This is the last chapter. I hope you've enjoyed reading it. Thanks for the alerts and reviews. Read the last section carefully to avoid mental distress.
No Matter Where You Go by Oldest Man
Chapter 12
Lydia Hamilton turned and the next few minutes were absolute chaos. The Marshal had seen her partner carrying a pump-action shotgun and reached for her weapon under her shirt but didn't make it. A shotgun blast to the chest sent her lurching backward into Alexis and they both fell to the floor.
Alexis started to scream and Beckett reached for her zip bag and her pistol when Rhonda ratcheted another shell into the shotgun and pointed it down at Alexis who was partially covered by Lydia's body.
"Don't! I won't hesitate to blow her head off, Beckett. Push the pistol bag onto the floor and kick it away nice and slowly. Well, Ricky, looks like you won't be enjoying my charms anytime soon. Sad, really. I would have made you feel so good right up until I cut your throat."
"Rhonda, you're a damned US Marshal, for Christ's sake. What the hell are you doing?" He wanted her to focus on him and not his daughter.
"What am I doing? I'm carrying out my assignment, Ricky. See, Beckett here has been making trouble for my employers and, well, apparently they are mighty vexed by it and so they figured out that she'd eventually find you wherever the Service had you stashed."
Castle looked at Beckett and quietly said, "Oh, crap. Another trap."
"They have people working in the Program and discovered where you were so they recruited me to kill her if she showed up. I didn't care. It was a nice addition to my regular pay and if she never showed up, well, I'd eventually wear you down and it wouldn't be a total waste of time.
"Beckett, you said those guys were all either dead or in jail. What's – "
Rhonda just looked at him like he was somehow challenged in some way.
"Castle, for a crime writer you sure don't understand how things work. They still call the shots, even from behind bars. Cell phones can be smuggled in. Calls come out. People get orders and other people get dead. It's a business, Castle, and like all good businesses, it has a line of succession in the event of death. Speaking of which…" She shifted the muzzle of the shotgun from Alexis to Castle.
Rick reached over and grabbed Kate's hand and pulled her to him in an embrace. She automatically reached her arms around him and – and felt the pistol in the waistband of his shorts. He nodded and grinned.
"Castle, whatever happens, I love you." She grinned up at Rick and then turned to face Rhonda with Castle's pistol in her hand and fired several times. The rogue agent got off one shot that blew away a portion of the kitchen island before the shotgun fell from her lifeless hands.
Kate ran to Alexis and rolled Lydia's body off the teenager and helped her up. She was covered in the agent's blood and nearly hysterical. She held on to Kate like a drowning person does a life preserver.
"Lex, it's okay, sweetie. Are you hurt? C'mon, Lex, are you hurt?" She felt Alexis shake her head but couldn't understand her at all. She turned to Rick for help.
"Rick, can you – Alexis, let go of me!" She pushed a stunned Alexis away and ran to Rick's side. "Alexis, call 9-1-1 and – "
Castle was on the floor and his entire stomach was a mess of red and yellow and Kate almost lost control. He was gasping for breath but he didn't want Alexis, or Kate for that matter, to draw any more attention to the B&B than was required.
"NO! Alexis - behind the registration - counter. Digital panel - alarm system -on the wall – push button marked 'Assistance Required'. Kate, is Lydia dead?"
She was kneeling down beside him amongst the pots and pans and condiment containers that had been in racks underneath the island. Kate had grabbed several kitchen towels and was pressing against the gaping wound. He was still gasping for breath
"Yeah. Alexis, go get a sheet from one of the rooms and bring it here. I'll cover Lydia with it. Alexis, move it!" The stunned girl was looking around at the two dead Marshals and was unable to focus. She was shivering but Kate's shout of 'move it' brought her to her senses.
"Yeah. Push the button and then get a sheet. Right. I can do that." She scampered away to do what she was told.
"Castle – " There were tears streaming down her face and he was still gasping for breath where the cast iron skillet had plowed into his stomach and winded him.
"Kate – help me up. Need to stand up – please!" He couldn't catch his breath with her putting almost all her weight on his 'wound'. "Damn, Kate! Not shot! Just winded."
Beckett helped him up to his feet after confirming that the goo on his shirt was indeed a mixture of mayonnaise, ketchup, mustard and various other condiments that were in the destroyed half-pantry under the island.
"Jesus, Kate, I was bait for their trap. Is it ever going to end? Will they ever give up trying to kill us? I'm tired of all this drama, Kate. I just want us to hide away someplace and – and – "
Alexis came back with sheets and the first aid kit from the Beast. She covered the US Marshal's body but just threw the sheet in the general direction of Rhonda.
"Kate, I got the first aid kit out of the Beast but there're two vans coming down the road. What if it's more of them? Dad? Are you hurt?"
"No, Pumpkin, just bruised. I got hit with a cast iron skillet – the skillet took the brunt of the blast. I just go the wind knocked out of me."
Kate laughed and then wiped her hands off on one of the kitchen towels and tossed it to Alexis who yelped and dodged it. "Kate! That's gross. That's someone's, " she sniffed at it, "seasonings and ketchup and – "
"Yeah. Now hand me that shotgun. Your Dad had a pistol under that hideous shirt of his and I'll never complain about them again."
Alexis handed Kate the shotgun and Kate gave Rick back his pistol.
"Alexis, go out the back door and run up the beach to the post office and tell Mollie to call the state police. Then you stay there, understand, until Kate or I come for you."
"But Dad – "
"Lex, listen to your father. Go get help!" Alexis ran out through the mudroom and down the porch steps and then took off running through the loose sand towards the post office.
"Listen, Castle, if we don't get another chance to talk, I just have to say I'm proud of you and your daughter and I'm so blessed to have had you in my life even for such a short time – "
"Bull! We haven't even started living yet, Kate. We have things to do, people to arrest, babies to make – uh, you do want to have a baby some day, don't you, Kate? I mean if you and I – "
"Shut up and kiss me. I hear the vans. You're right. We have things to do, people to arrest and a lot of baby making to do. Just one baby for now but a lot of practicing. We'll start tonight after we blow these sons of bitches away."
"Ooooo, I like blood thirsty Beckett. She's hot! And sexy. And – "
They heard the front screen door slam shut.
"Castle! It's Mike Ponti with the US Marshal's Service. You okay, Rick?"
Several men in tactical gear burst in through the back door and the front door. Mike Ponti took in the scene and began swearing.
"I knew that crazy bitch was dirty but I couldn't prove it. Damn, Hamilton was retiring after this hitch. Okay, Rick, you start. What the hell happened here?"
7pm
Rick's B&B
Kate was on the phone with Jordan Shaw and the task force and throwing a fit.
"What do you mean there are no links? She told us her contacts are in prison and she also told us that there's a clear line of succession for this conspiracy."
"No, Jordan, I am not coming back. I'm staying with Rick. Alexis is going out to California in a few days and spend time with her grandmother who we still haven't told that her son is alive."
"Jordan, if they move Rick, they'll have to move me, too. I have nothing to return to. No job, no family, nothing. All I have in the world is right here on this sand bar and I'm not giving him up, understand?"
Kate closed her phone in a huff effectively disconnecting Jordan Shaw.
"Ms. Beckett, I overheard your conversation with the FBI. They have rules that are very structured. We don't. Rick has a choice now – he stays with the Program and we move him or he leaves, goes back to his old life and hopes all the sleeper cells have been taken."
"What's your intel on that? Are they all dead or in prison?"
"We don't know. Rick says he just wants you to be safe. Kate, you know you'll never be safe unless they're all dead or you're 'dead'." He was referring to the conspiracy that had killed her mother and so many others.
She nodded her head. It was the hard cold truth. She wasn't a cop any longer but that wasn't a safe bet. She could disappear with Castle and leave her old life behind or go back to New York and take her chances.
"You should have been in the Program during the grand jury phase and then we could have inserted you two together at some point but now, you both have a hard decision to make. We can take you, alone, into the Program right now. Or we can take both of you."
"How long do I, we, have to decide?"
"No more than 24 hours to be safe. I can vouch for my team here but obviously not for those assigned from DC."
"Okay. Let me discuss this with Rick and we'll let you know our decision. Whatever is decided, thank you for being honest with us."
The last of the Marshals' people were gone except for two watchers who had taken up residence in their dead predecessors' beach house. Alexis had finally fallen asleep and the two were finally alone, sitting out on Rick's deck off the Master Suite.
"That's not much of a choice, is it, Kate? Go home and hope I'm not killed and we try to live normal lives or we go home and hope you're not killed and try to live normal lives. I could live with it except for the 'killed' part. That's a definite negative on the decision tree."
"What choice do we really have? If Abu-Jihad is out of the picture, Richard Castle rises from his ashes and continues to write and enjoy a wonderful life. Sounds really good to me, Rick."
"Yeah, except you left out 'alone' as in 'lives the rest of his days alone and heartbroken'. That's a no-starter for sure, Kate. Nope, not gonna happen."
"Castle…you're not being realistic. If we're together in New York you'll have a big bull's eye on your back just like I will. These bastards don't care who they kill as long as they get their revenge on me. I won't put you in that position."
"So we go into the Program – together – and live our lives together. It's the right choice, honey. You know it. I'm not giving up anything and either are you. What's the problem?"
"Alexis will lose a father and Martha will lose a living son again. That's the problem, Rick. They'll watch Alexis. They'll watch Martha. One slip up, one little misspoken word and it's all over."
"Fine. Beckett, here's my final offer. I'm writing this scene as I go along so bear with me."
"Local residents stumbled onto the scene of a gangland shoot out in which local resident Alex Richards, handsome and devil-may-care B&B owner and an as yet unidentified but incredibly beautiful guest were cruelly shot down while eating lunch together. The criminals also killed two US Marshals who were having lunch at the famous B&B but were not otherwise involved. The local FBI office is investigating the crime but has no leads."
"What about Alexis?"
"Alexis sells the motor home to you and I in our new personas and heads out to California and Stanford University. She will explain to her grandmother as best she can. More on that later."
"Castle, if we're going into the Program, why do we need a motor home?"
"Why, ex-detective Beckett – however else are we going to go really dark and go deeper than the Program managers ever conceived?"
"Rick, take your hand out from under my blouse. No fooling around until we come to a dec – Castle! Stop!"
13 Months Later
Telchak Puerto on the Gulf of Mexico
Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico
"Mmmm, I like waking up next to you. Think we can skip breakfast and just snuggle up like newly weds?"
"We are newly weds, Mrs. Brooks. Our first anniversary was yesterday and we reenacted our wedding night three times before I begged you for mercy. How about a fresh fruit plate and freshly squeezed papaya juice for breakfast? It is 9am after all."
"I think I'd like to have something with a little more meat on the plate. Think you can help me out, Mr. Brooks?"
They finally got out of bed in time for lunch and then drove into Progresso to pick up their mail. They were going sightseeing and have dinner and then meet the bus from Merida. Theirs was a permanent honeymoon and so far they'd spent each day doing whatever they pleased and there was no end in sight.
"Hey, Nicole, we got another check from Black Pawn. They're up to $10 grand. What should I do with it?"
"Tell that annoying harpy ex-wife and ex-publisher the same thing you told her the first time – only tell her to remove the staples this time."
Nicole and Cassidy Brooks used to be Arnold and Roberta Thatcher but somehow they had given the US Marshals the slip and filtered down into Mexico, finally ending up in the Yucatan and deciding to stay for a while.
"Seriously, how are we fixed for money? Neither of us can access our US accounts because – well – because we're dead! Are we going to have to go home and get jobs?" She loved zinging her husband. He was so predictable.
"Nicole, I've told you a hundred times, we don't have money problems. I squirreled after-tax money into the Caymans and we've barely scratched the surface of it. We're still living on the cash we got for the Beast."
"Y'know I kinda miss that motor home."
"You don't like the Mercedes? Jesus, you're worse than Alexis. Never satisfied."
They'd spent almost a year in the Program as Arnold and Roberta in Scottsdale, Arizona when Alexis had called and told them that Esposito and Ryan had been 'discharged for cause' from the NYPD and were looking at possible criminal charges.
Cassidy Brooks had made a few calls, told a lot of lies, paid off some people to look the other way and then transferred a ton of money to accounts set up in Ryan and Esposito's names and told them to stay the course.
They packed up the Beast and headed south, slipping under the radar at the border and then driving south to their new home on the beach. It had taken quite a lot of planning and scheming but it was all coming to an end.
"Almost time to head for the station, Nicole. Think they'll recognize you?"
"So I got a tan and my hair is sun-bleached. I'm still me, Cass." She did look different with a tan, almost strawberry blonde sun-bleached hair and a permanent smile on her face.
"Yeah, and am I glad. I'd hate to have to explain you to my wife." She poked him in the ribs but didn't quit smiling. She hardly ever did. She was happy."
"You, on the other hand, well, the short gray hair and your weight loss might throw them. Lose the sunglasses, babe, they're friends."
The bus pulled in and first Lanie, then Javier and finally Jenny and Kevin piled wearily off the bus. Lanie was the first to recognize her old friend and she dragged her fellow travelers over to the couple she barely recognized.
After Cassidy made arrangements for the luggage to be delivered to the beach house in Telchak Puerto, the reunited crew went to dinner and talked about their vacation plans.
The next morning saw a council of war convened over the remnants of breakfast on the patio.
"Okay, what do you have for me?" Kate Beckett was back on the case. No one threatened her family. No one.
Done.
