Another chapter done and dusted. Short one but has plenty in it.

Thanks for all your comments, especially the one about me not writing with American terminology and the characters not saying certain things – fiction I'm writing here, on an international website. LMAO! That really made me giggle. Has inspired me to write 'Australian style' in another story just for fun and then readers will have a comparison to see how differently I do write. The reviews are keeping the inspirational fire fueled for me. I love the comments.

Back to the story. I'm currently trying to dig my way out of this story with an intelligent outcome so please, if you have any ideas throw them to me. I have already written the end of the conflict portion, as previously indicated, but still need to join the dots effectively to really complete the whole story. Has me thinking about it constantly, researching and biting my nails short, which I did when I wrote and reviewed the final conflict scene!

Oh, and you might like this one. My right shoulder has been giving me so much grief! Got to fix Kate's shoulder so the pain will go away in mine! Don't laugh, and no, I'm not crazy. Least, I don't think I am.

And yes, we are still experiencing bad weather and cannot go outside and ride my horses because of all the water and mud! Bring on Spring and Summer!

Enjoy!

Chapter 11 – Same evening – late

Richard sat at the desk with the diaries once owned by Beckett's mother for 1998 and 1999 before him. He placed his glass of Scotch to his left then lifted the small handbag sized diary closer to him. He would start at January 1998. He flipped open the cover and turned to the identification page. Johanna's name clearly written in similar hand writing to that of Kate's he observed. Details were kept at a minimum. Name, cell number and work landline in case it was lost. Typical. Castle paused listening to the sounds coming from the main room of the loft. Kate was talking to someone on her phone. After everyone had left and Castle had secured the loft, Kate had headed for a bath. It had been a long bath. She had mentioned whilst he was getting himself the Scotch and whilst she was eating more pizza, that she had to return her father's call otherwise he wouldn't go to bed. It must have been him she was chatting to.

Tuning out of her conversation, Castle returned to the diary. The start of the year of 1998, the family had spent their Christmas and New Year vacation with Johanna's mother and father at their home. Kate had been constantly absent, spending time with boys her cousin knew. He smirked to himself. Nothing changes he thought, always with the boys.

He flipped through the pages discovering Johanna made very brief notes about events, purely in English until roughly April when the codes had commenced. He pulled a pack of plastic Post It flags from his desk drawer and started tabbing the pages. Not to in any way compromise the diary, he wrote down on his notebook the dates and what was written on each occasion. In addition, he noted the places she was at according to the diary entries. By the time Castle arrived at 31 December 1998 he knew Kate was an excellent student, with a very mischievous persona, that Johanna believed she struggled to parent effectively, and that during early April she had tripped over a piece of information whilst on the job. This information had initiated the start of the end of her life for sure. Castle also concluded that the desire to have the truth be told was almost as self-sacrificing to Johanna as it was to Kate. That scared him. He sat back sipping his Scotch and browsing over the encrypted words, in his handwriting. Wasn't Latin, not any spoken language he was aware of, not even similar to the coded words Becket had used earlier that day. Letters and numbers, just like a map or something that had columns and rows.

"Damn it." He cursed under his breath, a little frustrated and grabbed the 1999 diary he knew would only be short. Johanna survived 9 days of 1999. He opened it to the identification page. Same details as the previous year were once again was printed by hand. He flipped to the following page that contained a page view of the yearly calendar and saw a handwritten note in green ink. "1984. Orwell." It was hand written down the left hand side of the page. He returned to the previous diary wondering whether he'd missed it and searched through the pages that contained information about world times measurements. He soon found it. This time it said. "Derek Storm. Castle." He dropped the diary. Stopped breathing. "She's put the entries inside books." He muttered. Why his book?

"Kate!" He shouted standing up. He finished his drink in one gulp and picked up the diaries. "Beckett!"

He stepped quickly to the extensive bookshelf in his study, in search of the two books he wanted. Kate appeared at the doorway, still on the phone, looking at him in question as he combed the shelves in search of the books. He found one, his first Derek Storm novel then continued looking for 1984 by George Orwell. He soon found it. He was excited and Kate saw it.

"I gotta go Dad." She said. "Castle's on to something. Bye." And hung up the call. She held the cell phone in her hand. "What is it?" She followed behind Castle wondering what had got him so pumped at such a late hour.

"Your mother's code. I think I've worked it out." He excitedly told her. "This is gonna freak you out." He took her by her left hand and sat her down in his office chair. "You smell great." He commented taking a moment to breath in her perfume and after bath scent.

"Thanks." She muttered unconsciously tilting her neck as he gave her a kiss on the side of her face.

He then straightened up, took the first diary opening it out on his left palm and showed her the page his book title was written on. "Look." He demand, knowing she was going to be blown away by it.

She read what was written in her mother's hand writing. "My God." She whispered her finger tracing the writing of her mother's, looking from the note to his excited eyes.

"You would have been reading this novel in early 1998, like before April 1998." He told her. "Your mother must have known you would keep the book."

"Of course! She was reading it too." Kate confirmed. She watched as he opened the 1999 diary and showed her the book name.

She took a few seconds to read and think about the information before her. "I remember." She whispered excitedly. She looked up to Richard's eyes, her shining. "I read it for school in 1998. I had to read it over the Christmas break and I didn't want to. It was Mum's copy I used. She knew I would keep it as 1984 was one of her favorite books. I still have all her favorite books." She told him. "Yours was my favorite at the time. She knew that."

"Kate, we need your mother's copies of these books." He picked up his copy of the Derek Storm novel which was the same edition her mother would have owned, and looked at the first line of coding he'd handwritten.

"Twenty three." He flipped to page 23 noticing the pages of the book were yellowing with time. He still had the notebook he had handwritten this novel in and thought the pages of his notebook were surviving time better than the printed version in his hand.

Kate read the rest of the line to him a loud. "Fourteen, six."

Castle counted down the 14 lines on page 23 then went over 6 words. "Deception." He read. "I think we need your mother's copies of these books."

"You book is definitely at my apartment. Dad gave it to me after my old apartment blew up. I may even have 1984. If not my dad has it in my old room." She responded.

"You still have a room at home?" He asked surprised.

"Of course. I'm an only child." She shrugged her shoulders wondering why he was even questioning that.

"So am I." He stopped as she looked at him with an expression that said it all. "Yeah, my mother." He agreed thinking his room disappeared when he went to boarding school. "Do you ever use it?" He inquired wondering what it would have been like being raised in the same home with two parents rather than one parent, also moving from apartment to apartment, then to boarding school. With Alexis he had promised to raise her in the one home, keep her in the same school and be there for her. He had accomplished that even if he admitted he could be very irresponsible in other ways.

"Only the times I broke up with boyfriends, and when I was shot and needed my Dad." She pulled a face, recalling the days at her dad's house when she had been really sick. Josh's work had prevented him from caring for her continually as she had required initially, and she had chosen not to phone Castle even though he was the person she had wanted with her the most during that period.

"Fair enough." He sat on the edge of the desk glancing at the time. It was almost midnight. He cast his eyes over Kate, rubbed his chin with his right hand, clearly seeing she was weary.

"We'll do it tomorrow." He concluded.

"I'm grounded remember?" She reminded him of the rules Gates had put in place before they had left the precinct for the hospital. As a result, Castle's building was now in security lock down with two professional bodyguards at the main doorway to the loft and unmarked cars sitting outside. Kate also had her handgun back along with her badge. The only people permitted to their floor were the owners of the other penthouse apartment.

"We'll get the boys to join us." Castle replied and reached for his Scotch glass. "Would you like a night cap Ms Beckett, perhaps to help you sleep?"

"I would please." Kate replied. She followed him to the lounge room and sat on the sofa placing her cell phone on the glass coffee table. He came to her with the drinks passing one to her. She took a sip, her face cringing over the bitter taste of the Scotch on her tongue, the burning sensation as the alcohol hit her throat. The second sip was easier.

Castle sat at the end of the sofa against the arm, putting his legs up. He encouraged Kate to join him by patting the leather seat. She smiled, biting her lip and slipped along the leather seat so she was between his thighs, her back to him. He leaned forward cloaking her back with his chest, took a mouthful of Scotch and placed his glass on the table. He then encircled her waist with his arms and pulled her body all the way back to his, kissing her right shoulder. She wore a strapped shoulder white cotton top and white shorts completely ready for bed. Castle breathed in her after bath scent lifting her hair to the left of her neck. Her shoulder was taped up to support the injured joint. For a while, they remained quiet. Castle inspected the abrasions and the bruises first then gently began to massage her shoulders and neck trying to release the tension from her muscles. She was extremely tight, but he wanted her to relax, to let her body recover so she was ready for action sooner rather than later. He lifted her top baring her back and massaged down her spine to her hips, feeling her react when he found the sore spots, the tight knots in her muscles. He stroked along her rib cage releasing tightness over her entire back noticing her ribs were not as evident to the eye as Lanie had carried on about earlier at the hospital.

"How much water have you drank?" He asked.

"Two, almost three bottles since we came home." She murmured. "Why?"

"I think we were more dehydrated than anything. I've had three bottles. You look better already." He brushed his lips over the back of her neck groaning. "Like you have been fed." He chuckled. "You poor starved creature."

"Mmmm." She smirked. "Lanie certainly let me know about it. But in our defense, we didn't have water for a long period time." She calmly stated, dropping her head downward and exposing more of her neck to him. She was enjoying the way he touched her. His hands stayed on her all the time, rubbing into her sore, tired muscles continually and every so often he would stop and kiss her body his hands moving to a to a more intimate part of her each time.

"Well, you're looking ok now." He whispered. "Don't worry about it. I will feed you up again."

"I know." She murmured.

"Mmmm." He lovingly reached forward down her arms that rested upon her knees and softly with his fingertips traced irregular patterns back up her arms. It tingled her skin, her spine, sending signals throughout her nervous system to places she had never experienced with anyone else. Totally intoxicating to her senses. Her breathing slowed and deepened. His hands did the same motion up and down the outsides of her thighs. She lifted her head and laid it back until she rested against his right shoulder relaxing, feeling the warmth of his body, never wanting him to stop touching her as he did.

"Kate." She opened her eyes to see he held a glass before her. She lifted her head forward, let him tilt it to her lips and took a couple of sips. He had a bit as well and returned it to the table. He continued with his treatment fully aware Kate was slowly ceasing the fight with herself to relax. She couldn't keep her eyes open any longer he saw and was having trouble holding her head up. He'd never seen her so exhausted, or so willing to allow him to do this to her. He lightly brushed his lips against the back and side of her neck stroking her arms. Her head tilted back to his shoulders again. He saw her lips had parted and her arms fell into her lap. She was giving up. He smiled to himself chuffed that he was able to turn Kate Beckett into putty in his arms, something he'd always imagined would need the assistance of a lot of alcohol. Her body grew heavier against his. He stilled and just sat there holding her for a while sipping his Scotch. Her legs slumped against his left leg and her body was leaning to the left of him. She was falling to sleep. It was time to move her to bed.

"Kate?" He murmured. No response. Rick gently pushed and lifted Kate forward so he could release his left leg and stand up. He held her against the back of the sofa with a hand held between her shoulder blades whilst he finished the alcohol within his reach.

He looked down at her tall body all folded up to a crouched position, dozing as though she was drunk, thinking how bloody gorgeous she looked, bundled up in a small package, with her dark hair falling around her pale skin.

Bed. It was time for them to be in it. "Kate?" He shook her a bit seeing her come to a little and repeated it. "Beckett." In response Kate simply raised her arm a little way, her hand reached up to him, whispering his name as Rick just the once. "Geez Kate." He muttered to himself and took her hand that reached up to him, hooking her arm over his shoulder. He lifted her off the sofa and carried her to his bed. By the time he laid her limp body in the bed and covered her with the blankets, she was asleep.

Rick returned to the living room, sleepily pulling his shirt out of his jeans, to switch off all the lights in the loft. As he unbuttoned the shirt, he ensured their security was outside the door, and finally activated the alarm isolating it to the main living area. He locked the door to the study and the doors to the bedroom not wanting Kate to set the alarm off during the night and to prevent any intruders getting to them whilst they slept. A quick trip to the bathroom to brush his teeth, he stripped himself of clothes and headed to bed. He collapsed into the bed beside Kate noticing she hadn't moved an inch since he'd laid her into the bed. His precious cargo he silently embraced for another night. He finally had her, now had to fight to keep her alive.

As he drifted off to sleep, his instincts, his last thoughts told him the following day was going to be one hell of an experience.

Please take the time to let me know how I'm travelling. It's the next chapter I'm working on and trying to wrap up to effectively meet the end so it may be a bit longer coming than the past few chapters have. Once I get through the next one, I reckon the rest will be posted in a frequent succession as they are almost completed.