Chapter 27
What Yael had to share with them was an address of an old abandoned farm house outside of the city, where Zarif Samet had apparently been hiding out after arriving in the US and before his own terrorist plans had really taken off. If he had shared that location with Chalid, it was the most sensible place for him to retreat and regroup, now that their hide-out in New York had been discovered.
Even though Kate and Jane could barely stand the wait, Gates insisted on doing it right this time. She contacted Homeland Security and asked them for satellite imagery of the area. The thermal images confirmed that the farm house in question was currently inhabited by the appropriate number of humans and once they had gotten that confirmation, Gates also insisted on ordering a SWAT team for assistance.
Kate could barely keep her feet still, but she knew that Gates was only doing what she was too impatient to do herself. She got a little distracted from her annoyance that the SWAT team was taking so long, when she saw Esposito return to the 12th.
"Hey Espo, what are you doing here?" she asked, not sure whether this was a good or a bad sign. "Tell me Lanie is okay."
"She's out of surgery and the doctors say that she's stable now," Esposito reassured her while Ryan joined them as well.
"Thank god." Kate allowed herself a deep breath and felt like at least some of the weight had been lifted from her shoulders.
"Yeah, but since I'm not family, the doctors wouldn't let me see her yet," Esposito explained. "They asked for her mother's phone number instead."
Kate frowned. "But Lanie hates her Mom."
Esposito shrugged. "I know, but the hospital insisted that they needed to contact a member of the family."
They were Lanie's family right here, but Kate knew that there was no point arguing about that with Espo. "Well, I don't envy the doctor whose around when Lanie wakes up and finds out that they've called her Mom," she said and shook her head.
"Detective Beckett!" Gates interrupted them, standing in the doorway of her office. "The SWAT team's ready and waiting for you downstairs."
"Thank you, Sir," Kate acknowledged that, her spirits boosted a little by the news of Lanie's expected recovery.
"Just make sure you get these sons of bitches this time." Gates turned to go back into her office, but stopped halfway. "Oh, and Beckett, do try to get Mr. Castle back alive as well."
Kate suppressed a smile. "Yes, Sir."
In the meantime, Ryan had brought Esposito up to speed and when Kate holstered her gun now, he asked, "Are you sure you wanna go?"
Kate stared at him. "You're kidding me, right?"
"Well, no, I mean, this is going to be a tough one and you're…" Esposito looked uncomfortable and pointed in the general direction of her stomach.
"You do know that until a couple years ago some women still gave birth to their babies while they were working?"
"Did their work involve getting shot at?" Esposito countered, while Ryan tried to prevent this from getting ugly,
"Uh, Javi…"
But Kate remained focused on Espo. "No, but I know somebody else who'll get shot if he doesn't shut up."
"Okay, see, that's your pregnancy hormones talking right there."
Kate thought of Ryan and Esposito as the two little brothers she'd never had, but she hated it if they tried to take that too literally. So she straightened up and looked him squarely in the eye.
"Listen, Espo, that's Castle out there, who happens to be the father of this baby you're so worried about. So this baby and I will go kick those bastards in the ass, and then we'll come back to shove those pregnancy hormones up your butt. Are we clear now?"
"Crystal clear," Esposito nodded.
"Good," Kate said and headed for the elevator.
"I tried to warn you, man." Ryan patted his partner on the back before he followed her.
Outside the 12th, two black SWAT vans were indeed already waiting for them. Kate and Jane climbed in the back of the first one, followed by Ziva and Kensi, which forced Tony and Deeks as well as Ryan and Esposito to join the SWAT guys in the second one.
After the doors had been closed and they'd started driving, the women put on their bulletproof vests and fell silent at first. After a couple of minutes, though, Jane asked, "Did your boys just try to persuade you to sit this one out?"
"Sure did," Kate confirmed.
"Guys," Kensi said, shaking her head. "They'll never fully believe that we're just as capable as they are unless we'll someday manage to actually grow a pair."
"It will only get worse once you'll start to show," Ziva said.
Kate looked at her. "Are you talking from experience?"
"No," Ziva replied succinctly and the other two women remained silent as well.
They had all worked way too hard to earn their place among their fellow male colleagues to risk that by getting pregnant. Not exactly heartening for Kate.
"You think Gates will give you your old job back after your maternity leave?" Jane asked.
Kate sighed. It was hard to deal with such practical considerations when she and Castle hadn't even figured out the basics yet. But in a weird way, talking to these women was easier than talking to him.
"I'm not sure if I should ask for it."
"Why not?" Ziva asked.
"It's one thing to put your life on the line every day when you're only responsible for yourself, but if there's another life that hangs in the balance, a life that hasn't even really begun yet…" Kensi spoke up when Kate didn't.
No use pretending that she hadn't been thinking about this lately. She had considered asking Sam how he was handling the dangers of the job while he knew his kids were waiting for him at home. But it just wasn't the same. He was a guy. He wasn't their mother.
"God, I'm never having kids," Jane filled the silence. "I've had enough child abduction cases to know that I could never go through something like that. Um, no offense."
Kate shook her head. "None taken."
She knew exactly what Rizzoli was talking about, after all. The mere thought of all the evil that could befall an innocent child made her skin crawl – which was funny because she had always been the one to tease Castle about his overprotectiveness of Alexis and the one to tell him to dial it down a notch. That was probably poetic justice.
"Yes, but how is it fair that we can't have both? Why should we have to decide between the job and a family?" Kensi ranted a little.
"Sounds like you've given it a lot of thought," Ziva said. Since she currently couldn't even balance her partner and the duty she felt towards her dead father, this issue wasn't even worth considering for her.
"I love my job, but I just don't want to be alone for the rest of my life and then waste away in some creepy nursing home," Kensi admitted.
"It is more likely that you'll get killed first," Ziva reminded her.
Kensi rolled her eyes. "Oh right, thanks. That's very comforting."
"Anyway, shouldn't you be working on the partner first before you start thinking about having the kid?" Jane asked because it seemed to her that having a kid was hard enough as it was, doing it alone sounded like a hell of a job.
Ziva narrowed her eyes. "Unless of course, she already has the partner."
Kensi tried to look nonchalant, but Jane still got the hint. "That sunny boy of yours? Really?"
"Well, I wouldn't expect him to be your type since you're batting for the other team."
"What?"
"Oh, sorry. I didn't want to… guess Deeks is rubbing off on me," Kensi admitted. "But maybe we should all consider that. Might be easier than finding the right guy. Seriously, how did you do that?" she asked, looking at Kate.
Kate raised her eyebrows. "I didn't think any of you really liked Castle."
"Why should we? He's obviously only got eyes for you."
"Well, I didn't really have much to do with that. He was really the one who found me and then he simply refused to go away again," Kate replied. And certainly not for lack of trying on her part.
"Perhaps you're lucky and your baby will inherit that," Ziva said because that description reminded her a little of Tony as well.
"Yes, I think you'll be doing fine," Kensi decided. "Perhaps I just want to believe that it can be done, but you seem like the right woman to bet on."
"Yeah, and if you need a gynecologists, I'm sure Maura would continue to offer her services for free," Jane added.
Kate smiled. "Then we better make sure that we get both of them back."
A/N: I hope you all enjoyed your weekend (and these three chapters) and I'll talk to you guys again next weekend and, hopefully, things will be looking up for Castle and Maura then ;)
