Bear and I 2

Chapter 3

Rick felt a dark cloud hanging over his head all the way home. He kept checking on Alexis and even looked for Shadow to make sure he was keeping up.

Rick stopped at the front of the house and put Alexis down and opened the house so she and Shadow could go inside. Rick carefully picked up the lady, carried her into his bedroom, and put her on his bed.

"You two stay right here. Stay a bear, Pumpkin and you two can guard her." Rick even closed the door on them to keep them inside. As a bear Alexis would have a larger problem getting the door open. And she really didn't need to see what he was going to do next.

Rick got a pick and a shovel from his workshop and moved the quad and the sled till he was farther out and dug a grave. "I'm really sorry, sweetie, but I don't know your name. If family comes looking I'll show them where you are. Till then you're an honorary Castle.

"May your family be waiting for you on the other side. I promise to go back and bury your parents when I have the time. I promise you." Rick raised his hand and then placed it on his heart.

"I hope it was an amazing trip before it all went wrong." Rick gathered up a lot of rocks and covered the grave with them. He didn't need for some animal to dig her up and munch away at her. Finally a marker was put in place. "This is the best I can do for you, sweetie. If Aaron shows up I'll ask him about the crash. Someone must know something. OR I can use my CB radio!" He was loathe to use his satellite phone even for this. So far it wasn't a real emergency.

He just had a hurt lady and a dead little girl who was taken too soon.

- :: - ::: - :: -

Rick found Alexis was still a bear and right next to the bed and next to Shadow who was clearly the best dog ever. "Okay, let's get your clothes so you can shift back." Rick started with Alexis first.

That was followed by making both of them lunch after making sure his lady wasn't bleeding and was still alive.

- :: - ::: - :: -

Rick had his First Responder kit again. "Now let's get started on this leg. First, though, I need to check the rest of you." Rick got to work taking off her clothes.

He did his best to try and not pay attention to her breasts but he failed miserably. On the bright side he liked the look of them. Not too big and she wasn't flat chested.

"Okay, please tell me you don't have any broken ribs," Rick pleaded and began checking everywhere. "Sorry about this." He quickly felt her breasts. "So far so good."

Next came checking her head and he didn't see anything unlike the little girl. "Legs are next." He hated it but to not mess up her already hurt leg, he cut her jeans off and all that was left of them was on the floor.

"Daddy?" Alexis was at the door. Rick had already covered her chest so he didn't get distracted. She hadn't lost her panties yet but if he wanted to clean them they had to come off eventually.

"Okay, you can come in and help me." It was just a bad wound and dried blood.

First off came the splints he had applied earlier and unwrapped her damaged leg so he could see everything.

"Boo-boo." It was the biggest one Alexis had ever seen.

"Big boo-boo. Good thing she's asleep." He was betting this would hurt like hell and what he was about to do would hurt even more.

"Alexis, I have a job for you. A very important job. I need you to go outside with Shadow and keep him out there. Close the front door on your way out." Mostly he wanted Alexis outside with Shadow instead of the opposite.

"Go, Pumpkin. Take Shadow outside and keep him out there." Rick got her going and listened for the front door to close. "Now let's get started." This was going to be a real test for him. Reading about this for research was one thing for his books. But he'd never actually done this before.

- :: - ::: - :: -

Rick was reasonably certain he had picked out all the tiny little bone pieces. Cleaned up all the blood. Made sure none of the major blood vessels had been nicked and she was bleeding into her leg.

What he didn't have was any screws, plates, pins, or rods to keep her bones together in one place after he did his best to line them up. Then working really fast before the bones moved on him he gave her a new splint and wrapped the whole thing up.

"Last thing. One antibiotic injection since I'm betting there's the start of an infection somewhere in that. And promise me you won't complain about my stitches. I'm new at this," Rick asked her and since she didn't say anything he took that as a yes.

- :: - ::: - :: -

Rick had let Alexis and Shadow back inside and both headed right for her. "No boo-boo?" Alexis questioned him.

"She still has a boo-boo, you just can't see it any longer. It's been a really long day so it's naptime for you. I'll wake you up in time for dinner. Let's get you to bed so you can take a nap," Rick told her and she went willingly which was good.

Next came using his CB radio to tell everyone what had happened and who he had even if he didn't have a name. But he did have names for the two he had left behind.

"Thanks, Castle. We'll start looking into it. Be advised the storm is bigger than we thought. Winter's getting here far too early in the year. Until it's gone don't expect any help," Grant warned him.

"I already have a moose. I just need to get in some fishing since I have a guest. MY MOOSE!" He still needed to strip it and get it into his freezer. "I gotta go. Call me if you learn anything." Rick gave his call letters and signed off.

Then he hustled since he needed his moose in his freezer before he started on dinner and before Alexis woke up.

- :: - ::: - :: -

He only had two bedrooms and the one bathroom. However, his living room and kitchen were a lot larger than normal and he had a lot of south-facing windows that gave him an amazing view. He could see the river beyond, lots of trees, and one of the mountains in the distance.

Rick woke up the next morning on the sectional since that was his bed now given that his guest had his bed. A quick shower and he was dressed and getting Alexis out of bed and into the tub. She got most of the hot water as usual. Bathtime was funtime for both of them.

Rick looked in on his guest and checked the plastic she was lying on. It was meant to prevent blood from staining his bed but also in case she lost control of her bladder while sleeping.

His guest was still sleeping when Alexis joined him. She looked up at her daddy. "Seep?"

"Yes, still sleeping. We need to go fishing while we still can. You ready to go fishing?" Rick asked her and watched her smile. Alexis liked doing everything with her daddy and that included fishing.

"Let's go then. We have a lot of fish to catch. First I need to put lunch together." He had planned to be out at the river for hours today.

- :: - ::: - :: -

Rick started with simple fishing using bait, rod, and reel. He did all the work and planted Alexis's pole in the ground and told her to watch it.

He had nine on the sled when he heard, "DADDY!" Her rod was doing something.

"You caught a fish! That's my girl." Rick grabbed the rod, reeled it in, and held it up as it thrashed about; he showed it to Alexis. "It's a big one, Alexis! You're a really good fisherman." Rick played it up big so he could make her happy.

- :: - ::: - :: -

Rick was up to 18 fish but it was really only a start. He needed at least twice that but fishing was taking time. They had even stopped and eaten lunch already.

"Time for a new fishing lesson, Pumpkin. We're going to fish like bears! First we have to get your clothes off." He could shift right now but it would shred everything he was wearing. He was old enough and big enough that it wouldn't affect him. But his sweet girl was just a baby and it would hurt her.

Alexis soon had her arms wrapped around herself. "Cold, Daddy." She was freezing. The temperature was going down fast thanks to the storm that was headed their way.

"Shift to your bear, Pumpkin. You can do it. Just concentrate and think you want to be a bear." That would help her be a lot warmer.

Rick watched as his baby girl shifted and turned into the cutest cub he had ever seen. "That's my girl! I'm proud of you." Rick kissed her fur.

"Now I'm going to strip and shift. I want you to follow me out into the river just a little ways." She wasn't big enough to handle the depth or the speed of the water. "I want you to do what I do. This is how bears catch fish." Rick stripped just as fast as he could while showing Alexis only his bare butt. She had long since seen the scars on his back and wasn't all that worried about them any longer. Rick could remember her crying at the sight of them the first time she'd seen them.

Alexis the bear watched as her daddy took off all his clothes and then shifted into this really big bear. She had seen other bears but her daddy was really big. Then she felt him kiss her with his really big face. He walked toward the water while she followed.

Rick stopped her just a little ways out but he went farther out. Now he needed to show her how to fish like a bear.

Rick had one in his mouth and lumbered toward the shore and watched Alexis doing what he was doing. She was coming up empty but at least she was trying.

Rick was doing mostly pretty well though he had lost a few. He wanted to catch them and keep them and not eat them or rip them to pieces getting them to shore. It was just the fish didn't want to die so they kept flapping like crazy.

As he walked to shore with another fish he saw his baby girl with a fish in her mouth. SHE HAD CAUGHT ONE! Then she lost it and scrambled to find it again. Well at least she had caught one.

Even Rick was starting to get cold. The water was cold, the air was cold and he was soaking wet and tired of accidentally drinking cold water while catching fish. This fish was his last fish.

Rick shifted back. "HOLY CRAP! COLD, COLD, COLD!" He was human. A wet human in the cold air and wind. He grabbed a towel off his sled, quickly dried off, and then got dressed as fast as he could.

"Alexis! Come to me, Pumpkin. We're done fishing for today," Rick yelled at her since she was still in the water trying to catch another fish.

It was just Alexis knew she hadn't caught a fish. The one she had caught got away but her daddy was calling her so she trudged toward him; she shifted to human when he told her. Now she was freezing to death. Her little body was wet and she was shaking with the cold.

Rick was ready and had her wrapped up in a towel and was drying her off and rubbing her to try and get her warm. Then he got her dressed as fast as he could.

"Are you ready to go home?" Rick was ready and he didn't wait for her to answer him. He put her helmet on her head, got on his quad and picked her up, and then put her in front of him.

- :: - ::: - :: -

Rick took Alexis inside and took her coat and boots off and put wood in the wood stove. He planted her right in front of it and let Shadow go wherever he wanted to.

"Stay here and get warm. I have a lot of fish to take care of." Catching the fish was only the first part. Now he had to descale and gut the fish, fillet them, get them sealed up, and in his freezer. Twenty-three fish was going to take a little time.

- :: - ::: - :: -

Rick finally had them all ready to be put into bags so he took them all inside to take into the kitchen but didn't see Alexis or Shadow. At first he feared she had somehow made it past him. Except she would never do that so he dropped the fish in the sink and went into his bedroom first.

Sure enough she was standing next to his bed watching the lady sleep with Shadow right next to her. "Still sleeping?" Rick asked her and watched her nod.

"Her's petty." Alexis liked the look of her.

"Yes, she is." Rick was willing to grant that. Rick heard his call letters being called out and hurried to the desk that held all of his CB radio equipment. Just outside was his tower for it.

Rick answered the call. "Castle, I have some good news and bad news. Good news first." He was just that kind of person. "Your guest is Katherine Beckett. She was from a cruise ship that has already left port. The other three are a family," he started to explain.

Rick felt his heart break a little and his stomach fell to the bottom. This was not what he needed to hear. He even had a name for the little girl. "Madison." He would add a name to her grave when he got the chance.

"Now for the bad news." Rick thought what Grant had just told him was the bad news. "This first storm is expected to dump up to 3 feet of snow. Since the ground isn't cold enough yet it will all melt pretty fast. This will turn your trail into a mud bath."

"Meaning I'm trapped already." Rick could read between the lines. Too thick and muddy for anyone's quad. He didn't know of anyone that had one of those 6 wheeled quads that could handle just about anything.

"Sorry to say, yes. At least for now. What we really need is for it to get cold enough to freeze the ground and then snow. Then we can change to snowmobiles and reach you. You get to keep your guest for now," he advised Castle.

"Copy that," Rick responded. It also meant he was the doctor here.

"How are you set for food?" He knew most of what Rick did but needed to ask for his own conscience.

"Twenty-three fish today, 1 moose the day before plus what I had left over. I need to go fishing again or bag another moose. Produce is in the cellar and still more in the greenhouse." That reminded Rick that he needed to check the greenhouse.

"I have a full pantry from my last trip. With a little more work I'll be fine. Is there someone contacting the families? The little girl survived the crash. She just didn't survive the trip home." He knew the parents were dead but surely they had other family.

"The police are handling that. They'll also be in contact with the cruise ship. Take good care of your guest." Grant gave his call letters and signed off. Rick did the same.

"Kate, huh?" At least he had a name for her instead of hey you. He left Alexis and Shadow in his bedroom watching over their guest. He had fish to put away followed by working on dinner after he went out and checked his greenhouse. Since winter was coming his garden was effectively closed for the season.

Rick was thinking fresh fish for dinner since he had 23 of them and went looking for Alexis. He stopped at his doorway and saw she was crashed on Shadow who was lying there and letting her. "Good boy." Shadow was the greatest.

They had obviously fished for too long and she hadn't taken her normal nap. Dinner was going to be late so he put his fresh fish for dinner in the refrigerator for now.

He had checked the greenhouse, put the fish away on a different shelf from the moose. Looking at his freezer he thought another moose would be a waste so more fish was called for. He could do that tomorrow. Since he had the wood stove already fired up he put more wood in it and built it back up. Then he went out back and into his out building. Inside this building was his main heat source. This thing sent hot water to the tubes below the floor and it easily used up five cords of wood each season. So he filled it up and checked the setting. Since he had the wood stove running it meant this baby wouldn't work nearly as hard for now. He needed to fill it twice a day normally.

Back inside he gathered up clothes to put in the washer so he could run loads of laundry while he had hot water. Next came a quick check on Alexis and Kate and he petted Shadow on his way back out.

Tomorrow was another day in Alaska. The only real change was that he had an unexpected guest.

He couldn't let Alexis sleep too long or she wouldn't go to sleep tonight and maybe miss dinner which neither of them could afford. They'd spent a fair amount of time as bears today so they needed food.