Here be Dragons!
Chapter 25
Dinner was apparently over as Alexis got up from the table, ran to her room, and slammed the door. Both of them stood at the bottom of the stairs, staring up at her door.
"She seems to have taken the death of your mother rather badly." Rick didn't get it. It made no sense to him.
"I'll go," Kate offered even if it wasn't her child.
Rick stopped her with a hand on her arm. "My daughter," Rick said.
"My mother," Kate parried. She felt Rick let go of her. He didn't say anything but Kate didn't think he needed to. She walked up the stairs to Alexis's door then knocked.
"GO AWAY, DAD!" Alexis needed to figure this out. Kate's mother meant something to her and she didn't know why exactly.
Kate tried the door and realized that it wasn't locked so she opened it. "I'm not your father," Kate stated and closed the door behind her.
Kate was a little amazed. Her room was a mix of several ages. The colors clearly said adult. The bed was queen sized. There was a tasteful dresser with a mirror and a chest of drawers. Her closet, while standard in size, was open a little and showed it was full of clothes. At least on this side.
There was a huge pile of stuffed animals in one corner. However a severely sad teenage girl was curled up on her big bed clutching a stuffed animal and was clearly softly crying.
Kate saw her watch as she moved to the bed and sat on the edge of it. "My mother was a lawyer. She saw herself as a person fighting against the rich and privileged. As a champion. She felt everyone should have a voice. That the truth would set you free.
"I wanted to be just like her and be a lawyer just like my parents. My high school classes were based on being a lawyer. Come time for college I got accepted into Stanford, the second best college for Pre-law I could find. Only Oxford University in England was better but I didn't want to go that far.
"I'd been there for one whole semester and while classes were hard, I thought I was doing pretty well. I flew home for Christmas break. I wasn't homesick but glad to be home.
"I went with Dad to a restaurant where Mom said she would meet us but she never showed." Kate paused and watched as Alexis sat up and wiped away her tears. Kate could tell she had her undivided attention.
"Dad and I finally went home after waiting several hours. We found a homicide detective waiting for us. A Detective Raglan. He didn't mince words and didn't even try to make it easy on us. Mom had been stabbed and left to bleed out." Alexis took that information hard and Kate saw her tears start all over again.
"She still had her jewelry, wedding ring, money, credit cards. So it wasn't robbery. The police never found her killer and chalked her death up to being gang-related. He wanted to be a gang member and his initiation into the gang was to kill someone at random." Kate paused and watched Alexis wipe away tears.
"It broke my heart. I was 19 at the time. We were really close and I vowed to never be hurt like that again. I keep everyone out. I don't let anyone get to know me. The old me or the new me." Kate suddenly found herself being hugged and it only got tighter. Kate couldn't help but hug her back. She really didn't have any tears left for her mother and Alexis was the only person she had told this much to ever. Not even her old boyfriend knew this much. He just knew she was dead.
"Please don't, Kate. …Please?" Alexis begged her.
"Please don't what?" Kate didn't get it. What did this have anything to do with what she had told her?
"Please don't not love. Love can fix everything. If you love it can heal everything that's broken," Alexis said.
Kate was shocked. Alexis was maybe 15 or 16 years old. What could she possibly know about being in love? "Why do you say that?" What did Alexis know that she didn't?
Alexis didn't let go of her. "Remember my mother?"
"Meredith," Kate confirmed. Of course Kate remembered what Alexis had told her about her mother.
"Mom may not love me but I still love her. If I didn't my hatred of her would ruin me," Alexis told her.
Kate had to admit that she had her there. What did this have to do with her mother and why she cared so much?
"I love Dad a lot but he can be a handful sometimes. I hear stories from other kids in school so I know what I have and don't have. Divorced parents who only fight. Parents who control their kids. Dad's amazing. He's always been there for me no matter what," Alexis shared and kept her hold on Kate.
Kate began to like being hugged with this much feeling even if she had been surprised and not used to have a child of any age hugging her. She tightened her hold on Alexis.
"What does this have to do with my mom?" Kate needed to find out what was going on. It was her mother that sent Alexis up here.
"There are divorced kids in school. Mostly Dad's gone. My mother's gone. Your mother is gone. You need to stay. Love can fix you," Alexis explained now that she had a little time to think about it. The more Alexis tried to explain the more she understood why Kate's mother meant so much to her.
That got Kate to hug her a little tighter. Her mother was dead but Alexis's mother was simply missing. Kate really did wish it was that easy.
"Not quite the same, Alexis. Mine's dead, while yours isn't." One was fixable while the other was permanent. Only Kate felt Alexis shaking her head. Kate had to wonder if this Meredith truly was that bad. Just what had she done to this girl?
"I'm touched that you care but we should go back downstairs. Your father's worried about you." Kate let go of her and managed to easily escape Alexis's arms. "Come on, time to face your father." Kate stood and pulled Alexis with her.
Rick was sitting on the steps at the bottom of the stairs and jumped when he heard the door open. He looked relieved when Alexis finally stepped out.
Kate let her go first and stayed back a few steps. Alexis reached the bend to the last two steps where Castle had been sitting. "Sorry, Dad." She hadn't meant to scare him.
Rick silently opened his arms and Kate watched both of them hug in a manner that told her they were dedicated to the other. Kate was betting that any potential boyfriend was going to have a lot to live up to.
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Dinner had been warmed up and finished. Alexis had retreated to her room to do some research on her computer and left Rick and Kate to themselves.
Kate had accepted a glass of wine and sat down on one end of his big sectional and tucked a leg under her. Castle gave her space and sat on the other end with his glass of wine.
"She's a good kid." Kate knew she had said that before but she really meant it now.
"Alexis is dedicated to school. She wants to learn and experience everything she can. She talks about challenging herself. What she hasn't figured out yet is just what she wants to do with her life. I sometimes worry that she's going to be good at everything but not an expert at anything. We'll have to have a little talk about that eventually," Rick said. "Based on my life I have no idea where she gets it from."
Kate decided to get to the point. "What do you think you're doing, Castle? You're not a cop and what did Captain Montgomery mean about basing a book on me?"
Rick leaned toward her. "If you instead of just your mother have read any of my books, you'll have learned that I like things to be believable. I had Derek Storm end up tied to a chair with a roll of duct tape. I'll let Alexis explain the story but I had her tie me to a chair and leave me like that. I wanted to know how to get out so I could make it real. I call it research. I have an idea for a new character since I killed Derek Storm."
Kate rolled her eyes. He hadn't just killed Storm, he'd made it sure he was never coming back.
"I need to follow you around to get the character right. There's one other reason." Rick loved the idea and was pretty sure she wouldn't but maybe he could wear her down and get her to love it.
"I know I'm going to regret this, but what is that?" Kate took a large sip of her wine to soften the blow.
"I need to protect you. Roy said you don't have a partner," Rick told her.
"Protect me?" she said in disbelief. Yeah, she was going to shoot him. "You do realize I'm the one that's trained and carries a gun."
"How many shifters have you encountered to date?" Rick changed the subject since he still needed to work on her.
Kate played with her wine glass. "Just you," she admitted. "I didn't even know I could detect another shifter until you. How many have you met?"
Rick smiled. "Not including you? Four, actually. Two were a mated pair of Wolves. They live in the Dakotas. I met them on a book tour. Another was an Orca. He lives in a small house on an island in the Seattle area. He spends most of his time in his animal form or so he told me. He was in the Seattle area doing some shopping when he came across by book signing by accident.
"The last was a Grizzly bear. She lives in a little town in Alaska. She had come to Anchorage just to get my autograph. I talked her into coming back after I was done since I wanted to talk to her."
"And sign her chest?" Kate knew from the papers he did such a thing.
"Her chest, no. Pretty sure she would have ripped me to pieces if I had tried. …Why? Do you want me to sign yours?" Rick teased her and grinned as he raised an eyebrow.
"You do know I carry a gun, right?" Kate replied.
"You and your gun still isn't going to cover your back," Rick pointed out.
So far Kate hadn't found any need to have someone covering her back. Besides she had always had the boys to back her up.
"So why is it so important to you that you cover my back?" Kate queried.
"Because you're the only Dragon I've ever encountered. Talking to the others I learned that there are more shifters out there than either of us have ever encountered. It left me thinking they have a hidden communications system of some kind but I didn't press and they didn't tell.
"If there are good shifters then there have to be bad shifters. In your job you are likely to find one and I want to be there when you do," Rick explained.
"Now I have a question. Why did it bother you so much that I might have been killed chasing down Tisdale's son?" Rick asked her.
"I would have had to fill out twice the amount of paperwork," Kate answered quickly. It was the truth just not the whole truth and maybe more lie than the truth.
Both of them looked at each other. "I suppose if I don't let you Alexis will kill me." Kate began to relent.
Rick, however, shook his head. "She wouldn't do that. She might maybe give you a piece of her mind but not actually kill you."
Kate glared at him since she knew Alexis would never kill anyone.
Kate knew that she didn't have a choice. The mayor, commissioner, and her captain all liked the idea of having Castle follow her around.
"Fine but if you make me tell Alexis that you got yourself killed I really will kill you," Kate grumbled.
"With your gun," Rick added.
"Definitely," Kate snapped.
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Rick had asked her when her first weekend off was and she had to tell him she had no idea. When she got days off wasn't up to her. It was more luck than schedule.
Now she was home, putting her weapon away, and doing her normal routine to get ready for bed. She couldn't help but wonder just what her life was about to become. Her very first shifter who just happened to be a Dragon just like her if no one had lied to her. And now she was stuck with him. Though if listening to her Dragon told her anything, her life was going to change sooner rather than later. The voice in her head had been trying to get her to at least kiss him if not fuck his brains out.
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"Mr. Castle, be advised that if you get injured while following Detective Beckett you cannot sue the city. If you get shot you cannot sue the city. Killed –" Rick interrupted him.
"My lifeless remains can't sue the city." Rick wasn't that deaf.
"Your heirs, Mr. Castle," he corrected him. Rick sighed then nodded and began signing all the papers.
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"So," Kate questioned when she reached the site of her next case.
"Mrs. Rosenburg here comes down to the basement to do laundry. She needed a dryer and finds it occupied. She was ready 30 minutes later to remove the dry clothes. That was when she found Miss Fluff and Dry here." Ryan took her to the dryer.
"Call CSU and get pictures. Even if it isn't going to do us much good since this is a public space. I presume she lives here?" Kate asked.
"Works here. 12F, she's the nanny," Ryan said which had Kate going up the elevator to 12F.
Kate found him in the lobby of the 12th floor. "Castle?" She'd left him behind with their lawyer to go over what he was getting himself into by following her around.
"I sign my name hundreds of times at each book signing. Signing a few pieces of paper's no problem," Rick told her.
Kate sighed. "I hope you know what you're getting yourself into. You get yourself killed and Alexis is never going to forgive me."
"Alexis isn't going to forgive me if you get yourself killed and I wasn't there to save you. So we're both trapped," Rick asserted.
"The nanny's name was Sarah Manning. She worked here for 2 years," Rick informed her. "The doorman is a fan."
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"Video in the elevator only shows the nanny going up and down until the old lady goes down. No one else," Espo related.
"There are three maintenance workers. We'll run their names in the morning," Ryan said as he looked at his notes.
"Why not run all the names of everyone in the building?" Rick asked them and saw the looks he was getting. "Come on. What do any of us know about our neighbors? Do you think the guy living next to door to Son of Sam knew he was living next door to a serial killer?
What about the guy in 8B?" Rick queried.
"Who?" Kate wasn't following any of this.
Rick spun his little tale for Kate, Roy, Espo, and Ryan. "8B, quiet guy. See him every day. But he's never noticed. But he noticed Sarah. Young, beautiful and a guy like him was never going to have a chance with. First it's just a game. Figure out her schedule. Then what if she could become something more? A need that he can't control. He takes the stairs obviously since the elevator has a monitor.
"He stays in the shadows and when she comes into that laundry room, he pounces. In the end he is looking into her lifeless eyes and tells her he never meant to kill her. All he ever wanted was to be noticed. He gently places her dead body inside the drier and almost smiles. He gets lucky and finds a quarter in his pocket. It buys him time to do what he does best. He disappears because no one notices him."
"Just saying. Better story. …Coffee?" Rick was done. He headed for the breakroom to get coffee. Kate grinned, amazed that he could generate a story from almost nothing. It didn't fit the crime scene but that didn't matter.
"Find out about the neighbors," Roy ordered Espo and Ryan and headed for his office. "And somebody tell me who the hell lives in 8B." He pointed at all of them before going into his office.
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Rick was home and saw that his mother had made an attempt at cooking and left Alexis with the mess to clean up. "So who died today?" Alexis asked him.
"The nanny," Rick said.
"So why didn't we have a nanny?" Alexis only ever remembered her dad along with a few baby sitters.
"I didn't need one. I work from home, remember?" Rick swooped down on her and gave her a big hug.
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Hours later Kate and Rick were both lost. The husband she was the nanny for was cheating. Just not cheating with the nanny. Then they find out that the wife was lying to them.
The wife knew her husband was cheating because Sarah had told her. Her husband was paying her extra so she could cook for their child while he cheated with a coworker. The wife lied because she was at her lawyer getting ready to file divorce papers.
The family was so screwed up and lying to seemingly everyone that they all looked like a suspect. Yet now even with Rick's little story, they had nothing.
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"Not sure where you are going with this, Castle?" Kate was standing in an elevator and bored.
"Thirty-two seconds. It takes thirty-two seconds to get from the basement to the 12th floor." Rick had something just not sure what.
"Great." Kate was not impressed.
"Only the second time it takes her thirty-seven seconds," Rick pointed out and he looked at his watch after going back down to the basement.
"Why did it take her five seconds longer?" Kate was catching on.
"Because she wasn't going to the 12th floor," Rick said and the elevator went bing. "She was going to the 15th floor." They both got out of the elevator and Kate was paying attention now.
"Castle." Kate saw a woman with a very familiar child coming out a door.
They both soon learn that Chloe Richards that got her the nanny job worked here. And then out of a bedroom came the husband.
"Condoms in the bathroom," Rick whispered to Kate as he walked past her. Then he got out his cell phone.
"What's that?" the wife asked as a ringtone played.
"Sounds like a cell phone." Rick smiled at Kate. Meanwhile the wife went in search of the noise to find out what it is. Which happens to be in their bedroom.
"Who the hell's phone is this?" She'd found it under the bed and Kate and Rick were smiling at each other.
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"The doorman called to tell us that a tenant told him that there's a girl in the basement and she has a knife," Rick told Kate after picking up the ringing phone in the room Chloe was the nanny for. Where they found the husband stabbed but alive.
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"Dad, thanks for being my nanny." Alexis really was happy that she'd had her dad all the time.
"No sweat, kiddo. It was a pleasure," Rick said with a smile.
"So when are you asking Kate out to the Hamptons? Maybe she'll let me ride her like you let me ride you." Alexis smiled at him as she went toward her room, leaving him to type since that was what he did.
Rick stopped typing. He wondered if Kate was ready to accept an invitation to the Hamptons. They hadn't talked about what she thought about being a Dragon. He got the feeling she hadn't shifted very much.