Numbers. That was all anyone amounted to anymore. You had a social security number, a drivers license number, a retirement plan number, a master card number for your credit card, a selective service number, and, of course, a number to identify you for your job. Kate Beckett's number was now up. Colin had once again used his incognito disguise at the city's motor pool about a month ago to get copies of keys for Kate's car and Rick's BDU truck. He milled around the shop for about a week as not to be noticed and on his overnight shift one Tuesday morning he had found out that each city vehicle had been assigned a number. Being careful enough to not be noticed he crept into the scheduling supervisors office and sat down at his computer. Quickly navigating the screen in front of him for information, he pulled up the car that was assigned to the detective by the cars assigned number. It was due for a preventive maintenance appointment at the end of the next month. As he looked at the calendar there were 42 days before that could happen.
Sending the detective an email from the supervisors terminal, he wrote to her and told her that this email was a reminder that her car was due for its service in 10 days. He would follow up with a phone call to confirm this the day before so she could get the car in at it's appointed time. He quickly erased the sent email and wiped the hard drive of any outgoing messages. He left the office, but not without taking an impression of both vehicles keys in clay. He would make hard copies later. He went back to his duties for the rest of the shift. He played along when another worker had asked him how his night went as they were leaving for the day.
As Colin had finished the finishing touches on the last of the panels he pulled out his cell phone from its holder on his belt. Dialing the detectives land line phone at the 12th precinct the call connected and he waited. After 5 rings he was tempted to hang up and try again later, but the call connected with "Beckett".
"Detective Beckett, this is Mr. Fisher at the motor pool. I am calling to remind you that your unit is due for its PM. It's just an oil change and 4 new tires and it should be ready before your shift is over."
"Mr Fished is this really necessary? I'm in the middle of a case and I really don't have the time to drop off the car."
"Well, detective we could possibly have someone pick it up. Is that okay?"
"Mr Fisher let me check in with my captain. Can you hold on a sec?"
"Sure thing."
After a 2 minute pause, the Kate returns. "Mr. Fisher, my captain tells me that it's fine if you send someone to pick it up. The keys will be with the desk Sargent so see him for them."
"Thanks, detective."
"Anytime," She says as she hangs up.
This is working out better than he had hoped as he ends the call. He won't need the spare keys that he made for her car she was giving him her own keys! He waits for a moment and sets out for the 12th precinct to get her car. He had it all planned out. As he walked from the subway station to the 12th he was met with a couple of uniforms as he entered. One of them said "You guys down at the motor pool never seem to get a rest."
Colin replied "Yes sir, no rest for the weary!"
He walks in ant reports to the desk Sargent to retrieve the keys for the car.
"Hello sir, I'm here to pick up detective Beckett's car and bring it in for it's scheduled maintenance."
"Hold on Mike, let me make a call." The desk Sargent says as he reads the name off Colin's uniform and places a call to Kate.
"Okay, here you go." The Sargent hands over the keys to Kate's car. And Colin says
"Thanks, Sarge, I'll have it back here before the shift ends."
"Thanks, Mike." He replies.
Colin just nods his reply and heads for the entry door. He gets in the car and fires it up. Obeying all traffic regs he slowly pulls out of the underground garage and merges into traffic. Before long he is at his hideout and pulls the car into the garage. He had moved everything from where he had them drying and hardening to the garage. They were works of art. He had dyed the Semtex light ford blue to match the interior of her car. Even Rick would have a hard time telling that these parts were actually made from an explosive material. He got to work again being so very careful removing all the plastic parts in the car that he had made himself because if he had broken anything that was used to re-attach the parts he made Rick would be able to find out what he was up to. He had everything taken apart and now came the hard part, reassembling everything with a steady hand.
He had finished the reassembly process and he stepped back to admire his work. As he looked over all the panels that he had replaced, he thought that the rear deck panel looked a little bit off. As he spent more time looking at the panel he decided to replace the Semtex panel with the stock Ford once again. He would not take the chance that Rick could spot his work. He once again looked at his work and was pleased. The glove box door was loaded with more Semtex as well as the panels that cover the lower dash and the upper dash at the drivers side. No one will survive this. He cleaned up the mess and everything went according to plan. He actually was ahead of the schedule he had set for himself by 45 minutes.
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Kate dreaded the call she was going to make next. She really wanted to keep Alexis out of this but then last night she gave in at the last second. Why did she do that, she knew she already loved her but she could not let her get further involved in this case. She hoped that when this was all over they could start fresh.
Dialing Alexis' cell number part of her hoped that the voice mail would take over and she could leave her a message. But she had no such luck. "Hello, Kate." Alexis answered.
"Hey Alexis," Kate said trying to hide her displeasure.
"Well Kate, guess what?"
Kate perked up a little at her enthusiasm. "What Lex, don't keep me in suspense, what did you find out?"
"Actually, this was pretty easy. He left a trail that would be hard for the seasoned IT tech to find, but I was able to look beyond what the NYPD has taught them."
"Go on sweetie." Kate had hoped that she had found something on Colin that could get him caught and put behind bars.
"Kate he is predictable. He uses certain methods that dad would know about. I'm sure that if we bring him in on this he can help us. Kate, he knows Colin, granted it was years ago, but he knows his obsessions. So, should I tell him?"
Before Kate can answer she hears a voice that she is way too familiar with.
"There's no need to tell him, he just heard everything." Alexis sits straight up at her desk, turns her head slowly and looks to see her dad standing in the doorway.
"Dad, please I can explain."
"Alexis I'm not too sure that you will be able to explain!"
"Dad I'm not going to watch you sacrifice your life to let me and Kate live, because from what I've read about Colin he is one sick son-of-a-bitc..."
"Alexis you finish that thought and you will be grounded until your 21."
"I'm sorry Dad, but it's true he IS predictable."
Rick walks the remaining way from her doorway to Alexis who is sitting at her roll up desk. Her eyes are darting from him to her phone. He takes the phone from her and starts to talk to Kate.
"What am I going to do with you, Kate?"
"Rick I'm not going to lose you either! I am in love with you and WE are going to finally put an end to this so we can be together as a family should be. I know that this is happening so quickly, but my heart tells me that you are my soul mate, my one and done."
Rick is a little taken aback with her statement. As he looks to Alexis who now has tears running down her face he tells Kate "Well, in that case, Kate why don't you come over to my apartment so you, me and Benedict Arnold here can talk about what is on your mind."
"Okay Rick, I'll be over in 30. Do you want me to bring the coffee?"
"Kate as much as I like store bought coffee, I have some here we can brew. I will see you soon."
"Rick...I love you!"
"I love you too Kate, with all my heart."
Kate ends the call and gets ready to meet Rick.
Colin pulls into the underground garage for the 12th. As he gets out of the car he takes the red shop rag from his back pocket and wipes a spot of grease from the door jamb. Securing the car he walks out of the garage and enters the twelfth's front doors. Walking up to the duty Sargent's desk he holds out the keys to Beckett's car and bids a farewell to him. The Sargent calls out to him and asks if everything is fine.
"Everything is tip-top Sarge, even threw in a new pine scented air freshener"
The Sargent cracks a smile as he picks up the phone to let detective Ryan or Esposito that Beckett's car is back from the motor pool since Beckett left about a half an hour ago in Ryan's car. Ryan thanks him.
Kate's stomach is doing somersaults. She walks up to Ricks apartment and hesitates for just a second. She strains to listen if she hears either of them yelling or fighting. She hears nothing and raises her hand to knock when the door swings open and she sees Alexis' tear stained face. Well, at least, he is not yelling she thinks. She was wrong.
"Kate please come in! I have a bone to pick with you."
"Rick I can explain."
"Kate listen I was serious about going after Colin, I love you too much to loose you and what you've done here just made it so much worse."
"Rick, what are you talking about?"
"Kate he has been following you!"
"Rick, that's impossible. I have been so careful. He had no idea."
"Kate please come here."
Kate reluctantly walks over to where Alexis is sitting with her laptop open. She stands next to him and behind Alexis and then Alexis starts to hit the next arrow button on the images that she is seeing on the screen. Picture after picture she is mortified. These are all pictures of her, and to top it off they were taken when she thought she was in or at a safe place. As Risk's hand slides onto her shoulder she feels a shiver run through her body...and not the good kind.
"Kate, do you see what I am talking about? These pictures were taken when you thought you were safe. These pictures were not taken by any NYPD operation, they were taken by him. He knows that we are together and he will use it to his advantage if he has not already."
"Rick, How did he know?"
"Kate he took this one when you were just about to come into the apartment right after I got home from the hospital. Rick said pointing to the picture on the laptop. I had Alexis run our IP address to see if he was smart enough to keep his camera setting scanning for available networks and he found ours. It was not too hard to find the camera that was used and then to download the pictures. I also had her scan your home IP address as well as the 12th's."
"Rick I'm so sorry. I never meant to put you into danger."
Kate turns to see Alexis' face and she is crying. This is it for her she turns to leave. But before she can get less than two steps away Rick has taken a hold of her arm and is pulling her back towards him.
"And just where do you think you're going, lady?"
"Rick, I was such a fool. I believed that he never knew I was there. I've put your life in danger."
"Kate, first of all, this is what we do day in and day out. It's our job. Secondly, this has just given us a big head start on how we can find him and send him to prison once and for all."
"Rick, I'm going to make sure that he NEVER sees the inside of a prison cell!"
Alexis looks up to her dad and Kate and sees that he has pulled her into an embrace that would soften anyone if they were to see them right now.
"Kate I know that you are mad, but babe I have something that might make you change your mind."
"Oh yeah, Rick...what's that?"
Before Rick can answer her, her cell phone pings with a message. Pulling out her phone she reads the message that Ryan has sent her. "Your unit is back from the pool. Bring back my car and get yours :)"
The smiley face gets her to smile a little. She replies, "At Rick's will be at the 12th in an hour. Thanks, Kev."
Kate walks back to the kitchen table takes a seat and waits for Rick to settle in.
Alexis says, "Kate take a seat...we have a lot of information to go over..."
A/N: I am not an expert on digital cameras. I'm not too sure if you are able to pull up a picture and view it from an IP address. Remember this is fiction, but I hope it makes sense. P2P