Seven:

The meeting with the mayor and commissioner went far better than what Roy anticipated. Weldon confirmed that Castle had called a few hours earlier and asked that Roy not be punished for being loyal to his direct reports and that he would have probably left anyway to devote his attention to his 'real' job. Everyone knew that was a lie, especially Roy.

They agreed to the punishment for the ones he identified, but rejected his retirement request, saying that his services would be better put to use taking over another precinct. The two two was a shithole and everyone knew it, filled with the lowest performers and malcontents. It was the precinct they sent you to when they wanted you to go away. The current Captain was leaving at the end of the month and the original plan was to promote Victoria Gates, a fifteen year veteran of Internal Affairs to take his place. With the mess at the twelfth, the commissioner thought that a by the book person like Gates had a better chance at bringing order there than the two two.

Roy considers the offer. If he could stick it out one more year, his monthly retirement benefit would rise to the next tier, a significant increase. Also, the fact that both of his daughters were in high school and would hate to leave the city, made the decision easier.

Reluctantly, he agrees and signs the necessary paperwork. In a few days, the twelfth would be his no more.

X-X-X-X

Rick drops Jennifer off in front of the precinct two hours after picking her up. The two exchange a relatively chaste kiss as she exits his car. A part of her was disappointed as all they did was have lunch together in spite of his assurances that things would be different after dinner tonight.

Tonight. She had talked him into dinner and was looking forward to it. It was as if she couldn't get enough of him and somehow managed to suppress her fears that things were moving too fast. Jennifer knew that Rick still had feelings for 'her', but felt confident that she was the one to make those feelings fade into a distant memory.

Or at least she hoped so.

Castle was mentally chastising himself for not explaining things to Jennifer during lunch and agreeing to meet her for dinner and 'whatever', as she hinted. He had agreed to fly out to LA the following morning to help the screenwriters with the Nikki Heat script and would be away for at least the next week. While he saw the time away from the city as a good thing, he was sure that Jennifer wouldn't feel the same way.

He liked her, he really did, but until he could resolve the feelings he still had for Kate, he couldn't move on. It was stupid and foolish to think that Beckett felt anything but indifference towards him, but he couldn't help what he felt.

No, some time away was exactly what he needed.

X-X-X-X

Kate returned to the twelfth on Thursday morning nearly an hour before her shift began. She had been going stir crazy alone in her apartment the last two days serving out her suspension. Repeated attempts to contact Rick were met with the same result, voicemail. She considered leaving a message, but still had no idea what she could say that would fix the mess she had made.

In spite of the early hour, there was an uncomfortable silence that seemed to be in the air as she greeted the others on the floor. Kate assumed that by now everyone there knew about her suspension and probably didn't know what to say to her. Taking a seat at her desk, she opens the drawer, first extracting her coffee mug and putting her purse in its place. Glancing at the ratty chair beside her desk, she sighs, knowing that the man that occupied it daily up until a month ago, would never use it again.

Mug in hand, she heads for the break room and hopes that someone is in there that can help her operate the stainless steel contraption that he had purchased so everyone could have a decent cup of coffee. Walking past Montgomery's office, she sees that the lights are on, but the door is shut and all of the blinds closed. At first, she simply assumes that he must have came in early for meetings with the Night shift personnel and continued into the break room. Unfortunately, it was empty and she began what to her was the arduous process of making a cup of coffee.

Pleased with her success, Kate returns to her desk, mug in hand, when the door to Montgomery's office opens and he appears. "Beckett, my office, now."

A feeling of dread seemed to envelop her by the resigned tone of his voice and she simply nods her head in response. Dropping her mug off at her desk, she returns to his office and knocks on the door. Roy tells her to enter and she opens the door, stepping inside.

Sitting in one of the chairs facing his desk is a woman she has never seen before and cannot imagine why she was here. Her Captain tells her to close the door behind her and take a seat, which she does. As soon as she was in her chair, Roy begins. "Detective Beckett, I'd like to introduce you to Captain Victoria Gates. Captain Gates has spent the last fifteen years in Internal Affairs and will be taking over for me here at the Twelfth effective Monday..."

To say that Kate was stunned by what Montgomery revealed would be an understatement. Not only was she losing her one ally, his replacement was from IA no less. Gates gives him a nod and he continues. "I'll be taking over the two two then as well. Captain Gates and I have discussed recent events here and will decide what changes are necessary."

"I have reviewed your Captain's report of the events that led to the transfer of Detective Karpowski, and the resignation of Mr Castle... in both cases, your actions played a significant role. It also appears that the other members of your team chose to either ignore what was happening, or participate as well. Your Captain's original recommendation was to extend your suspension for another seven days..."

Kate can't help but gasp at the thought of another week of being suspended. She knew that she had behaved badly, but the punishment seemed to be extremely harsh. "Don't worry detective, I've decided that there are more appropriate ways of dealing with this type of behavior. Take the next two days off and be ready for some changes when you return to work Monday." Gates calmly remarks.

"And before you start to blame Castle for any of this, you need to know that if it wasn't for his call to the mayor claiming that his resignation had nothing to do with what you, Demming, or your team did to him. He claimed that he had simply finished his research and was returning to his real job." Montgomery warns, sure that she will blame him for the mess she had made.

"Take the next two days and think about your career with the NYPD detective. Dismissed." Gates remarks, signaling that this conversation is over. Kate rises to her feet and leaves the office without a word.

X-X-X-X

Rick groaned again and cursed Paula for talking him into this disaster. It sounded like a good idea when his agent approached him about 'assisting' the development of the script for the Nikki Heat movie. He would make sure that the movie stayed true to his novel. Or at least that was the plan.

It seemed as if every idea he proposed was rejected by the producer as 'too expensive to shoot', or director as being 'not part of his vision'. He soon began to see that they wanted to focus the story more upon the relationship between Rook and Heat than the crime to be solved.

It soon became apparent that his presence and the screenwriter credit they gave him was nothing more than PR to keep up interest in the movie. His thoughts drifted back to New York and Jennifer. She had tried to paint a brave face when he told her about his trip to LA, but he could see how upset she really was. He didn't want to hurt her, but this all felt as if things were happening too fast. Some time away to clear his head was necessary to prevent him from compounding the mistake he had made with Beckett by rushing into something with Collins. Jennifer appeared to be exactly what he wanted, but after misjudging Kate as badly as he did, he wasn't sure what to believe anymore.

After all, he had thought that she was extraordinary.

X-X-X-X

Kate arrived at the precinct Monday morning having no idea what to expect. She had spent the entire weekend trying to anticipate what changes she would face as part of Montgomery's departure. Calls to Ryan and Espo shed little light on what the new Captain was like and both were reluctant to offer anything more than direct answers to her questions. A call to Lanie confirmed that the two had been punished for their roles in this mess.

Mess. No, disaster was more apt. How things had spiraled out of control to this level was beyond her alone, yet she was sure that her punishment had not begun. Sure, she had been deliberately harsh to Rick and yes, she had decided to ignore regs with her very public displays of affection with Tom, but she wasn't the only guilty party here.

Unfortunately for her, Captain Victoria 'Iron' Gates didn't see it that way.

The meeting was brief. Gates informed her that given her actions over the past month, she would no longer be lead detective and assigned to a new team led by John Marcum, a transfer from Internal Affairs. Ryan and Espo would be reassigned to other new teams that Gates was creating from existing personnel.

Gates did however, offer her a chance at getting her own team again based upon her behavior over the next six months. People at 1PP were closely monitoring everything at the twelfth and any decline in case closure rates would be met with a swift response.

Kate sat there silently as Gates left her office wondering if things could become any worse and even considered resignation for a brief moment. Her Captain returns a minute or so later with the man that she would soon learn to despise.

"Detective Beckett, I'd like to introduce you to John Marcum, your new lead. Detective Marcum is a twenty year veteran of IA where he was lead investigator."

Marcum gives Kate an appraising look, extends his hand and remarks. "So at last we meet. I've heard a great deal about you... I hope it wasn't all true."

One look at the man that she would report to made her seriously reconsider the thought of quitting. Overweight and balding, the disdain in his voice as he spoke to her told her everything she needed to know. She listens as he explains that although this was his first assignment away from Internal Affairs, he had a clear vision of how he expected his team to perform. The rules and regulations were there to protect everyone and he would not tolerate any deviation regardless of circumstances.

The meeting ends with a reminder from Gates that the days of double standards were over and that she would be treated exactly the same as anyone else that reported to her. Kate exits the office and returns to what used to be her desk, only to find Marcum sitting there.

He looks up and remarks. "I hope you don't mind, but I had your things moved to the desk beside your new teammate..." He gives her a smug look and points back into the bullpen where Ryan and Espo used to sit.

Wanting nothing more than to slap the smug grin from his face, she bites her tongue and walks back to what would be her new home for at least the next six months. If she lasted that long. Kate knew her new lead's type. He assumed that every cop was dirty until he decided that they weren't. By the way he spoke to her, he saw her as just another dirty cop. She was so screwed.

Sitting on her new desk was a box, haphazardly packed with everything that had been in her other one. Taking a seat in the badly worn chair, she begins the process of trying to put away her belongings. It was as she pulled out her lone memento of her mother that she sees it. Carefully extracting it from the box, she sees the circumferential crack near the middle of her cherished elephant family figurine. It was obvious that someone had either dropped it, or had deliberately damaged it while putting it into the box.

A close examination of the damaged memento revealed evidence of a similar break, carefully repaired, probably years earlier. Tilting it up to examine the break, she hears something move inside. Kate nearly ignores it, but can tell that whatever it was, it was too large to be a part of the figurine. Curiosity winning out, she twists the piece, separating the sculpture into two parts as a micro cassette tape falls out onto the desk.

After gently placing the two parts of the figurine on her desk, she picks up the tape to examine it. There were no markings and the label was blank which only seemed to fuel her curiosity. 'Why was there a tape inside her mother's prized figurine?' Kate wondered as she made her way to the storage closet, hoping that they still had one of the old micro cassette recorders there. After digging through several boxes of long obsolete items, she found what she was searching for.

There was only one problem. The batteries had been removed years ago and none could be found. Rather than ask anyone, Kate decides to wait until lunch. Judging by the reaction of her coworkers to her presence there, she doubted if they would help anyway.

She would swing by the nearby bodega and get the batteries she needed.

Kate spent the remainder of the morning putting away her belongings and reviewing a cold case file her boss had left on her desk. As lunch time approached, she signed out and quickly exited the precinct. A few minutes later, she left the bodega with the batteries she needed, her curiosity nearly consuming her by now.

Returning to the twelfth, she made her way to the women's restroom on her floor. After checking to make sure no one else was in there, she locks the door and takes a seat in the stall farthest from the door. Putting the new batteries inside, she presses play, having no idea what was on the tape.

After a minute of nothing but silence, she jogs the fast forward button, hoping to find something on the tape. Suddenly, the conversation that would forever change her life begins. She gasps, recognizing the voice of one of the two men talking as none other than Roy Montgomery. Why her mother would have a taped conversation of her former boss made absolutely no sense to her.

Although she didn't recognize the voice of the other man speaking, Kate was certain that he was the one calling the shots. The shot caller was complaining that some goody two shoes attorney was poking her nose into the Bob Arman case and needed to be discouraged or he would take matters into his own hands. She listens as the man she had trusted completely for the last decade assure the other that he would 'take care' of the problem.

Shoving her fist into her mouth to muffle the scream she was trying to suppress, Kate hears the taped conversation end. The man that she had thought of as a mentor not only knew about her mother's death, but had some role in it. To what extent he was involved, she had no idea.

But what made no sense to her was how, and why Johanna had this tape. Had Roy sent it to her as a warning? Did she know the identity of the other man in the call? A part of her wanted to confront Montgomery with the tape and force him to reveal his level of involvement in her murder. One thing was certain, she needed to get away from the precinct.

Tucking the recorder into her jacket pocket, she makes her exit from the restroom before anyone becomes suspicious of the time she had spent there. Returning to her desk, she sees the stack of cold case files haphazardly placed there along with a yellow post-it note saying, 'something to do until we have an active case'. She frowns and takes her seat in the badly worn and very uncomfortable chair that came with her crappy desk.

As badly as she wanted to make up an excuse to leave, she knew that her new boss would see it as an act of insubordination and punish her for it. No, she had to play along with whatever they demanded of her, at least until she could figure out who she could trust.

The rational part of her told her she needed an ally, someone she was sure had no ties to this. Someone that had connections to people that could be trusted.

Someone like Richard Castle.

She tried to focus her attention on the cold case file her new lead had left on her desk. Using a legal pad, she wrote down the salient issues from the various documents that she could follow up on. There really wasn't much to work with as the original team had done a pretty thorough job with the evidence they had at the time.

In reality, all she wanted to do was get through her shift and get home to try and figure out why her mother had the tape she found. A part of her wanted to do nothing more than drive to the twenty-second precinct and confront the man she had thought of as her mentor, but knew that this wasn't the time.

A sandwich from the deli a block from her apartment would serve as dinner. That, and a bottle of the red wine that Rick had given her a case of as a housewarming gift. She nibbled at the food and replayed the tape over and over again, trying to identify the man talking to her former boss. There was something familiar about it. She was sure that she had heard his voice before, but for the life of her, she didn't know from where.

Kate knew that she had to make the call.

Dialing his number, her call is sent directly to voicemail. Either he had blocked her number, or his phone was off. Either way, she had no choice but to leave a message. "Hey Castle... it's Kate... I know that I have no right to ask, but could you please give me a call?"

She ends the call and hopes that he will call back in spite of the fact that Kate wasn't sure how she would react if the tables were turned. She could only hope that if for no other reason than morbid curiosity, he would want to know why she called.

All she could do now was wait. And hope.