"Hey, Castle." Ryan asks as he passes the desk where Rick has been assigned to work." Nice having you back."
"Thanks Ryan"
"What are you working on"
"Old cold case murder from 5 years ago"
"Is that the King case? Javi and I worked that one. Beckett was on another at the time."
"That's it" Rick looks up to see Gates enter her office and closing the door. "Hey, do you and Espo want to come to the Olde Haunt later for drinks"
"Appreciate it, but I need to try and get home on time tonight. Jenny's parents are coming over for dinner. We are working on plans for the wedding."
"That's great, Ryan. When are you two planning on getting married?"
"About 8 months from now. Depends on the availability of the church and the priest."
"You know I will be there, whenever it is"
"Thanks" Ryan moves to his desk and starts on a pile of paperwork that has been just sitting there since Beckett has been out.
Gates has been watching Castle closely for the last two weeks and has actually been impressed with the discoveries he has made. The stories about him are correct. He looks outside the normal parameters and has made significant progress on several old cases by determining other suspects that were overlooked during the original investigation.
But to make sure he does not het too much credit. As soon as he gets a new lead or discovers new evidence, she reassigns the case to a real detective.
But that is just fine with Rick. He will wait until he can help Kate, again, so she and her team get the collar.
After several hours going over files Rick logs off and gets up to leave. He walks by Espo and Ryan "Heading to the Olde Haunt. Drinks are on me."
"Right behind you "Javier closes his computer and gets up to leave. Ryan logs off and also heads out except he is heading to Jenny.
/\/\/\/\/\/\/
The visit to Dr. Burke did not go the way she planned. He did not ask her questions that could be answered with a simple yes or no. He asked her how she was feeling physically. Then he delved into the 'Event' as she called it.
"Let's begin with the shooting. What do you remember?"
She tries her hardest to recall anything that happened that day. But nothing is coming. She even tried to remember what she had for breakfast that morning, but nothing is coming back.
"Kate. Have you tried to talk to those closest to you? They can be a benefit in recovering your memory."
"Lanie and I have had a pizza and some wine one night."
"Did that help bring anything back?"
"No." Kate is avoiding offering much freely."
"What did you talk about?"
Now he has opened the door. She has tried to circle around the center focus everyone wants addressed. "Uh. The same things we are talking about here. What do I remember and not remember?"
"And what did she tell you that you didn't remember?"
Here it comes "Things that happened over the last three years."
"What things?"
He is not going to let her skate on this.
"Okay. I have had a couple of flashbacks that I can't explain."
"What kind of flashbacks?"
So far, all her flashbacks involved Castle and she is not interested in bringing THAT man into conversation. "I saw my apartment blown up and I was in it. Lost my apartment."
"Was anyone there when that happened?"
"I was alone, in the bath."
"How did you get out?"
He is going to get me to use a name. "Castle…. Mr. Castle was there."
"Was he there while you were in your bath?"
She sits looking out the window to the garden. She truly does not remember if he was there while she was nude in the bath or not. If he WAS already there, does that mean that her and him were, in fact, TOGETHER?
/\/\/\/\/\
When she leaves Dr. Burke, she is struggling more than before. He did give her 'homework' as he called. She is to do research on Richard Castle for what has happened with him during the time she has no memory. See if she can prove one way or another if he is still the skirt chasing playboy.
She goes straight home, not even stopping for takeout. When she enters her apartment, she passes her kitchen where she grabs a glass of wine and goes to sit down on her couch. She looks at her laptop for an extended period of time before picking it up and placing it on her lap.
She finally gets the nerve to open the device and logs on. She is not totally sure where to start when it dawns on her that the place she reads all the stories of his escapades was The Ledger, Page 6 Gossip page.
She logs into her account. She begins by doing a global search for Richard Castle. After several seconds of searching the page returns with over 200 results. She decides to start at the beginning and clicks on page 1.
This brings up a page from ten years ago with him at a fund raiser for the Mayor. And, of course, he has a knockout woman with her top barely covering her, more than adequate, breasts. He is smiling to the camera looking like he is saying 'Look what I get to have Later'
Kate sips a little wine, thinking, why am I doing this? He is exactly what he is and wondering how she could possibly ever let him near her.
She decides if the first page is that old, if she jumps up to about article 150, she will be closer to today. When she does, it just happens to fall on a picture that stops her sold. It is a photo of him and her. She is wearing a stunning evening dress. He is smiling like before, but this time she seems to be the focus of his lust. A shiver crosses her entire body with this revelation. What was I doing there…with HIM?
She stops in her search, gladly, when her phone rings. "Hey Lanie"
"Girlfriend. How was your day with the doc.?"
"Tough. That man would not let up."
"What do you mean?"
"He started digging into my past and would not stop asking questions."
"Kate that's his job."
"His job is to clear me so I can go back to work."
"NO. His job is to decide When you can go back to work based on how well you are accepting what happened and how well you are dealing with it."
Beckett is silent for a minute. "I guess you're right."
You need to be totally open with him so he can see if you are healing to the point that they can safely give you a gun again."
" OKAY! I get it." Kate looks at the screen again with her picture hanging on the arm of the man in question. "Lanie? Can I call you back? I have something to do."
"Sure. I know you have a lot of memories to try and catch up on"
The call is disconnected, and Kate goes back to the picture on the computer of her and Castle being very chummy. Looking carefully, she notices that her hair is much shorter like she last remembered it being. So, this picture must have been taken shortly after Castle started shadowing her. She stares at the image for an inordinate amount of time hoping it might shake some cobwebs loose and her memory returns.
After an extended period of time focusing on the one single image, she decides to continue her search. The next photograph where she stops gives her more confusion. He is entering a small ballroom with what appears to be two women slightly behind him. One on each side They are similar in appearance. Both are gingers but their facial features are somewhat out of focus since the camera shot was on Castle.
The headline below 'Richard Castle Arrives at Heat Wave Release Party'
Since she has had a chance to read most of the book…she had stopped after the sex scene between her and Castle…uh…Nikki and Rook, she continues reading the article.
"Richard Castle arrives at the Nikki Heat release party thrown by Black Pawn Publishing. He was escorted by his mother Martha Rogers and daughter Alexia Castle. They were later joined by Detective Kate Beckett of the New York Police Department, the inspiration for Nikki Heat."
When she reads the name Alexis Castle, a memory flashes across her mind, again. This time is dark. She is standing in a cemetery and the young girl is yelling at Kate. This memory sends a shiver to travel from her toes to the top of her head.
Kate scrolls lower on the page, and THERE IT IS. A photograph of herself in a tight lowcut micro dress hugging every curve and leaving very little to the imagination. She covers her mouth to keep from screaming. 'I showed up at CASTLE'S party dressed like that?'
And a flash of memory from earlier now connects to the dress that she thought might have only been a bad dream. But it was real. Very real!
She drops her computer on the couch, stands, and walks toward the bathroom. She is feeling sick to her stomach.
/\/\/\/\/\
Kate's next session with Doctor Burke begins much like the last one did.
He asks what she remembers.
Instead of giving him a great story he can run with…"Just small snippets of things like…waking up in a hotel in LA while chasing the killer of my former training officer, my apartment blowing up, showing up at a party. But nothing but moments in time"
"Kate. I want you to try and jar your memory"
"How?"
"I want you to sit down with your partners and get them to tell you about some cases. If one of them brings out a flashback, then have them go into more detail. Maybe that might bring more detail up for you."
"I can do that" she is thinking that will give her a chance to come closer back to normal.
"I also want you to confront one more demon."
She seems to not understand but. "OKAY?"
"You need to sit down and talk To Richard Castle. One on one. No one else around to interfere or interject things that might or might not help bring closure for you."
Everyone keeps bringing him to the front of conversations.
After her session she decides that she will set a time to go see him if that will bring her some level of closure. She is positive that he is not and will not be a close friend let alone anything more. She considers the facts as she knows them. One he is not who she would ever want to date. Two he is a rich author and she is just a cop, and three she was dating another man when all this memory loss happened. That makes three strikes against this being anything of consequence.
Before anything like that happens, she decides to begin with her partners to see if they can bring any information that will help. She takes out her phone and scans to Ryan's number, then decides to send a group message to Lanie, Kevin, and Javi to try and meet up somewhere.
After she sends the text there is an almost immediate response from all three. All are positive responses and happy she is reaching out to them. Their universal question is 'Where do we meet?'
Kate thinks for a minute and for some reason the name 'The Olde Haunt' comes to mind. She sends that name to the three and all respond with a 'Yes' Kate messages a time and again gets responses agreeing to the time.
Kate realizes she has no idea where The Olde Haunt is located and has to look it up to get the address.
She goes by her apartment, grabs a quick shower, dresses and heads out to meet her partners and friends.
When she arrives at the bar, there is something familiar about it, but she cannot put a finger on why. She opens the door and enters looking around to see if any of her partners and friends have arrived before of her.
She gets a jolt she the bartender steps up to her "Detective Becket. Good to see you again." He then points to a booth near the back. "Your partners are already here."
She turns her head in the direction of his indication and sees all three waiting for her.
"Do you want your usual?"
Her head snaps back to the bartender. "You know my favorite?"
"Of course, Detective. Let me fix it for you and have it sent over"
Kate actually feels a little dizzy caused by the familiarity of the bartender seeming to know a lot about her. "Thanks" and she moves to the quiet corner where she sees her three friends are waiting.