She waits for a second before she swings open the door. She does this for two reasons. First to collect her thoughts and second to hide the evidence of her tear streaked cheeks. As the door opens, Rick stops moving from side to side and takes her in. He can tell that she's been crying and wonders who or what caused it.
"Kate?" He asks a little timidly.
"Come in Castle," Kate tells him as she waves her arm to him allowing him entry to her apartment. But before he enters he pulls his right arm out from behind his back revealing a dozen yellow roses.
"Oh Rick, they're beautiful!"
"I'm glad that those brought a smile to your face. You look so much happier when you smile Kate."
"Castle, I need You to do something for me."
Rick dreaded what she was going to say next because he knew in the back of his mind that this was going to make what he had to tell her a lot harder.
"What is that Kate?"
"I need you to go home. You can't be involved in what I'm going to do. I signed up for this you didn't. I'm the one who put the badge on my hip, not you."
"Forget it! Kate, there's no way I would let you do this on your own, we're partners for Christ's sake. I don't hang around you just to annoy you. I don't show up at crime scenes at three in the morning to satisfy some morbid curiosity. If that were the case I'd have stopped months ago."
Rick stepped across the threshold that leads into her living room. He watches as she makes her way to the kitchen to put the roses in a vase.
"Can I get you anything to drink Castle?" Kate asks.
"A bottle of water would be nice if you have it."
Rick makes himself at home and sits down on the couch.
"So why do you keep on coming back Rick?" She asks as she passes him the bottle of water.
Now is his chance. He can't freeze up now; he just has to take it slow and try not to stumble over his own words. He's a writer so he should be able to pull this off.
"Kate, the reason that I keep coming back is because I am in love with you."
She stands there right next to him looking into his eyes for any sign of deception or that maybe he's playing a cruel joke on her. But after about thirty seconds of looking deeply into his blue eyes, she can tell that he's not lying, that he's serious about the subject they're now going to talk about. She is so stunned and at a loss for words that her knees start to buckle and she slips down onto the loveseat before she falls.
"You love me?" She asks.
"I mean come on you have to know right? Why do you think I hung around with you in the beginning? It wasn't because I wanted to be stuck in the conference room all day. It's because I wanted to be near you. I felt a connection between us right from the start."
"But Rick I'm just a cop you're a multi-millionaire. How will it look to everyone who knows me?" She asked sarcastically then answered her own question. "I'll tell you how it will look. It'll look like I am going to be a gold digger who's only after your money."
"Kate, if you let other people dictate how you feel you'll start to believe them. I know in my heart that you feel the same way towards me. I know it in my heart!"
She just looks at him and thinks for a minute before she says anything else.
"You know you are kinda cute." She says with a small smile.
As she finishes her sentence Rick knows that right at this moment they will be okay... he hopes. They will be together for a long time. But now he needs to tell her the bad news. The news that could tear them back down before they ever get started.
" Listen, Kate, while this is all I've ever wanted, me being with you there is something I need to talk to you about. It's about your mother's case."
Rick held his breath hoping that she would not shoot him. But instead, she just sat there not saying a word so he waited.
"What do you want to talk about? Kate asks.
"What I want to talk about is something that might upset you. But believe me when I tell you that I had the purest of intentions. About three days ago a man contacted me after Raglan was shot. He wanted me to meet with him because he had a file that your mother once had in her possession. I'm not sure how he got his hands on it but he is the man who is protecting you through Roy. He gave it to me along with a couple of other pieces of evidence that implicated who murdered your mother. He said that he didn't want to be caught with it in his possession so that's how I got it."
After he finishes he watches for her reaction. It seems that she has been doing some quick soul-searching because she hasn't answered him yet. But he's not prepared for what she will unleash on him because in the back of his mind he knows that this will hurt the both of them.
"So you're telling me that you met with someone who has given you information on my mother's case and you withheld it from me. Is that correct?"
"Well Kate, when you put it like that you make me look like I was purposely withholding information from you. I wasn't. I just didn't know how to tell you what I found out."
"How long have you known?"
"About two days after Raglan was killed. But I swear that I never intended to hurt you."
"But don't you see Rick, you already have."
"So where does that leave us?" Rick asks tentatively.
"It leaves us with you leaving. I need some time to process what you have just told me."
"Kate, don't do this! Don't push me out. I'm sorry that I didn't tell you right after I was contacted by Smith."
"Smith? Really? That's the most common name on the planet other than Jones. How can you be so gullible and believe someone like him?"
"Because he knew information that I was able to confirm about you, your mother, and me. Yes, he had me investigated too. So if you still need your space to think, you have it. But before I leave I am going to leave you with this thumb drive. On it is everything he gave to me when we met. I have the other evidence at the loft. Safe from anyone who'd want it."
A part of her wanted him to stay. But the investigator in her needed to go through what he had given her.
"I'll call you when I want to talk."
"Fine."
Rick got up, walked to the door, opened it, and left. He hoped that she would call even if it was just to yell at him. But as the door clicked closed he knew that she wouldn't.
Luis Hernandez sits nervously across from his boss. Of course, it took two Section Chiefs and a Division Chief to get here but it's nonetheless still daunting. There is no gauging the man's demeanor or what he's thinking by simply looking at him. But he did his job and he'd do it again because it's what he does.
Intrusions can be some of the hardest to track down. But this person Bracken who had no regard for keeping himself hidden blatantly used a U.S. Senate computer to download a report that was issued twelve years ago. Luis thinks that this is why he is here now. Everything was on the up-and-up. At first, he thought this had something to do with National Security, and in a way, it did, but he didn't know how it did or the severity of it.
He is brought out of his thoughts by the question that is asked of him.
"This was the only intrusion by this man?" The man sitting in the chair asks.
"Yes. He was online long enough to access our database and download a copy of the report he was looking for to the laptop before we stopped him. It is still on the laptop and there is no paper trail."
"What was he searching for?"
"That's the odd thing. He was accessing an older file from the mid-nineties. It seems that there was an agent who was a genius in planning agency operations and extractions of our agents who were trapped with no way out. He saved many agents during his time with the agency." Luis reported.
The man sitting behind the desk felt a shiver move up and down his spine. If he were to look into a mirror he would see that his face had turned ashen white but he quickly hid his expression before the man sitting across him could notice. He just needed a little more information about who this could be but he already had his suspicions.
"How much of this file was redacted?"
"Here's where we come to another issue we've been having. We are slowly digitizing newer files and working backward with the same process. We've got as far as the late 90s say 1999 to 1998 but before that only the information that giveaway locations and agents names were redacted. Everything else was kept to a minimum but if someone was smart enough they could put it together."
"Who was the agent's name that this man Bracken had accessed?"
"Rich Rogers. He was recruited by the CIA in 1992. He is a graduate of Harvard with a Masters's in Engineering and Applied Sciences. Then he studied Applied Mathematics and Engineering and Applied Sciences at CalTech earning him a Ph.D. in both fields of study. He only stayed active until 1996. after that, we have no further information on where he went or what he's doing now."
In that second he knew. He knew what was going on and he needed to dig deeper into this guy Bracken. He just had to make a couple of phone calls before he could actually confirm what he already knew.
"Luis, there will be a letter of commendation added to your file. But right now I need to know if the standard protocol was followed?"
"Yes, the standard protocol was followed. Would you like to initiate it?"
"No, let's let this guy Bracken think he got away with it for now. You said he was in New York state?"
"That's correct. At the time he was breaching our system he was in Scarsdale New York."
"On top of the standard protocol that's already in place, I need you to contact the FBI and have them request a warrant for his arrest. Give them just the basics for the warrant. Then we'll see who has the last laugh."
Jackson Hunt gets up from the chair after Luis leaves and he feels all of his 64 years. His back pain from an operation in Iraq is ever-present, his right knee was reconstructed after an operation in Germany but the worst injury is the one he faces every day for leaving his family in New York. He is an emotional wreck. He never shows this weakness to the people he works with but when your the deputy director of the CIA there are not many people he sees on a daily basis. After he was pulled from the field this job was like a way for him to accept he was getting too old to do the job. So basically now all he is just a glorified paper pusher. He knows that the file Bracken had accessed was Richards. He just doesn't know why.
For the last three hours all, she's been doing its thinking. She was a fool to ask him to leave just so she could have her space. Space is overrated. Her mind drifts back to when he was shot and in his hospital room. She had almost confessed her love to him then but figured it would keep until he was better. During the time he was recuperating she had spent many a night in the comfort of the loft. They watched movies, had dinner together, and sometimes they just read. But most of the time they spent together was for his PT sessions. She was able to help him with his physical therapy because she knew what he needed to do to recover faster. She had told him that he had to keep pushing his body to the limit because if he didn't he would regret it later. When he asked how she knew about this she's simply replied
"Don't forget Rick I basically see everything you're going through on the job but just at a tougher pace. Being shot is not fun for anybody."
Now she has become dependent on him being around and it hurts. He kept information from her and he did it to keep her safe and out of the loop, but he still lied to her.
She inserts the thumb drive into the port on the side of her laptop. She scans the directory for the 'Smith' file as it's called and she clicks on it, opening it instantly. What she realizes is that Rick had reorganized all the information that Smith gave him because the opening page has her picture at the center of the file and every clue that's posted on the main page of the file is surrounding her with a line attached.
She spends another six hours easily going through everything that Smith gave him. Some of it is duplicated by the facts that she already has, but then again, she never had some information. And now she feels a little bit guilty because she kicked his ass out of her apartment. He was actually helping and he did give her new information that she didn't have so she really needs to call him. But it's past 1 a.m. and the bed is calling her name. She needs to get some sleep before they have the conversation that she knows they're going to have. Why did things have to be so complicated she asks herself.