"Slow down." Kate stands up again and looks at her watch. She wants Castle to slow down, but she needs time to speed up, to rush them through this. There's going to be a logical explanation, and they're going to find it- she just hopes it's sooner rather than later. They have to get Alexis back, and soon.

And finally- finally- Rick's phone buzzes, and he leaps on it. "Meredith? Meredith?"

Kate can tell Meredith is talking, but she can't hear what the woman is saying. But she can see Castle's face, and he looks like he's about to explode. "You're where?" he yells, loudly enough to disturb her neighbours, she thinks. And then, more quietly, but with a frightening measure of venom in his voice- "What the fuck are you doing with my daughter in Paris?"


"Of course she cried! She's terrified of flying. Which you would know if you had listened to us at all on the weekend!"

It's Kate's turn to pace as she listens to Castle on the phone. Paris? What was Meredith thinking? Until now she's been pretty willing to assume that Castle has a somewhat jaded view of the woman, and to guess she's not all as bad as that, but who takes their daughter to France on an impromptu trip?

"For lunch?"

Kate doesn't know how steam isn't coming out of Rick's ears. She's pretty sure if she was having that conversation with Meredith she'd be throwing the phone across the room in frustration and anger. He hangs up and tosses the phone onto the sofa, and the look of desolation on his face has her across the room and wrapping her arms around him, but it's not enough, there's no way for it to be enough.

"She cried. And threw up on the plane. Again." Rick doesn't look as desperate as he did even a moment ago, but he looks exhausted. "How could she think this was okay?" he asks Kate.

She can only shake her head. "I don't know, Rick. I just don't know. But the main thing is that she's fine. She is, isn't she?"

He nods. "Yeah. She's fine. Meredith- get this- thought of a great lunch place, and figured she'd take Alexis there. Ugh. It's 2am there. Alexis is asleep and Meredith is complaining of jet lag." He sighs, and Kate hears the weight of the world in his voice.

"Okay- so-" Kate looks at him. "What's the next step?"

Rick shrugs. "Wait for Meredith to bring my daughter home?"

Kate shakes her head. "No. No. You don't even know when that's going to be." She looks at her watch. It's eight o'clock. And Kate does action, she doesn't sit around talking. She needs the equivalent of strapping on a thigh holster and a bullet proof vest. "You need a better plan-"

She looks at him, wondering if he'll come up with it on his own, and he looks at her, his blue eyes lighting up. "Let's go get her!"

Kate nods. Wait. Let's go get her? As in, both of them? "Really?"

"Uh-huh." He looks at her like she's crazy, and she realises he thinks she's questioning the idea.

"No- no, you should go. Go get her, I mean. Will there even be any seats left this late?"

Rick shrugs, and snatches the phone back up from where he threw it, and starts to dial. "I have a guy."


Rick wanders into Kate's bedroom to make the call. Not really on purpose, but he's somehow become used to pacing in the last few hours and standing still while he waits for his guy to confirm he can get a plane- well, he needs to move, and standing still is just not going to happen. Finally he gets confirmation- they can have a jet and a pilot, and the sooner they get to the private plane hanger at JFK, the sooner they can leave.

He looks around Kate's room when he hangs up. He spots A skull at springtime on the bedside table. Ha. He'd laughed when he signed it. He thinks he'll sign all her books, slowly, step by step, and let her discover the messages. The bedroom is so very Kate- light and dark. Cosy, safe, and when the hell did he start to think of Kate as his safe place? That- that has kind of snuck up on him. He thinks he loves her, but he's thought until now that Kate was the complicated one with issues, felt like it was up to him to keep watch over her, even as she watched over the city. Huh. He's been so damn blind.

Rick marvels at his own arrogance. He thought he was folding Kate into his family, giving her something she didn't have, but he's suddenly realising that it goes both ways and Kate's folded him into her life, too. And Alexis. His anger toward Meredith has dissipated. He's still hurt, but his daughter is safe, and he's going to go and get her, and Kate's going to be at his side when he does.

Shit. He realises- he actually doesn't know if she wants to come, if she can come- he habitually asks her to call in to work and take one of the many personal days he knows she has accrued, and she habitually says no- and how can she just take off a day or two to fly to Paris with him? In fact, he doesn't even know if Kate has a passport.

When he heads back into the living room, Kate's on her phone, talking in a low voice. She hangs up and looks at him, an odd look on her face.

Are you okay?" he asks her.

"I called in to work," she tells him. There's an edge to her voice, something he doesn't quite recognise.

"Do- do you have a passport?" he asks her.

Kate looks at him and bites her lip. Crap. No passport. She shrugs. "Do you really want me to come with you?"

Castle breathes a sigh of relief. That's what the funny look was for. But how could she doubt that he would want her to come with him? "Of course," he assures her. "So- do you? Have a passport, I mean?"

"Oh. Yeah. Somewhere here-" Kate heads into her bedroom, and he trails after her.

"Good," he tells her. "Because I was afraid you might not want to come, or that you might not have a passport- not everyone travels out of the States, you know- or- oh! You should pack a bag. Quickly- we can leave as soon as we get to the airport-"

Kate steps back, and places her hands on his shoulders. "Rick. Slow. Down." He exhales with her, feels himself physically relax, even as his mind is still going a million miles an hour. "Sit," she directs him, nudging him toward her bed. "I'm going to pack," she tells him. "And then we're going to the airport. Okay?"

So Rick sits on the edge of her bed, because following Kate's instruction is the only thing that makes sense for him right now. "Okay," he agrees. He watches as Kate grabs a shoulder bag from her wardrobe. "Can you really pack that light?" he asks her. And, God, he wants her to hurry, but his logical mind understands that she is already packing quickly, and he holds his tongue and refrains from hurrying her more.

She grins back at him. "When you take me on a romantic getaway, I promise I'll have more than this. But right now- let's just go get Alexis and get back to New York before I'm out of a job." She stuffs a pair of jeans into the bag, and he catches a glimpse of lacy panties before she can hide them. She unlocks the drawer next to her bed. He'd be lying if he said he hadn't wondered what was in it- locked drawers, doors and boxes were infinitely appealing to Rick. He leans over, and she swats him away, but not before he sees her piece in there. Huh. Makes sense. She grabs her passport out, and waves the rectangle of royal blue at him. "Semester abroad," she tells him. "Kiev."

He nods, guessing that explains the number of Russian authors on her shelves, both translated and not. It never occurred to him to ask whether or not she could read her copy of War and peace in the original language, and again, he kicks himself. He sees what he wants to, and no further. He teases her relentlessly about the amount of crime fiction on her shelves, and loves that she has his whole collection. Yet not once has he asked her about the Russian literature on her shelves, or the art and design books on her coffee table.

"So." Kate's wearing her jacket, the red one he and Alexis bought, and her bag is over her shoulder. She looks calm, and cool, and ready for a weekend away as though this is nothing more than a trip to the Hamptons. "What do we need from your place?" she asks.

"Nothing," he tells her. He doesn't want to go there, doesn't figure on needing anything he can't get in Paris, is desperate to just be on that plane.

Kate raises an eyebrow. "Nothing? Really?"

He shrugs. "I have a bag for Alexis because I thought we were staying here tonight."

"Okay. So, she has clothing- what about Monkey Bunkey?" He shrugs, and Kate speaks again, making a face at him. "And don't forget your passport, Rick."

Castle's eyes widen. Crap. Again. Fine. Okay, he needs a passport too. And no, he doesn't think Alexis has Monkey Bunkey. "Okay," he agrees. "Let's stop by my my place."


They make it to the loft, and then to the airport in what Kate thinks must be record time. Castle had no problem urging the cab driver to run a few reds for the promise of an extra hundred, and the cop in her had cringed, but she'd turned a blind eye. She'd made Castle pack a change of clothes for himself, justifying it by assuring him that if he was stinky, she'd be the one to suffer. She'd dashed up to Alexis' room and grabbed Monkey Bunkey from the bed, while Castle found his own passport, and then she'd insisted he call his mother and let her know what was going on.

Finally, finally, they are on board a small jet. It's nothing like the planes at the other side of the airport, and it blows her mind all over again that's she sitting on a private jet next to Richard Castle, headed to Paris, even if the circumstances are beyond belief. It's just past nine and the nap she'd taken this afternoon feels like it never happened. Now they're sitting still at last and the adrenaline of the last few hours is wearing off, and Kate feels weary all over again. She's been so close to physically shaking, pushing herself to hold it together for Castle. And she's hungry. All those ingredients she'd bought for dinner, just sitting out on her counter now. "Huh. Six hour flight, hmm?"

He nods, a faint smile on his face, and in spite of her own anxiety, she's glad that he seems to be feeling more like himself. Since she'd prodded him into taking action he'd perked up, apparently needing a plan but unable to come up with one himself. "Six hours- about that, yeah."

"I hate flying," she confesses.

"You do?" He looks alarmed. "I would never have made you come if I knew you were scared of flying," he tells her.

"I'm not scared, Castle. I just- hate it."

"But why?" He looks thoroughly confused, and she guesses she's not surprised. He loves gadgets and there are a lot of buttons to play with in a plane.

"It's so boring," she tells him. "Sitting here, nothing to do for six hours."

"Not nothing, Beckett," and this time the smile widens to an outright grin as he raises his eyebrows. "We could always join the mile high club."


To Rick's dismay, Kate turns down the offer of joining the mile high club. He feigns disappointment, but he's relieved because the reality is he's far too worried and wired. He's tapping his feet up and down, and wriggling around, unable to get comfortable. Once they're in the air though, Kate digs around in her purse and hands him a couple of pills. "What's this?" he asks.

"Sleeping pills, Castle."

"I don't know-" he's reluctant to take anything, but at the same time he'd really love to take the edge off.

Kate's face softens a little. "Castle- take them. Or, if you're not used to taking them, maybe just try taking one. It might not make you sleep, but I don't think it will hurt."

He shrugs, but takes both the pills. He's travelled a lot before, book promotions and vacations both. But every other time he's taken an international flight it's been in the first class cabin of a commercial jet and he's been distracted by champagne rather than the quasi kidnapping of his daughter. "Are you going to take any?"

She shakes her head. "I'm okay," she tells him, her face already swimming before his eyes. Logically, he thinks the sleeping pills can't work that fast, but he's just so exhausted, and the shadow of pissed at Meredith has left him feeling hungover.


Kate shakes Castle awake when they land, and he still looks groggy as they make their way through customs. Private jets are one thing, but the passport control process is as tedious as Kate found it last time she was in Paris, after her semester in Kiev. Still, she reflects, showing a visa free passport in France sure beats showing an American passport at customs in Ukraine, just years after the fall of the Iron Curtain.

Castle blinks at her, unseeing. Okay. Maybe she shouldn't have given him the sleeping pills because they seem a little strong for him. Kate's fought insomnia along with her nightmares before- one reason she figures she can live with the nightmares is because they mean she's actually asleep and that beats the hell out of not sleeping and walking around like the living dead. She dips her hand into his back pocket and hands him his passport.

Castle's eyes widen as he focuses on Kate. "Where did you get that? You had your hand in my pocket and I didn't even feel it? Do it again!"

She laughs and rolls her eyes. "No. Just- be ready for passport control, okay?"


A/N: This is the second last chapter guys- final will be out on Saturday morning. Thanks for reading this far!