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I'll call you when I land.

She sat cross-legged in her bed, her computer resting on her lap, a smile spread so wide across her face you could see it from a mile away. She had finally emailed Rick, and after staring at her screen for two hours and holding a paranoia with her when she was away from it for another hour, he finally responded to her desperate pleas to speak to him.

He would be landing back in New York Sunday early-afternoon.

It was now late Saturday afternoon, rain just starting to ping off of her windows, and collect in the gutters above her. The sky was darker than usual and the thought of going outside made her cringe; the perfect excuse for a lazy Saturday to wait for Rick to call her when he landed, and thanks to Alexis, who was working on homework, she knew that he was landing soon for a signing in Pennsylvania, one later that afternoon in Jersey, and then a flight the next morning back to New York.

Another hour later, her phone lit up and she answered it on the first ring. "Hello?"

"You wanted to speak to me?" His tone was completely flat.

"Rick, hi." She pushed her hair back behind her ears and closed her eyes.

"Is everything okay?"

She sat on her knees in the middle of her bed, her phone in one hand, and the other in her lap. She hadn't been this nervous to talk to anyone since her freshman year homecoming when her date asked if he could kiss her. "Yeah, everything's fine, I just wanted to talk to you about the book. I'm sorry, I never should have been so."

He cut her off. "You're really going to do this over the phone?" He basically spat it at her; with good reason.

"No, I- I guess not." She tried to sound confident, but her hands were shaking and her pulse was faster than a race horse.

"You completely shot me down and you think apologizing over the phone is going to make it okay? Kate, this isn't the first time you've done something like this. How about the time sixteen years ago when you left?"

She tried not to get emotional, but her eyes were stinging, and her nerves continued to make her uneasy. "I know, Castle, that's why I want to talk to you. In person."

"Well I think we have a lot more to talk about than just the book."

"I agree." She nodded to herself.

"Look, I'll talk to you when I come and get Alexis tomorrow. I'll call you when I'm on my way over. My driver's here, I have to be at my signing in thirty minutes."

She placed the palm of her hand over her forehead. "Okay, thank you for calling me."

"Mhm." After that, she was met with a click and the line went dead.

She tossed her phone so it landed gently next to her as she rolled onto her side into a ball. "Oh hell." She breathed out. She couldn't tell if that had gone well, or extremely bad. He had been short with her. She knew he would be, and he absolutely deserved to be. But he also agreed to talk to her. That was a victory in and within itself.

Either way, he was giving her a chance; a chance she probably didn't deserve in the slightest. But one thing she knew above anything else was that Rick Castle had faith in her. Whether from the very beginning with Alexis and being young parents, or when she decided to join the academy, or even all of her accomplishments as a detective, he always saw something in her. And that faith and trust in her was enough to give her a chance to fix the damage done.

She finally sat up again after she could keep her breaths even. She reached for the copy of the book that had been sitting on her nightstand ever since he gave it to her in the break room. Derrick Storm stood heroically on the cover, a dazzling display of dark reds and blues surrounding the title: The Killer Storm. She opened it to the dedication and ran her thumb over the print over and over. To Kate, thank you for everything.

Thank you for what? Being a complete bitch to him, or for destroying his attempt at bridging the gap?At least she didn't have to wait sixteen more years to fix it this time.

She woke up the next morning, rain still hitting her window. A low grumble of thunder rumbled her windows, the storm still passing over. When she looked at her clock, she was shocked to see that she had slept in well past usual. Thinking she had missed a phone call, she threw herself at her phone, but had no missed calls, emails, or texts. It was nearly eleven, and still no word from Rick.

Instead of worrying herself to death, Kate made her way to the kitchen and put on a pot of coffee. It was silent, she assumed Alexis was sleeping in too. So she sat silently at the table, catching up on the news, losing track of time.

Nearly an hour and a half later and three cups of coffee gone, Kate still hadn't gotten any calls. He was supposed to have landed ages ago.

"Morning."

She turned to see Alexis enter, her robe tucked around her.

"Morning, Sleeping Beauty." She offered her a smile.

"I can't believe I slept that late." Alexis yawned and tousled her hair.

"Well you didn't miss much." Kate rolled her eyes and checked her phone again.

Alexis took a mug from the cabinet and plopped down on the couch, completely unaware of her mother's demeanor.

'Finally,' she thought as her phone started to buzz beside her on the table. But Castle's ID wasn't the one flashing on her screen. It was a random number, one she recognized but couldn't quite link to any particular place.

"Hello?" She tried not to sound like she was nervous, but something deep inside of her was leading her to believe something bad had happened. Whether it was her detective's instincts, or her spiked anxiety over the past few days, Kate couldn't help the tingles that shot through her.

"Ms. Beckett?" A well-rehearsed, flat toned woman answered her. Something about the phone call wasn't right. Something about it didn't scream redemption from her long lost lover. No, she felt in her gut something much different.

"This is she?" Kate's stomach rolled. Something wasn't right.

"My name is Lauren Perry at Lennox Hill Hospital. You were listed as Mr. Castle's emergency contact. There's been an accident."

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