Some of you more 'sensitive' readers may want to skip this chapter.
OM
She Learned the Truth at 17 By Oldest Man
Chapter 11
"Where are you? I'll come alone and you can have me and let her go."
Shaw was vigorously shaking her head 'no' but Castle ignored her and kept talking.
'You have paper? There are brownstones that are being torn down…'
Castle felt a hand creep into his and he glanced up and saw Kate standing beside him. He ignored her and concentrated on the call.
"I'll be there, Ludmilla. I always hoped that somehow you made it out alive."
Nothing made sense anymore to Katherine Beckett. Her world was spinning out of her control and she hated not being in control.
"Castle, you can't do this. You can't go in alone. How will Alexis get home? You have to have backup, Castle. You had a spotter as a sniper. You need someone with you. Take me, Castle. If – if Alexis is released, someone needs to take care of her. She might be hurt or…"
"Wire me up, Shaw. And if you don't mind, can I borrow that neat little hammerless Colt again?"
He wasn't ignoring Kate, he was just focusing on details that would force him to suppress his raging emotions and fears about the safety of his daughter. He had to get 'cold' before things got hot.
Rick unbuttoned his shirt cuff and pushed up the sleeve and strapped on the sheath and ceramic knife that was issued to 'black ops' people that he'd 'requisitioned' while in the service. He saw Shaw eyeballing it.
"What? You can buy these on TV now. And liberals say nothing good ever comes out of the military-industrial complex." That got him a few nervous chuckles from some agents and a withering glare from Shaw.
"C'mon, Jordan. Show us some leg. I need your peashooter." More inappropriate humor.
He was struck by a sudden thought.
"Are any of you agents lawyers by chance?" He knew that back in the day J. Edgar had required that all agents have law degrees.
One young agent raised his hand and Castle motioned him over while he rebuttoned his shirt cuff.
Castle handed him a pen and a legal pad from his desk and said, "Write. This is a codicil to my Will and supersedes all others. Ready?" The agent nodded and Castle dictated.
Bare bones and to the point, it named Katherine Beckett as Executrix of the Estate and Guardian for his minor daughter, Alexis Rogers Castle. He looked over at Kate and she nodded and said, "Of course, Rick."
He bequeathed everything except for $10 to Meredith to buy a different color lipstick, $30 to Gina to actually buy a copy of his book and $5 million each to his mother and daughter. Kate would oversee the estate. He left Kate everything else.
He signed and dated it and had Jordan Shaw witness it.
"Okay, Beckett, you got your cannon with you? I don't want you sitting in my car in a bad neighborhood without being able to protect it."
He was wired and armed and before he left he grabbed a blanket from the back of the couch and a jacket for Alexis out of the closet.
"She'll be cold, Kate. Lexie hates the cold. Keep her warm for me, please?" He blinked back tears and then told Shaw to 'follow us in a few minutes. Kate's driving so we'll get there a lot quicker'.
The drive to the tenement district and its derelict brownstones reprieved by stalled urban redevelopment took 15 minutes and neither Rick nor Kate said a word.
"Pull over here, Kate. Leave the engine running. If you see Lexie, run to her and then leave. I'm sorry we argued, Kate, but I won't ever lie to you."
He leaned over and kissed her cheek and said, "See ya around, Detective," and left, walking briskly to the front steps of the designated tenement. Beckett shook off her daze and ran to him, throwing her arms around him, trying not to spoil the moment by crying.
"You listen to me, Richard Castle, and you listen good. You better be safe and you better be ready to have me in your life for the rest of it because I'm not going anywhere but into that damned tenement with you, understand? 'I thought we were a couple. We should do things together and that includes stuff like this'. Isn't that what you said?"
"Kate, please…I need you out here, safe. Alexis will need you if anything goes wrong. Trust me, Kate. I want 'happily ever after' now more than ever but I can't operate with you in the room. Stay, baby, stay out here and be my backup for my kid…please, Kate?"
"Fine, but as soon as Shaw and her gang get here, I'm coming in there and you better still have both hands attached and that over-inflated ego holder you call a head intact, understand me?"
He kissed her quickly and ran up the steps. The door was ajar and he pushed it open wishing he'd remembered to bring a flashlight. When his eyes adjusted to the gloom he saw flickering light coming up from the basement area and carefully made his way down the debris-clogged, narrow stairs and into a dimly lit basement with a low ceiling and a dirt floor.
Something smelled – dead. He knew the smell from Bosnia. His unit had once uncovered a mass grave and forensic pathologists from all over the world spent days and days identifying individual remains. The smell was not something Rogers would ever forget. Even when it rained the smell still permeated clothing and nasal passages.
"I'm here. Where's my daughter?" He called out but not too loudly. He examined every visible element of the basement but he was alone. The flickering candles did not illuminate the entire basement area that he knew was at least 20X60 and all he could really see was an area of about 10X20 feet.
The basement door slammed shut and he jumped, startled, and almost reached for the small pistol in his coat pocket. He heard the tapping of heels on the stairs leading down into the basement and was momentarily blinded by the bright light of a flashlight.
He threw his arm across his eyes and blinked furiously. He needed to be able to see and he'd effectively lost his night vision.
Cringing and unable to see much, Rick called out, "Where's my daughter? Where's Alexis?"
"So, you did love her. You named your daughter after Alexaya. Well, for that, you deserve the truth. She's in the building beside this one, asleep and safe. She is drugged and will sleep several more hours. I would not kill a child, not even yours." It was the voice of the woman from the phone call.
Rick's vision began to improve and he could see her outline and he walked slowly towards her, his hands at his side, unthreatening.
"Stop! I will shoot you if you do not stop!" Her voice had an hysterical edge to it and Rick decided to take a chance and play on that hysteria.
"Alexsaya? Is that you? No, it can't be. I – I buried you. I thought you were dead. Your – "
"That's close enough. Stop! Stop or I will shoot you!"
"Oh, Alexsaya, you wouldn't shoot your own husband, would you? We can be together now, Alexsaya, just as we hoped we could. There is no war here and we can live our lives as we planned and – "
"No! You are crazy. I am Ludmilla, her sister, Ludi, remember? You and Alexsaya?"
He had moved close enough to reach out and cup her face. She looked so much like Alexaya that he caressed the right side of her face and she closed her eyes for a moment for whatever reason, and he struck, fast, just as he'd been trained.
He slid his left hand behind her head and grasped her chin with his right and twisted, pulling the head counterclockwise while pushing up and away with the right.
There was an audible cracking and crunching sound and she dropped to the cellar floor, dead, her neck broken.
With a sob, Rick ran up the stairs and out of the abandoned brownstone's front door into a sea of flashing red lights and FBI agents and NYPD officers. The press had also arrived. They all had police scanners.
He saw Kate coming down the stairs of the adjacent brownstone's steps half-carrying and dragging Alexis who was still heavily drugged.
Paramedics rushed up and took Alexis from Kate and she turned and ran over to where Rick was making his way through the crowd of officers to the ambulance. She held him in a bone-crushing embrace.
"Are you all right? I heard everything, Rick. It's over and you did what you had to do to save Alexis and yourself. No one can blame you."
"I killed her. I used every trick in the book to get close enough and then I killed her. Jesus, Kate, what kind of man am I? I used a woman's love for her sister to get close enough to break her neck!"
"You're a father who did what he had to do to save his child. You're a good and kind man and I never want to hear you say anything like that again, hear me? Let's go check on Alexis and then you have to call Martha and tell her the news."
She grabbed his hand in hers and felt how cold it was and how unfocused his eyes were. "C'mon, Rick, let's go check on Alexis and then I think we need to go home and just hang on to each other for a long time."
Captain Montgomery and Agent Shaw intercepted the couple. "Beckett, a word, please? Mr. Castle, please see to your daughter but then Agent Shaw and I will need a few moments of your time before you can go home."
His tone and instructions made the hair on Kate's neck stand up. What was wrong now?
Rick just nodded and walked toward the ambulance and his daughter. He couldn't care less what the police or FBI wanted. He planned on taking Alexis home and locking the door and not answering it or the phone for a few days or maybe even taking off and heading out to the Easthampton house.
He figured the press would be all over the loft building and his family needed time to reconnect and relax. It would give Kate Beckett the time she said she needed to 'come to grips' with the situation between them.
Castle slid between groups of agents and officers and climbed into the ambulance and sat next to the gurney Alexis was strapped to. She was on oxygen and the EMTs had started an IV of something.
"What's wrong with her? Why is she on oxygen?" He grabbed one of the EMTs who knew him by sight from crime scenes.
"Mr. Castle, she's been injected with a powerful sedative and we're just being cautious and making sure she has enough oxygen. The IV is just something to balance her electrolytes. Until we get to the hospital and can draw blood for analysis, this is all we can do. You're welcome to ride along with us."
Meanwhile, Beckett, Shaw and Captain Montgomery were talking about the 'incident' and what was going to happen next. Kate kept looking over her shoulder to make sure Castle was still in sight, wishing she was with him instead of out here.
"Beckett, we need to know what happened in that basement. We heard – Is Castle mentally stable? He told that woman he'd married her sister and then he snapped her neck like it was a twig! He's been under a great deal of stress and – "
"Oh, no, you two can't be serious. He told me – he told me he used what he had to take her out. That was the plan from the beginning. The woman was a serial killer and you're questioning his sanity?"
"Detective, we need to understand the situation from his viewpoint. As soon as his daughter is in the hospital, we need to interview him and take his statement. It's procedure. Agent Shaw will accompany you to the hospital and bring him back to the precinct to take his statement. I want you with him the entire time. I want your assessment of his state of mind."
"Listen to yourself, Roy. You want to lock him up in case he's a 'danger to society', right? He does our dirty work in New Jersey and then his family is targeted for revenge and you're questioning his state of mind?"
"Beckett, it's procedure. It was clearly self defense but there are concerns that his actions were – excessive. His circuit was tapped and the entire thing was live on TV. We're doing damage control."
"You mean 'covering your asses', don't you, Captain? And you, Shaw. First, you begged him to help take out Jefferson. And then you let him walk into that basement tonight knowing he might be killed but hoping he'd do exactly what he did and clean up your little mess, and you damned well know it!"
"You have your orders, Detective."
The ambulance with Alexis and Rick drove slowly through the crowd and then took a right turn heading to the hospital. Kate remembered that she had Rick's car and told Agent Shaw 'move it or I'll leave you behind' and got in the Ferrari and drove to the hospital.
Mercy West ER
Castle stayed with Alexis while a nurse took blood samples for analysis and changed Alexis into a hospital gown. "Mr. Castle, we'll keep her overnight just to be safe. You can stay with her every minute. We – we heard the whole thing on TV. You saved your daughter and you should be very proud of what you did."
Rick took out his cell phone and called Paula and told her that he was probably going to be arrested and could she please have an attorney waiting for him at the precinct?
Next he called his mother and told her Alexis was fine and that she needed to get one of the cops to drive her over to Mercy West so she could sit with Alexis and have her eyes checked out. He didn't tell her that he was probably going to be spending the night in jail. She had enough on her mind without worrying about him.
Kate parked the Ferrari and almost ran to the ER entrance. She wanted to warn Rick about the 'interview' so he could make plans. She also wanted to tell him that she planned on taking some time off from the precinct, maybe the rest of her life, so they could spend the holidays together and reconnect. She finally had her priorities straight in her own mind.
Kate stopped at the desk and flashed her badge asking for 'Alexis Castle, the kidnapping victim' figuring that the grapevine would spread the word that the victim and her father were in the hospital. A little press coverage might make the FBI back off a little.
When she got to the room where Alexis was being treated, she told Shaw to 'wait here until I call you' and walked in, closing the door behind her.
"Rick, we need to talk and I don't know how much time we have. First off, Shaw is here to take you back to the precinct to take a statement. It's more than that. They're covering their asses because of press coverage. I'll delay as much as possible but I can't promise you a miracle."
"S'okay. I called Paula and an attorney is waiting at the precinct. Figure they want to determine my mental state, right? It's okay, Kate. I understand."
"There's more. I want what you want and I want it now. I was wrong not to understand your feelings. I don't want to lose you, Rick, and I'm afraid that's what will happen if I don't make a commitment."
She was holding both his hands in hers and he used them to pull her down and onto his lap. He buried his face in her neck and she felt the moist tears on her skin and she hugged him tightly to her. Maybe everything would be okay after all.
Kate heard a commotion in the hallway and Castle laughed into her neck. "Mother has made her appearance. I called and asked her to stay with Alexis and have her eyes checked out. I didn't want to leave her alone."
Kate used the sleeve of her blouse to wipe away his tears and kissed him lightly. "I think we should probably get the statement out of the way. If your attorney isn't there, tell Montgomery that you won't talk without an attorney present. I think Shaw screwed something up and she's looking for anything to take the heat off her."
"Things might get ugly, Kate. Stay out of the line of fire, okay? You have to work with him and your career is important to you."
She held his face and forced eye contact. "Listen, you old fool, it's not a choice for me. You on one hand, career on the other – guess who wins?" She grinned and melted into him for a quick fix of Castle and then got to her feet and pulled him after her.
"Let's go tear these idiots a new one, Rick."
While he felt warmed by her words, he knew that without her career, her entire definition of 'Kate Beckett' would be destroyed. Her profession defined her. Without 'Detective' preceding her name, she was nothing, just another scarred woman with horrifying ghosts in her closet.
She needed be a cop just like he needed to be a writer and despite her declaration, he would never let her quit what she loved and what made her his 'Kate' even if it meant losing her. The thought of getting 'The Call' someday haunted his thoughts more than his abandonment issues.
It was Richard Rogers who could live with the fear of her dying in the line of duty. It was Richard Castle who couldn't and that subtle distinction made it a problem of epic proportions.
Richard Castle was a carefully crafted persona created out of necessity. Richard Rogers never fiddled with things. He could sit perfectly still for hours if necessary. Richard Castle grew bored and fidgety after a few minutes of inactivity. Rogers could go days without speaking. Castle couldn't last 10 minutes without hearing the sound of his own voice, or so it seemed to those around him.
Rogers hid behind Castle. He was tired of hiding who he really was. They both wanted Kate Beckett but only one could really have her and that was the real problem. Which one did Kate love?