92 Days

by Castlefan6

Authors Note: This is Totally AU; Beckett has left the hospital after her shooting, This describes the activity of each, during those 92 days without contact, both in the hospital and out. It blends some Canon dialog, courtesy of Dust Jackets Dot Com, then goes quickly and completely AU. What were each up to during this time, Taking Literary License to fill in the blanks.

I don't own Castle; I use the characters for amusement purposes only, except the ones I create.

Also, we take liberties with the timeline from Canon and use events to make this a more believable fiction, thanks.

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Chapter 2

12th Precinct

The remainder of the Story will be the FLASHBACK of EACH, Kate's POV, then Rick's.

Day 4, Kate's POV

Rick was in a very important business meeting with Gina, the Board, and Paula but all he could think about was the clock ticking, and time standing still. Jim Beckett had told him to come after 9:00 AM THIS morning, hell that could be one minute past, technically, after waiting weeks to see her, finally. He glanced up at the clock to see it was 8:27 AM, he rose, to the stares of all of the other members, thinking he had to use the restroom.

"I've got to be someplace, Paula, you know what to do, I'll see you all later" as he started for the door, which was quickly blocked by Gina.

"Rick, if you're trying to embarrass me in front of the board, you've done a great job, now go sit down, we need to work out the details of your next contract," Gina said low so only he could hear,

"As I said, I've got someplace to be, Paula can handle this, if she has trouble she has Walt's number, and he can negotiate on my behalf, now step aside, Gina, I won't ask again" his tone had started out professional and turned vile as he stared his ex-wife in the eyes, she knew he was on a mission and she couldn't stop him. She took two steps to her right,

"You're making a big mistake Rick, no matter how much talent you have, Black Pawn will only take so much, you get back here this instance" as she was already talking to his back,

"Gina, don't ever threaten me again, I had enough of that during the divorce. If you think Black Pawn's the only game in town, then give me my release and I'll be published by Harper in two weeks. Don't write a check with your mouth, your ass can't cash, now deal with Paula and or Walter. If that isn't good enough, give me my release, either way, I'm out of here." He spat out much to the amazement of the other meeting members.

He stopped by 4th street, he remembered she said she loved a certain type of flower, and well if she could have visitors, she probably could get flowers as well. Just as he pulled up to the hospital, he noticed the Java Hut next door, he purchased her a caffeine-free, latte, with two sugar-free vanilla pumps, just as she liked it.

He walked through the hospital, and to the elevators, taking in the additional security forces he had Mike assigned, and noticed they were all blending in so well, no one knew they were there. When he got to her floor, he could hear her long before seeing her, she was yelling at a nurse about something until he walked into the doorway, and she caught sight of him, she stopped mid-sentence.

"Castle, how are you?" she changed her tune,

"Well apparently much better than you, or these poor nurses, what did she do wrong, not let you have something you're not supposed to have?" Rick asked with a slight smile on his face as the nurse shot him a look of appreciation,

"They took away my coffee Castle, she has a whole pot out at the nurse's station, and she won't bring me even a half cup" Kate whined,

"They didn't take away your coffee, Kate, your doctor did, I think it was Dr. Kovacs, and if I were you, I wouldn't mess with him. He can make things so much worse for you, now calm down." He said as the nurse muttered, 'Thanks Mr. Castle, this is the worst she's been".

"Here, I see you have more than enough to open your own flower shop so just add these to the collection," he said, noting the spark in her eyes when she realized he had brought her favorite type.

"Thanks, Castle, most of these were here when I woke up, the precinct sent them, boy, I'm never going to be able to live this down, am I?" she asked, trying to start the conversation,

"Probably not, but that's OK, it'll take some of the pressure off of me for a while," he smiled, then handed her the latté,

"Here, I shouldn't give this to you, that nurse was almost in tears, the way you were yelling at her Kate. That's not you, what's the matter," he asked,

"Rick, I was so afraid when I woke up, no one was here, I mean I was all alone, and I didn't know what happened, so I guess I was still pissed about that. My dad and no one will tell me anything, other than I was shot, and you tried to save me. Thanks for the bruised ribs, by the way, I heard you tried to save me," she kidded, "no these came from the CPR they had to do." She said quietly,

"I know, I was there, so was Lanie, we didn't leave you until they forced us to, then I spent two nights waiting for you to wake up until your boyfriend Josh had me escorted out of the hospital by security, said I was disturbing his patients," Rick said,

Kate's eyes flashed in anger, "That son of a bitch, we bro.. then stopped mid-sentence. She didn't want Castle to know.

"He had no right to blame you, or worse push you. Espo said you won't press charges." She said,

"Well, Espo has a big mouth, when he pushed me, it was just the frustration of a boyfriend seeing his girl brought in on a stretcher shot, and he blamed anyone he could, I was just convenient. I probably would have done something about the same if I were him," Ricks's eyes were searching hers to see if she would look him in the eye, she wouldn't or couldn't.

She wasn't saying anything or meeting his eyes, meaning she was lying, it hadn't slipped past him when she said she had HEARD he tried to save her from the gunshot, not that she remembered him knocking her to the ground. If she wouldn't confess to that, she certainly wasn't going to admit to remembering what he said. Lanie had told him he had shouted it loud enough for half of New Jersey to know, but well, he'd let her say what she wanted to.

"I don't really remember anything, well past standing and giving Roy's eulogy, after that things went black," Kate said finally, burning a hole in the covers of her bed with her eyes avoiding his,

"Well, you know, it's a traumatic event, sometimes it takes time for the memories to come back," Rick said, trying to give her an out of the bold-faced lie they both knew she was telling.

She doubled down, rather than confess, she pulled a hallmark verse from somewhere in her brain, and credited some unnamed doctor with the quote, "Well the doctor said somethings were best not remembered," she said, again, not meeting his eyes, her tell, a lie, again.

"Of course, who would want to remember that" Rick played along knowing she had made up her mind, the entire episode with him had never happened in her world. HOW MUCH LOUDER CAN SHE SAY IT, SHE'S NOT INTO YOU, the thought raced through his mind. That would account for the feeling as if he had just been punched in the chest with a brutal punch from a heavyweight champion boxer.

Luckily it was she that ended the conversation when she said, "Castle, I'm really tired right now," sounding every bit as tired as she looked,

"Of course, I just wanted to see for myself, I thought I would never see you again, a couple of times in fact. You should talk to Lanie, she's been a wreck." Rick tried to deflect the sound of his heart being ripped from his chest and thrown on the floor to be trampled on.

"Yeah, I know, I have to see her soon, listen, Castle, do you mind if I take a few days just to get situated here. I mean, I'll call you in a couple of days, I just have to come to grips with getting shot. I even have to talk to the department's psychologist sometime in the next day or so." She once again looked at all the things around him but not at him.

"Sure, no problem, you know, just call when you're ready. I know you and doctors but don't delay Lanie too long or your stay here will be extended," he tried to joke, but she saw the smile on his face didn't match the one he always had just for her, her smile. She knew that he knew, but she was going to let him walk away like this.

She looked away for a moment, then looked back and the doorway was empty, he was gone, she had done it. Lied to him, WHY? God Damn it WHY? Now he is going to think I don't care about him at all. Hell, he still thinks I'm with Josh for God's sake.

A small voice in her head said in her mom's tone, "Of course he does Katherine, what else is he supposed to believe, why didn't you tell him when you broke up with Josh? What was the secret? Now you've really made a mess of things, he thinks he's the one saving lives, your life, while he makes pancakes, not my words, my daughter, yours"

Just as fast as the voice came into her mind, it was gone, just like Castle.

XxX

Outside Presbyterian Hospital

Day 4, Rick's POV

Rick had just been hit with a double whammy, first tossed from the precinct by the wannabe Captain Iron Gates, now Kate, well, giving her the benefit of the doubt, basically telling him she wasn't into him, go love someone else in the kindest way she could. He had been correct to find a new hobby when Gates pulled her power play. True, it would only take one call, and he would be back at the precinct, but WHY? For WHO?

The boys were Kate's friends, only with him because he was forced on her, thus by default her team, by the powers to be. Sure, Anne Hasting and Roz Karpowski were friendly, but they kept their distance when anything came to do with Beckett.

Again, there was nothing holding him in New York, hell he had already given Gina the complete manuscript for book two of the Heat series, not due for 4 months. He already had the final Heat book written, he just had to change a few characters around and the ending, but even with Gina's edits, it would be less than a month's work.

Alexis was going on a two-month tour of Europe with her class, and his Mother, hell she had found a new interest so God only knew what her plans were. He pulled out his phone, spoke into it "Siri, remind me to lock the liquor cabinets, and stash the expensive booze tomorrow." He waited until he heard a voice speak back that she would do as he requested. Next, he stopped by Paula's with a stash of burner phones, all with different area codes and phone numbers, each case marked with the numerical order they were to be used in.

Altogether, he supplied her with 12 phones, typically when he went off the grid, it would change phones weekly, or at most bi-weekly, depending on how many requests Paula had received from people that he really wanted to avoid, at this time, that would be anyone from the 12th precinct. He reviewed the standard protocol with her once again, he knew no one was getting any information from her, he trusted her completely.

"Rick, can you give me any hint of where you're heading, I mean when the paparazzi start publishing pictures, what cover story do we use?" She asked, "Well until I get the pictures retracted and break their legs" she laughed, but there was some seriousness to her statement.

"Well, use the story that I'm consulting with the studio in the possibility of making Heat Wave into a movie, hell, they'll get the run around from you and their PR folks." He laughed,

"Is that what you're really doing Rick?" she looked at him,

"Paula, you know better than to ask me that, I can't tell you, but, well, I have a few stops but yes, I'll be on the West Coast eventually. As for the paparazzi, you know the deal, and I understand your boyfriend has got the ones in New York scared shitless, see if he can spread it westward, that's all I'm going to say." Rick smiled,

"Well, I'll see what I can do, but it might cost you extra," she laughed,

"When doesn't it," he laughed back, "Stay safe, I'll be in touch," and he was gone, out of her office,

He made his way home, using the back entrance, he had already alerted Eduardo, Alexis left this morning, and as far as anyone asking to see him, he should refer them to Paula. He was no longer in New York and wouldn't return for some time. He was also instructed to remove everyone, including Kate Beckett from the approved list of visitors from the 12th precinct. If they showed up, he was to ask them to leave, if they refused, he was to call Captain, Moyer at the 54th precinct.

Harsh instructions perhaps, but he knew how persistent Beckett could be, even if she were off of work, she could still talk Javi into doing almost anything for her. Better to avoid than to engage with conflict. Javi would take Kate's orders as one of the commandments written on a tablet of clay, yet it was he who had called him her fetch dog, ironic, Rick thought smiling to himself.

The first call he made was to an old friend and made arrangements to fly up there tomorrow morning. This was the type of friend, who just replied when he asked, 'are you going to be home,' "Hell we are now, come on up, your room is waiting for you, you better not be making not hotel reservations. "

The conversation had rejuvenated his spirits, perhaps friendship still existed in the world, perhaps not everyone did things for courtside tickets or weekends with an expensive sports car. He called Janice, his personal pilot, and had her file a flight plan for tomorrow around 10:00 AM, departing New York, for, well, he'd reveal that later. He had sworn her to secrecy, and he knew Janice was like Paula, she'd die before she revealed anything.

He took copies of files he had absconded with from the 12th, carefully transferring everything to a thumb drive including pictures of his personal murder board on his large-screen display. Once he was convinced, he had copied the files, he backed them up via VPN (Virtual Private Network) to his private cloud account, then placed the original copies in the vault, yes, the huge safe inside the private room, he had off of his office. When he knew, Martha was coming to live with him and Alexis, he had it installed. He loved his mother, but there were days, well, just say, there were days.

Next, he took his phone, set it to back up directly to his cloud account, he could still see who called by retrieving his call log and messages from his account. He erased the voice mail greeting, how silly it sounded now, he thought.

"You've reached the voice mail of Richard Castle, I'm sorry I will be unavailable for the considerable future. If you need to leave a message for me, please contact my publicist, Paula Haas at" then he rattled off the two numbers that Pula reserved just for his business.

"I'm sorry, but I won't be available for extended periods of time, please direct any questions to Paula Thanks," then a few seconds of the Eagles song Lying Eyes played as his message concluded, and the dial tone was heard.

OK, one phone down, now check the landline, he pressed the outgoing message to hear Alexis bubbly voice: Hi, you've reached the Castle residence. If you're calling for Alexis, leave a message or call me on my cell phone, I'll be in Europe for the next 9 weeks. If you're calling for Grams, leave a message and good luck, she never checks the machine, and if you're calling for Rick Castle, call Paula Haas, for anything resembling an emergency. Thanks for calling, Cheers!" Her cheery voice couldn't be erased, Rick just hung the phone up and crossed the task off his list.

Next, he called Roy Reith, the Studio Executive of Lion Gate Studio, in Hollywood, just as a cursory, and courtesy check-in. Roy's voice sounded panicked, and harried, as he answered, covered the phone and screamed "Not that one you idiot, I'll take care of it in a minute" then returned to the phone. "Roy speaking how can I help you," he said into the phone, still totally incensed with whomever he had just yelled at.

"Well, the first thing you can do Roy, is breathe…., take about ten deep breaths, this is Rick Castle, I'll wait." Rick smiled into the phone,

He heard a noise on the other end of the receiver, and finally a less, but still upset Roy came back on the phone. "Thank God you called Rick, I just tried and got the voice mail from your cell, we have problems on the film and it's not even been one week" He started to hyperventilate again,

"Hey, Hey, it's OK, Roy, whatever it is, we'll figure it out, so let's start from the beginning what's going on?" Rick asked,

"Well, the head writer walked out today, he had it with Natalie Rhodes, then she wound up taking a limo off the studio grounds, we just got a call, she's checked herself into a medical facility for the next six weeks, so"

"Roy, Roy, OK, take the rest of the week off, give the crew and the rest of the staff and cast the week off as well, full pay, guaranteed by me, I'll be there on Monday and we can work this all out.

"In the meantime, WHEN you calm down, pull the audition tapes for your top five choices for Nikki, besides Natalie, and have them ready for me. Now go, calm down, it's all good, we'll make it up, I promise you." Rick assured him, as he re-arraigned his agenda for next week.

He had to spend two days at his first stop, but giving the cast and crew the week off was the best way he knew how to cool the emotions down, something if Roy was any indicator of, was sorely needed.

"You sure Rick, I mean this could ruin me, I mean"

"Roy, it's all good, just go do what I said, and calm down, what do you do for a hobby, ski, fish, camp?" Rick asked,

"Well, the wife and I love cruises, there's a three-day cruise leaving tomorrow,"

"Then go home and get on it, take the wife out, I'll see you next week, and Roy, that's not a suggestion," He said,

"OK Rick, thanks, the wife isn't going to believe this, so thanks again," as he hung up, breathing normally for the first time since the call had begun.

Well, looks like there's going to be plenty to keep me busy and help to get over a certain detective, he just had to let go of the impossible dream and remember, not every dream comes true, some turn into nightmares,

TBC