Chapter 10. Exodus
It wasn't more than thirty yards to the stairs upstairs when Kate suddenly realized that Castle wasn't behind her for some reason. And she confirmed it after a quick glance over her shoulder: Rick was standing halfway between her and the altar with a dejected look, his arms outstretched, shaking his head in frustration.
- What are you, Castle? - not understanding what the problem was, Beckett frowned and bit her lip sharply. - Uh, are-are you okay?
- Yes! I mean, no! - Rick scratched his temple so frantically it looked like it was about to be scratched all the way through. - I still can't figure out how our searing blob had nothing to do with it! While we were going down the stairs and having breakfast, I had a few good theses for myself about a new method of irresistible seduction, but in the end, what happened? How could I ever attribute anything to my hero? What frame of reference am I going to put him in? Do you, Kate, have you any idea how much of a mystery is missing? I haven't been so badly screwed over in a hundred years!
As if in doubt as to his intentions, Castle staggered at a standstill. He was aimlessly slipping his fingers under the straps of the backpack, then putting them back, evidently not knowing where to put them. Especially sad and touching sounded his sighs, which meant that he could only drag the writer away from here by force. Especially when you know your beloved by heart. With such a fantasy-like way of thinking, any, even the very, very theories, could easily turn into an intolerable, verbal charade. And no matter what the monk had told them, no matter what unbelievable arguments he was throwing at them, the most correct and reasonable thing for them would be to return home as soon as possible. There they would find the familiar surroundings with heart-to-heart talks, a lively exchange of impressions, and a bubble bath with wine, with no less relaxing follow-up than in Thailand. And that's where they'll try to purposefully conceive again. Otherwise, if not responsible for his words, Detective Beckett would simply stop respecting himself. Now the first priority was to get Castle out of the cave, or else his idle chatter would not end. And with a familiar roll of her eyes, Kate resolutely turned back.
- Jesus, Castle! What was the point of all that nonsensical wailing? - Beckett grudgingly reprimanded her husband, deliberately slowing down to give him a conscious right to choose. - And after all we've been through recently, do you still need exotic rites? Haven't we had enough prayer sex? Or haven't we? Where's your sanity then? Where's your balanced view of things, huh? You're a literate, wise man of years, and you read serious books, but you fall for miracles again, like a child. The prose of life - that is so explainable and relevant, but I have no right to be ungrateful. And so I promise you, Castle, that soon you will get a good deal, but not today, not now, and not here. After all, we've been riding the mountains for so long, I'm already scared out of my mind to go home. So please answer my life question: are you coming, or what?
Rick mumbled something inarticulate in response. With undisguised annoyance and an unimaginably crooked face, he waved his hand indefinitely and addressed Buddha again with a series of deep, penetrating waias. As if in slow motion, Beckett stared numbly at her husband's back, until she suddenly realized that what was going on inside her was the most tense, indefinite, and incomprehensible thing of all. For example, she'd had a mild bout of nausea when they'd gone down to the grotto. She even had to stand back for a moment, covering her mouth inconspicuously with the palm of her hand, and after a while the urge seemed to subside. Kate even managed to marvel with Castle at the same time, laughed good-naturedly at the scene at the altar, but still remembered to prudently cross herself.
"Oh, shit! I hope that won't be a problem anymore! We're probably just "a little" tired! I guess..." grinned Beckett enigmatically, and then the cave suddenly swam before her eyes. Collapsing right there didn't seem like a very good idea, and Kate spread her legs wide, clutching tightly to Castle's hand, which came up just in time. The long breath-holding helped, too: her eyes brightened, the Buddha returned to its rightful place, and the restlessness was gone. While Rick chatted with Mua Tuo, Beckett curved her lips in a sarcastic chuckle: so fleeting and illogical was her weakness. Okay, at least Castle didn't suspect anything, but it wasn't in her nature to complain. What mattered was self-control, and that was something Beckett had no equal at. And she wouldn't be, even if there was something wrong with her system. Or, like with Castle, for example.
"Wrong? What exactly is 'wrong'?" - Setting her feet as firmly as possible, Beckett glimpsed the palm open in front of her and was involuntarily horrified: her fingers, so graceful and involuntarily drawn to music, were doubling and tripling right before her eyes, turning into ugly, puffy sardines. And worst of all, Kate couldn't imagine the source of all these oddities.
"Oh, no! No! Well, not now! Oh, God, please!" - Frowning, Beckett slowed her pace a little, clenching her fists until her knuckles crunched: Castle, the hall, and Buddha were swaying gently in front of her again, trying to fall to the side, but if, without false pride, she could lean against something, it certainly wouldn't be worse. And let it be not Castle, but that stalagmite, directly in front of her and slightly to her right. The stone was impassive and silent, absorbing all her emotions like a sponge, and while Castle prayed, she would recover and rest a little. She didn't want to show Rick her instability, her weakness. All the same, he would pity her, even silently, with just piercing and disturbing looks, and to her, the detective, that pity was like a superman's diaper. Even if the world does go up in smoke in front of her.
An arsenal of yoga: his special breathing technique slightly shook the twinkle in her eyes while her legs guided Kate in the right direction on their own. Just three or four tentative but accelerating steps, and Beckett was relieved to be pressed against the slimy limestone. How good that a distracted Castle now does not ask about these "passionate" embrace, and about why his beloved, bent forehead against the uneven ledge, so often and hotly, breathing like a hunted horse. And Kate was really hoping for relief, but while Rick rambled on about something incomprehensible, a conviction was steadily brewing inside her - to lie down and cover her eyes immediately. At times it seemed as if a thick fog enveloped them, and her husband's voice was kneaded into it like a knife into raw meat.
"What a bastard! What the fuck!" - From her apparent inability to maintain control, Beckett grew more and more irritated and pissed off. Her arms stretched out helplessly at the seams, but feeling the rough rock with her fingertips just at waist level, Beckett still managed to turn her back on the stalagmite. She put her feet back a little, leaned her back against the limestone, and used her arms, trying to bring herself to her senses. They felt like lead, but while the tactile sensation still lived, Kate pressed her temples and wings of her nose and cheekbones, massaged her eyelids, and nervously ruffled her hair, carelessly flicking it to her forehead.
"I've got it, Castle!" - her head rested with the back of her head on a damp ledge, and without opening her eyes, Beckett's whole body alternately tensed and relaxed. Perhaps the root of her fatigue lay in the very peak of her powerful orgasm, but it was only beside Castle that her strength returned very quickly. After exhausting caresses Kate happily looked for his involuntarily reclined palm, and when she found it, she was ready to jump out of her seat (preferably with him!) and run away wherever she could see. And breathing with happiness, she would repeat to herself: "I love! I love! I love! I love you, Castle!" but now... For some reason she couldn't shout or utter a word. It seemed as if a previously unyielding rod had burst inside Beckett after all. And she was swaying cleaner than the sailors on the deck of the destroyer.
"Just so I don't embarrass myself!" - flickered languidly somewhere in her head, but God didn't give a damn about her plea: her arms and legs were no longer listening and her ears were no longer hearing. Before her eyes, faster and faster, bright lights flickered, forming a silvery grid of chaotic tracks. Like a living tangle, it shimmered around a strange, gloomy-looking "icicle," growing up and down from her palms. In a smooth, jagged cone it went off into infinity, and when the light in her eyes finally faded and consciousness went into a spin, Beckett wrapped her palms tightly around her face. Firmly, tightly, to the point of a hundred tiny glints, she squeezed her eyelids with her fingers. She inhaled as hard as she could, and sharply pushed the air out of her, daring her to look, only to feel the water on her cheek.
- What the...
In front of her, above the menacing peaks, the immensity of the Siamese sky was dwindling, and Castle's disturbed face was the largest against it. It was true that she didn't like Rick at first: the haggard appearance; the unshaven stubble protruding in a stiff, fine hedgehog; the once damp hair on his greasy forehead piled into sloppy, short icicles, and the blue of his eyes faded. And his lips are pursed, cracked and bleeding. And the hand that flashed under Kate's nose: it was Rick, breathing frequently and anxiously, running a wet towel over her face. When the cloth appeared to be getting hot, Castle pulled away and drew his hands aside. The water gurgled familiarly, and after carefully wringing out the excess, Rick immediately returned to the interrupted activity.
"Jesus, Castle! You'll be rubbing holes in me soon enough!" - Kate smiled, but immediately closed her eyebrows: what's the point of unnecessary frills when she's all right as she is!
- I'm fine, Castle! I'm fine! - She confirmed what had seemed the most obvious thought, stopping his arm in a waving motion. - You could have stood up yourself!
She bounced up on her elbows, then sat up unassisted. And again she experienced a genuine shock: somehow they found themselves in the base camp. A fire was burning nearby, and Caelian, sitting on the other side of it, was concentrating on sharpening his famous cleaver with a wild stone. Seeing the bewilderment in Beckett's face, he sent her a broad and charming smile as he bowed.
- Welcome back, ma'am. Hello.
Alas, there was no reply; it was Rick who held the cold aluminum neck to her dainty mouth, and Beckett took a reluctant sip. She wrinkled her brow strenuously, hiding behind her displeasure at being overprotected, and at the same time solving the problem: What miracle had brought them here, and why hadn't she remembered anything? Abnormal abilities to move in space and time aside, the explanation suggests itself: it's Castle, Castle, and Castle again! But why and how?
- Ka-a-sl? - She shook her head, refusing the water, and clasped her hands around her knees. - Don't you have anything to tell me?
Apparently, Rick was thirsty for gratitude and so involuntarily confused.
- And... what exactly do you want to hear? How we went paragliding? Or how a Buddhist cable car works? - He mumbled without a smile, but Kate didn't wait for the fantasized outbursts of his mind, she just put a finger over his mouth.
- Let's dispense with the insane theories of Richard Castle! - Beckett licked her parched lips. - And I suspect what it might be about, but no! So, what if I was dizzy? It's no big deal! The climate, the thin air, the high humidity, it's hard and unfamiliar. Anybody in my position could have been different.
- No, not anyone! You should see yourself from the outside! - Castle said in such an unbearably bitter tone that Kate was involuntarily ashamed of her incomprehensible harshness. For how many times had she been convinced of the sincerity of his thoughts, his unbreakable care, his unselfish desire to help. The kind, broad, loving heart of Richard Castle, it beats so coherently beside her and is not going to be silent. So now, Rick put away the flask handkerchief and turned sideways to Kate with a heavy sigh. He hugged his knees and dropped his chin on them: offended.
"Jesus, Castle!" - Beckett was well aware of his new habit, ingrained over the past year. If there was a room nearby, Rick would definitely shut himself in it, waiting out her next emotional outburst. Or not even a grudge, but an angry outburst, depending on how you judge it, but... but could you do that to him? Castle had already suffered enough because of her inflexible nature. He indefinitely postponed the release of his new book. He gave up a very lucrative contract with an animation studio that required frequent trips to Los Angeles and Boston. He dragged her here in pursuit of the most ghostly hope. He wouldn't hesitate to give himself, and anyway... it's clear as day.
"Forgive me, darling!" - Beckett sighed sympathetically and, pulling close to her husband, poked him in the shoulder with hers in a friendly, conciliatory way.
- What's wrong with the color of my face? You've always seemed to be attracted to its naturalness and openness, and pink is a timeless classic, always in vogue. And if you think it's all about the vicissitudes of reverse, then here's my admiration for you then! Honestly! Thank you, Rick! - She gently took him under the elbow. - Thank you very much as a human being!
Rick sighed heavily, as if he were about to say something unpleasant, and gently put his fingers on hers:
- You passed out right there. When I finished talking to the Buddha and turned around, dismayed at the silence, I saw your little figure only a few feet away. You were standing with your back to the stalagmite, and holding your hands to your face, muttering something to yourself. I called out your name, but I heard no reply, for when your hands suddenly surged, you fell to the floor absurdly. I barely had time to protect your head from the blow, and my anxiety and concern were greater than ever: I shook you and pressed you to my chest, kissed you on the lips and forehead, massaged your arms and legs, rubbed your face and neck, trying to bring you to your senses. I even used artificial respiration, but it was all in vain: you neither saw nor heard me. I would not lie that I felt like a prince with Sleeping Snow White in his arms, not getting anything out of her with kisses, and so I hurried out. The way back is always shorter than the direct one, especially under the mountain, but almost everything except the documents, weapons and water found its inglorious end in the abyss. Kelian was already waiting for us at the camp, and it was only by working together, and in a few hours, that we got you out. I'm not lying, you just have to smell my hands.
Castle put his free palm up to Kate's face, which reeked so distinctively and pungently of menthol and eucalyptus.
- Hmm. A few hours? Well, I never would have guessed that, but..." Castle's explanation was clearly a feat, and Beckett brought his wrist and watch close to hers, "our presence in the camp explains everything. And what do you think it was?
- It must have been a sign from above, and nothing else. Why, do you have another theory?
- It's all about a little eclipse, Castle, when the earth collided with the sky," Kate smiled sadly. - That's it, and no mysticism. No magic spells, no stimulating rituals, no otherworldly powers. Just you and me, my love, and our faith in each other," Beckett playfully ruffled Rick's slightly stiff hair and gave a friendly flick on the tip of his nose. - Let's go home, Castle. Exotic is exotic, but no ice waterfalls and local beer can replace a cap of foam on my body and red wine in my hands!
- Is that all? - Rick grudgingly stretched out, now as calm as an ox. - What about the unmatched warmup and stimulation of your shoulders, back, ass, and other body parts? Maybe it gives me unheard-of pleasure to collect soapy water from the floor, and the more of it, the more powerful our love will be!
- Of course, Castle, of course," Kate intercepted her husband's hand to snuggle closer to him, so that her head rested even more comfortably on his shoulder. - Let's think of our vacation as a good one, and let's not focus on the troubles. I think I'll settle for keeping our secret, and I hope that Lanie and Martha and Alexis will like our story," Beckett bit her lip slyly, "well, except for some juicy details. Okay?
- Good! Me, too, I'll be as quiet as a fish, but in the meantime we keep hoping and waiting. You're gonna get yourself a special nine-month calendar, aren't you?
- Of course, Castle. Yes!