So sorry we didn't update over the weekend! We've been kind of busyyy, but here is the next chapter!
Hope you all enjoy!
V and A!
The lobby of the inn was poorly illuminated, but that was not the thing that worried Richard the most. He was traveling with Alexis, who was barely six months old, and the inn was not warm enough for such a small baby, but it was the only thing he could find. It was good enough for a night. Tomorrow morning he and Alexis would be crossing the sea and starting a new life in another country.
He was trying to feed Alexis, but the baby wouldn't eat. In fact she hadn't eaten anything since they left the camp. It looked like she wanted Kate to feed her and was not eating as a protest.
Castle finally decided to give up on Alexis's soup when a conversation caught his attention.
"What do you think will happen to her?" a man, dressed in red, asked.
"I heard the king ordered her execution," his friend replied.
It had been few days since he ran away from the Merry Men's camp. So much had happened in those days: the sheriff's men had burned the camp down, they had taken people prisoner, Beckett among them. Now they were facing the death penalty as punishment for their crimes, or so he had heard.
"Who's going to help us now?"
"I don't know," the first man sighed. "I heard she was betrayed by someone on the inside."
"A Merry Man betrayed her?" Castle's heart became heavy. "Who could be so stupid?"
'Yeah,' the ex-spy thought. 'Who could be so stupid?'
He missed her, only God knew how much. He missed how she smiled with pride when Javier or Kevin did something good, how her eyes shined when Alexis played with her brown hair. He missed her morning scent. He missed her so much it ached.
"I think her soul is the purest soul on earth," the man in red stated.
"Agreed," his friend nodded. "And whoever betrayed her is a wicked man."
Rick stared at his baby, Alexis was wearing a dress that Kate had made for her. Beckett was in fact the purest soul he had ever met. He hadn't betrayed her. It had been all Josh and his jealousy. But then, why did it feel so wrong?
Katherine Beckett had let him into her camp when she knew nothing about him, she had trained with him and feed him, she had helped him after Meredith died. She had shown more compassion towards him than any other person.
"We have to go back, pumpkin," Castle told his daughter. She look at him, sucking her thumb. "What do you think, huh? Do you want to see Kate again?" he asked her.
Alexis was still too little to understand sentences, let alone reply. But the word 'Kate' got her attention, and it was enough for the baby to smile at her father and blow a weak "Gaaa".
The man left some gold coins on the table and took Alexis in his arms. Without canceling his room reservation he went to the stables, prepared his horse for riding and, with Alexis secure between his chest and jacket, he started galloping.
He had let the Merry Men down, he had let Kate down, but he was going to fix things. He was going to make it better.
Castle rode the whole night, stopping every once in a while to see if Alexis was ok. She slept the whole journey.
He arrived at the camp the next morning, but when he got to the place that had been his home for more than a year he could barely recognize it.
The tents had been torn down: some were burnt, some were just destroyed. The common areas like the cooking place and the eating space were nothing more than dirty remains of what used to be tools.
Lanie was the first one to spot the spy. "Well, well - look what the cat dragged in," she said, taking Alexis from him. Something told him that it was to spare Alexis from whatever punishment he was going to receive.
"You little piece of shit," Richard heard someone say, turning his face only to be met with a fist.
He landed on the floor and raised his hand to where he had taken the punch. He could feel someone grabbing him by his armpits and raising him to his feet. He received another punch, this time to his stomach. All the air left his body. "You backstabbing rat." A kick to his chin.
"That's enough, Kevin," Richard heard Jenny say.
"Enough?" Ryan said walking towards his lady, who was standing next to the healer. "Kate, Javier and Ethan are going to be hanged. Hanged. And God knows what will happen to the other ten of our men in prison."
"I -" Castle tried to speak, but it was too painful.
"You what?" Ryan grabbed him by his shirt. "We treated you like a brother! You were family!"
Castle grasped for air. "I - know."
"She loved you!" Ryan screamed to his face before throwing him down again.
"I -" Castle put his arms around his stomach, trying to make the pain stop. Ryan raised his fist, ready to strike again. "I lov' 'er too."
Ryan stopped. "You love her?" His fist was still in the air. "You betrayed her."
"I came back -" Rick tried his best to speak, he tried to ignore the burning feeling around his ribs. "To rescue her."
For the third time Ryan let Castle fall to the ground, but this time Kate's brother didn't hit him. "How can I trust you?"
"I didn't fight you back," the spy said, laying on his back, trying to regain control over his discomfort. "I deserved what I got," he continued. "And now I want us to start all over."
"Start with the truth," Lanie said.
Ryan helped Castle to sit.
"I was born to an actress. My father never claimed me," Rick said. "That part was always the truth," he added. "When I was a teenager my mother died, during her last hours she told me who my father was -" he stopped. He didn't want to continue. They had all heard about his father, and telling them who he was was just going to make things worse.
"Go on," Kevin ordered him, but in his tone Castle could also identify an unspoken encouragement, a silent sentence that assured him that he wouldn't be judged.
"My father was - is - the Hunt." Ryan's eyes were wide. "After giving her a proper burial I went to find my dad. He accepted me into his guard, but not into his family - I was still a bastard," Richard continued telling his sad story. "I trained with the sheriff's men, but my father was always harder on me. I became his best man, just to make him proud, but it was not enough for him."
Castle lowered his gaze. He had tried to please his father so much that the line between good and evil had became blurred. The line his mother had taught him so well had just disappeared. Only to make his father proud of him. Now that he thought about it, Hunt was not his father. A father was a person who was there for you, who taught and loved you; not a person for whom you'd never be good enough.
"Then the Sheriff and Hunt heard a rumor about the Merry Mem, and they decided to send me to investigate," Rick went on. "By that time I was not very fond of my father, but I respected the Sheriff - after all, he had put a roof over my head and fed me all those years. I - I didn't have anything to lose. They offered me money for Kate's capture, enough money for me to start a new, decent life. It would have been stupid to reject that offer."
"And that's how you ended up here." Ryan concluded the story. Rick nodded. "So it was you who alerted Bracken." Rick nodded again. "And you incriminated Josh for your crimes." Rick didn't nod, but it was pretty obvious he had done that too. "Well, I didn't like him too much either."
Ryan stood up and offered Rick a hand. The other man accepted it and stood up too. The pain was almost gone, but it still bothered him to breathe normally. He would have a nice bruise for sure.
"Help me get them back," Kevin said quietly. "And we'll call it even."
Rick shook Kevin's hand in agreement.
"I hope you have a plan," the blonde soldier said.
"As a matter of fact, I do." A grin appeared on Castle's face. "The return of the prodigal son." Rick opened his arms, as much as the pain in his chest allowed him.
"You are a wanted convict now, Castle."
"Exactly." Kevin raised an eyebrow. "They'll arrest me as soon as I set a foot in the castle."
"You do know that the point of this mission is to get them out, not you in, right?"
"I do," The ex-spy grinned. "And this is the plan."