CONQUERED
Chapter 7
Kate opened her eyes and was confused at first. She had gone to bed after Rick had gotten into bed. She had stayed in the bathroom connected to the bedroom next to them. That one was Martha's bedroom. Dean, Laura, and Alexis, and Michael shared the other bathroom.
She had found Rick in bed and got into bed on what was going to be her side, it seemed. Since Rick didn't say anything, neither did she. She was guessing that she must have just fallen asleep.
Then where was she now? One side of her was kind of warm and the other, while not cold, was cooler. Blinking let her focus, and all she saw was skin. Hm…she had gone to bed dressed in a nightshirt and panties. Rick, she noticed, had gone to bed wearing just shorts. It had to be his skin.
Now she was feeling something else. Rick had an arm around her holding her in place; she tilted her head up to see if he was awake. "Morning. Am I on your side, or are you on mine?"
Rick smiled. "You're on mine."
"Sorry about that." But Kate didn't try to retreat to her side, and Rick didn't let go of her. She didn't try to escape. Instead, Kate snuggled even closer. She parted his legs with one of hers, and she got as close to him as possible.
"Rick, do you even still like me?" He hadn't said he still loved her.
"What you did hurt, Kate. It hurt more than even I have words for. And while I may better understand why you did it, that doesn't remove the hurt."
That didn't answer her question, either. She had her work cut out for her.
"I'll say I'm sorry again and again till you believe me. I'm also going to tell you that I love you till you believe that, too," Kate promised. Then she asked a question since Rick wasn't willing to talk about them. If there was a them at this point. "Is Victoria just as empty as New York City?"
"Save for all those trips between the airport and the Marina where the boat was, I don't really know. We did see people and cars moving at that time. It might be dead now, though." And then he was the one to change topics. "So you don't know anything about your dad?"
"No." Kate buried her face against his body. "I moved out of my apartment because I ran out of food and moved in with Dad. Then one day, he didn't come home. I tried looking for him, but I never found any sign of him. The same for Lanie and Javi and others from the precinct."
"Oh, Kate." He hugged her to him a little tighter. "Yeah, these aliens aren't the little gray guys with big black eyes who are here to help us. It's possible he picked up something and didn't think of it as stealing."
"I thought about that. It could be that, or he didn't leave enough money behind to pay for it. How do they know anyway? I mean, I haven't seen one single alien save for that first message when they arrived." Kate tipped her head to look up at him.
"Know what everyone on the entire planet is doing? Know what everything costs so that even if you pay for it and leave money behind, how do they know? No death rays from space. So far as I can tell, no nothing. You just vanish, and yes, we've seen it happen." Rick didn't know how, either.
"It's eerie. One second someone exists, and the next, they're gone. All that's left behind are clothes and whatever was on them, like what they had just stolen. Not even a flash or anything, just gone." Kate went back to pressing her face into his body. "They're going to kill us all, aren't they?"
"We had a group talk about that once. The best we could come up with was they want all the passive people to live. Everyone else, anyone who even thinks about a hostile action of any kind, is killed. We have no idea what they have planned for whoever is left."
Kate sighed. "It's going to get worse, isn't it? No food deliveries, no gasoline deliveries, no construction materials, save for what wasn't looted."
"I know the survivalists love this if they're even still alive. Most of them have weapons and are only too willing to kill to keep what they've got. Then there are the US Senators sitting in their bunker, hidden away from everyone and planning what to do once they emerge from their holes. Not to mention those few super-rich that made it to their silo bunkers."
"The President of the United States is in his bunker under the White House. Did any of them do anything to try and help us, or did they just save their own skins?" Kate asked, but before Rick could say anything, she continued on.
"Did you know when they killed everyone in those prisons like they said, they literally did kill everyone? Gates found that out talking to 1PP and the mayor. Prisoners, guards, visitors. Everyone. If you were even on prison or jail grounds, you vanished."
"Good grief! If they can be so precise that they know if you have stolen anything at all, you would think they would know the difference between a prisoner and a guard." Rick shook his head. "Or maybe that was the point."
"Some point." Frustration was evident in Kate's voice. "Do we know what's going on outside of here?"
"No. My satellite dish is all the contact we have. But my service provider shut down, and so the dish is useless. I don't even have an old-fashioned TV antenna and didn't even think of a ham radio. That isn't what I built this place for, Kate. This was supposed to be the place where I was going to retire. Boat into Victoria when I needed to or just wanted to."
"But you have a house in the Hamptons. Couldn't you retire there?" Kate couldn't see why here.
"It gets too cold there during winter. Believe it or not, for as far north as Victoria is it isn't going to get all that cold. Snow is very unlikely here. It's why the Gardens in Victoria do so well."
"Butchart Gardens. I've never seen them, but I heard they're amazing. Perhaps someday we could go there." Kate shifted little. "I um… I have to get up. I need to go to the bathroom." She didn't want to, but she needed to extract herself from Rick.
When she was done and returned to the bedroom, Rick was gone. His shorts were on the bed, but he was missing. "Fine." Kate turned around and went in the bathroom to shower. She didn't know how this place made water or how much hot water it could generate, so she made her shower a quick one.
Dressed, she left the bedroom and went to the kitchen first but didn't find anyone. Even the coffeemaker wasn't working yet. "Chores." Kate would kick herself if she could for being so stupid.
Sure enough, she found people busy doing things. Laura was in one of the greenhouses, Rick was milking a goat, and Kate watched as Alexis and Michael were just now sailing out of view, probably to go fishing.
"Hi, Martha." She was standing in the very middle of a good-size, open, concrete space.
"Good morning, Katherine." Martha smiled and put an arm around Kate when she was close enough. "How did you sleep?"
"Pretty well." Kate knew she hadn't woken up in the middle of the night.
"It's this place. Do you hear anything?" Martha gave her a minute to listen. "What do you feel? Can you feel that? You need sea legs to live here."
"There's a very slight sway. Is that because we're floating?" Kate was beginning to feel it now.
"It rocks your bed just a tiny bit all night long. It's never enough to make you seasick, but if you pay attention, you can feel it. It never stops," Martha mentioned. "How are you and Richard getting along?" Yes, she had heard what Kate had said. It helped but hadn't explained it all.
"Still pretty cool. I don't blame Rick. I wouldn't trust me, either."
"You hurt him, Katherine. That lie was cruel. Even I didn't want to believe it of you, but you did it. I thought your parents had taught you better."
"I didn't mean for it to work out like that. I trapped myself and couldn't see a way out. I knew I needed help which was why I was seeing Dr. Burke. He was trying to help me. And then this happened," Kate said. "Victoria, British Columbia. I didn't see that coming."
"Richard shocked us both with his decision. He sold the house in the Hamptons and disappeared for days on end to talk to his architect and contractor."
"He sold that house? He didn't tell me that. I thought he liked it." Was she the reason behind all of this? Was everything her fault?
"Something about money. Richard has money, but I guess even he has limits. He's still writing, at least. I'm not sure who's going to read it, but he is still writing," Martha confirmed.
"That's good. Rick should always write something. It's who he is."
"You call him Rick now," Martha had noticed. "It used to always be Castle."
"Alexis called me on it when she… She wasn't happy with me. If I want to change, I needed to start somewhere. I always have to watch myself to keep from calling him Castle. I'm hoping someday Rick will come out naturally like Castle used to.
"I am trying, Martha. I know I'm going to have to fight to get Rick to love me again. He followed me for years. The least I can do is follow him for a change. I love him. I want him to love me, too." Kate wasn't used to exposing her soul this much to others, even if it was Martha.
"Give Richard some time, my dear," Martha advised her. "He's hurt and needs to work it out in his own way. You do have one advantage. There are no challengers for his love way out here."
Kate had to admit that was an advantage. She would fight for him if she had to, though.
O~O~O
Kate stepped onto Rick's 25-foot boat. "What are we doing again?"
"We're going into Victoria to have a look. Just remember, no hostile actions unless you have a death wish," Rick reminded her again.
Since Rick still hadn't made love to her after the past two weeks, she was almost ready to kill either him or herself. She had chosen not to push him, not to force herself on him. Kate wanted him to come to her. But waiting for that was testing the limits of what she could endure.
"So what's in the bag?" Rick had this little weeknight bag with him. It didn't look like it was full, but she couldn't think of a reason for it.
"That's our cash. You got here buying with cash, so if we see something we can't live without, we'll have the cash for it."
"Is there something specific we're looking for?" Kate sat in her seat and watched Rick fire up the boat, back out, and move away from their home.
"Truth be told? Feed for the goats and chickens. Like I said before, I didn't build this place with what happened in mind. I only have just so much. I'm not running out, but I'll take anything we can find."
"Got it. How about medical supplies?" She hadn't seen too much of that.
"That, too. Just use the calculator on your phone to add up the costs." Rick increased power once he had left the bay and was far enough out so he wouldn't accidentally hit floating debris.
O~O~O
"This is my marina space; I paid for it till the end of the year, so we're not stealing anything," Rick explained as he was tying them into place, and Kate walked onto the dock.
"Port Sidney Marina. So we're not in Victoria?" Kate queried as she saw the sign.
"Technically, no. Think of it as a suburb," Rick replied as he walked to the gate that closed off this part of the dock.
"So where's the airport where you landed? Laura said you did a lot of walking." Kate was curious.
"That way," he indicated. "About 10 minutes by car, closer to 45 minutes one way if you walk it while loaded down with what you carried on the plane. We left Mother alone at the boat, not that she wanted to, but I was worried about her walking that much."
"She was probably scared, Rick, but you're right. She didn't need to be walking that much." Kate didn't know just how active Martha actually was, but worried for her nonetheless.
"Grab a cart. Not to worry, we're not stealing the stupid things." Rick took one out.
Kate read what was on her grocery cart. "Fairway Market."
"I learned on my trips here that you can go shopping there and push your cart back here. Then someone comes to pick them up and take them back, so we're doing them a service if we go there. Otherwise, we come back here and leave them where we found them. Not stealing."
"Let's hope so." She didn't know how aliens thought or what they believed was stealing. "So where are we going first?"
Kate watched Rick pull something out of his bag. "We need to see if we can get here somehow." He showed it to her.
"That's miles from here, Rick." It was going to take hours to walk it one way.
Now she saw him take something else out of his bag. "Are those what I think they are?" He was dangling car keys from his fingers.
"I bought a truck while I was out here. Remember, I was planning to live here, so I wanted a way to get around. It should still be in the lot. Hopefully, no one stole it."
"I love you." Kate gave him a quick kiss. "Lead on, Rick."
His truck turned out to be kind of small, but it did have a bed where the grocery carts went. "Map." Rick handed one to her. "We want Buckerfield's."
"South on 17, then. I'll tell you when to get off."
"Keating Cross Road, please," Kate told him. "Just past Oldfield Road. I never encountered this many abandoned cars on my trip out here. Things must have gotten busy. Where is everyone?" So far, they hadn't seen a single soul.
Rick shrugged. "Gone, in hiding. You said Manhattan was a ghost town. This area may be the same."
O~O~O
"It doesn't look like they looted this store much," Kate commented after they entered.
"Good. Maybe they'll have what we want. Search for chicken feed." Rick went one way, so Kate went another.
"I've got alfalfa. Do we need that?" Kate called out.
"That's goat food. Fill your cart with it. And keep track of how many and the price."
"I've done this before, Rick. I know what I'm doing," Kate snapped, feeling insulted. Then she realized what she said and how she said it. "I'm sorry." She entered the price on her phone, filled her cart, and came up with a total. Now she needed the sales tax.
"Looks like you found the chicken feed." His cart was as full as hers. "I just need the sales tax."
"It's twelve percent."
"Wow, that's worse than I thought. Good thing I left extra each time, or I'd already be dead." Kate was a little shocked and would be scared later. She showed Rick her total, watched him look at his, add the two, and leave behind Canadian cash.
"Did you use US cash?" Rick watched her nod. "One Canadian dollar is, last I knew, 0.79 of US, so you had nothing to worry about."
"Really?" She was relieved to know that. Leave it to Rick to be aware of what the exchange rate was.
With their purchases in the bed of the truck along with their carts since they couldn't leave them behind for fear of it looking like stealing, Rick began to drive back while Kate was the navigator.
"People!" Kate said, but Rick kept driving. "We're not stopping? They might know something we don't."
"When I'm ready to risk finding people, I'll let you know. For now, we avoid them. I want to know what the aliens have planned first. Their 30 days are over, so what comes next?" Rick continued to drive.
Kate was willing to admit he had a point. So she watched where they were going.
Soon they were parked and carting their purchases down to the boat. "What's next?"
"Starbucks."
"YES! Now I'm positive I love you." Kate kissed him and felt him kiss her back. "They better have a lot."
Rick drove while Kate told him where to turn, and they took their grocery carts with them again. "Starbucks!" He parked as close to the front door as he could.
"A little looted." Kate could see the mess they had made. Thankfully it still had bags of coffee, and she wasn't picky. Coffee was coffee as long as it wasn't decaf.
Kate used her phone again and kicked herself for not thinking of it on her drive out here. She showed Rick her total after adding sales tax.
"Are you sure you bought enough?" Rick teased her since she had pretty much filled her cart, and he believed she had cleaned the place out.
"No, I even ran out of coffee bags. Someone looted this place before me." Kate smiled at him and watched him put the Canadian cash on the counter.
"Thanks, babe, I love you." Kate gave him a quick kiss. He kissed her back but didn't say anything. She was a little concerned that he wasn't saying that he loved her too, but she was willing to fight for his love, so she would wait.
"Home, or is there something else? Do we need cash? Find an ATM while there's still power, maybe?"
"Good plan! Beautiful and smart," Rick complimented her. "I think there's one in the Marina's rental office.
Rick managed to get five thousand out of the ATM. Kate gave it a try, got one thousand, and handed it all to Rick to put in his bag.
"At least we won't get mugged," Kate said.
"Not unless they have a death wish," Rick added.
Rick had to use his security pass to reach the boat again since they'd already unloaded the truck. Now their boat was almost full, and it reeked from all the feed.
"Not so fast, babe, you'll get all the feed wet." Kate was looking behind them, and Rick was going a little fast. That got him to slow way down. It was just going to take them longer to go home.
Once home, they had four people willing to help them unload the boat.
"Did you leave anything behind, Dad?" Alexis was tired of carrying feed bags.
"We bought all they had." Rick got a wicked look in his eye. "You can blame Kate for all the coffee," he teased.
"I happen to like coffee, so shoot me," Kate told him.
"Finally, I get to shoot her. You heard it here first." Rick watched her stick her tongue out at him as she carried some of her coffee to the kitchen.
"Just for that, I'm upping my coffee intake to two cups a day," Kate informed them.