Author's Note: Happy Friday everyone! And if I may say so, thank goodness it's Friday! As usual, thanks a ton to everybody who read and reviewed the last chapter! I'm glad you guys enjoyed :) Alrighty, here's the next chapter my dears!

I don't own Castle

Previously: As Jim arrived at his apartment, he was overwhelmed by the scent of perfume. It was smell that he hadn't smelled in years. Not since…

He gasped as he opened the door.

Chapter 14

He was looking at Kate's eyes. Except it wasn't Kate. He was speechless.

The woman slowly approached him, but didn't say a word.

"Jo? I…umm…maybe I'm still a bit dehydrated. Yeah, umm I should go back…" said Jim in disbelief.

"You're not dehydrated, Jim. It's me," said Johanna Beckett. It may have been 15 years since Jim had seen his wife but she looked the same as she did that January day in 1999.

"No. No, my Jo died. My Jo is gone. You are not my Jo, because the Johanna I knew would never leave me or her daughter if she could help it. I'm going crazy. All the damage I did with the drinking has finally caught up with me," said Jim in denial.

Johanna stepped towards him and reached to touch his arm. He pulled away before she made contact. "Jim, I'm so sorry. It's me, though. I'm back."

Jim looked at her. He was furious. She had been alive this whole time? She had left him and her teenage daughter and stayed away for 15 years. 15 long, difficult years. Her death is the reason that Kate does what she does. Oh no, Katie. How could he tell Katie? "Look, I need to go," he said. "My daughter is in the hospital, and as my duty as her parent, I need to be with her. Not that you'd understand that," he said coldly. He turned to leave, but Johanna caught him by the arm.

"Katie's hurt? What happened?" Johanna asked worriedly.

"Her mother lied and left her, that's what happened," he said. "Look, stay here. Let me cool down and we'll talk when I come back. But you need to stay away from my daughter. Clear?"

"Yes," she said. Jim left and slammed the door after him leaving Johanna alone with her thoughts.

She had never meant for this to happen. About two months before January 9th, she had been approached by a man who informed her that someone had put a contract killer out to kill her. The man told her that he could protect her; she would just have to be away from her family for a bit while the case was dealt with. She had agreed.

January 9th, 1999 had started off as any other day. Katie was still home from Stanford for the holidays and she went to work around 8:30. Jim, Katie, and she were supposed to have dinner that night, but she got a call around 1:30. It was the man who had offered to protect her. He told her that he had to get her to safety tonight. He had warned her previously that there would be very little warning, but this was so sudden. As she left the office, she was picked up by a cliché black SUV. The man was inside waiting for her.

She never forgave herself for leaving her husband and daughter. She knew that her death had been staged, but that was all she knew. She could make no contact whatsoever with her family to maintain her cover. It broke her heart. She had no idea how Jim and Katie were doing. Heck, her only connection to them was the pictures she took with her that fateful night. She stared at those same pictures for 15 straight years. She missed them immensely.

But at least she knew they were okay, right? If something truly awful had happened to them, she would have been told, right? Then again, she knew nothing of their lives. Was Katie a lawyer like she had planned to be? Surely, Katie was always the type of person who had to finish whatever she started. If only Johanna could have communicated to them that she was okay, too.

Johanna decided to snoop around a bit. She was surprised to find that all her clothes and everything else in her bedroom were still exactly where she had left them. She looked around for some pictures. There weren't very many new ones. There were still plenty of old school pictures of Katie and family pictures of all three of them. Then she came across a picture she hadn't seen before. It was of her daughter. In a police uniform. Why was Katie wearing a police uniform?

Then her phone rang.

It was the man who had saved her.

Agent Jackson Hunt.

Jim didn't go back to the hospital. He went out and bought a bottle of scotch. He got back in his car and was about to drink it, but he couldn't. He just couldn't. Katie would be furious with him. How could he regress back to this.

He hadn't bought alcohol since he got sober for his daughter. He hadn't even considered it.

How could she do this to them? How could she leave them to struggle the way they did.

Maybe she had a reason. He hadn't even asked. He had been too angry.

Jim looked at the time and decided to head back to the hospital. He threw the full bottle of scotch into a trash. He wouldn't be needing it.

When Jim arrived back at the hospital Kate's room was very full. Esposito, Ryan, Jenny, Lanie, and Gates were all laughing about Castle scaring away the doctor yet again. Castle had gone home to be with Alexis and Martha for a bit.

Jim sat down next to Kate and took her hand. She smiled at him and he tried to smile back. Not telling her was eating away at him, but he just couldn't. How could he tell her that the reason she had become a cop was a lie. How could he tell her that she was shot because of a lie.

What was he going to do?

How could Johanna do this?

Author's Note: And there you have it! Until next time!

~Celeste