AN: Thanks for all the follows, favorites, and reviews for this story. I really appreciate them!
Disclaimer: I don't own Castle.
The process in booking is long, humiliating, and tiresome. Rick gives his thumb prints, provides a mug shot, is throughly strip searched, and finally dons an orange jump suit before he is tossed into a cell. He is also informed that due to the nature of the case, he will face a judge tomorrow afternoon.
As the door clangs behind him, he sighs.
"Well, home sweet home, for now," he mutters, glancing around. There's only one cot, which means he's alone. Well, that's one good thing.
As the day's events set in, Rick feels himself grow drowsy and decides the only thing he can really do now is sleep. Settling himself onto the mattress, the man listens to the cacophony of noise outside, from the clank of cell doors to the rattling of the keys hanging on the guards' belts. He knows that he'll be hearing the sounds often throughout the next few years, so might as well get used to them.
As he begins to doze off, Rick finds comfort in the fact that the two people who matter the most to him are safe, even if neither of them are very happy with him right now.
Guess that's just once price he'll have to pay.
He's awoken the next morning by knocking against his cell door.
"Breakfast," the guard calls.
Rick's guided down to the cafeteria and stands in line with the rest of the inmates to get whatever is considered food in this establishment. As he walks, he listens to other conversations, some inmates apparently knowing each other. He just keeps to himself as he's served with what he believes are supposed to be eggs, milk, and some type of fruit.
Sitting by himself, Rick keeps his head down, munching on his food. A few moments later, another body slides next to him, but Rick doesn't look up.
"You new here?" the person asks. "I haven't seen you before."
Rick risks a glance and sees a slightly older man with greying black hair peering at him, eyebrow raised.
"Got booked last night," the younger man answers before returning to his meal.
"Ah, I figured." The man waits a beat. "So, what're you in for?"
"None of your business," Rick mumbles.
"Hey, look, I get it, you wanna keep your head down and stay out of trouble," the man chuckles. "However, you gotta socialize a little." The man grins, brown eyes glinting. "I'm Tyler, by the way. Got arrested for grand larceny. Still awaiting trial." The look Tyler gives is clear he expects an answer.
Sighing, the younger man says, "Rick and I turned myself in for kidnapping."
"Kidnapping? Damn. That's major league. Though, you don't look like the type."
Rick can't help the laugh that escapes him. "Yeah, she said that too."
"She?" Tyler sobers and Rick senses the next words out of the inmate's mouth. "Did you ever-"
"No, never." Rick shakes his head and Tyler eyes him warily.
"You better not be lying to me," the older man states and leaves it at that.
"I assure you, I'm telling the truth." He would kill himself before ever being forced to do such a thing.
Tyler nods. "Good."
At that moment, one of the guards calls out Rick's name. Furrowing his eyebrows, Rick dutifully walks over to the guard, who gestures for him to follow.
"May I ask what's going on?" He only receives a grunt as he's led to a room near the area where he had begun processing the previous night. The guard opens the door and Rick's spots a woman with red hair sitting on one side of a small table.
"You must be Rick Rodgers," she says, indicating for him to sit. As Rick approaches, he hears the guard close the door. "I'm Angela Lucrani and I am to be your attorney for this afternoon."
"Oh right, I'm supposed to the see the judge." Rick gazes at her, noting her stiff posture. "Public Defender?" he guesses with amusement.
Her lips twitch. "No, I'm actually doing this as a favor to Johanna Beckett. We've been friends since law school."
Damn, she came through after all.
"Okay, so what's going to happen?"
Shifting, Angela looks at him. "The judge will ask you to answer a plea of either guilty or not guilty. If you plead guilty you-"
"Waive my right to a trial, I know." The red head raises her eyebrows. "I intend to plead guilty on all charges."
Surprise flashes in the lawyer's blue eyes. "Are you sure?"
"Yes, I'm sure. I'm ready to do my time." He's not wavering on this. "Also, I'm willing to testify against the other two men involved, if need be."
"Okay." He can tell the lawyer's taken aback by his forwardness. "That will definitely work in your favor. I'll see if I can get the District Attorney to go light on the sentence, maybe the minimum required jail time, which would be ten years."
"I wouldn't mind that, honestly," he chuckles softly. "But I know the police are going to question me about the agency that I...worked for initially."
"Mmm," Angela hums. "That's something we'll address when we get there, pending on what the police decide to do with the information you give them and whether or not they decide to charge you."
"Which hopefully, they won't." He grimaces, figuring that those charges would basically put him away for life. Multiple counts of kidnapping, assault with a weapon to name a couple. Yeah, he really hopes the cops are generous in that aspect.
"We can only hope," Angela murmurs, writing something down on the notepad in front of her. She gazes at him, contemplating something. Finally she says, "I've had a lot of clients in my time, most of them innocent, some guilty, but never upfront. I always had to pull some type of shady history from them. It was like extracting teeth. You're the first one to ever be truly honest with me. As far as I'm aware, of course." She cocks her head. "It probably goes without saying that Johanna didn't exactly paint the kindest picture of you.."
"Which I understand," Rick interjects. Hell, if it was his own family member who had been taken, he wouldn't either.
"However, you do seem some redeeming qualities in you, so you might be able to soften the judge and DA a bit." She shrugs. "We won't know until this afternoon, of course."
"Right."
"So, I will see this afternoon in court." Standing, she eyes the guard as she holds out her hand. "It was...a pleasure to meet you, Mr. Rodgers and I will see you later."
She strides out and Rick can't help but think that he's grateful that he has another person in his corner.