The Return – Chapter 12

Kate wanted answers. She needed answers.

But she had to wait.

She had intended on questioning the boys about the investigation into Senator Bracken, and how it had led to his arrest, but when Ryan and Esposito found out she was expecting, everything else just seemed to get pushed to the backburner while they tried wrapping their heads around that little bit of news. In retrospect, she wouldn't have expected to get much out of them during their first reunion. Still, Kate had been hoping for, at the very least, just a smidgen of information—anything at all, but time ran out on them, and before she knew it, everyone was getting up to leave the diner.

Ryan and Esposito had to depart to run down a couple leads on the case they were working, and Lanie had a body waiting for her in autopsy. Though, before she left, the medical examiner made tentative plans with Kate to meet up later that week, so they could discuss some things in more detail than they couldn't in the presence of their significant others. Kate really had missed her friend, and she welcomed the chance to just catch up with her. She'd been away for almost half a year. There were a lot of things that could change in that time… like her father getting a girlfriend and a corrupt senator finally getting caught.

Kate sighed as she slumped down into the couch cushions, feeling a little tired and irritable, with both her exhaustion, and the lack of any new insight into the case against Bracken and how it started. She cursed silently, hating how certain aspects of her pregnancy were already affecting her. She shouldn't feel this fatigued after a leisurely walk through the park, especially when just a couple of weeks ago she had been running through the jungles of some tropical island, combating a professional killer.

As she grumbled in displeasure, a slight movement in her lower abdomen startled her away from her brooding thoughts. She raised her eyebrows and arched her neck to gaze down at her swollen middle, now much more pronounce since she had taken off the large sweater she'd been wearing to conceal it. Kate pulled her lower lip under her teeth as she knitted her eyebrows together and smoothed her palm over the stretched fabric of her blouse, her innate mothering tendencies taking over as she attempted to soothe the child within.

"Sorry, baby, mommy doesn't mean to be all frustrated," she murmured softly, furrowing her eyebrows in confusion. Since when did she start talking to a slowly forming human being growing inside her? It felt odd, and she shivered at the strangeness of it. Honestly, Kate was surprised she even had that inherit mothering nature within her. After her mom died, she'd never really thought of having children… at least not until Rick Castle became the love of her life.

A chuckle from over her shoulder alerted her to his return from the bathroom. Speak of the devil. He sauntered around the sofa, grinning at her like the cat that ate the canary. She narrowed her eyes at him, trying hard to be annoyed, but she couldn't hold it, especially with how his hair was flopping down over his forehead. He just looked too cute to be annoyed. Castle gingerly knelt down before her. She watched him with a worried look, still concerned for his bad knee. He waved his hand in dismissal, assuring her that he was fine.

"Talking to our 'plus one'?" he inquired with a smirk.

Oh, great. He'd heard her. Now she'd never hear the end of it. She blushed a little in embarrassment at having been overheard talking with an entity that was still in development. "Yeah," she confessed, her cheeks burning with warmth as they turned a healthy rosy color.

Castle chuckled again, and bent down over her, rubbing his hands over her baby bump as he laid his head against her breasts. Kate sighed contentedly, and absently ran her fingers through his silken hair as he nuzzled against her.

"Get used to it, peanut," Castle mumbled into the soft swell around her abdomen. "Your mommy's the most frustrating, maddening, remarkable woman I've ever met. She can be stubborn at times, and easily annoyed. But I'll let you in on a secret, peanut. Daddy loves that about her. He loves everything about her. She's extraordinary. And daddy's going to love you just as much as he loves her. He already does. We both do."

Her throat clogged up with emotion as she gazed down at him. Such a sweet man. She honestly didn't know what she'd done to deserve him. But whatever it was, she wasn't going to question it. She was so very grateful to have him.

"Rick," she choked out, her throat still thick with love as she curled her fingers into his hair, tugging, encouraging him to crawl up onto the couch and lie beside her.

Castle came willingly, climbing up onto the sofa and snuggling close with his arms around her tightly. Kate traced her fingers over his features, mesmerized by the love and adoration she saw reflecting back at her. Her heart clenched with joy as he gripped her jaw and lowered his lips over hers, kissing her slow and deep. She let out a hum in response and kissed him back, fisting his shirt as his hand began to wander, palming her breast and expertly kneading the soft flesh. His other fingers were toying with the button of her jeans when…

"Ahem," the sudden clearing of a throat startled them both. They jolted back from one another in alarm at being discovered. Yeah… she'd forgotten about Alexis and Martha. It was going to take some time to adapt to the shared living space after having so much privacy on the island.

"Alexis!" blurted Castle, his face turning a decidedly amusing shade of pink. "I... I didn't know you were still here."

His daughter gave them a shy smile, obviously aware of what she'd stumbled in on. "I was upstairs, waiting for you to get back from lunch," she explained, averting her eyes.

Kate nudged Castle with her elbow to his ribs, remembering that he still had a hand palming her breast. He quickly pulled back and leaned away from her, creating some distance. Her body cried out in protest, already missing his touch, but she stifled it, not wanting to make the situation anymore awkward than it already was.

"Yeah, we… uh… took a short walk after lunch," Castle choked out, carding his fingers through his messy hair. Kate flicked her eyes up to Alexis, watching as the young woman nodded her head. "We… um… needed some fresh air."

"Then you know," she stated.

"Huh?" Castle furrowed his brow in confusion as he glanced at Kate, seeing if she knew what Alexis was referring to. She looked back at him with question befuddlement, shrugging her shoulders. She didn't.

"Know what, Alexis?" Kate asked, turning slightly so that she was fully facing her fiancé's daughter.

Alexis slowly knitted her eyebrows together as she looked back and forth between the two of them. "About the tape?"

"Tape? What tape?" Castle questioned, shaking his head, baffled beyond belief. He glanced at Kate to see if he knew what Alexis was talking about. She bit her lower lip and furrowed her brow as she shook her head.

"So... you guys didn't discuss the case at lunch?" Alexis questioned cautiously, looking both hesitant and perplexed.

"No," Kate answered with a shake of her head. She had wanted to discuss it, but there hadn't been any time. "I wanted to, but then Ryan and Esposito… and Lanie… found out I was pregnant, and the conversation never really drifted away from that."

"Sorry," Alexis told Kate sincerely. "I know you really wanted some answers."

"Yeah, I did," Kate agreed with a sigh. She shifted on the couch and turned, leaning against Castle's side as she patted the cushion besides her. "Sit down, Alexis. No need for you to stand there all awkwardly. We're practically family."

Alexis smiled, and bobbed her head in agreement, stepping around the armchairs to join them. She slid down onto the couch with ease, looking extremely happy. "We are family, Kate," she asserted, looking her directly in the eyes.

Unexpectedly, Kate choked up at her words. Alexis had stated it as if it was fact. There were no doubts and hesitations in her declaration. It was just there. Real. She'd never really thought about it that much after Castle had proposed and all the months before they left for their vacation that never was. But Alexis was right. Somehow, through all the years they'd known each other, they'd become a family. They weren't a traditional family by any stretch of the imagination, but just the same, they were family. Blinking back tears, Kate embraced the younger woman, pulling her into a fierce hug.

"Thank you, Alexis," she murmured, overwhelmed by the girl's acceptance. "That… that means so much to me."

Alexis hugged her back. "I really missed you guys," she asserted, burying her head in Kate's shoulder. "I'll admit, I was a little worried at first, when you first started dating, but then when I saw how happy you made my dad by just loving him back… I knew. I knew you were the one for him, and… and I couldn't have been more thrilled."
"Oh, Alexis," Kate squeaked out, squeezing the girl harder.

Besides her, Castle smiled broadly, beaming. He looked so proud and happy. He reached across Kate to give his daughter's knee a loving and grateful squeeze. Alexis returned the sentiment, smiling back at her father, and placed her hand over his. Castle wrapped his arms around the two of them, and Kate smiled to herself. After so long of having a gaping whole in her heart, she finally had a family.

XXX

"About that tape?" Kate asked as she sat on one of the barstools in the kitchen and watched as father and daughter rolled and kneaded the dough along the countertop. After their brief family moment, Alexis had suggested they make some chocolate chip cookies, to which Castle enthusiastically agreed. The man did love his desserts. And being him… they had to make it from scratch, except for the store bought back of Nestle's mini-chocolate chips.

"Oh, yeah… the tape," Alexis hedged, looking worried. She knitted her eyebrows together, deep in thought, before relenting with a out a soft sigh. She stopped what she was doing, and wiped her hands on the apron around her waist. "Just give me a moment, I need to get something."

After cleaning her hands, she darted up the stairs, disappearing into her room. Kate and Castle exchanged a look, and Castle simply shrugged. He proceeded at rolling the dough, looking eager to add the chocolate chips, popping a few into his mouth as he went. Kate reached for the mug of tea he'd made for her and took a tentative sip as they waited for the redhead to return.

When she came back down the stairs, Alexis was cradling a file box in her arms. "I'd meant to get this to you earlier, but things have been sort of hectic since you've got back," she said as she set the box down on the countertop next to Kate. She then hopped up on the barstool beside her. Inhaling deeply, as if to ready herself, Alexis slowly lifted the lid and Kate arched her neck to peer inside the box, curious as to what was inside. She let out a small gasp when she immediately recognized the various knickknacks that had once been displayed—or hidden way—on her desk at the 12th precinct.

"Lanie had to clear out your desk when that new detective was assigned as your replacement," Alexis supplied by way of explanation. "She brought it over to my place—" she paused, and frowned slightly, "er… I mean, your apartment. At first, they were going to give them to your dad, but seeing as I was staying at your apartment, everyone figured I should be the one to look after them."

"Sounds logical," Castle chimed in, giving his daughter an encouraging smile.

Alexis exhaled softly and gave a short nod, before continuing. "I'd transformed your office into my base of operations," she told them. "So I just kept the box there. One night, after some pretty bad dreams, I decided to go through it, thinking that seeing your stuff laid out on the desk would make me feel closer to you guys."

"Oh, Alexis," Kate said, placing a hand over the young woman's.

"It's okay, it's okay," she repeated several times, like it was a necessary process to calm herself. "Living in your apartment, I don't know, made me feel closer to you… and seeing some of Dad's things scattered about, it made me appreciate how much you two love one another."

Castle smiled at that, and Kate exchanged a quick look with him, her eyes sparkling with the memories they'd made and shared in the darkness of her apartment during the long nights curled against one another. She knitted her eyebrows together and turned back to Alexis, a sudden though occurring to her.

"It's not my apartment, Alexis. Not anymore," Kate said, feeling the need to say it out loud and reassure the redhead that she didn't mind her taking over. "It's yours. I… I live here now. This is my home." She could feel Castle's eyes on her when she'd added that last part. She knew it brought him great joy to hear those words from her. She was happy to give them, and with such firm conviction as well.

Alexis gave a soft smile and inclined her head in gratitude. "Thank you, Kate," she replied, reaching over to squeeze hands with her in a sort of solidarity. "It's a very nice place. I… I like it there." Kate suddenly felt closer to Castle's daughter than she ever had before. Those feelings of being accepted into this amazing family returned, and she bit her lower lip to suppress the emotions, wanting to keep her attention on what Alexis was trying to tell them.

The girl sniffled, returning to her story. "So… I opened this box," Alexis put her hand on the rim. "And, not thinking, just tossed the contents across the floor." She paused, pursing her lips and glanced across at Kate with a contrite expression. "That nice parade of elephants…" her voice trailed off.

"Uh-huh?" Kate encouraged with a soft noise.

"Well, they hit the floorboards hard, and I heard a snap," Alexis grimaced at the memory. "I was so terrified that I'd broken it, but then I noticed that it had been a hidden compartment along the side and it was just the false panel coming loose."

"What!?" Kate nearly rose up off the barstool, stunned. She'd had those elephants for years, having inherited them from her mother. She had never known there was a hidden compartment built into them.

Alexis ducked her head down bashfully as she confirmed her statement, pulling out the parade of elephants to show them. Kate took it in her hands when Alexis passed it to her, turning it over and around until she spotted the lines that indicated a false panel. She frowned, wondering how she'd missed that for years.

"Was there anything in it?" she asked, glancing back up at Alexis.

The girl nodded. "There was one of those small audio cassette tapes inside, you know, for those pocket recorders."

Kate nodded. "Yeah, my parents used them when they'd interview clients."

Alexis merely bobbed her head. Castle ceased his work on the dough and gave his daughter a thoughtful expression. Kate raised her eyebrows as she connected the dots. The tape! Alexis had implied that it had been important to the case again Bracken.

"What happened next, Pumpkin?" Castle asked in a gentle tone, giving his daughter an encouraging smile. Kate could almost see the pride in his eyes, like he, too, had figured it out.

"Grams helped me find your pocket recorder," she directed towards her dad, before turning back Kate. "And when we listened to it, we realized that Detective Ryan and Esposito would want to hear it too. So the next morning, Grams and I went into the precinct and played it for them. Detective Esposito laughed with relief and Detective Ryan became all smiles. They took it to Captain Gates and played it for her. Next thing I know, they're calling the U.S. Attorney's Office and asking them to issue an arrest warrant on Senator William H. Bracken."

"What was it?" Kate demanded, having been entirely enthralled by Alexis's tale. She leaned forward, hand gripping the girl's arm, desperate to know. "What was on the tape?"

XXX

"It was a recording of a conversation between Montgomery, Raglan, and McCallister with Bracken," Esposito said. "The smug bastard had gotten arrogant enough that he actually admitted to blackmailing them on those mob kidnapping from the 1980s and on having people killed. He even mentioned your mother by name, as someone he wouldn't mind contracting a hit on."

After Alexis had spilled the beans, as it were, Castle had called Esposito to confirm the news. He had confirmed it and agreed to contact Lanie and Ryan. Within thirty minutes they were all at the loft, and Kate was finally getting her answers. Ryan and Esposito took turns explaining to her, in great detail, because Kate wanted to know everything, the step-by-step process in which they'd unraveled the web of lies and corruption surrounding Bracken's political empire.

It had started with a cold case. The boys had been reviewing some cold cases, when Esposito had stumbled upon a murder that had taken pace a couple of months before Johanna Beckett's murder. The victim had been a political aide for a congressman, whose political career had ended from the drug scandal that rocked his reelection campaign as a result of his aide's death. Esposito had noticed some striking similarities with some of Coonan's known hits. So he did some digging, and discovered that an up and coming D.A. had prospered greatly from the congressman's political demise, easily stealing into the race to fill the void left by the congressman's departure and winning the seat with surprising ease.

Raglan and McCallister had been the detectives assigned the case. They had investigated long enough to link the aide back to the congressman, allowing him to be associated with drugs long enough to generate the scandal that tanked his campaign. After which, they'd discretely filed the case under 'random gang violence' and walked away.

In the cold case file, Lanie had found out that two sets of DNA evidence had been collected from the scene, but had never been processed. Unlike other files and cases that had been associated with this conspiracy, these hadn't been misplaced or lost in a warehouse fire. Before they could move further, Ryan and Esposito reluctantly read Gates into the whole, even confessing what they knew about Montgomery's involvement. They hadn't wanted to tarnish his name, but they were getting close and needed to put all their cards onto the table.

They weren't surprised when the first set of DNA evidence was a match to Dick Coonan. Esposito had suspected he was the murderer, since the M.O. fit the pattern. The second set of DNA trace evidence came back as a match to drug kingpin Vulcan Simmons. Gates brought in Narcotics, and together the two departments infiltrated Simmons's organization. He'd grown arrogant and overconfident since they'd last seen him. Undercover detectives discovered he was laundering money to a political action group called Future Forward.

This was where the Feds came in.

An FBI taskforce had already been watching the SuperPAC, which they'd suspected was using drug money to fill its coffers. With the evidence gathered by the NYPD's undercover operations, they were able to prove that Vulcan Simmons had been working as the SuperPAC's middleman for the laundered money. Once the Feds brought him in for questioning, Simmons rolled easily, ratting out the higher ups in the SuperPAC to save his own skin.

Once Future Forward's assets had been seized by the FBI and other federal agencies, they were able to trace the money to various individuals who Ryan and Esposito knew had been involved in the conspiracy, names like Coonan, Lockwood, and Maddox, to name a few. The money all pointed back to Future Forward, and the SuperPAC's prime beneficiary, Senator William H. Bracken, was the only one to clearly benefit from the services these men provided.

By then special prosecutor Kyle Talbot of the Attorney General's office, and the Justice Department already had more than enough to open up a more thorough investigation, and there was no doubt Bracken was going to go down once it was underway, but then, seemingly out of the blue, Alexis and Martha arrived with the parade of elephants and the tape. It was the final nail in the coffin, the one that ensured Bracken's downfall.

"And the rest, as they say, is history," Ryan finished. He and Esposito shared a look of mutual satisfaction over being able to provide their friend and colleague with the closure she'd worked her whole adult life to achieve.

Kate just sat there, for a long moment, digesting all that she had heard and learned. Castle watched her, a worried furrow forming cross his brow. He was concerned with how she'd react, knowing that it would've meant so much to her if she'd actually been able to be the one to bring Bracken down. Instead, she focused on something else.

"Oh God," Kate exclaimed, leaning back into the cushions, nearly collapsing against him. "Rick, it was there… all this time, the evidence I needed to get justice for my mom. It was there this whole time! And I was to blind to see it!"

"Hey now," Castle interjected, giving her a stern expression and reaching up to caress the side of her face, smoothing her hair back as she frowned in self-reproach, angry tears threatening. "It's not your fault. You had no way of knowing."

"They were my mother's," she mumbled, half to herself, nearly a sob. "I remember her having them on her desk at home. She always said they were like a little family. And that family was important, always protecting one another. Damn," she huffed out a frustrated breath, blinking away the unshed tears from her eyes. "If I had only paid better attention, looked harder, and actually used my brain properly, I would have noticed that hidden compartment years ago… and I wouldn't have wasted fifteen years looking for justice."

"Kate, don't do this to yourself," Lanie asserted, standing up from her spot besides Esposito to move in next to her. She grabbed her hands and held them tightly, forcing Kate to acknowledge her words. "That time, it wasn't wasted. Think of all the good you've done over the years. All the lives you saved. The people you've met. The people who've come to care for you, to love you." Lanie paused for a breath, her eyes darting up to glance at Castle, whose arms were still wrapped supportively around Kate. "And what about writer boy? Would you give up all those years with him and the years to come to have solved your mother's case earlier?"

Kate swallowed and blinked her eyes as she looked up at her friend. She could always trust Lanie to speak sense and not hold back. "No," she shook her head, gazing up at Castle. "I wouldn't. I can't imagine my life without him."

"I thought so," Lanie smiled with relief, giving Kate's hands one final squeeze before standing up and rejoining Esposito on the loveseat across from them.

Kate bit her lower lip and furrowed her brow as she looked off into space, uncertain how she should feel. It was like a great weight had lifted from her shoulders. She had her answers. The conspiracy had been far larger and more convoluted than she'd suspected. Sure, she would have preferred to have been a part of the taskforce, maybe even one of the leads, but in the end justice had been served. And that was all that mattered.

"When's the trial," Castle asked before she could.

"Set to start at the end of the month," Esposito answered. "Promises to be quite the show. Bracken's actually going to try and plead not guilty."

He laughed, joined by Ryan. They stopped when they noticed Kate's worried expression. "What?"

"Kyle Talbot, this hotshot from the Justice Department?"

"What about him?" Esposito asked.

"Is he good?" Kate inquired, raising an eyebrow.

"Handpicked by the Attorney General himself."

"Don't worry, Beckett," Ryan chirped in. "It's going to be a slam dunk. Bracken doesn't have a leg to stand on, and he knows it. He's just trying to fight off the inevitable."

Kate nodded, feeling a little more at ease with the boy's confidence in the State's case against Bracken. She turned into Castle and burrowed further into his embrace. He hugged her tightly, planting a soft kiss on top of her head. She sighed contentedly in his arms. It was over. Sure their was still the trial, but the hard part, the long wait was finally over. For the first time in a long time, she felt at peace.