Charlie IV
Chapter 14
"Can we go window-shopping first? If you don't mind pushing my chair. Please? I've never been to the French Quarter and I'd love to see it. I didn't bring much money so I won't actually be doing any shopping," Kate asked since they were outside and it was nice enough outside to go for a walk.
"Sure. Looks like we're staying the night so we can stay as long as you want. I can't imagine that the hotel's full and doesn't have a room." Rick took hold of the wheelchair's handles and started pushing her. He stopped at every window they came across so she could see.
"Early dinner, maybe? Bathroom break, perhaps?" Not that he was sure how they were going to accomplish that but they could think of something.
"Dinner would be nice and I'm fine." Kate was smiling as Rick kept pushing her. It was all so interesting. All so southern. It had a charm all its own. "Maybe we could come back here for Mardi Gras."
"I'm not sure I even know when that is, but there are two things for you to think about first." Rick was ready to warn her.
"Which are?" Kate tilted her head back a moment to look up at him before going back to watching where they were going.
"One, it would be easier if you were walking again and two, for you to get beads you have to be willing to flash your tits at all the men."
"Seriously?" Kate looked back at him again.
He shrugged. "That's what I've heard. Though you could get lucky and catch one when they throw them from a float."
"Flash my tits, huh?" Kate returned to watching where they were going. It took her three stores to work up the courage to ask him. "And how many beads would I get if I flashed my tits at you?" She didn't know why she was so damn nervous. She had flashed her tits before. Hell, she wasn't even a virgin any longer and she had performed her fair share of blowjobs in her time.
"Every single one I have, without a doubt," Rick replied quickly and truthfully. He wasn't quite sure why he found Kate so attractive but he did. He thought Amanda might have been prettier and while he hadn't seen Kate's tits, he was betting Amanda's were bigger. So just what was it about Kate Beckett?
Kate's smile got wider as she went back to watching where they were going.
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"Napoleon House. What do you think? Or keep looking? I don't see a line yet and it's early." Rick spotted one and he only liked it for its name. "Or we could go back to Sylvain." They had passed it already.
"Keep going." Kate hadn't seen anything she really liked yet.
"Okay." Rick continued pushing.
"Galitorie's?" Rick pushed her past it. "How about Green Goddess? Looks like we could eat outside."
"Okay." She would eat here only if they could eat outside. It was cute. The street here was all slate tiles. And the tables were lined up against the wall and there were potted trees everywhere.
So Rick spotted a table and moved a chair out of the way. He pushed Kate up against the table and sat down next to her. It took a little while to be noticed. Since they just wanted water they soon had menus.
"It's all vegetables!" Rick was dying here.
"Yeah, isn't it great? …You don't like it." She could see it on his face. "I'm sorry." She didn't know this place was Vegan when she had said yes.
"It's fine. I see the word duck and it's only $13 so I can eat that." Rick finally saw something that didn't have vegetables in it and wasn't only vegetables.
"If you're sure." Kate went back to looking at her menu.
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"I'll have the Boudin & Duck Sausage Plate, please," Rick told their waitress.
"I'll have the Pecan Orange Mushroom Paté, please," Kate told her and their menus and their waitress were gone.
"Mushrooms, huh?" Rick was curious and willing to tease her.
"Don't tell anyone but it was the only thing on the menu that sounded good to me." She had begun to think this was a bad idea.
"I'll share my duck with you."
"You can have some of my mushrooms," Kate offered in turn.
In moments the bread for both of them showed up and Rick served Kate first. "Thanks." Kate was realizing that what she really needed were more muscles. Even her arms felt like lead weights at the moment.
"So, Mr. Castle," Kate grinned widely at him, "why writing?"
Rick needed to think about that. "A few things. First I was all alone in this bookstore. All right, not totally alone. Mother was there somewhere. I had wandered off. Then this man handed me a book and suggested that I try reading it. That one book got me interested in writing. It was weird, though. I didn't know the man but he gave me a copy of Ian Fleming's Casino Royale that was already paid for.
"And I soon learned that I have a very vivid imagination. Worse, if someone doesn't tell me something I'll dream up all kinds of possible scenarios. For example, see that man over there? The heavyset one, the one that can barely fit in his chair." Rick gave her a moment to look.
Neither of them knew just what he was eating, besides it being Vegan of course, but he was eating with gusto.
"He's actually a robot and there's this tiny little man inside of him and all that food is used to power his robot body. OR, he's a notorious assassin that no one suspects because who would suspect an assassin to weigh that much? OR, he just killed his nagging wife who did nothing but berate him constantly, so now he's hungry. He had to bury the body, of course. For him burying her dead body was hard work." Rick had a few more but Kate stopped him.
She tilted her head and studied him for a moment. "I think you think too much."
"I'm just getting started. You haven't heard anything yet." Rick had so many ideas and he was more than willing to share them with her.
"Rick." Kate put a hand on his to get him to stop. "I love you but you can stop now." Kate took her hand back and picked up her glass of water. She looked at the really fat man still eating and wondered how Rick could see so much.
"Say that again." Rick was in shock. She had said something impossible.
"What?" Kate looked at him. "Say what again?" She hadn't said anything.
"What you said, say that again." His imagination was well into overdrive now.
Kate needed to think. Rick was going farther and farther out into left field. Left field because she loved baseball more than any other sport and that included soccer. So she had said… "You can stop now?" She was pretty sure that was what she had said.
"No, no, before that. Or you can fork over one of my two kisses right now." He gave her a choice.
She did owe him two kisses and a date and since she was certain she hadn't said anything before "You can stop now," she made a choice. "You can have one of your two kisses." Kate puckered up for this kiss. She even watched him get up out of his chair and lean down and across to kiss her.
She soon learned it wasn't just a quick kiss, either. Granted he had asked for a kiss that wasn't just a quick peck on the lips. He wanted a real kiss. This was certainly not one of those kisses.
Kate was kissing him back with force. Suddenly she knew that she wanted this kiss to last. When he broke from the kiss she still had her eyes closed and found herself chasing after those lips of his.
Opening her eyes she watched as Rick sat back down again. She was thinking he could have his second kiss right now if he wanted it. She also quickly realized that her toes were curled.
She had kissed a boy before but that kiss wasn't from just some boy!
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"Here he comes." Their meals hadn't arrived yet and that fat man was up and walking their way.
Kate couldn't help but watch him as he passed them by and just kept walking.
"See how he walks? Definitely a robot."
Kate looked at Rick. "You have way too much imagination." She was learning something about him.
"So, not a robot. Could be an assassin," Rick posited.
"He didn't have a gun," Kate pointed out. And where would he hide a gun wearing that?
"Who said he kills using a gun? He kills by strangulation. Keeps the garrote in his pocket at all times. …That or it's hidden in his watch. Just pull it out and..." Rick demonstrated using his hands.
"That wasn't in your book," Kate noted.
"No, but I might put it in my next one." Rick grinned at her.
Kate's eyebrows went up. "You do that and you're going to lose readers."
"Spoil sport," he complained. Thankfully he was saved when their dinners showed up.
Kate hadn't gotten just mushrooms. She had gotten fresh veggies as well. Rick got his duck, jelly, and mustard.
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"HEY!" Rick had just stabbed one of her vegetables and was eating it with a smile on his face. So she stabbed a piece of his duck he had sliced off, ate it and smiled right back at him.
"It needs jelly." Kate stabbed another piece, ran it through the jelly, and ate that one too.
Kate watched as a fork came from nowhere seemingly, stabbed another vegetable, and watched it disappear into Rick's mouth. "Are you going to eat your dinner or mine?"
"You had two bites of mine," Rick reminded her since now he had two of hers.
"Keep your fork to yourself, mister," Kate informed him. She didn't have many vegetables to start with and now she had even less.
"Yes, dear…ma'am, honey, baby, sugar, pet, sweetheart, sweetness—"
"You better stop while you still can…Mr. Castle." She glared at him and ate the last of her vegetables before he could do it for her.
"Yes, my Schatz." Rick went back to eating.
"Schatz?" Kate didn't know that word.
"It's German for Treasure." Rick tried to hide his grin. He watched as Kate stabbed a piece of his duck, ran it through the jelly, and ate it while smiling at him.
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Rick paid for the meal and Kate left money for the tip. Now she was being pushed back toward his truck so they could go find the hotel Alan recommended. And she had a wide smile since he couldn't see her doing it given he was behind her.
Dinner had actually been fun. She didn't know how he had done that, but it had been fun. "You still owe me a date. That was not a date," Kate insisted.
"I owe you?" Rick thought the deal was she owed him a date. Meaning she paid. "Well YOU still owe me a kiss."
Kate smiled a little wider as he pushed. She owed him a kiss, all right, and he was going to get one too. The very best she could come up with. When she was ready.
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"Turn left." Then Kate suddenly turned the map they had gotten from the bookstore. "No, right!" She turned the map again. "…Pretty sure it's left."
Rick groaned and turned left since he had already committed himself to a left turn.
"La Quinta." Kate pointed at it since she saw the sign. "It was left." She grinned at him.
Kate suffered the indignity of being lifted out of the truck and into her wheelchair that only had one positive point to it: Rick had to push her everywhere they went.
Rick wasn't sure they needed a handicap room but they got one anyway which turned out to be on the first floor so that was easy. Just push her to the door, use the card, and push her inside.
"Do you want out of your chair and on the bed?" Rick was betting it would be more comfortable for her.
"I need to use the toilet first." Kate wasn't sure just how they were going to manage that. She was wearing pants and didn't have the strength to move from her chair to the toilet and back again.
"Right." Rick pushed her into the bathroom and sure enough it was a handicap bathroom. "Can you stand?"
"I'm sorry but I can't. You're going to have to lift me up." She took a deep breath. "And undo my pants and pull them down for me."
"KATE!" Suddenly her coming with him wasn't such good idea.
"Just close your eyes, pick me up, and pull my pants down."
"Close my eyes." This so wasn't going to work. How was he going to know what he was doing if he couldn't see what he was doing?
He lifted Kate to a standing position with his eyes open and while holding her in place with one hand, he began working on her pants with his other hand.
"Now comes the hard part. Is the seat down or would you like to sit IN the toilet?" Rick teased her since this just called for a joke, except he couldn't think of one.
"RICK!" Of course she needed the seat to be down.
"Hold still." He had a hand on her pants, one holding her up, and now he was reaching with his foot to pull the seat down. BANG! The seat went down.
"Close your eyes." Kate looked down at what he was doing. "RICK!" His eyes were open.
"They're closed, they're closed." Rick tipped his head up at her to prove it. Now he was using one hand to pull her pants down till they reached her knees.
"Now my panties, please." She didn't want to pee into her panties.
"RICK!"One of his fingers had gone too far.
"Sorry! You try doing this blindfolded next time." Rick was grateful to find that getting her panties down was easier than her pants. A simple twist and he was easing her down onto the toilet seat.
Rick knew where his finger had gone but all he really felt was the fabric of her panties and not much else. But it was also the closest he'd been to a woman in a while. Amanda had been his last.
"Turn around. TURN. AROUND!" Kate had thought about asking him to leave but she was going to need him to come back in to help her again so he might as well stay.
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Kate was in bed with every pillow both beds had. They were tucked behind her, propping her up. "Well that was fun," Rick joked.
"Speak for yourself." She hadn't been that embarrassed for a very long time.
Rick picked up the phone and called home. "Here, talk to your mom. I'm going to go get some ice and see what they have in the vending machine. Diet something, I suppose?"
She nodded."Yes, please." Kate listened to it ring. "Hi, Mom." She heard the door snick shut.
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"Gatorade, fruit punch flavor. It was all they had. No diet anything." Rick put hers where she could reach it.
"Thanks." Kate picked it up and twisted the top to get it to come off.
"So does your dad own a gun?" Rick asked her and sat down in a chair after picking up the remote to the TV.
"What?" She wasn't keeping up. "A gun? …OH! Um, no." Kate chuckled. "Pretty sure my parents like you so he's not going to shoot you even if he had one." He was cute. "Anyway, Mom thinks our staying the night was a good idea and is better than falling asleep on the way home and killing us. She promises to feed Charlie and take him outside."
"What did you tell her about the bookstore?"
"About you being Castle the author? I didn't tell her, Rick. Your secret is still safe with me. So how many of these book signings do you have to do?"
"Three for this book. My contract doesn't specify where I sign them, just that I have to do three of them. I suppose the next one could be back in LA or even New York City for all I know." Rick counted himself lucky that they had agreed to New Orleans for this one.
"Could be worse." Kate shrugged. "You could live in Hawaii or Alaska. Hawaii to New York City would be a killer."
"True, but just think of being able to afford to live in Hawaii. Live on the beach. Learn to surf. Buy a boat and go fishing. Everyone we know will want to come stay for a visit." Rick was dreaming about a possible future.
"I'm never going to make that much money. I'm not even going to be a lawyer now." Kate put her bottle of Gatorade in her lap and began to feel sorry for herself.
"Don't say that." Rick didn't even want her to think that.
"It's the truth. I've missed 3 months already and I can't even walk yet. I'm going to miss the entire semester. Maybe the entire year." Kate was beginning to depress herself even further.
"It doesn't mean you can't. It just means you're behind schedule. So it takes you 5 years instead of 4. So what?" Rick didn't see the problem. "Had you even started college?"
"No, this was supposed to be my first semester. I don't even know if I can even get back into Stanford to start classes now." Kate was depressed and spiraling even deeper.
Suddenly she found herself being kissed, really kissed. What she felt had her kissing him back. She even reached up to cup his cheek in her hand. Then he broke from the kiss.
"What was that for?" Kate knew she owed him a kiss but she wanted to be the one to initiate it.
"You were making me depressed so cut it out." Rick retreated to his chair again.
"Sorry." He probably was right but it didn't feel like it.
"And you still owe me a kiss and a date so don't get any ideas about reneging on our deal." Rick arched his eyebrow and stared at her.
Kate hid her smile behind her Gatorade bottle.