Bear and I 2

Chapter 4

Rick was trying to adjust to sleeping on his sectional in the living room. He hadn't bought it for someone to sleep on, let alone him. However, being awake in the middle of the night showed that the storm they had been talking about and he thought he saw coming over the mountain had arrived. That had him up and standing at the wall of windows looking outside.

The snow was presently thick and heavy and wasn't sticking to much of anything yet. The ground just wasn't cold enough. Though they were right about one thing. This was melting the second it hit the ground and was going to turn his trail into a giant mud puddle making travel by quad impossible. They were trapped.

It was dark outside but at least what he saw of it was pretty to watch. It also might mean no fishing tomorrow and he needed to get as much fishing in as possible before it got too cold. He had a stream not a lake, so no ice fishing for him.

- :: - ::: - :: -

Rick had Alexis in the tub. As was usual bathtime was also playtime for both of them. Eventually he was hugging a wet daughter while he was trying to get her dry. It was times like this that Rick cherished. "Okay, let's find you some clothes to wear." He tossed the towel on the floor, got her into her room, and went through her drawers for some clothes.

"Stay inside, I need to let Shadow out so he can do his business." Rick got bundled up and took Shadow outside and walked around till the Newfoundland was completely done.

Stepping back inside Rick shook the snow off of him. He had little choice but to go fishing. This might be a short storm or it might be a big one but he needed to get his fishing done even in the snow.

"Stay inside with Shadow and play with your toys. Do not wake up the lady. You have to let her sleep. Understand?" Rick needed her to listen to him and watched her nod. "I'll be back as fast as I can. Now stay inside and leave her alone." Rick reinforced his point and went outside and to his workshop to gather up his fishing poles. He started his quad and pulled his trailer behind him to throw the fish into.

As soon as Rick was gone Alexis scurried into his bedroom to look at her. Daddy had told her to leave her alone and since she was just standing there watching her sleep she wasn't doing anything. She was clearly sleeping so she wasn't waking her up.

- :: - ::: - :: -

Rick decided to stop at 12 fish for today. It wasn't enough but maybe he could get in some fishing on another day. Another moose was just too much for his freezer.

However he also had a promise to keep while he was out here with his Quad. He needed to put a name on the grave of the little 5 year old girl named Madison.

Just 12 fish meant he had them all cleaned up and in a bag to take inside so he could bag them before going into his freezer. He kept two out for dinner later.

However, so far he hadn't seen Alexis or Shadow. "What did I tell her?" He just knew where she was. Stopping at his bedroom door he saw her on the floor playing with some of her toys while Shadow was lying on the floor nearby. Alexis was clearly lost in her little world and the lady looked to be still asleep so he left her.

Since it wasn't lunch yet he headed to his shed to get back to splitting logs. He was interested in having all the wood he could store. Thankfully he didn't need to cut down another tree and the ones that were down were already cut into pieces. He just needed to pick them up, split them, and pile them up.

Rick was pretty sure he heard a sound but assumed it was an animal somewhere so he kept splitting wood.

"DADDY!" Alexis was outside yelling for him. The second she saw him. "Wake!" Alexis told him.

"She's awake?" That had him running into the house. He shed his coat in the living room and tossed it on his sectional-part-bed.

Rick entered his bedroom and saw that she wasn't awake but it did look like she had moved. "Probably passed out from the pain if she moved that leg." Shadow was now really close, checking her out and smelling her since she had finally made a noise and had moved.

Rick smoothed out the plastic beneath her and straightened her sheet and comforter since there was nothing else he could do. But this also meant going back outside was now out of the question. He needed to stay close.

"Okay, everyone out." Rick shooed Shadow out and guided Alexis back out of his bedroom. "We let her sleep in peace." Rick had everyone in the living room.

This did have a good side effect. He could spend the day with his daughter since most of his chores were taken care of. He had time to keep splitting logs any day of his choice.

- :: - ::: - :: -

They had eaten lunch and Rick was back to playing with Alexis after taking Shadow outside. That was one thing about his place. He didn't have a doggie door for several reasons. One was Shadow was just too big for a doggie door. Second he didn't want to invite any critters inside his home since they didn't belong in here.

Rick heard his call letters so he left Alexis on the floor, went to his desk, and answered.

"Castle, I have more news for you," Grant told him.

"Good or bad?" He had both last time.

"I'm not sure it's either. Your guest, Miss Katherine Beckett, is a Homicide Detective based in New York City. She isn't officially missing since you have her," Grant said.

"Police? That's unexpected." She looked a little too pretty in his eyes for her to be a cop let alone a homicide detective. "Married? Where's her family?"

"Not married. Her father's been notified and he also lives in New York City. He understands that you're inaccessible till it gets a lot colder. He wants an update on her condition," Grant told him.

"She has a compound fracture of her left leg. It's really bad, Grant. I've done what I can for her. She'll live but she might end up having a limp after this. She was awake for a short time according to Alexis. She's back to sleeping again. If needs be I have enough food for all of us till spring.

"As for getting her out of here on a snowmobile you might need to send an EMT first to see if she can move. You know what my trail looks like." He knew it wasn't a freeway and had nothing to do with the word smooth.

"I do. I'll let her dad know and tell them. For now she's all yours," Grant said.

Suddenly all of them heard a scream. "Was that her?" Grant had heard that.

"Gotta go." Rick gave his call letters, signed off, and found Shadow and even Alexis already in his bedroom. She was mostly definitely awake and he saw lots of pain on her face.

"Try not to move." Rick got down on his knees and moved her comforter and sheet so he could see her bad leg. He couldn't see any blood but knew he was going to have to change the dressing today at some point.

Kate for her part was confused. This wasn't her bedroom and there was a little girl with long hair and a massive black dog and then this man showed up.

"Where am I?" Her head hurt, her body hurt, and her left leg felt like it was on fire. The pain in her leg was intense.

"My bedroom. How's the pain on a scale of 1 to 10?" Rick questioned her.

"Seven maybe," Kate replied and lied through her teeth.

"Twelve then." Rick assumed she would lie about it. He moved to his First Responder pack, located the morphine bottle, and got out a syringe and put a little in it.

Her saline bag was about half full and it had an attachment so he could inject this there instead of looking for another vein.

"Give that a minute and the pain should get better." He didn't dare give her much so she was just going to have to live with the pain. "Morphine. Not much, don't want to turn you into a morphine addict," Rick explained.

Rick got back down on his knees and looked at her face and waited for the morphine to start working. "I know your name is Katherine. You were on a cruise ship and your dad knows where you are now. Tell me what you remember." He needed to find out if she had memory loss.

Kate was starting to feel the pain go away but her leg was still on fire. "Helicopter. We crashed." She remembered that. It had been scary. "Where are the others?" It looked like she was all alone.

"You should try and sleep. Wake up again and we'll get some food in you." Rick didn't need her thinking about them.

"They didn't make it, did they?" Kate searched his face. It was now that she recognized him. She was with Richard Castle. Her mother's most favorite writer. How was this possible? She thought he lived in New York City.

"Maddy?" Kate felt tears starting. She liked that little girl. She was fun. "NO! Please, no!" She knew that look. Maddy was dead. Everyone was dead. It was just her.

Rick tried again. "You really should get some sleep."

"No, please not her." She had the same name as one of her old best friends that she had lost track of. "That's not fair. It should have been me. She was only five!" Kate began crying which increased her pain. Her head was pounding, her chest ached terribly, and her left leg was still on fire.

Rick cursed internally. He really didn't want to do this but he got a different syringe ready. This one would put her back to sleep which should help her heal.

Kate was still crying as she finally went back to sleep. "Daddy?" Rick cringed. As if having one problem wasn't enough. Now he needed to explain all this to Alexis. He wasn't sure why Alexis hadn't questioned him about the girl since he had brought her home. But she was two but Kate had brought it up so now he was in trouble.

- :: - ::: - :: -

That injection kept Kate asleep until the next day. When she woke up again she saw this massive black dog sitting next to her and watching her. "Hi." She watched him or her get up and walk out of the bedroom.

This allowed her to remember what had happened and that Richard Castle was here. Then suddenly she saw him, Richard Castle in the flesh. Though by now she was crying again. Maddy was dead and while she had protected her heart from men, Maddy had gotten in within seconds. The little girl's death hurt Kate very badly.

Rick was on his knees again and Kate saw that enormous black dog right behind him. "How do you feel?" He would give her some more morphine if he really had to but he was hoping to switch to a different pain killer.

"She's dead, isn't she? They all are." Kate's heart was in pain. It was a pain she had worked so hard at preventing but she had failed.

"Madison and you survived the crash. I saw you crash and drove out with my daughter and Shadow here. It was just you two. I'm really sorry but she didn't survive the trip back home. I buried her on my land for now." Rick was still hurting from it all.

Kate began crying again. "Maddy." She was going to remember that little girl forever.

Rick took her hand in his. "I understand. I'm the one that had to bury her. She was just a little older than my own daughter." Rick had already cried over her body but Kate was starting his tears.

"Where am I?" Had she been flown back to New York City? How long had she been out?

"You're still in Alaska, Katherine. I had a home built out in the middle of nowhere. I needed to get away from it all." Mostly he wanted to disappear where his parents couldn't find him or Alexis.

"Kate, please." She stared at him for a moment. "You're Richard Castle, aren't you?" Kate was pretty sure she recognized him.

"A fan are we?" Rick grinned at her.

"My mother was." Kate wasn't going to admit that his books had gotten her through her mother being killed. His books meant so much to her.

"Your mother." Rick wasn't sure he believed her but if she wanted a secret he would let her have one. "Do you feel like eating? You've been out of it for over two days."

"Sure." She was used to not eating for an entire day but now that she was thinking about it she was getting hungry. "Daughter?" He had said something about having a daughter.

"Alexis is down for a nap in her bedroom. When she's up she'll be in here. She's been keeping an eye on you since you got here. Give me a few minutes." Kate watched him get up and bend down. Much to her surprise he kissed her forehead and left the room.

That left her struggling to understand. Richard Castle had kissed her forehead and she was in his home in Alaska. Not New York City.

- :: - ::: - :: -

Kate lay there watching the dog watch her till Rick was back and set a bowl of soup on her side table. "Let's see if we can get you to a sitting position without causing too much pain." She couldn't eat this any other way.

Kate hissed since it hurt and her left leg started throbbing from the pain but she tried to remain silent. "It's just soup but it's mostly made from scratch so if you don't like it you can blame me." Rick held the bowl and dipped out a full spoon of soup and was expecting to feed her.

She reached for the spoon and the bowl. "I can feed myself. I'm not an invalid."

Rick's eyebrows shot up. "Stubborn, are we?" He relinquished control over both and watched her eat. Since she kept eating he was guessing that she like it.

"You cook?" Kate asked him between bites.

"I'm miles from anyone and I have a daughter, remember? I'm self-taught actually," Rick admitted.

When Kate was done he took it the bowl and spoon from her and left only to come back with an apple and a glass of orange juice. "I don't have too many of these so don't go getting addicted to them," Rick told her. He handed over the apple and put the orange juice down where she could reach it. "I'm going to need to change that dressing while I'm here and I need to check for infection." Rick wanted to keep her apprised of her situation. Then he lifted up her comforter and sheet.

"Am I naked under all this?" It didn't fell like she was wearing anything.

"I had to check if you had other injuries. Cracked ribs maybe. Don't expect to get your jeans back. Those things are gone." Rick was ready to get started. "This is going to hurt," he warned her and carefully began removing this dressing. She didn't hiss loudly till he started cleaning her wound. "I'm sorry, Kate."

Once it was clean he looked it over and left it to fish out an antibiotic capsule and handed it to her. "Take this. It's to fight infection. It was close to six miles from the crash site. Who knows what you picked up along the way." Rick handed her glass of orange juice to her to swallow it with.

"Now this is going to hurt too." He had to wrap it back up again.

There all done. "Please don't be upset but when was your last period?" Rick queried.

Kate at first didn't see where it was any of his business. However, if she was trapped in bed till her leg healed… "About 2 weeks ago." She hoped for the best.

Rick broke it to her."There's a snow storm outside right now. But it's not the snow that's the issue. My trail to the closest town is being turned into a mud pit. We're trapped here and I don't have any of those things. Alexis is two."

"Oops." She knew for a fact that she didn't walk around with even one tampon on her.

"I guess we'll have to think of something." Rick had more bad news. "I don't have clothes your size, either."

Kate wasn't walking around naked even if he had seen everything if she was truly naked. "It doesn't look like I'm going anywhere." She didn't need clothes yet.

"Let's get you back down so you can get some more sleep. If you're awake for dinner you can have what we're eating. Alexis loves finger foods so be ready for that," Rick warned her.

"I'll live." Kate took a deep breath and tried to get ready for the pain that was coming. She hissed loudly from the pain and being down again.

"Get some sleep." Rick took his empty glass and apple core and left her. This time he didn't kiss her forehead and now Kate was even more confused.

Sleep was avoiding her. Mostly because she was thinking about Maddy. She was a sweet girl and deserved better. Kate felt terrible that she was the only one who had survived the crash.

- :: - ::: - :: -

Rick was in the kitchen thinking about dinner when he saw Alexis walk into the kitchen rubbing her sleepy eyes. "What would you like for dinner? Fish or moose?" Rick asked her even if he did know the answer.

"Moo!" Alexis knew what she liked best.

"Moose it is." Now he just needed to figure out what to make using moose meat.

"Kate's awake if you want to go say hi," Rick told her and watched his smiling daughter run for his bedroom so she could talk to her. He hoped she understood two-year-old speak.