Here be Dragons!
Chapter 35
They both felt pieces of what was likely concrete was raining down on them. They each inhaled and breathed out fire which was hot enough to almost vaporize the part of the building around them. It also caused a fire. However, they were both clear enough to hop slash fly a short distance to get away from it all. Then shift back.
"It worked!" Kate was happy to be alive and leaped at Rick who groaned a little thinking he must have pulled something. "I love you." Kate kissed him soundly. "Cell phone." She needed to get the word out that they'd found the bomb and then lost it.
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"Nest confirms high levels of low grade radiation along with high levels of Semtex in the area." Fallon was walking with Roy after getting off his phone.
"Are you two always this stubborn and insubordinate?" Fallon demanded. Kate and Rick stood there waiting for him to cool off.
"Only when we're trying to save the world," Rick quipped.
"I would be more impressed if you had succeeded. How did you two know how to come here?" He had nothing that would bring him here and yet these two had actually found the bomb.
"Security cameras in Amir's cab," Kate told him. "We think he was keeping tabs on one of his drivers. Kevin McCann."
"Turns out he was coming to that storage building and this warehouse area long before Amir was killed," Rick helped explain. "With Amir dead Kevin worked at getting his cousin Jamal to be implicated except we found him as a frozen popsicle in the warehouse. Amir and Jamal were actually innocent and just decoys."
"I don't suppose you saw the others?" Fallon asked.
Rick shook his head. "Too dark and we were being shot at. However, we did see the bomb in the white van. It's set to go off at 4:00 pm. Just before rush hour, meaning everyone will be in the city working."
"I know it looks like Amir and Jamal are involved, but I'm telling you something else is going on here. Kevin McCann is involved." Kate tried again to get this idiot to listen.
"Yo, McCann and his taxi aren't showing up," Espo informed them.
"Agent Fallon, given how things have worked out I officially request to be placed back on the task force. We did at least find the bomb once," Kate pointed out which was more than he had done.
"Get a change of clothes and report to the precinct." Fallon knew he'd been shown up and his primary concern was to find this bomb and the people that had it.
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Rick and Kate showed up at the loft and found Martha and Alexis at home.
"What are you two doing here?" Rick knew he'd sent them away.
"I'm going to get changed. Get them out of here, Rick." Kate headed for the bedroom to at least change clothes.
Alexis had questions. "Dad, what are you trying to hide?"
"What is going on, Richard?" Martha didn't understand, either.
"I need you two to do something for both of us. I want you to go to the Hamptons for the weekend. You need to stay there and don't ask questions that I can't answer." Rick's voice revealed his urgency.
"Richard, what is this about?" Martha persisted.
"That's a question that you can't ask. Just get to the Hamptons and do it now! There may be an event that could make it very serious to stay in the city." Rick knew he was saying too much. "What are you doing?" Alexis had her phone out.
"Calling Ashley." Rick immediately took Alexis's cell phone away from her.
"No, you can't," Rick said sternly. "You tell him and he tells his parents and in under an hour the city will be in a full-blown panic which will make this a million times worse."
"Dad, he's my boyfriend." She was calling him. "This isn't fair."
"Fair has nothing to do with it. You both leave now, right now before Kate and I leave," Rick insisted.
"You two could come with us," Martha cajoled.
"We will, when we've stopped this." Rick watched both of them leave with Alexis about ready to cry which only made him ready to cry.
Kate came out dressed. "Are they gone yet?"
"Yeah, but they suspect something," Rick sighed.
"I know, babe. Alexis is sometimes too smart for her own good. …Go change and meet me at the precinct. If they actually leave they'll be fine. If we found it once we can find it again." Kate kissed him and headed for the door.
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"I thought you could use the caffeine and it's warm." Rick set a tall cup of coffee in front of her and sat down.
Rick and Kate were with Fallon after Espo found something.
"Kevin McCann, Special Forces, recipient of two Purple Hearts, Distinguished Service medal during his six tours in Afghanistan." Fallon was looking at his military record.
"Six tours?" Kate couldn't imagine anyone taking six tours.
"What's a war hero doing in a terrorist plot?" Rick questioned.
"Kevin McCann, the real Kevin McCann is in Arlington Cemetery. He died two years ago." Fallon brought up his picture and it wasn't the Kevin McCann they knew.
"So someone stole his identity." Kate tried to think.
"Taken over by a foreign agent," Fallon surmised since he was still focused on this being a foreign agency attacking the Untied States.
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"Broadway, black van!" Rick pointed just after Kate was ready to turn around and go back.
"My baby!" Nazihah cried to Kate.
"We have your baby, she's safe," Kate promised her.
"Beckett!" Rick had the back of the van open and saw what he didn't want to see.
"Fallon?" Kate asked him after sending him pictures.
"It's not clear enough. I can't help you. …I'm sorry." They were all dead and it wasn't going to be a pretty death. It was going to be a long and agonizing radiation poisoning death.
"Fifteen seconds!" Rick yelled and looked at Kate. She didn't want to die; she was scared and didn't know what to do. "Rick, I really do love you."
Rick took her hand, held it, not knowing just what to say. So he reached out, grabbed hold of a handful of wires, and yanked on all of them.
The timer said zero but the bomb didn't blow.
"Ahhh, RICK!" Kate wrapped her arms around him and kissed him until she couldn't kiss him any longer. "I want a baby!"
Rick let go of Kate, ran his hands down his face, then pumped both his arms. "YES!" Then pointed at the stupid bomb that almost ruined everything. Kate laughed since there really wasn't anything else to do.
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"He looked at me then just grabbed the wires and yanked them." Kate demonstrated how Rick had yanked them.
All of them laughed. "All of them?" Ryan asked him and still laughed.
"One of them had to be the timer." Rick was laughing, too.
"I hadn't the heart to tell Fallon you had no clue what you were doing," Roy laughed a little.
They were all drinking beers while supposedly still on duty. Then Fallon opened the door. "Can I talk to you two for a second?
"I just wanted you two to know that the US Attorneys office is going to charge those three with several counts of domestic terrorism. Thanks to you two we won't be adding charges from murdering thousands of New York City residents."
"I was just doing my job. I don't know what Castle was doing," Kate teased him.
"Hey!" Rick knew she was yanking his chain.
"Listen… What I do isn't for everyone. It's just who I am." Fallon was trying to explain himself.
"Let's just say it's a pleasure and that we don't want to do it again," Kate offered.
"Fair enough." Fallon didn't blame them and walked away.
Rick watched him leave then turned to face Kate. "Did you say something about a baby, or did I hear wrong?"
"You heard right. I want to stop using my birth control pills and throw out our condoms." Kate waited for him to say something. Instead he gathered her in his arms and kissed her.
When he finally broke from the kiss she didn't remind him of no PDA in the office. "Boy or a girl?" Rick waited for her answer.
Kate bit her lower lip. "Yes."
"We should go to the Hamptons and get Alexis and Mother," Rick reminded her.
"I have paperwork I need to work on. While you go home and pack I'll work on it then you can come pick me up. I'm putting in for a week off. We can get in some practice making that baby, perhaps. I love you, Rick, I truly do." Kate patted his backside to sends him on his way.
"Deal!" Rick kissed her again and left so they could leave when she was done. Only he stopped. "Maybe we can finally agree on a venue."
Yeah, they still needed a venue and she wanted to be married before she ended up pregnant or at least couldn't fit into her dress that she hadn't bought yet.
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Rick was driving to the Hamptons with Kate to join Alexis and Martha who miraculously had actually done as they were told. Roy had given her three days off instead of the entire week. He had given her one whole extra day for saving the city.
"Even if it was Castle that pulled the wires," Roy had told her.
"Sir!?" She had worked hard on this case.
"Just yanking your chain, Beckett, just yanking your chain." Roy had smiled at her as he headed for his office and left his empty bottle of beer behind in the trash.
"They're going to have questions," Rick warned her.
"Questions we can't answer since it's a secret." Kate didn't want to lie but what were they going to say?
"Maybe we'll just all ignore it and not talk about it." Then Rick pulled over to the side of the road. Kate looked at him since there was nothing here.
Then she saw tears. "Rick?" Kate unbuckled her seatbelt and moved as close as she could get to him.
"It just hit me. I almost lost you. I almost lost everything." She could hear Rick's anguish in his voice.
She kissed his face. "I know, babe, I know." Kate tried to put both arms around him.
Rick exhaled and his body slumped tiredly. "Being a Dragon wasn't going to save us,"
Kate went back to kissing him. "Want me to drive?" She'd already gone through a little of what Rick was experiencing. The rest would probably hit her tonight or tomorrow.
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Kate pulled up in front of the house in the Hamptons and had barely turned off the car when Alexis came running out the front door. She was already at the passenger door with her hands on the glass and looking inside.
Rick had just gotten the door open when Alexis climbed in his lap, wrapped her arms around his neck, and sniffled. He could even feel her shaking and tried to console her. "We're fine, pumpkin. Nothing happened."
Kate was out of the car but Rick and Alexis were still inside it. Martha came out and Kate was enveloped by one of Martha's hugs. A hug like only a mother could give. "You scared us to death, Katherine." Martha didn't let go of her.
"Sorry, Martha, it wasn't our idea. But I'm glad you're here and not in the city." Kate kept hugging her back.
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"It's 5 o'clock somewhere." Martha poured out three glasses of wine. Alexis accepted her glass of iced Coke.
"You two can't tell us a thing, can you?" Alexis watched them both shake their heads. "Probably just as well. I don't need nightmares."
"I can tell you that your major in college isn't going to lead you to a job with Homeland Security. That job isn't for you, sweetheart," Kate declared.
"I am sorry, pumpkin, but if I let you tell Ashley and he tells his parents and they tell everyone they know, we all would be jailed for life right now. I know it's not fair but it's not meant to be," Rick apologized.
"I get it, Dad, I do. It just hurts." Rick could see her sadness.
"I know, Alexis." He put an arm around her.
"So it's safe to go back now?" Martha questioned, wondering if that was the end of it.
"Yes, Martha. When you want to go back it is just as safe as it used to be," Kate assured her. "Um, is there food?" Neither she nor Rick had eaten all day or maybe not even yesterday. Even that one little glass of wine after the bottle of beer had gone straight to her head.
"We ate in town," Alexis replied.
"I'll go." Rick got up and leaned down to kiss Kate who kissed him back. "You can stay here and tell them about the baby." He ducked and walked quickly away.
"BABY!" Alexis stared at Kate.
"OH, Katherine!" Martha was really happy now.
"I'm not pregnant! I simply asked Rick if he was ready for a baby because I was." They didn't get vaporized by a dirty bomb since they were a couple of feet away from the damn thing and Kate was ready to start her life with Rick.
Kate rapidly changed the subject. These two knew all they were going to know about that dirty bomb. "Have you figured out what to do with your million dollars?"
"No, I've even thought about trying to give it back. That was when his adult children told me that Chet had been happier ever since he met me and that they wanted me to have the money." Martha still had no idea.
"Grams even mentioned she was thinking about saying no to his proposal." Alexis ratted her out.
"I liked Chet, I really did. It was just after a while I didn't feel that I loved him. I've married enough men that I thought I loved and didn't want to do that again," Martha explained.
"Well it's your money now." Kate reached over to her. "Just don't move out because of me, Martha. Or even after the baby."
Martha smiled. "I'm looking forward to spoiling my granddaughter or grandson. What did your father say?"
"We only just decided, I haven't had a chance to talk to Dad yet. We still need a venue and we're running out of time before it's late fall and into winter. If we wait until next summer I may be seriously pregnant by then and can't wear any dress." Kate was beginning to worry.
Alexis up and left the room and came back moments later with a laptop; she sat down next to Kate and turned it on. "The house has Wi-fi."
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"How about this one? East Hampton Point. It's a few miles from here, still way out on the point. It can handle 225 people either inside or out. It has five different venue locations and since it's a resort it has a hotel for people that are flying in. Looks like it has a restaurant for food and it's available year round. Where's your phone?" Alexis had found something.
Alexis listened and waited for Kate to hang up. "Nothing until March."
"Okay." Alexis went back to the computer to keep looking.
Alexis moved to the city and sucked in a breath because she was excited. "Dad would kill to get this one." Alexis showed it to her.
Kate looked at her askance. "The New York Public Library? They do weddings?"
"Fifty thousand per event." Alexis began reading and heard Kate coughing. "Holds 450 people. They have a limited list of people for food or it's BYO. Alcohol is BYO as well. It's open year round daily. You could get married at midnight. There's no view except for what's inside and it's all inside. People outside the city can fly in and find their own hotel." Alexis showed her pictures. "Dad loves the library. He'd be over the moon if you were married there."
1. Your event fees go to a good cause: They help support the Library's collections, services and programs.
2. A $50-million restoration has brought back the Stephen A. Schwarzman Building's original beauty, making the 1911 landmark a spectacular place for a wedding.
3. Seven exquisite event spaces transport you to another place and time. They feature a dazzling variety of features, from the vaulted ceiling and white marble walls in Astor Hall to the glorious 30-foot-high glass and cast-iron dome in the Bartos Forum.
Alexis had her call and listened until Kate held the phone to her chest. "They say midnight on November 1st of this year is open but they want their $50,000. That gives us just two months." Kate watched Alexis get up and run upstairs.
"What do you think, Martha?" Kate needed advice and she was going to need a whole lot of help if they were going to do this in two short months.
"Alexis is right, dear." Martha patted her shoulder. "Richard would kill to get married here. Don't worry about the money. Just does it look nice to you? It's your wedding. …We're going to need a lot of help."
Kate looked at the picture again. The glass and cast iron dome looked amazing if not a little dark. Black tables, black chairs, and dark hardwood floors, but it was lovely.
Then suddenly Alexis landed next to her and handed Kate a black credit card. "Dad has the money." Alexis looked at her pleadingly.
Kate put her phone back to her ear, made the reservation, and gave them Rick's name and credit card number. She listened for a bit then hung up. "It's done," she announced and Alexis squealed in her ear and hugged her tight.
"Dad's going to die when he finds out!" Alexis proclaimed.
"Now we have to go dress shopping in town tomorrow." Martha clapped her hands together and smiled wide.
"Fifty thousand dollars?" Kate couldn't get past that number. It helped explain why they had an opening, though.
"Dad's donated more than that to the library. He'll never notice." Alexis waved her hand and dismissed the amount. She rattled off a list. "Now we need flowers, invitations, caterer, photographer, dress, tux, something blue, music, …wedding cake!"
"We need a list." Alexis opened a document and between the three of them they work on creating a list. "Two months means we need invitations now. People need to know when and where and if they can come." Alexis went searching for those.
"I haven't even told my dad yet." Kate fell back into the sofa. Two months was starting to look impossible. "I need a ring for Castle. I'm in so much trouble."