A/N: Well, your guesses have been interesting. I have thoroughly enjoyed hearing everyone's specualtion as to whom Kate was talking to. (Some of the people you guys came up with weren't even people I had considered, and one such person made it in here even though she wasn't originally going to be.) So here we go, time to find out for sure who the mystery man is! :)
Kate was improving steadily, as far as physical healing went. Nearly a month after her accident (which may or may not have been an accident at all) she was cleared to start putting pressure on the leg that hadn't been broken. Her hip still ached most days, but she was grateful to have to opportunity to move around a little bit. With Rick's help, she was able to begin venturing out into the living room or kitchen, and she was happy to be out of the bedroom.
It was a sunny, slightly cool day in October when when Rick came home from a meeting at Black Pawn to find Kate and Martha sitting together in the living room.
"Hey, ladies," he said.
"Hello," the replied together. He stopped, narrowing his eyes at them.
"What's going on?" he asked suspiciously.
"Nothing," Kate answered, but he wasn't convinced.
"Why don't I believe you?" he inquired, and Kate shrugged.
"Beats me. You, Martha?" The redhaired woman shook her head.
"No clue, my dear," she said. Rick looked between the two of them for a moment.
"I will figure this out," he declared. Kate and Martha caught each other's eye and then quickly turned away to hide their smiles.
Kate found herself looking at a photograph that rested on the piano in the living room. It was a few years old, and featured Castle, Ryan, Esposito, herself, and Captain Montgomery at The Old Haunt the night Castle had bought it. It had been a good night, she recalled. One she'd been glad she hadn't passed up in the end. They'd stayed way later than they should've, the hours slipping away as hours tend to do when life is good and you're in favorable company. By the end of the night, it had been only she and Castle left, and he'd shared a cab with her, insisting on covering the entire fare instead of just his half. She'd been just tired and intoxicated enough to let him, too. It was one of the last few times they'd all been out together, all five of them. Now, looking at their smiling faces in a snapshot that captured a moment frozen in time, Kate knew she'd lucked out. She'd been fortunate enough to find a man like Rick Castle, who not only somehow fell in love with a broken, closed-off young detective, but who also somehow continued to love her through it all, even when she gave him every reason not to. And she knew it was time to come clean with him.
"Rick?" she called. He appeared immediately, peering at her around the bookshelf.
"You called?"
She nodded her head and smiled at him.
"Yeah. Would you mind coming in here for a few minutes?" Kate inquired. "I need to tell you something."
He could tell by the deliberate evenness of her tone that whatever she needed to tell him was important and significant, not something to be taken lightly. He braced himself as he joined her in the living room, knowing it was going to be serious.
"What's up?" he asked. She took a deep breath, her eyes darting back to the photo, drawing strength from the memories of that night before she looked back at him.
"Castle," she began, "The day I went to DC, I knew I wasn't going for a job interview. I just didn't know exactly why I was going," she said, although looking back, she really should've known. She should've seen the signs that something big was going down. "But when I got there,I saw someone that I knew, and that's when I realized that something really big was about to happen."
"Who did you see?" he inquired.
"The first person I saw was Jordan Shaw."
"Detective Beckett."
Kate turned and spotted the redhead right away. Jordan Shaw had always had an air of distinguished haughtiness about her that blended effortlessly with her confidence, resulting in something that, while it wasn't tangible, was very impressive.
"Agent Shaw." Kate couldn't keep the surprise out of her voice as she greeted the woman.
"Come with me," Jordan said, cutting right to the chase.
"Where are we going?" Kate asked cautiously.
"Somewhere extremely safe and incredibly private."
"So where did you go?" Rick inquired.
"We went down to a sublevel of the FBI headquarters there," she replied. "By that point, I knew I was about to be let in on something really important, I just had no idea how important," she told him. "So we went down to this sublevel, and she never said another word the entire time," Kate continued. "I think they sent her to bring me down there because they knew I would trust her."
"Makes sense," Castle remarked. "So who was down there?"
Kate couldn't help but smile slightly at his excitement. She was grateful for it, that little sliver of light that manifested itself in the form of this man-child who was nearly bouncing in his seat at the idea of sublevels in the FBI headquarters.
"I met some people I didn't know," she replied. "Agents Carter and Sparks. They were...the uptight type." There was no other way to describe the two male Agents who met them in the sublevel. Both in their forties with sandy hair, Agent Carter seemed to be the alpha partner; he was also taller and more broad. Agent Sparks, while just as by-the-book as his partner, was probably a few years younger, and, if Kate had to guess, likely a little easier to manipulate if need be.
"The next person I met was Rachel McCord," Kate said.
"What was she like?" Rick asked. Kate hesitated, thinking of the dark-haired woman she'd met that day. Rachel had been interesting. Not easy to read at first.
"She was professional, but obviously attuned emotionally, and she had a lot going for her," Kate recounted. "A strong leader, commanded respect,not about to be walked all over. But she was comfortable with gray areas. Which, I learned, I am not."
Castle nodded, clearly understanding what she meant. Kate had, contrary to the belief of some, a very clear sense of right and wrong. While she pushed the boundaries on a regular basis, she would never ignore them unless she had a damn good reason.
"So was that everyone?" he wanted to know. Beckett wished she could nod her head and tell him that yes, that was everyone. But she knew she couldn't. He had to know.
"No, Castle," she sighed. "That wasn't everyone. There was one more person." He knew by the tone of her voice that the final person she'd seen had been the biggest shock, far more so than Jordan Shaw, and he braced himself for whatever she was about to say.
Kate took a deep breath. This was so much harder even than she'd imagined it would be. Reminding herself that he not only needed to know, but deserved to, she met his eyes.
"The last person there was Roy Montgomery."
"Kate, there's one more person here," Jordan Shaw said.
"Who?"
"You may want to sit." Her voice was soft, and Kate found herself crossing her arms over her chest defiantly.
"I'll stand, thank you," she replied. Jordan nodded, having expected nothing less from the indomitable Kate Beckett.
"Alright," she acquiesced. "Rachel, bring him out, please." Rachel nodded and ducked away, returning moments later, stepping out of the shadows, followed closely by a man KAte hadn't seen in two years, since the night in the hangar, when her Captain had given his life for hers.
Or so she'd thought.
Kate felt her world collapse around her. This could not be happening.
"Hello, Kate," he said softly, the sound of his voice grating against her ears, so out of place in the world outside her dreams now. She found herself reaching behind her for Castle, only to remember a moment too late that he wasn't there.
"This is some kind of really sick joke," she said angrily, looking around at them all. "I don't know what kind of game you're playing here, but it ends now." She was trying desperately to cling to the notion that for whatever reason they were messing with her. But that notion was slipping rapidly from her grasp as she looked around at their too-serious faces.
"It's no joke, Beckett," Roy said. "It's very real." She shook her head.
"No. I don't know who you are, but Roy Montgomery is dead!" she exclaimed. "I was there, okay? I saw his body.I carried his coffin. I stood at his funeral and watched his wife and children cry. I ...I gave his eulogy. I was shot that day! Whomever you are, you are not Roy Montgomery." His dark eyes were understanding.
"The man who was killed," he began, "was not me. Why do you think I was so adamant that Castle get you out of there?" Kate was scrambling, feeling as if she wer losing her footing on a very thin sheet of ice. Her heart lurched at the mention of Castle...her partner, her boyfriend, the man she hoped she was going to spend the rest of her life with. The man who had been beside her through it all. The man who had willingly thrown himself at her, knowing he could possibly be throwing himself in front of a bullet.
"It wasn't to keep them from killing you, Kate," he told her gently. "It was so that you and Rick wouldn't see us make the switch."
"Switch?" she repeated. "Us?" She looked around at them, feeling betrayed on so many levels. "Was Rick in on this?" she asked quietly, not wanting to even ask, not wanting it to be true. Surely he wouldn't...
"Hell no," Montgomery replied quickly, shaking his head. "Would've been a lot simpler if he had been, and we considered it, but..." Roy shrugged. "Castle's loyalty lies with you and the boys first. He would've told you, I had no doubt."
"Yeah, he would've," Kate fired back. "I thought your loyalty lay with us, too, and that you would've done the same."
Roy looked pained by her words, a ghost of the man she had once known as he nodded his head.
"I thought so, too, Kate," he admitted softly. "I thought so too."
To the guest reviewer who said, "Anyone but Montgomery"...sorry?
