Charlie IV

Chapter 17

"Ready for our date?" Rick caught Kate out in the living room after being put in her chair. She was sitting there watching a movie on TV. For a change she wasn't petting Charlie because Rick had him in his bedroom till now and Charlie headed right for her.

"Yes." Kate used the remote to turn off the TV and put the remote on the table instead of her lap. "Where are we going?"

"That's a surprise."

Kate raised her eyebrows. "I thought we established that I hate surprises."

Rick groaned. She was proving to be a pain for all of his fun. "I'll give you a clue but that's all you'll get. We're having BBQ."

"BBQ. I like BBQ. So push me and let's go." She would see the name of the place when they got there.

"Any idea where your parents are?" Rick asked since their Explorer wasn't out front next to his truck.

"Shopping. They need computers, a printer, fax machine, paper, ink, router, and other things for their business. What they plan to get this time I have no idea."

"So they don't know we're leaving?" He was wondering if he should leave a note. After all this left Charlie all alone in the house.

"Yeah, it's a secret." Kate may hate surprises but she didn't hate secrets. She had a few of her own that no one might never learn.

"All right." Rick closed the door and put her wheelchair in the bed of his truck. He hopped in, started it up, and backed out of the driveway.

[:] o-0-O-0-o [:]

"Hog Heaven BBQ." It didn't look like the greatest of places but she wasn't really expecting it to be. She did what she could to help Rick get her out of the truck and into her wheelchair and let him push her inside.

The floor was plain concrete. The tables were just wood with simple wood chairs, a lot like the chairs outside at their table on the porch that they hadn't used yet because it was too cold outside.

There were even benches that made it look like a picnic table. One wall was full of things fastened to the wall. A Jeep, a black motorcycle, stop sign, a red pickup truck, even a pig.

Rick pushed her to the order desk and up behind them was the menu and they actually had choices, good ones, too.

"Welcome, what can I get you?" the man behind the counter asked them.

"Go ahead, Rick, I need to think."

"I'll take the rib plate with...let's see. How about French fries and baked beans," Rick told him. Then the man yelled something for someone else to get what he had ordered. "Miss?"

"Um, the large pork sandwich with fries and baked beans, please." Kate listened to him yell something else that didn't sound anything like what she had just ordered.

Rick paid and they were given a number to put on their table. "Just pick a table. Extra BBQ sauce is right over there along with silverware that you'll need along with salt, pepper, and ketchup if you choose to ruin what you just ordered." He tried to make a joke.

"Ketchup at a BBQ place. RIGHT!" Rick couldn't think of anyone stupid that would do that.

"French fries," the man offered.

"No way!" If Rick was going to dunk his fries in anything it wasn't going to be ketchup.

Rick chose a table and moved a chair out of the way for Kate. He pushed her as close as her chair would allow, sat across from her, and put their number on the table.

"So how did you know to come here?"

"I'm just good." Rick saw at her skeptical face. He caved in and told her. "I called Emily and asked her what was popular. It was either this or a place called Pearl that makes her world famous fried chicken."

She smiled. "If it tastes as good as I hope, this was a good choice. Now we just need to find a Chinese place in town."

"If anyone would know it's Emily." Then Rick offered to call her again to find out.

[:] o-0-O-0-o [:]

"I hope you're hungry." Rick watched their food being delivered. Kate had a normal sandwich bun for a burger but what was in that bun was pulled pork and lots and lots of it. It was even falling out the side.

Their baked beans were all that much and the fries were thick and ribbed. "BBQ sauce and lots of it." Rick was up to retrieve what they were going to need along with a lot of napkins.

Rick was pouring BBQ sauce over his five big beef ribs while Kate was doing the same with her pulled pork. Then that sauce got poured over their French fries.

"I'm going to make a mess." Kate was sure of it because her sandwich was really thick and sloppy.

They were both soon moaning from the taste. "Does he sell this BBQ sauce?" Rick wondered and began devouring his first rib.

"This is good, messy but good." Kate picked up her soda cup and sucked up some Diet Coke. That was followed by a French fry.

Their waitress stopped by their table. "Is there anything else I can get for you?"

Rick glanced at Kate who shook her head. "No...wait! Do you sell your barbecue sauce?"

"Yes, sir. It comes in 2 flavors and in 2 sizes. Regular, which is what you had, and Hot. They come in 12oz. bottles and in 32oz. plastic bottles."

Rick smiled. "I'll take a 12oz. bottle of each, please."

[:] o-0-O-0-o [:]

"Have you reached a decision about trying to get into Stanford yet?"

"No. I really don't know what to do now. At this rate I won't get to start classes till next Fall. After summer vacation and that's if I can get back in. I don't even know that yet." Kate picked up a napkin to clean her face.

"So is there a plan B? It might help if you had a plan B."

"You mean like being a ballerina which was my first choice when I was a little girl?" Kate laughed since that wasn't going to work.

"Do you dance? Waltz and other dances? You could be a teacher of dance."

"Sadly no. I'm terrible at that kind of dance. A lot like being a ballerina." Kate couldn't do that, either. "Maybe I'll end up working for Mom and Dad in their office."

Rick tried again. "How are you with kids? You could take classes to be a teacher. Grade school teachers can't be that hard. Unless you want to be a professor in a college. Physics, history, math, something."

"I never did do any babysitting. I don't know; just watching after a baby didn't sound right for me," Kate replied.

"All right, so not kindergarten. Teach third grade instead. You get to mold young minds. Turn the girls into duplicates of you. Ooo, you could talk them into taking Karate so they can beat up bullies."

Kate burst out laughing. "You and your imagination." She couldn't believe him. "I don't know anything about Karate." She shot that down.

"So take more classes. I'll ask Emily if there is a class for Karate in town. There has to be a Community College close by that can teach you to be a teacher for third grade. Give the girls night classes in Karate. Learn how to break boards with your bare hand." Rick chopped their table with his hand. "OW!" He kissed his hurt hand.

"Maybe." Kate would think about it. "It would give me all summer off for a vacation." Kate sees a silver lining for being a teacher. "Doesn't the pay suck though?"

"I have no idea. Probably varies by state. We can ask someone. Go find an elementary school and talk to the principle. They might know. That will only tell you what Mississippi pays, though."

[:] o-0-O-0-o [:]

Just inside the door Rick and Kate ran across a number of things. First Charlie who was barking first and then whimpering and demanded to be petted by someone.

Along with that they saw two boxes that said Dell on the outside. Another one said Epson on the side. The other two said Viewsonic on them.

"Looks like Mom and Dad have been busy." She was betting this had something to do with computers and other things for their office.

"There you two are. Where have you two been?" Charlie barking had alerted her and Jim that someone was home and whoever it was he loved them a lot.

"We went out to dinner. It was BBQ and it was tasty. I think I got BBQ sauce all over me. Bathroom please? I need to wash," Kate asked. Rick pushed her toward a bathroom that would fit her wheelchair.

"Did they just go out on a date?" Jo questioned her husband.

"Compared to a lot of those boys she dated Rick is a serious upgrade."

"Amen to that. And he lives here so she can't get away from him. We still have a few more things to find tomorrow for the office. Router, fax machine, staplers, pins, paperclips, rubber bands, sticky notes, legal pads, file folders, envelopes, Trash cans, coat rack, magazine subscriptions for people to read, coffee machine, paper punch, tape, three ring binders, scissors. We still need so much stuff." Jo was almost ready to shoot herself.

"Relax, Jo, we'll get there. Mostly what we need is to make sure everyone near here knows we exist. We'll be fine." Jim put his arm around her. "First, however, is finding out what Rick has planned for our daughter."

"You will do no such thing. Give those two a chance first. It's just one lousy date, not including that trip to New Orleans whatever that was about." Jo would punch him if he interfered.

"And what is he typing? When he isn't at work, eating or playing with Charlie, he's typing. I'll bet he has more paper than we do. Given that we have none." Jim was getting really curious.

"Do we sneak a look when he's at work? Not that I want to intrude on his privacy. If he wanted us to know he would tell us." Jo sighed. "We wait."

[:] o-0-O-0-o [:]

"So where is Rick?" Jo asked her husband as he walked into the kitchen. Since they had finally actually moved into their new home.

"Gone already and before you ask Katie is still sleeping and Charlie is watching her sleep. I don't know how Rick got so lucky with that dog but Charlie's amazing." Jim gave his wife a quick kiss and stole a piece of bacon from the plate.

"Gone! And I'm doing all this cooking?" Jo decided to stop while she still could and didn't cook everything.

"So how is the new kitchen working out for you?" Jim went over to the coffee maker and was delighted to find it already had coffee so all he needed was a coffee cup to pour the coffee into.

"Amazing! I mean look at this place. I don't know what it looked like before Jim and Emily but this is amazing. And the appliances are wonderful! It's so much better than the kitchen we had in LA." Jo was happy to be in here.

"Trust me, you didn't want to see it before this. It was a dump. So more shopping today?" Jim stood there and sipped his coffee.

"We still need so much stuff. This time we should take it straight to the office instead of here," Jo decided. "Not load and unload it twice. Katie can stay here, watch TV, and pet Charlie."

Just then Charlie walked into the kitchen, looked at these two, barked, and left again. "He's also good at delivering messages. That will be Katie telling us she's awake. Except what she probably wants is into the bathroom." Jim could do it but it meant embarrassing his daughter.

"I'll go. You can set the table for breakfast." Jo smacked his hand as he was about to pinch another piece of bacon. "And don't eat all of it. Save some for the rest of us."

"Yes, dear." Jim set the table with three plates, glasses, and silverware. Then once he certain his wife was gone, he pinched another piece of bacon and quickly ate it.

[:] o-0-O-0-o [:]

Jim and Johanna dropped their bags in their empty office space. They weren't due to open the office for a few more days so empty was fine for now.

"Now all we need is office furniture and lunch room. OH, maybe a water cooler." Jo just kept on dreaming up things they could use that was going to cost them money.

Jim slowed her down just a touch. "Let's wait to see what Emily has for us first."

"You're right. We're spending money and our account just keeps getting smaller and smaller. Plus we are still paying rent for a house that we're not even in any longer let alone water, power, trash for both houses. We should have planned this better." Jo didn't know what they were going to do if they didn't get clients to pay the bills.

[:] o-0-O-0-o [:]

"I'll get the mail," Jim offered once they were finally home and Jo found Charlie at the front door waiting for them.

"Hi, Charlie. Did you hear us come home?" Everyone knew dogs had excellent hearing. To actually be able to tell the difference between cars was amazing even to her.

"Good thing you two are home. Emily called, she has a delivery to make at your office and wants to know when you can be there," Kate told them.

Jo sighed. "We just left there."

"Well you get to go back after you call her. It's something about furniture or something. I don't know."

"Here's your mail." Jim handed over the ones that had Johanna on them to his wife. "Katie can look through the coupons." He handed those to Kate. "Water bill and something from Black Pawn for Rick again." He was really starting to get curious about just who Black Pawn was.

"I'll take that." Kate held out her hand and to her surprise her dad actually gave it to her.

Kate looked it over. It was typed and not written. The return address was somewhere in New York City and it was pretty well sealed.

Jo eyed her daughter. "You're not planning to open Rick's mail, are you?"

"No! ...Maybe." She was still keeping his secret and now she wanted to know what was inside this thing. What was Black Pawn telling him or sending him? "Where's the iron? Maybe I can steam it open."

"KATHERINE!" Jo was tempted to use her full name but stopped there. It wasn't like she didn't want to know as well. This was the third Black Pawn letter he had gotten so yes, she was curious.

"He'll never know. We can seal it back up again. It'll be like we never even touched it." Kate saw the look her mother was giving her. "FINE!" Kate held it up for her dad to take from her and put it down on the dining room table for Rick to find later.

"So where is the iron and you better not say upstairs." She still couldn't do stairs. She was barely standing let alone walking.

"In the laundry room. Upstairs," Jo said, so the letter was safe for now.

Kate grumbled and looked though the coupons and other junk to see if there was anything useful. She doubted it but one never knew. "MOM!" Kate held up what she had found.

"Our flier! This thing was in there?" Jo snatched it from her and looked it over. It looked just like it had been designed; it was even both-sided. "They're supposed to do this three more times. That's what we paid for anyway. Hopefully someone will notice." Jo handed it to her husband and took the trash from Katie to throw out.

However, Kate's eyes were on the letter on the dining room table. Now she just needed to figure out how to get Rick to tell her what was in it.

[:] o-0-O-0-o [:]

"Rick's home!" Kate yelled over Charlie barking who was racing for the front door to greet him. He had been gone like FOREVER! Kate had thought up a plan to find out what was in that letter. Now would it work?

"Hi, Charlie! Did you miss me?" Rick got down on one knee to pet him and kiss his fur and go back to petting him. "How about if I close the door? It's cool out there."

"Hi." Rick greeted Kate and hurried to the kitchen. He was thirsty and wanted to raid the refrigerator.

Johanna and Jim saw Rick walk into the kitchen. "How was your day, Rick?"

"Pretty much normal. Still getting used to being in charge instead of just doing the work. A lot more paperwork in this job," he told them and saw a bottle of Gatorade so he took it out to drink it.

"Just a word of warning, Rick. You got a letter from a place called Black Pawn in the mail today and Katie was trying to figure out how to open it without you knowing she did it." Jo ratted out her daughter.

Rick laughed a little. "I doubt it would tell her much. Probably not going to tell me much either. So where is it?" He didn't see it in here.

"On the dining room table," Jim told him. Rick left with his Gatorade to get it. But he didn't find it on the table.

"Looking for this?" Kate waved his letter so he could see it. She might still be in a wheelchair but her arms were getting stronger with use so she could move her wheelchair a little and get around some.

"UH-UH! I want to know what it says." Kate stuffed it between her legs when he tried for it.

"I can't do that until you hand it over."

"I know that. I want your promise I can read it after you open it," Kate said.

"And why would I want to do that? It's addressed to me, not you. If we were married I could see it but we're not." Rick could see her even opening it for him so she could read it before he could if they were.

"What!" He had said the magic word. A word she was nowhere near ready to hear.

Rick took advantage of her lack of movement, snatched his envelope out from between her legs, and set his Gatorade bottle down to open it.

"HEY!" He had gotten his letter and hadn't had to pay for it.

Rick ripped it open and read the letter. It was news, not great news but news. It was basically telling him how many books had been sold so far and how many needed to be sold to reach his next milestone. It also informed him the number of books needed to be sold till he was on the Best Sellers List. Each of these events would lead him to meeting some of his goals as stated in his contract.

Basically it told him his book was selling and selling pretty well.

"Here, I'm going to go wash up." Rick handed over his letter to Kate. There wasn't really anything in it since she already knew his name. He went upstairs to one of the bathrooms.

That left Kate sitting there reading his letter. "Is this good or bad?" she wondered. Unfortunately she was alone save for Charlie who was at her side looking to be petted again. She had promised not to tell anyone he was Richard Castle so she couldn't show it to her parents and Rick was upstairs washing up. She wanted to know what it meant right now!