I'm baaaack! Didja miss me? I'm sorry I haven't updated in a few days but I was working on a very long chapter for Missed Moments, which is one of the stories I've been neglecting in favor of this one and I felt that it deserved a little attention. I'll try to make this one long as well but I really can't promise anything right now since my day is about to get real hectic. But I'll try. Enjoy!
Start: 6:56 PM
Chapter Thirty Six
Almost as soon as they entered Kate's room, Alexis was making her way towards the bed, which Kate had neglected to make that morning, giggling as she sunk into the soft mattress, her small body practically disappearing amongst Kate's messy sheets and pillows. All Kate could see of her now were her red locks and a pair of crystal blue eyes poking out. Kate smiled at her and shook her head, making her way over to the closet to dig through it for her scrapbooks.
There was a box at the back of the closet, labeled "Memories" where Kate kept a lot of her mementos from old boyfriends, life milestones, and her drawings and photos from better times. Most of these were kept in albums and books, but there were a lot of things that she'd kept from her old boyfriends that wouldn't have fit in a book. One of them was the spare helmet she used when riding on the back of her boyfriend's Harley; the one that she'd written her name on in White-Out and so he'd given her when they broke up. Another was the Radiohead tshirt that she'd stolen from her boyfriend in her Sophomore year, her first sexual experience. Kate smiled at the memory, running her hand over the worn fabric. She had a feeling sharing these kinds of memories with Alexis would be out of the question, so she just made sure to grab her scrap books, flipping through them to make sure there were no inappropriate photos of her or anybody else. And, on a last-second decision, she grabbed her family photo album, deciding that she would be okay sharing those memories with Alexis, as well.
By the time she got back to the bed, Alexis had made herself comfortable with all of her pillows, using one to prop up her head and arms, while the other lay below her. She was on her stomach, facing the end of the bed. Kate chuckled as she came up to the bed, placing the albums on it first before laying down next to Alexis. "Mind if I steal a pillow back?" she asked, grinning.
"Stealing is wrong," Alexis said, sternly, then smiled, "but I will gladly give you a pillow if you say please."
Kate laughed and rolled her eyes. "May I please have a pillow, Alexis?"
"'Course, Kate!" Alexis said, lifting her body and sliding the pillow out from underneath, giving it to Kate.
Kate smiled and placed it in front of her, resting it under her arm. "Ooh, all nice and warm," she said. Alexis giggled, before her eyes widened, noticing the books for the first time.
"What's that?" she asked.
"These are my scrapbooks," Kate replied, opening the first one, whose first page was full of all the drawings she'd done as a teenager. There were more flowers and very badly drawn caricatures of teachers whom she'd disliked and drawings of very detailed hearts. All had been ripped out of school notebooks and glued to the page in a sort of collage, the pictures overlapping around the edges of the page, creating a frame for the title, which read, "School Daze."
"That's not how you spell 'days'," Alexis pointed out, looking up at Kate.
"Different 'daze', Sweetie," Kate corrected gently, turning the page, which had what looked to be some scraps of metal glued to the page with the caption, 'the tooth cage (1992-1995)'.
"Tooth cage?" Alexis asked, raising one tiny red brow.
"Braces," Kate responded, grimacing. Alexis's eyes widened.
"You wore braces?" At Kate's nod, Alexis's jaw dropped. "Do you have any pictures?"
Kate rolled her eyes. "It's like he never left," she mumbled, turning the page.
"Who never left?"
"Your father."
The next page consisted of all the ticket stubs from every trip, concert, and play Kate had ever gone on or been to. They were lined up in chronological order and there was at least one or two stubs per year, starting from 1988 and going all the way to last year.
"Whoa," Alexis said, looking at all the stubs, "you've been a lot of places!"
"Mmhmm," Kate said, grinning, "my parents liked traveling so every summer and winter break we would pick some random country or city and plan a whole trip. And on birthdays we would go to shows or they would buy me tickets to see a band I really liked."
"They sound really cool," Alexis said, smiling up at Kate. Kate smiled back, softly.
"They were. Well, I guess my dad still is but my mom…well, you know."
Alexis nodded, resting her head against Kate's shoulder in a comforting gesture. Kate responded by laying her head down on Alexis's as she turned the page.
On this one, there was a candy wrapper and a single rose petal taped above a note that read: "Be my Valentine?"
Alexis smiled at that. "Where's this from?"
Kate grinned, blushing as she ducked her head. "James Farmer; the hunk of grade six. He was my first boyfriend and Valentine. But he dumped me two weeks late for an eighth grader with huge boo-um, eyes."
Alexis rolled her eyes. "Men," she huffed. Kate laughed and nodded.
"Agreed," she said, turning the page. This one was covered in band stickers, the neon-colored names and logos popping out at them as their eyes traveled over the page. "All my favorite bands and singers from when I was younger," Kate explained. I should show you their music sometime; I think you'd really enjoy it.
"That sounds really cool!" Alexis agreed.
The next picture was the last one in the book with anything on it and it was just a tiny red satin bowtie and a caption that read, "Honey Bun."
"That's not a honey bun," Alexis giggled, looking up at Kate, who laughed in response.
"No, it is not," Kate agreed,. "Honey Bun was the name of my stuffed bunny growing up. I took her everywhere. She was sort of like my Monkey Bunkie, ya know?"
Alexis nodded in understanding. "Where is she now?" she asked.
"Back at my dad's house, in my old room, high up on her shelf."
"Why didn't you bring her with you?" Alexis asked.
"Because then all my other stuffed animals would have gotten jealous and I couldn't bring them all with me, could I?"
"I guess not…Could you show me a picture of her, though?"
"Soon, child. Soon. We're actually at the end of this book now so we can get to my photo album."
Alexis beamed as Kate shut the scrapbook and shoved it aside, reaching for the photo album and opening it up to a neatly decorated title page that read, in beautiful calligraphy, "Katherine Houghton Beckett (November 17, 1979)" with a picture of a tiny pink bundle held by a young man rocking in a soft pink rocking chair, smiling at the camera, proudly. Alexis smiled as Kate turned the page and saw what was obviously baby Kate, cradled in her mother's arms, her green eyes sparkling at the camera.
"Aww!" Alexis gushed. "Is that you?"
Kate nodded. "Yup, that's me. I was about a week old in this photo. And that's my mom, as you can probably tell."
"She looks sorta like you!" Alexis noted, smiling at Kate, who grinned back.
"That's what my dad always says," she laughed, turning the page, showing her a couple of months older, now sitting up on her own, wearing a pair of purple overalls and sporting tiny pigtails. She grinned toothlessly up at the camera, a pink bunny nearly the same size as her clutched in her arms.
"It's Honey Bun!" Alexis cried, pointing at the bunny with the red bowtie.
"Yep, that's her," Kate confirmed, before turning the page again.
In this picture, she was standing, about a year old, wearing a green dress and black mary janes, holding Honey Bun and grinning, once again at the camera, showing off about several tiny teeth and dimpled cheeks. Alexis cooed over that pic plenty, as well as the other dozen or so photos from Kate's early childhood.
Neither of them even noticed how long they'd been looking through Kate's memories, Alexis listening attentively to all of her funny stories from her past, until their tummies began to growl.
It was only then that Kate realized that the sun was setting, sending the room into darkness. The realization that it was beginning to get darker made it suddenly harder to see the pictures, but she really didn't care about that so much as she did about getting something to eat. Looking up at the clock, she saw that it was already half past five. They'd been laying there for hours already, looking through all of her childhood photos. Kate looked down at Alexis, who seemed to have come to the same realization. Kate smiled at her dazed look.
"You hungry, Kid?" she asked. Alexis nodded at the same time as her stomach decided to speak up. Kate chuckled and closed to photo album. "Alright, then. What do you say we go downstairs and rustle up something for dinner and then we'll come back to these later? Huh?"
"Sounds good to me," Alexis said, sitting up and hopping down off the bed. "I'll race ya!" she cried out, sprinting from the room. Kate chuckled, racing after her.
Castle sat in the waiting area of the airport, his cell phone in his hand, waiting for Kate and Alexis to call him back. He'd already called twice that morning trying to get a hold of them, deciding that he would let them know that he was coming back, after all, so maybe they could all get something to eat, but they hadn't answered. He'd left two messages, asking Kate to please call him back, not mentioning his flight home. He hoped they would call back before he-
"Flight 472 to New York now boarding First Class," a monotonous female voice sounded over the speakers. Castle groaned, putting his cell phone back into his pocket, knowing that he would be unable to get in touch with them for at least the next five hours. They would make him turn off his cell phone and he got no reception up there, anyway, but what if they got worried that he wasn't answering his phone?
Well, it would serve them right, Castle thought as he grabbed his carry on and made his way towards his gate, handing his boarding pass to the woman at front and walking in with all the other First Class passengers.
He went through the usual motions, got his seat in First Class, placed his bag in the overhead carrier, reclined in his seat with his usual glass of champagne, and tried to relax, telling himself that they would be fine without him for the next few hours. After all, they'd lasted nearly two days without him, hadn't they.
Everything was going to be fine.
Or will it? REVIEW to find out!
End: 8:11 PM