One
Chapter 26
Alexis knew she had left her dad and Kate in shock. It was just that she thought they should know. Though what she didn't know was how to put an end to this nightmare.
After they got back they went back to the screens and began trying to come up with ideas of how to power a time machine. So far they'd rejected all of them. Either they were too close to a city or Kim didn't think they generated enough power.
"Where are you going?" Kim was walking off and Alexis was still anxious to try and help.
As Kim moved away, she turned her head and said, "To get a glass of wine. I need a break. Want one?" She needed a time out before her head exploded.
Both of them ended up sitting in the living room sipping wine. "In my time we would hide it inside a mountain or try and conceal it in plain sight. Make it look like something else," Alexis commented, not sure it was helping. Then she had a couple of thoughts. "There was a Star Trek episode where this ancient building had been traveling through space. Over the years it collected so much debris that it looked like a comet. It even left a comet's tail behind it."
Jack shot her down. "There are any number of comets in the universe. However, all of them have so far been accounted for. No new ones have been reported."
Alexis was undaunted. "Okay, there was another Star Trek episode where these aliens wanted to attack a planet. They made their ships look like asteroids. A kind of chameleon effect. Do you have that kind of technology?
"Or could it be a cloaking device like the Romulans have? Their ships can disappear, not just from visual sight but also from any kind of scanner. Do you have that kind of technology?" She wasn't willing to give up yet.
Jack shot her down again. "There are both, but most of it is restricted to military. The invisibility you talk about would require a large power source. Since the time machine we are talking about likely requires a large power source, the possibility that it is invisible is doubtful."
Alexis started chewing her lip before taking a sip of her wine. Kim simply watched, still very impressed by her. Alexis had another idea. "You two are powered by a black hole. What's the largest known black hole anywhere in the universe?"
"The largest known black hole is a supermassive black hole that is also known as a black sun. It is located in the elliptical galaxy NGC 4889 in in the Coma Berenices constellation. Well over 338 million light years from our present location," Jack responded.
"The only problem with that location is that it is on the list of attractions on an annual tour for one of the super cruise ships. It is also watched closely and studied extensively. Hiding anything there would not be easy. Though it would have the power to accomplish everything you have been talking about," Jill added.
"How do we get there?" Alexis was willing to take a quick look at it.
"Take a cruise," Kim said dryly.
"Can we calculate when the next cruise ship will arrive and simply jump there for a quick look?" There was no need to go on the entire cruise.
"The next cruise ship is set to arrive in 8 months, 11 days, and 18 hours from the present time," Jill answered.
Alexis raised her eyebrows. "And your point?"
Kim burst out laughing; she was quite impressed. "You really have learned. Let's find out what your potential job requires first. I'm not taking you away from any college courses to accomplish what you want."
"Program complete," Jack commented instantly; he was ready.
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"I really am sorry," Kim called to Alexis who was moping her way to cry on their bed. Kim slumped, feeling bad for her. "How do we fix this?" Kim needed a plan and then a memory hit her. "We need to go," she told Jill as she pressed a series of panels on her arm and vanished in a flash of light.
This time Kim chose to go inside using her invisibility and found that the place was easy to get around in. The only problem was that she didn't find him. "Time for a new plan, Jill. He must live somewhere."
"Program complete," Jill responded.
Kate stayed invisible, went up to the door, and touched a series of panels. "Looks like he's home." With that information she vanished in a flash of light.
"Alexis." Kim leaned down poked her in the shoulder.
"Go away." Alexis wanted to wallow in her dejection alone.
"Kate's father is home now," Kim wheedled and got nothing in response. She hated to do this but if it got Alexis out of bed and back into the action… "When I was questioning Bracken, he threatened my family. Well, Kate's family. Mine's out of his reach, naturally."
Still Alexis just lay there. "GOD! What does it take to reach you when you're like this?" Kim started to dream up a new plan.
Alexis rolled over. "He what?"
"He said I had a family to be concerned about. He was threatening Kate, obviously, since he can't even begin to reach mine." Kim rolled her eyes at the stupidity of his threat.
"Mr. Beckett!" Alexis sat up suddenly. "If he can do to Kate what he did, what would Bracken do to him?" Alexis was suddenly very frightened for him. "I've got to find him. I just need a plan. Somewhere he could be a little safe." She started thinking.
"Well…" Kim had thought up an idea.
"I've got it! Gotta go!" Alexis hopped up, depressed a series of panels, and vanished in a flash of light.
"Glad I could help," Kim told the empty space. She stood there and waited since no matter how long it took Alexis, for her it would be only a second or two.
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Alexis knocked and waited impatiently. "Hi, Mr. Beckett." She was all smiles.
"Alexis!" She wasn't who he was expecting. But he recovered quickly. "Come in, young lady."
"Thanks." Alexis wandered around just a bit and felt Jack shocking her arm a little. "I'm really sorry, but may I use your bathroom?" She needed somewhere private.
"Just down there," Jim pointed. He watched Alexis go down the hall, very curious as to why she was at his home.
"Yes, Jack?" Alexis questioned softly.
"This place is being monitored."
"BUGGED! …By who?" Though the moment she asked him she knew the answer. "Never mind, can you disable them?" She needed to talk to him; she had a lot to tell him and ask of him.
"I can guarantee that they will hear nothing for as long as we are here." Jack could do that easily.
Alexis let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. "Good." She reached for the door. "OH!" She stepped over to the toilet, flushed it, then opened the door, quickly returning to the living room.
"Sorry about that," she apologized as she sat down on the sofa. "Sit with me, I have a lot to tell you." She waited for him. "Where to start?" Jim was so far behind in what was going on it was hard to know where to start. "First, Kate is alive." She knew he would be excited about that.
"That was Katie? I thought sure I had dreamed it." Jim was ready to hear more.
"Actually the person you saw was Kim. She looks exactly like Kate, but Kate is alive, I promise. We found her. She and my dad are in hiding." She couldn't tell him or anyone where.
Jim didn't understand. "In hiding? Like witness protection?"
"Not exactly. You see, we've also found out who had your wife killed. He's also the same person that had Kate shot at Captain Montgomery's funeral." Alexis had so much to tell him.
"You know who? You know?" Jim didn't understand how that was possible.
"Honestly, it was Kim that found out everything. I'm simply telling everyone and helping them." Now came the really hard part. "He has a two million dollar hit out on Kate and if they find her and Dad together, they will kill both of them." Alexis knew that for a fact.
"Rick, he's with Katie now?" Jim had always hoped those two would get together. But his daughter was stubborn and always seemed to make the wrong decisions where her heart was involved.
"Dad's helping her while they're in hiding." Alexis knew he needed to know but it wasn't good news. "You see, she didn't die on the operating table like the hospital told us. Plus the mortuary buried an empty casket. Both did what they were told to do.
"They had a man intercept her; he was supposed to kill her and bury the body. Except he didn't, he kept her instead. We're not really sure what he was thinking but he started giving Kate injections." This was the part Alexis hated the most.
Jim just sat there and waited even though he was full of questions. "The injections…they were heroin. He turned Kate into an addict."
"OH, GOD!" Jim started looking around everywhere. His first thought was that he needed a drink. He shook his head. He wasn't going to do that; he'd just gotten out of rehab.
Alexis reached across and took hold of his hands. "She's fine, I give you my word that Kate is fine. Dad's using medication to help her kick the habit. She's actually doing pretty well at the moment. She's lost a lot of weight, though, but she'll gain it back with time." Alexis needed him to believe her.
"Heroin…you're sure?" Jim didn't see how. Heroin was a strong drug and not easy to stop using. "You said you knew who." He remembered that part.
"Yeah, he's a powerful man. His name is William Bracken. Senator William Bracken."
"Senator." Jim thought that one over. "Why? Why kill Jo or Katie? Neither of them never even said his name before." At least he didn't remember either of them saying it. Though he was going to try and dig up some old memories just to be sure.
"Your wife had something on him. She was given a recording that had Bracken talking about having her killed. If we can find it, we can have him arrested and put in prison."
"Jo had a recording? How could she have a recording of him having her killed? That doesn't make any sense." The timing was just way off.
"We think she'd been given a recording, had been told it was important, and that it needed to be hidden, but hadn't been told what was on it. She was then killed just moments later."
Jim was still full of questions. "Who gave her the recording? Can't you just get another one? Ask whoever gave it to her for another copy?"
Alexis shook her head. "Captain Montgomery gave her the recording. We think he might be involved somehow. Though until we hear that tape we don't know for sure." She hated speaking ill of Roy, she liked him.
"And he's dead." Jim's idea went up in smoke. "Just how many people has he killed? And why?" What could a senator want so badly that he had to kill for it?
"Several actually. Your wife wasn't even his first and he had more killed after her. Not that he does it himself. He pays someone to do it for him. He has a lot of money. Or did have a lot of money." Alexis smiled, remembering what Jill had done with all that money. "He wants to be President of the United States. For that to happen that tape has to disappear."
Jim could see that. Politicians might be crooks and the public knew that, it was just that they didn't want to believe that THEIR politician was a crook. Plus they would over look a lot so long as it didn't directly affect them.
"I take it he doesn't have this tape." Jim shifted nervously on the sofa. "Alexis, can I talk to Katie?" Even if he couldn't see her it would be great if he could at least talk to her.
"I have an idea about that and no, he doesn't. Wherever you wife hid it, it must still be there. I want you to pack a lot of clothes and I want to move you to the loft. You and Grams can keep each other company and safe in one spot." This place was obviously not safe and the Hamptons wasn't safe. That left the loft.
"Stay with your grandmother?" Jim wasn't sure he liked her plan.
"You can keep each other company and Grams has a burner phone that can call my dad. You can use it to talk to Kate." Would that be enough to get him moving?
"Some of Jo's stuff is here, the rest is in storage. The same for Katie. I couldn't bring myself to get rid of all of it. You're sure Katie's alive?" He needed to hear it again.
"A little thin and a somewhat weak, but yes, she's alive. So long as Bracken doesn't find them, she'll get better. Dad will help her." Alexis was proud of her dad. He had taken most of this relatively well. She just wasn't sure how much longer he was going to go without knowing everything. An everything that he couldn't ever know.
"I always wished she would see how much Rick cares for her. She's just so blasted stubborn. She gets it from her mother." Jim hadn't really like Josh, but his daughter had chosen him so he went with it.
"Dad actually proposed recently. She's wearing a ring so I guess she said yes." Alexis had seen the ring but hadn't questioned either of them about it.
"Rick proposed? Katie said yes? Really! And Rick is helping her off heroin. I need to start packing." Jim got up and headed for the bedroom. The sooner he reached the loft, the sooner he got to use that phone and talk to his Katie-bug.
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Kim saw a flash of light and saw Alexis positively beaming. "I take it that went well."
"Yes! Jim's going to stay with Grams and was already on the phone talking with Kate when I left. I think both of them are happy to have someone with them and not be alone. I'm just not sure how safe either of them are. What if Bracken wants to have them killed?" Alexis didn't know how to stop it.
"We monitor both of them like you did the last time. Just not right now. We have time. Now about this time machine…" Kim had a different priority.
Alexis did her best to switch topics. "That massive black hole you talked about. Something about a cruise ship that goes close to it so people can see." A giant black hole as a tourist trap. The 51st century really was different.
"We need to get on that cruise ship and take a look." Kim thought about it. "Be right back." Alexis watched her vanish in a flash of light and then return a moment later.
"I'm still not sure I'm ever going to get used to that." She had no idea how long it had taken Kim – for her it was only a second.
"We have reservations that we don't really need to use unless you want to," Kim said.
"Take a cruise through space and see all the tourist traps that they go to. Can we?" Alexis held her hands together, tight to her chest, and smiled widely. It sounded like a great idea to her.
"If you like. You can compare your boyfriend's ship to this one," Kim teased.
Alexis smiled. "I've never actually seen his ship." Kim glared at her, a tiny bit annoyed that her tease hadn't worked out. She lifted her arm and disappeared in a flash of light followed a moment later by Alexis.
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Rick carried his two bags of groceries into the apartment and found Kate ready to intercept him. "Hungry?" He couldn't remember her being interested in eating this much. He was still watching closely as she dove into the bags to help him unpack. "Can I help you find whatever it is you want?" She was clearly looking for something.
Kate was done searching so she finally asked him, "No chia seeds?"
He shook his head. "They didn't have any. Actually the closest grocery is totally lacking in choices. I came back just long enough to use the internet to find a natural food store, providing I can find something close." He tried to appease her. "I'll make sure that they have chia seeds." Then he had an idea to tease her with. "You're not having a craving, are you?" Rick did his best to not smile.
"No, I just like chia seeds." Kate didn't want to feel dejected, but she did. Down in the dumps, she left the kitchen and headed for the living room only to stop suddenly. She turned her head to look back in the kitchen. "I'm not pregnant. You have to have had sex to get pregnant," Kate told herself softly and sent Castle an eyeful of daggers. However, her mind went that way and she found herself going back into the kitchen.
"While you're out searching for chia seeds you can come back with a box of condoms." Proud of herself, she walked away, feeling Castle stare at her. She could even imagine the look on his face.
"Condoms?" Rick muttered to himself. "Condoms. I can do that." He fell for it hook, line, and sinker.
Kate was still proud of herself as she sat down and reached for the remote only to realize what she was doing and tossed it back onto the sofa like it was infected with a horrible disease. She reached for one of her books instead.
Then she saw Castle leaving for another grocery run and he was smiling. She chuckled at the look on his face. Then she remembered that she had put it there with her tease. She asked herself if it was a tease. She heard the door close and she was up and racing into the bedroom so she could strip. She hurried into the bathroom to look at herself in the mirror. Her face fell as she twisted and turned. She felt better and didn't even want a shot at the moment. She was still skin and bones. Even her breasts looked terrible. Kate turned her back on her reflection. She couldn't help but feel sorry for herself and a little angry.
Then it hit her. She wanted to have sex with Castle and it wasn't part of her teasing him. What was she thinking? He wasn't going to want to have sex with her! Not looking like this. She collapsed onto the bed and curled up. Her life sucked. It couldn't get any worse.
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Kate opened her eyes and looked up to find Castle sitting next to her. He leaned down and kissed her. "Hi, Castle." She was happy to see him. Right up until she realized she was still naked and on the bed. "Castle! Don't look." Kate scrambled to get out of bed and get dressed. Except…he stopped her.
"Don't move." Rick held her in place and leaned down to kiss her again. He felt her kissing him back. Her heart beat frantically. They shouldn't be doing this. She was still a mess and she looked like hell.
"Don't think about it. Just follow your heart for a change." Rick kissed her again, felt her kissing him back, and even felt her arms curl around his neck and pull him down a little.