FIXIT NO. TWO
An AU reimagining of Kate's exit scene at the end of Season Eight's XX.
All applicable disclaimers apply.
AN: This is the second of my FIXIT stories. Where I take a scene or some action by one or more of the characters that doesn't sit right by me and reimagine how it could have gone differently.
Note: The dialogue taken from the episode is courtesy of my DVD and my ability to write it down from memory. That means it might not be perfectly word for word, but close enough for this story. That's the advantage of it being AU.
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Rick Castle was thrilled to have his wife back home with him. They both had just gotten home after a dizzying adventure that included death squads, torture, the murder of the former Senator Bracken, and the apparent suicide of the Asst. Director of the Attorney General's Office.
Rick flipped the edge of the omelet he had in the pan over to cover the chocolate and marshmallow that filled the center of his creation.
"I guess you'd say we'll be having breakfast for our dinner as I'm making a smorlette for us." He hears Kate approach and he raises his head. She is standing in front of him, a pensive look on her face. She has a packed bag at her feet.
She looks up at him, a few tears slip from the corner of her eye. "I'm sorry. I love you so much."
Castle was frightened by Kate's manner. "What are you doing?"
Kate just stared at him. "I have to go."
"Why?" Castle's voice hardened.
Kate held back another tear. "I've got to get my head right. I've got to figure some things out, so we can have a happily ever after."
Rick's expression turned cold. "Where's this coming from. Is it because of your AG team? Is it Bracken? Why are you giving up on our marriage?"
Kate's lips quivers. "I'm trying to save it."
Rick's voice betrays his annoyance. "By leaving me? Look, if you have a problem, then we have a problem. It's how this works."
She shakes her head. "No, Castle. Not this time."
Castle's aggravation was growing. "Whatever it is Beckett, we can figure it out like always."
Kate swallows her tears. "Rick, do you trust me?"
"Of course."
"I need you to trust me. I have to do this on my own. And when this is done, then I hope you'll have room in your heart to take me back.
Rick gives her an angry look. "Before Bracken was killed. He told me you'd never be happy just being my wife. Please do not tell me that son of a bitch knew you better than I do."
She leans into him. "I love you." She kisses him. "I always will."
She picks up her bag and moves toward the loft's door. Castle hustles around the island counter and stands in front of the door he closes. He slides down the front of the door and let's his butt hit the floor. He folds his arms over his chest.
"Rick, please!"
Castle's lips formed into a straight, hard line. "What was it you said? You have to get your head right? You have to figure some things out so we can have our happily ever after?" He frowned. "What things?"
She was now glaring at him. "I thought you said you trusted me?"
"I do. But I've known you for several years. I know you as well as anyone can. If this is something you need to figure out so we can have 'our' happily ever after, maybe I can help."
She shook her head slowly. "No, it's something I have to do myself."
Castle nodded. "So now it's something you have to do, not something you have to figure out." She looks at him without saying anything, but he could see she was getting flustered. "So tell me, is it something you have to do? Or something you have to figure out?"
She glared at him. "I need to do this. Please let me go."
He shook his head. "No, not yet. Do you know I what I think. I think that you, like I do, think that Madam Asst. Director didn't commit suicide, but was scapegoated, and that the people who are behind the deaths of Rachael and your old AG team are still out there. And you can't handle that. Your Don Quixote complex has risen to the surface and you just have to launch your own crusade to avenge them, rather than leave it to those like my father to deal with it."
She stayed silent while staring at him, her lips pursed and her eyes glinting in the light of the lamps next to the door.
She clenches her fists before she speaks. "It's my fault they died."
Castle raised his brow. "So you are responsible for everyone you've ever met? You haven't had any contact with any of them for a year."
She shook her head. "They died because of search I initiated when I first got there. It took a year to get a reply."
Castle slowly nodded his head. "You're talking about that Loksat redacted memo aren't you." Her mouth dropped open. He waved his hand in dismissal. "We watched Vikram retrieve the memo. It's how we found that airport just after you did. We'd been tracking you trying to find you."
"Yes, so you see that's it's my fault."
Castle shook his head. "No, I don't see that at all. It's the fault of those who had them killed. You have no idea what your old team did to put themselves in the crosshairs." Rick took a deep breath. "Actually you've been given a gift with the way they left it. You can pretend to accept the scenario they left you and you can walk away from it. Anything you do or don't do now won't bring them back."
Kate stared at her feet. "That's what Rita said. She said my old team's deaths weren't my fault, but if I decided to go after their killers, anyone who got killed from now on would be on my head."
Castle stared at her. "That's sounds about right." He waited a few beats. "Who's Rita?"
For the first time that evening, Kate actually smiled. "She said she was your father's wife. She works for one of those three letter agencies, but it was a different one than Jackson did. Apparently she's been after those people for over a year. The kill teams were sent by some high level CIA analyst who was partnered with Bracken in their drug enterprise, and was using CIA assets to acquire and move the drugs."
Castle just shook his head. "So, you figured that it would be in your best interest to take on not only a large criminal enterprise, but one who is partnered with a rogue, well placed CIA analyst all by yourself."
She looked away from Castle. "Well, there would be Vikram too. He's the one who brought all this to my attention."
"Remind me to kick his ass when I see him next." Kate glared at him. "Don't go all Vikram protector on me. What do you really know about him? Was he there when you were in DC?" She shook her head, her hair moving in sync. "So, you don't know anything about him. He could have been there to lead you right into their clutches."
"No, he told me they were after him also."
"Yet you were the one who got shot. Tell me how all this happened. Don't leave anything out."
She started with the phone call she got that morning and gave him a play by play of how they days went. From the ambush at the empty theater, through Rita's rescue, to the eventual separation from Rita when they refused to go on the run.
Castle rubbed his chin. "So, he calls you up and when you meet with him at an abandoned theater, yet they found you right away. And on top of that, you were shot because he clumsily knocked over a light stanchion."
She frowned. "Yeah, but he was being shot at all that time too."
Castle nodded. "And he was never hit, not a scratch."
"He was the one who was able to pull up a copy of that memo at great risk to his life. He barely got out in time."
"Yet he did. With nanoseconds to spare."
"Why are you so down on Vikram?"
Castle looked her in the eye. "Director Hyde told us that there was something wrong with his records. He wasn't who he represented himself to be."
Kate kept a neutral expression. "He had my back at the airport."
Castle nodded. "So it seemed. Look, I don't know anything about that guy. I just think you shouldn't take everything he might tell you as gospel. He came out of nowhere and you were put on the run for your life. No offense meant, but if it hadn't been for Rita, you would already be dead. They found your hideout quick enough."
Kate flopped down on the floor, leaning against the door next to him.
"So, what were you going to do? What was your plan when you packed that bag and told me you were leaving?"
Kate stared straight ahead, not looking Rick in the eye. "I was going to tell people that we'd separated, but I wouldn't tell anyone why. I needed to distance us so as not to endanger you while I investigated."
Castle banged his head against the door. "And you thought that would actually work? Kate, even if we were separated, the type of people you are looking into would just kill me to eliminate any possible loose ends. We have too long a history for them to overlook me under those kind of circumstances. Hell, they would do it just to tell you they could reach anyone they wished."
Kate snapped her head around. "I couldn't live with myself if something ever happened to you!"
Castle shook his head. "Think, Kate. You know me. What do you think I would do if you just walked out with such a feeble excuse as you gave me a few minutes ago?"
Kate sniffed. "You'd honor my request and leave me alone?"
Castle's laugh was anything but jovial. "Really, have you met me? Kate I love you and I would beat myself up over and over wondering what I had done to drive you away." Castle stared at the ceiling. "I'd probably invent ways to 'accidently' run into you. I'd be wracking my brain trying to figure out what I'd done wrong and coming up with ways to show you that we should be together."
Kate keep shaking her head. "You can't be there. I can't put you in that danger."
Rick reached over and with his finger a turned her toward him. "Then we have a problem because I will never abandon you… but maybe we can make it look like I did." Before she could respond he put up his hand. "Wait, this will never work if we just jump into it without a plan. It has to be thought out ahead of just tomorrow."
"Okay, what are you thinking?"
"Patience."
Her face clouded up. "What?"
"Come on, Kate. If you weren't so emotionally affected by this you would be the first one to suggest patience. It's obvious that the bad guys are going to be watching you pretty close for a time to be sure you bought into the scenario they gave you. It would be simple to insert someone on the janitorial staff, or in maintenance and you'd never know the difference." Castle waved his hand. "And how many of the secretarial pool down in administration do you know?"
She bit her bottom lip. She didn't like where this was going. She felt her great idea was falling apart.
He grabbed her hand. "No matter what 'we' decide to eventually do. We have to give ourselves time to work out a plan, and we need to lessen any surveillance they will put on us."
Kate leaned against the door and grumped. Castle chuckled.
"Kate, we can't rush into this. That would be foolish, and dangerous. How about this? We give it a couple three weeks. We act like our normal selves, but even more publicly than normal. We show them we are just a happy loving couple."
He pulls her into a hug. "Kate, I know you feel you owe Vikram, but I think you should not stay in any close contact with him at all. If you feel you owe him, find him a place in the NYPD, but not at the 12th. That would look suspicious to the people you are worried about. Just helping him get a job would just look like you were thanking him for his help."
"You don't know him Castle."
"Neither do you, Kate. Help him get settled if you must, but then cut ties with him. If would be the safest for both you and him."
Kate frowned. "I'll check and see if the NYPD needs a tech guy somewhere." She looks at Rick's expression. "But not at the 12th. But what are 'we' going to do after this pause you propose?"
Rick sighed. "I think we have to be smart. This isn't some brilliant crazy person we are going up against. This is a highly functional, well trained, greedy, amoral person who has access to significant resources and doesn't hesitant to leave bodies all over the city."
Castle repositions himself so he is able to pull Kate onto his lap. "How about, once we've given it a few weeks to calm down, you contact this Rita person, and I'll contact my father. We arrange for a meeting of the four of us."
"Do you have a way to contact your father?"
He nodded. "I assume you have a way to contact Rita." She nodded. "Okay, from what you said, Rita knows the case, and knows this guy is CIA. My father would be able to make some discreet inquires that could possibly identify who this person may be. I'd be a lot more comfortable taking this person on if we had all the information we could. And it would be even better if they were on the team."
Kate nodded her head slowly. "I can't argue with that."
Castle kissed her head. "And if it came down to a need for you to do some behind the scenes investigations using the sources you can utilize, and think that it would jeopardize me then we could engineer that break up. Probably best if it were a very public, and nasty break up. Possibly even go through with a divorce."
"What!" She turned in his arms.
Castle shook his head. "No better way to take the eyes off of me, would be to take me completely out of your life. That would also allow me to tap a few sources that I can contact that you would scare away."
"I'm not sure if I'm comfortable with that idea."
Castle chuckled. "I'm afraid that's something that is non-negotiable. Either we are both surreptitiously involved, with as much protection as possible, or we aren't. 'We are both in, or 'we' are both out."
Kate was quiet for a long time. Finally she expelled a long deep sigh. "Okay, let's see what Rita and your dad have to say."
They sat there on the floor, their backs against the door. Kate had her head leaning against his shoulder. He had his eyes closed.
They sat that way for more than half an hour when Castle suddenly sat up.
"Oh shit!"
Kate was startled. She turned toward him. "What is it? What's wrong?"
Rick looked over at her, his face a mask of concern. "I just realized something. We were worried about the danger to each of us. But if there is any suspicion that either of us are looking into this…"
Kate was scared by the nervousness he showed.
"What about your father?" He said.
Kate's eyes went wide. "And your mother and Alexis."
Rick shook his head. "It wouldn't matter that they would be clueless about all this, all three would be in danger of being used as leverage. Any mistake that we might make that even hinted that we were looking into this could trigger the use of our loved ones against us."
"But, they wouldn't know anything."
Castle frowned. "They wouldn't have to. It's actually the same faulty thinking we had by believing that just separating would make the other person safe. Anyone connected by family, or even close friends would make perfect leverage."
Castle took a deep breath. "These aren't people like 3XK who are after us specifically. These are part of a large criminal operation that will stop at nothing to reach their goals. And that means, if they think that putting a gun to the head of a loved one to get to us, they wouldn't hesitate to do it."
She let her head drop, her long hair covering her face. "I'm an idiot."
He pulled her into a side hug again. "Not an idiot. Just someone who always wants to see justice served. But would you think you'd be willing to take that risk. I know if someone grabbed Alexis and told me they had a gun to her head and wouldn't hesitate to kill her if I didn't walk right into their hands, we both know what would happen."
She nodded. "I'd do the same for my father, and for Martha or Alexis."
Castle pulled her in for a tighter hug. "That's the problem with family and friends. They offer love and comfort, but they make you vulnerable. The only way you can combat someone who'd use them against you is to be someone like my dad, or Rita. You can't have any known attachments."
Kate nodded sadly. "Yeah, Rita's married to your dad, but because they can't allow anyone to know about them, she hasn't seen him in over six months."
Castle kissed her on the head. "Is that the kind of life you wish to take on to try and get justice for Rachael and your team, who are already dead? You wouldn't be saving them, you would just be putting your loved ones in danger because you needed to see their killers brought to justice."
Kate sat there quietly for several minutes.
Rick pulled her back into his lap. "Kate, I know this goes really against the grain for you, but sometimes you have to accept that doing nothing is the best overall course of action."
"It just feels so wrong to let them, or him, get away with it."
Castle chuckled. "Ah yes, always the crusader. But Kate, even as a cop you occasionally came up with those cases that get away from you. Once in a while you come up with a case that you can't solve and you have to put it in the cold case files." He sighed.
"It doesn't make you a bad person to admit that you aren't perfect, and that you can't win them all."
Kate grumped. "What are you, a sympathy card?"
Castle kissed her head again. "No, I'm your husband, and I love you very much. And I'd rather have you have to file another case as unsolved, then to have to bury you and/or some of our family or friends."
"She sighed. "Okay, I guess you are right. I'm more than a little out of my depth on this one. I'll give Rita a call and tell her, if you needs me for something I'll consider it, but I've decided to leave the case in her hands."
He turned her head and kissed her deeply for as long as breath allowed.
"Thank you." He got up from the floor, and reached down and helped her up. "Let's go to bed and be thankful that we survived once again."
FIN.
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