My Grandmother was a Witch
Chapter 10
Kate had just barely gotten home from work. Actually home from talking with Captain Montgomery. She'd been in Vice for just over a year and while she had learned a lot she was being offered a very junior position in the Homicide Department. She had naturally accepted the offer. She'd been told to go home and report to his office in clothes suitable for the job in the morning.
Now there was someone pounding on her door. Kate took a peek and saw Lanie so she opened the door. "GIRLFRIEND!" Lanie crushed the air out of her in a hug. "You're a homicide detective!" Lanie was so happy for her.
Stunned, Kate stared at her. "I only just got the offer. How did you find out so fast?" She had literally thanked Montgomery, told him that she wouldn't let him down, that she would listen to everyone so she could be the very best detective ever.
That was followed by running for the ferry just in time to catch it and cross the river. Then she raced home after stopping at a pizzeria to buy pizza for an early dinner. She hadn't even had a chance to call and tell her dad the good news.
"Good news travels fast. Everyone in the precinct and beyond has already heard. We finally get to work cases together. How great is that?" Lanie sniffed the air. "Is that pizza I smell? I'll get the alcohol. Be right back." Lanie left her to get a six pack of her new favorite drink so they could celebrate.
Kate shook her head, somewhat annoyed that the entire precinct already knew and was so involved in her career. She huffed a breath and got out paper plates and napkins and then put them out for Lanie when she came back. She put a piece on her plate, picked up her napkin, and went into her living room.
She still had a lot to do to this place but it was coming along. She didn't have the bookcases she really wanted so a few of her books were piled up on the floor. She had her sectional and she had this little bistro table and two chairs. Her TV was older and sitting on the floor since she didn't yet have anything to put it on.
Thankfully her bedroom was making better progress. Her twin bed was gone, replaced with a queen-size bed. Her old dresser was still there though she had plans to replace it, but she did have a nice chest of drawers that matched the bed. It even had this tilted top that exposed a place to store jewelry. All of her jewelry, including her mother's ring and her dad's watch that he had given her as his thanks for saving him, went in there now instead of her little box. Along with what other jewelry she had.
Now all that storage she had was getting put to good use. Her shoe collection was getting bigger and it had its own closet so she had lots of space for a lot more shoes.
Kate put her piece of pizza down and hurried to her bathroom to pee and wash up. Finished, she was just starting to walk past her front door when there was a knock. This time she didn't even bother to look and opened the door. "I got the good stuff. None of that domestic swill or diet. Talk about gross." Lanie showed off her six pack of Yuengling Light Lager as she walked past Kate into the kitchen to put it in the fridge to chill and get a piece of pizza.
A short while later both were sitting at her little table eating pizza and drinking lager to celebrate.
"So how was your date the other night? I've been so busy I haven't had time to ask." Lanie was curious. This was one date she hadn't set her up with. Kate had found this one on her own.
Kate shrugged. "It was nice enough. Maybe a little plain and not much imagination but nice."
Lanie dug for a little more. "And?"
"That was it. He went his way and I went mine. I didn't see the need to tell him or show him where I live." Kate took a sip of her lager.
"I thought he was FBI?" He sounded trustworthy to her.
"He is, and he's based here in the city. I'm not sure yet is all. Gun-shy or something. I don't know. I agreed to another date when I have a day off and he does as well. Maybe it will be better." Kate was willing to give him another chance to impress her.
Kate saw her looking at her clock wall. "Are you staring at my clock again?
Lanie defended herself. "I can't help it. That's the best thing about this place. Tell me that wasn't why you bought this place."
Kate shifted to look at her clock. She really did like that part of this place. It was truly unique. "I like my clock. I just hope I'm not paying the electricity it takes to work." Her bills were large enough already.
"Unlikely." Lanie raised an eyebrow. "So when are you going to get the TV off of the floor?"
"Just as soon as I have time to look for something to put it into to hide it. I also need better bookshelves. I have books sitting on the floor." Kate gestured to the stack.
"At least you finally got rid of your little girl bed." Lanie was happy for her for that.
"The funny thing is I still only sleep on one side." Kate was still working out why that was.
Lanie grinned at her. "You get one side and Mr. FBI gets the other."
"His name is Will and we'll see. We have to get past the second date first," Kate reminded her.
"If he doesn't treat you well I'll smack him silly. FBI or not." Lanie and Kate were pretty sure she would do it, too.
_/\_
With a little work Lanie and Kate could be on the same ferry to go home except that Kate had a tendency to stay really late in the day. Today was not one of those days.
"So how was date number two?" Lanie wanted to know if she was going to have to teach Mr. FBI to treat her best friend better.
"He took me to the Statue of Liberty. Would you believe in all my years of living here I've never even been there? It actually wasn't so bad. Date number three is already scheduled." Kate smiled. She was beginning to really like spending time with Will.
"So you must like him. You usually don't make it to or even past the second date. I may have to meet this guy. I promise not to tranquilize him and castrate him," Lanie teased her.
"I appreciate that, Lanie." They hadn't yet had sex but Kate was thinking that was coming up soon since she was willing. At his place, not hers. She wasn't ready for that yet.
_/\_
For the next six months Kate had dated Will Sorenson. The sex had been nice if not actually mind-blowing. She had even allowed Will to visit where she lived and have sex in her bed.
Then they worked a case together. A kidnapped little boy and Kate watched Will follow the FBI script to the letter. They actually got the kidnappers so Will got his case solved. However, the boy was found dead after the fact.
Kate took out the loss of the boy on Will. She screamed, she yelled, and he stood by his FBI work. It had gotten the job done. There wasn't anything else to have been done.
Kate hadn't seen him in two weeks and when he showed up at her door, she told him to get lost. She slammed the door in his face. His precious FBI playbook had gotten that boy killed as far as she was concerned.
_/\_
"Girlfriend!" Lanie found Kate down in her morgue and was glad to see her. But something was off. "What did he do?" Lanie just knew it had to be her boyfriend. It was always the guy's fault. Why they had to be so damn stupid escaped her and yet she kept dating them, looking for the right one.
"It's over, Lanie. The son of a bitch hid something from me. He accepted a promotion and is moving to Boston. TODAY! He even had the gall to ask me to go with him. To quit my job and follow him to Boston.
"And do WHAT! Sit at home and wait for him to come home? Be his mindless maid? Spread my legs when I'm told? Make sure his dinner's on the table when he gets home? Quit my job? Give up my dream?
"I hate him, Lanie. I hate him so much. He told me he loved me when all he really loved was his job. I almost killed him. I actually thought about killing him." Kate had thought that was impossible but she'd actually considered it.
"Oh, honey!" Lanie walked up and hugged her. Kate was hurting. Her best friend had been hurt by a man she thought she loved and who loved her. "Boston, huh?" Lanie had friends and Boston wasn't that far away.
_/\_
Her grandmother had warned her about this but Will had hurt her and hurt her bad.
"You have a guy, you say?" Kate asked her in Lanie's apartment. "I have something for him to give Will." Kate handed it over. "It has a note inside."
Lanie took it. "Feels warm." It was all wrapped up so she couldn't see it.
"It needs to be warm. It should stay that way for a few hours. Just long enough hopefully," Kate told her.
"I'll get it to him. Give me an hour." Lanie didn't know what it was but Kate was her best friend so she would do this. Whatever it was.
_/\_
Kate was sitting at home and was worried, scared that she'd done something wrong. "I'm sorry, Grams." It was done. Lanie was gone so she couldn't stop her now.
Kate was thinking that he still had to drink it. But was even trying to do this an evil thing? If he didn't drink it nothing would happen. And she could undo it if she could find him again.
She was still worried when Lanie knocked on her door and spent the entire evening with her watching TV and drinking wine till Kate had collapsed and left to sleep on her sectional by Lanie. Lanie locked the door and left her behind.
_/\_
A week later the apartment complex manager unlocked the door to do a health check. The neighbors had complained about the smell so she was there to check on what was going on.
"WHAT THE HELL!" The manager closed the door, ran to the office, and called someone.
Animal control arrived and was allowed entry. But they in turn left since it was beyond what they could handle. "What the fuck is an alligator doing in Boston? I thought they were in Florida."
It took another day for them to find someone that could capture a live alligator and take it somewhere. Some place far away meant to house alligators.
Then the complex staff had to clean up the mess. Somehow the alligator had gotten the refrigerator and freezer open and had eaten damn near everything. Then it had pooped and peed literally everywhere. That was mostly the smell that had gotten them to check in the first place.
Eventually everything in the apartment was sold since they couldn't find Will Sorenson to deliver eviction papers to him. How he managed to get an alligator into his apartment was probably never going to be explained.
_/\_
"Beckett, my office," Roy called from his doorway. He retreated to his desk and sat there waiting.
Kate showed up. "Sir?" She was a different Kate. She felt different and acted different.
"I'm told you've been putting in long hours." Without her knowledge Roy had been observing her.
"Yes, sir. Is that a problem, sir?" Kate was wrapping her life around her job. She didn't go out to eat anymore. Not even with Lanie. The only time she saw Lanie was over a dead body or when Lanie came up to see her.
"I need you to stop. I won't allow you to burn yourself out too fast. This job is hard enough without you making it harder on yourself." Roy didn't want to make it an order.
"I'm fine, sir. I need to keep myself busy." Kate didn't need time off. She needed to keep her mind busy and concentrate.
"I haven't seen Sorenson lately," Roy mentioned.
"No, sir. We broke up. He won't be back. He moved to Boston," Kate revealed.
"I see." That helped Roy to understand why she was working herself so hard. She'd broken up with her boyfriend and was burying herself in her work to get over it.
"I expect you to go home on schedule beginning today. Don't make me make it an order, Beckett," Roy half-ordered her and warned her.
"Yes, sir." That wasn't what Kate needed but she needed this job worse. She had no leads as to who killed her mother. She was also still a junior detective and was mostly doing what she was told to do instead of doing what she wanted to do.
"Is there anything else, sir?" She would go home early as ordered but she didn't like it.
"That's all, Beckett. It's for your own good. You're good, but you could be great. Unless you burn yourself out and end up quitting or get fired. So go home on schedule and come back fresh the next day."
"Yes, sir." Kate left and went back to her desk.
_/\_
Kate was sitting at home barely eating what she had brought home with her. It was just pizza from the pizzeria on the corner close to their building. It was even Hawaiian pizza, the kind that she liked. But she was fuming over earlier.
Then there was a fast knock and she heard a key in her lock. Lanie was the only person that had a key. She had one for Lanie's place too. Kate turned and watched Lanie enter and close and lock the door.
"Wow, you look pissed. You have pizza? Wait I'll get a beer." Lanie was pretty sure there would be a beer in her refrigerator left over from the last time they'd hung out and then snagged a paper plate and sat down across from Kate.
"All right, give. What's with the dark clouds?" Lanie couldn't fix it if she didn't know what it was.
Kate sighed and debated whether to tell her. She knew if she didn't Lanie would never give up asking. "Captain Montgomery wants me to go home at a reasonable hour instead of staying late like I do."
Lanie raised an eyebrow. "Sounds reasonable to me. Eat something, get some real sleep. So what's wrong with that?" It sounded perfect to her.
"I'm a woman!" Kate stated it like that should answer everything. "I'm in a man's world doing a man's job. So I can't be just better than a man. I have to make him look bad by my being so good. To do that means I need to work a lot. Now I'm expected to go home early," Kate explained. Of course that wasn't the only reason. But she couldn't talk about that. Not to Lanie.
"All right let's talk about the real reason." Lanie wasn't buying it. "Does this have something to do with Mr. FBI asshole?" Lanie was pretty sure it did.
"No… Well, maybe." How was she expected to talk about something she couldn't talk about. "It hurt, Lanie. He used me." It felt like being used to her. He told her he loved her. Had sex with her. Then he just up and expected her to follow him to Boston for no good reason.
She was even more worried about what she'd done. If it had worked. For all she knew the potion got cold because it took too long to reach him. That or he didn't drink it at all. If she had really wanted to be mean she could have found him and forced it down his throat. So there was a chance nothing had happened.
Her grandmother had warned her about going down that road. But Will had really pissed her off. She felt used. AGAIN!
"So you got thrown from the horse. You know what they say, don't you? You need to get right back on again," Lanie insisted and she knew just the guy to do it with.
"NO. THANKS. I'm done with men for a while. Between Vice and Will I've had enough for now." She had plans to keep all men out. To build up enough walls to keep them out. Harden herself to ignore them completely.
"Not a good plan, Kate." Lanie hated her idea. It sounded lonely to her and she didn't want her best friend to be that kind of lonely. She would end up a 60-year-old lady sitting on a rocker on her front porch as she watched the world go by. The world she had given up on 40 or so years earlier. Lonely and empty.
Lanie saw the look she was getting. "Right, perfect plan. Give up on love. Give up on sex. Give up on life. Just work yourself to death. Hell of a plan. I like it!" Actually she hated it and hoped Kate could hear it in the tone of her voice.
"You make it sound like I'm trying to kill myself. I'm just trying to keep from being hurt again. I've had enough of that kind of life," Kate argued heatedly.
"Like I said, perfect plan. Work your ass off, come home with take-out day after day. Drink yourself to sleep if you can sleep at all. Beautiful place to live in that's the envy of every woman in the city and you sit here all alone. Perfect plan." Lanie was ready to slap some sense into her.
"Right up to the point where I slap you silly. I'll move you to my place and I can live here. At least one of us will get laid and enjoy the scenery." Lanie gave her the evil eye and watched her wither a bit and eat a piece of pizza.
At least Lanie got her to eat something. She was too skinny. Men liked their woman with at least some curves. She kept this up and her tits were going to shrivel up into prunes.