Thank you to everyone who's reading, reviewing, following, and favoriting. And to guest reviewer Nancy W., first, thank you; second, at this point, the plan is to cover as much of the seven years as I can, with time jumps here and there.
I hope everyone continues to enjoy the story. And now, the next chapter:
The ride up to the loft in the elevator was silent. Kate's heart was pounding hard, and she had her overnight bag in one hand, and her other hand tightly gripping Rick's hand. His grip on her hand was just as tight, and he hoped that Kate couldn't see that he was literally sweating.
Jim knew that Katie and Rick were having a hard time with this, but they were both being so brave about it, he couldn't do any less, as much as he wanted to protect his daughter from the very real monsters lurking in hers and Rick's minds. Logically, all three of them knew that no one was waiting to ambush them when they walked through the front door of the loft. And thanks to Alexis's steely determination, the kitchen had been redone, wiping out several potential triggers that might bring them back to that horrible morning.
Jim stepped off the elevator first when the doors opened, and he was halfway down the hall before he realized that Katie and Rick were following him slowly and at a distance. He stopped and waited for them, willing to let them take as much time as they needed here.
Kate wished she had her gun on her. Irrational? Probably. Illogical? Another 'probably.' But if she had her gun, she could shoot first and ask questions later.
"Maybe we should have called Ryan and Espo, huh?" Rick whispered so only Kate could hear him. "At least had them bring our vests by the hospital before we left."
"There's no one in there waiting to get us," Kate said firmly. She was trying to convince both herself and Rick of that fact.
"So, who has the key?" Jim asked when Katie and Rick reached the loft's front door.
Rick dropped his overnight bag to the floor and dug into his pants pocket, retrieving his keys and holding them out to Jim, then bending to retrieve his overnight bag. Jim initially put the wrong key in the lock, and they all heard the tumblers clattering at the attempt to open the door with the wrong key. "It's the next key up on the key ring, Jim," Rick said. Jim pulled the incorrect key out of the door, inserted the correct key in the lock, and this time when he turned the key, the door easily unlocked. Jim pulled the key out of the lock and opened the door, pausing just long enough to hand the keys back to Rick before pushing the door wide open.
Jim entered first, and for one awful moment, Kate's breath caught as she feared that bullets would come flying out of nowhere and her father would hit the floor with multiple gunshot wounds.
That did not happen.
However, an angry female voice shouted out, "Don't move, you scumbag! I've got the 12th Precinct on speed dial, and they're on their way!"
Jim, Kate, and Rick all three knew that voice.
"Alexis?" Rick asked, entering the loft then, still hand-in-hand with Kate.
The trio looked over to find Alexis standing halfway up the stairs with a Louisville Slugger wooden baseball bat raised over her head like a Samurai sword, her eyes huge and her face pale but her posture rigid and determined. Her face fell as the bat clattered to the ground, dropped by her suddenly nerveless fingers. "D-Dad? Kate? Mr. Beckett?" she asked incredulously.
"Surprise?" Jim offered, smiling understandingly.
"Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god, oh my god," Alexis chanted as she fumbled in her pockets for her phone. When she finally pulled it out, she punched a number quickly and when the person on the other end answered, she blurted, "Javier! I'm so sorry, but it's just Dad and Kate and Mr. Beckett! The hospital apparently let Dad and Kate out early! So you guys don't need to come after all!"
"It's just Castle and Beckett and Beckett's dad?" Javier asked, making sure. Kevin, who was driving, cut the siren as soon as he heard Javi ask Alexis this.
"Yeah," Alexis said, and she felt her face heat, mortified now that she realized she had actually called Kate's dad 'you scumbag.' Thank God she hadn't clocked him over the head with the Louisville Slugger, or they'd all be back at New York Pres, and she'd never be able to apologize enough, or look Jim Beckett in the eye again, for the rest of her life.
"Are you okay?" Javier asked.
"Completely embarrassed," Alexis murmured.
"Hey, you did what you thought was right," Javier reassured her. "That's nothing to be embarrassed about, Alexis. You thought somebody was breaking in, so you were right to call us. Tell your dad and Beckett welcome home from Ryan and me, and we'll catch you guys later, all right?"
"I will. Thank you...for everything," Alexis replied.
"Anytime," Javier replied before ringing off.
Alexis disconnected the call on her end and pocketed her phone, swallowing hard as she slowly came down the stairs, blushing furiously and looking more embarrassed than Rick could ever remember seeing his daughter look. "Mr. Beckett, I am so sorry that I called you a scumbag. I didn't mean it. I didn't know it was you. I just, I heard somebody fumbling with the lock on the front door and I thought somebody was trying to break in because I didn't know that you were bringing Dad and Kate home today, and Gram is at an audition so I'm here by myself, and when I heard what I thought was somebody trying to jimmy the lock, I panicked and called the police and grabbed the baseball bat I bought a couple days ago. I..." She trailed off, casting her gaze down to her feet before gathering the courage to look Jim in the eye. "I am really, really, really sorry."
"It's all right, Alexis," Jim assured her. "In your shoes, I would have done the same thing." When she looked at him skeptically, he said, "I would have. Honestly."
She looked at her dad and Kate then. "I'm sorry," she said.
"You have nothing to be sorry for, Alexis," Kate assured her. "You did the right thing." She looked at Rick before returning her attention to Alexis.
"We should have called you to let you know we were coming home today, but I didn't think you'd be here until tonight, and that's on me," Rick said.
"Welcome home," Alexis replied. She went to her father and hugged him then, as hard as she dared, and Castle hugged her back with all his might. When Alexis released her father, she hugged Kate as fiercely but as carefully as she could, and Kate returned Alexis's embrace just as fiercely and just as carefully. "And Javier and Kevin said to tell you welcome home too."
"It's good to be home," Kate said as she and Alexis carefully released each other. She and Rick dropped their overnight bags by the coffee table, and then slowly, hand-in-hand, headed for the kitchen. Alexis started to follow them, but then stopped herself, realizing they needed this moment alone.
Kate could feel Rick's hand trembling in hers. Her heart was pounding again, and she didn't know whose palm was more sweaty, hers or Rick's. She turned her head to look at him, only to find that he was already staring at her. Kate held up their joined hands, just as Rick had done the day he had disarmed the dirty bomb at the very last second. Then, each of them took a fortifying deep breath and headed into the kitchen.
They stopped and stared at the new dishwasher. Stainless steel, with a window inside it, but the appliance bore absolutely no resemblance to the one against which Caleb Brown had fallen dead after shooting Rick, and then getting into a gun battle with Kate. The cabinets had been replaced as well, a light maple now.
Kate and Rick walked further, still holding hands, Rick's hand still trembling, Kate's heart still pounding hard and fast, their eyes now trained on the floor. They stopped at the exact spot where Rick had fallen after Caleb Brown shot him, and they stood there for a long moment, Alexis and Jim keeping watch from the floor at the foot of the stairs. Then they moved together to the spot where Alexis, Lanie, and the boys had found them, bleeding out and clutching each other's hands. The whole area was covered by the unstained tongue and groove Southern pine hardwood flooring, a stark contrast to the darker wood that had once made up the flooring in the kitchen and the dining room.
"The place looks great," Rick pronounced.
"It really does," Kate added. "Thank you so much, Alexis, for taking point on this."
"I just figured none of us needed the PTSD triggers," Alexis said, trying to play off her involvement. "We have enough of those already."
"That we do," Kate said ruefully. She extended her arm, and Alexis crossed the room to Kate and her father. "You too, Dad," Kate called. Jim followed Alexis.
A moment later, the four of them were standing together in a loose circle, arms around each other's shoulders. "We're going to get through this," Kate said firmly. "And the best way we can do that is to do it together...all of us, including Martha, and Lanie, and the boys, and Jenny. Everyone we love and care about."
"Even Gates?" Rick asked playfully.
"If she wants to be involved, sure," Kate replied. They exchanged a smile.
"You're home!" Martha exclaimed joyfully, having just entered the apartment. "And you're a day early!" She rushed to join the others, hugging Richard, Katherine, and Alexis all in turn, and patting Jim Beckett on the shoulder.
"Yes, so the wild party for tonight is officially canceled, Mother," Rick said.
"Oh, you," Martha said, smiling, her eyes bright and wet. "No wild parties tonight or any other night. At least, not until you and Katherine are up to it, and I'm guessing that will be a while."
Everyone sobered at Martha's unintentional mood changer. "That's true," Kate said after a long moment of silence. "But this time, we're counting on all of you, and our friends, to help us out. No going it alone this time," here Kate looked meaningfully at her father, "and no shutting everybody out and gutting it out just the two of us." Kate looked at Rick now.
"Well, we'll have to do the hardest parts ourselves," Rick said, speaking the truth, "but we'll have the best support system on the planet on those days when everything about therapy stinks, and we're grumpy and tired and frustrated."
"And this is an incentive for us to stick around?" Martha asked, but everyone knew she was joking when she said it.
"Wild horses couldn't keep me away," Alexis said.
"Nothing's going to keep me away either," Jim vowed.
"You know I'll be there," Martha added.
Kate looked at Rick, whose arm had slid from her shoulders down to her waist. Her own arm was wrapped around his waist, her other arm still around her father's shoulders (Alexis was on Rick's other side, and Martha was in between Alexis and Jim), and she squeezed Rick's waist with her arm. "We're counting on that," she replied as Rick murmured his agreement.
Rick and Kate spent the first part of the afternoon resting and talking with Alexis, Martha, and Jim. They ordered in from the nearest deli, with Alexis begging off because she had already had lunch, but she stuck around and nursed a bottle of iced tea while the rest of the family ate and talked.
Alexis broke her big news to her dad and Kate. They, like Martha, were surprised, but they were also both very supportive. "A prosecutor," Kate said after digesting the news that Alexis had applied to nearly every major university in New York City with a law school.
"Yeah," Alexis said, somewhat uncertainly. Sure, Gram and Javier and Kevin all thought it was a great idea, but would her dad and Kate? "I know I was on the pre-med track for quite a while, and there were a few semesters where I didn't take as many classes as I really should have, which is why I'm not graduating until December, instead of graduating this month-"
"Alexis, you can do anything you set your mind to," Rick interrupted her. "More than once, you helped us with a case by saying something or reaching a conclusion we hadn't that put me on the right track, which I immediately took to Kate at the precinct. You definitely have the brains for it. If you have the passion for it, then absolutely, go for it. All I've ever wanted is for you to find a career that makes you as happy and fulfilled as writing makes me, and as acting makes your grandmother, and as law enforcement makes Kate."
"Are you thinking you want to be a federal prosecutor?" Kate asked.
Alexis visibly cringed. "No!" she blurted forcefully. "No," she said more calmly. "You really didn't enjoy your work with the FBI very much, Kate. It wasn't as black-and-white as local law enforcement is. And, well, LokSat…" Alexis trailed off, not wanting to dredge up the LokSat mess again now that it was finally all over and they were all on the other side.
"You're right, about all of it," Kate replied. "If anyone has what it takes to be a criminal prosecutor, Alexis, it's you."
"Then you guys aren't disappointed that I'm not going to be a doctor?" Alexis asked, just to make sure.
"Why in the world would we be disappointed that you're following your passion and doing something that you want to do and that you feel called to do?" Rick asked, genuinely puzzled. "But can I just say, I'm glad that all of the law schools you applied to are right here in the city." He grinned unrepentantly.
"Yeah, well, once a city girl, always a city girl," Alexis replied, smiling at her dad and reaching across the space between them to squeeze his hand.
"Alexis, you know you have our support," Kate said.
"All of us," Rick added.
"Yes, about law school," Jim said, and everyone turned to look at him. "It's funny that you mention it, Alexis, because I have some news about law school myself."
"Um, Dad, you've had your J.D. for decades," Kate pointed out.
"Yes, I have," Jim said. "But Columbia has offered me a teaching position in their law school. It's just a part-time thing, one course, which I'll be teaching in both the fall and spring semesters. Advanced Civil Procedure: Scholarly and Lawyerly Perspectives. I'll be providing the lawyerly perspective." He looked at Alexis now. "If you wind up going to Columbia Law School, and frankly they would be fools not to accept you, maybe we'll see each other on campus, Alexis."
"That would be great, Mr. Beckett. Or should I call your Professor Beckett? Will they allow me to take your class?" Alexis wondered.
"First of all, you can just call me Jim. I think it's about time, don't you?" he said kindly. "Secondly, the course I'll be teaching is for third-year law students only, so you're a couple of years away from being ready to take it. If I'm still there when you're a third-year, you may not be able to take the course from me, but you'll have an excellent instructor. Columbia has one of the best law schools in the country."
"That's just one reason I'm hoping I get accepted there," Alexis said. "I learned from Stanford's rejection not to consider anything a lock or take anything for granted. I did look it up, though. I have two things in my favor with Columbia Law School going in: they want a minimum undergraduate GPA of 3.7, and I have a solid 3.98. They also want a median LSAT score of 172, and I got a 175 on the LSAT when I took it. But if Columbia Law School doesn't accept me, I have a lot of other options, and I believe that at least one of them has to accept me, so I'll go wherever I'm accepted."
Jim picked up his glass of tea. "I'd like to propose a toast," he said. "To the next lawyer in the family. It won't be an easy profession, Alexis, but it will be very worthwhile."
"To Alexis," Rick, Kate, and Martha echoed.
"And to Katie and Rick," Jim continued, raising his glass high once more. "Wherever the road leads next, the important thing is that you're on it together. And I know I speak for everyone here, and a few people who aren't, when I say that we're all very grateful for that fact."
"To Kate and Dad." "To Katherine and Richard." Alexis and Martha echoed Jim as everyone clinked their glasses together.
After lunch, Martha had another class to teach, and Jim had to get back to work. Alexis said something about getting some highlighters and doing some research, so after hugs goodbye, Kate and Rick were alone at home together.
They unpacked their overnight bags from the hospital. Kate started some laundry ("I think I can handle laundry, Castle."), and then did her physical therapy exercises. By the end of them, she was a sweaty, pain-riddled mess. Rick had disappeared into his office after loading the dishwasher after lunch, and he emerged just in time to see Kate toweling the sweat from her face, which was pinched with pain, and taking a long swig from a cold bottle of water.
"Physical therapy," Rick said.
"Yeah," Kate replied, taking a deep breath, then letting it out. "Still hurts like a son of a bitch, but it's actually not as bad as it was years ago. I don't know if it's the exercises or what, but my hip isn't hurting anymore."
"It's been raining for the last half hour," Rick said, and Kate followed his gaze out the living room windows where they both watched sheets of water pouring from the sky.
Kate sighed then as she gingerly rose to her feet, Rick rushing to help her up, and then steadied herself with a palm against his chest, feeling his heart beating beneath her fingertips. "Any other time, I'd invite you into the shower with me, and then re-create the greatest rainy night of our lives," she said. "But we have to wait eight weeks for that, according to Dr. Gallison."
"I could still take a shower with you," Rick offered.
"Yeah, I don't think so. We have absolutely no self-control when we're in the shower together."
"You say that like it's a bad thing."
Kate laughed. "It's not a bad thing at all. Just...not feasible for the next couple of months. Unfortunately."
Rick gently pulled Kate into his arms. "We went four years without making love. I think we can survive two months."
"Well, at the risk of inflating an ego that really doesn't need it, for those four years, I did a lot of fantasizing about you...and the reality far surpasses every single one of the fantasies. And if you smirk or preen, I swear I'll twist your earlobe," Kate concluded.
Knowing all too well how painful Kate's earlobe twists were, Rick refrained from smirking and preening. But he did remind her, "You were the one who said I had no idea...and you were right, in so many ways. But we'll get through it. Nikki and Rook are gonna be really busy for the next couple of months, though."
"Have you done your physical therapy yet?" Kate asked. She knew Rick had done his respiratory therapy for the day at the hospital before they left.
"Not yet," he said. "I was on the phone with Black Pawn, actually. It turns out that Gina got so ticked off over what happened at the hospital that she has asked to be reassigned, so starting with my next book, I'll have a new publisher."
Kate's eyebrows shot up in surprise. "How do you feel about that?" she asked.
Rick considered for a moment before answering. "I think it was time," he said. "Gina's clearly ready to move on to other projects, and she's not necessary to the process. The new guy wants to meet in a few weeks."
"A guy, huh?" Kate asked.
"Yeah, and he sounds young. But he also sounds eager, so that's a plus," Rick replied.
Kate stretched up to kiss Rick quickly. "I'm gonna take a pain pill and then hit the showers."
Rick nodded. "I'll get my physical therapy out of the way, and then tonight we can order in and watch a movie?"
"Sounds like a plan," Kate said. She draped the towel around her neck and headed for the bathroom while Rick did his own physical therapy, after which it was his turn to shower.
Then they ordered pizza-but since they were both still on pain medication as needed, and after their physical therapy they both needed it, they didn't have their usual wine with the pizza-and after they ate, they settled on the couch together and watched Forbidden Planet.
When the movie ended, they were both nearly asleep, so they headed in to brush their teeth and wash their faces.
When they were both in bed, Kate stretched languorously. "It feels really good to be back in our own bed," she said.
"It sure does," Rick replied. Kate looked at Rick a bit uncertainly. Reading her mind, he said, "My shoulder's a bit stiff and sore, but there's no way I'm not holding you in my arms while we sleep, Kate."
Kate laid her head on Rick's chest, right over his beating heart, her own arms going around him as he wrapped his arms around her. In the darkness of their bedroom, Kate said quietly, "This is the safest place I've ever been: in your arms, Rick." She lifted her head to look at him and found him gazing back at her with a tender smile.
"I've always loved holding you. Before we became us, every time I got to hug you, or hold you in my arms, I never wanted to have to let you go," he admitted.
"And now you don't have to," she replied, smiling tenderly back at him.
"Thank God," he said.
"Thank God," she echoed before craning her neck, pressing her lips to his again before settling in his arms for the night, the two of them wrapped together, ready even in sleep to face whatever came their way together.
