercise.
Maybe if he did something strenuous enough, he'd be tired enough to sleep through the night. He hoped. Most of his time there, he ran on a treadmill. He managed a five-mile run. Normally, he did about three miles, but he kind of zoned out, trying to think of what he could do for Kate, and before he knew it, he'd gotten past five miles. Then he hit the weights for a bit, and that really had him sweating and feeling exhausted. He made his way up to his room, showered and went to sleep. For all his efforts to avoid it, he still had a very restless and sleepless night.
#
The next day, Rick checked in with Black Pawn during the mid-morning. Gina had returned last night, and he had a chance to talk with her about the tour.
"So, Gina. What's the news? Do I do Austin? Or Dallas? Or the rest? What did you find out?"
"It's not good news for the present. Including Houston, all of the next four stops have canceled on us. I'm struggling to try to convince Jacksonville to go forward, and I'm hopeful. But at least DC, Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York are still onboard. That means that, counting today, you have from now until the 28th to do what you want. That's nine days."
"Well, as you'd expect, that's good and bad. Bad, because it's fewer fans to see, but good, because maybe we can get this fixed by then. I hope." Rick looked over his notes for what he had thought to do.
"Have you spoken with Mr. Grimm? Is Black Pawn going to be backing me in this situation?"
"Yes. I've talked to my uncle, and he agrees that this could work out badly for us. So he's on the team. That should make you happy." She said, a bit disgruntled.
"Why do you sound like that, Gina? Isn't this better for us to resolve this, and be exonerated? Don't you want that?" he asked, incredulously.
"Y-Yeah, it is good. It's just that joining forces will paint some of the problems on Black Pawn, as well."
"Gina, if you don't want to, that's okay. But it means I'll be looking for a new publisher with my next book. We are either a team or we're not. It's up to you and your uncle, Mr. Grimm."
"No. That's fine. It's just that, when I first saw the story, I had this brief idea of you being the big 'Bad Boy' Mystery Writer, and how much appeal that would have for your fans, especially the women fans. There's definitely an appeal for that sort of thing, and as many problems as your having, the 'Bad Boy' feel can only help you. That's all."
"I agree, that would be appealing. But not at this cost. Not at the risk of my marriage." He replied.
"Well, think of this. If you did get divorced, you could still see the girls, maybe date Kate. But also be available for all the other women out there that would LOVE to date you. You'd bring int at least twice the amount of revenue, that way." Gina told him, warming to the subject.
"Gina. I'm not writing books to be able to date other women. I have a family. My girls, my wife. Kate is all I need. I know you've mentioned that over the years, but it has no appeal to me, to be away from them. Can't we just drop it?"
"Okay, okay. I will. Give me a call in a few days, and we'll see if we can get any other stores that might want you to show up, in the meantime."
"Sure. I have a number of things to do here, but I might have some time for a couple. I'll call you later."
#
When that day had started, Kate had gone into the Precinct. She stops at her desk at Homicide, on the fourth floor to check her mail and email. Then she heads up to the seventh floor, Organized Crime. It had been almost a month since her case with the three bodies down near the docks had occurred. But because of all the mob times, she had been tasked by Montgomery to be the liaison between Homicide and Organized Crime Control Bureau, or OCCB for short. She headed right over to Detective Daniels desk. At the moment, he wasn't there. She turned to ask one of his coworkers, and they said he was down at 1PP, giving a report to the commissioner. The coworker said he'd probably be back in an hour. She thanked him and left.
Since she was only doing paperwork down in Homicide today, She decided to head over to the morgue and see her old friend. When she walked in, she saw Lanie sitting at her desk, typing up a report. She looked up and saw Kate and smiled.
"Hey, girl! How're you doing this fine Monday morning?" Lanie exclaimed, and walked over to give her a hug.
"Hi, Lanie. I thought I'd stop by here, say hi, and maybe get some guidance."
"Sure! What's going on?"
"Well, I was at work, last Friday, and one of the other Detectives asked me 'Do you like being married to a movie star?'. I was a bit confused until he told me about this movie that's been released. According to him, the movie has Rick and Gina Cowell in it. And they're having sex! Fortunately, he'd brought in his own laptop from home into work, and he was able to show me a bit of it. It was awful! They were in bed together, and Rick was on top of her, and… and… it showed pretty much everything! I don't even know how I get home that night. After all the stuff that's been going on this last month, and he does this? I wanted to shoot him!"
"Honey, calm down. Are you sure it was him in the movie? That sounds totally out of character for Rick."
"Okay, so I didn't sit and watch the whole thing. Supposedly, it's over an hour long. I only watched about five minutes in the middle of it. From what I could see, it sure looked like him!"
"Have you talked to him about it yet?"
He called on the phone early yesterday morning. I just called him a lot of names and hung up on him. But he got home yesterday afternoon, and we talked a bit. I might have thrown a coffee mug at him. I hit him, too! Maybe I should have thrown a carving knife at him!" Kate said with an evil smile.
"Woah! Girl, you need to calm down a minute. What did he say to you?"
Rick has a bittersweet laugh at his own expense when he read that. 'I sure hope Kate doesn't read that. What am I saying! If anyone at the precinct sees it, they'll probably tell her.' He thought to himself, with a sigh.
He looked through all the rest of the papers, and fortunately, none of them had any bigger of a story than that. Although one of the gossip rags had a two-inch by a three-inch image from the movie itself. Thank heavens it just showed him sitting on the bed, apparently talking to Gina's look-alike. It must have been before the action started because he still had clothes on. One thing about it made him a little happy. The suit the fake-Rick was wearing was a way too loud of a color than he'd ever wear. A bold purple pattern. It looked like it was straight out of a porn movie.
By this time, he figured that he should probably eat. True, he wasn't very hungry, but still. He had room service deliver a lite meal for himself. Just a cold ham and cheese sandwich, with a beer. When he was done, he couldn't quite bring himself to watch any television, for fear of seeing something more about himself or Gina. He considered the idea of trying to work on his next novel but didn't really feel any inspiration.
Without Kate, he felt dead inside. At last, he decided to go down to the hotel workout room and get some exercise. Maybe if he did something strenuous enough, he'd be tired enough to sleep through the night. He hoped. Most of his time there, he ran on a treadmill. He managed a five-mile run. Normally, he did about three miles, but he kind of zoned out, trying to think of what he could do for Kate, and before he knew it, he'd gotten past five miles. Then he hit the weights for a bit, and that really had him sweating and feeling exhausted. He made his way up to his room, showered and went to sleep. For all his efforts to avoid it, he still had a very restless and sleepless night.
#
When that day had started, Kate had gone into the Precinct. She stops at her desk at Homicide, on the fourth floor to check her mail and email. Then she heads up to the seventh floor, Organized Crime. It had been almost a month since her case with the three bodies down near the docks had occurred. But because of all the mob times, she had been tasked by Montgomery to be the liaison between Homicide and
Organized Crime Control Bureau, or OCCB for short. She headed right over to Detective Daniels desk. At the moment, he wasn't there. She turned to ask one of his coworkers, and they said he was down at 1PP, giving a report to the commissioner. The coworker said he'd probably be back in an hour. She thanked him and left.
Since she was only doing paperwork down in Homicide today, She decided to head over to the morgue and see her old friend. When she walked in, she saw Lanie sitting at her desk, typing up a report. She looked up and saw Kate and smiled.
"Hey, girl! How're you doing this fine Monday morning?" Lanie exclaimed, and walked over to give her a hug.
"Hi, Lanie. I thought I'd stop by here, say hi, and maybe get some guidance."
"Sure! What's going on?"
"Well, I was at work, last Friday, and one of the other Detectives asked me 'Do you like being married to a movie star?'. I was a bit confused until he told me about this movie that's been released. According to him, the movie has Rick and Gina Cowell in it. And they're having sex! Fortunately, he'd brought in his own laptop from home into work, and he was able to show me a bit of it. It was awful! They were in bed together, and Rick was on top of her, and… and… it showed pretty much everything! I don't even know how I get home that night. After all the stuff that's been going on this last month, and he does this? I wanted to shoot him!"
"Honey, calm down. Are you sure it was him in the movie? That sounds totally out of character for Rick."
"Okay, so I didn't sit and watch the whole thing. Supposedly, it's over an hour long. I only watched about five minutes in the middle of it. From what I could see, it sure looked like him!"
"Have you talked to him about it yet?"
He called on the phone early yesterday morning. I just called him a lot of names and hung up on him. But he got home yesterday afternoon, and we talked a bit. I might have thrown a coffee mug at him. I hit him, too! Maybe I should have thrown a carving knife at him!" Kate said with an evil smile.
"Woah! Girl, you need to calm down a minute. What did he say to you?"
"He told me it wasn't him, that he's having our lawyer look into it, to stop them from selling it and to find out why they made it, and who was in it. But seriously! Where are you going to find a twin to Rick? He did it, I'm sure of it!"
"Alright, I know I'm normally the more emotional one here, but I have to ask you. What will you do if he can't prove it wasn't him?"
"I'm going to divorce him, and file for sole custody of the girls," Kate said, with a very stoic voice.
"Um, okay. And what if he can prove he didn't do it?"
"Uh, well, I guess I'll cross that bridge when I get there. Although… if he DIDN'T do it, I'll find out who did, and I'll kill THEM! I'll shoot them in each eye, and once in the crotch!"
"Well, at least you seem to have a plan there, girl. Just do us all a favor and don't shoot Rick first. I got confidence in him, not to mention quite a few years of knowledge of him. I'm betting on him. At least for now. So go on your way, let me know if you find anything else out about this, and DON'T SHOOT ANYONE, ya hear?" Lanie said to her, with her own patented Lanie glare.
Kate smiled back at her and said. "Okay, no shooting… Yet. But maybe I could use my fingernails to claw out their eyes? You think?"
"Girl, you trim your fingernails short for your job. I think you'd have a hard time with that. For now, lets TRY and give Rick the benefit of the doubt for a little, to see what he finds out. Now, go! You have criminals waiting to be caught." Lanie told her, and pointed out the doors of the morgue.
"Thanks, Lanie. I'm glad I've got you for a friend. Talk to you later, okay? And Kate gave her a hug before she left.
#
When Kate arrived back at the 12th, she again checked her desk for messages, and then headed up to OCCB. This time when the elevator doors opened, Daniels was sitting at his desk, filling out a form.
"Hey, Frank! How's 1PP?" Kate said when she saw him.
"Hey, Beckett. 1PP is always demanding reports the day before crap happens. How's life been treating you?"
"I'll tell you, I've had a hell of a weekend, and not in a good way." Kate lamented.
"Oh boy. Some kind of problem with the NYPD? Or some kind of problem with Rick?"
"It's Rick again. I don't know if you've heard, but apparently a tape has been released that has him and another woman having sex, in it." Kate said quietly, so no one else could hear.
Daniels looked up into her eyes with consternation. "Come with me." And he walked them over to one of the conference rooms. He then pulled the shades and locked the door. Once he was sure they wouldn't be interrupted, he turned to her.
"What do you mean that he was in a sex movie?"
"So he has this publisher. Her name's Gina Cowell, and she this busty blonde. In the movie, they… get it on, I guess you'd say. I haven't wanted to watch the whole movie, but I watched about five minutes of it, and they don't hold anything back."
"My gosh, Beckett. How are you handling this?"
"Well, I hid at home on Saturday. On Sunday, Rick called me. I yelled at him and hung up. He flew home, and we had a bit of a talk. After I threw stuff at him, the jerk!"
"So… What are you going to do now? Are you going to leave him? Are you going to find a way to stay together? If I did that, I'd never expect my wife to stay with me."
"Well, you don't have a wife, so it's not a problem for you now, is it?" She said with a sad smirk.
"What's going to happen, then? Lawyers?"
"Right now, Rick says he has our lawyer looking into who released it, and who was in it. Considering how much the guy looks like Rick, I'm not very hopeful of it NOT being Rick. But I can at least give him a little bit of time. However, for the time being, we are doing a trial separation. He's gone to a hotel to stay. I imagine he'll probably stop by the loft today to see the girls this afternoon. But for now, he's persona non grata around me."
"I'm really sorry about this, Beckett. Have you had anyone else to talk to about it? You can't just hold it inside. It'll kill you."
"I was talking to Lanie before I came back here. I told you about her, right? Anyways, she's on the wait and see side of things. Aside from her, you're the only other person I've talked to about this."
"Do your girls know? Or your brother-in-law… What was him name? John? Jacob? Does he know?"
"His name is Joe. I haven't talked to him for three of four days. I don't know if he's aware of the sex movie. He knows about the fact that I'm having problems. As for the girls, I think they can sense that I'm bothered. I've seen them sometimes crying. At night, they always want their Daddy to tuck them in. I don't know how that's going to work out if we get divorced."
"I have an idea if you don't mind. Obviously, the Precinct is not really the place to talk about this. I don't mean to be too forward about this, but what if we go out for dinner tomorrow night. Nothing romantic. Just a place where we can eat and talk in relative privacy. Would that be okay?"
Kate paused at that. Going out with another man could be a problem. "Um, where did you plan on us going to? If you don't mind me asking?"
"That's not a problem. I don't cook a lot, but I do get by pretty well. I thought that if we ate at my place, we'd have no interruptions, and a nice meal, where you can talk to me, and ask me any questions you might have. Maybe we could figure out the best ground rules for you to work with. Would that be okay with you?"
Again, Kate paused. She thought to herself. 'He may be a handsome guy, but I don't want to do something that I've accused Rick of.'
"How about this instead. There's a nice Restaurant that Rick and I have gone to. They have good food, and they also have separate rooms for people to sit in so they don't get disturbed. Would that be okay?"
"That would be fine. Kate. I do not want to cause you any problems. Why don't you text me the address tomorrow afternoon, and we can meet there. Okay?"
Thanks, Frank. I'll see you then." She shook his hand and left the room with a little spring in her step. She felt like maybe there were some possibilities. Tomorrow she'd find out.
#
Rick arrived at the loft around 1 PM. To play it safe, he knocked first. In about a minute, Joe answered the door.
"Hey, Rick. How's the book tour been?"
"Hi, Joe. Lately? Lately, it's been hell." Rick said, keeping his voice down. "Are there girls here?"
"Yeah, they went down for a brief nap half an hour ago. They'll probably be getting up soon. So… Kate told me about the video. That wasn't you, was it?" Joe asked, looking Rick in the eyes.
"No," Rick said quietly. "I've got Weber, Felder, and Goldstein looking into it. I'm hoping that they'll be able to stop the sale, and also find out who was in that movie. But I did NOT do that. I would never do that to Kate!" He said, raising his voice a bit.
"Hey, that's all right. I didn't think so. You've never struck me as that kind of exhibitionist. I know that there have been times when you and Kate would… well… head for your bedroom at the drop of the hat. But this seems beyond the pale. I haven't seen it myself. Have you?"
"Yeah, I watched a good bit of it last night. I downloaded it from the net. I couldn't bring myself to watch the whole thing, or even most of it. But I hopped around through the video, and it sure looks like me. I might be wrong because you never really know how your own voice sounds, but he doesn't sound quite like me. A bit lower pitch than me. But unfortunately, I'd believe it. If it wasn't about me."
"Rick, are you back now, for good?"
"Sadly, no. I'm going to be staying at the Cosmopolitan in Tribeca for the week. I'll be in Room 603.
At that moment, they heard a door opening upstairs. They then heard little footsteps running down the stairs.
"Daddy! Daddy! Are you home?" At that moment, both girls came around the corner and saw Joe and Rick still standing just inside the doorway.
"Daddy!" And they both jumped onto him. Rick bent down so that he could hug both of the girls, and give them kisses on their cheeks.
"Daddy needs to shave. Scratchy!" Lacey said. But Alexis said, "I like Daddy scratches. I'm glad your back, Daddy!" And she hugged him very tightly.
Joe stuck his own two cents in. "You want a cup of coffee?
"Yes. Thanks, Uncle Joe." Rick then turned to the girls. "Has Uncle Joe been taking good care of you while I was gone? I heard you like to go to the park." He asked them.
"Oh! They have a bumpy slide that we can ride down, and they also have a slide that goes in a circle. I like that one best!"
Rick asked. "Joe? A circle slides?"
"Well, it just spirals down thru a full 360 degrees. All the kids there just love it. These two just keep sliding down it over and over and over!"
"Wow! It sounds Like you girls had a lot of fun, didn't you?" Rick asked the girls.
"Yes, Daddy. We like it a lot. But what I like even more, is when you tuck us in at night and read us a story. Can you do that tonight?" Alexis asked. Rick's face fell.
"I don't think I can do it just yet. I still have work to do, and even though I'll try to stop in to see you on occasion, I will be busy the other items. But I'll always give you both big hugs when I'm here. Okay?"
"We like your hugs, Daddy. You want to play a game with us?" Alexis asked, with puppy dog eyes.
"Yeah! Play Candyland with us!" Lacey added.
"Okay! Let's go play Candyland. Who'll be blue? Can I be blue?" And Rick walked upstairs to their room with them. Just as he was about to head upstairs, Joe walked up to him.
""Here's your coffee, Rick. They've missed you so much." Joe said, with a smile.
"Thanks, Joe. I missed them, too. And Kate, most of all." Rick headed upstairs with the girls.
#
About three hours later, Rick came back down the stairs. He was carrying with difficulty both Alexis and Lacey in his arms and was very carefully walking down the stairs. Both of the girls were giving him kisses on his cheeks.
"Daddy, I wish you didn't have to go. We like playing games with you. You're almost as good as Uncle Joe!"
At that, Rick looked over in Joe's direction. Joe just looked at him, and shrugged, like What-Can-You-Do? type movement.
"Well, I'm glad you are having so much fun with Uncle Joe. Everything I know, I learned from him. So he's almost an honorary Daddy, you know?"
"When will you come back?" Lacey said, seeming depressed.
"Either tomorrow or Wednesday. For sure!" He said to both of his girls. "Now, let me kiss you goodbye until I see you again, okay?"
"Okay, Daddy," Alexis said. "Sure, Daddy," Lacey said, with her eyes down.
"Girls, I want you to remember one very important thing. I will always love you, and love your mother. No matter what happens. Forever and ever, until the end of time. Okay? So, don't forget that. If you ever want to talk to me, I'll always care about you, and help you. Always." Rick then bent over and kissed each of them on the forehead. "Say hi to your Mommy, too. I'll see you in a day or two. Let Uncle Joe tuck you in tonight."
"Bye, Daddy." They both said to him, in unison. He reached down and squeezed a shoulder on each of them, and then opened the door, and left.
As much as it was great seeing them again, and hugging them, and kissing them. It was a very bittersweet moment because this might be the beginning of the end. He hoped not, but he thought back to his phone call to his lawyer, before he arrived here.
########################################
He had called Ron Weber around noon. And because they were expecting him to call, he was put through to Ron right away.
"Ron? Did you find anything out? He asked.
"Well, we have some good news and some not so good news. The good is that we do know the company. They are called Corazón de la pasión Films. As you can probably figure out from the name, they are not an American company. They are based out of Mexico, and although they have similar laws, they are different enough for us to delay things a bit."
"Wel, I guess I have to ask. How much of a delay?" Rick asked uncertainty in his voice.
"Probably at least a week. Currently, we are doing the paperwork, and submitting the legal documents and we hope to be talking to them tomorrow. I don't expect much from it, but they will at least be served so that they know we mean business. Back on the good side of things, this company has a reputation for fly-by-night operations. They've closed down twice in the last five years, only to re-open again. In each case of closing down, they were subject to a lawsuit, and the people suing them were able to make them stop. But on the not-so-good side of things, they never got the proof of who was in the videos."
"Oh, crap," Rick said to himself.
"Yeah, Rick. I know. The only thing I can think of is that maybe there will either be some kind of paper trail about this, and we can find out who authorized it. Or else, maybe there is something in the movie that could prove it wasn't you? I know I'm grasping at straws, but that's how we currently stand."
"Okay, Ron. Thanks for that. Please keep following up on what you've been doing. I'll grit my teeth, and watch the whole thing myself. Maybe I'll get lucky. Thanks, again."
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That night, Rick sat himself down, turned on his laptop, and watched the whole movie. The guy looked so much like him, it made him squirm in his seat. He'd never seen Gina in less than s professional dress, so he didn't know what to look for on her double. She *looked* right, but beyond that, he wasn't sure. As for the fake-Rick. The only thing he noticed was that the guy's voice seemed a bit lower than his. But not much else.
Rick ate in his room again. He also had a very unsettled night of sleep.