"Do you remember what I said to you, in Holding, the time that Tyson framed me for murder?" Castle went on. "I asked if you believed me, that I never knew Tessa Horton, that Tyson had been in the precinct, that he was framing me."
Kate nodded. "And I told you, I never stopped believing you."
"And I will never stop believing you, Kate," he said softly. "As long as what you tell me, and show me, is your true self - I will never turn you away."
He tipped her chin up so he could kiss her with soft, warm lips, slowly, gently, his hands drawing her in against him as they stood together.
When that long, slow kiss drew to a close, Kate mumbled into his chest, "I'm sorry, Castle. I should have known that even once that wall of mine came down, there'd still be a mess to clean up."
"Many hands make light work. Or so the saying goes." He looked down at her. "I'm happy to pitch in."
She nodded, feeling far more optimistic than she had been for weeks.
"Come on, let's sit down."
She sat beside him on the couch, his arm around her, and collected her thoughts.
"Let me start at the top," said Kate. "There's a woman who helped me and Vikram when we were on the run – obviously a spy of some sort – she wouldn't tell us what agency she was with."
"They never do," muttered Castle, and Kate was momentarily amused.
"Practically the first thing she said to me was, 'I'm Castle's stepmother.' Later she told us she'd been married to Jackson Hunt for ten years. Her name is Rita – at least that what she said we could call her."
"I can't decide whether that's awesome or alarming," Castle said. "Where did you meet her?"
"She showed up at the place we were hiding, that I thought was safe – obviously not – and took out the team sent to kill us. Trained shooters." Kate shook her head, remembering. "She took us to her safe house and told us she'd been investigating LokSat for over a year, but that her leads kept evaporating."
"You believe her?"
Kate snorted mirthlessly, remembering. "I asked her why I should. She said, 'I did save your life, dear.'"
"Remind me to thank her if we ever meet," he muttered. "So she knows about the memo, about Simmons' drug operation, about Bracken, about the deaths of the AG people. And obviously, a thing or two about me - and about you."
"What you don't know is that I saw Rita, the night before - before I left. She doesn't think it's over, either; she's sure that Hyde was a scapegoat."
"That makes three of us," said Castle. "What else did she say?"
"Told me to go home - said that my mother had been avenged, Bracken was dead, and that I should go along with the official story - that Hyde had been head of the operation. Live my life and let her go on with the investigation.
"She said if I brought you into my quest for LokSat, they'd kill you - and that it would be my fault. She called it going down the rabbit hole," she said tightly, "and said I should be careful who I take with me. That anyone who dies now, their blood would be on me. Because I'd be putting my obsession with finding truth over my life with you."
"So you were stuck," said Castle. "Trying to figure out how to have it both ways. LokSat found and exposed, and me - supposedly! - staying safe at home until the coast was clear."
Kate hung her head at the words.
"I was sure I could work out how to do it - have both - if I could just clear my head," she said. "So I stepped away, and for that I will always be sorry, Rick. It wasn't supposed to turn into - this."
"What exactly was it supposed to look like?" he asked. "Did you think you could bring down LokSat by the end of the week? The month? The year? What would you tell me once it was done, when you came back to me? Would you have told me then about your 'mission'?"
He sounded more frustrated than angry.
"Did you even have any leads?"
"No," said Kate. "I was starting from scratch. Vikram had some ideas - "
"Ah, yes. Vikram Singh. The guy who dragged you into this in the first place."
"If he hadn't, he'd be dead by now," Kate insisted. "And now we're trying to prevent any further deaths, by tracking LokSat to its source and taking it out."
"Okay," said Castle. "What ideas?"
She spent half an hour spilling details of her covert investigation, and she could tell Castle was trying hard not to interrupt, let her tell it her way.
Finally he burst out, "I get some of your reasoning on this, and why you made the choices you did - not agreeing, mind you - but for crying out loud, Kate, really? You put your life in the hands of this - kid?"
"I checked his story," said Kate defensively. "He is who he says he is. AG analyst, tech specialist, graduated from MIT. Parents living in California, no siblings - not after his sister died - "
"How did she die?"
"I - don't know," Kate replied, frowning. "Is it relevant?"
"Maybe, maybe not. Did he tell you about her?"
"Just that she died when he was a kid, and how it affected him," said Kate. "He did have a sister and she showed up as deceased in my search."
Of course, she thought. Castle's always been the one to catch nuances and things that fall through the cracks of my official brain.
"I've been meaning to tell you," she went on, facing him. "That accident you were in…"
"Wasn't an accident?"
Her expression must have been priceless; Castle actually laughed, then squeezed her hand.
"How could you know that?" she asked.
"It's how I'd write it," said Castle. "No coincidences, remember? Did you ever track down the other car?"
"No, it's vanished. But CSU autopsied the cab and found evidence of an incendiary device, attached to the chassis with a magnet. That's what killed the driver - it went off right in front of his feet."
"Poor guy," said Castle, shaking his head. "Why, though? I mean, why plant a bomb if you're going to ram the cab anyway? Or conversely, why ram the cab if the bomb will get the job done?"
"Maybe one of them was a backup plan," said Kate. "And someone got trigger happy."
"Wish I could've been a better witness. Sorry."
"No harm, no foul," she said. "And it's not like you came away unscathed. Hope you're mending quickly."
"Not as quickly as I'd like. At least I've got Alexis to help out at home. And Lucy, of course."
"Lucy?" Kate worked to keep suspicion out of her voice. "Who's Lucy? A nurse? Physical therapist?"
Castle leaned close to her ear and whispered, "A home operating system."
"Is that what you call it?"
He chuckled. "Lucy is an artificially intelligent device that coordinates my network at home. Turns lights on or off, sets the alarm if I forget. Smart house tech."
Of course, Castle would soothe his loneliness by finding a new gadget, she thought. But -
"An AI, connected to your network," she said, alarmed. "Does it have access to the information you've gathered so far?"
"Not as far as I know," said Castle. "That's behind a different firewall, even more impenetrable than the data you and Vikram hacked into here at the office."
Ouch. "I'm not gonna play who hacked whom first," Kate said. "Sounds like a bad horror film title, anyway. So Lucy's on a low- to medium-security level?"
"Yes, and why do you ask?"
"When was the last time you scanned the loft for bugs?"
Castle stared at Kate for a minute. "Whoa. Not lately. Not for a couple of years...after the last time Jackson Hunt showed up there. What are you thinking?"
"Just wondering," she said. "That's the problem with trying to investigate this thing - there are so many possibilities, so many elements. Vikram's sister - Lucy - the cab accident - Why would anyone want you dead, anyway?"
"I did say that my fan mail tends to be disturbing," he said, almost as flippantly as usual. "And didn't you tell me once that as long as you can prove means and opportunity, you don't need to know motive?"
"I'll take any one of those, right now," said Kate.