Rocket Man Chapter XI
I am truely sorry this took so long. I wanted to have this out before my vacation but work wouldn't let me and then I really couldn't get
the done. I'm still not statisfied with it, but I fear it's not getting any better, so I'll post it now.
I'm already working on chapter 12, so I promise you won't have to wait this long again.
As always thanks to the fabulous BBB's.
Disclaimers:
They are not mine. I'm not keeping them, just borrowing, although I wouldn't mind to keep Castle. ;-)
Castle woke early the next morning after a dreamless night. Looking around it took him a moment to realise where he was. His own bedroom. His apartment. They sent him home yesterday. He pushed himself up with his good arm and rested against the headrest, taking in his surroundings. He had barely taken notice of his room when he had arrived yesterday. It was stressful enough to come home to a place he didn't know. But after a good nights rest in a bed that was a million times more comfortable than the one he had occupied in the hospital, he found himself curious. Pushing back the covers, he slipped out of bed and walked over to the sideboard positioned beside the door that let to his office. He picked up one of the picture frames placed on it and smiled at the younger versions of him and his daughter on a beach. There were others of the two of them, some with his mother, some only with Alexis' and then hidden behind all of them was one of her.
It looked like a snap shot, as if she had been unaware of the fact that someone was taking her picture. She was laughing about something, eyes shining and mouth open, so beautiful. He repositioned it, putting it up front, next to the one of his daughter and him on the beach before he left his bedroom and strolled through his office into the living room.
"Hey Dad," he looked up surprised to see his daughter in the kitchen, obviously preparing breakfast.
"Hey," he finally got out and walked over to rest his good arm on the kitchen island, leaning over it to see what she was doing. "Omelettes?"
"Yeah, that's sort of our thing," she explained and expertly flipped the one she had in the pan over.
"Don't you have school, or something?" he asked, sitting down on one of the barstools.
"I only have one course this semester," Alexis stated and placed the omelette on the plate in front of him. He looked at it. Did he like omelettes? He had no idea.
"Maybe we could put some chocolate on it and marshmallows," he suggested and his daughter wrinkled her nose in disgust.
"No more s'morelettes!" she exclaimed, shaking her head once more for effect.
"Oh, I take I had this idea before," he smirked at her.
"Yes, and we didn't like it!" Alexis stared back until she couldn't hold in the laughter any longer. He joined in and enjoyed the sparkle in his daughter's eyes, matching his own.
"What has you two so jolly this early in the morning?" Martha asked, while climbing down the stairs, yawning.
"Dad, wants to have a s'morelette," Alexis elaborated.
Martha looked shocked, "I thought we had talked about this? And decided no more unless you are alone in the house!" Martha shot her son a pitiful look, "Richard, that is really disgusting!"
"It is?" he asked. He honestly didn't know but he was desperate to find out. He looked at his daughter, thinking she was an easier target than his mother. "Please," he put on what he hoped to be a puppy face. "Please!"
He saw Alexis' eyes lock with Martha's shortly before she gave in, "Okay, but only one. And then we never talk about it again!"
He grinned from ear to ear when she finally placed the s'morelette in front of him, rubbing his palms together he then picked up the fork with his right hand and dove into it. After a minute he looked at the two women surrounding him, "This is soooo good!" he shrieked and was rewarded with two major eye rolls. He seemed to have that effect on women.
She walked into the precinct the next morning with a smile on her lips. Yes, her departure had been kind of hasty and yes, she had feared to run into Alexis. She knew she had to face her partner's daughter eventually and better sooner than later, but she needed another day or two to sort things out and to lick her wounds. Despite all of this she couldn't help but feel hopeful, maybe even a bit giddy when she thought about her hands on his body, his smooth skin, the tingle in her stomach when her fingers had danced over his body, the … .
"Beckett?"
Her head shot up, "Huh?" Ryan and Esposito were staring at her, obviously waiting for an answer to a question she had missed. "Sorry, what?"
The boys exchanged a look before Esposito started for the second time, "Do you think it would be okay for Ryan and I to drop by at Castle's later today?"
"Yeah, I guess." She nodded, "You should call Martha though. He might have doctor's appointments."
"Will do," Ryan chirped and was about to turn around, but Beckett's voice stopped him.
"Not so quick, I have work for you," she said and held out a picture of the mysterious John. "Show it around at the Empire State Building, see if someone notice our guy."
"Empire State Building?" Esposito frowned, reaching for the picture Beckett was holding out to him. "Why?"
"Castle noticed the quote under the picture," she said and smiled proudly.
"Castle?" Ryan questioned and snatched the picture out of Esposito's hands.
"Yes, it's a line from Sleepless in Seattle." Beckett explained leaning back in her chair.
"So?" Esposito didn't get it.
"The Meg Ryan movie," Ryan stated as if it was the most obvious thing in the world.
"I say it again: So?" Esposito glared back at his partner.
"Meg Ryan meets Tom Hanks on top of the Empire State Building in the end."
"Aha and how do you know that?" Esposito started to smirk. "Sounds like a chick's movie to me."
"It's one of Jenny's favourites," Ryan defended himself.
"Sure it is," Esposito grinned even wider. "Honeymilk."
"What's that's suppose to mean?" Ryan stepped closer.
"I don't know maybe, instead of going all mushy about a Meg Ryan movie you should, I don't know, watch some guys movie?"
"You think?" Ryan stepped closer to Esposito.
"Yeah I think!" Esposito moved another step forward.
"Guys!" Beckett cut them off.
Both Detectives looked at their boss, "So Castle remembered?" Esposito tried to get back on topic.
But Beckett shook her head, "No, he saw the movie yesterday."
"And you think this is getting us somewhere?" Ryan raised one eyebrow, looking at the picture again.
"Well, do you have a better idea?" Beckett raised one eyebrow.
Ryan shook his head, "Point taken… and on it."
She watched the boys leave and glanced over at Gates office. There was another video conference scheduled in an hour, sighing she grabbed her notes and walked over to the Captain's office to brief her. It would be a short briefing.
He already hated physical therapy. It was exhausting, his arm did hurt like hell and yes he was just a bit whiny about it. And he believed he had the right to be. But Anna his physical therapist wouldn't take no for an answer. And so he had to do the exercises over and over again. He hated that beside his missing memory he was also restricted on his physically possibilities. He wanted it all to end, wanted to feel normal again. Sitting on the couch flipping through TV channels accepted the pain killers that Alexis handed him with a glass of water.
"You should eat something," Alexis said after studying him for a while.
"Not hungry," he mumbled and leaned his head back against the couch after he had knocked down the pills, only to snap it back up when the still sore flesh on the back of his head came in contact with the leather. "Ouch. And I had the s'morelette this morning."
"That was hours ago and a s'morelette does not classify as a proper meal." Alexis snapped back. She had been shocked to see how fast the past days events had drawn on her father's physical appearance. He had lost about 6 or 8 pounds and looked hollow. She had hoped that once he was home he would find the appetite he had obviously lost in the hospital. But despite his excitement over the s'morelette he had refused to eat anything.
"I think I'm old enough to decide when I need to eat and when not, thank you." He retorted.
"Fine," Alexis huffed and turned on her heels.
"Fine," he called after her, letting out a sigh and slamming his right fist into the cushion next to him.
"What's going on?" Martha asked, breezing down the stairs and blocking her granddaughter's escape.
Alexis crossed her arms in front of her chest, "Ask him." Nodding her head into the direction of the couch.
"Richard?" Martha's voice had this slight edge to it only mother's could muster.
Castle slowly stood up and turned towards the two women, raising his right arm and letting it sink against his side again, he huffed, his eyes roaming the room before they came to rest on his daughter, "I'm sorry."
"I wonder where I heard that before," Alexis muttered, unimpressed by his apology.
"Look this is difficult for me," he started to defend himself.
"Yes Dad. But you're not the only for whom this is difficult!" She pointed out and his head fell.
"I know," he sighed. "All I want …," he paused searching for the right words, "What I ask you for is a little bit of patience, please."
She stared at the floor in front of her for what seemed to be an eternity until she finally shrugged, "Okay, I guess I can do that."
"Thank you," he said and tried a small smile in her direction, but Alexis shrugged it off and sidestepped Martha to climb up the stairs.
"I have homework to do." She said over her shoulder before she disappeared.
His eyes followed her retreat until she was out of sight, shaking his head he let out a sigh, he needed to get this under control.
"So what was that about?" Martha asked, walking towards him.
"My eating habits," he elaborated and sat back down on the couch.
"Okay, she's right then, you know that? You haven't eaten much in the past 6 days."
"I know, I'm just not hungry."
"Well, you need to eat nevertheless." Martha stated and looked pointedly at him, waiting for him to acknowledge her in some way.
"I need to make a call," he suddenly said and stalked towards the office.
Beckett sat beside Gates and stared at the monitor waiting for the video conference to start. She dreaded it, because they had nothing. She would sit there like an idiot telling the German authorities that all they had was a picture of some mysterious John from California who might or might not be linked to the murder of Maren Leichsenring. And that was it. She shifted uncomfortably in her seat, earning a stern glare from Gates, which made her stop, sighing deeply and tipping her pen against the wood of the table instead.
"Beckett," Gates hissed. "Stop it!"
She did. She really didn't want to be here. The knock on the door pulled her out of her thoughts and she felt some kind of hope when Esposito poked his head through the door.
"Sorry to interrupt," Esposito apologized, "But we have him!"
Gates raised one eyebrow, "Who?"
"John Whiter, the guy from the Facebook picture." Esposito explained.
Beckett's head snapped around to look at Gates who gave her a tight nod. "Go, I'll do this alone."
Beckett did not need to hear this twice she shot out of the room and followed Esposito, maybe a bit too eagerly, but she didn't care.
"How did you find him?" She asked when they looked through the double glass at the young man from the picture.
"He was standing right in front of the Empire State Building, we just had to pick him up."
"Does he know why he's here?" Beckett questioned while studying their suspect.
"He does know that it's about Maren Leichsenring, but that's all. We thought you might want to surprise him." Esposito grinned.
She nodded and grabbed her folder, ready to go in and get some answers.
An hour later she knew a lot more but still had not caught the killer. Kate knew the minute she told John Whiter that Maren Leichsenring was dead he didn't do it. She saw his whole world crumble to pieces the minute he realised it was true, that Maren was gone. He told her how they had met in California the previous summer, how they had fallen in love head over heels and still decided to wait, to test their love. It had been her idea to meet on top of the Empire State Building, six months after they had met for the first time if they still felt the same. And if they were both there, they would give it a try. They hadn't talked about how and where, only that if after six months apart they still felt the same, there was a way. They would find it. When she hadn't been there, he didn't believe it was because her feelings had changed. He knew something must have happened, must have kept her from coming, and so he had returned and waited the next day and the day after that.
Kate looked at the man whose world has been shattered, saying gently "She was on her way to meet you." Thinking he had the right to know and that it might give him some solace.
Rubbing his hands over his face the young man sighed, "We were stupid, if we hadn't waited." He sighed, "You think you'll have all the time in the world… " He trailed off.
Silence filled the room before John Whiter looked at Becket and asked, "Can I see her? I want to say goodbye."
He was no family member and normally she would have to say no, but she couldn't bring herself to do so. So she nodded, "I'll take you."
Beckett somehow managed to sneak out of the precinct without having to talk to Gates. Let the boys deal with it.
She had called Lanie and asked her to get everything ready only to hear that Lanie was about to call her as well, she had found something.
They left John Whiter alone after Lanie had led them to Maren Leichsenring, telling him to take all the time he needed.
"That is so sad," Lanie said after the double doors had closed behind them and they walked into the lab next door. "You did the right thing. Letting him say goodbye."
"I know," Kate nodded.
"So how's writer boy doing?" Lanie asked and handed her friend a cup of coffee.
Kate sighed, "He still doesn't remember anything. And I can tell it's wearing him down, even though he's trying to hide it."
"It must be hard, when everyone else knows more about you than you do." Lanie said and then studied her friend, realising she looked even more tired than usual. "How are you doing?"
"Me? Why?" Kate sipped at her coffee, refusing to look at Lanie.
"Yeah you, girl! You two are close, so it must be affecting you. And don't give me the; I'm fine talk! That might work for the boys, but not for me."
Kate sighed, "He's still Castle you know, and yet somehow he's not. It's confusing. But there's not much I can do right now," she shrugged. There was more, but she couldn't talk about not without getting into the things she had kept from Castle since the shooting, things no one knew about but Dr. Burke. She knew how he looked at her. She knew he suspected that there was something between them. He might not remember but he felt the bond between them as much as she did, but while a remembering Castle wouldn't act on it, she wasn't sure that the Castle right now wouldn't. And it scared her because she didn't know how to handle it.
"So you said you found something?" She finally changed topics
Lanie shrugged and rolled her eyes, but reached for a tray, placing it in front of the Detective. "I told you about the fibre and tissue samples, right?"
Beckett nodded.
"Okay the tissue is not from our victim and it's not in the system, but if you bring me a suspect I can compare it."
John Whiter's tissue sample was already on the way over, just in case.
"And the fibre sample?" Beckett asked, hoping that this was getting them somewhere.
"Now that is a whole different story," Lanie said. And Beckett knew they finally had a lead.
