CH12
It is still January 9, 1999:
It was almost lunch now and Rick and Alexis were still in the Beckett house along with Johanna and Jim.
"Let me get this straight." Johanna squeezes her eyes closed before re-opening them. "You two first met at a coffee shop, then ran across each other at a hotel over in Jersey where Alexis here, who was 16 years old at the time, flew all of you out in a plane to these islands that you bought after killing of Derek Storm. A character that you haven't even written about yet, and while you are there you write three more books using Nikki Heat, based off of Katie.
Who was a homicide detective and was actually just starting to be a captain of her own precinct. It was out here on these islands that you two fell in love. And then you started repeating the same months over and over again, until one time you didn't. And that was when you took Jim and your mother out there with you.
And you went out to these islands because of a zombie attack.
Jim is a drunk and you have buried yourself in your work, closing off you heart to everyone until you are forced to spend time with Rick and Alexis. All because I die from a stab wound tonight before meeting you at a restaurant.
And the reason I'm dead is because Bracken has decided that I'm too close and has me killed to keep his secrets." Johanna does her best to sum up what she has heard from these two.
"And now you've gone even further back in time to the day that I'm killed." Johanna adds.
"I know what it sounds like mom, ..." However Kate is interrupted.
"Sounds like? It sounds like a lot of science fiction or one of your books with a little time travel, that is impossible by the way, thrown in for good measure." Johanna contradicts all this. She has to protect her family.
"Johanna, I'm all too aware of what this sounds like, however just who do you think you are protecting? You, your family? We got a lot of our information from you and your notes that you left behind." Rick points out.
"My notes?" Johanna didn't see how, her notes were her own short hand, something she had done on purpose.
"You know where her notes are?" Rick asks looking at Kate, who is up and running in a heartbeat after putting Alexis down on the floor who had been sitting in her lap with Kate's arms wrapped around her.
Kate is soon back with her mom's note book and hands it over to Rick, who opens it. "This entry here is your appointment time and location for between you and Roy Montgomery, who is already captain of the 12th precinct." Rick points and turns the book for Johanna to see.
"This one is your reminder to yourself not to forget Kate's birthday. It even has a side notation reminding you what to purchase that year.
This one is your notes on your interview that you had with Pulgotti. The man who was framed for murder even though McCallister is actually the one who did the killing of the undercover FBI guy.
This one is about some recording you have that implicated Bracken about issuing your killing because you are too close. Problem is Roy lets you down and doesn't reach you in time and you end up dead later tonight.
We got the file that Roy put together to blackmail Bracken to keep him away from Roy, his family and Kate. We even know the name of the guy who is going to kill you tonight along with all of your staff.
In our time Bracken has had 19 people killed including you using his hired killers to do his dirty work. His ambitions for power knows no limits. We even have the account number for the offshore bank account that he used to put his initial money into to win his first election.
By our time he has amassed over $1 Billion. Getting almost all of it from the drug trade that he runs.
Maybe you don't care what happens to you, your husband or Kate. However there are another 18 families who have had their lives destroyed, and that's not counting the thousands of people that take his drugs." Rick was tiring of Johanna's deflection.
"Don't tell me I don't love my family. Don't even!" Johanna yells at Rick.
"Then prove it!" Rick yells back. "Jim is a drunk, your daughter is broken and becomes a homicide detective with the sole reason being she wants to find out who killed you and bring him or her to justice.
There is too much at stake now Johanna, or more accurately, there will be more at stake. And since you die tonight unless we stop it, time is also now short." Rick tries a shock tactic.
"Please mom, you don't know what your death did to us, … both of us." Kate pleads.
"How much of this is true Jo?" Jim speaks for the first time in a long time, since he had just sat there listening.
Johanna deflates. Her family knew too much already. Even if she wanted to protect them from Bracken, she couldn't. "All of it." Johanna offers weakly.
"You know who is behind all of this and you didn't say anything?" Jim thought he knew his wife. Damn woman always was head strong and stubborn.
"I was trying to protect you. If you didn't know he had no reason to go after you, and I've been careful." Johanna tries pleading her case.
"Not careful enough if there really is a hit out on you already. … God Jo, why do you have to be so damn stubborn and not let people help you?" Jim was now mad, hearing his own wife confirm all of this.
"Like mother like daughter." Rick mumbles, which earns him a swat from Kate.
It was now that Rick noticed something. "What's with all the tape?" Rick holds onto Kate's left hand.
"It fell off while I was asleep. It's too big for my finger now and I didn't want it falling off again. I went through too much to get it to lose it." Kate leans across to give Rick a quick kiss.
"You two are actually engaged?" Johanna asks, getting Jim's attention.
"I love him mom, him and Alexis. Alexis is mine even if I didn't give birth to her. Which reminds me, we need to do something about Meredith and Gina if we stay in this time line." Kate adds.
"I haven't seen Meredith since the divorce and I don't meet Gina until a few books before I start my Derek Storm series, so I shouldn't have met her yet, … maybe.
Am I known as a playboy going around with countless women yet?" Rick asks looking at Johanna.
"The papers have made mention of it, but nothing too serious yet. You're just popular." Johanna tells him.
Rick hangs his head low. "Sounds like Gina is in the picture than." Rick moans.
"We'll deal with it babe, and when Meredith shows up I'm going to kick her ass this time instead of just talk to her." Kate places one of her hands on Rick's.
"My favorite author is engaged to my daughter." Johanna shakes her head.
"I even remember when you came to one of my book signings, and brought Kate with you." Rick offers.
"You remember that? Katie was such a pain for the entire time we waited in line." Johanna wasn't afraid of throwing her daughter under the bus.
"I wasn't that bad mom." Kate takes exception, getting Rick to start laughing. "Shut-up." Kate slaps Rick on the upper arm.
"This still leaves what we do to keep your mother alive and the rest of you out of range of Bracken." Rick points out.
"We need someplace safe, someplace that will keep them safe till we figure out what to do first." Kate offers.
"We move everyone to the loft. It has the bedrooms we need and it is in a secure building. We can discuss strategy there." Rick offers.
"Go pack you two, we're moving." Kate tells her mother and father.
"Just who is the parent here?" Johanna counters, not used to having her daughter telling her what to do.
"I lost you once mom and I'm not doing it again. It hurt too much the first time, so go pack. We can make plans on what to do next after we get there. So go pack and bring whatever you need with you." Kate tries again.
It took some time but Johanna and Jim were all packed as was Kate and exiting the house. "You remember how to get to the loft?" Rick asks looking at Kate.
"I remember." Kate smiles. "This yours?" Kate asks looking at the Aston Martin.
"So it would appear. I still don't understand what is going on. … We need to talk tonight." Rick whispers that last part, getting Kate to nod her head.
"I don't suppose I have a car too?" Kate was kind of hoping for another Maserati.
"I don't know, there wasn't much time between when we started in the loft and your phone call, so I guess we will find out." Rick offers.
"Aston Martin. … Nice. Only two seats?" Kate questions, getting Rick to shrug his shoulders. It was a good looking car and he liked it.
"I'll try not to lose you while you follow, but if I do, you know where to go. You'll need to park out on the street somewhere however." Rick reminds Kate.
"We'll be right behind you." Kate wraps her arms around Rick's neck and kisses him soundly for the first time, not knowing her parents were watching all of this.
"We may be doing more than talking tonight." Rick arched his eyebrows a couple of times.
"I look forward to it, plus I want to see that tattoo you have." Kate grinned wide.
"I'll be sure to examine yours very, very closely." Rick smiled and gave Kate a quick kiss.
Jim, who was driving, was right behind him all the way, which Rick made easy since he wasn't going very fast, until he diverted to parking in the garage below the building after putting in his code to get in.
Rick with Alexis in hand was waiting at the front door next to the doorman who Rick was talking to so that none of these three would be denied access to the building when they wanted.
"There are three bedrooms upstairs, one is Alexis's and the others are guest rooms, just pick which one you like best and unpack and meet us downstairs." Rick offers and waits to escort Kate to the master bedroom after watching Jim, Johanna and Alexis go upstairs.
"Any ideas on what we do?" Rick asks.
"Not much no. Mom isn't going to like the idea of hiding out here for very long. A day or two at the most." Kate knows her mother will not back down.
"We need to put together what each of us knows and then we can start talking about how we deal with it." Rick offers, getting Kate to nod her head. It sounded like a good enough plan for now to her.
"I'll let you unpack, I'm going to make a couple of phone calls. The first being my lawyer, find out what is different this time." Rick didn't know what was going on, or how. He could just work with what he had.
It took Rick a little longer than he thought and found everyone else in the living room sitting and talking to each other. He also saw something that he thought he would never see. Little 5 year old Alexis was in Kate's lap who had her arms wrapped around her.
"I don't know why we remember from one time to the next. Each time starts off like a dream till we get a little more deep into our lives. This one is a first for us." Kate mentions.
"Time travel, where you have no control over where you go each time. This is a lot to take Katie, even from you. … And if you're not in control than who is?" Johanna asks still not sure she believes this. It's just that Katie and Richard Castle knew too much. She was sure she had been careful.
"Haven't got a clue." Rick walks in and kisses Kate's head. "How are you doing pumpkin?" Rick looks into Alexis's eyes.
"Fine daddy." Alexis smiles since she is happy where she is.
"I'm beyond confused." Jim points out.
"What did your lawyer say?" Kate was interested in what he had learned.
Rick sat down on the sofa placing Johanna between himself and Jim. "There are a few differences this time too. I own the loft along with a few other real estate locations, just not all of them. There is also a new one out in the Caribbean that I don't remember owning." Rick was confused.
"Bank account and more important, do I have my own car?" Kate wanted to know if she still owned a Maserati. She liked that car.
"Bank account is about what I remember it was at that time. I had him buy stock in Apple Computers." Rick started grinning and lifted his eyebrows a couple of times. "And as for your car? Well it seems there is a car that is likely down in the garage that is in your name. It's a 1999 Jaguar XKR convertible, 4.0L, V8, 290 hp."
"Isn't that called insider trading?" Kate questions.
"No it's called foresight buying." Rick was still grinning. "Speaking of money." Rick jumped up and went back into his study and came back out with his laptop. "You still remember the account numbers, passwords and secrets?" Rick asks, getting Kate to start smiling.
It took some time, but all of the money in the account was moved again and again. "Probably should have used different laptops and different W-fi locations, just too late now." Rick offers as he shuts down his computer.
"We need to buy burner phones and get another laptop tomorrow." Rick adds.
"What did you just do?" Johanna was curious.
"I just stole his drug money that he plans on using to afford his next election. He needs to remain a senator in order to make his run for President." Rick answers her question. "He only has $412 million at this time, a few years from now and he would have over $1 billion."
"President?" Johanna responds back.
"President of the United States mom. It's his ultimate goal. Gain control of everything. An elected dictator if you will." Kate answers her mom's question.
"And our hiding out here does what for us?" Johanna didn't like hiding.
"We're creating time. … Time you didn't have after tonight. Time to stop him before he kills even more people, destroys even more families lives. Time to send him to hell. Time to save perhaps everyone and everything. Time to give Kate her family back. Just extra time." Rick tells her.
"Why you? I don't mean to be insulting, but you're a writer how are you involved?" Johanna loved his books but this was hard to take, hard to believe in.
"Me mom, he's here because of me. I love him, more than I've ever loved anyone. Rick is the person I've been waiting for, for a long time. If we solve this, I get time with you that I had lost and I get extra time with the love of my life. Rick and Alexis." Kate squeezed Alexis and kissed the back of her head, an Alexis who had been strangely quiet. "You don't know the pain of you dying tonight caused, there are so many things.
Are you alright Alexis honey? You've been really quiet." Kate changes her attention from her mother to Alexis and talks into one of her ears.
"I'm fine mommy." Alexis didn't do or say anything else which had Kate worried. From the look on Rick's face he had heard it too.
"So what's the plan?" Johanna asks.
"We need to gather all of our information and go over all of it, plus we need to talk with Roy Montgomery. He has been creating a file to keep Bracken away from his family." Rick offers. "It would be helpful to have what he has too."
"What we don't know is how much time we have. With a hit order out on you mom you need to stay indoors, out of sight, and I know how much you are going to hate that, but you need to think of us. Your death causes a lot of pain mom, more than I think you understand." Kate started blinking back tears from all the years she had missed her mother and yet here she was.
"I don't think I understand all this time travel stuff, but you need to understand everything I did was to keep my family safe." Johanna tries to plead her case.
"Safe with broken hearts that were never going to be repaired. It took years for dad to stop drinking, years more for our relationship to be partially repaired, years for dad to even get a few clients to get back to work. It was only through luck that I ran across Rick and Alexis. Even then it took re-living those months over and over again for them to make their was into my(?) heart mom. Life was nothing but pain." Kate had to stop talking or she was going to break down, while still holding onto Alexis.
"I'm sorry honey, it wasn't my plan to end up killed. All I really wanted to do was gather enough evidence for my client without getting my family into trouble." Johanna so wanted to get up and hold her daughter, it's just that it looked like Alexis was doing that for her since Alexis had turned around and was hugging Kate.
Her compensation was ending up in her husband's arms. Johanna knew the two of them were likely not going to get much sleep tonight since their night was going to be filled with talking to each other.
They had an idea of what to do tomorrow, just without a detailed plan. All they knew was that Johanna was trapped inside the loft for now.
Tonight was the first night that Johanna and Jim found out that Rick could cook while they watched Kate help him like she had done this a number of times already.
Johanna was just sitting at the breakfast bar watching them work together and how Kate knew where everything was, and then watch Kate pause to fill everyone's glass of wine again.
"What mom?" Kate had noticed the look on her face.
"It's nothing, it's just that I can't help but notice that it looks like you two have done this together before. My 19 year old daughter who didn't even want to read his books, is suddenly engaged to him. Whose daughter calls you mom." Johanna was still trying to wrap her mind around this.
"You didn't want to read my books?" Rick stopped cooking to stare at Kate.
"It's not like that babe. I was, ..." Kate squeezed her eyes closed since this was going to hurt. "I was just being difficult." Kate just knew what was coming.
"HA, I knew it!" Johanna points at Kate. Victory was hers!
"Fine, you win mom." Kate gives in. Kate however figured that since she was engaged to Rick and loved his daughter like she was her own, that she was the ultimate winner here.
"So when is your next book coming out Rick?" Johanna was curious, now that she had direct access to the source.
Rick looked confused for a moment. "To be honest I'm not even sure what my last book was. Have you heard anything about the Derek Storm series?" Maybe that would help him place himself in time.
Johanna shook her head. "What's it about?" Maybe a little inside information.
"A Calm Before The Storm, Gathering Storm, Unholy Storm, Storm's Last Stand, Storm Season, Storm Rising, Storm Warning, Storm's Break and Storm Fall?" Rick asks, getting Johanna to shake her head. He was sure at least the first one would be available by now, however maybe he is wrong.
"Sounds like I have a lot of typing to do. Plus the three Nikki Heat books." Rick adds.
"OH GOD!" Kate moans and tries to get her forehead to rest on the table top.
"Nikki Heat?" Johanna wasn't too sure about the name, but was more curious about Katie's reaction to the name.
"It's a series of books about when Kate was or will be a homicide detective and captain of her own precinct." Rick starts to explain.
"You wrote an entire series in this future you about a future Katie and named the character Nikki Heat?" Johanna thought she had it right, though admittedly she was still having trouble with this whole time travel thing.
"Please don't give him any encouragement mom." Kate still had hopes of getting him to change the name.
"It's a great name, it's a cop name." Rick loved this part.
"It's a stripper name Rick. How am I supposed to be taken seriously being associated with a stripper?" Kate didn't want to know how much grief she was going to get over being called Nikki Heat behind her back.
"I told you she is a little slutty." Rick was smiling since he knew the name was staying, the book titles alone were just too numerous to mention.
Johanna was looking at Jim who had a smile on his face. It looked like the two of them had even more to talk about when they went to bed tonight.
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There will be a delay in posting the next chapter. Sorry to say life has slowed down my writing time and i haven't finished it or even started the next chapter.
However you can go read "Life is a Beach" since i had finished 29 chapters before i stopped posting it initially. So i have a lot to work with, with that story.
Happy reading!