A Deadly Game and a Secret
by Castlefan6
Authors Note: This is one story I've seen requested but never read a completed fic before. Rick has been recalled to active duty; the Hamptons are just his guise to hide the true story. The only ones who know the truth are Gina and Roy. Based loosely off 2-24, A Deadly Game, for the beginning then completely AU.
Also, we take MANY liberties with the timeline from Canon and use events from other Canon episodes to make this a more believable fiction, thanks.
Chapter 1
12th Precinct
INT. PRECINCT, CONFERENCE ROOM - EVENING
CASTLE, RYAN, ESPOSITO, MONTGOMERY, and LANIE all gather around pizza and beer.
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A/N First part courtesy of Dust Jackets Dot Com with some modifications,
"It was very emotional. Yeah, there were a lot of tears. Um... Alexis was fine, by the way." Rick Laughed with the others
"I gotta say, Castle, we're gonna miss you around here," Espo said,
"Yeah, I'm gonna miss you, too," Rick replied, looking off to the distance, as Roy watched him carefully,
"You're still leaving the coffee machine, though, right?" Ryan asked smiling
"I can't have you suffer in my absence," Rick replied with a smile,
"That's good. You know how some of us get without our morning coffee" Ryan smiled,
"Speaking of morning coffee, we could really use one of those down in the morgue," Lanie said as she punched Rick's arm good-naturedly,
Everyone was laughing as Beckett entered the room.
"Oh! Look who's off duty." Rick laughed as he glanced at Beckett, then looked away quickly,
"Yeah, well, Castle, I'm not all work." Kate returned, trying to judge what kind of look was on Rick's face.
"Castle, do you have a second?" She finally asked,
"Of course. Yeah." He replied, something was off, he was smiling his voice was gentle but Kate could just feel something wasn't right with her partner.
They step out into the hall and she closes the door behind her
"Ok Kate, What's up? What do you want to say you couldn't say in front of the others?" He asked,
"Look... I know that I'm not the easiest person to get to know, and I don't always let on what's on my mind. But this past year, working with you, I've had a really good time." She was fishing for the right words, how do you say, Castle, I just dropped Demming now I want to spend the weekend with you, not after the lies.
"Yeah. Me, too. Probably more than you but thanks for putting up with me" he said, what the hell did that mean she thought, he was coming back in a few months, or WAS he coming back?"
"So, I'm- I'm just gonna say this and..."
"Richard? You ready?" She heard that voice off to her right, God not now, no, just five more minutes she thought
"Hey, Gina. Um, Beckett, you remember Gina, my ex-wife, and publisher, don't you?" Rick asked as he returned her brief kiss on the cheek.
"Yeah, we spoke the other day. Looks like you finally tracked him down." Kate said, loathing the timing of the blonde who was clearly marking her territory, right in front of all the occupants in the conference room now gathered to see what was going on,
"Oh, yeah, he's such a little boy sometimes. I mean, I don't know why. It's not like I bite...much. If I, do it's in places that can't be seen anyway." She purred, yes, she was definitely marking her territory, but hell they thought she still was with Demming. What could she expect?
Rick laughed as he read the concern on Kate's face.
"But we better get going or we're gonna be stuck in traffic all night?" Gina leaned into Rick and purred,
"Going?" Kate asked, still wishing for the five minutes to tell Rick the news, looked like she waited too long.
"To the Hamptons," Rick said, almost as if she should remember. She remembered, all right, but he was supposed to be going with her, not Gina, God Damn it she thought
"For the weekend?" Kate asked, almost now a wish, God let it be just the weekend she prayed,
"No, for the summer, actually. So, I can stay on top of him while he finishes his book among other things" she tiptoed up and kissed his ear as Rick blushed, and Kate knew she had screwed this up for real.
"Yeah. So... I'm sorry. You were, uh, you were telling me something before Gina arrived Beckett?" Rick said,
"Yeah, I wanted to say, have a great summer," Kate said the first words out of her mouth,
"You, too. And like you said, it's- it's been really, really great." Rick looked directly into her eyes as he shook her hand, then turned and waved to the occupants of the conference room, this was not the ending she had dreamed for. She was frozen there in one place, her feet wouldn't move, as she watched Rick walk away with Gina with both of their arms wrapped around each other's waists. She had one play left, if she could find her voice,
"See you in the fall?" She cried out almost not able to hold the tears that were welling up in her eyes in check.
"I don't think so, Beckett. Like I said it was a great summer but you got something going on now and well, so do I. Stay safe Beckett, Good-Bye," Rick said, to a stunned Beckett, as she stood with her hand stuck in the wave goodbye position. He said Good-Bye, he never said that meaning he was gone, really gone for sure now.
A few minutes later Lanie was by her side, as they all asked, "What happened Kate? He's just leaving for the summer, he'll be back" Lanie tried to encourage her,
"No, no, he won't. I asked him and he said, he didn't think so, that I had something going on, I guess he meant Demming, and so did he, obviously with Gina." Kate said sadly,
"Well Honey you do have something with Demming, I mean you've been flaunting it all over the precinct," Lanie said softly,
"Not anymore, I just broke up with him. I was going to see if Rick's invitation to the Hamptons was still open, but he didn't waste any time finding my replacement" she said with a little anger,
"Kate Beckett, how can you be angry at Castle, he didn't know what you were up to any more than the rest of us did. For the last 8 weeks, all we've heard or seen is Demming and you getting your groove on, cutting Rick out of almost everything. It's no wonder he's not coming back." Lanie said, her anger beginning to show,
Captain Montgomery was watching and listening, finally, he said, "I guess he reached his breaking point when you and Demming were making out on the staircase last week Beckett. I wondered after that how long we could keep him, guess we all found out today." Roy said as he pushed past the group headed to his office, obviously very pissed off.
Javi didn't say it, but he had told her, "He's not here to watch you be with other guys, he's done enough research to write 50 books," his words haunting her as he just stared at her.
Kevin was almost in tears, of all of the crew he looked up to Rick and had used him for advice when he proposed to Jenny. Rick got him a fantastic deal with his jeweler, Jenny was wearing a ring Kevin could never have afforded without Rick's help. He glanced over at Javi, and said, "Let's grab a beer, even though there was a 12-pack cold and unopened in the conference room. Suddenly it didn't feel like a party now, more like a wake and neither of them could wait to get out of her sight.
They grabbed their jackets without another word or the typical invite to her, tonight they didn't want to have her around as they talked about their loss. Lanie was looking at her with a funny look in her eye, and then she said it,
"Kate Beckett, you've done a lot of things since I've known you, but you were never cruel, not until the last several weeks. I hope you're happy, you got rid of the nine-year-old on a sugar rush that bugged you so much. Maybe if you hurry there's still time for you to make things right with Demming, the Castle ship has sure sailed" as she walked away, leaving Kate standing in the same spot she was as she watched Rick walk away arm in arm with his ex-wife.
At first, she thought she only had to make it through the summer, then Rick would be back, but his parting comment and the smile from Gina were embedded in her mind so deep she would never forget either. Not that she didn't deserve it, yet it still hurt to watch it play out right in front of your eyes. Oh God was that what Rick had been watching with her and Demming, what a fool she thought, as she gathered her belongings and headed home still in a fog.
XxX
On the road to the Hamptons, Gina was with Rick but not for the summer, she was accompanying him for his final week home before he had to report to active duty once again. They were using the time to go over his estate, plans for Alexis and Martha's long-term care, and education, just in case.
Gina loved him, she probably always would, she was the one that had gotten him into therapy when he returned home with the horrible nightmares. She knew that as long as the Detective was alive, it would always be a one-way street, and she kept her feelings to herself, as much as she could. Alexis thought he was at a convention then a book tour, and by this time, she had lost the glamor of the life he led and preferred to lead a normal kid's life.
Gina hated lying to her and Martha, but she was sworn to secrecy, if Rick was recalled things were bad over there and they needed someone to kick some ass, something he was known to do and train others how to execute a flawless plan of attack. Rick had already written the next two installments of the Heat series, actually, he had three but he was holding on to the last one to rework the ending, one way or another.
They wanted to keep his recall a secret so it was arraigned that Rick would make token appearances at pre-determined sights during the time he was teaching at Fort Bragg, then return to base as Colonel Rogers, USMC at the completion of the signing. His first mission was to train three new squadrons of Marine Pilots on the F-35B Lightning II stealth fighter, specializing in maneuvers to avoid the surface-to-air missiles being launched from just about everywhere in the theater.
After the completion of three classes of new pilots on the instructions needed for real warfare he would probably be sent over to Afghanistan but only as an adviser, or so was the plan. Rick knew, as well as Gina, he was going and he very well might not come back, ever or in the best case, it would be at least a year before he could rotate out.
Flashback Six Years
Rick had earned his medals while flying support missions for the ground troops when they were at their height, both in numbers and active missions. One medal he tried to hide was his purple heart awarded after he returned a badly shot-up airplane to base, but only after he had cleared the way for the ground troops as his mission called for.
Gina had found out only because she was listed as his Emergency Contact and received the call when he was first evacuated to a MASH hospital, then another call that he was being flown by hospital plane to Germany. She met the transport plane in Germany when he landed and was being transported for treatment of his wounds at The Landstuhl Regional Medical Center (LRMC) an overseas military hospital operated by the United States Army.
To the public she was on a press tour, in reality, she was at Rick's bedside almost 24/7, praying she wouldn't have to tell their little girl that Daddy and she had lied and he was dead from fighting the war that she refused to watch on TV. God she couldn't live with that, no matter if he loved her or not, she loved him, and Alexis.
They were able to maintain their privacy, the only thing that changed was she and Rick were married before returning to the states in a quiet private ceremony. She loved Alexis, and knew the little girl loved her as well, even though it was an adjustment, they worked things out, they always did, even the therapy.
PRESENT DAY
Gina was going over his R&R Schedule as he drove, or rest and relaxation days so she could avoid as much travel as possible for him, he was usually exhausted after each class, but would never disappoint his fans, no matter how tired he was.
On a personal note, her expectations were low. She had no hopes of anything more than a few hugs, or if she was lucky a few kisses, Rick was focused on the planning and how he could get back home as soon as possible.
Since their divorce two years ago, things had deteriorated into a working relationship, with still the love-hate relationship they always had. She knew the divorce was a result of her bringing work home, Rick even said in one counseling session, that it was hard to kiss the lips of the mouth who chewed his ass all day, every day. That saying hit home and she finally realized, too late, she had two jobs, both equally important.
She was the editor during business hours, charged with his literary success, but after she put on her leisure clothes and it was just him and her, the shop talk should have stopped, and it was time that she performed the second job, his wife. She failed miserably at that, and it wasn't until it was too late, too much had been said, too much hurt felt, to mend the gap.
She must have been deep in thought when she felt his arm go around her shoulder, and she jumped.
"Hey I didn't mean to scare you, I just wanted to talk a little while we have the time. I can't thank you enough for handling everything here at home. Alexis is leaving for her Foreign Exchange program three days before I have to ship out, and Mother, well she has a complete season of plays to perform in Los Angeles. The loft should be quiet if you care to stay there, some nights, hell all the nights," He glanced down at her, looking up at him.
"Thanks, Rick, I appreciate that, I might take you up on it unless Eduardo still has his hit squad after me" she laughed,
"I called that off as soon as I found out, it wasn't his goon squad, it was all his nieces that belonged to the fan club that thought you treated me badly" he laughed,
"I did treat you badly Rick, worse when I replay it in my mind many nights, I think about us and where we went wrong. I failed you as your wife, then treated you horribly at work to get even when you told me the truth" she whispered, tears in her eyes,
"Hey divorces are ugly, we both said things that hurt, I'm sorry, I really am. I never meant to disappoint you as a husband, and I know you went through hell with me with the dreams and screaming in the middle of the night over night terrors. Hell, if you hadn't made us go to therapy, I would still be having them. At least you went with me, I know that was tough." He said quietly,
"Therapy with you wasn't tough Rick, it was knowing you were reliving the hell you're about to walk back into that hurt. I know you think you owe them this, but Rick, you've done your share, why not let someone else go this time. I mean if" she stopped talking before her voice cracked.
Rick quietly pulled the car over to a roadside Ice Cream Stand, they had visited it almost every time they went to the Hamptons when they were dating, it was the precursor for the delight that was about to come. "I'll be right back," he said softly. Five minutes later he appeared with her pecan sundae with butterscotch topping and light whipped cream,
She looked up as he handed it to her, and she forgot the time, the reason, and everything else, she kissed him. He didn't pull away but kissed her back, and when she came to her senses, she jumped.
"Oh Rick, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to force myself on you," She said,
"Genes, it takes two to kiss, I didn't pull away so maybe I remember some of the good times as well" he smiled, a real smile the first she had seen in almost two years.
"I'm sorry Rick, I know you and Beckett are trying to work things out, and I"
"What? Who told you that? All I said was I invited her out here and she declined, actually lied, to be with Demming, so she's made it clear, there never was anything between her and I." Rick said,
"But Rick, I read the books, they're like love letters,"
"About that Gina, have you read the last one I sent, I think you'll see a change in the characters, and really didn't you hear me tell her NO, she wouldn't see me in the fall," Rick said,
"I thought that was part of the military cover, not about,"
"Us? I know sounds strange doesn't it, but hey, we have a week, how about we start fresh for this week, then you'll know if you want to wait or bed the first hot new writer you sign." Rick said, as a joke, but tears came to Gina's eyes
"Gina, I'm sorry, that was a stupid thing to say, I'm so sorry, as he pulled her into him. It wasn't clear, whose lips found whose, but there was a deep meaningful kiss, and yes, she knew that she never stopped loving him. Maybe, too soon, let him get this military thing done then if Kate was still out of the picture, then perhaps there was hope for them.
"I'm sorry to get all weepy on you, Rick, you didn't bring me out here for that, we have to plan for your time away, she paused,"
"And for the worst-case scenario Gina, we have to face it. I'm sorry to put you through this, but I have no one else I trust with Alexis, and looking after"
She reached up and pulled him into a kiss, "Shut up Rick, let's talk about that part later, OK?"
"OK, but I better finish the drive or they're gonna arrest us both for lewd conduct if I read that kiss right" he smiled
"Oh, you read it right, now home Richard" she laughed, trying not to think of what was about to come, and the secret she would have to carry.
TBC
A/N Apologies for ANY Military errors, it's been a very long time and I don't profess to be the expert. Please treat it as a plot point for the story.